Two shawls

I must really like Moni's patterns. I made Chrysopolis last fall. Now I'm in the midst of two of her other patterns, Bad Nauheim and the Fisherman's Wife.

The Bad Nauheim KAL is just beginning. (Sign-ups are closed, but sign ups are still open for another of her KAL's, Slow Bee, which is set to begin this summer, I think.) I'm using KnitPicks Shadow Campfire and size 4 needles. The pattern begins with a provisional cast on.

I wish I had thought to look at Fleegle's blog before casting on. She has a wonderful provisional cast on that leaves the provisional part on a circular ready to knit. Instead I used a crochet provisional cast on. (Notice the red part -- red crochet thread -- at the bottom of the picture.) I'm worrying about not dropping the knit sts when I unzip the crochet sts. The last time I used a provisional cast on like this was for a toe-up sock toe for a Sherman sock. I ended up redoing the toe after dropping a few sts while unzipping the crochet sts. I finally decided to start with a single cast on instead of a provisional one. I hope I have better luck this time.

Here is a picture of the Fisherman's Wife through the end of Clue 2 -- or rather a picture of a couple of panels from the shawl. It's a Faroese design. I'm up to the point that it takes more than 20 minutes for me to do a row of knitting. And there are many, many more increases to come. But, I like the design, and I like the yarn (KP Shadow Vineyard).

I'm almost ready to cast on for a pair of socks, the current mystery sock pattern from the Sockamaniac Sockalong group. You're given a stitch pattern, and it's up to you to design a sock around the pattern. This one is basically a ribbed sock with some twists. I'm going to work it toe up since I haven't figure out how I want to do the back of the leg.

We went driving on Sunday, to the north. We were driving along, trying to figure out if we were headed homeward or not. (It's more fun driving without a GPS system.) We commented to ourselves that the roads looked in a lot better shape than the roads around where we live. Then we drove by a post office and discovered that we were in Wisconsin. ;)
By the way, we got 11" of snow this past Friday. The sun is hot enough that it's almost melted away now.

It's green.

Since today is St. Patrick's Day and since Chicago had its parade on Saturday and dyed the Chicago River on Saturday, we decided to go to downtown Chicago yesterday - Sunday - (my first time there since our move). The river is actually green -- and not the green that comes from algae.

We didn't just look at the river. We drove around Chicago for a little bit. We saw the Theater District and, of course, the downtown area and the library (which looks scary) and the lake.

Then since my husband is a Cubs fan, we drove to Wrigley Field. Surprisingly to me, we weren't the only ones there. There were a fair number of people who had taken the opportunity to drive down to the area and walk around the ballpark -- even though the temperature was just a few degrees above freezing. But, when we were visiting Madrid, one of our must sees was the Bernabéu Stadium. (Our DS1 likes to look at football stadiums and also go to the games.) So, I guess it wasn't that strange.

On the knitting front, I've started work on dem Fischer sin Fru -- since I completed the socks and sweater I'd been working on since December or before. Here is my completed short-sleeved raglan with a v neck -- done from the top down. It's CotLin on size 5 needles. CotLin is a pleasure to work with. So, now I have my first summer sweater done. The picture shows it before blocking.

I had almost finished it on Saturday, but it wasn't clear to me whether or not one sleeve was shorter than the other. So, I decided to look at it again the next day. One sleeve was shorter by a row (which makes a difference for a short-sleeve garment). The center 9 sts are a wishbone pattern, then comes a 1-st wide garter pattern, then a 4-st wide braid, a 7-st wide ladder, and finally another 4-st wide braid. All the panels were separated by p2's.

It bled very slightly when put in water prior to blocking. I wouldn't have noticed the bleeding if I hadn't been looking for it.

Finally finished socks

I've finally finished the pair of socks that I've been working on for a long time. These are Errant Lace socks in KP Essential Shoreline Twist. (I got the pattern when it was still free online in a cybersocks tutorial.) Another picture of the socks, which shows the banded heel, is at the Sock-It-To-'Em blogspot KAL. This picture shows the toe pattern (which I'd never made before but which seems to go quite well with the lace pattern for the rest of the sock).

It wasn't until I finally quit working on (and frogged) the Spring Surprise shawl that I was able to finish the socks. I came to a point that I just didn't want to knit another circle on the shawl.

I'm also almost finished with the sweater that I'd been working on since December as well. I don't know whether it was the yarn or the pattern for the shawl. I'd used the same yarn (KP Shadow Vineyard Heather) to start the Secret of the Stole (I) last year. I ended up frogging that and reusing it for the Spring Shawl Surprise. So, of course, what do I do but buy some more so I can use it to knit up dem-Fischer-sin-Fru. The more I see of the fisherman's wife shawl, the more I want to knit it. But, I'm going to finish the sweater first. Then, I'll start the shawl. And then I'll start the Bad Nauheim and Mystic Light shawls and maybe a Tubey variation.

By the way, a belated Happy Pi Day to those who celebrate the day, March 14th ( 3.14 ). And an early Happy Pi Approximation Day to those who celebrate the day, July 22nd ( 22/7 ).

Prism Dishcloth

The Yahoo Monthly Dishcloth KAL has such wonderful patterns. This latest one is from mid-February. It took me a long time to choose the right colors. But, when I read a post that this pattern was great for getting rid of old yarn, I knew what colors to choose. The background is black. The other colors are: red, orange, yellow, sage green, hot blue, blue (?), and hot purple. I'm not sure of some of the colors since all I had left was enough for just a few rows.

I've also finished up to the end of Clue 8 for LUL's spring surprise shawl. It doesn't look like a garlic press any more to me, but it still looks like some kitchen utensil. Another guess is that it's a bracket and the circles are basketballs -- in honor of the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. :)

Also, happy birthday to DS2. We took him out to a rib/BBQ place here the other night. The food was good. They even had a special treat in honor of his birthday. -- At least, that's the way it seemed to me. :) -- Just before we ordered, a live blues band started playing. They didn't pause for a break until just after we paid the bill. While none of us is a blues fan, I have to say that they were good.