Wednesday, October 10, 2012

It's still Summer on the West Coast

A few days ago Hope, BC was the hot spot for Canada at 24 Celsius.  This is unheard of in October.  For Hope these temperatures are unheard of pretty well all summer too.  It rains a lot in Hope and the wind blows quite a bit too.  Hope is beautiful though and a few days ago it was still summer in October.

I don't live in Hope, but I'm pretty close.  It is kind of nice as we didn't have summer in June or July.  It was still almost winter, not even Spring, so we deserve to have a summer that not only went through September but carried into October.  They say the rain is heading our way and we're in for a lot of it starting this coming weekend.  Oh well, nothing lasts forever and cooler weather means......GOOD KNITTING times....

Speaking of knitting.  I've got some more to show you all.




Here's the promised pictures of my Accola Shawl after it was blocked.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  The closeup photos show the beads and the nupps which made me a beading and nupping expert.

For my birthday, my other new designer friend Bev, from Boo Knits decided to throw a Mystery KAL with a brand new design of hers called "Out of Darkness".  It really wasn't for my birthday, but thinking it was makes it seem even more special and really aren't all knitters friends anyway?????

So I called my rendition of Bev's design "Into Purple" because I was knitting this one in Purple.  I think I told you how carefully I choose each and every name in my last entry.  A lot of heavy thinking goes into the process so it'll be just right.  This was a fun knit as approximately 200 other Ravelers all knit it at the same time.  Lots of fun.  The wool I used was fantastic.  It was a Tussah Silk from a company in Germany called "Dye for Yarn".  I'm an expert now and know that the silk worms that make Tussah silk are actually farmed in the orient by silk farmers and they don't lose their lives in the process (the silk worms, I don't know about the farmers).  Other types of silks the worms die for us to enjoy, so that's kind of sad.  Tussah silk is not quite as shiny or slippery as the other kinds of silk, but it is soft and apparently takes dye really well.  Dye for Yarn had such a run on their Tussah Silk during Bev's Mystery KAL that they ran out of it by the end of August and have just now got more in their store.

Anyway, onto the pictures.....ta da





So, as you can see I'm kind of into "Boo Knits"  I absolutely LOVE her designs.  They are beautiful, easy and they make me look like an expert (which as you've probably guessed I'm really not, I just like to tell you I am)

My next project was another Boo Knit (told you I liked them).  She came out with this one as soon as Mystery KAL ended (smart girl) and the design is called "Almost Autumn".  I call mine "Autumn Haze" for no other reason except I like that name.  I haven't blocked it out yet, but I'll show you a sneak peak.  It is all lace, with some beautiful triangle beads and then I finished it off with a picot bind off.  I'd never done this type of bind off before and it is beautiful AND IT SHOULD BE as it took about 5 hours to just bind off.  I'm an expert on it now though, so that's a good thing.

Till next time.....

Have fun and don't do anything I wouldn't do (pssssst, that means you can pretty well do anything you want to)

EDITED to add more - October 10, 2012

Forgot to add that I finished this Boo Knit Pattern also...It's Boo Knits "Dare to Dream", mine is called "Daydream Dares".  I used a scrumptious yarn from Handmaiden called Sea silk and it is heavenly.  A little slippery but so soft.




And then I also forgot to add this one...Another Boo Knit called "Sweet Dreams".  I call mine Dream a little dream and it's made out of the same Tussah silk that my "Into Purple" was knit with.  I love everything about it...





And that's it...Don't think I've forgot anything...WOW, I was busy between my blog entries....