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.

another Brat

I have very little knitting content to report, because I've been.... well.... knitting presents, and those need to remain, you know, Secret! So, no pictures, no descriptions, no fiber-y hints. Just lots of surreptitious knitting and silence.

But I am making another hat for myself. Because I am stepping westward, I need a hat that will do what it needs to do in wet, cool weather but definitely not cold, snowy weather, I needed something a little lighter than those thick medieval helmets I've been making for myself! I started another Brat Sister Hat, this time in cashmere fingering weight to match the Veyla gloves in my last post.



I've been working on my collection perfectly normal-sized stash also. Ahem. A box from Blue Moon Fiber Arts might have arrived this week. And inside might have been several skeins of their new fiber Marine Silk, which I showed you earlier in it's Quilla incarnation, I think.

Here it is in Lodestone, a most lovely pale green with a subtle swath of spring yellow like the edge of a newly unfurling leaf in Spring:



These two skeins are the ones for Miss Marple's Shawl, which I described below. The shawl, square but lightwieght, is part of an indulgent set I'm making for myself that includes, in addition to this 1930's shawl, a silk and merino undervest from the 1930's, and a pair of merino sleeping socks of my own design. All this is in aid of those times when I'm ill and have to stay on the couch feeling sickeningly sorry for myself. These comforts will be perfect for resting in this cold old house!

More Marine Silk, this time in My Blue Heaven, Winter Solstice, and Lenore:



I have no plans for these skeins, but wish I had ordered more of the Winter Solstice. It's winter-sky silver really appeals to me right now!

And finally, because Marine Silk comes in three different weights, here is Lenore in the Lace weight. It is beautifully silky and shiny:



This skein is actually not mine, but is part of a trade with my friend Nad in Germany. She is a fearless knitter and doesn't hesitate to use the micron-thin lace weight yarns! Here is a close-up of how the blood-red blends with the raven black on the end of the skein:



Don't you just love Blue Moon?

Stepping Westward
~ Denise Levertov

What is green in me
darkens, muscadine.
If woman is inconstant,
good, I am faithful to
ebb and flow, I fall
in season and now
is a time of ripening.
If her part
is to be true,
a north star,
good, I hold steady
in the black sky
and vanish by day,
yet burn there
in blue or above
quilts of cloud.
There is no savor
more sweet, more salt
than to be glad to be
what, woman,
and who, myself,
I am, a shadow
that grows longer as the sun
moves, drawn out
on a thread of wonder.
If I bear burdens
they begin to be remembered
as gifts, goods, a basket
of bread that hurts
my shoulders but closes me
in fragrance. I can
eat as I go.