Something's Finished

So I actually finished something! Well, truth be told, I finished it about a month ago, but it's been sitting around, just waiting to be blocked.

Specs: Rickenbacker Scarf by Kristen Kapur (free Ravelry download)
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in Raspberry, purchased at Tangled Yarns while we were on holiday at Christmas
Needles: 4.5mm

I bought the yarn while we were on holidays at Christmas. We visited Tangled Yarns, and I wanted to buy something, but didn't really have anything in mind. The Malabrigo was luscious, so I grabbed the two remaining skeins and decided it would make a gorgeous scarf. And it did, but it took me forever to decide which scarf to make!
I trawled Ravelry until I found this one, but I knew I had way more yarn than the scarf needed so I made a few alterations.
To start with I cast on 33sts so I could do three pattern repeats instead of two, to make it wider. The pattern has you do the ruffle in a contrast colour, but I did a few pattern repeats, then went back and pulled out the provisional cast one and did the ruffle from the other end of the ball I was knitting with. Then I just kept doing repeats until I ran out of yarn.
The pattern has you knit all the way to the other end, then do the second ruffle. But as the pattern is directional, I knit the two halves in exactly the same way, and grafted the scarf in the centre so that both ends would match. (I'm a bit picky that way!)

And ta-da! I love it! The library where I'm doing my work placement right now is like an icebox, so I wore it to work on Tuesday, and it was perfect. It's pretty long, but that's good for me, because I like to double it up for extra warmth. It's nice and soft around my neck, and waaaarm.
Perfect!

And even better, I also finished the back of Shimmer.

And started seaming Tempest - I'm making up for lost time now.

Another Week

So, the Old Bus Depot Markets were awesome. Despite the fact that I managed to be as sick as the proverbial dog, and was hopped up on Sudafed all day! There was a lovely stream of people all day, and we were right beside the mulled wine guy, which was precisely what I needed. Hot wine does wonders for the 'flu!

And I took a camera, and had the iPhone, and the only photo I managed to take was this one, first thing.

And with a two hour trip to Canberra, and another one home, I'll bet you're all thinking that I've got heaps of knitting to show you. I started a pair of socks for Emily the day before the markets, the "Hearts and Flowers" socks from "Socks from the Toe Up" by Wendy Johnson. I worked on it on the way down, and I worked on it in the hotel the night before the market, and then I had to admit to myself that it was going to be too big for Em. So it's since been unravelled, and is now being reknit into the "Lace and Cable" socks from the same book.

The yarn is Knitabulous new base, the Supertwist Merino sock yarn, in the colour way "Emily's Birthday". (It was dyed for Em's birthday!) Love it.

Weekly knit score + one sock toe.

And Shimmer. I did work on it this week. I got all the way up to the armholes on the back before I admitted to myself that it was also too big. Frogged, and restarted.

Weekly knit score - one cardi back, + one sock toe.

And poor Tempest.

Looks exactly the same as the last time we looked.

Weekly knit score - one cardi back, + one sock toe. Dismal.

The comment competition is still going strong. We're closer than we were, not quite there yet though!

Saturday

Tempest is finished, and has been blocked.

I love blocked stocking stitch, it always looks so neat! So now just the seaming and the bands to go. I'm not taking it to Canberra, finishing is too fiddly for a road trip, so I've started something new.

It's Shimmer by Kim Hargreaves, from her newest book, Misty. I'm knitting it in Calmer, which I got from Jannettes Rare Yarns. Love calmer!

Hopefully I'll be too busy to get anything done on it, though!

And in other news, I'm creeping up on 10,000 comments on the poor, neglected blog. So I've decided there'll be a little give away to celebrate.
The person who leaves the 10,000th comment will get a project bag, and I'll see if I can get my hands on a skein of Knitabulous yarn to go with it. I'm not telling how close we are to 10,000 just yet, but I expect to see it sometime within the next few weeks. Could be much closer than that, of course, but I'm not telling!

Old Bus Depot Markets

So if you're going to the Old Bus Depot Markets "Celebration of Wool" day this Sunday (May 16), you might see something that looks kinda like this.

And when you do see that, it means that Ailsa and/or I are also hovering about somewhere. Come up and say hi - we love visitors!