Knitting the Blues

Guess What Internets!?

I'm knitting blue lace!

Quite the shocker, I know.  Margene recently posted some in progress knitting.  Kim wrote a while ago about the way back days when knit-blogs were all about blogging the knitting.  When we first started knit-blogging it was all about blogging the knitting.  The knitty-gritty details of our WIPs.  All of it from finding that perfect yarn for that certain pattern, the swatching, casting on, blocking photos, day to day updates of the good, the bad and the downright disasters be they mistakes or pets pulling the knitting off the needles or any of the stuff that happens in a knitting life.  To fight the monotony we would set our in progress knitting on tables with pots of tea or in shrubbery or on the beach or with pets and take pictures to share with the internets.  It was fun.  I liked reading all of that stuff.  

Somewhere along the way the knitting blogs have gotten lost in family life blogging, food, drink (lots of drink, even with knitting, which leads to those other interesting and humorous knitting progress posts.....), other crafts and all sorts of distractions from the knitting.  All of that is great, too.  I love it.  I mean, some people just don't knit enough to keep up with a knitting blog, but they love the social part of blogging.  Sometimes knitting takes a back seat to life and that is reflected in blogging.  Facebook, twitter and ravelry have taken their share of the blogging pie.  Many people have given up posting for one-line updates on life.  

Another issue: blog reading.  I have another post planned about that.  I just can't keep up with reading all of the blogs I used to.

So, here is my post about knitting in progress.  The only problem?  It isn't really that much different than most of my in-progress knitting.  I'm boring even myself!  Because......

I'M KNITTING BLUE LACE, PEOPLE!!!!  See?  Same-old, same-old.  With a little twist, I suppose.  It's a well-written and charted pattern by a designer I haven't knit before, Mia Rinde.  The pattern is free and I am pleased enough to really want to purchase this pattern.  And the YARN!  Ooooh, I love the yarn.  I love the blend, I love the color, I love everything about it. It was my one and only purchase at NH Sheep & Wool this year.  Eight hundred seventy five yards of alpaca/silk/cashmere hand dyed by Ball and Skein Judy.  The yarn is called Ariane Lace, but I don't see it on her site or on ravelry, so I don't know if she has added it to her line or if this was a sample.  She should add it.  Just my opinion, for whatever that is worth.

Wanna see the last thing I knitted?

SURPRISE!!!!  Blue lace waiting to be blocked!  

2011.  Eighteen. $9.65.  Every time my husband sees me pinning out (another) blue shawl I get some comment along the lines of "another one of those?" or "how many of those can you knit?"  My response? How many times can you ride your motorcycle along the same shore route?  So there.   

 

WeekendingI Went A Little Batty......

and I made BATTS!

2011.  Seventeen. $10.38.  I even started spinning them. It was a batty weekend. I'm weekending along with Amanda and it is Blue Monday, usually hosted by Smiling Sally, but her granddaugthers are pinch-hitting and asking for our prayers, their Grandma needs them after surgery that didn't go as well as hoped for. Send good, blue vibes her way.

Finished Stuff

I have this thing, and I have mentioned it before, a little 'rule' I have set for myself.  I don't mark a knitted project as finished in ravelry until I have written a post about it.  I have a slew of projects marked as 95% complete, that other 5% being posting here.  The line-up on my project page is starting to get to me, so I'm going to get it over with and post some of them.

I have held off on most of them because the photos stink.  For whatever reason I decided to use my point and shoot camera, not a slouchy camera by any means, but it wasn't sounding right when I was using it. It didn't occur to me that the photos would be bad, so I took a lot of pictures of things I had knitted, gifted them away and then uploaded the photos only to find that they stunk.  Bummer.  I have since found that for whatever reason that camera is not focusing.  It will take a decent photo from some specific distance, I just don't know what that distance is.  Luckily I have an SLR that I can use and like better, but I don't love carrying it around with me, so I'll be checking on getting the other repaired or more likely replacing it.  I'd rather get new lenses for the SLR, but whatever.

Anyway, on to the knitting.  First up:

(crappy photo #1.  Boo.)

• Pattern:  Little Miss Greenjeans by Amy Swenson
• Yarn:  Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted Multi in Sheridan
• Needles:  Size 7 and 8
• Cast On:  December 30, 2010
• Bound Off:  January 7, 2011
• Blocked:  February 1, 2011

I wish the button was better photographed, I loved it.  I tried really hard to find a funky, fun button because this was for a 2-year old, but I never found one that didn't clash with the yarn.  In the end this button worked beautifully.

(So sad, photo bad.)

Just enough time has passed that I have no memory of the actual knitting of this sweater except to say that it must have been just fine because I made three in total.  The next two posts may look very similar to this one......

(Pre-blocking photo.  Closer to looking good)

In the interest of getting the post up, I am leaving this as it is.  Why would I say that?  AS I was looking through my photos to find the pre-blocking photo I found PICTURES OF THIS SWEATER TAKEN WITH MY SLR!!!!!!!  I'll post them later. 

2011. Sixteen.  $11.25.  Losing it. LOSING MY SH*T! ;)  AND!  I'm still pissed that I can't center the text under the first photo the way I used to be able to.  I really am going to submit that help ticket to flipping Typepad!  I am.  Right after my walk. Or work. Or gym. Or work tonight. Or sometime.  I'm busy! I just want the things I PAY FOR to WORK!  Other than that, I'm in a great mood, I really am. :)