stash, knit, repeat

I wouldn’t have thought there was any such thing. But as it turns out, there is. I present to you the sum total of my knitting in the last 11 days.

Oh, yeah. That hurts. Especially since almost all of the progress you see was from this weekend, when I finally started to feel a little better. When awake and conscious, I’ve been reading instead. It provides a much better escape from reality for me than knitting. And on the bright side, the Jhereg series (Brust) and David McCullough’s “Truman” were all pretty good reads. But lordy, am I ready to be knitting again. February’s sock plan seems somewhat derailed, but hopefully I can catch up by the end of March. Assuming I can stay well!

The sock is “Conwy” from “Knitting on the Road”, and it’s in Sundara sock yarn from the Seasons Club. My latest installment in the club arrived this weekend, and it got me thinking about whether or not I want to re-subscribe.

(Fingering silky merino, “Autumn Rose”)

I was admittedly nervous about signing up for a club where I couldn’t approve the colors of the yarn beforehand. The ability to pick a season eventually won me over–with her descriptions, I was sure that autumn would provide me with a nice, warm, deep set of fall colors. Without any pink or yellow, which I have a lot of difficulty wearing. Here’s the collection so far, at 4 months out of 6:

Now, let’s make no bones about this: Sundara is a genius with color, the yarn itself is incredibly high quality, and I’m sure I will knit something I love out of all 4 yarns. That said…

I don’t really think that either the autumn rose silky merino or the “copper over bamboo” silk lace are fall colors. In fact, maybe it’s just my hank, but I don’t see the copper at all in the silk lace. I’m currently knitting the cleopatra wrap out of it, and I’m sure it’ll be stunning. And I can think of several people who would look great in a scarf out of the silky merino (which is way too pale for me to be able to wear). But do I really want to sign up for more of this? I’m okay with the occasional stretch color, but I don’t think I’d be okay if I signed up for another year of this club and fully half of the yarn was in a color so outside what I consider to be seasonally appropriate.

(By the way, the description of the autumn on Sundara’s website is this: “warm, fall colors with some complexity, an emphasis on browns, greens, reds and oranges”)

Again, I don’t want anyone to read this as a bash on Sundara. She’s really incredible, and at least as far as the ravelry group is concerned I’m in the vast minority. Several autumn subscribers have listed the silky merino as their favorite colorway yet. And like I said, the yarn is scrumptious, and since I’m just not the type to browse to a website to buy yarn, I wouldn’t be very likely to knit with it unless I resubscribe to the club.

Ugh. Can you tell I’m conflicted? So tell me: What do you think? Are these fall colors? Am I crazy? What would you do, if you were in my shoes?

Faced with two larger projects that seem to be dragging on forever, I decided I needed something simple.

Conwy sock, in Sundara sock yarn, color “bronzed sienna”. My second project on the needles right now with the Seasons Club yarn, and boy is it ever luxurious. The pattern is simple enough to knit while reading or watching television, and I’m really enjoying it.

But the title of this post refers to a gift from the very talented spinner/knitter Kate from my local knitting group.

People. She gave me some of her own handspun silk. Because she said that everyone needed to knit with handspun at some point in their knitting career. Would you just look at this?!

Now, I’ve gotten some amazing yarn as gifts before. I am lucky enough to have a husband who is totally supportive of my hobby and enjoys giving me hand-painted silk, the yarn to do a special sweater I’ve been eyeing, etc. But this… I’m completely overwhelmed, can’t say “thank you” to Kate enough times. I might have an inkling, now, how people must feel when I give them a sweater or a shawl. I’d love to hear your own stories: On this manufactured holiday of gift-giving, what’s the best fiber-related gift you’ve ever received?

Of course I ripped it out. I just wouldn’t be me, if I hadn’t. I would have finished the sweater, and hated it every time Jacob wore it. And that’s no way to feel about a hand-knit. So all’s well that ends well, I’m happy with my decision, etc. I’m not as happy with my progress since then…

Neither am I particularly happy with my progress on the Cleopatra Wrap.

(I wound the silk lace with my ball winder and swift, very carefully and slowly, and while I will never get back that rather painful hour of my life, neither will I lose untold more hours weeping untangling the stuff because it flew off of my equipment. It’s probably a good trade.)

Instead of, oh, I don’t know, knitting, I spent the week losing myself in wonderful cheesy escapist fantasy books and David McCullough’s “Truman”. I didn’t knit at all on Tuesday, and got through mere rows the rest of the week. It felt good, though. I just hope I can keep myself from rummaging through the bookshelf long enough to finish something, this time.

I feel like the biggest dork in the world.

So this is the back of Torgeir, from Elsbeth Lavold’s Viking Knits 1. Cute sweater, and I’m knitting it in the 2 year old size. At least, I will be when I can stop swearing at myself long enough to rip it out. See the cables along the side, there? They’re supposed to be 8-row cables. And the very first one, down at the very bottom there, is. But for the rest, I somehow managed to convince myself they were a 10-row repeat. This despite thinking they looked too long for the entirety of the back. Gotta love it.

I realized this when I looked at the chart again as I started the front. So now, the front will be the back, the back will be ripped out, and I’ll get right on all of that once I’ve cast on a little palate cleanser. I was thinking that I should wind up my Sundara silk lace and either do Icarus or the Cleopatra Wrap with it as a palate cleanser. Any votes?

Because I need these corny little games and the little timelines they give, I’m declaring this year a Year. Of. SOCKS! And here’s January’s installment.

The Pomatomus, they are finished.

Pattern: Cookie A.’s Pomatomus, from the Winter 2005 Knitty

Yarn: Madelinetosh sock yarn, color vermillion

Time Elapsed: I dragged my feet (har) on these for a whole month!

Modifications / Notes: My only modification was to make the toe on these socks more blunt, grafting at 20 stitches remaining instead of 12. I knit the first sock as written, and it just seemed too pronounced. Other than that, I knit them exactly as written and it was a wonderful pattern. Clever, predictable, and the results are just lovely.

Be warned, though–they’re slow going! The bulk of the sock is essentially a 1×1 twisted rib, so unless you’re a super-fast ribber these will drag a bit.

The real story on these is the yarn. Rarely have I had the pleasure of working with a yarn so fantastic. The color saturation, combined with the softness, combined with the subtle variations… just stunning. I’ve two more colorways of this sock yarn now, and I just can’t wait to work with them.

So there you have it, my January socks. Or, I should say, my friend Stacy’s January socks, because when I finished them they were just too perfect for her to keep to myself. I think this may be her first hand-knit pair of socks, and it makes me so happy to bring her into the “club”. :)

*****

In other, belated news, it turns out that I make some of your days. I was and am really, truly touched to be thought of in such a way, especially by some of my own favorite reads.

I found this an unexpectedly hard meme to pass on. The sappy-but-real response is that all of you make my day–comments in my inbox that make me smile, knowing that there are others out there who share my particular little brand of crazy, following you all along on your own fiber adventures. But of course, it’d be silly to share my entire blog roll with you–it’s huge, it morphs as time goes on, it’s likely redundant with many of your own.

I eventually decided to come up with ten blogs of knitters that I’ve been blessed to meet in real life. One, I’ve known for decades (gasp). Some I only met at Rhinebeck this year. If you’re listed here, and you’re of a mind, grab the image and share the love yourself! If you’re not listed here, don’t fret. Trust me. You all make my day. You really do.

1. I have to start this list with Marlena. She’s been a friend since before I can remember, and has encouraged me with every step of the knitting journey I’ve made as an adult. She taught me how to stash, people.
2. Keeping with that theme, Ellen makes it dangerously easy to keep on stashing. Plus, she’s wicked awesome.
3. Ms. Bestitched is a whole bunch of witty fabulousness all wrapped up with way more talent than any one person should lay claim to. She bakes, she knits, she sews, and she has an amazingly cute kiddo.
4. Anna is one of those knitters. The ones that churn out perfect project after perfect project, dizzying amounts of lace and sweaters (and now socks! muahaha) that all represent the very best marriage of yarn, pattern, and fit. And you can’t even be envious, because she’s just the nicest person around.
5. Cheryl is a fantastic knitter, to be sure. And very fun, and generous with the excellent photographs. But the thing about Cheryl that continuously amazes me is that she makes yarn so beautiful that I can’t help but stare, slack-jawed and drooling, at my screen.
6. At Rhinebeck this year, I had the distinct pleasure of sharing a pretty phenomenal meal with Ms. Octopus Knits. She’s funny, she has great taste in knits, and she’s an excellent dessert enabler.
7. The Wry Punster? Just as cool in real life, let me assure you. Plus, who else do you know that would knit a fair isle dress (and look so darn good doing it)?
8. Finally, I will take to my grave the five minutes at Rhinebeck when Marlena, Cara, Vicki, Ann and me were all told in the sweetest possible way by a complete stranger that others find knitting beautiful, too.

   (Edited to add: I noticed while going through my blogs this afternoon that I’d missed a couple more people who were kind enough to say I’d made their day. My fingers are linking-tired, but thanks SO much, all of you.)

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