FO: Herbivore

Oh, hey! I made a pretty shawl.

One of my friends gave me a pretty skein of Brooks Farm Acero last summer, and I thought the best way to make use of such a pretty yarn is a shawl. It's a lovely, heathery fingering-weight yarn of wool, silk and viscose. I paired it with a simple Stephen West pattern- Herbivore. I'm determined to make more lacey-lace scarves and shawls, but when I'm traveling, I like mindless stitch patterns to just knit away the hours of planes and trains and waiting for bubble tea to be customized.

I already bemoaned how the security at Orly threw my needles away, but I got to Berlin and bought a set of Knit Pros and carried on. This scarf was so easy and fast that I had most of it done by the time I was on the delayed flight back to Paris. I knit until I was out of yarn, blocked it best I could on the couch with scrap yarn and pins, and it's just lovely. The yarn drapes beautifully, and it softened up nicely once it was washed.

It's big enough to wrap around your neck without it coming un-done, but not so huge it's unwieldily. Which, to me, is perfect sized.

While it's not the warmest scarf ever- these pictures were taken in Copenhagen and I did spend some time chilled, but more on that later- I love the twisted stich pattern and increases give it a shape that means it will stay put.

I am totally embracing and carrying on with the style of Parisians and their love for scarves. I now feel naked without one.

FO: Grove Mittens

I've been quietly knitting away, and spinning as well. It all kind of feels like a sneaky little guilty pleasure at this point. I still don't really have the proper mind to write a proper post though. The constant distractions I'm dealing with (aka "work") make it hard for me to form a sentence otherwise. My creativity suffers so.

I did finish these mittens quite a while ago though.



They are the Grove Mittens by Jared Flood, from the "Made in Brooklyn" book. Indeed.



There were so many twisted stitches that I'm not quite sure if I would ever be able to un-twist ever again. In retrospect, I did not choose the right yarn. The fuzzy woolen-spun Shelter yarn really obscured the subtle pattern. Something with more stitch definition would probably have worked better. Regardless, I like them- they really do look like the bark of a noble old tree.



I especially like the twisted cabled cuffs. It's a great touch. The tops of the mittens are much more blunted off than most- kind of a frankenmitten look. That could be easily fixed, but, eh, I kind of like it.

I used a tad over a skein of Shelter in the colorway "Soot". I used size 5 needles, so they zipped right along. I started these Rhinebeck weekend, got home and promptly discarded them to the corner to collect dust for a month because I dislike picking up stitches for the thumbs. Eventually I but picked them back up just to finish them and get them out of the pile. Life is good.