Garland Shawl Posted!

Yep, it's finally up for sale on Ravelry. There's a way of linking it from this blog directly to the pattern, but I haven't yet figured out how to do it. Sigh. Anyhow, here she is, and she is truly one of my favorites. Center pattern, wings on either side of the pattern. Somewhat Faroese in shape, which means it will fit so beautifully when you wear it. I love triangle shawls, but they often don't lay well on the shoulders. This shaping does.





Pattern is available on Ravelry. It includes charts and written instructions, and is lots of fun to knit.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/garland-shawl

pendie - I haven't dyed lace yarn since the early fall. It might be time again to dye some up. Hmmmmm.

Scrabblequeen - Thanks. You should have heard my cursing when I was writing up the pattern. It was not ladylike at all.

The Yarnarian has ephiphanies.

So, I realized the other day that I have managed to go to PT 3 times/week for the past 4 weeks. I fit it into my schedule. It didn't mess me up in terms of time or work or anything at all.

Now, if I can do this, surely, when PT is done, I can go to the gym 3 times/week for the same hour and not suffer because of it.

Second epiphany: My body feels so much better when I exercise. It really does. It takes about 3 weeks for it to kick in, but I have lots more energy, and feel stronger. Another reason to get back to the gym.

Third epiphany: My knees are really much much better. Or else my legs are very much stronger. My core improves every day. Mighty Woman on the march. Physical therapy really does work, but you have to do that work, and take it seriously.

And those are my epiphany moments. I was going to write "epiphanic" as an adjective, but I don't think it exists. Just looked it up, and yes, it is a word. Whoo hoo, my new word of the day. Gotta fit it into all my conversations now.

Personal news: Yesterday was my 66th birthday. I think my 60s are the very best decade of my life. See, all you kids, what you have to look forward to? It's a glorious time and I'm so happy to be able to enjoy it.

Is that enough cheer for you? It surely makes up for my grouchiness of the past weekend.

pendie - I'm doing "monster" lunges, the ones with that stretchy thing around the ankles, and the ball squats and such. I do love working with the ball.

Ruth - This entire PT program has tons and tons of stretching. I feel like an elastic band when I'm done.

The Yarnarian Has Pearly, Silky New Yarns!

Bambi Yarn

And she is no longer grouchy, for which she is grateful. I think half the universe was cranky yesterday. Maybe we all have cabin fever. An hour and a half of PT put me right. You just can't stay a grouch when you are happily stretching legs and your hamstrings are really working, and you are feeling mighty and powerful. OK, you are not feeling mighty and powerful. But you do feel that way when the ball squats are so much easier than they were. Wonder Woman!

Dyeing news: Yesterday, in my great grouchiness, I dyed up yarn, and quite accidentally, they all turned out to be silky and/or pearly. Bambi (70/20/10 SW merino/bamboo/nylon; approx 460 yards) has a natural tendency to be somewhat pearly. I hadn't planned on taking advantage of that property, but that's what happened, and the yarns are truly lovely. Price is my usual $20/skein.

Berry Pearl:




Blue Belle:




Peach Pearl:




Rainbow Pearl:




Rosebud Pearl:




Water Pearl:




And now the piece de resistance: Gina Yarn! 50/50 SW merino/silk, approx 400 yards of extraordinary yarn. I am so wild about this yarn, and I just got in 40 more skeins. Initially I ordered just a trial bit of yarn. It's a little bit pricey and I didn't want to order lots in case I didn't like it. HAH! It is beyond wonderful. You have no idea how much I want to keep it all for myself. But how much yarn can I possibly own? (Don't even bother to respond to that.) And besides, I want you to own it too. Because of the silk, it feels quite different from my other yarns. There's a crispness to it, and the memory is not quite what it would be if it were only wool, but the wool gives it a lot of resilience and it is lovely to knit with. And then there is that silken sheen to it. Not blindingly shiny, just that lovely silk look. Pictures can't do it justice, but that's all I have, so just imagine the feel and the look of this yarn. Price is $26/skein, which is a bit more than my usual, but a bit less than most people charge. I should really go up a dollar or two, but I like being affordable.

Gina Yarn

Daffodil Silk:




Iridescent Pearl:




Silken Rose:




Opal Silk:




Silken Waterlily:




You can directly email me if you want any of these. They are all one of a kind, and can't be repeated.

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Or you can check Etsy since I will post yarns daily.

http://fritzl.etsy.com

OK, these are grabbed by my favorite shark. Yay, shark! Silken Rose, Rosebud Pearl and Peach Pearl.

Rainbow Pearl has been grabbed.

Opal Silk is grabbed.

Scrabblequeen - She's very fast on the trigger finger!

Henya - I'm also glad I'm not grouchy any more.

itsJUSTme-wendy - I think the answer to why these came out so nice is that I was so cranky yesterday. Maybe I should only dye when I'm in a rotten mood.

New Yarn later on today.

That's the entire post. Gotta eat breakfast and photograph the yarn.

Vaughnde - I don't own a ball winder, so I just wind up by hand. Either I stretch the skein over my knees (a very graceful moment), grab the Hubbo to hold it for me (this is so NOT his skill), put the skein over the back of a chair. I personally like the knee method. I've been doing it this way forever.

Lunch, and then pic editing and then, ta da, really lovely yarns. As in: drool-worthy yarns.

Linda - I just never got into ball winders. The only time I want one is when I have to wind up 1300 yards of lace yarn. Then I go around kicking myself for not owning a ball winder.

itsJUSTme-wendy - Is that my yarn? OK, I'm off to post new yarns.

The Yarnarian is Grouchy.

And there is no good reason for it. I just am a crank, and have been for the last 3 days. I don't know why, I don't care why, I just want to stop being ruth the Grouch. I think I'm cranky just for crankiness' sake. Grumble, mumble, kvetch, grouse, complain, whine.

Whine. Oooh, I can do that big time today. Naa naaa naaaaaa.

We did have a lovely weekend up in MA visiting the kids and the grands, but I was grouchy there too.

I wonder how many words there are for crabby: cantankerous, cross, crusty, discontented, grumbling, grumpy, ill-tempered, irascible, peevish, petulant, querulous, snappy, sulky, surly, testy, bad-tempered, bearish, captious, choleric, contrary, cranky, critical, cross, crotchety, crusty, disagreeable, dour, grouchy, huffy, ill-humored, ill-natured, irritable, morose, obstinate, ornery, peevish, perverse, petulant, prickly, quarrelsome, snappish, sour, stuffy, testy, vinegarish, vinegary.

Thank you, Roget's Thesaurus.

And now I'm going to get my act together, and prep some yarn. Maybe I'll dye some quarrelsome yarn. Heh heh heh.

Love, and grouchiness to you all,

ruth the Irascible!

kv - A vacation would be nice around now. Not a family visit, but a real vacation with no one to consider but each other. Family trips are very nice but not vacations. Plus, I have cabin fever. Grump, grouse, kvetch, etc. etc.

itsJUSTme-wendy - Nice try, Wendy, but I'm as irascible as before. The poor Hubbo better run and hide from me today. The vengeful ruth is on the rampage. Good thing the Olympics is on; this way I can rant at them, too. grouchy giggle!

baby face - That's because I grabbed a thesaurus for synonyms. Hey, they librarian may be retired, but she still thinks like a librarian.

Vaughnde - Nope, long past menopause. Nah, I'm just in a crabby mood. I'll get out of it eventually. But it is so much fun to grouse about it in a blog! Look at all the responses I'm getting. And we are all grouchy today. Cabin fever! I wanna go to Cape Cod and not wear a winter coat. Grumble, complain, whine, etc, etc.

The Yarnarian is Cheery

And she is so happy that the Hubbo took care of the snow removal, more like snow shifting. My hero went out into the wilderness armed with our trusty snow blower and shovels 4 times yesterday and then again this morning. And I'm so grateful because my back is not happy, and me pushing the white stuff around would have done nasty things to my body. I do have the sweetest Hubbo in the world! And don't even bother to argue with me! He is the best.

And what exactly did I do yesterday? Dyed up a bunch of yarn, mostly for the sotm shipment this month, but also some cheerful Penny yarn. I'm not showing you the sotm yarn obviously, but take a look at the Penny yarn. Bright, happy, non-snowy colors. And today, as I photographed them, I was just thrilled at how they came out. Spring has arrived in my dyeing space! So even though it's a winter wonderland outside, inside is spring and pretty colors.



All the yarns are my new Penny yarn: 75/25 SW merino/nylon with approx 440-450 yards. Soft as a baby's tush, and sturdy too.

The yarn on the far right is my yarn. Nope, I'm not selling it. I keep dyeing versions of this yarn, and you keep buying it. Which is just fine with me, but I need a shawl in these colors, and I'm not sharing, so there. And anyhow, I want it, just for me. Maturity is a phase; kindergarten behavior is forever.

Flower Dreams:




Narcissus:




Rainbow Peach:




Woodland Pool:




Rainbow Yellow:





There was a natural progression through these yarns. I started with Rainbow Yellow, and you can see exactly where I started from the pic above. Then I moved on to Rainbow Peach, followed by Narcissus, then Woodland Pool, and then Flower Dreams, and finally to the one that is all mine. You can't begin to imagine how many permutations I did on the yarns, especially the rainbows. There are places where the color changes are so minute, and yet, I did indeed continue to add colors to the mix. I love doing these yarns even though they take quite a while to dye. And the neat thing is that they knit up so nicely. The non-rainbows would have been rainbows but I got carried away with longer color stretches.

I'm going to gradually list them on Etsy, so if you need one desperately (but not mine!), email me forthwith. Even with forth, or force.

Me: fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Etsy: http://fritzl.etsy.com

Scrabblequeen - It better cooperate. I'll overdye it if it doesn't> so there. You think I scared it into obedience?

Where did the Yarnarian go?

Off to busy land. It was a futzing few days, with me accomplishing lots although I have not much to show you.

I have discovered brioche stitch. I recently bought Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to the Brioche Stitch by Nancy Marchant. And I paid full price for it. Shocking, I know. This is so neat to do. I'm making a scarf out of one of my variegated sock yarns, and it's like eating peanuts: it's hard to stop knitting it. Takes forever because of the stitch, but it is so cushy and cuddly. I bet this would make the coziest baby blankie in the world.




The neat thing about doing this in a variegated is that you don't have to carry more than one yarn. I wonder how it would look if I did a light bright yarn and used a second color with it, either a solid or a darker version of the yarn. Hmmmm.

We are in the midst of a nor-easter. At the moment it's snowing lightly and not blowing, but it's supposed to get much worse this afternoon. Ah well. It's a good day to dye, and I shall do just that.

Mommie news: Yesterday’s Mommie activity:

Drove 11 miles to South Orange and parked in the parking lot adjacent to the notary’s store. Went in and checked that there was indeed a notary there at the time. Got back in the car, drove around the block, and parked in the usual no-parking zone in front of the Mommie’s residence. Went inside, helped the Mommie get into her winter jacket, grabbed the walker for her, and we walked down to the car. Moved the car to in front of the slope in the sidewalk to the street. Got her into the car. Told her not to leave. Grabbed the walker, brought it back into the inside vestibule and then went back to the car.

Drove around the block to the parking lot by the notary. Helped her out, and we toddled off to the notary, holding onto each other for dear life. It is impossible to get that walker into this store, so we hoofed it instead. Went inside, with her walking actually not badly at all. Got her notarized. Yep, she is still alive.

Went back to the car, strapped her in, drove around the block to a 10 minute parking spot by her residence. Got out, told her not to move. Went back into the inside vestibule, grabbed the walker and went back outside to the car. Helped her out of the car and we went back inside and into her room. Told her I’d be right back.

Moved the car to the next parking lot, i.e. around that block yet again, but to a different parking lot. Found a legal space for free. Walked back to her residence with her clean laundry and her Ensure.

Visited, replaced her meds, put away the laundry, packed up the dirty laundry, paid the companion. Had a nice lovely chat, and then went back to the car and drove home.

I was very lucky yesterday: the various parking lots had spaces, it was in the low 40’s, she was in a good frame of mind, walked fairly well with me grabbing onto her. And she is indeed alive!

And it just started snowing again, or else the mess is blowing around. Nope, I think it is snowing and blowing. Good thing I did the Mommie bit yesterday.

Caryn - It's a very soggy snow, not powder at all. I hope that's it for the rest of winter!

Henya - It's a great book, with patterns galore. This should keep me busy for a while.

Scrabblequeen - Now what I want is a bunch of patterns using brioche, although I could keep busy for a long time just knitting comfy scarves.

Tulips! Again! Pretty!

Tulips!

I dyed a bunch of new tulips yesterday, and they too are based on a tulip grower's real bulbs. Can you tell that I have spring fever?

Apeldoorn:




Calgary Flame:




Early Morning:




Margarita:




Pallida:




Peach Melba:




Pink Powder:




Tom Pouce:




You want? email me: fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

Today is Groundhog Day, and I'm so happy that the stupid groundhog did not see his shadow. Shane, our resident useless creature, is happily hibernating, and not yet around. Yippee!

itsJUSTme-wendy - Early Morning is my favorite in this batch too. I can probably do a repeat of it somehow or other. I do remember what i combined to get that color. I was pretty happy with it too. I didn't expect it to be so nice.

Shane says nothing at all today; he's hibernating. Yippee.

Linda - It's so gray here today, and those tulips look even better with this boring sky.

Scrabblequeen - Oh, I do understand. One of these years I'm going to get to that one.

Surprise! All the yarns are now either on Etsy or grabbed!

Etsy: http://fritzl.etsy.com

merrilymarylee - I think the spring colors are especially nice considering that a major blizzard is about to hit northern NJ. Whine.