21 April 2009

Spring Time

Hello,

Last weekend was just gorgeous weather here ... nice and warm (into the 90s! = 30+˚C!) and the temperatures are still as high - today is Tuesday. So, of course I had to take some backyard pix:

Gerbera, plus some blue flowers (forgot the name) -
this is the area where I put spent potted plants - sometimes they reincarnate.


So I did some yard work while my husband was doing homework for his Animation Mentor course. After I was done (!), he did some yard work, too:

Yard work, husband-style!

Since our little cherry tree is blooming right now, I could not resist photographing the Hanami stole one more time:

Hanami Stole on Cherry Tree

... which leads me to my next project: the Caffe Latte scarf. I started it as a work-on-it-while-drinking-my-coffee-in-the-morning-and-watching-the-news project. An easy to remember repeat which does not require full brain power, so I can work on it before the effect of the coffee kicks in. I am using a very soft Alpaca yarn from my stash, and 4 mm needles. The pattern is called Lace Ribbon Scarf and is available free from Knitty.com.

Caffe Latte scarf

Funnelneck Sweater update: I am re-working the front again, with fresh (un-unraveled) yarn. I put some proper edge stitches on the cable panels, and after picking up the stitches for the side panel, the “pick-up line” is now much less “holey”-looking. I like it a lot better than before. I’m also glad I bought the book Seven Things that Make or Break a Sweater book by Margaret Fisher. It contains tips that you usually hear only during workshops straight from an instructor. One of the things I will apply to this sweater is to match the cast-on edges for the shoulders, so the smooth side is towards the front side. I knew, of course, that the cast-on edge looks different on each side, but never paid attention to that detail. It is really interesting to learn what a TKGA knitting judge looks for when they examine a garment.

This sweater is taking much longer than I thought, due to the reworking. It’s hard to get the size just right, especially the hip shaping, without trying it on. Once I have the front and back done again, I will put on that "vest" again to see how it looks this time around. Yes, I do measure, but somehow it does not translate well.

One more cat picture:

The boss cat on his throne

Till next time!