One day’s work!

Detail of the main pattern

I have never made a shawl before. Mostly because I don’t wear them and no one I know wears them. But I found out that a friend of mine does!!! Yipee! A reason! I just bought some Marisilk from Sheepaints, *3* skeins. Really expensive, but Cashyie bought one skein off from me. After knitting this though, I think I may want it back. I mean, just look at that lucious color! She’ll probably say “you’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands”. Anyways, it is the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits, Fall 2006. The cast on was really weird with the 2 sts, and then knit 6 rows, and then pick up the sts, but it worked. Now that I’m about 130+ stitches wide, it’s becoming so tedious. Just one row takes FOREVER. And it grows to 300+ or maybe even 400+. Ugh. One row will be my knitting for the day! I am so loving it though, different from scarves and socks.

I keep making mistakes around the center stitch and had to tink back a couple of rows here and there. But other than that, it’s a pretty mindless pattern. But now I have to get some blocking pins - eep! Not that I’m even close to finishing, but I know I will want to block it immediately!

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#2 done! I actually finished this awhile ago, during the Taste of Germany madness so I didn’t get a chance to post. I also have another FO for one of my secret pals, so I can’t post it here. So frustrating to finish something and not get to show it off! This Montego bay is made with Handmaiden Sea Silk. I am addicted to Sea Silk. So soft, so shimmery, so smooth. Sucks that I have such an expensive addiction. I tell myself that it’s for gifts. And actually that is true. This one is going to my sister who likes light green. :) Pattern: Montego Bay Scarf, Interweave Knits Summer 2007 Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk Lily Pond colorway Needles: Knit Picks US8 options needles Started: August 6, 2007 Completed: August 23, 2007 The only modification I made was to cut 14″ strips instead of 12″. I wanted the fringe to be a little bit longer than the last time.

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Can you believe it sold out in a matter of seconds??? Dear lord, you people are rabid! :) I will talk to the dyers about another Taste of Germany sometime soon! Maybe next time it will be green? A lot of you guys like green…

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OK, people, after teasing you for weeks and weeks, the time has finally come! All 5 yarns are in and all 5 are fabulous! All different, each unique to it’s dyer. Here are the yarns with info:

Wollmeise Sockenwolle Vergißmeinnicht colorway in med-dark intensity

Wollmeise needs no introduction! Her yarns are 100% superwash merino and a whopping 525m per 150g skein. I love this yarn for it’s smoothness and deep intense colors.

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Sheepaints Sockenwolle Wunsch Brunnen colorway

Sheepaints yarn is up-and-coming! I love her unique style to her dyeing and I can almost always spot her yarn, even if I’ve never seen the colorway before! The base yarn is the German standard for sock yarns - 75% merino and 25% polyamid (nylon), 420m per 100g skein. It is machine washable.

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Das Schneeschaf Marisilk in a special Taste of Germany colorway

Andrea (the snow sheep) has a very unique style of dyeing - she airbrushes her yarns! Each one is individual and has amazing colors that blend so well together. And how can you NOT love Marisilk? I am super addicted to this stuff and can’t get enough. It is incredibly soft and it’s like knitting a cloud. Marisilk is 70% silk and 30% sea cell, 400m per 100g. Hand wash only.

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Drachenwolle Merino/Silk/Ramie Sockenwolle in a special Taste of Germany colorway

Christiane of Drachenwolle is a master of dyeing with non-toxic and natural dyes. I love the subtle shades of this yarn and the merino/silk/ramie blend is very common in Germany but not anywhere else (at least that I could find). The yarn is 70% merino, 20% silk and 10% ramie (which is a plant fiber) and 400m per 100g. It is machine washable.

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Handgefaerbt.com Sockenwolle Merino Light Downstream colorway

Kirsten of Handgefaerbt is another prolific dyer in Germany and she creates masterpieces with her yarn! I love the intense colors and the amazing variety. Her yarn is super squishy and very soft. It is 100% superwash merino and 475m per 100g.

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Cost: The kit that contains one of each of the yarns above is 70 euros + 12 euros shipping outside of Europe. It would be 6 euros shipping within Europe and 4 euros within Germany.

How to order: At midnight tonight (Central European Time), I will take the first 10 email orders sent to bockstark.knits (at) gmail (dot) com. That is 6pm Eastern time and 12pm (noon) in Hawaiian time. I will notify you by email if you are chosen (as well as if you are not) and send you a paypal invoice. You will need to pay within 3 days, and if no payment is received, I will take the next person in the queue.

Don’t worry, if you don’t make it this time, I will put together another Taste of Germany soon!

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Sock yarn from Handgefaerbt.com OK, this is the last and final yarn shipment! Woohoo! This is from Handgefaerbt.com, dyed in a special colorway for the Taste of Germany. I am putting together another post with all the info, but just wanted to share this picture now.

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My first SP11 package came!

OMG, today I received a package from my Sock-It-To-Me pal! She is really on the ball and apparently from Denmark! Oh and she knows me oh so well. Green & Black’s almond chocolate! I had a hard time not eating it before I took the picture. And now it’s gone. Poof! She also sent me a gorgeous bit of roving, with dark purples, browns and a little blue. It’s kinda pushing me to actually sit down and learn how to spin. *sigh* I feel like I’m under so much pressure to knit a billion things right now - christmas, gifts, swaps, etc. that I think the only time I will be able to sit down and do it is when I go to Benediktbeuern. But I have a bunch of roving to test out so I’m set! She also sent me a big pin thing (sorry, don’t know what it is, maybe a stitch holder?) with some cool buttons, one of which is a cute pink elephant!

I *finally* sent out a package to my Sock-It-To-Me pal. I hope she likes it. Nothing knitted in it (cast on for it today, yikes!), but some knitterly goods and some sweets.

And I cast off my second Montego Bay and it is blocking as I’m writing. I am out of silk so didn’t cast on another one. :( I’m trying to be good and not buy any…but…oh…love…Marisilk! Where are the pictures, you may ask? Yeah, don’t have any…yet.

I finally bought my ticket to go to London in October for the Knitting and Stitching show. I am soooo excited! I also bought my tickets to go to the show, I will be attending a Rowan runway show!, I made my arrangements at the hostel so I’m good to go! This will be my first knitting show and I am so excited! Although who knows how much money I am going to blow there. Kinda scary!

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OK, I haven’t been knitting hardly at all. I’ve been so busy though. I was soooo hoping to go to the gym every day this week but Michael and co. came back from the mountains due to bad weather. So I’ve just been lazy and pretty much staying up late Skype chatting with Shannon from the SSK podcast. I love her, she is so awesome and funny and has me laughing so much! We gossip about everything and talk bad about everyone. Oh, I’m kidding. I even found myself going to Expedia and checking out the prices of how much it would cost to go to the east cost (she is in NJ). $600, not too bad. AND I can pick up Prego too! :) Ha, like I can afford it. So I told her that she needs to come and visit. See how I work? I think it’s so amazing that you can form such close bonds with someone you never met but have something in common. Do I sound like a stalker now?

I am *this* close to finishing the Billy Reid socks. But I’ve had to put it down because I am trying to write it up but can’t because the computer that the pattern is on is acting up. Hopefully I will work some magic and get it transferred to my machine. AND I found out that I only have ONE set of US1 circs. What the hell? I thought I had like 4. But I searched everywhere and I only have one and it is on the Billy Reid socks. Sucks. I REALLY need to start my Sock-It-To-Me pal’s socks. Or I need to get off my ass and buy one.

I did the fringe for my Montego Bay scarf and I like it, the fringe seems a little short though. I think for the other one I’m going to make the strips 14″ rather than 12″. It is a great scarf. Soooo boring, but it’s so nice and light.

I wore it to this photo shoot that we had for some weird German management magazine. It was for a “people in front of a white backdrop” project? Elem says that it makes sense in German. They are also going to interview us about our podcast/knitting group. I actually dressed up for the occasion, wearing jeans (hey, that’s dressed up to me), a turtleneck, my lovely scarf, and a leather jacket. And I did my hair AND I wore boots with heels. Anyways, I thought it was going to be a “fun” picture with our knitting. But no, this is Germany! We were just on the street, right in front of an apartment complex. With a huge backdrop behind us. So weird. I was so confused as what this was for. My first disappointment was when she said she was only going to do full body shots. DAMN! We kept pushing to do untraditional poses. She kept saying “smile. but not too much.” and “don’t put your hands in your pockets” and “look natural but not too casual”. geez. We were standing in the rain (ok, it was a drizzle) and it is so hard for me to be in front of the camera. I always feel I look so huge. Having the scarf to help block my huge belly helped. And she made me take off my belly hiding jacket because “the picture will make it look like it’s sunny and it will be weird for you to be wearing a jacket”. OK. I am wearing a FREAKING TURTLENECK AND SCARF! Hello! And Elem was wearing a jacket and Cashyie was wearing a cardi. WTF? So I was standing there, belly exposed and all. ugh. I have serious body issues! Then we said we wanted some fun ones and she was like “ok, at the end, only for you”. But I think those are the best. We were being silly and natural. What is the deal with these photographers? And then at the very end we all whipped out our knitting and we were soooooo happy and the photographer could tell. HA! I bet they’ll choose those because that’s really who we are. She just doesn’t understand. I felt like I had a fake smile the whole time…we’ll see how it goes. Elem said that it was for a manager magazine that you can’t buy (thank god) and it’s just handed out to managers. But they will send us copies, so that’s cool. They will probably pick the one that I look the fattest in and have the stooopidest face, always happens. My feet were so sore at the end! It was good to get those boots off.

OK, off to get more needles!

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OK, so I was going through my stash today and decided that I will never, ever