Hanami finished!

I love knitting lace in the summer and this has been one of my favorite stoles. I can't wait for the opportunity to wear this!

The details:
Pattern: "Hanami" by Melanie Gibbons/Pink Lemon Twist
Yarn: KnitPicks "Shimmer", 2 balls with plenty left over
Color: Sherry
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm
Notions: 8/0 beads
Comments: Here are the changes I made. I did the beaded cast on as called for and then continued to use beads at the beginning and end of every 8th row. Also, I added a bead to every other stitch the row before binding off.
I did not do as many rows of Chart G as called for. Instead, I repeated rows 169-191 of Chart F and worked 8 rows of Chart G. I did not want the end to be so symmetrical and I am happy with how this turned out.

Summer knitting

I have been doing some knitting lately. Not nearly as much as I would like, but hopefully things will quiet down soon and I can settle into my summer knitting routine. During the kids' summer break, I focus on lace. I usually have a quiet 1-2 hours every morning before things get crazy around the house and it is a great time to sit and work on lace. This summer I hope to :

1. Finish my Hanami (60% complete):

2. Finish Serendipity Stole (MS4): long way to go on this one, only 15% one...

3. Finish Girasole (25%) complete:

That's a lot of lace. And I am not sure if there will be a Mystery Stole 5, but of course I will want to work on that as well. I will be REALLY happy if I can finish these 3 projects--wish me luck and speedy needles!

Hanami Update

Here's my progress so far. I LOVE this pattern and can't wait to get back to knitting it. I think I will be able to get back to it sometime next week, that is, if I resist the temptation to begin Mystery Stole 4.

I know I really do not have the time for MS4, but I am weak...I love knitting lace, especially with beads. I have been talking myself in and out of knitting MS4 for the past week. I have not bought the yarn or beads. The first clue is released tomorrow on Sept 5. Help me.

Ravelympics...day 7

I have been way too busy knitting (and visiting with family) to post, but here is a quick update of my progress:

Hanami:

As of yesterday, I have completed 5 out of 7 repeats of the basket weave (7 repeats = approx half of stole).

My other big project (WHY did I sign up for 2??), February Lady Sweater (FLS). This was a WIP when I started, so here is the picture before the Ravelympics began (5 inches):

And here we are on day 6 (8.5 inches):

My FLS is my traveling project, so I have not spent as much time on it yet. We will be traveling this weekend, so I hope to make some big progress.

That's all I have time for now. Back to my marathon knitting...

Preparing for Hanami

"Hanami" from Wikipedia: Hanami (花見, Hanami? lit. "flower viewing") is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, "flower" in this case almost always meaning cherry blossoms...

I have wanted to knit this stole since last summer after doing MS3/Swan Lake. I found exactly the color yarn I envisioned from KnitPicks:

KnitPicks "Shimmer" yarn in color Sherry

The yarn is alpaca and silk. You can't really tell from the picture, but the beads are the color of cherry blossoms. As part of my "training", I made my swatch last night on size US5/3.75mm needles and I am happy with it. Now we wait for the opening ceremony!

I sat down with the pattern and calculated that I will need to knit approx 35 rows a day (95 sts/row) to finish in 17 days. That does not allow for any "sick" days. And I will also need to knit 1 inch of the body/ day of my February Lady sweater to complete that on time (a couple of 'sick' days allowed). I am guessing that I need about 3 hours/day to get that much knitting done. I can steal 1-2 hours a day for knitting, but the 3rd hour in the summer....this will be a challenge!

Already August?

Is that really possible? Wow. As I mentioned yesterday, not much knitting happened in July, but that will certainly change for August. Ravelry is hosting the Ravelympics 2008, similar to Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics which are held every 4 years during the Winter Olympics. Being the Ravelry junkie that I am, I of course have entered. So this month's knitting goals will revolve around the Ravelympics. Basically, I have from the start of the Olympics (Aug 8) until the closing ceremony (Aug 24) to complete my "events" (see below).

I am on 2 teams and doing a number of events. Here is the summary:
Team Monthly Adventures (my very active swapping group)

• Project: Start and Complete "Hanami Stole" from start to finish (pattern from June swap). Can swatch ahead of time (considered training). Events this project is entered in:
  1. Balance Beads
  2. Lace Weight Long Jump
  3. Shawl Relay
  4. Hand Dyed Hurdles (I will be dyeing the yarn sometime during the next week, but I did buy yarn that would work in case my first-ever dyeing attempt does not produce the results I am looking for!).

• Project: Finish my Seaglass Beaded Bag (from our swap back in March and April). Events entered:
  1. Balance Beads
  2. Bag n Tote Backstroke
     
  3. Holiday Handball
  4. WIPs Wrestling
     

Team Countrywool (with Claudia, the fearless leader of my knitting/spinning retreats)

• Project: Finish my February Lady Cardigan. Events this project is entered in:
  1. WIPs Wrestling
     
  2. Sweater Sprint
  
  

I will be really happy if I can get all of this done in 17 days. I'm not even sure it is possible, but I am willing to lose sleep trying!

After the Olympics, I need to finish my SKP sock 3 before the end of the month (I have barely started). Those are my knitting goals for August.