Working with lace

I finally made the plunge and decide to try out some lace weight yarn. And I have to say, while the process of knitting an complete FO with such thin yarn is very time consuming, I love the end results

Earlier this summer, I worked on the fountain pen shawl by Susan Lawrence. This shawl is going to be a gift for my mom, who has a milestone birthday coming up in September. I used Tess' laceweight superwash merino. The pattern was fun, but the rows got really long toward the end. I only managed to complete 10 of the 11 suggested repeats before calling it quits and jumping into the edging chart. And the edging chart was so fun! I think it was my favorite part to knit and is my favorite part to look at. As for the yarn, it was okay. I'm a little disappointed that it didn't really soften up after washing. Also, my left finger was constantly black from the dye bleeding while I knit. That was a big deal, just a little annoying.

Next up was the whiper cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I was dubious to knit this cardi because I couldn't quite wrap my head around the construction and if I could make it fit me. I would not be pleased to frog and re-knit a laceweight sweater! But after 3 people I know made whisper, I decided to give it go, taking into account the lessons they learned from knitting it. I made somewhere between a M/L size. That is, I cast on the right number of stitches for an M and knit the appropriate number of inches for an L. This made it a little tricky to decide how many stitches to pick up for the collar. Nothing that I little counting and a calculator couldn't solve, though! I also made one mod to the lower back: increases every 4th row rather than every other row.

Oh and the yarn! I absolutely love this yarn! I bought this skein of Malabrigo merinocash in the "smoke" color way during my trip to San Francisco in May. ImagiKnit was (is?) carrying merinocash as a test product. It is so soft to knit with and the color is fantastic. Hopefully it will be more readily available in the future!

Feeling blue and brown

Two of the projects I am working on right now are in the blue and brown color family.

First up, a quick knit from leftover sock yarn from my Spirit Trail Fiberworks Charade socks. This is the tiny shoe pattern by Ysolda Teague. As with most of her designs, this one is very clever, with minimal seaming/finishing involved.







I'm also getting in my spinning practice. A friend bought me a surprise gift of Sheep Shop Yarn Company merino roving in "Royalty." So far, I've spun up 1 of the four ounces. I am still a pretty slow spinner, but my product is getting more consistent as I go. Here's a picture of the roving, pre-drafted roving, and spun single ply. I have no clue how this is going to knit up. I'm thinking this will make a lovely winter shawl or scarf.

Cocoa Cup and Enablers Meet-Up

I finished my cocoa cup! This is a pattern by Heidi Kirrmaier called Buttercup. I made the small, but probably should have gone with the extra-small because of the plunging neckline. In fact, the only mods I made were on the neckline. The neckline was way too low for me so I ended up redoing it 3 times until I found a relatively comfortable fit without scrunching the top too much. Instead of picking up the neckline per the instructions, I picked up every other stitch along the neck, every stitch along the sleeve, and 3 of every 4 stitches across the back.

The tee took me 5.5 skeins (841.5 yards) of Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy. It's interesting knitting this yarn up at 22 stitches per 4 inches instead of 24 stitches per 4 inches (as in the Arbor I made last year). The fabric has a lot of drape!

Here's me with a couple of my fellow "enablers," all in our buttercups...

But even better than 3 buttercups are 12 enablers! Check out the picture from our Enablers Anonymous Meet-Up! Our host Kate made some delicious treats for brunch. We managed to take a break from some serious knitting, chatting, and eating to take this picture outside. Even though it was in the 80s, we were adorned with FOs -- lots of shawls and summer tops!

CSA 2009, Week 3: June 13, 2009

Each week's pick up is getting more and more bountiful! This week we had spring onions, lettuce mix, radishes, garlic scapes, Swiss chard, and summer squash. I also picked flowers, dill, and cilantro from the garden. The herbs smell heavenly!

I mixed the dill with chickpeas and served them over brown rice cooked with the spring onion. For an added zing, I added lemon juice and a dollop of yogurt.



Flowers!!

This morning I cast on for a new pair of socks. This is the second pair of socks that I'll be making with this yarn. I frogged my Jaywalkers due to poor fit. The new pattern I choose (Herringbone Rib Socks) is nice and stretchy and, so far, I like the way the pattern and the yarn work together.

Elephantine hat-trick, radishes, and a princess lioness

They are done! Three mix-and-match Elijahs. And boy do my hands hurt. I calculate that each Elijah took me 12-13 hours. Nothing like Cascade 220 Superwash on size 4s for that many hours to give you a hand cramp. But they are way cute and I can't wait to give them to the recipients! These little guys are for three little boys, ages 5, 3, and -8 weeks (i.e., still in utero). :) I hope they like them!

Tonight I cut up some radishes from this past Saturday's CSA haul. What beautiful colors!

One more random picture to share. Here's little Miss Chloe, The Princess Lioness. Yes, I put a feathery scrunchy (favor from a baby shower - -not something I willing purchased!) on her head. She posed proudly. Or she was too lazy to move. One or the other.

CSA 2009, Week 2: Saturday, June 6

CSA week 2: kale, radishes, spinach, salad, peas, spring onions, asparagus, strawberries, garlic scapes. And from the pick your own: wildflowers and cilantro. Yum!



I finally took pictures of my "Little Green Monster," a pattern of my own creation. The only thing it's missing is 4 little buttons. I'm thinking red would go well with the green... hmmmm?

This was a fun project, not only in that I improvised the pattern but also in that I used 2 different yarns: the light green is Karabella Aurora 4, a sport weight merino, and the dark green is Spirit Trail Fiberworks "Brigit," a fingering 100% superwash merino. It adds some depth and texture to the sweater and it helped my use up some project leftovers. Win-win!

Thanks, ladies!

My prize (a WEBS giftcard) for winning the Enablers Anonymous KDAL arrived in the mail yesterday. Thanks, ladies! I'm looking forward to replenishing my stash.

I met Ysolda!

Two weeks ago I went to a business conference in Charlottesville, VA. I didn't expect to report anything exciting, but I was pleasantly surprised.

On Wednesday of the trip, I stopped by The Needle Lady, a LYS less than 2 blocks from the conference location. Mimi, the owner, was very friendly and has a fantastically stocked store! I told her I was in town for a conference, and she invited me to join the store's knitting meet-up the following evening. They were hosting a special guest: Ysolda Teague, designer extraordinaire!

Knitting with Ysolda was lots of fun, as was dinner afterwards. She is a treasure trove of knowledge on knitting and design. I hope I can retain some of her pearls of wisdom!



Check out the "Enable Me" button! It was given to her by one of my fellow Enablers and Ysolda still had it in her knitting bag.

Read more about Ysolda's visit to Charlottesville on The Needle Lady's blog, Ysolda's blog, and Vilde's blog.

A surprise Sheep and Wool purchase

What did I buy at Sheep and Wool? Yarn, yes -- lots of goodies: Tilli Thomas (10 skeins of superwash merino for $20!) and Tess (a sweater's quantity of superwash merino, black superwash lace weight for a sweater, and green superwash laceweight for a shawl) got most of my business... that was before lunch.

But before I about the purchases, check out the pre-gaming Sheep and Wool celebrations. The first annual Enabler's Tailgate!

A little bubbly to kick things off!



Some of the ladies enjoying a cold beverage.



Elijah was a big fan of the coffee cake and his mimosa...



By far the best (only?) S&W tailgate!

A few stars from the festival.

Check out the teeth on this guy! He was very social and let me pet him while he was munching.

So, what was the big purchase? After lunch, I decided to take the plunge and buy a spinning wheel! Here's the picture of the Ashford Traveller that I tried. I have her twin in my living room now! More on how spinning is going (hint: not well yet! ;) ) soon...

why the hiatus?

Oh, yes, and I should explain my posting hiatus. I've been busy... knitting! I know, no excuse not to post. Why didn't I share? Well, in an effort to knit down my stash over the past few months, and with the encouragement of a little friendly competition, I have kept my "nose to the needles," if you will.

The result? 10,914 yards knit into FOs from December 1 - April 30. As Sarah pointed out at Wednesday's meet-up, 6.2 miles of yarn. Wow. Needless to say, I have lots of FOs to share and will try to catch up in some upcoming posts.

With Sheep and Wool coming up tomorrow and my stash pretty much decimated, the timing could not be better. I'm looking forward to some lovely sheep goodies to replenish my knitting basket!

Oh, and before I forget, I dabbled in dyeing and spinning in the month of April, thanks to the generosity of some of my favorite "enablers." To be clear, I understand the general principles of these activities now, but am far from being proficient at either of them. Nonetheless, I have a some souvenirs from my non-knitting fiber adventures.

Here is my first attempt at dyeing. The base is a wool/nylon blend. There was a bit of a mix up with the colors and I used "teal" where I wanted to use "moss." No matter. A little over-dyeing resulted in a brilliant, rich green. The grayish-green color in the skein is called herb green. Although it looks more plain-ole-gray than green next to the rich moss over teal. And the white spots? That's just my error and inexperience, i.e., not knowing how to fully saturate a skein of yarn. The combination reminds me of something industrial... don't know why. Anyway, I dubbed my first colorway "green machine."



Despite my blunders, it's knitting up nicely into a pair of Jaywalkers.



My second dyeing attempt was on a fancier base (Fingering / 4 ply Nylon, Metallic, Silk, Merino). The first round of dyeing this skein was using various concentrations of the color "wedge wood." It was pretty, but in the end looked like a blue version of "green machine." I was going for more of a semi-solid look. So, under Shelby's great advice, I over-dyed the skein with a medium concentration of the color "gunmetal." I named this colorway "gunmetal over wedge wood." Clever, huh? I'm hoping to knit this into a pretty, sparkly shawl.



Finally, my first attempt at spinning. The result is a ridiculous mess, really. Thick and thin and totally un-knitable. But how fun to watch yarn appear before your eyes! I couldn't quite get the hang of a drop spindle, but the spinning wheel was lots of fun. And thank goodness for Elizabeth's patience in teaching me. Boy, were my hands uncoordinated!! At least I got a good laugh out of my clumsiness. I'll have to get some more practice and do some serious research before I invest in a wheel... one day though!

Little senses of accomplishment

I've been doing a little of this and that today. The nice thing is that I finished several projects today, which makes me happy!

First, I put the buttons on the BSJ that I finished for a baby shower I will be attending next weekend. I think the buttons are two mice in a boat fishing. But it could be some other animal too. In any case, they are very cute! I used Shalimar Sock Yarn and size 4 needles. I still have about 85 yards of this yarn left, which means the sweater took about 320 yards. For a more polished look, I picked up and knit stitches around neckline. After the pick up and knit row, I knit one row additional and then bound off in knit.

I blocked my first Clapotis. For this project, I used size 3 needles with a Peruvian tweed alpaca yarn. It's dark grey and brown , and I simply love the warmth of the color combined with the actual warmth and softness of the yarn. This was a MD Sheep and Wool purchase from last year. I have now officially used all of the yarn I bought last year!! Since I only had 600 yards of this yarn, I knit one fewer set of increases. This means that I had about 80ish stitches on the needles instead of 100ish for the straight rows. (I don't have the pattern in front of me right now for the exact number of stitches... and I'm too lazy to go look on knitty and do the math right now.)





I played in the kitchen today too. I had a craving for quiche, so I improvised this recipe from one of my cookbooks. The key ingredients are milk, broccoli, eggs, cornmeal, Dijon mustard, and onions. I made them in individual serving sizes so they are easier to take for lunches. Also, I skipped the crust, since I didn't have any and didn't feel like making any. Some cooking spray kept the mixture from sticking to the dishes.




Finally, I baked some oatmeal apple cinnamon muffins. I love this recipe! The only adjustments: added cardamom for some zing and didn't put in flaxmeal (didn't have any). And in the time it took me to write this blog, I have already eaten two of them!

Ah, the Pacific Northwest

Last summer the mister and I traveled to the Pacific Northwest (western Washington and Oregon, and also Victoria, BC to be more specific) with a couple of very close friends. We deemed our trip "Beervana," as our goal was to sample as many fine brews as the Pac NW would offer us, while still remaining coherent enough to see the beautiful sites this region has to offer. Or actually in the reverse order: sites first, beer later. Right, so that was pretty much the trip: walking city streets or hiking paths/trails during the day with a breaks for meals at a local brewpub.

Last year, I blogged about some of my favorite beers from the region. Here are some of my favorite non-city sites.

Multnomah Falls, OR.


Sunset over Puget Sound.


Falls at Mount Rainer National Park.


Mount Rainer.



Crescent Lake, WA.


Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park... who doesn't love snowmen in July?


Mount Hood, OR, as seen from a vineyard in WA just on the other side of the Hood River.


The Gorge Games in Hood River, OR.


A scenic overlook on the Pacific Coast Highway. Look at the weather front! Sunny on the left, stormy on the right. Amazing!



A view of WA from the ferry between Victoria and Port Angeles, WA.


So, why the trip down memory lane? Well, I just finished knitting up the yarn I bought from a small shop in Cannon Beach, OR. STR (socks that rock) is actually local in Oregon: that's where the stuff is made! What a great way to purchase my first skein!

I spent a long time deciding what to do with this yarn. It's 380 yards of medium weight superwash 4-ply merino in the colorway "Montley Hue." Very appropriate as the sky was pretty much this shade of bluish grey on the day I made the purchase. The tanish flecks remind me of the sand on Cannon Beach. Perfect. Anyway, I decide to make the Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark. I did my research on Ravelry and saw that other knitters that used STR for this project knit with size 6 needles. So I decided to do the same. No swatching for me!! As a result, I ended up only having enough yarn for 7 of the 8 body repeats. I should have known better and gone down a needle size from everyone else because I am a loose knitter. The shawl blocked out to 27 inches in length and a 55 inch “wing-span,” (which is larger than what the pattern called for). So, as you can imagine, my "leaves" are pretty big. But I'm happy with it. I can't wait to wear it to a wedding we're attending in March!