FIRST FINISHES FOR 2010

I finished 3 scarves last week.  One had been in progress for quite a few months.  I had taken a class at the LYS to do a moebius cowl earlier last year.  I loved the yarn I chose - Lornas Laces Shepherds Worsted in a semi solid and one of her spectacular colorways.  I don't know why I was unmotivated to finish it before but over the past week we have had abnormally cold temps here in NE FL and I turned on my addi turbos and zoomed thru the completion of these 3 scarves.Here is the Moebius cowl.

The next one is also a project I started earlier last year. A knitwear designer Jarrod Flood AKA Brooklyn Tweed had a freebie pattern that was wildly popular. You selected two colorways of Noro yarn and knit 2 rows off one skein and the two rows off the 2nd skein. The striping effect of the Noro yarn was further enhanced by alternating two colorways. Mine is more subdued because I chose similiar colorways and I was not looking for something wildly dramatic. It is just a simple k1p1 ribbing but is a very usable item.

Finally here is Jody's scarf - I was only two weeks late in completion which is pretty good for my non compliance of meeting deadlines in needlework. It is from the Berroco Men's book. It is the Juva scarf and is knit with Berroco Cuzco which is 50/50 Alpaca/wool - a lovely textured yarn and quite weighty. Jody loved it however I could not get him to model it. Guess he did not want his mug plastered all over blogland. LOL
It was a simple design but was charted to make up the patterning you see. It was a fun design to knit.

Again no stitching progress to show.  I am back to my parents anniverary sampler.  I have to really focus on that piece otherwise it will not be done by this summer.  As fast as time flies by I know I will be struggling to meet that deadline.  I did join the PS Alphabet SAL and I will try to find time to work on B is for Blackbird soon.  It will be a nice small piece to work on when I grow tired of that Scarlet Letter piece for my folks.  Another SL piece I am dying to start is And All Was for An Appil - Lots of my friends in blogland are stitching this one - just an informal SAL. I have acquired the chart but need to look thru my stash for linen.  I am going to try harder this year to pull from stash or at least look thru what I have before purchasing "MORE" linen. 

The other exciting news this week is that our annual rug hooking conference is starting Friday afternoon.  Off the Ocean is having it's 11th annual conferenece here in Jacksonville.  It is something that my mom and I do together every year.  She started hooking about 5 years ago and we share a room at the host hotel which makes us feel like we are miles away from home.  We enjoy this time together however this year we are in seperate classes.  I am challenging my skill level this year by taking a more advanced teacher (Sibyl Osicka) who specializes in fine shading.  I am doing a traditional crewel rug which is fairly large.  I won't have speedy progress on this one because the cut of wool will be finer and I will have to be tutored more on this type of hooking.  I have done *some*  fine shading so it is not totally foreign to me but usually I use a 5 or 6 cut and it moves along faster than a 3 and 4.  So next post - I will hopefully have some photos from our camp experience and a finish photo on my pomegranate runner.  I forgot to take that photo last night.  I enjoy hearing from each and every one of you.  I hope the new year is off to a great start for you all.