Hey, Remember this?

Yeah, no wonder. It's been languishing for nearly two years now. Sadly waiting for me to be bothered blocking it. Well, no more:

To jog memories, this is the wing portion of Mystery Stole 3, also known as Swan Lake. I had a wedding to attend on Friday last week, and it occurred to me that the beads in the stole (which you admittedly can't see in the pictures would match perfectly with my dress. So here's the result:

These aren't the most flattering pictures of me, but the stole looked amazing. For the record, it is the Swan Lake Stole designed by Melanie at Pink Lemon Twist. It's knit out of an unnamed raw silk dk weight. The beads are I think size 6 and they're a soft coral colour. If I remember correctly, I knit it on size 4.5 mm needles. I've loved this stole from the start, it's merely a result of my hatred for finishing that it has languished for so long.

Moving on. I was on a roll last week. The wedding I attended on Friday was for one of my cousins, and two of her sisters had received handmade afghans as wedding gifts from me. It's become a tradition (To date I've crocheted 4 bridal afghans, and knit two) so I couldn't not make one for her. I've blogged previously the Hex Afghan by Nora Gaughan from Knitting Nature. Here it is blocking:

And posed in my parents' backyard:

This knit up fairly quickly and is the main culprit for the delay in blogging this time. All I had to show was a big brown blob. I think the blob turned out pretty well. I just hope the bride likes it as much as I do. It's knit from Patons Shetland Chunky in Taupe with 5.5 mm needles.

So what else? Elated from having completed so many large objects, I may have had a moment of weakness in a LYS. I've been avoiding buying yarn in preparation to attend Sock Summit. But try as I might I was one of the 30,000 knitters who bombarded the server and consequently was unable to get a spot. I'm disappointed, but that's the way these things go. Maybe they'll put it on again next year. In the meantime, I console myself with yarn:

Arequipa wool/alpaca blend sock yarn. It's a kind of dark picture, but it was the only one that came close to showing off the actual colour of this yarn. The colour is very eloquently called 221. I couldn't resist the washy watercolour feel of it.

Koigu KPPPM in the equally eloquent P40395. I can't seem to even find it on their site. Ah well. I shall fondle it fondly anyway. In the meantime, I have a couple socks on the go which I'll get to in a couple of days, but this post is getting far too long, so you'll just have to wait :)

Sidetracked

So, I've had one full week to myself with no school, and I've been trying to rediscover my life.  I think I had one, and it's nice to see that it hasn't abandoned me entirely.  I've been knitting and I'll get to that, but first I need to own up to a serious distraction:

I found this book in the new materials for the library, and while I don't tend to do a lot of cross stitch, I fell in love with this book.  I promptly ordered it online, and as soon as it was in my hot little hands, bought the materials for the main attraction:

I know, eh?  Looks fantastic!  Okay, so here's what it will look like:

Eventually.  The whole book is stuff related to magic and witchcraft.  Some of it is kitschy like cutesy little fairies and wizards, and the dragon on the cover (which I think is very pretty, just not for me), but then there are images of Father Sun and Mother moon, and this cushion.  The Celtic wheel of the year.  I hope mine comes out looking at least something like the picture from the book.

So enough of that.  This here's supposed to be about knitting, so here's some knitting:

This is going to be one of those projects that looks the same every time.  The Hex Afghan from Nora Gaughan's Knitting Nature.  Maybe I'll mix up the pictures a bit by incorporating things in the background to make it a little more interesting than a neutral taupe afghan.  Case in point: the lovely Rock Band drum kit it's photographed with here :)

I've also been working a little bit on my Double Eyelet Rib Socks:

Not too much to see there, either.  I've finished the heel and am about to work up the leg.  This is a great, simple, easy to memorize pattern that is perfect for mindless television knitting.  If only the afghan above wasn't so time sensitive, I'd be much further along on this.  Ah well, what can you do?

But wait, there's more.  I went to Michael's to get the materials for the embroidery above, and encountered something else.  Who knew there'd be yarn at a crafts store?

   

Well, okay, I knew but in my defense, the Kroy was on sale.  So, as the labels state, this is Patons Kroy Socks and Stretch Socks.  Muslin and Licorice colourways.  The stretch is something I've never tried.  Not sure how that's going to work, but I think it's worth a try.  So anyway, I'm going to cut it off there, and hopefully get some more knitting done.