i dream of knitting

Truly, I do. Well, daydream at least. That's how I fall asleep - I snuggle down and think about what I'm knitting, what progress I've made, what my priorities are for tomorrow and what I would like to make. I'm always fast asleep before I get to the end of my knitting project wish list because it's, well, endless.

Here are a couple of things that I'm currently dreaming of:

Nine Lives - from one of my favourite knit designers, knit/lab. I've been considering the colour dilemma which basically went along the lines of 'which red?' and 'if I use a different yarn, should I try to get all four colours in the other yarn?' and 'or should I mix the Rowan Pure Wool 4 ply and the other yarn?' and 'or what other colours in the Pure Wool 4 ply could be India?' and ... are you asleep yet?

Anyway, looking at the colour cards for the Pure Wool 4 ply I was very taken by shade 450 Eau de Nil and set about procuring some of that. I chose a slightly darker pink, 449 Vintage and bought some Debbie Bliss Rialto 4 ply to substitute for the purple and the yellow.

Now I just hope that the silver beads that I bought won't be too heavy (in a visual sense). I'm waiting for some of the yarn to arrive so will have a better idea when I can see all the materials alongside each other. Oh and the India inspiration? Out the door. Oh well.

Whippoorwill - Another shawl. I should backtrack a moment (or a year) and say that this was one of my great knitting realisations of 2010 - the semi-circular shawl. It all started with Daybreak which, while not strictly a semi-circle was my first project that distorted that traditional triangular shape. And so much easier to wear. I'm not sure whether it is just now because I am on the look out for them, but there seems to have been many more semi-circular designs available recently. And I love this one.

When Tim saw me working on my Tibetan Clouds (un)Beaded Stole a few days ago, he queried 'another shawl?' and I do seem to have become a shawl knitter of late - ah, six completed in 2010. And he's right, in order to justify it, I do need to make them different, something that I don't already have. So for Whippoorwill I was having a think about just that - what is something that I don't already have?

And I decided on something pale, with a strong band of colour along the bottom. I knew I was looking for something that was just off-white, with maybe some flecks or a filament of colour through it. And at the yarn store what I came across was Filatura di Crosa Gioiello, with the added bonus of something else that I don't have - sparkle (um, so not me). Anyway, I was thinking that the texture and colour in this yarn would give enough interest and I could possibly stripe it with a plain off-white yarn to tone the sparkle (and texture) down.

And for the bands of colour - probably a blue. It would be great to find a sweater at the thrift store to recycle for this, to balance out the fact that I bought new yarn. Ooooh, or how about even black? I already have some that I bought at the thrift store ...

I'll sleep on it.