One Panopticon sock - Upstream architecture, feather and fan leg and i cord bindoff.

This is just a WEE tad snug around the arch, I guess in this yarn I need to go up to a 60 stitch foot circumference. But it will be acceptable, no ripping planned.

It is so funny to me that the same increase pattern works upside down or rightside up - this is an inversion of the Sky architecture, where the increases fan out in a triangle on top of your foot from a point at the anklebone - so, a triangle that widens down from the top over the arch. Upstream is a triangle where the increases fan out in a triangle on top of your foot from a point at the bottom of your arch - totally upside down from Sky. For my money, Sky fits better, but that could just have been my slight mis-guess on the gauge.

Garnet is finished. I took just about all of 7 skeins of Noro Lily. It fits perfectly and I love the fabric I got on size 5s, it isn't going to sag. Sorry about the orange shorts, I wouldn't ordinarily wear it with orange shorts...

That's all gotta run!

I finished two skeins of yarn. The brown is suri/merino and I got it out of a traveling stash box. It is interesting to spin - not easy to make uniform, so I'm going for a sort of chewy yarn. The blue is the colonial top that I showed the other weekend - it made a much nicer yarn than I was expecting, so I'm spinning the second bobbin with a little more respect!

Each skein is around 4 ounces and about 225 meters. The blue skein is a little heavier, somehow I managed to jam about 4.3 ounces onto one bobbin.

I made progress on Garnet and have the front and back done. I sort of stalled on the second sleeve, because I got wrapped up in my sock (see below), but it will be done by next week. This is the body.

To prove that Jared Flood knows what he's talking about, here is one taken with natural light falling across the fabric. On the Sticks and String podcast, David asked Jared how he gets such lovely photos of his knitting, and he said he likes to photograph it indoors but near a window, so the light falls across the surface of the piece and brings up the texture.

Moral of the story: quit pointing directly at your knitting.

The socks I got wrapped up in were my Master Upstream socks in the new colorway of Lorna's Laces: Franklin's Panopticon. Ordinarily, these are NOT my colors. But Franklin posted a photo of a piece of William Morris wallpaper that inspired it, and the wallpaper sang to me for some reason so I had to try the yarn.

This is hard yarn to photograph. Maybe next week I will try it with my super-cool new camera and see if it comes out better.

In real life, the sky blue is less dominant, and there is a thread of celadon green that runs beside the yellow, which is less lemony and more limey. But it is a neat effect.

I spent so much time on these socks because I got the heel turned and then decided I should really have made the foot half an inch longer. So, I ripped all the way back to the beginning of the arch increases and started over. This time I decided I didn't want to be boring and just have the Vee up the top of the foot, so after about half my increases I sent back to increasing from the center again. It sort of made a neat effect, maybe you can see it. After I got above the ankle, I increased to have 64 stitches and started a feather and fan pattern.

What I would like to do with this particular architecture is find a way to imitate laces criss-crossing up the segment formed by the increases. I am so not creative though, I'm going to have to spend some time noodling around with a pencil and paper. The other thing I thought would be fun would be to run baby cables up the center and along each side of the Vee.

I finally got back the processed fiber from the fleece I bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool. Wow, I feel totally vindicated for taking a chance on this beast. It doesn't look like there was much waste, judging from the size of the bag, and the fiber is even nicer than I expected. It has the feel in the hand of some targhee I spun once - springy and not as silky as merino. Here is a wee sample I spindled up on my purpleheart Bossworth midi (I still love that spindle best of all).

It is going to make lovely yarn. It appears that the fleece has the spring of the CVM ancestry, plus some of the strength of the coopworth and a little of the sheen of the bluefaced leicester. Very very nice.

Cooper says "Mommy, are you in there?"

I've been knitting baby sweaters and many, many soakers. This one is knit side to side all in one piece with short row shaping for the yoke and cuffs. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in the Blue Lagoon colourway. The pattern is in Baby Styles by Beehive, bought decades ago but still available.

This is the Leaf Lace sweater, an old family favourite, from Paton's #111 Nursery Styles for 3 to 12 Months by Beehive. It's knit in Louet Gems fingering yarn (2 skeins).

I don't have any pictures of the soakers. They've been put to use as soon as they're off the needles. I tried a few different designs, but the favoured one has turned out to be Curly Purl's pattern.

I've been doing all this baby knitting because of this little fellow.

This is Jonah Samuel, my grandson, nestled in my arms, sucking his thumb, aged 3 hours. He's six weeks old now, getting bigger by the week, and needing lots of soakers. Oh boy.

Here is Sivia Harding's lovely Norwegian Woods shawl, knit with Malabrigo Lace (2 skeins) in the Bobby Blue colour, probably the softest yarn I have ever used. There is a single row of hex cut beads along the scalloped edge - a bit hard to see, but they're there. I love the shawl. It was one of those "I just can't put it down" knits, and those are always just the best.

In the "what was I thinking" department, I bought some merino-bamboo fiber in so not me colours at Madrona last February. Clearly, after another drab grey winter, I was desperate for a colour fix. This is Merino/Bamboo 60/40, in the Electric Serbet colourway from Dragon Fibers. Pretty bright, eh?

But it turns out that I kind of like the finished yarn, and it was very nice to spin. 2 ply, 4 oz., 496 yds.

The last time I popped in I was spinning some Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino in the Under the Boardwalk colouway. Here's how it turned out - 570 yds., 2 ply yarn.

It has been knit up into my favourite 3 by 1 rib socks. Not identical, not even fraternal, but they sure feel good on the feet.

The yarn is fairly soft and makes an elastic fabric. The colors - well, let's just say that they are unusual.

This pattern is the 'Cedar' sock architecture, it spreads the increases for the arch all around the foot instead of concentrating them in one or two places. There are only two actual increase rows, and they each increase 7 stitches evenly spaced around. Then, you increase another handful of stitches all at once in the gusset areas right before you turn the heel. I think that makes for a sock that is too baggy around the back of the ankle. I think this architecture would feel better to me if the increases were in two lines down the side of the foot from the anklebone.

The cobblestone cuff is a nice elastic top but boy it takes forever to knit it! You cast on a total of 144 stitches (for my sock gauge) using the magic caston, 72 on each needle, and knit in rounds as if this was a huge fat toe until you've done 3 or 4 rounds, then instead of turning that wedge into a circle and increasing for your toe, you knit the two rows of stitches together to close up this little tube, then join it into the round and you have a 72 stitch cuff. It is hard to describe but very elegant, although time-consuming.

You absolutely HAVE to do it on two circular needles, too. If you try to do it on 2 DPNs you will make yourself NUTS and waste an hour before you go back and start over on circulars. The 72 stitches are so long that you need a curve, and you can get that if one side of your tube is on the cable of a circular needle.

I am keeping on with Garnet, I have part of the front knit with the leaf panel up the center.

With the smaller gauge, the leaves don't stand out as much, but the fabric is nice.

Since I don't have much knitting, here's a cat.

The colorway is from Sweet Sheep and it's called 'Surf's Up' - it reminds me of the neon colors of snoballs. The photo just doesn't capture the intensity of these colors.

This was based on the 'Master Riverbed' pattern from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book. In this photo you can see the increases on the sole.

I could have made them taller, but I didn't feel like increasing any more to fit, so I just threw on a linen-stitch cuff and quit.

The next sock architecture I decided to try was 'Cedar,' because I wanted to make another top-down sock with that snug arch fit. After some dithering I decided on the 'Veil of Leaves' pattern, and because I just HAD to, I wound up my dyeing fiasco yarn. It looks like the dog's breakfast but I just can't stop, I'm morbidly fascinated.

I'm at the arch expansion now, we'll see whether I can stand this much longer.

I am working on 'Garnet' from an Elsebeth Lavold collection, in Noro Lily, and I've finished the back.

I'm knitting this at a much tighter gauge than the label calls for, because I've used this yarn before and I know it tends to sag, so I'm making two sizes larger than I ordinarily would. It is a little hard on my hands but I think it will look nice.

I started the other weekend spinning up some Colonial top I've had in stash for several years. It is a pretty dark blue with green and red through it, but it is just not spinning nicely. Maybe it's sat around too long, but it is not drafting evenly and I'm afraid I won't like the yarn. We'll get a bobbin done sometime soon and see what it's like. It has just been too hot and sticky to spin much.

Unfortunately, none of these projects is inspiring me and making me thrilled to sit and knit. But I want them all to be done so I can use them....

Gibson Girl scarf in Rose Lace:

Gibson Girl top is a soft mix of sweet petal pinks, apricots and rose. I spun and plied it fine and somewhat loose, to allow the colors to blend gently into one another.

Rose Lace is a delicate pattern of rosebud nosegays set into a flowing trellis.

Subtle colorplay, intricate lace. A nice match.

Gumball Machine scarf in New Shell lace:

Gumball Machine top is a perky parade of long runs of bright candy colors. I spun and plied it firmly into a fine, crisp yarn that preserved the sparlking color every step of the way.

New Shell is a simple one-row lace pattern of solid chevron ribs separated by open ladders. Its talent for showcasing stripes has made it a classic for scarves since the days of the old Shetland knitters.

The rich vibrant color of the scarf is not due to matching up the colors between the plies. Rather it comes from color clarity within each ply. At any one spot the colors in each ply are pure, even though the color combinations are constantly changing.

Darling Clementine scarf in Crest 'o the Wave lace:

Darling Clementine top is a mix of cool rose, berry blues and sweetpea pinks, highlighted with yellow. I spun it thck-and-thin, in order to give it texture and an earthy feel to match its garden colors.

Crest 'o the Wave lace, like its famous cousins Old Shale and Feather and Fan, is an undulating pattern that brings out the charming colorplay in handpainted fiber.

Darling Clementine and Crest 'o the Wave come together in a scarf that is graceful, spontaneous, and fresh.

Three new scarves ready to go out on the town. All dressed up, they look pretty good. I couldn't be happier.

Of course, I made a couple of changes. I raised the neckline and made it narrower - I saw a photo somewhere of someone wearing her Gathered Pullover over a blouse and it was totally falling off her shoulders, it really didn't look all that nice, so I wanted to avoid that. I also knitted the sleeves top-down, as I described the other week. The shoulders fit well. I knitted too long before starting to do decreases, so from certain angles the shape of the sleeves is a little funny, but they won't bind on my elbows and upper arms and that was my biggest concern. They came out about bracelet length which is fine with me.

The most important thing for me was to be sure that the center of the cable motif, and the decreases that went with it, fell at the right location. I think if I had followed the vertical dimensions of the pattern, they would have fallen too high and just looked goofy on me. So I tried to be sure that I placed them just below the bustline so they would cinch in the right place like a Georgian empire waist. I came pretty close.

When I was done I had this much yarn left.

I was VERY fond of this yarn. Here's a reminder.

Sigh. Yarn is like the ball at the top of the hill - so much potential energy. A knitted object is like the ball at the bottom of the hill - the only thing you can do to get its potential energy back is push it up the hill (i.e. frog it).

OK enough of the tortured analogy. I finished my blue socks too.

They came out great. I've started the 'master Riverbed' pattern from the same book, I'm just at the point where I'm rearranging all the stitches to make the heel. Once I've turned the heel I will know if my master numbers math was right or if I need to frog the whole thing and try again. Rolling the ball up the hill...

Here is the indigo dyed bluefaced leicester I spun up last weekend.

I am pretty pleased with how it came out. I think I underplyed it a little but it 's not too bad. It's somewhere between 275 and 300 yards, and 2 ounces. I have no idea what to do with it, I just like looking at it.

I finished off one of my Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks and am down to the foot of the second one.

I am still enjoying the architecture of these and I can't wait to see how they fit when I actually put the pair on and stand up. Then I want to try a different architecture. Of course, we won't be needing wool socks for awhile, but with all the lovely yarn I have, I have got to keep knitting them, now don't I?

I finally gave in and bought some Knitpicks Cotlin to make some hand towels. Of all the ones I saw on Ravelry, this 'Moss Grid' towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting was the one I thought looked the nicest. Lucky for me, my library has that book.

The design turns out not to be reversible, but maybe I can invent a variation that would be reversible.

By the way - is moss stitch the same as seed stitch? Because to me, this towel is all about seed stitch....

For awhile I have had a bee in my bonnet about this photo, taken by Lisa Souza in New Zealand a few years ago.

I wanted it in yarn, dammit. That blue sky, that slate-grey sand, that coke-bottle colored water. (I realize that nobody under a certain age would have any idea why I call that color 'coke bottle'. Sigh.) So I decided to try. I bought a cheap skein of undyed sock yarn (good thing I opted for the cheap stuff...), selected some colors of Cushing dye (dark grey, sky blue, and I chose jade green and aqualon blue to try to mix up that water color). I wrapped strips of plastic around the skein where I wanted there to be white clouds in the blue sky. I was so smart. But, feh.

There was too much dye in the solution so the green and grey are too dark. I didn't put enough blue into the mix for the water so it's bright green. I made the blue sections too short. Phooey. This looks like nothing.

It spun beautifully and I tried to keep it very fine so I will have some yardage out of my two ounces. I love rolling out a piece of fiber and being able to see the shape of the fleece's crimp reflected in it. I'll get it plyed next weekend and see how much yardage I eked out.

I finished the body of my Gathered Pullover and started a sleeve. I am adapting this to have the sleeve knitted from the shoulder down to maximize my remaining yardage. Basically this is how I did it, with tips from Liz and from Barbara Walker's top-down knitting book.

According to Barbara Walker, the number of stitches you need around your upper arm, as per your yarn and gauge, is how many stitches you need around the armhole. When you actually execute this move, that concept makes perfect sense. I figured I wanted my sleeve a little looser than the pattern suggested (tight sleeves seem to be a trend these days, I guess real women don't have biceps...), so I measured my upper arm and gave myself some ease and calculated a number of stitches. In my case it was 75. Then I subtracted from that number the number bound off at the base of the armholes (in my case, 5 on the front and 5 on the back). That left 65 stitches. Since it was odd, I allowed one stitch to be exactly in the shoulder seam, and that left 32 stitches on each side.

Beginning at the shoulder seam, I picked up one stitch in the seam, 32 down the side, 10 across the two bound-off places, and 32 back up the other side. I placed a marker and joined. The pattern had 11 stitches bound off at the top of the sleeve cap, so I knit the center stitch, plus 5 stitches, plus one more. I turned, slipped the picked up stitch with a twist, knitted back to the marker, knit 5 down the other side, plus one more. I turned and slipped the picked up stitch, and then continued to knit back and forth across the top of the sleeve, taking one more of my picked up stitches at the end of each row. After awhile I removed the shoulder marker and held it out so I could put it at the underarm center when I joined to knit in the round.

After I got a couple of inches below the armhole I tried it on, and it fit perfectly. I have to say, this is turning out to be a remarkably pretty sweater even with all the changes I'm making. It looks funny in the photo, with the dark green mysteriously being introduced into the yarn just when it will really stand out in wider stripes above the armholes, and the neckline seeming high and pinched, but when I put it on it looks great. The important thing for me was to not start the armholes too soon - the row with the most cable twists also has decreases in it, to cinch it up a little like an empire waistline, followed by increases to put the stitches back in the following row, and it is REALLY important to have that fall below your bustline or the thing will be perpetually pulled out of shape. This pattern really is designed for very flat chested women, so if you are not flat chested you need to be certain to keep checking what you are doing as you go along.

I finished my first 'Tantalizing Sock' from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book. In this photo I'm closing in on the toe.

I love how this sock fits, but you do have to be sure to knit a little longer in the foot than you might otherwise. The use of the reinforced heel stitch on the bottom of the heel makes the bottom of the sock a little shorter than the top, so you have to compensate for that or end up with a sock that is too tight. I don't know if I'd do a reinforced heel if I were doing it again. It makes the bottom hug your foot but it does introduce length issues.

and this:

and this:

are mine.

Whee! I was pretty thrilled. Bee Fields was in the shawls, scarves, and afghans from commercial yarns category, the white cormo 3-ply was in the medium plyed yarn from hand-prepared wool category, and the rainbow silk/merino was in the plyed yarn from commercial fiber category.

Emmy was delighted too and she kept making me tell people all day.

I was so befuddled by this that I neglected to take photos of some of the other lovely things in the competition exhibit - the fair isle cardigan in shades of purple that won best in show, the circular lace shawl that won best knitted item in show, or the beautiful laceweight that won a blue ribbon.

(UPDATE: Here is link to a photo of the best-in-show cardigan.)

I neglected to take photos of a lot of things. This was the first year that Emily was with me on the hoof and she was content to be there pretty much all day, so we looked at sheep dogs working and we watched sheep judging. She ate cotton candy while I looked at fleece.

My shopping goals were very small and I met them.

I visited my LYS, which is under new ownership and this year took a focus on indie dyers for the festival. They had all the stuff you hear about all the time and don't get to see in person - Sweet Sheep, A Verb for Keeping Warm, Ceyberfiber, Neighborhood Fiber.... So I bought things from them.

On top, two ounces of indigo-dyed bluefaced leicester from A Verb for Keeping Warm. In the middle, a skein of sock yarn from The Sweet Sheep in a colorway called Surf, which made me think of the colors of snoballs. At the bottom, a skein of sock yarn from the Neighborhood Fiber Company - they name their colorways after neighborhoods in Washington DC and the one I happened to pick up was called 'Mount Pleasant' which is a neighborhood I lived in once upon a time. Cheers to Jolene and Jody for putting together an extremely appealing booth!

We were at the Ravelry meetup for 15 minutes, and met Jess and Casey coming in as we were running out to make a dash to swimming class - Emily actually pushed me to return, so we came back in the afternoon and got into the t-shirt line which was much shorter. While standing there, I saw there was no longer a line at The Fold to pay for Socks That Rock, so I made a dash to see if they had any skeins left of the colorway I had fallen in love with the first time I saw it, and they did. Rock Star:

We paid a second visit to the fleeces and this time I noticed a little bag stuck back in the corner among all the brazillion Romneys and Lincolns and Border Leicesters - the label said 'CVM X' which was enough to get me to open the bag having just recently spun 8 ounces of nice CVM.

The fleece was very interesting - a bigger crimp than I expected from CVM and not as soft, with a little luster and very white outside of the dirty tips, and a nice healthy staple of about 4 inches. Inside the bag was this:

A washed lock, a spun sample, a photo of the sheep, and more about her. Arianna is 4 years old, her mother was a CVM ewe and her father was a bluefaced leicester/coopworth cross ram. Interesting! The shepherd felt there were too many second cuts in the fleece so she had priced it down. I took it out and a volunteer rolled it out for me and looked it over and she said that it could not have been skirted better and that she didn't see many second cuts. Arianna was $35 for 5 pounds, so she came home with me. Well, actually, she only came with me as far as the Zeilinger's dropoff tent, and I will see her again sometime about July 1. The guy taking the fleeces said this was one of the more interesting things he had seen come in. I think it will have a crisp hand, sort of like a medium corriedale, and would make a good jacket, and maybe a bit of nice firm-bodied laceweight.

Bumper sticker of the day:

I would have a runner up bumper sticker of the day but I was trying to take a photo of it while following the car up the on ramp of route 70 which didn't work out so well. To the people in the little silver car with the Louet box in the back and the "Make gloves, not war" bumper sticker - sorry if I freaked you out, but I liked your bumper sticker...

There was knitting done over the past two weeks. I finished the Marilinda socks in the middle of last week.

The Classic Elite Alpaca Sox makes a very warm soft sock that will not get worn until cool weather. The pattern is lovely. I added one pattern repeat to the leg, which meant that I was off ever after on which row had the little fake cable motif, but it was easy to keep track.

I made one pair of Fetching mitts for teacher gifts and started on another.

I got up past the motif on the front of the Gathered Pullover and then divided fronts from back. I will raise the neckline a little as it is just too low for me, and also not open it so wide. I saw a photo on someone's blog of a person wearing this and I felt bad for her - it was beautifully knitted but the shoulders were just too wide and it was falling down awkwardly and looking uncomfortable. I won't take that risk.

I think I will try knitting the sleeves top-down to be sure I have enough yarn. I have never changed a set-in sleeve to be knit top down, this will be an adventure.

I also made a little hand towel out of a stray ball of Knit Picks Cotlin.

Wow, I loved this yarn. Especially after it came out of the washer and dryer. It did shrink up just a small amount, but it plumped up and got soft, instead of hard like regular cotton does. I have to make a summer sweater out of this.

At the end of the weekend, after all was said and done, we had this:

"Teach me to knit." Maybe soon we will have the other sweetest four words in the world: "Ssssh Mom I'm counting!"

The technique was really interesting and I'm glad I learned how to do it. I think the drawback of it is, you have no idea what you've made till you bind off. The stitches are coiled up around the circular cable, so you don't know how long the darn thing is going to be. Now, I know, you are supposed to know exactly your gauge and exactly how many stitches you cast on, so you should know how long it's going to be. Ha ha. Very funny. Nothing I knew in advance about worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles and me would have led me to expect this thing would be 48 inches around.

Also, I have not one, not two, but three twists in this thing. I suppose it would have been possible to detect this after I did my cast-on.

The cast-on itself is clever and fun, it's a little like Judy's magic cast-on. The resulting item is an ugly mess and I think I will just throw it away.

I did finish one Marilinda sock.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I added one extra pattern repeat on the leg to get a little extra length.

I love how the pattern comes down the heel flap.

I didn't have too much time to spin this weekend but I'm working on another skein from my cormo fleece from last year. After struggling with flicked locks for awhile and not being happy with the resulting yarn, I decided to try combing. One pass through the two-row combs is just enough to organize this and clean out the neps.

I can't get over the feeling that I'm generating waste where there should be none, but I have a ton of fleece, and this combed top makes a much nicer yarn. Don't you just want to take a nap in that??

Lily and Toby say: "Nap? sounds great!"

These are three little learning socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways For Sock Knitters. I have to admit I hae been avoiding this book since it first came out. I mean, I have more sock patterns now than I could ever knit - who needs half a dozen NEW WAYS to knit them? But I poked my nose into it at my LYS last month and decided I really ought to give it a shot.

Once I opened it up and started to play, I didn't want to stop.

The learning socks are:

Learning Riverbed

Learning Coriolis

Learning Sky

I wanted to make more baby socks in unusual ways but I decided enough was enough and I had to get back to my regularly scheduled knitting. But my next pair of socks will be something from that book. I wish I was someone who can make up her own stuff because the possibilities of some of the shapes are really inspiring. I like the Sky architecture with the increases opening from the ankle down the instep in an expanding wedge, and I like Riverbed with all the increases on the sole so that your instep pattern can be uninterrupted all down the foot. I like the one whose name I can't remember, with the increases in two wedges on the sides of the instep, which to me seems best suited to an actual foot. Neat stuff.

Once I laid that book aside I made a lot of progress on Cookie A's new Marilinda pattern.

It's hard to see the pattern in this photo but when the leg is stretched while worn, it pops right out. The yarn is Classic Elite Alpaca Sox and so far I think I like it although I can't tell how it will wear. I'm knitting it at a tighter gauge than most people who have used this yarn on Ravelry - I can't imagine knitting this looser than size 1 needles to get any wear out of it at all. We shall see.

I also finally got off the ground with my variation on the Gathered Pullover. It's slow going, though, because I'm so enraptured with socks.

I think this yarn shows nicely in both the garter and stockinette sections. We'll see how it likes the cabling at the neckline.

It's a good thing they were a pleasant fairly quick knit!

Last time we spoke (before the gorgeous cat and the lovely spinning were posted), there was one Evening Stocking.

However, I had realized that I had enough yarn to knit to the full pattern length, so last week there was a second sock, longer, with a heel, plus a first sock that no longer had a foot.

When I went to pick up the stitches for the gussets and resume knitting around, I realized I had knitted the heel flap one stitch off center. So the heel flap got ripped out and redone. When the sock was finally finished, I then finished the leg of the other sock and knitted the heel and foot of that one again. So I knit the heel flap and heel turn four times altogether for this pair of socks.

I still like them, though, they are awesome socks. Elastic and tall and very very bright in Lisa's hardtwist petite in Blueflame. She told me that the colorway was inspired by a piece of Murano glass.

So, phew. Now that that is over I started a new pair of socks - Cookie A's new Marilinda pattern, using some Classic Elite Alpaca Sox because the skein was in such pretty easter-egg shades of pink and blue. So far I do like the yarn, it's a little hairy as alpaca often is, but it's making a nice soft fabric.

(Can I just say, I can't keep up with that Cookie. Since I went over and bought Marilinda, there are 2 or 3 new patterns I want. Sigh.)

The Brushed Lace cardigan was finally ready for showing last week.

The yarn (Valley Yarns Florence) knitted up very nicely (no splitting or snagging), survived blocking nicely, and is very soft to the touch. I got some pretty 3/4 inch shell buttons to put on it, they are as light as the knitted fabric so they pair well.

I can see in the photo that I either messed up the buttonband or the blocking - it looks like the top button should not exist. But I did put that buttonhole right next to the first decrease for the neckline, or at least I thought I did, so perhaps when I blocked it I didn't notice that top buttonhole and pull the V together properly...

It was a quick knit on size 8 needles - I started on February 24th and finished on March 24th so 4 weeks, and I used almost 8 balls of Florence. It looks a little frumpy in the photos, but it looks better in person (although not as nice as it does on that skinny model in the magazine...). Florence happens to be on sale during the WEBS anniversary sale if you are looking for a less expensive substitute for a worsted weight brushed alpaca.

So after finishing this, I wanted to start another sweater. (I am approaching a cedar-chest crisis, but I think that can be put off a few more months...) I had been contemplating how nicely this batch of handspun would work up as the Cabaret Raglan by Norah Gaughan that was in the Summer 2004 issue of Interweave Knits, so first I swatched for that. It quickly became clear that there was no way this yarn could be worked at that loose a gauge - and even if I went up a couple of sizes, it just seemed too far off to attempt. Wanting something else fairly simple to let the yarn show itself off, I swatched for the Gathered Pullover and decided that if I knit one size larger I could make it work. So I happily knit along for about 6 inches, enjoying the yarn a great deal (I still can't believe I made it). Then I decided that the bottom edge was going to roll so much that it would end up under my arms - it seemed to have unlimited capacity to roll on the needles, the 6 inches of fabric pretty much was like a large circular cannoli. You can see here how much difficulty I had even photographing it.

So I frogged all that and set out again, to make a 1 inch garter stitch bottom edge to keep the fabric down where it belonged. I knit a lovely 1 inch garter border before I realized it was a moebius. Sigh. So I frogged that, and I will try again today.

This rolling business is just another thing about that pattern that I find weird. Not only does she knit sport weight yarn at an aran gauge (which to me means the sweater will sag, pill, and lose its shape in no time), but she doesn't knit a bottom border - a little rolled edge can be attractive but this light yarn will go up like a window shade. They must have starched the sweater in the magazine photos to make it stay down. It's odd to have a pattern in a magazine like IK be so counterintuitive in every way and still be so pretty on top of it. I noticed on Ravelry that everyone was knitting it in worsted weight yarn, so I'm not the only one who didn't buy into the whole sport weight thing. If I can ever get off the ground with this, I think it will look lovely in this yarn. I wonder if I can raise the neckline without spoiling the effect of the cable.

Cat math: With Melanie's new family member last week, plus the second one she's going back to get when he gets over his cold, that makes 10 cats in the KnitMe family. I don't know if Jan has any cats, but Sam has 4, I have 4, and there are these two new guys. Cats rule!

(Yes, those are cherry blossoms in the background, at last!)

They named him Cooper, and we're not going to change that since he comes when he is called. He's a young adult, a Siamese / domestic long hair cross, about two years old. He's not the least bit shy, loves people and is the most curious cat I have ever met. He has sniffed every corner, tried to get into every cupboard, and has shed just about everywhere. We're going to fix that with our fancy new brush. His back has been shaved because he was badly matted. Imagine what the shedding will be like when that grows back in. (I wonder if it can be spun). Judging by the way he climbed into bed with us last night, you'd think he had never slept anywhere else.

Since we're back into daylight savings, I have been spinning a more than knitting. I got some merino-tencel fibre from my friend Fran for Christmas. I'm going to ply it with some silk I purchased from the Silkworker in the Music Box colourway. The singles have been spun, but the plying isn't done yet. Cooper seems happy to let me spin, but plying with him around might be an adventure.

Merino-tencel:

Msic Box Silk:

About a year ago I acquired some merino-silk top from Vicki when she was destashing. It's all spun up into a fingering weight, 15 w.p.i. 2 ply yarn. There are 1,397 yards which may become a nice big shawl some day.

My current spinning is Crown Mountain Sock Hop, superwash merino in the Under the Boardwalk colourway. I've really been enjoying this. The top is dyed with half the length in lighter colours and half in darker. I have separated the two halves and torn off arm lengths of each bump to mix up the colours within the light and dark bumps. I'm spinning one armlength of light followed by one armlength of dark. Who knows how the yarn will turn out. The not knowing is half the fun.

I really like how the colours are coming out in the singles.

On my monitor at home it seemed way too washed-out so I darkened it a bit, I have no idea what it will look like to you. But I am very pleased with it. The colors remained pretty clear, and they have a lovely saturated-ness to them.

The brushed lace cardigan is done, but at the time I was taking photos yesterday it was all bunched up on the needles having the button/neck band knit so it was not ready to pose. I cast off in the evening and am seeking the perfect lightweight buttons, so there will be a photo op next week. Despite my worries about losing the halo, I think it does need a wet block, so that is on the agenda for the next day or two.

I finished one Evening Sock.

I prefer top-down socks, and I am still fumbling around trying to find out how to use weight to determine if I have used as much yarn as possible for a sock leg given the size of my foot. When I weighed the yarn remaining in the ball at the top of the heel flap, I got 84 grams. Since I had started out with 112 grams, I figured I should skip the 20 rows remaining on the leg, and just get on with the foot. Then, when I cast off this sock and weighed the yarn remaining, I got.. 66 grams. Hein? I only use 18 grams of yarn for a heel, gusset, and foot?? No way. I am considering knitting the second sock to the full length required by the pattern, and removing the entire foot on the first sock and adding those 20 rows onto the leg. What is the point of shortening a pattern when in fact you don't need to? I will see what the yarn weighs when I finish a matching leg on the second sock, and then decide.

On a lark I played with a crock pot, Kool Aid, and shetland roving yesterday. I think the results are hideous but we will see what the stuff looks like when dry, I might show it to you anyway...