My Lodestone

As you all know, I'm a dedicated addict fan of Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarns - all of them. There's something about the colourways and the way that they kit up that makes them unique. A lot of hand-dyed yarns look beautiful in the skein, but then when you knit with them, the lovely colours that looked so good side by side blend into a nauseating clown barf (see my failed attempt at Caruso socks). Blue Moon Fiber Arts colours blend when they're knitted (or crocheted or woven) in most pleasing ways. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that the dyer, Tina, actually tests how the colours knit up in new colourways that she's developing.

So when I first bought a skein in the Lodestone colourway, I fell deeply in love - fast. I think I now have this colourway in every fiber that I use. But it's not enough. Hand dyed yarns are a living entity - the colours will migrate slightly or greatly and every dye job is unique. I want so much more of this in it's current incarnation!



My newest project is the Miss Marple's Shawl from Interweave Piecework - a vintage pattern. I got two skeins of the BMFA Marine Silk fingering-weight for this pattern, for a total of about 974 yards. But I suspect it's not going to be enough for a 45-inch square lacy knit.



This pattern knits up very quickly - in the beginning, when there are just a few stitches on the needles. But I have a sneaking suspicion that as I add two stitches every other row and the project gets wider and wider, those middle-of-the-pattern rows will go a lot slower!

Our weather today is 10 degrees below zero and with the wind chill it's reported as feeling like 32 degrees below zero (really!), so I wish I was already halfway through this shawl and it would be warm and comforting over my legs as I knit!

In other knitting news, I've gone back to my multi-project ways and am also knitting both an adaptation of the Anthropologie-inspired Capelet in a black and tan tweedy worsted weight and a gorgeous little Oh Handsome sweater, using blue Lima yarn from Rowan - tweedy as well. I guess I'm having a winter Tweed moment!

Now I must go make oatmeal for breakfast and feed Holmes and Watson, and then make my way through this frozen world to my cosy office. I think I'll bring my vintage shawl and knit at noontime while the frigid wind swirls outside my windows.