Winter White Icarus

I've been dying to show you my newest knitting project, but have been up to my eyeballs in everyday life responsibilities (the usual mountains of laundry, visitors, bills and cleaning...ugh!) to actually be able to blog about it.

But, I promised myself that, if today was snowing, I'd do my best to take time to post. And, HERE I AM!

I was inspired (aka corrupted) by Hilary to start the Icarus shawl. She bought some gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill Merino laceweight from the store last week for her birthday and started her shawl right away. Now, I WAS trying to be good and finish the three projects (Noro lace scarf, Wavy scarf and shop sample Phiaro scarf...hmmm...why all the scarves, I wonder?) I already had on the needles, but I've been dying to start this every since I saw Cayli's shawl a few months ago.

When Hilary brought her SIP (shawl-in-progress) to knitting group last week, I was just bowled over. Amazed. Dazzled! I immediately went home, took out the gorgeous Alpaca with a Twist's Fino in "First Frost" and balled it up. Oh, this yarn is wonderfully "cleavage worthy" and has just a slight halo from the alpaca and shine from the silk. Start drooling....now.

Here is what my shawl looked like after one night:



Here is what it looks like close up:



The picture at the start of the blog is how far I got after only 3 days. and now that I am 5 days into it (with only about an hour's work a day), it is about 8 inches tall and 20 inches (or so, hard to tell on circs) wide, unblocked. The pattern is extremely easy to understand and I can even knit on it while at knitting group or during the day with Ben. It's not difficult at all and, since the yarn is so pleasing to work with, I'm really loving every minute of it.

One other FO that I forgot to show you is a hat I knit about 2 weeks ago. Get ready for a PINK ATTACK!



DETAILS:

Pattern: Insubordiknit's Monster Hat Kit, "Hiya Cat"
Yarn: Jacey Bogg's Handspun and Handdyed single ply yarn in pinks and whites
Needle: Knit Picks Options size 9
Time: Only 1.5 days of knitting on and off, very quick knit.

I loved knitting Tim's Monster Hat and I begged Jacey to make me up a "Hello Kitty-like" kit. Isn't it great? It's a little big for me, even though I used the smallest needle size, but I knit loose. It's sooo warm and sooo cute!

One other thing....

On Friday night, after knitting, Blogless Amanda brought her new, adult size Hoola Hoop to show us and also demonstrate in the hallway outside the shop. I can't believe how fun it was to do it (though I was horribly spaz and only managed to do it with my knees) and so funny to watch others. Amanda said that it's great exercise, too. So....Lora has created a Ravelry group called "The Ravelhoopers" (I think...am I right?) and we're all going to make/buy our own hoops and then knit, then hoop. Though, at first, we won't be trying them at the same time. LOL!

Here's a great couple of pics of Heather doin' some hoopin'....with Jackie off to the right:



Go Heather!



Happy Hooping AND Knitting!

P.S. I put a Ravelry -along, called Amanda Hat Mania up on the site a couple days ago, so if you're on Ravelry and making an Amanda Hat, make sure to sign up for the group and also go back and link your Amanda Hat project to the group as well. I'd love to see lots of hats up on there by the end of week. Thanks!!