an now for the stuff that isn’t starlight . . .

Posted on Posted in lace/shawls, projects, Uncategorized

oooh—i’m pretty excited. some new books came today.

i’ve been hoping that one on the right would arrive in enough time to bring it to the book signing this weekend. i love overstock.com—they are fast and efficient. the book launch was thursday and i have my book today. i had hoped to go to the NYC launch, but last week we’d just gotten back from new york and i had a mountain of stuff here still to get through. but stephanie’s coming out our way this weekend and i am SO gonna go. yay!

i’m also very pleased to have here the sequel to sensational socks by charlene schurch. another good sock reference book. these two went right up to the end of the sofa, where they wait for me to flop later on for a read-through. i also have a vogue knitting magazine that came while i was gone which i still have not gotten a chance to crack open.

there was a time when that would have been an impossibility, when i wouldn’t have been able to get my coat off before needing to flip through vogue, having waited for months just to get the next one in my mailbox. well, it WAS my only magazine for years, til interweave got started. i guess i’ve just gotten spoiled by the plethora of print material available now . . . but i’m not cutting back any time soon. i can do without buying yarn, but not without some good knitting books.

speaking of not buying yarn, i’m doing extremely well on knitting from my stash. i haven’t even thought about getting yarn. fiber, i’m not so good at resisting apparently (see last month’s crown mountain farms acquisitions, and the booty from my trip to SPA . . .).

however, i am in need of some black mission falls 1824 wool. my nephew wants a hat specifically in that yarn, in black. my LYS is out of black. i was thinking that if any of you had some you would like to trade, that would make sense. i need a little more than one ball, so one whole one and one partial one, or two whole ones would work. heck, i’d settle for just one. let me know.

oh, and hey everyone, my friend laura, is having a little drawing to give away an adorable baby sweater. go to her blog, Fiber Dreams, and check it out! laura is also the mastermind behind the Red Sweater KAL—it only exists because of her hard work!

debbieKnitter is also having a contest and she’s giving away cashmere, so get thee to her blog.

so sunday evening i worked on a swatch for a new shawl using some briar rose DK yarn that is luscious. it’s a merino/alpaca/silk blend. can you say i’mayarnwhoreforagoodreason?
anyway, i settled on an old favorite stitch, one that i have used in a couple of things for myself, but never in a published pattern. and i think this yarn deserves a really beautiful stitch.

it would be a gorgeous rectangle shawl, but i’m gonna still see if i can easily work out the triangular shaping; i just have a feeling i’d love it as a triangle, but this pattern is a doozy—it has no center and that spells trouble for triangle designs . . .

late at night i worked on these

ah, glow of the algae.
now, i know that there is a large contigent out there which is lobbying for renaming the socks something besides “tree scum”. however, i noticed that the i’m-for-tree-scum crowd gained momentum later in the day. and i’m thinking that this is a chance to elevate tree scum, you know?? erase the stigma.

yes, dear, i really DO spend time thinking up these arguments.

23 thoughts on “an now for the stuff that isn’t starlight . . .

  1. Let’s not elevate “tree scum”! 🙂 That will be great that you get to meet the Harlot. I’m excited b/c she’s coming to Denver next week. This is her 4th tour and the first time coming to Denver, so I’m a bit hyped myself. Beautiful yarn you’re working with. I’m sure it will be a lovely new pattern.

  2. Tree scum, tree scum! Rah, rah, rah!
    *ahem* I’m, uh, going to go check out Overstock.com now. Good luck with the new pattern, it looks intriguing.

  3. I *adore* Overstock.com. I go there just to pretend-shop, especially in the electronics department. I fill up my cart and then close the window before I actually spend any money. It’s less annoying than doing that in a real store and making someone put all the stuff back.

    Real products have made their way home to me before, though. Bedding, one of those nifty-as-hell shower heads that actually gets all your hair wet (!), my mp3 player and our home phones…to name a few.

    Tree Scum is a great name for the socks. The pattern looks knobby like bark, too.

  4. Please stop posting things I feel compelled to comment on – it’s so NOT me.

    I wish I could go west, young woman, and see the Yarn Harlot again – you are in for such a treat, Anne.

    And the book is fabulous, too!

  5. oooh – the new swatch is really pretty – i love the lattice-ness of it!!! Algae does tend to grow at a pretty quick rate, huh? 🙂

  6. Ooh, lucky you getting to see the Harlot this weekend. So far, she hasn’t made it to southern California… A definite over-sight if ever there was one.

    There’s a ton of great knitting reads out there these days. Fabulous, isn’t it? Love it!

    I’m blushing! Thank you for the call-out and link.

    Off to check out that cashmere give-away

  7. I hope my Harlot book is waiting for me at home, I ordered it from Overstock as well, but am disappointed that I didn’t get the Socks book, I didn’t know it was available, or did I order it and forgot??? Off to check.

  8. My vote is for tree scum. I like the dichotomy (since I don’t think of tree scum as appealing). The sock does look like tree scum and yet, it is very pretty.

    The swatch is gorgeous. I’m looking forward to it’s growth into a shawl.

  9. Well, YOU can call it tree scum, but I think it looks exactly like the scum I see on the rocks in the ocean!! A beautiful green!! I call it ocean scum!!! Either way, scum is scum…..no getting around it….

  10. The LYS I work at has a ton of black Mission Falls Wool…I’m knitting a couple of caps for the local Disabled Vets Salmon Derby out of it right now. Let me know and I can put a couple of balls in the mail.

    Diane

  11. Ooohh…I love the briar rose yarn and the stitch pattern you are using. I can’t wait to see the beginnings of the shawl! I was hoping to go see Stephanie this weekend (my Uncle lives in Cleveland and my Mom/Grandparents are in Pittsburg), but I can’t travel that far this weekend. I really hope that I can get to Lexington when she comes in April…at least that trip would only be 5 hours (instead of 15)! Have lots of fun:)

  12. Now that there are so many knitting magazines and books, I can’t imagine how I managed to get along with only the availability of VK (and Mon Tricot–did you collect those too?). Even if I don’t find many things that I want to knit exactly as they appear, they’re always a good source of advice (through the articles) and inspiration. Thanks for the heads up on Charlene Schurch’s new book. I like tree scum too.

  13. Wow–I’m gone for a week and so much stuff happened! So I have two things to say–1. both the wrap and you in the wrap are fabulous; and 2. while tree scum does have its merits, what about tree beard maybe? Gets you away from the scum and gives a shout out to J.R.R. I love that color, by the way. It being spring makes me covet the greens.

  14. I have some black 1824 Cotton. The old version. You need 2? I think we can work something out. (see my pathetic post on too much 1824 Cotton.)

  15. The stitch pattern you’ve swatched is absolutely lovely, and so is the yarn. I can’t wait to see how the combination will work out, and what you’ll come up with in the end…

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