Took a Breather

I knit up a storm the last week in March—got my Kate and Alice socks knit, knit up 2 version of the Leafy Cowl and document the pattern for the same.

Yesterday, I played with yarn and sorted some Red Heart & non Red Heart acrylic to be donated to Nancy—she in the middle of a baby boom—and has 3 baby blankets to knit.  She has already completed one. 

Now, she wants to experiment with color—first up-- a simple striped blanket with a border-- Straight line intarsia! A nice way to build skills.  I have way too much acrylic--I'll let her have some and have some fun--and clear some room in my stash.

She called yesterday to ask “Can I do this? (straight line intarsia) I thought...”  and described a striped blanket with a solid border.  She had unvented intarsia all over again! We spent an hour talking about knitting.

I got some paperwork done too, updated my calendar for the next few weeks (and months)--starting with the most basic task—flipping the calendar page! (only 3 days late!)

While I was sorting through the yarn, I made up a bag for my next project—a ski hat (in black) with an intarsia motif  (which I got charted.) This is for my SIL to be. He's in a punk rock band, and performs in a ski hat. So this is something real and practical to knit for him. A super soft, luxurious merino/cashmere blend for the wool (I have to knit with black yarn there has to be something in it for me!) and the intarsia in glow in the dark yarn—'cause that seem right for a punk rocker.  It's Lion Brand's Superwash Cashmere and Merino--so it's practical as well.  

I am pondering what socks to knit next—and with what yarn! Next on  the roster is a pair of secret socks—but which ones? And what yarn to use? 

A decision made all the more difficult by 2 lovely yarns (already packed up  in "sock kit bags")  that I want to knit—but I want them for me! One is a tweedy blend of blues and violets (didn't I just do a pair of socks in blues and violets? Why yes! And the whetted my appetite for more of the same.) The other is a bright, cheerful skein of Sock That Rock--mostly primary colors. (What I really want is a skein of the yarn just like the one the Yarn Harlot is knitting--did you see her socks? I WANT a pair just like them)But failing that, some bright colorful, but non striping yarn will have to do. 

At the same time, some white skeins of sock yarn are whispering to be dyed a robin egg blue—and the pink yarn collection is making noise, too. Last week I just got some denim/twill fabric with pink and taupe stripes—(remember the $2 a yard fabric? I JUST HAD TO GET SOME—and by the time I got there--a mostly  pink fabric was one of the very limited choices left to buy). I have 2 different skeins of pink and taupe sock yarns--and only a single pair of pink sock—which are much brighter, deeper pink than the fabric. So sometime in the not to distant future, some pink socks will be thrown into the mix.

So, all in all,I have been handling yarn, and thinking about yarn, and talking about yarn and knitting,but in the past 24 hours—I haven't done anything with yarn—I haven't skeined any hanks, or divided any double skeins, or make up any hanks ready for the dye pot, or dunked any either. I haven't knit a stitch!  I have just been breathing in the fumes. And that's enough.

(And thank you, one and all for all your wonderful comments, here, on Ravelry, and on FaceBook about my cowl.)