At approximately 12.14am

i cast off the last stitch of the Forest Canopy shawl :oD

Just wanted to let you know :oD

Photos in the morning, tis bedtime now ;o)

Night night xXx

Stitchmarkers part deux!

These are from Elspeth and they are such a pretty colour, the camera does them no justice! They are just the right size i think for shawl knitting, they aren't too heavy and they are nicely and round so they won't get tangled up in all that lovely lace :o)

Thankyou Elspeth xXx

I shall go and find a nice spot in the garden to take a piccie when the sun makes one of it's rare appearances today. It can't make it's mind up out there, it's really warm but cloudy, then it's cool and cloudy and then all of a sudden the sun will burst out and it's so bright you go blind! I popped out to the doctor's and thought it was quite cool so i flung on a shruggy-cardy thing which is really thin and i was sweltering! Still i got 4 rounds done on the Sassy socks while i was waiting so that's good, and there's a fair chance that i'll actually finish them before the end of the month too *lol*

In Can 'o Peas news: The 15th repeat is DONEDONEDOOOONE! *YAY* \o/ \o/ <~~~ me dancing *lol* I have 20g of variegated yarn left and my mini-skein of nearly-solid green, the edge pattern is another 8 rows so theoretically i have enough of the variegated as the last repeat took 10g and was also 8 rows. I'm putting in a lifeline anyway, just in case anything goes wrong with the edging but to be perfectly honest the rest of the shawl has gone so well that i doubt there will be. I've got the hang of reading a chart too which is good and is something i wanted to do and i picked up a magnetic board from my LYS the other day too. It's only a smallish one, not A4 like i wanted but it was only £3 so i shan't complain :o)

Right then, onwards and upwards!

Can 'o Peas ;o)

So, i started "swatching" for the Forest Canopy Shawl on Thursday, last night i finished the 14th pattern repeat!! I tried 5mm bamboo and thought it looked way too much like fishnet so i tried my new Addi lace needle what was purchased at our expedition to Get Knitted and it looked much better with the 3.75mm needle :o)
What a quick knit it was - i say was because the repeats are now taking longer to do as each repeat grows by 16 stitches and the recommended repeats are 11 with 195 stitches so i now have *does some maffs* 243 stitches! *eeeeek* that's probably the most number of stitches i have ever knit in one go... i say probably, it DEFINITELY is! *lol*
I managed to memorise the pattern after about ooooh, ten repeats and i have made lots of silly mistakes along the way, mostly because of not concentrating and doing a decrease when i should have been making a new leaf, but there's been nothing that couldn't be tinked and fixed, it's just frustrating!
I've been weighing the remaining yarn since repeat #11 and it goes like this:
#11 - 52g
#12 - 46g
#13 - 38g
#14 - 30g

So, i reckon i can do another repeat which will bring me down to about 20g, then it's 8 rows of border and two rows of cast-off and i'll have the remaining variegated and the mini-skein of pale green to work with and Mum will have a decent sized shawl to keep her cosy :o)

All i need now is to find somewhere to block it, and some WAY to block it. I am trying to find some stainless steel welding rods but they all come in massive packs and i only need a few, i am also looking into purchasing a couple of pots of stainless steel pins, the type with the coloured ball on the end. Gotta block it somehow *sigh*

Sassy!

Not entirely sure what "sassy" actually means but the sock yarn is very pretty :o)
I'm doing toe-up socks because i only have one 50g skein of Lorna's Laces "Sassy Stripes" and i want them to be the same length :o)



This is a close up of the stitch pattern. I've done 6 rows of 3x1, then 3 rows with the purl over the second knit stitch, then back to 3x1 then one row of the purl over the 2nd knit stitch and i shall repeat this up the foot. I think it breaks up the rib and adds a bit of texture :o)

I love the colours, it's a very thin yarn though, i just hope i have enough without having to do the heels in a different colour! I do generally have about 50g left over from 100g though so keep your fingers crossed!

I've been absolutely itching to cast on a shawl tonight and i think i will give in to it tomorrow and start a Forest Canopy in either the April or the May YY club yarn for my Mummy 'cos she's poorly and it might make her feel better.