Olympic Success!

Unlike the Canadian men's hockey team, I achieved my Olympic Goal:
The Details:
Interweave Knits Flower Basket Shawl, made from 4 balls Elann baby cashmere on #7 Boye circs. Cast on during the opening ceremonies, and frogged one ball in because I hated the slip 1, K2 tog, psso decrease. Started from the beginning again with slip 2 tog Kwise, K1, pass 2sso decrease. Completed Tuesday Feb 21 while watching the womens figure skating short program. My shawl has two more repeats than the pattern calls for.
Lessons Learned:
1) Make a big enough swatch that you can see whether or not you hate the decrease
2) A lifeline is your best friend in the world
3) Using the cable from your Needlemaster set is a bit fussy for the first couple of rows, but is great when you rip back and your stitches are already on your needle.

This lace got frustrating way too many times. If it hadn't been my Olympic challenge, I definitely would not have finished it so quickly!

Knitting Olympics!

I swatched today for the knitting olympics. I'm making the flower basket shawl in Elann baby cashmere. The swatch is done with two different sized needles, but the photo's so crummy you can't see the difference. I think I'll stick with the smaller needles (bottom half of swatch)

first post!

Here's my version of the ubiquitous cabled bag
This was a birthday gift for a good friend. It was also an experiment in thrifting the supplies for a project. A trip to Value Village scored the yarn (mostly acrylic, with enough wool to make it fuzzy and a slubby white thread of something firmer running through it) and the damask napkins that became the lining, for less than $4! Unfortunately, there were no handles to be found so I had to pay retail for those.
Here it is before assembly:
And finally, basking in the sun:
The details:
thrift store acrylic blend worsted on 4mm 16" Aero circs
Lessons learned:
1) acrylic hurts my hands
2) this should have had side seams. I did it in the round to avoid that, and used a 3-needle bindoff for the bottom, but in future I would just knit a rectangle and seam the sides
3) I hate sewing linings!