My Life in Stitches: Back in Paris

Paris is an interesting city. Some people love it. Some people hate it. I am among the hate crowd. Maybe not as strong as hate, but I did strongly dislike it. It was a little too dirty for my tastes and I think maybe my expectations were a little high. And honestly, I would go back to see Notre Dame and the Louvre and actually go to the Eiffel Tower (I saw it from the window on the trip back).

Apparently, I like knitting projects about Paris more than I actually liked being there. The knitting "trip" to the City of Lights begin with my $5 in Paris sweater, which was delightful project (see post). This time, my "trip" was the Dinner in the Eiffel Tower scarf by Jessie Dodington. I'd added this scarf to my Ravelry favorites last month and discovered that I had enough DK weight yarn in my stash to try it. I was also excited to try a semi-circle scarf with that much lace. Most of the ones I've done were triangles. I must say that this scarf wasn't as fun as the sweater, namely the lattice lace section. 

One of the things I love about knitting is that one project can pretty much solidify your likes and dislikes in knitting. This project reminded me that I don't know knitting lace on the wrong side, especially when you work on 200+ stitches of lace. 

Also, I realized I have a "hate it on the needles" problem. I repeatedly told my husband that I wasn't going to like this pattern, until I casted it off and blocked it. I even didn't like the yarn that I was using while I was knitting it (Sidar Flirt, 80% bamboo, 20% wool), but when I blocked it, it has a good weight to it. It's heavy than what I'm used to in my shawls but with cooler weather coming, this may be a good item to have in my wardrobe. 

Thanks, Renae for the pics. 

My Life in Stitches: Get Off My Needles!

I have a sad confession to make. I have four projects on my needles right now. Not happy about that. I need to finish some of them, mainly my Mini-Mania scarf. I really loved this project when I started, but now, I just want it to be over. Hopefully by the time I post this entry, it will be finished.

Not only do I have all these project on my needles, a few have been “in progress” for a while. Here are my current WIPs:

Mini-Mania-cast on March 23, 2012 (soooo over this)

Monkey Socks-cast on March 22, 2012

Josephine Shawl- cast on March 31, 2012 (in its defense, this is my current mindless

Bible study project, which means I normally only work on it on Wednesdays and for the hour that Bible study lasts)

Spectra Shawl-casted on June 5, 2012 (a part of my birthday knitting and sadly it probably will be done before the others)

Phoenix Wingspan

Despite my multiple projects, I managed to finish a few projects. I finished my Wingspan. I am so pleased with this project. This yarn just didn’t know what it wanted to be as one of the ladies in my knitting group says. But when I introduced it to the Wingspan pattern, they seemed made for each other. I had originally named this shawl Red Rising, but one day when I was working on it, my DH commented that it looked like a phoenix rising. I promptly changed the name to Phoenix.

Pei Cowl

I also finished a Pei Cowl by Michele Wang. This was the first project in my birth-month knitting. This pattern went so fast! Once I finished past the lace rows, I zoomed through the rest. I made this with my Yarn Love Elizabeth Bennett. Lovely yarn to work with. I’m thinking about buying some more.

As for my unfinished projects, I wonder if I devoted a few hours a week to them, maybe they’ll grow up to be what they were destined to be.