knot another hat

Gifts of Christmas Past

Every year around this time I start to think about gift knitting for the holidays. I don't often give hand-knitted gifts, but I do usually feel the urge to, and sometimes around Thanksgiving I start to scramble and decide to make some stuff last minute. Like a crazy person. Since that urge hit me this week (whew - a couple weeks earlier than usual!), I thought I'd do a round up of previous knitted gifts. It was fun re-visiting some of these, and I clearly have some favorites (like the Wurm, which I talked about in this post). 

Here we go: 

One year Mom got a matching brioche cowl and ...

...wurm hat knit with Entropy DK.

The Hangover Hair Hider is always a fave...

...as is the Christopher Hat (double-sided!).

This one was very special ... 

...as was this one.

Sometimes a little whimsy is called for ... 

...and sometimes a pirate just needs a new hat. 

Sometimes an improvised dickey is just what the white elephant party calls for...

And socks are ALWAYS a go-to appreciated gift!

bunches of hats, or how I lost the best hat ever

Last October I was lucky enough to get away to McMenamin's Edgefield for a girls' night with my bookclub. We had a great time relaxing, drinking wine, and soaking in the Edgefield soaking pool. And in all that fun, I lost my favorite hat. The loss is made even more poignant by the fact that I somehow never took a picture of this hat. Let's take a moment of silence to remember the amazing gradient Wurm that I made with no less than five colors of Shibui Pebble.

The photo that never happened.

Losing a hat doesn't have to be a terrible thing for a knitter, right? After all, it's a great excuse to knit yourself a gazillion new hats to make up for the lost one. Which I immediately set out to do, starting with finishing this one: 

• Flora's Cap by Churchmouse Yarns
• 1 skein each Shibui Pebble and Shibui Silk Cloud, in Brass
• US 2 (3.25mm) needles

 I like my Brassy Flora, but it didn't float my boat like my lost hat, so I made this:

• Corral by Justyna Lorkowska
• 1 skein Schoppel-Wolle Cashmere Queen in Purple
• US 6 (4mm) needles
• Mod: added a half repeat of lace motif for more slouch

And I like my Corral well enough, but, meh. So I made this:

• not another Wurm, by Katharina Nopp
• Shibui Baby Alpaca DK and tosh DK
• US 4 (3.5mm) and US 6 (4mm)

And this one is good, but...well, you get the picture. The lost perfect hat is always better in memory than three new ones. 

And, since I was apparently on a hat kick, I also made these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess that was a lot of hats for a three month period. I can't say that I've found my replacement yet, but continuing to try is half the fun, right? 

cashmere lace ... {sigh}

I'm finally dumping pictures off of the "good" camera now that I'm getting the website updated with missing yarn pics. I've found all kinds of goodies on this thing - including all the non-phone pics from our trip to Chile last November (like this one:

 
of me atop the Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago)

Other pictures I've found? How about the Cashmere Lace Shawl I knitted my mother for Mother's Day!

 

• Pattern: Bleeding Hearts Stole, by Anne Hanson, from Spring 2008 Interweave Knits
• Yarn: 2 sk Artyarns Cashmere 1 (100% cashmere, 510 yds/50g) in Burgundy
• Needles: US 3 (edgings) and US 4 (main body)

This shawl was two years in the making. For Mother's Day 2009 I grabbed two skeins of this amazing cashmere from the shop and gifted them to my mom, with a pattern in mind to knit for her. This was hot off the heels of a Purlaway lace workshop, and I had just busted out this lace shawl in a week (so let's say I was feeling confident).

I started, and I hated the pattern. It was totally non-intuitive, worked from side-to-side in asymmetrical motifs, and I did not heart it. So I put it down for over a year.

Every time I saw the lonely little project bag with a half-assed bit of knit cashmere in it, I would feel guilty. Especially after Mother's Day 2010 came and went and I had made no progress. I finally realized that it needed to be frogged, and a new pattern chosen! And so Bleeding Hearts it became.

Knitting with this Cashmere single is a dream. So much so that I have brought back the Artyarns Cashmere 1 into the shop - freshly replenished in hot new colors. (I have another great project in mind for this yarn - more on that to come.)

The shawl made it in time for Mother's Day 2011 (whew!), and was well-received. :) I wish the sun wasn't so bright on these pictures so you could see the great deep red color - but c'est la vie! It's done!

 

let's talk Christmas!

I'm just gonna go ahead and toot my own horn here, because I finished the items below WELL before their Christmas deadline - for once! (OK - in the interest of full disclosure, the deadline wasn't Christmas - it was a wedding on October 9th - but I figured they technically weren't needed until Christmas so that could be my new deadline, right?)

Two of my favorite people in the world got hitched recently, and their union created an amazing family of four. Because I'm always looking for an excuse to knit for my worthy peeps, I thought that a great way to honor the melding of four into one familial unit would be to start them out with some Christmas traditions - namely stockings.

 

• Pattern: Fill 'Er Up Stocking by bluegirl knits
• Yarn: Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia (100% oregon columbia wool). I used Juniper in all four, and striped it with Black Cherry, Raspberry (discontinued), Kingfisher Blue, and Indigo Heather
• Needles: US 11 (8,0mm)

I busted these beauties out in about 6 days - setting my hands back a little on the carpal tunnel front - but it was worth it! I am so happy with how they turned out!

When they were dry from felting in the machine, I used some roving to needle-felt their initials on to each stocking.

What a way to kickstart a very merry Christmas!

more christmas recap

I'm sorry - I know it's the middle of February, but I have a teensy bit more Christmas knitting to share with you. Blogging at the holidays is so hard, too many people to see the posts and have their surprises spoiled - so I'm forced to drag it out after the holidays are over in order to share it all with you.

One of my as-yet-unshared projects was this Dino Sweater for my niece, Nomers. (My nickname for her - her real name is Naomi.). She is 5 years old, and she is obsessed with dinosaurs. I wanted to make her a sweater this year, and while a nice purple sweater would have been just fine, and nice purple sweater with a dinosaur knitted in is only like a gajillion times better, right? Sorry - no pics of her in the sweater, yet...still waiting...Jennifer...hint...hint.

• Pattern: my own - chunky top-down raglan cardigan, with the Roo Designs Dino pattern knit into the center back
• Yarn: Cascade 128 Merino Superwash, 4 sk 1968 Rainier Heather, 1 sk 1919 Turtle
• Needles: 6,5mm (US 10 1/2)
• Size: Nomer's size. I measured her and knit accordingly, but don't ask me what that was now
• Buttons: 5 medium wood slices

My last bit of Christmas-time knitting was a custom stocking for lil' CC, the daughter of my beautiful friend Julie. Julie is part of a group we like to call the Six Pack, because we're silly like that, and we all met and became close friends during our time in grad school at the University of Arizona in Tucson. We are such good friends that I consider those SixPackers to be family, and family gets custom Christmas stockings. (Just don't tell this to Mallory, whose stocking is only half-finished - she didn't know the difference this year and I promise it'll be done before next Christmas!).

• Pattern: custom stocking, using charts passed on to me by Jillian, the stocking maven and Christmas Stocking Class teacher here at KAH
• Yarn: Cascade 220 Tweed, Heathers, Nashua Creative Focus Mohair (snowman)
• Needles: 4,0mm (US6)

You may notice it's a lot like the stocking I knit for Campbell, and that's because that's how Jules wanted it!

OK - that wraps up the Christmas knitting. Every year I swear I'm going to get started early, and I never do. I'm not swearing that this year. I hereby promise to procrastinate my Christmas knitting until the last possible minute, and at the least after Thanksgiving. So there!

How's your Olympic knitting going?

 

#27 for the 2nd time (more olympic training recap)

(The contest is still open - you can continue to comment on Chrissy's guest post and enter to win a copy of her book, Toe-Up!, through Friday!)

Do you remember when Nichole's first published pattern came out in the Fall Vogue, and I was so excited to knit my very own #27?

Well, after I was finished I knew that #27 was the perfect sweater for someone else - my mom. And even though I was hot on the tail of finishing it for the first time, I dove right in and knit it again. And even though my mom would have loved the same colors I chose for my own #27, I couldn't bring myself to a) knit it again in the same colors and b) make my mom a matching sweater to my own. So, a new color scheme was born!

• Pattern: #27 Fair-Isle Collared Jacket by Nichole Reese from Fall 2009 Vogue Knitting
• Yarn: Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed Chunky, 5 sk Cream #11; Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed Aran, 2 balls Raspberry #17, 2 balls Cream #07, 1 each Eggplant #06, Chocolate #14, and Maroon #16.
• Needles: 6,5mm (US 10 1/2) and 5,0mm (US8)
• Size: 39"
• Mods: same as mine, elongating sleeves and adding fair-isle motif around cuff

This went quickly since it was my second time around, and I still really enjoy holding this yarn in my hands.

My mom was very surprised to receive a sweater for Christmas, especially because the last sweater I made her ended up with a grease stain right in the front-and-center. :)

How's your Olympic training coming along??

my olympic training

So, in order to prepare for the upcoming 2010 Winter Knitting Olympics, I have decided to give you a recap of the training I've been doing in the last couple of months, starting with Christmas knitting. As you may remember, Terri Shea came to town in October to do a purlaway workshop on Selbuvotter knitting. Her workshop completely derailed my knitting and sent me off on a Selbuvotter tangent. Consequently, 3 people on my list received Selbu mittens for Christmas!

First up: my sis. I knew I wanted to make these rainbow Selbus for her right from the beginning. Unfortunately I never took more than this one picture, and she has yet to provide me with the additional pictures I so sweetly asked her for. HINT HINT, JENNIFER!  

• Pattern: Annemor #1 from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea
• Yarn: 1 sk Shibui Sock in Ink, #06, 1 ball Crystal Palace Mini Mochi in Intense, #0101
• Needles: 3,0mm (US 2.5)
• Size: women's medium hand
• Mods: this was a glove pattern, but I modified to mittens when I realized the rainbow color pattern would be broken by making individual fingers. Oops!

Even though the needles are on the smaller side, the knitting just goes so fast when you get to see both color and pattern developing before your eyes. And get this: when I finished the Thumb of Mitten #1, the ball of yarn was all lined up and ready to begin Mitten #2 in the exact same color position as I had begun Mitten #1! Get out!

Next up, my sister-in-law Tracy:

• Pattern: Annemore #2 from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea
• Yarn: Cascade Venezia Worsted, 1 sk White Heaven #101 and 1 sk Paint It Black #120
• Needles: 3,75mm (US5)
• Size: women's medium hand
• Mods: I had this yarn in my stash, so had to retool the cuff to match gauge and get the design I liked best

Cascade Venezia Worsted has become one of my favorite yarns this past year. After knitting my Cable-Down Raglan, and then these mittens, I am smitten. :) It is beyond soft, and the silk makes it oh-so-warm. Mmm, mmm. Can you see my difference in yarn dominance between the two mittens? On the left the white is dominant, on the right the black becomes dominant after the cuff. I must have gotten the two strands switched right around there - oops!

And last, but never least, the ruff-ruff mittens for my sister-in-law, Cindy:

• Pattern: Annemore #4 from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea
• Yarn: Cascade Venezia Worsted, 1 sk Chocolate #133, 1 sk Taupe #124
• Needles: 3,75mm (US5)
• Size: women's medium hand

These were so fun, and so fast when you're waiting for the dog to appear. Cindy is the mama to two adorable dogs, Charlie and Barkley, and these were the perfect mittens for her.

So there you have it - part 1 of my Olympic training for the month of December. I hope you all are training as well! Stay tuned for my Olympic project choice and more training recaps.

skully girl

When I found out my Harley-riding black-loving cousin Richard and his wife Jennifer were having a baby, I knew they would need a Skully sweater. My first Skully was for little Ripley, and I used charcoal and lime green. I thought a great girl Skully would be charcoal with hot pink, but because they weren't going to find out if they were having a boy or a girl, I had to wait until that sweet little baby popped out.

Well, on December 30 Nova Lee Campbell was born! So I knew then that I would get to knit a charcoal skully with a hot pink skull and crossbones in the back. Knitting this little sweater is so much fun - as is anytime you are knitting an intarsia design. It's so motivating to work through a chart and see a picture develop!

• Pattern: a modified Knitting Pure & Simple #982, Babies Neckdown Cardigan, size 12 mos
• Needles: US 8 (5,0mm) and US 6 (4,0mm)

• Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, #900 charcoal and #890 magenta

Once again I got my pewter skull buttons from the Button Emporium and Ribbonry in Portland. They are so fabulous there. I called and vaguely described my buttons from the last Skully and they knew just what I was talking about and shipped 'em right out!

Making the Skullies just tickles me - I don't know why I get so much satisfaction out of these little sweaters. Maybe it's the incongruency of taking a sweater for a sweet little innocent baby and throwing in some skulls and crossbones to spice it up...At any rate, it's fun!

I lied.

About my Christmas knitting. I completely forgot some. Oops.

• Pattern: Head Huggers by Ann Norling, size adult Large
• Yarn: 1.3 skeins Cascade Eco-Alpaca, held double, chocolate
• Needles: US 10 (6,0mm)
• Mods: made hat about 5" longer for a tall fold at brim

This hat was for my brother-in-law, Patrick. He likes to go fishing up in Alaska, and this couldn't be a more appropriate, warm yarn. The Eco-Alpaca is SO delicious to work with, I can't wait to get my hands on another project in this yarn. I actually felt like I could have worked this on a US 9 (5,5mm) when all was said and done, to make it just a wee bit denser, but it was still nice as is.

• Pattern: Fingerless Mitts, by Destiny Whitaker
• Needles: two size US 8 (5,0mm) circs
• Yarn: Crystal Palace Taos, one ball #08, Sedona

These little cuties were for my god-daughter, Katie. It was really hard to let these go...so easy to knit up, such a beautiful red colorway of the Taos, so quick, so nice on my hands...Anyway - let them go I did, and I think they were well-received (didn't get to see her open them).

So those were my two forgotten Christmas projects, unearthed when I was digging through the photos downloaded off my camera during December...In retrospect I did more knitting than I thought I did, especially given my Bah-Humbug attitude leading up to the holidays!

Skully

What do you knit for the babe of a mother-to-be who loves black, skulls'n'crossbones, and the like?

Skully!

• Pattern: Babies Neckdown Cardigan #982 by Knitting Pure & Simple
• Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, 2 balls charcoal (900) and 1 ball wasabi (887)
• Needles: US8 and US 6 circulars
• Buttons: pewter skulls from the Button Emporium and Ribbonry in Portland, OR
• Ravelry Project Page

Modifications? I changed the ribbing on the cuffs and hem to turned-ribbed hems, as well as changed the neckline to have a turned-ribbed collar in order to bring in the contrasting skull green color on the front. Oh, and the skull is my own addition. I took the skull chart from the Son of Stitch 'N Bitch book and added the crossbones, then sunk it into the middle of the back of the sweater.

Nichole found the buttons for me at the Button Emporium in Portland (link above). Are they perfect or what??

This was such and enjoyable project all around. It was so much fun to knit it knowing that my friend is going to be so tickled to receive it. I also really liked knitting with the 220 Superwash! It was my first time working with it, and it is so soft, so easy to knit that I was inspired to immediately cast on another KPS top-down project (or two) with the same yarn. More on those to come!

Beaver Lids

So, I know my posting track record is spotty. I tend to go in spurts of posts, then nothing for a month. I would apologize and promise to do better, but clearly, it ain't gonna happen!

Let's see, what have I been up to lately?? What haven't I been up to! Fall has hit me so hard - Campbell is in Kindergarten now, which has its own whole mess of business (not to mention getting her to school at 7:45 in the morning!). The store is CRAZY BUSY and I can hardly keep up even with all of Nichole's help. Y'all should see the amazing new stuff we have been cramming on the shelves every week. I'm working as fast as I can to get it all up on the website...in the meantime, though, we've put some goodies on sale to make room for the new stuff so don't miss out on some great deals!

On to the knitting! Oops - did I say knitting? I meant, On to the crocheting! -gasp. That's right, folks, I've been crocheting!

It all started when I brought home Son of Stitch 'N Bitch, and asked Jason to browse through and pick out something he liked. He picked Lidsville, by Kellen Wallis, which is a crochet pattern. I groaned and put it to the back of my mind.

Then, a few Saturdays ago I stopped by Fiber Nooks & Crannys in Corvallis, OR, while we were in town to watch the OSU BEAVERS KICK USC's ASS IN FOOTBALL, and came across the greatest orange tweed - perfect for the Lidsville hat. (I also got to meet the incredible Vicky, one of the first bloggers I ever read, who was working at the store!).  Hence:

 

• Pattern: Lidsville, by Kellen Wallis, from Son of Stitch 'N Bitch
• Yarn: Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed, color 13, Orange, 2 balls
• Hook: size I (5,5mm) - Laurel Hill - my favorite!!!!

Gotta say, I had issues with this pattern, and at one point even had to contact Kellen via Ravelry to ask a question. The crocheting itself is cake, it's the assembly that's rough. It's crocheted in 9 pieces, and I'm convinced, even in my novice crocheting stage, that it can be done in fewer, especially the back four pieces (maybe a little back-post decrease at the "seam" lines instead). The book's instructions for assembly are really odd, and overall I got the impression that it wasn't well edited before press. Kellen says as much on the Rav page for this pattern, that he was still working on the final pattern after submitting the prototype used for photos. You can tell that there is something really different about the brim in the book pic compared to the brim you get from the instructions, and it's placement with the body of the hat.

But - the final is not bad, and it looks great on J, and will keep his head toasty warm at the next 3 Beaver games we go to in November! Oh - shoot - I need a hat now:

 

• Pattern: City Girl Cap, by Celeste Young, available on Ravelry
• Yarn: Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed, color 13, Orange, 2 balls
• Hook: I (5,5mm)

OK - one more problem with Lidsville - it calls for waaay too much yarn. The book says 2 hanks of Tahki Donegal Tweed, and those are 100g hanks ... Jason's hat took about one and a half 50g balls. So since I had all this wonderful, leftover orange tweed and I, myself will be attending 3 more football games in Brrrr cold November, I though I better make myself a hat, too!

I loved, loved, loved this pattern. I had never done front- or back-post crochet before, and the effect is fantastic. The pattern was easy to follow, and since my gauge was a little smaller (used a smaller hook and slightly finer yarn), I just did one extra round of increases. I actually decreased those away again to tighten it up before attaching the brim, and it worked out great. This is my new favorite hat, and it worked wonders covering up my gross hair this weekend when I had to leave the house while suffering from the flu. Bleck.

Go crochet! Go Beavs!

It's that time of the year...

It's hot. Really, really hot. In the 90s here in The Dalles, where I'm spending my day, and where I was yesterday, when it was 107. Hood River's about 10 degrees cooler, which is still pretty damn hot. Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining! It's taken so long for the sun to come out and play this year that my lavender hasn't even bloomed yet. But because it's so hot, it's been the perfect time to knit with cotton. Baby gifts, to be more precise.

• Pattern: Fiber Trends CH14, Patrick's Pumpkin
• Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, 1 ball each #411, pumpkin and #304, moss
• Needles: size US 6 and US 8
• Size: 19" head circumference

This adorable little hat is a desert pumpkin - bound for Tucson and the little baby boy of my good friend Deborah, from graduate school at U of A. This one is long overdue - the little guy was born in March and I really slacked.

• Pattern: minnowknits Coco Loco
• Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, 2 #203 cosmos, 1 each #406 lilac and #302 wintergreen
• Needles: size US 7
• Size: 6 months

This little cardy is for my cousin and her new baby girl in Vegas. I love those minnowknits patterns for baby gifts - they are quick to knit, easy, and have such whimsy in their design. And can you tell what is new at the store? Yup - Mission Falls 1824 Cotton. I'll have it added to the site within the next couple days and it's now on the site!

So, now I have just one more baby sweater to knit for the near future, and then it's back to the Brown Blob.

Socks, socks, socks

As promised, I have sock knitting to show you! I wish I could say there were more completed pairs (especially of the three patterned pairs I have going right now), but alas, one can only knit so much. Patterned socks are such a mistake for me to take on because I just don't have time for knitting that requires any sort of concentration. Any piece of paper (read: pattern) within reach quickly becomes Mallory's latest snack if I'm not careful. As well as dirt clods, the rubber pea gravel from Campbell's school, and cat food. Ick, ick, ick. Did you know that wet cat food slobber will stain?

ANYWAY - I digress.

First up: my Mom's Silk & Sterling socks. I hand-dyed this yarn at one of our Wine & Dye Nights last summer, in a purple/brown colorway. This was before Kraemer began offering the Silk & Sterling in its own solid colorways. In the interest of full disclosure, these were actually going to be for me, except I got lazy and knit the foot too short. Voila! A Mother's Day Gift For Mom is born!

Next: Destiny's Broadripples. Missy D was so kind to gift me with a pair of Broadripples in chocolate brown Fixation last year for my birthday, and they are my absolute favorite socks! They are so comfy, and have washed and worn so well over time. I wanted to return the favor and figured, What better than to give her her own Broadripples to enjoy!? Since Destiny is a purple gal, the Fixation in Orchid was the clear choice.

Next in the lineup is one finished Friday Harbor. These are starting to become one of those UFOs that you dread working on, so in effort to avoid that I decided I needed to at least finish one and get the 2nd casted on. That I did. The yarn is Tess' Baby and Sock, gifted to me by Nichole and Julia from their trip to Maine for a knitting and yoga retreat last Fall, and it is yummy to work with!

Last, and kind of least, is my Noro sock.

I am not in love with this yarn...but I don't want to be misleading with that statement - I'm still planning to knit more of these socks. First of all, I wish (in hindsight) that I had used a 3 instead of a 1 on this sock - it just feels dense. Now granted, I have yet to wash the sock and I have heard many people say that this yarn does somewhat soften with washing. But it still feels stiff to me. Second, well...maybe I should save all this for a FO post...

OK. Next post: my accident with HandMaiden Yarns...

Finally!!

I can finally show you all this adorable little giraffe sweater!! We (finally!) had Destiny's baby shower last night, so I can let the giraffe out of the bag!

• Pattern: Rollneck Giraffe Sweater from Soft + Simple Knits for Little Ones, by Heidi Boyd
• Size: 12 mos
• Yarn: Henry's Attic Inca Organic Cotton, color Ur, 2 skeins; Cascade Pima Tencel, color 9503 (chocolate), 1 skein; Cascade Cotton Rich, color 1457, melon.
• Size 5,5mm (US9) needles

Overall this was a breeze to knit, and very enjoyable. There is a slight gauge error in the pattern, however, that results in a wider size than stated on the schemata and finished dimensions. The stitch gauge is 18 sts = 4" in St st, and each piece (front and back) is 52 sts wide, which should be ~11.5" at gauge. However, the schemata for this size states the width to be 10". So to my eye it looks a little wider than it should be, proportionately, but it's still awfully darn cute.  (And let me just say that this book is filled with adorable things to knits for tots and kids alike!)

recent knitting

I've been enticed by many projects lately, and have casted on accordingly. But I have little progress to report, so I'm afraid my next few posts might be quite boring.

But before I get to all that stuff, let me show you the Blanket! The gals at KAH got together to knit our friend Destiny this baby blanket. We each bought a Roo pattern for the animal motifs - Jill sewed it together, Shannon crocheted the borders, and voila! We are giving all the patterns we bought to Destiny.

My square was the fish in the upper left corner, or below:

We knit it out of Cascade Cotton Rich. It was a lot of fun collaborating on a project like that, and I think Mr. Landon is enjoying it immensely.

On to my knitting - my first "new" project: Friday Harbor Socks.

I have to say -the cuff chart on these bad boys does NOT work correctly. I adjusted it to make it look like the picture in the book Knitting on the Road (Nancy Bush). The interesting thing is - my Sockapalooza pal made me these socks and she clearly had the same problem -except she didn't correct her work to reflect the picture. Her cuffs came out totally different, and that is precisely what I liked so much about this pattern! So it's too late now for me, I'm not ripping it out, but they will be just fine. I'm knitting these out of Tess Designer Yarns Sock & Baby, brought to me by Julia and Nichole after their knitting/yoga retreat in Maine last Fall.

More boring stuff, and then I'm outta here. Remember this? Well, it's been sitting in my closet for one year now, so I thought I'd knit a bit more. Guess what? Hours of stockinette in the round later, and it's still a brown blob!

(It's the Phyllo-Yoked Pullover from Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan, knit in Rowan Calmer) Check back next April for the next status update.

That's all for now, folks. 

more cashmere!

Way back, after Christmas, I decided to knit another pair of these  - this time for me. It was the whole new-red-coat-need-new-accessories thing.  Well, I got started, did about half of one, and set them down. For many months.

Desperately needing my size 6 needles and feeling bewildered by where-on-earth they could have disappeared to, I unearthed the forgotten cashmere wrist warmers. Instead of putting them on hold to get at the needles, I made myself finish them! My entire "letter from sarah" in the recent newsletter (see sidebar) was about finishing up those long-forgotten UFOs, so I figured I better heed my own advice. They went so quickly it was absurd that they had sat for so long.

I was just sure that I had finished them just in time for the sun to shine and Spring to have sprung, but lo and behold we woke up to snow on the surrounding hills this morning - go figure. They are modified-to-have-thumbs wrist warmers from LMKG, knit with one skein of Artyarns Cashmere 5 in black.

In other exciting news, my good friend and employee Destiny had her baby boy last week! Since I can't show you the other things I knit her yet (shower won't be for about a month), I will show you the teeniest, tiniest little socks I gave her. I had a miniscule ball of STR leftover from these, and thought I'd give it a go at making true newborn sized socks. I cast on 20 sts on size 1 needles and made these little fellas.

I should have taken that picture with something in there for scale - - they're really small. They were delivered to her at the hospital the day she went home, and she reports that they fit right now, but probably not for more than a week! :) 

it's all about the socks

I have f i n a l l y finished Jason's Christmas socks, and just in the nick of time.

• Toe-up man socks
• size US 3 (3,25mm) needles
• Fiber Denn Zebrato II, colorway Beach Junior

I say just in time because this happened to me this weekend - and not once, but TWICE:

This is my favorite pair of Koigu socks, knit in the summer of 06. And let me tell you, I have worn these puppies to death. And machine washed and dried them for almost two years. Really, I can't believe they lasted as long as they did. But - in the same weekend that these wore out, so did these. The second pair is LavenderSheep sock yarn, and I've only been wearing those since last May. They too have been put through the ringer, and have been in my favorites rotation the whole time I've had them, so it's no surprise. I can't believe that for the two years I've been wearing handknit socks almost exclusively, this is the first time I've worn a pair (or two, rather) through. Pretty good, wouldn't you say?

Now, I have leftover yarn from both of those projects, but I tell ya, I'm just not interested in darning any socks! I would MUCH rather just cast on a new pair. And boy does momma need a new pair of socks! Or three. God knows I have enough stash for it! To begin the fun I cast on these, in my Slip-Stitch pattern:

This is STR Lightweight in Watermelon Tourmaline, and my mom gave it to me for Mother's Day last year. I finished the first, cast on the second and worked for an inch, and then started these:

I dyed this yarn last summer during one of our Dye Nights. It's the Kraemer Sterling Sock yarn - merino, silk, nylon, and 2% spun sterling silver (which is hard to capture in photos)! I dyed it up in a purple/brown combo, and I really like how it's knitting up! It will be interesting to see how it wears. . . 

Look Ma, MORE crochet!

Hot on the heels of completing my first crocheted hat, I had to do some more. I did Shannon's pattern again (without the scalloped border), increasing more so it would be bigger, and it came out perfect for Jason (I actually like the looser fit for me as well).

• Yarn: 1.1 balls Nashua Wooly Stripes in color Fiesta
• Hook: size H (5,0mm)
• Pattern: Shannon's (our crochet instructor)

After that was done, I went browsing on Ravelry for crocheted hat patterns, and came across Cranium. Next thing you know:

• Yarn: 1 ball Yarns Northwest Merino Silk in red, scraps of Cascade 220 in black for last 3 rounds.
• Hook: size H (5,0mm)
• Pattern: Cranium, by Chloe Nightingale
• Mods: I had to do 3 extra rounds on the bottom to make it long enough - seems to be a bit of a consensus on Ravelry by those who've done it that it needs a bit extra length for the average women's head.

I think this completes my hat crocheting period. We'll see what comes next...