Happy New Yarn (I Mean New Year)

I always have have yarn on the brain!  We are at our lovely Coastal Cottage in Sunset Beach, NC for the month of January.  Lots of time for knitting, discovering new yarn shops and more knitting.  My Michigan State Spartans started vacation off right with the most exciting, fantastic, heart stopping (unless you are a Baylor fan) Bowl victory ever.  It was so nerve racking, I couldn't even concentrate on knitting!  

All of my Christmas treasures were loved.  I have a couple more I need to share with you  

This is the Laura Bryant Ikat wrap knit from Prism Madison on the cover of the fall Vogue Knitting.  It is challenging, difficult, easy, fun.  The hardest part is figuring out what the heck the pattern is telling you to do.  Do not fear!  It is very confusing, but if you do EXACTLY what it says, it will work.  I really needed to take time reading the pattern, more than I ever have before.  I read it, thought about it, read it out loud, thought about it, tried to visualize then finally said, "What the hell!" and just started.  The issue is, your gage must be perfect for the colors to stack and make squares.  After you get your gage, you just need to cast-on and start because you really won't know if things stack until you are stacking.  No amount of little squares or practice will give you that answer.  If they don't stack, try a different size needle.  I really had to fudge every once in a while (loosen or tighten my stitches) to make things work.  Once you start, it all makes perfect sense.

This is what it looks like as you are knitting and you change color at the sides.  I practiced a bit to see how clean I wanted the sides of each color to be.  I hate to sound anal, but I decided I liked the colors to line up pretty straight.  I tried just knitting with no tension adjustment as I went along.  The sides of the colors bled into each other a lot.  It was a fine look but not one that I wanted.  That's when I went to Ravelry to see if anyone had written about this wrap.  Low and behold, they had!  Many said it was easy, but be assured that is only after you get going and colors are stacking.  This one fabulous woman said she had to vary her tension to get the colors to stack like she wanted.  And there was my answer!

Here is what the gorgeous Prism Madison looks like in the skein.  It is magic to think it could end up looking like this. . .

I love magical knitting like ikat, that fabulous yarn from Twisted Fiber Arts and felting.  There is something so exciting about fiber becoming something surprising as you knit.

Now let me tell you a little about the wonderful person this treasure went to.  First of all, unlike many of the things I knit which I don't have a clue who it is for, I knew immediately this had Carman  written all over it.  Carman is the owner of Reve Salon and Spa in Sylvania, Ohio and has taken care of my hair for many years.  She is the best.  I have very thick hair, and Carman is the only person who isn't intimidated by it.  I have even been the "let's learn to cut thick hair" lesson for the other stylists.  Carman's daughter is a sophomore in college and she was in preschool when first started going to Carman