Girls just want to have fun

What is your idea of (knitting) fun?

I'm in the home stretch of obligatory knitting for the holidays.  My mind is wandering to visions of things I want to knit. Since I am knitting for my family, when we are sitting together, I knit the Artyarns Watercolors Shawl. I don't want to knit their gifts right in front of them. Call it my decoy knitting project.

I modified the pattern to a scarf by casting on less stitches.  I used two different colorways of Ensemble Light (DK: 50% Silk, 50% Cashmere, 400 yards). Every two rows, you switch colors.  I blocked it yesterday and wore today before the ends were woven in.  

Recently I knit the Frieze Shawl for a class at Westport Yarns.  It. was. so. much. fun.  

The pattern is a series of slip stitches and the quilt stitch while alternating between two yarns.

In my Frieze, I used a Blue Sky Alpacas Extra (Aran: 55% Alpaca, 45 %Merino, 219 yards) in green and Artyarns Big Merino Cloud (Worsted: 80% Merino, 20% Cashmere, 219 yards) in a multi.

 I enjoyed knitting this so much I plan on knitting another one in Silk Garden (Aran: 45% Mohair, 45% Silk, 10% Wool, 110 yards) and Serenity Worsted (Worsted: 75% Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% Nylon, 175 yards).

Then there is Exploration Station which I'm knitting for an upcoming winter class at Westport Yarns.  The shawl is knit with four different colors and explores different stitch patterns: short rows, brioche, slip stitches, and chevron stitch.  The pattern is very well written.   Forget about the old "just one more row" it is more like "just one more color". I'm knitting it with Anzula Dreamy (and yes, it is dreamy) (Fingering: 75% Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% Silk, 385 yards) and Koigu PPPM (Fingering: 100% Merino, 175 yards).

All this color and color work makes me feel very happy.

THEN we got a call from Iris Schreier from Artyarns suggesting we check out her Gemstones kits.  While on surfing my way to the Gemstones kit, I got side tracked by the gradient kits.  I was literally jumping up and down in my seat, my eyes glittering with excitement, saying to Beth, "Can we get them, can we, can we, CAN WE?" Thankfully she was (almost) as excited as I was. 

The Artyarns arrived the VERY NEXT DAY.  This is the text I got from Danni while I was on my way to work. Talk about instant gratification. 

For a change from my purples, I bought the red gradient.  I'm knitting the longer version of my Karma Chameleon.

I confess to not straying too far from my beloved purples.  I bought the Gemstones kit in purples ~ sparkly purples at that.  After all, my birthday is coming up....

So, to answer the question I asked at the beginning of the post, my idea of knitting fun is yarns drenched in gorgeous colors and stitch patterns that bring out the best of them.

With all this yarny goodness, I honestly don't know if I want to break into song with, "I'm so excited"

Or, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". I haven't been this excited over my knitting in a while.  Kind of like when you haven't read a truly fantastic book in a while. 

Have I enticed you to cast on for a fabulous pattern with some gorgeous yarn?