Juno Salad Soup

Remember back in April when I finished my Juno Regina Wrap? Well I (with lots of help from Mary Beth) finally blocked it while I was in Myrtle Beach. I'm telling ya. A lot was accomplished during my vacation.

MmmMMMmmmm. Juno Regina Salad Soup. Doesn't it look yummy? Here she is taking her bath. Couldn't resist adding the whisk.

Almost finished with the stretching/pulling/pinning/re-pinning...

Hanging off the back of the chaise lounge in all her glory....

Me, the knitter, modeling it....

...but it looks so much better on the recipient....

I knew all along while I was knitting Juno that Mary Beth would be the proud owner of it. I was so cool and casual about gifting it to her. I tried it on first and then I said, "Let's see it on you". Snapped the picture and told her it was hers. This was one way of saying thank you to her for helping me out with the t-shirt quilt I am going to be making. A few months ago she kindly offered to cut the t-shirts down into squares and press interfacing to them for me (she has this awesome press). I love my sis and was so happy to give her this wrap. Now I need to make one for myself!

My First Lace and Contest!

Lookie! Lookie! I ended my work day on a high note today. I completed my Juno Regina Wrap 30 minutes before punching out for the day. I still need to weave in the two ends and block her, but hey, she's done!

I know this picture doesn't show Juno in all her glory with her wings spread out. Right now, the length is roughly 65 inches. Holy Guacamole! The 42 inches for the middle part seemed to take me forever. But strangely, it wasn't a dull knit. I still had to count the stitches as I went between all my markers. I think having to pay close attention to what I was doing is what made it a little more of a *pleasurable* knitting experience. Once I finished the middle section on Saturday, the last pointed section flew on my needles with no problem. I was even able to bring it as my travel knitting this week.

Here are the stats:
Started: January 23, 2008
Finished: April 16, 2008
Yarn: Knit Picks Gossamer (2 skeins)
Colorway: Leprechaun
Needles: Knit Picks Options Size 3

Now I have a question for all you lace knitters. How should I go about blocking this baby? Do I dunk it in water and then pin the heck out of it and let it dry? Do I pin the heck out of it and steam block it. How do I handle blocking the whole thing at once considering the finished length? Being this is my first lace project, I have no idea what is the best thing to do. Help!

Leave me a comment with some advice for my current predicament and you'll be entered in My First Contest. Even if you never knitted with lace, I'm sure you could come up with some sort of creative solution and if not you'll still get entered just for commenting. This contest does not discriminate - all advice (whether sound or not; even funny) will be accepted as an entry.

What's the prize you ask? Well, it is something created by me. Those who know me, know I knit, sew, scrapbook, etc., so it will be something you won't want to miss out on. Some yarny goodness will be included in this prize package! So come on now. Bring on your comments! I'm ready.

Want to double your odds of winning? Link my contest post (predicament) on your blog and I'll enter your name twice into the yarn pot. Make sure you mention you are linking in your comment to ensure you get the credit.

Deadline? Since I won't be blocking Juno this weekend, I will be accepting comment entries through next Thursday, April 24th. I will be announcing the winner on Friday, April 25th.

Every Inch Counts

I firmly believe that every inch does indeed count! The last I spoke of Juno Regina I was only 13 inches into the "42 inches of the same 2 rows". As of last night I was at 24.5 inches. Woo Hoo! I know I added a couple more inches on it today at work.

This has been my travel knitting because the Heart Baby Blanket got too bulky to bring to the office. Plus I have a thumb sprain (right hand) from knitting on it. I kid you not. The blanket got heavy to work with, and since I was working on it so much, a spot in my thumb joint (the part where the thumb connects to the side of your hand) hurts when I knit on it for too long. Hopefully I won't have to go through physical therapy. LOL Anyway, the baby blanket will be completed this holiday weekend. I am very close to making it a FO.

Juno Regina has been referred to "guacamole" and "...looks like you are knitting salad..."

Finally tonight, a new project. This is 2 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Glitter Alpaca Yarn, colorway Old Rose that I purchased from the Yarn Market. I have been eyeing this Hat and Scarf in the Vogue Knitting Winter 2004/05 issue ever since I got the magazine. So why haven't I made it? Very simple. It is a crochet pattern. I do not crochet. What is a girl to do? Well I found someone who does crochet and she has agreed to make it for me. I am super excited. This person will get a lovely special gift in return for her awesomeness for taking time out of her knitting life to make this for me. So who is this special person you ask? Well you can find out here.

It's Love

Today I finally had the chance to get aquainted with my new sewing machine! I am totally in love with it. I didn't know what I had been missing with a computerized sewing machine. I think it's awesome that I don't even have to use to foot peddle. I am going to have so much fun!

I ended up placing a fabric order over at Fabric.com the other day because I had a little project in mind that I wanted to do. Something to jump start me back into sewing after all these years. Fabric.com is awesome. I got my order in 3 days. I ordered 2 fabrics. One is just a simple burgandy cotton broadcloth and the other is Amy Butler's Lotus Temple Garland Clay. I'm not going to tell ya'll what I am making. You will just have to pop on back by and see for yourself what it is.

When I posted about geting my new baby, Kim had commented that she had bought something and wasn't sure why she did at the time. Then when she saw my post She realized why, and gifted it to me.

At lunch on Thursday she gave me the Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillows pattern. This was something I had been considering purchasing the other day, but decided to hold off at the time.

Thank you so much Kim. I am so thrilled to have this pattern. I had been wanting to get an ottoman so I could prop my feet up when I am knitting on my couch. Now I can! The Gum Drop Ottoman is definitely on my sewing list now.

So besides my over excitement of getting ready to sew a project any day now, I did devote time to my knitting projects. Since I currently don't need any of the chart patterns for Juno Regina right now, I have been brining it to work this week. I've made excellent progress as this picture shows. Believe it or not I am over 13 inches into the 42 inches.

Tilted Duster has the back and both front pieces completed. I started the sleeves Wednesday night. I am happy that I will be able to knit both at the same time since they aren't in the round. I be devoting some of my knitting time this weekend to finishing up my Thermal sleeve. I am so close to finishing that baby!

Weekend Knitting

This is what my weekend knitting amounted to for me. I finished the back of the Tilted Duster and have started the right front (not in picture). Juno Regina is now in the "Lets knit the same two rows for 42 inches" stage. I stuck to my 10 rows a night (some nights I did a little more) and am 4" into the 42. Lastly I made huge progress on my Thermal sleeve. I finished the increases and am just now knitting to my desired 18.5". Almost there with it. It should be done in the next few days.

No, I didn't play with my new toy this weekend. Soon though!

A FO Wrap Committment

Look what I finished yesterday? After weeks of it lurking in my knitting bag I finally committed myself to finishing the Peapod Baby Set. During my quiet time yesterday morning at work, I got out all the necessary tools to sew in the sleeves. Amazingly it didn't take me long, especially with the excellent lighting here in the office. The sleeves probably took me no more than 30 minutes.

I didn't have much to finish on the hat. I had to work the Leaf Lace Finishing chart and decrease. All was going well until I finished the chart and had already worked a good deal of the decreases. This is when I noticed a mistake I had made with the decreases. I was too far along to rip out so I made it work for me. But in my mind this hat is a total Fudge Up. Ahhh well at least I can say it is finally done. The buttons need to be sewed on though. Last night I couldn't find my sewing kit so for the picture I just placed the buttons where they will be.

Sunday night I decided to pick Juno Regina Wrap up for a little bonding time. Majority of the charts for this knit consist of 10 rows each. I am currently up to chart 3 and as of last night (not reflected in this picture) I had worked the 3rd of 4 chart repeats. This knit is actually going really really well. The saving grace on this knit is the stitch markers. I move them as I need to as I knit and this is what is making it move faster for me now. I am loving how it is working up.

So as of Sunday night I told myself that I would commit myself to doing at least 10 rows of knitting on it every night. This is very doable for me.

There is only one thing that I really don't like. Look closely at the color of yarn. Now look even closer at the color of my interchangeable needles. What do you see? Yes folks. It just so happens that the color of my needles matches exactly to the dark green color in the yarn. It didn't really sink in until Sunday night when I was having a little trouble seeing the yarn on my needles. I can't wait to get myself the Knit Picks Options needles!

Stay tuned guys. I'm gonna have a little surprise for ya maybe tomorrow evening, but should definitely be by Friday!

It's A Wrap

Stole. Wrap. Whatever you want to call it, I am knitting it. As you can see by the oh so lovely pictures, I have started my very first lace project. I am knitting the Juno Regina Wrap (Stole) from Knitty. (Sorry MB, didn't mean to be so secretive when I put it up on my side bar the other day. I must have been having brain issues because I totally gave this project a different name. I'll just call it a *code* name. It was close to the actual one!)

I am knitting Juno with my Gossemar clearance yarn from Knit Picks. The colorway is called Lephrechan and I think I am actually going to really like this color for myself. As I said before when I posted the purchase of this yarn, I am not a green person, but I see wearing this with a pair of comfy jeans.

For this being my first time knitting lace I think it is going rather well for myself. I was concerned because it is so FINE! I had another lace pattern in mind for this yarn, but I didn't want to have to do a crochet cast-on and then knit into it and then remove it for my very first lace project. Ugh. I'm sure doing a crochet cast-on is fairly easy, but since I had never done it before I didn't feel like tackling it. I wanted a project that I could start right away.

I haven't picked up any knitting since last Thursday. I don't feel I can bring this baby to work because of all the charts you have to reference. I didn't want to totally screw it up. I'm not working on anything portable at the moment so I haven't been knitting. I have been making it a point to hit the gym after work every day. I am trying to get back into my running form and when I get home, fed and cleaned up for the evening I just want to crawl into bed with a book and go to sleep.