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.

Love, Actually

Marissa, you were totally right! What a sweet movie. I definitely recommend Love, Actually. My mom objected to the nudity and some of the language, but I didn't really mind. And I'm quite fond of just about everyone in the movie.

And I actually love Icarus. I'm halfway through the last chart (yay!) and hope to be blocking this baby by the weekend. It is a great pattern. And working it reinforced my idea that lace isn't as hard as some people fear, especially if you concentrate on the row at hand. I know I was kvetching about the knit stitches in the purl-back rows (evens), but they really ensure that you've done everything properly on the knit side. If you have a copy of Interweave Knits, be sure to check out the errata on Miriam's blog - it's not on IK's site, as Miriam says it's optional. I have a few rows to get to the errata, so I can't say how it makes a difference, but I'm sure it does.

And love plays a prominent role in the last Harry Potter book, which I bought on Saturday and finished on Monday. I enjoyed it immensely.

Love you all, actually!

I hate it when they disappear

You know, those bloggers who go missing and when they do deign to publish a post are all "Sorry sorry, I've been busy and can't tell you about what I've been up to"? Yeah, well...

Sorry sorry! I've been busy and can't tell you what I've been up to.

Actually, if you leave me a comment or drop me an email, I can share a smidge, but things are far from ready for the wide distribution of the blog. If you've never commented, make sure your email address is in your profile, so I can write you back. Blogger is great most of the time, but it's bollocks on commenter contact as far as I'm concerned.

In knitting news chez Purly, I've made more progress on Icarus. I'm on chart two, which is going well, as it flows nicely from the YO columns in the hundreds of rows of chart one. Only difficulty is that you have to knit every so often on the purl side, so it requires counting. I really enjoy just purling back, as it gives me a chance to think. But I'll survive. The yarn is just lovely. And it looks like charts two through four are only one repeat of each. While I enjoyed the semi-mindless nature of chart one, I think I'm up for some more complicated lacework here, just not for hundreds of rows.

I had a little debate with myself whether to pause on Icarus after finishing chart one to start Mystery Stole 3 but I'm coming to realize that I'm a one-project-at-a-time girl, and I'm OK with that. However, I am not a one-yarn-purchase-at-a-time girl! I'll try to snap some pics today if the grey skies lift.

I'm really looking forward to diving into MS3, though, and the shade card Keri included with my half of the Zephyr is putting me in mind of all sorts of new projects. Danger danger!

Almost ready to start MS3

The yarn was waiting for me when I got back from the lake. Thanks, Keri! I'll try to snap a pic of it (and Icarus) tomorrow, as it is very yummy yarn and much more substantial than the stuff we swatched with. And, oh, the silk! Just gives the yarn a lovely gleam. I did have to go Special Notices on the MS3 Yahoo! group because, man, those people are chatty! The connection up North is not terribly fast, and it took forever to download messages last week. I hope I don't miss anything fun, but the inbox was out of control.

As for Icarus progress. I have one more repeat of the "straight" chart before moving on to the exciting charts. Hopefully, I can get my counting under control by then! The yarn is very nice on this project, too. I'm curious to see how the variegation works in the lacier borders.

Since two picture-less posts in a row are just boring now that I have constant access to pics from the blog (I used to post from work, in case you've joined me recently), here are some snaps of our adventure at The Farm (there were sheep, so it's knitting related):


Mommy and Isobel


Peacock in full strut - I'd never seen one put on a display in person.


Isobel got to feed a Jacob lamb, as well as goat kids and a piglet.