Saturday Stash

We've had company this week -a  refugee from the blowing snow in Saskatchewan.  Happily, she brought sunshine to replace the loads of rain that we'd been soaking up. Thanks, Penny.

I have been playing with the dye-pots this week.  I was jealous of inspired by my friend Rudee's beautiful Papal Conclave socks and decided that I must have another pair of red socks.  I mean, really, can you have too many pairs of red socks?  So, I created this rich red dye for one of my sock blanks thinking that I would write a poem on them before I knit. 

Almost immediately, a poem sprang into my head: The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W. B. Yeats  I have loved this poem ever since I had to learn it in high school.  It has never not spoken to me no matter where I have been in my life.  I was enchanted by the specific number of bean-rows to be planted in the garden and it still makes me smile.  The last line: " I hear it in the deep heart's core." worked well with the deep red of my socks.  Several times yesterday and today, I have taken up my pen to write on the yarn.  But I am unable to do so. The socks will still be called 'Innisfree' and I will know the words that could have been there.  But I can't mark on the beautiful clean red. 

I will be using this pattern.  I wanted cables and began to think of a design when I saw these in the latest Knitty e-mag.  They are designed by Stephanie McIntosh (something about the name?) and the difficulty level is 'piquant'.  That goes well with red, too.

There was more dyeing to be done this morning.  When I finished the Kissing the Frog sweater there was some yarn left.  I wondered what would become of it as I put the skeins away.  Now I know.  Rudee gave me a lovely gift of this shawl pattern.  I thought very hard about colors and came up with butterscotch.  I hope when the yarn dries that it does look the way my imagination thinks it will.  This is not my usual part of the rainbow to play in but I think it will work for this shawl.  I have just enough yarn...it was meant to be.

And, for the curious: I have finished the sloggy part of knitting my BFL Forever cardi and can get down to the finishing.  This is the part where I get to use the contrast yarn in the  stripes on the sleeves and the collar.  I also love the very tidy button band.  Love it.  Almost done.  It looks much more like something wearable now.