My Obsessions for the Week

 Just as in the rest of the country, we're having a heatwave this week.  It's supposed to 95 today, and the humidity is currently 100%, so Wiley and I have walked early, and I'll be in the studio most of the day, unless I'm in the living room knitting.

Last week, I talked about the aborted bedspread and its sampler.  Below is what the alternative threading looks like, and may I say, I am in love!  The warp is that rayon-linen, of course, and the weft is one thread of very fine pink silk with a thread of pink DMC cotton embroidery floss.  It's just one of those patterns that takes my breath away every time I walk in the studio.  I beaded it with three different colors of pink seed beads.  The treadling is intense!  And one sequence only makes one inch of fabric.  It's going to take a while, but that's okay, because I love it!

I'm thinking about using this pattern for at least one bunch of the warps I wound for the bedspread to make some more scarves, at least one with this same weft.  I think this one's going to be mine, though.  After I wove this much, I made a mistake, did one little section twice, and it shows, and is too far down to unweave. And this particular warp is only 3 yards long, minus what I cut off as mistakes.  When I run my hand over the woven parts, it's so silky and lovely!  We'll call that mistake a Design Element.  Maybe I can remember to do it again at the other end of the scarf.

I've also been weaving on the blue and lavender warp, finishing one scarf, changing the tie-up because the first scarf had a line going horizontally every time I lifted shaft 8, and I didn't care for it.  But when I changed it, the treadling sequence caused a vertical strip of floats.  So I put in a short sequence of tabby to separate each motif.  I like it better, though the original goal of dogwood blossoms still isn't showing.  I mean, it sort of looks like dogwood blossoms.  But not really.  That's okay!  Maybe I'll tweak the third scarf on this warp again and see what happens.

The sweater is coming along, only 5 more decreases to go on the second sleeve.  Then, I'll knit the button band and collar in one piece.  It's super easy, but knitting with this cotton is hard on my hands, because it doesn't stretch.  I'm looking forward to finishing it!  And then, I get to start a new sweater, right?  That's the deal, isn't it?  I finish a sweater, and get to start a new one.

There's one sweater I keep seeing on Instagram and on knitting vlogs:  Ranunculus.  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ranunculus-3

 It's everywhere!  So when I went to the Tuesday knitting group at the local yarn store, and was admiring the sample they have on display, two of my fellow knitters bought yarn to make themselves one.  We all agreed it needs to be longer, because none of us is waif-like, and I think the short sleeves would look better on my than the cap sleeves.  

I swatched two different yarns, one an alpaca-acrylic (what???) that I loved for its squishiness and halo, and one a yarn Mom bought several years ago, cotton, wool and acrylic.  The pink alpaca was too sleazy, if you know what I mean, so halfway through, I added a 20/2 thread of alpaca-tencel.  That gave it some structure and would work better. But I think the lower swatch will be the winner.  It's teamed up with a very fine thread of tan lambs' wool because I was having trouble getting a good stitch gauge.  The swatch is kind of homely now, but the yarn is variegated from this brown to a lovely salmon to cream.  Both will work, and a lot of people have knit more than one of this sweater.  We'll see how the brown one comes out before I start the pink.  

And because someday, it will be below 90 degrees, I finished a pair of mittens, knit from some leftover of Mom's, I believe what she knitted a vest for Liz from.

As if that wasn't enough, I also joined in a challenge from Modern Daily Knitting, https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/.  They've got a dishcloth challenge going on, and they've also been talking a lot about brioche knitting, something I've been curious about.  I grabbed some scrap Maysville carpet warp, and got brioche-ing!  The dishcloth on the left is one-color brioche.  There is a great video on YouTube from Purls Soho, if you want to learn.  The first one came out all right, so I tried two-color brioche.  Weeeelll... not so easy!  As you can see, I got confused at one point as to which color went next, but the weird thing is that it righted itself on the next sequence!  It's a mystery.  

I couldn't have a beer or talk to other people when I was working on the two-color one.  My next brioche project will be a beanie from the Fruity Knitting podcast's pattern.  Stay tuned.

And then, I made focaccia, with cherry tomatoes and shishito peppers from the garden, with lots of garlic.  It made my house smell like heaven!  And it was tasty.

Last week was cool and delightful, so I got outside and did some pruning.  I got a little...carried away.  A follower on Instagram who does topiary said that if I keep trimming the lines, it will get better, but I think my sister is hoping it doesn't.  She said, "I guess it's like hair:  It'll grow back."  Little does she know...  The other side looks like Grumpy Cat, and isn't ready for his close-up.  Wait for it.

If next week is cooler, I'll do some more topiary, but for now, I'll stick with my inside obsessions.  Have a great week!