I'm Sensing a Bit of a Theme

I mentioned on Tuesday that I was close to finishing my TTL Mystery Shawl, and I did indeed finish, but I will talk about that further down in the post in case anyone wants to avoid spoilers. I always feel the need to start a new project when one is finished, and you also saw my swatch for my next sweater in my last post. Last night I cast on for it, and it just occurred to me that I've got a bit of a color theme going, completely unintentionally. I didn't anticipate working on these two projects back to back, and certainly when I bought the yarn for this sweater back in 2018, I didn't even know that I'd be knitting the mystery shawl, but here you have it.

Obviously this isn't much of a start, but this is only about an hour's worth of knitting from last night. I expect it will grow quite quickly. I did look at stitch counts and do some math, and it looks like I'm going to be fine using my gauge and the directions for a smaller size. I'm actually knitting the extra small, which is crazy pants to me, but it means I will likely use less yarn than I have (because I bought yarn for the medium size, I think) and thus may have enough to lengthen the sleeves. As much as I like the look of the 3/4-length sleeves specified in the pattern, I'm much more likely to wear something with full-length sleeves, particularly as I always wear sweaters with a t-shirt underneath and have very few with 3/4-length sleeves.

Sweaters aren't exactly fast projects, but I'm feeling pretty confident that I can knit this one up in a relatively short period of time. There is some slip-stitch colorwork in the yoke and some short rows, but after that, it's all stockinette in the round. I expect this will be a good project to work on while reading!

And now let's get on to the main event -- my finished shawl! Let's see if I can do it justice with my photos.

I have said several times that this pattern is not something I would have picked to knit on my own if I'd seen photos of it beforehand, but I am glad I took the risk in knitting it because it was so much fun! It was a challenging knit, with the combination of lace, cabling, and mosaic knitting, but that level of engagement kept me focused, meaning that my mind was fully on my knitting and less involved in stressing over the general state of the world.

The yarn I used was really unlike the yarn that was recommended. The Jill Draper yarn that Kirsten used is woolly and nubby and textured. My yarn, a merino/silk single, is shiny and drapey. So my finished shawl doesn't have the texture or the dimensionality (is that a word?) that was perhaps intended, but I think I am more likely to wear this shawl because of its lack of bulk.

I ended up using about 363 yards/332 meters of the gray and 372 yards/340 meters of the red. A number of people either ran out of one color or were worried they were going to, so I'm glad that I picked a yarn with plenty of yardage in it so I didn't have to stress about playing yarn chicken. I have small balls left that will be good for swatching or playing with.

The only thing I don't really love about the shawl is the bind off. It's a creative way to do it, but it was a challenge to block. I used blocking wires along all three edges to get an even block on the shawl, and doing so was straightforward for the two sides (I ran the wires through the garter edge of the straight vertical and through the yarnovers along the diagonal vertical). It was difficult doing it for the top edge, though. I ended up running the wires through the big yarnovers in the motifs and then tugging the reverse stockinette band of Color B so that it sat above the wire. I'm not sure if that's what Kirsten intended, but it seems to have worked out okay. I also needn't have worried that it wouldn't be big enough -- after blocking, it's plenty big!

I have to say that I'm rather proud of myself for keeping up with the clues and getting each one done in a day or two after it was released, though I know that working from home this year is really what allowed me to do it. I know some of you have been surprised at how much crafting I've been able to get done, but the secret is that I simply have a lot more time to do it. The nature of my job is really feast or famine: I either have a lot to do or I seem to have nothing to do. Back when I was still going to the office every day, the slow times meant all I really got done was reading books online, but now that I no longer have to look like I'm busy, I'm free to knit or crochet or spin, provided I'm keeping my eye on my inbox. Plus I've gained a bit of extra time in my day given that I'm not commuting or running to pick up Rainbow at school or really going anywhere during the day. It's a nice perk of the pandemic!

A WIP Roundup

As much as I love a long weekend, it makes the following Monday a bit rough, doesn't it? I was definitely dragging yesterday, and I may or may not have grabbed a cat nap or two during the afternoon. The weekend itself, though, was very restful. And I did quite a bit of crafting. You saw the spinning output on Sunday, but how about the knitting the crochet?

Despite the fact that we're in the middle of a verified heat wave with highs in the mid- to upper 90s, I already started thinking about my next sweater. One of the patterns on my 20 in 2020 list is Torbellino (Ravelry link), which I've been intending to knit for a couple of years and even bought yarn for at Maryland Sheep and Wool back in 2018. Kristen is sponsoring a sweater knitalong right now, so it seemed like the perfect time to cast on. So I swatched over the weekend.

Swatch gauge tool from Akerworks

Because the sweater is knit in the round, I swatched in the round using the cheater method. Do you know how to do this? I didn't want to sacrifice any yarn (if I had enough, I would have knit an actual tube and cut it to measure), so I did the faux in-the-round method of draping the strand of yarn loosely across the back of the swatch. Here's what the back looks like:

I used a US 5/3.75 mm needle for my swatch and am ever so slightly off on gauge (I'm getting 21 stitches over 4 inches rather than the called-for 22 stitches) but I like the fabric I'm getting and think going down a needle size would give me fabric with no drape. I have to do a couple of math checks, but I think it may work out to knit a size smaller than I'd intended using my gauge. I still have to wind the rest of my yarn before I cast on, but I'm trying to finish up my TTL Mystery Shawl first (more on that in a moment).

I worked on Rainbow's crochet blanket quite a bit over the weekend and am almost done with the 10th ball of Felici, with four more left. It's currently measuring about 42 inches wide. Once I'm finished with all the Felici, Rainbow will assess the size and decide whether it's big enough or whether we want to dig through the stash for more yarn to add. Though I started this for the 100 Day Project, I know I missed a few days recently, so I'm just continuing to work on it and keeping my own count.

Because one crochet blanket isn't enough, I started another one over the weekend. Rainbow had a giant ball of big box store acrylic that she'd started a granny square blanket with around the same time I started mine, but she recently decided she didn't want it anymore and ripped it out. She then gave me the skein to play with, and I'm using it to crochet a corner-to-corner blanket. Have you heard of this method? It's pretty ingenious and is rather like the crochet version of entrelac. I used this pattern (Ravelry link) to get started, and while the very start was a bit tricky, once I figured it out it's been smooth sailing. And this yarn seems particularly well suited to this method.

My plan is to try to use up all or nearly all of the skein of yarn (which is more than 1,100 yards!) and make a blanket for the couch in our family room, where we've been using two blankets knit by my aunt, one of which is a loosely knit lace blanket she made for Rainbow when she was born (in acrylic, so it's holding up fine, but it's not especially warm). I worked on this new blanket for a while this weekend to get the hang of it, but I've now put it aside to focus on getting Rainbow's blanket done.

Finally, my mystery shawl is WIP priority number one. The final clue came out yesterday, and I spent my crafting time yesterday working on it exclusively. I have one more chart and the bind off left to do, and I'm hoping to get through all that today, but of course work might throw a wrench into the plan.

Once this is done and blocked, I'll be sure to take some better photos -- these unblocked shots really do not do the design justice!

Finished and Fabulous

Even though it's not one of my normal days for blogging, yesterday's post was kind of a special one (my monthly One Little Word check-in), and I still have some knitting and reading to talk about, so today I'm joining up with Kat and the Unravelers.

I have a big finish to talk about, too!

Pattern: Tegna by Caitlin Hunter, size Small/38 in. bust, with minimal ease

Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Yarn: This handspun; I used approximately 717 yards

Started/Completed: May 29/June 28

Mods: sleeve adjustment (see below)

I really could not be happier with how this turned out. It was so long in the planning (I started spinning the yarn way back in September of 2018) that it had the potential to be anticlimactic, but I'm really thrilled. And it turned out to be a pretty fast knit, too, considering that I was working on this at the same time as several other projects.

The only modification I made was to pick up several extra stitches for the sleeves, so I added some additional length to decrease those extra stitches and still get a good fit. The sleeves are fitted but not tight (I guess I should avoid doing too many bicep curls so that they continue to fit!).

The planning I did to spin the yarn so that I had two very similar skeins worked out pretty well overall. I discovered as I was knitting that they were ever so slightly different in thickness, so I occasionally threw in an extra round using the thinner skein so that the colors would transition at more or less the same time. The tricky part in maintaining the colors, of course, came when it was time to do the shaped portions of the front (the right and left of the neckline) and the sleeves. I ended up winding off various lengths of my original skeins to get to later points in the color sequence, and it seems to have worked out okay. If you look closely at the shoulders on the front, there is a noticeable stripe, but I did that purposefully so both fronts would look like they matched. The sleeves don't quite match as well, but at least they share a lot of that green.

I'm delighted that this is done and I can now wear it (though where, I can't really say). My sweater mojo is still pretty high, and I dug out yarn to start another one soon.

I'm also still working on my Through the Loops Mystery Shawl, and I finished Clue 5 yesterday. Spoilers ahead!

I know that's not the best photo, but it's getting large enough that it's difficult to get in the whole shawl and also show details (not to mention that the lace really won't be that apparent until it's blocked). Clue 5 used only Color B (the rust color, in my case) and was all lace. I was happy and surprised to see that when it was done, I had knit stems of flowers with curling leaves:

Can you see them? Again, apologies for the poor photo. This lovely shawl deserves a decent photo shoot, and it will definitely get one when it's finished and blocked. Next week's clue will be the final one, and I'm excited to see where this goes!

Now, as to reading, there is still quite a bit. On Friday night I finished reading the eighth book in the Inspector Gamache series, The Beautiful Mystery. This installment was a bit of a departure from the others, as it took place in a decidedly different setting: a remote cloistered monastery. It was a great read that kept me guessing, and the only reason I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars is that there is a turn at the end in the relationships of the main characters in the series that I did not like (though I suspect it's somewhat necessary to keep the recurring story lines interesting).

I'm now in the middle of three books (totally strange for me, but these are strange times). I have less than 100 pages left in How to Be an Antiracist, but it's a book I am purposefully taking my time with in order to fully digest what I'm reading. I'm also 40% or so into the current Read with Us selection, Wild Game. And I did finally borrow the audiobook of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall from the library. Though I'll continue to listen to it via Craftlit because I so value Heather's additional commentary, I wanted to finish it much faster. The version I'm listening to is narrated by Jenny Agutter and Alex Jennings, two people you'll likely be very familiar with if you also watch a lot of PBS period pieces, and it's delightful. I have quite a bit still left to listen to, but it's a treat to enjoy while I'm spinning.

That's all for me for today -- but I'll be back tomorrow with a new pattern!

I've Been a Busy Little Bee

You know one really great thing about working from home during a pandemic? When work is slow, I can craft! And I have I ever been crafting lately. Last week was pretty darn slow at work, so although I had to keep an eye on my computer throughout the day, I pretty much always had something going in my hands. And that means I've made a lot of progress on my current projects. I just discussed my spinning two days ago and have only just started a new bobbin of singles since then, so no update is really needed there, but look, I finished a project!

These are the socks that I've been knitting for my sister-in-law as part of planning way ahead for holiday gift knitting. I finished these up last Thursday, getting the foot of the second sock done in just a day or two. I used my regular sock recipe and size 0 needles, working them over 68 stitches. The only modification I made, of course, was to add a little visual interest by slipping every other stitch for a round when the yarn changed color; I did this all the way around on the leg but only on the instep on the foot. I did take steps to make the stripes match on both sock, and I also manipulated the striping a big after I finished turning the heel by pulling out a little yarn to get to the next color so that I wouldn't have one awkward round of gold as I started the gussets. That meant a couple of extra ends to weave in, but I did that under the heel, which I figure will just add a bit of extra durability. My sister-in-law's feet are a bit smaller than mine, so I knew I wouldn't have to worry about running out of yarn, and I still have some leftover. I have yet to block these, but I will soon and then pack them away until December or until I can't wait to give them to her, whichever comes first.

I also made quite a bit of progress on my Tegna -- I've now split for the front and back and am ready to start the shoulder shaping on the back.

It looks like a silly face, doesn't it?

Now that I've made the split, I'm working with only one strand of yarn; the purpose of alternating the skeins every round before was to keep the color progression without too much variation, and now I should have front and back pieces that more or less match. This project was great company last week while I was reading, but now that I have to count and do short rows, it requires a bit more attention.

My main focus yesterday, as it has been for the past few weeks, has been the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl. I didn't have to tink or rip back at all to complete Clue 4, but I also didn't manage to get it all done yesterday, so I literally just finished the last four rows. Spoiler alert -- here comes a photo with Clue 4 all done!

I think this photo doesn't do it much justice because the lace is all scrunched up and it's hard to see the small section with mosaic knitting, so trust me when I tell you that it's stunning. This has definitely been a fun knit, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes in the last two clues. I'm also thankful that I've been able to keep up with the clues every week!

Though I haven't been able to do it as part of multitasking as much in the past few days, I have still been reading. I finished Such a Fun Age last week, which was just so-so for me. It had the potential to be better, in my opinion, but it wasn't bad. I gave it 3 stars. I am now onto The Beautiful Mystery, which I've anxiously been awaiting from the library. I'm fighting simultaneous urges to rush through it (because I know others are waiting for it) and to savor it (because I love these books and I've been waiting to read it). I expect I'll make it through all of it this week. I'm also still reading How to Be an Antiracist and am taking my time with it because it deserves my full attention.

Three Components of Sanity

It's Thursday again and time for another list of three things. As we wrap up our 14th week of staying home, I've come to realize that there are three big areas of my life that are helping me to keep calm and keep it together. These are probably no-brainers, but when you need a list of three things for a blog post, they work!

The first thing is obviously crafting. I've become a crafter who has a lot of projects going at once -- something that previously would have given me a lot of anxiety -- because I've found that my attention span has noticeably shortened, so I like having variety and the ability to jump from one project to another. This week the focus has largely been on two projects: my TTL mystery shawl and my handspun Tegna. I'm going to talk about the latter so that the picture of the former doesn't show up right away, just in case you're worried about spoilers.

This project has been the perfect thing for knitting while reading (something I'll discuss in a bit). I've been working on it most evenings and have only a couple more inches of body to knit before I reach the specified body length and can split for the front and the back. I am not stretching out the lace border much when I measure, and I'm pretty sure I can block it fairly aggressively to get some additional length should I want it.

Most of my knitting time this week, though, has been spent working on my mystery shawl. Remember how when I last posted, I was just going to secure that dropped stitch and carry on as if nothing had happened? Let's just say that plan went out the window shortly after I posted it publicly. I sat down to work on the shawl and decided that something else had gone awry with the lace at the beginning of Clue 3, so I ripped back a bit. When I got to the section just above the dropped stitch, I thought I might as well try to drop down a handful of stitches there and try to fix it. It looked like crap, so I tried again. In short, I ended up ripping way back into the last third or so of the second chart for Clue 2, reknitting it, and then starting fresh with Clue 3. It took me until yesterday afternoon to get caught up, but now I'm much happier.

Of course you can't see the lace at all in this photo, but I trust it will be more apparent after blocking. I should note that what I thought was an error on my part in the lace at the beginning of Clue 3 is still there, so I've concluded that it's the pattern and not a mistake. It's something I hope will also resolve with blocking.

My second sanity saver is exercise. I've been continuing to run several times a week, and I've actually surprised myself by increasing my total miles per run. As I did for the past two months, I'm tracking the distance I cover in each run and the cumulative distance for the month.

I know this analog method of tracking is very primitive, and I do use an app when I run that tracks distance and pace and all that jazz, but it also assumes I'm running the whole time. Though I have increased my endurance significantly (yesterday, for instance, I ran 4 miles straight), I do generally walk somewhere in the middle to catch my breath, so my total distance covered isn't the same as my total running distance.

All the running is making me feel pretty great, but my knees also need recovery time, so I alternate running days with long walk days. I generally walk (at a brisk pace) for about an hour; I recently downloaded a walking app to see how far I go, and it's usually in the neighborhood of 3.5-4 miles or so. All this exercise is of course good for my physical health (and it's helped me start a pretty cool streak of 29 days of 10K+ steps to date!), but I've found it's also essential to my mental health. Getting time out of the house, away from the computer, breathing fresh air is so good for reducing stress and anxiety. I am so thankful for the time and ability to get outside every day.

Finally, my third item is (no surprise, I'm sure) all the reading I've been doing. Later this morning I should be able to finish Such a Fun Age -- I have less than 50 pages to go -- and get another bingo on my card. I'm next in line at the library for my next Gamache book, and I'm still reading How to Be an Antiracist. I have three squares on my first bingo card left without a book associated with them (though I have one of my library holds in mind for one of the three), so it looks like it won't be long until I achieve a cover-all!

I'm off to see what Carole and friends are up to, and I'd love to hear what's keeping you sane these days in the comments!

A Near Miss

Yesterday was Monday, which meant a new clue of the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl. I've been trying to stay on top of the clues as much as possible and have managed to do the first two clues within a day or so of them being released. Yesterday was a bit busy, though, so I didn't get to pick up my shawl until the evening. I was happily knitting away when I saw it: a dropped stitch in the previous clue's knitting.

Friends, let me tell you just how lucky I was with this dropped stitch. First of all, despite the fact that I'm using a wool/silk singles yarn, it had somehow not gone anywhere. Second, I seem to not have gotten off on the pattern despite being a stitch short. Third, it happened in a spot just below are area of several decreases, so I was able to ladder it up a couple of rows and then pull it to the wrong side, where I've secured it with a locking stitch marker. I briefly thought about ripping back but decided that since everything was on track, I'd just carry on. Eventually I will take a scrap of yarn, run it through that stitch, and weave in the ends to secure it.

I hope to be able to finish up Clue 3 today, provided work cooperates and doesn't keep me too busy.

My other projects are progressing but don't look too much different from the last time you saw them, so I'll wait to share photos. But I am happy to report that I finally have my first bingo -- two, actually!

Over the weekend I finished Picnic at Hanging Rock to fill in my "Historical fiction" box and achieve both a vertical and a diagonal bingo. It was just an okay read; I didn't really love it, but I didn't hate it either. I tend to not particularly like stories that don't really wrap up in the end, and that's precisely what happens in this book. It was a pretty quick read, though, at less than 200 pages, so I don't feel like I spent too much time to get that square filled.

I now have three books in progress: How to Be an Antiracist, which I'm just a little less than halfway through; Such a Fun Age, which I started over the weekend; and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall via Craftlit. Yesterday evening I got to join a Zoom session to discuss How to Be an Antiracist as part of my synagogue's newly started social justice book club. I'm delighted that it drew a pretty good sized group of people and look forward to seeing where the club takes us. I'm a quarter of the way through Such a Fun Age and it seems like I'll be able to finish it up this week. Tenant might actually take a while, as Heather typically only includes a chapter or two per podcast episode, so I may borrow the audiobook from the library (I checked and it's available with no wait!) in order to finish it in time to put it on my bingo card. I'd really like to get a cover-all on this card!

Three Check-ins

First, I want to thank everyone for leaving such nice comments on my last post about the new shawl design. It feels very good to have gotten it out after working on it (mentally and physically) for more than half a year.

Second, it's Thursday (and my sort-of Friday, because I'm taking tomorrow off from work), so I'm joining up with Carole and friends with three check-ins on my leisure activities.

1. Knitting projects

Over the past week, I've been rotating through three main knitting projects. First, there are the socks I started for my sister-in-law in the long-term planning category. They have been worked on while reading and while attending (virtual) meetings. The first sock is now finished and the second begun.

I did wind off yarn when I started the second sock so that the socks would start in the same point in the striping sequence, and I made some notes for myself so I could (fingers crossed) get them to match. My sister-in-law's feet are a bit shorter than mine, so I know I'll have plenty of yarn.

I also have been working on the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl and spent most of the day Monday (in between work meetings and whatnot) knitting up Clue 2. I hope no one is concerned about spoilers, because I'm going to show you what the shawl looks like through this clue. You've been forewarned! (Side note: When I posted a photo of Clue 1 a full week after it came out on my Instagram feed, someone commented that they'd been spoiled and probably shouldn't follow the hashtag for the shawl. If you don't want spoilers, why are you following the hashtag in the first place?)

I'm a bit surprised how much I'm enjoying this, because honestly, if I saw this much of a pattern before buying, I probably wouldn't be interested, but I'm having such fun! The second repeat of the lace in Clue 1 was a bit of a slog for me, but the second clue was completely engaging because of the variety of techniques used. I'm excited to see where Clue 3 takes us!

Finally, there's my Tegna, which I've been working on almost every evening. I finished up the lace over the weekend, so now it's just miles of stockinette in the round, and the only thing I have to pay attention to is switching which strand of yarn I'm working with when I get to the beginning of the round.

I absolutely adore how the yarn is working up and am feeling rather proud for working out the plan when I spun it.

2. Crochet/100 Day Project

It's been a fairly busy week at work, so I think I may have forgotten to work on this one day by accident, but the blanket is continuing to grow. I'm into the first of the last two original skeins of yarn we picked for it, and in the meantime Rainbow and I found six more skeins of Felici in my stash, so those have been designated for the blanket as well.

For a sense of scale, those are 50 g skeins of yarn, and if I lay it out flat(ish), it's measuring about 37 inches across.

3. Reading

Work has gotten in the way of my reading time a bit this week, but I've finished two more books since last Thursday -- but still no bingo!

I listened to A Wrinkle in Time while exercising and doing household chores last week. It's a book I read several times as a child but didn't remember very much about, so I'd been meaning to reread it. I actually bought a paperback of it a while back to give to Rainbow (who, it turns out, is not at all interested, grr), but when I saw it was available from the library on audio, I jumped at it. This particular version is narrated by Hope Davis and has additional "bonus" features in the form of an appreciation by Ava DuVernay (who directed the recent film version), an introduction by the author, and an afterward by the author's granddaughter that gives some background about the author and how the novel came to be. While I enjoyed it, I found that it had lost some of the luster that it had for me as a child. But that's okay. I gave it 3 stars and put it in the "Children's classic" box on my second bingo card.

Last night I stayed up a teensy bit late to finish reading Thin Air, the sixth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series. These books are consistently good and I'm a little sad that I have only two more left to read (though I hear the Vera series is good as well). I gave the book 4 stars and put it in the "Set in a different country" box on my original card. It's also the third Shetland book to fill a square on this card!

It's a good thing I finished that book last night, because when I went into the library app to return it, I discovered I'd gotten two books off my holds: Picnic at Hanging Rock (which has been talked about recently on the Craftlit podcast) and Such a Fun Age. I'm pretty sure I can put the former into the "Historical fiction" box on my card, but I'll have to figure out where to put the latter. In any case, I have quite a lot of reading ahead of me!

I'm looking forward to a long weekend of reading and crafting, and I hope yours is full of the same!

Unraveled Wednesday: WIP Wrangling

I know I don't normally post on Wednesdays, but yesterday's post was pretty heavy and serious. I felt like it made sense to add an extra post this week, so I'm joining it with Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.

There has been no actual unraveling this week, but there has been a lot of wrangling of WIPs. I'm normally not someone who has a lot of projects going on at once (usually I have a smaller project that goes with me to work and a larger, more complex project for my evening crafting time), but the crazy times we live in mean that my attention is similarly crazy and scattered, so I find myself with four active yarn WIPs at the moment (I am excluding my spinning from the count).

I'm continuing to work on the crochet blanket for Rainbow as part of the 100 Day Project. We're on day 50-something, I think; I've done my best to check off each day, but I'm not 100% sure I've recorded every day. Yesterday I joined in skein number 7 of Felici, the penultimate skein of the original yarn selected for the blanket.

I'm completely sure now that I'll be adding in more yarn once I get through the second ball of this colorway (Goth Kitty, if you're interested), but I will be letting Rainbow determine what yarn is added and how much. I think I've also figured out that the skewing that's happening is at least in part due to a slight error I've been making in joining as I get to the end of a round which has translated to one less stitch than I should have when I start the next round, but I'm hoping that I will able to block out the blanket to be square enough in the next. Rainbow has not complained about the effect, and if she's happy, I'm not worried about it being perfect.

Late last week I cast on for my handspun Tegna, which is what I've been primarily working on in the evening. It's been a bit slow going because the rounds are long, some of these stitches are a bit tricky (hello, k4tog), and my attention hasn't been fully focused on knitting the past few nights anyway. But I think it will be much faster once I get through the lace chart and am just working in stockinette.

The Through the Loops Mystery Shawl 2020 started this past Monday, and I cast on for it pretty much first thing on Monday morning. I am knitting it using two skeins of Skeinny Dipping Merino Silk Single in the colorways Zingbat and Malaria Dreams. It's very different from the yarn Kirsten recommended for the pattern, but I am loving how it's knitting up. Zingbat, which is the color I've used for the first clue, looks almost like metal wire when knit up; I've included the skein of Malaria Dreams here so you can see how well it coordinates with the speckles in Zingbat.

Finally, I've got a sock WIP. While I have no room for more socks in my own sock drawers at the moment, I like to have a sock on the go, so I thought I'd get a head start on holiday knitting. These are going to be for my sister-in-law, who proved herself totally knitworthy last year when I gave her the first pair of socks I knit for her. I thought of her immediately when I saw these colors.

I'm doing my usual top-down vanilla sock (heel flap and gusset, wedge toe) with the slight variation of working the first round when the color changes as (sl 1, k1). This means that I can't entirely work on this sock without looking -- I do have glance at it from time to time to know when the color is changing -- but at the moment it's the best thing to work on while I'm trying to knit and read at the same time.

My Breathe and Hope shawl is still on the needles (sorry to disappoint those of you who told me to rip it out!). I guess I didn't do a good job of explaining my issues with it before: There is nothing wrong with the pattern itself, or with the yarn, or really with knitting it. It just wasn't what I wanted to be knitting at the time. But I do like the pattern and the yarn and very much would like to have the finished shawl, so it's hibernating for the time being, and I'll come back to it when the mood strikes.

I have not been reading as much as I'd like the past several days, mostly because I've been watching or reading news instead. But I am enjoying my current book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II. I can't remember where or how I first heard about this book, but it's been on my want to read list for a while and on my hold list from the library for at least a month. I'm nearly a quarter of the way through it, though I'm hoping to make some significant progress today if my schedule allows. I've read a ton of fiction set during WWII but not nearly enough nonfiction, so it's really fascinating to learn the actual facts that formed the basis of some of that fiction.

Up next on my TBR list is How to Be an Antiracist. I've had the physical copy of the book on my nightstand for months and have been meaning to get around to reading it, but the events of the past week have made it clear that I can't put it off any longer. I'm eager to add it to my Goodreads bookshelf that I've titled My Antiracist Education, a shelf that has far too few books on it. I'm going to make it a real priority to add to that shelf, so I welcome any recommendations you have.

Amazed and Grateful

The title of this post is how I feel about the reception Leventry has received since I published it last week. I knew there was a fair amount of interest based upon the number of people who asked me to let them know when the pattern was available, but I never dreamed it would get the amount of attention it got in the days following its release. It was actually atop the Ravelry Hot Right Now list for about 24 hours, and while it hasn't yet overtaken my best-selling pattern just yet, it is well on its way to being my most popular pattern. I want to thank everyone who has favorited, queued, and bought the pattern -- your love for it means so much to me!

I am hosting a knitalong for the shawl in my Ravelry group, if you are interested. We officially kicked it off today, and it will run through September 1, so there's plenty of time to join up. Prizes are still to be determined, but they will include some of my handspun!

Meanwhile, I managed to finish up and block my TTL Mystery Shawl on Sunday night, and it's quite a pretty thing, if I do say so.

I can't really tell how much yarn I used, but I have a very good amount leftover, so I'd say the estimate of 500 yards is likely a high one. I'm pleased with how my shawl turned out, though I do think the pattern shows up a little better in a solid. Still, it was fun watching the colors shift and change in this yarn.

And speaking of handspun, this weekend I also finished up a little baby cap (the pattern is Aviatrix) for a gift. It still needs a button or two and a good blocking, but it was a quick and satisfying knit. I'll post a photo when it's all presentable.

We're just a few days away from that part of the summer when I spin furiously, so I'm cramming in what knitting I can this week. I'm trying to finish up the second sock of the latest handspun pair, which is now cruising toward the toe:

And I'm also working on the next lace design, a crescent-shaped shawl worked from side to side (this is the one I started in my class with Sivia Harding):

Finally, I'm hoping to put the finishing touches on the pattern for the green shawl I showed you a while back so that I can get it laid out and to my tech editor!

Too Close for Comfort

Last night I finally finished Rainbow's shawl. I was trying to use up as much of the yarn as possible, and boy did I ever cut it close. After binding off the last stitch, this is all the yarn I had left:

There was an intense game of Yarn Chicken being played on that bind off row; for a while, I really thought I wasn't going to have enough and was going to have to find something that wouldn't clash too much to finish the bind off. I knew Rainbow wouldn't care or probably even notice if that happened, but it would bug me. (Actually, if I'm being completely honest, I probably would have tinked back a few rows and done the bind off earlier.) In any case, I made it, so now I just need to weave in the tails and block it. I'm not sure that she'll necessarily need a shawl in the middle of summer, but I know she'll be happy to have it.

Meanwhile, I'm in the middle of Clue 4 on my TTL Mystery Shawl. I'm really enjoying this pattern, though I think my yarn is obscuring it a bit. I'm hoping it'll be easier to see when I block. Kirsten recommended a gradient yarn set for the pattern, but I'm finding that I'm actually liking the solid or nearly solid ones in the spoiler threads. Perhaps one day I'll knit it again in a solid.

I'm getting the itch to cast on for a new design (for which I bought yarn last weekend), but I am forcing myself to wait at least a few days. I am taking this Friday off from work and am planning on doing a little pattern writing in the morning and then spending the rest of the day knitting and catching up on the DVR. I'll give you a preview of the yarn, though:

Isn't it pretty? I'm not usually an orange person, but this color kept calling to me (it's really more of a pumpkin, though, wouldn't you say?). The yarn is Baah! La Jolla, which my LYS only recently started carrying. It's a nice squishy merino, and as it's two ply, it'll be great for lace. I'm excited to start knitting it up!

Stay tuned for a design announcement later this week!

Project Juggling

In case you were wondering, I did end up finishing the sock with yarn to spare. The socks have been blocked and are now awaiting their photo shoot. Now that those are out of the way, I finally started the mate to my current pair of handspun socks, though all I have to show for it is a cuff.

After spinning a lot over the weekend, I returned to my TTL Mystery Shawl yesterday (the clues arrive on Sundays, but I wait until Monday so I can print them out). I worked on it during lunch yesterday and today and a bit last night; another day should see me through to the end of the clue. This clue is only 32 rows long, but the rows are getting much longer now.

I'm still quite enjoying how the yarn is striping, though having seen some other shawls on the TTL board, I think the pattern might show up better in a solid color. Still, I'm happy to be using my handspun, and I think the look of this will be vastly improved by blocking.

I also put in some time on Rainbow's shawl, which is rapidly approaching the end. After the light blue that I'm working with, there are just sections of orange and yellow. I'm planning on knitting a garter border at the bottom and that will be it.

I did spend a little bit of time over the weekend working on my Sople, but I've reached the bottom of the body, which consists of cables and twisted ribbing worked on size 3 needles, so it's become somewhat of a slog. I don't usually mind knitting sweaters in the summer, but I think the fact that it'll be months before I can actually wear this is preventing me from getting excited about finishing it. I predict that this is a project I'll get out about once a week, spend an hour or so on, and then put it away. It'll get done eventually, probably when the weather starts to cool down.

I will continue plugging away at these projects this week, in addition to swatching for a submission and perhaps starting a baby gift that needs to get done soon, but I'm also fantasizing about future projects. My Mad May prize arrived on Friday and I can't stop petting it and thinking about what it will grow up to be.

This is six skeins of tosh dream alpaca dk (a 50% wool/50% alpaca blend) in the colorway Jasper. At 1200 yards, that's probably enough for a decent sized sweater; I'm thinking of something cozy and drapey, because this blend should be very warm. At the top of my list at present is Amy Christoffers' Bailey Cardigan, which has been in my favorites for some time, though I expect I will do a lot of pattern searching for the fun of it.

Keeping Pace

The second clue of the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl came out over the weekend (though I didn't actually get to look at it until Monday), so I am working to keep up with that. I am nearly done with this portion. The rows are now getting noticeably longer.

I'm still very much enjoying how the colors are playing in the yarn, and the color changes combined with lace mean that I'm thinking "Just one more row!" quite a bit.

Meanwhile, I spent a bit of time working on my Sople over the weekend. I'm just about ready to start working in the third skein of yarn, and I'm about four rows from switching over to a smaller needle for the ribbing and cables at the bottom of the body. That means that I'm nearly done with the body! I'm excited to get to the sleeves -- it's been a while since I did top-down set-in sleeves, and the last go-round didn't work out too well, as I recall. I have faith that this time will be better.

Finally, I gave my Knit Picks socks some attention over the weekend, and as I result I'm on the heel flap of the second sock. These will go back into rotation as my lunchtime knitting once I'm finished  with the Mystery Shawl for the week, and my hope is to have them done and ready to be photographed by the weekend.

In other news, remember the shawl I designed and knit for Mad May? I'm very happy to report that it won the Mad May original design contest! I also have the pattern in testing right now, and one of my testers has already finished (would you believe she knit the entire thing in five days?). Everyone else seems to be well on their way, and it's possible they'll be done before the deadline. The plan is to release the pattern by the end of the month (or, at the very latest, by the beginning of July). There's been a lot of interest on Ravelry -- I even had someone PM me yesterday to show me the yarn she's already bought for it! -- so needless to say, I am getting anxious to get it out into the world.

Inspiration and Startitis

On Sunday, I took an all-day class with the amazing Sivia Harding, who was in town this past weekend to teach several classes through my LYS. The class was a side-to-side lace shawl design class, and it was a blast. If you ever get a chance to take a class with Sivia, do it. She's a wonderfully patient teacher and very giving of her knowledge and talents.

We discussed things like the elements of a shawl of this type, different styles of edgings, rates of increases/decreases, and bead placement (if you know Sivia's designs, you know she's a big fan of beads). We sketched and we swatched, and while I didn't come up with a finished design or even necessarily the beginning of one, I have a lot of ideas. Here is my swatch, though it's not necessarily the color/bead combination I would have chosen (I went with yarn and beads that would be easy to see while I worked) and it hasn't been blocked:

I will be playing around with this construction a lot more in the coming months, I suspect.

Meanwhile, I've been fighting with a bout of startitis -- quite simply, I want to cast on a million things. I wound three skeins of handspun over the weekend that were intended for new projects. The first was the skein of BFL handspun that's already becoming a shawl for Rainbow, as you saw in my last post. The second was spun several years ago and is destined to become a baby gift. The third was also spun two or three years ago and has been cast on for the Through the Loops 2014 Mystery Shawl, which I started yesterday.

The yarn is Targhee from Mountain Colors that I spun as a fractal, so the colors are going to slowly fade into one another as they change. The recommended yarn for the shawl was a gradient set, so I figured this was a close approximation. Using this yarn is reminding me how much I enjoy knitting with handspun. I've done it recently with socks, but sock yarn tends to be rather dense in order to be longer lasting; this stuff is fluffy and sproingy and delightful. It's a bit lighter than fingering, so my fabric is likely not going to be as dense as those being knit in commercial yarn, but I love how it's turning out. I am nearly done with the first clue, so I'll have to wait for the weekend for the next installment.