smitten with mittens!

not just any mittens but mini-mittens! 

knitted repeatedly until there were 25! 

finished just in time to create the perfect advent calendar!

an excellent way to count down the days 

until the reason for the season arrives with an extra bonus, 

a little hiding place for a special treat!

each mitten is approximately 3 1/2 inches in length.

each mitten took approximately an hour to knit

each mitten used up one of those small bits of worsted weight yarn that remains after completing a project - you know, the bits that are just too big to just toss!

also the perfect opportunity to once again experience those yarns that you just loved to needle, like malabrigo - yum! yum!

i used size 3 dpn's and found the pattern on ravelry, it is called 'smitten' - duh!

the pattern called for an i-cord loop for hanging but i eliminated said cord as i wanted to hang my mittens with a mini-clothespin on a clothesline!

i made the tags on the computer and tied them on with perle cotton thread! 

and then i stuffed them with lots of chocolate goodies!

so festive and the clear ticket to get one excited about upcoming events!

no matter what ones age!

now, on to holiday knitting - 25 days but who's counting?

welcome to our world!

goodie, goodie gumdrops! i've got a new great niece!

let me introduce to you Callidora Daphne Nackos, born thursday, november 21st at around 3:15 pm, weighing 7 lbs. 9 ozs., and measuring 19 1/2 inches from head to toe! 

truly a bundle of joy!

and life would not be complete for a new bambino without the following accoutrements:

a 'snuggle bug' quilt, slippers and a newborn hat!

the quilt is made of flannel, perfect for keeping baby warm while napping

 and so washable in case of accidents!

the slippers are knit from leftover bits of sock yarn. this yarn is shepherd sock by lorna's laces in the colorway 'flamingo stripes'. the pattern is 'magic slippers' and is a freebie on ravelry. a quick and easy knit to keep those little toes warm!

and to keep the little 'noggin' warm, a 'newborn hat', knit from the pattern i shared last year. once again, knit in the same leftover sock yarn as the slippers. 

sooooo pink - sooooo perfect for a perfect little lady!

sooooo happy to be able to cover her from head to toe!

welcome to our world, callie!

the sweater that wasn't....

sometime in late june, early july i had a giant brain cramp - not a momentary type of thing but a really big affliction that lasted at least a week and unfortunately involved knitting!

this cramp got its start in april of 2012, when i attended the columbia fiber festival in hood river, oregon. with great trepidation (not), i ventured into the merchant area - big mistake for my pocket book but something more exciting than a candy store in my book - where i found several skeins of yarn that screamed 'pick me, pick me!' and was forced to succumb to their cries.

speaking of candy, a treasure i scored that day were two skeins of this gorgeous yarn.

the yarn is: candy skein in the delicious series, which is indeed delectable in a 70% alpaca, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere blend in the color way: blue snow cone. i purchased two skeins because of a dandy little summer sweater that caught my eye on display near the yarn. i was smitten. this sweet yarn hopped in my bag and headed home with me where it secured a place of honor in my knitting area, winking at me each time i passed. weeks turned to months and months to a year until summer rolled around again and i vowed to knit this sweater.

since my eyes are bigger than my stomach, i have managed to amass a collection of yarn that could last several lifetimes! in an attempt to get a grip on 'my collection', i have placed a moratorium on yarn purchases in 2013 forcing myself to knit from my stash. so far so good as i've managed to last eight months with no slowdown in knitting production! 

this brings us to late june when i decided that it was time to knit this yarn! i gathered the necessary supplies: pattern, yarn, needles, markers, measuring tape, etc. and set to work. this is when the brain drain set in! i read the pattern (error #1: not as thoroughly as i should have) cast on and began the process of knitting a top down sweater. this was basically a stockinette stitch number so i put in hours of endless back and forth monotony until i reached the armpits where i began the body. i was about four inches into the body when i started the second skein of yarn. after knitting about an inch of this new skein i realized that it was looking very different from the upper portion - a tad less lightness in this skein - which was not noticeable when the yarn was in skeins but very obvious when it was knit! (error #2) this is sometimes the case with hand-dyed yarn as each skein is individually dyed. in the meantime, i noticed that the sweater seemed much larger than the size i had intended and i probably would run out of yarn before the sweater was complete.

shoulda, coulda, woulda! what to do! upon rereading the pattern (actually, reading it carefully for the first time), i realized that i was knitting a size extra large instead of a medium and since hindsight is 20/20, it became crystal clear to me that i should have been knitting with both skeins of yarn at the same time, alternating skeins each row.

so.... i frogged... rewound the yarn into skeins... washed it... and when dry, rewound it into cakes, ready to begin again, but, did i really want to reknit this sweater? did i really want to  deal with alternating skeins? did i really want to do all that plain stockinette again? no, not really so, i knit this:

the ashton shawlette by dee o'keefe - a freebie on ravelry!! it only took 1 skein which solved lots of problems, no worries about matching skeins or sizing and much more usable as it feels so good wrapped around ones shoulders! i am a much happier camper and my friend, susan, will be when i gift her the second skein. a win for everyone and another dent is the stash bin!

shazam!

a pair of socks in three days! that's pretty phenomenal!

a fun knit that was so addicting that i just had to keep knitting and knitting and knitting until, voila, the pair was complete!

i used the toe and heel structure from a pattern that appeared in the spring/summer 2012 issue of knitty entitled 'crystal' by lynn dt hershberger.

these socks were knit from the toe up and were started by knitting a square of ten stitches and twelve rows and then picking up stitches around the edges and increasing in subsequent rounds until there are sixty-four stitches for the foot. the heel was an afterthought heel that was completed by unraveling and picking up stitches after the sock was finished. a tad frightening to think about but once around the block, it was a piece of cake! i used leftover 'luscious' yarn by kollage, a delightful blend of cotton and nylon elastic  in the colorways of orchid, magenta and limerick. i had a number of ends to weave in after the fact but that was a small price to pay for a colorful pair of summer anklets!

earlier in the month, i cranked out another pair of anklets using tofutsies yarn which is made of superwash wool, soysilk fibers, cotton and chitin. what is chitin, you ask? chitin is fiber made from shrimp and crab shells so if i'm a little crabby when i wear them, you'll know why!! tee,hee! apparently this fiber is naturally antibacterial so i guess at least my feet will be sanitary when i wear them!

i winged it on these using a chevron stitch on the ankle and foot portions and employing a standard heel and gusset.

i guess the weather we experienced earlier in the month turned my thoughts toward summer hence anklets! however, had we had the steady rain that we are currently experiencing, i would have been knitting a sweater out of wool, heavy wool!!

i also managed to knit a sweater this month but upon completion i found it to be lacking big time! so... i am now in the process of frogging it and re-knitting it in another pattern but that's a tale for another day! sigh!

enjoy your holiday - i'll be in my lounger, happily knitting the day away - the perfect way to spend the holiday!

ooooooooo, la, la!

bonjour!

this past week i've had the opportunity to take advantage of long periods of knitting time. i was the passenger on a five hour car trip and i attended a two-day conference with lots of time spent listening to speakers - perfect opportunities to keep my fingers busy with needles and yarn!

and the perfect quick and easy and somewhat mindless project - a sweet little beret!

and not once, but twice (actually, three times as i reknit the gold one in a smaller size)!

i encountered this yarn at the madrona fiber festival in february and i have been chomping at the bit to get knittin' with it so this seemed to be the perfect moment - i didn't want a large project like a sweater to haul around, just a small item that fit in a small bag with a small (16 inch) circular needle.

the yarn is called 'loft' and is from brooklyn tweed. it is a fingering weight and is knit on size 1 and 2 needles. the beauty of this yarn is that it is 100% american made - wool from sheep raised in wyoming and spun at a mill in new hampshire. somewhat unusual in this day in age but something i can totally get behind - buy american!

the pattern is a churchmouse classic 'cashmere beret' from churchmouse yarns and teas from bainbridge island, washington. usa, all the way!

the yarn is a wonderful tweed with little flecks of color throughout.

this colorway is called "old world" and is a navy base with a haze of red with little flecks of light blue and red sprinkled about.

this colorway is "hayloft" and is gold with an orange haze and flecks of orange, yellow and green throughout. oui, oui, oui!

i would be a tad remiss if i didn't mention that i found this yarn to be a bit tender and as i tugged on my yarn at several intervals, it broke apart. this wasn't a big problem since it was wool and i could 'spit join' it back together and carry on.

i am very pleased with the outcome and it has been a 'tres bien' week, for sure!

entrelac anyone?

in the middle of february i hopped in my little buggy and headed north to tacoma, washington for the annual madrona fiber arts gathering - a first time adventure for me! i got really lucky and had wonderful driving weather - sunshine, clear skies and not a drop of rain, pretty unusual for february in the pacific northwest! 

since this was my first madrona experience i decided to ease into it slowly by only taking one afternoon class. i also decided to allow myself only a couple of hours to cruise the merchant mall - i already have enough yarn that will far exceed my life expectancy!!

my class of choice was 'entrelac basics' taught by gwen bortner. entrelac is a knitting technique that involves knitting rectangles at angles facing right and left - instead of knitting a large number of stitches, you work on a small number stitches (usually starting with 6 and using short-rows work down to 1).

to learn the technique, we knit this:

tada! a can cozy!

the perfect project - it satisfies both the process and product personality that dwells in each and everyone of us! the perfect way to learn the process of this knitting technique and the perfect usable end product - who can't use a can cozy?! i mean really - win, win, win!

i was so excited to master this technique that i came home and immediately knit two more of these to reinforce the skill!

there was a little more to these covers than just knitting - once completed, they needed to be felted and since they were relatively small, it meant hand felting which was a new experience for me! that turned out to be a pretty simple process that involved about 30 minutes of manually malling the wet yarn until it had felted to the desired size.

the yarn i used in the black and white cozies is paton's wool - the one on the right i knit on size 8 needles, the center one i knit on size 7 needles. as you can see, the middle one is about an inch shorter and not quite as heavily felted as the one on the right. the cozy on the left is knit with brown sheep lamb's pride yarn on size 7 needles. i didn't felt it as heavily as the one on the right so there is more stitch definition which is pretty much non-existent on the far right cozy.

not being able to leave this new found skill alone, i created these fingerless mitts.

they were a quick project - well, i guess that is a relative term without perimeters and for me, i guess that would be a day or two or 6 to 8 hours!

the yarn is blue moon fiber arts socks that rock lightweight in my all-time favorite color 'pond scum' combined with a nice variegated number whose name eludes me at this moment - truth be told, the skein band disappeared long ago!

i made pattern notes as i knit these and as soon as i find them i'll post the pattern. 

this technique is a good thing and i'll be giving it a go, again soon!

oh, yeah, btw, i did do some damage in the merchant mall area!!

closure

Ticking away the moments 

That make up a dull day 
Fritter and waste the hours 
In an off-hand way 

Kicking around on a piece of ground 
In your home town 
Waiting for someone or something 
To show you the way 

Tired of lying in the sunshine 
Staying home to watch the rain 
You are young and life is long 
And there is time to kill today 

And then the one day you find 
Ten years have got behind you 
No one told you when to run 
You missed the starting gun 

And you run and you run 
To catch up with the sun 
But it's sinking 

Racing around 
To come up behind you again 

The sun is the same 
In a relative way 
But you're older 

Shorter of breath 
And one day closer to death 

Every year is getting shorter 
Never seem to find the time 

Plans that either come to naught 
Or half a page of scribbled lines 

Hanging on in quiet desperation 
Is the English way 

The time is gone 
The song is over 
Thought I'd something more to say 

Home 
Home again 
I like to be here 
When I can 

When I come home 
Cold and tired 
It's good to warm my bones 
Beside the fire 

Far away 
Across the field 
Tolling on the iron bell 
Calls the faithful to their knees 
To hear the softly spoken magic spell...

time - pink floyd

and so it goes...another year ended and over 1/6th of the way into a new one! jeepers, where does the time go? 

i think pink floyd hit the nail on the head 40 years ago (40 years ago - can you believe it!) on the album 'dark side of the moon', when they waxed poetically the following:

"and then one day you find

ten years have got behind you

no one told you when to run

you missed the starting gun"

ain't it the truth! boy, one day its 2012 and shazam! just like that, its march of 2013 and the clock keeps ticking....so without further ado, i'd like to share a couple of items i completed before the door slammed shut on 2012.

i may have already shared this but since i'm too lazy at this point to look back at previous posts, please indulge me!

this hat was the fifth yarn shipment and pattern from blue moon fiber arts rocking sock club of 2012. the hat pattern was designed by franklin habit and is called 'buckthorn cap' and involved stranded colorwork. the yarn is: socks that rock silkie "it's about me. it's about me all the time." and socks that rock lightweight "it's not all about me brown".

with the remains, i was able to make a co-ordinating pair of socks with this pattern by jc briar. the pattern is 'butch and femme bobby socks' - i made the femme version. 

to cover her from head to toe, i gifted this set to my niece, whitney, for christmas!

speaking of christmas, i also cranked out two of these that i knocked off from a hat i found on ravelry. the real pattern is 'robin hood' by grace akhrem. by analyzing the pictures and notes of other ravelers i was able to create my own version - a bold step for this old cowgirl - stepping outside of the box and givin' it a go on my own - yeehaw! they were a hit with the young women who received them - stylish and a great stash buster!

ditto with the cowl below. the original pattern that i ripped off was 'betula ring' by carina spencer. what i loved about this pattern was its versatility - it can be worn six different ways - is that not cool? i knit three of these out of a bulky weight yarn that has been languishing in my stash for years in various other life forms. i think this yummy yarn, a combo of warm wool and luscious mohair has finally met its match - uuum, uuum, good!

these mittens designed by spilly jane were another blue moon fiber arts rockin' sock club shipment from earlier in 2012 and yes, you are only viewing one of two because this gloves mate hasn't quite made it off the needles yet - tsk! tsk! tsk! i really should get on that...really, this glove was a pretty quick knit, only about eight hours!

my december shawl was 'taygete' by romi hill and is from the ebook 'seven small shawls to knit; year one; the pleiades'. the yarn is blue moon fiber arts lightweight socks that rock in the colorways 'pond scum' (my all time favorite color! yum! yum!) and 'hrh crown princess of purple, violetta' (the january 2012 shipment of the rockin' sock club).

this shawl just seemed to go on and on and on! and once it was finished and blocked, it is huge and well, duh, no wonder when i used approximately 900 yards of fingering weight yarn! jeez, what was i thinking? apparently i wasn't!

and as a final wrap for 2012 - a pair of plain vanilla mittens in a reclaimed worsted weight wool yarn. i was out for a walk on my birthday, which was a sunny but chilly day (32 degrees - brrrr!) i had on fingerless mitts but they just didn't cut it so this pair are now part of my walking costume.

and that my friends, brings 2012 to a close! whew, glad to have that wrapped!

wacky?

well, maybe just a tad!

but, hey it works! my headphones are no longer a tangled mess that takes way too much time to deal with when i want to use them. no more tangles, no more tears!

all it involved was some leftover sock yarn (in this case some abstract fiber supersocke in the colorway: sweetpea and some miss babs yowza!) and some size 1 needles. i cast-on four stitches and knit an icord around each cord - easy peasy!

colorful and tangle free and a great use of leftovers! win, win, win! nuff said.

leaflets!

the perfect little accompaniment to the harlequin cowl! a delightful pair of mitts with a dainty little band of leaves around the lower edge, knit in the round in a solid color which sets off the leaf pattern. if you know how to knit and purl, you've got it made in the shade!!

why not give 'em a whirl!

                                   

Leaflets

Supplies:

Set of 4, size 6 dpn’s.

100 yds. of aran/worsted yarn

Stitch markers

Gauge: 16 stitches/28 rows = 4 inches

Terms:

pl = place marker

sm = slip marker

rm = remove marker

kfb = knit in front and back of stitch

k2tog = knit two stitches together

Welted Leaf (in the round)

Row 1 and 2: knit

Row 3: *k4, p4; rep from *

Row 4: k3, *p4, k4; rep from *, end p4, k1

Row 5: k2, *p4, k4; rep from *, end p4, k2

Row 6: k1, *p4, k4; rep from *, end p4, k3

Row 7: k5 * p4, k4; rep from *, end p3

Row 8: p2, *k4, p4; rep from *, end p2

Row 9: p3, *k4, p4; rep from *, end p1

Row 10: *p4, k4

Row 11 and 12: knit

Mitt:

Cast on 32 stitches. Join to knit in round and place marker to indicate beginning of round.

Purl 3 rounds.

Knit Rows 1 – 12 of Welted Leaf pattern.

Purl 3 rounds.

Next round:

Knit 15 stitches, pm, knit 2 stitches, pm, knit 15 stitches.

Knit 1 round.

Next round:

Knit 15 stitches, sm, kfb twice, sm, knit to end of round (15 stitches).

Knit 1 round.

Repeat these 2 rounds until there are 20 stitches between markers ending with a knit round.  

Next round:

Knit 15 stitches, sm, purl stitches between markers, sm, knit to end of round.

Repeat this round once more.

Next round:

Knit 15 stitches, sm, purl 1 stitch, cast off purlwise 18 stitches (2 stitches will remain between markers), sm, knit to end of round.

Next round:

Knit 15 stitches, rm, k2tog, rm, knit to end of round.

Knit 6 rounds.

Purl 3 rounds.

Bind off purlwise.

Work in loose ends.

Repeat for second mitt.

let me introduce the 'harlequin cowl'! yowser!

well, i've done it! i've put together a pattern, checked it twice, and am puttin' it out there! a freebie for you and yours! hop on it!

how did this come about? well, now that you ask, here goes: after spending countless hours cruising through cowl patterns on ravelry and not finding one that blew my hair back, the lightbulb went off and i decided that i was capable of designing one that i wanted to knit! so... out came the barbara walker books! i knew that i wanted to use this yarn which was a solid color (shocking, i know) and that i didn't want to do a lace pattern but stitches that created a relief pattern just through the use of knit and purl stitches. the patterns i ended up with were king charles brocade and welted leaf, which i had to adapt for knitting in the round - no big deal, really!  

the yarn i used is a lovely little number by noro which of course, has been discontinued! it is called 'cash iroha' and is comprised of 40% silk, 30% lamb's wool (as opposed to sheep!), 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon (i'm sure it was added for durability!) in a skein containing 91 meters. very soft and luscious but evidently not a popular item since it has already been abandoned by the company - sad, so sad!

i managed to score three skeins and used almost two for the cowl. i am very pleased with the outcome and i gifted it to a friend that it looks gorgeous on since she has beautiful red hair! if you decide to knit this pattern, i hope you enjoy it as much as i did!

Harlequin Cowl

Gauge: 16 stitches/28 rows = 4 inches

Yarn: 200 yds. aran/worsted weight yarn

Needles: size 6 circular and size 7 circular – 16 inch

King Charles Brocade (in the round)

Row 1: *p1, k9, p1, k1; repeat from *

Row 2: *k1, p1, k7, p1, k1, p1; rep from *

Row 3: *p1, k1, p1, k5, (p1, k1) twice; rep from *

Row 4: *(k1, p1) twice, k3, p1, k1, p1, k2; rep from *

Row 5: *k2, (p1, k1) 3 times, p1, k3; rep from *

Row 6: *k3, (p1, k1) twice, p1, k4; rep from *

Row 7: *k4, p1, k1, p1, k5; rep from *

Row 8: *k3, (p1, k1) twice, p1, k4; rep from *

Row 9: *k2, (p1, k1) 3 times, p1, k3; rep from *

Row 10: *(k1, p1) twice, K3, p1, k1, p1, k2; rep from *

Row 11: *p1, k1, p1, k5, (p1, k1) twice; rep from *

Row 12: *k1, p1, k7, p1, k1, p1; rep from *

Welted Leaf (in the round)

Row 1 and 2: knit

Row 3: *k4, p4; rep from *

Row 4: k3, *p4, k4; rep from *, end k1

Row 5: k2, *p4, k4; rep from *, end k2

Row 6: k1, *p4, k4; rep from *, end k3

Row 7: p1, * k4, p4; rep from *, end p3

Row 8: p2, *k4, p4; rep from *, end p2

Row 9: p3, *k4, p4; rep from *, end p1

Row 10: *p4, k4

Row 11 and 12: knit

Cowl:

Cast on 96 stitches on size 6 needles. 

Place marker and join to knit in round (marker indicates beginning of new row).

Knit 4 rows of k2, p2 ribbing.

Change to size 7 needles and knit one row.

Purl one row. 

Knit Rows 1 – 12 of Welted Leaf pattern.

Purl one row.

Knit Rows 1 – 12 of King Charles Brocade 3 times.

Purl one row.

Knit Row 1 – 12 of Welted Leaf pattern.

Purl one row.

Knit one row.

Change to size 6 needles and knit 4 rows of k2, p2 ribbing.

Bind off in rib pattern.

Work in ends and block.

Finished cowl is 9 ½ inches tall and 24 inches round.