My yarn is caked, I have written this blog post on Thursday so know that my day will be consumed with casting on and knitting as much as I can before Steve gets home from work today. Then, the sweater will have a bit of a rest until next Thursday which will start the close of my knitting marathon.
I hope to get beyond the Great Sleeve Divide! Way beyond!
Now, I am really concerned that this is not at all possible, mainly because of the Bang Out a Sweater insanity… FYI that took me a total of 35 hours from start to finish (which is like 9 hours of knitting time per day… oy). But, I am ignoring that number and just going for it! Either that, or the summer heat has totally fried my poor brain. But, we shall see. I will be sharing progress posts via Instagram, so stay tuned!
OH!!! And Hello LONG weekend! It is a nice 4-day weekend here and poor Monday will actually get some weekend love in my house! Woo hoo!
Stillwater #1 is progressing, but it is obviously not a “4-day knit” for me, but I am moving in the right direction. I have one more repeat to do before I begin the bottom ribbing.
The rainy weekend we have on tap will enable lots of knitting time, which is a good thing so I can then get on to the sleeves and the front ribbing. This sweater needs to be done before I can cast on Stillwater #2. The Stillwater KAL begins next Friday, you still have swatching time!
I am going to swatch again with one larger size needle to see what that fabric looks like (bonus, if I like it, perhaps I can knit a smaller sized sweater which would help the speed of the knitting, right?)
I also need to work through Clue #2 for TTL MKAL. So, really, I don’t mind the rain at all!
I began listening to Lincoln in the Bardo today – so far, so much good!
Did you love Peace Knitting? Do you miss it? Then you will be happy to see Eunomia! (It began yesterday, but I think you would be okay to begin today! AND, there is a discount code that will work through tonight!)
Finally, who besides me is like, how the heck is it the last weekend in June??? Umm, Summer? Can you slow down?? Please?
I had a few things to get done yesterday morning and then Steve and I took a bit of a walk out at Boyce Mayview. It was my first walk since my tumble and it went well, although a bit warm with the heat yesterday afternoon! And, I am happy to report that there are no ill effects this morning! Now if only my skinned knee and all the lovely bruises would fade away!
My reward for all that was to knit a bit last night. I did a few rows on Stillwater, but my main goal was to get KK’s MKAL cast on! I am through half of the repeats for the first clue. I hope to have this finished up quickly this morning so I can get back to that sweater!
For you Summer Knit-Alongers – how are things going? Have any of you like me, reset your knitting list? I do have one Montadale Sock almost done, the toe just needs to be kitchnered – the perfect thing to accompany happy hour, perhaps! Now, here’s the kicker – I know that I cast on with a different sized needle, however because I am so smart (NOT), I did not write down what I did. So, I will have to do a bit of trial and error in the casting on of sock two… Note to self: There are Ravelry notes for a reason, right?
Speaking of Happy Hour! I have a beverage to share with you all. Tonight, I am doing my take on this! Rather than bourbon, I am going to substitute Vanilla Crown tonight, I will let you know how it turns out!
And, finally this week, I was surprised that I had never seen any patterns before by Marie Greene (the Stillwater designer). I was pleasantly surprised with her selection in her ravelry store, but these really caught my eye:
The past week we have watched a little (but feisty) brown wren decide he liked the cardinal house Steve’s mom gave me for Christmas was JUST what he needed for a nest. Some poor bird had previously begun building a nest in it but abandoned the idea. Well, enter this little wren – he spent last Friday and Saturday tossing out all the “old” nesting material and then began the “building” process. He has filled this nest and now he is singing and chattering to all the ladies that he has the perfect nest for her! I was even nice to brush Sherman this morning and leave her some choice Pug Down to line the nest! (In case you don’t know, Pug’s are the best pets ever except they shed VOLUMES year around, but Spring and Fall they are especially sheddy!) I feel like all I need is for David Attenborough narration.
On the knitting front, I have made little to no progress on anything. But, that is okay, because my reading that was derailed by the great mulch move, got back on track. Last night I finished The Likeness, watch for the review next week! Today, I hope to start Americanah.
Now, how about some links?
Knitty First Fall is up… and while I have not been impressed with much of late in Knitty, this time a couple of things did catch my eye. First up Romi has this and I love them! And, then Martina Behm has this interesting cowl.
But, for me, this was the winner of the week. Stillwater is gorgeous and I have it on my list to swatch for this weekend. FYI, there is a coupon code that is good through Saturday!
Some weeks it is a challenge to find a handful of good things to share with you, this was not one of those weeks.
I apologize in advance for Inspiration Overload and for increasing your knitting queue…
Okay, maybe not that last part! LOL
This week I messaged Kirsten Kapur on Ravelry letting her know that a good number of us were jonesing for her Summer MKAL (She says Hi, btw!)
NEVER FEAR, her MKAL is HERE! I did the dance of joy and instantly purchased the pattern, which is offered at a special price until June 15 when Clue #1 comes out! This year’s shawl is a two-color asymmetrical triangle and she recommends a solid or near solid for both colors!
Yesterday, I began the search for suitable yarns in my stash and imagine my insane surprise when I discovered that I have enough handspun yarn to knit the project. I know! I must get the gold singles plied, but I will get that done over the weekend. I had originally thought that the yarn would be nice as a singles yarn, but I think it will be much better plied up. I do not even remember who dyed this gorgeous golden BFL, but I love the richness of it. I do know that I got it at Michigan Fiber Festival a long time ago (Karen, do you remember this?) They grey yarn is some BFL from Briar Rose Fibers – there are hints of lavender and gold in the yarn.
I have been plugging away at my “sample” of Alex the Mouse knit from MillaMia cotton. I ran into a bit of a gauge problem on his ears (okay, more than a bit – a HUGE gauge problem!!) Apparently my stranding gauge when knitting flat is significantly different from plain stockinette. Thus, there was an almost 1 inch difference between my ear fronts and backs. Strangely, NO ONE ELSE HAD THIS PROBLEM??? Huh? How the heck is that even possible? I was the first to even pose this as a problem in the Ravelry thread – and the KAL has been going on for almost a month! Anyway, my solution was to knit to fit the ear front. This means knitting row by row and carefully matching up front and back to determine how many increases to do, where to do the increases, how long to knit “straight”, and then repeat the process on the decreases. The match was still not exact, but I did manage to get the fronts and backs joined nicely. I will repeat this process on ear two. Then on to the legs, arms, and tail!
Finally, I present the long overdue Ekua socks (aka TTL Mystery Sock 2017) I am quite pleased with how they turned out. I LOVE the cabling and the overall sock construction.
There were some great adult sweaters this week as well from the summery Shaelas Top or Linho. But, if you want to get a jump start on the perfect fall sweater – Telja is gorgeous!
Free Your Fade – please note, a portion of the sales of this pattern will go to help Michele of the Republic of Wool who is having a bit of a medical crisis. There is also a gofundme account to help her.
I love when a designer “makes a pattern new again” by knitting it with a new yarn… just like KK did here with Moody Kerchief. The original yarn is no longer available and I think it looks great knit out of Luma! Also, “Simple stitch patterns make the Moody Kerchief a breeze to knit.” What more can you ask for. Oh and this is knit with a DK yarn… just saying!
