Playing with Color

I've finally been knitting, a little. When Karen knit her Pincha shawl it caught my eye, and I have plenty of beautiful variegated skeins hanging about my stash, so I dug one up and cast on. This is Knitting Knotions Superwash Sock yarn in all my favorite colors, a colorway called "Earthshine," which I believe has been discontinued.

What's more exciting, though, are these lovely little skeins.

A cool new organization has sprung up in Pittsburgh called the Steel City Fiber Collective, and they hosted a yarn dyeing even at a bar in the city. (Yarn. Beer. Pretty colors. how much better does it get??) It was so, so much fun.

And now ... I want to keep on dyeing. This process was really simple, definitely something I could just do in the basement during naptime. I sense an addiction coming on. (Maybe after I'm done with this class, though!)

I need more patterns to knit with these beauties. What are your favorite patterns that play nicely with variegated yarns? (If you have blog posts showcasing said patterns, please, link them in the comments! I'd love to see them.)


Linking up with Ginny's yarn along.

Not quite committed ...

Still not much knitting around here. I am about to embark on some (possibly over-ambitious) Easter projects--more on those later. But right now the only active project is this ten-stitch blanket. I had a lot of worsted weight leftover from various hats, so that's what I'm using. (Pardon the odd lighting ... those are lovely shades of teal and purple, if you can't tell. But there's foxy orange and a pretty blue in the middle.)

I keep having doubts though. Is this really the pattern I want to put my leftovers into? Is it just going to be kind of ugly looking, and am I okay with that? I like the fact that it's knit all in one piece, but maybe something with granny squares bordered in a neutral color would tie the different colors together better ... like this. (Or if the colors still clashed, it would be more like a kaleidoscope, which sounds more interesting to me.)

I am looking forward to reading these essays published by Wiseblood Books. Poetry is not my "thing." I can receive a good poem, even fall in love with it. But I don't have the instinct to delve more deeply in without guidance. And I certainly don't sound intelligent when speaking about poetry, which perhaps doesn't matter except as it affects my own ego.

Linking up with Ginny.

Chickadee!

I haven't done any knitting since last week. I think I'm having trouble committing enough to anything to cast on. Nothing seems to be calling my name, not even the slippers, which I haven't really needed thanks to this mild winter. Cold feet would probably motivate me.

I do, however, have some yarn to show you. A group of women are working to set up the Steel City Fiber Collective, and I contributed to their Kickstarter drive a few months ago. And then I forgot about it. So it was a very nice surprise to receive this gorgeous hand-dyed skein in the mail!

The only crafty thing I've accomplished lately is that little chickadee, and though it's definitely beginner's work, I'm pretty proud of it. (If anyone has any advice for a neater blanket stitch, or for cutting out small felt pattern pieces, I'm all ears!) I'm hoping to make another felt birdie for my brother's birthday (tomorrow ... we'll see if it happens). He's an amateur ornithologist, and I've been wanting to try my hand at felt ornaments, so when I stumbled upon an amazing collection of felt bird patterns, it seemed providential!

I have been doing quite a bit of reading. I got this book from a friend, and am enjoying it so far. I need more nonfiction for my Catholicism & Literature course, and this fits the bill!

Linking up with Ginny.

What I'm Doing (Instead of Netflix)

Hi Friends.

I've been trapped in a cycle of not-blogging. It has many sources, but one of them is wanting to come up with a REAL post to jump back in with. Something with nice pictures and/or profound thoughts, organized and coherent and thoroughly spell-checked.

Well, enough of that way of thinking. It's naptime. I have a moment. I have a job that I need to do that I'm currently procrastinating. What better way to do so than by posting here?

I am trying really hard to reclaim my precious naptime from the black hole that is Netflix. I binged on the first season of Fixer Upper (which I loved, but now I can't stop thinking about cased openings), and the shows I watch regularly (Once Upon a Time (don't judge) and The Walking Dead (yes, zombies)) are gone until spring.* So!

I will tell you what I'm working on instead.

Several months ago I got an email out of the blue inviting me to teach a course on Catholicism and Literature ... and I accepted! I am very grateful, and excited, and just a wee bit terrified ... because now I have to manage my time wisely. What part of it I am in control of, which has not been a lot this year ... we seem to have been beset by illness after illness, ear infections and tummy bugs and eye infections and the croup and sinus infections ...



As it happens, I do have a picture for this blog post, a knitting picture so that I can link up with Ginny. Well, a pre-knitting picture, I guess. I am going to make myself a pair of thrummed slippers, and the yarn is wound, and the thrums are all made, and there they have sat for about a week, untouched. But it is very pretty to look at, isn't it?