You can thank me for the earworm later. Or you can just pity me for living through the hottest and most humid summer Chicago has seen in a while. Fortunately we finally had a storm last night so things are feeling a bit less desperate today. And even more fortunately we’ve been able to find time and money to make it out of the city a couple times. Our first trip was up to Wisconsin for a weekend at Golden Lake.

Can you tell we were there over the 4th of July weekend? In years past we’ve gone a bit later in the summer. Last year it was particularly cold and overcast, which was perfect weather for my brand new holga.

This year, however, it was hot hot hot, and sunny, and I’m a speshul sensitive flower who gets burned easily. I needed a small project for the car ride up there, so I stuffed some cotton yarn into my camera bag and whipped up this hat on the way up.

It’s a pattern from the May/June 2010 issue of Crochet Today (linked from my ravelry project page). They have information on their website about ordering back issues if you’re interested in getting a copy, but if that seems like a lot of trouble you might try searching around ravelry for other crocheted sun hat patterns – there’s a ton out there! In the meantime, happy summer, keep cool, and keep crafting! You can find me in the shade.

When someone very important to me told me she would be moving away, someone who had done a great deal for me over the years and for whom I have never done a damn thing, I knew I should do something nice for her. She had always admired my Ishbel, and so I thought something like that would be nice, but not exactly like it because I like variety in my crafting.

So I was looking for a small-medium sized shawl involving some lace – either all-over simple lace or just a little lace, along the lines of the Ishbel, and preferably something that would work in a lightweight sock yarn, since that’s what I had to work with. Enter Emily. Now I will straight up admit that I am not a lace knitter. I can do it fine, but it’s not my favorite thing, and I am almost never drawn to big lacy shawls. Ever. But the sideways asymmetry of this pattern really grabbed be. Knitscene did a great job shooting that shawl, in my opinion. It looks very casual and natural on the model. So many modeled shawl shots often look awkward or too magickal-fairie-dust-esque for my taste. So I grabbed some malabrigo sock and cast on.

And I fell deeply, passionately in love with the results. So much so that it made giving up the shawl even more painful than it was already going to be. The lace pattern was easy, but there were enough things happening around the edges that it kept me interested the whole time – no small feat when we’re talking about the world’s most easily distracted crafter. And then there was the blocking! Magical. (Not magickal.)

And in the end it’s taken me a month and a half total to hand over the shawl, post the pictures, and write a blog entry on it. In the end I managed it all by clenching my jaw, forcing back the tears, saying goodbye and walking away.

Things are changing around here – most notably, the look of hungryknitter.com! I upgraded my wordpress theme and I’m still in the process of de-wonkifying things. I’ve cleaned up the last couple entries already, but if you delve into the archives things might get a little weird. And by weird I mean the pictures are going to look all out of whack – nothing really life-shattering.

And in self-promotion news, Stacey of the Knit Picks Independent Designers Program (through which I worked up and published Adva!) recently interviewed me and the results are now up on the KP Staff Blog, Stash. So if you’ve come here for the first time via the KP website, welcome! If you already know me here and have a burning desire to learn all about my crafting life, head on over to Stash. I’m thrilled to be a part of the IDP and I can’t get over how much the program has grown in just the last couple of months! I know I’ve added quite a few IDP patterns to my queue lately.

Really, is there any better way to start the day than to wake up and see that a pattern you dreamed up, knit up, wrote up, and poured hours and hours of time, blood, sweat, tears, etc into has won a sock contest? I think that pretty much takes the cake. When Elinor announced her sock contest I thought, “great! an opportunity for me to make this chart I’ve been fantasizing about into something real!” (Yes, I fantasize about charts.) Like most things I do, if I hadn’t had a deadline it never would’ve gotten done, and because of that I’m eternally grateful to Elinor for organizing this whole competition, all while picking up and moving her life, kids, and dogs a few hundred miles.

In order to celebrate (besides taking these pictures of the smaller size Brocade on a foot smaller than my own) I added about a bazillion new sock patterns to my ravelry queue. You can check out all the entries in the contest here and queue up your own faves! First up for me are the Burning Stripes – that heel is clever as all get out, and what a great way to work with the long stretches of color of the zauberballs. (I never get tired of that word.) I’m also looking forward to Circuitry, where I’ll learn about mosaic colorwork, and Oh Jamie, My Jamie, where I’ll get to knit stags and a fabulous strawberry toe. (Can you tell I’m really into colorwork lately?) And finally, I’m really drawn to the vintage aesthetic of the Solstice Stockings. Which contest patterns caught your eye? It’s a fabulous collection, and whatever your knitting proclivities, I’m sure there’s something in there for each of us, and I’m so flattered by the recognition for Brocade.

Ahem, and if you haven’t been there already and would like to go, here is the Brocade pattern on ravelry, where it is available for purchase/download.

I feel I should mention that the subject heading of this entry is a bit of a rhetorical flourish. I’m sure regular readers realize that I’m prone to, um, strong feelings when it comes to knitting and that I’m not actually blogging from beyond the grave.

That said, I knit this shawl a little while back and I had to give it away and now I’m just going to DIE if I don’t get one just like it very, very soon.

This is Herbivore, a design by Stephen West. I have had a big huge crush on this pattern for the longest time, and when some local knitters decided to hold a little shawl swap to commemorate Anne’s visit to Chicago and I drew Sara I knew Herbivore would be a great pattern for her. It’s got nice clean lines; it shows off a nice semi-solid colorway; and it has a large wingspan for a small shawl.

The only reason I hadn’t previously cast on for Herbivore is that, honestly, I thought it would be boring to knit. It’s a bit of an idiosyncrasy, really – I love long clean lines, but dear lord are they ever boring. But for whatever reason I cranked this sucker out in just a couple of days. I think I was doing a lot of knitting on the bus, in which case a simple pattern that doesn’t require me to keep looking at a print copy is always best, but I think the lack of boredom is also a result of the construction of the shawl itself. For whatever reason I didn’t take any pictures that show this clearly, but you cast on for Herbivore at the top center point, increase along both edges and around the center stitch, and then add two more axes of increases in the middle of each half between the center and each edge. (That’s not exactly the most clear written description, so if you’re curious take a look at some of the pictures on Herbivore’s ravelry page – you’ll see what I mean.) This variation between twisted ribbing and stockinette around three axes was just enough interest to keep me going.

So you may notice I took quite a few pictures of this shawl. That’s because I didn’t want to take it off. I definitely didn’t want to give it to Sara, but she’s a good friend and she brought chocolate/salted caramel cake and beer over to my house, so I did. And the minute I get some time to make something for myself for once (sadly that won’t be for a little while) I’ve got my eye on another Stephen West design: Daybreak.