Before I say anything else, I’d like to start off by joyously exclaiming that I am SO GLAD I’M NOT IN KANSAS RIGHT NOW. As I told friends, I miss how pretty the snow can be. I do not miss Wichita drivers “proving” their driving skills in the snow. (I’ve been told that Seattle-area drivers are just as bad, for what it’s worth.)
Moving on, let’s just say that the knitting force has been weak with me lately. After frantic holiday knitting, I’ve been a little bit more focused on getting to know the area better and doing the garden planning. Hard to believe there’s a chance that the garden might actually produce food this year… I was shocked at how disgustingly healthy my garden plan is. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that it’s stuff we love and will gobble furiously. On the list: beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, kale, leeks, lettuce, and radishes. I was considering fruit and onions/shallots/garlic, but those are both kind of ridiculous. As far as fruit goes, we have two giant blackberry tangles by our house, and the produce stand four blocks south of the house is pretty aewsome; for the onions/shallots/garlic, it’s the wrong season, and I don’t want to invest the time in them if we might be pulling up stakes and buying a house next winter. But I digress.
I was thrilled to start a shop sample for Pinchknitter last week. Pictured above is the start of a Milo vest (Ravelry link). It’s in the 6-month size, and it’s in a cotton/acrylic blend that is actually not unpleasant – Jeannee from Plymouth Yarns. The yarn is super-soft, and although it’s slightly splitty, it does tink and rip pretty well. You might ask how I know. What you see is actually the second incarnation, the first having been ripped out at about the 2/3-of-the-way-to-completion point last weekend.
But I’m much happier with this one, after having ripped it into nothingness and restarted with smaller needles. Nothing like floppy, inelastic garter stitch and lifeless cables to make it obvious that the needle/yarn/pattern combination just isn’t going to work. Now that the fabric is nicer, I can appreciate the genius of the pattern that much more. I really appreciate Georgie Hallam’s large range of sizes (it goes from newborn to age 6!!) – I bought this to make for Alex before she turned 1, and, um, she’ll be getting a 6-year-old size this summer.
Super Secret Socks are still here. I need to swatch a new iteration of the design because I’m not terribly thrilled with the chart I’ve been working from for the better part of four years… but I need to finish a sample sock and block it before I make that decision. Blergh.