I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

KOIA (who, BTW, hasn’t blogged since the summer of 2009), added a post to my Facebook wall last week asking why I haven’t updated the blog in a while.  Well, I have a nice bullet list, complete with photos, to explain why.

• I was in Denver for a week for work.

See, I have the shopping bags to prove it.

•  I turned around and went to California for 5 crazy days of Disneyland and cheer competition.

•  While I was in California, I made the 54-mile, 5-hour round trip to LA from Anaheim to visit my son who attends college in LA. As an added bonus, I got a free golf lesson.

•  I made three shop samples for the LYS where I teach classes.

•  I wrote up the pattern for the sock-weight version of Fog Lifter and knit another sample.  So the Bambino sample joins her ShibuiKnits sister.  Watch for the pattern next week.

•  I’ve been diligently (not) working on writing up the pattern for another scarf that I first knit last summer!  Yikes.  It made a brief appearance at Sock Summit and hasn’t been heard from since.  I think it’s time to revive it. What do you think?

•  And I’m working on a super secret project that I can only show you a peek of.

If I tell you more, I’ll have to kill you.

Last week, I made my way through the smog to the Jitterbug Coffee Hop where we celebrated the anniversary of our Tuesday night Stitch ‘N Bitch group.  Like it has for several years, the celebration included a no-obligation swap.  This year, the theme was cowls.  If you brought a cowl, you went home with a different one.  I was the lucky recipient of this little green number contributed by Laurie.

It’s knit from Malabrigo worsted so it’s fabulously soft.  Although it clashes horribly with my winter coat, I’ve worn it every day since the swap.  Love it.

My cowl contribution landed in the hands of Eileen and, happily, it matched her coat perfectly. Seriously, can an off-white cowl not match a person’s coat?

The pattern for the cowl I made for Eileen is now available as a free download on Ravelry.  As I mention on the Ravelry project page, I had a hard time finding a pattern that was exactly what I had in mind for my cowl.  There are similar patterns available but the cables either crossed too closely or too far apart.  And the cables were either too sparse or too crowded.   As Goldilocks would say, “This one is neither too hot nor too cold. It’s just right.”

And the best part . . . I worked up three sets of instructions for three different weights of yarn.  So shop the stash and cast on!

Desperate times . . . .

Call for desperate measures . . .