Finished Fridays: Homin Shawl

I made this as a gift/request for my best friend Marcie. The pattern is by Gudrun Johnston, better known as the Shetland Trader. This is one mountain of a pattern. Definitely not for the faint hearted first-timer. She makes amazing things, but sheesh. Good Lord. I didn't think I was going to make it out of this one alive. This is my 4th lace project ever. It was like Mt. Everest to me. I will be honest and say that I made more trips to the “frog pond” (as Julie says) than I can count. And if it wasn’t for Marcie, for whom I would donate a kidney, I probably would never attempt it and never will again. It is flawed, but I am proud of it. It’s mine. And I am proud. And I had better get a pretty big reward. She promised.

P.S. If you have come across my blog more than once, or if you are a first-timer, I encourage you to push the button listing yourself as a follower. It gives me an accurate idea of how many people actually come across my page. Plus, it is great for my self-esteem. And if you like what you read, reccomend it to someone else. And, welcome!

Review Wednesday:Madelinetosh Prairie

Sorry I have been slow on the posts, folks. I just haven't had anything to review. No info, no posts. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. But today I am reviewing madelinetosh prairie yarn. It is a lace weight yarn. I was using the earl grey color way. This goes from tan to caramel, then to slate blue, and finally to grey. I did not actually purchase it myself. It was purchased for me to use in the making of a shawl for my best friend, Marcie.
I love the colors. Their dying process and colors available are an A+. And the shawl turned out really beautifully. But while trying to ball it up, no matter how careful, it was a mass of tangles. Seriously. It took us, that is me and my husband, two straight weeks to unwind. And no, I do not own a swift or a ball unwinding thingy, but if anyone would like to buy me one, they can knock themselves out. Till then, oh well. And it seemed to pill a lot in the process, which I did not anticipate and did not care for. And it also got really squiggly (is that a word?) But the yardage is great for the money.
In the end, it was a really nice yarn, but I think that I would like to try some other lace weight yarns before I could give it 5 stars to compare. And I think that I almost prefer a fingering weight yarn for my laceweight shawls. Something with a little heft and squishyness. Maybe that defeats the point of a lace shawl, but that is just me.
4 out of 5 stars

Finished Fridays:Crochet Teddy Bear

This week, I received a shipment of vintage yarn from my grandma. It was duchess needlepoint yarn. It is not in the ravelry storehouse, and I had not a clue what to do with it. I didn't really know how much the small skeins would last, so I decided to make a toy. After scouring the toy files, I decided on a stuffed bear. The pattern was easy, quick to work up, and I like the result:

As a matter of fact, it turned out so well, that the creator of the pattern now uses it as an example on the face page of the ravelry pattern. Cool, huh?!
As a brief review of the Duchess yarn, I didn't really know what to expect. I had never really worked with a vintage yarn before. I kind of expected it to be crunchy and blow away the minute that I tried to roll it in a ball. But it held up really well. I guage it to be sport weight. Moth free. Not particularly soft, but not stiff. And resilient. And I had plenty left over. 4 out of 5 stars.

Finished Fridays

Ok, bad news folks. Nothing is actually finished. But several other things are in works after several frustrating hair-brained attempts. And I think I am getting a cold. But that is an offside, but I think it explains the hair-brained attempts. I have, however, taken pictures of the wips. Here goes:The above pic is the beginning of  Koolhaas designed by Jared Flood made out of useless stash Lion Brand wool ease. I know. Shudder. Acrylic. I am shuddering too. But my hubby wouldn't let me buy anymore yarn, and I had to do something with my garage sale stash.

This is the beginning of a Molly by Alana Dakos in Blue Sky Alpaca in Cotton. I couldn't find all of the Spud and Chloe desired colors in one place, so I needed to sub. I think it will work fine. If not, well, I will get my niece a charm bracelet.

This is a crochet teddy bear. I got the pattern from Ravelry. This is vintage yarn sent to me from my grandmother. I ran out of stuffing, so I will buy stuffing and a bow tonight. It ended out shorter and wonkier than the pattern. I did follow it correctly. I don't know who the recipient will be.

This is the beginning lace triangle border of a shawl designed by Gudrun Johnston called the Homin Shawl. It is being worked in Madelinetosh Prairie in Earl Grey. It is for my best friend Marcie. I am praying it will be ready in time for my holiday to California in mid-August. It has been the bane of my existence. It is like a wrestling match between the yarn and the pattern.

Well, there you have it. I am hoping to have at least one finished by next Friday. We shall see. I shall keep you posted!

Major Craft Annoyance

What do you do when you are working and working at your craft Iknitting, in this case), and all of a sudden, you feel a compelling urge to walk away and never look at it again? Am I the only one who has ever felt that? It could be that ever project that I have ever worked on, it seems for nearly the past 10 months has been commissioned for someone else. I am tired of working on stuff for other people. I feel like I have lost the joy of knitting stuff for fun just because I want to. And looking forward to knitting stuff for myself. I can count on 1 hand the stuff I have made for myself, and it was usually made in a heated rush, which just sucked the fun right out of it. I can't even put it down and take a break because I am on a deadline. Ack. Then I saw a shawl that I really wanted to make in a catalog, and my hubby said that there is no way I can make it until after my California holiday because we already spent the money on the tickets. Soooo unfair! I know, logical, but totally unfair!

Finished Fridays:French Lavender Arm Warmers

I really do swear that I am not getting paid to make these. I promised to make fingerless mitts for a friend, and I had grandiose plans for 2 other patterns that went up in smoke as time went by. When I am under the gun timewise, I tend to get impatient. Then I spilled coffee on the yarn for her other patterns, and it was just a major bust. It was apocalyptic. Really, really bad. I digress. So I needed to come up with something quick. And since this yarn is 100% wool, and not so bad for the price. And I can whip these babies out pretty darn quick, I made these. And I like the result.