Herb Gathering

From THIS:



to THIS:



in 20 days!

This is my Herbivore for Camp Loopy Project One. I used just over one skein of yarn - Alisha Goes Around, Panoply of Peacocks in the colourway Deciduous - to meet the 400 yard requirements for the challenge. If not for this yardage requirement for Camp Loopy's first project, I would have stopped when the first skein ran out. At 360 yards of soft, cushy cashmere and merino blend it was the perfect size for a shawlette/scarf. With the extra 55 yards I put into it, its a full sized shawl.





I do love it this big and I'm sure that the person I made this for will love it as it is.

My next challenge - Camp Loopy Project Two - requires 800 yards of yarn. I have chosen Secret of Change in Madeline Tosh Merino Light, Lowland:



I'm looking forward to another satisfying knitting experience.

Sorry I Can't Go Out with You

Around here, today is a big "sit in front of the Superbowl Football pre-game shows and eat and knit" day. The weather has finally heaved a sigh and settled down from it's uncontrollable tantruming. We have sun. We have melting. We have a town full of people exhausted from snow shoveling and worrying about their roofs collapsing. In short, people all around me are looking forward to a day that is a bit of a break from the struggle that was Winter 2010-11.

I say "was" because I believe that winter has breathed its last. Perhaps that's optimistic. There has been snow in Februaries past. But I can almost feel it - the worst of winter is over, and from today life will get a little easier.

Today is such a relief with it's Lyle's Golden Syrup sky, that I feel like beginning all new knitting projects. I have so much unfinished on the needles already though:

1. The bright blue "Oh Handsome" sweater for the little guy

2. A Black Tweed cardigan for myself (which stalled last weekend when the delicate gathered wrists I'd been envisioning turned into something horrifyingly resembling Leg-O-Mutton sleeves from the 1800's!)

3. The beautiful Miss Marple's Shawl, looking gorgeous in the lightest green Marine Silk

Focus! I need focus!

Or perhaps I just need a long quiet day or two to finish these projects up so - like Spring - I can start new, pretty soon.

too early for wooly scarves

When I was out in Portland, I got to meet a lot of new people and one of my favorites was Sean, who was the best man and a really, really big help with the wedding. I wanted to send him something more than a thank you card, so I've started making him a scarf for winter.

Do you remember BrooklynTweed's Noro Striped Scarf? ...Seems like years and years ago that this was first popular! I think it's a classic. I had several skeins of Silk Garden in my stash and had fun putting the colors together for the perfect pattern...

This scarf uses two skeins of the main colours - I used one of my favorite combinations with black, browns in many shades, and greys - and then pairs it with one skein each of two different, more colourful, but similar colors for contrast. I used two skeins that I love best: greens and browns and blues and brownish reds... They seem to be working very well together in a toasty mellow kind of way.

Sorry for the poor phone-camera picture, but you can see a bit:



This is a very soothing knit so there's lots of good magic in it! I watch the baseball game and knit away, carrying each colour up the side. It is early for knitting winter scarves. But it's always the right time for gifts!

...and what I did while in Portland...

My recent trip to Portland included much running around the city, which – to me – is like a collection of distinct towns connected together by a great train/ bus/ subway/ trolley system. The architecture is beautiful – I kept thinking that I should take pictures of the buildings, but unfortunately was so often distracted by the “Oh! That’s Pretty!” in the windows. I remember an apartment building that had winged Sphinxes on it’s four corners…

I did do some yarn-related shopping, visiting Knit/Purl on 1101 Alder Street and The Yarn Garden on S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. (The #14 Hawthorne bus stops at 14th avenue on both sides of Hawthorne). Both places were great fun and had big comfy chairs for my non-knitting friends to sit while I browsed, but neither had local yarns from indie dyers. I kept expecting Portland stores to carry Blue Moon Fiber Arts, but was disappointed in that respect.



We went to the Yarn Garden first, and it was there that Jule found copies of HandKnit Heroes for me!! I was super excited! I read both zines on plane on the way home, but was a bit stymied by the microscopic lettering and the poor airplane cabin lighting. I’ll have to re-read them at the kitchen table with a magnifying glass. I think I managed to get most of the words right. Both patterns (each magazine includes one knitted item) are great – a hooded scarf with pockets (very 1920’s!) and a mesh beach or market bag.

Yarn Garden had a whole shelf of Japanese knitting books. I wanted about 10 of them, but they were all very expensive – mostly between $25 and $35. I contented myself with one – the 300 knitting motifs. I haven’t had a chance yet to look through the whole book, but I’m really, really hoping that these knitting pattern (lace mostly) are different from the US stitch dictionaries that I have. The girl at the counter told a funny story about all the customers who buy these Japanese knitting books and then return them because...well, they're written in Japanese!



On another day, we went to Knit/Purl. Knit/Purl is one of those shops that goes on and on and on with multiple rooms. One of the last rooms had a huge table full of knitting and crochet books on clearance! And at the counter was a display of used needles. I was in heaven pouring through this collection, and found some of my favorite vintage circulars: Bates Circulon, an early 50’s plastic that is warm and pliable. I even found one that has metal tips in bright blue and the rest of the needle and the cable between the tips is Circulon! There were also several used Addi Turbos that I got for a much reduced price. I don’t know why someone would sell their Addis, but … lucky me! (I left many, many of these behind BTW – in case you want to get some). They were not damaged in any way and I checked the joins which were nice and smooth. I gathered mostly smaller and shorter sizes for sock and baby knitting.



I also picked up a nice skein of green single ply silk (I love this yarn!) but I don’t remember which store had this. Both has extensive collections of posh yarns – walls and bins of silks! Knit/Purl had a bin of MadelineTosh and I wished I could justify getting more of this, but I couldn’t. I got just the one skein of silk to make these wristers:



Now – if I could only finish my Lily of the Valley Shawl so I could start them!!

How I spent my time...

For the last several years, at the end of December, I take stock of my knitting and crocheting life and review what I've done, and what - sadly - I've left undone.

Here is 2008, in order, with clickable thumbnails leading to the original posts and some with patterns:

January:



February:







This year as I searched through past projects and designs, I realised that I had completed fewer projects than in the past 2 years. As many as ten fewer. It was also clear that my projects were both more professional, and more complex and that I had designed more.
March:



April:


One thing I really regret is that, although I took really good notes, I have not typed up many of my designs of this past year. Designs that I love, like Guinevere's Wedding Stockings, the Sensitive Man Socks, Jackie's Acorn Hat, To Sleep, and Scarlet Woman.

May: Nothing!

June:


July:




August:



September:



Because I was designing more, I also some design failures that were never recorded in my journal. One is a soft bulky cardigan that was meant as a gift, but is now headed to the frog pond... Another failing that has contributed to my shorter project list is that I've started several projects and not finished them. Just in recent memory there are two pairs of socks, one Lumpy Bumpy scarf, and Jewel, from Kim Hargreaves...
October:

November:

And, finally, my list of this past year's projects is scattered across 3 computers and two flash drives, so I may discover some more to add to this list in the next couple of days....
- Malabrigo, black, not posted to blog
- Malabrigo, black, not posted to blog

Lumpy Bumpy Scarf - Farmhouse Yarns Lumpy Bumpy hot rose (not photographed)

Lumpy Bumpy Scarf - Farmhouse Yarns Lumpy Bumpy red & green (not photographed)

December:




My resolutions are for more completed projects and more formal pattern-making of my original designs in the coming year. (But I've never been very faithful to New Year resolutions...)
Happy New Year, friends!