Ready for a Rave?

Not that kind of rave, people. A much, much better sort.

I have found a "one skein" type knitting book that I actually think is worth the money--One-Skein Wonders. It's set up sensibly, by yarn weight! Duh! The chapters start with bulky, and work down to fingering weight (with a nice "heavy worsted" section that often designers don't seem aware exists). There is also a section called worsted-mohair, and one for novelty yarns, the latter being a category many of us are still working on in our stashes from previous projects). Several projects are felted. There are so many patterns (the subtitle is 101 Yarn-Shop Favorites), and the color pictures are great. The patterns come from various LYSes around the US, with a designer usually named. I can see a sequel already, Way More One-Skein Wonders.

The only "awww, shucks" is that I just purchased the coolest shell pattern called Diotima from Valley Yarns, and here it is in the book! Dag-gonnit.

I'm just getting the top started actually, in white mulberry silk that I got on eBay recently, and am pretty excited about it. It will do nicely in the fall when it's 95 degrees in my classroom.

I'll post a photo of my progress on it when I get one of the DDs to loan me a camera--DH is visiting my MIL on Orcas Island for a few weeks of mountain biking, kayaking, and his mom's home cooking, oh, yes, and telecommuting to work via the internet and the phone.