He Gave Us the Wine to Taste It

It feels like a long time since I jumped on a KAL--at least a KAL with a beginning, a little structure, and an end. Maybe that's why I've got more than a few unfinished projects? Some open-ended KALs that I've yet to finish include the Bee Fields Shawl, and the Bird in Hand Mittens, just to name two. These two KALs were/are open-ended, and yet both projects have been hibernating for months now. Maybe a little deadline knitting is in order, just so that I'll finish something! I missed the sign ups for Summer of Socks, completely blew off Project Spectrum, and haven't started a new sock for a Ravelry Sockdown since January. I've been a regular knit-blogging slacker, but the Loopy Ewe Dream in Color Baby KAL has changed all that, at least for now. There's a specified yarn (DIC Baby, obviously), and a deadline (October 1), but other than that it's pretty free-form.

I cast on Juno Regina in Baby on Saturday, and even after eight hours of driving from quilt store to quilt store the pattern made perfect sense. The charts are many, and they look as if they get tougher in about 8 more rows, but so far so good. The color, In Vino Veritas, is very rich, and ranges from a dark burgundy to a wine-y purple depending on the light. It looks awfully purple in the photo above (taken in natural PNW sunlight), doesn't it? I don't think it really looks that purple, in real life, but we'll see. This yarn / pattern also works for the Red KAL (Rav Link) in the Loopy Ewe group.

About the yarn. . .I've been knitting away on my Smooshy Socks that use Dream in Color's Smooshy yarn for months now (they should be done fairly soon), and I couldn't be happier with the yarn. It is, as the name implies, very Smooshy, but knitting up to a nice firm sock fabric. The color changes are very subtle, with no pooling or striping, which works well with the pattern I'm using. I think that Baby is just a lighter version of Smooshy, but I'm not sure yet whether I like it as well. I'm a little concerned that the Baby is going to be on the itchy side, but right now my hands are very dried out from knitting the cotton washcloth, and everything feels a little rough on them.

At the end of the week, I'll be moving from lace to fair isle, so I'm hoping to make a lot of progress this week. On Friday, I start a three-day class on Fair Isle knitting taught by Janine Bajus, and I'm starting to get excited about it--although really I should be preparing my supplies, and unpacking my bag from Stanford and putting away my new fabric, and what-not. Hmm. Better get on that.