Girl Guiding with Wool

I have met many nice people on Ravelry, but one of the nicest is my friend Melanie. Melanie lives in the frozen North... perhaps that is why she loves those soft yarns that you can wear so comfortably around your neck!

Recently, she sent me a package of wonderful surprises, and I was delighted to find this, wrapped in pretty tissue:


Wool 'round the Year is an official publication of the Canadian Girl Guides from 1950. Just like the American Girl Scouts, girl guides got badges for achievement of skills, and one of those seems to be for working with wool.

This book covers making things with wool felt (puppets, needle books, lapel pins, flowers), sewing clothing out of wool cloth as well as how to shop for wool from a mill (for economy) and how to clean and preserve wool.

The very best, and largest section of the book, though, is on knitting...



The patterns are very 50's: Bobbie socks, Argyle, "Weskits" (vests), and twin set cardigans and pullover sweaters...



I do plan to try out these patterns. They are the epitome of those wardrobe basics and that would make Tim Gunn proud to look in my closet! I would make the cardigan a little longer (and make one of the wool felt lapel pins for it) and make the turtleneck a little looser, but their classic style is still appropriate. It would make me feel like Audrey Hepburn!

I love these Argyle stockings:



and think I should make them in sky blue with the main diamond in this colour,



and the secondary diamond in cream or very, very pale green....

Argyley, or, What long winters are good for...

There is one reason I can think of to be glad that this winter is still pummelling us with cold and snow...it still gives us reasons to wear woolly goods! I've finally finished Argyley - in the middle of February.

This was meant to be a Christmas gift and now it will be a Valentine's gift... I'm not a slow knitter, not at all; it's just that the yards of K2P2 in fingering weight is rather..... arduous. And yet, its worth it for the fine, soft, perfectly drapey fabric that resulted. And seeing this argylle-like pattern slip off the needles was so gratifying.

Seacoast Handpainted yarns are a favorite and this skein just made them more so! Its huge yardage made just the right length for a scarf on size 4 needles. If I had made it a bit thinner, a larger needle would have been possible, but I wanted as fine a tension as I could manage. I found that to get the argyle diamonds I had to be very careful of my tension. One night I was quite tense and ill, and the very slightly tighter pattern that resulted created a flash of orange in the black like a lightening strike! As soon as I loosened back up to what had already been a relatively tight tension, the pseudo-argylle came back...



This scarf will wend its way to its recipient tomorrow, and while I don't wish anyone more winter than what we've already had, I do hope he has a chance to wear it before Spring!

I've also had a wonderful fibery gift arrive in the post! A friend from Ravelry sent me a box from England! Everything that was in it was the best possible choice for me - its like she read my mind. The yarn is space dyed Silk & Wool made in Wales - Its Fiberspates and the colourway is Spring Greens. I wish I had the power to describe how beautifully soft and smooth it is. I will just have to show a picture...



Along with the yarn were two packages of tea: Keemun and Jasmine Tea Balls. The Jasmine tea opens up in the teapot and blossoms with a spray of white flowers. This makes the tea-drinking as visually beautiful and it is soothing and tasty. Another friend had sent me a tea ball that will have a purple flower, so when I do try these, I'll post pictures of their pretty blooms!

But one thing in the box made me laugh out loud...the 40's postcard! You can see it on the right - the lady in the satin bathing suit... it says "Bile Beans for Inner Health and a Lovely Figure" lulz!

Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! I hope that the Year of the Rat brings you great happiness and prosperity. After all, those born in "rat years" are forthright, generous, easy going, and quick-witted, so we can all expect the next year to embody those traits too.

I'm celebrating the Chinese New Year in my own quiet way with Hatsune...



Hatsune is a tea blend from Japan blended by Lupicia Teas especially for the New Year celebrations, as you can tell by the pretty label with its iconic cherry blossoms. Here is a close-up, so you can see how spectacular this blend is:



It is comprised of Japanese green tea, toasted brown rice, black tea, Japanese red basil leaf, soybeans, and azuki beans! The flavour is mild, earthy, and rich like a broth. I'm finding it very restorative...

I'm almost finished with Argyley, my winter scarf for Brodie - this afternoon should do it! It's very long now; much longer than this photo shows, which was taken at Christmas...

Argyley

Time away from work is good for the soul....good for the mental health...and good for the knitting. I enjoyed all three over the long Thansgiving holiday break. Luckily, the past five days didn't include anything earth-shattering except a flat tire on Thanksgiving morning (what can I say? my car is an adult - 21 years old - and that means I can now run it on cheap beer instread of expensive gasoline, so I can't complain about any other shenanigans it gets up to). So, I knit knit knit through Project Runway and America's Next Top Model marathons, and sappy Christmas movies that all had similar themes - woman gets divorced and moves back to home town, hooks up with former sweetheart, hates him, there is a snowstorm, she is rescued by or trapped with him, loves him, marries him and rescues (runaway, abandoned, or ophaned) kid(s) along the way.

This surfeit of schmaltz resulted in: Argyley



Argyley is a simple K2P2 scarf but the yarn makes all the difference. It's Seacoast handpainted sock yarn in their limited edition Halloween 2007 colourway - gourd orange, black, and soft grey. I'm using size 4 (3.5 mm) needles. The random colours are creating an almost argyle-looking pattern on the scarf - better than anything I could have created with careful planning and a whole bottle of Red Truck Cabernet. Must get some more of this yarn. and some for friends. Oddly, I was the only one who bought this colourway. The LYS still has the other 3 skeins left.

I also picked up one skein of the new Manos silk & merino in a mix of these two colurs (heavy on the grey/green and very light on rose pink).

I'm going to use it for a neck warmer or fingerless gloves, and pair it with this Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande for a hat: