the Akamai Knitter

The Purple Tank for my mother was started on Monday, June 19th. I was originally going to use some Brown Sheep Cottone Fleece in New Age Teal, but the cotton in that blend really hurts my hands. Instead I found some Shine at Knitpicks in Crocus. I think that’s the colour, I’d have to check the ball band, but it seems that the yarn I’m using is a much more of a vibrant purple. This has become my perfect car/knitmeet project. The pattern is the Simple Shell from Knitting Pure & Simple. There’s about 14.5″ of solid stockinette stitch so I can just let my wander anywhere it fancies

I really adore this yarn, it’s so supple and flexible to knit with. I want to make a sweater for me and maybe even a nice throw. It’s such a soft buttery blend, I could just wrap myself in it and bliss myself out in this way for hours on end. I would simply regress back to being 5 years old and always in need of my “Benky”. I’m a secure adult. Sure ’nuff. No worries.

Moving on to even lovelier yarns, I received my order of Painted Zephyr in Pacifica and Waterfall from Furry Yarns.I am so tickled and blissed out on these yarns! Did you know that they dye the yarn only when they receive the order? I was a little concerned about that as I wanted to use the yarn for at least 1 of my project this month, but I received them both in about a week and a half. The website does caution buyers that the dyeig process takes 5-8 days. My yarn was mailed out on Friday and I got it yesterday. Amazing!

I was also a little concerned that the dye might make the zephyr a bit tacky and stiff. I’ve started knitting with it and it’s just like the zephy I normally use. So now my biggest concern is colour pooling, but I haven’t knit enough with it yet to truly give an opinion. All I can say is that it does knit like the dream that regular Zephyr does.

After dealing with the Icarus for most of the day, using the hand-painted Zephyr is such a blessed relief, which makes me seriously question whether I should keep going with theTencel or not. Maybe I’ll be able to trade the yarn and get something more to my liking. I just love that true Teal that I’m working on. The Icarus pattern is so lovely, I hate to see it get ruined for fun just because I can’t stand the yarn. I want to say that this doesn’t mean it’s not a perfectly lovely yarn. It’s just that it’s not my cup of tea. I can really see the Icarus shawl in this teal though. Not that I’d have anywhere to wear it when it’s done though. :D

Speaking of tough decisions, I picked up the FFL and started the triangular version thoughtfully provided by Kat La Fevre from Creative Pop-Offs. The directions aren’t really the problem. I think the problem is the chart layout, and that’s not Kat’s fault. She just used the same layout the book did. I think there are too many negative spaces in some of the rows for my eyes to follow. What I’ll probably need to do is bring certain rows together with some glue. I’ll do that when I can stand to look at it again. So we’re on a break and more likely Ross’ version of a break since I’ve already started something else. ;-)

It’s amazing how out of sorts I get if I don’t have a knitting project that really suits me. Notice how I’m carefully avoiding the subject of the World Knitting Cup project, the Pomatomus socks? Yes? No? Well, now it’s been duly noted for the annals.*plbt*

I wonder how many other knitters end up grumpy and snappish without an enjoyable knitting project on the needles… Hrm.