A Marvelous Box

A most wonderful box arrived in the mail... a box from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island, across the water from Seattle.



One of the best (in my opinion) things about college in Seattle is its proximity to Bainbridge Island and Madrona Lane. The ferry across deep and soothing waters to the little village uphill from the terminal, the Blackbird Bakery, The Eagle Harbor Used Books, and the fabric store across the street....

So this box, traveling its 3,000 miles to me, was most welcome and soothed my soul like a cup of tea with a familiar friend...

There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.

~Bernard-Paul Heroux

Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.

~Author Unknown

This box was a treasure chest, each layer revealing jewels more precious to a knitter than gemstones to a King.



First, two well-chosen skeins of Koigu: a leafy green and a luscious pink. I love green so much, a cherished lover in my youth having told me that green is the true colour of love because it has so many variations. I'm also drawn to pink - soft, delicate, petal pinks - though, being a red-head, I never wear it. Well, I secretly wear it... in my small-clothes and at night... So these two skeins delighted me.



Beside the yarn, a mysterious bubble-wrapped box revealed itself to be - of course - a box of tea!





Chruchmouse Winter Tea is what they call "a straightforward blend of Yunnan, Assam and Ceylon with a hint of summer fruit that brightens with a touch of sugar or honey." It's lovely with milk and the fragrance is divine.

[I am a] hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals only with the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning.

-Samuel Johnson

and beneath this box nestled the lovely card, with images of the Northwest seacoast and of projects to warm a knitter's heart and hands.

If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.

~Gladstone, 1865

This would have been enough wonder for a chill and rainy New England day, but underneath all of this was a sleek smooth linen bag - beautiful and cool as a Boston Brahmin at a tea party. (Boston Brahmins are wealthy Yankee families characterized by a highly discreet and inconspicuous life style.)



and inside the linen, especially chosen to prepare me for this anticipated wild and passionate winter to come: a pattern, with cashmere-y yarn, and a little bag of dark shiny abalone buttons - all to make a beautiful pair of fingerless gloves that will help me transition from fondly remembered summer tea parties in the garden, to warm and cosy gatherings with the teapot in front of the fire...

Surely every one is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whist the wind and rain are raging audibly without.

- Thomas De Quincey

And finally, I have reached the bottom of the box, which holds more patterns from Churchmouse designers: Wee Ones - beautiful, clever, and simply elegant patterns that will keep me knitting furiously until December.



I'm thrilled, happy, content, and charmed. Thank you. And now I'm off for tea with my sweetheart, play with the magician-cats Holmes and Watson, and my own type of Art.

After tea it's back to painting - a large poplar at dusk with a gathering storm...

~Gustav Klimt

Cherries Ripe

It's cherry season! My favorite are Rainier Cherries that were developed by Washington State University in 1952 - Thank you WU!



So in honour of this sweet season, I'll thought I'd highlight some of my favorite Cherry-coloured things...

Lexi Barnes Flo, a great find at a LYS going out of business...



Fleece Artist Kid Silk in Ruby, a gift to myself when I was going through a difficult time...



Dainty Work for Pleasure and Profit, 1894, not my oldest book by any means but so characteristic of its day with the fancy silver and gold filigree with the classical woman on the cover...



And from this book, a little=known stitch pattern for you! The Porcupine Stitch. Now, I have to tell you, in all fairness, that I tried this pattern and it came out not so much like a porcupine nor a knitting stitch, but more like a tangled triangle of confusion. There is an assumption somewhere in this direction, as there almost always is when things end up in a tangled mess not only in knitting but in life. Perhaps you can decipher it!

Porcupine Stitch

Cast on in twelves. 1st row plain.
2nd row, *over, k 2 together, repeat from *
3d row, purl; 4th row, plain; 5th row, purl.
6th row, sl 1. k 2 together, pass the slipped stitch over, k 4, over, k 1, over, k 4; repeat.
7th row, p 3 together, p 4, over, p 1, over, p 4; repeat.
8th row, like 7th; 9th row, like 6th; 10th row, like 7th.
Repeat from second row. Very pretty.

Good luck!

The Art of Knitting

Strange things happen around my old New England farmhouse sometimes. Things disappear. Sometimes I think that I am living with The Borrowers, or that the field mice are lining their winter nests with my knitting! The most recent things to go missing are all my fingerless mitts (I would call them gloves, except they don't have fingers). I've had a couple of pairs of my own Koigu Gloves pattern - one was my favorite green Broccoli mitts - and use them every fall before the weather gets cold enough for really serious gloves. But when I cleaned out and organized the coats, jackets, and accessories they were nowhere to be found - nowhere! Borrowers, indeed.

So...here are my quickly knitted replacements: Veyla, from Ysolda.



I can't say enough about this pattern. The finished gloves are so lovely and with their lace and details they look like a complicated knitting project - but they're not. The pattern is clear and very fast. I made this pair in three days, just working on them in the evenings while watching Rubicon.

My yarn is the wonderful MacKintosh Yarns in the Iona Fingering, which is a merino-cashmere blend, with a little nylon for durability. It's so soft and her colours are stunning in person. This colourway is a deep blend of dark teal blue and black - very "ocean-depths" coloured!



The buttons are antique faceted and silvered black glass. They were a gift from a friend and, I wanted to use them on something where I would see them often. I have enough for a sweater, though, so if I make something else that they would be good with, I might switch these up and use smaller ones on the Veylas.

These mitts fit perfectly and I'll use them on those early frosty Fall mornings we are having. (like today - 39 degrees Fahrenheit right now, although later today, it will be closer to 70!) I see more pairs of Veylas in my future!



The book in these photos is a precious antique volume of The Art of Knitting, 1902, published by The Butterick Publishing Co [Limited], London and New York, Price: fifty-cents or two shillings.



This incredible original came to me as a gift from my friend Marky in Australia - its a real treasure! This was obviously a well-used volume over the past 110 years, as the pages are filled with faded photographs of mysterious people, patterns cut out of other magazines of the day, and hints on cleaning felted hats and pressing silk sash ribbons between muslin... This photo is the beautiful "Maggie" holding a garland in her lap and perhaps dressed for a wedding with her deep V-necked gown and dainty button-up shoes.



The frontispiece is a very familiar one - a scene that I've found in several of my old knitting and crochet volumes from the mid and late 1800s, that of a grandmother teaching her granddaughter to knit, and leads me to believe that in a publication from 1902, at least some of the patterns have their origin in an earlier century. Perhaps this picture is meant to indicate that the patterns span generations?



The patterns are quaint, like this simple and quick pattern for sleeping socks:



Its heelless design and openwork pattern would make it a very easy pattern to work up in a bit of leftover wool or silk.

I particularly like this pattern for a cuff, with it's scalloped design and think I might make a pair to peek out from the slightly-too-short sleeves of my brown jacket:



And, of course, these beautiful mittens will have to find their way into my wardrobe this year. I don't really wear mittens much, so I'll probably re-design these to have open fingers.





On the very last page of this fragile booklet, the previous owner has pasted a pattern article from a 1915 newspaper - the WWI years. It is "A Cap Comforter for Tommy" - a hat and neck-cowl combination for a soldier in winter. With it's ingenious design and historical significance, I think it deserves it's own post, so plan to put that up in the future.

A New Company - Quince

I've been much enamoured of a new company that started recently, Quince & Co, in Maine. This company comes from the creative genius of Pam Allen, who has written so many patterns and books that we love, knitting designer Carrie Bostick Hoge and the mill owner, Bob Rice.. As soon as I saw their colour palette and marvelously unique pattern line, I felt that urge to dive in!

Here are my yarns (not quite all of them):

This is the one-ply bulky yarn called Puffin in "Honey", with their fingeringweight Chickadee and another Puffin in the colourway "Pomegranate".



I also have the incredibly soft Lark yarn in "Dogwood", an Osprey in "Honey", and a Chickadee in "Dogwood".



The aesthetic of this company is so in tune with my dreams of days on the ocean in winter.



The scarf pattern in the top left is the garter-stitch Puck's Scarf. Then, (going clockwise) I have the Effie Beret, by Melissa LaBarre, the Belle Ascot, by Carrie Bostick Hoge, and - my personal favorite - the Medieval-looking Kelpie Cap, by Pam Allen.

I am currently working on the Kelpie Cap, and the Puck's Scarf, both in Quince's "Honey" colourway. I also have a skein of Peacock, to make the beret as pictured. The ascot will be in the Pomegranate, and I'll use the Puffin Pomegranate for an Ysolda's Urchin - a pattern I love.

I'm bringing my knitting to a Red Sox game at Fenway today, so four hours of Puck's Scarf Baseball Knitting! Hooray!

A Little Something

Just like some people search for small shawls, I like to look for patterns for simple little summer sweaters. My latest is Samantha Roshak's (KnitQuest) lovely sweater, A Little Something. It only takes about 400 - 600 yards of yarn, so was perfect for some of my special low-yardage acquisitions!



I happened to be sorting through my stash this past week, and came across 4 small skeins - 130 yards each - of Grafton Fibers (Now DyakCraft) limited edition Harmonics. They don't sell skeins online, though they do sell the beautiful fiber batts for those who spin. I originally bought these skeins at the annual Sheep and Wool Fair a few years ago. The incredible blending of deep and subtle colours is so striking:



The skeins that I have are a nice light blend of mohair and silk. You can see the shine of the silk in the skein and when the yarn is knit up:



I am almost finished with this sweater, just ready to start the yoke (it's a bottom up design with no seaming), and the pattern is looking a little scrunched-up and small. But when I pinned it out to photograph, it was about twice as long as it is before blocking. It went from 14 inches to 27 inches!



My next summer sweater is in crochet. It is is the O-Wool Herringbone Mesh Crochet sweater and I plan to use BMFA Gertrude Skein STR in medium weight for it. These small sweaters are total instant gratification - perfect for a crazy schedule like mine!

Inspiration day

I have to admit that I'm an easy sell for knitting and crochet patterns. I have enough to last two lifetimes even if I made something new every day. And yet, when a new pretty crosses my path I find myself reaching and wanting... It's not the actual belief that I will knit every one... it's more about the way the patterns make me feel in terms of inspiration. There are some patterns and pattern books that just make my creativity soar when I thumb through. They are like my own art board and their pattern pictures people my imagination.

Here is a good example:


Kim Hargreaves' two latest booklets, Amber (on the right) and Breeze, this season's stylebook.

The designs in Breeze are lighthearted and, well...breezy. I can easily see them (on me) as I walk along the ocean sands with bare feet and a brisk wind tossing salt-water spray...





Amber is more moody and suits my style perfectly:

almost vintage...



classic...



comfortable...



I don't know if I'll stop my baby knitting for long enough to actually make any of these, but I'll be inspired all summer.

This vest....

I have been making This...(<--- Ravelry link)



It used 3 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Chocolate, a deliciously soft deep brown, almost solid...but even though all three skeins were from the same dye lot, one had faint mocha stripes and the other two were the depth of a smooth bittersweet 75% cacao bar... the colour is most accurate in this photo:



I added lots of inches to the length, but otherwise followed the pattern as written (not an easy feat since it gets a bit vague around about the mid-point of the writing), even to the tiny needles - size 2 - except that I had to change the bind off. The pattern specified the Russian bind-off (knit two tog, slip resulting stitch back onto left needle, knit two tog,, repeat) and I was tempted - the name intrigued me. But it was ultimatly non-stretchy and I had to unpick it and use the sewn bind-off.



I'm sorry now that I didn't get an action shot before I sent this off in the mail as a birthday present. I was so focused on getting the colour right in the camera and showing the vintage pin that seems just perfect for this slightly vintage-y vest. This pin belonged to my oh-so-cool aunt when she was a teenager. She was so stylish - wore all the latest trends, I heard she was even a go-go girl, what-ever that is! Some kind of a dancer I think, that wore short skirts and white knee-high boots. Anyway.... this pin was hers and then mine, and now my little sister's...



I also had an addition to my knitting cupboard (er....pile-o-stuff-by-the-couch is more accurate)... a set of Habu knitting needles from Japan! Have I shown you these yet? There is a pair of every size, starting very small, and each is colour-coded by its glossy gum-ball finial. They came in the padded travel case with a sizing ruler in both Japanese and English. And...very cool...the ruler has a little 'blessing bell' on the end of it attached with it's traditional red ribbon; every time the bells chime, a prayer goes up to Buddha. I hope its a prayer for my WIPs!

something special in the mail...

This afternoon, after a morning conference that started (or seemed to) at dawn and didn't include lunch, I ate at Beijing Tokyo, a restaurant downdown. I got vegatable tempura and miso soup. And a fortune cookie came with the bill. I love fortune cookies. The hope that somehow chance will know exactly what is going on in the course of any random life is very amusing and optimistic!

Mine read:
"You will receive something special in the mail"

When I got home, after a long, long day and an after-hours meeting, I found this on my doorstep:



Two packages from afar! From England, in fact!

The first was my order from Kim Hargreaves.



I love how she wraps everything up in tissue and ribbon. Items are packed in white gift boxes and include a blank card, so that when you've finished knitting whatever it is you've ordered, you can give it as a lovely wrapped gift.

My boxed included her summer book of patterns, Nectar, and the very new one, The Thrown Together Collection. I also got a kit, but since it truely is a gift for someone, it will remain a mystery for now...



Every pattern in both books is gorgeous and several have a really 30's or 40's flair. I want to make them all. This one, with its wide neckline, is calling me...



The second package was another special knitting resource from the 1930's:





This book, The Pictoral Guide to Modern Home Knitting, by Odham's Press of London, is full of stitch patterns, designing tips, and actual patterns - many for underthings of both practical and lacy nature. The French Knickers are adorable and the American Panties are depressingly practical! There are a few bathing suits that look just like the unders. I especially love the vests, corset covers, and spencers:









There are plenty of clothing patterns, too. One that caught my eye has a knitted "godet" of pleats in the back of a pretty skirt:



And one of my very favorites is a little sweater that is made from 5 skeins of pure angora!

The Fluffy Bolero



This sweater has somewhat sketchy directions for tricot crochet (made with an afghan hook). The pieces are made square, or almost, and the curve for the neck front edge is made by turning the piece under when the sweater is seamed and "sewing the superfluous fabric to the wrong side". This sweater would probably be easy to crochet, but I also think that it could be easily converted to knit stitches. Angora is almost impossible to undo, so it would be important to be sure of the design first, perhaps practicing the sizing of the sweater in garter stitch with a smooth light yarn.

Here are my thoughts on conversion to today's crochet. I would make it entirely in single crochet (double crochet for any Brits reading this).

Measurements. To fit a 34-in bust; length from shoulder to lower front edge, 20 inches. Sleeve length, from underarm, 3.5 inches.

Materials. Five balls of 1/2 ounces each, in 100% angora. A medium hook and small hook. (sorry, no hook size is given. I would probably start with a G hook and an F hook).

Right front. Chain 32. Single crochet (sc) in each chain, starting with the 2nd chain from the hook. Ch 1, turn (ch 1 at each turning). SC in each sc across. Increase in each of last five sc. Contnue even back and forth until the work measures 8 inches from the first row.
To shape armholes: SC to within five stitches of the end, turn, ch 1, work back. Continue even back and forth in sc until the work measures 16 and 1/2 inches. Fasten off.

Left front. Make the same as for right front.

Back. Chain 62 and sc in each ch, starting with 2nd ch from hook. Continue even in sc, back and forth, until the side edges measure 8 inches. Then follow the directions for shaping the armholes, as for the right front, only do it on both sides of back simultaneously. SC even, back and forth, on these stitches until the entire back measures 16 and 1/2.

Sleeves. - make two. Chain 32 and work in sc for 3 and 1/2 inches, increasing 1 stitch at each side on every other row. Then, decrease twice on each side of the next row. For the next 2 inches, decrease 1 stitch in each row on each side. Then, for the next 2 and 1/2 inches, decrease 2 stitches each end every row. Fasten off.

Make up. Join the side, shoulder, and sleeve seams with over-sewing in a matching sewing thread. Shape the top of the fronts as desired and sew the superfluous fabric to the wrong sides (this is from the original directions). Work a row of DC (double crochet - or triple crochet for the Brits) down the fronts and across the lower edge of the back, using the smaller crochet hook. Then work two rows of SC, slightly tightening the edge and putting 3 stitches into the corners of the right and left fronts. The 30's directions say that it is not necessary to work an edging around the sleeves.

Make a buttonholed bar in the right front neck edge to fasten the small button sewn to the top of the left front. Press the fabric carefully, being sure not to rest the weight of the iron directly on the fabric.

There you have it! If I find any nice angora, I'll try this pattern out. I like the idea of a soft, fluffy sweater for the fall!