Sitrep

Sitrep is a term from an old career of mine, an acronym for "situation report."

It seemed appropriate today.

This is where I am on the Camp Sweater (also known as Cuff to Cuff, see Spun out 47 from Meg Swansen). (Originally Wool Gathering 72)

As you can see, I am almost done with the second repeat of the front diamond, which means only 3 or 4 more rounds until the neckline decreases/bindoffs/neck steek.

I am going to shape my shoulders, which was not done on the original, using Janine's wonderful "Shaped Shoulders in the Round." She describes it wonderfully on her blog.

If you are a Fair Isle loving knitter, you probably already are acquainted with Janine.

This is the Mommes Lysedug doily that languished, utterly forgotten, for an unknown period of time. (I remember why-- fall arrived and children and husband needed sweaters mittens hats etc. )

I have been doing a few rounds here and there (it sits next to my bed).

This next photo is of the Merino Silk yarn from Grignasco. I had ordered it from Woodland Woolworks in early July. They had it backordered so it never got swatched before Camp, for my Shetland Shawl design. It is, however, the one I really wanted to use-- merino and silk (obviously, by the name-- but some names don't exactly match the yarn content) and quite fine.

It is lovely yarn. For comparison, here is a photo of the Merino Silk next to a strand of Zephyr:

The Zephyr is on top.

Photo is not totally easy to see, but this Grignasco yarn is finer by a fair amount.

For comparison, Zephyr (2/18) is 5040 yards per pound; this (2/28, I think) is 7099. Not gossamer, but perfect for a delicate shawl.

I am itching to knit it up.

I did recently purchase some shawl patterns from Maeve deHetre, who won the finest-thread-spun contest a few years back. She has designed 4 shawls for purchase, and after I tracked her down (took some doing, she has lots of interests these days, especially in music) I bought three of them.

I may or may not ever knit all three (and highly unlikely to be knit identical to her pattern: that's because of me, not the pattern loveliness: I just like to fiddle). They are lovely however. To see a description of some talented lace knitters working through her "Silk Shawl," see Jackie E.-S. site or this. I believe the Fiber Gypsy site fixed its link to Maeve/Terri de Hetre, if you are interested in her shawl patterns. If not, just google for her. Don't be surprised to get to a bagpipes or fiddling page. Her email is in there somewhere and she is a delight to deal with.

Anyway, back to the Grignasco yarn-- apparently, it is challenging (at best) to find their yarns. (At least, according to my lys. They are not serious lace knitters, though)

Hoorah for Woodland Woolworks for pulling through for me. Thanks!

My last topic today is socks. I am a lace-obsessed knitter, not a sock-obsessed one; so the yarns and knitting that I find irresistible are lace. But this little "book" might help to convert me, at least a little bit.

Katherine Misegades' CD of ... And a Time to Knit Stockings.

I got this at Camp, and am so glad I did!

This little "book" is delightful. You cannot sit down with it in an easy chair, except on a laptop. But it is full of some lovely knitting information, musings, patterns and techniques. I have fallen for it, hard. (Also for Katherine's style)

It is a CD release, with more content, of the original book Katherine published back in (I think) 1997. There are, however, more sock patterns in this.

You can print out whatever pattern you want to try, along with excellent and detailed instructions of all of her techniques. One of the sock patterns has totally charmed me (I am not going to tell you which one, but if you are Katherine I will).

Back to work.

Knitting on!