So much more than meets the eye...

July's steaming toward the finish line, and I've spent more than half of it away from home--which means plane trips, which means some nice long uninterrupted stretches of knitting (and reading dreadful celebrity gossip magazines, thanks to which I now know who AnnaLynne McCord is and what chicken cutlets are). Yay, I've been productive!

I finally finished the Laverne sweater I started for one of my best gal pals, which worked up great in KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud--the finished fabric has a super-silky hand and gorgeous drape, but the laceweight yarn should stave off that pesky alpaca drooping problem...

I also handed over the finished sample for a book project I was honored to be invited to contribute to. It's a sweater, and it's in Knit One, Crochet Too BabyBoo in Lemon Ice--which is absolutely not a color I would have chosen if I were making something for myself, but it ended up surprising me. It showed texture beautifully and had a great shimmery depth, even in a pastel hue. It also looked terrific with these pretty periwinkle vintage buttons I picked up on one of my trips this month. Wish I could say more than that, but I've been sworn to secrecy--rest assured you'll hear about it when the book comes off the presses!

I also cranked out another Otto bear for a friend who's expecting, and made him a little sweater and pants out of stash yarn. That's fast becoming my go-to baby gift. Ysolda Teague's pattern is so fun to knit, it's cute as can be, and stuffed animals are conveniently gender-neutral...

My next big project, knitting division: I started on a duster-length sweater using the graphite-gray merino laceweight that Stephanie dyed up for me earlier this month. I decided to resist the Hannah Fettig trend (charming as the Featherweight sweater is, I think it's too short for my figure, and it would look too plain if I just extended it), so I am playing around with the Fernfrost lace pattern from an Anne Hansen shawl I liked as a border, and am going to see where that takes me. Next big project, rest-of-life division: Finishing my qualifying paper and taking my qualifying exams, which should be happening over the next few weeks. Expect even fewer posts than usual during that time!

(Oh, hey, if you like the sweater, you can score a copy of the pattern via the Ravelry pattern store by clicking here:

You need not be a Ravelry user to use it!)