I get my glory in the desert rain

This Aeolian shawl took me four months from start to finish.  I spun the yarn, merino/tencel blend, in about a month and then three months to knit.  I only added beads to the bottom parts, which I still found extremely tedious.  The last row with beads took me four hours to knit.  I omitted the last row and went straight to the cast off with a single strand in fear of running out of yarn.  I do think that this will be my most favorite shawl that I have ever and will ever knit.

Summer Shawls

This summer I knit two beautiful shawls that have made their way heavily into my wardrobe rotation. The first one is Andrea’s Shawl from Through the Loops knit in a mystery fiber and a merino/seawool blend from Frabjous Fibers. I love how the colors play off one another; I do however wish it came out bigger. It was completely my fault since I neglected to swatch and read the pattern specs. It is still a lovely size to wrap around my neck and add a little extra pop of color to my outfit.



The second shawl which felt like it took forever was Citron. I added many more sections than the pattern called for since I was looking to use up almost all my yarn for this. I made the ruffle section a bit longer also. I love how this came out! This is such a lovely pattern that will showcase any handspun yarn beautifully. Fair warning though, this project is a bit boring with all those stockinette rows.

Gift Giving

The last few projects I’ve made have all been gifts, which isn’t like me at all. I usually knit for myself and hardly give anything to anyone but there were a few special occasions that just begged to have something made. First up my knitting group has been cooking up some babies so I found the perfect gifts for the little shower we gave them.




Smith and the wee mushroom went to a dear friend who loves all things hedgehogs and mushrooms.





Peanut went to my other dear friend who loves elephants. This was my first foray into sewing stuffed animals. The directions were not very clear and caused much grumbling and ripping out of seams, but in the end I was able to find a photo tutorial that helped greatly. I still wasn’t able to piece it together in the order that is instructed but with much fudging he came out alright.

I also made another one for my cousin’s daughter’s christening.



While we were on vacation (more on that in another post that I’m still writing up) one of my coworkers discovered that she has breast cancer. She is currently going through chemotherapy and is expected to make a full recovery. I knew that she was nervous about loosing her hair and found the wig to be incredibly hot and itchy so I thought that a nice cotton hat would help.




I was able to knit this in under a week, just in time to give it to her before I transferred buildings. I hope that this hat comforts her during her recovery.

You know, your coat is kind of a brownish color...

I am totally head over heels in love with a sweater! Aidez has been popping up all over my flickr stream and my friend’s activity on Ravelry. Every time I was browsing through Ravelry I would always come back to Aidez and admire all 627 projects, longing for my own. When my birthday came around I spent the money on three skeins of Cascade Ecological wool in a lovely brown color. I had to hold off knitting this beautiful sweater so that I could finish a pair of socks for my mom’s birthday, but as soon as those were done that sweater was on my needles.


















Cascade Eco is a bit thinner than the yarn that the Berroco Peruvia Quick the pattern calls for so my gauge was way off!  I figured out that if I knitted the 48 size that I would get somewhere between the 40 and 44.  I read through many knitter's comments about the sleeves being too tight so I knit the largest size but fudged with the decrease rows to match the body of the sweater.  This sweater took me just over two weeks, which is also the same amount of time it took me and Scott to get through Firefly and Serenity for the umpteenth time.  


I did fix the cables so that they were the correct way but managed to screw up the ear of corn pattern.  I read it as skip the first stitch and knit through the back loop between the two stitches. Instead it should be skip the first stitch, from behind, knit through the back loop and then knit the skipped stitch. I knitted both fronts at the same time so I was consistent with the error.  Normally I would have ripped the entire thing out but the weather is getting warmer and I really wanted to wear this at least once before I have to put it away for the season.   I also didn’t realize that there was a purl ridge after the ribbing. Oh well. Although I really should read patterns more carefully before and while knitting.




I finally have a wearable that I absolutely love!

Winter Blues

Blah! I’m still in kind of a knitting slump and I blame the weather and the series of books I’ve been reading. Every spare moment at night I’ve been reading, I’ve devoured the Mortal Instruments series and am almost through Clockwork Angel. I did manage to finish one little cowl that will be nice if the temperature ever reach above freezing. I have been searching for a perfect color for the tilting tardis cowl for a while now. Back in July I thought I had the perfect yarn in my stash, but it turned out that it was much too scratchy to wear next to my neck. I then stumbled onto a skein of Malabrigo lace in ‘Azul Bolita’ that was the perfect softness and color.




I’m pretty happy how it came out, but I do believe that this will be the last time I work with Malabrigo lace. I’m not happy with how the yarn felted as I worked. I did find great buttons; I love them so much that I bought the larger size for my Moonstruck sweater.



I’m nearly done with the sweater, but with all sweaters, I’m terrified that the finish product will dissapoint! People who have knit this sweater have said that it is a bit shorter than it appears in the pattern photo so I want to add a bit of length, however my gauge was really off and I had to go up a size in the pattern and I’m a bit worried that I’ll run out of yarn. Wish me luck!

Behind the trend

You know how some trends are absolutely horrible that you cannot wait until it had run its course? However there are some that are just so good that you hope they will never end. I have always thought of myself as a scarf girl. With so many beautiful knitted scarves out there how can one knitter choose? Yet scarves are long, really long, and although you really loved knitting the stitch pattern, after about the twentieth time through you are ready to give up. Now a cowl is something altogether different. Many knitters started this trend a few years ago and for some reason it didn’t appeal to me until I found the cabled cowl. While this isn’t what I imagine a cowl to be (some sort of knitted tube you pull over your head) I was taken by the beautiful texture of the cables and how cool it is that the button is on a shank that your pull through the fabric wherever you want! I know that this cowl is still kind of a small scarf, but hey it’s a start.

I had some malabrigo worsted that was originally for the Retro Redux Shrug but I frogged it halfway through knowing that it would never look good on me.  The malabrigo was a prefect choice for something close to the neck and I had enough to make this.




I added a few extra repeats because my gauge was a bit off and I wanted a bit more length. The only reason I stalled on this project is because I started it in February and by March I had about ¾ of it done. There was no need for a cowl this thick past March so away it went in favor of some lightweight shawls. Once the weather turned I knew that I would want this finished to enjoy all winter long. We were going into the city the first weekend of December and I knew that going in and out of stores and on the train I wouldn’t want to wear a long scarf. I pushed to finish this and on December 2 it was completed.




I love how the buttons can be place anywhere to give a custom fit. I did manage to loose one the first night I wore the darn thing. The gentleman next to me at the theatre caught the cowl while standing up and yanked the button free.

The only modification I would make is that I wouldn’t have knitted the button hole. I just push the little button through the first layer of fabric and keep it there instead of through the button hole and into the second layer of fabric. That way, theoretically, I wouldn’t loose the buttons.

Baby Surprise Jacket

A good friend of mine and one of our fellow knitters is expecting her first child in the coming weeks. As a group we decided on knitting sweaters for the little bundle of joy. I settled on the classic Baby Surprise Jacket because it is a very nice sweater for either a boy or a girl, and I have always been intrigued by the construction. Unfortunately since I had to finish the sweater so quickly I never documented how the darn thing goes together.




I went with fun bright colors what would work with either a boy or a girl since they do not know what they are having. I knew going in that I wanted to have really fun buttons on this sweater and was lucky enough to find some turtles that went well.



I knit this as written with Shibui Knits Sock yarn. Instead of the knitted i-cord edging I did a simple chain stitch with the closest crochet hook I could find near me at that time in a contrasting yarn. I tried to do a knitted on i-cord edge but it didn’t look right to me. I’m pretty bad with sizing so I would say that this is a newborn sized sweater, but the fabric is very stretchy so I imagine that it would grow a bit with the baby.

The Momma loves it, and I have been promised photos of baby in the finished sweater once he or she arrives.

Heathcliff, my love.

Not too long ago I snatched up a merino/silk/bamboo blend from Funky Carolina in the colorway “Hermione.”




I just couldn’t resist the colors or the fibers. I knew that I wanted to make a nice warm shawl and thought that the “Wandering the Moor” pattern would be a perfect fit. The colors also make me think of the heather on the moors, or what I think they look like since I have never seen them. I set out spinning it with a particular weight in mind. I wanted it a bit thinner than this yarn



But thicker than this one



Unfortunately I failed and instead of a nice middle ground of around 500 yards I only managed 388.



I think it was the fiber content that threw me a bit. It spun like a dream but when I plied it the singles puffed a bit more than I’m accustomed to. It made a very lovely squishy yarn but not nearly as thin as I intended.

The simple pattern lends itself to handspun yarn very nicely. While the pattern is very well written I couldn’t help myself and added a few changes. I like my triangular shawls to have a spine; it allows the pattern to be balanced. If the shawl does not have a decorative edging a simple two stitch garter stitch edge will do; this makes it so much easier to block. Since I added the spine I had to adjust the lace part a bit, incorporating the increased stitches into the lace. I don’t really remember what I did there since I winged it as I went along.





It is a bit smaller than I wanted, even after I added another repeat of the lace at the edge. I also wanted a more scalloped edge than that pattern calls for so between the points I k3, sl1 k2tog psso. It isn’t as pointy as I wanted but it will do.

Goodbye 2010... Hello 2011

2010 was the year of lace and handspun for me.  I did attempt to knit 10 shawls in 2010, but only made half of my goal.  I actually started nine shawls this year, three of which are in various states of completion and the last one needs to be ripped and started over.  I really think that the reason I did not reach my goal was because I spun for most of my shawls.  Two handspun mitts, a cowl, a baby gift and an owl made for a fun 2010.  I wasn't nearly as productive as I was in '09 but I think I lost some knitting mojo this year.  I hope that '11 will bring more inspiration, both creatively and through my blog.



Despite the uninspired knitting I was inspired to spin up a storm.  I managed to spin about 5446 yards, all shown except for one in the mosaic.  I tried some new fibers this year, and learned to love merino/tencel once more.  I'm excited for this year, I will be joining more fiber clubs and trying different fibers in attempt to break out of my merino/bamboo box I'm in.

2010 also found Scott and I traveling across the Atlantic for the first time.  I have yet to write up our adventure in England, which I'm slowly but surely doing.  We had such a blast seeing so many amazing places.

We also made our home a bit more ours by installing a patio and turning one of the bedrooms into a craft room.  Hopefully this summer won't be as hot and we will be able to enjoy our patio a bit more.

I also tried my hand at gardening for the first time.  I started seeds, albeit a bit too early, planted a workable but not the best vegetable garden.  I made some mistakes but despite the poor planning and placement of plants it still yielded a good amount of food.  I also tried canning for the first time.  My summer jam turned out more like soft jelly candy than spreadable jam but my apple butter was simply amazing.  This summer I want to can a bunch more jams and vegetables.  I'm hoping that my fledgling raspberry patch will thrive.

This year I hope to:
knit more sweaters and socks
spin a variety of fibers
write in my blog once a week
plant a bigger garden
can more foods

What are your hopes and dreams for 2011?

A dragon for a castle

I am not sure why I haven’t finished writing my post on our trip to London in May, it seems like ages ago but I do want to write something up. I’m finding that with where the computer is in the new house I don’t spend as much time on as I did in the apartment. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but I don’t update here all that very much.

This summer I spun this lovely merino/tencel blend I purchased sometime back in ’09 from Poppy flower Fibers. This lovely green, gray, and brown roving surprised me and became something spectacular!





I never imagined that the colors would blend so well.



I spun very thin singles that I turned into a two ply lace yarn. The colors reminded me so much of my favorite photo from our trip to England, the motte and bailey as at Warwick Castle.



Since the yarn made me think of that stunning castle I knew I had to knit the Red Dragon Shawl, every castle needs a dragon right?



This project just flew off the needles, in just over three weeks.









I completed four repeats of the star pattern which nearly killed me, and knit then knit until I was almost out of yarn. For some reason I kept dropping stitches when I purled the k1, yo, k1 in the same stitch. I think this reason alone prevented me from finishing in less than three weeks. The pattern itself was very straight forward and well written. I named my shawl Rhaegal because I’ve been slightly obsessed with George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire which I have read since June. I’m really missing it and hope the next one will finally be published soon.

Halloween Socks

It has been nearly a year since I’ve knitted a pair of socks, it isn’t because I don’t wear them or like them; I just seem to stall as soon as I reach the heel. There are several pairs of socks sitting around my house in various stages of completion, mainly at the heel or just before. I was determined to beat my sock slump and knit a pair of Halloween socks to wear on Halloween as I passed out candy. Several years ago I picked up a skein of Vesper Sock yarn in ‘Witchy Woman’ that was begging to be a basic toe up sock.



After doing short rows on my little owls I was confidant that I could pull off a short row heel that would actually fit! I began knitting them on October 14th and took them to Chicago as a simple project to knit on the plane and trains. They were finished by the 29th and are completely perfect!







We didn’t have many trick or treaters this year; being that it was the first time we were in the house for Halloween I’m not sure if that is the norm, but it was still fun wearing them around the house to get into the mood of Halloween. I also loved playing with Picnic from Flickr.







I wish my all of my Halloween photos came out, these are just the few that weren't so horrible.   I was lazy and didn't grab the tripod, but our house was decked out in creepy ghouls and goblins