On the Needles

Despite the warm weather, I've been working on ideas for the coming fall and winter cold-weather seasons.  Swatching lace stitches, cables and even a little color work has been a lot of fun, but I realized that despite the record-setting heat this year, summer is in it's final stages and it will be time to make and wear these things soon.

Last week some of the trees in our area were already showing signs of turning from green to gold, and today I saw both my first school bus of this new school year, and the first fallen maple leaf.   The high temperatures and lack of rain have stressed many plants and trees, so it will be interesting to see how this affects our usually spectacular show of autumn foliage color.

The project you see in the photo at the top of this post is a simple, airy lace knit in  fingering-weight, Suri alpaca yarn from Frog Tree.  The yarn is extremely soft and does shed a bit, but not more so than other fluffy yarns such as mohair.  It blocks very nicely, and the combination of alpaca's lovely drape and the halo from the long Suri fibers, gives the knitted fabric a light, warm coziness without bulk. 

Although this pattern is planned for fingering weight, I am knitting it on US #6/ 4mm needles to allow for some openness in the stitches, so it remains light and should be a fairly quick knit.  Hopefully this pattern will be done test knitting and available as a PDF in the next couple of weeks.  I'll have it up for download here and on my Ravelry page.

I've finished the Misti alpaca shawl and will try to get those pics up this week.  Otherwise, still tinkering with my cardigan shrug and casting on for more hats and a little pullover.  More details when I get some more time this week.

My crocheting friend Cheryl (Chercher on Ravelry) and I like to get together to stitch every week or so, when we can.  Yesterday as I was leaving her home, I stopped to admire her water garden, including these lilies just beginning to close in the late afternoon light.  

I think this is another good image to use in my inspiration for a project I have in mind, mentioned in this post.

 

The Koi look so serene gliding just below the surface of the water.  A beautiful way to end a pleasant time.