This Week's Knitting..and New Yarn.

There has been knitting going on here. I finished knitting, and blocked, the Delite inspired lace scarf, and gave the hat and scarf to Cathy yesterday. She really liked the scarf, a lot. Is it a compliment when someone says, "this is so beautiful, it looks like it costs a fortune, it doesn't even look handmade?" LOL. I really liked the way the scarf turned out after I blocked it. It showed off the lace pattern nicely, I think. It was easy to memorize, and rather quick to knit. I'd knit it again. But...again, so many patterns, so little knitting time.

I also knitted the Amanda Hat with my birthday yarn from Key West. I first saw hat when Anne was knitting it for a charity knitting project we participated in this fall, and she directed me to the pattern on Ravelry. It was an fun and easy pattern, and I liked it so much I am knitting a scarf to match. The pattern felt familiar while I was knitting it, but I couldn't place it. Then, it dawned on my that a dishcloth pattern (bamboo cloth page 4)I'd knitted a couple times before involved a similar psso techique and produced a similar fabric. The Dishcloth Boutique, if you're interested, has lots of patterns to knit and crochet. The Amanda hat took about 1/2 a skien, and I think the scarf will take the rest of it, and all of the other one I have. I am liking knitting with Malabrigo, is so soft and squishy! Dreamy...

The scarf will be very warm; the stitch pattern combined with the Malbrigo produces a cozy thick fabric. If we ever get real winter weather here I will be set.

I've saved the best of news for last. I'd been looking for a yarn to use for the "Spring Shawl Surprice" KAL that's currently in progess. I knew I'd be unable to knit a compicated pattern such as that as the KAL went on, but I wanted yarn for it when I would have time. I was looking for a mostly solid colored laceweight yarn, in a shade of green that reminded me of spring, or a light yellow in a buttercup, but had no luck online or in the LYS finding the "perfect" color. I have seen, and purchased, some yarn from Amanda, from her Etsy store, and knew she custom dyed. We discussed my ideas via email, and Amanda told me she could for sure do something for me. I had to choose which base yarn, and she sent a sample of a 2 ply and 3 ply, and then I'd choose which yarn she'd dye for me, and in which color. I chose the 3 ply, and my color choice would be the green, a lighter celery green. Amanda dyed the yarn last weekend, and much to her surprise the dye took differently than she anticipated: It was more variagated than solid, with all shades of green, from light to dark. She emailed me pictures, and let me know that if I didn't care for it, she's try again. However, over the weekend, I'd caught up on the posts from the SSS KAL and even though the pattern is gorgeous, it's not one that I'll be working on anytime soon. So, when I saw the colors of the yarn Amanda dyed, I knew that I indeed wanted it, for another lace pattern I'll be doing in the future. We've named this pattern "Bunch of Celery" because it truly has all the shades of a bunch of celery in it, from the outer darker green, to the inside lighter green stalks and leaves, and all shades in between. It is really a lovely spring color, the results of a "happy accident. " I now have 1640 yards of soft squishy custom dyed especially for me Amanda yarn. The colors blend so well, it will be beautiful when knitted up. Great job, Amanda!

Now, I'm going to catch up on some long overdue blog reads, and then some more knitting, and get ready for some Superbowl!! Go Giants!!