Random Randomness...

Where to begin?

During the summer, dear friend Lolly sent me a special treat, two skeins of undyed worsted weight yarn, and a skein of natural (undyed) cashmere lace because she knew I was testing the dyeing waters and because she is so sweet and thoughtful.

In the meantime, I acquired a skein of sock yarn (Zen Garden Bamboolicious) in a color called Bahama Tonic that I feel in love with.

So much so, I knew I wanted a sweater in the same shade.  While the variegated yarn was perfect for socks, I wanted more of a semi-solid look to the yarn and felt it was beyond my freshman dyeing efforts.  Steph at Spinning Colors lives and works in Austin.  I contacted her and asked if she were willing to work with me to dye this yarn in the spirit of the sock yarn.

Fortunately for me, she agreed.  The results?  Nothing less than PERFECT!

Now, the only real problems for me are a) deciding exactly what this yarn wants to become, and b) finding the time to help it evolve.

On the designing front, the third and final shawl for Curious Creek is well underway.  I hope to have a finished project to share on that front very soon.

Also, I have been working on some Holiday themed items for The Knitting Nest. This trio includes patterns for a pair of socks, a shawl, and a scarf.  Each is made from one skein of Malabrigo sock yarn which has been hand-dyed by Steph of Spinning Colors!  If you are interested in one (or all) of these kits, they are available for pre-order, just give Stacy a call at 512.291.8866.  There are only a limited number of kits available and will ship in early December.

The first pattern is Festive:

Flurries is a lace scarf which is approximately 8 inches wide and 80 inches long:

All Spruced Up! is a triangular shawl. Blocked, the wingspan is 54 inches and the depth down the spine is 31 inches.

In some exciting news, I have some additional designs which have been released through Woolgirl in the last couple of months.

Glinda Sweet is a shawl knit from side-to-side from neck edge to bottom lace edge beginning at one tapered end to the other.  As you can see, it can worn a number of ways:

Spook is a lacy sock pattern which was featured in Woolgirl's Black Cat Halloween Kit.

I love the yarn Jen at Woolgirl paired with this design.  She has wonderful vision.  Below is the sock I submitted to her for consideration and you can see how very different it looks when knitted up in Malabrigo Sock yarn in Lettuce:

Spoiler Alert for Hello Cupcake Kit!




Hello Cupcake is a fingering weight cowl that was included in Woolgirl's Divinely Inspired Cupcake Kit.

Here are shots of the samples I originally knit up and sent to her:

I liked this pattern so much, I decided to cast on in some Malabrigo Merino Worsted (Verde Esperanza):

Awesome, no?

Lastly, I needed a little comfort knitting last night and pulled out a sweater I started back in February.

This is a Verena Knitting pattern called B51 Ribbed Diamond Pullover.

The sleeves are done (modified to have been knitted in the round) and the back is nearly complete:

This one is knit to a worsted weight by using two strands of fingering weight yarn.  One is a semi-solid and the other is self-striping.  I am really enjoying the combination and I don't think it takes away too much for the cabled pattern.

Whew!

That was quite the tour.

I think I will go sew now...

Happy Knitting!