Fashion

Just a quickie today, peeps. I have more knitting to do! Jeepers, garter stitch just eats yarn, doesn't it? I'm about to start the second set of short-rows, which means we're near the top of the yoke. Thank goodness! The deadline approacheth.

There will be bloggable knitting soon, I promise, as well as pics including a crazy skein of feather yarn.

Anyway, I've been thinking more about fashion lately. Perhaps it's the crisp fall air, perhaps it's starting the job search, which means I'll need some grown-up clothes, perhaps it's Tim Gunn upon whom I have quite a crush. So, I bought the September issue of Vogue. And I have to ask myself "WHY!?!" Out of 840 pages, on first flip-through, I dog-eared five pages, four of which were ads, and the fifth was a brief profile of a woman wearing Twinkle's Shopping Tunic. The cover is awful, as is the spread that goes with it. Ugh. I may have to give you a page-by-page review here in the future.

American fashion magazines are rubbish, aren't they? As far as the serious business of fashion goes, anyway. I read Lucky occasionally. It's my airport go-to, since there aren't really articles, just lots of fun things to look at. But I don't fly much these days and when I do I usually have a very mobile tot in tow.

Ever since Liz Tilberis passed away and Harper's Bazaar was Marie Claire-ed by Glenda Bailey, Anna Wintour has no goad to make Vogue all it could/should be. I still remember the first cover of Bazaar after Ms. T. took over: white studio background and Linda Evangelista looking gorgeous. Check it here (#9). What I'd forgotten about the Tilberis era was the fantastic typography. Check out that last "A"! Clean, gorgeous, one headline, not the junked up covers we see today.

I read the September issue of Harper's Bazaar over Labor Day weekend, and it was crap, too. At least Vogue has Jeffrey Steingarten's food writing, which I quite enjoy. But I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to read Ms. Wintour's editor's letter. For more opinions on the issue, be sure to check out Cathy Horyn's blog entry and don't miss the comments.

Birthday/Blogiversary Pending

Where does the time go? My birthday is coming up on the thirteenth (lucky girl!), and my first blog post was one year ago on the fourteenth. I should probably have some sort of contest to get my dear lurking readers to join the conversation. What do you think?

Happily, Jill was finally able to comment today. I may have to join the Knitini trip to Belize in February. Wouldn't that be nice?

In knitting knews (hehe) I've joined the sleeves and started the garter section of the yoke on Cobblestone. Yeehaw, short rows. This is going very quickly! Now, watch, I'll hit a snag. Hope not, as there are other things I'd like to knit soon (the danger of Ravelry).

Sorry this is a dull post. I have to get my pics off the camera...

Likey Zephyr

That Zephyr DK is seriously yummy. The silk just gleams. I'm almost through the first sleeve, and then I'll be able to block it to be super-sure I've gotten the gauge I want (on US6s). There will be more projects in this yarn in the future. But I'm back from a weekend in Door County so need to get back to the Cobblestone - thank goodness for air-conditioning in Wilmette as a lap-ful of alpaca is a bit much, even in the balmy weather up nort'.

And I've just joined another KAL. When did I turn into such a joiner? Who knows. Anyway, Keri started a new gang for knitted mitts and wristers Fingerless Mitts for Fall, and I've decided it's time to do some colorwork so am going to knit up Eunny's Endpaper Mitts. Maybe once I accomplish those I'll feel up to doing her Anemois, which are so pretty.

Some Douceur et Soie may have come home with me in a stormy teal colorway from Easy Stitchin' in Sister Bay, Wisconsin. Just reporting the facts.

Back from Hiatus

Yes, chickens, I'm back and may have acquired three pounds of yarn somewhere en route. Ahem. There is a one-pound cone of Zephyr DK, which is really more of a light worsted as far as my needles go, in Steel (same as the color Keri and I split for the MS3 that has yet to be cast on) waiting to become that slouchy cardi from Greetings from Knit Cafe - the one shown in lavender, the one with the hood. Look, people, my scanner is in a different time zone, so you'll have to use your imagination or go check your own copy.

And the other two pounds are two cones of Jagger Spun's Maine Line 2/8 (fingering weight) yarn in Pewter and French Blue to do Eunny's Venezia in two colors (there's a post somewhere around here with links to a lovely one done in black and cream). That will be my first fairisle/steeked project. And is on smallish needles. Eep. And, yes, two cones is probably enough yarn to make two sweaters, but it was much more fun to acquire two cones than a bunch of mini-cones. Don't you think?

But I have the intended project to complete before then. My first idea (cabled vest of my own design) ended up being a bit too hard to read in the dark yarn. Well, the cables looked good when I didn't miscross them, but I was following written out patterns for four different cables (Lobster Claw, OXOX, Twin Waves, and Ensign's Braid) in two different books (Barbara Walker's first and second Treasuries) and had trouble charting them I don't have BW's charting book so had trouble drawing something to indicate the more complicated crosses), so I was going crazy. I've tabled the idea for now and reclaimed the yarn. There may be a Cobblestone in the works, and I'm not linking to it here because the intended recipient might be clicking around here. If you don't know about Cobblestone, check me on Ravelry or drop me a note. Progress is good. I just hope it will fit my friend.

I'll try to get some pics of the pounds of yarn. BTW, it came from the amazing Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine. Very helpful folks there.

Planning

I have a stockinette swatch I'm happy with for the Intended project. And I have enough yarn for the sort of project I'm thinking of (and the LYS has 20 more skeins in the same color/dyelot). So, the question is do I create my own pattern with some help from Saint Elizabeth or do I use one that already exists? I have one (written by another Zimmerman) that looks pretty good, though I may have to tweak slightly based on my gauge.

The question is, really, do I go with something verified by pattern testers and the knitting public or do I wing it in a semi-educated way? Particularly for someone special? And there may be a deadline of, say, a month from now. Um, you, you know who you are, forget you read any of this, ok?

In knitting I can talk about more openly, I wound my three skeins of Koigu last night while watching the Cubs spank the Rockies (thank goodness; the Houston series was just painful). I also spent far too much time on Ravelry browsing other KPPPM projects. I'm pretty sure the Koigu is about to become a three-skein Clapotis (I'm not linking it; if you haven't seen the pattern by now, well, just go to Knitty and find it yourself), but perhaps I should just do a simple stole in a pattern from one of Barbara Walker's Treasuries. But the stockinette nature of Clapotis would really highlight the variegated yarn. I just know that knitting the straight section of Clapotis gets pretty tedious. Of course, last time I made one it was in laceweight yarn, which can make anything tedious without a lot of lace action. I'll keep you posted.

We're off to the lake this afternoon and won't be back for a week. And even though I'm just getting back into the swing of blogging, I plan to take next week off and just be. There will be knitting on display when I'm back, though. While I'm gone, make up your minds on my planning question and don't start any unspun Icelandic sweater projects, kids! It's August, for knitting's sake.

Flitting

I've been swatching while coming down from the Icarus high.

First up is some Euroflax in, surprise!, blue. Unfortunately, my Bryspun US3 snapped about halfway through. Worn out from Icarus, I guess. I finished the swatch on US4. Clearly, the smaller needle size is better, but it's still a somewhat sheer fabric. Washing and drying it completely in the machine helped the hand. I don't have a US2 at hand, so I can't swatch it on twos, but I'm not sure I'd want to do a lot of stockinette on a two anyway for an entire skirt. Oh, right, I bought the yarn (on sale) to make the lacey skirt from Greetings from Knit Cafe. Jody beat me to it on doing the skirt in linen, and it's very cute. Love the variegated colorway! Anyway, here are the swatches. I think this project is going into a timeout until I can figure things out (get a US2 needle to swatch). Perhaps this will end up as something other than the skirt.



And here we have the love child of Cheryl Niamanth's Wisp and Jared's Scholar Collar in BMFA's Bliss (70% angora/30% wool blend) in the Periwinkle colorway. Sorry they don't have it on the site, except in the Angora Boot Sock kit; I bought the yarn at The Fold. As you can see I blocked the heck out of it (and really need to get my hands on some blocking wires). This is a garter stitch (Scholar Collar influence) cowl, essentially, and I'm going to complete the circle with some ribbon through the yarn-overs on the short edges (Wisp touch).

This yarn is divine, though it does shed. I tried to get a picture of the fluff on my t-shirt, but it's not easy to snap a pic of your tum. Hehe. I used the whole skein (100 yds.), and it only took me a few days of distracted knitting to finish this up on US9s (Bryspun, natch).


And here is my first Koigu. Isn't the colorway (P33231 - fuchsia, ballet, mocha, and lilac) beautiful! I think I may make a Clapotis with it. Someone on the Knitlist mentioned gifting three skeins to a friend, so when I was at Three Bags Full yesterday with a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, I thought "why not?". I also bought some yummy yarn for a surpirse project, but the intended recipient reads the blog, so it will stay sooper secret until it's been gifted.


So, guys and dolls, that's where I am. It's pouring here, and Miss Isobel is still napping, so I'm catching up on Top Chefs.

FO: Icarus Shawl

Off the needles


Blocking

...
Action shot (I'll try to get one of these soon)

Pattern: Icarus by Miriam Felton from Interweave Knits, errata (also available from Miriam directly)
Yarn: Laughing Rat merino laceweight in Robin's Egg, 875 yds.
Needle: Bryspun US3 29" circular

Yes! Fin! Whoohoo!

As I thought this is one of the few moderately complex shawl patterns that can show off a hand-dyed yarn well, since it has the large stockinette and lace rib section. I did the optional errata, so I can't say what it would look like without. I'm very happy with it, which you will see when I can wangle someone else into taking my picture with it.