Yarn Along

Forgive the late night picture lighting again.  I wanted to finish up the little wool soaker before I snapped the picture.  It’s been my handwork when I’m sitting in Elias’ room waiting for him to fall asleep at nap time.  When I’m not there, he gets up and plays and never sleeps, and he’s a bear to deal with when he doesn’t sleep.  So I sit in there for anywhere from 5-45 minutes every afternoon as he looks bored in his bed.  15 minutes might be a good guess at some sort of average.

I used my Buttercup Soaker pattern, which I notice very plainly was written B.K. (Before Katherine, my tech editor).  I had this pattern tested, but never tech edited, and there were several things in there that I noticed were of the standard I have set for myself now.  Still, I think anyone familiar with knitting can navigate it.  It’s been reviewed well, so that has to count for something. 

I made a size small for our little one due in 6 weeks.  The rainbow yarn leftovers has been in my scrap bin for ages, and I used it all up before I got to the leg bands, so those ended up an ivory color. I may put some ivory embroidery on the bum just to make it look more “planned” that way.  I’m going through some major yarn stash purging these days.  I want this yarn used up!

I’ve been a bit lost in knitting projects ever since I finished the Clarity cardigan.  I really enjoyed that knit, and the endless stockinette stitch that I could take anywhere and work on anytime.  It was so peaceful to knit, and finishing it was like finishing a good book.  Of course you want to get to the end, but it’s also a bit sad because you start to miss hearing what’s going on with the characters.

I suppose I’ve never compared my knitting to a book like that, but that’s the exact feeling I’m going through.  I miss that yarn. I miss that pattern.  I don’t miss the sweater though.  I’m wearing it all the time. 

I’ve had 2 more patterns in the queue to work on, one being a shawl using that brown alpaca yarn in the photo.  My local yarn store gave it to me because a local yarn “grower” (is that the right term?) supplies them with this lovely yarn, and they thought if they could get some local yarn and a local designer working together, magic things could happen.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this yarn to pieces.  However, working on a shawl design as requested hasn’t been as easy as I’d hoped.  I’ve gone through nearly 10 sketches, and I have knit up over 4 swatches, and none of them seem to fit this yarn in the way I had imagined.  It’s so earthy and soft and wholesome…I just want a design that would fit those characteristics, and I just haven’t found it.  Plus, I’m in no mood to be doing constantly-thinking-knitting these days.  I miss my hours of stockinette stitch.

So as a hopeful remedy, I’ve picked up another design that I wasn’t planning on working on until way after Christmas.  (Hence, the pink lace weight Madelinetosh yarn in the photo.)  Seriously, I should be doing Christmas knitting instead.  However, this design has been sketched swatched, number crunched, and just waiting to be cast on for over 2 months.  It has tons of mindless knitting to it, and I just thought maybe I could sneak ahead just a little to this project.  I need that therapy these days.  Maybe I’ll pick up my fair isle/charted Christmas knitting next week.

I’m very proud of myself that as I have actually made time for some more Kristin Lavransdatter.  I still love this trilogy, and am in the middle of the second book.  I was worried when we returned from vacation this Summer that I wouldn’t ever have time for it, and I got so distracted that it wasn’t ever finished.

The characters drew me back in, though, and I’m enjoying the depth of this writing so much, once again.  I’ve only managed  to find time for about 2 chapters in the last week, but that’s still something!  I’ve needed a bit of literature back in my life, and I feel all the better for it.  The characters in this book are so incredibly real and human, it’s stunning.  It’s beautiful art.  No wonder it won a Nobel.

For all who found my blog through Ginny and her wonderful Yarn Along, thanks for stopping by!  For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, you can always click on this link, and see Ginny’s beautiful blog and her list of other bloggers who are chatting today about what they are knitting and reading.