Up To Something

Lately, I've been pulling out a lot of projects that I started, did a small amount of work on for about one day, then never entered into Ravelry and let languish.
The pink shawl above (Leaflines) is a good example. Did the first 10 or so rows, put it aside and forgot about it for months. Finally I pulled it out. Now it's finished and waiting to be blocked.

This stash buster baby blanket is another. It's just a simply basketweave to use up this pretty but boring acrylic I had in my stash. I knocked it off the list, too.

But that's not the only kind of project I've done. This hat is two of my handspun yarns. While I was in China, I kept thinking about combining them. I didn't really have enough of either for much of a project, and I thought the thick and thin blue merino would compliment the pink silk nicely. I'm pretty happy with it, though having trouble finding shawls and scarves in my collection to go with the colours. They're much more bold together than I expected.

This is my Pinterest silk scarf. The main leaf pattern is a chart I saw posted, and the edging was a picture that promised a link to a chart but lead nowhere. So I sat down and charted it out. I'm reasonably happy with it- I made a note or two of things I'd do differently if I followed it again, but the scarf itself is a pretty, decorative little thing and I quite like it. It was a nice travel project.
I looove the yarn colour, too. That almost-turquoise blue is one of my favorites.

This shawl I am very proud of. It's something I mostly did while I was in China. It's such a simple pattern, but the edging took some serious fidgeting and frogging. I still might have changed it a wee bit if I went back, but on the whole I just love it. The shape is great- if you wear it on your shoulders, it just nicely covers your upper arms. As someone with perpetually cold upper arms, I'm very happy about that.

Now I need to write up the pattern. I intend to have this pattern for sale soon, I just need to put it through some testing. The nice thing about it is that I figured it out for basically any yarn weight- the edging can be repeated after a set number of rows, and after that it can be added after a repeating number of rows. So you can add it the first time after so many rows, and then you have the chance to add it every 20 rows after. So theoretically you can make it as big as you want.
I'm pretty excited about it, and some of the other patterns I've got coming up. Now to do the hard part and get to work!

A Yarnilicious Return

So I've been home a few weeks now, and it's been so great to pick up my life again. I missed my friends a lot while I was gone, not to mention my home and my stuff and, ya know, my husband.
It's nice to have a husband again. It's really nice. I didn't realize quite how much I missed having people to talk to until I had them again.
It's been crazy since I've gotten back, with parties and pub nights and getting my house all scrubbed and nice and starting job applications. I got to see the nephews at a family party last weekend, and I see them again tomorrow. I didn't quite realize how much I missed them until I got to see them again. All my stories are about them. My poor friends who don't like kids have suffered through my first weeks back.

I've been on a total baking spree the last few days. It started with meringues, then I did some apple chips, then chai spiced pear applesauce, and a ton more apple chips. Sadly, my last batch of apple chips burnt but I have another in the oven right now. I'm almost prepared for Thanksgiving and very excited to go up to the family cottage and spend time with the family. This includes both my darling little monkeys and my brother and sister in law, who for some reason usually don't make it, and some good yarn time with my dad's cousin's wife, a most excellent knitter. 
But I still have stuff to do, so I'm going to stop babbling and leave you all with pictures of the yarn I got in China.

Here it is in all it's glory- all the yarn I got.

Here is the naked picture of samples of almost all of the yarn.

The grey at the bottom and the teeny cone above it are my cashmere. Drool. You hold the little cone alongside the big one as you work, it adds strength to the garment. I can't wait to make a sweater. Now I just have to decide what type of sweater I want.
The blue and white on the right side are pretty wool fingering weight yarn. I'm going to make a tunisian colourwork sweater with a snowflake pattern using that yarn. I am very excited about it.

On the left are the shiny pretty lurex sparkle cones I got. I'm going to hold them alongside other yarns for shawls. It'll be so pretty! The variegated blue is dk weight yarn I'm going to use for a baby sweater. The two cones at the bottom, the yellow and grey, are things I ordered on Taobao. They're not quite what I expected, but they're very soft and pretty. I was hoping to have enough for a sweater but I'm not sure I do (I have about 350 g of grey and 100g of yellow). Oh well, I can always make a pretty shawl with those colours.

And here you can see the pink and grey I showed last post, as well as some of the nice plain grey dk/worsteds I bought. The fluffy white is the free yarn I got on my big yarn adventure with the Shanghai knitters, and the pink is the gorgeous silk I got the same day.

I also took some pictures of my latest projects, but that will have to wait for another post. Happy Thanksgiving!