Fiber Dreams

Emerald in emerald

Though I haven’t exactly blogging much this week, I have been knitting. I finished up the neckline ribbing on Emerald yesterday, bound off, grafted the underarm stitches, and began weaving in ends. The weaving bit will take a little while, though it shouldn’t take a lot of time. There aren’t that many ends, really, so it should go reasonably quickly.

And then there’s the question of a button.

I know. I started out with the plan of adding more than the one required button. But after looking at some finished sweaters on Ravelry (I just love Ravelry), I decided against it. The sweaters that had more than one button weren’t as appealing for some reason. Go figure. I’m just glad I realized that before knitting the button band/collar of this thing.

Back to the button.

I know I need to go stash diving, and I’ve started, I really have. I’ve looked through the few buttons I inherited from Grandma, but I’ve yet to go through Dave’s Mom’s button collection. Mostly that’s because I don’t remember where they are. I have an idea, but since I haven’t actually gone looking for them yet they haven’t been found. I don’t think I’m going to find what I’m looking for in the stash, anyway. I need a black (probably) button that’s at least an inch in diameter.

I threw out a button plea to the local folk on Ravelry, and they know of some local button places that I hope to try out. Jerry suggested The Button Store up in Los Angeles, Christine (sadly blogless, but JazzDiva on Ravelry) suggested Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, Amanda suggested Buttonham Palace in Costa Mesa and Strands and Stitches in Laguna Beach who has music on their home page that starts up automatically, so take care if you’re in an office. Can you say, “field trip”? I think one might be in order. Some of these stores look awesome.

Dressing in lace

My next door neighbor, Stephanie, has asked me to knit a little dress for her based loosely on one that she got a month or three ago. Last Saturday we drove ourselves over to Velona, and got some lovely dark brown yarn. It’s Kidsilk Haze from Rowan in Cocoa. Yum.

As an aside here, I’ve wondered for years where the store name came from, and naturally never think of asking when I’m there. It’s certainly not an English word. The owners are German and Greek. Having studied a bit of German in school, back in the dark ages, it didn’t sound like a German word. I finally got around to attempting to translate it from Greek. Score. “Velona” is Greek for “needle.” Wow. Very cool. So appropriate!

Anyway, the original dress is thick and warm. And crocheted. She loves it, but wants something a little dressier and lighter weight. She’ll still wear leggings and a tank top or t-shirt under it, so a bit of sheerness isn’t an issue. I haven’t knit anything on commission before, so this will be… interesting. And hopefully fun. Fingers crossed. Stephanie’s confident that she’ll love anything I come up with, as she likes everything she sees that I’ve knit. I haven’t started swatching for the dress yet. I will soon. Soon. I have the original dress, the basic plan, Stephanie’s measurements… I’m almost ready to take the dive.

Sock it to me

In the meantime, I did finally start swatching the Chameleon Colorworks Bambino sock yarn last night. Or was it early this morning? Whatever. I started, that’s the thing. I’m so loving this yarn. It’s super soft, has a slight sheen, slides gracefully over the needles, and makes a delightful knitted fabric. The bamboo element in the yarn is nothing short of mesmerizing. I love it.

The idea here is to come up with a sock pattern that Nancy can use in her sock club. Sounds like fun, huh? I love both of these motifs, though the one with the diamonds and lace will be tricky, at best, to get to cooperate to knit in the round, I’m hoping to come up with something to beat it into submission. Oh, yeah, the lower part of the diamond/lace thing has a garter stitch background, the upper bit has a reverse stockinette background. I think the second will be easier to knit in the round, and will work better on a sock. Less bulky. The other motif is a lot like the traveling vine I’m using in the vine stole project (still no update today, sorry!), but without the lace bits. I think this will knit in the round fairly easily. We’ll see.

Both motifs pose their own set of challenges, but if I can figure out how to get them to fit into the required parameters, I think they’ll both make wonderful socks. If not, there are lots of other possibilities.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Spam protection by WP Captcha-Free