It's That Time Again!

My Goodness, it's been a long time since I have posted to this Blog! Time just seems to whiz by so quickly these days and "life" has been getting in everybody's way over the past 12 or more months. I have knitted some hats and scarves for the winter season as gifts, but forgot to take photos beforehand; so can't share those with you here. Hopefully, I won't do that too often. If you don't take photos of what you have done, you tend to think you haven't done anything; and if you are a knitter or do any type of creative work you begin to feel a little guilty.

For years now I have admired lace knitting but knew I lacked patience to knuckle down and follow the oft-times intricate patterns that create such beauty. So I put lace-knitting on my "to do" list knowing it would take a much more mature aspect of myself to stick with it. The younger me did not want to be bothered. The younger me wanted instant results. The "younger me" has now disappeared into the background realizing that her time has passed and the more mature aspect of herself is now spreading her wings to see what she is capable of doing.

This year is supposed to be (for me) a Number Three Personal Year in the ancient science of Numerology. That means among other things, I am supposed to blossom in 'creative' ways. If you have talents; or would like to obtain abilities to create, the number three encourages, and is there to support you.

I wanted to get back into drawing with charcoal. Since a child I have always been drawn to painting or trying to express on paper what I see through my eyes. I have not perfected my skills and I always envy those who do such marvelous work. I enjoy writing too. I've started a few stories; one of which I found a little to painful to continue, and another which if I keep it up will be a journal of the tremendous earth changes we are all experiencing. I have titled it "The Ascension Chronicles."

Knit-wise; I finally allowed myself to tackle lace! I am only beginning, and so far I am loving what I have been able to create. I am of course careful to choose the very simple patterns; ones that don't have 40 rows of intricate instructions.

Though extremely beautiful those will have to wait until..... who knows. I don't want to frustrate myself. I only want to try and see what I can produce using simple patterns, large needles and more expensive yarns than I have used in the past.

My local yarn shop had a sale and in I went to see what bargains I could harvest. A master knitter gave advice of purchasing individual skeins of yarn and 'working with it' to see how it will knit up using the needles you plan to use and the basic stitches. You will get a good idea how the finished fabric will drape. When buying the more expensive yarns this is a very good idea. Before investing $80 to knit a sweater or $20 or $40 to knit a scarf and hat, it is better to buy one skein and knit a sample swatch. If you don't like it, you can choose another option and not feel bummed.

I purchased some skeins of Noro sock yarn. Noro yarn is made in Japan and is always variegated with a variety of colors in each skein. It is also in their finer gauge line composed of thin to thick strands woven into each skein. You never know when the strand of yarn you are knitting with will become as thin as sewing thread, or thicken up to bulky. The exciting thing about this yarn, and the only exciting thing about this yarn in my opinion is the mixture of colors. As you knit, the colors unexpectedly change, and you never know until your fabric is done exactly how it is going to look. You know the shape of the finished piece beforehand, but you won't know how the colors will look until it is done.

I am including pictures below. That's half the fun isn't it??? Two scarves are knitted using the Noro yarn, and the third scarf was knitted using Chroma yarn from Knitpicks' online store. I wanted to try that yarn as well. The Chroma was Ok; but the true excitement for me was the unpredictability of the Noro.

So here goes..... Enjoy!

Here is the scarf knitted using Chroma Fingering yarn. It is 70% wool, and 30% nylon. Comes in a nice 396 yard pull skein so I didn't have to wind it into a ball before using it, and in knitting this scarf no running out of yarn and having to attach a new one. A nice price too..... $8.99 per skein.



You can see the subtle change in shades of orange. I photographed all of these pictures while the scarves were pinned to my interlocking Blocking Mats. You get 9 to a box and they come in mighty handy when blocking your knitting. They are made of some type of rubbery material so they take pins with no problem and are 3/8 of an inch thick. For those who don't knit, you must block (or stretch) your fabric and spread it apart see the lace pattern in all its glory.

I purchased the Mats at Knitpicks.

Here is a scarf knitted using one of the skeins of Noro yarn. Noro comes in different weights, but this particular variety was 70% wool, 30% nylon and contained 459 yards; again no need to change skeins while knitting this. Noro is not inexpensive. I got this yarn on sale for $10 per skein. Normally it would cost $19.
You can see a better picture of the pattern below. Can you see what I meant about the variety of colors in each skein? No two skeins are alike. They might have the same colors, but how they will 'arrange' themselves as you knit is a pretty good mystery and not revealed beforehand.

Here is my final lace scarf knitted using Noro. The photo shows what the scarf looked like after knitting it, but before blocking it to show off the lace pattern.



Here is a close-up and you can see I have started using the straight pins to stretch the knitted fabric to the blocking boards.



Here's are better views of the same scarf in different stages of the blocking process:

Scarves folded and finished........

Here is another lace scarf I have started below (yes; I'm hooked). It too will look different after it is blocked. The orange scarf is going to an organization in California that supports women who were living in an abusive domestic relationship and decided to leave. Each woman is presented with a handmade scarf. We were told that many of these women have never been given a gift before; and to be given something by someone who doesn't even know them gives them hope and lets them know that there is love out there; and the world is not all bad.......

One scarf will be sent to my aunt in Baltimore who will present it to a dear friend of hers for her love, kindness and support when it was needed. She also has recently lost her husband to that all-too-common Alzheimer's. Something I can relate to....
The other scarf is not assigned to anyone and will sit waiting for a home.

I guess you could say I am on a scarf tangent these days because I just placed an order for 4 more skeins of Noro. I found a great bargain online at 'Webs - The Yarn Store.' They have hundreds of yarn brands and colors for sale and there is ALWAYS yarn on sale for you to have fun with; they ship Priority (standard)for a cheap price so you can get your yarn a little quicker.

They do have an actual physical store/warehouse which I refuse to drive to. It's close to a few hours away and I know if I ever went inside, I would need a lunch because I would be in there so long walking up and down feeling this and that, and being totally mesmerized; then realizing I don't have enough money to buy everything I see. How does one whittle down your selection to an armful after browsing thru thousands of skeins? That's like walking thru a room of diamonds covered from floor to ceiling and only coming out with 3 or 4...