How The West Was Spun

Unsinkable

Did you know that this April marks the 100th anniversary mark of the sinking of the Titanic, a ship deemed "unsinkable"?

To commemorate the event, Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops and I have teamed up for a fun, quick-to-knit project.  I was really excited when Kirsten approached me about collaborating on this project, and even more excited when I saw the gorgeous pattern she came up with.  Interesting to knit, but a single-skein shawlette with just a hint of lace, it's a great spring project that you can finish and wear for cooler evenings in the late spring, early summer.

Kits will be available in the shop starting April 1st (and includes the pattern with written and charted instructions, plus the yarn to knit the project).  Or shoot me an email/leave a comment if you'd like to pre-order yours now!

All for now.....

More Ennea Patterns

A couple more new patterns that are in the Winter Ennea Collective magazine for y'all.

The first is a super simple lace scarf.  This takes very little yarn, and if you have a special skein of handspun or a commercial beaded yarn, you can zip thru this on large-ish needles and even get it knit in time for Xmas this weekend.

The Ponderosa Snowfall scarf:

I used the beaded yarn I spun up from a 4-oz braid of BFL earlier this year.

The Diamond Dust Tam is another quick knit. I used about 150 yards of a nice soft Aran/heavy-worsted weight merino for this one.  It's not a super floppy tam, but big enough if you have curls to be able to work with those.

And a shot of the interesting cabling on the crown, which is awfully fun to knit up.

All for now.....

KSH Scarf

Normally, I refuse to knit scarves.  Yawn.  Yes... great gifts, but usually I think about poking my eyeballs out with a needle after the first repeat or so to actually knit the scarf itself.

However, since I am working on gift-type, finished items for the crafts fair in a couple of weeks, I decided to work on a few scarves using some sample yarns I had in the shop that have been kicking around for a while.  I had several lone skeins of a Kid Silk Haze version (kid mohair and silk laceweight), so I decided on a very simple garter stitch scarf, which I then lightly felted and added some beads on the ends.

The felting is kinda fun and doesn't take much to firm the fabric up a bit.  It also lets you take a mostly boring rectangle and do funk-ay things with the ends and the selvages so it looks more interesting.  It also softens up the halo a bit.

The scarf wound up being about 5 inches wide and 60 inches long, which is plenty to wrap once around your neck and only used one skein (I just knit until I ran out) of the yarn, so it'd be a great quick stash-buster project too.

All for now....

FO: Dragonflies Shawl

I finished up the Mystery Shawl from the Ennea fall edition, aka the Dragonflies Shawl.

PROJECT DETAILS:
Pattern:  The Mystery shawl as noted above at the link.  This is now available as a full-fledged pattern via Ennea Collective magazine from Lori.
Yarn:  My handspun from eons ago.  It's a 50/50 cashmere and silk blend in the Forest colorway from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks.  I originally purchased the roving at the Back of the Wasatch fiber festival - I think it was now 6 years ago?  At least 5.  The yarn was a 2-ply, 440 yards from 3.8 ounces.  I used about 400 yards for my version.
Needles:  Size 5 US circs.
Mods:  None.

Depending on the light, this colorway is either very dark and broody, or prettily subtly striped with the dark green/purple/golds you see directly above.  It is insanely warm for it's size (which I would consider a small shawl/shawlette, in an elongated crescent shape) due, I'm sure, to the cashmere component.

I don't think I'd recommend this for a very beginning lace knitter - there are a few rows of the border you need to pay close attention to with patterning, although not lace patterning, on both sides.  Otherwise, tho, it is not a super tough knit and definitely one you could knit in less than a month if  (unlike me... ahem...) you worked on it without putting it down for almost 2 weeks and getting distracted by other things.

No Spinning Friday tomorrow. D and I are taking a long weekend of R&R, but hopefully I'll be back with some spinning for next week for y'all.

All for now.....

FO: Thicket Cowl

I took advantage of some couch time this weekend and finished up my Thickets gloves and cowl set.  The Thickets gloves you've seen already - they appeared in the Ennea magazine over the winter, but I reknit them in the sportweight SW merino I carry in the shop and then designed a matching cowl to go with them. 

This is one of my favorite colorways (what can I say, I'm a gray girl), and hopefully will suit my mum as well as these are destined for holiday gifts for her.

The gloves:
 

And the cowl:

 

I wrote two versions of the cowl.  One with one less repeat in case you like yours to fit more snugly, but I know my mum prefers a looser version, that she can secure with a pin if she wants it to seal out more winter drafts.

The set is available on Ravelry here.  I was able to squeak out a set from one skein of the Belisama sportweight (each skein is 250 yards), but that was cutting it very close on yardage.  If you are making the smaller version of the cowl, you'd likely be fine, or if you have small-ish hands (I do not and neither does mum), you'd likely be fine with 250 or so yards, but for insurance, 300 is probably a more realistic estimate if you're knitting yourself a set.

All for now.....

WIP Wednesday: February 16, 2011

I cast on for a new stash-buster project this week.  This time around, it's the Milkweed Shawl, by Laura Chau.

This is a very simple lace shawl - it'd be perfect for a first-time lace project.  It's mostly garter stitch.  It's knit with fingering-weight yarn, and it takes less than 400 yards, so it doesn't feel like you've embarked on a magnus opus.

 

I'm using a skein of Merino 100 from Lori's Oceanwind Knits sock club from... I think.... three years ago?  (Neither of us can remember exactly).  I suspect from sometime in the spring, cuz the colorway is "Printemps", which is a pretty blend of pinks and yellows and blues and lilacs.  It's working up beautifully with no pooling and a nice blend of the colors.

I have worked through charts A through C, and I have 40 rows left to work in the pattern - charts D, E and F.   My goal for the week is to finish 20 rows on this, and intersperse this easy knit with the 3 design projects I've got going right now, which take more brain power and from which I need an occasional break.

All for now.....

FO: Arachne Mitts and Cowl

I finished up the Arachne mitts and cowl set I had been working on for Terry at Snowshow Farms.  (And if you are planning on going to SPA this year - please stop by her booth and say hi!  She'll have the pattern kitted up with some of her decadent 100% alpaca fingering weight there too.)

You already saw pics of the cowl, but here's a reminder:
 

The original yarn used is one skein of Terry's Snowshoe Farm Alpaca fingering-weight yarn in the "Tweed" colorway. However, the pattern is suitable for any soft fingering-weight yarn.  It takes approximately 125 yards for the cowl and there are notes for adding beads if you'd like to do that as a little added detail.

You can also get a pair of the fingerless mitts from the same skein of yarn - they take approximately 135 yards.  (I had probably 40 yards or so left over from the 300-yard skein I started with).  The mitts have the lace stitch used for the cuff (which may also be beaded or not - knitter's choice), and a simple stockinette hand which knits up very quickly.

 

If you've already got a skein of luxury yarn to use up, I've got the pattern already set up on Ravelry as a downloadable PDF (and includes both the mitts and cowl pattern).  Lots of pictures, both a chart and written instructions, and some technical notes to help you add beads if you decide you'd like to do that.  You can find the link to the downloadable PDF here.

All for now......

FO: Northumbria Cowl

You might remember not too long ago, I spun up a really pretty braid of mixed BFL and silk from Two If By Hand.

 

I have been eyeing this skein for a few weeks now, and since I had a lot of self-imposed knitting time this weekend, I wound it up and cast on for the Northumbria Cowl from Knitscene.

 

Project Specs:
Pattern:  Northumbria Cowl by Elinor Brown.  Super easy lace, but not overly lace.  The original pattern was knit written for a slightly lighter-weight yarn, so I went up 2 needle sizes (to US 8s) and took 2 repeats out of the pattern.  I also wanted to reserve 2 ounces of yarn for a pair of mitts, so I weighed the skein as I worked cowl repeats, and quit when I had used up 1.8 ounces (it was a 3.8-ounce skein), so it is slightly shorter than the pattern is written.
Yarn:  Handspun 2-ply mixed BFL/silk in the "Stringtown Grocery" colorway from Two If By Hand.
Needles:  US 8 DPNs.

 

I love how the colors came out in this pattern - so subtle and blended.  It almost looks like a 3-ply, but it is, in fact, just a 2-ply yarn! 

All for now...

Weekend Recap

The following is a public service announcement:  Go RIGHT NOW and get yourself a flu shot if you have not already done this for this season. 

I finally went to the doctor on Friday, and tested positive for the flu (influenza A), and while I was far too many days into it for Tamiflu to do any good, I did get some heavy-duty cough syrup so I actually slept through most of the nights this weekend, which did me a world of good.  I am still not back to 100%, and this will be 15 days now with symptoms, so GO GET A FLU SHOT.  Trust me - you do not want this one. 

I spent a pretty quiet weekend.  The weather was beautiful, but I was really not up to taking Bhen, the Rocket, out for a ride, so D worked on his ongoing winterizing project for his woodshop and did some outdoor chores, and I mostly holed up in the house with the cat and my tea and some knitting projects.

I finished up the Arachne Cowl and got that blocked.  I think it came out quite pretty - a nice, warm, but lacey accessory out of Snowshoe Farm's 100% alpaca yarn.  I'll tackle the matching mitts next and hopefully have a pattern ready to roll in another few weeks.

 

And here's a closeup so you can see the pretty amber beads I tucked into the stitches.

 

I also worked my way through some housekeeping and paperwork for the next Ennea Collective mag (due out on February 15th or thereabouts), and got some photographs of some other designs that are currently under wraps, so I can get those patterns finished up as well.

I'll be back tomorrow with another little goodie I started and finished on Saturday!

All for now.....

FO: Tidepool Cowl

What a fun, quick little project!  I had most of this done by the time we hit Amarillo, and finished it up the next morning when I had enough light to do so.

 

Pattern:  Tidepool Cowl by Cayli Harris. This pattern would be more than suitable for a beginning knitter, but it's fun to watch the pattern develop and I loved having a quick knit!
Yarn:  No-name mill sample, 80% superfine merino, 20% cashmere.  Hand dyed my me in the "Midnight" colorway eons ago.  Heavy fingering-weight.
Needles:  US size 6 circs (16").
Mods:  I used a slightly heavier yarn, so I was 2 rows short on yardage.  I wound up doing a purl decrease edge rather than knit and omitted 2 rows of garter.  Hardly noticeable.

Here's a detail shot of the pattern itself.
 

This is going in the gift box for this year.  All for now.......