margit's knitting adventures: September 2006

WIPs: Palau Pomatomus and Thistle Lace Shawl

My Palau Pomatomus sock is going well. I'm on the last repeat before the heel.

Since I finished blocking the doily I had the lace bug pretty bad, so I started in on the cashmere Cookie and Kristi got me.

I'm making the Thistle 'Balmoral' Dinner Cloth (i.e. shawl) from the Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting.

I've also been working on my dad's socks. His birthday is 2 weeks from today. I just started the foot of the second sock (top down), so I think I should have no problem finishing them in time to send them in time to get there before Friday the 13th (his birthday)! I won't post any pictures until he's received them just in case he checks the blog (I don't know if he does -- I kind of doubt it, but he's much more internet-savvy than my mom, and she might ask him to show her sometimes...)

Also, since realizing I currently have 11 projects "on the needles," or rather, unfinished, I decided I should pare that down a bit. So, I'm not going to start any new projects, except for my mom's birthday socks (her birthday is in November) until I have less than 5 unfinished projects. That probably means no one's getting Hanukkah knitting gifts this year (except my nephew), but that's ok, because it kind of got a little out of hand last year.

FO's: Doily, Baby Socks, and Monkey!!!

Here's the doily blocking...

After blocking...

And it's now 10.5" in diameter! It was about 8" before.

Here's a silly picture of Claire's monkey in the baby socks.

Here are the baby socks for my coworker's new baby boy (they're fraternal -- I love it!)

Here's Claire's monkey, all ready to go!

And here's Claire running around with her monkey! She's quick!

I think she likes him...

Underwater!

You can't knit underwater (at least not easily), but you sure can see some cool things! Here are some of the hundreds of underwater photos I took while diving in Palau!

This is in a WWII Japanese wreck.

This is a Lion Fish.

This is an anemone fish -- a close relative of the clownfish (Nemo).

This is a Moray Eel.

This is a school of Pyramid Butterfly Fish.

This is a lobster!

This is a starfish.

This is a gorgeous dive called Blue Holes.

Here are some sharks...

This is actually a snorkelling trip to Jellyfish Lake, where the jellyfish have lost their ability to sting. Super cool.

Here's Randall diving down with the jellies.

Here's me and an anemone (complete with anemone fish!)

This is Randall and a giant sea fan (soft coral).

This is one of those puffer fish.

This is a Mandarin Fish.

This is a Harlequin Sweetlips.

This is a giant clam.

Here are some shots of the coolest thing we saw -- a Manta Ray. It had a 12-13 foot wingspan and was 8-10 feet from nose to the beginning of its tail.

Yarn Harlot!

I'm finally caught up with posting from the honeymoon (except some underwater photos coming soon).

So, it was really cool to meet Stephanie, the Yarn Harlot, at Full Thread Ahead last weekend. It was also nice to see all the knitters, have lunch and knit before (and during) the event.

Here she is, checking on her crowd photos, determining the Los Altos knitters are not blurry.

And we weren't!! Since I was sitting in the middle, I'm in both of the photos she took (sitting between Cookie and Randall, who won a prize for being the only male knitter who taught himself how to knit-- $20 to Full Thread Ahead, with which he bought himself some alpaca to knit the Danica entrelac scarf).

Here Stephanie is simultaneously knitting and making us all laugh (not at the knitting, at the jokes!).

And here my Palau Pomatomus sock got to meet her and I got to hold the traveling sock!

It was a fun great distraction. I'm really glad I got to see her! She was hilarious.

P.S. I'm wearing the sweater I knit on the honeymoon...

Lizards!

There were lots of lizards in Palau, of many varieties. They were pretty loud, especially these two in their courtship ritual.

Doily and Palau Pomatomus

I knit a doily as a wedding present for my cousin while we were in Palau. I wanted to try a German pattern out before I make a shawl using one. I was going to make the doily that is the center of the shawl I want to make, but I accidentally read the wrong chart and made a different doily instead. That's ok because I like it!

Since I didn't bring any size 2 DPNs (and didn't own any at the time), I started on circulars with the correct pattern, but messed up because I had a translation wrong, so I ripped it out. I didn't really like the way the center was coming out either, so I tried again with toothpicks instead, with a pretty nice resulting center (although on the wrong pattern, but as I said before, that's ok).