I had every intention of presenting a beautiful I DO shrug. Really, every intention. The thing is, after I finished knitting it.. like 3 weeks ago.. I had the feeling in my stomach that it is too big. I even got gauge. Heck, merino streeeetches… But, I hoped blocking would help. I procrastinated until last night.. and finally blocked the damned thing.
Yup, I even put on a strapless dress for you all to see. Sad to say, this little thingamajig will have to be ripped. Good thing the wedding reception won’t be until the end of the year. Hallelujah. All is not lost though, because the mailman dropped this off today….*snicker* I think the gods are telling me that the shrug needs to be ripped too. Why else would I receive the yarn winder today?
Update on Clapo2: I ended up ordering that ONE skein of yarn to finish it off. It will take a month for it to get here. Keep your eyes peeled… *tap tap tap*
Update: okay that was fun…. let’s not do that again for this shrug. Thank you for the yarn winder, honey!.

Moments after winding up that handpainted merino from Uruguay, I started knitting Clapo2 right away. 650yds of yummy goodness. I’ve often wondered what other knitters meant when they described their yarn as being sproingy, and now I know. Boing! boing! Now you if remembered my Clapo1, you would know that I used less than 600 yds of the Lorna’s Laces goodness and still ended up with more yarn to knit an extra straight repeat ( I did 14 repeats, btw, using sz 7 needles). So I figured, ooh.. I can totally bump this baby up to 15-16 repeats no problem and wrap myself in this divine sproinginess.

NO. SUCH. LUCK.
I think I’ve been short-changed on the yarn. At first, I thought maybe it’s the difference between knitting with sport-weight and worsted weight yarn, but then again, I am using the exact same needles and I am supposed to have more yarn than the last time, so what’s the deal yo? I’m already into the third ball of yarn and if I were to use it up, I’d only have 11 straight repeats instead of the original 13 in the pattern. WTF? Another giant dishcloth? It would take about a month just to order another ball of yarn and wait for it to fly from Uruguay to Los Angeles. The more I think about it, the more angered I am because I’ve worked on it ALL WEEKEND LONG and I really wanted to have it done by next week.
Yes, I could probably rip it all out and make a narrower Clapo2. But I like the width, I like the parts that are already knitted up, and I want it to wrap around me, not just my neck. No siree, there will be no ripping the Clapo2. Why? Because the yarn sticks and dropping those stitches was no fun feat. I can hardly conjur up the courage to rip. Damn it. I sent an email to the lady who sold me this yarn.. so we’ll see if she will respond to me. And it better be soon, cuz patience is not my virtue. I feel cheated. yuck.

Today started out with me receiving 3 hanks of handpainted merino from Uruguay in the following colorway. These 3 hanks are destined to be Clapo-2, since Clapo-1 has been abducted by mommy dearest. And would you know it? BF came to visit me tonite. This is how we spent a romantic (heh heh) evening together.First, we started out with the lovely yarn…. A few hours went by…

And 2 balls of lovely hand-wound yarn appeared. I was going to get to the third hank… but
BF decided that it’s time to get me this! HA HA HA… And that is the end of our little show-and-tell for today. YIPEE!!!!! (Oh and just so you know, I already made good use of that 50% off from Joann for the swift that should appear on my doorsteps any day now)

I started the Diamond Fantasy Shawl on Sunday, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. Initially, I thought that I’d be doing a lot of re-knitting because the pattern appeared complicated, but I could not be more wrong. Sivia Harding is a genius! I am totally enamored with the simple yet beautiful design. What you see here is just the first repeat of the pattern and I’m loving it.









And guess what? I finally decided on a color for the Cherry Blossom Shawl. It’s a lovely reddish/pink lace yarn by Handpaintedyarn. Two hanks of Geranio. And I purchased a hank of their Velvet Grapes just because. One can never have too many lace shawls or scarves. It’s soft, it’s plush… it’s a nightmare to wind by hand. And that vinegar smell.. whoosh! Actually, I think I’ll just try to go to my LYS and see if they’re willing to wind it for me. Think they’ll let me?

Maybe I can start hinting around for a ball winder for my birthday. I’ll be turning 26 in two weeks.. so it’ll be perfect timing. woohoo.

*Edit: I left to have a martini with my colleague right after I posted… and thinking that I am immune to the alcohol, I picked up the shawl and knitted away. Two hours later, all the yarn is now re-wound into the ball again. Ha ha… martinis and lace knitting don’t mix, yo!

It’s been a week since I’ve posted the webpoll, and of the 82 votes so far, 35.37% of you have selected Peppermint, with 23.17% voting for Sunset. I googled knitbloggers who have used Peppermint, and their photos (albeit amazing) have confirmed my suspicion - the pink ain’t dark enough. And I quote Cartman from SouthPark: “Sheiza!”
There has been knitting this week, in some very pale pale pink merino yarn (well whaddaya know? The color resembles Peppermint so much so that it’s almost freaky). As of right now, it will be temporarily known as… The Pink Blob.. No, I jest. It’s actually I do from Knitty. And it’s not for me. There’s a little story behind this:
Friend: “Winnie!!! I’m getting married!”
Me: “Yay!! Congratulations! When is it?”
Friend: “It’s the end of the year, and I have a light pink/white strapless dress. I need a wrap to go over it. Can you knit I DO for me?”
Me: “Bitch! You know I can’t say no to that!….”
Friend: “Heh heh… I know..”
There’s a KAL for this, and although I’m not in it, I have been stalking their progress on the shrug ever since I committed myself to making this lacy thingamajig. There’s a pattern error on Round 60, and I found this link to be uber useful. I’ve got one piece down, and the other piece shouldn’t take much longer. After that, I just gotta Kitchener stitch and block like a mofo.
Feeling a little “ah..what the hell”… I purchased the Diamond Fantasy Shawl pattern and splurged on Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Green Mountain Madness. I’ve made a conscious decision to stay away from pink for this one and damn it, it’s going to look awesome. I visited A Mano Yarn in Venice and just sat on the floor with all their colorways spread out before me. It took me all of 40 minutes to decide on this one. Yea, once you decide you’re gonna throw some cash into it, you had better make sure you won’t regret it. And so, blues and greens it is.