FO: Glorious Cable Mitts

I'm a bad knitwear role model when it comes to my hands. I dislike the bulk of knit gloves, and only wear mittens if it's so freezing cold out that your fingers need to snuggle up next to your other fingers for warmth, like puppies. I do love the elegance of leather gloves, especially if they are lined with something wonderfully soft and warm, like cashmere or deerskin.

A few of my friendos in my local knit group made these Glorious Cable Mitts. I really liked the delicate but complex cabling and the fine gauge.

I started with a skein of A Verb For Keeping Warm Annapurna Cashmere in the Peacock's Tail colorway. It's dyed with Indigo. Aside from the gorgeous color, it's lovely yarn- a blend of cashmere, merino and nylon. Soft, and after a wash, the cashmere blooms and fills in the fabric nicely.



There was a little bit of "crocking" that is, my hands turned an alarming shade of frostbite blue. That's totally normal with Indigo, and after I soaked it I got hardly any bleeding at all. You have to think of indigo as not just a dye, but a live organism, so you learn to love its quirks.

I used size 0 needles, but realized pretty quickly that I'd have to fudge the pattern a bit as they were going to be huge if I didn't cut down the stitch count. 72 stitches were a bit too many if I wanted them to fit.



I ripped back, cast on 62 stitches, and then re-worked the cable pattern so that it would be centered on the new stitch count.



I love them.



They keep my hands free to fumble through my bag, find my phone, wallet, keys, metrocard, whatever. All that ribbing means they fit nice and snug. I love the cabling detail- it took a bit of time to work the cables but nothing so bad that it couldn't be done. They took me a little less than 2 weeks from start to finish. I didn't have the goal of having them Rhinebeck ready, but it worked out that way.



The thumb gussets are brilliant- I think I've only ever done an "afterthought" thumb, which just sticks out like a hitchhiker. These lie nice and flat without any thumb bulk to get in the way. They keep me toasty warm as they are snug around my pulse points. I did a stretchy bind-off so I can wiggle my thumb out and roll them back if I'm doing something where I don't want to get them dirty. Still, the ribbing keeps them snug across my hands so they don't get saggy baggy.



Someone stopped me to admire the gloves and asked me, "Can I just get those at Walmart or something?" to which I replied non-verbally with a careful peeling off of my new fingerless gloves and giving the poor ignorant soul a sound slap across the face with them.

No, actually, you can not get these at Walmart.

FO: Star-Crossed Hat

Oh, surprise, I made another hand spun hat. Giftmas will be easy and breezy affair for me this year. I hope.

This started out as two equally beautiful bits of fiber- a bump of baby camel and silk blend, plus some AVFKW club fiber of dyed Polworth.



The color was called "Rosemary".



I carded both of these together and ended up with 3 oz of soft, silky fiber. I pulled out the colors into sections so it would get muddy, but would have a more tweedy effect. I spun it up as a 2-ply worsted weight.





The blended color has really gentle shifts of purple and green. I loved it- it was soft and drapes nicely and it's very warm. I only ended up with 120 yards.

I choose the Star Crossed Slouchy beret as a pattern. I started running scarce on yardage, so I skipped six rows of the pattern before I ran out...this means I don't have a slouchy beret. I have a beanie.



Which is fine by me- I like the giant undulating cables and sometimes you have to just go with it until you run out. It's a pretty hat and I could always make another one when I feel like yardage won't be such an issue. I think it would be quite stunning in a blend that includes a little angora- something with a soft halo.



It seems like a ridiculously warm hat by summer standards. The thought crosses my mind on hot and muggy days that no one will ever need a hat this warm again in the history of the planet. However, the days are starting to grow noticeably shorter, and early mornings now call for an urgent scramble to find a long-abandoned and heavily wrinkled sweater from the depths of the wardrobe.

I Am Running Away to Join the Circus.

It seems as though a series of odd, tragic, stressful and downright weird events has been plaguing the people around me lately. I feel like everyone I know has been the recipient of bad news and the past few months have been especially trying because of it. Before you draw conclusions about my toxic effect on people, I'm pretty sure I'm not the Bad Seed. Just a helpless-feeling bystander.

Also...my job. It's gotten a bit too much lately. I know I get compensated monetarily quite nicely and really have nothing to complain about, but more days than I care to count I feel like I'm ready to move on. I have the Peace Corps website open in another tab. Oooh, Fiji. Really? You send people to Fiji? Wait...but I have to speak Hindi or Fijian, or be willing to learn? I must admit, my Fijian is a bit rusty at this point. Wait...you don't serve any English-speaking countries at all? How about un peu français, non? Well then. Maybe the Peace Corps is not for me after all. Sitting in an office in Manhattan is really quite nice actually, with the running water and flush toilets. Never mind.

Happily, I am planning a nice little vacation next month. It's piggy-backed with a work trip, but it's in a location that I love and would gladly go for a nice vacation on my own. More on that soon.

I've been knitting in fits and starts, but I chose a bunch of projects that require my full attention at all times. None of this round and round we go stuff...I'm making a lace shawl with the lace pattern on both sides, which means one little mistake could end in disaster and I try to tink back to the blissful and innocent time where I didn't make mistakes. I'm also making an oversized cable sweater, where the cable pattern runs on both sides requiring me to stare at the pattern with laser-like intensity. Then I cast on for an "easy" project, which involves a laceweight and delicate silk/mohair blend to be adorned with dozens of tiny beads. So much fun! Not stressful at all! My dentist says I should try not to grind my teeth during my waking hours!

Maybe it's time to start a really simple hat, or a pair of socks.

I did get something pretty in the mail a couple weeks ago:



It's the March Essential Luxury club from A Verb for Keeping Warm. A very touchable blend of baby camel, merino and silk. I can almost feel my stress melt away as I dream about spinning it. It's gorgeous dahhling, gorgeous. It's going into a bin for a bit as I am still spinning my Shetland fleece and I'm [trying my best to be] a spinning project monogamist. I can actually fill a bobbin with the Shetland in about 45 minutes.

There's been lots of other fun stuff going on- lots of pork cookery and dumpling folding and beer making and spin-ins and jewelry creating and honey bee education and trying not to fail at it all. Being bored in New York means you probably have no pulse.

Deep Winter is a Cure for Stashbusting of All Sorts

Waking up to less than ideal weather conditions makes me happy to kick around the house in yoga pants and knock things off my to-do list. Every day has been a new craftadventure and I've started so many new projects. It's been fabulous, but I had to rein it in as I was taking over the house in a big way.

I made granola.



Huge batches of it. Ya know, the granola plant might catch fire tomorrow and there will be no more granola in the world for ages but I'll be happily munching away at my own granola stash because I have jars of it. It's easy to make, fun to modify to your liking, and it's much less sweet than commercial brands.

I made pickles.



A trip to the Foodshed Market in Boerum Hill led to the acquisition of some winter treasures. It's an indoor farmer's market that happens every Sunday. There are quite a few food vendors (like Luke's Lobster Rolls, be still my heart) and a few good veggie vendors. Most of the produce consisted of things that loved the cold or could be stored- lots of onions and kale and root veggies. We did find some hothouse cukes and I went to work right away on turning them into spicy pickles. I've made pickled cauliflower a couple of times, but here in New York, they worship the almighty cucumber pickle. I think there are a little sweet, but I added a couple jalapeno peppers in there so they have a pretty hefty kick to them as well.

Despite my constant striving towards vegetarianism, I'm debating signing up for a pork CSA this spring from the Piggery. We do a fruit and vegetable CSA every summer into the fall and we only have to run out to the grocery store for eggs, flour and sugar all summer long. I don't even really cook meat at home, but this is really appealing to me.

Oh, speaking of pigs...I got my AVFKW January club. It's a lovely BFL/silk blend in the most delicate pale pink. And the color is called...Wilbur. I take this as a sign.



What started as a way to repair my own broken bits of jewlery has bloomed into a full-blown beading craze. I've pulled out my bead stash and strung some necklaces, just for fun.



Bry had brought me back these gorgeous stone beads from Tibet years ago. I finally got around to stringing them up and found a labradorite pendant to match. I love when that lightbulb goes off and you realize that something can be stash no more. I'm waiting for an order to come in for toggle clasps so I can make a few more. They are simple once you get the technique down, and I'm fortunate to work close by to several large bead emporiums in the fashion district.

I love glass beads.



There's so many creative possibilities here. I've got a few strands of freshwater pearls that have broken over the years that I've dug up. They are in need of a Chanel-style makeover. I've promised the beau that I wouldn't start getting into metal smithing -yet- but this is a great apartment craft as it requires minimal space and storage.

As for spinning, I've got a huge project going. Remember Cadfael the BFL ram? He's finally getting some attention.



And holy hell, what a pain in my ass he is. It's not a very big fleece, but I've spent more time on this than any other fleece that I've prepped. Not that I'm surprised- I knew this would be like this. Every single little curly lock needs to be pulled apart by hand. It's really time consuming, as there are thousands of tightly-coiled locks in this fleece. If I didn't do this, I would damage the fleece and my carder irreparably. The teeth on my carder would end up looking like Austin Power's in all his toothy glory.

Once I have each lock separated and fluffed, I feed it lock by lock into the carder. Then I card the resulting batt four times to get it smooth as possible.



And it's being spun into a fingering-weight single.



I'm aiming for a worsted-weight 2-ply. I'm clueless on a yardage estimate so far, so I'm not really spinning with a particular project in mind yet.

I've also been knitting. I started a small sock-yarn shawl-


It's the beginnings of the "In the Land of Oz" shawl by Adrienne Fong. It's BMFA Socks that Rock Mediumweight in "Luna Sea". It's very pretty, and not so busy that it will make the lace look like clown barf.

I'm more than halfway done the Spey Valley Socks:



I've also cast on for a sweater, but I don't have pictures yet. Also, I'm upset at myself at my lack of awesome pictures (maybe if I had some daylight and you could actually see things) so I'm taking a photography class just to get accustomed to the bad-ass beast with a lens.

FO- handspun Victorian Shoulderette

I've become addicted to project spinning. It's not a bad thing. I used to spin for the sake of spinning, and then end up with hundreds of yards of yarn that I wasn't particularly inspired by. It would just sadly sit around in a bin, waiting for a moth to cozy up to it, or perhaps for me to get my act together and create something that didn't look like clown barf.

This was part of my conscientious effort to create yarn that would make a beautiful, wearable finished project.

The Fiber:


A Verb for Keeping Warm in Rainer Cherries. This was the July club selection. It's 3 oz of a 80% merino, 20% silk blend. I split the roving in half lenghtwise and spun each half up as a ply.



I ended up with 300 yards of fingering weight yarn.



It's very soft. I chose the Victorian Shoulderette by Sivia Harding. It's small, delicate and purdy. I also thought that the colors would transition nicely with the pattern.



I love it when I'm right.





The specs:

I used almost all of the 300 yards of yarn, but I also modified the pattern and threw in two extra repeats. I hate having leftover handspun. I used US 7 needles. The bind-off was fun- after the lace section, you rotate the shawl on its side, and then do short rows to make the border. A little time consuming, but I like the effect.

Totally unrelated, but I can't keep this to myself any longer.



This. This is the guy who lives next door. He's always out on the stoop, smoking a cigarette wearing nothing but a ratty old robe and flip-flops. Mind you, it's cold enough for me to pile on my winter woollies when I go out even for a few minutes. He actually goes out and talks to people like that. There's just something a bit disturbing dealing with someone who is that comfortable talking to people with nothing but a thin veil of terrycloth between him and an icy wind.

Sigh. I guess instead of purchasing a super-soaker and getting my revenge, I should just continue to wear accessories that have names like "Victorian Shoulderette".

Fiber Club

Let's talk about stash, shall we? I've been kind of holding out on you stash-wise. A few months ago, I joined the A Verb for Keeping Warm Essential Luxury Fiber Club. All I can say is "wow". The talented Kristine only uses natural dyes and unique blends and rarer breeds of sheep. I have been super pleased with everything I've received so far. Plus, it's only in 2-3oz increments so I never feel overwhelmed by fiber, but just insanely tickled and inspired that I have this bit of awesomeness in my hand.


This is the latest club shipment. It's 2 oz of Wensleydale fiber and 1 oz of tussah silk. I'm thinking about spinning the Wensleydale into a thick-ish single, spinning the silk into thread, and then crazy-plying them together.


2oz of a 50/50 merino and cashmere blend. The colorway is called The Pyrenees. It's begging to be spun up soft and lofty and knitted up into something that you could wrap around your neck and purr like a kitten.


Merino/Silk/Yak blend. The colorway is called "The Best Bite". It's dyed with Indigo. Heavenly soft.


"Sweet Tart". 3oz of Targee Roving. I love the fact that she searches out less common breeds of sheep.

I'm busy knitting away a small lace shoulderette with this selection:

It's "Rainer Cherries" merino/silk.

I split the roving and lined up the colors for minimal candy-cane effect.


Spinning it was a joy. It's knitting up so soft and lofty. Swoon.