Wednesday, August 6, 2008

I Can Dream, Can't I

"So what does a knitter who is forbidden to knit do with her time," you might be wondering. Why dreams about it, of course. I dream of patterns, I dream of yarns. I play a little what if game, too. Want to join in? If you could knit any pattern, what would it be? What yarn would you use? There is only one rule. It has to be something that you would really knit in the size you would really knit it. Yes, even in my fantasy games I am deeply rooted in reality.

So what would I knit... hmmm....

Well we've just been flooded with new patterns from VK and the new Twist Collective. IK should arrive any day. There is just too much to choose from, but choose I shall.

I could wax rhapsodic over the Twist Collective for hours and hours. Not only are there fabulous patterns but they actually go up to my size. So first off there would be Wisteria by Kate Gilbert.

As for the yarn I would choose, I think I would go for Blue Moon Fiber Art's Peru in Rose Quartz.


The other sweater I'd really like to make is the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne. I would have loved to make it in Sundara Worsted as Ms Wynne did, unfortunately Sundara no longer sells that yarn. And even if she did, getting enough of it would truly be a miracle. So I would go for Peru again, but in Jasper.


Of course having enough Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn for two sweaters, AT THE SAME TIME is never going to happen, so I'll tell that I actually have the new Kettle Dyed Wool of the Andes in Eggplant Kettle in my Knit Picks shopping basket.

Perhaps if I was more daring I'd go for the Bordeaux. Perhaps in my next fantasy...


Something else I've been dying to make is Jared Flood's new Druid Mittens. They are so gorgeous! They even graced the new VK cover.

Since the source yarn is quite affordable I'd go ahead and use it. It's Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift. At around $5 per skein, these mittens will cost less than $20 to make. As to which color I'd pick, I am partial to the tweeds. They really give depth. Perhaps one of these?

With 161 shades to choose from it may take some time to decide!

Another pair of mittens I've had my eyes on are Eunny's Anemoi Mittens. I'd love to make them up in Sundara Sock Glacier and Graphite.

And of course the socks. More socks than you can shake a stick at. But for now, I'll say these two from Twist Collective have me really going. Really. Going. No time to think of sock yarns now. Just drool....

Livia by Steffi van der Linden.

Aren't they gorgeous! I can't say enough nice things about Steffi. I loved making Esther and have quite a few of her patterns in the queue. For a few years, Steffi has been providing bi-monthly free patterns to the Socken Kreativ Liste, a German language Sock Knitting group on Yahoo. Non-German speakers were clamoring to get in just to get her patterns. So when the group hit its maximum and closed membership, Steffi got to work. With the permission of all parties concerned, posted the patterns as free Ravelry downloads. She is a pleasure to communicate with as well as a very talented designer. I am really pleased to support her here.

And here is Oolong by Mona Schmidt, designer of my beloved Embossed Leaves.

Loving it!

And finally, one dream that will come true. I'm Olympics bound! Ravelympics that is! I'd spent weeks despairing that I was ineligible due to time constraints. Cast on with Opening ceremonies, bind off by Closing. Then last night my sister, of all people, forwarded me an email reminding me that Ravelympics started Friday night. (Actually that's Beijing time. Real time is the next morning.) How she knew is beyond me. That she felt my pain in being unable to participate more shocking still. Her surprising disappointment spurred me on to contact the Ravelympic Committee (ok, the really nice Ravelmpics Moderator) and ask it was alright to begin AFTER the opening ceremonies if I was committed to finish by the closing, briefly explaining the problems with Shabbos and the 9 days. And she said yes. Yes, people, I am a contender!

Since my time is more limited I signed up for something challenging, yet achievable.

Since I want to be making the Large and was concerened about having enough yardage. I decided to use my LL Shepherd Sport in Balckberry.

And since I'll be going up in needle size I should have no problems with a Medium and 400 yds should definitely cover it. Worse case scenario, I'll make them shorter. Cast on will commence some time Monday. With only one project to get done in two weeks, I should have plenty of time to finish up July's Sockdown challenge (Sock Knitters Anonymous Group on Ravelry) by the end of August as well as finish up Arietta.

See how inspiring all this non-knitting is!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great projects and yarn - makes me want to cast on for a new project! Hope you get to knit some of them soon...