A celebrity is born

And no it's not Katie and Tom's baby that I'm talking about.

I thought I'd never crochet again. I had my reasons. Crocheting is tedious, hard on my wrists, and there are never any cool patterns. Until I found this one. The pattern was easy to remember once I figured out what to do. In fact, I had to go to Threadbear and get some help but once I was up and running, there was no stopping me! I loved everything about this project. The yarn was lovely. It is called Kim and it's a rayon cotton braid yarn that crochets up pretty fast. It helps when the pattern calls for quad treble crochets! I got really excited once I could see the flowers. And for those who are patiently waiting and are going to pass out from holding their breath, here are the pictures.


Sorry that the pictures aren't better. It's dark in my apt and the light is horrible. But you get the gist. The shawl is huge and I used about 400 yards of Kim to crochet it. The ends still have to be woven in and I still have to fringe it. That's a project for tomorrow.

Crochet actually has it's uses. I hate it for sweaters and other pieces of clothing. I think crocheted clothes are just horrendous. But used for shawls and accessories, it looks stunning. I have a crocheted blanket that I started for Matt back home in San Diego. It was started about 3 years ago before I started to knit. I bought a huge amount of Lion Brand Homespun, you know... the itchy stuff before i knew what good yarn was. And it's just endless rows of double crochets. I think there's 300 stitches in a row. Gosh... it was torture. It was supposed to be Matt's Christmas gift. Right now, it's in a Hefty bag, waiting for the day that I'll just power thru it. Matt whines that this blanket is like our relationship. It will never be complete until it's done. LOL... he's funny.

I have a picture of my Tivoli T that I took a few days ago when I wore it out on a lovely spring day. I don't know if I ever posted a pic with me wearing it. In case you're wondering, it took 4 balls of Knit Picks Shine in Apricot to knit this. If I was to knit this again, I'd knit it a tad longer. It's basically a belly shirt.

The day I wore this, it was about 65 out. I love Michigan in the sppring. Too bad it's not like this 6 or 7 months out of the year.

A finished Kiri

I finally finished the Kiri Shawl for my friend's grandmother. It's blocked and I have to say quite wearable. I just hope my recipient likes it! Here are some pictures and the stats.
Here it is preblocked. Lace is always kind of bunched up and yucky unless it is set in water. Isn't it funny how relaxed lace gets after a dunk in some soapy water?

Here it is being modeled by moi... please ignore the disheveled appearence. I've been studying all day while it's been drying.
And here it is draped over a chair.

The lowdown:
Pattern: Kiri Shawl
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Laceweight
Needles: Addi Turbos Size 6.
Impressions: This is a fun pattern and I loved how the yarn relaxed after blocking. The pattern was simple to follow although the yarnovers hade a way of jumping over my stitch markers. Gotta watch out for stitches that try to cut to the front of the line:) Basically, you knit a twelve stitch repeat. Start out with 7 stitches and knit the pattern until it is the width and length that you want. I stopped at 11 repeats on each side of the center stitch cause I needed to have an FO. Luckily it turned out to be pretty big. About 66" across.

I'd knit this shawl again. I think it would be beautiful in a light purple or lilac color.

Enjoy the pictures... on to the next WIP.

Panta

I finally finished SOMETHING. Granted it was a quick and easy project. I think it took me longer to seam it up than anything else.

Here are some pics. Sorry for the picture quality. I'm not a good photographer and not particularly photogenic today.




Pattern: Panta which can be found here
Yarn: Cascade 220 (I have no idea of the color # but it is cream)
How long it took me: Too long...
Details: Basically this was a big ribbed piece that was seamed to itself. There were increases and decreases going on. All in all, a quick satisfying project. I really like the yarn. It's 100% wool but not at all scratchy. I don't know how much use I'll get out of it since I think I look really dorky in it. But maybe I'll wear it to school tomorrow. If I get any funny looks, it will go in the donation bag for someone. Everyone on the panta along site looks really good. If I make another one it won't be as wide as it is here.

That's it as far as knitting goes. We've been having some unseasonably warm (so I'm told) weather her in East Lansing. No snow since I've been back. Yeah!

On the school front, I've got loads of reading to do. I'm taking Peds and OB at the same time. It's a lot of studying but at least some concepts overlap. Time to brew some tea and hit the books! I should find something to put on my sidebar to count the days until I'm done with nursing school.