Thank you Mandy!

My ISE4 package arrived on Friday before we went on a little trip over the weekend and I'm so happy!
Look at this:














Not one scarf, not two scarves, no --- two scarves, a hat, and mittens! Plus two gorgeous sets of stitch markers! This is incredible, it's like Christmas in May! I love everything that Mandy sent me!
The lighter colored scarf reminds me a lot of some textiles (belts, scarves?) that I've seen in travel pictures from South America. I'll add a link when I can find it. It's gorgeous. It's pure silk, too! So soft and gorgeous. I am wearing it right now and delighting in its gentle warmth and beauty.
And when Oscar saw it he had to try it on immediately, too. I predict some struggles as to who will get to wear this scarf in the future... :) He looks cute in it, too!
The red variegated set is beyond words for me - it is just so super cute! I love the curly scarf, so whimsical and soft and the colors are so cheerful. That will be great for the coming grey winter days. Around here, you kind of have to use colors you wear and surround yourself with to liven up the winter drab. I am so impressed that Mandy just kept on knitting at that point after she had two scarves for me already. But she did. There was plenty of the variegated Alpaca yarn leftover so she made me the cutest hat with cables and mittens! I will be totally stylin' when I walk the dog in colder weather! And the yarn feels so yummy on my hands and around my neck. I'll keep this out so that I can easily grab it for those colder nights through the summer, too.
Thank you so much Mandy!
You have totally hit my style right on. Nobody has ever knit me anything in my life, so this is the most special thing to me about this whole exchange. I'm very, very happy!

Oh, and I cannot forget about the extras that Mandy included: Stitchmarkers! Don't you love these orange ones tied with the Argyle ribbon? I do. And the little horn ones are just adorable as well! Truely jewelery for my knitting. I can't wait to try these out!

Thank you so much, Mandy for knitting for me and wrapping me in such thoughtfulness and friendship. I will cherish your gifts for a long time and think of you whenever I wear them, which will be often.

I am so glad I joined this exchange. It was my first one, and what better introduction to exchanges could you have? Thanks also to the organizers, sharon (the stripey tiger) and my group hostess Dorothy. You guys rock for making this possible and you deserve highest praise for keeping everybody up to date with information and posting.

Done and done!

Allright, I have two finished objects (FO's) to show today!

First, to tie in with the last post, I am done with my portion of the Second Oddball Charity blanket. I did the butterfly pattern from the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Vol 1.
The yarn I used is Caron Simply Soft Tweed in Autum Red on the size 7 circular needle that came with the blanket.
Here's my summary:
-- The Good: It was really easy and fun and went pretty quickly while I was watching movies with Oscar to take his mind off his hurting teeth. I love how the slipped stitches transform into such convincing butterflies! And I really like the color combination of the butterflies in the red sunset with Dangles' ocean blue and Shaneh's sandy beach. :)
-- The Bad: I went a little over my allotment of 3 inches because I wanted two rows of stockinette below between and above each row of butterflies. The other thing that did was to make me run out of yarn one row before I was completely done! Argh! How good that I had bought two skeins, but how awkward for the next person to have yarn ends dangling from both ends of my portion! So I decided to weave in the ends on the yarn joint and only leave the true end piece dangling. I really should have left out the two stockinette rows between the butterflies, though!
-- The Ugly (at least potentially): The pattern ended up bunching quite a bit! I'm sure part of it is because there are 300 stitches bunched on 32" of needle, but I'm just hoping that it will smooth out with the next sections knit on top of it. :(
Also the stitches on the right edge of each butterfly turned out very loose and I couldn't get them tighter because I had to leave the slipped stitches very loose. No idea how I could have fixed or avoided this problem...

Obviously this pattern is not reversible. However, I have to say that the back side looks much better than say, the back side of a cable panel. It just gives these indentations on the reverse stockinette, which kind of make a neat geometric pattern. It bunches a bit, too, though!

Anyways, I sent this off to the next person, AnreeAce in Oregon yesterday. I also included some sock yarn for her in a gorgeous blue and purple handdyed colorway. I found it at the Weaving Works when I met Dangles to receive the blanket so it is kind of tied into the project. I also included some stitchmarkers that I made with little purple flowers on them (forgot to take a picture, though). Some Ghirardelli caramel chocolate squares and a Mini Burt's Bees Hand Kit rounded out the package. The postal service says it should arrive by tomorrow, before the long weekend! Yippee!

This was so fun to contribute to! What a beautiful thing we are making for some person in need of the snuggly hug of a handmade blanket. It is so nice to see this taking shape. And what a great way to get to know some more knitters!
I can't wait for Oddball #4 to get to me, plus I will get to hand that one off to the next knitter right in my area! It's great to know that I'll be involved in this for a while!

In other knitting news I finished knitting the two halves for my ISE 4 scarf.
It was another running-out-of-yarn-just-2-rows-before-the-end experience. I don't know what it is with that lately... Luckily I had a second skein here, too (for a scarf for my mom), but it was a different dyelot and so now there's a small lighter section in the middle of the scarf. Yuk!
I guess that will be my humility mistake. -- Someone posted on the ISE4 blog that she made a mistake in her scarf and whether she should rip it out or leave it as a sign of authenticity or wabi sabi. Many people commented and some talked about how the Amish (and the Navajo?) usually include a "mistake" in their works on purpose because only God makes perfect things. I liked that idea and Neko_Loco's scarf is gorgeous! Anyways I decided to leave the lighter section. I hope it won't make my pal cringe everytime she sees it!

Then it sat for a couple of days while I gathered courage to attempt grafting the halves together (and knitting on the oddball blanket). - This was my first time using Kitchener stitch. It went okay, but it sure would have been nice to have practiced it before, with this yarn. It looks okay, actually, but not perfect.

Finally, I went to block the scarf. Washed the new blocking wires I had bought, prepped the couch with towels and more towels and set to work. I pinned it to the towels stretching it out, and then misted it well with warm water, blotting with a dish towel to evenly get it damp but not wet-wet. Then it sat overnight and the next day.
It's amazing how much difference blocking makes, just compare the before and after pics!

Here's the glamor shot:

Looks pretty nice, I think. Actually, I think this is the nicest thing I have ever made so far!
I really, really hope my pal will like it, too! I'd take it back and make something else for her if she doesn't... LOL

I wrapped it all up, included some other goodies and off to the post office it went yesterday. Should also arrive by tomorrow, hopefully!

I'm kind of in a finishing mood now. I want to finally get through the Tempest Wrap. Just a couple more inches of stockinette and I can graft and block (both with so much more confidence now!) and then attach the ribbed edging.

And after that it's on to SOCKS!!! I have Silver's Tutorial printed out and the yarn and needles to start. I'm excited!

Have a great long weekend everyone!

ISE scarf progress

Wow, it's been a long time...

I promised pictures of the ISE scarf and had our lovely neighbor L. come over to take some with her camera a while ago already... Luckily she is very talented with the instrument and we had great light to work with, so here are some pics.

This is the "full" shot of the scarf as it was then. It looks more like a swatch than the real thing except for the beads at the end. By now the scarf is more than three times longer, meaning it is half-way done. Hopefully I will be this far on the second half in no time.

I'm very happy with how it is starting to come out! Oh the fuzzy goodness of mohair! Yum... And the pretty simple pattern is perfect for this, even the edges seem pretty even...


I like the beads at the end. I decided on different sizes and different colors (size 6 silver lined amethyst and size 8 metalic violet aurora borealis) mixed together in a pseudo-random way. That was Oscar's suggestion when I couldn't decide for one or the other after my test swatch. Good call!
I also made the lower border two rows longer to fit some more beads on.


Obviously the lace pattern will show better after blocking. But the against-the-light shot gives a glimpse, and it also shows how light and airy this scarf really will be.

I really hope my pal will like it.

So many people at ISE4 are already done with their scarves and a couple have even been received already! I feel a little slow, but I officially still have 6 weeks. All scarves have to be in the mail by June 7 to be received by US Independence Day.

As an aside, and you can see my very first attempt at making my own stitch markers in this project. A long while ago I was gifted a box of beading materials by a friend who stumbled upon them in the storage area of the condo he had just bought. They sat admired but neglected for a long time in our apartment - until the stitch marker bug stung me. I spend the first week that Oscar was gone experimenting with what was in the box, these markers were the first ones that came out: Then I went out and spent way too much money at the local bead store and have made many more fancy markers since then. And some wine charms. And some earrings. And... Maybe some nice pictures for a future post?

Back to stringing beads for the second half of the scarf...

ISE4 rocks!

I have the best upstream ISE pal ever! I got an email from her/him today saying (s)he is not only done making my scarf, but since (s)he was so fast, (s)he is just making a second one!!! This is as not to give the surprise away too quickly.
How cool and thoughtful is that! I'm so lucky and my pal is so nice. Thank you secret pal!!!
This absolutely made my day - in the middle of cleaning and taking care of the sick puppy (who's doing much better) this was definitely the bright spot.

Hurray for ISE 4!