A pretty historic day today. One that made many proud to be an American and one that struck fear in the heart of homophobes. Same-sex marriage is legal in all states!!!!
It's funny, I had casted on an asymmetrical triangle shawl about a month or so ago and cast it off late last night. And it turned out to be fitting, a rainbow gradient, for today.
Pre-washed and blocked
We might as well start with
Off The Needles
The pattern is called Ex-Boyfriends but my intent was a simple pattern that will display the beautiful gradient yarn that I purchased at Stitches South this year. The yarn is from Apple Tree Knits and is Socklove Fingering (80% superwash BFL, 20% nylon) in the Chakra gradient. It was an easy pattern to memorize and watching the colors unfold was pure potato chip knitting. I haven't had a finished object in a while but this is a good one to kickstart the mojo.
On The Needles
I had a staycation from work (and it was incredibly needed) and I tried to organize my UFO projects. Reality is, I have way too many projects just hanging out on the needles and I need to get them finished up and moved on so I can cast on more projects. I have several pairs of socks on the needles as well as my Iced cardigan (still!). I recently started a baby blanket for a friend's adopted daughter in Jamaica. She had a baby recently and my friend is heading down for the wedding. I felt the baby needed something to wrap up in when he's cold and to spread on the floor to play on so I started a basic Lion Brand blanket. I purchased 2 colors each of Brava bulky from Knit Picks in Gold, Green and Black (Jamaican flag colors) and am already through the increases for green and gold. This is going to be a giant blanket! The yarn is crazy soft and squishy for an acrylic and will be easy to toss in the washer and dryer. New moms don't need anything extra to worry about.
I also casted on a Boneyard shawl, in theory for Camp Loopy. The yarn I bought from the Loopy Ewe for this is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in Minestrone. It's gorgeous and I heard great things about this brand from various podcasters - mostly Kristin from Yarngasm. The colorway reminded me of my friend's photos from her safari in Africa. I originally tried knitting the Mossy Waterfall Scarf but tore it out because the pattern got lost in the colors. I still plan on knitting the scarf, but in a solid or semi-solid so the detail shines through. I've wanted to knit a Boneyard by Stephen West for a while so I went with it. It's turning out very pretty and the pattern is pretty easy to memorize except for the M1L and M1R. I still need a cheat sheet on those.
Not even close to done so it looks like I'm a bad camper. The picture of the animals in handknit socks cheer me up though!
In Your Ear
I'm currently trying to catch up on podcasts and managed to plow through about 10 Knitmore Girls podcasts in a row. All that really did was add to my queue.
I also started listening to Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (she of The Yellow Wallpaper fame) through the Craftlit podcast. I'm already halfway through the book and it's just as odd and strange as The Yellow Wallpaper.
More to come as I figure out where I am at and how to get back to my crafty life. Being without Eva has been much harder than I ever anticipated and I know I've let myself fall off of my own radar. I do have plans for more blog writing, crafty and otherwise, so here is hoping I hold myself to it!
Eva
