two knits of ivory

As noted earlier in the week, Project Stole c'est finis! Oui! Oui! I rushed home yesterday hoping to take some photos of me modelling the stole before the sun set. I took many photos, most sucked. If I liked the pose, the stole wasn't sharply detailed; if the picture was crisp, I hated the pose. C'est la vie, non? You'd think that would stop me from posting far too many pics but it wont. (I do think, though, I've gotten this French thing out of my system!) Ahhh! Project Stole, how I love thee, let me count the ways. I am a little ashamed at how proud I am of this project. It's not that it was difficult, because it wasn't. It's just that it is really one of the first things I've designed and implemented and completed sucessfully, with the stress on implemented. I'm one of those people who always bites off more than they chew, as my recent foray into sewing can testify to. My eyes are bigger than not only my talent, but my fortitude. Someh...

Once upon a time there were 15 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran in my stash. Abracadabra (aka four months later) now there are four! I had been using classic Clover circulars to knit this up, with a dpn for cabling. That is up until this Sunday when the unrepentant nature of the joins finally made me switch to straights. I haven't used straights in a long, long while. My recent conversion to toe up socks has resulted in an unexpected conversion to using Addi Turbo's which in turn has spoiled me for my Clover circulars. I'm still not fond of the metal but I looooove the placid joins, so much so I've lost all patience with the obstinacy of my Clovers'. This project has definitely become a slogalong, but not a bad one. No. The yarn's texture is akin to Malabrigo so it remains a distinct pleasure to knit. It's just the unending length and absence of visible progress that saps my interest. I thrive on visible progress. Who doesn't? I'm convinced that'...

For some knitters the summer slows them down, for me it sped up my knitting. I hate the heat and find myself locked indoors with the A/C. Now that the weather has cooled (at least for last week, it's supposed to 71 degrees tomorrow where the Rhinebeck festival is happening!) I can finally get out of my cocoon and this has definitely slowed down my knitting. But maybe it's not only the weather. The design element I've introduced to Blueberry Moon has left me a bit dispirited. I all but finished one wrist and I'm stalled. I'm not sure it's what I want and I'm too afraid to forge ahead and find myself needing to frog it again. So it's 'resting.' But my mind wasn't. Between this and the disapprobation I feel because of the Firestarter socks, I feel I've been thrown off my knitting groove. It took me a few days to remember knitting is supposed to be fun and that I had another great project I could work on that is all love, Project ...

I love my Project Stole . I love the yarn and the amazing texture of the pattern. The shawl is over 20 inches long at this point. I started the fifth ball of yarn on Saturday. I think I'm gonna need about 80 inches in pre-blocked length to get a finished length of at least 60 inches. This yarn is very springy and will probably respond strongly to blocking. Knitter's Review , reports that the yarn expands about 5% once it's been washed and blocked. I'm counting on this. Only 10 1/2 balls to go. Although I'm dying to wrap this around me, I'm enjoying every stitch and am in no rush to finish.

Wednesday night I decided on the motif to use for Project Stole's white space and then threw caution to the wind and cast on. I felt such an instant relief to be knitting instead of designing. Designing is fraught with so much fear that it is a wonder I do it. But I do. I'm still struggling with knowing when to stop and just dive in. Yet when I do stop and start knitting and see the following, all the stress is forgotten in that brief moment. The Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran yarn is so sumptuous. I know I've gone on and on about this yarn but it is so soft and lofty, and it knits so easily. It shows off the texture of the design as well as I had hoped. Notice how it's not on needles? Well that length you see represents about 80 yards of yarn and it's less than 3 inches long so I'm gonna have to frog and begin again with less of the modified seed stitch if I'm gonna make a length anywhere near 60 inches. And the yarn isn't that blue, it's more like the gra...

I am Obsessed with a capital O. I hit the books on Sunday and I found pretty quickly I couldn't get this Embossed Twining Vine Leaf pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury out of my mind. The past three days have all been about finding a way to incorporate this into a pattern for the stole. It has been either what I have been physically doing or what I have been mentally doing while my body goes about without my full attention. Poor hubby has had to repeat himself over and over again as I can't concentrate enough to listen. Finally last night I put away the Excel spreadsheets and bound off the above swatch and moved on to the simple joy of stockinette sock knitting: Once I come to the heel turning, I always begin the second sock. That way I don't mess the whole thing up. Today I'm back at it again and tonight I'll be home swatching the prospective white space.

I always knew I was full of shitola. Always. Yes, right there are 13 skeins of Jo Sharp Silkwood Aran in the Empire colorway. The other two skeins are in my knitting basket, as I've already started tampering with them. I just couldn't help myself. And let me add, that's just the tip of my hypocrisy. The tip. I bought three different types of sock yarn. Three. In my defense I lugged up the entire stash and have put in motion a method of getting rid of the stuff I know I'll never use. The rest I'm going to photograph for Ravelry so that I'll never forget what I have.