Finally! Il est complet!

And le fringe:

Pattern: Shifting Sands, by the always-lovely Gumperina
Yarn: Caron Perfect Match in colourway Deep Violet
Needles: Susan Bates US 7’s
Modifications: The only thing I did to this pattern was make it narrower by about 4-5 repeats, since I was using fairly bulky yarn.

I LOVE this pattern! It was a joy to knit, and the resulting fabric is beautifully textured and spongy. It’s a very warm scarf, too (trust me. Summer in the Bay Area is perfect scarf weather, especially in July). I like the way the little three-stitch columns knit up, too. I’m going to have to play around, and come up with some variations on this pattern. It’s just too much fun to let die!

PS. This is how much yarn I had left:

Yay fringe!

Holy moley, it’s Wednesday! How long have I been asleep?!? Things suddenly got really chaotic around here (and I threw my hip out on Monday, which… complicated things), so I’ve had almost no time to update around here. Whew! So, anyway; knitting. I’ve been plugging away on Ziggy for mi madre:

See? It’s really come a long way since you all last saw it on Sunday. What you see here is about one and one-third of a ball. This pattern stretches a LOT with gentle tugging, so I’m anticipating it growing considerably once its been blocked. I’ve finally “settled in” to the pattern, meaning that I’ve gotten into the groove of things, which makes knitting this a lot faster because I’m able to “read” the stitches better, and I understand how the pattern builds on itself row after row. I still have to look at the chart, though…

Also, I was weak today. I bought yarn (does anyone sense a colour theme here? I’m thinking I may have to join Project Spectrum next time it happens…):

Sock yarn, to be exact. Since I know people will ask, it’s hand-dyed wool from Pagewood Farm, in Turquoise, a limited-edition colourway dyed specifically for my LYS. It is delicious.

This yarn is destined to become my very first pair of hand-knit socks. I am very excited about this, because I’ve wanted to learn to knit socks for a loooong time. My first pair will be a pair of basic toe-up socks using this formula. I can’t wait to cast on! In fact, I think I may go do a swatch now, to make sure I have the right size needles… Mwahaha.

PS. I also finished Shifting Sands today!. See above entry for F.O.