Suprise "Spring is in the Air"

I believe in karma. Things come together for a reason and either you embrace it and go with the flow or ignore, or avoid, it and usually something not so great happens.

Cosmic Event: Creation of Spring is in the Air.
Photo: Knitted Candy Diva, Mar 2014.

The title of this post is very appropriate for this shawl and the particular circumstances it took to knit this.  I like finding and owning unique things. I think it's because everything is so mass marketed and consumed that nothing feels special or unique.  I think that is one of the reasons why I knit is to get pleasure knitting one-of-kind things that are made to my specific tastes.

The Perfect Storm

Donna, one of the owners of Black Diamond Alpacas (BDA), raises her alpacas at her Brentwood, CA ranch and hand dyes all of her yarn. As part of my compensation for sample knitting a shawl for her during the Fall of 2012, she let me choose 2 skeins of her vast spectrum of yarn. Shopping at Donna's booth is like being a kid in a candy store, so much to choose from I always get sensory overload and have to walk away, think and then return. 


 BDA Surprise, 250 yds of hand-dyed
Fingering,  100% CA grown Alpaca. 
Photo: Knitted Candy Diva, Fall 2012.

Donna had a very small batch of what was her experimenting in her kitchen and that she didn't know how to replicate this color after she dyed this particular batch. She called it "Surprise." I am normally drawn to pinks, plums, fuchsias, reds and purples and like I needed more of the same, but somehow I was gravitating to this because this would be the only batch of it once it was sold. I took 2 and it stayed in my stash till last month.

The Winter Olympics was coming up and I wanted to knit a shawl while watching it live. I normally look through Ravelry and my own library that I have in my Rav account.

If you haven't open a Raverly account, it's a definite must.There are over 4 million members and over 430,000 patterns to choose from. As of today, I have over 6,100 knitting and crochet patterns. Yes, crazy I know! Luckily, there isn't a physical folder or storage for them because I would most likely be on one of those people you watch on those hoarding reality TV shows. Most of them are or were FREE.  I don't crochet, but because they were free what can I say. I will never be able to knit all of these patterns in my lifetime. But I have knitted a few more than once because I loved knitting it and many were and are gifts. OK, so I am now justifying my behavior. Remember the heroine in Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series?!

Anyway, last Fall, Kristi Holaas was very generous to let Ravelry members choose one of her patterns for free for a very limited time. I was instantly attracted to the name "Spring is in the Air," liked the design and picked it thinking I was going to use something from my BDA stash some day.  


Close up: Diamond repeat stitch

Stitches West (SW) is held every year in at the Santa Clara Convention Center, literally in my backyard, and thought since I was going to knit during the Olympics to participate in the Ravellenic Winter Games 2014 and was planning to go, Sunday, the 23rd, which was the last day of SW which also was the last day of the Winter Games what I knitted had to be special to wear. It didn't get anymore cosmically in line than this:

Free (2 skeins of Surprise + Spring in the Air)

= Olympics + Ravellenic Games + SW 

 

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

Well, my Surprise surprised me and things didn't completely turned out the way I planned. This relatively simple pattern wasn't that simple because, no fault on Kristi, I couldn't figure out how to K3into2 and I miscounted 1 stitch which caused me to frog this shawl not once, but twice. I can't have any "new design elements" and am a perfectionist by nature. 


My Surprise -- Spring is in the Air didn't turn simple at first.

It normally takes me a week to knit a shawl this size (64 inch x 21 inch) so I thought I had plenty of time to finish and wear and show Donna what I knitted with her gorgeous, soft hand-dyed alpaca fingering at SW.

This shawl was a mess and I didn't finished it until more than a week after the closing of the Winter Games, couldn't enter it in the Rav Games, or wear this to SW. I was bummed, but I moved on and felt there was a reason why I couldn't finish. I did wear another shawl and received the same number of compliments and ladies who wanted to touch it like what happened to me the year before. Overall, I had a great time and was a first time winner at SW.  I am a now a firm believer not to knit past midnight, of counting, re-counting and using stitch markers when I knit over 350 stitches per row to keep my sanity.

 

Would I Knit It Again?

I love how Surprise turned out. Alpaca is warmer than wool, but because the shawl is light fingering and airy it's perfect to wear for at least 3 out of 4 seasons in the San Francisco Bay Area and if I need to go to SF this is definitely a 4 season - scarf, shawl, shrug - accessory. The color is vibrant, very cheerful, goes with anything and makes me happy.


My, oh my. Frustration turned to gorgeous

results. Photo: Hand knitted by Knitted

Candy Diva, Mar 2014.

Next time, I would knit Kristi's small version using highly variegated yarn because the lace stitch would soften the variegation and I think the shawlette would look nice bunched up since I now have the large wrap version.

Hello World!

I'm taking the plunge into the vast blogosphere. I've been thinking about starting a blog for a couple years, but didn't know what my subject or theme would be and if I could sustain having enough material for one. Knitting and all things fiber-related with be the purpose of having this blog. I hope, I can be informative, entertaining, and show my pent-up creativity.

Little about me, I can be perfectionist and if I don't feel I am ready I won't do it. I got as far as signing up last October for this account.  I have been active (known as kvchin) in the Raverly community since 2010. I have learned and received great inspiration from this site. At the same time, I received my first iPhone and the best thing about it is THE CAMERA.  I have been posting my finished projects, including all of my notes and photos because I found it very helpful what other members who knitted before me would share their tips to save me time and frustration if the pattern had an error(s) or I was inspired by their color or yarn choices. I really love the collaborative nature and when I started getting PMs from total strangers all over the world that my finished projects were inspiring and that my write-ups and my photos were helpful and that they wanted to link to me I was hooked! It's in my DNA to be helpful so I thought why just be on Ravelry.  I can be a knit blogger!

During last Fall, I was inspired to knit for my entire family and friends their Christmas gifts because I didn't want to go to the mall. It gave me a chance to take my time to look for the perfect pattern and to knit new patterns or come up and create and design my own patterns for each person on my list. I was feeling towards the end I could have opened a small accessories store. In total, I knitted almost 2 dozen hats, cowls, scarves and shawls! 

Just some of my Christmas 2013 hand knitted gifts.



I stopped knitting after Christmas, but was motivated to knit for Halos of Hope end of last month when I learned about their cause and had some leftover gift knitting yarn that was taking up space in my stash. They are a wonderful non-profit that collects knitted, crochet and sewn hats from volunteers like me and hands them out to cancer centers throughout the US. At the end of the week, this organization will be having a booth (#904) at Stitches West (SW), the largest all things fiber convention held in the US every year for 4 days at the Santa Clara Convention Center, to collect hats.  The goal is to beat Stitches Midwest and collect over 2,150 hats. Below is my 3 -- 2 wool, 1 cotton -- for the cause. 

My contribution for Halos of Hope.

As part of the Ravellenic Games 2014, I am in the middle of knitting a shawl that I can also wear for SW next Sunday. I will post shortly.