Coachella FO'd!

The cowl is cowl-y and the linen is drapey. Can you ask for anything more?



It was even a good day for modeling.



I cast off first thing this morning (those twisted stitches are slow going) after dropping a whole mess of stitches last night and giving up in disgust.



I really ought to undo the bottom edge and cast off more loosely. It looked almost ridiculously loose when I was casting off, but it is definitely too tight. But really, I am far too pleased with this top. I am smug, even.

Also smug about this:



I started a new job this week and celebrated by buying my very first skein of Socks That Rock! The colourway is algae and it was very very hard to choose. I think I finally have my Monkey yarn!

So, I am now projectless and bereft. I need something new and exciting. I have a whole mess of sweaters in my Ravelry queue, but after my very first summer top success, I sort of want to run with that. Any suggestions?

May I Introduce.... (Heather)

I think I just flashed y'all a picture of my Coachella-in-progress without actually mentioning that I was knitting it. Well, I actually made some progress on it yesterday as I spent a fair amount of time on the subway, on the bus, and in a Tim Horton's. Air conditioning, baby!



It might be physically impossible to photograph this in progress. It is a racer-back top knit top down. Those holes are the armholes, and that thin strip in the middle is the back. It is a very interesting design, and if it fits like it is supposed to, I will be very very happy. I am knitting this in some fingering weight linen that Adriana handed off to me... I am holding it tripled, and while it is a little string-like before washing, it is not bad to knit with at all. No one is more surprised than me. Another plus is that the linen seems tangleproof, which is a really great feature in a yarn. I am crossing my fingers that it drapes nicely after a good wash, and perhaps an ironing.

I tried to get a shot of how the top will actually work:



If my arm was a neck...

At least you sort of get an idea of the orientation of the top.

In other news, Adriana and Gen gave me a birthday present!



Fleece Artist Sea Wool! Would it be copying to make Coupling?

It has been sweltering all week, and now that it has cooled down, I have a lot of housekeeping on which to catch up. But I have an urge to do something really fun this week. Any suggestions on what a gal could do in the big city?

Progress is Made (Heather)

Though my non-sleeping/eating/bathing time has been pretty much consumed by a family project this week, I have managed to finish up some loose ends!



We took pictures of Amaya! (right before the skies opened up yet again). Now if I could only get it in the mail...



I knit a bit on Coachella! The linen is working for me, surprisingly! I am using to cotton bugging my hands, so I was pleasantly surprised that the linen seems to be easy to work with so far. My hands do get tired, but it takes longer, and they aren't sore. I love how knitting stockinette in smaller needles creates a nice tight rolled edge that doesn't take over. I am a little concerned that the neck will not be droopy enough, I pulled it over my head and it doesn't seem that loose. But I am knitting to gauge and I have followed the pattern, so I guess I will just trust the designer and knit on.

In fabric news, Leslie took me to Quilter's Palette on Saturday morning!

As some of you may know, I am a dedicated Kaffe girl. The problem with that is that I love Kaffe's fabrics too much to experiment on!



I picked out some fat quarters at QP that I loved, but hopefully not so much that I will be afraid to cut into them. The roll of fabric is a bolt end, about 0.6m, so altogether I have about 1.5 metres to play with. Could either be enough to put together a pieced sampler-type quilt, or if I found a few more co-ordinating colours it could be a good start to a 'stack and cut' stained-glass type quilt. I saw a fantastic quilt that New Brunswick Kate's mom had made for her and I have been thinking about it ever since. Thanks to Leslie for taking me out to the wilds of Etobicoke; I haven't been fabric shopping with a sewer since I got interested in fabric, so I needed that knowledgeable presence.

Another busy weekend approaches, so who knows how much progress will continue. Have a great weekend, everyone!