My World This Week

It’s been a beautiful week! There’s been just the right mix of sunshine and rain, activity and rest, knitting, drinking, eating and being with friends. (Plus, the Saints are 7-1 and that never hurt either!) Also, today is Day 26 of my 30-day Daily Mass Challenge. Though I have not been perfect, it’s been a wonderful challenge that has resulted in great feelings of peace, gratitude and happiness.

And here’s the perfect mix of happy and sad–my Featherweight Cardigan is done! The happy part? I am SO pleased with it. It fits perfectly. It is the perfect length and the perfect weight. I love the color (many thanks to Kelly McClure of Boho Knits for creating this lovely shade called “Chirp” on her Ramble base) and the yarn is so very soft. I am sure that this will be my go-to cardigan all winter long. The sad part? It’s over! I’ve been feeling project-grief since I finished it last Friday. It’s like finishing a really good book. You miss the characters. It feels like I’ve lost a friend!

The Featherweight was such an easy, rhythmic knit without the need to constantly consult the pattern. I love the simple, structural details like the beginning of the raglan line. This cardigan was easy enough that I could work on it late at night, after a tough day of work or in the bar with the Tipsy Knitters. Mine was knitted to a gauge of about 6-1/2 sts per inch so, for a fingering weight sweater, it really was very quick. There wasn’t the on-and-on-ness of other fine gauge knits. The fact that Featherweight is the first project I’ve knitted just for me in over 2 years makes it a very dear little sweater. I was hoping to wear it to Tipsy Knitters on Wednesday but with temps in the mid-80’s, it’s unlikely.

I think I mentioned that I did all the ribbing using the Continental method. It was good practice for a season full of stranded color work and it made the ribbing so much faster and more interesting.

So what’s next?? I’ve got a bunch of design knitting coming up in the next few months, so I doubt that there will be any “me” knitting going on, but I’m really excited about what’s in the pipeline.

I’m partnering with Harrisville Designs on a very interesting cold-weather shawl, Octavia. I’m so excited that Harrisville has happily agreed to provide yarn support for this project! The yarn will be Harrisville’s Shetland, a woolen spun fingering weight yarn that comes in 64 delicious colors. I’ll keep my color choices a secret until the yarn arrives, but I will tell you that they are a little outside my usual wheelhouse 😉

More good news! I’ve had an accessory design accepted for the inaugural collection at Hudson+West! This is very exciting for me because it means I get to work with one of my favorite knit-people, the amazing Meghan Babin, cofounder of H+W, AND I get to work with their fabulous new fingering weight yarn, Weld, in some beautiful neutrals. I can’t tip my hand any more than that at present but I’ll keep you posted!

I was mourning the loss of my Featherweight project early Saturday morning when I had a lightning bolt idea for a pair of socks. I need a pallet-cleanser and I’ve been wanting to add a fourth heavy weight sock pattern to my catalogue. I came up with this ziggy-zaggy cabley idea. I’m thinking it will be great in a strong color like Kiwano or Takahe, both are Kenzie by HiKoo. Watch for progress on these!