déjà vu?

I've noticed I have this strange tendency to cyclically fixate on colors and/or color schemes. Particularly when I'm buying yarn or fiber.

Item A:

Into the Whirled 64s Merino wool top in Spring Bloom, 4.4 oz.

Item B:

Southern Cross Fibre Club in Spring Meadow, 110 g, Texel wool

Are we perhaps seeing some similarities here? I picked up the ITW Merino around the 27th of January. The SCF? Touched base early this afternoon.

Now, to be fair, both bumps of fiber fall firmly into the realm of "Colors Jen enjoys on a regular basis." But I've found this happening with colors that aren't in my standard repertoire: 

Item C:

Spunky Eclectic Spunky Club, Tossed Salad. 3 oz, Merino/soysilk blend.

Fat Cat Knits superwash Merino top, Gung Ho. 4 oz.

(re: not in my typical repertoire-- I'm talking about the orange notes, mainly, since bright yellow-green is most certainly one of my usual suspects.)

Tossed Salad was November 2011's Spunky Club offering. I liked it so much I picked up more in early January.  Gung Ho? Was picked up at the end of December.

I'm not entirely sure why I do this, but it's always amusing (and occasionally frustrating) to note when I sort my stash page on Ravelry chronologically.

And now for something involving wool.

I've been working on a flurry of projects since December. The knitting bug is back, for better or worse. The spinning bug, on the other hand, sits in the corner and looks forlorn.

The project taking up most of my time right now is Willamette, a pattern by Star Athena from her Stumptown Knits collection. Willamette is a narrow, fingering-weight scarf featuring both linen and herringbone stitch. The scarf is built around slow increases and decreases, not unlike Baktus.

Overall, I think it's a fairly easy, attractive pattern. The herringbone stitch can be awkward at times if you're a tight knitter (ahem), but it becomes easier once you remember to loosen up (heh).

The yarn is Dashing Dachs Dach Sox, which is a light-fingering-weight superwash merino 2-ply. The colors, as you can see from the photo, are the opposite of subtle. The name of the colorway is Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, which is one of my favorite words ever. (Mamihlapinatapai is also up there, but sadly not relevant with regard to yarn.) The humuhumunukunukuapua'a is the proper name for the reef triggerfish, A.K.A. "the triggerfish with a snout like a pig", Hawaii's state fish.


I just finished working on my Oana shawl this past week, but I don't have a FO pic yet. Both the weather and my face haven't been cooperating with cameras lately, so getting an action shot hasn't been on the top of my list. Still, there are always the blocking photos.

This may have turned out a little bigger than I was expecting. That's my bed. The entire length of which is covered by that shawl.

And of course, the lace close-up shot. Aww, yeah.

It’s a large-scale, worsted-weight, fringed lace scarf. And yes, that was a mouthful. Knit from the point up, the lace repeat is simple and not frilly in the least, the latter being a huge plus in my book.

It was a fairly quick knit for something over 500 yards. Compared to Willamette, which is also over 500 yards, it flew by. I made the fringe (which you won't be able to see 'til I upload an FO shot, sorry) a little too short, which worked out to my advantage, actually; if I'd cut the yarn to an 8-inch length vs the 6.5" I seem to have wound up with, I would have run out of yarn entirely about two-thirds of the way through. 


The yarn is Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes in Fairy Tale. It is an insanely loud magenta, slightly darker/bluer than the pictures show.

One last project on the go, though this one seems to have gotten stuck In the early stages:

Highland slippers, from Interweave's Accessories 2011 issue. Yarn is Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes Bulky in Masala, and fiber is Spunky Eclectic Shetland top in Swimming pool.