Spring Cleaning

I posted a little about this on the store blog, but I am taking April to finish projects. As of today, I have eleven WIPs in my Ravelry projects and um, a lot of projects in hibernation.  My two main goals are to finish the Tappan Zee Cardigan I started the other day from the new Knitty in time to wear to Maryland Sheep and Wool and to finish the Baby Moderne blanket I started over a year ago. How many projects can I finish before MDSW?

Malabrigo But Not March: Textured Shawl

Yarn trends may cycle in and out, but at least for 2010, I'm turning back to my old friend Malabrigo. I mentioned during snOMGpgh that Malabrigo Silky Merino was turning into my drug of choice: so soft, so shiny, such depth of color, and such great value for the price.  With just two skeins of Silky Merino in Indicieta, I made a version of Orlane's Textured Shawl. I used the garter tab set-up for Feministy's Yvaine, then knit sixteen rows of stockinette, sixteen rows of the texture pattern, eight rows of stockinette, four rows of garter stitch, eight rows of stockinette, another sixteen rows of the texture pattern, eight rows of stockinette, four of the texture pattern again, and then garter stitch for four rows (or, in other words, until I ran out of yarn and the gold medal hockey game was over).  The finished project is now on display at Natural Stitches for the Show Us Your Shawl Extravaganza this weekend.

A Monogamous (and Ruffle-y) Malabrigo March

An odd thing has happened. In the past few weeks, I've become, mostly, a monogamous knitter. It started with the Knitting Olympics, but I have been pleasantly surprised by how I've been able to stay on track with projects. Yet truth be told, the two projects I've completed so far for Malabrigo March have been done because I hesitated to put them down, fearful that I might not be able to bring myself to pick them back up again. These projects feature an awful lot of stockinette, and an awful lot of, well, stitches.

Laura Chau's Just Enough Ruffles, in Malabrigo Worsted in Velvet Grapes:

Citron from Knitty, in Malabrigo Sock in Boticelli Red:

Twelve Years Ago Today...

My grandmother passed away, as she lost her second battle with cancer. She would have been ninety years old this year. My grandmother is the woman who taught me to knit when I was seven years old, so with every stitch I make, I hope, in my own way, that I honor her. She was a wonderfully accomplished knitter and had a gift with intarsia in particular. She knit for me, and I hope that when I knit for my son, I pass down some of her love to him.

Ulmus

Technical difficulties -- meaning my camera and my laptop both basically chose the same time to give up the ghost -- have made me a bad blogger. But it's about time I recorded my Knitting Olympics Project. I wasn't going to do the Ravelympics: too complicated, too many rules, too many teams, etc. But when The Yarn Harlot posted that she was going back to the original Knitting Olympics, I was in, along with my teammates at Natural Stitches. 

The Knitting Olympics ask you to challenge yourself, trusting that you know what you can accomplish in 17 days. For this goal, I challenged myself to "get on with it already." I've loved Kirsten Kapur's Ulmus from the minute the pattern was released. I fantasized about what two colors of Malabrigo Sock I'd choose for my own Ulmus. I bought the pattern. I looked longingly at the other Ulmuses (Ulmii?) on Ravelry. But I could never bring myself to start. The Knitting Olympics seemed like the perfect kick in the pants.

I chose Malabrigo Sock in my all-time favorite Malabrigo colorway, Stonechat, and paired it with Turner, a green that goes from acid to muddy and back again.

Once I figured out how to count to three, the garter and slip-stitch body went fairly quickly.

The lace portion flew! I cast-off on Saturday, one day before the torch went out. Yvonne kindly blocked it for me, and here's a picture of the lace detail.

Here's my medal!

I'm rather amazed at how quickly the project came together. Perhaps these monogamous knitters are on to something? When you don't flit from project to project, you actually...finish. Go figure!