Birthday Surprise!

Today is my birthday and I got a most wonderful surprise in mail from my Swedish pen pal! Thank you so very much, I love it all and it made my day!

Another nice thing to have today is an overcast sky. It has been a very hot week, but it drizzled a bit during the night and now we have a gentle breeze and shade with the temperature down to 30 C (86 F).

Another Cast-on And A Knitting Resolution

I was enabled by a friend recently to start a lace project KAL. So last night, I cast on 600 + stitches for the three cornered shawl in clover pattern (ravelry link). This brings the total of knitting WIPs to four, including 1 cardigan (CeCe) and three shawls (Clapotis, Gail and this latest project). Added to this, I had planned to join a spinning challenge this July.
As it is, I am pleasantly innundated with knitting, but I realize anymore would tip the balance and cause utter chaos in my world. So, I hereby resolve to hold myself back from casting on anymore projects, until I have finished at least two of these four, InshaAllah!
Now, off I go to do some seroius knitting :) How long do you think it will take me to finish two projects and which ones are getting done first? I myself do not know at this point.

Cece Update

I've been working on my Cece cardigan for the last few days and I have come to the point (finally!) where I divide for armholes. I decided to make the cardigan a little longer than the pattern calls for and adjusted my increases accordingly. It looks promising :)

I have an Award!

Gloria of Hooked on Yarn One Stitch at a Time recently nominated me for this award:

Thank you so much Gloria, though I'm sure, current hot weather is sapping away my creativity, LOL!

The rules with this award are to:

1) List 7 things you love.

2) Link back to the person who gave you the award.

3) Pass it along to 7 other bloggers

7 things I love:

• my Faith.
• my family. My kids are at their most adorable when asleep :)
• the ability to connect to my friends daily via internet.
  
• the feel of yarn in my hands.
• the sights and smells of old book shops.
• the peace and quiet of the night.
• the luxury of settling down in front of TV with some project or snack.

I would like to pass this on to:

• Shells
• Ulla
• Nakia
• Vickiknit
• Suna
• Stefaneener
• Riohnna
  

It is a...

In the last post, I asked my readers what my WIP was going to be. Allison thought it was going to be a skirt and Sabrina that it was a baby blanket. :) Now, my project is finished and it is a....

...circular vest/shrug. I used this pattern (rav link) for the basic shape but used this wave st pattern instead of mock rib and used provisional cast on to knit the body first and then did the ribbing in rounds. As you can see, I used my handspun for the ribbing. the contrasting yarns (Patons Classic Wool) are not exactly my first choice for the project but these were the closest I could get in my stash, to the handspun in weight and color.
All in all, it turned out OK. (It's hard to take a good picture with it laid flat)

My New Project

After doing three pattern repeats on my Gail shawl, I looked for fun elsewhere and started this project. This was basically intended to use up my very first handspun, though I have not reached that point yet. I am only halfway through this wave pattern, right now. The brown yarn at the bottom is the crochet provisional cast-on. Can you take a guess at what it is going to be?

Cable Top- Free Pattern

I did manage to write a pattern for this cable top I knit last month for my daughter. And after some wonderful help from two awesome testers, the pattern is available now as a free download at my ravelry store. Click on the link below to download the file.

download now