two knits of ivory

It's December 23rd and I know where my happiness is. I've got 178 days to the longest day of the year and the beginning of the heat. Yeehaw! The sky was pretty gray this morning as I walked the dogs and cat. Yet it was awesome not wearing socks and needing only a light jacket. I look forward to this time of year when the days start to get longer and the ground freezes so that the animals don't track in muck. Oh, here's to the simple pleasures in life: a little less muck. Malabrigo Worsted in the Applewood Colorway It won't be long until I'm despairing the lack of vibrancy and color in the outside world. Until then I will extol the freedoms that winter brings: Remarkably less feelings of guilt while sitting indoors watching movies/knitting/playing video games. The 45 minutes it now takes to blow my hair out will be wasted 5%, rather than 95% of the time. Woolly socks and sweaters every day if I want! Yeah! And Christmas. It's almost Chri

(Me and the swift and winder aren't on the best of terms.) Several variables of the Evenstar project have fallen effortlessly (cough, cough) into place. One of these is the yarn I have chosen to use, Madelinetosh's Pashmina . Pashmina is a fingering weight yarn in an intoxicating concoction of 75% superwash wool, 15% silk, and 10% cashmere. I am using the Filigree colorway. How I became the owner of six skeins of this yarn is a tale as old as Christmas. I purchased a crapload of Pashmina from Kaleidescope Yarns - the most excessive being three skeins of the Filigree - on September 5, 2010. On September 11 I began an Ishbel with a skein of the Filigree and became so intoxicated with the yarn and the colorway I was moved to buy the three remaining skeins they had in this colorway. Now was three all they had left? I think so, but my memory is shit. I just remember thinking that I had to have enough of this yarn and 1080 yards wasn't enough. Not enough. 2160

So I'm finally doing some "real" knitting (pronounced like the real part of realpolitik ). And I think I'm going to do some "real" knit blogging about it. I'm challenging myself after a long, long period of comfort knitting. I have begun my Evenstar and it has returned my Christmas joy. In the past week I have a) chosen the pattern I hope to enter into the 2011 Topsfield Fair b) knit two (read it and weep lazy knittahs! not one but two!) swatches of the star pattern c) found the perfect yarn in my stash!!! (Ergo, I'm frugal AND I can start on the project while my excitement burns brightest!) d) analyzed my yarn for the optimal order in which to knit the skeins e) begun project; and finally f) continue to bask in the glow of my accomplishments to date! So first up in this "real" blogging event: the swatches. Swatch 1: The swatches are knit in spare Lana Grossa Meilenweit 50 Seta/Cashmere , leftovers from my first p

Madelinetosh Vintage in the Fragrant Colorway You know I've been dying to talk smack about Elizabeth Zimmerman. I have such a well of resentment towards the Zimmerman-industrial-knitting-sycophant-complex, it overfloweth. I need to drain it. But. But. But. But. It's not ready. Not yet. But I'm hoping to be. Some day. Either that or I'll get over my desire. And I'm kinda positive that either prospect will work for me. What I'd rather talk about is the opposite end of the spectrum, a knit designer worth underwriting. I don't read her blog or follow her on ravelry or elsewhere, but I've been drawn to her patterns time and again and this week I finally got off my duff and purchased three. The designer is Susan Pandorf . That patterns I purchased are Evenstar , Rivendell , and Snowdrift . Temperamentally, I am more like the matter-of-fact Zimmerman than the unicorn and rainbows Pandorf, but when it comes to getting you're m