How The West Was Spun

Random Tidbits

Whoever arranged for fall to finally arrive here in the NM mountains, I am MOST grateful.  We had absolutely stunning weather all weekend and into Monday here (and more forecast for the rest of the week too!).  I took Bhen out for a ride on Sunday and we had a fantastic time together.  Nothing earth-shattering other than just some quality time together in the beautiful, sunny, morning weather. 

Since it was so nice on Monday afternoon as well, I took my spinning wheel out onto the deck with the dogs for company, and sat and spun for a couple of hours after work.  Nice!  Of course, by about 3:30, the crew in the pasture, who are SURE they are going to starve if they don't start packing on the buffet calories before winter, kept attempting the Vulcan mind meld to get me to come feed them.  (click to embiggen and you can just barely make out Bhen standing behind the LARGE white horse - and yes... we still have flies here when it warms up, so the boys have their masks on).

 

Um.. Hello!  I need you to come here RIGHT NOW.  Look at me wasting away!

And now onto a new little knitting project.  If you are my SIL, Katie, please go away, as this is for you.

Everyone else still here?

I'm really lucky.  I adore my SIL (D's sister).  She is awesome.  Granted, it helps that she is the stellar mom of the world's cutest nephews AND that she agreed without a minute's hesitation to model some knitwear for me for the December Ennea magazine, but she would be awesome even without those details in her favor.  In the last few years, Katie's started running triathalons, and she was always a really good athlete growing up (anyone who lets their two older brothers shoot hockey pucks at her HAS to be), but I dunno... triathathlons really push you towards the realm of excellent athletes, don't you think?

So this year, she has a fairly important birthday on the calendar, AND she's qualified to compete in IronMan competitions, and when I found this hat on Ravelry (with the original ALSO knit for a Katie), I knew it was kismet.  I decided to knit her this as a gift for her birthday in December.  I'm only using 2 colors, rather than the original 3, and I'm working it up in a superwash merino, figuring she can easily pitch it in the wash and not worry about it getting shrunk.

I'm already almost thru the charted patterns of the 3 figures (I'll show you the other two views when I've finished them), but here's the swimmer figure.

 

I figure I'll have this done in another week-ish, so I'll get you an update when it's complete!

All for now....

March Madness Wrap-Up

I thought y'all might like a brief overview of the project I did for March Madness.  I finished a surprising number of things for one month's worth of knitting.

 

The final list includes: Manitou Passage scarf, Legolas socks, Lisa beret, Brennan cowl, Oyster Bay shawl, Woodland Trails cowl, Joni hat, and my Ancient Oak socks.

Thanks to Christina, for this fun idea!

All for now..... 

FO: Katie's Beret

Another small stealth knitting project for March Madness.

 

Project Specs:
Pattern:  Katie's Beret from Through the Loops.  I don't think I've met a pattern by Kirsten yet I didn't like.  She has a lot of nice details in her patterns, without being overly complicated.  The pattern comes with 2 versions, one for DK weight (which I used) and one for heavy aran/bulky weight.  It is written with wild, handpainted/variegated yarns in mind - you know the ones - where you love the colors and have no idea what to do with the skein you bought on impulse.
Yarn:  This was a 2-ply handspun of merino from Frabjous Fibers (no web presence I can find).  The colorway is "Stained Glass".  I had spun this up as a heavy fingering/sportweight yarn, so it was a little on the light side for the pattern, but I was looking for something not quite as droopy as the original pattern, so the smaller-gauge yarn worked out perfectly.
Needles:  Size 4 and 5 US 16" circs.
Notes:  Other than using the slightly lighter-weight yarn, I made no mods to this pattern.  It is a bit unclear from the pics, but there are 2 stitch patterns used, one is a linen stitch, which is worked just above the ribbing, and the other is the diagonal slip stitch that forms the crown.  The other pertinent detail is that, although the texture is so poufy and thick, it appears solid, the crown of this hat actually has small rows of diagonal eyelets, which are created with y/o's.  So if you are making this as a chemo hat, or have less rather than more hair, it won't be as warm as you might be planning on.  Just FYI. 

Here's a close-up of the linen stitch.

This pattern does a fantastic job breaking up runs of color with all the slip stitches used.  Kirsten also remarks that it would be pretty in more solid colors, and I bet it would, although really... it is a great little workhorse of a pattern for the wild-child yarns in your stash.

 

 All for now.......
 

FO: Joni Hat

I don't really have a lot in the way of spinning to show you this Friday.  Lots of time out and about this week when I would normally get to be at my wheel, so instead, I thought I'd share another little FO for the March Madness knitting with you.  And it IS knit from handspun, so that sorta counts, right?

 

PROJECT SPECS:
Pattern:  Joni by Kirsten Kapur.  This hat is written for fingering or sport weight (I used fingering weight).  It features slip stitch patterning, stranded/fair-isle patterning, and 1x1 stripes for the crown.
Yarn:  My handspun.  These were 2 colorways that Lori sent from the Oceanwind Knits Fiber club last year.  The blue is merino/seacell and the yellow-peachy color is merino; colorway was Water Lilies.  These were both 2-ply fingering weight yarns.
Needles:  US size 4 circs.
Mods:  None.

This was quite a fun knit.  Changing the different patterns helped move it right along.  You do need to pay attention to the stranded knitting part if you are new to that technique, as it will get uneven if you pull the stranded threads too tightly.  You might swatch a bit and/or try going up a needle size for that section if you find your gauge is different than the rest of the hat.  It's a great small section to learn how to knit with both hands tho.  It's just 3 repeats of 4 charted rows.

I am also quite enamored, in a sort of goofy way, how the brighter color shades between yellows and reds in the striped and patterned sections.  I didn't do anything except just knit the handspun, but I think it's a fun effect.

All for now....