How The West Was Spun

FO: Norie Hat

I've had this finished up for a while, but I needed some photos to post.  This is my handspun Norie hat from the 2IBH SAL/KAL for this late fall. 

The original roving was in the "Cries of Witchcraft" colorway on Finn.  I spun this up into a 2-ply yarn, slightly heavier than the DK for the pattern, but I think it worked out fine - it's nice and warm!

The only modification to the pattern I used was to work only 3 of the 4 cat's paw lace sections, but I think it's plenty slouchy even without that final repeat.  It goes great with the purple fleece and blue fleece jackets I own, plus the dark chocolate dressier coat I wear when I'm not doing outdoor chore kind of things. 

All for now....

WIP Wednesday: June 27, 2012

SPINNING PROJECTS

I finished spinning all the Polwarth singles for the colorwork kit.  The brown is plied and I'm working on the blue.  Hoping to have that done in time for a Spinning Friday post! 

That should take me close enough to TdF kick-off, which is Saturday.  (D and I are planning on taking our bikes up and camping at the Caldera and riding on Sat/Sun, but he's WAYYY more hard-core than I am, so I am thinking I might also take my wheel, so he can go off and ride in the blistering sun in the afternoon and I'll hang at the campsite and spin.)

DESIGNING/KNITTING PROJECTS

I finished knitting the hat for the fall collection, and cast on the mittens.  Those'll be my go-to project for the week.  They are Aran/worsted weight and easy, so I think will knit up pretty quickly. 

I'm still working on the socks for the fall collection.  I got the heel turned on sock #1 and I'm headed on down the foot.  If time permits, I'm planning on getting sock #1 finished this week as well.  If I can do that, I think I'll be in pretty good shape to use the month of July to knit the second sweater for the collection (most of it anyway).

All for now.....

Pattern Release: Viviane Mittens and Hat

The Viviane Mittens and Hat is now available through my Ravelry pattern store.

Instructions for both accessories are included in the pattern, and it is knit from one 325-yard skein of a light DK/sportweight yarn (my Freya BFL DK in the shop, colorway "Wisp").  If you have more hair than my stick-straight version, or just want a slightly looser fit for either the hat or the mittens, you can up-size the pattern by using a light worsted-weight yarn like Cascade 220.

The inspiration for this set came from the legend of Viviane (called by this and several other names, depending on which Arthurian legend version you read).  Despite the fact that Merlin foresaw his demise at her hands, he taught Viviane all his magical arts and she learned them so well she imprisoned him within a gnarled tree trunk.

The patterns are suitable for an intermediate knitter.  They are both knit in the round (the hat on a 16" circular and DPNs, and the mittens on DPNs), and assume some knowledge of reading charts and basic gusset-thumb mitten construction.

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.....

WIP Wednesday: December 14, 2011

Really an FO post for today, as I finished up D's watchcap.

Nothing fancy - it's 2 x 2 rib knit for 9 inches, and then a quick set of K2tog concentric decreases in stockinette for the top.  The yarn is from my shop - DK Aerten (80% SW merino, 10% nylon, 10% cashmere) in the Raven's Wing colorway, which is more black than it appears here.  We are having another gloomy, overcast morning.   I knit this up on size 7 circulars and DPNs. 

I basically knit two complete hats - knit the first one, and the picked up the same number of stitches along the cast-on edge to knit a second complete hat so it's doubled and very warm.  With the hem folded up, he's got 4 layers over his ears. 

Just in time too - we had an awfully wet, slushy snow here yesterday. It's supposed to go down into the teens tonight/tomorrow, with another storm coming in for the weekend.

All for now....

WIP Wednesday: December 7, 2011

Not much in the way of WIP progress to report this week, as I've been side-tracked by EHK (Emergency Hat Knitting).

We had a quite zippy cold snap, complete with high-ish winds and snow (temps down in the minus digits overnight the last couple of nights), and D realized that he has misplaced the sailor's watch cap I knit for him when we lived back in Rhode Island.  Brrr....

So I threw a skein of the new MCN DK-weight I'm carrying in the shop into the dye pots, as he wanted a duplicate hat and I've cast on for that, in between working feverishly this weekend on the spring 2012 Shakespeare shawl to try to stay ahead of my test knitter.  This hat, let me tell ya, is a labor of love.  Black, 2x2 rib and he wants it just like the previous one, which is double layered, so I'm basically knitting two black ribbed watch caps for the price of one.

The hat length before the decreases is 9", and I'm at 7" on the first layer and it looks like:

I'm going to forge ahead with this during the next week and try to get it finished up so he can put it on his noggin!

All for now....

Ennea Collective - April 2011

The newest Ennea Collective edition is live!  The theme for this edition is Celtic and natural wools.  We had a lot of fun with pattern concepts for this one.  There's a great article on CVM sheep by Nancy Zeller at Long Ridge Farm, and we've profiled FatCatKnits as our Indie artist this month. 

In this issue, I've got three patterns.  The first is a lacy stole knit in 3 natural colors of CVM handspun (from Long Ridge Farm), but it'd be great in any DK or light worsted yarn in a solid color too.  (If you had something like a Silky Wool from E. Lavold, or even Cascade 220, those would be great to use.) It knits up quickly on size 8 US needles.  That's the Currach stole.  Knit on a lot of our driving trips to and from Texas this winter.

 

Then, I worked up two smaller projects.  The first is the Ballycastle Tam.  And MANY thanks to Christina for test-knitting this sucker.  The charts took some finagaling, but we got them there!. This is knit from 5 different Shetland fingering-weight wools.  It has two traditional peerie patterns and a star-shaped crown.  If you don't wish to spin your own fiber, you can easily substitute in something like Harrisville Shetland or Jamieson's Spindrift yarns in any color grouping you like.

 

Finally, the Triskele Mittens, which are also knit in a fingering-weight yarn, this time a colorwork kit of BFL from Two If By Hand in Fawn and Cranberries.  Again, Harrisville Shetland or Jamieson's Spindrift yarns would be great substitutions if you don't wish to use handspun.

 

Look for our next edition to be out this summer!  We are also planning a spin-along of an exclusive colorway with another indie artist for that issue, so details on that shortly.

All for now.......

Ennea Collective: February 2011

Our February edition of the Ennea Collective magazine (www.enneacollective.com) is live!  We had a lot of fun putting this edition together.  It features a great selection of fun, bright projects to knit for the doldrums of winter, plus we have an article on Corriedale (one of my favorite fibers!), a great article on handspun in weaving from Sara Lamb, featuring the first of four element-inspired weavings she's working on, a great how-to on felted mittens, and lots of other creative ideas to get you thru until spring!

I've got three patterns in this edition:

My Thicket Gloves, which are a quick and easy knit in sportweight yarn, with a twisted stitch pattern across the back of the hand.

 

The Whirligig Hat knits up quickly in a heavy worsted/Aran-weight yarn.  (My test knitter - Thanks, Marcia!!- knit hers from Montera, which is pretty spot-on for gauge).  This design features simple knit and purl rows to form undulating spirals on this beret-style hat.

 

And finally, a perfect project to use up some scraps, my Scandal in Bohemia bag.  (Sherlock Holmes fans will take note that my muse for this project was the only person to have bested Holmes, according to Watson, the infamous Irene Adler.)  This bag used 4 ounces (about 225 yards) of worsted weight for the bag itself, and then used up smaller scraps for the Crazy Quilt patterned front.  This project would work great with something like Cascade 220 or another felt-able 100% yarn.  I used some great little brass Chinese dragons I found on Etsy, but this would be a fun project to add buttons from a button collection, or embroidery, or really any small embellishments you've got knocking around. 

 

Please do pop over and take a look at our February issue!  And, as always, we welcome comments, suggestions and submissions for future editions!

All for now......

Ennea Collective - December

I am so glad I finally get a chance to share the projects for the Ennea magazine from December with y'all!  The theme of the magazine actually got kicked off when I spun up the luxury batts from Funky Carolina that wound up becoming the Kelp Garden Cowl.  I loved this little skein of yarn so much, I knew I wanted to make something very pretty and feminine from it.

 

Big Thank-You to Marcia for testing knitting this for me!  I would rate this project as intermediate - you do need to have a bit of familiarity with lace knitting to read the charts and get the knit-on border done, although it is not difficult once you get started on it.  I think this would be awfully pretty in something like Malabrigo Lace if you aren't a spinner.  Something soft and squishy up next to your face. 

My Caledonia sweater was one of the fastest things I've ever knit.  That one zipped off the needles and I think I had most of it done over a weekend.  I challenged myself on this one by purposefully selecting that cheery yellow-green-blue handpaint, since I normally gravitate away from yellows, and I think it worked really nicely with the more subdued blue.

 

A HUGE thank-you to my SIL for modeling this and the cowl for the magazine, and to my BIL for taking so many great pics of both.  I owe them both a coupla beers for this task!

Finally, my little One Fish, Two Fish hat.  D and I had a fun afternoon along the Rio Grande for this photo shoot.  We got a lot of odd looks from the fly fishermen along the river that day, but that alone was worth it. :)  This one would be great out a spare skein of Noro you have lying around.

 

There's an article in the magazine in our Spinster's Corner on spinning a chained-ply yarn to create a self-striping yarn, complete with a quick video to help you get started if you haven't tried this technique before.

Next issue is due up in mid-February and we've already got another batch of pretty daggone nifty things in the pipeline for that!

All for now..... 

FO: Katie's Hat

Again, Katie?  If you are here, please go away now.

I finished up Katie's gift hat this weekend.  It really was a quick and fun knit and my MIL assures me she will get a kick out of it.  Which really is the point.

Let's start with the nifty star-shaped crown decreases, shall we?

 

PROJECT SPECS:
Pattern: Triathalon Hat by Sarah Monroe. The original calls for 3 colors, and I just used 2 (I used the same contrast color for all the patterning).  I would rate this an intermediate pattern - it's got colorwork, obviously, and decreases, and you need to be able to work from charts with no written descriptions of the decreases. Yarn:  Valley Superwash Merino DK from Webs.  I used all of 1 skein of the main color, and started a second skein, and then used about 2/3 of a skein for the contrast color.
Needles:  I used size 4 US circs and DPNs.
Mods:  Only 2 colors used, as above.  I apparently flaked out and put the small fair-isle type pattern at the hem when there's a larger one to use.  But I kind of like this version better.  The instructions have a much wider turned-up hem where you can put a custom name section, but I worried that would be too bulky, so I just did 8 rows of stockinette and then worked the purl turning ridge row and stitched that to the inside when I finished. 

And the 3 panels:

Swimming:
 

Biking:
 

And Running:
 

I hope she loves it! 

All for now......