I hate chiggers!

I really hate the little boogers. I don't know if you have these little critters where you come from, but here in Missouri, we have plenty! I'll ship you some if you want to try them out. You will receive an official certificate of insanity along with a box full of freshly mown grass, guaranteed to have chiggers in it. For the curious who still have some grasp on their sanity, this Wikipedia article explains a little more about the critters.

What this article doesn't tell you is exactly where the little boogers like to bite. They tend to go for areas with the most warmth, which in turn tends to be near the unmentionables. While I myself do not have any chigger bites in the areas in question, they are near enough to convince me to suffer in silence without scratching, at least in public. I don't feel like explaining exactly what I'm doing to the stranger next to me in line at Wal-Mart. Hydrocortisone is my friend right now!

For those of you who have left me comments on my previous posts, thank (both of) you! I did see them, I'm just not yet adept at figuring out how to reply to them.

I finished my pattern for Night's Candles this week and got it uploaded to Ravelry and to my Etsy store. Now that I've got it published, here are some pictures!





With most of my designs, familiarity breeds contempt. I usually like the combinations my testers come up with better than my own. While the ones I've seen in the testing phases are lovely, I'm actually pretty proud of this one!

I'm working on Miss Austen right now. Hopefully she'll cooperate with me. I'm making her in mohair and I really shouldn't work on her when I'm sleep deprived. I've already had to frog rounds 2-3 times. Blech. I haven't decided whether to self publish her or to submit her somewhere. Hmmm....

I've also come up with an idea for another shawl, based on this painting and the poem that goes with it, particularly the following excerpt.

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.



OK, OK, so it's not weaving, it's crocheting, but I really want to make one in this colorway.
It reminds me of the colors in the blanket.

Granted, the poem itself is rather depressing. I was so totally in love with it in high school. I also had a thing for Edgar Allen Poe. I think I must have been emo before they called it emo. Oh well.

Look at me, rambling on. I guess I'm making up for lost time. :D

Brainstorming

The Flower Trellis Shawl is finally done. I'm taking pictures to put into my pattern to help explain the stitch better. Although I've taken notes on the edging, I have yet to write up the pattern for it. Anyway, here is the FO.



I've come up with more patterns! *Looks skyward* Thank You, Lord! Ok, ok, so they're not patterns yet, but I do have the ideas...

Three Circular shawls: Night's Candles, Pleiades, and Dryad.

One triangular shawl that I don't have a name for yet. And a few more ideas for others that haven't really taken shape yet. I'm so excited! I think I'd crochet 'til my arm falls off if I could (but then I'd have to learn to knit with my toes, and I'd stink up all my good yarn).

Anyway, I'm really excited. I don't know if this whole selling patterns on Ravelry and Etsy thing is going to work, but I'm really hoping it will, at least to some extent. Maybe I'll make enough to pay for my yarn...

One of my FO's and a QAL KAL!

I'm organizing my first KAL! We're doing Queen Anne's Lace by MMario. The pattern is available through joining the MMario KKnits Yahoo group. You can also join the QAL KAL on Ravelry. The pattern is absolutely lovely, and a joy to knit. This is my first circular knitted object, so after only about 15-20 false starts, lots of advice from my laceknitters Yahoo group, from MMario KKnits, and a knittinghelp.com video, I finally figured out how DPN's work. I think this circular lace stuff is going to be addictive. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics to post yet, even though I'm on round 33 now.



I finished my Heirloom Baby Blanket (available on www.coatsandclark.com) last week sometime, and it is absolutely beautiful. You really have to pay attention to the pattern, and not do the things I do (like assume I know what the repeats will be and just start making up what I want to do myself), because then you'll have to rip out three rows and do them all over again. Of course, these will be the rows where you've had to join new yarn and have already woven ends in as you went. I do have to say, though, that the end result is totally worth it.

I made it for the grandbaby of a very sweet lady that I used to work for. Little Wyatt was born premature and weighed only a little over two pounds. According to his grandma, as of his one month birthday he had more than doubled his birth weight, and is off of his ventilator. I'm sure if he turns out to be anything like his grandma, he'll be a real sweetheart.

I have some new features planned soon, such as a list of the resources I've used to help me learn to knit, and some of the free patterns that I like the best. However, soon tends to be a relative term with me, so don't hold your breath too long. I have to teach myself how to create hyperlinks and how to do some other fancy footwork, too.