Of butterflies and batwings

I found that "something else to crochet" I was looking for. A quick test pattern came up for a crocheted square, designed by Marie over at Underground Crafter. I took the call for testers because I was looking for a small project that wouldn't take much time while I was continuing with my other knitting work.

This square, as yet unnamed, showcases the bullion stitch, which I had never attempted before, as well as crossed double crochets, so it was an opportunity to teach this old dog some new tricks. Using some Cascade 220 remnants from previous projects, it worked up PDQ. I love the dark ombre color creating a frame for the bullions. Very pretty!

So, that was a nice little breather. Then on back to the shawl, which I finished yesterday.

This gorgeous Faroese shawl, titled Thunder and Lightning, is the brainchild of a budding new designer named Tanja Lüscher. I was so impressed with the complexity of stitches Tanja used to create the beautiful and intricate lace design, and I learned a little something here too, about Faroese shawls.

Did you know there were Norwegian islands north of Great Britain called the Faroe Islands? I didn't! But I do now! It seems the traditional shawls created by the artisans on these islands are famous for their clever shaping. Instead of being triangles, they form bat or butterfly wings, designed to allow the ends of the shawl to hang forward securely over the shoulders without the aid of a pin. Brilliant!

With my recycled silk laceweight yarn in the pale icy yellow color, this shawl knitted up fairly quickly. I cast off and blocked it yesterday, and here is the result:

The center panel or gusset is one of the distinguishing features of Faroese shawls. The others are the short lines of yarnovers coming off either side of the gusset towards the top. That shoulder shaping is what makes this puppy different than a triangular shawl, directing the stitches at an almost 90 degree angle from the previous work and causing the ends to fall forward over the shoulders.

Here is a closer look at the lace detail at center back:

I will never cease to be dazzled and amazed by the cleverness of these designers who manage to create feats of engineering while producing such things of beauty. And I'm so privileged to be able to try my hand at their masterpieces.

Drastic Measures

Lots of stuff happening, so I haven't had time to update recently.

And in the midst of the craziness, I saw something very clearly one day while talking with Sarah. I saw how my attention to detail was - as it often does - creating stress where none was needed. I hate to use the word "anal." It's so misused and overused and unattractive. Maybe I'll say "hyper-focused" or "exacting" or "ridiculous." Yes, I've been ridiculous.

I've been enjoying this blogging project, but I've been ridiculous. I love knitting and crocheting. I love working with my hands. I love being productive. But I can be really ridiculous sometimes.

I've been hanging onto yarn in my stash that I paid absolutely nothing for (I was so happy about that!) but had absolutely no use for. I had found sweaters that I knew no one could use. They were made of good fibers, so I took them and unraveled them and stored them. But when I began this project, I found myself desperately trying to come up with projects for all those yarns. I hadn't found anything for years, and I still couldn't find anything. Well, I could find things, but nothing that I wanted to make and nothing that I would ever use for anything...ever. So why was I keeping them?

It was adding more stress to my mind, more mess to my closet, and more time to this project. My goal is to clean out my stash without spending any more money, but what was wrong with giving some of it away? If I can't use it, someone else can.

I bagged up 7 or 8 bags of mostly 100% cotton yarns, along with other yarns people had given me which I knew I would never use. Then I put them in the trunk of my car so I would not forget to bring them...somewhere. But I didn't need to. Someone came to me, I mentioned what I had just done, and she said, "I'll take them! I love cotton yarns! I use them all the time!"

God is good.

Relief. And an excitement to keep on moving toward the goal. And now my closet is a little less packed, my stash greatly depleted. Onward toward the goal....

I finished the Ruffled Triangle Shawl and am so pleased with the results! Unfortunately, I was so excited to present it as a gift to a dear friend that I grabbed it off the blocking board that morning and rushed out of the house without taking a picture! :( 

I've asked her to snap a photo and send it to me, and I'll post one when she does.

In the meantime, I took on three other projects. I finished the first one, which I mentioned in the last post: Hermione's Everyday Socks. These were from the knit-along hosted by A Yarn Loving Mama, and I'm so glad I joined. I love these socks! I love the pattern and I love the yarn.

The textured top is so cool and works perfectly with the Summer Sox's cotton/wool blend. Sarah is very happy with them. She likes no-show socks, so I kept them low with only a 4-row 1x1 ribbing before binding off.

She has become my favorite sock model! And there's quite a bit of the yarn left, so I will probably make her some fingerless mitts to match.

I also took on two more pattern-testing projects. Project #15 was a lacy slouchy hat that I cannot disclose yet, as it was for a pattern that will appear next year in a book. But it was a quick project, and I got to use up some of the handspun Alpaca yarn that I have in my stash.

 

I purchased this yarn about10 years ago when we lived in CT. Someone was selling it at a local fair, and I just loved the look and feel of this beautiful stuff. It's a 3-ply yarn that I used to knit a warm scarf for my husband for the icy New England winters. Each of the plies is a different color - cream, tan, and deep espresso brown - which gives it an overall oatmeal color. There was plenty of it left, so I chose it for the slouchy hat, which turned out perfectly. There's still 170 yards left, so I'll have the chance to make up something else this fall/winter.

 

Project #16 is the other test pattern. It's a lovely lace shawl calling for a laceweight or fingering weight yarn. I was so excited, as I have never done a shawl like this! After doing some swatching, I decided to use the 100% silk yarn from one of the two J. Jill sweaters I had unraveled several years back. Remember? It's hard to believe I paid $1.50 for all of this lusciousness.

A couple of months ago, I had measured, washed, and hung both colors of this yarn to straighten it, so it was ready to go. I chose the pale, icy yellow one, and I think it'll make a beautiful shawl. As soon as I have clearance, I will post photos and link to the pattern. I think it will take me a while to finish this, so I'm looking for another project, preferably something to crochet!

A Quick Father's Day Update

A short post today, I think, just to mark the progress of one project and the beginning of another.

The Ruffled Triangle Scarf is really such a sweet pattern. I am truly enjoying knitting this little shawlette, and the drape created by the boucle yarn and the short-row ruffles is just luscious. I'm about 3/4 of the way done, and I've hardly used any of the yarn in my stash, so I'll be able to do at least a couple more after this.

I noticed that several of the knitters on Ravelry who also made this scarf tried different methods of transitioning the point between the increase and the decrease, so I may experiment a bit when I make this pattern again. For this one, I did a simple row even to create the "center".

However, I've had to put a hold on finishing right away, as I'm in gift mode with a deadline approaching quickly. I finally found what I think is the perfect project for the Classic Elite Summer Sox yarn. Remember Ocala Beach?

I have joined another group on Ravelry after subscribing to a terrific blog called A Yarn Loving Mama. I've enjoyed reading Tanya's posts, and she recently announced a Knit-Along for a pair of socks, so I peeked in. And what do you think I found there but the perfect project. I've never done a knit-along before, but I'm excited to connect with other knitters and share my progress and my questions, while learning from their clever ideas. The pattern is called Hermoine's Everyday Socks, and it's a free offering by Erica Leuder from her Dreams in Fiber blog.

I've decided to make the socks from the toe up, two-at-a-time, using the Magic Loop method. I love making socks this way. I love that the gusset is so easy and there's no picking up stitches. I love that the toe is so smooth and there is no grafting. I love that I can make them identical. I love that when I'm done, I'm done.

And I think they're so cute when the toe starts taking shape!

So, there's Project 14. And this will completely eliminate these two balls of yarn from my stash.

Two balls among what seems like millions of yards of yarn. <sigh> But I will not despise the day of small beginnings. One step at a time, and I'll get there....eventually. :)

Summer Has Begun

It's hard to believe almost a month has gone by since I last posted. Lots of busyness happening in our lives, though not much of it was fiber-related. However, I did get a chance to fit in a few new projects.

In early May, I discovered a wonderful thing. There are many creative folks out there designing knit and crochet projects that need folks like me who aren't so creative to test their designs and patterns for them. I am all on board with this, since I am an editor by nature and always find those little mistakes that can undo a beautiful project. I have often contacted designers and publishers to notify them of errors in the pattern, so I appreciate when a designer takes the time to have his/her pattern tested by others. I admire creative people, but they aren't often quite so picky about the little details as I am.

Anyway, my discovery and, subsequently, Project 11. On Ravelry, groups have begun popping up calling for pattern testers, and that got my attention. So I waited until I knew I'd have a little time to take on a small project and then found one that I thought I could tackle. The Surfer Boy Wallet by Michelle B. over at MyDailyFiber was a cute billfold-type item made with crochet cotton. I have TONS of this stuff, so I thought it would help with the destashing while giving me an opportunity to work with a designer. I checked out her other patterns and loved what I saw, so I raised my hand...and she picked me! Yay!

I used two different color threads: navy blue and a red/white/blue ombre.

Both of these threads are size 10, and the pattern called for a size 8 steel crochet hook. The project worked up very easily, and the small single crochets quickly created a stiff, dense fabric. I used the blue for the main color and the ombre for the card pocket.

Here's the finished product:

It holds bills and credit cards, but not coins, and can get wet with no issues. It's machine washable, and you just lay it open flat to dry. Thanks, Michelle, for giving me the chance! It was a pleasure to work with you!

After all that small crochet work, I was ready to knit again. I looked in my stash and found a large bag of red boucle called Marks & Kattens Freesia.

I think I found this yarn at Goodwill many moons ago, and just put it with the rest of the stash, waiting for the right project and then forgetting about it. It's a cotton/acrylic blend, and it's a true boucle, something you can't easily find anymore.

So I began my search (thank you, again, Ravelry) and even added the term "boucle" and, lo and behold, I found the perfect project. Janis Abel created a sweet little shawlette using a rayon boucle called the Ruffled Triangle Scarf. Although it was her first attempt a writing a pattern, she did a bang-up job of carefully explaining her short-row technique (which I love, by the way, as it requires no wraps). Because you use the short rows to create the ruffle, it takes longer than your average scarf or shawlette, but I love the results and am enjoying the process.

The combination of the boucle yarn and the short-row ruffles creates a gorgeous drape. I can't wait to finish this! And I believe I have enough yarn to make two!

And since I tend to have more than one project going, and since I found something groovy project that Leisure Arts posted on Facebook, and since my sister has now taken up crocheting and we like to do stuff together (is that enough excuse?), I started another project while the shawlette above is still in progress.

Project 13: Floppy Brimmed Hat. Two of my stash items, given to me several years back by my friend Keo (you've got to check out her amazing blog here), along with two ENORMOUS bags of yarn and crochet thread were two spools of J&P Coats Crochet Nylon. These are worsted-weight nylon cords that are strong and stiff, perfect for outdoor-type items. I had one new spool in beige,

and one in a very pale green that was started, but then rewound. Here's a photo of it after I finished the hat, though the green color is not quite true:

The hat called for 2 spools of cord, so I decided to use both of these and break up the colors. While very stiff, it crocheted with no problems, although weaving in is something of a challenge. Nevertheless, I got it finished just today, and present to you now my Summer Beach Hat, or what I like to call "How to Hide from the Sun and Everything Else"

Yes, I'm in there somewhere and, no, it doesn't matter which direction I'm facing, it would look like this. I take it the designer has a slightly larger head than I. Actually, I may pull out the last three rows on the brim and just leave a single row of the green for piping. Then I may be able to see out of it. :)

Breaking out the knitting machine

A wonderful resource has been lying in a box under my bed for the last three years: my knitting machine. I purchased it a little over three years ago, set it up, starting learning how to operate the thing, made one shawl, and then had to pack it up in preparation for a move that took over a year to occur. And it's been in that box all this time. With a little nudge from my husband (who cleared off his desk for me to set it up - thank you, Bob!), it has emerged from the dust bunnies and has now taken up residence in my bedroom, waiting to zip up some fab creations.

In preparation for it's use, I've gone back to some of my stash items, such as the pale yellow and pale pink 100% silk yarns harvested from two J. Jill sweaters I purchased at a yard sale for 75 cents each. Remember these?

They are ideal for my Studio/Singer/Silver Reed SK-700 standard gauge machine. They're either heavy lace or sock weight, and there's plenty of yardage. Just how much yardage, though, was in question. In addition, they still are very wavy from being unraveled. So, I decided to quit putting off the inevitable and start preparing these beauties for their makeover.

First, I needed to get them straightened out. I dug out my long-forgotten niddy-noddy and got to work. I also got to use my beautiful but neglected yarn bowl!

Starting with the pink yarn, I used the niddy-noddy to transform the little "cakes" of yarn into hanks, measuring them as I went along.

After noting the yardage for each hank,

I gave each a dunking into some cool water and then hung them with some weight to straighten them out.

And now they look like this!

Success!

Step 1 accomplished. Tomorrow I'll wind them back into cakes to prepare them for use on the knitting machine and I'll settle on some patterns to try. It's so exciting!



Collar done - finally!

At long last, I finished the Irish Lace Collar.

It turned out larger than I thought it would be, but I really love it. This has been a true educational project for me in learning to interpret vaguely-written patterns and trying to understand the intention of the designer. It took me longer than I would have wished, but it was totally worth it.

Here's a closeup of one of the scalloped areas:

I blocked it last night and persuaded all those little triple picots to behave themselves and line up straight.

So, that's Project #3 finally done.

Last week, I also started and finished Project #10, my first chemo cap to donate to Crochet for Cancer. It allowed me to use up some of the ivory colored eyelash yarn, as well as take up some more of the ivory Silk-Bamboo. The original pattern is called Faux Fur by Nancy Brown and I found it in the book 100 Hats to Knit & Crochet. I like to call it my Phyllis Diller Hat:

Now, I'm off to have fun at The Knitting Closet! Be back later for more destashing projects.

Getting back to my stash

With all the projects I had going, it's been a while since I've checked into my stash to continue logging. So yesterday I dove in again. I thought I had recorded all my commercial yarns, but I found two more that had slipped by me.

First up is about a half skein of Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends in a color called Tundra.

One-and-a-half skeins of this bulky yarn was used to make a cute slouchy hat for my daughter back in February, and I have this half-skein leftover. Haven't decided yet what I'll do with it.

Next up is a lovely 3-ply 100% alpaca handspun yarn that I purchased when we lived in Connecticut. It was my first purchase of handspun from a local fair, shortly after I began my fiber fanaticism.

 

 

The color is hard to make out in this photo, but is' a soft, heathery oatmeal color, achieved by plying 3 different colored singles: natural (off white), dark brown, and a fawn color. I made a scarf for my husband with the bulk of it, and have about 267 yards of this remaining. Again, no ideas yet, but at least it's measured and logged. :)

Reaching deep into one of my stash bins, I pulled out a couple of bags with yarns from unraveled sweaters. I absolutely love obtaining yarn this way. Both of these sweaters were FREE from the "clothing closet" event a local church puts on about three times a year. I bring them our hand-me-down clothes, and then I "shop" for used garments for our family.

For the past several years, this has been a wonderful way to harvest free yarn, as well. I'd look for sweaters made from fabulous fibers that either had holes or stains in the garment, and then I'd take them to see if the yarn was salvageable. Sometimes, the garments were not fully finished, and once the seams were ripped, I was left with a mess of short pieces of yarn. That was disappointing (though it provided us with free stuffing for my daughter's handmade pillows!)

More often than not, however, when you get a sweater made with great fibers, it's well constructed too and allows for perfect unraveling. Talk about gratification! I would keep the labels and care instructions, and put all the yarn from one sweater into a single ziplock bag. Unfortunately, I never measured it, so I'm having to do that now. And I can't find my niddy noddy. Phooey. Out comes the yardstick.

Over the years, I've used some of my gleanings for market bags, scrubbies, and even a lovely capelet! There are still bags and bags left in my closet, though, so now is the time to get them all in order.

One bag had a bulky, deep wine-colored tape yarn made with 65% ramie and 35% cotton. The sweater was from The Limited and allegedly handmade.

The color is actually deeper than I could capture today. This flat yarn is strong and sturdy and will work well for things like hobo and market bags. It also reminds me of purple linguini (oops, my Italian is showing). It measured 575 yards, and I've decided to offer it to my crochet class students in the fall.

Another tape yarn was from a J. Jill sweater. It's a smaller (narrow) tape than the purple, and it's made from 77% cotton and 23% nylon, which gives it a nice elasticity.

The color is interesting, too. The tape is primarily a soft, powder blue which is "outlined" in a dark blue, giving the finished product a heathery effect.

I haven't figured the weight yet, so I'm swatching with it before I can find a project for it.

More stash organizing to come, along with a newly discovered opportunity to put a good use to all this yarn! Hooray!

Working in White

Since learning about the Crochet for Cancer project, I'm looking at this challenge and my stash with new eyes, excited to have a worthy purpose for all that yarn instead of just trying to think of projects to get rid of it. A good deal of my yarn is soft and quite suitable, and so I will be knitting hats for some time, I think. :)

In the meantime, I made up a baby cap which I have labeled Project 9: The Little Boy Blue Ribbed Baby Hat, a sweet little pattern by Tonya Wagner over at The Shiznit site. Of course, she did her hat in blue - thus the title - while mine is white, as I am attempting to whittle away at that Cottontots yarn that just never seems to get used up!

I did this cap up for a newborn, and it is so soft! The darning needle beside it is there for size perspective and, as you can see, this is quite a tiny little fellow. I will probably use up the rest of the yellow and white Cottontots by making up as many of these as I can, and then will donate them to Pregnancy Resources, a wonderful organization here in Brevard County for pregnant women in crisis.

And an update on the Irish Lace Collar, the project that seems like it will never be done! After more stitching and ripping, I'm slowly making headway. As the directions suggested, I gave the collar a light pressing to help organize the placement of all those little triple picots and to help them lie flat so I could do the final rows.

This really is a lovely pattern, although it's more like a faux-Irish Lace. A true Irish Lace, I believe, is all about the motifs, which are quite dense and detailed, and then joined in an amazingly creative way on the lace ground. The "crown" design in this piece gives a nod to those detailed motifs, and the triple picots imitate the look of the lace ground.

Remember the trouble I was having with those picots? Well, the whole idea of a right and wrong side and working into the back of those little buggers creates the illusion of the picots being somehow suspended above the lace chains behind them. Very interesting!

It's not a difficult project at all, but between all the other projects I've been juggling and my difficulty in grasping the idea behind how this collar is constructed, this baby has dragged out way too long. I've enjoyed the challenge, but I will be happy when it's done. And I think all of Ireland should be grateful that they didn't have to depend on me to see them through the potato famine. At the rate I'm working, they would have starved. Erin go Braugh!

Baby sweater set complete

I went ahead with my plan to knit up the sweater to match the baby hat I finished for Project 6. The Ripple Eyelet Baby Sweater is so sweet.

The original photo shows a solid color sweater under the garter ridge for the lacy part, and then a coordinating color for the yoke, but I didn't like this color-block idea. In the matching hat, I had done a single white stripe, so I decided I wanted to do white piping on the sweater. It took a little thought, but I love the finished product. The designer, Jeannie Leech, gives instructions for flat or circular sleeves, and since I hate seaming, I opted for the circular. I also chose to omit the ribbed neckline and opted for a garter edging at the neck, in keeping with the garter edging throughout the rest of the sweater. I couldn't be happier with the results.

Now, I'll have a nice gift set for little Jessica. :)

Unbelievably, there is still quite a bit of both colors of this Cottontots yarn left! This yarn just never ends! However, I've figured out what to do with the rest. My LYS, The Knitting Closet in Palm Bay, is sponsoring Crochet for Cancer and serving as a drop-off site for anyone wanting to help knit or crochet caps for anyone - child, teen, or adult - going through chemotherapy. The soft Cottontots yarn would be perfect (as is much of the yarn in my stash!), so I'll be using up as much as I can to make some caps.

If you live in the Brevard County area, please consider knitting or crocheting a chemo cap or two. Even if you don't knit or crochet, you can come into the shop, purchase some yarn, and donate it for one of our knitters to make on your behalf. Instructions are on The Knitting Closet's Facebook page.

Baby, baby, baby, oh!

Okay, I'll admit that those three words are the only thing I know about Justin Bieber, but they seemed appropriate today because of all the BABY stuff I've been doing!

First up, Project 1, the Zig Zag Baby Blanket blocked beautifully.

I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. And it looks so pretty with Project 6, the Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat, that I've decided they're going to be a gift for a little girl named Jessica Jade who is due in a couple of weeks.

This hat is really more for an older infant, though, and I wanted to have a newborn hat for her, as well. I found this gorgeous pattern called the Ava Lynne Baby Hat, and couldn't wait to try it. The designer's name is Jenny Sorensen, and I am so impressed with the beauty of this pattern. It worked up fairly quickly with some of my leftover white Bernat Cottontots and is sooooooo soft!

In keeping with the yellow-white color scheme, I wanted to add a little flower applique and found a Tropical Flower pattern by Jessica Zeltner on her blog, Living the Craft Life. This sweet little flower worked up in minutes, using a small amount of my pale yellow Size 10 crochet thread.

Isn't that pretty? And it looks so cute on the hat.

 

So there's Project 7. I'm so excited to give these items to my sweet young friend awaiting her baby girl. If I have enough of the yellow and white Cottontots yarn left, I may attempt a beautiful little sweater designed by Jeannie Leech to match the Ripple Eyelet hat. That would made a perfect set.

Quick Fill-In Projects

I took a little time out from Projects 1 & 3 to whip up a little gift for a dear lady who blessed me this week. I wanted to make something lovely but not too personal. When she saw me crocheting the Irish Lace Collar, she made some very kind comments and bemoaned the "lost art." Perfect. I decided it would be some crocheted lace and searched through some patterns online and in my library. Then I remembered the delicate Undercover Bookmarker I had done several years ago as thank-you gifts for some of my children's homeschool co-op instructors.

It's a quick project, which I finished in about an hour and a half. A gentle touch with a steamy iron is all that's needed to set it straight, unless you want to pin open all those little loops to block it properly. Not surprisingly, I took the shortcut.

Kathryn A. White is the designer of this little gem, and let me tell you, this lady is a creative genius with crocheted lace. I can't wait to try more of her patterns, especially because I have SO MUCH COTTON THREAD!!!

I really do.

I've finished the Zig Zag Baby Blanket, and it's being blocked as I type. Unfortunately, it didn't use up all the yarn as I'd hoped it would. In looking for other baby items I could make to get through the remainder of the Bernat Cottontots, I found a very sweet pattern on Ravelry called the Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat, designed by Bonnie Brann. It's a knitted hat that has a similar pattern to the blanket! How cool is that?

The pattern is written as a flat piece to be seamed up at the end, but I hate seaming and so decided to work it in the round using circular needles and the magic loop method. I love using magic loop, particularly for pieces that will decrease in diameter, as it overrides the need for using double-pointed needles. You just keep working, using the same long cable, and voila!

I knitted most of it during my son's District track meet yesterday, and finished it up when I got home. We don't have any more babies in my home, nor any large dolls, so blocking is always tricky when I've made a baby hat. My solution? A large vase turned upside down covered with a clean towel and some plastic bags stuffed into the crown. Hehe. Looks silly, but I think it's working:

Time to tally up: Projects 1 and 2 are now complete. I'm still laboring over Project 3 - crocheting, ripping, crocheting, ripping, ad infinitum. I will count the Victorian Egg Covers as Project 4, the Undercover Bookmarker as Project 5 and the Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat as Project 6, since they all helped reduce my stash, however little.

What's next? The Asymmetrical Top didn't work out as planned. The 100% silk I harvested from the unraveled J.Jill sweater is just not soft enough (versus Paton's Silk & Bamboo, which my sister is using). So I think I'll save that yarn and attempt some lace shawls. I'm not sure there is any yarn in my stash suitable for the Top, however. That idea may have to simmer on the back burner a while.

Today will be a search-the-stash-and-plan-more-projects kind of day. Can't wait!

Finishing up Projects 1 & 2; Progress on 3

The first two projects of this challenge are nearly finished. Doing a happy dance!

I've been steadily plugging along with the Zig Zag Baby Blanket. This has become the project I take to my son's track meets with me. It tends to be cold up in those stands, and I'm sometimes there for 3 or more hours. This blanket gives me something simple to do with my hands while I'm watching the runners and keeps me warm at the same time!

When finished, this will be a good size for a stroller blanket. However, I'll still have one whole skein left each of yellow and white, so I'll have to come up with at least one more project for this yarn. I'm thinking about a bunch of baby hats.

On to Project #2: the Cozy Striped Kerchief. I have finished the entire body of this pretty shawlette, but the edges are bothering me, so I'm considering what type of border I can do along the striped edges to finish it nicely. I welcome any and all suggestions! I have plenty of the brown silk/cotton yarn, so that might be an option - maybe a crocheted edge? Hmmm

 

 





It doesn't show clearly in the photo above, but the stripes are so pretty against each other. Here's a closer look:

I am really pleased with how this kerchief has turned out. So glad I ripped out the first try!

Now that these two projects are nearly done, I've already begun looking at what to do next. My sister and I have purchased the pattern for a beautiful crocheted shell, offered by a talented lady who goes by the name Gu'Chet. The pattern recommends using Paton's Silk & Bamboo (the yarn I used in my kerchief!), but I have to follow my own rules! I remembered that I have some lovely 100% silk sock-weight yarn in my stash that I harvested from two J. Jill sweaters I unraveled. Here are the bubble-gum pink and ice yellow yarns I have to work with:

 

I haven't measured anything out yet, but I think there will be enough of either color for the shell. I'm currently testing with a gauge swatch, holding 2 strands together to try to get the DK weight necessary for the pattern, and then I'll do some measurements afterwards.

Quick update on Project #3: Irish Lace Collar. This was on hold for a little while, but I've started back to it again. Thanks to my brilliant cousin Jody at www.chickswithsticksofglenmontny.blogspot.com/, I got through those pesky triple picots and am on to new stitches. Who knew the thing had a front and a back? I do, now.  And I'm very pleased with the progress thus far:

That's all for today.