Already bored

I'm already bored with blogging the Shetland shawl. I"m still ahead of target, so it's going well. Here's an updated picture.

Like I said, boring blogging. Even the Baudelaire's haven't seen much action, because I've been working so hard on the shawl.

So lets go back tot he second of the secret projects I was working on, back in December. Evelyn, who is a longtime commenter here, but who is sadly blogless, had a little baby girl named Audrey back in November. I wanted to knit something for her, so I ordered some Zara, and whipped up a February Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac. I love the way it looks while it's being constructed.

For anyone who hasn't actually knit this (Am I the last?!?), you start with the round yoke and work down, adding in sleeves as you go.

The sleeves are knit flat, then you pick up all the body stitches again, and work down to the hem.

It's a nifty little knit, at the end, the only seams you have are the sleeve and underarm seams, and it's so pretty!

But the Zara knit up into a much larger cardi than I was expecting! I was aiming for a 3 months or so size, and ended up with something that may even fit a one year old! That's okay, Audrey lives in San Francisco, and may need it then.

That's it, all I have. Next time, another FO, I promise.

So far so good!

So far, so good! The Shetland Shawl is coming along nicely!

I took this picture yesterday, it's come along a little more since then. In fact, yesterday I got 8 rows done, and so far today, I've managed 6 rows, so I'm 2 rows ahead of schedule.

Mind you, the 6 rows I did today I did at Stitch n Bitch, so I may need to rip them out yet! It certainly wouldn't be the first time I've messed up my knitting there, but (fingers crossed) all seems to be going very well.

And I've also managed to do a healthy amount on the Baudelaire's.

These are what I reach for when I can't devote 100% attention to my knitting.

Just don't ask about the state of my housework!!

And Lara achieved something else with Twinkie apart from the amazing weight loss.

While she still doesn't particularly like it, we can actually pick her up now, without having our arms ripped off!

The challenge begins

This year, I've entered the Shetland Shawl in the Royal Easter Show.

Last time we saw it (back in July), it looked like this.

And much as I hate to admit it, that's how it still looks. Today I was thinking about the show and the shawl, and I realised that Easter is relatively early this year. So I checked the schedule, and entries need to be delivered on March 7 and 8.

42 days. I have to knit two borders, graft them to the shawl, dye it and block it. I figure I need to do at least 6 rows a day.

So I probably shouldn't have started a pair of Baudelaire's, should I?

Home sweet home. Or something.

So we're home. And it's back to reality with a thud. (A bit like the thud when I backed the car into the electrical box across the driveway this afternoon. Yay me!)

We arrived home on Saturday afternoon. It's been a bit of a downer, really. I just want to go back to Hawaii! We were greeted by this lovely arrangement from the family, however.

Here's a better look at the gorgeous flowers.

There was also some bubbly, chocolates and groceries, which made coming home a bit nicer!

Here's a picture of our wedding flowers.

Rose bouquets, and pikake and rose lei's for Emily and I. They smelt heavenly! Unfortunately, they didn't last very long and we didn't get to bring them home. We did bring home David's lei, which is currently at quarantine being fumigated or whatever it is that they do.

We don't have official wedding pictures yet, they weren't ready before we left, so they're being mailed out to us, so I guess it'll be a week or so before we get them.

I did indeed wear my Fern Garden Stole. Emily wore the same dress as I, but in pink, with the Hanging Garden Stole.

It's apple cider, I swear! (But it made her feel very grown up!)

We actually got married on Papailoa Beach, about 150 metres away from the Lost set. Yes, we're geeks! It really was a lovely ceremony, and a beautiful day, thank you all for your good wishes!

I did actually manage to finish my socks in our last days in Hawaii. Here they are, reclining in hammock on the beach with my wedding bouquet.

(It's a hard life!)

I also got quite a lot done on the So Called Scarf.

Now I really need to get to work on the Shetland Shawl. I've entered it into the Royal Easter Show, and I'm not sure yet if I can get it done before then!

And guess who came home last night?

It's a slimmer, trimmer Twinkie! Lara's house really was the equivalent of a bunny fat camp. Twinkie won't admit it, but she's feeling much better, she's been running and playing in the yard all day, and it's really been some time since we've seen her run much!!

Today

Today, we got married.

Sunny Waikiki

I love Hawaii. Seriously, I'm supposed to leave for home in a week, and I don't want to. I think I'll knit a tent and pitch it in the woods.
Do you think anyone will notice?

When I last kept you updated, I was in sunny California, enjoying Disneyland in wonderful company. We went back to Disneyland the next day, and seeing as this time I wasn't so busy talking my head off, I did some knitting in some of the lines. This brought some interesting reactions. While waiting for the "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage", there were two Korean teenage girls in the line ahead of us. They got so intent on watching me knit at one point, that I I had to remind them that the line was moving along. Then there was another lady and her daughter, aged about 10. All the lines snake around each other, so that you end up passing the same people over and over. Every time I passed this lady, her daughter whispered something. The last time, her mum blurted out "I've never seen anything like it, it's so beautiful!" I was pretty pleased with that reaction. And the teenage girl and her boyfriend, who discussed it with each other (not with me) and dubbed it "cool".
At home, no-one would say a word.
The sock visited in Minnie Mouse's knitting basket at her house in ToonTown while we were there, too.

The yarn collection is growing at a nice rate. Laura gave me some yummy yarn while I was with her.

Yummy yarn, yummy colours! Dizzy Blonde Sock Yarn, in JenLa. Love it!
After we'd enjoyed Disneyland, we moved home base down to Beverly Hills, and I spent a little time exploring the local yarn stores. First up was Knit Cafe.

Nice store, nice stock, nice staff. I came away with some Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight in a nice pale pink. Heavenly soft! And a set of Lantern Moon Sox Stix. I'd seen these in a few places, and I tried to resist, because I really don't need any more sock needles, but the lure finally got to me, and I had to have them.

The same day we tried to visit The Knitter's Studio, but we just couldn't get a parking spot, and we also tried to visit Blacksheep Knittery, but it's closed down. Last visit for that day was A Mano Yarn Center. Another really nice store with nice stock. There was a knitting group happening while we were there, and it was just a really nice vibe. She had some really, really nice stock, but I stuck to laceweight this time.

2 hanks of Lacey Lamb in a dusty pink shade (I really should branch out some, huh?), and some Malabrigo in a natural. I've got three hanks of the Malabrigo, and I would have liked to have got a colour other than natural, but everywhere I went, there weren't enough skeins of a colour for a shawl. But I figure I can dye it.
I laughed when I got my purchases for the day back to the hotel.

I felt like I'd bought my lunch.

On Monday, we packed up again and moved in on my friend Jill and her husband for a few days. Jill and I have been online friends for four years or more, so it was fantastic to finally get to meet her.

But on the way to her house, Google maps and Ravelry told me there was a yarn store. So we popped in and had a look. This one was Stitch Cafe.

Smaller selection this time, although they have a great collection of hand dyed yarns in the centre of the store. Em fell in love with some Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silver and Silk that had been dyed by the Stitch Cafe.
So, of course, it followed us home.

She looks pretty happy with it, doesn't she? Of course, I'll be the one to actually knit the socks for her. Eventually.

In the afternoon, we headed down to Santa Monica to check out some more stores. This turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, because nearly all the ones I wanted to visit are closed on a Monday. First up we tried a store I found on Ravelry, called Knit Knacks Designs, but it appeared to be a house, so we didn't go in. Then we went to Stitches From the Heart.

Lots of stuff I hadn't seen anywhere else, including this gorgeous Mirasol Yarns Miski. 100% Llama, and it's soft and squishy and delicious.

I wanted tog et enough for a sweater, but I didn't know what sweater, and space is becoming a bit of a problem. Last of all for the day, we visited Yarns Unlimited, and the selection was alright, but it was a lot of stuff I'd seen before, and there was a lot of really old stock and novelty yarn. This was the only Californian yarn store that I left empty handed.

And now we're in Hawaii. Yesterday I tried to visit Isle Knit, and Yarn and Friends, but I think my family staged an intervention or something, because they were both closed.
Did that stop me? Not a chance. Another blog friend, Debbie, had invited me to join her local knitting group, Aloha Knitters. It was a great meet! Lots of friendly faces, and lots of great projects on the go.
And one of the visiting members was destashing. Destashing Wollmeise sock yarn.

Thank you, Kris!
Mission accomplished.

I swear I was going to post more often

Really, I intended to post while I was over here on holiday, but the days get away from me.

After I posted last Saturday, I realised I was missing Stitch n Bitch. But I had another knitting meetup in the works instead.
Emily and I met Wendy and Lucy!

We had a lovely time, knitting with Wendy and playing with Lucy. And yes, Lucy is just as soft and affectionate as she looks! Then we went out for a lovely Italian dinner.

And while I was in Alexandria, I also met up with Stacy. Unfortunately, David had the camera while he was out sightseeing, so I didn't get any pictures. She took me to a coffee shop where I had the best coffee I'd had since I arrived in the USA. (And I haven't had one as good since, either!)

We had to depart abruptly, to make it to the airport on time, but we did squeeze in a little stop ont he way to the airport.

Just a super quick stop at Knit Happens. This may have been my favourite store yet, I just wish I'd had more time to browse, but we were in a hurry for the flight, and David was stopped in a No Parking zone.
I did manage a small purchase.

With all these knitting stops, and the flight from Washington to Las Vegas, I've made some pretty good progress on the Shibui sock.

It actually has grown quite a bit since then, too. I took a picture yesterday at Disneyland, but there was a mishap with the XD card in the camera, and I think we've lost all the pictures we took at Disneyland. (Over 100 photos. I'm trying not to think about it, and hoping they can somehow be salvaged!)

Yesterday was our second day at Disneyland. We went for the first time on Wednesday, and had our own expert tour guide, Laura from JenLa! We had a great day, Disneyland is beyond awesome. There are not words to describe how much we all enjoyed it.
But I spent too much time talking to get much knitting done.

We fixed that in the evening, when we went to dinner, and Carolyn joined us.

Another great meal, with lovely people. Thanks, Laura and Carolyn!

Now we're in Beverly Hills. I haven't checked out any yarn stores yet, though. There's still time!