Spring Sprung and Sprang away...

It's just too darn hot for my taste. It's that simple. Even after 10 years I can't get used to it. San Francisco was NEVER like this and in La Jolla May was still grey. In fact we had June Gloom to look forward to. But here, UGH! Already! Wotcha gonna do? My "little" floor fan is my best friend. I treat him with care, giving him many breaks throughout the day so his little heart (uh, motor) doesn't give out. And too often my hands sweat so I put down my knitting and plunge them into cold water...

Capecho update:
Back at work on my Capecho, although that "gotta get it done" feeling is on the wane (and I save this for the coolest moments.) Still, I am in the middle of my second Pentagon and am aiming for at least one per week, so we'll see how long it takes. Here is my first new pentagon. As planned, I made it as for 1x and on 5 mm needles. The stitch definition is MUCH better and the piece is tighter (in a good way!)


And here you can compare the new with old. It is about 1" smaller on all sides, exactly what I wanted.


Arietta update:
Despite writing to groups and looking around for a substitute, I was unable to find a deeper color for Color A. Again I remind everyone that the photo shows much BETTER definition than the real thing! And then on Wednesday it all came together. I was SERIOUSLY thinking about ordering from KnitPicks and putting the whole thing off for a while, when a friend called and offered to bring back yarn from the US. And this all occurred while at, and on the way home from, my LYS. In the mean time I had tried to look beyond the 5 individual colors and did a serious study of the color scheme. After analyzing the pattern a bit more I can explain the color choices better. There is a neutral base color (beige) then a dark with light (cream and blue) for the cool side and another, less extreme dark with light (green and copper) which feels a little warmer. Once I had this epiphany I started looking at all those yarn colors in a new light. And I found a winning combination!


It is very different than the original but I like it, and it reminds of a wonderful olive, plum dress I had as a girl. The dress sticks in my mind because I think I got to wear it only once before my mother washed it and it shrank to doll size. But oh, I did love the colors!

So here are the swatches side by side. They were both blocked, but look at the difference! First I changed from 3.5 mm needles to the 3.25 mm ones I found in my needle stash. I also remembered to garter up the edges, which probably helped. The color schemes give an entirely different feeling and I suppose mine will be good for fall, but as I said, I like it! And if I have the desire to do this all again, I may just order that KnitPicks yarn yet.



Wind Chimes scarf
I thought I would use some of the lovely cotton I have been acquiring to make this, but frankly the cotton is VERY tough on the hands (I had this problem only with the crochet, knitting is a dream,) and I didn't like the way the "dashes" were coming out. So I used some of the Schachenmayr Micro I had in my stash and was much happier with the results. Again, color choices are limited, so I couldn't get as close to the original as I would have liked, but I think this will work nicely.


I should be able to get 2 scarves out of this yarn and I have a few more colors on hold to go with the other colors I had in my stash (that one will be pinks, yellows, purple and red). I'm guessing the Wind Chimes scarf will be replacing Argosy as the present to give next year!

And finally... Several months ago I saw a picture of Nicky Epstein's Rose Felted Bag. And I went crazy trying to find the pattern (the one VK on eBay was going for some CRAZY price - I wasn't THAT desperate!) Then I learned that it was included in Nicky's new Knitted Flowers book. While the book was sitting in my virtual shopping cart I decided to Google the pattern one more time. I found two items of note. First, a review that wasn't terribly good. It said there were lots of pretty pictures but not much as far as content went. A real let down compared to Nicky's previous books. Was the price of the book worth it for this one pattern? Then, Eureka! I found Dream Weaver Yarns' website. They had the VK Winter 2004/2005 issue which the pattern had been featured in, at $5.99! So there would be no free shipping, but I got all the patterns of a VK issue (and Winter tends to be my favorite.) How exciting is that! I will do my fair share of swatching first and am considering doing Amanda's Squatty Sidekick too, (free pattern from Interweave's Knitting Daily). See, this will be my first felting project. Not only can't you find yarn for feting here, but I only have cold water for my washing machine. (European models are set to heat the water themselves but I have a nice American Maytag. Unfortunately, the plumbing isn't set up for that!) So while it'll be a at least a month before I get started, I ordered the magazine last night and I am already excited just thinking about it!