Building a Mystery

It is done.  I have finally finished my first MKAL.  I unfortunately fell behind a little bit...summer, life, and heat just took its toll.  


As I mentioned earlier I was talked into participating in the Wendy Knit's Summer Solstice Mystery Knit-A-Long.  All I knew going into it was that it would be a shawl, it would be from the bottom up, and would use fingering yarn.  As it was a Wendy Knit's pattern I also knew there would be lace.  


The first step was knitting the swatch and when I discovered that was pretty easy I knew the rest of the shawl shouldn't be too difficult.  Sure, there was the small matter of adding beads.  And the talk of life lines and moving stitch markers. But honestly? This shawl wasn't difficult at all. I think the hardest part was casting on a bajillion stitches! And keeping up with everyone else. 


But, without further ado, I present you with my finished Summer Solstice Shawl, which I have named 

Grianstad Shamraidh

Simply "Summer Solstice" in Irish Gaelic

Look! a non-striped shirt

Ignore the big Italian nose

Na na na na naaaa Bat Amy!

Sugar & Spice

This finished object, as I near getting caught up with my finished objects, was the teensiest, cutest, and simplest knit ever.  My mom begged asked me to knit a little something for her friend who was expecting a baby and I only had two weeks to do so.  So I knit a baby cap out of the silkiest, nicest fingering weight yarn: Ella Rae Lace Merino in a beautiful non-traditional color.  It's nothing special - just a rolled brimmed newborn cap with an umbilical topper.  But Joe, my mom's friend, thought it was amazing and showed it all around.  I'm waiting for the baby to be born so I can get a snap of the baby wearing the hat.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I hope everyone is doing OK with this heat! I'm staying indoors today enjoying some knitting time and some central air.  Nate is borrowing my car today - his poor Nissan's clutch went Thursday night so it is in the shop.  I swear the place he bought it from sold him a lemon - nothing but bad luck since he bought it.


Today's long over due Finished Object Post is for a swap I did rather recently.  It's a twofer ;) 


I had signed up for the Fairy Tale swap in the Danger Craft group on Ravelry and my partner, the very talented Penny/Sch4gators chose Shrek as her favorite fairy tale.  So I went with that theme :)

I modified Dot the Dress Up Monster into a mini Shrek.  It was a lot of fun to knit, although the legs drove me batty! With this type of monster, you wind up knitting the legs separately and then putting them back on the needle to join them to the body.  I felt very accomplished to complete the bottom half of the body with zero stitch casualties.  The ears I winged - I looked at a couple of Shrek hat patterns on Ravelry and modified the ear portions to fit my little guy.  And my super talented friend Jackie sewed me a little vest out of brown felt.

I also knit a cute little Shrek dishcloth for the package.  I wound up knitting this mostly at work on a slow Friday. This was pre-promotion days LOL


My current Mystery Knit Along is going along smoothly.  I finished Clue 2 earlier than anticipated because I was sent home from work early on Wednesday with pink eye - so I had an extra day and a half of knitting!!  With Clue 2 I placed my last bead. The next clue the designer said would start the decreases. Right now I'm debating placing a lifeline or not. The photo on the left is as is.  The color is accurate.  The photo on the right...the lighting sucks but it shows the pattern 'blocked' out.

I am also going to be doing the West Knits Mystery Shawl starting mid-July.  Why? Because I'm a masochist.  Plus, I'm having fun with this current one.  The yarn I will be using for the West Knits MKAL is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Canopy and Cephalopod Yarns Skinny Bugga in Montauk Monster.