frosty morning

We're getting thick frosts now. Most of the leaves are down and I'm working on cleaning up the perennial beds for the winter. I thought that this pile of frosted vegetation and seed heads in the wheelbarrow was very striking this morning.

noro scarf

last year i was gifted with two skeins of a lovely noro silk garden yarn in a pinkish color. For a year i've been trying to decide what to make of it. Looking at this scarf, and at all the beautiful serendipitous color combinations of this scarf and others inspired by it - convinced me to pop into the yarn shop and pick up a couple of extra skeins to make my own.

So far i'm liking how it's coming out. not loving. it's not quite wonderful, but it's okay. the yarn is nice to knit with and the rib pattern is nice for a scarf.

It's been a couple of years since i last made a scarf, and now i remember how monotonous it is. and why i decided not to make so many of them. regardless, this one will be a nice addition and it's good mindless knitting for tired nights, of which there have been many lately.

syncopated is finished

Here it is. Syncopated cap is done. Once I got rolling with it, the actual knitting went quickly and was amusing and challenging. There will be more fair isle in my future.

making progress

for those of you that have started one of these and wondered if your left hand would ever get with the program. i'm happy to report that mine is falling in line. it seems to know what to do. this is making the rounds much quicker and I finished another inch in no time at all.

at this rate the hat will be done before halloween.

don't scoff. if you got 30 minutes of quality knitting time a day (if it's a lucky day) you'd be happy with that sort of progress as well.

syncopated cap

George is on my case for a knitted hat of his own. Nevermind the 4,000,000,000 other machine knitted hats he owns - he's specifically requested a hat with snowflakes and a giant pompom.

I'm not that comfy with fair isle, having attempted it only once before. What if I hated it? So I decided that first I would knit a pattern that I have wanted to do for a long time, even if it wasn't quite what he requested.

Welcome syncopated hat from Interweave Knits Summer 2007. It's a Kate Gilbert pattern, and as a rule I like her stuff. I like the non-traditional take on this traditional sort of hat. Plus, I had a couple of sock yarns that I thought would work well in this contrasting pattern.

So I cast on. All went okay, despite my left hands unwillingness to do it's share of the work. We're slowly getting it to fall in line with expectations. Row by row it's starting to build. A little bit of a pattern reading problem resulted in me having to frog a couple rows, but it's working now. I took this on my trip to Oregon and enjoyed a little calm Sunday afternoon knitting in between all the hoopla with my brothers wedding.

testing

is this still working?

Treeline Cardigan - not finished yet

I bookmarked the Treeline Cardigan eons ago. And it took me eons to clear out my WIP progress and collect the yarn (malabrigo) to get it started. Now that it's begun, it's flying along.
Two sleeves are done. The waistband is finished and i've begun the stripes of the body. really having fun with some fast knitting for a change.

Arisaig is Finished

8 months, plus or minus. Finally Arisaig is finished. I used the same yarn and needles as suggested in the pattern. The only mod was to make the ribbing a little bit longer. I have big arms, so had no problems with my sleeves being too big for my arms. But they were too big for the armholes and I had to rip back 1.5 inches to get my sleeve in there.

This was my first seamed sweater. Seaming? Not really that bad. 80" of tie? Not really that bad. The worst and slowest part of this project were the sleeves.

I think it looks good on me. It feels good to wear it and i think that this sweater will get a lot of use. I'm so pleased with myself - an entire sweater with all this lace, on #1 and #2 needles - it's done and I did a good job. Well done me!

hard at work

sorry for the radio silence. i've been hard at work. working on a project I can't blog about yet. working on moving the bike shop. Working on all those little things involved in moving a business. Working on planning a couple of bike events in our town. Working on doing a good job with my 'pays-the-bills' job. Working to keep my soap customers happy. And still trying to be a good mama and give my little Star Wars fan the attention he needs.

Here he is recreating the final battle of Empire Strikes Back

I have to be honest. There's not much time for anything else. The house is a pigsty. The laundry is suffocating. Used to be I was at least home a couple of afternoons to deal with the house, now I'm working at the shop. I'm trying not to let it get me down, I wish I had 30 minutes a day to keep up with things. But you have to choose, dinner or cleaning?

Never fear. I'm meeting someone on Monday who will hopefully help with the housework. And I think I'm going to have a stay-at-home-mom friend help me with the soap business.
What I have been slowly finishing is my Arisaig. It was put on the back burner for the special project. But I've finished that and now I'm finishing the ties and the seaming. should have some FO photos in a little while.

80" of 1x1 rib over 7 stitches

malabrigo booties

are these not the cutest things? Little baby booties out of malabrigo with itty vintage buttons.
They were so quick to knit, I swear I had the first one finished in the time it took my husband to cook his breakfast bacon. I want to try them out in a not-so-varigated colorway and make them a smidge bigger. These appear to be newborn sized. They might also be nice in cotton for spring/summer babes.

and, so you know i'm not slacking. here's the sleeve. i'm getting about an inch done every night - so not far and not fast, but it's still moving along.

finished socks

Pattern: Inspired by Dobby's socks in Charmed Knits, but the heel and toe are done per Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks.
Yarn: Alpaca Design 80% Alpaca, 20% silk from Australia
Needles: #1 Susan Bates metal DPNs
Notes: I ran out of yarn part way through the 2nd sock. Luckily, the woman who sent the yarn in the first place for a swap was able to find some more within her stash and agreed to send it to me. The stripes made for wicked fast knitting, but note the extra thick green stripe on the green heel/toe sock. I didn't quite think the strip thing through on that one, but had it dialed for sock #2.
I'm wearing them now and they are wicked soft and warm. A little bit thick, but that's perfect to fit in my slippers and clogs on a snowy day like today.

soap soap soap soap soap

so part of keeping my soap business means making a lot of soap. here's the first batch. 9 absolutely gorgeous logs of wool wash soap. they turned out brilliant and i will have only a few 2nd quality bars. This entire pile of soap plus one equally as large will be headed off to Green Mountain Diapers. Seems she sells quite a few of these. So many that I actually struggle to keep her in stock. Thankfully Karen has been very understanding and continues to order from me.
There's been a bit of knitting. More sock yarn arrived from Australia so I've been working away on my striped socks. On Saturday night I was having a bit of wine with my knitting, and somehow skipped a very important step of the heel. whoops. So i put the whole thing down and got myself back on the straight and narrow the next morning and it's coming along quite nicely.

Funny thing about the stripes, I do believe that they make boring ol' stocking stitch fly right by.
Hey, what's this? Hello second sleeve for Arisaig.
(sarcasm)You're practically knitting yourself it's going so quickly (/sarcasm)

we have sleeve

one sleeve down.

that took forever. and i still have yet another sleeve to go. onward.

this is taking forever.

Oh Arisaig. You are taking forever. I cast on in August. Little by little I've completed the right front, the left front and even the back. Then I put you aside for a while. For months you languished in my knitting basket - not sleeping, still a work in progress, just not progressing.

Last week I pulled you out wondering just how much I had to do and low an behold I've only got to finish TWO sleeves to be done. Two little sleeves. Narrow things without many stitches, what was I waiting for. Let me tell you something, those sleeves are little devils. All lace, no ribbing, it's taking me forever! I thought that I might be able to breeze through the sleeves before resting again on this project. But nope. I think, after I finish sleeve one it will be time for a little break again. At this rate this sweater will be done in time for wrap sweaters to come back around in style - in 20 years.

and there's still the matter of the trim and the blocking and the seaming. sigh.

you may have noticed a little more posting from me. I took the past two months off from the soap company. Having trouble finding time to do it all. In fact, the soap business is officially for sale. But I keep getting emails from customers who NEED to have salve or lotion or something, so I had to open my doors again. And of course, talking to potential buyers has made me more excited about the business.

So, until I have someone who wants to love it as much as I do we're back in business. I think i'm going to work on refining it a bit more and concentrating on the products that I do best. But it is nice to feel wanted by customers out there.

temptations

it's so rare that I get to meander into a yarn shop and just poke around. but yesterday I found myself in the 'city' with some time on my hands. I stopped into Northeast Fiber Arts Center and poked around -- there's nothing i really need right now. I had no projects planned. I thought maybe i'd pick up some trim yarn for a collaborative project.

but this was calling my name. isn't the color divine?

Sock patterns that I'm thinking of, at this moment include:

Earl Grey by the Yarn Harlot
BFF Socks
Perambulate
Vinnland
Estonian Button Stitch Socks

knitting footwear

At Christmas I participated in a yarn swap over on Ravelry. My partner sent me two skeins of alpaca/silk sock weight yarn in very yummy colors. A trip to the library resulted in scoring a copy of Charmed Knits (projects for fans of Harry Potter) which just so happened to have a pattern for jolly striped socks.

I cast on during a plane trip to TX, and the flight attendant was most impressed. If you're out here Wonderful Jet Blue Flight Attendant, I hope you were brave enough to cast on those circular projects and knit those hats! Anyway, one sock flew off my needles the second quickly following suit - but OH NO! I ran out of green yarn 25% of the way through sock #2. Nearly out of pink yarn as well I hit the internet looking to pick up a couple of other skeins and nothing. I cannot find this yarn! Here's hoping my swap partner is able to score a couple of extra skeins for me.
Project #2 are these footies that were a request from a friend. Over the years she had been the recipient of heaps of these style slippers from the grandmother of a roomate, she requested a pair in black so that she could wear them on the plane during her frequent travels. Done in Wool Ease, she can throw them in the washer without care.

A pretty quick knit, however the pattern she supplied was not without it's challenges. There was a long stretch of alternating rows of K9 P11 K9 and K10 P9 K10 -- and I could not keep it straight. Each footies had to be ripped back 10+ rows because I messed up. Each row I found myself counting bumps from the row before to figure out how much I had to knit for that row.

new art

I can be so tempted while surfing around Etsy. Last week, while following a link originally found on Decor8 - i stumbled upon a beautiful ceramic bowl and had to have it.

It came beautifully wrapped (love the look of the bag, I may get inspired by this for Hug-a-dub-dub) and I love the finished piece.This will hopefully soon become part of an artful display of 'plates' on the dining room wall. Thank You Paloma's Nest!

Another fave on Etsy is Tabbatha Henry. I bought one of her pendants from her studio at christmas and always get compliments on it whenever I wear it.

Puff Sleeved Cardigan - Fitted Knits

A second finished project in one week! this may be a record for me.
Project: Puff Sleeved Feminine Cardigan by Stephanie Japel in Fitted Knits (ravelry link)
Yarn: Auracania Nature Wool in a dark blue
Needles: Size 6 mainly, a little bit of Size 5
Notes: I swatched for this. really I did. I chose size 5 needles as the appropriate size to get the right fabric. BUT - for some reason when I went to knit this sweater, I picked up the #6's and cast-on and didn't realize my mistake until I was 1/2 way through the first ball of yarn. So I just kept going.

It's not too terrible. The fabric is a little too drapey for the pattern and the whole thing ended up bigger than necessary and therefore not really 'fitted.' The first skein of yarn was very different from the following skeins. I liked the first one best, very little variation of color. The bottom half is a little more varigated than I had thought.

The peplum kind of looks like an afterthought, it's a bit bizarre but I do like it and I'm glad I did it and it's done.

January knitting

K's been asking for me to knit him a sweater for a long time. So, before christmas I took him to the yarn store and let him pick the color yarn (reddish brown Harrisville New England Highland) and over the holidays I cast on for the Children's Hooded Tunic #232. I did one of these already and liked the pattern and the result.

What seems like a million years later, but actually less than a month, turns out that there wasn't enough yarn for the hood (BIG disappointment!) but truly he's happy to have a new sweater all of his own.

Needles: 8 and 6
Mods: just the garter stitch neck instead of a hood.

couple of other quick picks. I did a yarn swap on Ravelry for the holidays and scored this precious alpaca/silk sock yarn from my pal in Australia. I love it and the socks are going to be tres chic.
My favorite christmas gift? This big, posh Emma Bridgewater tea pot. It also came with two matching mugs. Thank you UK Father Christmas! This is my new weekend teapot, it's a little too big for a weekday morning when i have to run out the door so quickly, but it's perfect for a wonderful Sunday morning with the family.

where are they now? revisiting past projects...

I thought it might be fun to take a look at some past projects and see what they've been up to lately. First up - Monkey Socks. I swear, when I knit these no one else had done them yet. I had the hardest time finding any FO's on the web to look at, and at that time Ravelry didn't exist for me.

I like these socks. the color is fabulous but I think they should have been knit on #1's not #2's. they're a bit saggy and baggy and you can see that we have some yarn breakage. i liked the KPPPM - but haven't really wanted to go out and buy more based on the performance from this sock.
Sock Monkey - yes, it's supposed to be a bear but somewhere along the way this got named 'sock monkey'. the pattern is from Jess Hutch's book of knitted toys which is apparently out-of-print and highly coveted. I'm glad I have a copy as my son loves this monkey. it gets loads of love and cuddles all the time and is close to becoming 'real' a la the velveteen rabbit.
It's made with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes which has held up really well, just a little bit of pilling. The eyes don't work so well. I got the kind suggested, but think that my knitting was a bit loose and they push in all the time which has led to some panic on the part of a little boy.