Catherine de-Parr-ted

Buh-bye, Catherine Parr. Your colorwork was wonderful, but your shape and fit sucked dog paws.

The yarn will be gorgeous in some other project, I'm sure. I have a few patterns in mind. A leading contender now is Knots and Bark by Fiona Ellis. Here's a picture swiped from ravelry, chosen because you can easily see the color breakouts. I was thinking the dark green for the body and sleeves and the light green for the bodice, but then I will need a third color for that accent work at the neck and bodice. Anyone have any suggestions? Would a creamy white work?

Winding Weekend

Pictured from top to bottom: Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn, Chuckanut Bay 10-Ply Aran, Cascade Eco-Wool. We thought the Chuckanut made enormous balls, but check out the size of that Eco-Wool. I plopped the Colinette on top for comparison purposes. Most of us know what a wound skein of sock yarn looks like, size-wise, so that ought to give you an idea of just how enormous the other two are. So enormous that my ball winder -- gimpy even on a good day -- nearly expired from the effort of holding it.

Now that the Kauni shawl is blocking, I turned my attention to what's next. "Next" meaning not just what's next to be cast on, but what's next to claim my knitting time.

I have these things on the needles:

1. The blue Ishbel. I've finished the body and three of the six lace charts. This one could be completed within the next week or two.
2. The Oskar Loves Ishbel socks. On the heel of the first. Nice to knit, but not compelling. I keep them on my nightstand for sleepless nights.
   
3. The purple Smooshy socks. These are my carry-around knitting. I like to keep something portable and patternless in my purse, and these are it. I'm a bit more than halfway through the first cuff, and that's all the result of picking at these in stray moments.
4. Fulmar. Stalled because my brain was needed for other things. It's not a difficult pattern, but it does require a certain amount of focus.
   
5. The Afghan for Danger Boy. Stalled because it's crochet and my wrist has been swelling here and there.
6. Catherine Parr. Probably will be frogged.
   
7. St. Brigid. Stalled because I needed to wind the next ball of yarn.
   

Three small projects, three big projects, and one disaster. Also, the lace skater's top is on hold until I get some better needles. The points on the Addis just can't handle this pattern, and I'm making a total hash out of it as a result.

On this list, the one that jumped out at me was St. Brigid. It's reason for being stalled is the most east to overcome. This would be fairly quick and easy to finish. The blue Ishbel will be done soon because I really want it off my knitting list, and there's little time involved. So after that, St. B.

Hence, the winder came out.

And you know how it is. Once you wind one ball, you want to wind the rest. But if I wind it, I might cast it on, and I want to finish some things before I start new things. So my compromise was to wind one ball of the Eco-wool for a Starsky (or possible for the Shirt-Tail Cardigan -- still debating which pattern I prefer), which will be the next sweater after the St. B is finished.

After Ishbel is finished, I might try to finish one of the pairs of socks before casting on another small project. I'm eyeing two other scarves for the summer -- light, small projects always being better for hot days. But I don't think I need to have a mountain of small projects on the go at one time just because the days are warmer. In a perfect world, I would keep my knitting list down to four projects at a time. But this isn't a perfect world, and I'm sure not a perfect knitter.

What are your summer knitting plans?

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.