ThunderSnow.us

Last weekend, Dan and I went up to North Conway, for our first anniversary. (Well, close enough - the day itself was Monday, and I had to teach that night.) We stayed at Stonehurst Manor, did some hiking, and swam in the pool. Our plan had been to get going early-ish on Friday, so that we could maybe go swimming/hiking/something along the Kanc. The early thing didn’t happen, and then I’m pretty sure that everyone in Boston was trying to go to NH for the weekend. Traffic was gross, both along 128 and on I-93.

Saturday we climbed Mt. Avalon, and watched the Conway Scenic at the crossing in Bartlett, and swam in the pool at the hotel. I need to go swimming more.

Sunday we climbed up to Champney Falls (have I been there before? Mom? It felt vaguely familiar… but falls all look alike), which was gorgeous. Stunning. Wow. Totally will do that again if I’m there after a rain (instead of late in the summer when everything is dry).

Also on Sunday, I got Dan and his mad photography skillz to document some knitting.

First, socks!

These are the Spring Forward socks, in Auracania Ranco Multi. I like this colorway a lot - it’s the “rainbow” colorway, but the colors are all very muted and low-saturation. I also like this pattern a lot - the squiggles are a lot of fun and the stitch pattern is easy to memorize. The pattern also shows up well even in the multicolored yarn, which is always a plus. I might do more repeats on the leg if I were to do these over - there’s plenty of yarn left and I really prefer my socks a little longer than these.

And then, a sweater!

This is Cece, by Bonnie Marie Burns (from ChicKnits, who have all sorts of lovely stuff), in Gedifra Merino Cotton. The yarn is from Mom’s and my trip to WEBS in the spring, in which there was serious stash enabling going on. But, eight balls of the Merino Cotton has turned into this lovely sweater, which is a pretty substantial inroad on the pile.

Notes: I made the body two inches longer than called for (cause I’m tall!), and still got a cropped silhouette. If I wanted this to feel like a more traditional-length cardi I’d have to add at least two or three inches more, and then the shaping would all change. (The shaping starts at the waist and goes up, so you only ever increase - this works because of the cropped length but wouldn’t in a longer sweater.) I made the three-quarters length sleeves, which are still a little on the short side, but I was afraid of running out of yarn. They’re also a little snug at the cast-on edge.

I wasn’t nuts about the lace pattern until I finished it. I’m still not wild about it up close, but the overall effect I like better than I expected. Yay! And the yarn is a beautiful color. It’s a bit splitty to work with, but not too bad. I machine washed the finished sweater(cold water, delicates setting), and the yarn bloomed… and shrank (my swatch only did the first of those). The fabric ended up feeling much sturdier (which was a goal), and the sweater was a bit more fitted than I’d anticipated. It’s stretched out a bit, and right now seems to fit just right, but I don’t think I’ll toss it in the washer again.