Tall Gal Knits and Spins

Seeing Red with a hint of lemongrass

The past few weeks since I got the socks done I've been seeing a lot of red.  Red nail polish, red flowers, red yarn, lots of red yarn.

One of the sweaters that got picked for the Christmas knitting was a design by AS, Western Seas (Rav Link).  I happen to love Starmore's designs, I respect her integrity and grit and admit I am one of those people who actually own all of her old design books, even charts and the Scottish Collection.   I am also one of those people who are waiting for the exchange rates to get reasonable again so I can buy kits from her website, Virtual Yarns without wincing.  Course then it doesn't help that she's put the Banin line back into production and it happens to be one of my all time favorite yarns to work with for aran knitting (and yes I have preordered a copy of the new edition of Aran knitting), hmm I think I see a Christmas prezzie for myself...

but back to seeing red -

 

The last two pictures are closer to the true red.  The sunlight is not always our friend when we are photographing!

Western Seas is a relatively "easy" AS to knit.  If you have never done a traditional gurnsey sweater with gussets, this is a good one to learn how to do it since the patterning is very minimal in the body.  The other nice thing about this sweater pattern is that once the bottom patterning is done you knit the body in the round to the gussets and then do the front and back separately, which isn't too bad either, cuts down on the amount of seaming necessary.  That and the sleeves are worked from the top down, so there is no seaming involved there either.  Just cleaning up of ends!  Gotta love that!

I did not go for the full blown traditional yarn, see note above about exchange rates, but instead opted to go stash diving!  I am using Cherry Tree Supersock in the Cherry Red!  Works up at the same gauge and will be a little softer for the little guy who this is going to.... 

At this point I am on schedule for having this sweater done and checked off by the end of the month, which is great news, because this allowed me to indulge in casting on some socks that I've been wanting to start all month!

These are the Karira socks that are part of the Dragon KAL on Ravelry.  I got so caught up in the book that the luscious yarn I had bought from BMFA just sat languishing away, waiting for me to notice it again.  I have not finished the book yet, but I am very close!  I am generally not a mystery-thriller reader but this one got me, so much so the other two books from the author are on the way from Amazon as we speak.  Shannon Okey/Knitgrrl is hosting KAL sock projects to go along with those two books as well, I've got yarn set aside for those two already!  She has two more indie dyers as well lined up to dye sock yarn to match the covers of those books too!  Should be lots of fun.

The little sock isn't far along but I love the squishiness of the STR yarn, I've used it before and it always makes me happy.  I have to say that my favorite part of the sock is actually the linen stitch that is used, don't ask me why, but it is just making me me smile.  It could be the way the colors are dancing in that stitch.

I am hoping to have the first sock done by the end of the month, knitting it along side with the sweater.  I do know I am modifying the pattern a tiny bit.  I will not be doing the pattern down the foot, I really don't like patterning on the top of my foot, with some of my shoes and boots it will press in and its not comfortable so I generally stop the patterning once I do the heel gusset, although the cute little patterning at the toe, the "dragon toe" I will be doing, that tiny bit shouldn't bother me!

Okay work is coming in for the day...time to pay attention to that other computer.

Summer Random Ramblings

Two months??  Two Months??  Oh my!

Somehow time slipped away from me again...more to the point the after school let down hit and I just went into an early summer haze/relaxation period.  The realization that I only have one more semester to go hit and the light is at the end of the tunnel.  Not that it has been a bad thing to finish my degree, but its been a very long nearly six years.

I did some traveling at the end of June and went to visit friends back on the East Coast, some of my favorite pictures from the trip

 

I have a thing for New England Coastlines...Gloucester and the area around Newport Rhode Island.  Just make me smile.

Since the end of May I have been doing "fun" reading, I love to read a good book.  I've gone through five so far since the end of school including Tony Bourdain's new book Medium Raw.  I have always liked Tony since day one when he wrote Gone with Bamboo and Bone in the Throat.  Tony has mellowed out much since those days and admits that he has gone through hell and back again several times.  While I am not cut out for serious kitchen life, I appreciate his cynicism and lack of political correctness at times.

 Right now I'm working on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  The book has a slow start, but is very promising. I have to thank my wonderful friend Thomas for recommending the book to me. He also happens to be a wonderful stylist.  If you are in Cambridge, MA and need one, call Alfred's and ask for Thomas.

Coincidentally, Knitgrrl will be doing a Dragon-Toe KAL on Ravelry in August, using the Karira Pattern.  The colorway that matches the cover of the book comes from BMFA, Lemongrass.  I happen to have a skein of it in Heavyweight so the current debate with myself is whether I go digging in the stash for something of the right weight or I indulge and grab a skein of the lightweight from Blue Moon. Now the problem is...who can just buy one skein from Blue Moon?

Join in the fun, they are planning on doing two more KAL for Steig's other books with colorways to match the covers. I do need to write up the wristlet pattern and I've been puttering around with a few other things too while I've been lounging around the past few months...

 

and this too...

So Tallgal is getting back into her knitting happiness and rambling along this summer. Let's see what I come up with!