It's Alive!

Yey, I've finally gotten my own computer back on track! Well, I say I, but really it was Thomas who fixed it. I bought the hard drive, and he put it in and installed windows for me. Other than that, I've fixed everything else (like, installing openoffice and google chrome...). Now I can FINALLY add photos to the blog again!

So, just to get you up to speed: Here are the two yarns that arrived for me this past week:

Chili Gredelin Madame, colourway Forest Berries (55 % silk/45 % cashmere, 366 m/50 g)

Nyansera Halo 2-ply, colourway Spring Grass Orchid (100 % baby alpaca, 800 m/100g)

Pretty, right? I didn't notice until I got the second parcel that they are actually pretty similar in colour, but the Halo yarn has more orange tones in it, and the Madame one has more pale pinks.

I'll also show you some of the photos from my wool washing. Here is the basket with wool right after I pu it in the tub with HOT water. Notice how the dirt sort of seeps out from the basket into the water?

Here it is after three washes with shampoo and two rinses with water:

I haven't gotten a photo if the teased wool yet, but I'll show it to you once I've got a little bit more done. For those of you who don't know (I dodn't know until about three days ago), teasing is when you pull the locks of wool apart, to make carding a bit easier. It's a great way to remove any left-over vegetate matter that's still in the wool after the wash, and also to remove any matted or otherwise damaged wool.

I've also knitted a lot these past few days, but I haven't gotten around to blocking anything until today. Here is my Owls sweater drying upstairs:

I haven't pinned this one out as I don't want to increase te size. I just patted it a bit into shape, just to get the stitches more even-looking. You can't really tell in this photo (stupid flash photography, we're having grey skies and wind today), but the eyes are some purple oil-coloured beads I found in my stash. I'll get a photo of me wearing it once it's dry.

I'm also blocking my Guinevere gloves right now, but I think I'll wait to show a photo of those until I can get a photo of me wearing them. The bright blue colour of this yarn made it almost impossible to photograph, and the tiny lace pattern was completely obscured by the flash. They are really pretty though, and I am almost looking forward to Winter so I can wear them!

I've also made some progress on my India Stole:

I've finished 3.5 of the 12 charts, so a quarter done at least. I love, love, love this yarn (Chili Gredelin Simone, colourway Sheer Apricot, 30 % silk/70 % alpaca, 800 m/100 g)! 

And if you haven't noticed, there is also another project lurking among my WIP's (as you can see in the right column): The Evenstar shawl. I haven't really started this one yet, as I think I want to finish the India Stole first, but I can just barely keep myself from casting this one on. It is just so pretty, and I'm going to use my Wollmeise Lace yarn in colourway Sabrina for this one. I made a swatch a couple of weeks ago, and talk about stitch definition! It is going to be awesome!

Other than that I've not done much this past week. I actually managed to come down with food poisoning Thursday night (I think it was te pizza), which wasn't much fun at all, but it was over pretty quickly at least. I've also gotten a pretty boring cold, and I'm almost coughing my lungs out, but I think it's marginally better today. Which is good, as I'm going back to work tomorrow, and I can't call in sick as I'm very, very needed. I think I'll have to be almost dying to actually get a day off these coming weeks :) But it will be good to get back to work, and get some steady routines again.

Ok, back to knitting! I'm so enjoying having finished all my non-lace WIP's, so I can focus on the lace shawls again :)

/ Jenny