I am le tired.

Dragonmaille and I went up to WEBS on Saturday to see if we could meet the Yarn Harlot. By the time we got there, though, it was insanely busy and the line for book signings was out the door. We decided to shop for yarn instead.

Now, DM and I are both knitters, and we both love yarn. We love to pet it, love the texture, love the colors. However, our tastes...well, they're a little different.

DM likes browns, clarets, burgundies. Forest greens. Greys. She REALLY likes grey-browns. Don't get me wrong, I think those colors have their uses, but my hands reach for things like this:



See the difference? :D Can we see the trend in Divine Bird's knitting these days?

From top left: Two balls of ArtYarns Ultramerino 4. These will be socks. They are sitting on top of an already-started cake of Cascade Eco Wool. YES. ECO WOOL COLORS. The four Lite-lopis were bought for a shawl I mis-remembered. I kept thinking it called for Lite-lopi, but when I finally got back to look at the book, I realized the shawl was calling for something completely different--which works out, since I have JUST the yarn for it already. The Lite-lopi had been called for in a different pattern in the same book, so now I'll have the excuse to make THAT pattern as well. :) Am I gonna be warm this winter!!

I had planned on using the Eco Wool as the base of a sweater for myself, but while working on my first Icelandic design, I realized I really WANTED some lime green in there. Thus, I dipped into the center of the cake to help create this:



It's my first real colorwork. I did some jacquard knitting for the Pac-Man scarf, but hadn't ever tried a real charted design. I love doing stranded colors. This is also my first real SWEATER. I started on another one but need to redye the yarn for the body before I can continue; we'll see how it comes out later. This one is using some dark blue-green vintage wool that I acquired over a year ago as the base. I worked out the math for the increases so it will fit me; it's a top-down Icelandic cardigan with steeks. I am kind of winging it in places, but so far it seems to work. I am about halfway through the yoke. The patterns for the colorwork came from some books on scandinavian and fair isle knitting, though I'm editing some for my own purposes. Each section is a nearly-random selection of two of my five yoke colors: Magenta, Yellow, Orange, Lime, and White. The plain rows (where I increase) are the body yarn.

I'm exceedingly proud of this sweater. It is also a great way to keep my hands occupied while sitting in the hospital waiting room. My granddad has been in ICU for a few weeks now, and my mom, sister, and I are pulling shifts sitting with Grandma while she looks after Granddad.

And now I am signing off this blog until next week at the earliest. We are moving this weekend, and DSL won't be back up til Tuesday. And then we have unpacking and setting up and OMG shoot me now. >_<