Sunday Craftiness

I actually have finished objects which I have not yet shown. I finished the Monkey socks at last. The yarn is Koigu that I bought several years ago at Newbury Yarns in Boston. Newbury Yarns is the most beautiful yarn store I have ever visited. It's tiny, with yarn stacked floor to ceiling all around the room arranged by color. The yarns are beautiful and luxurious, but when I went in the effect was overwhelming. Not quite the store to dash in and grab up some basics for the stash! I was saving the yarn until my skills and the right pattern converged to take proper advantage of this beautiful yarn. This is Monkey, from Knitty. I will almost certainly use this pattern again. It seems to be error free, fairly easy to knit, and looks beautiful. Of course it is now too warm to wear woolly socks, but they are a nice objet d'art to admire until fall.



I've also finished the Kimono shawl. I give up on getting a good picture of it. Anyone who has seen it in person can attest that the yarn is very attractive, no matter how unphotogenic it seems. I actually finished it in Denver and gave it a quickie steam blocking to see how it looked finished. I thought I might like the merino with a little less agressive blocking than usual to let it bloom a little more. I changed my mind last week and gave it a proper blocking on wires and pins, which improved the drape and size. I think I will use it a lot, but will never try to photograph it again.


On the needles right now: a Haiku cardigan for Baby Vivian, and a pair of plain 3x1 ribbed socks in Wildfoote Rhapsody. I'm planning on skeining up some alpaca for the Icarus shawl this week, and swatching for my Phoebe sweater. Shana will be vacationing in Florida week after next, so I think I'd like to get a a couple of new projects going to keep me amused while she's gone.


We are enjoying extra dogginess this weekend. Skippy came to spend the night as an experiment to see if he would be OK at our house when the Humps are out of town. The last time he was left for a few hours at a strange house he tore all of the blinds off the windows. Lucky for us and him this did not happen today. He an Roxy are good buddies, so all went smoothly. He's a good dog, and very easy to handle, although his leash manners are not perfect. This is the gang on their way out for a walk. Skippy is grinning from ear to ear and Roxy is so happy she is (almost) looking at the camera without cringing running, or hiding.