This is tense, isn’t it??
Yesterday, it was nearly unbearable. I felt useless, sluggish and distracted all day. I couldn’t focus on anything.
So I knitted.
On Tuesday, I finished off the oats cowl I’d begun on Monday evening, completing it in under 24 hours.
Yesterday, I whipped up a swatch for my Santa pillow. This was tricky. I was swatching fair isle in the round, which is never easy, and my stitches went all wonky. Also, I had some long red floats which needed to be caught on the back but showed through the white beard. I’ll need to find a better solution for that on the actual pillow.
Next, as I waited for my Santa swatch to dry, I cast about for something else I could cast on.
Stash Diving
At the foot of our bed is a painted and carved wooden trunk. In that trunk are two large and one small sealed storage bags. The largest contains all my worsted weight (heavier) yarn. The second contains all my DK weight (medium weight) yarn. And the smallest contains my fingering weight yarns.
My stash.
In moments of stress and anxiety (like yesterday), I like to open it up and imagine the possibilities.
Yesterday, I stuck to the bag of fingering weight yarn.
I pulled out some absolutely gorgeous hand-dyed merino wool yarn I purchased at a big craft fair in Munich. It’s a German brand, Tausendschön, and it’s a deep midnight blue in light fingering weight.
Also in my stash is something I picked up at the Virginia Wool Festival last fall (sadly canceled this year). It’s a Shalimar Yarns fingering weight yarn called “Paulie.” The color is best described as a bright not-quite-pink but not-quite-red. It’s called “Tamarillo.” The yarn is a luxurious blend of merino wool, camel, cashmere and silk. It is SOOOOO squeezable!
I have two skeins of each of these yarns, and though they are slightly different weights, I am swatching up to see if I can use them together in a project.
Enter the All About That Brioche shawl by Lisa Hannes.
This is a deliciously squishy shawl which I knit for my mother a few years ago. I still own the pattern but do not have a shawl of my own! I think it’s time. The midnight blue and the tamarillo (which looks a lot like the pink/red color pictured here) would look great together.
That should tide me over until the yarn arrives to make the Crazyheart sweater for the Bug!
Other Fanciful Ideas
I was at Target this morning and spotted their multicolored pompom wreath in the newly set-up Christmas section.
(Don’t get me started on how ridiculous it is to have Christmas decorations up in EARLY NOVEMBER. What about Thanksgiving?! Do we just IGNORE that holiday??)
Looking at this in more detail, I decided it would be relatively easy for me to make one myself. All that worsted weight yarn I have in my stash is in mainly Christmas colors. I bought it last year at A.C. Moore when they were going out of business.
Easy! I have two different sized pompom makers, and have a great technique involving a fork for making smaller ones. Three sizes of pompoms should do it, and if I get started now I should have plenty by Christmas!
I’m going to be SO busy!
And Now
I’m off to check the election results for the umpteenth time today.
I had hoped that writing this article would kill more time. Sadly, it hasn’t taken me all that long.
