the very birds are mute

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
...
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

Sonnet 97, W. Shakespeare

It's almost time for me to move westward where Spring is just opening the door and my whole heart will exhale. Here in the North, the turning of January to February is not an opening of Spring's doorway, but actually the middle of winter. We've had a cold dry winter with little snow accumulation but lots of ice. An lots of ice means....

...lots of skating!



This old city park, seeded in memory and part of the historical downtown area, has a large pond that is home to duck families in Spring, Summer and Fall. But as soon as the edges start to crystallize, children gather on the bank anxious for the old faded sign to go up... the one that reads SKATING TODAY. Even dogs are eager to test the ice with their chilled owners in tow.



and skating weather is also Knitted Hat Weather! I don't know why I'm constantly losing hats, but that means that I'm constantly making hats. A friend recently gifted me this lovely new hat pattern: Ami by funfairiegirl on Ravelry, and I'm loving the making of it!



The stitch pattern is a wonder: lush and stretchy with a textured spiral to it that winds like ribbons around the crown. I'm using MadelineTosh DK in the colourway Silver Fox with a size 6 needle and the effect is gorgeous. The stitch shows off the variegation of the yarn in a very subtle way and when it is finished, I'll wear it like a snow drift on my head (but so much warmer)!



I also discovered a new online shop this week, just when I needed (so much!) the cheer of new yarns and projects: Wool & Honey, in Michigan. I love to peruse local yarns and handmade accessories for my favorite art form and Wool & Honey is such a beautiful store:



They have their own line of patterns:



and most beautiful local llama fibers:



You know how I love to collect these skeins from small farms that show the face and name of the of the gentle creature whose coat was sheered or combed to spin to yarn! This is from - top, then bottom, and then the middle skeins - Pipsqeak and Riyal, they yielded a natural pinkish brown...M.S. Hallelujah!, whose coat resulted in a decidedly masculine rich grey-brown... and the most marvelous Prophet, whose yarn is as soft as cashmere and, though he looks white in his photo, is a light oh-so-creamy tan.

What I'll do with these fibers, I don't know yet. Perhaps vintage style gloves would be the perfect match.



It's obvious that winter has me down, and I'm sorry and I'm sad, but soon I will be slipping westward and, like Persephone, winter will fade in my memory. Not soon enough for me, but then, I need another week or two to finish up my hats!

Storm

A weekend should be full of knitting and creativity and socializing and fun. Isn't that so? But lately, weekends in this New England town have been dominated by a bad tempered weather pattern that keeps grabbing us by the ankles and trying its hardest to pull us down. My time has been spent moving snow from one place to another instead of multiplying stitches with warm and vibrant wool. That fence in the background is 6 feet tall... yes, that one that now shows just 2 feet above the snow.



But in the hours when the two storms were raging or spitting their white flakes over us, here at the end of February - which should be preparing the earth for Spring flowers in stead of covering them for weeks more of cold sleep - and it was too soon to shovel, I did start and finish a winter hat for myself.

This is Leaves (I made two of these for friends last year) and is a fast and easy knit in Nashua Creative Focus Chunky and size 13 needles:



Appropriately, the colourway is named Storm.

Not for Christmas

I don't have much to report on this first Sunday of Advent, except that I've finished another pair of Veylas and a small cap to go with it. They were made on request and what a fun and fast knit! These were made with Indigo Moon sock yarn, in Midnight (black).



The buttons are vintage glass from a closed Czechoslovakian button factory, so they're what antique dealers call "old stock" - never used stock from an old store. I'm not sure how the photos will show them, as they have both brown and black swirling through the glass.



In other news, we had our first snow (a little flurry) and the world is cold and stark, suddenly, without warning. I'm almost prepared for winter, so its fairly cosy here and a fire in the fireplace with a cup of mulled cider or spiced tea is just what I need!

another Brat

I have very little knitting content to report, because I've been.... well.... knitting presents, and those need to remain, you know, Secret! So, no pictures, no descriptions, no fiber-y hints. Just lots of surreptitious knitting and silence.

But I am making another hat for myself. Because I am stepping westward, I need a hat that will do what it needs to do in wet, cool weather but definitely not cold, snowy weather, I needed something a little lighter than those thick medieval helmets I've been making for myself! I started another Brat Sister Hat, this time in cashmere fingering weight to match the Veyla gloves in my last post.



I've been working on my collection perfectly normal-sized stash also. Ahem. A box from Blue Moon Fiber Arts might have arrived this week. And inside might have been several skeins of their new fiber Marine Silk, which I showed you earlier in it's Quilla incarnation, I think.

Here it is in Lodestone, a most lovely pale green with a subtle swath of spring yellow like the edge of a newly unfurling leaf in Spring:



These two skeins are the ones for Miss Marple's Shawl, which I described below. The shawl, square but lightwieght, is part of an indulgent set I'm making for myself that includes, in addition to this 1930's shawl, a silk and merino undervest from the 1930's, and a pair of merino sleeping socks of my own design. All this is in aid of those times when I'm ill and have to stay on the couch feeling sickeningly sorry for myself. These comforts will be perfect for resting in this cold old house!

More Marine Silk, this time in My Blue Heaven, Winter Solstice, and Lenore:



I have no plans for these skeins, but wish I had ordered more of the Winter Solstice. It's winter-sky silver really appeals to me right now!

And finally, because Marine Silk comes in three different weights, here is Lenore in the Lace weight. It is beautifully silky and shiny:



This skein is actually not mine, but is part of a trade with my friend Nad in Germany. She is a fearless knitter and doesn't hesitate to use the micron-thin lace weight yarns! Here is a close-up of how the blood-red blends with the raven black on the end of the skein:



Don't you just love Blue Moon?

Stepping Westward
~ Denise Levertov

What is green in me
darkens, muscadine.
If woman is inconstant,
good, I am faithful to
ebb and flow, I fall
in season and now
is a time of ripening.
If her part
is to be true,
a north star,
good, I hold steady
in the black sky
and vanish by day,
yet burn there
in blue or above
quilts of cloud.
There is no savor
more sweet, more salt
than to be glad to be
what, woman,
and who, myself,
I am, a shadow
that grows longer as the sun
moves, drawn out
on a thread of wonder.
If I bear burdens
they begin to be remembered
as gifts, goods, a basket
of bread that hurts
my shoulders but closes me
in fragrance. I can
eat as I go.

Sanddollar Hat

...and speaking of sand dollars, one of my favorite seashells...



I am drifting along on the waves of a new pattern: The Brat Sister hat by Grace Akhrem, using Swan Island Worsted in Robin's Egg Blue. As you can see, the design on the hat top makes a perfect sand dollar!



This pattern using size 3 needles, so it's not ideal for worsted weight, but the Swan's Island is a fairly light worsted and its working well. My winters are spent in a state with rather brutal snow storms (hard to imagine in this 90 degree F weather!), so I wanted a hat with more heft than the original fingering weight version yielded.

I got my copy at The Loopy Ewe, but it's available at a variety of online shops. I found the cast on and first 3 or 4 rows to be a bit challenging - sort of like juggling porcupines when the first 5 stitches on size 3 DPNs needed to be joined and then increased in each stitch. After that is was super easy and fast, fast, fast!

I hope that when I'm in the midst of ice and snow this winter, I'll remember my idyllic days by this oceans this summer.

A Good Snow Storm

It's never the wrong time to prepare for a good snow storm, right? Somewhere in the world, it's winter (I think it's the midst of winter for my friends in Australia)! And soon enough, our short summer will be packing up the picnic basket and trundling southward. So I have begun preparing already!

Last winter, we had such desperately icy temperatures that dog-walking was actually painful. So I've started with Balaclavas.



I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts mediumweight Socks That Rock in the colourway, Manly, But I Like it Too. It turned out nice and squishy and stretchy and fits the recipient perfectly!

This is the pattern that I was following, Balaclava by Nanette Blanchard:



and even though my own balaclava photo looks somewhat unprepossessing, I can assure you that it looks just as neatly snug, and fits just right over the chin and nose, when it's worn!

I'm now going to make one for myself and am trying to decide what colourway to use. I'm seriously considering this one, a STR Rare gem acquired in a trade...



or this one, with its little bit of green (my favorite colour):



Or perhaps I should really break out and make something that can be seen in the dark, like orange or red! No, I'll probably stick with my muted colour palette, but maybe I should make colourful hats for the dogs!

Nice Hat

From this:



To this:



To THIS!!!



Nice hat. Really nice baby.

On the Ocean

My birthday week has been spent on the ocean, the beautiful, wild, unpredictable Spring ocean...



I love it here, where every view draws you down to the waves... where walks on the beach through the sea grass last two hours or more. Walking along the shore where early sailors risked their lives the bring ships to the coast - this was the most dangerous shore with its hidden rocks - makes me feel like a character in Dickens; one of his blithe and fey children dancing barefoot on the sand while her family laughs cosily in their house made out of an upturned fishing boat... or perhaps I'm better suited as Anne Elliot of Persuasion, visiting Lyme Regis and the sea captains who housed their families along the shore...



I can see the ocean from my window...



The weather is warm, and I don't need a fire. I can smell the salt air and sleep so deeply with the sound of the waves shushing through my subconscious...

Days are spent walking, playing with dogs, talking, knitting, and exploring. I visited two yarn shops and made Baby Who. You can just make out the owl on the front...



Some lovely yarn jumped into my arms: Ella Rae's new Italian laceweight fine Merino. It's machine washable!



I plan to make a shawl with stunning golden sunrise-coloured one, and a pair of very long, vintage-y over-the-knee stockings with the mossy green. I so love fiber and colour! I wonder what makes it so incredibly compelling? Perhaps it's the...possibilities.

the Mad Hatter's hat party

Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 7



'...It's always six o'clock now.'

A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked.

`Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.'

`Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice.

`Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.'

`But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask.


I'll tell you what happens when you come to the beginning again....you just make another hat! Yes, I was very interested in making hats for Christmas presents this year. Hats are such gratifying projects. There is always enough yarn for them, and they come in infinite variety, and within this infinite variety there are infinite possibilities!

Before I began my hat party, I chose all the patterns that I would use: The Grace Lace Beret, from Loop Knits; Leaves, by Helen Bingham, StarStruck (I was looking for a pirate-y toque); and Urchin, by Ysolda.

Some of these I knit as presented and others I modified to suit my free spirit mad hatter nature... I'll take them one by one and describe each one with any modifications I made and the yarns I used...

Urchin



Urchin was the first one I made and was a very fun knit. It had to be done early, since it was a gift for my friend in Germany and had to travel a long way (as it was, it only arrived at its destination on New Year's Day!). I used a skein of Farmhouse Yarns Lumpy Bumpy - a handspun, handpainted yarn that has incredible colour combinations and a super soft feel. I love this yarn with a passion, but there are limits to what you can do with a 'thick-and-thin' spun yarn; it has areas as thin as thread and big areas of cloudy almost-unspun roving. Urchin is perfect for this, incorporating all thicknesses into its garter-stitch, sideways-knit construction.



I used the needle size called for (7 mm) - I used 10.5 single point needles by Bryspun (one of my favorite needles for single points). The pattern isn't hard, but many people get stuck where it says "knit row 8 more times". What it means is that you continue making a wrap & turn on each row - both the top of the hat and the rim - so that when you are finished you have 5 wraps Plus the first 3 sts (unwrapped) on the rim, as well as a larger number of wraps (plus the one unwrapped first st) at the crown. The number of wrapped stitches at the crown will depend on the size you are making. Note that this hat runs small - you can see this in the pictures on the patten of Ysolda wearing her hat. I have a (relatively) small head, but in order to get a size that would fit over my hair, I would need to make the large size - cast on 24 stitches.

I loved the Urchin that I made for Nad so much, that I'm currently making a second one for myself!

Leaves

The Leaves hat pattern has to be the easiest, most logical, and quickest pattern with a complicated look that I've come across. It's designed for use with a Chunky or Super Bulky weight yarn - remember if you use a different weight, you'll have to modify the stitches or it will end up tiny! I used one skein of Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Chunky. This is a beautiful vibrant wool with a halo...



This pattern is knitted from the rim to the crown, so a stretchy cast on is needed. I used the long-tail cast on, and it was nicely stretchy. The pattern calls for size 11 and size 13 needles in 16" circulars - I used my Boye Needlemaster interchangeable set, the only interchangables I have that go up to size 13 without buying extras - and a set of size 13 DPNs for finishing the crown (I used the largest DPNs I had - I think they were 10s).



I didn't make any modifications at all...

Monastic Leaves

I loved making Leaves so much that I decided to try it again with some modifications I had in mind. I wanted to make a toque for a friend of mind who is an Orthodox monastic. It had to be black and I wanted it to have the vintage look of an old-fashioned night cap or even a crown... those hats that writers in the 1800s wore in the evening before the fire because houses were so drafty. I also had only two skeins of black Bazic wool, so I needed to make sure that I had enough for this hat; it needed to be top-down.



I started out using the top-down method from my own Noro One-skein Top Down hat - I find it very easy if I do say so myself! :) After continuing with the crown increases until it fit the top of the head, I started with the Leaves pattern, but of course since I was doing it top-down instead of rim-up, the leaves would be upside-down. I wanted this - the leaves looked like they were dripping down from the branch of a tree. Bazic is a slightly thinner yarn than the pattern called for, so in order to have a hat that actually fit on a head, I made 8 leaf repeats around... instead of the 5 of the original pattern. I also started making increases in between the leaves as I went down so that I would end up with the number of stitches that the original pattern started with - basically just doing the pattern backwards.



A top down hat requires a stretchy bind off. I used EZ's sewn bind off. To make the little point on the crown, I just threaded the cast on tail through each stitch and pulled it tight - the beginning increases did the rest!

Star Gazer Pirate Toque - Starstruck



This pattern is from Kristine Grønningsæter's blog where she describes it as a "simple" pattern. Her directions don't give many details, but it is enough to create a nice floppy winter hat that can be modified in a variety of ways. I used Sublime yarns Organic DK wool - I happened to have two skeins that a friend had traded to me for a different colour to finish her sweater. I think the original pattern was knit with a thinner weight, because I came out with a huge hat. It was certainly floppy though! Since I had wanted the hat to look like those old pirate/ sailor hats (you see them in cartoons as red and white striped), the big floppiness suited my purpose. But if you want it look like the original, use a light-weight yarn, like light fingering. To insure this desired "flop" I turned the crown down and used the ending tail to crochet a loop for a starry button:



I also added some embroidery using a simple chain stitch with some leftover black Malabrigio worsted. I think it adds a jaunty touch.



The rim as written turned out to be too huge so I tinked it and redid it with a smaller needle size. It ended up really cute and perfect for the recipient, but wasn't a straightforward knit because the directions were so scanty....

Grace Lace Beret

The last hat in my Mad Tea Party of Christmas hats was the Grace Lace Beret. I used this pattern, first, because my friend Tethys had made one for me using Louisa Harding's Grace silk and wool and I absolutely love it, and second, because it was for a friend who is allergic to wool so I needed a pattern that would work well in silk, which doesn't stretch much.



I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk (LSS) in the deep and mysterious Haida colourway - one of the "Ravens" series. It is a black with unexpected flashes of iridescent blue. I probably should have used the Luscious Silk, which has a tighter spin, more like Grace silk, but I love the LSS and the colour was perfect for my friend, so I went with that.

The cast on gave me lots of trouble. I must have tried it 3 times. I can never do that crocheted provisional cast on - it baffles me. On top of this, your first row after cast on is an increase in every stitch! Someday I'll master it, but this was not the day. I ended up using a braided cast on - not quite as stretchy, but with this softer yarn it worked well.

The rest of the hat was knit as written, and looks super cute on. It uses size 9 needles in 16" circular and size 4 DPNs for the rim. . This pattern has a kind of gathered top - I prefer a smoother top for a beret, but there's no denying that it works for this design. It may not look great on it's own, but when it's on your head, it's perfect...



So that is almost the whole story of my Christmas hat knitting! There are still a couple out there that don't seem to have reached their recipients yet, so I'm trying not to reveal them. Lots of fun, and I found some wonderful patterns.

Now, if I could only get all the recipients together for a hat-wearing winter tea party!

from Space to the Library

Now that Flash Kelly has opened his birthday present (he couldn't wait until Wednesday), I can show you what I made him. This is the Space Invader baby hat, made man-size (and a big, brainy head it is, too!). I used the recommended yarn, Cascade 220, in black and cream. I know it's late in the season for a wool hat, but it's what he wanted and I have to admit, I wore a furry ear-flap hat when I was walking the dogs yesterday so perhaps he'll get some use out of it before next winter.



This was my first intarsia knitting ever!!

The pattern, which is written for baby size, doesn't give directions for up-sizing. I used my One Skein Top-Down hat pattern to make this hat, using just the charts for the intarsia space invader guys from the original pattern. The hardest part was figuring out the size of the ear flaps (I had to redo them when one came out smaller than the other) but it worked perfectly in the end. The opening between the ear flaps is twice as wide in the front as it is in the back. If you want to make one, my hat pattern is on Ravelry (button on the left takes you to the download) and you will need the original pattern for the space invader charts and placement directions. I suggest figuring out your maths for positioning the ear flaps on this adult size before you actually start them, but after you've finished the body of the hat.

Of course, as soon as I finished this I had to make one for the baby too:





I learned some things about intarsia while knitting these hats and was so chuffed to have learned a new technique that I wanted to apply it again immediately! I chose the baby sweater pattern Baby Sophisticate (you can find this free on Ravelry) and designed my own intarsia pattern on it. I think it looks like a sweater that a college professor would wear in the library:



The yarn is Sublime organic merino, just a little over 1 ball and a bit of a second colour. This yarn is very loosely plied so it knits up like a single ply yarn. It was such a pleasure to knit with and so soft!



The pattern itself is super easy and took just two days to complete (good Masterpiece Theater knitting). The pattern is plain, but having just learned intarsia, I had to try it out again. I graphed a school of fish and applied it in blue. They don't look much like fish really - I toyed with the idea of embroidering details on them, like eyes, to try to make them more obvious but rejected this as over-kill. With the blue fish buttons, I think the suggestion of fishes is subtle but works okay...



If you make this sweater pattern, I found that it ran very small. I used the 3-6 month size but at gauge it came out a small newborn size. I hope that it will last a while; babies grow fast! The good news is that the pattern is so fast and easy I can make another in the larger size with no trouble.