A yarn post...

I haven't done a yarn post in a long time... I've been knitting, but cross stitch has dominated my free time lately. I binge blocked 3 shawls the other week... I'm not fond of blocking but it has to be done if you want the piece to look the way it should... so here's the fruits of my labor!!


First,  Stormy Sky... a free pattern you can find here.

I used Misti Alpaca and the color way is Reggaeton... looks like a Mexican serape to me... the colors are more vibrant in real life. This is a better pic of the colors...

Had a hard time with all these pictures as it is a sunny day ( and I am NOT complaining about that as it is only 28 degrees and there is snow forecast for tomorrow...ugh).  And all of the shawls are big and it is hard to get all of them into a picture. This shawl has the boomerang shape...it starts with just a couple of stitches and continues to grow and grow and grow and grow and you get the point. I love how the alpaca feels around my neck... in fact I love  it so much that I cast on another Stormy Sky shawl using a different skein of Misti Alpaca..

I love the purples and olive greens in this one... pretty mindless knitting and that boomerang shape is very easy to wear... it stays put around your neck.


And when I like a pattern I often knit is more than once...  and as evidence I have 3 Cladonia in my wardrobe ... so since I loved this Casapinka pattern One & Done,  which you can see here, but it isn't free, I've knit 2 shawls using the pattern...

This one is knit in Malabrigo  and the colorway was Diana. IRL it is a lovely soft rusty peach with olive. I like the crescent shape and the dropped stitches.

And my second iteration of this pattern is this shawl...

IRL this is waaaay more pink... here's a pic when I was knitting it and the color is much truer...

The yarn is from    Kakeidoscope Dyeworks in Canada and the colorway was called Gilligan's Island.

I think once Christmas is over I'll be knitting more ...and I should knit more because a bit of yarn has sneaked into  the house again.

Last year I got an Opal Advent calendar... an adorable little mini-skein of yarn every day in the month of December up till Christmas.  I LOVED the yarn and in the end I think I knitted 4 pairs of socks adding some yarn for heels and toes.   Lovely scrappy Frankensocks...like these...

and these....

Well this year when I went to order myself an advent calendar I remembered fondly how much I enjoyed the one last year and how on several occasions I wished I had 2 of certain mini-skeins... and the only way to get 2 mini-skeins of the same colorway is to order TWO Advent calendars... a decadent purchase indeed...but then I couldn't think of anyone who deserved it more than ME!!!  Yes this is the way delusion works...LOL

Sooooooo.....

I have two Opal Advent Calendars... they are shaped like giant books... and this is the yarn I've gotten so far...

Now the skeins don't appear in the same order in each calendar. I've been watching people show their daily skeins on Instagram and it is totally random what order they appear. In the eight days so far I've only gotten the same skein twice but they didn't appear on the same day.  I am LOVING these skeins...they seem very bright and cheerful this year. There is one so far that is mostly black and white and I'm hoping for some checkerboard patterning from that skein and I got a soft gray one today that I'm not totally sold on yet, but we will see. I'm not planning on starting the socks till after Christmas so I can fully evaluate all my choices. Last year I jumped right in and wished I had waited as better combinations would have occurred had I waited.   Maybe there is something to that adage about patience....nay... jump right in with both feet...LOL!

So I have plenty to keep me busy... so many things I want to do ... I'm still contemplating getting out my Christmas tree... I have the rest of the decorations up but the tree always drives me nuts... even with a pre-lit tree I futz with bubble lights and Hallmark light and motion ornaments and I haven't had the gumption to deal with them yet...maybe this weekend.  It has been a very busy week...something that had to be done or someplace we had to go to every single day... and it seems to continue through next week too...except maybe Wednesday will be open... and if it is I just want to stay home!!!

Hope you have a good weekend ahead of you... I'm doing dinner with my son and DIL tomorrow instead of Sunday as they have other Christmas party obligations on Sunday...and that will mess up my fragile hold on what day of the week it is... good thing by cell phone keeps track of this stuff...

I was going to link up with Judy's Knitting Report but I can't find a link on her post... but do go look and see what she's doing ...lots of pretty projects and yarn. 

happy knitting-

carol fun