Plus ça change

I'm still knitting. I kind of lost my knitting mojo there for a bit, and I've been trying to sort out why. I have come to some conclusions and hopefully the realizations will help me keep my voice. 

Today, I am playing with the Sweet Spot again! I am stepping out of my go to fingering weight and indie dyers and am using <a target="_blank" href="http://www.yarnspirations.com/yarn/super-value.html">Bernat Super Value</a>. <i>I know, but I'm going for dog-friendly. I haven't broken out in hives, and the colours are making up for the yarn composition. </i> 

I started with a strip just wide enough to hit the sweet spot. 

It didn't quite resonate with me, so I went double, and went up a needle size.  I am pleased.

I can't wait to get into the other colours. 

The temperature afghan is coming along nicely. The two yellow stripes represent those hot days at the end of May! 

I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I am going with the daily lows for the colder months (Oct - March) and the daily highs for the warmer months (April - Sept). This provides the best use of the extreme temperature colours; otherwise it would be rather mid-range and less interesting. 

The puppies are wonderful, though Chica 

 is quite the handful - always wanting to have someone throw her ball (she's relentless about it) and is still quite guardy with her favorite things. I'm exploring a few options on training her out of it, but it's as bad as advice on parenting!! 

Petey is still my steadfast champion, making sure I'm never short on love and attention. 

My leg has healed well; I play ball and have no noticeable weakness. I usually wear the brace for ball, but not day-to-day. The ankle still swells to icky proportions, but apparently that's normal, so I try to not judge it. <i>between you & me, it's not my fave appendage and likely won't be the model foot for sock pics</i>

Chevrons Two Ways

So I decided to do a temperature afghan. There were all sorts of crocheted ones, but I decided to do a knitted one.
I picked this chevron pattern, Bravo Worsted from Schachenmayr, this chart for the colour/temp breakdown


, and used AccuWeather for the stats.
I decided to go with daily lows for the winter months, and daily highs for the summer months. This will make for better use of the colour range.
I am very pleased with January!! A lovely randomization of the colours.


February is looking to be larger sections of colours.
This is shaping up to be more of a bedspread than an afghan. I'm looking at about 14' - yikes!! But it's going to be awesome, I'm very excited about the project!!


Question - would you do a stripe (the winter white in this case) to separate the months? I'm of two minds on the matter ...

I'm also working on a ZickZack scarf for The Needle Emporium. I was very excited to see that I was going to be knitting it out of two balls of Rialto Luxury Sock. With its lengthy, harmonious colour changes, it makes the garter stitch just keep flowing.


I just keep going to see what the colours are going to do next!!

I finally got around to getting a pedicure! My feet really deserved it after that wretched cast came off.


I feel very pretty, even if I'm just sitting home knitting.

The puppies were adorable the other day. I was blocking a swatch in front of the fireplace to sped up the drying. They love laying in front of the fireplace and helped with the blocking by deliberately, and without influence from me, surrounding but not laying on the swatch. It was sweet.



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X marks the spot

Many, many little x's!!

The last couple of days progress.





The variegated flosses make it so easy to just keep going. Just like my passion and enthusiasm for hand dyed/variegated knitting yarns, the depth and richness of the colours in the silk is intoxicating. I truly can't get enough.

I did finish the afghan.


It is cushy, plush and the turquoise/teal contrasts nicely against the smooth, shiny leather.

I'm still working on my neon socks.


Mmmm - that pink!!!

And I just banged out a frilly scarf.


Helen knits various things for charity but loathes these scarves so I offered to knit a couple. And this brings me to this evening.
What to work on ...


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Inspiration

in·spi·ra·tion  

/ˌinspəˈrāSHən/

Noun The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative: "flashes of inspiration". The quality of having been so stimulated, esp. when evident in something: "a moment of inspiration in an otherwise dull display".

When Elise gave me the pattern for her her On The Easy Side pattern it was the beginning of a journey that started with that single questing query, "I wonder if ...".

I wondered if Koigu's PPPM would repeat and pattern as did their Kersti at a particular stitch count. Thus began my journey and exploration of the Sweetspot of a yarn and my resulting scarves/afghans.

I always believed and discussed with Elise the mathematical theory of a predictable repeat based on the skein size, dye sequence and stitch count/gauge but it was well beyond my skill set. I relied on intuition and trial and error.

My day was totally made when Elise & I spoke yesterday and she mentioned an article written by Karla Stuebing in Twist Collective on The Art and Science of Planned Pooling where she said that my design inspired her to explore and extrapolate the maths in the yarns!! Carol Sulcoski wrote an article in the Early Fall 2013 VK on Planned Pooling referencing my design and Karla's work.

I am still exploring indie yarns and have another afghan in the works.