Meanwhile, in yarnland, maybe it's just the lack of natural light, but the yarn's been talking to me. We recently dismantled a rather nice slate blue lambswool sweater which had an unpatchable hole in one sleeve. The fingering weight yarn that came off of it said, "Hey, you, make me into a pretty scarf." Friday last week began with a long staff meeting, and so I've made some real progress. It's knit on the bias, with panels of a fanned openwork and simple rope cables traveling diagonally across. I'm thinking of adding some Clapotis-style drop-stitch ladders framing the openwork panels, but I haven't decided yet. The whole affair is so light it feels like knitting clouds. Lace-weight things like this always seem a little magical to me.The odd, colorful stripes from a worsted/bulky weight sweater have also been suggesting that they should become thrummed mittens.
Additionally, I'm just about to put up the first skein of what's likely the most delicious-feeling yarn I've ever harvested: an 85% silk, 15% cashmere that's as soft as the dog's velvety ears. It came in a lilac color, but I dyed half of it to a gentle red-wine color and plied the two back together to a workable sport-weight. This stuff is sweet and heady and worthy of the beloved song for which I will name it.
Speaking of which, Jeff Buckley's version is beautiful, but not enough attention is given to Nina Simone's 1964 version from Wild is the Wind. It focuses in on Simone's warm, almost abrasively strong voice, which nonetheless achieves a sense of wistful vulnerability here. Its sparse instrumentation builds almost imperceptably, and I swear if you turn the bass up high enough the song sounds like it's breathing.
Nina Simone - Lilac Wine
(Buy Wild is the Wind/High Priestess of Soul)
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