The day is getting away from me! I wanted to post early today, but everyone in the world must be on-line. Finishing up work before the holiday, all the bloggers posting before they go away, everyone who is already off work shopping on-line, catching up with emails, checking reservations, streaming movies? Who knows, but things were slow earlier so I decided to finish knitting my little design project. I just bound off the band and wove in the ends, gave it a quick wash followed by blocking.
When it’s dry, we’ll see whether it’s worth tweaking, writing, and test-knitting the thing. It has been fun, though, whichever way it turns out; designing is a change from running the shop every day. I must say that Fibre Company’s Meadow is a lovely yarn to knit with: light, sturdy, soft, fluffy, no flaws, excellent yardage, rich colors. If I hadn’t wanted a striped yoke, I believe I could have squeaked by with just 2 skeins!
Finished a couple other things this week. The Mrs. Jekyll/Little Hyde hat is done and is just too wonderful in 100% mink Mimi. Here it is, perched atop a roll of paper towels, much to its disgust, I’m sure. (This blog suffers from a lack of display props, yes?)
Lace side:
Striped side:
I love it, utterly.
One afternoon during a slow half-hour, I was sitting at the table knitting and looking around when my eye settled on our shelves of Dune, Trendsetter’s pretty mohair/metallic/multicolored yarn. We have several wonderful colors just now and, having some time to focus, I took a ball of lovely leafy greens and wandered around the shop with it in my hand. Came across an almost matching version of Manos’ Maxima and let them sit together for a day while I contemplated what would be nice to do. Robin Lapi had come into the shop recently wearing a Lacy Wrap that Karen Wenrich had knitted for her long ago in many different yarns and because she had reminded me of the pattern (free in the shop with purchase), I thought, why not try it? So this is the result:
One skein of each yarn! Warm, airy, crushable, spreadable, it works as a light shoulder wrap or a great warm scarf, and it’s very easy to knit. The fringe is made as you go! So since we liked it a lot, we had fun putting other Dune combos together. Aren’t they pretty? And much prettier in person!
Here’s another free pattern I worked up last week in Plymouth’s superbulky merino DeAire. This infinity scarf is another very quick gift idea or just a lovely way to treat yourself during this ultra-busy season:
Lynne Nagle made this Hybrid hat (a free pattern on Knitty) in Maxima. It’s called Hybrid because the top is crocheted from the top down, and the ribbing is knitted. One plus I see in that is: no double pointed needles required! It’s so, so pretty and fits beautifully:
She’s letting me keep it for a few days so you all can see it.
Enough inspiration for you? Okay then, I hope we’ll see you on Saturday for our little party/sale/whatever, and in the meantime, have a great Thanksgiving! As always, I’ll be giving thanks for you all. The shop (and I) thrive on your support and friendship and I thank you with all my heart.
Meanwhile, if you have some downtime this week, here is a podcast of an interview with Meg Swanson (hope you know that she is the daughter of Elizabeth Zimmerman and took over Schoolhouse Press when Elizabeth’s health failed.) The link was forwarded to Janet by Joy Jannotti – thanks to both of them for sending it on to me. Joy says:
“Have you heard this interview with Meg Swansen? It’s excellent.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fiberhooligan or http://www.knittinguniverse.com/fiberhooligan
Click on the Meg Swansen show dated 9/16/2013. It’s an hour long, so pull out your knitting and settle back.”
I’m going to fit it in some time this week, and it looks like there are several more I’d like to check out. Enjoy!
Trish
