FO - Mohair Shrug

At last!  The room has been painted, the day was a beautiful one and I had a moment to photograph at least one recently finished object - a shrug in Elann's Super Kydd mohair blend.  The yarn is not as soft as I would like, but the knit fabric is light and lofty.

I've made several shrugs of this sort and I find this slightly slouchy, drapey style a nice layer for extra warmth during transitional seasons like spring and fall.  This version is knit in a simple stockinette and eyelet row repeat.

It needs a good blocking, but I really wanted to prove that - Yes! - I am actually knitting these days, LOL...

The air is balmy, the birds are singing and I couldn't let the vernal equinox go by without wishing everyone in the northern hemisphere a 'Happy Spring' with this photo of a crocus from my garden and a quote from English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley - 

And Spring arose on the garden fair, 

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

We are already enjoying tender young chives from the garden,

And the little garlic patch is growing like crazy.  

Pretty soon it will be time for greens and snow peas - yum!

As we enjoy the turning of the season, I want to remember to keep the people of Japan in our hearts, prayers and assistance in whatever way we can.  Each individual, doing something positive in even a small way, collectively, can become a mighty thing.  

Peace, blessings and happy knitting to you!

WIP Wednesday and a Favorite Thing

This week, amongst other things, I've been prepping for a fiber adventure.  I'll be away from the blog for a few days longer than usual (I try to post at least once every week), but when I come back I should have some new yarn shops to share here and a run-down of my trip to a very snowy and knit-friendly place!  

I've got lots of knitting to work on while away, including my usual scarves, a new top-down cardigan, and a mohair shrug.  

The cardigan, in natural beige heather Cascade 220, is based mainly on a traditional stitch pattern I have been experimenting with all month.  It's a simple, pretty lace stitch combined with some other textures for a warm sweater I really need for this winter weather.  The cast on is shown in the first photo at the top of this post.

After I swatched and decided on the stitch patterns I scrapped the earlier red yarn, shown below, as it was not right for the texture I am using now.  I'll save that for another project.

The shrug WIP is a tweaked version of the two I knit in 2010.  I love the Louet Euroflax linen one I made last summer, but was less than totally thrilled with the Malabrigo Worsted version, and I'm now giving mohair a try before deciding which to write up as a pattern first.  

At present, I am knitting with the charcoal grey Elann Super Kydd mohair blend yarn I frogged from an earlier pullover.  I loved the pullover (and definitely plan a pattern project down the road), but this yarn was just too scratchy for me to wear next-to-skin, so I thought I'd use it to experiment with for this outer layer project instead.  

Obviously, I've not progressed very far yet, but hope to get a lot done during the trip.   

Alright now, the following is not a paid endorsement, LOL, just stuff I find good enough to share here as a 'Favorite Thing'.  

Although I don't use a lot of cosmetics or beauty products, when I do, I want to know I'm getting my money's worth and one company has been a tremendous help with this. 

Paula Begoun, aka the "Cosmetics Cop," had such resounding success from her books Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me (now in it's 8th edition) and The Original Beauty Bible, that she founded two websites: Paula'sChoice.com, and Beautypedia.com, a product website and review website, respectively.  

Beautypedia experts analyze nearly every cosmetic and beauty product, from most major companies, available in the US.   Searching the database of professionally lab-tested products has saved me a ton of money over the years, by allowing me to read the professional reviews of the real product without the marketing hype.

I was happy to see that from now until the end of February, the entire Beautypedia database of thousands of product reviews is free to search (normally it costs $15-25 a year), so have fun.

I'll be back after this trip with lots of photos of my yarnie adventure and, hopefully, more FO's.  Until then, peace, blessings and happy knitting!