Tag Archives: Vostok

Celebratory

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Yesterday was our one  year anniversary of wedded BLISS.  I am so very lucky to be married to such a wonderful man.  I threw together a salad for dinner and baked a cake.  He surprised me with flowers and a poem.  He composes a new poem for me every year.  He made the flowers too.  Apparently year one is devoted to paper.  When I heard that I gave him a book that I  had purchased as his Christmas gift. It is extra suitable because he just finished reading The Hobbit to my youngest and is now working his way through Lord of the Rings.

My absolute favorite flowers are peonies.  He did a great job didn’t he?  Even better he made baby pink with deep pink edges.  I love the pale pink peonies best of all and bi color ones are always fun to look at.  Other favorite flowers are lily of valley and gerbera daisies.  The daisies don’t have a scent but are so amusing.  He propped my poem on my pillow and made a ring of peonies on the bed.  In the picture you can see the baby blanket I am knitting for my grandson.  It is a Stonington Shawl.  Speaking of shawls I did block my Vostok and here are a ton of pictures:

That is my shawl draped across a blue chair for some contrast.  I am rather fond of the coin pattern used as main lace.  It is made with a double yarn over on a stocking stitch ground so absurdly open.  I deleted a couple of patterns that featured it, and were saved in my queue, after seeing how open it was but you know~ I really like it.  Next we have two pictures of it over my arm so the view of it is double fabric but backlit

That is the coin pattern.  You can easily see how the  netting would easily trap one’s fingers.  Still it is a filmy delight.

Against another chair back:

I probably shouldn’t be showing this since I may end up gifting it away for Christmas.  I am just very pleased with the project.  Quite a few people complain that it isn’t as large as the pattern picture would lead one to believe but honestly I think it is just perfect.  It is wide enough for my wingspan and it does hit me below the waist.  Of course I am rather short~ 5’4″ but I am also a wide woman so there is certainly enough coverage provided.   While I was downloading these pictures there was one on my camera I had forgotten taking.  I was making a sandwich and looked down to see this:

Seriously it wasn’t on purpose.  But it was one of those moments that I felt like capturing.  Sometimes I feel so disgustingly happy and am surprised by how it manifests. Anyway yarny days and knitterly evenings

we gotta wear shades

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Fruity Pebbles~~Bam! Bam!

Last we left you I was moaning about my beloved’s surprising under appreciation of my knitting.  Today I have the same project, The Baby Surprise Jacket, knit in yarn of his choosing.  Apparently Fruity Pebble’s was his daughter’s favorite cereal growing up and the yarn does look surprisingly like FP so I have named the project Fruity Pebbles~Bam! Bam!    Loads of pictures.  First a close up of the sleeve shaping to show you the color in all it’s glory.  The yarn is the discontinued Regia Bamboo Color in a color way called ‘Clown.’  It actually hurt my gray loving eyes a bit to knit these up but truth be told the yarn has a lovely softness and sheen from the bamboo.

Next up we have a shot of the jacket with buttons.  I had great fun picking out the buttons and enlisted the aid of multiple shoppers who happened to cross my path at Michaels that day.  Somebody suggested velcro which I suppose would be a baby friendlier option but honestly the mom to be is the sort to notice a loose button long before it becomes a problem

Oh and I knit matching socks to go with since what is cuter than a baby item with matching socks {or hat/mitts}?  Nothing I tell you.  Nothing.

And here are the little socks all on their lonesome.  Aren’t they adorable?

I also finished my birthday pressie for myself which consisted of the stashdown approved purchase of Vostok kit.  It wasn’t really a purchase since I won a gift certificate to a shop last year and the GC covered the kit. It is blocking right this minute:

There are more baby items in the future.  Not so bright baby items.  Here is a shot of the yarn gifted to me by a fellow Ravelry member when I mentioned impending grandmotherhood.  Actually I was on a quest for a certain discontinued yarn and she sent me some as a gift.  This is a story to be continued.  But while perusing the yarn notice the nails.    The color is Runway Red-y by Revlon.  My husband apparently really likes bright colors because he picked this out for me.  I recently read that one can get 40 manicures out of a bottle of nail polish and I am slogging through this bottle to find out.  To date I am up to my 4th manicure.  Well technically my 3rd with one pedicure but I figure a pedicure takes about as much polish as a mani.  At least this sort of color is suitable for summer.    BTW, as a nail blog reader, I do have to say I never quite realized how difficult it was to take pictures of nail polish.  I took about a dozen and this is the only one that looked even half way decent.  No I have no plans to turn into a nail blogger just I am trying to take better care of them since it helps me be mindful of my eczema.  Which currently afflict my hands.

Being married to him is it any surprise my future is bright?  Yarny days and knitterly evenings 😀