Saturday afternoon, the shop hosted Sandy Barnes of (my favorite) Shibui Knits for two yarn tasting workshops. There wasn’t really any yarn “tasting”, but there was plenty of oohhhing and aahhhing and quite a bit of purchasing.

from the shop’s Instagram feed – that’s me on the end of the sofa closest to Sandy

Sandy reviewed each of the yarns and then shared samples from the latest SS16 collection. I love trunk shows. The opportunity to see the pieces – knit as the designer intended – in real life and try them on… it’s the best way to “shop” an upcoming project. or two. This one convinced me to knit two pieces I wasn’t sure about. one that wasn’t even on my radar!

First up – Slope – a sleeveless top from last year’s collection. That collection debuted just about the time my elbow started to act up and I didn’t knit a single piece. It’s knit in Twig, a sport-weight blend of linen, silk and merino. This is the one I hadn’t planned to knit. But when Sandy talked about Twig and how perfect it was for this piece. and the three Slopes she’d knit for herself… I was convinced.

…sadly I’m using a US 2.5 (3.0mm) needle to get gauge, but like I tell my students, it’s really no more stitches… The only modification I’m planning is to shorten the armholes by an inch. I shared the yarn on Instagram Saturday evening and incorrectly identified the colorway as Ash. um duh?!? it’s really Mineral. one of my favorite Shibui colorways. and the fourth time I’ve knit it…but the first time it’s for me!

Next is Meridian. This is my favorite piece from the SS16 collection and not only because I could really use a cardigan like this to dress up all the plain linen t-shirts in my closet. But a few of the FOs that were showing up on Ravelry looked sloppy and there was a comment in one of the projects about the gauge being impossible. So I was waiting for the real sample to decide. Sandy was wearing the piece and it looked great (not to mention that she said it was the 8th time she’d worn it..and it still looked just-blocked…that’s definitely my kind of piece!) I had the opportunity to measure the gauge and it was spot on. The big surprise here isn’t that I decided to knit the piece…but the color I chose.

Yep, that’s black. I don’t knit black. …until now! Hopefully the simple lines and limited shaping will make it ok. I do have an Ott light and that very well might come out, especially for the seaming. Or maybe this will simply be my ode to more sunshine and longer days.

…and hopefully I’ll still be in my Happy Place once these two projects – one on tiny needles and one in a color I can’t really see – are done!