When the yarn is silent

I'd planned on joining the #fringeandfriendslogalong KALand I'd planned out a log cabin-esque shawl/scarf and I'd wound the yarn and had it ready to go.  And then New Year's Day rolled around, the log cabin KAL started....  and I did not like what I was knitting.  I didn't like it at all.  And more importantly, the yarn didn't like it either.

So I frogged it.  And started over.  Started over without a definite plan.

The start of something big.

I started over holding two threads (lace weight) together.  I like the affect.  I'm creating a nice, squishy fabric and I LOVE the tweedy aspect the two yarns are providing.  Alone, each yarn is pretty, but combined....  Yes! I'm loving the color.

But what exactly am I knitting?  Is it going to be a long striped scarf that's a little too wide for a normal scarf but way too narrow for a decent stole type shawl?  Or will I amend the color changes slightly and attempt to create the original log cabin pattern I'd planned?

I can not decide and the yarn refuses to speak.

One thing I am sure of is that I'll finish reading Malice in Wonderland by Hiliary Latimer this week.  Maybe even tonight.  I thought I was going to absolutely LOVE this book.  It's a murder mystery that takes place at a fiber festival.  What's not to love about that?  Except that it turned into several male characters (boyfriends of other characters) who aren't supposed to know much about knitting, except that they do when it's convenient to the story line and their ability to solve the case.  And I guess it's possible that I missed something early on, but... Just about every character in the book hints that the dead guy was being blackmailed - but there's never any mention of him doing something to be blackmailed for.  It's very confusing/annoying.

Good Guys Love Dogs

Once I finish Malice in Wonderland, my next book will be either Good Guys Love Dogs by Inglath Cooper or The Cabin by Natasha Preston.  I'm in the mood for fluffy romance, thus Good Guys Love Dogs.... but The Cabin would pair well with knitting a log cabin shawl.  I guess I'll just pray my yarn quickly breaks it's silence and tells me what it wants to be.

The Cabin by Natasha Preston

To see what others are knitting and reading, follow me over to both As Kat Knits for #Unraveled Wednesday and Small Things for the 2018 version of Yarn Along.

On the Needles

Well, it's not on the needles yet, but I spent yesterday (okay, one episode of Grey's Anatomy, but it felt like a whole day) winding this -

Gloss Lace from Knit Picks

The yarn is for #fringeandfriendslogalong that starts on January 1st.  And if you're having trouble reading that hashtag (it is a mouthful!) it's # fringe and friends log along.  You will find all the details at that link but if you want to know a little something about it before clicking....  It's a log cabin KAL.  You can knit anything you want with any yarn you want, you just have to knit it log cabin style.  And you can't start knitting until January 1st.

And I'm proud to announce, I have my yarn picked out.  

I'm not proud that, once again, I forgot to take photos of the yarn during daylight hours.  

I'll be using five skeins of Gloss Lace from Knit Picks plus two other lace weight yarns I found in my stash to knit a log cabin style, rectangular shawl.  To jazz it up just a little, the center piece will have a lacy pattern rather than being plain.  It looks fantastic in my head and pretty good drawn on paper.  We'll have to wait until January to see what it looks like in real life.

And since this is most likely my last post of 2017, I'll go ahead and say... For the New Year's Day Makers' Monday post, I'll be busy taking down our Christmas tree and eating black eyed peas so I won't be here on the blog, but I will create an automated post for you to link to if you'd like.  It will be set up  just like the Christmas Day Makers' Monday post.

Meanwhile, I'm wishing everyone a safe and happy New Year!

Orange is the New Black

Are you an Orange is the New Black fan?  Although I wasn't that wild about the second season, I was looking forward to the third.  And I got pretty dang, jumping up & down excited when I discovered there was an OITNB mystery-KAL (knit-along.)   I immediately ordered my kit (yarn and a link to the M-KAL/instructions.)  When I placed my order, the website said the yarn was in stock but two days later, I received an email saying that the yarn was not in stock & I'd have to wait for more to be dyed.  I was just a tad bit irritated, specially since I just happened to have June 13th off from work and June 13th was the day the third season would air.  I could binge watch all day, without even having to call in sick from work.  Or so I had thought.

My yarn finally arrived June 23rd, I immediately followed the link to find the instructions and.... wasn't that impressed.  Because I was so late starting, there were tons of spoiler photos already posted on the website, which turned out to be a good thing.  The MKAL instructions turned out to be for a shawl that just wasn't me.  Plus, it mentioned there was a good chance you'd need two skeins of yarn although the kit only included one.  So, instead of knitting the MKAL, I decided to knit a cowl.  I grabbed a couple of coordinating skeins from the stash pile and cast on during the opening OITNB credits.

It's just a simple, stockinette pattern with a few slipped stitches thrown in to create prison bars.

And no, the color is not off in the photo.  Instead of orange and black, the yarn is peach and grays.  Which I'm actually happy about.  I think the peach and gray combo will be much more wearable than an orange & black cowl.  An orange & black combo would probably look to Halloweenish.  Besides, the peach & grays are sort of dull, muted colors much like the colors of the OITNB prison.

Anyway, I'm happy with the colors and the yarn itself (it's a Lorna's Lace sport weight yarn) and the knitting project has outlasted the binge watching.  Yes!  I had two days off this week and spent them binge watching OITNB and knitting instead of going to the grocery store.  I will pay the price when I end up starving to death this week because there are no groceries in the house, but, I can now happily join the OITNB discussions at work.  It's a fairly decent trade off, I think.