two knits of ivory

With the exception of sock yarn, I am, for some unknown reason, not comfortable stashing much yarn. The presence of these yarns in my bins triggers a constant, uncomfortable, OCD-esque humming in my mind. In the past few weeks, as the spring fogginess dispersed, the hum picked up and I have been driven to find the perfect project for ALL of the non fingering (or lighter) weight yarns in my stash. Project 1: Patons Classic Merino Afghan 1. Log Cabin #1 , 2. Log Cabin #2 , 3. Log Cabin 3.0 , 4. IMG_1448 Over a year ago, I picked up 18 skeins of Patons Classic Merino, for an afghan to match a summer quilt. I originally planned on knitting a striped chevron but I got as far as the swatch before moving on. This winter I fell in love with garter stitch when knitting a BSJ jacket and got on the log cabin wagon. On my first attempt I thought I'd double up the yarn, alternating the solid sections with a section mixing the colors every other half row. After finishing the first row I realized...

Sunday found me wiping my knitting plate clean, so to speak. I accepted that the log cabin afghan, which had been thrown over for a chevron afghan, was no longer a project, and that the Malabrigo lime and blue scarf/cowl/wtf should be frogged and put away, also. I then whipped out my swift and my ball winder and lost myself in making sock yarn cakes. When the cakes were done, I frogged my jewel rib sock and recaked the yarn. My knitting heart is elsewhere and I need a fresh start to take full enjoyment of it. So where is my mind? Two places. I hit an LYS Sunday and picked up these two beauties: I truly don't understand this direction my interest is taking, as I don't wear lace, and am not a lacy, ethereal, delicate type of gal. But my desire goeth there, so musteth I. I think my recent blogstalking of Cookie , over at Shut Up and Knit is making me a wannabe. Dogged Knit's Ashley's recently completed Shetland Triangle probably played a part, too. But as I contemplate ...

I wasn't that inspired to post today, or lately, to be honest. Yet, I was over at Peaknit's blog , catching up on my blogstalking, and saw her sweet happy birthday message to her mom, who so happens to be a leap year baby. Obviously, leap year birthdays are rare, and probably relished all the more so because of this and so I immediately thought it would be good to mark today's date on my blog for the same reason. But what to talk about, as all my knitting are slogs? I'm still vacillating on whether to restart my La Digitessa's using a more appropriate yarn. It worked like a charm on my first pair of Firestarters . Yet....I'm just not ready to give up. I think as soon as I'm done with Blue Wavering , I'm going to hit these full force and not frog and restart. Speaking of Blue Wavering, I frogged the first sock back to the start of the gusset two days ago and am just about to begin the short-rowing on the heel. I just might have these done this weekend if...

Maybe it's the barometric pressure, or too much political punditry in the air, but in the past week I've had knitting mush for brains. I'm closing in on a few things but I also feel like I'm getting no where. (I so wanted to add an "s" on that!) Monday night, desperate for a new hat, I took out my needles, cast on eight stitches using Judy's magic cast on, and just knitted. I wasn't sure I was going to like what I came up with, but I needed an FO in this yarn, in the worst way. By Tuesday evening my mission was accomplished. Because of the overal ribbing, and the width I chose to knit in, it fits like a cloche. I expect it to expand more after its first wash. I have a strong disinclinition for tight clothing, so hat sizing is always a gamble for me. I'm in love with the striping going on as the hat's circumference increased. I just wish I could get the companion scarf to do that. After multiple tries last night, I had to give up. I...

I shoulda started Cornucopia's companion gift socks, but I didn't; I started Christmas Balls socks , instead. In my defense, these will be gifts, too. And I shoulda waited until I finished The Queens Forest (48 inches!) before starting another scarf, but I didn't. My defense, your honors? Malabrigo . Understandable, no? Ever since picking up some awesome variegated Manos del Uruguay at Rhinebeck, I've been mulling over a hat, scarf and glove winter set. The Manos winter set is meant for my work coat, a camel hair car coat. The rest of my coats, which I wear far more often, are almost all exclusively blue. Light blue, dark blue, navy blue, teal blue. The wish for a new winter set for my non work coats grew stronger as my indecision on what to do with the Manos grew. And then Hobbygasa knit her My So-Called Scarf in a very similar colorway. How could I improve on that? Then after day in and out of looking at the fabulous colorway of Ripley's latest s...