oh happy (sun)day

Posted on Posted in designing, lace/shawls, projects, spinning and fiber

it’s soooo good to be back to my regular sunday routine—you just can’t beat spinning with friends on sunday morning. unless of course, you now have a working camera to bother them with—that’s raises things up a notch.

barb is working on a fine singles in briar rose BFL that she plans to turn into a 3-ply yarn. linda is working through a really pretty pink tweed bat from crosspatch creations. even susan showed up today for a little while before going off to work. she and i are both working on some dark brown shetland fiber (i forgot to take a photo of mine, which came from beckie’s former flock of sheep). i’m spinning a chunky weight yarn for a house project that is filling up bobbins at a pace that i’m not familiar with, but which is very satisfying.

anne marie is still working through her batch of finn fiber to make a sweater yarn. she arrived at class wearing her sprössling cardigan

which we all admired once more—doesn’t it look great on her?

after class, i worked with linda for a while on some office stuff. linda is going to be helping me out with email and other paperwork and i’m so grateful for the extra assistance that i could cry, heh—this has been a long time coming. we are struggling with her job title; she suggested administrative assistant or some such thing, but i want to call her “communications wizard” or “calendar babe” or at the very least, “czarina of the schedule”.

after all, one of the rare lighthearted entertainments in running the business end of the business is being able to name things whatever you like, right?

anyhow, you may end up dealing with linda at one point or another through email—she is extremely nice and very competent and has the patience of a saint, so i have assured her we will behave and do everything possible to make her feel welcome and loved.

after linda went home i took a nap, haha. i wished i could have stayed awake to block the pine and ivy shawls that arrived from karolyn the other day, but i guess that will have to wait til tomorrow. let me just warn you—they are gorgeous; i can’t wait to show them to you.

in actual knitting news, i’ve made a lot of progress on my current projects, now that their number has been whittled down a bit. true to my word, i’ve been working on socks and some mates are emerging as finished now

these flaming desire socks in zen yarn garden serenity sock are just luscious—between the colors and the deliciously cozy merino/cashmere blend, they feel like heaven. since winter is almost at an end (TWO WEEKS TIL SPRING!!), i think i’ll set these on the giftable sock shelf in my closet.

they would make a show-stopping present . . . if, by next winter, i have not knit myself a replacement pair in the same yarn (of which i have a few skeins stashed), i’ll put them in my own drawer.

speaking of stash, i went through mine over the weekend and pulled a big pile of yarn out for a special project that karolyn and i are working on. i have a number of patterns for which the original samples have been gifted away, thus leaving some holes in my shawl museum collection (haha, see, another instance of naming things what i like).

when i take the trunk show on the road, i feel bad that these designs are not represented. so karolyn and i have cooked up a plan by which she will knit some new samples using the abundance of lace and fingering yarn in my stash. this will enable me to show a design in a different color than the pattern photo and to feature more yarns by the terrific dyers who are so generous about sending samples. and it will keep that yarn from languishing when i can’t knit fast enough to use it all.

plus, we will have fresh new samples to show on the blog from time to time, which could be really fun. it would be a nice chance to look back at the process of each design and discuss how each one holds up over time, or in a new yarn.

oh, speaking of working the same design in different yarns, i’m afraid i’ve gotten a bit addicted to the new pine and ivy shawl—i just can’t stop knitting it. not only did i get pretty far along on my sample in this cashmere/silk handspun

but i started another new one—this time it’s the smallest size, which i’m knitting up in fibre isle magique, a bison/cashmere blend. at TNNA in january, sylvie gave me some skeins in the new colors to be released in june and i thought this would be a great way to sample one of those. two skeins is plenty for the little shoulder shawlette.

once i was past the point of needing the larger needle in the green shawl, i used it to cast right on for the hem of the mini version. i got through the first four rows before i made myself go to bed at 4 am this morning (no wonder i needed a nap today). i’ll take a photo of that once i have a wee bit more fabric on the needles.

sigh, this design is just stealing my heart—i don’t know why, but i am deeply attached to the composition. since i have two shawls knit exactly to the pattern, i may play with one (or both) of these new pieces at removing the shoulder shaping for a simple triangle result, to be used more like a scarf.

yesterday i went to susie’s for saturday morning knitting and once i finished that flaming desire sock, i got back to work on the second french quarter sock. i made good time with this one too and got through the whole first section before heading home. the rest of the sock should be pretty relaxing—the simpler twisting garlands that go down the remainder of the leg knit up pretty quickly and mindlessly.

yesterday, for the first time in many weeks, i saw this at the edge of the yard

actual ground with some actual green in it.
don’t get me wrong—we still have a long way to go before the snow is gone from our garden area

we still have a good three feet or so out there.
but spring is coming—it always does.

17 thoughts on “oh happy (sun)day

  1. Karolyn ia an amazingly fast knitter isn’t she? Your shawl is going t be so lovely!

    I am thoroughly enjoying my french quarter sock knitting. 🙂

  2. your socks are beautiful.
    also~
    i find myself really looking forward to reading your blog. your pictures are lovely and so are all of your designs.
    thank you for your hard work and for being so regular at posting since i really can’t wait to read your next post.

  3. I think you should keep those Flaming Desire socks all for yourself. I mean, you don’t want to risk giving them to someone else and having them not fit as perfectly as they fit you. They were (quite literally) MADE for you.

  4. OMG…Flaming Desire socks…I’ve never seen anything like them! Love your “snowmelt” pictures. Our side of the street is almost down to bare ground now. The other side of the street still looks like winter. Isn’t there a song about living “On the Sunny Side of the Street”? I’ll dream about those socks, I truly will…

  5. I’m familiar with spinning bats, but it’s early enough in the morning that I thought of a whole flock/herd/parcel of pink tweed bats plying about the room.

    I think I might have to knit one…

  6. Flaming Desire is an apt name – those socks are downright sexy.

    We’re about even with you in the snow department – grass on the edges, and it looks so good. But the snow is still hip high along the edge of the driveway, and the actual lawn isn’t close to showing itself.

  7. Lovely socks. So glad you had a sunny Sunday full of spinning and friends. Enjoy the week.

  8. Anne- Karolyn is the nicest person, and such an amazing lace knitter.

    It’s good that you are getting some help- Czarina fits the description perfectly.

  9. Oh the pine & ivy! Now I know what to knit with the lace yarn I just dyed yesterday!

    Love those socks – in my mind they’re called Flaming Lips.

  10. Spring! Yay for Spring indeed, I always get a boost when March 21st comes along. BTW, I’ve been trying to get caught up, but the comments are closed on the earlier posts (like, you know, from January… shudder). I’m still here! 🙂

  11. i can’t imagine why you keep knitting on the pine and ivy shawl – the pattern is lovely and that yarn looks scrumptious (which it must be since it’s cashmere-silk).

    i keep noting the new patches of green too, although my mom’s vegetable garden is buried so deeply (it’s at the edge of drive, so…) that we’re teasing her that she won’t get to garden this summer…

  12. You have so many lovely patterns & it will be so great to see them knitted in different yarns. Let me know if you need more help.

  13. Welcome to Linda! I’m starting to see the wee edges of daffodils peeking up out of the earth. Spring will get here sooner or later, and the time changes this weekend! I love the idea of more samples of your lovely designs!

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