A Smaller Project

Helping me prolong the denial that my dream yarn is not going to work for my dream sweater are these, knit tulips:

Doesn't everyone a few of these? Especially 1st grade teachers, don't you think especially first grade teachers need more knit flowers? I sure hope so because that is what our wonderful 1st grade teacher is going to be getting this June. I was gifted a small bouquet of these tulips for a birthday present last year and I almost peed on myself I was so excited. But now I am second guessing myself-I am already the type of person to get excited about this kind of thing. Not to mention that I also easily pee on myself a little, but I totally blame my kids for that. Do you think everyone gets excited about knit flora? Or is it potentially a granny-ish thing to be into? Our teacher is young and modern and cute as all get out, but I'm not so sure about crafty. I think of knitting non garment items as fun and whimsical, but its entirely possible that these would be just dust collectors for many people. Perish the thought. Because I love this project. It is easy. And fast. And uses up scraps!

I knit these with worsted weight yarn because its what I had the most colors of. The bouquet I was gifted (knit by my friend Emanuela) was done with sock weight yarns and those were a little more elegant looking with their smaller sized stitches. Still, the first one I knit with worsted weight yarn got the Good Enough! stamp from me and I forged ahead. The top (darker) pink flower was the first and was knit on size 7 needles and it was a little too big. I realized that I should be knitting this a little tighter so I moved down to 5s. That was better but notice I'm not ripping that first one because I am nice and lazy like that. Like I said, it is Very Good Enough!

Whether or not you have to be crafty or a granny to appreciate these I hope she will feel genuinely appreciated when I attach the kid to them.

Swatching

Most of my projects are so small scale that not much swatching is necessary. But here I am on the verge of a larger project, if I can just pick the yarn.

I want it to be this yarn, because it has been in my stash for years now and it was a yard sale find and it is heavenly. My only problem is that its not the worsted weight yarn that the pattern calls for. Now I am sitting on the fence on whether or not to knit it double stranded (but will it turn out too chunky?) or work out the math to make this yarn work. The other issue is its obvious whiteness, and just when I said good bye to the dye pots too.

While I think about this I'm letting myself be distracted by some smaller projects. As usual.

Catching my breath

I have just about worked Berkeley's Earth Day festivities out of my system. It was fun and exhausting and exhilirating to see other people's work-some of it Earth Day related, some of it, less so. I think our booth was very sweet and I had a good time. And enough reggae to last me a good, long while thank you. For now, I am saying a temporary good bye to my dye pots, at least for a few weeks. I am a little tired of the constant mess in the dye kitchen, and simultaneously in the food kitchen. One constantly untidy kitchen is enough for me at the moment.

Now I feel I have a little time on my hands to think about other crafty projects. I'm pondering a february lady sweater for myself, a handspun EZ afghan and finally finishing up some (shamefully late) WIPs. Of course, pondering and doing are totally different things. I'm still deep in the land of pondering.