Busy bee

This has been a busy couple of days. Thursday and Friday I spent in Minneapolis for a work conference. That proved to be both interesting and also enlightening.

Saturday hubby & I were off to Council Bluffs for a mountain bike race. It started raining right before we got there and so the first lap of the race was pretty sloppy. Hubbs kept on going and ended up finishing 7th for his group (and this was without a practice lap). Great job Hubbs! The race was at the Lewis & Clark Monument. Here is a picture from the view off the bluff.

Lastly, I spent some time cranking away with Lauren. And...I finished! Here are a couple pics of Lauren in action. This pattern is from Rowan's Linen Print Collection. I used size 17's and 6 balls of Rowan's Linen Print yarn in Breeze. Despite size 17s being quite annoying to work with, I am happy with the results!

And, that's a wrap!

Knit one, Reflect too...

After a crazy, hectic day...both at work and on the homefront, it was time to get down to business on Lauren. Here she is, 50% finished:

It's hard to get much of a picture with 128 stitches bunched up on size 17's, so here is a close up of the edge:

I hope to get some better pictures in the daylight of Lauren upon completion (yes, the end is now in sight).

Here are a couple flowers from our yard that brightened up my day. I hope that you enjoy reflecting on them as well. It is easy to see the beauty of the world in the nature around us.

Still here

Not much on the knitting front to report. I have been slowly working away on Lauren, but these size 17's aren't too much fun to work with. They are just about enough to get me itching to do a lace project!

I have picked up the pattern books for both nouveau & Hamper (the crochet shawl from Jo Sharp and the crochet blanket for Rowan). Hamper would be great in the Pakucho organic cotton that I did Kyoto in, but right now it is not available on Elann.com. Oh, well...maybe down to road. I think nouveau will be next on the list, but another Clapotis could be calling my name too :)

This weekend has been very nice. There has been quality family time...the most which was spent with Knittripps! We ventured down to the first farmers market (eager to use our French Market bags). I loaded my bag down with some black raspberry rolls for our camping trip. My little bag was about at capacity after that, but Knittripps managed to get filled up with quite a few goodies. We also spent the night camping with the Knittripps clan. It was pretty chilly & windy to begin with, but got very pleasant in the evening (especially with our roaring fire).

A couple of my favorite things from camping...wait, did I mention toasted marshmallows?

Another awesome crochet choice

Wow...need I say more?

This is Rowan's Hamper from their new Classic Summer. I am so crochet right now.

Drooling

I am sooo beginner crochet (still not sure I did my Celebrity shawl correctly, but hey, it looks pretty good). I am drooling over this Jo Sharp pattern: Say hello to Nouveau. This beauty is labeled as an Advanced crochet pattern. Am I up for this challenge? Well, it is pretty amazing from the window I can see here. Seeing as though I am a bit of an obsessive knitter who tends to fly through projects, maybe this is the challenge I need to keep me motivated this summer.

Freebies

I stumbled across this freebie on Crystal Palace's website. I think it could be on the list!

Oh, and as for my list....
1. My So Called Scarf DONE
2. Mittens DONE
3. Celebrity Look-Alike Shawl DONE
4. Lauren
5. French Market Bag DONE
6. A couple of secret projects in the works....or on the brain DONE
7. Dishcloths to gift (1 down, a few more to go)

The Lauren shawl is what I should be working on. I am still playing with a couple of design projects to keep things entertaining, but I am looking for a good summer knit. I need another large project. Maybe I will use some laceweight merino and try for the Lacey Shrug from Crystal Palace. Hmmmm.....it is kind of just fun to look around and search for the next big project!