My Luscious Lace Scarf

I finished my very first lace knitting pattern, the Luscious Lace Scarf (pattern is available free on Ravelry). This pattern was an ego booster. I had been trying lace patterns for some time now with no success. I figured out how to follow a lace pattern and read a chart, but lord help me it never failed after a few rows I would drop a yarn over or skip a SSK and off to the lily pond I go to rip it, rip it, rip it. If I was motivated enough I would start it over, but I never got very far in completing any lace projects until now.

The Luscious Lace Scarf pattern had a resting row or purl side. This was great! I never knew to look for patterns with a resting row. Of course, the beautiful lace pattern is only one sided but who cares when it looks so good. The pattern calls is writen for a lace weight yarn, but that was not going to happening, at least not for now. Baby steps for me. So I opted to use a DK weight. I modified the pattern because of the yarn and only casted on 40 sts and I knitted 3 repeat patterns instead of the 5 the pattern suggested.

I knitted this pattern using DK yarn Fable Handknit Baby Alpaca in colorway suede. It's 100% Baby Alpaca, 145 yards, I used two entire skeins. I am smittened with this yarn. In addition to being ultra soft it has a soft look to it. The yarn gives the scarf a nice texture that unfortunately I was unable to capture in the photo above. My only complaint is their limited color shades. They have several different colors but the shades are pale, muted-pastel-y, the colors of Easter eggs. I would buy more of this yarn in maybe mist, pear, or chocolate colorways.

I made this scarf for my husband's co-worker. She is a beautiful, sweet and thoughtful person who spoils my kids rotten for their birthdays, Christmas, and pretty much any other holiday possible. It turned out to be a belated birthday gift, about 6 weeks late, but I wanted to make her something special that would give her a warm hug every time she wore it.

My Dentist is Going to Hate Me

Last week I was showered with a magical envelope of chocolate goodies from twinsmama, as she is known in the Ravelry world.

Actually it was a small box, but it was suppose to be an envelope for our groups 4/4 food swap, so for all case and purposes we shall call this a magical envelope as twinsmama, my swap parnter put it so eloquently.

The parcel traveled a long distance coming from across the Atlantic pond. One wonderful detail was how each item was individually wrap with such care it was like opening a gazillion little prizes. I admit I delighted in opening each and every one of them.

In my magical evelope I found 10 hot chocolate sachets, a packet of Angel Delight - a w hip up chocolate milk - sounds delicious!, a Chocolate orange bar, a Crunchie bar (ate it soon after my parcel arrive, they are one of my fav's), a chocolate picnic bar, a chocolate hazelnut Topic bar, two toffee crisps (First thing gone, as soon as we opened it), two Boost chocolate bars, a toffee & hammer package, a four pack of chocolate shaped and flavored lip gloss - too cute, an old fashion candy stick from Bournemouth Pier Rock and a box of note cards that say “a hug is a great gift one size fits all”

Twinsmama thank you so much for my magical envelope it was a great fun to open.

My family and I are going to enjoy tasting all the wonderful treats but my dentist is going to hate me.

Norway Capelet Inspiration - The Finale

I finally finished my Chanson En Crochet Capelet, well actually I finished it well over a week ago, but only now am I posting pics. Here it is in all it's wonderful crocheting glory. I completed it in a little over two weeks, but in reality it took about 8 to 1o hours of work, maybe less because I am terrible with estimating time.

I just love the pattern for the simple fact that it was a true self gratifying piece of work. And frankly I needed something I could finish in less than a month and be proud of. It's my first crocheted wearable project. Something I never thought I could do because I can be so dense when it comes to reading crochet pattern.

It is a great pattern for any basic crocheter who would like to make a wearable project. Almost every row was different and easy to follow. It was very gratifying watching the flower clusters form in such a simple manner. I modified the trim on the edges only slightly to get a more solid look. I also find that crochet is very forgiving, unlike it's cousin, knitting where mistakes can often be more noticable.

The yarn I used was Aslan Trends Artesanal (40% Cotton / 30% Alpaca / 30% Polyamide) in midnight black. It has a tweed look to it and is very very soft, from the combination alpaca and cotton. Initially I was not completely convinced I loved the yarn when I first bought it. An impulsive buy decided upon strictly by the color of the yarn.

I disliked the polyamide fibers that occasionally stuck out like a sore thumb and I found myself picking them out every time I came across one. Frankly they looked like hair from places where the sun doesn't shine. But then like fungus (and I do enjoy mushrooms very much) it grew on me. It is really great yarn. The texture it nice. The yarn drapes well, particularly in this pattern. I am thinking about going back and buying a few additional skeins in another color for another project. What project? More on that later.