Knitting Trials and Tribulations of the Options Cardigan

Holy moly. I've been through it with this sweater.

I'm a huge fan of Amy Herzog's designs, so I was really excited to start this sweater. I didn't plan it out super well -- funny, since that's the fit tip Amy so constantly drives home. The lack of planning caused me to take soooo long to finish this.

But it's all good now.

Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Superwash DK in Marl
Pattern: Striped (or Not) Options Cardigan by Amy Herzog

Dotted Ray Shawl + Meeting Stephen West

Earlier this year (yeah, I'm a little late in relaying this exciting info), I found out that Stephen West was visiting Black Mountain Yarn Shop. Cue the freak out.

Stephen was in Black Mountain last year, and the tickets sold out in minutes. I was so bummed that I missed him. But he came back one more time (the man is forever traveling everywhere), and it was a simple meet-and-greet event.

I was almost as nervous to meet him as I was when I was approached by Conan O'Brien. (That's a story for another day.)

Pattern: Dotted Rays by Stephen West

Yarn: SO many yarns!! Most were sock yarn scraps.

A lot of the ladies at the yarn shop were working on Stephen's patterns. I had been working on this Dotted Rays shawl and wanted to finish it so I could wear it to the shop, but I didn't finish in time. (Story of my knitting life.)

Instead, my friend Sami had the great idea to just bring the project and work on it at the shop. I felt like a little kid, holding up my art for Stephen to praise.

A rare selfie of me wearing the shawl for the Instagram #YarnLoveChallenge I participated in.

Here's Sami and me with Stephen. (Sami knit that sweater she's wearing. Isn't it awesome?) My mother-in-law had recently visited Stephen's yarn store in Amsterdam, and she brought me this book. I brought it for him to sign, and it was his first time seeing the European version.

Also, please notice that Stephen is wearing a leopard print onesie. The coolest.

At first I was really careful about choosing colors for the shawl. But then the shawl kept getting bigger, and I just thought well screw it. Let's just randomly start using yarn. Alex helped me pick a couple of colors, too. He really loves digging through those drawers full of yarn.

I was definitely creeping on Stephen's knitting projects that he had at the table. He was walking around, so I casually did some snooping. (It was cool, though. He eventually told us what he was working on and is all about letting knitters touch it.)

If Stephen ever returned to Black Mountain, I'd probably go again. And again. And again.

Have you ever knit any of Stephen West's designs? I'm ready to start another one. I just can't get enough of those colorful shawls -- like I need another shawl.