A(nother) small break from BOB

Straight-line quilting might be simple, but it still takes time (and is booooring to do !), so, to allievate the boredom, here is a picture of some drop-dead gorgeous yarn I bought :

I present to you, from left to right : Tiny Bloodsucking Dancer; Oooh ... shiny!; and Kathleen Turner Overdrive.
Yes. Those are really the names of the colourways (and she has names that are FAR more interesting than these). Indigodragonfly hand-dyed yarn, 80% Merino, 20% Cashmere, fingering weight ... yum.

More Knitting while waiting

Still at it with log-cabining and joining of pieces.
SO, here's another finish from my 2012 list of finishes.
Pattern is Rivendell Smoke Ring, from Sunflower Designs.
Yarn is Silkie Socks that Rock, in the colourway 'Stormy Weather'
Stripey effect is completely happenstance!

There is a gorgeous lace-pattern in there, but, unfortunately, it disappears completely in the stripes. Oh, well, it is warm and lovely to wear, and that was important.
I'll try knitting it up in a different yarn, one where the lace-pattern is actually visible.

Waiting for the log-cabining ...

While I get the rest of the blocks log-cabined, and start getting them together, here's a picture of a finish I haven't shown before.
The Hana-shawl.

Now, I do love the design of the floral border.
I don't mind short-rows at all either.
But I don't get the 'fad' for shawls that are almost scarves. Very slim, half-moon shaped ones.
Oh, well. If I knit this one again, I'll be experimenting on how to make it so that the centre of the shawl becomes long enough to actually cover my back.

I used Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend for it, and ... yes ... it is a lovely yarn, but ...
I always compare prize to quality, and there has to be some correspondence between the two, and on this one, in my opinion, the prize is simply too high when compare with what one gets.
I get it that it is artisan-work and kettle-dyed.
I get that the dyeing is not completely even.
I still do not care for a yarn that has decidedly white spots when knitted.

SO, all in all, yarn, pattern and prize:
I like it, but I love it not.

Out of Commission

I'm down with a cold ... or the 'flu ... or whatever.

Which is why I have been silent this past week.
I did, however, finish a knitted coffee-cozy yesterday. Mindless knitting, from the head, with yarn in colours I no longer love.
BUT, it is a finish, and it is useful (and DH likes the colours, it turns out), AND I had something to do with my hands while feeling sorry for myself.




Edited on February 23:
No, I am not an evil knitting genius :-) and yes, it was mindless knitting.
I have been doing two- (or more) - colour knitting for 40+ years; knitted my first many-colour project the summer I was 13 and recuperated from mono, and at age 15 I knitted a long skirt, using cotton-yarn, and about a zillion 'happy colours' of the very bright variety, using as many as 4 different ones on a row. So, really, knitting with two colours is pretty mindless to me.
The thing is knitted from the top, and as you can see, the patterning becomes increasingly exiting (or at least less weird) as it progresses :-)

The challenges of buying on-line

Picture from web-page

So, I bought some yarn on-line, at String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn. As always, when shopping on-line, I based my choice on the picture on the web-page.  (I've slurped the picture on the left from said web-page.)

Then the yarn arrived.

Picture taken with flash

And I wrote the shop

And they could see my point (that the picture and the actual yarn do not really look like they are even remote cousins), so they offered to take the yarn back.

Picture taken in natural light

But, having pondered that, I don't think so. I love the feel of this yarn, and am adjusting myself to having something in my yarn-stash which seems to be actual chameleon yarn;  showing new colours depending on where you take it :-)

And I assure you, the two pictures on the right are both taken on my porch, within 1 minute of the same day, the only difference being that one picture has the yarn held in my hand, and the flash going off, the other has yarn further away from me than arm's length, and no flash going off.

Same skein, same place, same setting of camera.

Anyway: I kind-of like the idea of having a yarn which is this different in colouration depending on the light. And even though I do think it shows up somewhat too brown in my indoor light, I like the look of it outside well enough.

... and it does feel gorgeous in my hand, so ... I look forward to knitting with it.

So is this a diss of the yarn-dyers?
Far from it. Having taken a flash-picture of the yarn, I can see where their picture comes from. The yarn feels delightful in my hand. And they reacted promptly, courteously and with due diligence to my mail on the colour-issue. So, other than getting something I didn't think I ordered, I'm a happy customer :-)

... oh, and the quality is Caper Sock, 80% merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon, colour "Earthquake".