Off the needles

 Okay, the title should be Off the Needles a Looong time ago.

I finished this shawl, knit with yarn from Organized Chaos Yarns, back in April and I am just now getting around to photographing it.

The yarn, Colorstravaganza, is fingering superwash and I love, love, love it!  I think it looks like faded denim and I want a whole sweater knit from it.  I absolutely love the faded denim look with little blips of color.  

My daughter says it doesn't look like denim but I think it does.  My faded out jeans even usually have the blips of color on them from dropped markers, paint and/or nail polish.  So yes, my jeans and my shawl will match this winter.  I can't wait!

And because I'm excited about my new roommates...

Meet Pumpkin, the platy fish.  Her little black nose reminds me of a puppy's.

And Spot, the nerite snail.  I love his spots.  They look like they've been drawn on with a Sharpie.

Spot has his work cut out for him.  Captain Morgan, my old nerite, died and the tank got overrun with algae.  Again. Argh!

Hopefully Spot is hungry and has an appetite close to Captain Morgan's.

Thunder Storms

I've been floating and am now so relaxed my entire body feels like wet spaghetti.  It's a wonderful feeling!  Even though I'm getting absolutely no exercise, being out in the sun makes me tired so I'm sleeping better at night.  Floating is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Hayden's first time in a pool

Hayden even came to float with me.  Turns out, Hayden prefers swimming to floating.  It was her first time in a pool and she took to it like a duck in water.  She was even putting her face down in the water and she'd come up blowing bubbles and grinning.  Michael Phelps better watch out.  He's going to have some competition!

The drawback to floating is that I haven't been getting much knitting done.  Between being sun tired and being so relaxed, I'm going to bed sometimes as much as two hours earlier than normal.  It's pretty crazy!  

I have finished one arm on my Palette sweater and have knit a few rounds on the other sleeve.  I was knitting on the deck after dinner, but it's gotten way too hot and humid to hold that beast of a sweater in my lap.  It's definitely an indoor project now.

Sunburned and the start of a Reyna

Luckily a thunderstorm rolled through Sunday afternoon and interrupted my floating.  I'd been in the pool for about four hours and was getting a little crispy.  I love thunderstorms and enjoy sitting on the covered deck, watching them.  And if I'm sitting, I'm knitting... but that sweater is just too hot to work on outdoors so I started something new.

Lagoon from Organized Chaos Yarns

I started out knitting another Reyna but I'm not 100% positive that is what it will be when I'm finished.  This skein from Organized Chaos has a lot more yardage than the pattern calls for.  I may or may not modify it in some way.  We'll see.

I am over the moon in love with this colorway.  The photo does not begin to do it justice.  The colorway is called Lagoon and it is simply gorgeous!  It almost glows and really does look like deep, clear bluish green water.  My skein is much darker with deeper colors than the one pictured on Organized Chaos's website.  

This new Reyna is supposed to be my deck knitting only project but it's going to be very difficult to keep that promise to myself.  But, I'm also determined that the Palette sweater is not going to be removed from my knitting bag until it's finished.  And I love my knitting bag and there's no room for anything else in there right now so.... I'm vowing to plow ahead on that final sleeve.  When I'm not floating that is.