Lacy Bits

I have come to the conclusion that I have a wee lace problem. I love it. Especially shawls. I love shawls.

For Christmas I decided to share my love of lacy things

For my Mother In Law I knit an Ishbel out of Malabrigo Laceweight (a lovely, soft and airy single ply lace yarn)

It was a delight to knit, quick and simple to follow. I had planned on knitting one for myself, and then I saw a friend's done without the stockingette section, straight to the lace and I love the look of it. I'll likely do mine that way.

For my Mom I cast on a Tesla in Handmaiden Sea Silk, in a deep, earthy purple colour.

The pattern calls for beads on the cast on edge, and I modified it to put beads on the cast off edge too. I added a bead for every second stitch because I was worried doing every stitch would weigh it down too much. The effect is quite nice, I think.

Over the Christmas season I got sick of the deadline knitting and cast on something pretty for myself

This is Fingerless Pomatomus Gloves(rav link) which is based on Pomatomus socks by Cookie A. I love them, they are perfect for me since I rarely get to wear my actual mittens...they come off every few minutes to open doors, fix small hats and small mittens on small people, buckle car seats, etc etc etc. Plus they are easier to drive with and for hanging onto small ones while walking. I wish I had gotten on board with the fingerless mitt thing sooner.

Over New Year's a friend of mine went to Toronto and snagged me a skein of Dream in Colour Starry, which has silver spun into it. It didn't stay skeined very long (too pretty!), as it was quickly knit up into Damson

I love this, it's very pretty. And Ysolda's patterns are fabulous, very well written and easy to follow.

The Olympics came to Canada, and Ravelry held their own Ravelympics. Basically you cast on during the opening ceremonies, something that will challenge you, and you have it done before the torch is extinguished. Teams were created and I captained our local group's team. We had a great Opening Ceremonies Party (where I also got to show off the house to my knitters) where we ate a mess of snacks and cast on our projects while watching Canada greet the world. It was a lot of fun.

Ravelry broke down the competition into categories, and my project for the "lace luge" was Ulmus knit with the December Mean Girls Yarn Club shipment, called "Aurora's HOARealis" and a special complimentary pinks skein that Laura (head Mean Girl) was nice enough to dye up for me

I love this shawl. The colours make me ridiculously happy, the texture is fantastic. Totally recommend this knit to anyone.

March found me itching for a simple, yet somewhat lacy knit. Enter the Simple Things Shawlette(rav link), and my skein of Pagewood Farms Merino/Cashmere/Nylon that Hope brought me back from Sock Summit

I named the project Happy. Because that's what it made me. I liked it so much I made a second one out of merino/tencel that I was planning to donate to a silent auction raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Unfortunately I was unable to connect with the organizers in order to hand it over, so I might do something else with it to raise funds and make a donation myself directly to a cancer-related charity. I'll get back to you on that, it may involve a silent auction here on the blog...I haven't worked out the details yet.

The shawl bug bit again early June and I knit up this beauty

Annis, knit with Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel, the Herron colourway (one of the booty club shipments). I did beads where the nupos are supposed to be because nupps are really fiddly and while they looked nice, not nice enough for me to want to fiddle with them here. I am delighted with how this turned out and frankly I'm eye-ballin other skeins of merino/tencel to make another. It's light and pretty and the tencel makes it perfect to wear in summer.

Days after blocking Annis, I cast on Haruni (rav link) in another skein of Yarn Pirate, this time her merino and bamboo blend in a colourway called "Pixie"

I don't really have words enough to describe how much I love this shawl. It's just gorgeous. I even did a crochet bind off on this one! And I think I might actually make a second one...I saw someone else's on ravelry who beaded the the leaves on the edge and the effect is stunning.

Well, that's all the knits I have to show you at the moment. I have some merino/tussah silk from The Unique Sheep that's calling my name...