While the terrain seems subdued with arctic light these days, inside Chez Chic the color JUMPS.
Nothing better than a project with a little VAVaVOOM to keep the attention span alight. Now I’m all about going the Mamma Bear route and hibernating in the cave, but more than a luxurious Saturday afternoon nap just de-winds the clock.
Bringing a little color into the picture indoors makes it relaxing and productive. I went stash diving and came up with some unexpected fun. This yarn was from a long forgotten field trip to the Fold; it’s named Deluxe Worsted LP (by Universal, color 01). Now this is interesting stuff. It’s alot like a big sister to the painted sock yarns you see around with lovely self-striping action that removes all the fuss of changing skeins and weaving in ends. I wasn’t sure what the effect would be, having seen some garments made from a type Universal makes that is faux fair isle (and a lot of fun), but this knitted up into gracefully progressing color areas instead.
Keeping one simple stockinette project on the needles is my version of the Evening Cocktail: refreshing, relaxing and uncomplicated. So once again, we’ve cast on for a Basic Chic Hoodie and are sailing right along.
Off-road in in the Frog Pond: my deep chocolate Ariann has gone back to the future. After getting 3/4 of the way done with the body, I re-checked my gauge because something seemed to be moving in a direction I couldn’t live with. The yarn I was using is so sproingy (!?!) that after knitting it doesn’t stabizie or relax and get larger, it compresses and gets smaller. Another yarn that behaves like this? Rowan Calmer, which although it is a DK weight yarn, requires one to use much larger needles to acheive the standard 22/30 gauge that type of yarn usually gets.
I liked the Calmer so much I was willing to spend some time climbing its learning curve. The result? Really pretty fabric with actually no fuss or muss on my part than to just take that Leap of Faith and pick up a different size needle. My Chocolate yarn is much the same. It has so much tensile spring it is going to take a much bigger needle to knit with.
Finding something out like this is an AHA! moment for me and makes me focus and even gladly, rip out the work. I had this conversation with my new hairdresser (waa! the old one moved away!). She’s a beginning knitter and terrifed at ripping anything out. But she is at that happy place where you decide that you simply cannot knit that Hundreth Scarf but MUST make a sweater. She’s going to have a baby, so her sweater can be a little more gentle excursion into that terrain. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with — my haircut was pretty darn good ;p