sock yarn, like nail polish, is pretty serious business

I’ve sort of been spinning my wheels, knitting-wise, since finishing my Featherweight last week. I made a deal with myself in early August that I couldn’t start the fall sweater I want to make – an adult-sized version of EZ’s Tomten Jacket – until I’d finished that cardigan. And on the one hand, now that Featherweight is done, I’m excited to be “allowed” to start working on that sweater. It’s knit in worsted weight, and the entire thing is garter stitch, and I’m very very excited for being on autopilot for a month while I make that happen.

On the other, I can’t actually start until I’ve done some swatching and sketching and a fair bit of math, which I just haven’t been in the mood for lately. (It’s very high-stakes math. If I make a mistake, I don’t find out until a month later when I’ve knit a disaster.)

So I’ve been working on smaller, less thought-and-labour-intensive projects until then. I finished my Daybreak:

And I bought some more sock yarn. As you do. This is Tanis Fiber Arts, in Midnight (bright blue) and Shadow (grey). I’ve completely butchered the colours of the yarn by taking photos of it inside my apartment before the sun is up, but they’re lovely and go wonderfully together and neither of them is weirdly yellow-green like the light is telling you.

It’s possible they’ll actually be socks (I’m thinking stripey) although it’s equally possible they’ll end up as more triangular shawls, because they really are addicting. (And they can also be stripey.) I’ve got my eye on Ulmus.

Maybe if I made my shawl really tiny, I could get away with both?

Song of the Entry: Meese – The Start Of It (Listen)

kick it up, let loose and lol

IMG_8083ps, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

I really am finishing these like it’s my job, aren’t I? This is my second Ishbel this month – each of them only took about a week, this is the fastest shawl on the entire planet – for myself, this time.

It’s knit from Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label fingering-weight, which is lovely and sheepy and hand-dyed in Canada, all of which are good things. The actual yarn isn’t quite as white as it looks in the photographs – it’s sort of a sandy grey-brown that’s really lovely and subtle, but I just couldn’t quite capture that with my camera.

This one blocked out to about the same size as the purple one from my last entry, but it sprung back down to the dimensions I expected once I took out the pins. I realize now, what made the other shawl grow so much was probably less related to the larger needle size and more related to bamboo’s tendency to sag and stretch out, since it doesn’t have the same “memory” as animal fibers.

Whatever, though – I’m still DEEPLY excited about wearing this (as a scarf, I feel too young for shawls over the shoulders) once it cools down in the fall.

Song of the Entry: Demi Lovato & Selena Gomez – One And The Same (Listen)

your sea-bound coast, let your mountains dark and dreary be

IMG_8052ps, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

I’m back! My trip to Nova Scotia was, quite possibly, the best vacation I’ve ever had, but it’s still nice to be back home. (With my kitten, who is extraordinarily needy after my absence. It’s getting a little over the top.)

As I mentioned before, I finished my first Ishbel fairly early on in the trip, but now that I’m back here where my SLR lives, I can show you good-quality photos of it. This is before blocking, but you can sort of see the lace pattern detail here, and the photos are remarkably colour-true: the yarn really is that purple.

I worked this up in the small size on 8mm needles instead of the suggested 4mm, which got me to the correct stitch gauge, and the yarn is SRK On Your Toes Bamboo, a 75/25 bamboo/nylon blend. I’ve never blocked bamboo before, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to grow a lot.

The skein claims to have 328 yards in it, and I’d seen some Ravelry entries claiming to have knit the small-stockinette/large-lace variation of this shawl, with close to that amount of yarn, but about halfway through I realized I wouldn’t have enough for that and stuck to the small size, which I’m glad for – I have maybe 10m of yarn left over.

I’ve also started a second Ishbel, this one for myself. I’m working it in delicious, dyed-in-Canada wool from Tanis Fiber Arts, and it’s going just as quickly as the first one did. It looks like garbage, as all lace still on the needles does, but I swear it’s going to be cute.

Song of the Entry: Farewell to Nova Scotia (Listen)