but what does it mean?

Finally, the purple stockinette I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks isn’t just purple stockinette! Now there’s another stitch pattern, too.

This is the beginning of an Austin Hoodie, which I am very, very excited to finish, as I think it’d be a really perfect fall hoodie. I’m knitting it in sweetgeorgia sock, in Mist. Everything about this yarn is amazing. I have been trying and trying to take colour-true photos, but it’s incredibly difficult – it’s purple, and that always comes through, but there are lovely almost-blue undertones and subtle variegation that I have such trouble with. This is the closest I’ve come to getting an accurate photo so far:

I crack jokes, but I actually have been enjoying the mostly-plain stockinette of this sweater. I have a secret love for completely mindless knitting projects, and this fulfills that perfectly. There are a few little details here and there (the turned down hem, the slipped-stitch ‘seams’) but mostly it’s a nice, easy project that I can pick up without thinking, and knit away while I watching TV (now playing: Season 2 of Fringe).

Also, I just really, really want a purple handknit hoodie.

new things

Oh man, I forgot how sometimes, even though I’m not in school, time off can be spent doing lots of things that tire me out. I’ve started lots of new things, including some new spinning.

This is a new kind of fiber for me, sweetgeorgia panda. It’s merino-bamboo-nylon, and I figured that since the merino content is still 60%, it wouldn’t be that different to spin from 100% merino. I have since learned my lesson. It’s for sure a more challenging fiber blend for me – it spins finer, and it’s so so so so so shiny, but I tend to break my singles and drop my spindle and make frustrated noises a bit more often.

I’ve also started a new knitting project.

This is Arabella, and my first time working at serious-business, all over lace. It’s not a technically challenging knit, but it definitely isn’t mindless, either – the blue threads are lifelines, which I decided I needed after hopelessly screwing up the first two repeats and having to frog the entire shawl.

What new things have you guys been up to?