I’ll awake to early light, when there’s still quiet blanketing everything around.
I’ll make some tea and knit while my floppy doggy warms my side.
Category Archives: knitting
Summer Projects
Ah summer… the time of year when we relax a little bit and have some fun. I’ve definitely felt the need for some fun lately so I decided to try a few new things this summer to break myself out of a rut.
One recent Saturday morning, I woke up with visions of knitting under a big umbrella on a beach while salty waves washed ashore. An appropriately beachy yarn in a light seafoam color was just beckoning to be made into a hard-wearing beach bag. A few hours of Ravelry-perusing later, I decided on the Medano Beach pattern. I coupled in some Debbie Bliss cotton DK in cool grey to give it those fun stripes that are just so popular right now.
Following this inspirational wave to try new things, I wanted something that would be a bit of a challenge and keep me entertained. I also discovered that I’m really enjoying working with the thin Hempathy yarn, so I started thinking of light, airy shawls in laceweight yarn, which is something I’ve never worked with before. I fell in love with Brooklyn Tweed’s Rock Island Shawl, which is spectacularly lovely and word on the Ravelry forums is that it’s not exactly beginner’s lace. I picked up some lovely Anzula laceweight in the Seascape colorway and cast on for this just the other night. I haven’t gotten very far, but I think its going to be great.
FO: Guernsey Wrap
I finished knitting my warm and wooly Guernsey Wrap the same week that the first wave of sizzling heat rolled in to Brooklyn.
Pattern: Guernsey Wrap by Brooklyn Tweed
Yarn: 5 skeins of Shelter in Soot
US 8 needles
I blocked this using blocking wires as suggested, though I think I probably should have stretched it a little more while drying. I was very pleased with the yarn and the pattern was extremely well-written. Now I’ll have something to look forward to when the temperatures start to drop again. And until then, I think I’ll enjoy the sunshine!
Perseverance
I’ve almost reached the halfway mark on the Guernsey Wrap I’m knitting. I’ve been ignoring it a little lately… something about the month of February in NYC just gets to you, ya know?
But now that March has rolled around, bringing the promise of a little more sunlight each day, I think I might have a finished wrap just in time for that not-quite warm enough to go completely without a top layer, but warm enough to shed the coat weather. Perfect weather for a wrap like this one, a reminder that the warmth and sunshine of spring are just around the corner.
An Apple a Day
I can’t think of a better way to spend a cold windy Sunday afternoon than baking and knitting.
I made apple crisp last weekend and it was very very good. The granny smiths made it just a little tart, so I’m making another batch this weekend using gala apples.
For a full hour while it bakes, the air is warm and scented with a delicious cinnamon smell. Its a perfect time to sit and knit.
And after that, you get to enjoy a wonderful warm treat.
WIP: Guernsey Wrap
When Brooklyn Tweed released the pattern for Guernsey Wrap, I knew I had to make one. I love textured knits and the tweedy gray color just made it even harder to resist.
I am completely enjoying both the pattern and the yarn. Shelter is rustic and wooly, and has an amazing lightness to it. I can’t wait to wear the finished wrap.
Man-finity Cowl
A few weeks ago when it was a blustery 20-something degrees out, Joey started layering up to take Henry out for a walk and he happened to borrow my Infinity Cowl. I asked him if he would wear one if I knit him his own, and he said he would. When someone practically begs you to knit them something, how can you resist?
I made this one slightly wider than the original by provisionally casting on 44 stitches. I knit in the round until the entire thing measured 56 inches in length and then grafted the ends together. I used KnitPicks Wool of the Andes bulky on size US 15 DPNs.
The result is warm and cozy. Just what he asked for.
Happy Holidays
A sweater means warmth and love.
May your holidays be warm, bright, and filled with love.
Yarny Dreams
I love a new yarn cake and all of the potential that it holds.
This one will be a great infinity scarf for Joey. By request.
Curse Breaker
Knitting a hat with so many things that could have easily gone wrong has seemed to break the bad luck curse of late.
What could have gone wrong, you ask?
First off, its a lace-like pattern, which (for me) makes it very likely that something will go wrong. And tinking back to fix a mistake in lace makes it even more likely that I’ll mess something else up. AND I didn’t even bother with a lifeline.
And then there’s the cursed yarn I was using (see previous post for that whole story). It’s superwash, so that meant that even though it took five tiny balls to knit up this hat, I couldn’t spit-splice the ends. And of course, starting a new strand of yarn in a lace pattern can be tricky as well. But I lucked out and was able to start all the new strands on the “rest” rows of the pattern.
Then there was the fact that I chose to go down a needle size from what the pattern suggested without swatching. (Tempting the fates!) And of course, the hat was coming out very small. So small, that I was pretty sure I would need to give it to my eight year old niece if I ever wanted the hat to be worn. But then I followed the pattern’s suggestion to block it over a dinner plate to really open up the lace pattern. And lo and behold, an adult sized hat resulted.
Curse officially broken. Now if I could just find my darning needle to weave in the ends! (Uh oh. Hope that’s not the curse coming back to bite me in the ass!)
Pattern: Crooked Paths by Melissa LaBarre of knittingschooldropout.com
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in Baltic
Love Is All You Knit 
