An FO [Finished Object] & what's on my needle

I finished my shawl

les Abeilles

by Anne Hanson

and posted it to The Loopy Ewe website

prior to the deadline!!!!

You can read all about Camp Loopy on Sheri's blog.

I put my finished les Abeilles to soak 

and then  

with the help of a trio of Hubby's ham radio antennas

that I used as blocking wires

I was able to block it like crazy - stretching it like crazy so that the lacy pattern was shown off to it's very best.

Since then I've bought blocking wires from InSpinKnity

 I heard about on them on

The Knit Girllls videocast.

The fiberphile Tree Peony and The Loopy Ewe Solid Brick

colors

couldn't have matched any better if I had know what I was picking.

Both yarns were easy to knit with and feel wonderful after a soak and blocking.

Come on Cold Weather.

Soooooo,

since this shawl was a pretty easy knit

I'm giving it another try.

I using yarn that first begun it's life knitted as Pointelle

- - - you may remember Pointelle - - -

the dreaded sox from Hades 

until, of course, I MASTERED THEM ! !! !    

The yarn is Jojoland in Melody 100% superwash wool.

This shawl is in a triangle shape,

as you can see in the finished one above.

This photo shows the first part -

the lace edge portion just completed.

The center, pointy part of the shawl is at the center of my needle.

The two short ends at the left side and right side

are part of the long side of the triangle

- the neck edge.

Thus, 242 stitches are cast on

for the lace edge.

When the lace edge is complete the stitches have been decreased

to 168 stitches.  

The decreases provide the shaping for the V of the shawl.

The picot-looking edging along the top [long] edge

is knit right along with the body of the shawl.

The picot-looking edging - V below V - 

will continue across the neck edge to meet in the center.

I'll try to remember to take photos along the way

showing the effect the decreases

make to form the remainder of the triangle shape.

Nutz, a picture is worth a thousands words.

I'll post pics.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  

With that, I'll want to wish everyone

Happy 4th of July !

hugs

Camp Loopy

The Loopy Ewe

out of St Louis 

is having a KAL

on Ravelry 

Camp Loopy

Since I am in only one other KAL

I decided that I'm in the mood for camping this summer.

The gist of Camp Loopy is to KAL three projects this summer.

Project I is to be a two-color shawl, cowl, cape, whathaveyou.

Since I was busy finishing up Hang Ten KAL I wasn't able to participate in Wendy's Summer Mystery Shawlette KAL

I figured  Camp Loopy is the perfect time to give it a try.

Ordered my yarn from The Loopy Ewe on Monday and it arrived yesterday while Debbie and I were on Day 2 of the Mid-Missouri Shop Hop.

Our Road Trip will be another post another day

Believe me, we hot footed it home from The Lakes when Hubby phoned with the news of it's arrival.  

It was Debbie's day driving so we made record time between The Lakes and Jeff.

I've chosen two dee-lish yarns from TLE.

The Loopy Ewe Solid is Brick  and will be the contrasting color to

The main color  - - - -

Fiberphile [varigated] Tree Peony..

Well, did you expect any other colorway from me?

Simply dee-lish.

and

sooo  squeezable 

Both 100% Superwash Merino Wool 2-ply fingering weight

7-8 spi using #0-3 needles.

Hubby and I wound them into cakes this afternoon

and I'll be swatching this evening

in between working on Bridge of Roses socks I mentioned in previous posts.

Well, back to being lazy and knitting.

hugs to ya'

♥  ♥   ♥

HOT ! ! ! and 'nother pair

HOT ! ! ! 

This is exactly how hot it's been here ! ! 

JULY-AUGUST weather

this is in my garden

yep! my garden is this big.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I've been sitting on pins and needles since the 1st.

Waiting for the arrival of my

Knitters Brewing Company kit

for

Bridge of Roses

[click]

It came yesterday - just 96 hours later - - - - - - -

Wendy sent it Priority Mail ! ! ! 

Here's the wonderful yarn 

Tip Jar for the sox

Pink Lady for the Roses

Grasshopper for the stems

L♥ve the Stitch Marker to commemorate our KAL 

So excited about Bridges I know they're going to be a great knit.

It wasn't long after I ripped open the pkg,

the instructions were set aside and Hubby and I set about

winding this into cakes.

Didn't take long

so grabbed my #1 circs

and began my swatch

I'm torn between the recommended #1s and

yikes ! ! ! !  a #0

My gauge is not quite on,

however,

my swatch was a back and forth stockinette

and not the round and round knitting I'll be doing.

Will probably go ahead and do the toe [since this pair is toe up]

with the #1.

Then re-check my gauge and decide whether to switch size or not.

 # # # # # # # # # #

Knitting has been my main entertainment this week.

Finished my Hang Ten 

and posted to

Wendy and Kelie's Sock-aholics Rav [just click to visit Rav] group 

a day before the deadline.  Whopee ! ! ! 

I've been listening to their podcast [click]  while composing this post.

I am a mulit-tasker, afterall.

stay cool

hugs

♥  ♥  ♥

HANG TEN off the needle! ! !

Finished these last night,

well, more correctly

l:30 a.m. this morning.

It was time to finish these ! ! ! ! ! 

Hang Ten

designed by Wendy Gaal

and here on Rav

Hang Ten

surfer talk.

Front shows long board

wave undulating at side of foot

and short board at the back.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I'll leave you with

a photo of

one of the essentials 

hugs

♥  ♥  ♥

Here's What Has Been Keeping Me Busy

Working on another candidate for our quilt guild potholder swap.

The pieced strip is a leftover from something or other.

Enough for these four potholders -

plus the piece I'm holding

that is

just the size for

Mug Rug

Think I'll make a few more pot holders then cut the binding strips.

Yes, I'll be cutting those strips with the GO! cutter and die.

I'll machine sew the first side of the binding to the potholders

then finish by hand stitching

while I sit in the evening.

KPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKP

Hang Ten

at the point where the gusset is finished.

This is the first time I've knit the heel in this manner.

These sox are worked from the cuff down.

The cuff is resting at the bottom of these pics.

The photo below shows

The center of the heel is located at my thumb

with the gusset increases between my thumb and index finger.

Just one row short of being ready to begin the

heel portion that curves around my heel and becomes the sole

portion.

I hope to make fast progress and finish these by next weekend.

# # # # # # # # # #

French Kiss -  -  -  -  -  -  -  Don't You Wish

Bought French Kiss last week and got around to putting it on

mid-week.

Went shopping the next day and picked up Don't You Wish

to tone down the blue.

Yep!   Lookin' Good ! ! ! 

+ ♥ + ♥ + ♥ + ♥ + ♥ + ♥ + 

More gloom and rain .  .  .  . sigh .  .  .  .

Hey,Thanks for stopping by.

Love when you visit.

Hugs

This Afternoon

Right after we drove into the garage from having lunch out

the tornado siren went off.

Spent the next two hours downstairs listening to the scanner and radio 

for storm reports.

While there was no extreme weather in our neighborhood,

just west of town a sheriff's car was turned onto its side with the deputy inside.

However, Mother Nature showed her nasty side.

About fifty miles to the west a tornado touched down and did it's damage to part of a neighborhood.

# # # # # # # #

Once the siren's ceased to blare and the sky turned from black to just cloudy and rainy we saw that we had received an inch of rain.

No wind damage.

+ + + + + + + +

So this is what I worked on

the rest of the afternoon.

Our quilt guild is having a pot holder swap so

I'm playing with some ideas

while hoping to end up with potholders

that I can use to swap.

Otherwise family will be getting potholders.

Not certain how many layers of Insul-Brite and batt to use.

Any suggestions?

88888888888

hugs

♥  ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥

Fancy Threads art quilt group challenge

Just got home from our monthly get together of Fancy Threads.

Our group of quilters who our interested in stretching our creativity

gave ourselves of bit of a challenge last month.

We each brought a twelve-inch-square of fabric and one embellishment.

A half dozen of us took up the challenge.

Our challenge is to make a 'quilt' any size from 4"x6" to 30" square

using a bit of each fabric

each of the embellishments

and any other fabric/embellishment of our choice if we feel the need.

Here's most of my background using four of the six fabrics

Not too bad a selection, right ?

Well, here's where it gets to the challenge

These are the two remaining fabrics 

and the embellishments.

and a little closer view

How, oh, how am I to integrate this into 'art' ! ! ! 

Oh, I do love the challenge ! ! ! 

I'll keep you posted, hopefully my idea will pan out.

It needs just a little more tweaking.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Susan , who IMHO is a mistress of longarm machine artistry,

Okay, okay, see for yourself if her recent quilt isn't wonderful, take a visit to Susan's Sunrise Quilt Studio

but don't forget to come back here and finish reading my post.

Anyway, Susan brought her copy of 

Art Quilting Studio  Winter 2010

[so many ideas, so little time]

this issued is packed with wonderful creative ideas

So the three of us who came to today's group

Annie, Susan and me

decided to use this issue as a basis for our next several months.

The first thing we're going to attempt

- - -  ta-daaaa - - - 

photo-transferring to fabric using Ink Jet printing.

wooo-eeeee ! ! 

#  #  #  #  #  #  #

Recently Interweave had a couple of video's for a dime each.

Lyric Kinard

was one of the artists

Much to my surprise when I downloaded her video for a dime

the dang video was some like an hour long

[Actually the other video about the same length

features  Malka Dubrawsky ]

-  -  -  -

So, I've had this foil since forever wanting to give it a try but not really understanding the instructions.

Look at the selection!

Just sitting, waiting for it's time to shine.

Lo and behold, Lyric shows how to foil using WonderUnder.

Today was the perfect time to give it a try

not one of the three of us had 'foiled'

I traced out a star onto WonderUnder,

cut it out.

Applied it to my fabric

then

laid the foil [color side UP ! ! ]

placed a piece of parchment paper atop, just in case,

and pressed using my iron

Let it cool and pulled off the foil sheet

in the light enough to shine

not so much in the light

and a closer view.

The fabric is still soft and pliable.

There's no stopping me now ! ! ! 

^ V ^ V ^ V ^

hugs

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

1 Choice 4 Quilting

1 Choice 4 Quilting
is having one honking giveaway
there's no way we can not win !
Check it out

Winners - We have WINNERS ! ! !

Here's the BIG announcement ! ! ! 

Hubby has the task of drawing the winning name.

He's picked the WINNER of the Fabric and pre-cut tumbler blocks:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

! ! ! ! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Debbie of  Jerusalem Notes: Fiberwork by Debbie

She's a quiltartist, embroiderer, crocheter, knitter, sewist and blogger.

Debbie, send me your mailing info

and I'd really, really appreciate if you send me some handi-dandi tips on the best way to send this to you.
You can use my email address found on My Complete Profile page.

# # # # # # # #

The rest of you can turn those frowns into smiles

since I want to send a little something to each of you.

Sooooo,

you lovelies who entered and did not win the BIG prize

please, send me your mailing info so that I can get a envelope out to you.
You can use my email address found on My Complete Profile page.

In the meantime, perhaps you'd like to take time to visit each other's blogs

♥  Tracey, whose blog clover is all about her

love of photography, gardening and family.

She lives in the Southern Lowcountry.

♥  Paula's blog, JC Earth Angel, 

Paula has not been blogging too long and is getting into the swing of posting.

She lives here in mid-Missouri.

♥  Hummingbird Treasures

 is Marie's blog.  Marie lives in North Carolina.

♥  Don't forget to take a swing by Debbie's blog.

If you gals send your mailing info I can get  an envelope out right away.

hugs

♥♥♥♥

HANG TEN

Oh, this one's a whole lot easier than 

Goldenrod Pointelle.

Hang Ten

designed by Wendy Gaal

see my previous post

from

Knitters Brewing Company

caught my eye at very first glance.

Though it was shown in a wonderful shade of blue,

this minty green Cascade Heritage that I used on Hedera III

is such a great yarn to work with that I decided on using it for my version.

This is how it looks with the cuff chart completed.

#  #  #

Now I'll begin the leg portion

which involves

Chart A,

Chart B

and, Chart C.

-  -   -  -

Everything else is on hold for the time being,

even the painting of my ex-darkroom.

Since photography  - b&w, slides, etc. - has gone by the way-side

I've been using the room for other hobbies.

I've gotten the bug that I want the room 

white

with pink accents

so yesterday I cut-in the ceiling and walls.

Will roll the rest when the mood strikes.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

It is HOT IN MID-MISSOURI ! ! ! ! 

90  plus a little bit today

very, very high 80s yesterday.

Yikes

What happened to spring?

hugs

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥