Lemonade?

That's a recycled photo, but I'm using it for motivation. Once I finish writing for the day, I intend to take the rest of my work, and maybe some knitting out to the porch with a cold drink. I put the hammock chairs up pretty early this year, but they are most appreciated when it starts to really get hot.

Thought I would use this space to point back to a blog post from the spring, where I talked about summer sweaters, and linked to a few patterns. The Ravelry bundle referenced gets updated on the regular, so you may find something new even if you've checked it out previously! (I'm still thinking about that Mama Vertebrae, even though its function has been partially fulfilled by the elbow-length Old Town!)

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...to learn
This week:  

Friday, July 29th is last in the Mix and Match Sock class series. Afraid of Kitchener Stitch? We'll be learning it in its most common use--to close the toe of a sock, but it has tons of applications and is a very useful skill to learn!

Then skipping ahead to the second week of August, I'll be teaching the first of two sessions featuring the Perseids Shawl on Friday, August 12th. It's a nice introduction to knitting a triangular shawl from the bottom up, with simple lace motifs and just a few placed beads to keep the garter stitch knitting interesting.

On Saturday, August 13th, Sandy Buzzelli will be teaching Bavarian Twisted Stitches using the hat pictured here. Great class for building your comfort with working cables from charts, and the twisted stitches really (really!) pop.

Details  here--including additional August classes! (September coming soon.)
...to inspire

I can gush on at length about the merits of Mountain Meadow Wool--it truly is one of my favorite yarns to knit with. It's been on my mind recently, as the sweater at left (Rowe) got put aside sometime ago in favor of something more pressing, and there is a cable cross that needs to be fixed. Which isn't hard, but does require 30 minutes of my undivided attention, and, if we're going to shoot the moon, decent light wouldn't hurt a bit, either.

Mountain Meadow recently shared an article from the Casper (WY) Star Tribune which offered a peek into their operation. I enjoyed reading a little about the mill, but there's really no substitute for actually knitting with a wool that is SO springy and bouncy, that pops cables like nobody's business, and that is soft and cozy, even though it also has a lot of texture. Give Jackson (which can be knit from DK to aran gauge) or Cody (a lively sport weight) a try.  

...to anticipate

I met with Bonnie, my rep from Plymouth Yarns, last Tuesday. Plymouth continues to earn its place on Yarn Folk's shelves by combining great quality with reasonable prices. When we write up larger orders, there is often a "ship now" portion and a "ship soon" portion. Encore Worsted is a basic I stock in many colors, and since the existing stock is a little low, that was the focus for the ship now portion. However, I also included Encore Mega in this first part of the order. The fiber blend (75% acrylic/25% wool) is the same, but it is a super bulky that knits at 2 to 2 1/2 stitches per inch.

I've ordered both solids and Colorspun, and think it would be especially good for the Azel Pullover that was all over Facebook and Pinterest recently. (Perfect combination for a kid's knit: affordable, quick, oversized for long-wear, and machine washable!)

...to stitch
I probably worked more stitches backward than I did forward this week. Pictured is Lucca, as I painstakingly tinked a couple thousand stitches. (There was a lifeline, but there were more "good" rounds than bad, so I decided to unknit, rather than  rip back to the lifeline.) And at one point in the  Tacit fingerless mitt I lost track of where I was, and had to pull back a few rows. And when I was finishing the mitt, I pulled out the bind off a couple of times before I combined two techniques to get a result I was happy with.

Oh, but that's not all. Jefferson's pants were off-kilter, so I restarted them as well. (The crochet rounds are worked as spirals, rather than slip stitched at the end of each, and I must have miscounted, because the legs were just not aligned in a more or less human direction!)

The good news is that everything is (currently) back on track, and I started a new sample in Dream in Color Jilly. Take a look at the Rattan Shawl by Libby Jonson--twisted ribbing separated by garter stich bands in a wide shallow crescent. This is a shape that I find extremely wearable, and it's more exciting knitting than most rectangular scarves. Pics when there's a little more to see....
Until next week! 
For frequent updates, check in on  FacebookInstagram, and the Yarn Folk site.  On Ravelry, my user name is YarnFolkAnn. I look forward to talking with you soon!