The BadCat January update!

So today I have a little of this and a lot of that! I thought I would share a few of the goodies I amassed this holiday season. I also thought I would give an update about the goings-on on my needles.

Shall we start with some books and patterns? If you are looking for complex lace designs, look no more! Here they are. There are so many amazing patterns, I don't know what to knit first. I have a few ideas though...Knitted Lace Designs of the Modern Mode Bk1, by Kazuko Ichida
Knitted Lace in the Modern Mode Bk2, by Naoko Ichida
Tricot Hogar #1
Lavori Artistici #11
These are all available here:
http://www.lacis.com/catalog/catalog.html

Engeln Spitzenstricken: Individual Engeln patterns found by selecting the English-speaking flag on the top right and looking at the lace patterns.
Kunststricken Grobe und Kleine can be found as above, but selecting the lace books!
These are available here:
http://www.bastelundhobbykiste.de/index


The next fine stuff I have to show you came from Colourmart. What can I say? My order arrived in 6 days from the time I placed it and the yarn is perfect. It is hard to get really lovely fibers in very fine weights, so this is a special source for me. Don’t drool on your keyboard.
http://www.colourmart.com/
This is 3/45 cashmere/silk in the Lavender Silk color
This is 3/45 cashmere/silk in the Dust color
This is 2/65 cashmere/cotton in the Slate color
This is 2/28 merino/tencel/cashmere in the Silver color
This is 2/28 cashmere/merino in the Candy color. I also got some 2/28 lambswool/silk in the stone color, but I didn't have a picture to show you. You can imagine... Each of these cones is 100 grams and between 2000 and 3000 yards, which is enough for any of the large designs in any of the books and patterns you saw above. So many fine choices!

I feel like a kid in a candy store. Is this not mouth watering? This lace-weight yarn is not as skinny as the yarns I got from Colourmart, but it is a true lace-weight yarn in the softest lamb’s wool. It has lots of give and blocks wonderfully, so this is another special source for me. My recent Sampler Stole was knit with this yarn and is lovely.

You can see all the new Lacey Lamb colors on the Jade Sapphire website. ENJOY!

http://www.jadesapphire.com/

Don't think I am all stash and no action! Certainly not! I am currently working on two different knitting projects. The first is something you saw a little bit of, way back when I blogged about using charts. This is Hacate:

I have finished the central panel and I am over half-way done with the deep border, which is running down the lower edge. After that, there are just the two side edges and it will be done. Expect to see it again February!

The second piece of knitting I have been working on is this:

This is an old French doily pattern, and I couldn't resist the pears. I am three-quarters of the way through the pattern, and the only modifications I have made are to the double-decreases. I have made some of them directional, where they were originally written as all the same decrease. Once the actually pattern is done, the piece will be too small to be something to wear, so I was thinking of adding to it to get a larger (shawl) piece. It also occurred to me to make sleeves for it…to be continued!

I was gifted with this award this week, from Fleegle, and I am so honored! It seems I must pass it along to ten blogs that make me happy, but here is the rub. I am a bit clueless… I read a small handful of blogs and those blogs have already been honored. I have six blogs I already selected to pass the award onto, but I need four more. Please be kind and leave me suggestions!

My next post will pass the torch! Until then, knit-on.