My affinity for things green continues, as evidenced by the new moss-green purse I bought over the weekend. I wasn’t out to get a green one on purpose, but lo and behold, all the finalists in front of me on the store shelf came up shades of grass. In the same store I had another Green Incident: I needed new sheets…hmmmm, how about these sage-green ones?
I know my Green Problem is likely to fade away before too long and be replaced by some other newfangled color, so it’ll be fun while it lasts. I do have a history when it comes to such things. Ah, who can forget Black (the New York and London years), Periwinkle (ever since I bought a suit jacket the exact Crayola color), and Red (intermittent, usually when I want to feel busy and important, à la Bridget Jones answering Daniel Cleaver’s phone calls)?
The Red Problem hits me hard when it comes to toenails. For the life of me I can’t seem to commit to anything other than blood red, usually something named “Vixen” or “Not Just A Cocktail Waitress”. Friends, sisters, nail technicians: “Hmmm, where have I seen this before,” they say. “Maybe…on your toes right now?”
Well, at least I’m not putting green on my toes. Yet.
In both knitting and green news, my Tree-colored Fifi is coming right on along.
This was my first time using the cable cast-on and I loved the way it came out; such a nice smooth, pretty edge.
I swear, knitting with Calmer makes me feel like I’m a better knitter than I am. The slightly elastic version of the yarn keeps the stitches looking very uniform even as they’re flying off the needle.
It kind of feels like cheating, but I’m not going to stop.
That said, when I don’t spend more than 10 minutes knitting in a week, it tends to make that knitting-machine feeling grind to a halt.
Work has once again sucked the life out of me in the past two weeks, and I’m grateful to have a moment to connect with my computer that doesn’t have to do with a presentation or a deadline.
In the bit of knitting time I afforded myself this weekend, I went back to the Summer Baby Gift to knock out the remaining bit of my third skein so I could hook up the fourth and feel some progress. Five skeins total will knock out the bulk of the project, and then I’ve got another skein of Skinny Organic for the trim. No, I’m not ready to talk about the details of this little gem yet! More when I’m in the home stretch.
Queue-wise, I’ve got a couple of other ideas brewing. I’m targeting quick items that might be construed by some as summer garments, but could go the distance later in cooler months to be worn over blouses or layered under suits. Case in point is Wendy Bernard’s Jewel, which is a pattern out of Custom Knits, a book I resisted buying until a few weeks ago when the Rav-generated Jewel craving started up.
Yes, OK, the picture in the pattern book shows the sweater in green - ha, ha, laugh all you want.
This may be reason I fancy it, since there’s not much to the design, really; simple enough that I probably wouldn’t need the pattern. The variegation might be working its charm, even though I’m not easily wooed by variegation. The drape of the tank with the silk fiber is nice - yeah, it’s probably the silk I like. It’s shown in Regal Silk, but I’m not sure that’s what I’d choose. I’ve never knit with silk, but given my recent brush with cashmere I’m feeling fancy. Life’s too short. And it’s not a huge sweater, just a little guy.
Probably the other reason I like it is because all of the projects in Wendy’s book are pictured on models that are ridiculously pretty and trim. Note to self: phone is not ringing off hook with offers to model in knitting magazines.
So - grain of salt then, before purchasing yarn.
The other book I bought is another manifestation of my embarrassing cowl fetish.
Once again, I ran across a pattern that I probably don’t need in order to make the garment pictured, and once again, the influence of color is probably stoking my burning desire to look fabulous in it. The pattern book is an older one from Adrienne Vittadinni, Fall 2004 (hard to find; I bought it here). I like the pattern on the cover, but that’s not the one that sucked me in.
The red tank on the left has a removable cowl (kind of looks just like the cowl top on Sheer Poncho, eh?). As knit in that to-die-for shade, the overall look is similar to a Target special I had a few years ago. I wore it so much that they had to drag me away from it when the Goodwill truck came by to pick it up, lost among others in the well-loved-but-time-to-let-go pile.
The red sweater on the right illustrates the other neckline preference toward which a gravitate: straight-line, boatneck-y type looks. Not so much as to be off-the-shoulder, usually, but I like this look. Again, not a complicated design that requires a pattern to figure out how to make, but this is how it works, right? We look at patterns, we get inspired, we buy patterns.
There were a few other cute designs in this book, but it was this red-infused spread that got me.
Ah, the very same red that is now covering my bed, since I caved and bought a (goregeous, wonderful) quilt in the same store as the aforementioned sheets this weekend (good to myself lately, huh?). The sheets didn’t end up green, though (shocker!), since the quilt won first and I didn’t want to sleep in Christmas colors.
So maybe Green is losing its hold and really it’s my old friend Red that should keep me on my toes. Toes! Red nail polish! Oh la la.
