Tomorrow the Green Grass

I've been thinking all week about starting something new. A knitting project that is so compelling and exciting that I will start and finish it immediately, using the world's best yarn and the tiniest, pointiest needles. Then I snap back to reality, and decide just to keep working on the three projects that are currently in heavy rotation: Summer Sky socks (almost ready for heels), Wino Juno (Five inches knit since the rip-out), and a project that I've been working on pretty regularly at home but not talking about much--the green Autumn Lace scarf. I've camouflaged it pretty well, but if you look closely, you can pick it out in this photo:

Ignore the super professional look of the ends hanging down. The scarf is just about halfway done now, and it's growing on me daily. The yarn (Alpaca with a Twist Fino) has a nice fuzziness to it that I will blame for the photo being slightly out of focus. It is "Fino" for sure--it's easily the thinnest yarn that I've knit with, but the silk content means that it's super strong. Also, the green is really rich, and looked lovely in the dusky sunlight this evening. The pattern is pretty straightforward (though I'm glued to a chart), with enough variation that I'd never knit 15 inches before noticing a serious error. That's not to say that I haven't made any errors, but I've either caught them early enough to avoid ripping this out, or they haven't thrown off the stitch count and I'll find them when it's blocking (ugh). I like that the large leaves make a solid area that shows off the yarn (rather than just the yarn-overs), and I like the strong diagonals. I'm still using the Pattern Tamer with the chart that I talked about in the last post about this scarf, and I'm still really, really happy with it--it does not budge at all when tossed about in the knitting bag.

Here's a closer shot of the pattern, stretched out a little but not severely:

So I started this November, and it's half done in July, so I'm on pace to finish it completely by May of 2009. Or earlier, if I can avoid putting it on ice for six months again. I'm not going to promise that I won't start the world's most perfect knitting project in the meantime (but I do like this one pretty well for now).

Leaves Were Falling Just Like Embers

There seems to be no shortage of song lyrics that include the words "Leaf" or "Leaves", which is a good thing--I've picked up the Autumn Lace Scarf after a long hiatus. I picked up a few other older projects to test out again, but this is the one that felt best. It's not super complicated (I was able to pick it right back up) but it does require a bit of attention. The pattern is from Evelyn Clark's website, and as with many of her patterns, it's written for a variety of yarn weights. Since I'm using fine yarn, I added a repeat of the main pattern--I like the look of three big leaves better than two, too. I was surprised to see that there are only a handful of these scarves in progress on Ravelry, but it's sort of nice to not be the 1 millionth person to knit something for a change. Monkey Socks, I'm looking at you!

I have a new set of Pattern Tamers that are really great for keeping track of where I am on the chart. They're basically two strips of magnet that are covered with ribbon that you snap onto the chart to keep your place. Does that description make any sense at all? I can't be sure, so here's a photo:

I love the bee ribbon, and I love that the magnet holds very well, and that I don't need a board to hold it--it makes it much easier to carry.

I Don't Know Why You Say Goodbye

Good-bye, Mystery Stole 3:

Hello, Autumn Lace Scarf:

I've been thinking about abandoning the Mystery Stole for awhile now, and today I finally took the plunge and ripped it out. I started a little late, and although I like the pattern (even the controversial "wing") my motivation really dropped off after I started two other lace shawls, and I don't think it's coming back. The yahoo groups dynamic really turned me off, too--way too many messages that were totally off topic, repeats of other topics, or that attacked other knitters. Also, I don't like knitting from gigantic charts, I like patterns that repeat across more than really large patterns. Although it does look nice in the photo above, doesn't it? That's natural light for you. The Hanami Stole by the same designer is more up my alley, it's already in my Ravelry queue.

I'm glad that I finally ripped it out, and not just so that I can reuse the yarn for another project that I'm more interested in right now. I have a small tendency to hold onto projects that I've lost interest in or that have a flaw that I'm not ready to address. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

I'm now using the yarn for Evelyn Clark's Autumn Lace Scarf, which is available on her brand new website. I think I've overstretched it a bit above, and a stray MS3 bead has weaseled it's way into the frame. I'm making it wider by one pattern repeat, so that there will be three large leaves across instead of two. In laceweight yarn, the scarf is about 9 inches wide, and since I have plenty of extra yarn, a little wider can't hurt. So far, so good. The yarn is Alpaca with a Twist Fino, and I'm using size US4 needles--same as the Mystery Stole.

This seems like a good project to take on vacation. Its nice and portable, but with enough patterning to keep it interesting. I'll also take the Bee Fields, most likely, and the Poppy Socks so that I have a choice of projects. It's hard to tell whether I'll have a lot of non-aircraft knitting time & mojo, and what I'll feel like working on. With two very long flights, there'll be plenty of time to mix it up--now I just need to make it through three and a half very stressful days of work, and I'll be ready to go!