First, an icy, snowy, wintery-blue sock designed for Three Irish Girls with snowflakes arching up and around the ankle. The Spiraling Snow Socks were really quite challenging. I wanted a spiral that swooped gracefully around the ankle bone, but I didn’t want to sacrifice a longer cuff either, and this design accomplished both. Let me also briefly mention how much I covet an entire sweater’s worth of the Kell’s Sport, which is oh-so-squishy and lovely. (Though this would, of course, require me to knit an entire sweater in sport weight, and, well….)

Second, a sweater that uses two totally different yarns to create texture, designed for Yahaira Ferreira’s Pure Knits book. It’s been almost 2 years since I designed this, and it was really satisfying to see the final product surrounded by so many beautiful patterns bound together into a single theme. I will be knitting the men’s herringbone hat-and-scarf set in this book in the next 3.5 seconds, and it will be mine, all mine!

Next up? More academic writing, and some secret knitting that makes me want to stalk the product pages at Amazon until the link is live and I can finally post.

I’m not entirely sure if that’s an indication of time actually dedicated to knitting, or just time not dedicated to other things. For my own peace of mind, I’d like to think it’s the former; for the health of my ongoing projects, it should probably be the latter. On the other hand, knitting karma seems to work best when there’s actual dedication. To with, the Secret Summer Sock Project Of Great Import is being test knit (test knitted?), just as The Sleeve Of Doom that has stymied me since April reached past the one-third mark. Coincidence? I think not!

Still, I’m not sure if pictorial proof of dedicated knitting time is appropriate, given the gravitas (and workload) of orientation week. Sleeve, or discussion group planning? (We all know the answer to that, don’t we?)

I’m not about to change that….

No, seriously, folks, this cardigan has been killing me. I thought for a while that I only had 3 skeins of yarn left, which is not enough to finish two sleeves, and the mental anguish that yarn shortage causes just wasn’t something I could deal with. Instead of facing it head on and actually doing the knitting to see how things might progress, I let the project hang out on top of my knitting pile for more than a week, taunting me. I think the taunting was so drawn out because I had a deal with chemgrrl that I wouldn’t finish this spring/fall cardigan until she was done with her ill-timed winter mittens.

I’m happy to report, however, that the taunting was ultimately unsuccessful and I held up my end of the deal. I do, in fact, have enough yarn (a 4th skein was hiding behind, well, the other 3 skeins), and this photo documents the completion of the first third of the first sleeve of the second version of Suspension Cardi (full photos and revised pattern forthcoming).

The original was knit in a bulky cotton yarn (Blue Sky Organic Cotton, 3.5 sts to the inch) but I wasn’t happy with how the yarn held up (lo, the shredding and pilling!), so I reknit it in an easier-to-come-by alpaca/silk/merino worsted blend (KnitPicks Andean Silk, 4.5 sts to the inch). I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to include both gauges in the final pattern or just the worsted.

In other news, KnitPicks now has a lace-weight version of their merino/silk blend Gloss. Just in time for summer lace knitting. Woohoo!