Mossy Moebius Wimple

Mossy Moebius Wimple

Started: September 24, 2009

Finished: September 25, 2009

Isn't this the loveliest wimple ever! Well, I have seen quite a few wimples and cowls that I like. I think almost all of them are lovely. But this one here was a Moebius wimple, and quite the project!

The cast on for this particular wimple is very confusing at first. I originally found the free pattern on Ravelry under the name Cashmere Moebious Cowl. I copied it out, settled down with my needles, and then read in the fine print that I needed to know how to do the moebius cast on which was found in Cat Bordhi's book, "A Treasury of Magical Knitting".

Naturally I do not own that book, nor have I ever heard of it! So I ordered the book from the library. When it came in I spent a good half hour trying to make heads or tails of the crazy cast on technique. But when it finally made sense I found that it was the fastest cast on I have ever done in my life!

The pattern itself was actually quite easy, just a simple lace pattern. I was quite surprised how fast it went. I cast on Thursday evening and bound off Friday evening. Granted I have been sick so I have had a little more time for knitting than usual. But still, it is a very quick knit.

The yarn I used is suri alpaca, and very soft.

Altogether it was a delightful project and I can't wait to make another one. The wimple is actually for my Mother so I shall have to make one for myself in the near future. I love the colour of this one but regretably it has been discontinued.

Oh, this pattern can be found at www.catbordhi.com

And....What Is It??

No, it is not a wide scarf. Nor is it a panel for an afghan. In fact, this is the beginnings of my shrug! I know, it looks a little odd here, but it will be lovely when it is finished.

As you can see from the pictures I am about out of yarn. I went yesterday, and then today for the rest of the yarn, but the store is running low at the moment. They should be getting in an order sometime this week though.

I probably need a short break from "the shrug" anyways, as it grew from nothing to 25" in less then 24 hours! I went to keep an elderly lady company Monday night while her family was gone.
I didn't really have any simple projects to take along and work on while we were chatting so I decided just to start a new one. Bad idea I suppose, especially after my resolution to find and finish all WIP. Oh well, there is always tomorrow, or the next day.
At the moment I am going to go quilt for a while!

Knitting At The Shore

We have been to the beach several times recently, and I always make sure to take along some knitting. You never know when a spare moment will be available.

This blue bit of knitting here is a shawl that Mother is making.

And I am making the same shawl only with different yarn. I thought our yarn colors were very apropos to the setting.

The lengths I go to for pictures for the blog......
This picture was scary to take. I was afraid my yarn was going to plunge into the water any moment. But it didn't.

This is my shawl a week later. We were back at the beach so I thought it was only fitting to take another picture.

All that sand is a scary thing when it comes to knitting. But thankfully a brisk shake normally does the trick, and all the sand falls out.

My Latest Bit Of Sewing

Well now, here I am with some pics! I whipped up this lovely little bag for a surprise birthday party this past week. I probably could have made it in a few hours, but as I was with relations there were other things going on, so I worked on it here and there.

But isn't it just beautiful? I love to look at it. I can see I shall have to make myself one of these. I can't remember the pattern name off the top of my head, but if anyone wants to know just leave a comment and I'll get back with you.

The pattern uses 28 - 5X5" squares, I bought a packet of the pre-cut ones from the quilt shop.

This is my first attempt at taking blog worthy self portraits with the timer on my new camera. I must say it was a trial at first. I was pressed for time since the birthday party was starting in 15min. and I was nowhere near ready. Plus I suddenly remembered that I needed to take pictures of the Anne bag for my blog! So I grabbed my camera and raced outside, shooting of a whole slew of pictures within a few minutes, hoping at least a few would turn out. Thankfully, a few did. (I had one shot where all I got was the woods and railing of the porch.)

I didn't have any buttons with me, but I was meeting up with my family at the party so I called and asked Mother to bring some along. These ones here are Mother-of-pearl buttons.

I sewed them on while sitting in the car and then it was done! I really liked making this pattern, I expect to make many more in the future!

Sorry...No Pictures

Yes, I am at a computer. But the computer does not happen to have access to my pictures so at the present you must content yourself with words. I suppose I will have to try and be semi-interesting , or else you will all fall asleep before you finish reading this.
Hopefully this weekend I will be able to blog in proper style and you can see what I have been working on lately.
However, I can not show everything I have been working on. All close relatives of mine have a tendency to pounce upon my blog like sharks whenever I post something new. So consequently I can not put up any pictures of gifts I may be making. Expect either a barrage of posts, or one really long one, come January. It gives you something to look forward to, right?
Speaking of gifts, today I was debating on whether or not to sit down and sew, or go to the yarn shop. Which do you think won out?
Yup, the yarn shop.
I grabbed a list which included, potential projects, the yarn and needles they require, weights etc, and off I went. I happily browsed the shop for about an hour. But I ended up getting rather in a dizzy state by all my options. This one was too soft, that one too scratchy, too shiny, too....odd. I finally quit looking at yarn, scrapped my idea paper momentarily, and went to look at the pattern books.
Thankfully the kind ladies at the yarn shop know me on a first name basis. Otherwise I might have been sent to....well, you know. One of those places for those not in complete control of their mental faculties.
I finally made a selection, based on a careful process of elimination which involved standing with three colorways of the same yarn in my hand for a good 8 minutes, putting one down, picking it up again, putting it back down....I felt quite silly. Common sense won out and I picked the color I knew the recipient would like, not the color I liked best. The recipient and I have different tastes in some things.
Hmm...what other knitting news do I have? Not much. I have been working on another shawl, now that the Peace Shawl is finished. I do so love new projects. But I have too many projects floating around, I need to stop starting new ones and finish some of my WIP and UFO's. The UFO's are the scary ones. I ran across one the other day when I was getting ready to leave for the week. I took one hasty glance and quick stuffed it back where I found it. Not because I don't want to work on it, but more because I felt guilty for not having finished it already.

Note to self: Find, sort and make a list of all UFO's and WIP's.

Well that is about it for now. Cheerio!

Raindrops On Roses......

The Completed Peace Shawl

Hurrah! I am finally finished with the Peace shawl! Actually I have been done for a few weeks. I never mentioned it, but my gauge was way of so I ended up tearing out the shawl (when it was already a third done) and starting all over.However I did take my own sweet time knitting the 2nd time. Mainly because I was repeating two rows for most of the later part of the shawl, and that got old real fast. I ran into a few snags along the way. For the most part it was just because I had forgot to mark what row I was on, and so I ended up doing the wrong row.

Here is is all laid out and ready to be blocked. To be sure, I have never blocked anything this size before! I was rather nervous as to how it would turn out. I pinned it out, laid a wet sheet over it, and then went to the beach and happily forgot about it until the next morning. Thankfully it blocked beautifully, and I was thrilled with the finished results.

The shawl was a gift from my family to Grandma, as a comfort shawl. It has been a little over three months since Grandpa passed away. I was hoping to get it done sooner, but it just didn't work out that way.

Grandma loved her shawl. She was quite thrilled with it and wore it to Sunday morning church. Doesn't she look elegant?

More Random Pictures

A couple snapshots from our walk last week.

Aren't these red dragonflies beautiful? Anyways I thought they were. And they were very obliging, they held stilll so I could take pictures of them with macro!


I think this little fellow was trying to study my watercolor book!



And this gentleman here just finished his lunch. It was fascinating to watch him devour the bug.

I thought this little bat was cute too. Look how soft and furry he looks!

The oddest mushroom ever.

I didn't do this knitting, my sister did. But I thought I wouls put them on anyways because they are so neat. They are cell phone socks, she made them for a friend's birthday.

Panini Sandwishes

With the way my throat has been the last few months I have not been doing a lot of cooking/baking. But I got a book out of the library about panini sandwiches so I thought I'd give them a try. I have always liked them, but this book has all sorts of interesting and unusual types of panini.

I made them for supper for the family on Saturday. They all thought they were pretty delicious.

The sandwiches were made with two different types of ham, muenster cheese, mustard, and parsley fresh from the garden.

I also made a cheese sauce to go on top of the sandwich.

The finished results looked nice, and I think they were a big hit.


The whole process seemed quite time consuming to me. But I think if an assembly line system was used they would go a lot faster. It might have taken longer because it was a new recipe and I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. Plus I changed the ingredients slightly, so I wasn't following the recipe exactly. We didn't have a sandwich grill, so I used the lined side of our big electric griddle. It worked great!

I'm back!

I realize it has been quite a long time since I posted anything. And it has been even longer since I posted any knitting! But I am now back, after being gone a week, and hopefully things will proceed at a more normal pace. I have tons of things to accomplish in the next couple of weeks, I decided in order to fit it all in I need to make a to-do list and follow it closely.

Part of the reason I did not post anything concerning knitting was because I had nothing new to post. But last week I started a pair of socks with my new sock yarn and this is how far I got. It is a spiral bed sock, no heel this time so it should be easy to whip up. The repeats get rather monotonous, I found I could only work on it so long before going stir crazy. As a side note, I rarely wear socks to bed. It has to be bitterly cold out, and even then I am reluctant. Socks are entirely too confining, I feel like my feet are stifled.

With the yarn I hand spun earlier this summer I started an over-the-shoulder caplet/wrap. I was going to say shrug, but that doesn't quite fit the description I am looking for. Hmm....

I am working it on US 17 needles. The pattern never specified how long the needles where supposed to be. I should have got the longer needles, but I didn't, and now all my stitches are squeezed onto these needles, which are way to short. Not to mention the fact that I am just short of the yarn I need and so need to spin up some more.....



I took some more flower pictures recently. I thought I'd put some up for you all to see. I'm rather fond of taking flower pictures (as I am sure you have all gathered by now).

Well, that is it for now.

Oh, I am three rows away from finishing the Peace shawl, so expect some pictures in the near future of it finished and blocked .

Blueberry Picking

A couple weeks back the blueberry season started here. This farm where we went is simply enormous, you can wander all over the place without ever seeing anyone.

There was some Amish there picking berries. We took a picture of their horse as she stood waiting patiently.

Altogether we picked 52 pounds of blueberries. We took them home and rinsed and packed them all. Then we stowed them safely away in the freezer.

It is nice because there are several farms in the area. Depending on the variety they have some start earlier than others and some go longer than others. It makes for a nice long blueberry season.