Lady Kina

A couple of weeks ago when I needed some inspiration for a take-along knitting project, I took a peek in the list of most popular patterns on Ravelry and came across Lady Kina. Apparently, this pattern is the adult version of an earlier baby pattern. It looked easy, it looked cute, and since it was almost July and I had yet to have any cotton yarn hit my needles this year, I decided I'd give it a try.

What turned out to be a great pattern for our golf trip---easy, mindless knitting---turned out to be somewhat of a burden once I got home. Oh sure, it's all fun and games until you finish the sleeves, and then there's twenty-nine centimeters of stockinette stitch, over lots of stitches, and in cotton. Man. I was seriously excited when it got to the point when I could knit the bottom band.

It is a pretty cute sweater though. Clever in its simplicity. If I made it again, I think I might pick a loftier yarn than the Cotton Ease, but this works too. The only change I made was to knit the bands in moss stitch rather than garter stitch and that was just on a whim. I think it's cute either way.

As soon as I had m'Lady blocked, I cast on the scarf/shawl pattern Deep Peace in the yarn I bought a this spring's Sheep & Wool festival. It's good to be back knitting wool; it's so much easier on the hands. And this is really beautiful wool---a kettle-dyed cormo from RiverWinds Farm in the most gorgeous color combination. I was happy to find some hand-dyed yarn, in a color I liked, that wasn't sock weight yarn! The only downside is that the colors remind me of fall as we're turning the corner when days begin to get shorter once again. Don't think about it.