The Blues

"Oh, the blues ain't nothing but a good woman feeling bad."

- Georgia White

I must admit to my share of the blues; it is hard to be optimistic when the economy is tanking and your best friend just lost her son.

Now, D. H. Lawrence once said, "I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It's amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor."

Nope. Ain't gonna' happen...

But I did do a little light housekeeping on the blog, moving the vital statistics of some of my older patterns to a separate page, which is accessed by clicking on the picture. I thought this might de-clutter my sidebar a bit. Got about half of them done yesterday and will do the others today soon (don't want to promise too much. After all I am babysitting tonight. Happy happy, joy, joy..)

What else did I do?

I worked up an easy pattern (another aperitif anyone?) for some Cloudy Sky Malabrigo Silky Merino I have had floating around my studio since last spring. Better to knit the blues, than sing them, right?

I am tentatively calling this scarf/wrap, "Jazzed Up." I wanted to call it "Lady Sings the Blues", but I figured other people will make it in a different color, and then it would seem a little strange...

While it looks like a cabled design, all the stitch work is accomplished with yarn overs and decreases. No cabling required.

It is a quick and easy pattern, perfect for Christmas gifts. I did an entire foot of it in a couple hours.

Really!

In between writing up the pattern for Sherwood, and working on further repeats of Poinsettia.

(Fear not, Garden Varietals. More pics of Poinsettia tomorrow, along with a yardage estimate and bead count.)

One skein gave me eleven inches of a 16 inch wide scarf/wrap, so I figure six skeins oughta' do it. The new Manos Silk Blend would also work well.

I like the extra drape of the dk yarn, but you could also do 'er up in their worsted weight for even faster results . I'll include directions for both gauges in the pattern, but I haven't worked out yardage for that weight yet.

The yarn is lovely to work with - like buttah...

And, while it looks solid in the skein and even in the wound ball, once knit up, you can clearly see the slight variegation that makes kettle dyed yarns such a pleasure to work with.

You can bet I'll be working with this again. I have two semi-solid colors of Manos already in house, and three of Malabrigo's on the way from Linda at Yarnzilla.

Linda and I have talked about how there needs to be more pattern support for the silky merino, so I am happy to provide. She is going to provide a link for the patterns on her yarn pages.

Look for the pattern release end of next week (after Poinsettia.)

And just like that, the blues abate.

Knitting - works every time - far better than marmalade...