Ruthless Knitting Archive

I’m back from Vermont, where David and I had a smashing time with my family. There was a lot of this kind of thing:

and of this kind of thing:

What with all the beautiful scenery, the old homes and churches and barns, the great riding, the steep climbing and descending, the rain and wind, and the occasional map-reading error, the trip was a challenging and exhausting adventure. Luckily, this is my idea of the perfect vacation.

Contest results

Thanks so much for all your contest entries and kind comments about Florence! It was fun to come home and read them all. Interestingly, while I was away, a lively sizing discussion got going over at Knitting Daily. I haven’t had a chance to read all the comments there yet, but there is an interesting survey of bust sizes, as well as the potential for a more thorough sizing survey in the future. I’ll be keeping my eye out for that.

Meanwhile, this morning, I put all the names of the people who entered my contest in my favorite camping hat . . .

. . . and picked the winner!

Mel, you’ve got a Kpixie gift certificate and a custom pattern coming your way — the former rather more quickly than the latter, to be sure.

It is funny that Mel won my contest, because I came home to discover that I won her contest while I was away. Life is strange and wonderful sometimes.

Even if we hadn’t won one another’s contests, I would have wanted to write about Mel in this post anyway, because she just had her first pattern published — the beautiful Summer Sky in this month’s MagKnits. I am not normally someone who wears short sweaters, but the details on this sweater are so lovely and perfect that I’ve been toying with knitting it since I first saw the design. Bravo, Mel!

Knitting update

Bicycling and knitting do not go together, unfortunately, so all I managed to get done during my vacation was about two-thirds of the leg of my second Nine-to-Five Sock. Before I left, however, I knit most of a Ribbed Lace Bolero for my niece Lucy, and I finished all but the weaving of the ends this morning. It’s been a fun knit — I’ll post about it within the next day or two.

Accolades

Last but not least, both Mel and Emilee have nominated me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger, which was awfully nice of them. I have a strange aversion to buttons, as well as a strong left-wing-liberal-arts-college-education distaste for the word “girl” as applied to any woman past puberty, but I wholeheartedly appreciate the sentiment nonetheless. Thanks, Mel and Emilee!

Souvenirs

I posted this without remembering that I have one more picture to show you — my souvenir yarn! I found these at Vermont Beads and Fibers in Middlebury, Vermont. They are from Laughing Tree Farm in Monkton, Vermont, which raises angora goats. The yarn, a mohair/wool blend, is spun and dyed at the farm. I already have a sweater planned!