Freeform Knitted Lace

Last week I received Myra Wood's new book, Crazy Lace, which is focused on freeform knitted lace. It's fabulous! If you like lace and freeform, give it a look. She is selling it from her website, www.myrawood.com. I've started 2 projects.






The yarn is Jojoland Melody, and I really like the way this one is turning out. I went ahead and blocked what I had finished over the weekend so that I could see how the lace was going to look. Since the yarn has a slow color change, I decided that knitting it on the diagonal would make a fun design in the scarf.

This last one is actually my first attempt at freeform knitted lace. It's a light worsted weight wool, spun and hand-dyed by Ellen Hall, my friend Carole's sister. I've had this yarn a long time, waiting for an interesting project. I like the yarn in knitted lace, I'm just not sure I like what I've done with it so far. It's entirely possible that I'll rip this out and start fresh.

another fun scarf....

I seem to be drawn to scarves the past couple of years. Here's the first one of this season, made from a pattern on Ravelry called "10 Fingers Scarf." Mine is made with Purple Mystery Malabrigo worsted.





The pattern is for a traditional long scarf, but I thought I'd get sick of making all those little nubbins (and I did!) so this one is a keyhole scarf. Put a slit in one end, slide the opposite end through it to wear, and the scarf can be shorter. Stays put, too.

Mitered magic

I find mitered square projects very enticing, and I've admired this particular design for a while. Margaret at Cozy made one a year or so ago, and I've thought about making one since I saw it. A quick trip through the purple bin of the stash, and I was on my way. Yesterday was cool enough to wear a wrap, while today is warm and sunny enough to get good photos of a wrap. Worked out pretty well!

baby gift

This adorable hoodie goes to Luke, son of my friends Tom and Sherry.

stash project

Yesterday I posted things from my knitting basket. Today's project lives upstairs, it's not very portable. The mitered square wrap is fun to do in lots of different yarns, so it lives on my bed and I work on it before I go to sleep. It's easy enough that I can avoid mistakes late at night, hehe.





It will have 3 squares and a fun edging--little fingers.

a couple of small projects

A few things to post.....first a fun Malabrigo scarf in Purple Mystery. The pattern is the 10 Fingers Scarf found on Ravelry.





And this sock is turning out well, it's the Sam Sock from Cookie A's Sock Innovation. Yummy Trekking yarn.....





That's what's in my knitting basket these days!

Girasole!

Yesterday the Girasole dried as it rested on my bedroom floor. I was pleased to find that I did not need to use pins, I just spread it out and the carpet held on. When I got home last night, it was ready. Can't wait to snuggle up under this during cool weather!

the last of the scrumbles

Since last July, I've been making scrumbles to send to fellow freeformers around the world. 21 members of the International Freeform Crochet Group on Yahoo joined this list, agreeing to make a piece of freeform crocheting and/or knitting for each member on the list. When we have all the pieces, the idea is to make a blanket.
There have been months that I worked steadily on the scrumbles, and months that I worked on other things instead. Last week I finished the last 3 scrumbles and tomorrow I will mail them out. That's a total of 21 pieces of freeform crochet and knitting---a lot!

I guess the next part of the project is to think about how I will assemble the scrumbles I've received. That may be a more time consuming project than making 21 scrumbles to mail out.

Here are the last 3 scrumbles. For each of them I made a magic ball: lengths of yarn tied together and rolled up into a ball. After I made the ball of yarn, I just started crocheting. No stopping and starting with these, no assembling little pieces of crochet. They're done with a "continuous" piece of yarn (well, it's continuous if you don't count the fact that I tied a bunch of cut of pieces together), which was a new challenge for me. Lots of fun, though.

freeform on the wall

Finally, the blanket is back and I found a hanger that works to mount it on the wall. I may replace this picture when I have a day with better light!

girasole

After seeing Jen's Girasole, I needed to make one. It's in Berroco's Ultra Alpaca and it's yummy. I'm about halfway through.....