Dinosaur RAWR~!

WIPs: Felted Christmas stockings (custom order), lacy doily

Hello my dears,

Working away over here. I'm done with fairs until the fall (at least), so I'm focusing on some custom orders and then I have to move onto getting some new things up on Etsy. For example, felted plaid bags with Scottie dogs on them, anyone...?

This also includes the title of this post: dinosaurs! That's right, if you've been watching my Facebook page or Twitter, you may have noticed some pictures of a Triceratops. That's Trent. He's awesomely cute, and perfect for the little boy in your life!

I'm going to be adding more dinosaurs here in awhile, all individually named and in varying colours. Got a special request for a dinosaur or colours? Contact me, and I'll let you know the pricing!

As the WIP section of those post says, I'm working on felted Christmas stockings for an Etsy custom order, and also a lacy doily.

I tried and tried and tried (and tried...) to cast on my wedding shawl on Saturday...But it kept not working out. I think it was partly because this was the finest (and slipperiest) yarn I've worked with, but also super tiny cast on (6 stitches to knit in the round)! So, I decided that, instead of destroying my expensive silk, I would cast on some cheaper acrylic and test out another lace pattern that I want to make for my flower girl's basket. It's the "Tulipe" by Linda Browning. This knit up really fast; I did 29/31 rows on Sunday. The nupps got me, though! I didn't know you could knit into 7 stitches at once (and, granted, I couldn't a lot of the time). Those will take some time getting used to (if I work that part of the pattern in the end piece will be seen later). I just need to do the crochet bind-off tonight and block it, and then I'll post pictures, probably in next week's Tuesday post.

Anyway, I just need to do the bind off, and then I have a fairly pretty doily, an experiment on the pattern I want to use for the basket, AND I think I've figured out what was freaking me out on my shawl. haha

I'm using magic loop, and part of what was freaking me out was that half of the time the wrong side was facing me (when I was working the "bottom" as the cable with the other stitches was at the top). I couldn't tell if I had twisted my stitches, or if that was the way it was supposed to be. Having knit this doily, I now see that, at least for me, that's "natural," and the stitches all come out fine later on. haha

I think that, when I go back to my shawl, I'm also going to cast on the initial stitches on my teeny-tiny needles, join in the round, and shift up to my large needles for the second row. My biggest worry (now that I've figured out what is "natural" and what isn't for a lace shawl) is that I'm going to twist the stitches way down at the beginning...And not be able to tell that I did until I'm well through the first chart. Or something.

I can see lifelines becoming a very good friend of mine over the next few months!

Otherwise, keeping busy and out of trouble over here. Dallas will be home tomorrow, and we have a lazy weekend planned, which I'm super excited about! I'm really for some relaxation...And unstressed knitting time.

Question of the day:

What's the most difficult stitch you've worked so far?

Katie =^..^=