Pacific Rim & other knits

I have cast on for the Woodland Shawl in 'Dream in Color' Baby. I love it! The colour, the slightly nubbly, homespun (not by me, but by someone good!) texture of the yarn, the simple but satisfying pattern.... get the picture? In good Ravelry fashon I felt the project deserved a name & whilst I had my one ideas I mentioned it to Mr J. said I wanted to reflect the colour & pattern. He came up with Tofino & Wakaninish, both on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Trees rolling down to foggy, stormy beaches. Clearly we had the same memories bang before our eyes, those of an awesome trip to British Colombia some 12 years ago. Skiing in Whistler, followed by a trip across to the Pacific Coast of Vancouver Island & down to Victoria, so the project is christened 'Pacific Rim Shawl'. Here she is:I have put it to one side though, once cast on & approved of by my KAL chums because I want to finish Cliete. Here she is, pictured in the early evening sunshine! I am onto a second skein of the malbrigio lace & I will continue for a while yet, so I can wrap my self in a cloud of butter soft, whisper warmth.

Mr J's simple thick socks are also nearer to completion with their simple plain foot & baby cable ankle top:

The yarn is regia dk, kaffe fasset 'landscape fire'. Its a bit scratchy but first wash should resolve that. What else? I bought myself these:

K2 'Burnin Lov' lady skis! They are so pretty & should ski like a dream. Shame I wont get to use them anytime soon but they were a huge bargain & exactly what I wanted.

...and my 'baby' comes home on Sunday! Home from the snows! Gee three months have flow by, chaos will return to the hill!

March Days

Did March come 'in like a lion' or 'in like a lamb'? Currently its hailing here, 10 minutes ago the sun was shining & it looked like a cool but grand spring day. This seems to have been the story of the week since March 1st. On Friday I went to York with the sixth form Geographers to look at the flood defences and as we walked into the city along the River Ouse it was a beautiful day.

Mr J has just walked into the kitchen & told me that there is heavy snow in central Scotland! I have just checked the Courcheval 360 degree webcam & it appears they have moved beyond a three day long period of snow, although a look at the sky suggests that it is not settled. A look at the weather forecast definitely backs that up!

All this weather talk provides a kind of link into a possible knitting project. The yarn is 'Dream in Color baby' in colour 'Beach Fog'! The proposed pattern is 'Woodland Shawl'. I have knitted this before in slightly thicker yarn (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock) which I love & several of the Harrogate 'Nutty Nitters' have this in their queue. I wore my Woodland Shawl to Knit Night on Wednesday & by Thursday morning there were posts about a proposed Woodland Shawl KAL. Inspection of the stash identified a number of possibilities but they would have meant buying 'a bit more'. The pattern calls for just over 400 yards but I used 600 in my shawl & I certainly would want it longer, even before blocking than the 40" suggested in the pattern. I used all of 3 skeins of the Shepherd Sock. In my stash I do have some Dream in Color Baby & it comes in skeins a million miles long (or did it just feel like that when I was winding it -I had to split it in two for my ball winder!) & it is a 'thicker lace weight', so what do you think?

I think Cleite would have to go on a back burner, although woodland is fairly easy 'TV' & 'Travel' knitting once the pattern is established & Cleite, although not difficult, does demand more concentration as the malibrigio lace weight can be a little slippy & dive off the needles if not closely supervised. Cleite is from the Autumn Twist Collective & is a beautiful pattern to knit. It is the first pattern I have knitted by Miriam L. Felton but I am sure that it will not be the last. This yarn & colourway suits the closer stitches of Cleite. It was going nowhere with 'Spring Things' as the lace stitches were getting lost in the colour, so frogged it was. The colour is called 'loro barranquero'. I can't help but love this yarn. The colours are fab, its as soft as butter & even with the grotty exchange rate you get a whole lot of knitting for your £££££'s. I have a skein of 'Azelea' & another pink one in my stash!