Casting on--again and again and again...

I don't know what it is about fall that makes me want to cast on for new knitting projects. Is it the fact that I spend (slightly) more time indoors? Or perhaps I am overly-eager to own some new warm things for the upcoming winter? Whatever the reason it has been my habit to temporarily stash my wheel in the corner come late September and bust out the knitting basket.

Not to say that my wheel will be neglected during the fall & winter months, no way. We had a few really gorgeous days last week and I couldn't resist sitting in the sunshine spinning my brains out. This is what most recently slipped through my fingers--a lovely superwash Corriedale:



I know, this is supposed to be a post about knitting, right? Sorry, I was temporarily discombobulated by the wool fumes. Now back to knitting:

I currently have 2 projects on the needles (correction: I have 2 projects on the needles that aren't hibernating. And I'd reather not talk about the Estonian Lace shawl... ). The first isRani, a simple beaded cuff from Knitty. I picked out the beads for this pattern long before I knew what color the yarn would be. I knew it had to be something dark, though, to really make those silver-lined beads--and the ornate design they form--pop. I chose a lovely dark peacock blue sock yarn (Cherry Tree Hill) at the LYS that I now love and adore. I cast on right away, trucked through the first 2 repeats, and realized I had grossly miscalculated the number of beads I would need. By half.

Thus halted progress on Rani. I normally favor the crochet hook method of bead placement, but prestringing the beads is a much better choice for the pattern. It makes the knitting go much more smoothly because the beads are packed so tightly together in the chart and resultant. To have to stop every other stitch to hook a bead onto the yarn would get tiresome very quickly. You can see what I'm talking about here:



Unfortunately photographing shiny, silver-lined beads is challenging--this is the absolute best pic I could come up with. The beads reflect the light and sort of make everything look fuzzy, but here it is anyway:


So what's a knitter to do when she is trying to put off stringing 270 beads? A knitter casts on for something else, that's what! I bought 2 beautiful skeins of Auracania Itata Muli last spring, intending to make the Cherry Leaf Lace Shawl from the photo-packed book Victorian Lace Today. This is a fairly easy, typical leaf pattern, but the design and edging originate from Weldon's Practical Knitter, a publication from the 1890's. And you know exactly what kind of sucker I am for this sort of thing! I love shawl patterns that have a story or tradition behind them. So I did a little stash-diving and wound these two beauties up, ready to grow up into a very cozy shawl.

Oh, and did I mention what this yarn is made of? Merino, silk, and bamboo. Its so lush you want to eat it.


And here, I give you actual progress:






I'm very excited to finally have this shawl in production. Its been on my mind for a while now, and I'm happy to have found my groove with it. I'm pretty content with the way its turning out, and can't wait to see how I fare with knitting on a border--something I shockingly have yet to try.

But that's not where the cast-ons stop. Oh no. I have a sweater's worth of Wool of the Andes yarn that used to want to be a February Lady Sweater. But I didn't really like knitting all that garter stitch, and the pattern started to wear on me. If there is one thing I can't abide in knitting, its tedium. Give me a challenge and I'll eat it up, but hours of knitting only garter stitch? blech. It just wasn't my thing. I hit my favorite place for pattern searching: the black hole that is Ravelry. After searching high and low for just the right pattern, I settled on the rather interesting Norah Gaughan pattern Surface. I love the texture of the cuff and collar. I'm not sure how much I would wear it, but honestly I think it will be so fun to knit. And let's face it, the woman is a pattern-writing genius.

Also on the agenda are some sweaters (and no doubt handspun hats and scarves) for my kids, something for my adorable newly-transplanted nephews from Germany, and of course plans for another shawl--the Honeybee Stole by Ann Hanson. I also plan to knit some some scarves for Knitting for Hope. I'm not crazy about knitting scarves, but kids can make use of them for a long time, and charities never seem to have enough. Thats a lot of projects. Lets see how long they will last me, eh? Once I get in the knitting groove, the projects fly off my needles!


In Other News

Virtual Knit Night is back! We had a great time chatting and it was so good to see everybody again. It was an awesome turnout, especially considering it was only the second time airing since its resurrection. Many thanks to those who attended, and to those who have been pestering me time and again to get it going. It was great to be back. I definitely plan on doing it again soon! Look for updates on our ravelry group. If we keep having such a nice attendance I may set up a blog for show notes and video clips.

Oddly enough this lens-shy gal always feels pretty comfortable blabbing about knitting and spinning, even in front of the ever-so-intimidating webcam. I think I could talk to anybody for as long as they could endure about fiber and yarn. Of course we don't just talk about that: lets just say that it is a mature audience and alcohol is a mainstay. Take from that what you will, and trust me when I say that pretty much anything goes. I love to share with you guys, and hope you don't mind terribly when I laugh so hard gin tonic comes out my nose. I do plan on doing some demos again, but for now its just nice to be back in the saddle yapping it up.

Well thats it for now from the Blue Bungalow. Apologies for the dry spell, I have been struggling a little, but things seem to be getting back on track. Stay tuned next week for a post about Betzi's first venture into the land of public spinning demonstrations--I'm demoing at a local Harvest Faire this weekend! And for those of you who are going to Rhinebeck: have a blast and I'm jealous as hell!