You look very fetching in that outfit! And your mitts ain’t bad, either.
For some reason, when you track down the Fetching pattern on ravelry, it appears to cost $10CAD. But it’s published in Knitty, whose patterns are free…hmm…so I just popped over to Knitty and sure enough, it’s free. I had this gorgeous yarn, Cascade Eco Duo, which is beautiful and very soft; I knew I wanted to make something that I’d wear right against my skin. I’ve gotten in this groove of second-guessing myself so much I start and frog things but despite that, I went ahead and finished the pair. In a few hours of knitting. The yarn is very lightly twisted (sometimes not twisted at all), and quite soft, so I don’t know how long the mitts will last but I do know I’ll love wearing them.
blocking on the cookie cooling rack
The yarn is 70% alpaca, 30% merino, and it has a very soft halo. I’m not sure how I feel about the odd little picot edging at the top of the mitts, but I just followed the pattern this first time.
you wouldn't believe how soft these are!
Today I feel very grateful for the rain we’re getting, even though we’re anticipating getting a lot, thanks to Hurricane Irene. I just keep thinking about poor Texas, withering in the excessive heat and long drought, and wish I could transfer some of the cooler air and buckets of rain over to them. I’m also grateful that I live on one of the high points in Manhattan — I don’t live in an evacuation zone, and for me it’ll probably just involve watching the wind and rain out my living room window. And knitting. For which I’m also grateful. Plus hot tea with honey, since I’ve lost my voice and my throat hurts. That’s a lot of gratitude on this rainy old day.
I think I’ll try to finish one of the sleeves on my little red cardigan and get the 2nd sleeve going. I want to wear it, it’s just adorable…..you’ll see! Stay comfortable y’all, whether that means cool for my Texans, dry for my New Yorkers, or whatever it means for you.
Well! This was really the year of sweater knitting; I finished five sweaters this year. Last year I made two, so this was a dramatic increase. It was nice to start the year off with a sweater, even if 90% of it was completed last year. My first FO of 2011 was the Dark & Stormy cardigan, designed by Thea Colman, knit in Madelinetosh vintage (colorway baltic). The pattern was a birthday gift from my friend Kelly, and I absolutely adore the sweater. This’ll stand in until I get a nice shot of me wearing it:
Continue Reading–248 words totally
Well! This was really the year of sweater knitting; I finished five sweaters this year. Last year I made two, so this was a dramatic increase. It was nice to start the year off with a sweater, even if 90% of it was completed last year. My first FO of 2011 was the Dark & Stormy cardigan, designed by Thea Colman, knit in Madelinetosh vintage (colorway baltic). The pattern was a birthday gift from my friend Kelly, and I absolutely adore the sweater. This’ll stand in until I get a nice shot of me wearing it:
just gorgeous, in every way
It seems to be a blue year, this year; while I was waiting for some yarn to arrive, I knocked out a quick braidy cowl, which I named Oh, Marcia. So corny. It’s the Very Braidy Cowl, in Sweet Georgia worsted (colorway summer skin):
Marcia, Marcia Marcia - a very braidy cowl
In exactly the same colorway, but sock weight (which had been my intention when I mistakenly bought the worsted, above), here’s a pair of socks I made for my youngest daughter Anna’s 20th birthday. She really loves handknit socks, much to my real surprise, which makes it such fun to make them for her. This pattern is Komet:
the komet pattern (free on rav), in Sweetgeorgia tough sock, colorway summer skin
SO MUCH BLUE. Something very different was called for……red. Here’s my “I need something red shawl” (aka LaReine Shawl, by Angela Tong, in OkayKnits Sena, colorway sweetie-pie). I absolutely adore this piece, and wear it all the time:
it's such a vibrant color, and a very nice length!
I had this absolutely gorgeous colorway of madelinetosh’s Tosh Merino Light called filigree, so I used one skein of it to make a Saroyan. I loved the pattern, and loved the yarn, but for some reason it won’t photograph correctly, no matter what I do, what kind of light, etc. So trust me, it’s a gorgeous olive green, not so brown:
IT'S NOT BROWN!!! grrrrrr!!
If this wasn’t the quickest and simplest hat pattern in the world, I don’t know what is, but the yellow and white combo really lifts it into “Wow! Where’d you get that hat!” status. Made for Marnie, the pattern is “My Striped & Slouchy Hat“, knit in Cascade 220.
adorable, right?!
These socks — Angee, by Cookie A, knit in KnitPicks Felici (colorway: green vegetables) — are for my oldest daughter Katie, who (a) loves green and (b) picked the pattern. I love knitting for my kids. Knitting the hat above and the socks below was a great antidote to winter.
angee, in knitpicks felici
It took forever, but I made a second Traveling Woman shawl in tosh DK, colorway byzantine. It’s gorgeous, drapy, squishy, and warm:
Traveling Woman Shawl, by Liz Abinante, in tosh DK
A very very quick little knit, I cranked out the Fetching mitts in a couple hours. The yarn is so soft, Cascade Eco Duo (70% alpaca, 30% merino), in the vanilla colorway. It’s a fun knit, and I know the mitts will be luscious to wear but I don’t know how they’ll hold up, given how soft they are (and the yarn is loosely-spun singles). Still, look:
you wouldn't believe how soft these are!
I love this hot little number: Hannah Fettig’s featherweight cardigan, in Spirit Trail Fiberworks’ “clotho,” colorway deliciously called dragon’s blood. This is a wonderful little sweater, I see why everyone has made it.
the color is dragon's blood
This was without a doubt the fastest sweater I’ve ever knit; it really just took 13 days, even though there was a 15-day break in the middle while I was gone to Vietnam and didn’t work on it at all. This is my Wintry Mix sweater, designed by Amy Herzog, knit in the recommended yarn (Berroco Blackstone Tweed).
Wintry Mix, by Amy Herzog (yarn: berroco blackstone tweed, in evergreen)
A second Thea Colman design, this one the Vodka Gimlet — but since my colorway was Oz (Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted), I named my sweater Ozma’s Delight. I can’t express how much I adore this sweater, I’ll probably wear it every day:
sweater LOVE
When the weather started smelling cold, I realized I don’t have a warm hat, so I knocked out A Hat for Eudora, designed by Alexandra Tinsley. The pattern was a birthday gift from Kelly, and the yarn is Cascade 220. I call it my Berry Welty hat.
the hem facing is blue and purple, but only I get to know that!
Here’s my Laurayana sweater — Ayana by Amy Herzog, pattern gifted by my friend Laura. This was knit in Cascade 220 Heathers (color, montmartre, which is much more dusty lavender than it looks here).
really such a comfortable sweater to wear.
For my youngest daughter Anna, a pair of handknit socks — the only kind of socks she wears, which cracks me up given who she is, otherwise. Not a handknit anything kind of person!
Kai-Mei (pattern by Cookie A), in KnitPicks Stroll Tonal (golden glow)
Her foot is at least a couple sizes smaller than mine, so that sock is stretched pretty far to fit over my foot!
so many WIPs, so little time. i know, you hear that ALL the time.
I thought that working from home would give me more time to knit. HA! Silly, silly me. I’m knitting less than before, for many reasons. I don’t have my subway commute time, which was a guarantee of ~45 minutes to an hour each day. I knocked out little projects during that commute. (NOT complaining about not having the commute, don’t get me wrong!) Also, another problem I’m not complaining about….I have a lot of work. Thanks to my Google Ad for my little business endeavor, I have more work than I can do, quite often. Just yesterday, I was contacted by 3 people wanting to hire me to edit their 100,000+ word novels. One is amazing, one has the potential to be amazing, and the 3rd is stupid. They can’t all be amazing, and at least the stupid one is not about Dracula and prairie schooners.
This work is of the type that causes (and requires) complete immersion. If I were just doing proofreading, I could pick it up and put it down. But I have to hold the whole novel in my mind, see redundancies, sections that would better fit elsewhere in the novel, gaps, inconsistencies, etc. Plus, I get in a kind of flow with it; I’ll open the file and start editing, and the next thing I know it’s 8 hours later and I haven’t stopped to pee or eat or anything. Poof! Eight hours have passed.
I’m also teaching stats, and let’s be honest. None of the students love stats the way I do. They’re required to take it, some are very smart but some are incredibly stupid. That’s right, I said it. Some are mushy-minded people who seem to have been failed by the educational system. But anyway – also teaching stats. And also needing to do 6 research projects for the publishing house I worked for.
So when’s a girl to knit? I also worry about all the hours doing very finely-focused computer work (on a laptop with a cramped keyboard) and getting carpal tunnel. That would be just horrible. At the end of these very long days, I still need to eat dinner and straighten up, and the day is done. Last week I didn’t sleep one minute Tuesday night (thank you stupid waitress who clearly gave me full-caf instead of decaf, even though I emphasized and asked again twice before drinking it), and Thursday night I slept 2 hours.
So here is the current state of my WIPs:
there it is.
First up, the one that’s been sitting in my bag the longest: Mondo Cable Cardigan, with madelinetosh merino, in Graphite.
near the end of sleeve 1, body finished.
look at the beauty of the yarn
I realized some of my skeins were a drastically different color – blue black instead of charcoal gray – and it put a hitch in my gitalong. Thanks to ravelers, I was able to score a couple of skeins that matched better, but I’ve never recovered my mojo on this one. But it really is beautiful, and softer than a baby angel fairy’s bottom.
coming along - but not too quickly. FUN pattern to knit!
This is blanket-sized: It’s the Totally Autumn pattern by Anne Hanson, and it’s such fun to knit! The pattern is cool, and it remains so engaging as I work on it. The Cascade 220 is hard, though, and my index fingers starts to feel raw after a while, as the yarn runs over it. It’s never as hard as I remember it, so whenever I do pick it up to work on it, I’m always surprised. Still, I’ve got a long way to go on that one.
Peasy - after I finish the current ball, I'll be ready to do the collar and button band!! WOO-HOO!!
Peasy, of course, though I couldn’t photograph the color accurately today, for some reason. You’ve seen it so many times on my blog, so you know the color is a rich avocado. I’m getting there, and cannot wait to wear it at Rhinebeck. One good thing that’s come about as a result of this sweater: I don’t hate the purl row as much as I used to. The collar and button band are simple, and not very wide, so I really am getting near the end with this one. Just one more ball of Rowan Felted Tweed.
this one is suffering from no commute time
The Sockhead Hat, in a Regia yarn that I’m not all that crazy about but it was a gift so I love it for that reason. This one stays in my project bag in my purse, and whenever I’m in the subway I feverishly work as much as I can, but I’m only in the subway once a week now.
I don't know; I'm not feeling it. The yarn is just so special - may just frog this.
This snowflake hat pattern is fun to work, and of course the yarn nearly makes me cry, it’s so soft and lofty and such gorgeous colors too. I suspect I really want something different for the yarn, something I might wear against my skin – a little shawl or something, to wrap near my neck. I do suspect I’ll frog this.
close to the toe on sock #1
And my socks, out of Tosh Sport (colorway tweed – this photograph does capture the color pretty well, which I think should be called bronze. But they didn’t ask me.)
the beginnings of bag #1
And a new project I cast on yesterday – the Monteagle bag, using the Louet Euroflax yarn string yarn I recently got from Paradise Fibers. I’ll be making two of these, if I can tolerate it. The linen is kind of hard to work with, especially with these tricky stitches (the next one of which I cannot begin to figure out: “*Knit into the back of the second stitch with a double wrap, but do not transfer to the right needle; knit the first and second stitches together through the back loops with a double wrap and transfer both stitches to the right needle; repeat from * around on each following pair of stitches.”) WHA??? And the linen wants to be straight and hard and pop off the needle mid-stitch.
For now, though, many other less-pleasant tasks are calling my name. Shut up you less-pleasant tasks! I’d rather be knitting.
in which I give up my self-scolding and knit a freaking hat.
Aside from my sense of relative boredom with all the sweater stockinette that drove me to start a new project, there’s one other factor. Getting something done! Sure, I can knit and knit and knit and end up with a few rows on my sweater, or I can spend the same amount of time and get 1/3 of the way through a hat [rav link]!
it's just as soft as it looks!
I can't decide if I want to touch it, wear it, or eat it!
The rows zip by, only 96 sts per row, and there’s all the fun of stranding and color changes and pattern emerging. After the snowflake, just several rows of round and round, then the shaping. FUN fun fun. I agree Jocelyn – having projects to swap back and forth keeps me knitting! No more of this scolding myself.
Anyway, this is all but pleasure and fun and enjoyment! If I need something to scold myself over, it could be the 30th pound of pickles. Or something. 
.
if only all problems were this small.
Well, knitting friends, I’ve gone back and forth, like this:
I’m pretty sick of stockinette and want to start a new project.
Don’t do that- you’ll never finish these sweaters!
But I really want to cast-on with the Cascade Eco Duo.
If you just focus and spend your time with the sweaters, they’ll be done and you know you are going to love them.
I know, but….
Forget it. Just stick with your sweaters. Stick with it.
Yeah. Just when I think I’ve decided something, the other voice starts making a lot of sense. So there I sat with the last point, sticking with my sweaters.
And then I decided, screw it. I’m casting on. Laura mentioned a hat with snowflakes, and I think that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll knit the background with the luscious hazelnut Cascade Eco Duo, and the snowflakes with the vanilla Eco Duo. As Laura said, the snowflakes should really pop against that beautiful brown.
And then, if I have enough yarn left, I think I’ll knit these mitts – I’ll use the vanilla as the background, since I’ll have much more of it left, and the owls with the brown, assuming I have some left.
Also, one kind of embarrassing confession: when the current batch of his homemade pickles is gone, we (which really means I) will have eaten 30 pounds of pickles this summer. Yikes. When you put it that way, I am a piggie!
.
i don’t know what to do. really. please help me solve my knitting problem. AND DON’T LAUGH.
Colossus of Rhodes
I guess I fall on the process side of the process/product divide (here’s an aside for any reader who isn’t a knitter: we are process knitters if it’s really the process we enjoy [and some of us are even pre-process knitters], otherwise we’re just after the end result). Of course I also adore the products, and love having my handmade work as part of my daily life. I guess I’m like the Colossus of Rhodes, straddling the harbor – one foot firmly planted in the process, the other firmly adoring the product.
ANYWAY. Geez, I get off track so easily. When I started composing the post in my head, I thought I’d open with the first lines of The Odyssey, about asking the muse to sing. I must be in some Classics/Ancient Greek head today.
ANYWAY. Good grief. OK, to my point. I am languishing in stockinette wasteland. (oh yeah – this is why I brought up process knitting. I do love the process, but I’m going really bored with stockinette! sorry for rambling…) I’m nearly finished with Peasy‘s 2nd sleeve, and have been randomly working body rows when the round-and-round-and-round of the sleeve starts to be too hypnotic. Yay! An alternating purl row! Variety! (sidebar note: I once had a knitting blog called I Hate the Purl Row but decided that was a little too harsh.)
ANYWAY. So if I’m tired of Peasy, I can work on …… my Mondo Cable cardigan. Also at the sleeves, and also all stockinette. OK, so that’s wearing a little thin and boring? How about my subway knitting……oh yeah. Stockinette hat, knit in the round.
So one project is sock yarn, and not all that soft and lovely a sock yarn either. One project is madelinetosh merino, o so soft and lovely. And the other is Rowan Felted Tweed – scratchy and rustic. I can focus on the yarns to experience some variety, but I think I’m coming down with a case of startitis. I suspect I’ve been infected by
don't you want to rub them against your cheek? 70% baby alpaca, 30% merino
Cascade Eco Duo. Two skeins – hazelnut and vanilla. Only 197 yards each, aran weight. Oh y’all….they’re so soft it’s like lying down in a field of puppies. Or bunnies. And having fairies kiss your cheeks, while dusting your nose with marshmallows.
SEE?! See how they’ve hypnotized me! The problem is that I need to make something with them, and now….but do I use them both, in some stripey scheme? Or make something precious with one of them – there’s the 198 Yards of Heaven shawl (dang, I have 197 ). But I don’t want to just pick something, anything, just because it’ll work with the yarn.
aaaaaargh!!!!!!!! The paralysis of a perfect yarn. All advice and recommendations welcomed.
.
such fun meeting a raveler in person!!
Tammy! She has a picture of me taking a picture of her. Bag of purchases at her feet. shhhhhh.
That’s an activity I highly recommend! Tammy, the blogger behind Life and Yarn or Yarn and Life took the train to NYC and we met at Grand Central Station. Her birthday is Wednesday (swing by her place and leave her a birthday comment!) so that was another justification for buying some yarn. Like any of us needs a justification for buying yarn. Tammy had a couple: her birthday, and the obvious need for souvenir yarn from every yarn shop we visited. Even though I swore, I swore, I swore I tell you, that I wouldn’t buy any yarn, (looking shamefacedly down at my feet) I succumbed.
Tammy’s primary mission was to visit Purl Soho, which was very high on my list too. OH what a lovely store. I wanted a dozen of everything. The displays were great, the yarn was priced on the skein, the people who worked there were just-right helpful, and the stock….o the stock. VERY NICE. In fact, I had to do this. I HAD TO! I COULDN”T HELP IT!
Cascade Eco Duo, in vanilla. Just one skein, I had a little discipline.
Cascade Eco Duo, in hazelnut
don't you want to rub them against your cheek? 70% baby alpaca, 30% merino
huddling together in my Tibetan singing bowl - so peaceful and soft
SORRY. I know you’ll understand my need to take so many photos of two little skeins of yarn. Y’all, this yarn is amazing. So soft, the colors so rich. And what’s that orange book-looking thing in the top right corner of the bottom photo? Dang if I didn’t pick up Susan Anderson’s itty bitty toys. I HAD TO! My daughter Katie is gearing up to get ready to have children, and you know, a lot of the little toys were in my faves and queue, for when you know, grandbabies start coming.
After an exhausting (wallet exhausting) visit at Purl, we walked around the corner to Balthazars for lunch. Tiny table, but good bistro food. Plus – and this was a huge plus – it was cool. Today’s a little bit steamy here in Manhattan. I had a salad nicoise, the tuna was done perfectly. Which means the cook just kind of waved it near the stove, threatened it, really. We chatted, we got to know each other a little bit more, and we relaxed in the cool. I had a blast.
Then we trucked uptown a ways, to midtown, to stop in at School Products and Habu. I just have to echo what others – Jared Flood comes to mind – have said about School Products. You can find some amazing things in that store. Huge cones of merino and of cashmere. All kinds of yarns from Italy. Silk, camel, yak, cotton, and often at incredible prices. If you ever come to town, make the effort to go to School Products. Like so many stores in midtown, it’s just in an office building, there’s no sign out front, so you have to know exactly where you’re going. I’ll be back. Just as she’d done at Purl, Tammy bought a few things at School Products – some absolutely gorgeous yarn that just looked like autumn in her hand. She’s going to Webs tomorrow, so she may not get photos of her stash up right away, but do check out her blog for pictures.
Then we wandered our way to Habu, and after one false start in the building, the guy at the front desk downstairs redirected us to the right place. It’s a pretty small showroom, and if you’ve been there before, they closed the little back hallway that used to have additional yarns. Still, the patient looker will find all kinds of great treasures. I love hearing the looms in the other room softly making their loomy sounds. Tammy did a little damage here, too.
We’d planned to walk back to Grand Central Station, but blisters on feet led us to take the subway instead. And with an ending hug to match our opening hug, our day together came to an end. It was great fun, and we’ll try to coordinate ourselves at Rhinebeck in the fall.
Let me know if you’re coming to town – it’s fun meeting in person! And now I’m off to fondle my yarn. You know what I’m talking about.
.
Popular posts: