Kauni Northern Lights Shawl

Hooray for finishing things! So much better than letting them hang around inside knitting bags. Cast on to bind off in 29 days. Not bad. I also knit half an Ishbel and half a sock in the same time period, so I think it's safe to say my knitting is picking up speed again. Not like the old days, but still, it's on the calendar every week.

I'm so in love with this Kauni yarn. Yes, it's rustic, but not unbearably so, and the color changes are magnificent. Almost hypnotic. Imagine if Shetland yarn and Noro had a baby, and that's about how the Kauni is. Less raggy than the Noro, less crunchy than a Shetland but with a very similar hand. Plied like the Shetland, dyed like the Noro. I would knit with it again in a heartbeat.

In fact, I'm already dreaming of Stitches and debating whether to buy enough for a stranded cardigan. I'm thinking Kauni in the black/gray/cream colorway paired with a solid bold color like red.

Yeah, and given the state of my stash, I'll put it on the knitting schedule for around 2025.

(Even knowing that, I still want the yarn.)

Yarn at a Writer's Conference

This is a very kind, very goodhearted author, Nathalie Gray, wearing the white hat she deserves. Forgive the picture quality. The window behind her made the lighting difficult, and I assure you her face is flushed from my camera and not from any other factor. The photo was taken at the North Market, just before we indulged in a bowl of delicious Jeni's Ice Cream -- OMG, the best ever. Go to Columbus and eat ice cream. You won't ever regret it.

























Here we have another author friend, Lyn Cash, who tried to make off with Ishbel. Heh. Ain't gonna happen. Ishbel did enjoy being the center of attention, though. (Notice how Lyn is trying to look all innocent and stuff. We're not fooled.)


























Yes, there was yarn shopping. I think my stash-wagon habits are really starting to take hold, though, because all I bought was some laceweight (25% off, so who can blame me!) to make a cardigan. Isn't it pretty? The colors make me think of a winter storm. I don't know why -- gray sky, brown landscape, and everything faded by the low light, maybe.

















My self-control is even more shocking when you realize that the store we visited was FREAKING AWESOME. Look! They have AISLES. It's hard to tell from this picture, but there were four whole entire aisles of yarn! And the staff was super nice, too. My favorite moment, though, was walking in with Rachael Herron (yarn-a-go-go) and watching the clerk's eyes widen as she recognized her. Awesome. I love shopping with a knitting rock star. They were incredibly nice to us and even used their computer to look up pattern details for us. Knitting Mercantile ("the Merc" to locals) -- well worth a visit if you ever get to Columbus.

Off the Needles, On the Wires

Look what fell off my needles and onto the blocking wires. Ishbel! I decided to finish it because I want to wear it at my conference next week. I put my zebra bag in the photo frame so you can get an idea of how I plan to wear this scarf. Black trousers, black turtleneck, Ishbel, and that zebra patterned Liz Claiborne tote. Normally I wear business suits to conferences, but in this case, given that this is the "party conference," I can get away with something more casual as long as I still look pulled together. And that combo of scarf and bag are pulled together without being all matchified. I hope the resulting look will be slightly Euro/urban, which works better for a business casual atmosphere than just your ordinary pants and shirt.

I love this yarn, the Cherry Tree Hill Possum Sock. Lovely stuff, very soft, almost furry. It was wonderful to knit, too. I've heard some complaints about splittiness, but that was not my experience.

I did, however, have one slight problem with it. Look in the photo at around 5 o'clock, on the blue mat. You should see a fuzzball there. I can't tell you how many of these worked free from the strands during the blocking process. Granted, this is going to happen a little while handling a wet, short-staple yarn. But even so, even allowing for wet handling, there was a lot of shedding. I hope it stops after the yarn dries, but just to be on the safe side, I'll be spritzing that shawl with hairspray before I remove the pins and wires. That should cut down on the potential for shedding.

My only other news to report is that I decided to cast on another pair of socks to travel with me next week. I want something simple that won't require a lot of thought. And lo and behold, right on top of the sock yarn heap was a skein that mimics the Ishbel yarn. It's sort of splotchy with black and cream, but where Ishbel is tinted slightly blue, this sock yarn is tinted slightly green. It's an Opal yarn, and I can't read German to save my life, but the word "Oscar" appeared on the label. So I'm dubbing these socks "Oscar Loves Ishbel."

We're Seeing 2FOs!

Look up in the sky! What is that? OMG -- brace yourselves! We have 2FOs!



















This is the pair of Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks in 2x2 rib I started last October. I used to knit a pair of socks about every two weeks or so, every ten days if I really tried. These? Six months. But at least I'm knitting again. That's a big happymaker. (As is my crabapple tree. It's spectacular this year. Warm springs do make a difference.)


























And here's the finished hat for the Good Guy. This one took a month to knit. Very easy pattern, lovely result, but I have to say that the best part was the yarn. Cascade Lana D'Oro -- a little on the dear side at about $9 per skein or so, but it is really, really lovely stuff.

Ishbel is also off the needles, but not yet on the blocking wires. May I say what a pleasure it is to be finishing up objets tricoteuses again? After about a year of chaos (13 months since my car wreck, which started the whole tailspin of crazy), things feel far more normal and controlled again. I'm still not knitting every day, but I am knitting at least a couple of times a week, and that feels huge. There's still a lot of room for improvement in my daily schedule, but that's okay. There's always room for improvement, isn't there?

My World In Color

You would think that I hate this house what with it being broken in half and everything. (New crack discovered in bathroom wall yesterday. Cry.) But really, I love this house. And here are a couple of reasons I love it despite its deeply flawed foundation.

Hot purple rhododendrons blooming by the wrought iron garden gate. This shrub dazzles me every spring.
























The forsythia hedgerow along the east side of the house. The early morning sun shining through those windows turns everything gold from the blooms.

























Of course, the bushes are even prettier with yarn in them. These are my two precious new babies gained via a dispensation at the Beverly Hills Art Center yesterday. On the left, STR Silk Thread II in color Lunasea. If you look closely, you can see the very subtle variations in the color. On the right, Roxi by the Grinning Gargoyle, a super cool indie dyer who I plan to stalk until she agrees to be my new BFF. This yarn is spectacular. Her color work is beautiful, but the quality of the yarn and the friendliness of the lady herself was what really won me over. I might have to cast this on next. Or right now.

Prepare for a Shock!

I caved. Spring fever got the best of me. There's no vaccine for startitis.

This is the mandatory Ishbel. Mandatory because every knitter on the planet apparently must knit it to retain knitter cred. I'm not a big fan of groupthink in any form, but even I can't resist the pull of mandatory knitting. (See also, mandatory monkeys, mandatory clapotis, mandatory jaywalkers, etc.)

My general response to mandatory knitting is to resist until the initial craze is over. Makes me feel like less of a joiner somehow. So everyone else knit their Ishbels last year, but I'm just getting to it now.

Cathy asked to knit this with me. She's interested in learning lace, and this was one of the two easy patterns we picked out together. I figured I ought to look at the pattern before she and I tucked into it, and next thing you know, I'm almost halfway through the easy stockinette portion of the pattern. I won't go too much farther without Cathy casting on, though. So now that I've started, I might just tuck it away until she can catch up.

The yarn is the Cherry Tree Hill Possum Sock, and I adore it. It's pooling in an almost zebra-striped way, and this will inevitable make me want to carry my oversized zebra bag when I wear the shawl. The scarf is just off enough to avoid being matchy matchy.

The Kittawake Hat

In case you haven't already seen it, here's Panera Erik wearing his woolly crown. Well, he says it's his gangster hat for when he wants to rob places, but we all know it's impossible to feel like committing felonies when wearing Starmore designs. Or misdemeanors. Bad language, on the other hand, can still flow pretty freely. Ask me how I know.

He's been very good to the knitters, and, well, we all know how knitters show their appreciation.

Aleta took this picture and I swiped it from her.

And that's about all I have to say about the hat.