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

Pleiades!

Pleiades is finally finished! Ok, so not so much my version, but one of my testers finished her version and has graciously allowed me to use her pictures.


The shawl was crocheted by Riohnna, and photographed by her husband.

The pattern is for sale on Ravelry, but I don't have it added to my Etsy store yet.

I've finished crocheting Night's Candles, but I can't finish the pattern. I want to have specific pictures of certain techniques I use to ensure stitch uniformity and to make sure the construction is clear, but my sister took off to Puerto Rico with my camera. She left me hers, but I am a self-proclaimed procrastinator, and didn't download all my process pics before I gave her the camera.

I told asked her rather emphatically nicely to send me my process pics via email, and this is what I got:
(Fair warning! May not be safe for those with weak stomachs!)



Apparently, several weeks ago, my youngest daughter, JaLynn, found a lizard that the cats had half eaten, and decided it needed to be documented for posterity. That, or she just wanted to play with the camera. ;) There were several photos, and one of them was a completely awesome artsy shot of the sky and trees. If Amos hasn't deleted it, I'll post them when she gives me my camera back.

Flower Trellis Shawl Pattern Now Available

My Flower Trellis Shawl pattern is now available for sale. I still have to figure out how to add some sort of Etsy widget to my blog, but for now you can go to http://www.ElizabethNicole.etsy.com to order the pattern. If I'm out of stock, please convo me and I'll list more ASAP.

In other news, I'm working on two new shawls, Night's Candles and Pleiades. I have testers for them and hope to have the patterns ready for sale by the end of June. Here's a swatch of Pleiades. Please ignore the baby yarn; I'm on a yarn diet and can't get anything else for a while. :) She's really wanting to be made in a silk blend yarn or in a nice slinky soft cotton, but I'm unable to accomodate her for the time being, so she'll just have to put up with Bernat Softee Baby.



I'm not publishing any photos of Night's Candles until it's available for sale due to the fact that it would probably be pretty easy to duplicate and I want to get the pattern published first. However, I've googled my little heart out and I still haven't seen anything like it yet. It's going to be lovely! Lots of beads and laceweight.