knitting | Love Is All You Knit

Sep 06 2013

Antics, designing, Hats, knitting, wool, Yarn

Fuzzy, Wooly, Alpaca-y

I’m usually not a multi-project sort of girl but I’ve recently started knitting a hat, Rekaviður by Bristol Ivy. I am knitting it with Classic Elite Mountaintop Vista, which is a natural undyed yarn that’s 50/50 wool/alpaca which is just lovely.

I cast on last weekend with my morning coffee and then spent a little time Saturday afternoon knitting away while I waited on an oil change for my car. I did get a few strange looks at the auto shop, but what else are you going to do while stuck there for two and a half hours?

I recently got a shipment of a few gorgeous skeins of Quince and Co. Owl, which I will be using for a new design. The colorway I chose is Tawny which is one of their natural shades, and is also 50/50 wool/alpaca. I may be a bit obsessed with these natural wool and alpaca yarns!

Aug 31 2013

Insta August

August brought me a little bit of downtime to finish up a design that I’m very pleased with and time to start plotting my next few designs. I’ve been looking at lots of yarns online and trying to keep myself from always picking heather greys, though they are my favorites. Joey had a two week trip to Europe with the band and I got to watch one of his shows that was live streaming online. I watched it with another of the band wives and we clapped and cheered and even snapped a few pics of our husbands onscreen looking like badasses and it was almost like we were there. I even snagged one of Joey’s instagrams to share here—just look at that crowd! Once he was back home we had a couple of lazy days together, strolling around town after a nice brunch and later him puttering around in the studio while I sat within earshot knitting. I’m hoping for a similar couple of days this weekend!

Aug 21 2013

3 Comments

designing, gloves/mittens, knitting

Cuff Chuffed

I’ve been keeping my knitting a little behind-the-scenes lately. The truth is, I’m planning a collection of knitting patterns and I don’t want to give all my secrets away before its even finished, but today I have a little peek at something I wanted to share.

This cuff has been a little bit of a learning process for me over the past few months. It all started out with a pretty basic idea for a pair of fingerless mitts with 1×1 twisted ribbing. Twisted ribbing is one of my favorite cuff/hem treatments, as I think it looks much neater than regular 1×1 ribbing. I started out working the mitt idea that was in my head and halfway through I ripped it back, knowing that I wanted to revise my stitch counts, but also because I became convinced that my design needed a little reworking. The idea was super cute but also super simple, and didn’t have enough “wow” factor that I felt it would entice people to purchase the pattern.

I needed to add an extra little kick to the design, so I started playing around with traveling twisted stitches and came out with the cuff you see above. In the end, this version of the mitt has been scrapped for with something totally different that I think works better, but I’m still in love with these traveling twisted stitches. I’m pretty sure this idea will work itself into another design soon, though maybe not on a pair of fingerless mitts.

Tagged knitting, madelinetosh, yarn

Aug 02 2013

2 Comments

Antics, baby knits, designing, Dogs, Family, gloves/mittens, Hats, knitting, Other Crafty Things, wool

Insta July

July brought the birth of our nephew Healy, who was promptly snuggled in a handknit wool blankie and has been bringing us all love and happiness nonstop ever since. I’ve also been spending lots of time with Joey as he gets ready to start touring with Midlake again soon. There have been lots of stolen moments between his rehearsals and my work schedule to get in as much time together as we can before he leaves. I was able to catch one of their production rehearsals the other day and I was blown away… I welled up with emotion and pride at how beautiful everything sounds and how hard these guys have been working to get this album to fruition, and its almost time! There’s even been a little bit of knitting and crafting in the wee hours before I go to sleep. I have some secret knitty-type things I’m planning that I’m super excited about but I just need to find a little more time to get them going. And of course I can always count on Henry’s silly antics. He’s such a ridiculously sweet and goofy dog and he just makes us laugh and smile every single day.

Jul 30 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, gloves/mittens, knitting

Gusseted

I spent the better part of my Sunday afternoon battling with a thumb gusset for a fingerless mitt I’m working on. On my first sad attempt, I was increasing too rapidly and the stitches were all bunched up. I probably shouldn’t even tell you the part about how my working yarn was clearly in the wrong spot when it was time to put the stitches on a holder…..

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiip!

Take two is looking much more like an actual thumb gusset, thank goodness!

Jul 19 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, Hats, knitting

When All Else Fails, Knit Stripes

The intarsia was a big fail. Just a few rounds in, I had 15 different strands of yarn hanging from the work, getting so tangled I couldn’t take it. I ripped it back for probably the twentieth time and just called it a loss. The awesomely cute colorwork hat idea I had will just have to wait on the back burner for a while. After a few weeks of knit frustration where the only project I would let myself work on was this colorwork idea and nothing to show for it, I snapped. All I wanted to do was just KNIT SOMETHING. And so I knit stripes. Simple, soothing, stockinette stripes.

Yes I realize the pic is dark and grainy, and you can barely see the stripes, but have you ever tried snapping a one-armed selfie while standing next to your kitchen window hoping to get the few last rays of sunlight at 8:45pm before your poor neglected blog readers have to go yet another day without any knitting pictures, all the while trying to garner a demure smile?

Phew. I think I need to knit a few more “soothing” stockinette hats.

Jun 27 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, Dogs, Family, knitting, Texas, wool

Insta June

And just like that, June has come to a close. Any spare moment I had these past few weeks was spent seeking sun and fun or a bit of relaxation and conversation with good friends. I was inspired by a message to ‘walk in beauty,’ and so I took the time to savor the sounds of beautiful music made by people I love and adore, the splendor of heart stopping sunrises, the wonderful feel of squishy soft American-made wool in my hands and on my knitting needles, and the unexpected delight from discovering a tiny little cactus blossom sprouting from a cutting I planted at the end of last summer.

Walk in beauty, indeed.

Jun 24 2013

1 Comment

Antics, designing, Dogs, Hats, knitting, Texas, Yarn

On Summer, Swatching & Unconventional Yarn Holders

What was it I said at the end of May– something about looking forward to summertime? Oh yes, summer is in full effect here in Texas. So much that there has been an insanely negligible amount of knitting to show. I knitted a small swatch for a colorwork hat idea I’m working on, but the stranded method I had originally planned didn’t look very good as the floats were way too long, and duplicate stitching the color sections made it way too bulky, so I’m trying a different approach.

Have you ever tried intarsia in the round? I watched a video of someone doing it the other day and it blew my mind. I had no idea it was done with wraps and turns and knitting back and forth while the rest of the piece is worked circularly. Hopefully I will have more success with this method of adding some color to my knitting, because as of right now this hat is looking like a total snooze-fest.

Also, who needs a yarn bowl when you have a sleepy old basset? Five minutes after I took this picture he was wagging his tail and barking in his sleep. Oh Henry, you melt my heart with your sweetness.

Jun 01 2013

Saturday Swatching

Coffee and Quince & Co.

Tagged coffee, knitting, saturday, yarn

May 31 2013

1 Comment

Antics, baby knits, Dogs, Family, knitting, shawls/wraps, Texas, travel

Insta-May

I can’t believe that May is over and its almost officially summer. That whole ‘time flies’ quote rings true once again. Looking over these Instagrams, it’s pretty clear that May was chock full of my most favorite things- knitting, music, cocktails, doggie snuggles, a little bit of nature, time with great friends and time with my wonderful, wonderful Joey. I’m looking forward to June, to the relaxed pace that ensues as the days start to sizzle and we are reminded that it’s okay to stop working so hard and just go have some fun- cause its SUMMERTIME!