miss ewe knits

SP8 and WIP, or bad blogger redeemed...

Okay, I stink. I know, I know. It's been a while, I'm an irresponsible blogger. But here's the good stuff.

First of all, I want to say a big giant thank you to my awesome Secret Pal, Heather. Heather was so crazy super unbelievably generous throughout the Secret Pal exchange, and best of all, we exchanged a lot of e-mails, some of our artistic work (she's a talented writer), and I feel like I have a new friend in Calgary. I hope we get to meet in person one day!

Here's a photo of her final package: a "here comes treble" nightshirt (yeah, she got to know me pretty well), some Sweet Georgia sock yarn in Blue Steel, some native Canadian Wild Rose seeds, native to Alberta and BC (I will do my best. Plants tend to commit suicide around me), a postcard DVD o fthe Canadian Rockies, and a girl's best friend next to yarn: a Moleskine journal. I love these books. I write in them exclusively.

If you're a wordy person who writes and you've never had a Moleskine, get thee to a store and get one. You will LOVE it. Warning: you will also become addicted, incapable of allowing your pen/pencil to touch other notebooks. They're really special.

As is Heather. Heather, I had such a great time getting to know you! You're an incredible (and prolific!) knitter, a talented writer, and an inspiring human being. Plus you're super generous and you sent me cashmere!!! (If you didn't see the incredible spoiling Heather bombarded me with, check out here and here as well). I'm really glad the fates matched us up, and I hope we will be in touch for a long time...

Now... a nearly FO. The shrug. I have to sew the ends in, but here it is. 3 skeins of Patons Classic Merino in Tree Bark Mix. I have mixed emotions about this one. It's knit entirely in the round, 3x3 ribbing, and spiritually I finished this project before the knitting was done. That's an awful lot of 3x3 ribbing.

As for the garment, it's kind of weird. I like it, but I know I'm going to have to defend it when I wear it in public. "Why didn't you knit a whole sweater?", and so on. One friend's husband said "Oh! No, it's nice... I thought you were kidding that it's done". Uh-huh. Anyway, it's warm and cozy and a beautiful color, and I hope I never knit that much ribbing again. End rant.

I'm quite happy with the progress on Clapotis. (and now blogger decides photos are not really necessary... I'll try again later with that one). I'm 12 rows away from the decreasing, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have enough Noro. I'm also pretty sure it will be long enough. (hints from previous Clap-knitters? Did you do only 12 repeats in the straight section? more/less?)

I hope I like wearing shawls. I've never thought of myself as a shawl girl, but I've never spent this much money on shawl materials... (it IS silk garden!).

Last but not least, I started an open-work scarf in Rowan Kidsilk Haze. (still with the photo uploading... grumble). Inspired by kmkat and pattern found here. I've had this KSH for a while, looking for a good openwork project. It's a simple pattern, I think it will turn out well, but all that wrapping is a bit fussy. Am I the only one who finds KSH a bit of a pest to knit with??? I keep reading that it's the crack-cocaine of knitting; this is my second project, and I'm not that enamoured yet. Sure, it feels nice, but it's like knitting with cobweb. Maybe I need a few more hits to get addicted. Maybe I'm just not a lace girl.

Christmas reconnaissance has officially begun. I think the girls at Wool-tyme think I'm nuts. 2 visits in 2 days with no purchase, just a lot of touching. Choosing for others is so much more difficult than choosing for myself. I KNOW what I like... more on this later. (but not much more; these are for surprises).

Okay, I hope that's some good blog redemption. Talk to you soon.

posted by miss ewe @ 5:54 p.m.