Frustrated Knitting

Clue2 Finished:
After an unfortunate accident and a fix it job that looked wonky, I ripped back to my lifeline(please excuse my perfectionistic tendencies). I pressed on and I've finished Clue 2 of the MysticLight Shawl. I'm 2 clues behind but I think I'll be done with it by May 1st. That's my goal. My SIL's birthday is May 16th. I should have plenty of time to block it and mail it to her.

Adamas Shawl:

Remember this shawl? Well I still not done with it and the kal is over. One of my goals for my vacation is to get done and blocked and start the Angel shawl for my other aunt. Oh yeah... I decided to give them their shawls on July 26th.. That's Aunts and Uncles Day. I changed my plans because the Adamas was taking me so long the knit and I won't have the Angel shawl completed by Mother's Day. I have to give them the shawls at the same time I won't hurt anyone's feelings.

What do you do when your lace knitting frustrates you?
I knit a dishcloth. I saw the Vortex Dishcloths over on Knitty Kitty.
She's knit the Vortex 5 and 6. The dishcloth I knitted and took a picture of unblocked is the Vortex 5 Dishcloth. First to Five has designed 3 Vortex Dishcloths. If I get frustrated next week, you may be seeing the Vortex 6.


One last thing...

If you've read my More about Me post, you'll know that I enjoy playing scrabble and compile word lists so I can increase my score. I was talking to a buddy that I play unrated games with on Scrabulous.I beat her playing this word, QUIXOTRY. I was telling her that I was in the process of reading Word Freak. There's a variation of the word in the book and that's how I was able to add QUIXO to her TRY (triple word score) to get my own triple word score. I suggested she read it too. She told me about this funny short story about scrabble, Death By Scrabble , that I had to read. Please read it. You'll enjoy it. Thank you for stopping by and have a good weekend! :-)

Mystic Light Shawl Clue 1 Completed

It's pretty so far. My SIL will love it! I shot the pic with a blue background.Thats why it looks creamy white instead of pale blue. I need to take a photography class or find a tutorial online. Does anyone know of one?

Your Element Is Water

A bit of a contradiction, you can seem both lighthearted and serious. That's because you're good at going with the flow - but you also are deep. Highly intuitive, you tune in to people's emotions and moods easily. You are able to tap into deep emotional connections and connect with others. You prefer a smooth, harmonious life - but you can navigate your way around waves. You have a knack for getting people to get along and making life a little more peaceful.

What's Your Element?

?Am I knitting the wrong element shawl? lol I'm thinking of making Anna's Mystic Waters Shawl my summer shawl project. Hopefully I'll be done with it before she comes out with her next element. Ann's has debuted a new pattern.... Luscious Forests Lace Shawl. Maybe when I do a few more lace on one side shawls I'll be ready to tackle it. :-)

Color Stranding

Last Saturday, I took a color stranding class at my LYS. My teacher taught me how carry the yarn on the wrong side so it doesn't look a mess. She taught me how knit holding the 2 strands 3 different ways. I've decided the easiest way for me to do it two handed.

I've been practicing left handed knitting. My stitches are looser than what I do right handed. My LYS teacher says to keep practicing and they'll tighten up and be identical to my right handed way. It makes sense that it'll be identical to my right hand because of the mechanics. I'm still knitting with my right hand. All I'm doing is holding the yarn in my left hand.

My teacher referred me to knittinghelp.com for a refresher video on 2 handed knitting. I found Knitting Tips by Judy when I was searching for color stranding sites. Judy has great 4 videos on colorwork. I've noticed that she purls through the back loop when she does fair isle.

Swatching: Complete Combustion aka Mystic Light Shawl
After a long search, I found the blue yarn I want to use for the Mystic Light Shawl. The yarn I decided on is Fearless Fibers Superwash sock yarn in the Sloth colorway. I'll bought 2 skeins(1100 yrds total).

The fingering weight yarn is light blue with little pale bits of lavender and gray. I interpreted the light and flames theme of the shawl to be the rare blue flame color produced in the chemical reaction when hydrocarbons/oxygen mixture is combined with an abundance of oxygen and heat is added. The flame can only be produced under laboratory conditions. (<--- Geeky organic chemistry moment.)
I wasn't going to do a swatch because it's a shawl and I didn't see the point. Thank goodness I looked at the swatch pattern because I need to know how to do cables. I watched Amy's cable and cableless cable videos to learn how. I used US7 needles like knitknag used to make her swatch. The blocked swatch dimensions should be 11x 16 cm. Mine are 10 x 15 cm and it's wonky over stretched.

I tried again using US9s. I think it's a little too big and loose. My dimensions are 11 x 16 cm but I could have blocked it larger than that. I'm going to use US8s when I knit the shawl. Come on March 26th! I'll be done with the Adamas Shawl by then. My EE kal leader extended our finish date to April 15th. I need another week because I kept messing up the 12th pattern repeat of chart 12.

Pattern Surfing: Sockret Scarf by Susan P.
You've all heard of the Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights Stole. The designer of that stole has a cute and easy scarf pattern, Sockret Scarf. It's made with 1 skein(400 yds) of sock yarn and US 4 needles. I want to make with FF Spellbound.