Shades of Gray

Everything is gray around here.  It's been raining for three, maybe four days straight.  I feel like I'm starting to grow webbed feet.  And it's cold rain.  Last weekend was typical Virginia summer weather.  Actually, it felt more like a typical Virginia August than a Virginia May.  It was in the mid 90's, hazy blue skies & a gazillion percent humidity.  And then it thundered, the temperature dropped into the low 60's and the never ending rain began.

While I admit that I'm complaining about the rain (it is cold & raining on my day off so cut me some slack) I'm also enjoying it.  It's giving me a, maybe not "good" but good enough excuse not to spend my day off going to the grocery store.  It's also made things at work slow way down so I have gotten some knitting done.

Lately, my yarn choices seem to match the weather.  Gray.

rolled brim hat

I finished this simple rolled brim hat knit with Patons Kroy Socks in the Eclipse Stripes colorway and started a matching set of fingerless gloves.

fingerless gloves

The  fingerless gloves are progressing slowly because I started a more colorful & fun 'at home' project and I try not to take dpns to work.  The dpns, at least the wooden ones I prefer, tend to break in my backpack.  It's a long & complicated story, but the backpack gets treated fairly roughly & frequently gets smashed under super heavy stuff, thus, the dpn breakage.  Anyway, as much as I love the Eclipse colorway, these fingerless gloves are getting the unloved stepchild treatment.

City Tweed Hat

This was another simple rolled brim hat I knit at work.  This one is knit from Knit Picks' City Tweed in the Obsidian colorway.  It was the first time I've used this yarn, but it won't be the last.  The blend of alpaca & wool make the yarn incredibly soft while the tweed adds just enough color to keep me from going insane knitting solid gray on a gray, rainy day.

Martha Stewart extra soft wool blend

And then there's the Martha hat.  I'd picked up this Martha Stewart yarn from a big box craft store recently.  I love the soft gray color, it was on sale & dirt cheap and feels as soft as it's name implies.    While I'm enjoying knitting with it & I like the fabric it creates, I'm not happy about the many, many bad places in the yarn.

Martha Stewart fail

See that little fuzz ball?  The yarn is full of places where parts of the yarn were broken & not spun properly.  I just pray it's bad yarn & not a moth issue.  I'd bought a ton of this yarn (like I said, it was on sale & dirt cheap) with the intention of knitting lots of things for my Etsy shop but I'd never offer my customers this poorly spun/cruddy yarn.

And on that note, I think I'll go find a blanket to snuggle under & some more colorful yarn to knit with.  Or maybe I'll just take a nap.  This is perfect napping weather.