I dug Liesl out of the dark corner where she had been hibernating, and knit the sleeves last week! What's left to do now is reinforce the neckline with single crochet, which actually has me a bit nervous.
I may rip out the body's hem and add the last 2/3 ball of yarn after I finish the crochet reinforcement. A little extra length might be nice, but we'll see... just finishing this up may prove miraculous enough! It has been on the needles for something like 2 years. The yarn is Debbie Bliss' Alpaca Silk Aran, which makes me a bit itchy and sneezy (sigh), but it's so pretty that I will make it work (a la Tim Gunn).--------------------------------------
something newI had fallen off the wagon a bit with the 10 Shawls in 2010 challenge. There's nothing like a KAL to make me want to head off in a completely different direction! Those minor rebellions...
Anyway, I'm working on a new shawlette pattern, Verdaia, and I'm just loving it.
The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss Sock in the (sadly discontinued) Pumpkin colorway. The pattern is intuitive, and the charts are very clear. I didn't love the cast-on method, I will admit. I'm doing 3 repeats of Chart 2 rather than 2. This time I actually have plenty of extra yarn, so there's no chance of running out! The pattern requires some pretty serious blocking, so in the end it should look much less ribbed and smooshed.--------------------------------------
We're moving next month, and I'm ever so excited! We're bidding adieu to Lakeview after five great years and heading to Ravenswood Manor, a charming neighborhood along the North Branch of the Chicago River. It's close to Lincoln Square, the most "Wisconsin" part of Chicago, complete with German bars, Gene's Sausage Shop, the Old Town School of Folk Music, coffeeshops, all sorts of good things.
Our new living room:
I'm busy contemplating paint colors for other rooms, though we're keeping the light blue in the living room, of course, because blue is the best color. ;-)
