Saturday, September 29, 2007

Making It Up As I Go Along

Call me crazy. You wouldn't be the first. Or call me a writer. Someone who makes it up as she goes along.

Whatever, I've designed a pattern and am going to knit it up with the James C. Brett black and white and gray Marble yarn pictured on the right. It's 100% acrylic (I'm allergic to wool) and there's 240 yards to the ball. Since I figure I'll need about 1,600-1,700 yards, I bought 7 balls for a total of 1,680 yards.

Here's the deal: I couldn't find a pattern and yarn that went together the way I wanted them to. Originally, I was going to make the Marble Cardigan. I ordered some of the Patches yarn for it but found it didn't quite look right. Didn't feel right, either, because it had wool in it. So I sent the Patches back (minus the one ball that it had taken for me to figure out it wasn't going to work) and decided what I really wanted to make was a cuff-to-cuff cardigan. Then I got to doodling around and decided I could design the pattern myself.

We'll see ... right? I'm going to knit the sleeves from cuff to underarm on the same circular at the same time. Then I'll put each sleeve on its own circular, increase for the body, decrease a little for the neck and do a three-needle bind-off in the center back. If you'd like, I'll throw up a picture now and then as I progress so you can see if I can really do this as well.

Oh, and while I'm here: I'll be giving away some sock yarn too this coming month.

So what's on your needles now?

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Friday, September 28, 2007

This is why...

I can't stop buying sock yarn. Honestly, how can anyone expect me to give up sock yarn after getting a package with all this in it? It's not my fault, really it isn't.

(Please note the extensive effort I put into styling this photo. Ordinarily, my desk is totally organized, not a bit of clutter in sight but I deliberately scattered debris across its pristine surface just to give a touch of atmosphere to the photo. Honest!)

In front are six skeins of Yarntini that I glommed in the last Loopy Ewe sneak up. I bought my first Yarntini yarn from Ms. Yarntini herself way back in the distant past - spring of 2006, if you must know - when she was selling on Etsy. She dyed some contrasting yarn for heels & toes to go with several of the skeins I bought and was a delight to deal with. Now, her yarns are coveted by knit bloggers across the land and I have to admit I always feel vaguely smug that I knew her when.

From left to right, the colors are: Loopy Blooms, Lime Twist, Zesty, Mimosa, Strawberry Daquiri and the mysteriously named 4-8-15-16-23-42.

In back, on the left are two skeins of Classic Elite's new Alpaca Sox. THE Wendy knit Lacy Ribs socks with it earlier this summer and, if memory serves, she said it was very soft. She wasn't kidding. It's squeezably soft and has a fuzzy look about it, reminiscent of an angora blend. I assume the fuzziness is courtesy of the alpaca content.

In back on the left is a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Nantucket, a wonderful terra cotta color and a skein of Misty Mountain sock yarn in Ocean Wave - super cushy and the colors are more striking than the photo shows.

At the very top of the photo, just visible on the left is Wendy's Garden Path Sock pattern. This is one of my favorites of the socks she's designed this summer and I'm probably going to knit them in the same yarn she used - Dream in Color's Smooshy - though I think I'll use a soft peach color or maybe blue or there's a nice purple...

And tucked coyly in between the Alpaca Sox & the Cherry Tree Hill is my first square for my new sock yarn blanket. Isn't it cute? I am quite madly in love with this whole idea. Block #2 is nearly finished and almost as wonderful as the first one. I'll share more when I have a few blocks to put together so you can see the wonderful patterns they make.

The really sad thing about this photo? I've already got a bunch of socks on the needles and have sworn not to cast on any more until I whittle down the current project list just a bit. Guess I'll just have to knit faster.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Links, blame, Sock Yarnapalooza, and occasions of sin

About Sock Yarnapalooza: Sure, we'd love to see your finished work somewhere down the line but we're not going to bar you from the contest if you can't provide one. Please join us! I don't care if it takes you five years to use the yarn and you forget to drop us an email to say, "I finished!" Have fun! Be daring! Enter here right now! (Just remember to put SOCK YARN in the subject header.)

If you asked what one knitterly challenge would I absolutely, positively never try I would have said, "Beading." I went through my hippie-chick beading phase when I was an 18 year old newlywed living outside Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. That was when I tapped into my Chippewa blood and started doing beadwork on a tiny loom. Lots and lots of thunderbirds and moons and suns and eagles and the occasional peace sign just to remind everyone that this was, after all, 1968-1969. It was fun. It was cheap. I enjoyed it immensely. But when I quit doing it around 1970, that was it. Buh-bye, beads. It was on to the next Big Thing.

So imagine my surprise when I started poking around Dawn Brocco's website and fell madly in love with her cabled cashmere scarves. Imagine my BIG surprise when my favorite scarf of all was (gulp) beaded. I'll pause while you zip over to Dawn's site and check them out.

I was right, wasn't I? They're absolutely gorgeous. Well, this has led me on a merry search for 1) affordable cashmere and 2) beads. The former turned out to be less of a problem than the latter. Who knew there are actual towns out there with their own bead shops? I'm insanely jealous. We can't even seem to hang onto a book store in this smallish town of mine, much less a craft and/or bead shop. They seem to have the life span of fruit flies.

So I've done a bit of poking around on the web and discovered Beadwrangler Mall through Fluffy Knitter Deb's blog (I'm in love with the P-Man), Earth Faire through Google, Mill Hill through Dawn, Knitting Zone via Dallas, and who knows what else is out there.

And remember the terrible time I had searching for the leather buttons I wanted for Goldisox's sweater? Well, I found Button Heaven at As Cute As A Button and am awaiting said buttons even as I type this. You could drown in adorable buttons at that website. It makes you want to sew on buttons even where they don't belong.

I blamed Dallas for the Giant Sock Yarn Granny Square. And now I blame her for finding another great use for scrap yarn. How about a knitted quilt? Imagine lots of squares knitted on the diagonal with great blocks and stripes and blips of color. Think alive with color! Think crazy quilt! Think another wonderful project. (I'd like to start ten of these.) (I really would.)

Do you do beadwork? Do you knit with beads? Are you 5/0 or 6/0? Round? Triangular? Do you thread them onto the yarn or use the crochet hook method?

So many fabulous knitterly things to explore . . . so little time!

Monday, September 24, 2007

October Is Sock Yarnapalooza Month!


I didn't forget! October is almost here and that means it's time for our first Sock Yarnaplooza Celebration. I know there are all sorts of sock-a-longs going on out there. Some of you might remember we had our own Sock Hop last October.

Our Sock Hop was a freestyle knitalong with no rules and little structure. (Perfect for a group of writers under deadline!) Knitting socks? Feel like sharing your sock dramas and photos? We'd love to have you.

What was I saying about the Sock Yarnapalooza? I'll be giving away sock yarn every day in October and if you want to put your name into the mix, send me an email at wickedsplitty with SOCK YARN as the subject and I'll make sure you're included.

But there's a catch. A small one, but a catch just the same: if you win some sock yarn, I hope you'll share photos of what that sock yarn grew up to be.

That's it! Now send me an email, okay?

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Sunday, September 23, 2007

Janin's (Beautiful) Dishcloth


This just in from Janin. (Janin lives in Hamburg, Germany--a fact that absolutely thrills me. I love the fact that we're read by so many knitters in so many different places.)

Here's what she had to say: I used the pattern that was on the ball band since I had another ball of yarn in a matching green color. Quite a fun and easy to memorize pattern too. It only took an hour or two, the perfect traveling project :-)

Thanks for sharing, Janin! It's gorgeous. (And I'm hanging my head in shame . . . )

FO Alert: Red Scarf and Snowflake Sock #1



Two completions (almost) to report. My Red Scarf Project "Felicity" scarf is finished and looking kinda nice, if I do say so myself. Now I'm wondering if I have time to make a second one before the deadline.


And, drum roll, Snowflake Sock #1 came off the needles last night. I haven't done any finishing yet of any kind (lots of yarn ends, spots I want to duplicate stitch for clarity) but it's a real sock now and I'm delighted. I'll tell you the weird spots after I see if they occur on sock #2 as well.


(The Red Scarf is the Kata/Felicity scarf from Tara Jon Manning's MINDFUL KNITTING. The Snowflake Sock is from the current Interweave Knits.)


More news later.


Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Why I (Still) Love Crochet



<--My sock yarn granny square last week.

Years ago, back when we were living on Long Island, a neighbor said this to me: "Rich women needlepoint; the rest of us crochet."
I remember the statement very clearly, some 30-something years later. At the time I was 24, married, unemployed, and living in our very first house. A house, I might add, that had pretty much come down around our ears. (We had to re-wall every room, re-wire, re-floor, re-ceiling, put down flooring . . . I could go on but I'll spare you. It was a rude introduction to the joys of home ownership, I can tell you that.)

Anyway, I was and have always been an avid crocheter. It was the first needle art I learned (from my mother, at about 5 years old) and the one to which I always return. Crocheting for me is like breathing. I do it fast, well, and sometimes without thinking. Muscle memory takes over the second my hand grasps the hook and I'm flying. It never once occurred to me that there was a rich girl/poor girl divide or that my beloved granny squares would become an object of derision.

Pop Culture Observation: Want to label a living room as belonging to a low-rent, working class couple? Drape a granny afghan over the back of the then cut out early because your work is done.

With apologies to no one, I LOVE GRANNY AFGHANS. I loved them when I was a kid. I loved them as a young woman. I love them now in my fifties. They remind me of patchwork quilts, a beautiful way to use up leftover bits and pieces and turn them into something pleasing to the eye and to the soul. My mother always had a bag of granny squares tucked away. No scrap of yarn longer than a few inches escaped her crochet hook. The rules were simple: as long as you could coax a stitch or two from the scrap, it went into a square which went into a strip which went into an afghan.

Which became a wonderland for an introspective only child who liked to lie on the living room floor on a snowy afternoon watching The Early Show (anyone remember the theme song, The Syncopated Clock?) and dreaming up her own stories. I can still see some of those wonderful squares in my memory--what delight to follow the short run of red/white/blue which led into a sparkly gold which moved swiftly to sea green then navy blue then a long stretch of something variegated and autumnal. My mother (also a great believer in the chaos theory of artistic expression) had just one rule she followed with her grannies: they were always edged in a bright yellow, which just happened to be her daughter's favorite color. When she made them as gifts, someone might have black borders or cherry red but at home, yellow reigned supreme.

I still have some of those afghans. The one in the photo is around 50 years old. The photo, however, is only five minutes old.

I resigned myself years ago to the fact that kids wouldn't be in my future. That wasn't what fate had in store for me. I'm usually okay with that but it's times like this, when I lay my hand on one of my mother's afghans, that I wish I had a daughter to pass this love, this craft, on to.
Maybe it's time to reclaim the granny square and give it the respect it's due!

Tapestry mitts


The yarn: Rowan Tapestry, 70 percent wool, 30 percent soybean protein fiber
The pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Naimath, from Knitty's Summer '06 issue
I decided to live dangerously and skip the gauge swatch, even though I couldn't find my size 6 doublepoints and am using the size 7 set instead. Precise fit isn't an issue this time since my gift list includes persons with a wide range of hand sizes.
It's such a joy to be knitting again.
P.S. - The funky keyboard in the photo is my contoured Kinesis, an ergonomic keyboard I purchased in 1993. It still works great after 13 years of heavy use and abuse. (The curve in the base at the center isn't really a curve, though. It's my head shadow.)

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Monday, September 17, 2007

Darth Sweater




I've renamed the MIL sweater. It has become . . . Darth Sweater.


Why?


1) It's huge and black.

2) It has established its Evil Empire in my guestroom (see photo), taking over more and more territory, expanding from one blocking board to two to three. (I had to improvise the extra boards from foam core and garbage bags.)

3) Like Lord Vader, restraining it requires massive amounts of hardware: 360 pins to be precise.

4) It's playing evil Jedi mind games with me, causing me to question every pin I place. Is that side even with this one? Is the cuff the right width? Should this side be straight or curved?


My favorite advice on blocking? From See Eunny Knit: "Walk away and leave it be for a day or two." Gladly!!!


Does everyone else hate blocking as much as I do? (I even took frequent chocolate breaks and it didn't help. Well, maybe a little.)

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

The Opposite of Chaos


Did I tell you the top-down raglan cardigan for Goldisox is finished? I bound off the last stitch on 9/8/2007 -- which just happened to be our 39th anniversary! Half of the fun was the look of delight on his face as it came to life over the last five weeks. Now we're on the great button hunt which is turning out to be tougher than I thought it would be. The Ragg Shop closed its doors. Our Michael's in Bridgewater had some plastic bunny rabbit buttons and lots and lots of beads. (An unsettling observation: Wal-Mart [which was my Red Heart Baby Clouds emergency port in a storm] cut their needlework section down to one half of one row of shelves. Mostly Bernat, mostly old and dusty. Four knitting needles. Very distressing. And Michael's cut back the knitting/crocheting area by 75%.)


Anyway, I've been playing with the afghan squares (two currently underway), the red scarf (now 80% complete, about 4 feet of red red RED!), my scraps of Outback Mohair shawl (I'll stop when I run out), and the Snowflake Socks from the current Interweave Knits.

I can't express how much fun the Snowflake Socks are to knit. Definitely the opposite of the hellbent for leather approach I bring to my crazy quilt afghan square. This is precise and charted and despite the fact that it calls on aspects of my personality that I have in very short supply (organizational abilities, precision, the willingness to follow rules) it's going well.

I finished the leg, worked the heel flap, turned the heel, picked up gusset stitches, worked the necessary decreases, and am now working the pattern on the instep and maintaining the striping on the sole. Another 45 rows or so and it's time to knit the toes.

Highly recommended!!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

I Blame Dallas!


There I was, minding my own business, working on the epilogue of the old book, struggling along with the beginning of the new, when Dallas emailed me this link and I was done for.
You know how it is: the more you knit or crochet, the more bits and pieces you accumulate. Not enough to make a sock or a scarf with, not so little that you feel free to give it to the birds for their nests. Just the wrong amount for anything but a giant plastic bag and a giant portion of your closet.
How about a giant sock yarn granny square lap throw? Is that genius or what! Now I'm not saying mine is beautiful or anything because it isn't. What it is is a random sampling of leftover yarns, drawn at random from the dark recesses of a tote bag and used without regard for how one color will look following another. I began with Regia blue multi leftovers, segued into Opal Petticoat, moved onto some leftover Fortissima Colori from the sock yarn Sandra gave me two years ago for my birthday, and now some Paton's Kroy. This square is worked with an E hook. (The other one is being worked on a 00.)
This is the ultimate mindless project. I'm finding it to be perfect for picking up and putting down while I work. No worry about where I am in the row, no worry about lost stitches, no worry about joining yarns or what comes next. What comes next is whatever I pull blindly from the totebag of scraps. Chaos Theory Crocheting that will ultimately serve a purpose. Is that great or what?
Of course the urge is to try to establish some order, to line up the colors in more pleasing configurations, to make one all in blues and one all in autumnal shades, but I'm resisting. There are enough rules and regs in real life. Let the colors fight it out among themselves.
For right now this girl's just gonna have some crochet fun.

Friday, September 14, 2007

And the winner is...

(Drum roll) STEEL CITY KNITTER with lucky number 12! Congratulations! Email me at nancy@nancyherkness.com with your snail mail address and I'll send you the stunning Malabrigo yarn. Enjoy, enjoy enjoy!

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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Prairie Hay colorway

This is real prairie hay, up close and personal. I love the colors, the muted greens and the blush of brownish red from the gamma grass. (At least I THINK it's the gamma grass - I'll walk over to my neighbor's prairie patch later today to cut a handlful of what I know to be gamma grass so I can see if it dries and cures to a similar color.) I would love to knit a sweater in this colorway - which is not, to my knowledge available in any fiber suitable for knitting. I just can't imagine myself mastering the complexity of the colors at the dyepot, not at my current skill level.

So how did I get on this train of thought -- aside from my usual obsession about colorways in nature? Recently, my husband and I bought a trailer load of prairie hay from a farmer a half hour's drive from us. My lucky husband went back to work in the city for the week, and I spent a lot of quality time up close and personal with this gorgeous, sweet smelling hay while I unloaded it and hauled it into the hay loft. All by myself. Every last heavy bale. (And I did not lose a single pound either. Not fair!) While I lifted, sweated, and cursed, I also inhaled and savored the scent and just kept thinking about those colors. And the niggling itch started -- not the one from the scratchy hay bits in my shirt -- the fiber fanatic itch, which had gone dormant somewhere around the time the thermometer started hitting 90 degrees Fahrenheit on a regular basis.

All summer I've read about everyone's terrific projects and even admired the yarns in the sale notices I keep getting. But I wasn't knitting. I had knitter's guilt, but I just couldnt' get myself motivated to do more than look at the needles and sigh. During the hay moving week, I even got my simple fuzzy scarf out, did a couple of rows, and lost interest. Not even the physical therapy aspects for my aching fingers could motivate me. I resorted to the old hand exercises the physical therapist taught me.

I’m apparently just not a summer knitter. Oh, I think about it plenty, but it’s a back burner, mulling-it-over, JUST THINKING kind of thing.

But why? How can I go so predictably, every year, from rabid interest in all things knitting to a state of near disinterest? That just baffled me, so I spent a lot of garden weeding time mulling over that particular aspect. Analyzing it from all sides – gawd knows it was more interesting than analyzing how many different kinds of bad bugs had infested the garden that day. (Bad bugs, grab a couple of ducks, toss into garden for a bug snack session, end of story – and possibly the end of the tomatoes, too.) But I digress.

It must be an associative thing. I most associate knitting with the comforting warmth of lush wools. What I love most is the tactile sensation of soft fibers sliding through my fingertips. As I knit, I imagine wearing that particular softness against my skin, and it’s a pleasure that outweighs even chocolate. Except in summer.

For perspective, consider that I spend my summers doing a lot of hot, sweaty work outdoors while wearing as little as possible, given the task of the moment. Bottom line, the summertime vibe doesn’t mix with my knitting vibe. I’ve tried to fight it with cotton and linen, and I’ve half-heartedly knit a few dishcloths in the past, just to keep my fingers nimble. But the joy just isn’t happening.

But fall – oh my. Once a bit of crisp touches the night air, I’m up in the attic, practically rolling in my fiber stash like Demi Moore in all that cash in that movie? This year, I managed to restrain myself and only tossed down a bag of washed Shetland fleece for spinning. It should be wonderful blended with the Angora I’m harvesting from my bunny stash in the barn this week. I don't know yet what I'll knit from it, but I'm sure I'll have an idea or ten. On the needles I have the beginnings of an Aran sweater I started last spring, but I’ve decided to frog that and start over since I’ve lost track of where I was in the shirttail increases. First, though, I’m going on a half-mitt binge. The season of chilled hands at the keyboard approaches, and I want a soft new pair for myself. And then there’s the Christmas knitting. Suddenly, almost overnight, I’ve regained my knitting mojo.

‘Isn’t that great?” I exclaimed last weekend to my ever-loving husband. He rolled his eyes.

Sigh. Only a fiber fiend could understand this, eh?

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Sunday, September 09, 2007

Prize alert: Malabrigo gorgeousness!



I promised you Malabrigo "Molly" but, alas, it was sold out. However, I fell in love with this stunning Malabrigo worsted in "Brisa", a lovely, lovely colorway of lavender, pink, and misty grays. So I bought two skeins of 216 yards each for one lucky winner. Add your comment to this blog and I'll break out the Random Number Generator on Friday and pick the person who gets this beautiful yarn in the mail.

(I saw a funny tee-shirt which said, "The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance." Mathematician humor!)

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Thursday, September 06, 2007

PW confirms it: we're still cool



Was there ever any doubt? Of course, we're cool. However, it's nice to have Publisher's Weekly, the Bible of the book world, agree. Even though the article is titled "Sew, What's New", there's alot about knitting in it. (I have to admit that I didn't appreciate the cover's subtitle: "A quaint revival extends its appeal." "Quaint"?!?! We're not quaint, we're cutting-edge.)

Claiming that it all began with Uma Thurman's knitting obssession (excuse me, I was knitting before Uma was born), PW points out that the trend has engendered a Knitting Olympics, a bestselling romance series, and countless knitting clubs. (They forgot to mention Romancing the Yarn but I intend to write to correct their oversight. LOL)

Melanie Falick, knitting author and editor, says, "In this big, insecure world, where everything moves so fast and most of our lives are spent in a virtual reality, we can find balance by slowing down and using our hands to create."

Evidently, the popularity of today's needle crafts has taken the spotlight away from what's known as the "hard crafts" like woodworking. Who knew?

As we knitters have become more proficient, we've begun to demand more diversity in our craft books. "It's the funky stuff that keeps people interested," one editor says. Publishers are looking for more niche books and using high-end photography to tempt us to buy their products.

Yarn stores see a trend away from bulky yarns (tell that to the fashion designer who commissioned a special set of knitting needles the size of broomsticks to knit his chunky sweaters on) and toward thinner yarns used to make garments and lace.

PW talks about the communities crafters create. Aha, they're catching on that we're a friendly, chatty group of folks. They also mention the rise of "craft celebrities" (like our own The Wendy) who write books and blogs and run charity events.

Here are a few of the books mentioned in the article as catering to us sophisticated, funky, niche knitters:

Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter;
Sensual Knits (Sensual Crochet will follow.);
The Museum of Kitschy Stitches: A Gallery of Notorious Knits-"hideous knitted creations. from ugly sweaters to atrocious 1970s knit shorts";
Anti-craft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister, which includes a pattern for a duct tape corset (ouch!);
Knitted Icons-featuring 25 celebrity doll patterns, including Gandhi, Madonna and Elvis.

Okay, call me boring but none of those titles makes me want to run right out to the bookstore (although I'm kind of curious about what, besides the long striped scarf, one would make for Harry Potter).

How about you guys? Anything there tempt you? Or do you have a better book you'd like to recommend?

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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

In Search of a Needle

It’s not my fault. All I wanted was my size 4 Addi Turbo Lace Circ. I know I have one. I remember buying it and I didn’t hallucinate that because I have the empty package. Usually, I put a note in the empty package that tells me what project the needle went into but not this time.

I thought maybe the needle wasn’t actually in a project but was just floating around loose in one of my needle drawers. (Though this would be in direct violation of my Rules of Needle Storage, it has been known to happen.) I went through the needle drawers and, though I found some interesting things - why do I have so many duplicate needles? - I didn’t find my size 4 Addi Lace and I really need that needle because I want to start a new shawl - Sharon Miller’s Rosebud Shawl, for those of you who feel the need to know.


I decided to go through my project tote - a 15 gallon plastic job - and my felted carry around tote. And the two - make that three - shelves where I stick projects that aren’t at the top of my priority list. Because it’s raining and I don’t have anything better to do, I decided to lay everything out on the bed and maybe take a picture. Or four.






Okay, first of all, I know how many projects I have at any given time. My list making habit approaches near legendary status among those who know me. So I already knew I had 25 projects on the needles - 26 if you insist on counting the Rosebud Shawl but, really, that’s barely started so it seems kind of petty to mention it. I knew I had 10 pairs of socks, 9 shawls, 2 scarves, 2 sweaters, 1 tote, 1 pair of gloves and 1 vest in progress. But there’s knowing and then there’s seeing it all laid out.

Maybe it’s time I finished up some things?

And I still haven’t found my blasted needle.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Dishcloth winner #7



Krullclan, you're winner #7! Watch for an email.



See that bit of blue wonderfulness? That's Kenyetta's Peaches & Creme dishcloth in progress. It's the Argosy pattern, which is brand new to me. (Great website, btw. Definitely worth a visit.)

I'm in love.

With knitted dishcloths.

Who knew?

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Dishcloth #6


Margaret S., look out! Some Peaches & Creme is heading your way!


The photo is once again courtesy of Cathy: a mitered dishcloth in either P&C or S&C. I'm telling you the woman has a way with cotton.


My editor and I agreed that a short epilogue is in keeping so I'm back in the world of Finn and Hayley this weekend. It took a day or two to refresh my memory (how quickly you can forget the imaginary friends you lived with for months) but I'm on track now. I'd written maybe five different epilogues (both partial and complete) before I decided to end on what I thought was an optimistic but slightly ambiguous note. I loved the last few lines but I'll admit it bothered me a little that certain issues remained unresolved for the reader, issues that deserved a bit more than I gave them. So that's exactly what I'm doing right now in between rows on the red scarf and working on Goldisox's sweater. Sleeve #1 is all finished, cuff included, and I'm embarked on Sleeve #2. Things are looking good.
Hope you're all having a terrific weekend . . . preferably a weekend with lots of knitting time.