What's New

We are finally starting to relax into "summer mode" here. Staying up late, sleeping in and eating lots of fresh local fruit and veggies. The girls and I are reading "Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief" together (we will watch the movie once we are done) and they have swim lessons at the local rec center twice a week. The weather has not been very summery yet...cool and cloudy..but rumor has it that hot sunny days are due to roll in next week. In the meantime we are getting in lots of walks on the local trails and putting in a few flowers in the garden.

I have been puttering on the knitting front. I visited my local yarn store, 88 Stitches, and picked up this lovely little treat:

It is a skein of Silk Cashmere Fingering, hand dyed by Melissa from Yarn Candy-Sweet Fiber. The colors are rich and moody and the yarn is oh, so very soft and delightful.

I started the Garnstudio sweater out of some yarn I had sitting in my stash forever:

It is a positively decadent blend of extra-fine merino, silk and cashmere. It is fine sport weight so it will be slow knitting but the finished product will be more than worth it. I had actually started this sweater out of a different yarn but after a couple of inches I ruthlessly tore it out and restarted because everything about it was off...wrong color, texture, etc. Why work so hard and so long on something that I ultimately won't love? This yarn, on the other hand, is a clear winner and has been waiting patiently in my stash for the right project to come along.

I have been analyzing what type of sweaters I actually wear lately and realized that I don't knit things that I really enjoy wearing very often. My standard garment in the wintertime is definitely thin, clingy v-neck sweaters in basic colors yet I knit a lot of worsted-weight outerwear cardigans and jackets. I have to remember this whenever I'm picking out a new project to work on, lol, or I will forever be wearing crappy store-bought sweaters while my beautiful, carefully knitted items sit in the cupboard all winter!