A Thing of Beauty

I'm so proud of this shawl.  Its beautiful thats for sure, but the thing about this shawl is that it is totally all my doing.  I spun the yarn.  I knit the shawl.  I even 'unvented' (to quote EZ) the pattern.  I have this 'thing' about knitting with my handspun.  Its like no pattern is good enough.  No recipient is worthy of it.  So, all my handspun just sits in drawers waiting.   I've mentioned my reluctance to knit with handpun before.  I realize that I have to get past it, or really, I should stop spinning.  For some reason, I have no  problem with gifting the handspun yarn.  But, it has to be given to someone who I know will appreciate it.  I once gave a skein of 100% alpaca to my mother.  She started a project and frogged it.  Started another and frogged it again.  My poor handspun didn't hold up too well to repeated frogging.  I don't think my mother will ever get another skein of it.  I actually took that skein back. 

I knit this shawl for a swap partner - another knitter from Newfoundland.  On ravelry, the forum that I participate in most is the Newfoundland and Labrador Knitters and Crocheters.  I enjoy the discussions in this forum and even got to meet some group members last month when Amy and I went to St. John's for her tonsillectomy.  A swap was organized on the board earlier this summer.  I was the only knitter from outside the St. John's area included in the swap.  After meeting Leah in person, I knew that this shawl was well suited to her - and that she was definitely worthy of an item knit from handspun.  Pictured here is her total swap package.  A ball of Zauberball Crazy, a spindle (by Kev) and roving, handmade soap, shawl and shawl/hair stick and a scone kit - all packaged up in a breast cancer bag. 

Leah was pleased with her package and said it was like getting a gift from 'someone who knew her soul'.  What a great compliment.    It makes me want to knit with my handspun some more. 

I'm an angel!

Here are some items that I sent to a lady in NWT. She was flaked on in a swap, and I happened to have some handycrafts kicking around.

Trash to Treasure

All of these little treasures were made from things destined for the trash. The adorable pink scarf is a revamped sweater. The idea came from knitty.com. I think the technique is called shiburi...basically resist feltin. Pretty cool. The apron is made from some old canvas I found while cleaning out one of our vacant apartments. The slippers are also from an old sweater. And the gift tags were little upc tags that came on a bunch of cloth shopping bags that I bought. No point in being environmentally consious if I don't make a point of recycling everything right??

Swap Items...Long since finished

I know, I'm a terrible blogger. I'm really not sure why I do this anymore, but oh well. I still like it. And hey, my birthday is coming up, I might just get that new camera.

Here is a pair of slippers that I made for the Magic Yarn Ball swap. These went all the way to Taiwan (on a very slow boat, I might add). Very simple knit from the Pattern a day calendar.

I really need a new camera

I think I figured out why I haven't been blogging much...erm...well at all actually. Its because my camera isn't working and I've had to rely on Amy's camera to take pics of my FOs. Usually she ends up downloading them to her computer and from there...I usually never see them again. Unless I hound the crap out of her to get them.

I do have one FO to show off however. It is a crocheted hat (the pattern is on the net somewhere...called eastwoodly hat) It was for a swap (natch). Pretty cute, I think. The yarn came from knitpicks.

Peek a Boo Mittens

I got this yarn from a Magic Yarn Ball swap over on Craftster. Its called (I think) Print 27. It came all the way from Taiwan. (along with a bunch of other goodies!!) The premise of this swap is that all the goodies come wrapped up into this magic yarn ball and you have to knit your surprises out of the magic yarn ball.

Of course I didn't have the patience for the this and promptly unwrapped the ball. My swap partner sent me so much yarn!!! My pattern was Mag Knit's peekaboo mittens.

I'm very happy with how they turned out. Not a 'flip top' style of mitten at all, but yet you can get your fingers out without having to use your other hand at all. I really love them.

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