Two steps forward, one back

I am still lurking in blogland but have been a tad quiet - mainly because I haven't made much knitting progress. I now have something to show and tell so here goes.....

The Angel Puff Scarf is ready for felting. I hope I haven't put the hazelnuts too close together!!

I ran out of time to finish the Florianne's Wedding Bag for my niece for Christmas. Her birthday is in June - I'll aim for that! Only some finishing bits'n'pieces to do.

The Swirly Girl Socks made reasonable progress until I realised the swirly pattern got lost within the dark colours. And then, I discovered a dropped stitch at least 8 rows down. So the sock got yanked off the needles for a good froggin' and a new sock was started in a lighter colourway. I have not made it to the swirl pattern yet as I decided to make the ribbing a bit longer than the pattern suggests.

I may be a tad quiet for the next couple of weeks as I will be away for work (in the WA desert) but I promise to keep knitting on the sock when the temperature drops below 40 degrees. I am

trying to work up the courage to sneak the sock onto the plane.

Merry Festivus

Greetings All

Just catching up on the KAL - alot happens in just a few days! I am making good progress with my Angel Puff Scarf, the pinks and purples have developed into rather bizarre, but pleasing patterns (sorry no pics yet). Great to see how the other "Puffs" have turned out. Have also started second, and third, projects. I hope I've not set myself up to fail but with only two pairs of very plain beginner socks completed to date, I have embarked on the Swirly Girl Socks (cos I just luv em). I stared with two circulars as the patterns encourages but got so tangled (and my hands ached with the tiny needles) I have reverted to double points. Yarn is Wildfoote and is much brighter than the photo shows.

I have also started Floriane's Wedding Bag as a Christmas present for my nine year old niece but no pictures yet (no time for pictures - I have knitting and last minute work to get through!).

Merry Festivus to one and all.

Another Angel

I finished my Angel Puff Scarf a few days ago but have only got around to taking some post-felted pics.

Here it is ready for the wash. I raided my son's marble jar and placed them randomly along the lower halves of the scarf.

And after felting...

I am having terrible problems trying to get the colour of this yarn to photograph correctly. It really isn't as revolting as it looks! It's a quite nice mushroomy brownish cinnamony.......

I'd like to wish you a safe & peaceful Christmas! May you find time to enjoy the season (& knit a few rows)

Puff magic

Before with marbles in place ready for felting

Lightly felted and so very light, 25 grams

My Naturally Mist yarn which is a 1ply lace weight 80% super fine kid mohair and 20% acrylic yarn made in New Zealand and is around $7 rather than $20 odd for Rowan Kidsilk. I knitted with 4mm needles and it turned out quite a bit smaller than the pattern stated, not sure if it was the yarn or me! Anyway I decided to use less puffs of a smaller size than a macadamia nut and not felt it as much as the original so the scarf might end up being a useful size. So this morning I placed 30 vase marbles in a regular pattern on the lower edges of my scarf and secured them with 30 clear snagless hair elastics and felted the scarf in the washing machine with a pair of jeans for agitation, it took about 15 minutes to felt. I think the Lady with the Lamp really likes this heavenly little neck warmer.

Heavenly blue mauve

I love this colour so calming..............and I need some of that NOW!! I started on this little Angel Puff Scarf in the current YARN magazine and in Nicki Epsteins wonderful book I bought recently in Melbourne. I couldn't source Rowan Kidsilk Haze around here so am trialling a lace weight mohair and if it works out I will tell you what it is. Really looking forward to the felting of this little scarf, just need to find 4 dozen macadamia nuts.

I am so glad to be part of this KAL tribute to YARN issues 1-8 which I have gratefully read and reread, Barbara did a wonderful job as Editor and whatever other jobs needed to be done to get this great mag into print every 3 months. She wil be missed and I would like to thank her once again for all her help getting one of my felted bag patterns into print in Issue number 8. I had many questions and queries and she was always so quick to reply and guide me along. I hope I can also start and complete some of the other wonderful knits in my 'to do' list from YARN as a tribute to Barbara and her team.

Newby

This is my first ever post and my very first KAL. I fear that I have created just another way in which to procrastinate from doing the really essential things (like earning an income), by doing the non-essential but vastly more enjoyable things (like knitting and blogging!). For my first project in the KAL I have selected the very straight forward but very groovy Angel Puff Scarf from Yarn 8, mainly because I had a skein of hand dyed 8ply mohair in swishy shades of purple that I think will be perfect. Anyhow, here is progress so far........

Cast On!

Hi Kate, thanks for the invite to join this KAL. What a great idea! Just hoping I'm up to the challenge. There are post it notes marking the patterns I want to knit in all my issues of Yarn.

I've decided to start with issue 8, so today I cast on for the Angel Puff Scarf. I'm using Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Kid Mohair.

I'm looking forward to see what everyone else decides to knit.

Christine
http://www.yarnaboutyarn.blogspot.com/