It took me several months to get around to finishing my So Faded Sweater by Andrea Mowry, but it was worth it! I was able to complete it in time to wear to Stitches West.
This was kind of a boring knit but the end project is worth it! I have worn this a lot and it made me realize that fingering weight sweaters are more appropriate for the mild California weather that I live in. I also really like working on “fades” so I might put together another one, maybe using more yarns to up the interest factor.
The color is kind of blown out here, and this is NOT the most flattering picture of me ever taken (can I stand normal? Can I pose in a natural position? Clearly not. I don’t even look like myself)… but you can definitely see how it fades from pink to purple to grey/black.
I thought this random arm picture was funny – I was trying to show my mom how to take pictures on my phone.
So anyway, I’ve worn it all over. It’s really comfy and I love the colors. I MIGHT make another one with this pattern, but I might also use the fade technique that I learned with another pattern, such as Pavement by Veera Valimaki. We’ll see!
In mid-April I went with my friend and her son to the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve outside Lancaster, CA. I had been down for a visit and for some Dungeons & Dragons (yes…. I play that now…) and had seen pictures of the poppies on Instagram, but figured it was further south and mostly out of my way – I was trying to avoid the Palm Springs/Indio area as Coachella was going on the same week I was there. (I had been planning on staying at The Saguaro for a couple of days and going to Joshua Tree, but didn’t want to deal with the festival goers.)
ANYWAY so another of our friends who lives in Santa Clarita had gone to see the poppies with her kids, and I realized that it may not be so far out of my way after all, and I suggested to S that we go and she was immediately enthusiastic!
Poppies as far as the eye could see! There were a fair amount of trails around and we walked probably a little over a mile throughout the park. With a three year old we were a little limited, but oh, just that hour was enough to soak it all in!
I texted Malvina a picture while we were there and she said I should Photoshop the Emerald City in one of these pictures, which I thought was a delightful idea. 🙂
It was VERY windy!This is my favorite picture I took. You really get a good idea of the scale of how many poppies there were.
After the poppies, we went to the Arther B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park, which has Joshua Trees, the largest of the yucca. This park was only about 7 miles away from the poppy fields, so I still got a taste of Joshua Tree State Park without having to worry about parking!
I am still getting used to the new version of WordPress that uses “blocks” but I wanted to try the gallery feature which you can see above. Seems… ok.
Anyway, this was a fun part of my trip! I also stopped in Santa Barbara, Cambria, and Monterey – I drove up Highway 1 on the coast on the way back before heading inland at Monterey to connect with 101 through San Jose to get home. I may possibly do a post about that stuff, I took a ton of great pictures, especially in Santa Barbara!
It took me about… four months? Five months? But I finished my Marled Mania Sweater by Westknits back in January which was great because it was cold and this sweater is super warm and cozy!
I love the marling technique of holding two fingering weight yarns together. It’s super fun to blend yarns for an ombre or striped effect. For this project, most of the sweater was done holding a strand of wool with a strand of alpaca, so it’s really soft and cozy. Some sections had two strands of wool, but for the most part it was one of each. I believe there are 24 different yarns in there.
I don’t plan on knitting another of these as it was a huge project – both in size and time. But I am definitely going to utilize the new skills I learned making this for other projects. And it really opened my eyes to the versatility of Westknits projects – they may be unconventional in some respects, but they are a great learning tool! I cast on the Penguono recently and the construction is fascinating!
