Berroco Remix in Patina

So here is the main problem for me with any and all travel: decision making. It is the only time that I have to commit to one or two or even three specific projects. There won’t be any other options. Once we hit the airport, that’s it. I can’t decide that my gauge is wrong on the sweater and that I need new yarn. I can’t throw the sock project into a basket and start a different one out of boredom. Nope. I am stuck with the decisions that I made the night that I packed. On Wednesday morning I head off with the hubby to Seattle for a friend’s wedding. We will be gone for six days. If you take the number of days on vacation and divide by two, this is the number of projects that you can take with you. (i just made this up…play along). So that means that I get to take three projects! The first one will be a baby blanket project for a friend. She is in England so I wanted something to match her sheep and nature themed nursery that also had a nice “English tweed” look to it. I decided on this color from Berroco Remix (her nursery is all neutrals). The Remix gives me tweed with the softness and machine washability of cotton. Perfect! I am going to make her the Wool Leaves pattern from Jared Flood. (you could say that I am on a Jared Flood pattern kick lately) This is another one that we carry at the shop and the pattern is one that we use for our intro to lace class.

Photo by Jared Flood

This is going to be my “mindless” project. I have to have one of those. The problem with this one is that it is large…which makes me think that I should also take a mindless ribbed sock with me. Purse sized projects on key while on vacation. You never know where you will need a project to fit into a small purse. Luckily there is a lot of sock yarn in my stash that needs some attention (or even recognition of its mere existence or some memory of how it got there in the first place.) So I am thinking that a hank of sock yarn and some tiny needles will get thrown into the suitcase as project number two.

Now for the third project…I wanted to knit this from Teva Durham from the new Loop-d-Loop lace with Acadia from the Fibre Company. The problem is that I could not get gauge with the yarn. Not at all. And there isn’t another yarn jumping at me for the project. It’s like I decided that Acadia and this sweater were a match made in heaven and they quickly divorced and now I can’t possibly imagine them with anyone else. I don’t know what to do. So I am plotting something else entirely. The new Wool People magazine has me intrigued. I don’t think that an Olga B. pattern is vacation material even though I am in LOVE with her design in this magazine. (that is a LOT of cables) I am thinking that the Sullivan pattern would be lovely as my first Shelter sweater, but I also really wanted a pullover. It seems that I just don’t have enough pullovers in my life. So I guess before I leave, I will have to decide between the two…or throw a random third option into the mix.

Sullivan - Wool People / Brooklyn Tweed

Shadow - Wool People / Brooklyn Tweed

UPDATE: tragedy has struck and my yarn for the baby blanket did not arrive today. Now I have no idea what to do. I think I am headed home to gather a sweater out of my WIP bin and a hank of sock yarn and possibly some yarn for the Olga B. pattern…decisions decisions

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.

I was in Mexico for nine days and I swear that I got some actual knitting done. I took an unfinished sock project with me. I had scored a hank of Schaeffer Nichole yarn at a yarn shop in Delaware awhile ago but had only ever completed one ribbed sock. (we now carry this yarn, by the way). I took the rest of the project with me to Mexico hoping that I could get a second sock knitted and finally have a complete pair. I was successful! Here is my sock on the beach in its first day and then again after several days of knitting away at it. I did also get some reading done. I blew through the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in only six hours. Amazing book. I highly recommend. The next day, I read In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: a Memoir. Also a really good book. I wish that I had a knitting and reading method down, but I was reading actual softcover books, which are much harder to operate along with knitting needles. I didn’t think that an ipad was appropriate for sand and water.

I do confess that I also brought my Albers Cowl project with me…but have no amazing photos of it being made on the beach. I almost have the entire first square finished. Other than picking up stitches, this is a great stealth project that you can do with your hands hiding under a bar while chatting with relatives and drinking a mojito. (ask me how I know this).

I also discovered that I am allergic to mango, or at least can not tolerate large quantities of mango. I discovered this because the drink special at the bar at our resort was a mango mojito…and I may or may not have consumed enough of these to develop a rash around my mid section. Once I switched to regular mojitos, the rash went away. hmm…I wonder if I have to skip mango sticky rice at the Thai restaurant now.  I hope not…

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!

About 7 days before the big trade show in Columbus this month, I decided that I wanted a new project to wear on the show floor. The Columbus Convention Center is generally 20-25 degrees cooler than the rest of the world. I don’t know if they turn the AC up for the knitters specifically or if it is a norm in the convention center industry.  With the recent arrival of Techno, I had become fixated on knitting the Metro Jacket pattern from Blue Sky Alpacas and Laura Grutzeck – designed specifically for this new wonderful yarn. The patterns weren’t due to land until after the trade show but I just had to knit this sweater right away! The lovely ladies at Blue Sky Alpacas sent the pattern along to me if I promised to wear the sweater at the show..which of course meant that it had to be done in time!

The project took 6 hanks of the main color and one each of the contract colors. I have enough of the contrast colors leftover to make a hat. It worked up very quickly! I knitted the smallest size but sized it up a bit for the chest and shoulders and still used less than the pattern called for. I also went up one needle size in order to get gauge.

The project features a slip stitch color work that looks like textured fair isle but without the trouble of doing actual stranded colorwork. It is worked from the bottom up and in one piece. I knit the bottom and then each sleeve, put them together on one needle and finished it all up. Overall, pretty quick and easy project! The fabric is surprisingly light for a bulky yarn and it is so fuzzy and warm and soft…

I did indeed wear it at the trade show. It was boiling hot outside, so I tore it off as soon as I got outside.  The ladies at Blue Sky loved it and were quite happy to find out that it could be knitted in a few days

Well, it’s the first day of summer, it’s hot, and just about the last thing I want to do today is think about wool. Here in Northern California we are finally feeling summer weather and we’re expecting a high in the 90s today. I know you in the DC area are laughing at me for complaining, but keep in mind there’s no air conditioning in my house (or in many other houses in the area)!

Regardless, here I am with a sweater in progress to share with you. This is another sample sweater that I’ve fallen in love with and don’t want to give up. I am enjoying the pattern and I love the yarn and soon it will be headed over to fibre space so you can admire it for yourself.

I’m almost done with this pullover, called Leaving, by the prolific and talented Anne Hanson, from the Winter 2010 issue of Twist Collective. The neat thing about this pattern is that it has instructions for both a cardigan and a pullover version, so you can choose which one you like better. The textured pattern is on all the pieces and is just different enough to keep me interested without being too confusing.

The sweater is knit in pieces and sewn up at the end – which makes for easier summer knitting as you don’t have to drag a whole entire sweater into your lap every time you want to knit.

I’m knitting it in Miss Babs‘ newest yarn, Northumbria DK. The color is Luna Granite.

The Northumbria has been great to work with. It’s 100% Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) wool. BFL is smooth and fine with great stitch definition. BFL also has a lustrous silky drape after it’s blocked, which you can see in the photos above. This is going to be a superb sweater yarn. Because of the sheen, it takes color beautifully. Luna Granite doesn’t have a ton of variegation, but it works up in subtle shades of dove grey with hints of lavender.

I have wet-blocked the front and back so they are ready to be sewn up and I can add the collar. Here you can see the front and back with one of the sleeves – what a difference blocking makes to open up the pattern and smooth out any imperfections in the knitting!

Now I’m off to knit up my second sleeve, put the whole thing together, and drop it in the mail. We’ll give you a heads up when it’s in the shop and you can come by and check out my sweater. The fibre space crew is unpacking the boxes of Northumbria DK direct from Miss Babs later this afternoon.

As a stitcher, I am chronically late on projects. It seems like a project with a deadline is a sure fire way to make me less interested in getting the thing done. Right now, I am furiously knitting a sweater for the trade show this weekend. (more on that soon). So when Tanis (amazing designer and instructor at our shop) announced that she was pregnant many many months ago, I didn’t put a deadline on her gift. I wasn’t even sure what I was going to make her. Then SIX WEEKS ago today, Tanis had her baby boy – Callum. Her due date was today! So like any knitter, I scrambled. Panic set in. I quickly selected the yarn that I wanted to use and tried to work backwards to find a pattern that was suitable for the yarn that I had fallen in love with – Pigeonroof Siren Two Sport. It had just arrived at the shop and I was really itching to work with it. The yarn is a merino cashmere and nylon blend, making it both snuggly soft and machine washable. (yes, we still have it at the shop. come squeeze!).

Gift Wrap Romper pattern - Carina Spencer

I grabbed three coordinating colors that had a nice pop to them and spent days scouring Ravelry for a baby project that involved multiple colors but wasn’t intarsia. I finally settled on the Gift Wrap Romper which is done in a completely different gauge (uses O-Wool Balance). Of course we have Balance at the shop but I was already in love with the Pigeonroof. So then I set out to rewrite the pattern…but the baby was early which meant that he was super small. So in the process of trying to figure out what size to make and how to achieve that size based on my new gauge, I got frustrated and decided to make a blanket instead. You know, because a blanket is such a quick knit project!

So this time I simple cast on some stitches, using my gauge swatch to determine how many would give me a blanket about 36″ wide. I used the Vogue Knitting: the Ultimate Knitting Book to find different stitch patterns using only knit and purl. I found a few patterns in the Harmony Guide: Knit & Purl as well. Some of them were simply made up.  I alternated between the three colors with each change in stitch pattern and only knitted each strip for two inches.  By casting on for the width and changing colors every two inches, I achieved the look of a blanket knitted in strips of colors without having to seam the long narrow strips together. This limited me to patterns that would look good with only one or two repeats of the chart (which meant no cables) but it made the project much easier to tackle.

And then I ran out of yarn. Because my estimate for the cast on resulted in a much larger blanket (more like 40″), my three hanks of sportweight weren’t going to cut it. Meanwhile, one of the colors that I had chosen was gone from the shelves and I spent several days begging customers to give me back a partial hank. (Thank you Lynn!!!) In total, the blanket took four hanks plus a partial hank for the middle and one additional hank for the edging.  My edging is a folded hem and this pattern by Purl Bee is a great guide on how to do it.

In the end, the blanket turned out amazing and Callum can drag it around for years to come. And its always nice to give a knitter something knitted, since they know the work put into it   Despite it being close to six weeks late, it still arrived before Callum’s original due date! Not bad for this perpetually late knitter.

I have been sick for three days now, which should mean that lots of knitting is happening, but I am also in the middle of house hunting…so not so much knitting happening. Our house sold in three days. I love the agent that I worked with. (Despite knowing approximately ten agents who are knitters, I decided to keep my home sale completely separate from my business/knitting life). So we closed on our house last week but have yet to find something new. We even have a one month rent back that ends in June but it seems like not enough time to find a new place. There just isn’t much on the market these days.

While I was out sick this weekend, I missed the Pirate Sock-In event! From the look of the photos I can assume that some folks fully embraced the theme and that some actual socks were knitted.

is that a tie-dyed fibre space shirt?!

Jane showed up with the most amazing knitted thing I have ever seen…brace yourself. This is a bit overwhelming. This shawl is LACE, INTARSIA and BEADED. yup…you read that correctly. Those three things happened in the same project. And my goodness I have no idea why it turned into a SKULL of all things…but I can’t control what you all knit. I try to tell you when you are doing something silly, but you don’t always listen. Jane actually GAVE THIS TO KEL, which is the other shocking part of this project. It was a gift. yup. a gift. What is the craziest gift you have ever stitched up?

About a year ago, I started to knit a giraffe for a friend’s new baby…She was due in October, so I figured that 3-4 months was plenty of time to get the thing done. I love the toys in the Itty Bitty Toys book by Susan B Anderson, so I chose to do that one. At the time, we were phasing out of Berroco Pure Merino, so I snagged some hanks for the giraffe and set off to make him. It took only a week or two to get the body of the giraffe done. Then I probably finished the legs a few weeks after that. And then I knitted a few of the spots from time to time…and then I realized that there were still two horns, a tail, two pieces PER EAR and all those pom poms to knit. And then they all had to be sewn onto him. This was a tad overwhelming. I hate finishing. The only thing that I hate more than finishing is knitting tiny pieces of things. And so the giraffe went into hibernation. I figured I had some time before the baby’s due date in October. October came and went and the thought of knitting tiny little pieces for that giraffe was just painful. He moved from his resting place in my “work in progress” basket in the living room to the bin in the office…the bin where projects go to die. I unearthed him again during our Work in Progress retreat at the vineyard in February. I managed to get quite a bit of him done at the retreat, but he still needed a tail and his ears and all of his pom poms. (I really despise making pom poms). So when Veronica was here, she kept asking for projects to work on for me. I do love to pay Veronica to do things that I no longer want to do. It is wonderful. So I handed off the giraffe. She finished him up in an hour or so while hanging out at the shop and he was done. He literally needed an hour of someone’s time. It just couldn’t be mine. So here he is. I have no idea what he was eventually named once he got to his new home. I do know that there is little chance that his new owner will ever get to play with him. His mom seems rather attached and highly unlikely to let a small sticky child touch Mr. Giraffe. That is ok with me. As long as he gets some lovin. He was a long time in the making…

Apparently I make a good dog bed

Veronica here again.

First off, let me say it was so nice to visit the DC area and fibre space. I got to see so many friends, both at the shop, around town, and at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I knit a lot. I provided essential Italian Greyhound sleeping surfaces.

The other thing I did while I was here was to try my hand at making some yarn, this time with a spinning wheel. I’ve done some spindle spinning before, but just like knitting I like to go FAST. I love spinning with a wheel. On the other hand, I don’t need another hobby, another expense, or another piece of furniture, so I don’t own one.

Spinning with the Kromski Symphony

Thankfully this is where Lesley comes in. Lesley just got a beautiful Kromski Symphony and agreed to let me spin on it a little while I was here. I am still very much a beginner, so I tried out some mixed light & dark BFL from Miss Babs. She always says it’s good for new spinners – not as slippery as merino or other silky fibers.

So here I am spinning. Please remember I have no clue what I’m doing, so I’m sure I have atrocious posture and there are probably seventeen other things wrong with this photo.

2-ply BFL that I spun

My yarn is a little uneven, but that’s ok – it’s beginner yarn! I don’t know all the smart words about spinning, whether I should talk about plies or twist or drafting or whatever. You can learn all that stuff from Rosemary. I’m just excited to have made yarn that looks mostly like yarn. It averages out to be worsted weight or so. I hope there is enough for a hat.

2-ply Polwarth yarn spun by Lesley

Lesley is also awesome and agreed to spin some yarn just for me! She has a lot more practice than I do, so her yarn looks a lot nicer. (Just like real yarn!) This is from Polwarth fiber from Squoosh Fiberarts, in a color called Fathom. It’s over 500 yards and probably sportweight. I have no idea what I’m going to do to show it off. Maybe a shawlette? Anybody have any suggestions?

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

Nemo’s sweater has been done for quite some time but the weather got really nice and he hasn’t had a chance to wear it. This morning I put it on him and he wouldn’t walk through the park. He did this a lot:

He looks kinda like he needs to go to the bathroom but mostly like he is traumatized and can’t move the entire back half of his body..which is funny because the sweater doesn’t really touch that part of him. I think it is fair to assume that Nemo never had a sweater with his former owners. Phil says that the sweater is probably itchy and that he hates it and shouldn’t have to wear it. Well then why did I knit the darn thing?!

He does look much more regal when sitting….

I sometimes look down at my project bag and realize that everything that I am knitting is the same color. I am currently in a “light teal” stage. I did finally decide on a project for a quick spring scarfy thing. I chose the Opera Scarf project.  I spent much of the weekend walking around with a hank of Miss Babs Moo and Ewe around my neck, knitting right from the skein. The color is amazing! This is the color “Forever.” The one bad thing about Miss Babs being in town, is the amazing quantity of color options.

I am also working on the first project from our Indie Indulgence Club. It is a sleeveless vesty thingy and I love it. The yarn is Savannah from the Fibre Company (now available in a full color range from the shop). It appears to be almost the same color as my scarf…I need to branch out.

Then today Jared Flood released this new triangular shawl pattern! I think I have to make it. I expect to have it at the shop in print version soon, but we haven’t received notice of it being available in print quite yet. I am thinking of using Babs Yet, which we now have in the shop or something in sock weight, like the NFC Luxury Sock that just arrived OR the hank of Dragonfly Fibers Djinni sock that has been “marinating” on my desk for two or three weeks. (For those who don’t know, I “marinate” yarn on my desk to decide whether I REALLY have to take it home…I have this luxury. I realize that you don’t. I am sorry.)

Photo by Jared Flood

I may be a lazy knitter or just too busy…not sure, but now that Veronica lives across the country and has time to knit things, I started sending things her way…things that I have started and just don’t have the energy to finish. The latest is the Balloon Sleeve Jacket by Olga and found on the cover of Sensual Knits. I got all of the pieces knitted and stopped at the sleeves. The design has a poofy sleeve that just wasn’t going to work with the thick alpaca merino yarn that I was using (Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand dye). I had no energy to redesign the sleeves, so I gave up, and it hid in a box until Veronica was willing to take it on. I sent it off in January, I think. It arrived last week, and I can’t even explain how excited I am. There are so many amazing things about this garment. Because it is Olga’s design, there is facing, hems, reinforcement, etc. She loves the details, that Olga. The yarn adds weight and heft to it and it feels like an actual coat. Veronica found the most amazing buttons and belt buckle to match the jacket. The color is spectacular (which you don’t even come close to seeing here.) It is just perfect. Now if only it were October and not almost April…