New Mexico Dreamin'

This blog post is dedicated to my wonderful mom-in-law, who sent me an email this morning saying that she reads (and likes!) this blog and makes all the ladies in her office read it as well. Thank you so much, J. And greetings to the ladies in your office!

My hubs' parents live fairly far from us, and we don't get to see them very often. This year we've been planning a trip for the four of us to different places in New Mexico, where my mom-in-law will paint en plein air (she's a very good pastel artist). I'll knit on her side, and the men will engage in physically more strenuous outdoors activities (or so they say). At night, we'll count stars and share stories... I'm very, very excited about this trip, especially since it's coming up really soon: we're leaving in two-and-half weeks! (I'll get to pop by La Lana Wools! How cool is that?)

For a while now I've been daydreaming about all the knitting I'll get done on our vacation, and I've decided on these different projects that I'll take along:

1) A new pair of socks, toe-up and two-at-a-time (!!!), made with Malabrigo sock yarn in a really cool color (green-blue-purple; the colorway is called Indiecita); 2) the Children of Lir stole I discovered last week, in the purple Malagbrigo Lace yarn I brought back from Ithaca; 3) a summer garment made of a linen yarn.

As for 1) and 2), I couldn't help myself but cast on, just to get a feel for it... Here are a few pictures of my beginnings. Note that for the socks I only advanced as far as the toe caps: I still need to decide on a pattern (help me, please!). I've also done one repeat of the stole pattern to get an idea what it looks like.

I love to work with Malabrigo yarn! Although I must say that hand winding the lace yarn was a bit of a drama that took a whooping two hours. The yarn was full of little knots and a bit fleeced where it had been on the outside of the skein. Maybe that's why it was on sale. My big thanks to yarn stores that let you me use their ball winder and swift!

As for project #3: I've tried to knit one sweater-type garment before, and the result was disappointing (remember the cardigan that came out huge?). Now I'm slightly intimidated to give a second one a shot. However, I really love Norah Gaughan's Basalt Tank, and I have enough of Gedifra Korella yarn to make it. Should I... will I...? I need to build up courage to embark on this little adventure.

Those are the projects I'll be taking to New Mexico with me. I'd like to finish the Icarus Shawl before going there; after all, I had picked the yarn with the colors of New Mexico in mind, envisioning myself wearing it in Taos and Santa Fe... I've made decent progress: I finished five pattern repeats and could start with the feather edging, however, I'll add more pattern repeats before doing so, to make it a really big shawl.

I had a moment yesterday where I felt slightly guilty for casting on and planning three projects while having four or five projects on the needles already. Then I remembered the lady who works at my LYS: she told me she's had 47 projects going at one point. Let's spell this out: forty-seven. FORTY-SEVEN. I gave her a funny look and mumbled that I didn't have that many needles. She laughed and said she had hundreds of needles. Well, I guess, if you work in a yarn shop... How many projects do you currently have on your needles?