puttin' up reindeer

well, last-minute Christmas knitting continues, with me racking my brains trying to think of fast but effective patterns...the book, Last Minute Knitted Gifts might come in handy, you'd think, but many of the patterns are not that speedy... the 4-hour leg warmers took me 4 weeks! LOL! But, the little lacy scarf is a winner and can be knit on a variety of gauges, not just with KidSilk Haze. Here it is from one skein of Baby Alpaca Brush (110 yards, chunky-weight) from Plymouth Yarns (note - I used size 11 US needles). The colour didn't come out right in the photo; its a more leaf green than spring green. But then, my carpet is more light peach than dark pink! Anyway, this is for my physical therapist, who has been working on me for 3 years:



Also "on the needles" is a thin red mohair scarf with a multi-coloured thread running through it. Marky sent me this partial skein that he found in an Australian Op Shop (thrift shop to us Yanks) and its lovely - very soft! The person I'm making it for is very tall though, so I need to add a second skein of something to each end to make it long enough. My plan is to add the yarn in K1M1 so that the ends will be bell-shaped ruffles. I think that would really suit the giftee.

And finally, a triangle angora scarf from Louisa Harding Kimono Angora in a leopard print (thanks for the idea, Nadine!). I'm using small needles (size 5) so its taking quite a while. This is actually a very basic time-honored pattern that's been around since the 1800's. You just start out with a small number of stitches and add one stitch every row by doing a YO on one end. It gets gradually bigger and bigger while retaining its nice triangle shape.

Both of the patterns above could be done in crochet with nice effect too! For the one in the picture, you would chain 16 (if using a normal weight yarn - more if using a thin yarn) and double crochet every stitch for five rows. Then on the next row DC in first 2 stitches and then chain one and skip a stitch, DC, chain one and skip a stitch, until you get to the end, then do a DC. Then go back to DC every stitch, remembering to DC in the Chain stitches too. Then after another 10 rows of DC, do the fancy stitch row again. Keep going this way, with a fancy row after every 10 rows of DC. End the scarf with five rows of DC like the start.

For the triangle scarf, start with a chain of 4 (meaning 3 plus one on the hook). Single crochet (SC) in the second ch from hook (meaning the one directly after the one on the hook) and on the next one. Then chain one, and then SC in the chain on the end. You now have five stitches (if you count the loop around the hook). Chain one (your turning chain), Turn and Repeat this pattern: SC in each stitch (including the chain stitch you made, which will be the second stitch you crochet into) until you get to the last stitch at which point you chain one, then SC into the last stitch. Remember that you have to chain one at the end of every row to make a turning stitch, but this turning stitch doesn't get used. Your crocheting should make the same gradual triangle as in the knit pattern. The beauty of this pattern is that you can continue until you get to the size of scarf you want, from neckerchief to shawl, and you can use this when you don't know how much yarn you have on a skein because going from the point up means there is no left-over yarn.

Well, now I've told you more than you ever cared to know so I will stop. I need to box up some cookies and a little knitted hat ornament…

Drowning

Today is not such a good day and its only 7:30....

I just received an email that my design couldn't be fit into the knitting book that's currently being put together... Its my own fault. I spent 30 hours on the prototype, but when I sent the photos, I knew it wasn't exactly the way I wanted it to be. I should have continued working on it, and sent more photos. Would that have made a difference? I don't know. "Couldn't be fit in" means couldn't be fit in. It could have had nothing to do with the merit of the design itself and everything to do with the theme direction the editors finally chose. Perhaps they received so many designs that they didn't need or want anything as basic as a shawl.

sad. sad.....



oh, I know that these are the chances you take when you send something out - whether writing or design, and I hope I'll bounce back and try again, but right now I feel emotionally exhausted by it all. I guess I hoped more than was realistic to do. The first acceptance was so postive, that I allowed myself to feel 3/4 confident and I shouldn't have - I should have realised that its not done till its done.

well...the colours are nice.



I will complete this design, and it will either be sent elsewhere, or given to someone who will like it, I don't know.

All done, then?

Here it is... what I've been working on today:



J, I'll send it out in the mail tomorrow. Hope it keeps you nice and warm.

I'm knitting a hat

This is it, the hat from Rebecca magazine #32:



Ignore the beads, please. They do look cute in the picture, but I won't be adding beads or embroidery or anything like that. It is a cute hat, with ribbing to the top and a pompom. I'm doing it in black Debbie Bliss alpaca-silk (80% alpalca and 20% silk, very soft).

It should be finished today, but will need to be blocked to get it into the right shape for head-wearing. Right now, the ribbing is pulling it in so that it looks like a lampshade!

all about knitting

Life is certainly fast and furious these days! its been only four days since I updated my journal, but it seems like a week's worth of events have gone by... no wonder I'm so exhausted!

I am designing another pair of socks, using the Esprit yarn from Elann.com. This yarn has a minute amount of elastic in it, and is otherwise cotton. It is half the price of Cascade fixation, which is the same composition, but I think the Esprit colours are nicer! This colour is, I think, called Rose Garden. The photo turned it into a kind of bright red and pink, but it is actually a beautiful rose colour and the what looks pink in the photo is a subtler rose-grey. It really looks like a rose garden in the fall, doesn't it, when the greens are muted to silver and sable?



Since today was payday, I did splurge a bit on this new knitting book:



Let me just say, if you're going to buy this book, do it through Amazon - its much less expensive! Its all lace. And much of it is Vintage lace patterns, which as you know is my greatest knitting passion... for my knitting friends who want to see what's inside, here are a couple of shawl patterns that fall in the category of desirable...







The patterns are very well described and have charts, and there are so many! And there are sections on knitting patterns from the 1800's and Weldon's Practical Knitter (a newspaper type knitting magazine that I've always wanted but never found).

Finally, on the yarn front, a dear friend wanted to give me a cheer-up gift because of the minor surgery I went through recently, and asked what I wanted. I said "Habu!" Habu is a Japanese art fiber company in New York city. You can walk in and view their marvelous silk and exotic yarns and purchase right there, but you can't get it anywhere else. My friend found that two online companies are starting to sell Habu - naturesong.com and pureknits.com. I thought this gift would be at most, maybe one or two balls of their silk and mohair, (and it should have been - my friends are way, way too generous! I'm very grateful.) but this is what came in the mail yesterday!!!!



Its just amazing. Its a couple of sample packs that contain a ball or two of each of the different yarns. Aren't the colours beautiful? The cones are laceweight baby alpaca in a natural camel colour. There is 100% silk in shiny and matt, and silk boucle, and something called Paper, which is actually linen and alpaca, and a wine-coloured cashmere lace-weight. Two of the silk and mohair balls are hand-dyed with brown, tan, and black and the other is green, dark and light... each is enough for a lace scarf in one ball! Good thing I have that new Victorian Lace book, no?

It arrives when you really need it!

Look what showed up on my doorstep today!!!



The first bundle that looks very much like the bundle of wool it is, is from Headwater Farm in Ontario. Look at this lovely yarn!



The dark green lace weight is called Ilga, the light green is a DK weight, and of course some self-striping sock yarn. The sock colours are really in autumn colours – I thought they were green and grey and gold from the monitor picture, but they are brown and orange!

But the un-spun batts! OMG! Look at these beautiful yarns of unspun wool for making the true traditional feather and fan shawls. There are some patterns for this traditional yarn in the book Folk Shawls. I tried to make one a year ago, but was using some big cone of some mystery yarn I got at the thrift shop and it didn’t look the way it was supposed to. Now I have the real thing – and in the incredible natural colours, too! That big batt of natural white? $3.50 Canadian for the whole batt! And I got 2 of them!

Canada, O Canada! How I love thee for thy incredible yarns!

Now the next one, is the mysterious much-anticipated package from Nadine, that traveled across the ocean! It is dated August 29 on the customs slip! Well 6 wks isn’t unexpected but when you are waiting for Nadine’s surprises...each week seems like a year!

OOOOOooooo on the customs slip it says something else, too! Schokolade! I think this is chocolate in German!



What beautiful things… now this is the sock yarn colour that I really love – a lovely soft blue in very gradual colour changes… And this chocolate! I am eating a Sarotti Stille Affel-Vanille feinste vollmilch schokolade right now this very minute. Mmmmm hmmmm mffffh…. (yum) Oh my, this is incredible! The apple is all spicy and melty in the middle of the chocolate. But look at these: tiny, tiny glass apple and pewter teapot! I will make them into stitch markers, which is what Nadine intended, I think.



But I can’t show the rest of the contents of the box or even what category it is in, because they are intended as Christmas presents for someone who might read it here…

Thank you Nad – this is a very inspiring box!

Commemorate

A couple of days ago, I finished the scarf I designed to commemorate Sausage.



The ends are Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, and the lace section is Louisa Harding Impressions. The angora part is a wide hem stitch, so its double-sided, and then there is a lace section of his little paw prints. The main body of the scarf is a lace pattern called "Willow Leaf" and along the edges of the willow leaves, I have little white pearls (these represent my tears). It turned out the way I was hoping, but the Impressions yarn isn't as soft as I would like. I'd like to try this pattern again with a different yarn. I was planning to submit this pattern to one of the online knitting mags, but I think it needs refining, so will hold off on that this season.

Now, I am going to eat cherry pie and read and knit! Sunday. Such a good day of the week!