December 3, 2007

Lene runs my life and I like it

A thousand curses on a real life that keeps interfering with my desire to blog and knit all day....Friday sort of got away from me, and the weekend wasn't much better. Still, today is the first official "Lene Schedule Day" and so far, so good. I assured Lene that I could finish the beaded Swallowtail, and that she didn't need to put it on the schedule and it took a reasonable amount of busting a move (and neglecting laundry...but what else is new) to finish it, but finish I did.

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This is the whole enterprise, unblocked.

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I used Misti Alpaca Lace in "CD43" (Love that colour name. So appropriate. It's like poetry.) and the pattern from Interweave Knits, Fall 2006, along with some beads from Arton Bead on Queen Street West here in Toronto. (They were 75 cents. I love that.)

And post- blocking.

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To turn it into a beaded swallowtail instead of the pattern as written, I placed a bead in the centre of each little motif in the top portion and replaced each nupp with a bead in the bottom part. (I used the crochet hook method here, so I didn't have to string them all on ahead of time.)

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When it came to the border, I just put them anywhere that there was a line of stitches that didn't get messed with in the pattern. I'm totally thrilled.

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For the rest of today, Lene has me working on a pair of socks,

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(Embossed Leaves socks from Favorite Socks, in Lotus Yarns "Hydroponic" (I got this skein right from the dyer herself, but I know that The Sweet Sheep carries this yarn, as does Knitch. Happy Hunting. )

When I've done my time on those, then I work on a mysterious something, then a pair of mitts in the evening. Progress report tomorrow, but it feels good to have Christmas knitting underway, especially in this beginning part when nothing is screwed up or behind yet, nothing has fallen apart and everything seems possible.

Knitters Without Borders:

I got totally bogged down dealing with the gifts on Thursday, and still haven't heard from a few of the lucky knitters, so I've got things on hold while I wait for that. The gift giving is a smidge complex, and I don't want to screw it up by letting it get weird, so I'm going to do one "wave" at a time. I know you'll all be patient. (As much fun as it is to watch me come unglued, I don't think any of you want actually unhappiness on my end....right?)

I haven't decided what our new goal should be. I don't want us to loose track of how incredibly stunning and boggling what you knitters have already accomplished is.... This is an incredible thing you've done. Just incredible. Stop and look at that total....then divide it by whatever you think the average donation size is...and do a little math about what it's taken to get here. Then try and breathe. It's staggering. Absolutely staggering, and I don't even know how to guess about what you're capable of anymore. I remember getting an email from my Brother-in-Law Ben (the one who works for MSF) when we hit $15 000 and we were all just so stunned....
I don't even know what reasonable expectations are anymore...so mighty is the power of the knitters. I'm thinking on it.

To start gearing up for this year though...I'm going to attend to the first job, which is updating those of you who give on a monthly basis. If you're signing up to be a monthly giver OR If you signed up to give to MSF each month last year (or the year before), and you're going to keep going for this year, I'd like to update you in the database with your new total. The address for letting me know is kwb AT yarnharlot DOT ca. When that's done...I'll open the floodgates to the rest of you! (It shouldn't take that long either, since Sam is going to earn her Christmas money entering names for the grand price of 10 cents an email.)

PS. Tracy got Barack Obama (he's a presidential candidate in the US) to hold a sock. She's just my kind of people, an absolute NUTTER, but my kind of people.

Posted by Stephanie at December 3, 2007 1:08 PM