Titles are hard

Well, that was an unexpected hiatus.  Let’s see what’s been going on lately.

 

One of my best friends got married (congratulations again!)  I was a bridesmaid and the dresses were strapless, so I knit up a shrug using some yarn that I bought at the Sock Summit for just that purpose.  I was knitting this as we drove to the ceremony- it’s a good thing that the location was so far away!

The yarn is Toe Jammies Merino-Tencel, from Sweet Grass Wool in Mulberry.  I really liked this yarn.  It’s soft with a delightful shine and didn’t split at all.  The pattern for the shrug was pretty much improvised as I knit.  It started circularly, with a few rounds of moss stitch and then a few rounds of Larkspur Lace (which I used in these gloves.)  Then I worked the shrug flat until I nearly went insane the night before the wedding and when my sanity was hanging on by a mere thread, I joined it back in the round and worked the other “sleeve” in the opposite order.  Actually, it was all finished, even with some blocking, by the time I got in the car to leave, but then I stupidly decided that since I had an extra hour I would add a moss stitch border to the flat section.  And I finished it too… except that I wasn’t paying attention when I cast off (there might have been some champagne involved) and the cast off was too tight to get the shrug on.  So I ripped out the border and all was well.

 

Then I rushed to finished a last-minute submission to Knitty.  Unfortunately, if I show you any part of it, I would have to kill you.  So, that will remain a mystery until I hear back from them.  I think I can show you the yarn I used, though, this very pretty Malabrigo Sock in Persia.  The design uses twisted stitches which have become so much of an obsession that I’m actually dreaming about them.

 

After that, I had an unexpected and fun visit from my dad.  We took a day trip to Mt. St. Helens and hiked around there as well as doing some biking closer to home.  We also had a good time being dorks in the Sci Fi Museum.  But there wasn’t much knitting, so I’ll leave it at that.

 

And finally, which brings us up to yesterday, I sent off a submission to Yarn Forward for an issue later this year.  Again, I can’t show you anything but the yarn, which is Cherry Tree Hill’s Sockittome in Loden.  I like this yarn a lot (the stitch definition is great!), although it knit into a very stiff and somewhat scratchy fabric.  After a good, aggressive blocking (a treatment I rarely pull out for socks) the yarn softened up and the fabric became soft and pliable.  Amazingly enough, the socks that I submitted have absolutely zero, nada, no twisted stitches in them!

 

 

In positive news, I just remembered that I have a few patterns all written up from last year that I’ve been saving for this fall.  Those should be up soon!

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