Not dead, just reading...

Oh wow, it's been a while...
These days I have been:
reading (ALL sorts of books)
writing a little bit
working really hard
walking around with Fave dood-guy Tony
and spending a lot of time on pintrest...pinning ALL the things...

I knitted about half a skein of my Noro before I got the lace pattern confused...I'm sure it's an easy fix but for some reason I haven't touched it since then. I will have a picture soon! Anywhoo, between kind of burning out and pintrest, I just haven't gotten around to much in the way of crafting, weird because all I do in my free time is look at crafts. I bought a mini herb garden from Trader Joes, and am trying to set something up so it can be closer to the window and out of the way. All I need is to get some hooks to hang my rack on, near the window and where it can be loved by both the sun and me!

For those interested in the books I've finished this month, they're not crafty, but great fiction:
Angelology- Danielle Trussoni
Boneshaker-Cherie Priest
Nightmares and Fairytales vol 3, 1140 Rue Royale- Serena Valentino (art by Crab Scrambly, my new favorite)
Going Out-Scarlett Thomas
Currently reading: Island in the Sea of Time-S.M Stirling (only about half way thru)

And a picture for color! Me waiting for the bus last Saturday (a rare occasion, if it is more than 5 minutes away, we usually walk to another stop), wearing hand knit hat (from winter of 2010) and my new neck shawlette thingy.

This is totally not a codpiece tutorial.

...Just a mistake that kinda looks like a codpiece. 

I totally almost forgot this story, and took some pictures to illustrate it...
So I said in one of the last posts that I spent all last week trying to design my own triangle scarf, and day one I brought a lace stitch pattern book to work with me. What turned out to be difficult for me was making either increases or decreases in order to build a triangle while working a lace pattern that relies on the same for affect. I finally decided I would start at the bottom point and with the Lotus Blossom stitch pattern, because I thought it would be easier to slowly increase without messing up the stitch count for the lace.

It was good in some ways, but  the pattern pulls the fabric in certain ways that causes some of the edges to scallop. It also caused weird bulges in the fabric, and all of this amounted to an embarrassing piece of fabric, what I now call the knitted lace codpiece... Strangely the first 2 pictures do the piece more justice than it had in life, because I think I'm tugging the tail down to create a point... (This is the deep blue and purple Salvia yarn I got on ebay, pictures of which are in the post below.)

But you can tell in the last picture that the end is really more rounded, and the angle of the V looks too much like a pair of thong underwear for me to complete it-really I don't want it to look like I'm wearing panties around my neck. Although a friend recommended just making underwear, I still unraveled it, saving the yarn for another project.
Just to be clear, I'm not against knitting underwear, I really just wanted a pointy neck scarf...(which I got, the Aubrey shawl with Kashmira yarn, pictures in the post below.)

In Noro news, I tried Aunt Phebe's Comfort shawl on Monday, and while it looked alright, after about 45 rows or so I decided it wasn't what I wanted for the yarn after all. I took yesterday off from knitting to read,  and today I began a rectangular scarf with The Old Shale lace pattern (also known as feather and fan lace), a very uncomplicated and mindless pattern. The Old Shale is a "classic Shetland" patt, and looks really cool with sock yarn and (US) size 15 needles. I'm only a few rows in (less than 30) but it already looks like the most elegant thing I've ever created. I am so in love with the colors so far, having started with purple, then a little navy, and now green. I'd post pictures but it's getting late...hopefully I'll have some up by the weekend.

I also found this picture tutorial on winding a hank of yarn into a ball,  if anyone is interested...My first hank experience ended in a ginormous wad of tangles and knots, and an itty bitty ball of yarn, so I've decided to never ever wait to unwind one at work ever again.

*smile*

Couple new pics just for funsies.
Salvia yarn and another shot of the Kashmira shawl.

Salvia yarn from ebay

Kashmira triangle scarf

First weird yellow-y pointy scarf

Kashmira Triangle scarf

Finished a new triangle scarf, in Sensations Kashmira Purple stripes.  I used this Aubrey pattern again, sans lace, and size 13 (US) knitting needles. It is as symmetrical as can be this time, maybe because I altered the pattern a bit.

Anyway, I spent all week trying to design my own pattern, and realized I have only knit one shawl/triangle scarf so far, and maybe I need more experience knitting other patterns before making my own. This one is pretty easy and mindless, and I put a safety pin on the side that gets the increase stitch as a reminder in case my mind wandered or if I had to put it down a lot at work.

In Noro news, I'm not sure that this is the pattern I want to use, but while watching special features on a It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia disc, I rolled the skein into 2 almost equal balls of yarn! It is mostly green shades, variegated wool with hints of purple, which are my 2 favorite colors ever.

These are some of the other patterns I'm looking at for the Noro:
Aunt Phebe's Comfort Shawl by Donna Druchunas
Azzu's Shawl by Emma Fassio
Gabriel's Wings by Angela Roberge