June Giveaway Winner!

Happy Saturday! I have two projects blocking right now that I can't wait to show you on Monday...

Our winner for the month of June is... Number 57!

Congrats, ahookernamedbeth, I'll get in contact with you to send this beautiful Yellow Hobbit yarn!

Thank you so very much to everyone who read/followed along for the month of June! I'm super excited for July's giveaway, too, so check back tomorrow to enter again!

- YX

Wool People and more sewing

Brooklyn Tweed just came out with "Wool People 3," which aims to tackle summer knits in wool.

It's an interesting concept, really, because we see SO MUCH cotton, linen, and flax blends right now. Rayon's another great choice for lightweight, not-as-hot yarn, but wool? I love it. Like anything, I struggle to entirely eliminate wool from my summer palette. The Pinctada I'm working on now is wool, and I chose it for the versatility. And let's be honest-- there are so many incredible, varying color options in wool. Especially superwash sock wool.

Go to the link above-- there are some great images for this publication. This triptych is my favorite. It just screams beach bonfires, camping under the stars, and lawn parties:

That wrap! Aaaaaghhhhh I need it!

Have you ever looked at a Brooklyn Tweed Wool People issue? They're PDFs, and gorgeous. The PDF opens full screen, and it's about as close to looking at a real magazine as I can get on my computer. Great images, great graphics. I love it when every step of the process is well-designed, from initial literature to patterns. I think Brooklyn Tweed does this better than any other designer or group I know.

So go check it out! The link above will send you to the blog post where you can click on the PDF, but you can also find it here, with the rest of the books!

In personal crafting news, my Pinctada is still in the black hole of the unfinished. But I sewed something again this weekend. It was super quick: 

It's a simple flyaway cardigan. I had some super lightweight jersey fabric that had a crazy slubbed texture, and it is way too sheer to make a standalone garment. I used a cardigan I already owned to get the basic construction, and then improvised the details. I'm super happy with it, especially because I'm definitely in a flowy/drapey mood lately. Hot weather does that to you. 

I'll have to take some good photos of this (and a few other things) when I finish the Pinctada. 

- YX

PS- reminder that we're just a few days out from June's giveaway! Still time to enter...

Trend: Coral

For me, coral means summer. It's light, bright, and looks amazing with summer whites. A great accent color, it looks great on a variety of skin tones.

Some options for coral yarn:

Carolyn's colors Calypso yarn in corals and pinks:

Countess Ablaze 4-ply merino silk in coral:

Prismafiber's Superwash merino in "Coraline":

I love these colorways! I'm definitely a geek for semisolids, and these corals make my mouth water! I think it's because they remind me of one of my favorite candies: 

Coral's not your thing? Maybe this is!

- YX

It won't end!

So you may be wondering how my Pinctada's coming along... Well, I think they may be carting me away soon, sleeves of my Versio grafted onto opposing shoulders, straight jacket-style.

It seems that no matter how long I knit, it won't end. I surpassed cowl-length and seem to have stalled on achieving my desired length. It seems like every project gets to this stage at some point: your sleeves make no progress, or you spend hours on a shawl edging that refuses to grow. It's definitely discouraging. Thank you, Pinctada, for making me want to stab my eyes out repeatedly with an enthusiastically-sharpened Signature needle.

But when I look at it, it seems like a decent amount of work:

I'm on my third skein of tosh DK and it's the last one I have, which is at least somewhat motivating. I've been knitting everywhere: in the car, any time I'm home, pretty much everywhere in public...

I know the rules. I'll knit like a madwoman, try it on for size, and be just a few rows away from the end out of nowhere. No explanation of how I popped back out of the wormhole, or where all those thousands of stitches were hiding. But it'll be done!

You're taunting me. 

I'm so excited to have the finished product, and that's the only reason this thing hasn't been crammed into the depths of my knitting bag. I usually work on other projects in conjunction with a "main" one, so having nothing to turn to is keeping me on track. Sort of.

See, I needed the gratification of a completed project, and I happened to have great timing this weekend... I've been looking for a serger on Craigslist, and one came up for sale that fit my needs. I got it home, set it up, and whipped out a maxi skirt to satisfy my FO cravings:

It's not my intention to blog about any sewing projects here, but at least I feel like I've made SOMETHING, instead of knitting yards and yards of yarn into what appears to be a very well-hidden black hole.

Perhaps my next WIP post will have some victory in it... I feel like I can't be much more than a week or two away from completion at this point... please?!

- YX

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! Share your favorite dad-friendly patterns in the comments! And of course, enter to win this month's yarn!
- YX