One Geek to Craft Them All

I’m working on two different Mystery Shawl KAL. One From Knitting like Crazy and the other from Wendy Knits.  So far at least I am keeping up with both patterns.

Mystery Medallion KAL

That is a shot of the first clue, I am mostly done with the second clue but had to frog a few rows, but am back to about halfway through that just in time for the new clue to come out today.

The other shawl, Summer Mystery Shawlette, does have the pro of being and bottom up pattern while the Medallion is top down, so in theory I will never mix up my clues. In theory.

I’ve also finished the first clue of that and am waiting for the new one to be posted this Sunday.

The colors are different enough that if I’m delirious enough to mix up the two I likely shouldn’t be knitting.

I’m working on a gift, that will be posted once its handed off, and on another shawl. I have frogged Anthemion again but this time it was for want of smaller needles, and I think I  may make it in some teal lace weight I picked up ages ago at a yarn shop in DC. I was there for a day…of course I found the nearest yarn store.

In completely unrelated news look who’s little sister is a new NYU  graduate.

Yes that is a nearly full Yankee’s Stadium. Though they look more blue than purple in the picture the bottom tier is all the graduates, my sister was very proud to point out she was sitting behind home. And look at her speaker.

Oh Bill you were my *first president.   First in the sense I was just sticking my Jr. High toe into looking at this politics thing. And this Bill guy was my president.

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Knitting 11 shawls 2011, lace, mysterykal, shawl

The fifth completed Shawl of 11 was blocked this weekend.  It was the Peacock Shawlette  in Cascade Sock.

In between cleaning out a closet, starting some costume prep, and other things on this weekend I was able to lay it out on my blocking mats. With help as always.

I suppose it wouldn’t be blocking a shawl if she didn’t help.

I had one of those fun moments when blocking when you realize the project is just a little off. I somehow shifted the right side by one stitch so it doesn’t line up as well as the left but I’m sure I’m the only one who will notice.

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Knitting 11 shawls 2011, lace, shawl

I’ve started work on my very first Mystery KAL. I’m working on the Mystery Medallion Shawl. The first clue came out on Friday, but I got a late start as I had to finish my peacock shawl and had snapped my other set of #4 Acrylic needle tips while on the bus, or really while sitting innocently in my purse.

I was lucky enough to have the metal set, in my purse,  but there went my second set of needles.  I think the last few projects I’ve been working on are on #4′s so I will be putting together an order for knit picks.  I’ve been meaning to grab some smaller needles for some lace work anyway.

Back to the shawl, after some false starts (aka- sometimes I fail at reading on moving transport I have finally gotten started.  I’m working my way through the charted area now and should be done in time for the next release this Friday.

The only downside is this yarn.  It’s malabrigo sock, that has  been wound into a super tight ball and is actually one of my first, ‘oh you mean places other than Amazing Savings, sell yarn’ purchases. So it has been sitting around for upwards of 3 years, being pulled tight.

I’ve found 4 breaks so far, and really hope that is the end of that. but I am not holding my breath. And the fact that it breaks like the above picture every time so it will twist in on itself and hide the break doesn’t help. Did I mention I have a second skein?  I chose this yarn because I tend to go a little over whatever the amount of yarn called for or make it with less than a row to spare.

So I figured this yarn was a safe way to go. Who knew I would be facing this other problem? I’m planning to hunt down the other skein and rewind it much more loosely, as this ball is so dense i can’t tell if the stiffness i feel is the tag inside, or just how tightly packed the yarn is.

But it is real nice to look at.

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Knitting 11 shawls 2011, mysterykal, shawl, WIPW

Dyeing yarn (and apparently hair) with Kool Aid is not a new thing even if it was new to me. I finally, Finally finished Damson…or ran out of yarn, and not wanting to start some strange cycle of buying Sliver Fox I cast off before I got to the edging, I’ll just have to make the shawl again someday.

I had been thinking about the fact that I already had one shawl in this colorway. Batik.  So I made my way to this knitty article and followed the instructions. The only difference being I had a FO and not a hank of yarn.

I started with 2 packets of grape flavored kool aid. You know purple.

You can just barely make out the colors that it picked up there. Some small hints of purple.  Fun fact the water was apparently warm enough that the yarn picked up all the dye before I put it in the microwave.  So I added my packets of red dye (cherry).

This took  a little more work and actually had to be nuked so that it would absorb the colors and absorb it did.

I think this bowl shot its easiest to see the way the purple and red blended together. Overall I think the shall came out pretty nice, and I put it down to block it out.

I wore it today and I have to say even after Blocking and washing it in wool wash it still has that sweet smell of Kool Aid though moderated slightly so its not overwhelming. All in  all I think my first kool Aid dyeing experiment went pretty well.

Also, I’ve been watching Game of Thrones on HBO. And its possible I visited the food truck a couple times while it was in the City.  Though I only got to it while they still had lemon cakes once. This past Sunday to g0 with the third episode I made Lemon cakes (PDF) following the official recipe.

The recipe felt surprisingly simple but  they were tasty and I put my ramekins to good use. I think its a recipe I may use again come summer and BBQ season  possibly  see if I can find a smaller set of ramekins and make bite sized lemon cakes.

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Knitting 11 shawls 2011, cooking, dyeing, game of thrones, kool-aid, lemon cake, shawl