FO: Snowflake Mittens

Hey now, it's springtime.  I should get some mittens on.



I don't know what inspired me to make such wintry-themed mitts so late in the season- maybe it was east-coast empathy!, but, eh.  There's always the sunny optimism of  next year's winter, and I will always have friends with cold hands.



The yarn is KnitPicks Palate, a fingering-weight rather affordable wool yarn that comes in many, many colors.  The pattern was also from KP, although, I can't recommend it highly.  The adult sizes run so small that I had to go up three needles sizes from the recommended gauge just to be able to get a good-sized mitt happening.  Still, they are pretty and worth the effort.



I love the wintry colors.  Those are words no one has ever said in March ever.  

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: Sylvatica

Before I get into the rabbit hole of all the travel adventures, here's a sweater I made. LOOK.

Once upon a time, there was a really great online yarn store called Flocks of Yarn. Sadly, they went out of business. Happily, I am an opportunist. I bought up all the Fibre Company Road to China Light for a really steep discount.

If you get a chance to get your hands on some, please do. It's a blend of alpaca, silk, baby camel and cashmere. To die for. Obviously, not cheap.

I did bring this with me to France and decided to start an epic sweater with it. I choose the Sylvatica from Twist Collective, which I've been wanting ever since it came out. I love short-sleeved light sweaters. I generally have a couple of light sweaters like this in the wardrobe rotation. They are less casual than a t-shirt, and they look great paired with skirts...

....Or hiking boots and pants, if you happen to have been banging around in the mountains that day.

I loved the lace pattern in the front, but found it kind of silly to have one mirrored in the back, so I left that out.

I still need to find buttons for it. I'm thinking tiny pearly pink ones will do nicely.

I'm wearing a sports bra in these pictures, so normally I fill out the top portion a bit more. But, eh. That's traveling for you.

Yes, I love it. It's soft and drapey and I've worn it quite a bit already.

The only thing I might do differently is the arm scythe is a bit snug, but after a couple of wears it seems to have loosened up. It's infinitely wearable, and just a good all-round sweater to own.

I did have issues getting gauge, and knit this a few inches before realizing it was going to be enormous. I ripped back, did some math, and then cast-on for the smallest size. I also worked this in the round instead of flat.

While a sweater with fingering-weight yarn on #3 needles takes quite a while, I think the results are worth it.

The pictures were taken in the tiny mountain village of Chefchouen. All the buildings in the medieval medina are painted blue! It was a really beautiful place, and I'll have lots more about it later.

FO: Mittens to Sink yer Teeth Into

Je vis! Happy September! I'm back from a hectic but fun past couple of weeks. I have lots and lots of pictures to sort through from my travels, and even more adventures to plan in the coming months.

First, here's something fun I finished more than a month ago:

Wolf mittens! There has been somewhat of a fascination with wolves on garments for the past few years. What started out as satire has become a coveted clothing item, and we've been seeing loads of wolf shirts in Paris this season. None of them are as awe-inspiring as what you can find at the street fairs in Brooklyn. The annual Bay Ridge street fair is still the place to get your classy howling wolf shirts, but there is also a tendency in Paris for all things dream catcher as of late, so I have high hopes that one day Eurofashion will catch up.

What could be better than wolves howling at the northern lights? Nothing. Go ahead, try to argue your point. You lose.

Throw a wolf on anything and you are an instant bad-ass.

This came from a KnitPicks kit called the Winter Woodland Mittens that I impulsively bought ages ago, which gives you enough yarn to make 6 pairs of mittens. While the color combinations caught my eye, the patterns are kind of sloppily thrown together. Even though I got gauge, I ended up having to go up 3 needle sizes and adding extra stitches at each edge to get these to fit my rather average sized hands. Except these are were supposed to fit larger hands than mine. More stitches were added, for a total of 8, which is why they have a black boarder around them. So I'm kind of bummed that the patterns, as written, will only make a child-sized pair of mitts and I know few children in cold enough climates to actually have the need for double-thick mitts.

Also, the thumbs...they look a little wonky, but since taking the pictures I ripped them back and finished them after re-charting the pattern to accommodate more stitches since they were super tiny and cutting the circulation off to your most important digit otherwise. Although, not having a thumb just means you are more wolf-like than anyone else, and gives you license to pee on any tree anywhere at anytime. Design flaw or feature?

I actually made these to be worn in Norway as I was scared to death about how cold it might be. While knitting these at the height of our short Parisian summer was a little gross, I was happy that these were not needed on our summer vacation, and they are safely tucked away until we get real wintery weather.

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".

Another Overdye Success

Back in the early days of my handpainted yarn obsession, I was distracted by all sorts of pretty colors. I hadn't yet learned 1. That yarn will pool and drive you crazy and 2. oh, all those colors combined together look like clown barf.

Case and point.



1 skeins of Fleece Artist Sea Wool in the "Renaissance" colorway. This was a blend of 70% wool, 30% seasilk, which is a fiber processed from seaweed. It had a lovely sheen, and I was attracted to the flashy colors, which looked so crazy beautiful on the skein. Once I started knitting though, I realized that this might be a bad mistake.



Ooooh the pooling. And the primary colors clashing.



Having red, green, blue and dark purple in one place really did look like clown barf. Yargh.

Just a slight grumble about this yarn base- the seasilk did not blend very evenly with the wool, making large white slubs in the yarn.

Also, this yarn is very loosely plied. You really want sock yarn to have a nice, tight ply as to keep abrasion and wear to a minimum. I ran the yarn through my wheel before I started to tighten it up a bit, but I still have my doubts about the long-term use of these socks. It probably would have been better to use for a garment that is not quite so hard wearing.

I made the Leyburn Socks by Minty Fresh. I loved the pattern, but I was so disenchanted with the yarn that I turned them into anklets (I made them toe-up).

They sat in my sock pile for the better part of a year, unworn and unloved. Finally, I decided that overdye is the way to go.



Much better, right? I used acid dyes and mixed a deep, dark sapphire blue. The seacell slubs because more apparent when it was done (they are the white flecks in the pictures), but the crazy colorway mellowed out enough for me to actually like these socks.





Being all one color also makes the sock pattern pop more.

These are now going to be gifted to someone who lives in Florida. They are lightweight and not terribly warm, so they will be perfect for chillier days in the sunshine state.

The specs:

I used 1 skein of Fleece Artist Sea Wool. The pattern is Leyburn from Minty Fresh. I loved this pattern and plan on making them again one day.

Etsy Shop Update

Ah, Etsy. You're so high maintenance. You require so much attention and love in order to thrive. Yet in abandoning you, I'm only hurting myself.

I just updated the shop with some hand dyed yarn- I have added some nice, squishy merino sock yarn and enormous 880 yard skeins of laceweight merino.


This is some sock yarn I dyed with Madder Root. It's such a delicate and girly-girl pink. I think it needs to be socks with ruffles or something else outrageous.


This one is "Kelp"- it's super soft laceweight merino.

I have a few other new colors up as well. Check them out!

Have a great weekend!