What is up with July?

This week has passed in a flash. My day job suckered most of my time and energy, and I did not even have a chance to hoar any yarn (!). Work in the most pressing knitterly items progressed with a lot of difficulty, and I was forced to knit lace while watching TV. It was so nice to finally have a day off, and be able to relax with a cup of coffee and real daylight to work the lace.

Here is my favorite garden spot. Unfortunately, after 9 am, it is already ungodly hot to sit outside and your hands sweat too much to hold the needles. Welcome to Arizona summer.
The work on the needles is the last stretch of the Cap Shawl, from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today. This has to be one of my favorite lace knitting books; A lovely combination of coffee table quality pictures, great patterns, a section on the historical aspect of lace knitting in Victorian England, and a final section on constructions, borders and other miscellaneous. Truly outstanding.
I started the shawl during the winter Ravelympics, and really, the first 70 rows or so are good ol' TV knitting. After the lace panels start, you do need to pay more attention. I am at the final rows of the body, a whooping 730-something stitches a round, and officially tedious, droning knitting. After that, a rather large edging to look forward to. I have read elsewhere that this particular book tends to underestimate the yarn needs for a project, so I am obsessively weighing my yarn. With typical lack of foresight, I am using a discontinued color of Knit Picks Shimmer that I bought in closeout, so if I don't have enough, I am in a pickle.

2010 KALendar update

The June clue is coming along very well. It is already in the editing process, and we will be able to release on schedule on the second weekend of June! yay!. I had to confess I had a lot of reservations about this clue. One of the designers turned down my request to use a particular work I had my heart set to, and I had to rework the whole clue from scratch. Which means that from the beginning I felt this clue was going to be second-best. However, as I the more my knitting progresses, the more I like it. It is short, the shortest we have had yet. The chart looks nothing like the final result, and you really have to knit up a good bit to get a feeling of it. And the result is very charming! Many of you guessed right... it has beads!

As a sidebar, a note on copyright. A stitch pattern can NOT be copyrighted unless it is so unique and different it is unlike anything else. The charts, and the words used for a description/explanation however are covered by copyright. That means I can reverse engineer any stitch I want and use it for my own evil purposes. That also means you can use any stitches on this sampler for any future designs you wish... provided you use your OWN charts and your OWN wording - no copying!. Giving credit to your source is not required, but it is a deference to those that inspired and helped your work.  So, I ask permission from designers out of respect, and if they decline, I acknowledge it.

I know this is the question you are itching to ask: What's going on with July???
Well, this summer I  have a packed schedule with several trips out of town, and I wanted to make sure we would stay on schedule. Remember we are going to start *trying* to shorten the time between clues to have our shawls ready for Christmas, and that will be hard if I don't work at least two clues ahead.
And... July is going to be very special. A commemorative clue for great event in my life. It will be largely original with some leg up from Ms Walker. It will be unlike the other clues. I have a rough draft and it will be gorgeous!
Stay posted!

And one more special announcement: We are planning a second round of enrollments for the 2010 Kalendar. I feel physically ill every time I have to turn somebody down, and it happens at least a couple of times a week. So I will be working with my fabulous tech editor Kate, and my dear knitting pal and photoshop/adobe whiz Sherry to put together a half-year pattern  at a reasonable price. We will use this layout to anchor the year-long pattern which will be released at the end of the year.

New projects

New projects are a bit sidelined, I am afraid. I have the charted version of the yellow shawlette written up but I need to decide on written instructions and format overall. I plan to attack it soon however.
Meanwhile, my ADD self has started on another project.

Here is a style/technique/size swatch. With plain good  ol' Cascade worsted and a bit of Lion Brand worsted. Don't say I am a yarn snob and you never see acrylic here. The final product is meant to be a child's item. I have wanted to do this for a long time, but i had stumbled upon a technical problem. The other day, my DH came up with a neat solution. Leave it a man to figure construction issues. Can you guess what it is? maybe the color is a dead giveaway...I think the final product will be done on Cascade Superwash for a number of reasons.

WIP Wrestling

 

Operation WIP drawer cleaning is coming along at a great pace. Look at the Man Sweater! now with a neat short-row shawl collar, all finished, just about a gazillion lose ends to weave in. You won't see this in a pattern, but the construction is great for the larger sized guys, so I may still use the construction/shape on an easier stitch pattern and larger yarn for a new pattern.

Some yarn porn...

A little eye candy for the week: I did not do any shopping, but our friend Christine from MTCreations sent me this great pile of samples to test out, wowza!!! After i am done petting them, I plan to knit them into swatches and give you a good review of each of them, including approximate retail price

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Here is the Zitron Filigran, and the Soft Kid that she is sending out as free samples. Isn't she a doll!!!

And a short appearance from my stash. DIC Groovy, the chunky sister of the DIC family, in Spice Girl colorway. Have you looked at the new Vogue knitting? I really want to make one of these sweaters by Lutz and Patmos using this yarn. I just haven't decided which one would suit my frame.
A big plus: this darned chunky yarn takes so much room, that if I use it up, my stash will look instantly smaller! heehee