Shawl Knitting

I recently purchased "Knitting Lace Triangles" by Evelyn Clark.  It's the most fantastic book!!  Well, I'm not sure if it's a book or a booklet...  It seems quite small at first, but once you open it, you realize it's not small in content quality.  It's spiral bound, which I love.  I wish all knitting books were spiral bound!  It's more of a recipe book than a pattern book.  She gives you the power to mix and match out of 4 patterns to make your own shawl.  She walks you through shawl design.  It has really made me feel empowered and I've owned this book only for 2 days.

I started a shawl with the Medallion lace pattern, and used an ordinary cast on beginning.  I like the garter stitch tab cast on, and have used it before, but find it to be a bit fiddly for my clumsy fingers.  The ordinary cast on looks just fine, though, and I am quite pleased with that.

I am using Malabrigo lace in pink, my most favorite of colors.

Pea Pod Hat and Swollen Feet

My feet are swollen!! It makes me not want to work on any socks. It's just so disappointing when my ankles are so huge! I've had many suggestions on Ravelry, since I can't try on the socks, and they were good ones. It was to get sock blockers to test for size, use other handknit socks for reference, use a friend of mine who has a foot my size.... So maybe I will finish the beautiful Cookie A's I started.

I've been itching to work on something lace lately, but can't decide on what exactly.

And here is another hat I finished for the baby. It's also a Susan B. Anderson pattern, bought from her website. It's just adorable, and not nearly as fiddly as you think. I used Tahki Cotton Classic yarn. I did it in the newborn size.

Ok, that's it for baby hats.....  for now.  :)

After dropping off the face of the earth....

It's like I completely forgot my blog.  I just couldn't figure out what to write about.  Or have the energy!!  I've been getting the itch to work on it again though, so let's see how it goes.

I have a few things to speak of - but I'll spread them out for future posts!  I am 30 weeks pregnant now, I've been to Switzerland on vacation, I've finished a few baby hats, and our house is in total wreckage trying to prepare for the baby!

I did lose my knitting mojo for most of my pregnancy.  I just couldn't bare to do it - it was like I was too tired to move my arms or wrists!

This was the first hat I finished. It's the Simple Baby Hat from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hat book, and I used some Rowan Denim leftovers I had from my Reversible Stripes and Dots hat, also from her book! (If you love baby hats, you truly do need this book.)  I also picked up this little piggy button at a yarn shop in Switzerland, with the thoughts of adding it to a hat.  I just love little animal things.   This button makes me laugh because it's legs are attached with some rope-like cotton and they just kind of swing in the air.

Also, I've been listening to podcasts a lot lately and have two I would love to recommend and share with you: The Knitmore Girls - a mother and daughter team which are great together, and CogKnitive podcast which gives a little knitting talk, a little blather, and lots of psychology.

Things that I will be blogging about (hopefully) in the days to come - Switzerland pictures, another baby hat, baby things, and house renovation!