Aran Pocket Shawl - Finally Finished!

I seem to be working my way through Cheryl Oberle’s book “folk Shawls”. This is the second shawl and I have yarn ordered for another project from the book “Heartland Shawl”

This shawl was knit with Misti Alpaca 100 per cent baby alpaca yarn in pea green (color C815 200 meters to 100 grams). I did not find this to be a difficult pattern at all - though I did find that a row counter helped me keep track of what row I was on - so I could pick up the needles after leaving it alone for some time. I love the texture that this simple pattern affords. If I made another one I might use a yarn that is a bit heftier than the Misti Alpaca - although this way the shawl is lovely and soft. I think a thicker yarn would have given the pattern more definition (as the example in the book shows) and the pockets would not have a tendency to droop with something thicker.

This was worth making - and I am already enjoying using on cool mornings at work or nippy evenings at home! I got the yarn from Yarn.Com - it was on sale then. Jimmy Beans Wool is another great place to get the yarn from - and Ravelry is simply the best place to see other examples of the patter and projects. If you knot and are not a Ravelry member - you need to be !

News On The Needles

It's that 'lovely' time of year when light is scarce and when I find additional pleasure in being able to watch the tube as I knit! As I have mentioned before, I am hat-phobic. I don't like hats. Never have and never will. That being said I am also finding that the cold is a bit more bothersome - so something about the neck would, at times, be nice - plus having the advantage of pulling something up over my head when it is pouring rain might be great! I have been fascinated by the concept of cowls - maybe it's all of the medieval reading I do! Lo and behold this must be the year for me because I found some great cowl patterns in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting Holiday 2009 Issue. Vogue Knitting also has a great new new feature that shows live photos of patterns in their current issue - so if you want to see this pattern on a 'real' head go to the highlighted link and click on "Think Big" on the right side of the screen.

I really wanted to make this cowl just as it was in the photo because I loved everything about it. Tanglewood Creations yarn is amazing. I looked high and low for it and finally wrote to the company. Sure enough - of course I would adore the yarn - it's cashmere and costs $33.00 per ounce & the cowl requires eight ounces! $264. for a cowl is a tad rich for my worker bee budget. All of their yarns are hand spun and I really admire that they employ home based spinners for their yarns. If I had the money I would happily support them! I considered using my other favorites - Cashsoft or Cashmerino - but I really agreed that this pattern needed something with color - or perhaps seeing it in color just 'colored' my mind about how it ought to look! At any rate I had some Noro Silk Garden on hand in a colorway that I am fond of - so I decided to just use that. I am happy witht the way it is coming out and, if DH ever wins the lottery for us, maybe I will try in with that glorious Tanglewood Creations yarn!

Here is another cowl pattern that I am also going to make called the "Geode Georgene" by Berroco. I actually bought the prescribed Berroco yarn for it too - but in a different colorway - Moss - of course! I like the versatility of these cowl neck 'hats' and scarves ... a fine combination of the two !

Of course I am still making my addiction - fingerless mitts! I have been lucky to have found a couple of new to me patterns that I really like. Chief among them is Susie's Reading Mitts from The Dancing Ewe.

Both of these new to me yarns are awesome and provide beautiful stitch definition and a super soft, luxurious feel. I love the touch of lace pattern that enhances both the top and the bottom of the gloves.

Below you can see a sampling of the great new yarns that I am experimenting with -

there really are some things good about the season of eternal gray!

Hope everyone enjoyed the love of family & friends & lot of good food for Thanksgiving!

What's On My Needles?

I have I have a couple of new yarns & projects to tell y'all about. First off - and only because I up loaded the photos that way- is a wonderful pattern from Louisa Harding's lovely book "Knitting Little Luxuries" that I borrowed from the library. I am, generally speaking, not much of a frou frou person, although truth be told, I always had a secret wish that I could be a girlie girl - you know someone with perfect nails & hair &, perhaps, even makeup. I never likes pastel colors, or pleats & fluff for me. I liked fitted jackets and jeans. Simple. I was the girl who loved to shoot tournament skeet, "drive" the sit upon lawn mower and do things things that were decidedly not girly girl. In my approaching dottage however, I have found that pink is indeed a tint that belongs on the color wheel, that a certain, very subdued bit of lace is not a bad thing and that I can secretly covet the things a la Louisa Harding and not feel guilty!
I saw this book and this beautiful glove pattern on Ravelry and fell in love. A little frou frou but not too much. Kollage yarns has a new yarn out called, oddly I thought, " 1/2 & 1/2". I heard the name and had to go to their webite to see what the yarn is made of and, sure enough, it's made from half milk! I can't fathom how they use milk protein with wool but they and it is a beautiful, soft combination that I think will show stitch defination to advantage. I am planning to use their deep blue for a pair of the elegant fingerless gloves Isn't this a lovely lttle wrap? I may just have to consider making this - which would mean that I might have to buy the book at some point - or borrow it from the library again for an extended period!
Ah! Shawls! I love shawls and I love making shawls. I have to admite to a fondness for Cheryl Oberle's Book "Folk Shawls". The first shawl pattern that I ever knit was made from left over Noru Kuryeon yarn and with a pattern from this book. Now I am, happily making the Aran Pocketed Shawl. I found this incredible Misty Alpaca yarn on Webs - and at an amazingly low price. This is a yarn that I just enjoy "petting". It's one of the softest Alpaca yarns that I have ever felt - and I admit to being an Alpaca or Alpaca- Silk fanatic. I have plans to work my way through several other wonderful shawl patterns - and maybe I will evben make a frou frou princess shawl of lacy yarn !

Yarn Play

As you may have gathered from past posts, I have a thing for fingerless mitts/gloves. My hands are always cold - sometimes even on summer nights. I like to try out different patterns for them and the best part of using the patterns is becoming acquainted with new, luscious yarns.

I purchased the pattern for Schaefer yarns Razor Shell fingerless gloves (they can be made long or short of course) and I decided that I wanted to make them in the yarn that was used in the pattern. Schaefer yarn Heather yarns are named for famous women. The one I chose is called Indira Ghandi - it's beautiful & I can't wait to get started on these lovely gloves

My current favorite fingerless glove pattern is by Cheryl Niamuth and is called "Fetching". Cheryl also has another pattern that I really like and it is called "Dashing" - they are both quick to knit, very satisfying to make, patterns! The red yarn above is from Knit Picks from their 'Wool Of The Andes' collection in 'Firecracker'. It knit up into a really nice glove that I think will wear very well - as well as being very warm!

Rowan Classic Cashsoft is, simply, a treat to work with - soooo soft. Being able to use these will make Fall easier to take when it arrives again.....well, maybe that's a stretch but it will be nice!

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino is another soft touch yarn that I have fallen in love with. I am not sure that it is quite as soft as Cashsoft but it knits up truly wonderfully - it affords beautiful stitch definition. My next adventure, I think, will be to buy some pure cashmere yarn - enough to make a pair of my favorite fingerless mitts.

Softest Yarn?

I love soft. Soft makes me happy; soft makes me feel cuddled & warm. I wear velvets & soft cottons & I love to use soft yarns when I knit . I have been making numerous pairs of my current favorite fingerless mitt pattern to have on hand for holiday gifts this year. I found the pattern on Knitty. It's called "Fetching"& was designed by Cheryl Naimath. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn is what the pattern calls for but I have been using similar weight yarns from my stash. I decided that I wanted to use Cashmerino & I went to my LYS to purchase some. They didn't have any so I bought Rowan's Cashsoft instead. I also ordered some Cashmerino from an on-line vendor - knowing that I could have a pair made from the Cashsoft before the Cashmerino arrived.

When the Cashmerino arrived I loved the colors & the weight was just about the same as the Rowan yarn. I was surprised to discover, however, that the Rowan Cashsoft is much softer than the Debbie Bliss. I'm in love with Cashsoft now & can't wait to buy more of it. It's glorious to work with & the mitts are soothing & luxurious to wear. Sometimes it pays to try lots of options!

Don't get me wrong - the Debbie Bliss yarn is very soft - and I will enjoy using it - and may well buy some more of it. One of my all time favorite yarns is Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk - talk about soft - this is one of the dreamiest yarns ever - and yes, I have made fingerless mitts from it. They felt down beautifully and make a very warm, very soft version of a simple mitt pattern I use a lot. I was happy though that I tried a couple of options for "Fetching" because now I have found not one but two more ultra soft yarns to use!

What In The Heck Have I Been Doing All This Time?!

"Cerebration is the enemy of originality in art."
Martin Ritt

These 3 eagles (can you find all three?)
is what greeted me when I stepped outside this morning

Rather then my Sunday chapter notes for The Artist's Way I thought that I would try to answer my own question: What have I been doing? Where have I been? (The next chapter update for the Artist's Way will return tomorrow.)

There are times when I feel as though I have accomplished nothing. When painful days run together I get so darn frustrated because I just wnat to be painting,drawing, knitting, quilting, - all of the things that bring joy to my life. Thankfully, when I stop for a minute & think about it I realize that I have, in fact, been producing - just not as fast as I generally like to!

Here is a peek at my desk - all of the accouterments of art are there - just waiting for me to sit down and play!

I love fingerless gloves. I wear them all of the time - generally indoors and outdoors in the Winter because my hands get so cold. For Christmas last year I made about a dozen pairs of a simple pattern - and it is one of the few things that I have gifted people with that everyone seemed to enjoy using. That always makes me feel good to get feed back! I found this pattern on Knitty and fell in love with it. It is called "Fetching" and is designed and graciously shared by Cheryl Niamuth from Vancouver, BC - just across the road from me. I love this pattern and my first pair was made from Jo Sharp worsted in 'Lichen' - Oh! Do I love this yarn. I want more and more of it! I just started a pair in Lion Brand WoolEase in 'Lemon Grass'. Thus far I think it will work well. I am on the look-out for a pair of fingerless gloves in a more lacey pattern now.

This is the pair of socks I am working on using Conjoined Creations Flat Feet yarn with their 'Ladder Socks' pattern. The pre knitted pieces are really wonderful to work with. Much tidier than working with skeins of yarn. I like the pattern - just a bit of added texture than the sock pattern I usually use. I am hooked on the pre knitted pieces too. KnitPicks has aome preknitted sock blanks and a started set of dyes that is on my list of must purchase items. I am waiting for another thing from them to get something else back into stock and then I can give dyeing my own blanks a try!

Next up is one of the several silk pen rolls I have been making. This one is for a wonderful lady who sold me a pen that I had been lusting for at a more than very fair price. It is a Pelikan M400 honey tortoise & it has become my most favorite pen. It's nice to lust for a pen and then, when you actually get it, it performs as well as you hoped it would. Oh so beautiful & Oh so smooth. I cannot believe that I have found a pen that eclipses the love I have for my Bexley. I wanted to make this for her as a heartfelt thank you for selling me the pen at such a low price. I will be shipping it off to it's new Austrailian home on Wednesday.

The inside of the roll is Dupioni silk and the outside is from vintage kimono silks from AH!Kimono.

It's My Thing Tuesday: What In The Heck Have I Been Doing All This Time?!

There are times when it feel like I am not accomplishing a single thing. I have nothing much to post and nothing at all to 'brag' about! This is one of those alow times for me. Things are 'in the works' but nothing is really finished so I though that I would, at least, share with you a couple of the things that are not quite there yet!

First is this fabulous hoodie scarf. It was not as easy as I thought it would be to find a hood pattern so I was thoroughly pleased when I found this one from D-Made. It's under the free patterns. I love having some cabling running the length of the scarf - I needed some practice in cables anyway and this was the perfect amount to do. The hood part itself will have a cables edging to it when all is said and done. The cabled scarf part will be 7" when it's done. I am using Knit-Picks Worsted yarn in Fire Brick.

The next thing that I have been working on is something that I doubt too many of you will have an interest in - but it is fun for me! Thisis my first fountain pen restoration project. I am wokring on an old Shaeffer pen. I have to replace the sac (the thing that holds the ink) and also a small washer in the top of the blind cap. Unfortunately, no one makes the washers so I am trying to figure out what matieral i can use to fashion one from. This is truly, a mercury retrograde kind of thing, I can't finish the repairs until i figure out what to do about the washer. Arghhhhh..... Other than this irritation though it is really quite interesting to discover how pens are made. I had never taken one apart before. The book, fondly referred to as "Da Book", was given to me by a kind person on the Fountain Pen Network. This is one amazing site. Friendly people willing to share all of their knowledge and information - no no one knows where to get washer material - everyone has made their own!

Last, but not least, in the on-goingprojects is some painting. I am taking another on-line calss from Paulette Insall called "Enjoying The Journey". The first lesson was on creating backgrounds. This was the first background that I made (there have been several) and, since it was rather pale & relatively boring, I decided that I would start another in my 'cat series' on top of it. I am working on a few painting projects right now that will, ultimately, become whole cloth quilts. The 'cat series' is one of those "soon to be quilt" projects. I am playing with color & facial variations for the cats. This one is really just a flicker in my eye at this point - but what else can I say I am working on things - but nothing is 'presentation' worrthy yet!

Three Adventures: Three "Never Say Nevers" !

Lily's back: I padded thie wings with some white fleece fabric and
free-motioned quilted them and attached them to the body with simple cross-stitches

Here are several new projects that I have been working on. Two of them - the doll & the cable knitting - I never thought I would try - or care to try for that matter! Now that I have, though, I think that there will be more of both things in my future. I have always been fond of saying that everything is easy when you know how - and I have, once again, proven that adage to myself.

Lily's face is hand painted with acrylics

So - let me introduce Lily. My first angel doll. Years ago - when I was still in the job that stultified my mind every day - I bought a pattern from Gail Wilson Designs hoping that someday I would enjoy making the angel doll. I have a fondness for primitive folk art & for angels - so this was a perfect combination. Somehow I managed to unearth the pattern & decided I would finally give it a go. I enjoyed making her - so will be making more angle dolls in a series I think. I tea dyed the fabric for her body & filled her with beautiful ,fluffy, clean wool...what a nice base this is! The face is painted with acrylics & her hair is wool that I braided into a bun (my grandmother wore her hair like this - and her aunt's name was Lily). I wasn't overly fond of the directions for the clothing - and I think that if a person had no knowledge of how to make a dress they might find the directions just a bit difficult to follow - I mean rather reading them was a bit difficult to follow. Then again - I am not the best at reading directions anyway- so it could quite easily just be me ! In general though I love this pattern and am happy that I found Gail's fine website ! She offers some really wonderful dolls and doll making supplies - and her custom made dolls are amazing.

Such a demure over dress required some rockin' stockings
and a fanciful petticoat - with just a touch of required lace trim!

Next on the "never say Never" list is cable knitting. I had always shied away from knitting cables but always knew that I might,one day, be forced to try it. I found a pattern for a hooded scarf online ( I would add the address here but I keep getting malware warnings when I try to open the site "d-made" - so I thought that I better not add the link here). It's a hood - old fashioned style - with an attached scarf - that has a cable. So here it is in it's infancy. I LOVE doing cables now and want to learn more about them. They are totally fun to do - why was I ever wary of them ??!!

Here is the beginning of one side of the scarf.....glorious simple cable and all !

Beautiful wool from Knit Picks.
What great wools they offer! What great prices too !

Last, but not least of my recent adventures is a pen roll. I had wanted one for some time - and had actually thought of making them to sell ... another odd, stray thought. I used a piece of silk with a thin layer of batting between the silk & a cotton batik. The "the pen holder piece" is silk backed with wool felt. A simple rat tail tie with a heart bead completes this happy home for 6-7 pens. I had fun making this - and will make them if any of my cyber pen friends wants one!

Silk piece from Ah!Kimono -
my favorite place for vintage kimono silk!

One Completed & One Just Beginning

Flat Feet yarn being unknit to knit. Really a tidy way to knit the fine yarn needed for socks!

Socks. One pair finished & another just begun. The ones on the bottom of the page were began this summer using Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn. Noro yarns in general, and Kureyon in particular, are generally my favorite yarns to work with. I suppose my favorite Noro Yarn is Silk Garden - and Noro has just introduced a sock yarn version - which I am hoping to get this week. I was not, I have to admot, overely fond of knitting socks with Kuryeon. While the thick and thin looks marvelous in sweaters and bags I am not that thrilled with it in socks. I had heard that the texture imporves with washing and this is true. It did "bloom" well in it's first wash. The socks look nice & are nice and warm despite their relative thinness. There are othertyarns that I think are more pleasant to knit socks with though. I think that the Silk Garden will be lovely - despite the inherent quality of thick and thin that it also has. It's softer because of the silk in the yarn and I think it will handle better. I am glad that I made these socks - and may try another ball of Kuryeon in another color way sometime...just not right away!

I try to make myself finish one pair of socks before I begin another - so once the Kuryeon's were finished I was able to try the new Flat Feet yarn from Conjoined Creations. The sock yarn is preknit on a knitting machine, dyed in the flat and then you knit off the flat to make the socks Of course it is curly as you "unknit" it in order to knit it again, but I can't say that it seems to be any problem. It's a lot tidier than knitting from a ball of yyarn and it seems to flatten just fine as you knit it up. No different really than any other yarn in that respect. Flat Feet is available from many retailers - and, hopefully, your own local yarn shop. Knit Picks offers a fabulous plain version of this flat sock yarn - you can dye your own with one of their cool kits. That will definately be my next purchase - or maybe I will ask Santa to get me the blank and the dye for Christmas .. yeah! That's a good though! Anyway, my feet are warm & I enjoy both knitting and wearing socks that a bit differnt than the everyday.

A Flat Feet yarn piece in the process of being knitted. Great color combinations!

My socks made from Noro Kuryeon sock yarn. Pretty and warm!

Little Yarn Baskets or Small Gift Basket

It crossed my mind to add these two small knitted baskets to Etsy. They are the perfect size to hold a ball of yarn or a small gift. I love making them - and I guess it goes along with what friends call my 'bowl fetish'. I may not sell anything but I have learning a lot and having fun - and that should be what this is all about anyway ! I am almost done with another embroidered bag - and I bet you will all be thoroughly bored seeing them before too long! Have a happy weekend !!

Fingerless Mittens : One Pair Done One Pair Started

I finished my super soft pair of fingerless mittens (from Knitting At Knoon) & have already been enjoying them in the early morning when it's 54 in the house ! I can't say enough for the Debbie Bliss' bliss-full Alpaca Silk! It's one of my favorites - along with all things Noro of course! I decided that these might make a good holiday gift so I am at work on another pair in some lovely hand dyed wool - I figure I'll make 5 pairs or so.

Today I have been working on a "Professional Tote" - pattern from Creative Thimble. It's a great pattern with lots of zipped pockets and a place for a water bottle etc. There are lots of pattern pieces to cut out & then there are also lots of interfacing pieces to cut out too. Now that I am in the sewing mode I can see how well these instructions are written. In tomorrow's post I will show you more information about this great pattern !

Debbie Bliss: Bliss-full Yarn & A New Bliss-Full Magazine

One of my most favorite yarns is Debblie Bliss Alpaca Silk. It's really quite heavenly. Soft & soothing, but strong and useful. I am using it for my fingerless mittens &, the photo shows the color I just got to make my new "pop over" mittens. Mittens with a pull over mitten flap that also double as fingerless gloves without the mitten flap. Also, just received today iwas my copy of the new Debblie Bliss magazine. It's available in yarn shops and, I read, will be published bi-annually through Vogue Publications. It seems to have a very nice mix of fashion accessories, sweaters (isn't the back on that sweater to die for?!) and gift ideas - all photographed in Debbie Bliss style - soft and stylish! Congratulatioin Debbie! Beautiful Magazine to go with beautiful yarn! Today's mail also brough the new edition od knit simple - which has some great ideas for holiday gifts - I'll say more about that one tomorrow. Happy weekend everyone !