Stash and Secrets

In all my anxious over analysis of color combinations for the Curious Handmade Summertide MKAL (more on that later), I completely forgot to talk about stash enhancement last week! Oh, my!

My Yarnbox Socks September shipment arrived- this month was RainCityKnits fabulous Sock yarn in Vermillion. It's a saturated reddish-pinky-orangey color, which I think will make a fantastic pair of cabled or lace socks. Maybe another pair of Lilith Socks?

While I'm not a huge fan of solid sock yarn, I realize there are some patterns that just work better in solid or tonal shades. It's nice to have at least one skein in my stash that will fit the bill should I decide to make something besides a pair of basic vanilla socks- and this shade of red is truly beautiful.

Another happy skein of Peepaloo Fields Standard Sock in the Dusk colorway made its way into my stash! YAY!

This color is glorious! Peepaloo Fields is one of my favorite dyers- I honestly can't get enough of Shari's beautiful yarn. The Dusk colorway is a tonal semi-solid sky blue with pops of sunset orange, red, and purple shades throughout. It's going to be absolutely stunning when I knit it up... Though who knows when that might be. But I just had to have it! Can you blame me?

I made some terrific progress on my WIPs, and managed to finish the Oak Crest Hat for Rita. This should have been a much faster knit than it was, but I got a bit tired of having to pay attention to the cable chart while knitting (I'm much more of an ADD TV knitter, and this was definitely not the project for that). I'm so glad I finally plowed through it. It came out really well! I don't want to spoil the surprise for her- I won't be seeing her until next week- so I'll just post this teaser pic.

If you want all the details in their full iPhone photo-heavy glory- check out my Ravelry project page for more eye candy

I looove this hat! Now that it's finished and I have been trying it on over (and over, and over) again- I want one for myself. Seriously. I may have to bust out one of my Prince Edward Island skeins and make one of my own. Perhaps with a pompom. But that knot is pretty darn cute, too. Maybe I need to knit two...

I'm a little more than halfway done with Raf's Rollers. I've finished the first- hooray for HOs!- and have completed the cuff on the second.

Since Raf's birthday isn't until the end of the month, there's no tremendous sense of urgency on these. I know I'll be able to complete them in time. And since I made him try them on (they fit perfectly!!!), I can rely on my notes to make sure they match up if there's a bit of a hiatus before completing the pair. There are just so many things I want to knit now that the weather is getting a little nippier.

Last week I finished Clue #1 of the Summertide MKAL, a day after casting on, actually (nope, I'm not an addict). Since it's supposed to be a Mystery, I want to honor that element of the Knit-A-Long and won't be posting any pics on the blog until the KAL is over and all the information has been made public- that's just part of the fun. But I will reveal the color combo I decided on.

The top cake is the Skeinny Dipping in Bag of Juju and the bottom cake is Tosh Merino Light in Baltic. This combination was what the people decided on- thank you to everyone who voted by commenting on my Instagram post. Knitters RULE! Check my Ravelry page for more candid progress shots in the very near future. I'm going to try to post the previous clue's pictures right after the current clue gets released. I think that's a good way to keep suspense from getting to me too much.

I suppose that's all for now. I have lots more to discuss- loads of neat things coming soon that I can't wait to share- so stay tuned!