I wanted a lace shrug for this Spring, something to keep me cozy but feel free in that warmth, this patter fit that perfectly.

I knitted this pretty darn fast, but the FO pics, took forever, and then just posting them took forever.  I have worn this a few times already, and keep it folded nicely in view because it looks so pretty.

I'm rather choosy these days for my projects, I like to aim for complex or outside the lines patterns, and this was a nice one, not difficult, but not your typical construction.  Laura is so helpful too, with any questions  on her patterns, that was awesome. 

Here are the final FO pics...

Pattern: Quadro Convertible Shrug
Yarn: Araucania Trauco

Started: 1/11/15
Finished: 1/31/15

Notes: Used laceweight yarn; errata fixed by Laura Nelkin; all notes can be viewed on my Raverly project page here.

I've got a few more things in the works, progress is being made, I'll post as I have time, which can be hard, but I'm excited for each day that gets closer.

I wish we had more rain, the drought is saddening, but I guess until then, we can all enjoy the warmth of Spring.  Happy Spring!!

Here is Montrachet, knit with yarn from my stash, which I'm happy to say is shrinking, as I've been really good about using my stash lately!  I have a number projects in the works this year, so please do stop by and check in to see what those are as I'll be posting them to my blog.  I know the blogging universe isn't as visible present day with all the Facebook and Instagram feeds, but I'll be using my personal site as the primary release of things to come.  Happy New Year everyone!  Thank you to those that visit my blog, and please do drop a comment if you can, I'd love to hear from you!

Pattern: Montrachet
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock Yarn in Nickel, Wool Candy Meringue Merino Sock in Lucy.

Started: 11/21/14
Finished: 12/11/14

Dimensions: Approx. 12-13 inches deep x 65' wide

Notes: None

Well, I being one of those so called "bloggers", is now what you call a "die hard" in a sense, in that I can't seem to part with my blog.  With all the daily things to get done and life's way of taking over, I've had no time to keep up my blogging, let alone get in good quality time to knit.  Yet, I still love knitting, and if I could I'd always have a block of time each day to solely dedicate to knitting, but yah, it just doesn't work out that way.

To top things off, I bet there is nobody readying this???  Any followers I had may have all given up and I'm blogging to myself. (funny but yet sad)  Regardless, I'm stubborn and will still post with the hopes there is some reader out there who happens upon this. 

With that, I did, however, manage to complete a project, yes!  It is "Nymphalidea", a free pattern published in Knitty.  I was determined to use yarn from my stash, which actually did work out nicely and I used beads from my stash as well.  The pattern was very easy, good beginner pattern, in my opinion, but me being an overachiever, decided to add beads.  Adding beads isn't exactly overachieving, but it is when the beads in question, are cheap to be honest, and a pain in the bootie to pull the yarn through.  I silently suffered through this entire pattern with these beads, and believe me, I was so damn thankful to finish my last beaded row!  I believe, even given the limited knitting time I had, I would've finished this shawl much much faster, but no, the beads from hell held me back.  I finished Tuesday 4/29, blocked 4/30, and did my little photo shoot 5/1.

So, voila, here is Nymphalidea...

Pattern: Nymphalidea Deep Fall 2013 from Knitty.com
Yarn: Schoppell Zauberwolle color #1535ombre (blue) purchased at Green Planet Yarn, Hand Maiden silk purchased at Knitting Arts long time ago - don't have label, sorry.

Started: Unknown
Finished: 4/30/14

Dimensions: Cast off at 138 sts.  Wingspan 62.5 inches, 25 inches left ridge, 32 inches right ridge, from middle peak to base 16 inches.

Notes: I knitted beads on Welt Row 3. 

For quite some time now my Father has always given me a hard time that I've never knit him anything.  Well I finally decided to knit him something special.   I knitted a simple class beanie in black but I made this beanie special.  Gave it some edginess with a hand-sewn Harley Davidson emblem above the brim.   My Father has been a biker for as long as I've been and longer.  So many memories I have as a child growing up around the biking world.  Harley Davidson being staple in that world goes without saying. 

I, obviously, developed a love of bikes and the aesthetics that make biking known, like Harley Davidson.  When I went searching for an emblem to sew on, I felt I should go with not the typical Harley Davidson logo and opted for wings.  Wings to me symbolized, freedom, spirit, edginess, long runs, a unique soul. 

The emblem turned out perfect, just as I had envisioned.  It turned out to be pretty easy hand sewing the emblem on the beanie than I first thought, and once I got going on it, didn't take me long to finish. 

This is a surprise gift to my Father, not for any event, just for being my Father.

Pattern: Custom knit - no pattern used
Yarn: Plymouth Worsted Merino Green Planet Yarn LYS.
Started: Unknown
Finished: 10/13/13

I don't monitor my blog followers and don't know who, if any, read my posts, but if you do, thank you for your support! 

Now, I know 13 is known to be a superstitious number, but I think, for me, it'll be a good. 

So, I'm starting off 2013 with a fresh project, and it's aptly named, "It's a mystery".  This is the annual sock mystery kal hosted by Kirsten Kapur from Through the Loops.  We received the 1st clue today, and I cast on and finished the 1st clue.  Each clue to be released weekly, so I'll have time to give attention to other projects while waiting for the 2nd clue's release.  I love knitting mystery kals', its always nice to see the pattern progress and not know what the end result is.

This was last year's clue 2012:

Here's the 1st clue for 2013:

I went with Marmalade from Scout's Swag, a beautiful speckled yellow I picked up years ago in a dye class Scout held at Knit One Knit Two in Berkeley.  The first clue is only the cuff portion, and started off with a picot edging, which immediately made me happy with my yarn choice.  I think the speckled yellow is very fitting for the fun and flirty picot edging.  Now I'm really excited for the next clue!

Aside from this new project, I'm now actively searching my stash for a lace yarn to start another knit mystery hosted by Susanna IC.  This one is a shawl with beads!  This will be my 2nd time doing a Susanna IC mystery kal.    For now those are what's going to be hitting my needles,  but I have more to start, I'll share as those come to fruition. 

Last year's Susanna IC mystery shawl:

I'll be posting again, to share clue 2 of TTL Sock Mystery and clue 1 of Susanna IC Mystery too!  2013 will be a blogging year!

~Rocky

I'm still working Geschenk, its coming along nicely, I've got about 3 repeats done of the 3rd chart.  I'll share that soon. 

While browsing through my FB Feeds, I came across a new project, a Mystery at that!  It's so hard for me to avoid a good mystery knit.  This was inspired by Marisol's FB post, thus I headed down to the yarn store on none other than Small Business Saturday!  While I didn't need yarn to buy for this project, I felt the compulsion to buy new yarn.  It literally had been many many months prior to that since my last yarn purchase, amazing, but true!

I picked up these lovelies, Malabrigo Rasta in Soriano.

I absolutely love the Rasta from Malabrigo, so soft and such gorgeous colors. 

The Mystery cowl knits up fast, I finished the 1st clue Sunday!

I finished the 2nd clue yesterday evening, no pics yet, but tonight I'll start the last clue.  It'll be any day now that I'll be sharing a fabolous new FO!  BTW, this Mystery Cowl KAL is hosted by Star Athena, who has such lovely patterns!

I love a fast knit, it's great to regain your knitting rhythm. 

Enjoy the remainder of your week!

~Rocky

I've been itching to start a number of projects and organize restless WIPs.  I decided a number of WIPs just didn't hold my interest anymore, so I frogged them and re-purposed the yarn.  

One of those projects, formerly the Lacy Prairie shawl, knit with A Verb For Keeping Warm's Floating in Hyacinth.  Yarn from Knitting Ranch 8)

I've now started the Geschenk shawl by Romi Hill. 

This is wee beginnings of the shawl, and the yarn is fitting it perfectly.  Some other projects I'll be starting soon, and I promise to share.

For anyone out there? How's everyong been?  I'd love to hear from you. :D

Happy Fall! 

R

I recently finished another project and was itching to start a new project but just couldn't muster up the task of digging thru the packed boxes to choose a yarn and I'm being careful on my budget, so no new yarns for me 8(, gosh is that hard to stick too.  It's an addiction, I swear!

Anyways, I got lucky, and before we moved, I had stashed a few projects in my beautiful Lantern Moon Flower Power Bag.  I choose to finish the Cranked socks I had started back in April 2011 for the Knit Purl Hunter KAL.  I don't remember why I didn't finish the socks back then, probably moved onto another project.

I picked these up again this past week and turned them into ankle socks.  I absolutely love ankle socks, and these came out with a perfect fit. 

It's always nice to have a new pair of socks done. 

Pattern: Cranked for Knit Purl Hunter Trekking KAL
Yarn: Trekking Maxima Color #906 from Green Planet Yarn LYS.
Started: 04/15/11
Finished: 06/10/12
Mods: None

Now, onto another project, but I think I just may splurge and pickup some new yarn.....

But my oh my how things have vastly changed for me, first I had to speed move to a new residence, I won't go into the details, but lets just say that I got stuck having to speed house hunt and plan a move in under 2 weeks.   It was stressful for us, and my husband did say everything would turn out ok, and knowing now how things panned out, everything did turn out ok, even better than we had it before.

I amazingly was able to land a new home, just a few miles down the way from we were living, and the house is just so nice!  Much nicer than our former home, not that our former home wasn't nice, it was just dated.  We landed a nicer home, very nice neighborhood, and we have AC once again!  Just in time for the summer!  Our new home has 2 Orange trees, an Apple tree, a Lemon tree, and a Guava tree!  I love seeing all the apples, just little babies, growing each day.  So much lovely fruit, can't wait until we can harvest.  Were already enjoying the lemons and oranges, and we love it.  Our former residence did have a lemon tree too, we were really sad to see it go when we had to start looking for a new home, little did we know we'd end up where were at with yet another lemon tree, and much more.

So, that's just the house ventures, crazyiness, but we survived it.  Onto our other venture, we finally purchased a new vehicle, got a new truck, while the former truck, which we still love, will go on to my son.  Were in transition with the vehicles right now, but soon, he'll be driving the old reliable Ford, and will have the new cool Ford for us, and then of course I have my car as well.   It's odd having a new car, its been so long since we've purchased anything.

Oh, and one last new adventure, I got a promotion at work, one I had been vying for these past months.  It's a big opportunity and challenge for me, but it's a nice change to be in that position.  I'm excited, eager, nervous, calm, observant, all at the same time. 

Sadly, amiss all these changing times, my Aunt Connie past away as well.  It was a complete shock, and very upsetting for me.  I'm still amazed she's gone, she was always supportive of me and the one person, who had alot of similiarities with me.  I miss her, but she'll always be apart of me, we have very similar spirits.

So many things, both good and bad, and all at once, it was extremely hard to knit, or do anything of that sort during this time, but I managed to pull off a mystery knit, I can't provide details, as its a new pattern, not mines, but one of my favorite designers.

Here's a peak at the FO, once it's ready to reveal, I'll post an update, but for now, just a tease.

Enjoy your weekend!

~Rocky

This is "Virgie's Fern", a slouch hat, quick knit, using Bulky weight yarn.  The lace pattern repeat, is easy to remember and get into a rhythm.

Side View

Crown View

This is available at my pattern store at Ravelry or Craftsy.

I plan to have another pattern in the next month, the next one is a blouse, and I'm super excited about it! 

I hope you take a look at the new pattern!

~Rocky