Sock-a-long with Kollabora

It's official.. I'm home! Well, sort of home. I've been in Kingston helping my boyfriend set up his apartment and life out here. One massive perk of his apartment is that, much like a lot of Kingston, is quite close to the lake. So for the past 3 days we've made trips down to go swimming! I'm a massive wimp about jumping into water, but I've still managed to cannonball a good few times. Being away from my actual ontario home (WHERE THERE IS A KITTEN NOW) means also being away from my stash. I made a pit stop last week to drop off luggage, pick up some of my clothing, visit with friends and grab a project to work on. Conveniently for me, Sarah started running a KAL with Kollabora that lined up perfectly with my timeline. So, I'm overcoming my hatred for socks and am making a new pair!
I'm using Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in the colour Mansfield's Garden Party. I bought this yarn awhile back despite my general leaning away from variegated yarns. The colours are just so pretty! Unfortunately, I'm kind of unhappy with the pooling. As you can see in the photos, I've got a weird spiral stripe thing going on, and on the foot part it looks like the pooling is lining up almost perfectly every row. I really love the way the colours are all mixed up in the heel/gusset area, though. Whatever, they're socks. They don't have to win a beauty contest!

I also want to take a minute to talk about how awesome Kollabora is. It's sort of like Ravelry in terms of project sharing, but it covers all kinds of techniques. I'm really enjoying looking through sewing projects lately as I have slightly grand plans of sewing everything. There's a button to my profile in the sidebar too. I'm planning on updating my more recent projects once I actually have stable internet access.

Are you on Kollabora? I'd love to add more awesome crafters to my feed!

Fall Knit List

With just over a week left for me in Italy, it's time for me to seriously get excited about coming home. I’ve had a great time despite my virtually constant grumblings about the heat and humidity. My thesis research has more or less recovered from catastrophe in June and I’m well on track to be finished up with a couple days to spare! (Though, I will probably be in the lab anyways because, well, that’s the only air-conditioned room I know of that doesn’t require me to purchase overpriced drinks) My daydreams are currently being filled with sweet thoughts of temperatures (hopefully well) below 30°C, hot coffee, crisp bike rides and liberal applications of wool in my wardrobe.

My big project this fall is, per my last post, going to be the Timberline sweater for my dad. Given Sarah’s reaction to the (24 page) pattern, which is basically what mine was when I read her post, I need some simple selfish knitting suitable for social occasions, thesis breaks and whose products are as cozy as possible. For now, three patterns have stolen my heart:
  1. Larch Cardigan by Amy Christoffers. This has been in my queue forever and I really need to get on it. I love how classic the shape is! I can see myself wearing this for a good couple years. I already have the yarn waiting for me at my fave LYS in Peterborough!
  2. Super slouch socks from Emily Foden. I’ve declared my hatred for socks in the past, but I can’t help but give these a chance. I absolutely adore the colour combo she used, with a neutral for the main portion of the sock and bright colours for the heel and toe. I’m planning on using some Tosh Merino Light in Antler for the main colour and Edison bulb for the contrast. They definitely won’t be the sturdiest socks ever, but I think they’ll be decent for around-the-house wear.
  3. Forge Toque from Jared Flood. OK, so this isn’t exactly a no-brainer, but I’ve had 2 skeins of Shelter in Wool Socks languishing in my stash for a while and I’m really into red accessories right now. I’ll have to track down some of my interchangeable needle tips to make this one, as most of the shaping happens through changes in needle size.

So, with that, I head back to my pile of bones and daydreams of home. What patterns are you dreaming about for fall?