Evenstar

 If you follow the blog rather than the FB feed, you may have noticed a couple spiffy new widgets on the left sidebar that show my Ravelry FOs (that's "finished objects" for the non-knitterly/crafty folks) and WIPs (works-in-progress).  One of the pieces I am pleased to finally be finishing (slowly but surely) is my Evenstar Shawl.  I started this back in October. It's knit with a fine yarn on fairly small needles (3.25mm).  There was an extended period where I was tired of a very repetitious section that was taking forever - so I put the project aside.  I picked it back up again in April and eventually finished the main body by end of May.  Then I couldn't find the pattern for a while, got caught up with other lace shawls, etc, and here I am in almost-July finally working on the edging.

 As you can see, it's a heavily beaded edging. It's slow going. I'm aiming to work two chart repeats a night because I want to make sure it is finished in time for a September wedding. There are 56 chart repeats. That's 1120 rows and 2800 beads.  I've finished 9 repeats so far.

The shawl is unblocked, so the stitches are bunched together.  I've attempted to lightly open up the stitches in this last photo to give an idea of the finished look.  (I also managed to slide the needle out of several stitches while doing this, but was able to fix that with minimal difficulty.)

As I finish up this shawl, I'm much of the way through another circular-knit shawl.  The new one is a square shawl.  I'm working on the second last main body chart. There's probably another 20 row chart after that, and then the knit on edging (much as the above shawl).  The new mystery KAL (knit-a-long) shawl currently looks a little something like this (but with more rows since the photo was taken).  It follows the story of Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.  In the photo below I had finished the "China" clue/chart (like dragon scales). Now I'm working on "Japan" (cherry blossoms). Also seen here is India, Egypt, and England.

Care Bear Stare and other fun stuff

If you've never witnessed Abi defending herself with a hearty "Care Bear stare" you're missing out / lucky to still have your hearing.
Here's a brief sample of what we listen to over and over and over...:

And since I neglected to share any of the exciting photos from Abi's first time bowling last week, here you go:

The final scores from our first game. Abi's, Maxwell's, and mine.

We often had to wait a long while for Abi's balls to reach the end. I sometimes helped give them a little extra push at the start.

Donkey Sanctuary

Today we visited the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada.

 There were donkeys (which I didn't get a chance to photograph while we were inside the petting area because I had to keep Abi from running to the feeding animals).

 It was a cloudy but muggy day, so I don't imagine this shelter helped much.

 BTW, these are our friends. 

We learned a lot about these sweet animals.  They are very social and bonded in groups. At the sanctuary there are also mules and a few sheep and goats.  But it's not all about the donkeys.  The sanctuary is located on a lovely piece of land, so we walked a couple of the nature trails, through the forests, by the pond, and along the marsh.  There are educational signs along the way and there is much to see.

Finally headed back to the car...

And had a peaceful ride home.

New Songs

Abi spent yesterday making up rebellious songs. I was able to catch a little of one, but once the camera was on she was about ready to finish singing.
Here's the video:

Finished Projects

In light of the recent posts concerning incomplete projects I thought I would share a photographic list of finished projects from this year, in order of completion:

A slip cover for Robin's archos using the leftover yarn from his Yule socks. Made it up sans pattern.

An indecisive ribbed scarf with vertical and horizontal stripes. mine. I was asked to share this technique last year so wrote up a tutorial.

My first shawl of the year. My own design to use some dreamy mocha-pink handspun yarn I bought locally (before I started spinning!) Bought the complimentary pink silk-blend to go with it.

A Carcassone hat for a friend's birthday. My design.

A Decepticon slouchy hat. Chart is not mine, but the colouring is. And I hand-dyed the yarn for the gradient effect. This was a special request from Candace.

Some socks for mom using a simple slipped stitch pattern to break up the variegated yarn.

A crocheted Festival shawl as a surprise for a friend who had surprised me with this yarn as a gift. This was my first beaded shawl. I also knit myself a lacy cardigan with the yarn last year.

Abi's pink and blue scarf using yarn she dyed and plain white. Knit with double garter.

A Fibonacci Sequence toque for dad.

An Ethereal shawl for a friend.

Another crochet shawl using up yarn from my stash. I kept this one, although I'd assumed I would gift it.

Rhombus socks for mom in a Raven-way yarn from Blue Moon Fibrearts.

A Traveling woman shawl for a friend with yarn that Abi dyed.

A strip for a collaborative gift blanket using yarn that Abi and Isaac dyed.

A spring shawl (Summer Flies) for Abi using up more yarns that Abi dyed - and a little of my handspun yarn too! I haven't bothered to block it, but I can to make it grow with her.

A Hatchling Dragon shawl for my sister. My design and the yarn had been gifted to me by another friend who doesn't like bamboo yarns - which she discovered after buying some lovely bamboo.

My Battle-Weary Dragon shawl. My baby. My design. Many beads.

A Windermere/Tigers Eye stole for mom. The never-ending thing. ( Not as never-ending as my Evenstar. Or the afghan for Veronica we shall not speak of.)

A quick Lotus hat for me from my stash.

My green Sweet Embrace stole. Nupp-ilicious and I adore this yarn from Waterloo Wools. Same as the Battle-Weary. There's another skein in my stash...

A bucket hat for me using old cotton I've had since I started knitting again.

A quick crocheted Geoui shawl using up stash yarn that pooled terribly when knit. I think the pooling works in the crochet design. This one was gifted to a friend.

My rainbow-licious Antonia shawl. I could not resist when I saw this single skein of rainbow lace yarn.... Then I cursed myself for buying a yarn nearly impossible to match to a pattern. This worked. I love it. mine!

An Indigenous shawl using up the yarn I bought many years ago while in Saskatoon with mom for a conference.

A sweater for Abi in the pink (of course) yarn she chose from a local yarn store closing sale. A simple raglan I made up as I went with a diamond lace motif.

Another strip for another collaborative piece.

The mystery knit along shawl from June.

The Undercover blanket Abi and I made

An Echo Flowers shawl in my favourite yarn - Waterloo Wools Montague. (Same as Green Embrace and Battle-Weary Dragon above - different colours of course).

The End - for this moment less than half-way through the year...