travelling woman

Oh, my, 20 days without a post! Well, it has been an incredibly busy time, and it is still being so! Work and family are demanding at the most, but I was lucky to have friends visiting (and expecting a few ones soon) and also some good things happening in the deluge of things.
Knitwise I have been productive, and I have several projects on the needles right now!

I managed to finish something for a dear friend respecting an important deadline, and I'll be able to wrtite about it soon.

Today I show you my last shawl, traveling woman by Liz abinante.



It is a simple and effective patern, well written and clear.



Photos are bit bad, but I took them with my little snapper (forgot the camera at my parents, this is the signal of how tired I am: HOW could I?).

The wool I used is Araucania Ranco Multi, and I'm very pleased of it: nice colours,
In order to use it all, I bound off at the very last moment, and of course the wool finished before the end of the shawl...



But I went to my trusty compuer and visited the yarn halot for a nice solution



the crochet cast off saved me beautifully.



Ah, life is so hard!

september shawl

I spent August working a lot, but given the summery atmosphere, I did find also some time to knit. One, big, now almost finished project was undertaken: the deadline is the beginning of october, so you'll have to wait to see it.

In the mantime I managed to knit also another shawl: the wool peddlers shawl by Cherry Oberle. The pattern is in the book Folk's shawls, a nice book full of fantastic patterns.



I used 5 mm needles and the Evilla Preyarn, a frale but beautiful and soft unspun yarn, that I enjoyed immensely to knit. This yarn has a lot of fantastic colors, and I still have some more of it, and I'm itching to cast on something new! It is really frale, and at first knitting with it can be a bit troublesome, but once you get the hang of it it is really relaxing (but go and read comments on Ravelry, as not everybody would agree).


(Now, what color to use next? Any suggestions?)

Anyway, I think that the trick is to choose the right measure for the needles: I tried to use 4mm and it was terrible, but when I switched to the 5mm all went smoothly!



Aren't the colors beautiful?



This is my 7th shawl of the 10shawls in 2010 challange

visiting friends - a.b. 31

This visit was to get some mouse traps: we have unwanted guests at home! If this dosn't work, I will hire him!

spinning - a.b. 30

sunday morning in the garden - a.b. 29

a birthday party - a.b. 28

a windy day - a.b.27

going bread shopping - a.b. 26

ready to rest - a.b. 25

a crisis hat - a.b.24

I arrived home late from work, tired but happy. I needed to make something, it was a kind of urge....
And so



I obliged.
The pattern is from woollywormhead and it is found in Wee Woolly Toppers, a book with lots of fabulous hat pattern for kids. It's called propeller (Ravelry link). Actually, it is quite easy to convert them in hat patterns for adults. Given that I had to do something and possibly quickly, I simply followed the instructions for the small size but with bulky wool and 9mm needles. I'm happy of the result:

at work! - a.b.23

OK, here I was going to work....

morning view - a.b. 22

Even in difficult moments there is beauty everywhere: just look around you.

strange encounters - a.b. 21

This morning I had many things to do, things to finish, a car trip, a visit and so much more.

When I went to open the door to get the car out, I saw something there, and hey! It was a great start for a long day

in the kitchen - a.b. 20

a.b. 19

OK, I cannot resist, and I'll post also my 365 photo...

crochet experiment

Long ago I learnt to crochet, then didn't do it any more.



Seeing so many beautiful crocheted things on Ravelry I decided to try to make a scarf with some mohair I had in stash.



I'm not a mohair lover, but I must admit that the result is nice. I did a wave pettern (3 repeats (I think double chain), 2 double increases, 3 double crochet and 2 decreases. Increase = 2 double crochet in one stich, decrease = 1 double crochet for 2 stitches from below). Ok, now it is clear that I have no idea of how to explain crochet in English.



Anyhow, making this was a lot of fun, and a good occasion to make a scarf with a fringe (and that was a lot of fun!).

But I continue to prefer knitting!

Acqui Terme - august break 18

waiting at the railway crossing - a.b.17

almost sunset - a.b.16

very dandy

I have finally finished something, as currently I'm trying to finish several large projects at once!

It's a nice triangular scarf...



The model is Dandy Neckerchief by Ariane Caron-Lacoste.



The wool is Queensland Collection Rustic Tweed. I bought it from an online shop (Stash Fine Yarns in Chester), and I'm very happy of it: it's soft and the colour is totally lovely.