The 4-S

Swallowtail Shawl
The swallowtail is complete!  It looks a little small though I did add in a few repetitions…   But it should be fine on Evi (coz she’s small anyway!).  And with repetitions, came problems…

I was 8 stitches short when I came to Lily of the Valley Border 2… *smacks head*  Apparently I counted it correct for the transition between Budding Lace and Lily of the Valley Border 1… but failed to calculate what I needed for LOTVB 2.  Gah!  8 stitches is quite far off… but I wasn’t about to want to frog it over again.  So, I added 4 stitches to each side of the shawl… I don’t think it looks that obvious…it looks like little eyelets  

Now with the nupps.  What are nupps?  These are the dreaded nupps:

God knows who created nupps!!!  They are very pretty of course, but they are absolulely by far the worst to work with, especially when the K1, YO, K1, YO, K1 nupp is called for.  I can’t imagine who in the world would have fun purling through 5 stitches.  Well, normal stitches yes, but not nupps!  I can’t even begin to tell you what a rough time I had with these things… (that’s before I found out that there were other ways besides purling through 5 stitches)… I seriously almost gave up…

Until, I found out that hey, I could use a crochet hook to rope it all in!  Yes!  Slow, but steady.  And you get a tight (but nice) little nupp.

And I found from the internet, countless others who have had the same problem.  One suggestion was to slip 4 stitches, purl 1, and start passing over the 4 stitches, one by one, to the purled stitch.  Worked, but way too slow.  Yes, I’m impatient.

Another suggestion:  Move the stitches to the cable part of the circular needles… which is seriously, a God-sent advise.  Migrated from the crochet hook to the 4 stitch pass over, to this method.

I think I like the crochet hook nupp the best.  It does look much tighter than the others.  Found another solution… slip 2 stitches, purl 3 together, and pass over the 2 slipped stitches.  I think this will work mighty fine.  Will just try it for my very own swallowtail.  Bought the DMC Petra in black for the swallowtail for self yesterday.    And 4mm circulars…   Addicted to circulars now!  Noticed that my hands don’t tire as quickly as using the regular straight needles.

Scarf for the Beloved
Unfortunately, still no progress from Ball No. 3.  Or was that Ball No. 4?  Hehe.  Am kinda taking my time coz he won’t be able to use it till Fall/Winter anyway, and it’s only Summer now, so I have plenty of time (so I think). 

Something New
I can’t resist starting new projects!  That’s why I have multiples of WIPs…so I don’t get bored, actually.  Bought the 2008 Spring/Summer Richmore magazine… in love with the crochet piece on the cover (and quite a number of things on the inside, of course).  Bought DMC Petra in a light khaki color yesterday at Adeline’s too.  Started on it as soon as I got home from dinner… but frogged it gazillion of times because I kept counting it wrong…either too little stitches, or too much.  I think I have it mentally calculated rightly now (it wasn’t actually Quantum Physics but I don’t know why I just couldn’t get it right), but the 3 rows I had worked on had been frogged so much I don’t think the yarn is in the greatest of conditions.  Therefore, I’m gonna cut off that part of the yarn and use the frogged yarn as waste yarn ~ great for starting my black swallowtail

Someone’s Wedding
Laura’s (Min’s colleague) earrings are done, and I just love ‘em to bits!  I managed to beadwrap the centerpiece too… I think it looks much better that way.  With beadwrapping, meant I had to redo the necklace.  Which is ok with me, because I wasn’t ecstatic with the original way the centerpiece was sitting.  Min said Laura was already mighty pleased with the way it was, but I couldnt stand it and just had to redo it.  It’s half redone anyway.  Bracelet to follow.  Deadline, hopefully Monday.

Before beadwrapping: 

  After beadwrapping:

Earrings…

That’s when Min will be back from the States with James and one-year old Jaden.  Oh I can’t wait.  I haven’t seen them in 2 years!  Plus, Min will be bringing home for me, some lovely lovely things I had mail-ordered ~ artistic wire for beading and Harmony circulars and yarn from www.knitpicks.com  Was so tempted to buy the Harmony circular interchangable  set but it was $69.99 and had me thinking twice…or three times… probably more… PLUS, my immediate need was for the less than 4mm circulars.  So, instead of the interchangable Harmony, I bought the fixed cable Harmony… can’t remember what sizes I bought though…haha!  Absent-minded.  Oh, can’t wait!  Can’t wait!