Strings & things

Well have I got a post of epic proportions for you! Let me start with this gem, one of the new Holiday 2013 Essie shades, "Parka Perfect." 

This lovely shade is a nice blue-green, when I was expecting more of a baby blue. It really reminds me of a slightly darker version of my beloved 'Turqoise and Caicos,' so of course I adore this one. There was a lot of shimmer in the bottle that didn't really translate to the nail, unfortunately. It DID wear like iron, with two coats, a base and a top and after a week it is barely worn. Really pretty shade, looks blue against a blue background and green against green. Will wear this lovely all year round. I also got the red glitter from this collection - can't wait to wear that one! :) 

Lovely Parka Perfect

This lovely yarn is from a sweater I tried to knit years ago. :) I found it wrapped around a Christmas decoration I had put away long long ago. It was two mis-shapen sleeves, and a too-short back panel. Yikes. Still, this yarn is gorgeous so my SO and I unraveled it and repurposed it into four LARGE yarn balls, which I am now using to make my roll-brim chemo caps. The colors are amazing. I can't remember what this yarn is called, but I think the color is called River Stones or something to that effect. Lovely muted tones.


Speaking of chemo caps, my little fingers took a short break for Thanksgiving but are now back at work! Here are a few of the striped lovelies I've constructed this week!

                   


This baby-blue darling is knitted from a BIG ball of my favorite baby yarn - literally, I could probably make 1,000 hats from this and still have some left over. But the color is adorable and it is so soft, I almost don't mind.

This lovely cap was made using a basic eyelet pattern in place of the stockinette stitch for the bottom. I started with about 10 rows of stockinette, then one repeat of a 16-row eyelet pattern, and then continued in basic roll-brim style. Voila!

These beauties are what I'm most excited about. I was home last weekend admiring my great-grandmother's afghan in the spare room, and I started thinking about how she'd made it for her bed all those years ago. Then I thought, why shouldn't I make a giant knitted afghan too?? Definitely the most ambitious project I have thus-far undertaken, at least in size. The pattern is really simple. I found a pattern on Ravelry, here, that is EXACTLY the same as my great-grandmother's afghan. So perfect. I picked out a few colors of Red Heart Soft and got some long circular needles. I really do like Red Heart for blankets, and it actually is pretty soft after washing. And economical. And the soft stuff was like 50% off at my local craft store. Score.

I'll let you know how it goes with the afghan. I plan to get started tonight as soon as I finish this hat! :)