Hi there! I know I've been gone a while. Sorry about that. Shall we dive right back in then? Excellent.

Christmas was good...and that's all I have to say about that for now. I'm feeling a bit paralyzed by the thought of summarizing the last month or so in one post, so I think I'm just going to sprinkle a little Christmas here and there as I remember things.

Today's holiday tidbit: Thunk's Mum in her Christmas flower basket shawl (yes, I waited 8 months to gift it. That is what we call delayed gratification).

I have the cutest mother-in-law ever (photo courtesy of the parents-in-law).

Other items of note:

1) I have somehow accumulated six unblogged FOs (the earliest is from September). I plan on doing something about that. Soon.

2) My camera is on the fritz. What exactly caused this is anyone’s guess, but I think I may have freaked the poor thing out a bit by taking too many pictures of yarn last week. In other news, my Ravelry stash page is up to date!

This is a photo I dug out of the elliphantom archives.

3) I’m amazingly behind on my blog reading. So behind that there’s no way I can catch up. If you would be so kind, do me a favor and let me know if there’s anything good I’ve missed, K?

That's it for now. More soon. Really.

Posted by Elli at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

The Specs:
-Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl, by Evelyn A. Clark, from Interweave Fall 2004.
-Yarn: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud.
-Skeins: Two 50g skeins in the color "stream heather" knit doubled. 95g used total.
-Needles: Size 10 Brittanies.
-Start to finish: Spring 2005 - April 29, 2007.

Notes:
Started way back in the spring of 2005, this shawl has been lurking in the bottom of my knitting basket for a remarkably long time. It was the first lace project I ever attempted and I'm not ashamed to admit that it kicked my heinder the first time around. But what a difference a couple of years can make! I pulled this one out and finished up the remaining 3/4ths of the shawl in less than a week (much of this on a single Saturday I spent at home recovering from a stomach bug).

Put on your party dresses kids, it's a finished flower basket!

The Pattern:
I can't say I loved knitting this one, but the pattern was everything it needed to be: clear and free of mistakes. I found that using a large number of stitch markers and counting my stitches at the end of every row really helped keep things moving along smoothly.

The Yarn:
Nice and soft and insanely affordable. The alpaca makes this one Very Warm shawl.

Mods:
Way back when I started this one I must have decided that I didn't like how small the shawl looked in this picture, so I went up three needle sizes from a 7 to a 10. Time went by and I forgot that I had done this, so when I picked it back up again I decided to add two lace repeats to ensure that it wouldn't be too small. I used a short set of straight needles (not recommended, I could hardly get all the stitches on there at the end) so I had no way to know how big this shawl was until I bound off and held it up. Turns out that mine is a whole 14 inches wider than the original...larger than I had anticipated, but just fine with me!

Final Verdict: You have no idea how satisfying it is to finish this one up. Happiness all around!

Posted by Elli at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (65)

Wow, thanks everybody for all the nice comments on the baby sweater! Imagine me all pink and blushy. I think that I can safely say that I have sufficient motivation to get that pattern written up.

In other news, we got out and took some shots of the Flowerbasket Shawl yesterday. Let me tell you, alpaca shawls are not for 84 degree days. And how is it 84 degrees already anyway? I don't have enough time to do a whole FO post right now, but I thought I'd quick give you some pre- and mid-blocking shots to keep you occupied and marveling about the miracle of lace.

hello, I am lumpy.

smooooooth...

Posted by Elli at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)

There has been regrouping. There has been knitting.

Need a refresher on what’s on the needles over here at Chez UFO? Me too.

brittanies, jump rings, and alpaca cloud

Starting back with the oldest and most languishy of the lot, we have the Flowerbasket Shawl, started sometime in the spring of 2005. Those of you who have been hanging around for a while might realize that I’ve only blogged about this project once (back in January of 2006) when I hauled it out in all its neglected glory to motivate myself to get a move on. As you can probably guess, no moves were made…until last weekend.

I’m currently cruising along with less than two repeats to go before the edging. Somewhere in the past two years lace knitting has got a whole heckofalot easier for me. Time to finish this one up!

Demi: most of a front, all of a back

Ah yes, the lovely Demi. I started her in November of 2005 and the front and back have slowly materialized over time. Problem is that I keep getting distracted by other projects and shunting her off to the sidelines. No more! The goal for Demi is to get her knitted before the weather gets too hot so she’ll be ready to keep me warm when autumn hits. My other secret goal is to get her knitted before Jared and Ashley finish theirs (don’t tell).

Sockiness

Jaywalkers:
I started the Jaywalkers in late December and I’m only up to the gusset on sock number one. Seems I just lost momentum.

Plain Old Socks:
No problem here! This is my current portable and brainless project.

So that’s the lot. Only four projects total (and two pairs of socks hardly count, if you ask me). The biggest problem is those two ancient hangers-on up at the top. Time to pull a yaiAnn and get them all outa here!

p.s. If you’re wondering where that green baby sweater is…it’s FINISHED! FO report soon.

Posted by Elli at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)

I've been hiding WIPs from you. Shameful, I know. To be perfectly fair, I haven't worked on any of these in the time that I've been blogging--they've all been loitering at the bottom of the knitting basket. Since I've been in a cleaning mood lately, it seems like an appropriate time to introduce you to the Projects Which Languish:

Apricot Jacket from Rebecca 27

I started her in September. I got 500 kinds of insecure about knitting a cotton blend. I put her down.

Heirloom Bag from Rowan 37

This was started over Labor Day when my sister Rae came to visit. She wanted to crochet something (being good at that sort of thing) so I gave her the leftover KnitPicks Shine from the bolero I'd just made her. I had some other colors sitting around (originally for Anouk) and she whipped up all of the crochet motifs in about a half hour. I started the bag part, but once Rae went home I lost steam. Mostly because the colors are, well, a bit vile. But I'm going to finish it. And besides, Rae just asked me about it on the phone last night.

Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave, Fall 2004

The oldest WIP going, I started it last spring when I thought I'd get a jump on the Christmas knitting. It turns out that I hate knitting lace. A lot. I picked it up again this fall and didn't get much more accomplished. It is slow. It is tedious. It makes me want to eat glass. I'd be crazy to rip out all my hard work now, right? The really sad part is that people keep citing this as an easy beginner lace project. Oh the shame.

Regia Socks

Also started last spring…a pair of toe-up magic loop socks. Much to my surprise, I loath the magic loop. I'm going to be a total wimp and finish these on dpns.

So there they are. Hopefully putting them up in the sidebar will motivate me to finish them.

Posted by Elli at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)