FO: Some catchup in the waning afternoon light

Hello again!   Here I am, I'm back in London.  I have a lot to talk about, and sometimes I have a hard time organizing my thoughts, so forgive me if I'm all over the place in the coming weeks.  Life has not been boring, and I foresee it not being dullsvile any time soon.

So, I made a bunch of stuff.  I thought I should post about it, if only to make me feel better about sending them into the ether.

First up was a crazy impulse knit.  I saw a sample knitted up at John Lewis, saw the yarn deeply discounted in a bin next to the sample, and a few days later I had created this:

It's called the Rhea top, and it's too big!  Yargh.  Bulky yarn (Rowan All Seasons Chunky, a cotton/poly blend) and an open-work pattern meant it was really hard to get gauge and guess how much ease I needed.  In the end, it was way too much.  I'm going to frog this back and re-knit it in a smaller size on smaller needles because I think that this could very easily become an oft-worn summer favorite if it fits right.  It's kind of 80's in the styling, and the cable drop stitches and texture, and I just want to wear this while walking the boardwalk.  I will try again.  

See that?  That's the Scottish Highlands right there, and we made it out the other side alive.  Also, a Windschief hat.

Stephen West makes such great unfussy patterns.  He's been my go-to for hat patterns lately- I tend to make a stockpile of them with no one particularly in mind, and then give them lavishly once the right people appear.  This one is a simple slip-stitch pattern that gracefully arcs around a series of decreases and pared increases, giving it an interesting asymmetrical swirl.

I used a skein of Madeline Tosh dk in "Granite".  It's luxuriously soft merino, and although Tosh is known for doing bright, beautiful colors better than anyone, I loved the tones in the greys on this.  It's superwash, so it's been a good hiking hat, with no fading or color bleeding after multiple washes.  


I spent the summer plugging away on this:

It's the Lace Saddle Tee, heavily modified.  The original pattern just had lace on the sleeves, but I went whole-hog and echoed the lace pattern up the side seams.

I love the way it looks, but again: it's too big!  It fits kind of weird- the front looks okay, but there is all this extra fabric in the back.  I really don't even know how to correct that in the knitting process.  It fits my hips and waist just fine, and I did have some shaping thrown in, but somehow I created too much fabric in the back.

I'm still wearing it though.  I used some very precious Rowan Calmer- a cotton/poly blend that behaves more like wool than unyielding cotton, and this continues to be my favorite non-wool yarn to work with.  The sunshiny lemony yellow makes me happy.

This was also my first attempt at saddle shoulders, which were fun to make but hard to explain.  It took a few tries to get it right, but I like the way they fit.

Finally, this.  I made Groot.

I'm not a fan of the huge amount of comic-book movies that come out every summer.  I didn't grow up on comics.  I spent the first half of the "Avengers" movie not knowing that Bruce Banner was the Hulk, and was probably the only one surprised when Bruce got angry and made the transformation.  Pop culture princess I am not.  

However, I did get dragged into Guardians of the Galaxy this summer, and despite being very confused about back story and bad guys, it was a fun show.  There was a tree named Groot who ended up being the hero of the day, and he dances to the Jackson 5 (as we all should), and when I saw someone had written a pattern to make your very own Groot, I nerded out and got to work.  Finally, a use for that super scratchy yarn from Greenland that I bought in Copenhagen that no one would ever be able to touch without cringing and possibly crying from the pain of it all.  He worked up quite fast, and I had to buy safety eyes and pipe cleaners, and then re purposed a pot  from Ikea that had some rosemary in it that didn't quite make it through multiple periods of neglect.  I had opened up a throw pillow and used some of the stuffing in that instead of buying a bag of polyfill, and then sewed the pillow back up and no one is the wiser that it's missing a bit of umph.  Finally, when it came time to plant him, his giant head flopped over drunkenly.  So I went into the kitchen and got a metal BBQ skewer, put the knob end well down into the gravel, and then heartlessly impaled my creation.  He now stands quite upright.  That smile is fixed.  He's dying on the inside.

Want to make one?  You should, because I'm not going to make another one even though I've gotten dozens of "I want one!" requests.  It's easy; I barely know how to crochet and it only took a few hours.  Here's the instructions on Twinkle Chan's blog.

I've made a few more things, but haven't photographed them yet.  Soon.  I think.

But, cheers to all that.  I find that I miss sitting down to write, and I'm working on getting some post about our hikes and travels up soon enough.  After a cold and dreary August, September was fantastic weather and I took advantage fully.

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: Clockwork Scarf

Oh, All these Gray Skies! The monochrome, the dreary undertones, the gray-on-gray low clouds, the fog, and an unearthly amount of rain. It rarely drizzles for more than a couple hours. All the rest of the time, it downpours or hails.

I have embraced this color palate as my own. Goodbye to sunshiny summery brights or warm autumn tones. Let us immerse ourselves in a muted, w'ntry mix.

Hence, the lovely grays, purple-grays and white I chose for my Clockwork Scarf/Shawl.

Quick, mostly-garter stitch. My favorite kind of mindless knitting that goes to see films with me.

Another great pattern from Stephen West. Just when I think I have enough things to wear around my neck, he publishes another pattern that will leave you wanting more. I love this one lots. You can wrap it around your neck a few times, or drape it gracefully.

The yarn is Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga- a skein of undyed and a skein of the David Attenborough colorway. I could have kept going and made another repeat of the clock, but decided to put the extra yarn aside for some upcoming colorwork mittens.

FO: Pogona

The quest for a closet full of elegant neckwear continues.

This was was a simple affair, knit up quickly and it used all but a couple of yards of a skein of sock yarn. I love small shawls that are maybe not quite functional for winter warmth, but for a breezy dressy addition to your every day. It's essential here, where you can pretty much spot the tourist based on the fact that they are not wearing scarves. It's almost a little obscene to see a bare neck at this point...it's like leaving the house without your pants. Scarf up!

It also doesn't get terribly warm here, so having constant cozy comfort doesn't hurt. I know, my dear friends and New Yorkers. You grow jealous at my 11 month knitwear use. Yes, in August it might get steamy here, but so far it's been sweat-free. Apart from an ocasional day where it might hit 75 degrees in the afternoon sun, it's far enough north in longitude so that I haven't had to go a day without a light jacket. I am a lover of summertime and hot weather, but I'm finding this a rather pleasant change over last summer and the 116 degree day where I decided that if I stand in front of the oven for a couple hours and stew a chicken, if only so it would feel much cooler when I move away from the oven.

Anyway. The shawl. Another Stephen West creation. Easy peasy. Just knit and purl. You start out with a paired increases, and as the shawl grows, you make more, so it ends up being a series of wedges, with the largest one in the middle. Yes, it's small, but after blocking it stretched out to be big enough to wrap around and stay wrapped, and that's all I really want. It's got gorgeous drape, and it's a good excuse to break out a nice skein of handpainted yarn that you've been hoarding. The top edging is a little tight by design, but it doesn't bother me.

I don't have proper blocking equipment- it all amounts to a few pins and hair clips at this point. Mine blocked out nicely, although the samples look like they were less pointed on the ends. I still view this whole moving and living in a strange land experience as if I'm just going camping, and dealing with the little discomforts of going without.

The yarn is Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in the color "Shelob". It's very soft. I used almost the entire skein...I might have had 2 or 3 yards left over, but I kept knitting until I almost ran out before doing a couple rows of the garter edging. I've worn this a ton already. I didn't pack or bring too many of the shawls and scarves I've made over the years, rightly guessing that I would dive into creating more of them.

The pictures were taken at the Chateau Fontainebleau, where there are loads of rock climbers bouldering up huge stones dropped randomly by glaciers throughout the great forest around it.

FO: Spectra Scarf

Some things are set aside while the stress and the constant battle of moving is going on. Knitting was one of them.

I haven't really had the mindset to sit and do something quietly for a while now. It seems like a luxury and I just can't bring myself to splurge. I'm hoping that once I get settled next month, and the shipment box with a tote of crafty supplies shows up I'll be a little more inspired.

I did recently finish the Spectra scarf I started way back in March. Everyone loves Westknits right now, and I couldn't resist his designs either. Even here in France, several knitters I met were sporting his goods. Well, Paris probably does have more scarfs per capita than anywhere else in the world, so I'm sure obsessively stitching away at one of his patterns is a good move all around.

I loved this pattern muchly. It used up a skein of Noro Kureyon Sock (which you couldn't pay me to knit a pair of socks out of) and two skeins of Knit Picks Gloss sock. I ran out of the Gloss first and that was where the scarf ended. It's a combination of short rows and simple intarsia that makes it shape the way it does.

And what better way to celebrate the status of a newly minted Parisian than a picnic on the Champ de Mars?

I couldn't think of one. The lawn was surprisingly filled with few tourist and lots of like-minded picnickers.

When the sun comes out in Paris, the masses head for the parks and the lawns with wine and food and friends. It's a very good idea.

I do love my new scarf. It keeps me just toasty enough and it drapes elegantly. It needs a good blocking as I just hung it up on hair clips on the curtain to stretch it out a bit- the bottom edge would ruffle less if it was really bocked. The pattern is simple and it only took two repetitions before I had it memorized. It really shows off colorful yarn nicely.