summer knits

It's been a while, I know.

That thing called dissertation took up my whole life for a while. Good news: I defended it, and am now done!

So now I can focus on more important things, or at least far more enjoyable ones. Like knitting.

I'm still working away on the drew top. Lots of stockinette and cotton. I love the design, the little ruffles, the shaping. Not loving the cotton yarn and stockinette. Well. I like the yarn - it's a pretty color (a much deeper red than in the picture - it's called "pomegranate"), feels nice and soft and cool, knits up well. But, it's cotton, and it's just trickier to knit with than wool or a wool-blend.

I decided to frog the Homespun cowl. I'm going to use a nicer yarn and I think I'll learn to crochet with the Homespun. I like this pattern from Lion Brand and it's in granny squares (hexagons?) so I can do it slowly and piecemeal.

I made the cutest little fishie for Isis since she was nosing around my yarn a bit. I thought it might make her less jealous.

A few nights later, she took an enormous ball of yarn out of the yarn bowl and wrapped it around the living room and kitchen. (Yarn bowl and yarn are now hidden in the ottoman storage when I'm not there to supervise.) So much for sating the cat's appetite for string.

She had also gotten this lovely homespun and hand-painted yarn off the kitchen table and was hunting it before Boyfriend intervened. A farmer's market find, this skein is fingering weight and a merino-silk blend. The original idea was to do socks, but the colors are so lovely and I want to look at them all the time, so I may have to do a pretty shawl or something I see more often than my feet!

Currently, I've been a very non-selfish knitting kick. I'm working on a pretty headband like this one in blue, and just finished a pair of mitts (Ravelry link) in that lovely pumpkin color. I'm planning to do another pair of mitts as well, and then maybe I'll want to return to my other projects. Also, these are sort of instant-gratification, whereas the top is most definitely not.

And now off to enjoy a lovely Missoula summer afternoon, the back porch, a good audiobook, and my knitting!