A random collection of images and thoughts

1. Here is another new design. Yes, I was busy last fall.

This is the Lincoln Logs Blanket, made out of Riveting Worsted.  This yarn is the heavier version of Kollage Yarns popular Riveting, made from recycled blue jeans.

The blanket is worked in modular squares.  The sample shown in 9 squares - just perfect for the kids in the back of the car. The yarn is soft, and durable and machine washable, so you won't mind if the Icee gets spilled, or if the blanket falls out of the car in the parking lot. For the couch at home, I'd make the throw with 16 squares.


Find the pattern at Kollage Yarn's website, or on Patternfish.






2. I finished a pair of socks for me. These have been on the needles for over a year, as a pick-up-and-go project. The pattern is just a basic sock, with the leg worked in alternating panels of stockinette stitch and seed stitch, each 3 stitches wide. The yarn,  however, is anything but ordinary.  It is Saki from Prism Yarns, a superwash merino and nylon blend in a color called Ember. The toasty, caramel brown tones look good enough to eat. Even better, look what Laura Bryant put on the back side of the label:

Don't you just love little surprises like that?

3. I've started another sweater out of handspun yarn (hooray!). This is Polwarth from Abstract Fiber. The top was dyed the most gorgeous blood red shade.  It looks rustier in this photo than it does in life.
I spun it as a 2-ply, and I'm getting about 5 3/4 sts to the inch.
This will be a simple pullover - boxes of stockinette stitch divided by bands of seed stitch.  Are you sensing a theme here? I do love the combination of stockinette and seed stitch - such a simple, elegant texture.

4.  If you had told me the 49ers would beat the Saints in a shoot out, I'd have said you were crazy.  I knew the Niners could win, but I thought it would be a low scoring game. Ha! Most. Exciting. Football. Game. Ever.
And I was certain the road to the Superbowl would go through Lambeau Field.  Yet here we are, three days away from a Championship game at home against the New York Giants. I don't know if I can stand it. Go Niners!

5. A bit of a rant. I've had a several opportunities in the past couple of weeks to be in a waiting room with the general public. In three cases, there were women in the waiting room accompanied by small children in varying numbers. In all three cases, the women spent the entire time occupied by their cell phones, while the children had no diversion at all. Why would you expect a small child to sit quietly without entertainment, when you are apparently unable to do so yourself?  Now I'm not saying every kid needs a cell phone of their own (God forbid). But a deck of cards? Paper and pencil? A book, for heaven's sake? Before my son had a Game Boy, we had activity books with mazes and dot-to-dot and word search games to play. Are such things obsolete?
That is all.