On Sunday I went to a different fabric store to look at the selection of blue-patterned fabric. Last time I went to Dressew because it’s right by my work, and I liked the fabric I selected but I didn’t love it. So I went to Fabricland on Sunday morning and found a gorgeous blue fabric with flowerpots and swirls. I did want a more ‘damask‘ look… the first fabric was more paisley-ish… and this is more floral. The damask prints I did find would be too big for a 16″ square pillow. I liked both patterns I chose, but this second fabric is darker and richer, which I like more.

Tonight I spent some time measuring, cutting, ironing, pinning, and sewing. Take a look at the finished product!

The pillow cases are an “envelope” style so no zippers (which I totally fail at)! The pattern/instructions are from Sew Subversive: Down & Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista by The Stitch Lounge (Melissa Rannels, Melissa Alvarado, and Hope Meng).

I’ve been in an online sewing class and I picked up some of the recommended tools. My favourite so far is the corner-pokey tool to make sharp, pointy corners.

This weekend I glumly showed my tangled yarn ball to Craig (since I’d explained the situation to him). And guess what! He offered to untangle it! Yaay! It’s all happily balled up now and ready to ponder what pattern it should be knit into. I’m definitely thinking shawl… maybe Simple Things or Bakersfield. Wishful thinking is the Traveling Woman Shawl. I think it’s beyond my skill level at this point.

Also, I plunged back into my shawl at Knitting Night yesterday. I’d guestimate I’m about one third done the pattern (Argante).

I think I’ve gotten over the apparent ‘loss’ of my crafty mojo. In fact, it may never have been lost in the first place… I think I just felt discouraged by the yarn tangle and the fabric miscalculation. Anyway, I’ve even started to look at sewing projects and tutorials online as well as sewing books from the library… so I’m feeling very inspired.

I’ve made substantial progress on my shawl! I am quite impressed with Argante and may even knit Gaenor. It would look quite gorgeous with my new Unwind Yarns. Unfortunately, today I have totally lost my crafty mojo. It’s not the inspiration, it’s the actual talent. So now I am avoiding my shawl for fear of killing it. I tried to wind two skeins of yarn today and look what happened to the second:

That’s my poor Unwind Yarns skein of lovelyness. *sigh* I may have to bring it to knitting night on Monday to get some assistance. I really need to figure out how to use my swift properly. It just keeps flying off the ends and getting tangled.

So instead, I decided to sew my new pillow cases… and I realized I hadn’t pre-washed my fabric. So first of all I had to do a load of laundry to pre-shrink my fabric. Look at this lovely fabric I bought:

Unfortunately, as I was trying to figure the second step (and thinking that the fabric looked too square and not rectangular)… I realized that I miscalculated my yardage and didn’t buy enough at Dressew. *sigh*

Now my apartment is a disaster, covered in fabric scraps, yarn bits, and chunks of chewed paper (from the bunny). I quit the living room and went to the kitchen to make pasta salad. Fortunately that turned out well and it was quite tasty.

That’s right, I’m knitting a lace shawl! The pattern I decided on was Argante by Corrina Ferguson (Rav link) and I’m using 1 skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in colourway “Garden Daze” (Rav link).

I was a little worried that it was too busy. Because at the beginning (tip) when I cast on, the colours pooled together a little more. But as the rows are getting longer, the colours are getting more sporadic. When I asked Craig what he thought, he said it looked like yarn barf. I said, “But they’re pretty colours right?” and he agreed that they were pretty. Then I explained how blocking would enhance the lace pattern more, which reassured me too.

As you may know, Henry is a yarn snob. He only fondles fibres with 100% natural content. Therefore, I believed my cowl being knit with Nashua Ivy (50% alpaca, 45% merino, 5% synthetic) was safe. I thought wrong:

Fortunately he didn’t try to kneed or lick or roll in it… but he certainly likes it more than anything acrylic! The pattern (for the knitters out there) is the Herringbone Cowl from Hungry Knitter. [Click for my project page on Ravelry].

Hope everyone is having a nice Whiskers on Wednesday. Henry is napping obviously!

I have a lot of Mirasol yarn in my stash, and I often pet it and wonder what it will become one day. I have four skeins (in two different colours) of Mirasol Miski, and one skein of Mirasol Hacho. Then last night, I finally cracked open the Mirasol Sulka and cast on.

OMG it feels like a dream! And keeping even tension, it looks like a dream! Although it feels lightly under-spun like it has no twist, so it often ends up splitty… but still OMG purrrr. Speaking of purring, Henry helped me photograph the progress on my cowl:

The pattern is the Quickie Cowl and the yarn is Cascade Luna. The red of the Luna is quite true in this picture, at least on my monitor. Okay so this isn’t the most up-to-date photo, but Henry and I were too tired to take another. Basically I just kept knitting until my yarn nearly ran out, and all that’s left is to mattress stitch up the sides. We’re planning a knitting photoshoot this weekend… so hopefully I’ll have some lovely photographs.

I trekked out to Burnaby yesterday to meet Chelle and her precious ball winder for a Knitting Meetup. It was really nice, I wound all three balls of the Cascade Luna and then cast on for the Quickie Cowl. And then, I made progress!

Usually I am such a process knitter and don’t get much knitting actually done.

I can’t count how many times I’ve driven down this one road of the Fraser Highway in Langley (a nearby city about 45 minutes away) searching aimlessly for Knitopia. I’m not joking, that’s actually the name of the store that I could never find. I knew that it was down one of the side streets of the one-way section of the Fraser Highway. It’s one of those folksy-arty blocks where they want to decrease road traffic.

Finally, when I heard that Knitopia was moving back to White Rock (20-30 minutes away), I made the effort to find Knitopia. It happened to be the same weekend as the Langley Arts Alive Festival. Unfortunately I left my camera at home, so this photo is from the website. It was neat; the shops were all open and there were lots of artisans on the street.

Knitopia (ravelry link) was chock-full of good stuff, but there were several lines and distributors that the owner wasn’t taking with her back to White Rock. One of the brands was Cascade, and a couple lines I’d never seen before. And, it was only $2.50 per skein! So here is the yarn I bought:

I want this Luna to become a cowl for me. Chelle knit a really pretty one (ironically also red, but that’s beside the point) and I just like how simple it is. It’s the Quickie Cowl by Fawn Pea (rav link).

For this, I’d really like to knit the Branching Out scarf from Knitty Spring 2005… but I don’t know if I have the patience for that much lace, even though it’s more of a DK weight.

Don’t tell my sister I showed you my knitting! She knows I’m knitting, and her birthday is on Sunday the 19th… But SHHHH don’t tell her!

If you’d like to know what pattern it is and whatnot, and you promise not to let my sister log into your Ravelry… check the project page.

And for the record, knitting in the round makes life soooo much easier. Maybe I shouldn’t knit flat things ever again… although there are so many cute cardis and shrugs I want to make…. hmmm dilemma!

P.S. Here are some photos from the last couple times we’ve gone PicKnitting with the Terminal City Yarn Wranglers:

I have actually made progress on my Keyhole Scarflette that I’m making. And it seems whenever I explain the scarf to people and show them the scarf, they have a strange compulsion with poking things through the keyhole! I guess once the scarflette is done and people can stick the scarf end through, it will stop. The problem with this scarf was the pattern, it’s construction was completely over-the-top, so I’ve been kinda winging it.

Myself at Steeps Teahouse. Thank you Chelle for your photography skills!

Evan, my best friend, at Starbucks with my scarflette.

1. Please don’t tell anyone how self-conscious I am about my appearance (body-type).
2. Can you think properly in the morning?
3. The color turquoise makes me want to jump up and down!
4. I have a craving for kisses from someone 3,000 km away… *sigh*.
5. If my life had a pause button, I’d pause it in February last year when we were living in Greater London, together.
6. Eyes are the “windows to the soul” BLEH. Actually, eyes are gorgeous and glittery and full of emotion.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to finally finishing my e-portfolio, tomorrow my plans include scoping out a new haunt for Sunday VKM knitting and Sunday, I want to be productive for Day 3 of my 4-day weekend and hopefully finish my Cooca package!

Last weekend during Superbowl, this is what I started knitting. I like the picture but I don’t like how the scarf is constructed… so I’m just kinda winging it! So far we’re just plodding along.

And here is another lovely tease of the Blah Buster Buddy… I won’t be able to reveal the finished product until I’m sure that it has been received by my downstream partner!

Speaking of the Cocoa Swap… I still need to go buy mini marshmallows to do the next contest! Fortunately I have until the 14th.