This may come as a surprise, but the photo above represents my entire haul from Stitches West this time around. I went in vowing to be good, and boy was I! There were two yarns I knew I wanted to see: the new Shepherdess Worsted from Sincere Sheep (whose yarns you know I love) and the Heirloom from Fancy Tiger Crafts. The Shepherdess was love at first sight but I had to pick just one. (For now, anyway; it may be coming soon to Fringe Supply.) The Heirloom was … hm, underwhelming. It was a little lost in the booth I found it in, and the colors didn’t wow me the way I’d expected. I walked away from it, bummed. But on my way out of the show, I decided to go ahead and buy one and see if it would grow on me. I picked a really great super-dark plum, which seems to be a thing with me lately, and found myself repeatedly touching and gazing at it on the long drive home. So on that front, I’m hopeful. And, shopping aside, it was great to see some of you and make some new acquaintances, too.
If you had a great and productive knitting weekend, will you please tell me about it so I can live vicariously? Mine was very frustrating! I was all excited to cast on for my Garance, and expected to have made great progress by now, but no siree, that did not happen.
If I knit this sweater with the prescribed — and purchased — yarn, it will be the most expensive sweater I’ve ever owned. And since, on top of that, I talked myself into this rather daring (for me) color combo, I’m taking the swatching very seriously. Will you laugh if I tell you it took me almost the entire length of Beasts of the Southern Wild just to wind a skein of the cobweb mohair? So all I managed to knit that night was one small swatch, and when I saw it in daylight on Saturday, well, I did not swoon. Reserving judgment and exploring options, I knit another swatch with just the silk Heichi, no mohair, to see if that felt more “me.” And then I soaked them both. The combo swatch is a beautiful piece of fabric, soft and fuzzy and freakishly like the impression I have of the sweater that inspired the purchase. But it’s just not me. The silk-only swatch is perfectly nice but I’m still not dying to wear it. So I either need to do the silk-mohair combo in a neutral, or send it all back and pick a different yarn for this sweater. Drat.
After that, I turned to my Guillemet hat but wound up figuratively throwing it across the room. The yarn I’ve been knitting it in is so painfully, horribly, depressingly boring that I just can’t bring myself to finish it, no matter how much I like the design.
Nothing makes me quite as itchy as three days with effectively no knitting. So someone, please, tell me an uplifting tale of projects gone right!
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Love the color palette of the Heirloom. I am impressed at your ability–restraint?–to choose just one. I stayed up way too late watching the Oscars, partly because I was hoping to see that Best Actress statue in the hands of that amazing child from Beasts, but partly because I got hooked on finishing the match to a Noro fingerless mitt. I was so close, but couldn’t do it–the thumb is still on the waste yarn.
I have a rule about thumbs — I never do them at night. It’s always tempting because they don’t take very long, but I prefer to do them in daylight with a fresh brain.
Ah, yes! I have thought often about idioms that come to mind when knitting, and “all thumbs” is apropos in this situation. So many times while knitting I am figuratively unraveling, or too tightly wound.
I did not get as much knitting done as I had hoped, either, but my knitting project itself was very productive as booth bait!
Great to see you! I’m sorry you missed Stef. Everyone loves their bags.
You too! Sorry we didn’t get to spend more time.
I was thwarted by hand pain and sick children! I feel the pain of no progress
Oh, ack! Rest up that hand, for sure.
Sorry to hear you’re not going to do the lavish spurge sweater, Karen. I’m blazing away on my chunky black forest sweater and loving it. I don’t think I’ll ever go under a size 13 needle again. You posted it here a month ago under Three Movie Sweater pattern. It’s nice and cozy in the chunky malibrigo wool. Perfect for Iceland trip coming up.
I am VERY impressed with the restraint! I don’t think I could have done it.
Nothing exciting to report on the knitting front. I spent all day yesterday trying to plan details and get the ‘right’ grey for my dragonflies and don’t think I have cracked it. Swatch drying and fingers crossed, or I may have to give it another go. Eesh.
Oh no, poor you. There you had knitting time on your hands but your knitting wasn’t cooperating. I spent a nice chunk of time knitting on a pair of socks yesterday which wasn’t especially exciting but very satisfying. Your persistence will pay off!
Super impressed on your restraint from stash enhancement…not sure I could have done it. My knitting has been super scattered lately, can’t stay focused for more than an hour on much of anything. Back on my Pop blanket at the moment, it actually will be a pillow rather than a blanket. Managed 9 squares so I will have a lovely 15″ x 15″ pillow!
I had to go look that up — I love your interpretation of it!