A Feast for the Eyes (and Soon the Belly too!)

How about a healthy helping of some Handmaiden Sea Silk...


Some Madelinetosh Sock...



New Noro Silk Garden colours...

And my first ever bitsy cucumber that's growing as fast as it can.

My life SO doesn't suck.

Cotton, Coral and SUMMER!

I have discovered that when new yarn starts rolling in to welcome a new season, I immediately cast something on. It's like I just black out and before I know it, I am 4" into something. I actually sometimes have to go back and remind myself exactly what pattern it was that seduced me into knitting it.

Back in April/May, this was the case with this lovely cotton coral vest.

A new yarn showed it's face called 'Replay' by Tahki Stacy Charles. It's a 100% recycled cotton (I am still sort of trying to figure out what means exactly since I don't throw my jeans in the recycling bin- do you?) and aran weight. It comes in fabulous colours that remind me of the shelf of very loved t-shirts in my closet. The book that accompanied the yarn was equally enticing and before I knew it... I had knit the body of this baby!

Sigh... when you finally come to terms with posting photos of yourself online, you have to be ok with the fact that not every single image will be FABulous. In this case, I ask you to please just revert your attention to the vest- not the face.

Now- as with most projects, I learned a very valuable lesson here. In this case it was read the pattern before you just charge into a project. If I had read through the pattern, I likely wouldn't have cast on. Why you ask? Because the neck line asks you to kindly pick up over 400 stitches in cotton yarn- not the worlds most forgiving fibre. (Did you feel me just throw up a little???)

Having said that... It was probably super good for me to have to do this and work outside of my comfort zone. Did I particularly enjoy that part of the vest? Heck no.

Especially when I realized I had made a massive mistake and had to rip it all out and pick up those stupid stitches all over again.

BUT- look at what a lovely vest I now have!!!

Feeling kinda groovy

I must say though that I am entirely tickled with the finished product. What the pattern lacked in laze-factor, it made up for in fit-factor. I love the fit! Now, enough time has passed since completion that I don't feel like I want to throw it into my recycling bin along with my jeans. I tend to have to let my projects marinade for a while after finishing them before I wear them (and in this case, blog about them).

I don't know why that is... it just is.

Want some details???

Well, twist my rubber arm!

Yarn- Tahki Stacy Charles 'Replay', 100% recycled cotton. 7 balls.

Pattern- Washington Square Vest

Needles- The pattern called for 5.5mm, but I used 5mm (because I guess I just felt like rebelling when I saw the number of stitches I was picking up).

Size- Medium. 37" finished bust. I went up a size than I normally would since I bumped down my needle size. Sometimes that's a scary thing to do, but it this case it worked out looooovely like. (I tell you, I am just SUCH a knitting risk taker!)

Summer is still young... cotton vests for everyone!


I hope you all have functioning air conditioners!

Socks Just Never Get Old

Honestly.

How is it that some socks just seem to fly right off the needles? Some fly, and then some seem to take what feels like YEARS to finish up. These ones were the flying kind. But why is that? Could it be because these socks had no recipient waiting impatiently 4 months after Christmas for me to graft the dang toes for them? (Little do they know that they're likely going to have to wait another 4 months at least!) Or is it because I used my Signature needles? (Those things are lethal- but FAST!) Could it simply be because I absolutely adore this yarn and even 10 years after discovering my first ball of self-striping yarn, I still marvel at the way the stripes work up?

I'm stumped.

But this game just never gets old.


It's smoking hot outside, and it's too hot to allow any sort of knitterly thing to drape over my lap. So socks it is!



Yarn? My favorite shade of Fabel- 911. This is the same colour I used many moons ago to crochet those wee baby mukluks! I thought it was about time I added this colour to my own sock wardrobe! Why do babies always get to have all the fun anyway?

Needles? 2.5 mm Signature needles I purchased last summer at the Sock Summit. MAN! Those things are SHARP- but oh-so-efficient!

Pattern? The one that I store in my head. Every sock knitter has one of those.

So, I hope you are keeping cool while hopefully knitting up a sock or two. I suppose that two is the sensible thing to do usually... Or so I'm told.

But, if knitting socks just doesn't seem to be helping you beat the heat, then eat some gelato.


Lemon and hazelnut please.

And thanks.