Luna Moth Progressing

Luna Moth shawl is moving along, it is a pleasing pattern to work and, as always, I am fascinated with how the color changes occur. I know that I am approaching an area in the skein that changes from long lengths of solid colors to more blended colors. It will be fun (I hope) to see how that changes the character of this shawl. If it does.

The stitch pattern involves using knit 3 stitches together and in the mirror image a slip one, knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over. This is appearing very nupp-like, with out the need to make a lot of stitches out of one stitch. A nice change from Madli's shawl, which I need to get back to. I am also making a pair of wrist warmers for a friend who will hopefully be able to use them before the weather warms up. It has been an unusually long and cold winter for us Gulf Coasters.

Finally, some tulips that I brought home for my husband who was home sick with a cold. As he is hardly ever sick, let alone sick enough to stay home, I thought he deserved some bright color on a cold and sleet-y day. And I got to enjoy them too!

During the Winter Olympics...

A while back I did some spinning from a roving I got from Taos Sunflower Too. This is #131 from Martie's Free Fall series and I was able to get 554 yards from 4 oz.
I started thinking about this skein this morning at knitting group at the Mockingbird Cafe when Eileen pulled out a shawl she's been working on called Luna Moth. Eileen mentioned that she would like to see the shawl made up in a multicolor yarn, something that would be like the colors of the moth. I didn't look up the colors of the moth, but she mentioned greens and browns, and though this doesn't have much brown in it, it came to mind.

This photo is a bit blurry but shows the effect of the two ply. At the beginning of the skein there are also longer expanses of solid color.
I visited the Yarn Harlot's blog this morning and read about her winter olympics challenge, (cast on a challenge to you pattern during the opening ceremonies and finish by the time the flame is doused at the end of the olympic games) and decided that I would combine this yarn and the Luna Moth pattern to see what the result will be.
Eileen assures me that it should be quick so I am hoping that I can meet the challenge and still work on Madli's shawl so as not to fall behind.
Sometimes deadlines help to get things done!

Madli's Progress

I am about to finish the eighth repeat of a twelve row pattern, only twenty-three left to go, if I don't make it longer. I am enjoying the pattern, especially the nupps, which show up on row five and row eleven. Twice I had problems with a nupp, once when I knit two of the seven loops for one nupp as separate stitches and therefore had too many stitches on the next row, and once I got too enthusiastic and knit the next stitch together with the loops of the nupp and lost a stitch. It is definitely not a pattern to work when sleepy, but overall is a relatively easy pattern to work, it has its own rhythm.
What makes lace so addicting? I hardly wish to knit anything else! Good thing there are so many intriguing patterns to make, as well as experiments in putting together one's own ideas to come up with a new twist.
Back to Madli's.

A New KAL

Yet another wip as I jump into a KAL on Ravelry: Adventures in Lace. It sounds about my speed as there are no rules other than to start February 1 or thereabouts and to have fun. Any pattern and any yarn can be used, so I decided to use the beautiful Copper colorway in Aurora Yarn's Whisper. I decided to start Madli's shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia, another unusual step for me, as it is a rectangular shawl, and I seem to knit more triangular shapes. However this pattern has tons of nupps and who doesn't like nupps? I am not sure the nupps will show up very well with the handpainted yarn, but I am going for it and hoping for the best!
In the meantime I am still searching for stitch patterns to use for 'Dreaming of California Sunsets' colorway, and this one will be a triangular shawl.
Back to knitting.