I'm back and I brought my knitting!

I guess I disappeared for a while! I never really died, just never felt like blogging... meh. I've been knitting a ton, but my best friend got married, so I was thinking about that for all of May :) Now she is in Maui making everyone jealous. Here she is just before jumping in her dress. Completely gorgeous!

In knitting news I've been knitting socks (surprising, I know) for myself and for Drew. Mine are some yarn that I got from my other best friend. It's Yarn Pirate Merino Bamboo in Daffodilly. I love it,but she didn't which is why it became mine :) I'm using a stitch pattern called Ixslein and Cat Bordhi's Sky Architecture. Of all of the architectures in New Pathways for Sock Knitters so far this is the only one that I don't especially like. It feels too big at the back of the heel. Oh well, I love all of the others I've tried from the book, so I just won't do this one again.

Drew's are Regia heavy sock yarn in a "manly rainbow" colorway.

I went on the Cashmere Cottage Yarn Bus Yarn Tour right after Kate's wedding and in my goodie bag I got GlamKnits. I've been half eyeing the book for a while, but didn't want to buy it because I didn't know if I loved any of the patters enough... I'm so glad it was in my bag because I really like it now that I've had a chance to comb through it! I started Romantic the bell sleeved cardi using Zitron Kokon. I got the yarn in the discount bin at Skacel - 5 balls at $5.00 each. It's a silk/cotton/acrylic blend and $5.00 seems like a pretty good deal :) It's got quite a bit of yardage, too, so should be enough. If nothing else it will be a short sleeve cardi which in being silk/cotton it's kind of summery anyway is totally fine! Since it's top-down raglan style I'm in the middle of the massive increase section and having the usual hard time getting through it. I'll be so glad when I get to separate the sleeves out. Until then I have hours of mindless knitting... (I would call the color aubergine in person, but the picture makes it look a little like a rusty brick; maybe I need to consult my knowledge of lighting and actually use it)

I also dredged up my inspriration lady! She's been sequestered to a spider-webby corner of the basement for about a year since I wasn't sure where she would fit upstairs. I took her out in April so I could put my recycled dress on her for the Recycled Art Show and decided she should stay out and wear inspiring and memorable things. Right now she's got my bridesmaids dress from Kate's wedding on with an oh-so-ill-matching-and-partly-shrunken vest on. I loved the dress and wanted to look at it a while. The vest on the other hand is going to take at least one more trip through the wash and then I'm going to make mittens out of it. Ideally I'd like to put the mittens in the fair, maybe in the Make It With Wool contest and the Recycled Art Show next year. But they may also get to be a gift for someone, so I'd either have to skip a couple of those or gift them with strings attached :)