knot another hat

a room with a view

Can anyone figure out where I am?

an unexpected FO

Sometime in January or February I started a little shrug for Campbell. The pattern was Honey, out of the Rowan Purelife Kids Organic Cotton Collection book. She insisted on the same brown-ish color in the book, and I wanted to try knitting with the new Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Silk, so Honey was born.

And promptly put away.

The stitch pattern was obscure and un-intuitive. No chart was given (of course not, why would anyone want to read a chart and waste printing space???), which made it nearly impossible to keep the pattern aligned correctly when given vague directions to "cast on 16 sts at the beginning of the next 8 rows". I set the piece down about 1 ball in, way back in February, frustrated at the amount of brain power required and lured by more exciting and knittable projects.

Last week, fresh off the success of the 48-hour cardigan, I was motivated to pick up a few UFOs. Honey was one of them - it's been a while since I've knit something for Campbell and I thought, what the hay.

After an hour of struggling to piece the stitch pattern together from where I left off in February I decided this was WAY to much work for a child who has refused to wear my knits in the past, and frogged the SOB. Or atleast frogged it down to the garter border of the back. Here's what I did instead:

• Pattern: Honey, reincarnated. (Heavily modified from this book)
• Yarn: 3 balls Nashua Creative Focus Silk in Raw Umber, #1137

• Needles: border in size US4 (3,5mm) needles and pattern in size US9 (5,5mm) needles

I re-calculated all the numbers based on my gauge of the yo, k2tog stitch pattern on the bigger needles. Mostly, it came out pretty well given all the tinkering I did. I think the sleeves are a bit long and I had to block the stitch pattern wide open to make them wide enough, but who cares? She's actually wearing it!

another quickie, but not as exciting

Amidst all the birthday fun of two weeks ago we also had the end-of-the-year kindergarten zoo trip, which I chaperoned. While many parents chose to drive separately, I was fortunate enough to ride the bus (big and yellow, my friends, big and yellow) with the kids. Which afforded plenty of mindless knitting time. I had these socks on the needles just begging to be finished, so that's what I did: finish them!

The yarn was a gift from Destiny (thank you Destiny!) a couple of years back. It's Sock Pirate Sock yarn, and I believe the colorway was named something like "Watermelon". These are just plain old generic socks, except that I switched things up a bit and did a short-row heel, which I kind of suck at. I don't know - I keep practicing and I don't seem to get any better, and they just don't give me the same satisfaction as a regular heel-flap heel. Sorry short-rowers.

I have to admit something - knitting socks doesn't really excite me like it used to. I think maybe I overdid it that first sock year, I don't know. I still knit them because I love to wear them and gift them, and they don't last forever. But finishing a pair doesn't have the same zip that it used to - in fact I don't even remember to post about most of them or to put them in Ravelry. I guess I've lost my sock mojo. {sad face}

Oh well! Gonna knit some anyway (with this yarn - so soft - it's what Noro dreams of being when its asleep at night! ) on my umpteen-hour trip to Skelleftea, Sweden in 5 days! Can't wait! I'll be in northern Sweden, then Stockholm, then we're heading west to Oslo, then on to the fjords of western Norway. Hooray! I promise to (try to) update with at least a pic or two when we find wi-fi.

a quickie. literally.

Need something fast and easy and gratifying and not in your queue and not necessary and not a priority but you want to cast on anyway and finish with lightening speed? Knit this!

• Pattern: Knitting Pure & Simple #294, Open Summer Cardigan
• Needles: US 10/12 and US 8 (pattern is meant to use worsted weight at a loose gauge of 3.5 sts=1")
• Size: 37" (meant to be worn open)

• Yarn: 4 skeins Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Dyed Cotton, 637, Raspberry

Yup - you read that right - only 4 skeins. And guess what else???

I knit this in 48 hours!

OK - I will grant you that I was highly motivated, but seriously folks, this flew off the needles. And why wouldn't it - size US10 1/2 needles! And talk about the yummiest, softest, most cuddle-up-with-me cotton! Oy.

God, do I ever hate taking pictures of my knits. Hate hate hate it. I look so cheesy.

At any rate - gonna have to knit this again in another color (thinking Granite...hmmm). That's saying something, too, because I have rarely knit something twice (with the exception of dishcloths and socks).

Still working on FO pics of the Botanica Medallion. It was a busy week last week - Mallory turned 2 on Thursday and Campbell turned 6 on Friday! Congratulations girls - I love you!

look what's blocking!

Whew! Loved knitting this, but feels good to have it done. FO post to come (as soon as weather, outfits, and good hair all converge to happen on the same day).

SALE REMINDER

In case you didn't get our emails, our two June Yarns-of-the-Month are going fast! For the month of June only you can find Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Brushed Alpaca for 25% off (while supplies last).

Holy comments, Batman!

You guys mean business! There is no way I expected 72 comments to my lace post - so thank you all!!

I used the random number generator, and the winner is . . . . Paula F! Here's what Paula had to say about lace:

I couldn't resist a class with Lucy Neatby entitled "The Allure of Lace".  I took the class a few years ago and started buying yarn for lace and buying some books.  I recently took a class with Amy Singer on lace.  I have finished one shawl and started a lacy scarf.   I do like knitting lace, but it can be hard to find the quiet, not-tired time to concentrate on it.  Trying to knit lace with a deadline doesn't work for me.  (I love purple.)

Just as a refresher, Paula has won my leftover 720 yards of hand-dyed Alpaca Lace yarn, as well as a Gardiner Yarnworks lace pattern of her choice (I knit Toe The Line).

Even though Paula won, I can't resist sharing this ingenous little poem about lace, submitted by Tammy O:

Who could resist the rhythmic patterns and the flow of the drape, it's more than great.

Favorites in Ravelry and bookmarks on my shelves, for me they wait. 

Thread-like yarn with all its grace, what's to hate.

The patterns coveted and collected are too numerous to state.

But alas, my needles still wait.

Don't you think Tammy deserves a little something for that? Tammy - email me your mailing address and I'll send you a little surprise for your poetry. :)

Thanks again to everyone who left a comment! It was great fun to read them as they came in all weekend long. Stay tuned for some updates on the Botanica Medallion!

To close, here's a couple of pics from Memorial Day weekend, enhanced by the CameraBag app on my iPhone:

 

Lovely Lace and a Little Contest

A few weeks ago Purlaway held our 2nd workshop, Spring Into Lace with Portland knitwear designer Chrissy Gardiner. The workshop was fantastic (for pictures, comments, and swag details click here). We had such a good time, lots of fabulous attendees, and of course, a great goody bag.

The pattern worked for the class was Chrissy's Toe The Line Shawl. After helping people all day back up, fix mistakes, etc, I figured that I knew that shawl pattern as well as I ever would, so I may as well cast on. I already had some Alpaca Lace that I hand-dyed at a KAH Dye Workshop last year, so viola! I knit me a little shawl!

• Pattern: Toe The Line, by Gardiner Yarnworks
• Yarn: Henry's Attic Alpaca Lace, hand-dyed by moi, 1.7oz or about 590 yards
• Size: 9 repeats of lace pattern, then edging

• Needles: 24" addi Lace needle size US5 (3,75mm) 

This was a furious little knit for me - in speed, I mean (not in aggravation). It's been a long time since I've done any kind of lace, so I was very captivated and engaged. I just wanted to keep going and going. I debated going to 10 repeats (it's so hard to tell when it's still on the needles!), but I'm glad I went with just 9 (thanks Nichole, for talking me out of 10 and the extra couple of hours of knitting that would have required!).

It's been hard to catch a sunny day to do a photoshoot. Scratch that - a sunny day when I'm not in lounge/pajama pants. Sunday was beautiful, but I was focused on gardening and forgot about photos altogether.  

On to the contest part of this post! I was very surprised to only use less than half of my skein of alpaca lace for this shawl! I have approximately 2.3 oz, or about 720 yards, left of this yarn. It's dyed a cool silver/purple colorway, and it could be yours! Just leave a comment on this post with your own feelings about knitting (or NOT knitting) lace, and you'll be entered in the drawing for the remaining Alpaca Lace and 1 Gardiner Yarnworks lace pattern of your choice!

The drawing will be done a week from now on May 27th, and the winner announced on the 28th. So c'mon - how do you really feel about lace?!

Lace is a-blockin'!

My Toe the Line shawl is blocking! FO post due soon!

check out my new skirt!

Shannon Okey gave this artist a shout-out on Twitter, so I checked out her shop, and voila!

Nesting Matryoshka Dolls Skirt, by Made With Love By Hannah. I love it!

must be bolero season...

This little diddy was a quick and fun knit! I bought the kit at TNNA last summer in Columbus, but had never got around to casting on until the warmer air and sunshine kicked my butt into high gear. :)

• Pattern: deLUX cover up by LanaKnits Designs
• Yarn: 3 skeins allHemp6LUX (100% hemp)
• Size: 38-44"
• Ravelry project page

• Needles: size US10

I was highly motivated to get this knit up, because shortly after I got started the Spring/Summer Vogue arrived and caused a little queue bumping (see previous post). But, being that it's DK weight yarn on size 10 needles, and only half a sweater, you can imagine it went pretty quickly.

The only problem is, well, I really shouldn't admit this. I checked my stitch gauge - no problem. But, I, um, didn't check my row gauge. And it's knit from side-to-side...see my problem? My row gauge was slightly off, and it's too big. I have to tie a lot more of the fronts together than are supposed to be tied together to get it to stay on. I guess worse things have happened.

I had a bit of an itchy-nose reaction to the yarn while I was knitting this, mostly (I think) due to the little hemp particles flying around. But after washing - no hay de que. And the washing? Holy cow! I've heard that hemp likes to be washed, but WOW does it like to be washed! I machine washed and dried this and the yarn turned downright slinky. Overall, two thumbs up! On to Botanica....!