a new wrap

it has been tooo long. way too long since i posted. i hate that. the good news is that today it is all knitting and no food! not that we don’t like food . . .

well, i know i don’t have to say this out loud, but i am behind. i mean WAY behind. it suddenly seems that my already-chock-full life has gotten 100% busier overnight. i am racing to catch up almost every minute of the day! and because the one place i cannot bear to be severely behind is my job, i’ve had to let some of my side interests go for a few days. like knitspot—which seems SO unfair—i mean there isn’t time to sit down and write out my thoughts for an hour?! much less go cycling, or knit . . . . that has got to change. i cannot continue to put my real life on hold.

not that it feels like it helps. i still have a mountain of chores to get done in the next few days (and a mountain of work to do for monday). i’m trying not to think about it in those terms, but to just think about each task or two as i get to them.

not that it feels like it helps. but at least i can say i’m trying!

and i haven’t ignored my beloved website completely. you’ll notice we are updating the look (well melissa is, anyway—i mostly stand around waving my hands and getting her some virtual tea. i’m being a gopher and nodding my head while she talks about PHP vs HTML and things like that. kinda like when i talk about knitting to almost everyone else . . .)

anyway, we are changing some things and have some exciting additions planned to appear very shortly, so please bear with us through what might be some funky-looking weirdnesses.
and PLEASE, if you have trouble with a feature that you were previously able to access, PLEASE email melissATknitspotDOTcom.

so part of the reason i haven’t been a faithful blogger is that i am “helping” in the background by putting pieces of this and that together to hand off to melissa.
and then i had to square away the fall/winter class schedule for the shop.

and now it’s your turn! lucky you.

that’s my new cashmere shawl project—see how big it’s getting! (don’t worry, it won’t be as big as the moth shawl). this one is really turning out pretty. it is SO delicate, so fine , and soooo luxurious. i’m very happy with the rate of decrease and theslant i am seeing

i don’t like shawls to be too-too much of a right triangle. i like them to be more shallow and long than that. i just think it is a prettier, sexier look on the shoulders. i know some of you want a closeup, so i prepared for that

the edging is oak-leaf edging, and i am crazy for its sort-of droopy shape. sorry about the lighting here—as several other people have pointed out, the days of optimal photography may be passing into their autumn along with the long days. i have a little time to think about photos early in the day, and then i’m off to the races with work. the next time i think about it, it’s usually evening.

i’m telling you—you really have to try this yarn (and while you’re there, be sure to check out the merino sock yarns too—they are superb). first of all, it’s just butta—kitten-soft, takes ripping back really well (cashmere can start pilling right away, but not this stuff!), and is, as they say, easy on the eyes.
and hands!—i’m telling you, i look forward to the hour each night when i can hold my cashmere project and allow the yarn to cast it’s spell over my achy, computer-wrecked hands. and, last but not least, it’s a BARGAIN! get thee to fearless fibers.

now, where was i? oh yeah, the shawl. LOVE it! i love it so much that i started a lace stole to celebrate. i have been thinking that a holiday wrap would be nice—something delicate, in a deep color, that one could wear over last weekend’s dress to transform it into THIS weekend’s dress. after i picked out the stitch patterns i liked, the combination just screamed for a beautiful navy blue.

yeah, that’s it—navy! a navy starlight wrap—doesn’t that sound really good?
i have to confess that red and green, while working quite well for branding identity of the christmas holidays, are NOT my favorite holiday colors! i am much more affectionate toward deep blues and silver as the quintessential winter colors. throw in a bit of transluscent opalescence here and there and you got the whole winter season covered for everything from tableware to high heels.

so, anyway, with my stitch roadmap all planned-out, and i headed up to the yarn closet to look for the right blue; i’m thinking of something the color of the late evening sky, just before it gets dark for good.
HA! the right blue? as it turns out, i have next to no blue at all, and none in a light fingering weight. i did have one hank of cashmere that i had dyed an amazing blue, but it only has about 500 yards on it—not nearly enough. i pulled out some other things, but really, none of it was what i had in mind. i listlessly cast on some schaefer anne in a kind of purply rust variegated, but hated it after just a few rows. (hated it in THIS pattern only, i mean . . .)

and then came a box from my friend mo, and in it was some vintage navy fingering yarn, quite thin as it happens, AND the perfect color—just what i had in mind. this was too good to be true! so i cast on and that’s where i left you off last sunday i think.
now, i have only worked on it a few times this week, because i hve been spending so much time on the cashmere instead, but i am thrilled

i can’t wait to work through this first half of the stole and show you what i have in mind for the bottoms (it is worked from the neck down). and the yarn is perfect—it’s soft, but has body, and is the perfect vintage feel i was looking for. an everyday yarn for sure, but able to be transformed into something glamorous. i bet it is going to wash up and block a treat.

on wednesday i had classes and finished one of the mermaid socks—i KNOW! no one was more surprised than me to be holding a finished sock. i have forgotten what it’s like . . .

and i started the second one right then and there, so i am already a few inches into it. nice. (i feel inordinately good about finishing up the one sock . . . why?)

melissaZ had made quite a bit of progress on her sangria skirt when i saw her. she is working with the green classic silk—perfect for her coloring.

now wave good-bye to that! yeah, we had to rip it out. she misinterpreted the pattern instructions and was increasing in an unusual, but very melissa, fashion. not to worry—this is not a mistake anyone else would make.

there is no new news on the moth front—in fact everything has been eerily quiet. we have three knitters still in the race, carol, liz, and cheryl. if anyone has news of any of them, please let us know!