Author: yarn & yarns

Looking Back, Looking Forward

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Along with finally starting this blog, last year I also set knitting goals for the first time. Rather than (as I feared) feeling like nagging tasks and dragging down my desire to knit, the two activities set me on a year of knitting like never before. More projects. More techniques attempted. More knitting friends.

So here we go again. This year my goals are about colorwork: a small starter project in Fair Isle (Intarsia is all I’ve ever attempted) and then something that requires steeking (what’s more fearless than cutting your knitting?). I’ve picked out the first project — the Fiddlehead Mittens, a pattern that I continue to love with each new version that hits Ravelry and one that Julie of Knitted Bliss has inspired me to tackle. As for the steeking, maybe one of the blankets in the second Mason-Dixon Knitting book? Definitely open for suggestions, so please post if you have them.

Also, I’ve got long-delayed FO shots for my old group of Twin Cities Public Television noon crafters. The 2009 log cabin afghan for my sister and brother-in-law that they saw lots of in its early stages but never got photographed when finished. When I saw it out during my visit this year, I staged a mini photoshoot so I could complete my Ravelry queue. (Yeah, I’m a bit of a completion nut; it’s pretty sick how much I love checking off those lists! 😉 And you’ll notice I remembered to photograph the FOs this Christmas. Happy New Year and new knitting!

Final 2010 FOs

| yarn & yarns

In the blur that was the holiday season 2010, there was lots of knitting but no blogging or photographing of FOs — especially since presents were part of the mix. The upside of that, however, was that I got a fresh mix of scenery and faces for this blog.

Pattern: Saroyan
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash (Lichen)

I’ve long-admired this pattern on Ravelry and picked it because I could easily lengthen the center section. (Mom isn’t a fan of wool, or anything really warm, right around her neck.) Plus, she’s also a big fan of Bones, so I knew she’d appreciate the nod to the show made by the pattern’s designer. Since she wore it throughout present opening, I’m pretty sure it was a hit. She was a good sport about modeling it for me later in good light (and, as promised, she’ll be happy to see that I did not include her no-makeup face in the posted photo).

Pattern: Saroyan
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool Solids (Orange)

This pattern is seriously addictive. I was only about half-way done with Mom’s where I decided I needed to make a second. This one for my friend Liz, who’s also a knitter. (Meaning, I could rest assured that she’d appreciate a handmade birthday present.) I really loved this yarn, which I haven’t knit with before, but picked because it was the closest match I could find to the yarn I bought in Taos for my Transverse Cardigan that she openly coveted. Mission accomplished because she asked within minutes of opening the scarf, “Is this that yarn from Taos?”

Pattern: Destroyed Cowl
Yarn: Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals (Rose Slate)

This last FO was actually the first finished, started and completed during that long Thanksgiving weekend as I kept Izzy company on the couch and watched too-many-to-count episodes of Monk (selected because the kid is really into mysteries at the moment and this is one of the few series where the violence is kept to a minimum; plus, if you saw Izzy’s room you’d understand my desire to try to send a little OCD vibe her way). While this one was knit for me, I was happy to share its wooly warmth for her test run in MN of her new ice skates.

A Tale of Two Christmases

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Last year, Izzy and I hosted Christmas in Albuquerque for my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. We were in high holiday mode, with every ornament we had making its way onto the tree and lots of new paper chains and snowflakes filling the house. Batch upon batch of cookies were made. And the baking and decorating continued after their arrival, with me making from scratch (for the first time) the gingerbread pieces for five houses (Grandpa preferred to supervise construction and sample the candy adornments).

This year was far more Dickensian in spirit. The holiday season began with Izzy awaking Thanksgiving morn with a raging stomach flu that pushed our turkey dinner to the following weekend. Then a new initiative at work continued to consume a good 60+ hours/week straight through to our plane’s departure for Minnesota on December 23. One secret holiday knitting project was finished and blocked just days before we left, but the other went with me on the plane and kept me busy through December 27 — the day before I saw the recipient — and got blocked on a spare bed at my parents’. (Nothing like cutting it close!) The tree never made it out of storage. We threw a wreath on the front door, pulled out the Christmas doormat, and called it a day. In an attempt to provide some festivity for Izzy, we purchased Trader Joe’s Really Big Gingerbread Man Kit. Poor guy didn’t even make his way onto the good dishes.

FO: Violet’s First Sweater

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Pattern: Basic Knitted Dog Sweater from Dogs in Knits
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Taos (Hopi) and Nashua Handknits Julia (Velvet Moss)
Started: Nov 6, 2010
Finished: Nov 20, 2010

After making a sweater for a co-worker’s dog, how could I not make one for our little puppy? That’s the question Izzy recently posed. Then as if to drive home her point, the shaggy but not particularly furry Violet keeps shivering outside in the mornings. (Nice to see Izzy’s been sharing her dramatic skills.)

So I set about using leftover yarn in my stash, just in case Violet turned out to be sweater averse or decided it was as tasty as Izzy’s socks. I saved the leg cuffs for last, testing after I’d added one — and good thing, that band proved the tipping point for Violet’s tolerance. Off it came. Right now, Violet’s wearing her sweater without complaint. Izzy even swears she’s smiling about it.

FO: Izzy’s Skating Sweater

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Pattern: Finley from by Marie Grace Smith

Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton

Started: June 2010
Finished: Nov 2010

I started the year with two simple, but long overdue, goals: knit lace, knit cables. For nearly two decades, I hovered in the advanced beginner realm, picking projects that promised relaxation and few challenges. But 2010 would be different. I’d stretched but hard for work the previous year and came out the better for it and not too banged up. Time to move out of my comfort zone in other areas.

Being a “let’s hold our nose and get the worst of it over first” kind of person, I started with the lace. The pattern was easy on the lace scale, but a worthy enough foe to make it one of my now prized possessions. Onto the cables … and the discovery that I couldn’t wait to turn that next cable.* The pattern, itself, was addicting and oh-so-smartly written. What’s not to love about a sweater that requires weaving in ends and toggle buttons as the only finishing details. No seaming! (And even so, that finishing sat untouched for a good month.)

Since I wanted to morph the Finely coat into a closer-fitting sweater for Izzy, I chose to use up a bunch of black cotton yarn I’d had for years — intended for Leigh Radford’s gorgeous Kandinsky Kimono. I purchased it back in 2002 during a moment of “nothing’s too hard if you want the knit item bad enough” delirium. (On a side note, kudos to the four Ravelers who’ve actually completed it. I’m so not worthy.)

Other than swapping out the wool yarn for cotton and using the 4-6 directions (Izzy’s 9), the only other mod I made was to do one fewer toggle (knew she’d never want it buttoned at the neck).

Special thanks to The Knitmore Girls for their terrific couture button tutorial.

* And couldn’t wait to start the next cable project; while I worked on Finley’s cable-less sleeves, I added in a few bibs.

FO: Citron with an Edge

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I, like so many others, loved the Citron when I first saw it in Knitty. I watched it explode in popularity for the Ravelympics and then continue to be added to queues at a healthy double-digit/day pace in the many months since. (Any statistics junkies out there really need to check out this cool feature, if you haven’t already.) So by the time I got around to actually knitting it — not counting my first failed attempt with Classic Elite Yarns Silk Alpaca Lace (which is now taking an extended timeout in my stash bin, given that it was the second failed project attempt with said yarn) — I called it “Citron #1,000,001.”

And off I went, casting on with Malabrigo for the first time. What can I say about this heavenly soft, color-drenched yarn that hasn’t already been said? Sigh. Or about the mindless mindful knitting Citron‘s many stitches provide? (It was only that last 540-stitch ruffle that tested my patience.) Then I tried on my unblocked piece and, once again, was reminded that my neck is as short and stumpy as Ms. Callis’ is long and graceful. (This probably wouldn’t be such a sore point, but all my life it’s a detail that’s been rubbed in with silly zodiac descriptions proclaiming that as a Taurus I have a “swan-like neck.” No, I’m not bitter.)

So after scanning Ravelry to see how else knitters were wearing it, I found a kinder draping. Check. Then I decided that as much as I loved the ruffles, it was a little too girly for my wardrobe liking. How about mixing in a few hard edges? So I blocked it with some random, angular points. (Promise: It wasn’t just lazy pinning.) Must say, I’m pleased with the outcome.

And, for better or worse, so is Izzy.