The radio silence around here has not been all together intended. I’ve been studying my yoga, reading (things other than assignments which is rather unusual for me), dealing with wedding plans and family and a metric buttload of snow in two different storms, etc. etc. etc. February is always a tough month for me for some reason. I always seem to get sick at least once and this year it really held on for far too long. But that illness actually led to some self discovery oddly enough…

Anyway, the biggest factor in the lack of blogging has mostly been the lack of daylight for photographs (which also, not so coincidentally turned my 365 projects into an epic fail once again). I just couldn’t ever seem to get decent pictures of what I was working on and when I did have time in daylight hours it seemed like there was always some form of water falling from the sky!

But finally, finally!! There was sun this past weekend (and snow of course) so I can finally show you some of what I’ve been working on lately. First up was an Ishbel of my very own.

My Ishbel

Pattern: Ishbel
Yarn: Pigeonroof Studios Cassiopeia, surf colorway
Needles: US 5
Knit: Feb. 1-10, 2010

First of all, a huge THANK YOU to my dear friend Sairy for giving me this delicious yarn!! It’s got CASHMERE in it people! And could the color be more perfect for me?? I think not!

Ishbel is a lovely pattern to knit, even twice! I particularly love how the top edge curves so that it stays around the neck quite nicely. I’ve worn this quite a bit since I finished it and it’s really like a lovely warm hug around my neck.

And did I mention it has CASHMERE in it?!?! Hello?!?!?

Next up, my shawlette for the latest Zarzuela’s Fibers Spinalong!

Traveling Woman

Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante
Yarn: Handspun! In my Purple Midnight colorway – 100% merino, two ply
Needles: US 5
Knit: Feb. 10-16, 2010

Since I never did post a pic, here’s the finished yarn:

While I’m very happy with the end result I do think that there are some serious problems with this pattern. I’ve been far too busy to keep track of such things, but fair warning should you choose to knit this pattern. Be careful with the written directions. Either that or I just simply can’t count which, of course, is entirely possible.

This project was a great reminder of how nice it is to knit with your own handspun for me. It was a fairly quick project too. I spun the yarn in just a couple of days and had the shawl knitted up during my commute in short order too. Considering how long the yarn for my wedding shawl has been taking, this was blissful relief.

Speaking of the wedding shawl yarn… I made it my project for the recent Ravelympics. And I FINISHED it!! Seriously!! Aunt Cookie can start to breathe a little bit again now. More on that next time!

But before I go… a little gratitude to send out to the universe. A year ago today I found out about the health situation that was most of my focus last year. This time last year, I could not even begin to imagine how that night would change my life. Through all the fear and anguish of those next 3 months leading up to my surgery and through my recovery I’ve emerged on the other side of it all far stronger and with a focus and direction I never could have expected. Thank you to all of you who listened to me, supported me and encouraged me through the darkest of those days. The next time life gets hard, I hope I can remember your love and compassion and know that it will all be ok. Thank you for that gift.

No related posts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Ishbel, Spinning, Traveling Woman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.