Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Knitting Every Day



Hey Y'all,
Hard to believe we left Monhegan Island a month ago! I'm pleasantly jealous of those of you who are going on the upcoming Vermont retreats. I'll still be in the throes of Busy Wedding Season down here in Austin, where October is sort of our June. The weather is so splendid-- 80s in the daytime, 60s at night-- that everyone wants to take advantage of it and get hitched outdoors. I myself mark the big drop down into the 60s (from our summertime triple digits) but stocking up on firewood and getting probably too many projects on the needles, the idea being that I'll get a big fire going the second it drops down to 59F and I'll bust out all these sweaters and shawls and just knock 'em out like that.

Wait, did I just say "too many projects"? Well, what I mean is, I WANT TO DO THEM ALL! And I want to do them all RIGHT NOW. But I know I cannot do them ALL and RIGHT NOW. I have to slow down and pick. If knitting has taught me anything, it's either that patience is a must or, more honestly, that I have a LONG way to go before I qualify as remotely patient. Because right now I am trying to plow through the extremely basic Malabrigo stripey hat pictured up above in-progress and on Dante's head. Why the rush? Because I want to get back to the half-pi shawl which, yes, I put down-- WHAT WAS I THINKING? Also I need to get back to the adult sized Baby Surprise Jacket I'm making me on ridiculously small needles and using Brooklyn Tweed's LOFT. That is going to take me YEARS to finish.



I'm also needing to finish that grandfather clock sock I've been talking about since I started it in April 2013. I only have about six inches left on needles the size of motorcycle handlebars but I am SO STALLED OUT. Because it is SO BORING. But it's beautiful and I just need to get it done. One reason I need to get it done is because my reward is going to be to let myself start another project that involves ten-million knit-only stitches. That would be the Color Affection shawl like we saw when we visited TESS in Portland, Maine after the retreat. I just cannot get that shawl out of my head.


Because I did not pick up the yarn at TESS that they used to make the shawl, I have been desperately trying to find something even close to as soft as their KITTEN line. I'd gotten a bunch of Madeline Tosh (always a good bet, and pictured above with some LOFT). But still, I wanted softer. So then I came across some Classic Elite Yarns VILLA and what a triple score! Because not only is it incredibly soft and incredibly beautiful, it also makes me think of Susan Mills, who often comes to Monhegan with us, and who is the creative director of CEY. I cannot WAIT to start working with this stuff. (I'll figure out later what to do with the Tosh. Poor me-- what a problem to have.)


In other news, I confess I went ahead and got a new iPhone 6, which is a total indulgence EXCEPT if you consider I really do rely super heavily on my phone for work-- both my weddings and my blog work. The camera in the new phone is just amazing. I already was one to take a bazillion pictures daily. Now I am taking about two bazillion per day. I do enjoy all the nature I come across in and of itself, but I have to admit I also like to take color and design inspiration from all the flowers and critters, like the lizard that scared the hell out of me in the shower last night. (I feel certain I also scared the hell out of him).




And despite my busy-ness and my sometimes indecisiveness- WHAT to pick up and work on today-- I have to say that hardly a day passes that I don't do something knitting related. Usually that means actually knitting. Some days though, I only have time to ball up a few skeins. In the picture above, my son was visiting me from Brooklyn and a bunch of his friends came by to say hi. Courtney asked "What's that?" and so I gave her a lesson in swifting and balling. It was so fun and very Tom Sawyer of me to get her to do my work for free.

Down below is the Baby Surprise Jacket. Surprise! It's nowhere near a jacket yet. But it will be. I swear, it will be. I'll just keep taking it with me everywhere I go, working every day every day. Maybe if I'm lucky it'll be done in time for Monhegan Island 2015.

Happy Knitting Y'all,
Spike


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