12.02.20 Devesting the stash.....

During the "knit a cardigan" out of skinny weight craze (aka Whisper, Featherweight, Effortless cardigan ) I invested in several sweater quantities of fingering/sport weight yarn.  After the first attempt at staying focused on endless st st on 4/5/6 needles - I quit.   But this left me with all this thin stuff to use.  Shawls are the obvious fallback, but how many can you use/store?  I'm getting to my limit.  Enter the lace vest.

Meadowlark back

My Meadowlark

Meadowlark

Amy Swenson released a new pattern, Meadowlark, that is simple and lovely.  Perfect for spring/summer over any sleeve top, this may be the answer.  This project is fun, with a racer back, and very interesting yet simple, seamless construction.  The lace pattern is super easy to memorize/read where you are- I am flying through the project.  I am excited to look in my stitch dictionaries and substituent another lace pattern and cast on another.

My Meadowlark in progress - front

Possibilities are endless: knit straight up the back (no race back?), make longer, make fronts wider for scarf neckline?  I am excited to try it again.

A simple Ravelry Pattern search for lt. fingering/fingering and sport weight, lace vests yielded 93 results  - go see!

If you have even a large shawl's worth of fingering/sport - you can devest it from your stash!

12.02.14 Doorstop or greatest knitting reference book ever?

For Valentine's day, I received my very own copy of "The Principles of Knitting" by June Hemmons Hiatt from Amazon.   I consider it a gift since I ordered it nearly a year ago and totally forgot about it.  Thank you Amazon...my best friend.  What a lovely Valentine's surprise.

This book has 712 pages with 8 sections and 33 chapters covering every knitting technique and method you could possibly need.  Each topic is in depth and demonstrates with words and illustrations

The author states in How to use this book: "It does not simply provide instructions on How to do a technique, with expectation that you would learn in rote fashion, but instead it provides the knowledge you need to truly master the craft. "  She further covers "how it can be expected to behave in the fabric and how it compares to other similar techniques."

Amazing.

This can do for my knitting what the "Joy of Cooking" did for my cooking - provide the confidence that I can do anything.

No doorstop here.  My copy will dog eared, post-it noted, marked up and loved.