Rose Ribbons Shawl -- Finished!

My Rose Ribbons Shawl is proof that half forgotten stash isn't always a bad thing. I bought Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn A. Clark back in 2009 (the print version of the book is no longer available, but there's an electronic download available on Ravelry), planning to cast on for the Sand Dollar shawl as soon as we got home. It was the perfect project for some yarn I'd bought at the Brown Sheep outlet the previous summer. But then there were other things to knit, and quilts to piece...that's the way it usually goes.

After I finished Treads in January, I wanted another halfway challenging project. I pulled out the book, and some skeins of Cotton-Ease that I'd bought on sale a few years back, and cast on. That old stash does get used. Sometimes not for what I'd bought it for, but if I use it for a project I love, I'm happy.

 

Pattern: Rose Ribbons Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, Taupe, 2 1/2 skeins

Needles: vintage nylon circular, probably size 8 

 

Now I've got a fabulously warm shawl to snuggle up in -- and the temperature is in the nineties.

I'll be linking up to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Get Crafty Fridays, and Freedom Fridays.

{yarn along} Rose Ribbons Shawl

After finishing Treads, I wanted to challenge myself again. What constitutes a knitting challenge for me has changed a lot over the last three or four years. Before the change, I could pretty much cast on and knit whatever I set my mind to. I had my limits, but they were a lot less....limiting.

These days, my results aren't so predictable. I think my knitting skills have atrophied, and I'm determined to build them back up.



My new project is the Rose Ribbons Shawl from Knitting Lace Trianglesby Evelyn A. Clark. That Amazon link is just so you can find information about the book -- apparently it's gone out of print since I bought my copy and the prices are just ridiculous. I might wish I'd seen that before deciding to write the abbreviations next to the chart in my own copy last night! Or not -- I wasn't planning on getting rid of it anyway. (I did a little more digging and it's available as a Ravelry download at a much saner price. I'm not going to even look at the patterns in the new version that aren't in my copy of the book...)

I'm using a worsted weight cotton blend from my stash. In one evening, I made it through the set up rows and the first flower lace repeat. Now it's time to switch to the leaf lace, which looks easier to follow.

 

 

And the reading for this week -- remember when I told you about the free Kindle download for Heaven Preserve Us? (It's not free anymore.) Before I had a chance to start that one, the kids and I made a trip to the library and they had the first book in the series. Might as well read them in order, right?

I absolutely loved Lye in Wait.  As soon as I can pry my Kindle away from the boys and get a charge on them, I'm starting Heaven Preserve Us. And I've already got the third book in the series sitting on the edge of my treadle.


  Cocoa butter soap, check. Lemon lip balm, check. A dead body?

That's just what Sophie Mae Reynolds finds in her workroom: the corpse of Walter Hanover, the neighborhood handyman. He died from drinking lye, something she has in good supply. But the police don't suspect Sophie Mae, a thirty-something widow who makes and sells beauty products. Instead they call it a suicide. But why would a man with lottery cash and a loving fiancée kill himself?

No one can stop the impulsive Sophie Mae from answering this riddle, not her sensible best friend Meghan or Detective Ambrose, who incites annoyance as well as stomach flutters. Sophie Mae's big mouth and sharp nose lead her to a peppermint-scented trail of arson, bigamy, and a shocking family secret that reveals a personal connection to Walter . . . and his killer

If you read horror novels, I hugely recommend Alex by Adam J Nicolai. It's a ninety-nine cent download for Kindle and it's one of the best horror novels I've read in ages. Ian Colmes can't manage to get to work on time because he can't drag himself away from the sounds of his happily playing son.  His son, who had been kidnapped and left dead in a ditch six months earlier.

 

There are things that his little boy desperately needs to tell him, but he can only communicate by repeating conversations from his past. The scene where Ian comes home with a ouija board and the ghost of his five year old stands there tearfully telling him that it is NOT a toy (replaying an incident when he'd gotten in trouble for playing with an eletrical socket) is seriously creepy.

 

 

I'm tempted to order the author's second book, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that one yet. I'm still kind of spooked by the first one.    

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

{yarn along} Crafty Girls Talk

I haven't even picked up my shawl since last week.  But all's not lost -- I did knit a stocking cap for the NICU,  and work on some fabric stuff I'll be able to show you later.  As much as I adore the Rose Ribbons Shawl, I haven't had the quiet or concentration that it requires.  Hopefully this week will be different, but if not, the shawl will be there when I've got time to devote to it again.

Lucky for me, reading doesn't have the same requirements as shawl knitting. I managed to read Spin a Wicked Web, the next book in the Home Crafting mystery series. That one was really good -- you can follow the link if you want my detailed opinion. I also read a couple of less-than-exciting Kindle freebies and now I'm starting Crafty Girls Talk by Jennifer Forest.

So far, I'm enjoying this one. I've only read three of the interviews, but they held my interest. I do disagree with the knitter who encourages new knitters to have someone write the pattern out for them "in full English" instead of learning the abbreviations. Yes, knitting patterns are written in another language, but once you learn to read it, life is much easier. I'd hate to have to wade through a whole row's worth of "knit three, yarn over, slip one stitch, knit two stitches together, pass the slipped stitch over..." My eyes would hurt. Maybe she doesn't do lace or complicated cables.

And yes, I do remember when I was complaining about that shawl pattern setup a few weeks ago. But I needed to re-learn how how shawl charts are written, not find a translator to figure it all out for me. And I did.




For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

The yarn for my Rose Ribbons Shawl was on sale. I can't remember the exact details, but it was a great deal and I bought three different colors, planning to make myself some cute summer tops. And then it sat in my stash until I was ready to cast on this shawl.

 

I'm definitely a sale shopper, but I wasn't so sure I was going to enjoy reading about the Good Buy Girls, the characters in Josie Bell's mystery series. Maggie and her friends are very serious about their shopping and some of the references to their bargain hunting adventures struck me as a bit too aggressive.

Despite that, I really found myself enjoying 50% Off Murder. When librarian Claire Freemont is arrested after a body is found in the library basement with her cake knife in its chest, her friends pull together to find the real killer and clear her name. Unfortunately Claire has an unpleasant history with the victim -- and so does just about everyone else in town.

I'll be looking for the next book in the series to read more about this quirky group of characters, even if I can't understand their shopping habits.  (If a pair of designer shoes will last for fifteen years, why do they need to go shopping for new ones at every annual sale? Or is it like fabric and yarn where too much is never enough?)

I didn't get much done on the shawl this week, probably because I was making time to read straight through this book, and the new Kiki Lowenstein anthology. (Want to win a copy? You can enter by leaving a comment on yesterday's post.)

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

time to finish something?

I got brave after finishing Treads and cast on the Rose Ribbons Shawl. Then I needed something a little less intense to work on, so I cast on the green socks.... then I cast on the gargoyle because I wanted something appropriate for the Nancy Drew blog hop (which had nothing to do with knitting at all, but was a perfect excuse to knit a gargoyle.)

I've been telling myself that I need to buckle down and finish one of these projects, even if it's just to make the yarn portion of my weekly stash reports look a bit better. That shawl is kind of calling to me again. And the gargoyle only needs arms. The socks are such a new project they don't count.

Then Judy came along with her pooling sock yarn challenge and the only reason I'm not out in the sewing room right now is that the sun hasn't come up yet and it's still pitch black out there. I know I've got a ton of sock yarn that will pool and this is the first decent motivation I've had to use some of it up.  Now the question is whether or not I can get yarn to pool when I want it to...

While I wait for the sun to come up, I guess I can keep reading Cold Fear. I've only read the first few chapters, but so far it's got me hooked.

From the book's Amazon description:

In the remote, rugged corner of Montana’s Glacier National Park known as the Devil’s Grasp, little Paige Baker of San Francisco disappears with her dog, Kobee, while on a camping trip with her family; or so her mother and father have told authorities.

A multi-agency task force launches a massive search as Paige fights to survive in the wilderness. Time hammers against her and soon the nation is gripped by the life-and-death drama.

Secretly, behind the scenes, the FBI grows suspicious of Paige’s parents. Their recent history and disturbing evidence links them to a horrible secret from the past.

{yarn along} I thought I was in trouble

I set aside the Rose Ribbons shawl to work on socks for Judy's challenge and had an absolute blast knitting three pairs, one after the other. Until I hit the point where I couldn't even force myself to pick up the fourth pair and knit another row of that k2p2 ribbing.

I hadn't planned to put the shawl away  for so long. I hadn't written down the last row number and had a nagging fear that the magnet marking my spot had slipped. So between that and the sock, I haven't been doing any knitting. Until yesterday, when I decided it was time to pull it out and  compare the knitting to the chart and either knit a few rows or give up for good.

Sometimes the magnet has managed to remain on the right row and things are just as easy as they should be. It's a  good feeling.

 

I decided to read Yip/Tuck because the plastic surgery element intrigued me. Turns out that, although the customer Melinda Langston finds dead on the bench in front of her upscale pet boutique is a plastic surgeon, plastic surgery is  a very small element of the book.  That doesn't matter,  though, because the book was so entertaining that I barely noticed. Aside from trying to find out who strangled Dr. O'Doggle with a leash purchased from her shop, Melinda also has her hands full trying to reclaim an heirloom brooch stolen from her by her cousin Caro (after she stole it from Caro herself.)

 

Even though I started with the fourth book in the series, it was easy enough to catch up on the  characters and their relationships. I wanted to find out more of Melinda's back story, so I picked up  

Desperate Housedogs, the first book in the series. That one is from Caro's point of view -- and I think I might like her better than her cousin.

For more fun knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.

 

My copy of Yip/Tuck was provided by the publisher.

{yarn along} not taking the easy way out

I'm still knitting away on the  Rose Ribbons Shawl from Knitting Lace Triangles and absolutely loving it.

The alternating bands of flower lace and leaf lace intimidated me at first because it's hard to see what's going on with that flower lace. Until you've got enough rows of it done, it just looks like a bunch of random yarn overs and decreases.

I was tempted to just keep the set up section of flower lace and do the rest of my shawl in leaf lace. It's easier to see where the stitches should fall in that one. But that flower lace is so pretty... and once I got enough of it done to get a good look., it started to make more sense.

The leaf lace is what I messed up on. There's a certain point, which varies from night to night, where it's just too late to knit lace. And that point is never obvious until it's just a bit too late and things have already gone wrong. I've got it fixed now, but it may be a few more rows before I stop holding my breath.

This week's books are The Mysterious Half Cat and The Riddle of the Double Ring, both from the Judy Bolton mystery series.

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

{yarn along} Contaminated

Only a few more rows before it's time to find out if that stretchy bind-off that I learned for the Rose Ribbons Shawl can translate to ribbing. I'm hoping that it'll work and I won't have to keep a larger dpn with my sock knitting projects anymore.  

 

I'm dying to get back to my new lace shawl, 198 Yards of Heaven, but knitting time without distractions has been impossible to come by this week. I've been lucky to get an inch of sock done. Not that I'm complaining too much!

I love zombie fiction, so I was happy to get an advance reading copy of Contaminated by Em Garner. The book opens as Velvet Ellis is searching the kennels for her mother. Tainted batches of Slim Pro,  a trendy protein water have turned most of the population into "connies." Not the zombies we're used to reading about and seeing in the movies, these are living men and women who have lost all impulse control.  The first wave of the contaminated was destroyed. Then, as researchers began to understand what was going on, they began to fit the shambling victims with shock collars that will subdue them.  They're being released from the kennels back to family members who are willing to take custody of them.

Velvet's father was killed in the first wave of the outbreak. She's struggling to attend school while also working and caring for her ten-year-old sister. Velvet and Opal are on their own. Most of their belongings were left behind when the military evacuated them from their old neighborhood. The government has lowered the age of adulthood and provides the con-orphans with support checks, but the two sisters are struggling just to survive.

Contaminated is being marketed as a young adult novel, but it doesn't read like one. It's chilling, a realistic glimpse of what a zombie plague might look like and how it could happen. There's not a lot of gore, but it's emotionally wrenching.  I highly recommend this one!

 

Disclosure -- the book was provided by the publisher.  For more pretty knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. I'm posting Yarn Along early this week because tomorrow I'm part of the blog hop for A White Room by Stephanie Carroll.

the rows are getting longer

With top-down triangular shawls, you start with a few stitches and increase on every row. The first few rows absolutely speed by, then they start to take a little longer...and longer...and longer...

That's the point I'm at with the Rose Ribbons Shawl. According to the pattern, I'm done except for the edging. But I've got another skein and a half of yarn, and room on my needles, so I plan on knitting another set of repeats to make it larger.

No new book to share with you today, since I just finished the Yesterday's Mysteries for the blog hop post on Tuesday.  For more fun knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.

 

{yarn along} in search of mindless knitting

I might need to give my projects just a little more thought.  As much as I still love the Rose Ribbons Shawl, it has charts. And that flower lace pattern requires concentration that I can't manage unless I'm alone in the room. So I decided to start something easier.

My Ravelry queue didn't have anything that fit the bill. I'm still trying to figure out how that's possible, but nothing in that list of 893 projects was what I wanted to cast on this week.... There was a project I've had in my shopping cart forever that I thought would tie in perfectly with the whole blog hop, but I took another look at it and it didn't appeal to me anymore, either.

More searching and browsing and I decided on a pair of Entwined House Socks. They're worsted weight, they've got cables, and I can use a skein of that Wool-ease I bought a couple of weeks back. Perfect, right?

Cables are fiddlier than they used to be. I can do them, but not when little boys are jumping over me, screaming to be rescued from whatever sibling is in hot pursuit.

Any suggestions for a really, really easy project that I'll actually want to knit? I've got plenty of boring, unappealing ones already.

While I've been waiting for that elusive stretch of peace and quiet, I've been reading. Wave Good-Bye is the fourth book in the Southern Beauty Shop mystery series, by Joanna Campbell Slann writing as Lila Dare. She did it to me again. But this time there's not another book in the series to run out and buy. I'm going to have to wait.  Luckily the second book in her Jane Eyre series come out next month and the next Kiki Lowenstein book comes out in May. (And I just saw on her blog that she's working on another new series -- woohoo!)


I'd already read the first three books in this series, and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. This time, Violetta's salon in in jeopardy. Lisa Butterworth, the social media consultant that Grace Ann hired in an attempt to boost business has stolen their client list and passed it along to Snippets, a rival salon that just opened a new branch nearby. When Lisa is found dead in the salon, Grace Ann is a suspect.  She's also out of a job, along with her mother and their friends, partly due to Lisa's treachery.

I love that there was so much going on in this book besides the murder. It's not until 3/4 of the way through that we even find out exactly how Lisa died. And who did it kept me guessing until almost the very end. At that point, I had an idea, but I still wasn't quite sure.

I highly recommend this one if you like cozy romances with some romance thrown in.

Another book I highly recommend, but only if you read horror novels, is  Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. When I read it a few months back, I kept feeling like I was reading a Stephen King novel. It wasn't until later that I figured out Joe Hill is his son.

I'd borrowed it from the library, but I've been wanting a copy for myself. This is definitely one I'm going to reread when I'm in the mood for something creepy. I saw yesterday that the Kindle edition had been marked down $1.99 -- cheaper than I could get a used paperback, if I could find one. (Do watch the price if you decide to order it, since the prices on Kindle books can fluctuate wildly from day to day.)



Here's the description from the book's Amazon page:

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals . . . a used hangman's noose . . . a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet.

I will "sell" my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder. . . .

For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts—of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What's one more?

But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing.

One of the many things I love about my Kindle is the ability to read late at night with no lights on -- but I've managed to really scare myself a couple of times, once in the middle of the afternoon on a dark and cloudy day!

For more fun knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.  And don't forget the Nancy Drew Blog hop!

Everything but quilting...

It was a busy week!

I sliced up twenty pounds of fresh berries for the freezer and made a batch of strawberry jam.  

I made gravy  from scratch for the first time in my life, six months after confessing that  I didn't know how and asking my readers for suggestions. There's no blog post about the gravy, because I was in a hurry to get dinner on the table and didn't take pictures. It wouldn't have won any prizes, but it was real, honest-to-gosh gravy and not terrible. I'll be making my own gravy again as soon as the opportunity arises.

I pulled out the Rose Ribbons Shawl and figured out which row I was on when I abandoned it to play with pooling sock yarn. I'd forgotten how excited I was about this project, and now I'm working on it every time I get the chance.

I helped hubby capture another swarm of bees -- our own, so it's not as good a thing as it would otherwise be...

That's in addition to all of the regular, boring stuff like settling an argument about whether or not anteaters have teeth. (They don't.)  Now can I do some quilting? Please?

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 44 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 1 yards
Added Year to Date: 198 1/4 yards
Net Added for 2013: 153 1/2 yards


Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 1550 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 7900 yards
Net Added for 2013: 6350 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.