Hey friends!
I know it’s been all spinning all the time around here, but this post is shockingly brought to you by KNITTING! I won a Cloudlover yarn club as part of the Socks with Sarah knitalong. For all those who have never heard of it, the point of this knitalong is to integrate the knitting of socks more into your life, not necessarily in a big way, but as a reminder that a little bit of knitting here and there really adds up! I used to carry a pair of socks around in my purse, and I should start doing so again. My last purse was too small for it, but my new one has just enough extra space for a sock in progress :) It really takes the edge off of having to wait. (Which I have to do a lot of in my job.)
So I thought I would show you my three beautiful skeins.. 
They are all just lovely. The names of the colorways from left to right are Night Blooms, Tiger Lily, and Apple Picking, and I think that they are all perfect. They’re also all variegated, which I tend to be picky about, but I love them all. The two on the right are superwash merino and nylon, tightly spun and perfect for socks. The one on the left is a loosely spun 50/50 merino/silk. Since socks in that yarn would have holes in a heartbeat, I needed something else. A shawl, I thought, would be the perfect project for such a precious yarn. I wanted to be strong, and only work on Christmas presents, but I hadn’t been knitting much lately at all. Also, I got the yarn about two weeks ago, and I haven’t been able to put it away. It’s been sitting on my bedside table where I can pet it occasionally. It’s so soft, just feeling the silkiness is wonderfully soothing.
So I started a shawl. I was worried about the variegation bothering me, but so far it looks really pretty. I’m making the Light and Up shawl, as I was cruising through the Ravelry projects and it seems to look pretty with variegated yarn. The lace pattern is simple and pretty mindless, so I think it should work with this yarn. It’s also an elongated triangle instead of a right triangle, and I think that will help it stay around my neck. (I normally wear shawls with the point in the front and the ends wrapped around my neck, more like a scarf or a kerchief.) It also has tassels, and I’ve always wanted to make a shawl with tassels.
Here’s the yarn all caked up:
And here’s the beginning of the shawl. I think it’s lovely, despite my prejudice against variegated yarns. I think it looks like a flower.
I think I’d just had it with the deadlines and the pressure and all of that. There’s enough of that in the rest of my life without it also carrying over into my knitting. Now I’m knitting something for no other purpose than to relax, and it is good. Turns out I just needed to up the fiber dosage from merino to merino and silk. What can I say? I just like to be fancy.
