Fiber Dreams

First off, I thought I’d share a photo I took where you can actually see the beads along the edge of the knitting. I’ve seen quite a few of other people’s photos now, and the best ones for showing the beads seem to be taken at a bit of an angle.

See? Beads. Yummy, sparkly, delightful, shiny, charming little beads.

I happened to be at my desk at 3:30 this morning when Melanie released clue 2. I have it sitting here waiting for me. I don’t know that I’ll knit on it until this evening, but then again I might decide to not cross stitch at lunch so I can knit the shawl again.

Summer Knitter’s

I just happen to have the Summer Knitter’s magazine right here, and other than the cursory glance I made when it arrived a week or three ago I haven’t looked at it yet. Let’s browse through the issue a bit, shall we?

First thing I notice, there seem to be a lot of ruffles and things showing up in the early pages. I skip past those, hoping the issue isn’t filled with froo-froo. I’m drawn to Anne Claxon’s column by this month’s picture of a wonderful little knitter’s emergency box, filled with goodies like a row counter, stitch markers, cable needle, travel-safe cutter… But I’m disappointed that none of the links mentioned in the article lead to a place where I can buy the perfectly sized and appointed box. Ooh, Perri Klass’s column is back this time. I’ll come back to read that later.

Under the heading “Knits to Flip Over” there’s that ruffled sweater again. Uh. So not me. Here’s one that’s not too bad. Picnics in the Park. It’s a short-sleeved, top-down raglan. I’d lose the accent buttons, they don’t actually do anything. There are a couple of vest (waistcoat) patterns. I learned years ago that I don’t like wearing vests over any kind of a shirt. Don’t know why, but they’re just not comfortable to me that way. When I wear them, I leave out that in-between layer. Hm. I rather like the second one, though, the blue one. I might consider making it to wear as a layer under another sweater. The armholes are high enough that, uh, my lack of a shirt wouldn’t be an issue.

Next is a Lily Chin sweater that I find interesting. Like most of her stuff, I doubt that I’ll ever make it, but I do kind of like it. She was going for an ancient Greek feeling with the design, Grecian Plaits, and I think she achieved it.

Skipping over some stuff that I don’t find interesting for its good (or bad) qualities to a heading called Weekend at the Beach. I don’t know about where you live, but down here in southern California we don’t wear sweaters on the beach during the summer—for the most part. Just not necessary. Down here, if you’re at the beach wearing more than a tank top and shorts you’ll die of heat. The first two patterns here are for little girls. The second one, a little dress with flip-flops knitted on near the hemline, Flip-flops & Frills, is adorable, and definitely something I would have wanted for non-beach wear when I was a kid. Maybe its the colors. Maybe its the bobbles between some of the cables. I don’t know what it is, really, but I certainly don’t like the Beach Tank. It’s too fussy.

The purl ridges on this Beachcomber pullover remind me of a purple sweater I made a long time ago. Though I love the sweater, I hated knitting it. Bored to death. Really. Awful.

And then there are these purple sweaters. Beach Bands. Eeeh. Maybe I’d like it better in different colors. Probably not, but one never knows. This top’s rather nice, though, the Fitted Tank. It might be something to knit when I rip out the red Green Gable I knit last year, something I could wear under my Freya sweater.

Though I love knitting lace and I love open work on sweaters, I do try to keep most of the obvious lacey holes away from the bra area. I don’t know about you, but I just don’t want my underwear to show. Like in the Diamond Mesh sweater. There are things I like about the sweater, but too many things I’d have to change to hide the underwear. Auburn Mist is better. Just wear a low-cut under-thing, and you’re set.

There are a few more sweaters, but again, not stunning enough one way or the other to mention. There are a couple cute bags to knit, small purses, but you’ll have to find those on your own.

Berroco

While we’re at it, I want to share the latest from Berroco. Just in this morning is this week’s free pattern: the Bramble Bag. I love it! It’s knit with two colors in the bramble stitch. I’m not familiar with that stitch. I’ll have to see if it’s in one of my stitch dictionaries. I sure like the bag!

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Spam protection by WP Captcha-Free