i owe you a good one

hey all, it’s so good to be back to writing that i could weep! i will NOT recount a wretched tale of woe describing the events of this week that prevented me from getting here daily; let’s just say a good night’s sleep does wonders for my attitude. thank you for your patience and for coming back every day!

first, everyone should look to the right and notice our shiny new button about the yarn rant on june 1! thanks to david, when you click on it, it will bring you to the flyer, or to the download of the flyer (some browsers do not support viewing the flyer online). the flyer has information about the event and what you can do to get ready for it. the actual email list will become available the evening before the email crusade. please email me if you have any additions or input. i will be making the audio promo tonite or tomorrow, so podcasters, i have NOT forgotten you!!

and second, remember the mystery cable contest back in march? i gave away some handspun yarn, and now, everyone can (and must!) go take a look at the socks that Persnickety Knitter made with her prize! it feels SO cool to see my yarn 700 miles away (give or take) on someone else’s feet! and aren’t they fetching? kinda reminds me of these

which i made last year—haha! i took a picture cuz i was curious to see if either of my socks was similar to either of hers! i love mine too, and i hope persnickety doesn’t mind us having “matching” pairs. i rarely spin enough of one sock yarn to make two pair, but in this case there was just enough for a second pair (wink); don’t skip the end of her post where she shows how close it was . . .

as if THAT wasn’t enough, i am going to do something really dangerous now. i’ve debated quite a bit on whether i ought to share this information (mostly for selfish reasons, i admit). i think i might only be doing this out of guilt over not writing for a few days. you will love it, but you have to promise to come back here afterwards, even if you are gone for an hour, which you very well could be. you could get lost (really, i shouldn’t do this to you). actually, never mind you, i shouldn’t do this to me, because i have a pretty good post going here! but i trust you
(and also, debbieKnitter has been there already this week, so there might not be so much left to look at . . .).
anyhow, monday night, 9:30pm, i get home from a whole day at the shop, teaching, knitting, and ripping out my scarf. i haul my bike up the front steps, wrangle myself inside the door (the configuration is sorta weird there), and sigh, because i know i have another 3 or 4 hours of work waiting for me at my desk (the edits). and there, on the little step just inside, is a ray of sun, a glimmer of hope, a beacon in the night for this (literally) weary traveller—a package from
fearless fibers!!

now, let it be said, that i KNOW i do not need more yarn. deb kessler, owner and dyer, can and will, attest to the fact that i viewed this yarn several times and resisted. but somehow on friday or saturday night, really late at my desk (i.e., not on a date), i purchased it. and i don’t want to really know how she does it, but the package arrived monday—like it flew itself here. well, i opened that thing right on the spot; didn’t even take my helmet off first. i took a picture, but it came out badly. so today i took another, pretending i was opening the box again for the first time

yeah baby, right here! cashmere, wrapped in tissue and ribbon. for lacy things. this is the “endless night” colorway, and i won’t even try to describe how beautiful and soft and gorgeous it is. and get your paws off the screen, cuz it won’t feel the same! you have to go buy your own. that’s Fearless Fibers Handpainted Yarns folks; go get ’em! she has all kinds of great yarn for socks and lacy things and bigger yarn too. AND, and—oh, i can’t believe i’m sharing this—her prices ROCK!

ok, now on to what’s been happening at my end of the sofa late at night. there hasn’t been a huge amount of time for knitting, and i did plenty of ripping and restarting on the new pieces (all par for the course, it’s all good).

on sunday, my friend kris (who just finished an awesome cable-and-seed-stitch vest from folk vests, which i once again did not get a picture of . . .) came over to knit for a few hours and i worked on this lace scarf in mountain colors bearfoot

i love how that red streak snakes across and back over the length of the scarf. this is a piece for which i am writing a pattern and now that i have worked through half of it (it is worked from the neck down), i can finalize some of the instructional details. the only snag i’ve hit so far is in picking the stitches back up at the center back neck;

i’m not so happy with the joining area, especially at the edges, where the pointy parts start moving in the other direction. i keep getting a clunky square edge in that spot, which i don’t want. i’ve ripped it and restarted it three or four different ways; i just can’t get a nice point to form, no matter what i do. i think now i should put a 1-inch-ish insert in between the two halves that is totally different, then restart the edging on the other side of that. maybe something that will form a scallop in between the points?? . . . hmm—that actually has potential, i think, as long as it’s concave and not convex . . .

meanwhile, i started the first shrug and it’s coming together just beautifully. i love working on it and the yarn is really soft and nice to handle.

i do have one small complaint about the black colorway; it has little white flecks in it that are either nylon or silk which didn’t take the dye up, making the surface look ever-so-slightly covered with lint. the flecks are really tiny (don’t know if you can see them here), but it bothers me a little, because the black is so otherwise solid. the fact that i know it will get washed and worn a lot in a home with a pet sort of makes it ok; if the gift was for someone else (not a child and not my relative), i would have to reconsider using the black again. the flecks are fine in the other colors i’ve seen, which are more heathery; only in the black do they read as lint-y.

i’m also starting today on my youngest niece’s birthday gift. she will be two-years-old in june and i just can’t WAIT to make this for her!

i’ve seen it made up in this yarn and it is just adorable—exactly the right thing for a hot texas summer . . . i am really looking forward to whipping this up! (happy) sigh. i hesitated about the yarn because in the ball, it has a rainbow effect that i find disturbing. but when i saw it knitted up, the striping looks really, really good. it will go with everything, even spilled kool-aid and grape jelly. they will love it, and that is, after all, the important thing; that they love it, not me!

and i want to leave you with one last shot before i go, so that you know it isn’t just about girls and gurly stuff here at knitspot this week. my man’s needs are as important as ever!

if you look closely, you will even see that i have a completed hollySock there!! woo-woo! i mean these are almost torture to knit; the yarn feels awful. if i didn’t know how much it changes when washed, i would have abandoned it. but yesterday, when i was babysitting the FTP uploads and trying to work through end-of-project problems, these babies got me through; one needleful while PDFing, one needleful while updating—one row at a time.

once again, sock knitting walked me through the valley of death, and i was comforted! (well, ok, maybe not quite, but you get the picture!!)