Heat wave!

Hooo boy, here in Montreal, we are currently experiencing a heat warning and I am extremely thankful that we have air conditioning (and thankful for the snuggie that I'm wearing because the den is so vry cold because of that a/c). We're also experiencing a "severe storm risk", with a high probability of thunderstorms, which would be awesome, because knitting during thunderstorms is one of my favourite things!

In my last post, I had written about casting on Reyna for P's birthday, and I was hoping that I would have it finished by the 1st of August.
I finished it.
On the 11th! Which is exactly one week from start to finish! I even took a 2 day break from knitting the shawl because of  mild R.S.I (repetitive stress injury) in my right wrist, most likely from the furious pace of my knitting. I cannot believe how quickly I knit this shawl! The only times I got to knit on the shawl were at night after B went to bed, and at his weekly appointment. Oh, and on Sunday when I met up with mah knitta, of course. So i'm pretty impressed with myself, especially as I am not a particularly fast knitter and am prone to distraction. I soaked it and blocked it, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

It's not as lush as the Reyna I made with woobu, but it is very drapey, and very open and very "spider-webby" (which is how P described it when she was asking me about my shawl). I had found the Galileo kind of coarse as I was knitting with it, and very drying as well, but it has softened up considerably. P's lucky I adore her, I want to keep this Reyna for myself! I won't keep it...but I really want to. I did notice a wonky line near the bottom of the shawl, where the eyelets don't line up as nicely on one side. I'm not sure what happened there-was it how I blocked it? Or maybe I missed a yarn over? Not sure, but I don't think P will notice, and I don't think anyone else will notice when it's being worn either.

I would have taken a picture of me wearing it, but it is waaaaay too hot outside for that nonsense.
Still need to weave in some ends...

I have no problems admitting I'm a selfish knitter. I've had people ask me if I make a lot of things for my kids and I'm never embarrassed to say no. The girls have each received a pair of socks, (A has two pair of socks-because I hated one pair I knit) P has gotten slippers, B has had the most knitted items, because he's the smallest and his stuff takes no time at all; a sweater and slippers and hats and mitts. I've knit my mother a hat (that she never wears) and a shawl (that she'll probably never wear, now that I think about it-would it be rude to ask for it back?) P's boyfriend even got a knitted hat from me.  The only people in the house who haven't had anything knitted for them is my darling M-who rashes at the touch of even the softest merino and C, who's feet are wayyyy bigger than mine and therefore will never know the joy of knitted socks from his mum. I could knit him a hat or something, but he's 16, and somewhat careless, so I'd have to be okay with him losing whatever it is I knit him.

 I also managed to finish the second Blood Orange sock! Yay! A pair!
                                          (three needle bind off, waiting for the metro)

When my wrist was bothering me, and I couldn't knit on the shawl, I  decided to work on the sock, which didn't seem to aggravate the R.S.I at all.  I quite like the 3x1 ribbing, it fits very nicely, and looks really cute. In fact, I like it so much, I cast on another travel sock, in that exact same pattern. I decided to go with a self striping yarn by Scrumptious Purl in the Baby Beluga colourway. Isn't it pretty? (Though I think this colourway could be improved by adding a medium, pearly gray stripe in there)

I've already managed to knit to the heel flap (though, to be fair, I only knit the leg of the sock to  4.75" long). I was considering doing a short row heel, because it's self striping, but heel flaps just fit my heel better. I'll live with the weird striping.

I also banged out three key cozies, which happened to be on the front page of Ravelry a few days back. They are ridiculously quick, ridiculously adorable, and ridiculously addictive.  Seriously, I wish I had more keys.                 (Madhatter <3)

                                          (babette?)

                               

I used two sample skeins I got when I ordered from Miss Babs-one was the Cosmic sock yarn, which only had "babette" on the label, and the other was Keira, a fingering weight merino in the colourway Madhatter, which is absolutely gorgeous, and if I wasn't on a yarn diet, I'd be buying up a fluffy ton of it. For the third key, I used some leftover Dream In Colour Smooshy, in the colourway Sundown Orchid.
I'm going to knit up one more, I have a key, that I'm pretty sure belonged to my old flat-so, hasn't been used in like, 8 years, but I keep it just in case I'm wrong, and it's actually an important key...that key is going to get a cozy. And then I will be out of keys to knit cozies for and the frenzy will be over.

OOOOH! I can get back to knitting my sweater now!