A New Sweater (or two)

• Posted on 1 March 2022
• By Anne
• 0

The 2022 Rose City Yarn Crawl is in the history books. Phew! Time for a new, totally selfish new project. Knitting for knitting's sake!

So much work!  Every year, the planning, organizing, scheduling, . . . everything that goes into making the crawl happen.  It's exhausting.  And the past two years - add hours, and hours, and HOURS of time on my laptop, pulling together the virtual option.  But all worth the efforts.  It was so fun seeing everyone again, in person, shopping, squeezing yarn, and just being happy to get back to normal, just a little bit.  In the past two years, I've gotten pretty good at knowing there's a smile under those masks by looking at someone's eyes.  But it will be really nice to see those actual grins and pearly whites again sometime soon. Oh dear, will have to add to my makeup and lipstick budget.

Most people get into selfish knitting right after the holidays.  Not me (although I did make an exception this year for my new gnome addiction), cause I have to knit things for the crawl.  This time it was the Fixation hat in our exclusive Dyed in the Wool Goddess, and reworking my very first pattern write, Simple Beginnings, knit in our MadTosh exclusive colorway Gaggle of Girls (my 3 granddaughters are often lovingly referred to as a 'gaggle of girls,' so there you go).  That done, and the Crawl in the rear view mirror, I plunked down with my puppies (I have a new one - another blog post to come) on Monday and dove into a new sweater.

Actually, it was a tough decision, as I had two designs calling me.  The first was Andrea Mowry's Stonecrop Cardi.  I made her pullover version a couple years ago, and absolutely love it!  Many of you saw me wearing it on the 1st day of the Crawl.  When I knit the pullover, as I often do, I also set aside yarn for the second one.  Some gorgeous Midsommar DITW; very pink, of course.  But I could never quite figure out what to pair it with for the main color.  White or light gray would work, but that's boring.  During the 4-day event, I called on my co-workers for help and inspiration, and it was decided that a deep, rich navy blue would fit the bill.  I went home and dove into my embarrassing large stash (it's more of a room than a stash), and stumbled on some beautiful, hand-dyed gold wool long forgotten about.  And wouldn't you know it, gold and pink don't really work for me, together anyway.  But that beautiful, warm, happy gold!  Pivot, and my Stonecrop Cardi was re-imagined with dark teal Melancholia being showcased for the colorwork. 

In the last 4 days, I've made some amazing progress, nearly finishing the yoke.  But leave it to Andrea to throw in a curve ball.  This time, bobbles.  Lots of bobble.  An entire round of Half-Double Crochet Bobbles, one every 6th stitch. Yikes!  But, OK fun.  Who likes endless rounds of stockinette, anyway.  It took me several hours to finish that one round, but the result was stunning.  And there are only a dozen of those bobble rounds in the sweater.  Oh and in the sleeves.  Double Yikes!  Really though, I'm loving this knit.

I mentioned a second sweater, which I very well may cast on, just to give me a diversion from bobbles and colorwork.  Just before the Crawl, Woolfolk's Meredith shared their newest yarn, Fleck.  Their uber wonderful, soft, irresistible Orvis 21 Ultimate Merino, this time with a touch of Donegal tweed added.  Oooooh!  And those wonderful folks at Woolfolk are very generous with their sample knitting program.  Before I knew it, a bag of tan Fleck arrived in my little knitting hands, along with a delightful new pattern - the Trompet Pullover.  An elegantly simple pullover, with a lovely little cable at the raglan seam.  I can see it now - pulling on that sweater with my favorite jeans (which I call hard pants these days) for a day at the coast with my bestie, husband of nearly 40 years Jay (another future blog post).  Or just to walk the dogs.

So there you go.  Anne's back to her old habits, never being satisfied with just one new project.  But I'm committed to finishing these two gems.  Please everyone, hold me to it!

Oh, and one more treat.  We welcomed a new puppy in mid December.  Meet Albus - a fiery little Cairn Terrier that's won over my heart.  I promise more details about his escapades in a future post.  But until then, enjoy the cuteness!