Sunday, October 9, 2011

Hexipuffing Along

Jess here again. There's less than a week until Rhinebeck, so things are getting a bit hectic at WLKA headquarters. Claire and Kendra are working hard to finish their Snapdragon Tams and some sweaters before the big day. I'm an obsessive planner, so I'm already finished. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm trying to avoid a new project before our trip. Thus, I have continued my hexipuff adventures! hexipuffs! So far, I'm really happy with my color palette. I guess I just have a well-curated stash of sock yarn! These are the yarns that I've used thus far:
  • Green gradient: Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball in Summer Meadow
  • Dark gray: Dream in Color Smooshy in Gray Tabby
  • Light gray: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Smokestack
  • Black and white stripes: Crystal Palace Panda Silk in Granite Tones (a gift from Claire!)
  • Navy: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Ink
  • Gray/lime/purple stripes: Studio Avenue Six Self-Striping in Purple/Gray/Green
  • Teal: Shibui Sock in Peacock
  • Burgundy sparkles: Dream in Color Starry in Gothic Rose
  • Pink: Noro Kureyon Sock in 188
  • Black/purple/teal: Alchemy Juniper in Underwater Moonlight

I made the chart for the key, but I found the fox and raven (as well as tons of other great charts) in this Ravelry thread. I'm going for a woodland/Alice in Wonderland/whimsical theme for my charted puffs, so we'll see how many different designs I can incorporate. I plan on doing a heart, bowtie, glasses, watch, hat, mice, rabbits...you get the idea.

While I'd love to just hexipuff (it's a verb, too!) forever, my Lanesplitter skirt is starring at me from the corner. All I need to do to finish it is whip up the waistband, a task that should be quickly completed. For some reason, I just can't bring myself to do it. I'll probably force myself to pick it up tomorrow and power through so that I can wear it to Rhinebeck as originally intended. Sometimes I like to press deadlines to increase my motivation, and that's exactly what I'm doing here.

Now, it's important for every knitter to have a plan for the next project. I like to have one large and one small project going at the same time. My next sweater will certainly be Levenwick by the brilliant Gundrun Johnston. I want to go with a soft tweed yarn, which I will purchase at Webs on the way to Rhinebeck. I rarely buy sweater quantities of yarn in person (shocking!), so I'm incredibly excited for this adventure. At Rhinebeck itself there will be ample opportunity to sit and knit, preferably with a portable project. I need to decide if I want to make my matching Snapdragon Flip Tops or if I want to begin the ever-popular Ishbel (in the Scarlet shade of Tosh Merino Light). The weather might dictate which yarn weight I go with, but I'd love to hear your opinions!

ETA: Immediately after publishing this post, I picked up my Lanesplitter. It only took two hours to finish! Expect a post on it in the near future.

8 comments:

  1. I was thinking of starting Ishbel too! But then I thought I should use one of the yarns I got last year at Rhinebeck, so I might start something with one of my Sanguine Gryphon skeins ... after I finish my sweater, of course!

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  2. Ooo, we could do an Ishbel-along at Rhinebeck! I think it'll be a little easier to work on during the trip, so I'm leaning toward that.

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  3. "I'm an obsessive planner, so I'm already finished"

    While I fully agree with your statement, some of us had *extenuating* circumstances and our knitting time has been commandeered. That's why we haven't finished our sweaters yet, not for lack of planning. Just thought I'd throw that out there :)

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  4. You're absolutely right, Kendra. And, I might add, I'm not just obsessive; I'm obsessive-compulsive. That's probably why I'm compulsively knitting hexipuffs.

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  5. You know I'm teasing right? I'm just jealous of your beautiful new sweater!

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  6. I know you're teasing, but you do have a good reason! Claire, on the other hand...

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  7. Hey now, salt water and wool didn't mix as well as I'd hoped! (nevermind all the pina coladas...) Don't you fret, I'll have it done in time. I just took Snapdragon off the blocking plate as well and she looks really pretty!

    I decided to go with Undine as my Rhinebeck project. I wanted to use yarn I got at last year's festival (Sanguine Gryphon's Little Traveler) so I would have room in my stash for more! I want to do Ishbel in a laceweight, which might be too tricky for all our weekend plans.

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