It Doesn't Translate

I'm swatching right now. I have real stuff that I've been knitting, too, but I'm still swatching.

You see, I have this yarn, and I have an idea. An idea that I really like, and I'm really excited about it, and I can't wait to share it with you once it's ready.

But there's a thing with ideas: they live inside your brain. Which is pretty cool, that something amazing and beautiful and fun can live in something that looks like old hamburger. But it makes it difficult to share the idea with other people, since they don't share your neurons and can't carpool in your neural pathways and we're humans, not vulcans, so mind melds aren't a viable option.

It's funny how something can work so perfectly in your mind, and look so promising when hastily scribbled out on a post-it, but turns to poop when you try to knit it. So for now I'm swatching, and hopefully I'll have a physical manifestation of the idea to share with you soon.

Another Monday

Wow, has it really been a whole week? Sorry for the unexpected and prolonged absence-this week will be better, I promise. But it's been a busy few days.

Remember how I said I was renovating my room? It's done. I have just a little more picking up to do, and I'll need to order a new rug, but otherwise it's totally done. That's such a weight off my back now (and I have a floor again! There's room for my yoga mat again!). Now that I have my floor back, I'll be able to block some FOs that have been hanging on my towel rack for the past week.

I started a swatch yesterday for the skein of Malabrigo Rasta I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I have a few other things I need to be working on right now too, but this is just too much fun.

I also made myself get out of the house on Saturday and went to a free watercolors workshop hosted by my local library. I used to paint quite a bit, but it's been several years and I'd like to get back into it, just for fun. I had a lot of fun at the workshop, and I got two seascapes I'm pretty pleased with out of it.

Pretty Princess Swatch &etc.

I haven't really taken pictures of anything yet, except for most of a scarf while it was blocking on my bed with most of Ella:

Speaking of most of Ella, I started picking up for the neckband today.  It's taking forever.  I'm only half done after a couple hours of that:

But more on both of those later.

I finally caked up my Pretty Princess yarn (Colinette Jitterbug, Peaches & Cream) and it is delightful.  I know I've talked about how much I love this yarn before, but it's just so squishy and beautiful and I wanna smoosh my face in it.

I spent half of yesterday swatching, starting, frogging, and restarting.  I thought I'd gotten the whole thing figured out before I cast on, but I just couldn't make my idea work.  So last night before bed I frogged the whole thing one last time and spent several quality hours with my stitch dictionaries. 

After six false starts, I finally have a viable swatch.  Hopefully this looks as good knit up as a shawl as it does in the swatch (part of why yesterday was so disappointing was because THE SWATCH LIED).  It's not what I initially planned, but it has the feel I was looking for, and I'm excited to get this knit up.

Future Project: Sweater Vest

A few weeks ago I volunteered to knit my sister a sweater vest for her summer internship.  I made this offer surprisingly, as I had just finished her Division and was still working on the Watermelon Socks, and I was very much looking forward to doing a lot of knitting for myself and not having any deadlines.  (This seems to be a recurring pattern in my life: as soon as I no longer have obligatory knitting, I begin looking for some.)

I had some ideas for design elements that I wanted to incorporate into a sweater, and this gave me the perfect chance to try them out.  The vest needs to keep her warm in an air-conditioned office, but it needs to be light enough to be wearable in the hottest part of summer.  We ended up going with Knit Picks Comfy Worsted in Seraphim for yarn.  It came last weekend and I knitted up a swatch.

It's not perfect, but it gives me plenty to work with.  I'm really happy with how the lace worked up, and the cables show beautifully.  I want to get this done by mid-May, when the school year ends.  It shouldn't take too long to knit up, and since I have the swatch done already I just have a little more math to do before I can cast on.