Fiber #48 // Transitania

I did mention I've been knitting a lot recently, didn't I?

Here's a sweater I started back in April.  I cast on during the wait for my flight to Korea, and over the course of hundreds of miles spent in trains, buses, and planes, on park benches and in hotel/hostel/b&b rooms at night, I just knit, knit, kinit.  Euroflax linen, sportweight yarn on size 3 needles.  Linen is always hard on my fingers when I first start it, but I love the resulting garment, and I think my summer indulgence to myself might be to knit up a linen pullover each year when the warmest season comes around.

This is the Versailles Shell by Connie Chang Chinchio.  You're supposed to leave vents at the sides but I just stitched them up.  Not sure if you can tell, but those are little diamonds on the side.  They're on the back, too.  I'd say this is a designer that pays a lot of attention to feminine details and finishing.  I know some knitters hate seaming and finishing (all edges are finished with single crochet), but to really make garments that stay polished through multiple wears, I think it's necessary.  Linen, for example, tends to get softer and therefore lengthen with wear, which is why side seams and shoulder seams are important for extra stability to the garment.  I think the single crochet is a nice touch, too.

This was my first time knitting lace on both the knit and purl rows, and I have to say, I messed it up quite a bit.  Not such relaxing travel knitting when I got to the lace!  Ah well.  I really like the end result.  The lace yokes give that extra touch of uniqueness, but it could go both formal or casual.  I know the pink kind of washes me out, but not in an "I'm Asian wearing blond colors" kind of way, more of a "I'm going to pretend I'm an Asian who still has pale skin" kind of way.  Generally speaking, I think it works.  I once had a Japanese boyfriend who requested a bias knit striped tie in "sakura pink and gray," and I think that comment must have subtly infiltrated my mind when I chose this colorway (Rose), because I can totally imagine wearing this with gray slacks to work ...

Just had a lovely day with friends - we met up for lunch, and then they brought me along to a poolside party with some coworkers (we all used to work together, and some of them are still with the same agency.  It's that kind of organization - people just flow in and out in an easygoing kind of way, and there's something about the type of people it attracts that makes it really easy for us all to get along and hang out, even if we never actually overlapped in our time there.)  So tonight, I think I'll settle into the couch with, what else, some knitting, and see if I can't hunt up a Poirot movie or two ...