Some Cool Stuff
Sometimes you have to shut up and finish stuff. That’s what I’ve been doing all of this quiet month. I’m not quite ready to show my shawl test knit off yet, but I have gotten some photos with unwoven ends still blowing in the breeze. Again.
I’ve also been amassing a pile of future projects, sale yarn, not-so-sale yarn, knit-along entries, and books. So, I thought I would share some new and upcoming things.
First up is a book I supported as a Kickstarter, Midwestern Knits by Allyson Dykhuizen and Carina Spencer.
If you’ve been here before you know I can’t seem to stop knitting things Allyson has created or curated. So, buying this was a no-brainer. It is full of great projects. I would like to knit every single one. But the ones that I keep going back to look at and plan for are Furrowed Pullover, Furniture City, On the Motorway, Sweater of Broad Shoulders, Midtown, Blowing Snow Cardigan, and River Walk Mitts. That’s all. It’s just seven more sweaters, right? I have yarn for the mitts right now and probably at least one of the worsted sweaters. Obviously, I won’t be casting any on immediately because I’m still participating in several knit and make-alongs, but eventually some of this will be happening.
Speaking of the midwest, another cool thing happening there is Annie’s Craft Festival from October 30 – November 1.
A ravelry friend told me about it and, though it isn’t close enough to Texas for me to go, it does sound like the kind of thing I’d love to do one day. I’ve still not been to a large yarn event with classes and vendors. This one seems to encompass all the crafts knitters like to branch off into plus things I wouldn’t expect, like floral arrangement and painting. Early bird rates are $15 until the end of the month.
And the last cool thing…sort of… is that I’m finally making that Sarah Lund styled sweater I’ve been hoarding Cascade Eco for. I’m excited about the sweater, but only after I threw a fit that my Drift’s Ridge was, again, too loosely knit in the body. It seems the stranded part was the perfect gauge because I was working with double the amount of fiber there. When I moved to the plain stockinette, my hands wouldn’t cooperate. I’m angry with fingering weight yarn. Look at the four inches of beautiful progress I had to rip out for the second time. Wasn’t it glorious?
Too bad it balloons out after the armhole as if the Michelin Man requested a hand knit fair isle sweater. I’m not ripping out the top to start the whole thing over in a smaller size! That is the most perfect color work I have ever accomplished. It stays. So, I’ve gotten some size 0 Karbonz in hopes that if I work carefully…and patiently… I will achieve the proper gauge.
So the answer to my frustration at having nothing to show for this year’s Summer Sweater Knit-along was to bust out the Cascade Eco and some bulky Sweet Georgia I got a few months ago to make a spur of the moment Sarah Lund sweater. I’ll post more on it later because, people, I am making stuff up as I go and it’s going to be a very funky sweater based on Alicia Plummer’s Bulky Ease.
