Knit to self....

Knit more sweaters. I love my shawls, but I just saw this blog post on the Twist Collective Blog about jettshin, a knitter who makes incredibly gorgeous sweaters. I'm feeling inspired; maybe I'll un-relegate my sweater attempt from UFO status just in time for cooler weather. Plus I have a few pullovers and cardigans in my queue, and I just bought an ebook in Interweave Knits' sale yesterday about top-down sweater construction. Okay, now I'm sounding very ambitious, but perhaps a sweater pattern is in my future...hmmmm...

Anyway, as far as things I'm actually working on at the moment - my Shallow Waters is just about finished (ten or so rows to go) and the second clue for the Myrtle Mystery KAL has come out. I've finished the first chart repeat on that but still have quite a ways to go. No worries, however, I've had to place that at the bottom of my priorities because I have another test shawl that's kind of been languishing on the sidelines and I need to crank that out.

I've also been a bad girl, ordering yarn I can ill afford, but it was Lantern Moon, and it was on sale, and it was a gorgeous red color...what's a girl to do?

Seriously, how was I supposed to resist? Damn you, Craftsy, and your wonderful deals!

I've set it up with Grouchy Geisha by Marisa Hernandez (maidenbklyn), whose designs I've long admired but never knit. Currently there are six other patterns ahead of it in the queue, so there's no telling whether I'll decide to reapportion the yarn for another project between now and then. But as of now, that's the plan :)

And who knows, maybe a sweater will jump ahead in the queue, preventing my need to either return to Kentucky to get some fall clothes out of storage, or buying new sweaters here in St. Louis. Though a return to KY would also mean I could grab some more yarn out of storage...much to think about here chillins. And on that note, I bid you good day.

Myrtle Mystery!

I've yet to do a Mystery KAL that didn't burn me out (see this post), but the lovely Mia Rinde is doing a free one, called Myrtle, and since I've never made anything of hers that I didn't absolutely love, I decided to give a shot.

Now, the pattern suggested 900-1000 yds of lace weight, but Mia said her tester with a tight gauge used less than 900 yds. Okay, well I have this gorgeous skein of grey laceweight with subtle flecks of purple, green, turquoise...but it's only 815 yds. We'll see how it goes. It knitted up beautifully, and since it's merino, cashmere, angora and silk, it's pretty much the softest yarn I've ever worked with. But unfortunately, at the end of clue 1 of 5, I'd used over a third of my yarn, and that just wasn't going to work. Here's how it looked though, for oogling purposes (SPOILERS for Myrtle KAL-ers!)

So anyway, that is the first clue, and it took me about 8 hours in one day to do the whole thing. I went out in search of some complementing yarn to integrate into the stole to make it go a little further, but I couldn't find anything that was just right and I wanted my FO with this yarn to be stunning. So I ripped it out and I'm saving it for another perfect project.

I started again with the stole yesterday using Mad Color Fiber Arts cobweb that I've had for awhile. And I have over 2400 yards so I know for sure I won't run out :) I had planned to make a sweater with it, but if I'm being honest with myself, that's probably never going to happen. And since most of my yarn is in boxes in a storage unit in Kentucky, it's not like I have a lot of options for this project hanging around in St. Louis. It just so happened that this yarn is the only one I have that goes over 850 yards, so here it is! But I'm actually quite liking using it. I've never used cobweb or single ply yarn before, so it definitely took some getting used to. But the color is amazing, and while it's not as soft as the other yarn I was using, the fabric has good airiness to it and it feels good on my skin. So after another couple days, I managed to re-knit the first clue:

This time I pinned it to a different bed with different sheets, and there's quite a lot of contrast :)

For those of you who may be interested in joining this free KAL, click the link above and download the first clue before Sept. 7. Mia is posting each clue for a week, so if you don't have time to knit it, save it to your hard drive before the next clue is posted because the new one will supersede the old one. At the end of the MKAL, the pattern will be listed for sale too :)