Shows I've been knitting

I just realized I haven't written a blog post in a month; I am definitely a better crafter than blogger! I'm always impressed by the "real" bloggers who come up with great written pieces daily or weekly. I guess I do have my priorities straight, since the time I'm too lazy to blog is time I spend knitting and designing ferociously... often while watching Netflix, which makes working feel like hanging out. I like to get into TV shows they have for streaming. Since last summer, I've knit my way through four American shows:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2nd time)
- Angel (2nd time)
- The Wire (with my husband)
- Bones (beginning to present)

And three BBC shows:
- A Touch of Frost
- Wire in the Blood
- Waking the Dead (current)

I have a real thing for British crime dramas, having been raised on PBS's Mystery. It's a lot of TV, but then, it's a lot of knitting - I've accomplished so much in recent months! Last fall and winter were even more successful than I'd hoped; I'm already working on my stock of wool hats and gloves for next fall, while enjoying the spring sunlight.
The sari silk yarn worked up beautifully, by the way, and I love the finished vest. The pattern is on Etsy and on Ravelry as "Sari Silk Garter Stitch Vest," so have a look!

Experimenting with recycled sari silk

I'm not myself quite yet, but I'm much better - well enough to get back to designing, at least. A few months ago I bought some gorgeous fair-trade, recycled sari silk yarn from Darn Good Yarn, which I've been staring at ever since because I could not figure out what to do with it. I don't work with silk much; being a wool fan, I'm used to fibers with a lot more give than pure silk, though silk will soften over time.

Some knitters find embarking on a new project quite scary, but for me, I'm fine as long as I'm following someone else's pattern. It doesn't matter how complicated the pattern is - I have enough self-confidence (or cockiness, maybe) to jump right into it without any fear. I find that designing, however, can be extremely scary. Nothing's planned out for you, nothing's written. Everything is up to you, including any screw-ups. And so much depends on the yarn! DGY makes the most beautiful one-of-a-kind yarns, yarns that you can't force to be anything they're not meant to be. For months now, I've been trying to figure out not so much what I want the yarn to be, but what it wants to be. Scarves and shawls are always great, but that would feel like a cop-out since I want to have a garment pattern to offer up for sale.

Right now, the yarn seems to be telling me "vest" - one-piece, garter stitch, simple shaping. I have to trust it for now and see where it leads me.