Pearl Drop Socks

Pearl Drop Socks Remixed, originally uploaded by rchrispy.

So, we were talking about sock yarn, and not using it for socks. But look at my friend Chris' excellent sock design - enough to motivate me to use some of that stashed sock yarn for actual socks, maybe.
I had the good fortune to see these socks in person at the airport last weekend, at an orchestrated meet-up (yes, knitters will go to great lengths to meet other knitters face-to-face), and they're as fabulous as can be!
Find them as Pearl Drops on Ravelry. You can also see Chris' other designs at Pursuit of Fiber.

Into The Mists Of Time . . .

. . . is pretty much where I have to reach back, to find my most recent post. Sorry about that; who knew the last two months of your kids' school would be so busy? I didn't know.
But the monsters have finished with academia for the year, so now it's a matter of swim lessons and playdates, with plenty of lazing-around time for good mental health. While they laze around, I intend to promote my mental health by knitting alot.
Well, there's nothing new there, really, except for the type of knitting - I've become completely enamoured of knitting lace shawlettes with sock yarn. Sock yarn is of course a known thing - skinny-ish yarn, sometimes with really interesting colors. But what is a shawlette? It is, of course, a small shawl - not one of those circular, pattern-every-row, 2000 yard ones. Those are still very scary. I like some of the triangular, smaller-scale ones, maybe with a lace border and non-lace or simple body. Just the thing for 400 yards or so of pretty sock yarn. Since I do have some sock yarn in stash, with very little prospect of ever making socks from it (my Wicked Witch socks have languished for over a year, worked on exactly twice while on two school field trips this year), it's promising to have some potential uses for the stuff.
Of course, I haven't actually used what I already own; no, I bought new yarn - Malabrigo Sock yarn. Previously, I hadn't thought that I really liked it - why did I need more sock yarn to sit unused in the cabinet? And weren't the colors a bit odd? My swap spoiler ended those misconceptions by sending me some in the purply-blue colorway Abril, which promptly became my first shawlette Ishbel, above.
And in my typical obsessive way, I've collected a few more colors to add to the stash in order to make sure I stay busy this summer. But not too busy to blog, 'kay?

Swift

At Thanksgiving, DH asked my brother to fabricate him a replacement leg for our teak deck chaise that collapsed. My brother has an extensive wood shop at home, and that could be the christmas present.
So, as ever more yarn accumulates in my stash, I decided to ask for a wood swift from him for christmas. I even made him hold a skein of yarn while I wound it, just to demonstrate the need for such a thing. Fine; his friend even made one of these for some other friend, so there was a reference. I sent along some pics and specs, he asked a few questions, and there I was, hopeful.

Now, my brother is a perfectionist, and may possibly have some issues with finishing; a sadness at the end of a project, an attachment to his creations, I dont know. Christmas comes and we have a lovely day and dinner at my house, but no swift. He's making a few design improvements, waiting on a part, whatever.
In February I email to inquire, and he tells me that it's coming along beautifully, I'm going to be thrilled, almost done. "Almost done" is apparently a relative term, or he and I have differing interpretations, at least. March is a big month for us Malabrigo Junkies, so nervously I prod some more. Cut to the chase, the swift finally arrives and I ignore his instructions to call him first and just set the thing up and wind a ball. With my new ball winder I got for christmas, to use with the swift. Anyway, once I work out the right way to expand it so that it doesn't self-tighten itself to a stop, the thing is AWESOME! Now maybe I have one less reason to procrastinate about trying laceweight yarn.

And, go!

Spring:
-(in temperate zones) the season of the year following winter and characterized by the budding of trees, growth of plants, the onset of warmer weather, etc.
-the first stage and freshest period: the spring of life.

What better time to start blogging than spring?
Longer days, more energy, new ideas . . . more knitting. Let's talk about knitting - I knit alot. In fact, I describe it as having fallen into the knitting vortex.

Vortex: something regarded as drawing into its powerful current everything that surrounds it: the vortex of war.
Or, the vortex of knitting, in this case. I'm swirling in the knitting vortex, and it's powerful enough that it's been sucking in my whole family; my kids know they cant bug me until I'm at the end of a row, and DH writes knitting songs now - well, at least one. The powerful current has picked up too, particularly since March when I've been marathon-knitting virtually with the Malabrigo Junkies over on Ravelry.
Let's talk about Malabrigo Yarn - the softest, most beautiful, hand-dyed stuff from Uruguay. And like so many who have tried it, I'm addicted.

Junkie: a person with an insatiable craving for something: a chocolate junkie.
Which I am, a dark chocolate junkie, as well . . . but if I had to give up either dark chocolate or Malabrigo Yarn, I could find something new to eat. There's a whole group of us Junkies out there, and I'd venture to say most would give up their favorite whatever before they'd give up Malabrigo Yarn. And it's not often you find something, a product, a material, an artistic medium, that is so inspiring to so many. But lucky me, I have found it, and it's calling me into the vortex, and so I may as well blog about that.
This blog will be alot about knitting, and what I make when I'm knitting, and what happens as the vortex swirls -- and not so many definitions, next time.