If We Stay Here…
The last night was bittersweet. After dinner we had a combination Q & A session and a little show and tell. We learned about thigh spinning as an alternative method of depilation, we saw some truly breathtaking projects, and we made grand plans to keep in touch. We laughed and hugged and one or two people may have cried just a bit, for we knew it was almost time to go home. Stephanie put it best when she explained "if we stay here...we'll die. You can't do this forever." And she's right of course (she usually is). We couldn't do [...]
Book Yarn, Part XII
These are wicked good fun. Let me explain. I believe I may have mentioned my feelings about colorwork. I just don't do it. I don't get it. I don't (generally) like it. I don't know how to do it well. It eludes me. But I do occasionally go 'ooooooh, pretty colors...I want pretty colors' (admit it, most knitters are swayed by pretty colors). So this seems like the perfect compromise. These are part of the gradiance collection by The Unique Sheep. The gradiance collection is sets of different yarns in colors that shade subtly (or not so subtly) into one [...]
Book Yarn, Part XI
This is the marvelous Dream in Color Smooshy in the color Chinatown Apple. I love this yarn. It is a perfect example of truth in advertising. It is absolutely totally 100% smooshy. That is exactly the right word for it. It feels marvelous and knits up beautifully. Now somehow, I've yet to make my own pair of socks out of any of the Dream in Color yarns. A quick perusal of my stash reveals at least half a dozen skeins (including one duplicate color that I apparently loved enough to buy twice). I will have to do something to remedy [...]
In the Deep Dark Woods
Well not quite. These are actually the kind of woods I like. The kind with paved roads and air-conditioned cabins and screened-in porches and plumbing and beds. Civilized woods. Woods that have been carefully maintained to be convenient and comfortable. I don't have much use for the other sort of woods (the kind with wolves and tents and snakes and cliffs). I'm off at Salt Fork State Park with The Boy and his extended family. They've all been coming here every summer for decades, and it's become a much-loved tradition. (I just realized I've been coming off and on since [...]
Book Yarn, Part X
This is Serenity 20 by Zen Yarn Garden in the color Cherry Garcia. And unlike last time, there are no lies here. Zen is exactly the right word to describe this yarn. It's a lovely merino, cashmere, nylon blend, and it's just about irresistible. Zen Yarn Garden is another new company for me. I noticed that an awful lot of the socks I was clicking on on other people's sites were made with their stuff, and I had to check them out. I'm glad I did. Their blends are lovely, they have a beautiful color sense (reds...lots and lots of [...]
Book Yarn, Part IX
This picture is a blatant lie. It shows the lovely Shibui Knits yarn in Sock in the color Honey. That part that's all well and good. The lie part is the color. In a fickle moment, I ended up switching from the Honey you see here to the equally lovely Sand. Alas, I shamefully neglected to take a picture of the yarn in Sand before sending it off to get knit. I'm really hoping that this is the biggest organizational snafu I encounter in doing this book. The chances are small, but a girl can dream. I first found Shibui [...]
The Three Rs, Part Three
So day one was rowdy, and day two was reverent. Day three can perhaps best be called raucous. It was knitting with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, it was the final day, and we were all more than a bit slap happy. Things started out well enough. There was learning, there was sharing, there was swatching. We got to try out all the yarns we had dyed on the first day and several more as well. The wisdom of my decision to buy piles and piles of Silkie Sock was confirmed. My resistance to sweater knitting was substantially undermined. (Ya see that silvery [...]
Book Yarn, Part VIII
Next up is Silk Crush Sock by Sweet Georgia in Cypress. I'm going to take a dramatic and unexpected position here and recommend you not click on those links. Not, that is, unless you want to fritter away the next 45 minutes and who knows how many dollars in a sweaty, sticky, yarn-drenched daze. Sweet Georgia is new to me. I'd not seen their yarn or even heard of them before I started the book project. Then someone involved with the book sent me the link. I don't really remember the hour or so after that. A bit later yarn [...]
Book Yarn, Part VII
You thought I forgot, didn't you. Or perhaps you thought I forgot my Roman numerals. Somewhat to my surprise, I actually do remember them up through the thousands, which is really all you need. The delay in presenting book yarn has been entirely due to other distracting things going on. It's back now. This is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Fjord. Now I've not actually worked with Shepherd Sock myself. It's a teeny tiny bit too thin for me to use comfortably. Of course knitters vary, and this is actually a fairly classic sock weight. Scads of people use it [...]
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