Bad, bad blogger I have been.
I couldn't bear the silence in my little corner of the internet for another second. In part because I need to take control as I feel myself spinning into the, "zomgoodness I need to knit all of the things. I need to start this. I need to finish this. I need to sew buttons on this, this, and thing."
I'm here to take back control.
As autumn winds sweep through the streets of Philly, suddenly it is knitting season. The store has been busy all week (which is WONDERFUL) and I have been a frantic blur of pushing yarn into the hands of customers (ask knitting friends and coworkers alike: I am a big, bad bully pusher), seaming things, training a new employee and teaching my first set of classes. Yep, that's right. I taught a knitting class! I was terrified and felt like such a failure that first night, but I am so glad I stuck with it. Seeing everyone with their finished (or almost finished) hats at the end of week 6 was so satisfying. And I'm set to teach a cast-ons/mistake fixing workshop this Sunday. It's been crazy!
Summer is (seemingly) on its last leg and I couldn't be more excited. Fall has always been my favorite and it's hard for me to not feel inspired and animated. This could be my last autumn on the East Coast and I am determined to see as and do as much as I possibly can. I'll be attending Rhinebeck this year, which has been this Midwesterner's dream for years, and hoping to go back to Massachusetts to see the leaves change. Factor in a trip home in mid-October and the next month is shaping up to be crazy in the best way possible. And all the pumpkin baking...let's not even go there.
In terms of knitting, I haven't been finishing ANYTHING. This summer I knit three sweaters, two of which still need buttons, have FOUR(!) more sweaters that pretty much just need sleeves, a design journal with pages of things waiting to be knit up, and more neck things in my queue than I could ever need. Can you see my need for control? It doesn't help that I spend 4-5 days a week working at a wonderful shop full of beautiful yarns. But after last week's bonanza $2 Manos del Uruguay yarn sale (yep. $2), I decided I should probably figure out what to do with some of the yarn I have amassed over the course of this year.
My most recent cast on. When $2 Manos arrived at the store, you had better believe that I was diving through those boxes before my boss was even out the door. I managed to score 7 skeins of Wool Clasica in a beautiful purple quite similar to 71 Wisteria. The color is slightly lighter than the one pictured below, which is why it was on sale in the first place.
Shapely Boyfriend has been in my queue for awhile now and since I already have a sweater in O-Wool Classic on the needles (and needing sleeves...), I decided that my bargain
Wool Clasica would be perfect for that. I've only used Clasica once before, but let me tell you something: EVERYONE should possess a sweater in Wool Clasica. So soft and woolly, it's one of those things you just can't wait to finish. I'm actually
wishing for it to be colder just so that I can wear this sweater when it's done. In the meantime, I will have to crank the AC and use
my WIP as a blanket.
This next project is silly. And I love it. I have plans to knit this with one of my
besties from college. We met in Illinois and fate has carried us to opposite coasts, with Lizzie in San Francisco and myself in Philadelphia. She works in a yarn shop too and while it's fun to ask my visiting Californian customers to pass on my love to her (true story! One of them actually did :D), this is the perfect little thing for two dorky knitters to do together. And while we probably won't get to have cute photoshoots together, for awhile, at least, we can have fun together while we work on them. I know Lizzie is planning on using Malabrigo Twist in Applewood for her yarn choice, but mine hasn't quite popped out at me yet. I'm thinking some Manos
Maxima from my stash might be perfect, but which one?
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| Shocking? |
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| Oxygen? |
I'm sure I can figure out some way to photoshop some dorky cowl picture of us. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
My love for anything Amy Christoffers continues. I started a
Pomme de Pin awhile back, but the pattern kind of made me angry due to shifting stitches and other stupid things. So it has become another sweater in need of sleeves and a collar. I think the other part of it is that I feel out of love with the color halfway through and that has deterred me from sucking it up and finishing it. For this one, you are going to need to use your imagination a little bit.
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| Imagine this a little lighter/more like an "electric" navy |
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| and this a smidddddge more lilac |
Bam! Well, that's the tentative plan. I do love the look of the multi-color contrast, but how much will I really wear it if it's like that? Unless Lorna's Laces wants to pack up some Pocket Square and Cookie's Deep Dark Secret and send it my way. Pretty please? This yarn is
Silk Blend by Manos and it feels sooo nice. Have I mentioned lately that I have "seen the light" and will praise Manos del Uruguay until the cows come home? Because I will. The only yarn I haven't used by them at this point is Lace and that is on the agenda for someday.
While I've been eyeing many of the
Quince & Co. patterns for awhile now, Avery is the one that jumps and begs to be made sooner rather than later. Melissa LaBarre is another designer whose work I admire immensely, though I've never actually made any of her designs. I need a big squishy cowl to wrap around my neck this season and I can't wait to start this one.
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| Kelly green Rittenhouse |
...in, you guessed it, another Manos del Uruguay yarn. This time it's Rittenhouse, a yarn that was recently discontinued (may she RIP). I have never seen yarn hoarding like I did with this one. Between the staff and loyal customers, I can bet we each have at least 20 skeins sitting in our stashes.
Last, but certainly not least, there is Aethercopter. I have been wanting to knit this for YEARS, but it's proving tricky to find the most perfect yarn. I absolutely love Balance, the yarn called for, but I can't choose a color. And trying to find something with that same look is difficult.
OR
OR
Hmm. Decisions, decisions. Or I might just cast on for it in my one true love: TWEED.
One thing is certain: this is going to be a wonderful and woolly winter. And this post was, apparently, brought to you by Manos del Uruguay ;P Whoops.
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