The Huntington Library.

I would like to share some photographs from my vacation over next few posts. I starting today with photographs from the Huntington library and gardens. 

I hope you enjoyed the visit :-)

Happy knitting,

Diana

New Design: "Asilomar"

Word Asilomar, derived from the Spanish words “asilo” meaning retreat or refuge, and “mar,” meaning sea, hence “refuge-by-the-sea.”. Asilomar conference grounds and Asilomar state beach are located on the Monterey Peninsula in California. Pictures were taken there while on vacation in Northern California.

 The vest is my second design for Lotus Yarns. This is my first time working with Yak fiber. It is lovely. The yarn is soft and strong and shows lace patterns and texture very well. It works well knitted single stranded or double stranded. I choose to knit yarn held double for this particular design.
The construction of the vest is seamless topdown with an exception of a little seam where collar attaches to the back.

Yarn: Lotus Tibetan Yak Laceweight
3 skeins = 1476.4 yards (1350.0m) knitted double on US3
Colorway #11 Mariana

Project on Ravelry.
Pattern is in the works and will be available at the end of September.

Happy knitting,

Diana

Postcard from Carmel.

Postcard from San Francisco.

Postcard from Monterey.

It has been a very busy summer for me with little time to knit and just little free time in general. I am on vacation now and enjoying cooler weather of Northern California and my very much needed vacation.
I have finished my second design for Lotus yarns just before I left on this trip. I had a chance to photograph it here, in Monterey, and will share  pics and this design with you when I get home to a faster internet connection ;-))
I am wishing everybody relaxing last week of the summer :-))

Happy knitting,

Diana

Farmers' market.

 I always loved to go to Farmers' markets, but there was not one near where I live until now :-)) I went for the first time today and got some beautiful organic produce. I have tried strawberries and tomatoes already and they are delicious :-))

 Have a wonderfull the rest of the week :-)

Happy knitting,

Diana

Not so lazy Sunday or why I do not have much time for knitting :-)

It has been busy week and very very busy weekend. No time to rest or to knit. One of the reasons I have less time to relax with my favorite hobby is because 4 huge pine trees in our back yard are shedding pine needles like crazy right now. 3-4 times a week we have to clean up the yard from them.

 I hope this needle craziness stops soon :-)) We also get lots of pine cones as well.

 These needles also make me concerned how anything can grow in a near vicinity. For now we have only planted some tomatoes for kids.

 I also want to plant some herbs in the future, but right now just have this lovely mint plant growing by the kitchen window.

It is all new to me and I am just taking very tiny steps in gardening :-))

I wish everybody a great week ahead and some free time for your favorite hobby :-))

Happy knitting,

Diana

Lazy Sunday Afternoon.

I got this idea for a post from a post from Vaida. Thank you so much Vaida for an idea :-)) Here is my lazy Sunday afternoon, more like a lazy hour before my kids come home ;-)) I am enjoying warm weather outside, some knitting and coffee with Greek feta :-) What do you like to do when you have a little of free time to yourself on a weekend ?

Have a wonderful week ahead :-))

Diana

Summer in bloom.

Some photograph I took over the weekend at the San Diego Zoo. Enjoy :-))

Wishing you a great summer :-))

Diana

"Etude in Purple" Cardi.

 Thank you so much everybody for you sweet comments on my linen dress :-)) I appreciate them very much :-) Today I would like to show you a project I started back in February and was knitting it on and off since in-between other projects. This project is "Etude in Purple". I intended to make long sleeves at first, but run out of purple yarn, so short sleeves it is :-) As it turns out, I do quite like it this way. This cardi  is perfect for work at this time of the year.

 Pattern: my own design "Etude in Stripes" and it is available as a free download from my blog or Ravelry.
Construction: Seamless raglan top-down.
Yarn: DyeForYarn Fine lace / Merino cashwool, 0.95 skeins = 1089.7 yards (996.4m) in colorway Shriveled eggplant and 0.4 skeins = 489.6 yards (447.7m) in colorway Periwinkle coming to dust. Yarn was held double.
Needles: US 3.0 ( 3.25mm)
Project on Ravelry

Happy knitting,

Diana