Summer is Coming...

 Hi all -

We're definitely enjoying the beautiful spring weather and seeing signs of summer coming our way. I'm excited because my run-down, squirrel infested shed is finally being replaced. The contractor is coming up this morning to finalize details and get the down payment and work should begin later this week. It will be so nice to have this storage!!

I've been continuing to mostly work on the same projects. My Blossom & Buds blanket designed by Lindsey Newns is getting closer and closer to being done, although I did get a little behind. I have the first panel from week before last finished and attached and am halfway through the second panel. Here is the first panel attached:

Blossom & Buds

That week's panels have been a little more tedious for me. You have to carry yarn throughout the panel, which I'm definitely getting better at. But the yellow yarn is stiffer and thicker than the white yarn and hasn't been a joy to work with. Interestingly, sometimes the yellow yarn is okay to work with and sometimes I don't like it at all. I think part of it is variations within the skein and part of it seems to be the weather. The yellow yarn seems to bother me more when it's hotter and more humid. But the second panel is going more quickly than the first and I should get it finished and attached by the end of the week, and then I can move on to the final borders. We received that part of the pattern last week and I think they'll be fairly quickly to apply. Then I'll have my finished blanket!

When I got fed up with the yellow yarn, I switched to my Summer Blossom Mandala blanket designed by Rohn Strong. The yarn for this blanket is a wool/acrylic mix that is much nicer to work with. I've finished the center portion of this blanket and have started adding the scallops:

Summer Blossom Mandala

There are 21 scallops around the edge of this blanket, so I have a ways to go yet. And then there's a final border around all of the scallops. The scallops are another place where the pattern is a little sloppy. The math doesn't quite work out for the scallops (21 scallops distributed around 606 stitches). The designer not to worry about stitch counts being a bet off because you can fudge it, but doesn't mention that you will have to fudge it even if your stitch count is perfect. I did the math so I know that I need to fudge the position of 3 of the scallops. Knowing this ahead of time allows me to spread the fudging evenly around the blanket rather than getting to the end and fudging 3 stitches in one place. A small detail, but I still consider it sloppy.

I've also made progress on my Festival of Stitches shawl designed by Lisa Hannes:

Festival of Stitches

This has been a nice project to give my hands a break from the non-wool yarns in my other projects. I haven't spent much time on this one, but I'm really enjoying the time that I do spend on it. I took a couple of close-up pictures so you can see the fun textures in this shawl:

Festival of Stitches close-up

Festival of Stitches close-up

Finally, I also started a new project. This one is the Verba Top designed by Victoria Chaplina.  This is a sleeveless top that I'm knitting in a yarn that is an interesting paper/cotton/silk mix. So far, I'm almost done with the top back portion of the top:

Verba Top

It's a bit early to get an idea of what the top will look like. There is some texture on the sides of the piece that are hard to see in the picture, but I think they'll be pretty. The yarn is stiff so harder to work with, but should soften up when the top is finished and blocked and continue to soften up with time. It will be really interesting to see how this top looks when finished with this yarn! It will definitely be a wonderful light weight for hot summer days!

Nancy