My 200th Post!

Look at that, I finished those socks! I quite enjoyed knitting these, the pattern zips along quickly - just interesting enough to keep me engaged, but not so complicated as to require thinking.

There are definitely different kinds of knitters in the world, some seem to like the "easier the better" road, while others want each successive project to be more challenging than the last. I place myself firmly in the centre, choosing projects based entirely on my mood at the time, and more than willing to abandon said project if the mood takes me. I've done an awful lot of abandoning lately - projects that never make a blog appearance. For a few months now, I've been mourning the lose of my "knitting mojo", but I've come to realise that's not been the situation, that, in fact, I had lost my "mojo", as in for everything. I was dragging myself through the day feeling completely lost, but all is better now. Over the last two or three weeks I've done a complete scouring of the house (except for those continually appearing doggie foot prints coming in at the back door), I purged shelves, cabinets, dressers and filing cabinet and sent lots and lots off to charity and the shredders, and re-organised most every nook and cranny. The static that was running through my brain has ceased and a calmness has taken over.

Feels good.

I'm celebrating by setting aside all my other knitting projects and starting something new.



I started my first ever KAL - that's a knit-a-long, for those who don't know. A few people connected to Wolseley Wool started this one, and I jumped right in. We're working on the Rock Island Shawl by Jared Flood, a shawl pattern designed to be worked in either lace-weight or fingering-weight yarn. I'm working this in lace-weight Zephyr merino-silk blend in colourway Dianthus, an intense hot magenta. I've had this yarn for a few years now and thought it might be just the ticket for this pattern. I'm enjoying this very much, especially the part where I've set aside all the other projects first.

I'd like to take this opportunity to make an announcement... I'm not going to buy anymore new yarn for the next six months.

I know, I know.

I've done this before. What I really need to do is not buy anymore yarn until I've used everything I already have, which would make me at least 180 years old.

I've added an awful lot of yarn to the stash in the last few months, there's just always so many good sales this time of year...

want to see the last hank of yarn that made it into the house, just under the wire?

From the very wonderful Fyberspates in Oxfordshire...



their very wonderful Royal Wedding Yarn...



a stunning sapphire blue alpaca-merino-silk lace weight with silver thread running through...



I have no allocated project for this bit of loveliness, but one could come along at some point. Fyberspates has a shawl pattern for sale to go with the yarn, designed with hearts and horseshoes (traditional wedding symbols), but I thought it looked a tad unimpressive compared to the yarn, so I took a pass.

Don't start thinking I've gone completely royal wedding cuckoo, but I also snapped up a copy of this at Chapter's...



too funny...



comes complete with cardboard balcony to place all your finished figures on. I love the fact that Charles and Phillip look identical, except Phillip has more medals and tired eyes.

Have you seen this yet?



Love.

A Black Mood

Spring is beginning slowly outside the windows these days. There's still plenty of snow on the ground around here, but the sun is warm and strong and we all know it's only a matter of weeks before there'll be buds on the trees and clean streets - well, I suppose Winnipegers know that clean streets aren't going to happen until late May or early June, still, though....just a matter of time.

I haven't been posting much at all lately, due to a deep, dark ugly mood I found myself in through February and March, oddly, perhaps, I blame my knitting.

I've always had a fondness for dark, bold colours like black and charcoal and aubergine and I have, over the last five or six years, indulged in buying lots of yarn in those colours, often in lace-weight, stashing them away for future projects. Unfortunately, I noticed last year that my eyesight wasn't as good as it was once (I suspect bi-focals are in my future). I had a flash of brilliance, or so I thought, around Christmas, that in the new year I would work through all my darkest shades of lace-weight yarn, starting with the blackest of blacks that I owned, hence my starting of the Blackbird shawl mentioned a few posts ago. In fact, I'd planned on working projects in black yarn of all weights, and also started a fairisle yoke cardigan with black as the body colour. My thinking at the time was that I would work through the dark colours before it's beyond me, and would have lots and lots of my favourite colours to wear while I moved on to knit in other hues.

This was a terrible mistake. Often Winnipeg winters are filled with brilliant blue skies, bright yellow sun and sparkling white snow, making for a visually impressive, though brutally cold, few months - but not this year. This year we had lots of snow, too much, considering the flooding that's expected, which meant many, many overcast days. So, not just brutal, awful, bitter cold, but perpetual dreariness. Blah!

And, on top of this, stitch after stitch of black, black, black...

The Blackbird shawl continues to sit on my desk, slowly, slowly progressing. I know I'm going to love this project when it's finished, and suspect that I will wear it often so I'll continue work on it, but...

that cardi...

After knitting the main body and both sleeves (all in black), I started the fairisle yoke in shades of grays and white, and after knitting and knitting, all the way to nearly the end of the colourwork and nearing the neck, I thought to myself, "I don't like this. I'm never going to wear this. This depresses me."

and...

rrriiipp...



I tore it all out.

It was very liberating, like coming out of a fog.

To rid myself of the "blackness", I immediately pulled a brilliant red 4-ply from the yarn stash and knit a tam, Robin by Kim Hargreaves.



Colour, how I've missed you!

Also started a pair of gloves in teal Dk weight. This pattern is called Nouveau by Tanis Fiber Arts (that's a Ravelry link). These are being worked in the recommended yarn - Tanis Fiber Arts in Yellow Label DK.



More Colour!!!!

Also started, the Diversion sock pattern from Knitty's Winter 2009 issue. I'm not a huge fan of knitted socks, but saw a pair of these on display at Wolseley Wool, and could not be contained in the purchase of the same colourway of yarn and a plan to knit these up immediately. Yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in colourway Sweet Pea.



And then, one last final leap away from the dark; I purchased a hank of Sweet Georgia Merino Silk Lace from Wolseley Wool in colourway Dutch, a very uncharactersitic (for me) orange.



Wowsers! Now that's not black, you have to admit. I don't have an immediate project for this, but I suspect my desire to work with this yarn will make my search brief.

Onwards, springtime!