Even when I’m on vacation, I can’t escape knitting!
While enjoying the Sawtooth Mountains of central Idaho this last week, I camped near the abandoned gold mining town of Custer – which was relatively prosperous from 1880 til the turn of the century. The town has been converted into a sort of outdoor museum courtesy of the Forest Service and they’ve preserved some of the lifestyle and artifacts that those gold miners experienced.
In one of the miner’s homes, they talked about the knitting and crocheting that the miner’s wives made. Sadly, they weren’t using Knit Picks Options needles. 🙂

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You may have seen the video of the new Palette colors coming into the office and Kerin hording all the new pinks…

I thought I would show you a photo I took of my desk, which has ALL the Palette colors (new and current) arranged in color order. I was swatching some book project recolors for the November catalog, and it was a lot easier to see them all laid out like this. Good thing I have a big desk!

(Click photo for a bigger view.)
Aren’t they fabulous? I am thrilled about all the new colors we added to the line. It really feels complete. Kerin and I both love Palette and colorwork knitting so much that we’re going to be hosting a knitalong starting in August. I have a lot of ideas about what I’d like to do for …

Finally finished with my second Positano Tote! I had terrible procrastinationitis about the lining, but finally just made myself do it this weekend. I brought it to work today, full of all my normal purse stuff plus my newest knitting project (photo below). I love that it stands up by itself and holds so much.
Pattern: Positano Tote from Interweave Knits, Winter 2008 issue
Yarn: Wool of the Andes in Avocado, double stranded
Needles: US7 and US9, 32″ circulars so I could knit both the front and back at the same time

My newest project – in Gloss DK! (And, yeah, those are the new Zephyr Options needles too!) I already love knitting with this yarn – so silky and shiny. I’m really excited to see how it does in argyle stranded knitting.
Pattern: Nederland Vest from KnitScene, Fall 2008 issue
Yarn: Gloss DK (not up on our site yet, …

I finished the sleeves for my Oblique, finally!

I blocked the fronts and backs already and I’m hoping that these sleeves take only a day to dry, because I have another flight this weekend and I want to use that time for seaming, collar and button bands!
I always wet block my sweater pieces with a towel, and this time, the lace pattern left an impression on the towel, sort of like a fossil sleeve:

Pretty neat! <

Have you seen the new hand painted colorways of Stroll sock yarn (formerly Essential)?

I had the great pleasure of designing them months ago, and I’ve been awaiting their release eagerly ever since. I had to place an order right away yesterday for the Make Believe color (along with a City Tweed order to make a fall sweater). I plan to collect more of my favorites, like Tree Fort and Playtime over the next few months. I’m not much of a sock knitter, but I just discovered a new small shawl pattern on Ravelry called Ulmus that is perfect for two different skeins of multicolored sock yarn. Time to knit down my impulse buy sock yarn into gorgeous little shawls to wear at the office when the a/c kicks on!
Anyway, many of you might be wondering what the difference is between Stroll Multi and Stroll …

With my City Tweed Sweater, that is!

I’m very, very happy with this piece. What else can I say? It was a long project, but enjoyable at every step of the way, the yarn is luscious, the sweater is warm, but thanks to the lace patterning, not stifling, and I’m wearing it today even though it’s probably 80 degrees out. (Our office is air-conditioned. And yes, I’m a little crazy.)

The details:
Pattern: Oblique by Veronik Avery, available as a free pattern from knitty.com
Yarn: City Tweed HW in Jacquard, 8 balls.
Needles: US 7 for the cardigan, US 6 for the collar and buttonbands.
Ravelry page for this project is here.
What a fun project! Now, to move on to more seasonally-appropriate lace knitting. <