I think I've explained before just how much of my organizational scheme depends on buckets.  When I start a new book, it gets three buckets.  As yarn comes in, it goes in bucket one.  Once I've swatched it, the swatches and tags go in bucket two (while the yarn itself usually goes out to Super Stunt Knitters for the actual knitting).  When the pieces are finished, they go in bucket three.  Once bucket three is full and bucket one empty, it's photo shoot time! I have a similar situation for individual patterns, just a bit less structured.  That less structured [...]

So the cowl grew and grew and grew. And then at some point, it was done.  Bound off, flippy as all get out (as you'd expect from stockinette), and ready for a soak. And here's where the magic happened.  I soaked it, squeezed it out, and flopped it on my desk.  No pins.  No wires.  No tension at all.  Just soak and plop (it will get a more formal blocking later, I was just testing a theory).  And look at that. It laid down flat.  Not a bit less flippy, not more or less ok, but flat.   Now part [...]

Well that's just unreasonably lovely. And yes, yes it's simple.  It's just leaves, and leaves are easy to knit.  But there's something rather delightful about these.  I can't quite decide if I want to hurry up and be done (so I can block it and pet it and generally admire it) or if I want to take my time (so I can have the pleasure of knitting it for a while longer).

So some things are awfully hard to photograph.  The difference in texture between the pre & post blocking version of this yarn is one of them.  Part of that's my fault (I didn't take a picture of the actual swatch before I soaked it, so you can't quite compare like with like just yet), but part of it is just yarn magic and not to be questioned.It looks like this before blocking.  Pay special attention to the stretches of stockinette.  See how there is a good bit of space between the stitches and between the legs of each stitch? But [...]

We're in the 'wait, what's going on here? Are you sure this is right?' stage of the project.  But if my swatches can be trusted (and they usually can), this is going to be marvelous in a few more rounds. We're going to have to talk about yarn floofiness soon (that thing some magic yarns do where they puff up and become even more cohesive after blocking).  This yarn has exceptional floofiness, and it's a topic that needs to be explored.  But first, a few more rounds... Oh, and if you're wondering, the yarn is Blend 1 from Ysolda.  Which [...]