I’ve been managing to keep myself too busy lately so I needed a mindless knitting project. What is more perfect than a linen garter stitch shawl? Just in time for spring too. And yes, I just took this picture and it’s snowing! Again! Harrumph!

Knit in Louet’s Sport weight Euroflax in “grape #18″. Actually, I’d call it plum as it’s a bit dusky. A truly lovely color and will go with most of my wardrobe. Now, the question is, will I wear it? I’ve never been a shawl wearer but I just had to do something with this yarn and I wanted a quickie project while I waited for my next project’s yarn to arrive.

I do believe that the simplicity of this shawl is what will actually make me comfortable in it. I’m just not the phoofy type and too many ruffles or flowers or lacy bits make me nervous.

I do like purple and all of it variations, however The border is a simple YO, k2t (yarn over, knit two together). Oh, the hand dyed rayon dress underneath it is the one my Winterberry socks are meant to go with. It seems I have a complete outfit!

And best of all, the linen has a lovely drape and softened up incredibly when it was washed. I love this yarn, I may need to make a summer top!

Deb H

I finished the Winterberry socks I was knitting in Tofutsie yarn. They turned out delightful, don’t ya think?

They were December’s Sock-of-the-Month from the Tofutsie club through Southwest Trading Company and local yarn shops. I get mine from Heritage Spinning & Weaving in Lake Orion, Michigan.

The colorway is not quite what the yarn selection was for December. I decided that the beautiful pastels were not what I need at the moment since I was thinking ahead to spring already and have a hand dyed dress that needed socks to go with. This colorway is a perfect match for my summer dress.

I think the beautiful little bobbles were a hoot to knit (I’ve never done any bobbles before) and they were not as hard as I expected. They did slow me down a bit but I knit for the pleasure of knitting. A finished product when I’m done is just a bonus! I also like the picot hem instead of a cuff but I have used this before because it’s easy.

I deviated from the pattern in only one place, the toe. Debra Lake, the pattern designer, used a standard top-down toe and I had been wanting to try a spiral toe from the 2006 Holiday Gifts Issue of Interweave Knits, page 54. I think they turned out rather nice! And they fit well too.

Can you tell I like my socks?

Deb H

PS - 3/20/08, I added the link to Debra’s web site for those of you who would like more info on the pattern designer.

I feel like I’ve been away it’s been such a busy two weeks! It’s been a good two weeks though To start, here are some of my results from last post’s dyeing ->

(Above) A wool and cotton blend sock yarn; kind of a disappointment. I love green, but not Christmas green. It’s just sooooo… I don;t know, lacking in yellow or blue? Back in the dye pot with this one!

(Above) This is a merino superwash sport weight that I over dyed. I was a Christmas green, pretty much like the yarn above it - you’d think I’d learn that trying to make a yarn with chartreuse and teal stripes will always turn out Christmas green! I over dyed it with indigo and I’m much happier. Yes, all those little balls mean that I had knit something out of it and then ripped it out. I’ll try again; hand warmers.

(Above) The Tofutsie sock yarn was the star of the day! I love the soft colors I got. It will be a joy making myself some spring socks with this! My weaving yarn (the merino singles I dyed with the Palindrome method that was weighted down with the fire extinguisher) is lovely too but still looks much like the last post’s photo. I’ll show you how it looks as I get it wound into a warp; maybe next week?

But wait! Monday was spinning day and I was almost out of the brightly colored roving I’ve been working on. I knew I needed some teal roving to spin up to ply it with and I had white…

Now it’s teal and it’s spinning up beautifully!

Dinner time, and my orange roughy is done marinading in a freshly made herbed (dill and lemon basil) marinade from my winter indoor herb garden - yum!