I think I have said before that I have a tendency (as do most of you) to over pack stitching projects when headed on vacation. It is just really frightening to imagine being without knitting, should I somehow knit through all of the yarn that I brought. Today I leave for Prague (yay!) for a week. In addition to the 8 hour flight to Munich and then one hour flight to Prague, there are all the cold nights in bars and restaurants to fill with good solid stitching time. I have narrowed it down to four projects…I think:

Socks

Sock projects fit into small purses and pockets and are super handy for discreetly stitching during a tour of a brewery, for example. I rummaged through my sock stash last night and selected one skein of String Theory self striping yarn in the fibre space colorway that we had awhile back and one skein of a sport weight hand dye that I picked up at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival a few years ago. I figured that if the tiny needles on the first one make my hands hurt, I can change to the US#3 and sport weight yarn. Both will be simple ribbed socks, so no pattern involved here.

Sweater

Photo by Brooklyn Tweed

Nothing says vacation like a new sweater project to cast on. I am teaching a lace pullover class on the Peabody sweater from Brooklyn Tweed and really should get it knitted soon! I wanted to use one of the new colors of LOFT, so I am double stranding it. My first swatching attempt resulted in a horribly tight fabric on US#6 needles…which I shouldn’t have been using anyway because the pattern calls for #7. i have no idea what I was reading. So now I have to try #7 needles. This will probably happen on the plane. At least my husband won’t be there to yell about my need to soak a swatch on an airplane. Traveling with other people who carry sharp pointy things can be handy. They don’t judge.

Mittens

Yeah, remember those fair isle mittens that I was knitting for this trip? They look exactly the way they did when I posted about them last. The fair isle mitten curse continues…it is my hope that I will knit a thumb and part of the mitten on the airplane. The handy fold down tray thing is pretty well positioned for fair isle chart reading. It’s not like I have anything else to distract me for 8 hours.

The other random thing

The problem now is that I am here at the shop and tempted to grab more yarn and throw it in my bag for some last minute emergency project to knit to keep me warm while in Prague. I already did this two nights ago when I whipped up a pair of One Cable Mitts in BSA Worsted Hand Dye. It took about two hours. Right now I am thinking that the Elizabeth Hat by Jane Richmond would  match them nicely and give me a “set” in theory..not that I have ever had a matching set of anything. I can have dreams though, right?

Elizabeth by Jane Richmond

This is the time of year knitters and crocheters look forward to—when we can really justify wearing our wool shawls, cashmere socks, and slouchy hats. Not that this stops me from dressing in handknits the rest of the year, but when the mid-Atlantic chill hits, I especially cherish my craft. This year I’m craving pieces that I can pair together, mostly because that means I can show off more of what I’ve made! I also love the idea of creating unique combinations that can only happen when you make it yourself.

handmake your own luxury

One of my favorite trends is a play on the turtleneck: a pullover with a matching cowl. This textured pairing by Laura Grutzeck, Pullover with Cowl, will keep you warm and chic. When you step into a heated building, simply remove the cowl! Stop by the shop for the pattern and yarn from St-Denis. Knit this in the US-made Nordique for an elegant set in any of our 22 versatile colors. For a hand-dyed option, Miss Babs Yummy 3-ply is a lovely superwash merino yarn in gorgeous, nature-inspired colors.

State Street Cowl by Raveler Botzy

Unite a geometric stitch pattern with the State Street Cowl and Monkey socks. I’d love to knit this cowl in the light and fluffy Sirdar Big Bamboo. The stitches appear to float in this yarn, and the misty color palette is perfect for misty weather. This is going to be one of my gift-knitting favorites—super chunky, machine washable yarn is crucial this time of year! Knit coordinating socks in gorgeous SweetGeorgia BFL Sock, as the saturated colors are sure to brighten your day.

One for you, one for me

Stitch something warm for you and your favorite person with He Said She Said. This design features a swirling stitch pattern, and two skeins of Sublime Chunky Merino Tweed will make a couple almost as cute as the two of you.

The Nae shawl and Kozue hat duo has been created with a dilemma in mind: you need two skeins of sock yarn to knit the shawl, but you end up with half a skein left over. Make this beautiful, quiet shawl design in our new arrival SpaceCadet Celeste, and whip up a matching hat with the rest. Stop by the shop to check out these yarns in person!

Bismark by Kelbourne Woolens - available at the shop

So last week Jane decided to knit this adorable beret from Kelbourne Woolens. She comes in and says, “So I am knitting this plaid hat” and I said, “what plaid hat?” and she said, “This new plaid hat from Kelbourne Woolens” and she showed it to me. So I declared that I would knit this plaid hat. So I grabbed some yarn and needles and took it home immediately, intending to knit it up in a night or two. Of course, I got distracted and it is still sitting at home. Jane has already finished her plaid hat and taunts me. In the meantime, I realized that the same stitch pattern was also on another Kelbourne Woolens pattern, Emerson. I ordered both patterns last week so that we would have TWO fabulous plaid patterns at the shop.

Emerson pattern from Kelbourne Woolens

Today I found some suckers fellow knitters to join me in knitting this sweater, including Jane (might be payback for her getting me all excited about the plaid hat). Without a fire under my butt, not a whole lot is getting done these days in the way of sweater knitting. My inability to finish things is so chronic that I have actually started two sock projects in the last five days. Great. I have no shot of finishing socks either.

Here are some color selections that folks have already picked out. (Folks that I may have forced to knit this sweater with me)…I am going for the purple and red in Thaki Donegal Tweed and Lesley already has a sweater quantity of Organik in Atoll, so she is going to use that from her stash and just pick up the white. Jane chose the brown and green, mixing Donegal Tweed with the softer Tara Tweed and Michelle is using the Donegal Tweed in the same purple and a fab green. So if you also think you need a nerdy hip cardigan, grab some yarn and join our knitalong! I really really want this sucker done in September. If it isn’t, it might drag on for months. I also think it might be fun to show up to the Kelbourne Woolens workshop all dressed in our Emerson cardigans…with pencils and rulers and pocket protectors.

Project Details

Necessary Skills: knitting, purling, increasing, decreasing, fair isle

Yarn: Fibre Company Organik (100 yards) in MC: 9 (10, 12, 13, 14, 15) and in CC: 2 (2, 3, 3, 4, 4) skeins

To fit bust: 30 (34, 38, 42, 46, 50) inches

Gauge: 20 sts and 21 rows = 4″ in Fair Isle on larger needles

18 sts and 22 rows = 4″ in stockinette stitch on larger needles

Needles: US #8 (5 mm) needles and US #6 ( 4.25 mm) needles and 40″ circular

Notions: stitch markers, tapestry needle

Optional notions: pens and pocket protector

A lovely customer stopped by this morning and asked how we all were doing, as she had not seen a post from us in quite some time. I didn’t believe her until I opened up the site and saw that our last post was a full ten days ago…I guess last week was a little nuts? I wish that I could say that an earthquake and hurricane meant that lots of stitching happened, but that would be a lie. I hope that the possible end of the world proved to be more successful for the rest of you. The only thing that I have to show for it is a completed Albers Cowl..something that I have had completely done for at least a week or more but just hadn’t seamed up. Like any last minute crafter, I was motivated to finish the darn thing last night with only a few minutes to spare before we left for the Cirque de Solei show in Baltimore. I thought it would be quite festive at the show and would help keep me warm in the cold arena. This isn’t the first time that I have skipped putting on makeup or properly styling my hair because I wasn’t completely done MAKING my wardrobe  for the evening. I once made two out of town guests wait for me to finish knitting a ribbed sweater so that I could wear it out that night. I freely admit that I get a bit fixated on a project needing to be done for a certain occasion and then force everyone around me to wait for me finish it before said occasion is allowed to begin.  Hey, at least it forces me to finish things…as we know that is a problem.

So here it is, my Albers Cowl in all its glory. I loved this project! I have no idea what all of these yarns are…they were all scrap pieces in my stash. I know that there are several colors of Neighborhood Fiber Company. The great yellow is Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock. The pop of red is Dragonberry from Dragonfly. The deep rich purple is Wollmeise (aka unobtainium). Ok, so it looks like I DO know what all of the yarns are!

Yesterday when our order of Malabrigo Rasta arrived, I was doing ok. I didn’t even open the bags. Our staff put out the boxes at 10% off, and people started coming through the door and rummaging through the boxes. Then Marsha came in. She started making a pile. She said that she likes to keep the Rasta in her stash for emergency knitting projects. She had recently been told that she was attending someone’s birthday party and needed a fast gift. Rasta could be worked up into a scarf in just a couple of hours. She said it was “stockpiling” (since that word sounds so much better than “hoarding.”) Those of you who know me well, know that I am the polar opposite of a hoarder. The same anxiety that causes someone to hoard is what causes me to purge. I can’t keep things. If something has been around for too long and I have forgotten that it exists, it gets pitched. Then later I will regret having tossed or donated the item, but the need to purge is strong. So for me, “stockpiling” Rasta has never occurred to me. But Marsha has a point…I am often in a situation where I wish I had something pretty and superbulky to work up fast for a gift. Since the Rasta never sticks around for more than a few days, Marsha got me to “stockpile.” I have made myself quite a pile in my red cube…so much so that my purse doesn’t fit in there this morning. I know that much of this will end up back out. Or someone will come in desperate for a hank and I will give up one of my squirreled away hanks…but it is a nice start to my “stockpile.” This is why we keep that Marsha around. She is a smart lady.

So this pile of Rasta got me to thinking…what else can I do with one hank of Rasta on the fly for a gifty? Certainly, no one needs to knit more Marion Cowls. Here were some ideas:

For Baby – Shrug Bug

Paid Ravelry download

Photo by Gina Bonomo

For adult hands – Super Funky Bulky Mitts

Available as a free Ravelry download

Photo courtesy of Amy Swenson

For adult neck – Cozy Cabled Cowl

Available as a free download on Ravelry

Photo courtesy of Amber Adrington

For Baby’s Head – Lele Baby Hat

Available for free on Ravelry

Photo courtesy of Vania Jenny

For adult head – Speedy Cabled Beret

Available as a free download on Ravelry

Photo courtesy of Paulina Chin

So then part of me wants to grab a bunch of the black and knit this from Teva Durham’s new book…but I don’t think that will fit in my cube.

Photo from Loop-d-Loop Lace

I haven’t been knitting much this week. Our new house is being completely renovated on the first level, and most of the work is ours to do. The kitchen was farmed out but other than that, my husband and I are doing it. This means that my usual late night knitting sessions have been taken over by late night painting sessions or online shopping sessions for light fixture ideas. (“vintage industrial” is a hard genre in the light fixture world.) I have been plotting though. Won’t let a little home renovation keep me from imagining up new projects when I have so many WIPs to ignore! Right now I am in a “nesting” mode and am thinking about what to make for the new house. I am currently working on a stealth project in Eco Wool and have decided that it’s natural colors and sheepy feel would be lovely in our new living room. Perhaps a lap blanket? Trying to figure out which Jared Flood pattern would be best:

Tweed Baby Blanket by Jared Flood - Brooklyn Tweed

Girasole by Jared Flood - Brooklyn Tweed

Hemlock Ring by Jared Flood - Brooklyn Tweed

The first two patterns are available at the shop and I have seen so many people make them. I am leaning towards the Girasole. I think that the circular shape will be cool in our living room and it has a more architectural feel to it. It will most definitely be in a natural color. Now I just need to decide between Cascade Eco Wool, the new Cascade Cloud (which is softer and mostly alpaca) or something more reasonable like Berroco Remix, as it will be machine washable. I wish that my dogs weren’t so dedicated to the destruction of everything in my living room…

As for the new place, here is a “before” shot of our living room and dining room. Our tables and chairs won’t be in until next month so I will post some photos after that. The living room is actually done for the most part. I suppose that is because there isn’t much renovation that one can do to a living room. I love a good project and even I struggled to find more than paint and a face lift to our fireplace.

On the backside of our office door...right where I left them

So I may have scheduled too many things for this month. We closed on our new house last Friday, moved in on Sunday and then left for Mexico on Thursday. Yikes! In the rush to get us moved over to the new place, we may have forgotten some things. On Wednesday, I went back to the house to drop off my keys to the new owners (who we had been renting from for the last month) and to take out the garbage. Remember this blog post about the clues that a knitter lives in a house? See that photo there of the knitting needle organizer hanging behind the door? yeah…I may have left that! Thank goodness that I went back to double check. I must have hundreds of dollars in knitting needles in it. Not to mention, packing for Mexico would probably have been harder without all of my needles!

So for the trip, I wanted to take some old projects that I haven’t finished and some new ones to work on. But alas, space was tight. I decided to skip the sweater projects and focus on small items that I don’t mind getting sun screen on. I packed an old sock that still needs a friend – knitted in Schaefer Nichole (available at the shop). I grabbed another hank of sock yarn from my stash (something variegated that would be best for simple ribbing). I also packed up a lot of scrap yarns and the Albers Cowl pattern (seen here). Every since Ann Weaver visited this spring, I have wanted to make it. I have such an extensive collection of sock yarn scraps that I was able to pull together some pretty cool color combos. I hope to send some photos to the blog while I am gone!

Doric by Cecily Glowik MacDonald

Sometimes a pattern pops up that I just go nuts over. This is one of those patterns. So simple. So classic. Yet unique details. And a gauge of 16sts over 4 inches! Yay! Something I can finish in a week! I have been obsessing over it since it came up on Ravelry.  So then I became obsessed with finding the right yarn for it. Sometimes this goes horribly wrong and I end up somewhere else completely. This is happening again. Here is how it went. I started looking forward at the Fall 2011 color report and trying to figure out what color and what yarn to use. The pattern calls for an aran weight yarn (O-Wool Classic) but uses US#7 needles to get gauge. I don’t have any idea how that is going to happen, so I am going to operate under the normal rules of gauge and assume that I will need an aran weight yarn and a US#9 needle to get gauge. Here are options that I uncovered this week:

Eco + in four colors that might work..

Louisa Harding Kashmir, Spud and Chloe Sweater and Fibre Co Terra

And then there is QED by Sanguine Gryphon…I really really want to knit in that yarn but we have so few colors left in stock that I wasn’t coming up with anything that was quite right. And then Kate (Dragonfly Fibers) showed up…she drove down to bring us a huge shipment of Blue Face Worsted. I found the color Hidalgo and couldn’t put it down. I am obsessed with it. But now I think that it isn’t the right fit for the sweater. So now I am spending hours of time on Ravelry searching for a pattern for this yarn. Wait, how did this start?! Didn’t I have a pattern already? Why has this Ravelry black hole sucked me in. The yarn is “marinating” on my desk. If I am still obsessed tomorrow and still obsessed with the pattern, they are just going to have to work together. One more project that I don’t need to start can’t spiral into two more.

For those who are interested, here are the project details:

Finished measurements: 36 (40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60)”

1100 (1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1600) yards of heavy worsted / aran weight yarn

Phil’s birthday is next week, so of course I decided this week to start knitting him a sweater. I am the queen of last minute. Somehow I doubt that this will ever be done, but I can try. I gave the husband lots of options, hoping that he wouldn’t choose something covered in cables and moss stitch. I need television knitting these days. Selling a house is hell. Here are just a few of what I gave him:

Wilson by Norah Gaughan - available in the Norah Gaughan Men booklet at the shop

Emilien - available as a download on Ravelry

Brownstone by Jared Flood - available as a single pattern at the shop

Beagle by Norah Gaughan - available in the Norah Gaughan Men booklet at the shop

Luckily, my hubby chose the Emilien. It is available here on Ravelry. It is a fairly easy top down raglan with some stripes…the hubby wants stripes. So I gave him several yarn color options (all from Brooklyn Tweed SHELTER). He had Longjohns and Soot (red and grey), Buttonjar and Almanac (green and blue), or Tent and Almanac (olive green and blue). Hubby chose Tent and Soot…not one of the options, but ok. Not my favorite combo but if he will wear it, I am game. Here they are:

SHELTER - Soot

SHELTER - Tent

Homin shawl from Shetland Trader

It is spring. The weather is becoming amazing. The cherry tree in our neighbor’s yard is almost in full bloom. But I am in a complete knitting funk. I am finding it hard to find knitted things to wear to work…I hate this time of year. It is still too cold for most of my spring and summer wardrobe and yet my winter sweaters in jewel tones look ridiculous when folks are wearing sandals already. (We are very very excited about sandals in this area!) I also am finding my current WIPs completely overwhelming. I have a spring cotton sweater on needles that I haven’t gotten more than four inches knitted. I have the Monami cardigan on needles, which requires a table top and complete concentration. Despite that fact that I am teaching two classes on this, I can’t seem to get past the sleeve. I also started this shawl project from Shetland Trader this week in an espresso color from Dragonfly Fibers. I got about five inches of the lace edging done and hit a wall. I decided today that I need more accessory pieces that allow me to wear something knitted but aren’t as heavy as a sweater or my worsted weight shawls. I also need something in one of the “hot” spring colors for the season, since I can’t wear an entire garment in most of these colors. I have settled on sport weight…here are a few of the spring colors that you will see all over the stores this season. There is Hempathy, Neighborhood Fiber Company Studio Sport in her new lavender color, Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk and the Fibre Company Road to China Light (yum!)

Now to find something so mindless that it will solve my knitting funk…

I started with the Opera Scarf. It is easy and requires very little attention. But I did just knit one.

Wisp from Knitty would look neat in something larger gauge like sportweight and it is very versatile.

Photo by Wendy Niamath

Autumn Leaves Stole by Jared Flood would also be rather easy but I am not sure if it is mindless enough to get me out of the funk. (pattern available at the shop)

Photo by Jared Flood

hmm…will let you know what I end up doing. Something tells me that I will be hitting the Opera Scarf again..

I have no idea why I have been knitting with yellowish yarn…I can’t wear yellow. It make me look dead. or getting dead. So here are photos of my most recent yellowish projects. The first is the Honey Cowl – a free pattern from Madelinetosh. It is a fairly easy slip stitch pattern in the round. It seemed to go on forever, but I think it would be a bit more interesting if I had used a yarn with some color variation. I think the new Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK would really rock in this pattern. The Rimu was so interesting to work with though! It gets fluffier as you knit with it. The oils in your hands really makes the possum fibre come out from the yarn.  I haven’t even blocked it yet but it already feels so much softer than it did when I started.
The second project is my Steeler hat, of course. It is the Selbu Modern pattern from Kelbourne Woolens. I think the yarn is Sweet Georgia…but it might be Fiberphile. I honestly have no idea what it is! It was in my stash…hrm…I guess this is why I should start putting thing on Ravelry.

Honeycomb in Rimu

Steeler's Hat in Sweet Georgia

My sleeveless Hooray Cardi

our so the pattern is called…

Last month we had this cabled raglan cardigan class, which uses the Hooray Cardigan pattern by Veera Välimäki. I grabbed a few hanks of Madelinetosh DK for the project and worked along with the class..which brings me to this stage seen here (well, this looks done, but it needs sleeves. But the back looks cool!) The pattern is a fairly straightforward raglan but includes some interesting cable charts on both fronts and down the back. It also has a large turned collar that takes quite a bit of time to knit (2×2 ribbing for 16″ anyone? No? yeah..i didn’t think so.) I suppose I should just knit the sleeves and be done with it, but who likes to knit sleeves? After working the ribbing around the front for almost a week, I have come to a screeching halt on the sleeves. It probably doesn’t help that I have a stealth knitting deadline looming over my head right now too. Fortunately, others have had more success with their Hooray Cardis. Here is Jennifer’s finished cardi:

Here is one of the student’s from the class, also Jennifer, with her card:

Now I know that I have previously scoffed at raglans, since they do nothing but accentuate my giant shoulders..but the raglan lines on this one are very vertical, so I am hoping that it works for my body shape.

So now that I am mostly done with the thing, we get an entire order of the new Madelinetosh DK yarn into the store – Tosh Merino DK. Of course it is lovely. The single ply takes dye similarly to the TML that I adore so much. So I am itching to get a sweater quantity of it.  I have to resist until at least this cardi is finished or the Monami cardi is finished…(also a class and also worked in DK weight yarn, by the way).  I am having this overwhelming desire to start knitting spring and summer projects so that they are done in time to wear them, but it is also freezing outside and I have a few sweaters so close to being done…

Lost in space

This adorable red cabled beret was left in space yesterday. Let us know if it is yours!

The Neighborhood Fiber Co Capital Luxury Worsted has finally arrived. Those of you who were in the fibre girl club last year had the first crack at this. It is now in the shop! Each hank is 200 yards of 80% wool, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon. It regularly retails for $25 but will be 10% off today and tomorrow (Monday) because it is not yet unpacked and on our shelves. We just got the boxes open and the yarn counted and there is already a feeding frenzy going on!

Folks can’t resist the gorgeous color and wonderful feel of the stuff. Katie found this amazing pattern and showed it to me this weekend. It would be incredible in this yarn! Perhaps a knitalong?

Pole by Joji Locatelli

Available: download from Ravelry

The details:

To fit chest:
30/32 (34/36-38/40-42/44-46/48-50/52-54/56-58/60) inches
75/80 (85/90-95/100-105/110-115/120-125/130-135/140-145/150) cm
Shown in size 34/36 with no ease.

Yarn
Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted (210 yds /100g) -5 (5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7) skeins

Gauge (in Stockinette Stitch)
14.5 stitches and 24 rows to 4 inches on 5.5mm needles
12 stitches and 20 rows to 4 inches on 6mm needles after blocking
16 stitches and 26 rows to 4 inches on 5mm needles in the round

Pont Neuf by Irishgirlieknits

Available: download from patternfish

The details:

Don't I look snazzy in my PJs and a half knitted sweater?!

Many moons ago (January 2008), I traveled with Olga Buraya-Kefelian and Karida Collins of Neighborhood Fiber Company to the West coast trade show of the National Needlearts Association. Karida was there to expand the customers for her yarn line and Olga was networking and starting to show off her new amazing designs. Before we left for the show, Karida and Olga had devised a plan to have some new patterns in Karida’s yarn to show off at the booth. Olga was working on a sweater in Loft and a single ply silk yarn that NFC no longer makes. I was asked to knit the sample…well…the process was eye opening. I had never knitted a sample garment for a designer before, and even if I had, I doubt that this process would have been similar to anything done with another designer. Olga would give me instructions and I would knit. (and by instructions, I mean diagrams and scribbled notes on paper) Then I would send her photos of what it looked like and she would give me more. I took the sweater to a private lesson and accidentally left the notes and had to drive back a few days later because Olga and I were both frantic about how the pattern would ever be written. Being inside of Olga’s designer brain for a few weeks was a tad frightening. I can easily say that she works with no templates. Each of her designs are completely unique and unlike anything else she has done. She almost works more like a seamstress would.

Photo courtesy of Chanel

So to make a long story short, I knitted this thing all night during our flight to the west coast and in the end, I was the only sample knitter who completed the assigned project. (I will also note that Karida missed the flight and flirted with a male airline ticket agent and was put on a direct flight to Long Beach and beat us there, despite having slept in and gotten to the airport as we were on the runway. Let’s not mention how angry this made Olga and I). Anyways…I wore the sweater around the show floor to rave reviews. Folks were really excited about it. Than a year later, something similar showed up in a Rowan booklet. Another design with detachable sleeves showed up on Knitty. And then this season, this showed up from Chanel! Olga did finally publish the pattern a few months ago and the sweater was returned to me, which is totally awesome. I love the thing. I had missed it. The pattern is called the Murasaki Pullover. It is worked from the bottom up. It has detachable sleeves that could we worked, put on a holder and then attached to the body of the sweater, if desired. It is made with NFC Loft and a dk/light worsted weight silk. You could use Malabrigo Silky Merino or Louisa Harding Mulberry … I imagine Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk would also work nicely. It is basically all stockinette stitch with a few decreases for the yoke. But alternating the lace weight mohair with the DK weight silk creates really gorgeous stripes, even when the same colorway is used for both yarns.

So here is the finished garment, in all its glory.

Photo by Olga

As we know, I do start an awful lot of Olga’s patterns…now I don’t necessarily finish a lot of them. I am a classic “take it easy” knitter. I enjoy projects that are easy to memorize and work without a pattern and require very little attention. I am happiest with a giant stockinette stitch pullover worked bottom up in the round. So Olga and I don’t necessarily mix well. Nothing she designs is straightforward. However, I continue to start her designs. My latest: Hari. I fell into the last delivery of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light and couldn’t resist a hank of the Duchess colorway. It is almost black, with an interesting undertone of red / burgundy. I set out to find a cool cowl to show off the yarn’s single ply properties and amazing color. I was set on having something point.I don’t know why, but this yarn wants to be pointy. And of course, I found this pattern from Olga.

Photo by Olga

It is essentially knitted like a scarf, with small clips attached to the points. These allow you to clip it up and wear it as a cowl. Or to clip it up and wear it as a shrug! I have purchased the pattern and read it completely through. From what I can tell, this is actually very straightforward and a tv knitting project. This will probably surprise most of you…but I really think it is. And the little points in the fabric are so cool! I have to find time to knock this out. I am hoping to get it started this week. We do also have the new hardcover copy of Olga’s first book: Ori Ami Knits. I have finished one top from the book and am almost done with the Puzzle Vest. The book is gorgeous. The photography is amazing and it is filled with classic Olga – all unique, one of a kind pieces that are truly works of art.

Photo by Olga

Shale Baby Blanket

So about two months ago, I started this the Shale Baby Blanket (available at the shop) by Jared Flood for my mom’s new place (and as her birthday gift.) Her birthday, unfortunately, is only a week after Christmas. Last night I realized that I had about ten rows done and that this wasn’t a realistic project. Then last week Jared Flood posted a new pattern on his site! It is done in a super bulky yarn and Mirasol Ushya is just begging to be used for this project. The Ushya is so light and airy. It would really make a nice warm blanket without the heaviness of most yarns at this gauge….I think I can get this one done…I hope I can. It takes 10 hanks of Ushya and is worked on US#15 needles. Seems reasonable, right? Course I am not looking at yardage. I am only saving about 100 yards of knitting by doing the larger blanket, but let’s not talk about that. It will turn out larger with less work, so that is all that counts, right? And I will feel like I have accomplished more with each row on US#15 needles, so this might make it more likely to be completed. Or maybe mom will get a box with a photo in it…she will understand, right?

Umaro Blanket

Photos by Jared Flood