hello from taiwan!

well i have been doing quite a bit of knitting while in taiwan!  i spend a fair amount of time sitting around, so i've had a great opportunity to catch up on movies that i've wanted to see and knitting i've been meaning to do.  i brought my peacock feather patterned lace shawl, the green baby sweater for emma's baby, and some knitpicks yarn we bought for baby blankets (i'm making a baby blanket in the shell/star pattern which i've made before).  for a pattern, see here.

speaking on knitpicks, i wanted to rave a little in praise of their yarns and website.  i have recently become a fan of their yarns, as has shreya.  i'm currently working all three projects just mentioned in their yarns.  the lace is worked in alpaca cloud lace yarn, in stream heather.  it's a beautiful yarn that works very well for the peacock lace i'm working on.  the other two projects are worked in swish dk; the baby sweater is a cable pattern in asparagus, and the baby blanket is in storm and white.  i should mention that i'm not the only one who's working in this yarn.  shreya's mom, theresa, is working on an amazing blanket pattern, twice to make two identical blankets, that is worked square by square, each in a different color with a different pattern.  she's using the wool of the andes in a variety of colors.  i can't wait to see the result!  shreya has also worked on a variety of projects using yarns from knitpicks, as has joyce, our resident crocheter.  last i heard, she was working on a couple of different baby blankets.

knitpicks also has a great section of tutorials in their blog section.  one of them has proved to be very informative and helpful for my shawl (yet to be finished).  it's a pdf on how to block lace.  another one i'm fond of is the kool-aid dying tutorial.  this is one of the pictures from the pdf.

i'm very interested in trying this out...guess i've got to buy some bare blanks from knitpicks to dye.  alternatively, i could buy some wool-silk from sarah's yarns, which took the color very well from the natural dyes we used in anne's dying workshops.  

well i've rambled on enough and it's time for me to run to lunch.  

best stitches and happy knitting!!