Another finished shawl and some better pictures

Dinner at the Eiffel Tower is finished and blocking.  I knit this shawl using most of two skeins of Caron Simply Soft.  It is a gift for a co-worker who is having a baby.  She can wear it herself or use it as a baby blanket.

I took some better pictures of Afternoon Tea this afternoon.  It looks much better on the dress form than it did draped over the back of a chair.  People who see me wear it covet one of their own which I think is quite a complement.

Another Finish

I am continuing to work on older pieces and finished a second version of Orna Willis's Creating Memories last night.  This was a class at the ANG Seminar in Milwaukee in 2009. I finished one at the Seminar and  I put it on the cover of a book.  This one is a pendant.  I have the materials to make two in the brown colorway.  I will make one book cover inset and one into a pendant.  

Space for all Species

I started cleaning the spare bedroom that I use as a sewing room yesterday and went through my books and collections of needlework projects.  I pulled out a few that were mostly done but had not been completed and put them in a basket that I set downstairs next to my armchair so that I would work on them.  Last night I finished this one.  It is Space for all Species, an adaptation of a KD Harper poster.  The adaptation was published by KD Artistry.

The piece was a 2006 Round Robin from the Cross Stitch Pals board on EZ Board.  It was returned to me incomplete several months after the round robin should have ended and was missing some of the threads needed to complete it when it came back.  It took a while for me to purchase the missing thread and unite it with the project.  Then it took me more time to take the project out and finish it.  I thought I was done last night until I noticed that the bows on the kite string weren't thread, they were yellow satin ribbon.  I bought the ribbon while I was out running errands this morning, and added it when I got home.  Now the piece is finished. Tomorrow, I will clean it and iron it and maybe take some better pictures.

2012 Chicago Yarn Crawl and some bargello

This year, I participated in the Chicago Yarn Crawl.  I visited 5 knitting stores:  I'd Rather Be Knitting and Knit Happens in Buffalo Grove, Mosaic in Des Plaines, Fuzzy Wuzzy in Arlington Heights, and Three Bags Full in Northbrook.  I would have stopped in at Gene Ann's Yarns in Barrington, but I did not plan that portion of my trip well enough and arrived after she had closed.   It was fun to see the different types of knitted models in the different shops and to look at all of the yarn.   I bought yarn for three shawls in varying weights and for two pairs of socks or more lace shawl knitting.  I also bought some more small stitch markers to use on lace projects and some new cable needles to replace the ones that have disappeared.  Friday, I also went to Stitches Midwest and looked around the Marketplace.  I some beautiful sweater kits and lots of yarn by independent dyers.  I took my Afternoon Tea Shawl to the Zen Yarn Garden booth to show off what I had made out of their yarn.

I have also been doing needlepoint and have been working on Liz Morrow's Mad Miters.   I decided that I did not want to have to lay threads in this project.  To select the colors, I started with a skein of Caron Collection Watercolors in Bark and selected Silk and Ivory shades that would compliment the colors in the Watercolors.  The instructions recommend using a metallic accent color but I am very happy with the plum Silk and Ivory.  

Lace Knitting

I have gone back to lace knitting and have finished two projects.  The only one that is blocked and ready for photographs is my Afternoon Tea Shawl.  I used two Zen Yarn Garden sock club yarns.  The top is in a two ply merino from the Art Walk Sock Club in color Giverny.  The lower portion is in a superwash merino/nylon blend from one of the semi-solid clubs.

The shawl is light weight, soft and beautiful.  Both my teenage daughter and my calico cat like it so much that they don't want to give it back to me.