Upcoming Vacation

I attended a recent Knitting Guild Meeting, where one of the ladies was wearing a beautiful, lacework vest.  I immediately recognized it from the cover of a past "Vogue Knitting Magazine".  I rushed home to look for it, and sure enough, the vest was featured on the cover of the 2009 Spring/Summer issue.  It is: "Botanica Medallion", designed by Shiri Mor.

Since we are planning a Panama Cruise soon, I had been digging through my summer knitting patterns, in hopes of completing at least one summer sweater to wear.  This was the perfect pattern.  I quickly ordered up the yarn:  Blue Sky Alpacas - Skinny Cotton (White), and got right to work.

The medallion on the back knit up quickly, only taking one evening to complete.  I blocked it and started knitting the outer ring.  I wasn't too far before I realized there were mistakes in the instructions.  I went to Ravelry.com, to see if there were any errata (pattern mistakes) published.  There were a few errata there, but these didn't correct all of the problems.  Once I figured out where the mistakes were, I re-wrote the 4-row directions, and started again.

The design incorporated some unusual, but beautiful, stitch patterns.  I was so happy to learn these stitch patterns, and I'm sure I will incorporated some of them into my future designs, as they created such a beautiful lace.  This lace was unlike traditional knitted lace, but rather looked like crocheted hairpin lace.  Truly a skill I am happy to have mastered.

I will be wearing my vest with some light-weight, flowy print pants, with a flowy tunic tee-shirt.  I'll be sure to take some picture on my cruise, for a later post.

Now that is finished, I must hurry and getting knitting for my daughter's new twins.  A boy and girl, are soon to arrive, and I am getting a really late start.  I've started with a blue and pink romper, "Small Things Romper", by Carina Spencer.  I'm knitting them of KnitPicks Comfy (flamingo & sea foam).  They are working up fast, but I've decided after finishing the pink one, to unravel the arms and legs and go with a tighter silhouette and ribbed cuffs.  Once these are finished, I'll need to get busy knitting blessing clothes for each of them.  These are both still in the design phase.

I still have two summer sweaters partially finished from last year, Eva and Stella.  

Stella is nearly finished, with just 1 sleeve left to knit.  I'm planning to attach some long, french lace to the bottom of her.  

Eva is still in the beginning stages.  

These will be soon be my focus, but I have my eye on another pattern:  "Maja-Kiito" by Marita Rolin.  I just cannot get my fingers to knit any faster.  There are just so many sweaters in my head, dying to get out.

I hope your knitting is going well . . . Happy Knitting!