Yarn Along: April

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I am joining Ginny today for the April installment of the Yarn Along.  Sometimes I can't wait for it to be Yarn Along day, and sometimes it sneaks up on me.  This month, it snuck up on me!  I didn't have my pictures ready or, really, much of the post written in advance like I normally do.

Since last month, I finished the Cadence socks that I was knitting for my Mom. I wasn't sure, when I started, if the patterning on the socks would be visible with the yarn she had chosen (frequent color changes), but they came out really well. Sort of self-striping, and with the pattern visible enough.

I almost, but not quite, got the stripes to match.

pattern, close up

Once those were done, I cast on my next project: a pair of Lace Wings socks that will be a birthday present for DD1. I'm doing them in Knit Picks Stroll in the color Sprinkle Heather (same yarn as I made these Crystalline socks last fall).  She had really admired the color on those socks, so I ordered some more yarn in that color to make a pair for her.  It's lovely soft and squishy yarn, plus this color has a really neat sheen to it.  I'm making good progress on the first sock; almost done with the decreases on the gusset.

After I got going on DD1's sock, I found myself casting on for a project I hadn't anticipated, using a yarn I thought I didn't like.  When this yarn came to me (in a subscription box this winter), my first reaction was "oh how ugly!"  The first ten times I looked at it, I just could not imagine myself making anything with this unappealing color.  In fact, I strongly considered cancelling my subscription!

It looks way better in a cake than it did as a hank.

But then, for some reason (maybe the weather, and the lighting turning warmer and brighter?), the yarn started making me think of pickles, and I was finding the tones more interesting than repulsive.  I began to entertain ideas of a shawl using this yarn.  And when Ginny shared this post that included pictures of a Nurmilintu shawl she'd made, I knew that was exactly the pattern my pickle yarn needed.  So, I cast on for a Nurmilintu of my own.  Although I call it "the pickle shawl".  

I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it once it's finished, because I like it all ready and it's hardly begun.

I did not read as much in March as I did in February.  Since the March Yarn Along, I finished reading Unsheltered, which was not as rough to read as I feared it might be.  Everything turned out well in the end, even if it was a surprising twist.

I also read two other books:

More Than You Think You Know by Cyndi Perkins.  I liked but disliked this one.  Parts were very interesting, but other parts were either too graphic or too whiny or too in opposition to my personal morals.  But then again, I'm rather prudish in my reading matter, so if the blurb sounds interesting to you, give this book a try!

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center.  I liked this one. Not quite as much as the one I read by this author in February, but it was still a good read.

Currently I am reading Slow: Simple Living for a Frantic World by Brooke McAlary.  I like the author's writing style, but so far (about 50 pages in,) I haven't learned anything I haven't all ready known and/or practiced for years.  I think I will keep reading it all the way to the end, but then again, maybe not. We'll see how the next chapter or two go.