another quickie; now with blocking prøn

Posted on Posted in designing, lace/shawls, projects

mmm, gold.
we have some inside and out—the black eyed susans have bloomed just in time to celebrate my new FO. these are one of david’s favorites.

finally we had some rain yesterday. not an all-nighter, but on and off for a few hours anyway. enough to perk things up outside for a bit (but we could use a lot more). from my spot on the bench near the back door, the morning air was still a little crisp and smelled of damp earth—that was nice.

well, of course it rained—yesterday was blocking day. it wouldn’t be right to get the whole living room floor covered with wet wool and then let it dry in just a few hours, now, would it?

my friend debby came over to visit and we blocked a few of her things. i’d stayed up til the wee hours sunday to finish sewing my sweater in a one-night hiatus from the bee thing (which i made up for in class on monday). i washed it yesterday morning, using the hand wash cycle of the machine—the way we handle all our woolens.

i laid it out on the porch because the morning was breezy, warm, and dry. i gave it a bit of shaping but not much—it came out of the washer pretty much the size it was supposed to be everywhere.

after my class left at 6pm though, the air had turned chilly and damp with rain, so i moved it inside where it could dry better. this morning i got a few nicer shots

i know some people expected that the texture would flatten and disappear when washed (and that’s a valid concern), but i think it stands up very nicely to blocking (the quality of the yarn and gauge affect this too, of course).
and the fabric—wow—this is one of the most comfortable fabrics i’ve knit lately.

once again, the yarn is briar rose legend and the colorway is like 1086 or 1076

truthfully, it’s still an eensty-weentsy bit damp inside so i’m wearing it a bit gingerly (and my head is cut off because i tend to grimace when i take my own modeling shots, heh—not attractive)

we also blocked three of debby’s recent FOs, including the boxleaf triangle (size mini) she test-knit using just one sock-sized skein of grandma’s blessing

it’s a beautiful dark-wine-and-midnight-blue colorway; a gift from chris when debby contributed a square to a charity afghan last year.

then she had an elm row scarf she just finished in louet mooi, colorway aqua

i just love the sheen of the silk and the halo of naturally colored brown bison fiber that rises from this yarn. beautiful . . .

and we also blocked a rivolo scarf, knit up in woolen rabbit harmony sock yarn, colorway moroccan spice (i think).

it was such a nice afternoon; we spent hours just pinning and chatting—or not—then knit until the rest of the gang arrived for class. i worked on the Bee Thing (that’s its new, temporary blog name) and got another repeat finished. i sent everyone home with a bag of greens, squash, peppers, and beets, then david and i sat down to a nice supper of leftovers for ourselves.

after dinner i did desk work for for just a little while, then spent the better part of the evening working some more on the secret project.

you can see it’s grown a lot, right?? i’m almost done with the first section and i’m looking forward to the next one—that’s my favorite pattern in this project.

well, i took a break from writing my sweater pattern to do the blog, but now it’s time for me to get back to work. see you next time . . . and maybe between now and then we’ll have a little treat.

31 thoughts on “another quickie; now with blocking prøn

  1. Just love that shot of all the FOs blocked out, and the sweater does look extremely comfortable! (I’m guessing the rain cooled things off or it’s just not as hot there as it is here?)

  2. Anne the sweater is stunning! Well done grrl!!

    The next section on the bee thing is my favorite too. 🙂

  3. I love the cabling along the arms-eye of the sleeves and then how it is repeated along the side seams. It really sets off the entire pattern. Great job.

  4. I just love your blog, Anne. Knitting beautiful things, a beautiful garden, good food, and a loving husband.

    Add in constant live jazz, and that’s my idea of Heaven on Earth.

    The gold is worth it’s weight in gold, beautiful! I particularly like the cables along the shoulder line and along the sides.

  5. What a great sweater. I’m so excited that you’re designing them now. Can’t wait for the pattern to come out!

  6. Beautiful sweater.
    I must ask, is the secret project to be released on knitspot? I have the biggest need to knit that yarn…as I have mentioned 😉

  7. Ooh, so much good stuff!! The sweater is absolutely gorgeous, and SO flattering — what a great color, too. And I love the way boxleaf turned out — the top motif on that one always makes me happy 🙂

  8. I love that sweater! Request: could you offer it in *several* sizes, so I/we can play with different weights of yarn (i.e., mess with the gauge)? Some of us, ahem, are kinda slow knitters and 24 sts/inch would take a l-o-n-g time to knit…

  9. Amazing sweater! And I wish I was on Debby’s gift-giving list so I could hope for one of those scarves.

  10. I love the yellow yarn in your secret project – it’s so cheery!

    I’m always amazed at your blocking – I’ve finally finished my first sweater and it is blocking right now – my first ever blocked project!

  11. Black-eyed Susans are one of my favorite flowers too. They look so happy.
    The sweater really looks good! I’m going to have to learn to knit faster to knit all the sweaters I want to do.
    I have some merino/tencel coming from yarnlust to make a rivolo. Maybe I can learn to knit while sleeping…

  12. Love the sweater! It looks great on you! And love the blocking pics, that’s the best part.

  13. And uh, I figure you don’t *really* need to hear this again but… the sweater is amazing. (no pun intended… ha… I just noticed that…)

    Of course, what would making it even more amazing-er would be… a matching hat!! PRETTY PLEASE? 😉

  14. I just noticed those wonderful cables on the sweater. You sneaked them in, and I never saw them. Mighty clever of you.

    I have to dye yarn the colors of the lilies! As usual, your blog is a treat to read.

  15. The maze sweater looks great–I hope you’ll pair with some black-eyed susans in the official modeling shots. Loved the blocking shots!

  16. Anne, Your sweater is just simply beautiful..I love the color..will the pattern be available?

  17. The sweater is gorgeous! I want that color, and I’ll have to buy some Black-eyed Susan’s to stand beside! I’ll be waiting for the pattern.

  18. That sweater is gorgeous, Anne. Maybe it’s the combination of the colour and pattern, it just says “Aztec” to me. Very nice.

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