Alynxia’s Musings on a Crafty Life

Happy Victoria Day everyone! (or May “2-4″ to all my fellow Canucks) Raise a glass to Spring!

BadgerDan and I have been having a wonderful holiday (even if we both had to work a yesterday). We went out for a very nice dinner last night followed by tea/coffee at the local Chapters/Starbucks. Normally a pretty expensive trip as we are both foodies and bibliophiles ;1). It was great and I was a good girl and only picked up a couple of books:

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author describes how a team of scientists, working from subtle clues scattered throughout the ancient literature, as well as from the latest findings in geology, uncovered scientific evidence to explain the Oracle of Delphi’’s powers.

Looks like a fabulous summer read. And another one for the knitting library:

Preparation for next year’s Sock Madness competition. By the end of the “Summer of Socks”, I should have this little technique down to a science!

(Talking of science, BadgerDan didn’t leave unscathed either, a brand new biography of Albert Einstein now lays beside his computer.)

Woke up to him in the kitchen making breakfast for the both of us. Weird, it’s almost feels like real life around here! I’ll pinch myself a little later.

I’ve been pretty busy trying to catch up on things and progress certainly has been made.

On the crochet front:

Pattern: Flower Burst Square by Chris Simon
Hook: 5mm
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool, 023 Amethyst/005 Raven

This is the May Square for my Sampler Afghan as part of the 2008 12″ Crochet Block-a-Month CAL.

Pattern: The Manly Square by Donna Audirsch
Hook: 5mm
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool, 004 Charcoal/005 Raven

I thought that using “Charcoal” for the “Manly” square was pretty appropriate as we head into BBQ season :1). Also pretty typical – the pattern ate quite a bit (of yarn), hence the double border of black. This is my 5th filler square for the afghan.

Last week’s dishcloth:

Pattern: Vortex (5) by Rebecca Hudson
Needles: 4mm DPNs, 5.5mm for cast-on, 6mm for bind off
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, Landscape/Natural

Neat pattern. BadgerDan, being the technogeek that he is, said “hey, it’s a fractal!” Think I’ll use up some scraps in bright colours paired with a black background next time. I’m also thinking “felted bag” with this one. It’s not like there’s a lack of felting wool around here :1).

Lace-wise, we have:

Secret of Bad Nauheim

Two full pattern repeats done – only 1 more to go to the edging.

Mystic Light

Clue 1 completely re-knitted with the new beads and looking great.

Mystery Lace

After much anticipation (and controversy which I won’t get into here), Clue 1 for the Mystery Lace Stole was re-issued and I took the opportunity to switch to the 2-colour (green/white) option as I had the yarn in my stash and smaller (2.75mm) needles. This is the same “Cilantro Melange” Misti Alpaca Lace that I used on my Bayou Sunset Socks .

Slow Bee Mystery I

The first clue was released for SBM1 and since I was on a roll, decided to dive right in. This one is a fully beaded Faerose-style shawl (read “huge”) like my Halloween Mystery Shawl. The instructions said to use an “icy” yarn, so I’m using Misti Alpaca Handpainted Lace in “A Thousand Lakes” and silver (sterling?) beads, which is about as cool as I get. The photo is 22 rows into Clue 1.

Keeping up with all these CALs/KALs is a bit of work, but it IS fun and entertaining to see what comes next!

TTFN.