FO: Olive

Oh, ugh, I am so disappointed with this little pullover.  It just looked so adorable and casual and wearable on the model, I jumped right on it with needles and yarn.

I mean, it made the model look like this:


(c Helen Isager)

But me?  It had quite a different effect on me:

Ugh, really??  I even added waist shaping to try to pull in the sack a bit.  This just doesn't fit me at all, and I have no idea how my neckline ended up being a gaping maw of terror.

See?  The cute little scoop neck just splays out across my shoulders and I'm tugging at it constantly to re-shape it into a scoop.  I got gauge, I made the smallest size knowing it would be billowy and I'm not exactly willowy, but still.  I wanted it to fit and I was really thrilled with the colors I chose.    

It had cute details though- the yoke and the sleeves are in garter stitch, and the rutching at the neck and waist added interest to the sack.   I was in love with the shiny Danish packaging of this pattern and didn't see the reality of the situation before it was too late.

And I loved the yarn I used- Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Tulip-Tree Beauty, with some assorted scraps for the garter bands.  I like the fit and drape of garments made in sock or sport weight yarn best, and because most of the knitting was fairly mindless I didn't take me all that long.  However, being handyed, there is more purple in the top half of the body than the lower half.  I didn't alternate skeins. I can live with that- it's not the worst thing about this pullover.

So I'm gifting this, which is just as well as I'll never wear something that I have to fidget with constantly and even wearing a sack around the house is just a bad idea.  I'm still searching for a lightweight casual sweater.  I've been having fit issues all over the place this year, which seems to be a phase that I can't get out of.  Maybe it's a time to make some socks for a bit.

Pattern is Olive from the Amimono collection.

FO: More hats! A shawl! And another thing!

Three hats, in fact.

Even though I don't celebrate Xmas, I feel swept up in the spirit of the cold dank weather and whip out gifts to my non-knitter friends.  My stack of hats is slowly diminishing as I send them to the four corners of the earth in time for the Winter Solstice.  Which is still a month away!  I don't even know how the days are going to get any shorter, but apparently they will.  This is the furthest north I've spent a winter.  I feel like I'm atoning for enjoying summertime so much.  I'm actually having a really hard time waking up in the mornings, and one recent weekend, I managed to sleep until 10:30.  Seriously!  That's half my day, gone.  It just wasn't light enough outside for my body to convince itself that it was indeed morning, and nearly afternoon.

I made a Whale Watch Hat from New England Knits.

It's all scraps- mostly Knit Picks Pallet.  For the price, it's a really nice yarn, similar to Jaimison's spindrift in weight and hand.  I was thinking of making the Whales a bit darker, but I kind of like them in the lighter shade of blue- they look kind of abstract, and probably more acceptable that a grown-ass adult might pull this off.

Speaking of which...the trend of grown-ass people wearing spirit-animal hats...why?  Kitten ears and giant false eyes are cute on toddlers, a bit weird on adults who aren't on their way to support a sports team.  Enlighten me.

Last fall when I was in Dublin, I visited a cute knitting shop and nabbed a couple skeins of Studio Donegal Tweed merino.  They knit up perfectly into a set of hats- kind of a his-and-hers affair.  The same, but different enough to not nauseate casual observers if they happen to leave the house together wearing them:

A masculine cable hat called One Bourbon, whose recipient has a smaller head size than my beau:

The brim will actually fold up when it fits properly.

And a lovely lace hat called Magnolia:

Oh!  And here's a shawl:

I usually do a better job of photographing these beastly shawls, but it's been raining like crazy every morning this week, and I needed to get this in the mail.  So you get to see my interior windows.

It's the Cladonia Shawl by Kristen Kapur.  It's written to have stripes and a looped bind-off, which looks fantastic, but I thought it gave it a much different appearance to make it plain and solid.  The yarn I used is Brooklyn Tweed Loft, and it used every last inch of yarn.  In fact, I ran out the very last bit- I needed about 10 inches more.  Panic!  Freak out!  I tinked back a few more stitches and then, gasp, SPLIT THE PLIES.  So there's one edge that has slightly thinner yarn in the bind off, and it survived blocking like a champion.  Honestly though, I couldn't think of anything else to do in that situation.  

The yarn is not my favorite.  The stitch definition is a bit muddled, which can be used to nice effect here with just the small bit of lace.  The one thing that does irk me is that if you tink back at all, the yarn will sometimes just un-spin itself and you are left with a broken strand.  It's lofty and loosely spun, making it great for warmth and texture, but it doesn't hold up to multiple mistakes.  Not that I ever make them.

Finally:

One of my favorite blends to spin and knit would be Blue Face Leicester sheep wool blended with silk.  The BFL is a long, silky soft wool that has beautiful drape and lustre.  Add some silk with that and, oh, I become enraptured.  It begs you to hold it close.

While I loved the colors in this skein of Codex- gold and near-black- they pooled up terribly.  I tried and I tried to do anything with this- spirals, garter stitch, lace, broken rib- and I just couldn't get it to stop with the ugly pooling.  Disappointed, I was.  

Ah, wait.  I know how to crochet.  A quick search and I found something well within my abilities- the Chi-town Cowl.

That's not so bad, is it?

I made a moebius cowl.  Easy as pie, it used up almost the entire skein and only took a few hours.  It's soft and silky and if you have a small-ish head, you can loop it around twice comfortably.

 Now, to bring back the sun...I understand why the 21st December is such a celebratory affair.

FO: Stellaria Shawl

I never tire of knitting intricate lace shawls.

It doesn't matter that I will never wear this thing, but it was just so lovely to make, I don't feel like I've wasted any time at all.

It's the Stellaria Shawl from Twist Collective, a beautiful crescent shaped shawl with lacy broad leafs.

I used a bit over 1 skein of Rowan Fine Lace in Revival- a delicate light purplely pink.  It's about 550 yards, and it's a delicate suri alpaca and merino blend.  It's so gossamer and light.  This isn't really for warmth, but for decorating your decolletage.  It was kind of a pain in the ass to knit with- it was grabby, so if I wasn't paying attention, it would knot up upon itself and make a huge bird's nest that would take some deep breaths before I attempted to untangle.

Blocking was a bit of a chore- There's not enough pins in the world to pin out that many points- I think I did a decent job and got it fairly symmetrical.

The first half of this was really easy- it's all short rows back and forth and back and forth.  I had cast on during the train ride up to Glasgow and worked on it here and there during the West Highland Way hike.  By time time I was on the bus back to Glasgow, I had finished the short rows and was ready to move on to the lace, but that was exactly when the flu struck, and I spent the train ride back to London a shivering achy mess and couldn't stand the site of it.

A few weeks later, I picked it back up and finished the lace bit, and finished up in record time.  Sometimes, I just need a break.

The best part?  I found the yarn on sale at Liberty for  £4. 

It will be gifted, but I enjoyed flouncing around with it for a few minutes while planning my next lace creation.

FO: Plethora of Hats

A cold chill has swept the land.  After a bit of petered-out hurricane Gonzalo blew through England, it went from balmy and windy, to rainy and windy, to cold and windy in a 24 hour period.   Sweater weather!  Cuddly hats and snugly scarfs and indulging in all sorts of edibles that you've been turning your nose up all summer.  Sweet potatoes and soups and sweet potato soup, squash and crispy sweet apples and I've not turned down any offers of hot chocolate.

I've been plugging away on hats.  It's become a bit of a joke in my knit circle: another week, another hat.  And it's true, I've been knocking out about one a week.  These aren't difficult patterns, and most of them are worsted-weight, so it only takes me a few hours a piece.  

As always, fantastic gifts.  All of these are being flung to the four corners of the earth.

First up: 

The Botanic Hat, a clever little Stephen West Beanie.  It's completely reversible, and looks remarkably different when you give it a flip.

See?  The best thing about this is that when I finished, I weighed the leftover skeins and realized I had enough for a mirror-image:

The pair of hats used exactly two skeins of Rowan Lima, an alpaca yarn that makes me rethink alpaca yarn.  It's velevety.  Instead of being twisted into plies, it is chained, so it makes for less drapey structure-less fabric as it seems to behave much more like wool.  It's not bad at all..

Another creating- the Windsor Hat.  It's a free pattern on the Rowan site and I loved how feminine and girly it was (and I'm not a girly girl by any means).  The pattern was a huge pain in the ass though- it was written Rowan-style to be knitted flat, which is as complicated as you could possibly get.  Still- it is slouchy and warm and after a glance at the pattern, I was able to improvise and knit it in the round, and all was right in the world once again.

The yarn was an odd skein of Creative Worsted, a wool/mohair blend, and the pink was leftovers of Swans Island worsted Merino from my Wayfarer scarf.  

This bad boy is going to a friend of mine who just moved from a balmy climate to a cold one:

It's the Greenery hat.  I made an extra-thick brim so it can be worn as a big slouch or doubled over the ears (which hides the cabling a bit, eh?).  The yarn?  Ah, the yarn.  A few skeins of wool yarn I picked up at Monoprix in Paris out of pure curiosity.  While I miss Monoprix badly (like Target in the US, they had great chic clothes) this yarn was not the best.  It was really dense- this hat is heavy!- and had a weird acrylic-like squeak even though it was pure wool.  It's not terribly scratchy though, and I think it will keep a head very warm.

Finally:

I used all the scraps that haunt the flat from the ghosts of hats past and made a Kex hat, another  reversible beanie from Stephen West.  I've been making a ton of his patterns lately...I just find they are brilliantly unisex and uniquely constructed.  

I have some more projects to flaunt, but some are gifts and need to be gifted first, but I'm enjoying this sudden drop of temperature to inspire me to cover everyone I know in wool.  

Fo: Live Oak Shawlette

Hey, would ya look at this:



Wow.  There was a whole grove of these trees blossoming in Regent's Park.  It was lovely.  It's February, I'm still in my winter coat, but it's warm enough here for some confused trees to flash some obscene shade of pink.





For serious, guys.  It's pretty much springtime if you squint.

I'm getting my life together here and meeting some fab people.  Meanwhile, I've finally got a new-ish laptop to work with and I'm getting caught up on the backlog of pictures I've taken over the past six months or so.  So, I present to you this lacy little number that I made last fall, took pictures of on the banks of the Seine one sunny day, gifted and forgot all about.





It's the Live Oak Shawlette by Romi Hill.  It's a gorgeous half-circle shawl.

My only real regret was not to be able to block it out properly.  You'd need about 740 pins, but it would make it oh-so lovely.  I only had about 8 pins and some scrap yarn, so the edge isn't as lovely as it possibly could be.




I did get a bit cocky with my yardage and did another lace repeat, and had to find a contrasting color to finish it off.  I actually kind of like it with the contrasting stripe.  The yarn is Madelinetosh Merino Light in "Thoreau" and the contrast is "Rosewood".



It's totally wearable and sweet, and I gifted it to a chic newly-minted Parisian friend.

FO: The Scent of Lavender Socks

While I was in the states, I had beaucoup gifts to distribute to friends and family. All this knitwear...

....gets gifted. My personal wardrobe is saturated with knitwear. I knit socks faster than I wear them out, I've made myself enough sweaters over the years to have a storage issue with them, and despite my efforts at population control, hats tend to multiply like rabbits. I feel like I will never have a chance to be cold again.

These are called The Scent of Lavender, a fun meandering leafy lace pattern inspired by Provence by Stephanie van der Linden. I started these while traveling around Turkey, and finished them up in no time. The lace pattern was easy, but I couldn't quite memorize it as it changes every row, so I had to have the chart in front of me the whole time.

The yarn is a skein of Sanguine Gryphon Bugga. I'm not sure of the colorway, Shelob maybe? I lost the tag at some point. No matter, the yarn has been discontinued in this incarnation. It's a little thick for socks you want to wear with shoes, but it's very warm and cushy and comforting and good for house socks.

Anyway. I love them, and there seems to be a delightful chill in the air lately.

FO: Eiffel Tower Shawl

Hey, did you guys see this yet? It's pretty cool. I mean, if you like cool things.

Paris, more than any other place I've ever been, is defined in so many ways by its main monument. I kid about them striking oil with it one of these days, but you never tire of staring at it. It's an amazing, iconic piece of engineering. Originally, it was not meant to stand for very long, and was just a monument for the World's Fair to be torn down after the crowds have gone home. However, some genius knew an opportunity when they saw it and it remains as the most visited tourist attraction on the planet. It graces a whole lot of tourist tchotchkies and sells a lot of hotel-room views. You can't even fathom a Paris without it.

The first time I saw it up close, I honestly couldn't believe that it was painted brown.

For whatever reason, in my head, I thought it was inky black.

I thought that A Fitting Tribute to knit a shawl inspired by the gorgeous scrollwork in pink.

The pattern is from Natalie Servant. It's well-written and totally unique. It's a pretty big shawl, with lots of stockinette stitch to eat up yardage. I used 750 yards of laceweight.

I do need to block it out a bit more. It could use a more drastic point, and I just couldn't get the shape right with my improvised blocking technique.

The yarn is a skein of merino Sanguine Gryphon Mithril in the "Woman under the Willows" color. It's not my favorite. It's really tightly overplied, so it's hard to get even tension and the yarn tends to twist itself into a tangle every few feet. Annoying. I don't see it pilling anytime soon, so I'm hoping it will wear well. I did frog back quite a bit at one point and the yarn is no worse off for it.

It is a lovely pattern though and I had fun making it. It's fairly mindless for a while and then you get to make all the pretty scroll work. It was a good pattern to travel with, and I'm happy with it.

FO: Lingerie Socks

It's been a while since I've finished a pair of socks. Last fall maybe? I don't know. I've cooled on the sock knitting front a bit. I used to always have a pair on the needles and churned them out fairly regularly. My sock draw is crammed with those monsters now, and pretty much everyone I know has gotten a pair or two as gifts, so I kind of feel like I saturated my world with socks to the flooding point.

I cast on for a pair of Lingerie Socks way back in December to have something to knit while I was traveling around Morocco. I had a really pretty skein a dear friend of mine gifted of Silver Moon Farms sock yarn, with lovely bits of silver tinsel spun in. Twinkle toes! The color is "Sahara", which I thought was oddly appropriate considering where we were going.

So, here's what it's supposed to look like if you follow the pattern:

I started the charts, but then got frustrated wallowing through pages of complicated charts and corrections. Once I finished the cuff charts, which were complicated but not difficult to follow, I just said "fuck it" and went back to making a plain pair of socks. Sitting around in a cafe in a third world country with pages of patterns flying about and yarn tangling and trying to tink back mistakes and GAHHHHH plain socks. Mine look much unlike the model.

But the cuffs are so pretty! So I'm not unhappy. But once I got past them, I kind of lost enthusiasm and worked on them rarely, hence the six months it took me to finish them.

I knit them on size 0 needles, so they are nice and tight-fitting and they will squeeze inside of shoes without bunching up and being annoying. I love the little silvery bits worked in.