Chickenlips Knitting

It's Sunday, and that means the deadline has passed for entries in the "What the bleeping bleep is Chickenlips making" contest. Thank you all for playing! All your guesses were good, and some of them cracked me up--like Kerin's . Nope, it's not a banana warmer. It's this.

The Clementine Shawlette from Interweave Knits' Spring 2007 issue. I'm in love with the designs of Michele Rose Orne, and in my must-knit queue is the Lily of the Valley Shrug from her book "Inspired to Knit". Two halves of the Clementine are knit identically and grafted together. I'm almost finished with the first half.

I'm using Louet Gems Merino Sport in French Blue. Even pre-blocking, I can tell this is going to be a hugely satisfying FO.

"So who won?" is most certainly the question of the moment. Well, friends, we have a tie! Heide came up with the exact name of the project. However, Kiki also guessed correctly that it's a shawl. Rather than trying to randomly determine a prize winner, I asked the question "WWSJD?" (What Would Stitch Jones Do?) and Stitch said, "They both should get yarn." I thought that was a splendid idea. So ladies, I will contact you both and send you prize packages of yarny goodness! Hearty congratulations.

It's My Traveling Skein (you don't know what I got)

A shout out to my friend Duffy for coming up with that wonderful "Traveling Sock" ditty for the Yarn Harlot! I hope you don't mind that I put my own spin on it. Yesterday I visited my Stitchjones wholesale customers at the Oregon Coast. I also taught my first beginners' sock class at T-Spot in Manzanita. A totally fun day in which nothing I did seemed like work, yet I got paid for teaching and for my hand dyed yarn and fiber. I didn't happen to have a sock project on needles, which is rare for me, and the wind was rather fierce, so here is my traveling skein enjoying the view at Oswald West State Park.

A better shot in which you can see Manzanita in the upper left corner.

Done to a turn

Since I knit my first Zimmermann Baby Surprise sweater last fall, I've made 7 more! Now I'm working on my first February Baby Sweater, having completed my Zimmermann library with the recent purchase of "Knitting Almanac". Here is the latest, in Stitchjones Grand Design handpainted merino in "Gelateria".

I know the edging looks a bit raggedy; I haven't blocked it yet. And I'll get around to sewing on those cute moose buttons one of these fine afternoons, I swear.

My original design, the Boomerang Lace Scarf, is done and blocked.

While it's soft and pretty, I feel as though I picked a totally wrong yarn to knit the design. (Feza mohair & acrylic. Too light, too meh, to show off the lace stitch pattern, which I invented, thank you very much! ) This was originally designed for Shibui in their Silk Cloud, and it was rejected. No matter--I have other plans for both the design, and this scarf. I think my MIL will get it for Christmas. In order to get the design published, though, it will have to be re-made in a completely different yarn. I of course couldn't walk out of either T-Spot or Coastal Yarns without buying something, so I'm thinking either of these would probably work to remake the scarf. I'm leaning toward the green.

Llama and silk sound like an intriguing combo, don't you think?