I blocked Aeolian on Friday. And once she was all pinned out, I stood there for quite a while just admiring her. When David and Emily came home, I insisted that they both come in and admire it, too.
Now I’ll let all of you admire her, too!

I’m in love with it!

Specs:
Pattern: Aeolian by Elizabeth Freeman from Spring 2009 Knitty (The shawl version)
Yarn: Mama Blue Limited Edition Silk Lace in “Urchin”
Needles: 2.75mm Knitpicks Harmony
Beads: 8/0 Silver Light Amethyst seed beads

Mods: The pattern calls for 1100 yards of yarn, and my skein was only 1000 yards, so I was worried that I’d run out. I contacted the designer on Ravelry, and she was very helpful! As a result, I only did 10 repeats of the Yucca chart, instead of the 12 in the pattern. In the end, I had 17g of the 100g left over, so I could probably have managed all the repeats. I’m not concerned though, I’m perfectly happy with the end result! Possibly the only thing I’d change would be to get beads that contrasted rather than matched.

Love it all, the yarn, the pattern, the beads, the end result!

The Rivendell socks are progressing nicely.

But I’m not entirely happy with them.
First off, the heel turn instructions were wrong. I couldn’t find errata for them, and no-one on Ravelry had mentioned any problems, but I just couldn’t make it work, so I substituted my own instructions. Next, they don’t fit my cankles, so it looks like they’ll go to Emily by default.
At least she’s happy!
And I’m not really loving the yarn. This is the first time I’ve used Sundara sock yarn, and to be honest, I was expecting more. It’s no different really to Yarntini, The Plucky Knitter or Koigu. And I know people say it’s the colours. Yes, her colours are beautiful, and I love this colour. But. Up close, there’s lots of tiny little dots of red. Undissolved dye, I suspect. And, half way down the leg I came across a spot where it looked like the yarn had been cut. It was holding together by a tiny little strand, so I had to cut it and rejoin it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice yarn, it’s just not living up to the hype for me.
But something that is living up to the hype? Aeolian. No full pictures yet, but here’s a teaser or two.


Full pictures as soon as I weave in the ends and actually take the pics!
This morning, David noticed something while watching Twinkie out in the yard.

(Apart from the fact that the grass needs to be mowed!)
Twinkie is eating herself a little path through the grass from the clothesline to the table.

Now we need to find a way to get her to work on the rest of the yard!

So finally, Aeolian is off the needles.

I began casting off on Tuesday night, but only got a quarter of the way through before I gave up and went to bed. I worked on it on and off yesterday, and finally finished around midnight.
I shouldn’t really have been surprised that it took so long. Row 43 (out of 47) of the edging took 3 hours on Monday night. I’ve never been so glad to see the end of a row! There was a crapload of stitches on the needle, and that row required 250 beads. Here’s how it looked on the needle.

But now it’s done, and hopefully tomorrow, it will be blocked!
Twinkie still has a thing for the broom. I mentioned it quite a while back, complete with video. It used to be just the hand broom, but now any broom will do. She detests being brushed properly, but has been known to chase the broom until we brush her with it. These days, however, she just plonks herself down in the pile of sweepings until she gets swept, too.

Sometimes I need to lock her outside until I’m done, or she’ll sit there all day long!

This project was actually finished at camp, but I was lazy about blocking it, so it’s taken a while to blog!

It’s been dubbed the EmPress beret, because the pattern is called The Baroness Beret, but Emily has long been known around here as the EmPress.
As can be seen from the picture, she loves it. She had been requesting a red hat for a while, and I finally got around to it.

Specs:
Pattern: Baroness Beret by Susan Power (Rav Link)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Ruby, purchased from Yarns Online.
Needles: 3.75mm and 4mm.
Mods: None.

This was a super quick knit. I cast on just before we left for Camp, and worked on it Friday afternoon and evening at Camp, and finished it late Friday night. It looked very small though, and I was a little worried that I’d need to rip it and start over on larger needles.
When I got home, Em tried it on and agreed that it was a tiny bit small. I decided to block it before I ripped it, just in case it grew a little, and sure enough, after blocking, it was perfect.
It actually didn’t even take a full ball of Cascade 220, I still have 47g left!

Here’s a picture of my current works in progress. Can you guess what my favourite colours might be? Right now though, even I’m getting a bit sick of pink!