Undecided About How Much I Like It

Yarn: Ornaghi Filati  Super Sport Superwash

Needles: US #4

Finally I have something knitting-wise to post.  A sweater, on this super hot day.

The motif was roughly copying the previous sweater "June First", but in colorwork.
I used Ornaghi Filati  Super Sport Superwash that I purchased from Elann.  It's not merino soft, which suits me. But the knots!  OK, at $2.45 per ball, I can stand one knot each ball, but 2 or even 3 on nearly every ball!!  Alright I'll shut up.  That's something I normally don't complain much about, I guess the rising temperature is starting to get to me. The yarn itself is nothing special to report, but definitely functional.

The construction was top-down seamless with round yoke and short-rows below the yoke.  Steeking worked out with no problem.  I kept looking at the motif and wished I had made a few changes, nothing major. I'm just a little picky about motifs.

I guess in the end I'm still not sure if I like the high contrast of dark brown with the pale yellow... too predictable of a color combination. On the other hand, I really like the pale yellow color itself. It lends to a slightly vintage/retro feel.

Now the sweater is done, and I doubt I'll have much chance to wear it until Fall.  I'm just not yet in the mood of knitting cotton or linen.

Pyramid Lake

We drove out to Pyramid Lake (north of Reno) today.

I really love the desert.  I love the vastness, the clean feel of being in the desert.
I remember years ago when we're visiting Morocco and took a hired taxi out to Ait Benhaddou, and along the drive I said to Paul, "this feels like home."  and that was right before we moved to Nevada.  The same dry, high dessert.

I love the feeling of being on the lonely highway.

One time a student was showing me drawings of Pyramid Lake she did.  I told her I'd never visited it.  She looked surprised and said, "you should!  It's our (tribe's) sacred place." She told me about Pyramid Lake and that really piqued my interest.
It's an area that belongs to Paiute. It makes me feel really good to see that Paiute retains the right to the land here.  Permit for access to the beach are purchased through the tribe.
Tahoe was Washoe tribe's ground.  Today, you can still see the grinding stone out in the meadow near the lake, yet no Washoe people living up here.  But there is a big tunnel drilled through their very sacred Cave Rock.  Sadly, I drive through it every day on my way to work.  It is now banned to rock climb the face of Cave Rock.  Yet, there are still climbers that want to make it legal to climb Cave Rock as if there aren't enough places around for climbing. And as if their own need to piss everywhere tromps little that is left of the Washoe's heritage sites.

Here at Tahoe, we're already crowded with summer tourists.  It was so nice to get out of here and be at another lake that was completely empty of people.  Pyramid Lake's size is comparable to Tahoe at about 188 square miles and Tahoe at 191 square miles.  Pyramid lake is this beautiful azure blue lake in the middle of very desolated  desert landscape with very few tiny residential area that belongs to the reservation.  There is something very special about walking on this unspoiled land.

A New Pattern

Yay, I got one thing done this summer! "Just One of Those Things" is now up and alive.  

I never thought I could do a lace design good enough for a real shawl, and here it is, my very first one. 

Now I have few more things I need to get done this summer. One of which is finishing up some paintings for the group show I'll be part of in less than a month. One drawing that may go into the show is actually a large ink/chalk drawing with this shawl as a starting point. I'm pretty excited about the body of work in my studio, using lace as starting point, and the paintings are fairly abstract. To be honest, the paintings were the real reason that I felt the need to make my own lace motifs. It's just a nice addition that I can publish patterns with the designs. 

Another on my to do list is to sew up coupla skirts I've already bought the fabric for. Not sure if I should get patterns or I should just wing it.  I am not that good with sewing, but I figure how hard is it to figure out the dimension of skirts?...knowing how I don't like to think things through first, the results can be pretty hilarious sometimes... so we shall see.

June First

It's June! and I have a sweater to share.
I designed the motif with a shawl in mind, but after knitting the motif 3 times for improvements, I decided I wanted to make a cardigan with it.  So I made the 4th swatch.

The yarn was Malabrigo Dos in color Plata, so soft and wonderful to work with. I definitely want more sweaters using this yarn.

I love the cardigan.  It's simple but with delicate details.  Paul was unimpressed with this one though.  He said, "it's good."  that means it's nothing special, "but somehow it just doesn't look like handmade....probably because it's grey, a very generic color..."

It's nice to hear how much he prefers the look of handmade sweater.  One thing he got wrong - grey is not a color, according to color theory. Neither is black nor white, they're not even on the color wheel.

But I do love grey yarns, and grey sweaters.

Who knows, maybe I'll make another one in a real color for a more handmade look.