Brite Stripes Scarf Kit= happy knitting

 

 I may have made my favorite scarf photo ever! This was the last frame shot from the photo shoot for The Yarnery,  Brite Stripes Kit, in October.   The scarf feels so exuberant  that I wanted to see if we could catch that vibe.

The kits released yesterday .  I am thrilled ot share these, shot on a handball court in Brooklyn. I kind of love the location as a street studio setting. And I lovvvvve these models, Martine McKinney and Ariana McLean.  

 

The yarn is pretty fabulous as well--it's knit in solid colors of Snefnug and a skein of self striping Lang Cloud yarn.  It's bulky gauge knitting  although very light and airy. I am crazy about the Snefnug because the colors, I mean take a look. And also that name, it sounds like a funny sneeze. It means snowflake in Danish.

 This is a candidate for another Treat Yo'self project--and I say that as someone who feels the urge to knit a long scarf pretty much NEVER.  It would fly.

3 Things About the Knits: past present future

 Not necessarily in that order

1) Pressed Flowers shawl by Savory Knitting Amy Christoffers. This mosaic design is so satisfying to knit.  I am loving it.  I'd heard that after the first repeat of the body chart I'd have it memorized and it'd just flow. As I cast on and messed up the first few repeats and then did that again and again, I highly doubted it.  Then, as my friend Linda, the yarn whisperer owner of Knit New Haven told me "something happens and you crack the genetic code ". She was right. (She almost  always is on many matters, not just knitting.)  No more chart peeks needed. Although I look forward to finishing this and wearing it...I'm going to be a little sad when it's done. One for the process knitter list.

I cast on for it during a family trip to Minnesota this summer.

Seeing prairie flowers in a naturalized section of bison range in  Minneopa State Park got me going on this colorway for the shawl. I am nothing if not concrete in my inspiration sources.

Then back home I got distracted by other projects and I went on (another) hat bender in the fall.  It's a seasonal addiction I guess. Keep your pumpkin spice lattes, I have hats.....

2)I had to try a couple of Striped Marl Hats from Modern  Daily Knitting Field Guide 19 .  My sister requested, specifically, a pink and brown hat. I figured, sure why not, if that's what she wants --even though I wasn't holding out much hope for that color combo when I started it.

Turns out she had a whole vision for it! Isn't this great styling? Success. 

Six or seven hats later, I impulse ordered a Plied Yarns kit to make a scrappy Trail Point Hat .

I ordered a few extra bobbins too, because a) I love that bobbins are an option and b) I love the colors and c) I love this yarn company and their dyed in Baltimore /spun in New Hampshire yarn.

 

It's a fingering weight knit,  also a super quick knit. The shape has a retro vibe.  It reminds me of ski hats that were de rigeur when I was in middle school. This one's getting a lot of 2022 head time !

 

 One of my pandemic-acquired habits is doing "treat yo'self" online shopping. And I'm not mad about it. Until 2020, I only made carefully considered  aka overthought purchases online. I can be annoyingly indecisive about retail. I mean, I draw out the decision a few beats too long, annoying others as well as myself. That indecisive! 

Not a problem any longer . This was a good one! Def more Plied Yarns projects ahead. I'm thinking a colorwork sweater like Roost or  a Shift Cowl. (am I the last to knit that one? or are you with me on the no-rush-I'll-get toit-somedaylist)

 

Bobbins. They're irresistible.
 

3 things since the last time I posted

Well, that gives me plenty of leeway, right?!*

1) Quality and Quantity Time at Home - Work returned to a pretty much full-time pace for most of 2021, although I'm traveling much less.  Which gives me plenty of time to hang around the beach and....well...hang around at the beach. Often with friends in the neighborhood. It's not a bad thing!  Among many unexpected habits I picked up in 2020 was making sunset photos at the end of my street and posting them on the neighborhood Facebook page. I started doing it out of boredom during quarantine in 2020, kind of a buswoman's holiday.  My neighbors were (and still are) so appreciative that I keep doing it. This was a couple of days ago. January sunsets are the best.

2) Possibly my fave project of 2021 was ...crocheted?! It's my Ziggy Interrupted Scarf .  I impulsively joined a CAL for it last spring.  I thought it might be fun to go through all my small amounts of fingering weight yarn left from other projects. Or given to me as samples or in goodie bags. I was right.  I had a blast putting the color combos together, using really small yardages that I inexplicably saved...I think I used 30 colors on it, and the only thing I bought was a Freia Minikin green/aqua. It was an epic and fun project. I worked  in sections so I could bring it wherever I went, attaching them all at the end before adding the all around edging. And now I can crochet fingering weight yarn, something I'd never done before.  Highly recommend!

                         

3) Spent lots of time with my all time favorite human, Zoe. She turns 10 in a couple of weeks. How crazy is that? Also shown here, changed our formerly dark and very multi-colored cluttered living room into a light filled, less cluttered space. Best of all,  the old dangerous fireplace/unlined chimney situation is now a gas remote control hearth that helps heat the house. So bougie and I love it!

 

We had a neighborhood plunge on January 2nd. It was fabulous! 

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*It's nice to be back. I don't know how that happened. The last couple of years have been...weird for us all!