A March Birthday

I had a birthday! My boyfriend took me to Boston:



Where he had reserved a table for us at Rowes Wharf for an elegant Afternoon Tea overlooking the water:



It was an incredible tea, with rose petals on the table and champagne, along with the best tea and scones with Devonshire cream...

Afterward we wandered a bit down Newbury Street and visited a yarn shop:



and I didn't leave empty-handed:


Koigu, Farm-spun 100% cashmere, and Artyarns Silk Purse 100% silk

(I think I'll make the Linen Stitch Scarf from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas with these yarns)

When I came home I had wonderful presents from my best friends:



Yes, that IS a bar with chocolate and potato chips!!



My friend send me a WHOLE BOX of bags she had made! I love this one especially but they're all wonderful.

I love March.

stripey string beans

Remember the String Beans, from the knitting zine?



I made another pair!



This time, they are made from light fingering weight in self-patterning yarn. This is a skein that my friend Nad sent me from Germany a few years ago. This skein goes on forever! I made a pair of socks for myself out of it. I used it for a winter hat, mixed with some jaunty tangerine wool. And now it makes a pair of baby knee socks! and... there is a whole lot left (which I am sending to a Ravelry friend).

But, back to the Stripey String Beans:

You can see that in this pair, I made a little modification - a rolled cuff! I love this tiny detail... Even though these socks don't look vintage with their modern colourful striped yarn, the rolled edge is so very ancient! (and perfect for holding up with garters). In fact, in my late 1800s and early 1900's pattern books, many - or most - of the baby shirts have little knitted garters attatched to the bottom hem. These were actually supposed to tie through or button to buttonholes in leggings (the trouser type of leggings, with or without feet, not the half-a-sock type leggings of the 80's), which had two holes in the front and one in the middle of the back waistband for this purpose.



But, you could use them for thigh high stockings too! Many baby socks were made extra long, and in this modified pair of String Neams, and my saffron Carrot Sticks pattern, I have a row of tiny buttonholes for potential, imaginary, perhaps-future baby garters.

progress....

There's some progress on my Leyburn socks, (STR Petroglyphs colourway, 2.5mm needles)though its not a very good photo:



When I got to the point where I would start the heel, I took a second set of needles and started the second sock from the other end of the skein. I did this for two reasons - The pattern has been a little bit fiddly, and I was worried that when I finally got finished with the first sock, I would lose motivation....

and, with a toe-up sock, I wanted a way to make these as long as possible while making sure that there would be enough yarn to make the second one just as long. By knitting from both ends of the center-pull ball at once, I can just keep knitting until I meet myself in the middle! (how zen)

I'm now ready to start both heels. Its so fun that when I'm finished, I'm finished with both! I think I'll do this from now on...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On the Vintage side, here is some information that might be useful for those of you who knit and crochet from vintage patterns. Below are three pictures of Nun's Nomotto yarn - the three types of Berlin wool. This was a commonly called for in vintage patterns, so I thought it was a good place to start:


This is called Berlin Wool. It's 4-ply and seems to me to be about DK weight.


Here is Berlin Baby Zephyr Wool. It is 2-ply and fingering weight. It looks just like baby weight wool that I see in the LYS - like Baby Ull.


This is called Berlin Zephyr. It is single ply and very soft and fluffy. It's lightweight fingering, and looks just like my lightweight sock yarns in thinness, although it's single ply and not tightly wound like most sock yarns. It might be easier to find a match for Berlin Zephyr in current lace yarns, which may not be as tightly spun as sock yarns...

There you have it - I hope to post pictures of more vintage yarn samples in the future...

It's cold here! Is it cold where you are?