Holiday Knitting

I have always knit gifts for the holidays, but never like this year. I really want this Christmas to be meaningful, and I want the gifts to be true gifts. See when you knit something for someone, you think of the person so much. You chose the yarns for them, you pick a pattern for them, or you design one with them in mind, and with every stitch you think of them. I think my friends and family know that and truly appreciate the gifts.
I have been knitting so much over the last few weeks, and this is a gift for me too!
So far I have 4 berets, 3 hats, 3 scarves, a pillow, 1 pair of socks, a toy rabbit, a neck warmer.



My handspun egg is turning into Ysolda Teague's Ishbel shawl...for Mom...

Handspun Goodness

It has been a while since I posted anything related to spinning. Actually, I had not taken the time to spin in a long time. And as always, I fell in love all over again as soon as the fibers started gently sliding through my hands...

I spun 4 oz of merino roving on my sweet little Louet Victoria. I spun fingering weight singles using a short draw.



Now all I have left to do is to find a project for it...

Peruvian Pure Alpaca Fina

The Tijeras Mitten pattern is now available HERE on Patternfish (I'm working on uploading all of my single patterns there) and HERE on Lulu.

I received an email from Elann that they are discontinuing the Peruvian Pure Alpaca Fina due to lack of sales. I'm bummed because I have lots of colors and now I can't design any more projects with it. (HERE are the Arctic Spring Mittens I designed with this pretty yarn.) In fact I'm using the Alpaca Fina right now for the Selbu Modern hat seen below. We extended the Selbu Modern KAL on Ravelry's Stranded forum through the end of December so if  you still want to get involved, go HERE.

Fortunately Elann's thicker Peruvian Pure Alpaca is still in production. I've chosen these colors to make a hat for DH. He requested a pointy hat with ear flaps but I'm not sure that is what I'll do.

The next KAL for Ravelry's Stranded Forum will be an accessory using the massive Drops free pattern archive. Go HERE to vote for which pattern - the Drops KAL will begin Dec 1 and run through the end of January.

The Sale in On!

I am done uplaoding all the skeins and rovings into the sale pages on the website. Each skein and each roving is unique, as these were my creative study pieces. I hope you will enjoy the 30% off Thanksgiving Sale.

Thanksgiving Sale 11/27/09-11/30/09

There will be a sale at SockPixie from 11/27 to 11/30. My creative study skeins and rovings will be on sale at 30% off! The skein or the roving you see in the picture will be the one you get.
Have a great Thanksgiving and Enjoy the sale .

A new Forum

As you know, I have been working on the website for Sockpixie. I am trying to regroup everything into one convenient spot for me, like e-mail and of course community pages. I am really happy to announce that there is now a forum on the SockPixie website where you can share your thoughts about knitting, and yarns and of course where you can meet other SockPixie knitters. The link is on the menu bar. I hope you will enjoy our new community.
I am now off to consolidate my e-mail. Have a great Monday.

This week!

The new colorways are up, and I love them. I am also so happy about the look of the website. The new colorways are deeply saturated solids in merino, cashmere, and Alpaca...




This collection does not have a name, but rather was inspired by a tam I designed.
I am offering the pattern as a free pattern with the purchase of any 2 skeins of yarn. The tam in the picture will include 2 versions one for a true sock weight, and one for a slighter thicker yarn like my IncaSock which was used to knit the tam.



Have a great Thanksgiving week!

Tijeras Mittens

These soft and warm mittens are knit from four new colors of Vermont O~Wool which is a lovely organic merino yarn. The pattern is currently available HERE on Ravelry and it will be up on Patternfish and in my Lulu store soon. I thought the color patterns reminded me of cut-outs so I named them Tijeras which means scissors in Spanish.

The mittens are knit from cuff to tip and feature a peasant thumb and a ribbed cuff. Because O~Wool Classic 2-ply is so thick and springy, consider using a sport weight yarn if you're going to substitute. The pattern is 56 sts around. I included separate charts for each hand to keep the row join on the outside of the mitten.

MATERIALS:

One (1.75 oz/50 g) skein O~Wool Classic 2 ply organic merino wool yarn (198 yards) in each of four colors: Plum (Color A), Evergreen (Color B), Lilac (Color C), and Mulberry (Color D)

A set of 4 or 5 size 3/3.00 mm dpns or 2 size 3/3.00 mm circs or size needed to get gauge

SIZE: Women’s Small. Width - 8“/20 cm, Length from cuff to tip - 11”/28 cm


GAUGE: 14 sts = 2"/5 cm, 20 rows = 2"/5 cm To save time, take time to check gauge.

Inside Out Sweater

I will have a finished mitten design to show you this weekend when DH is available to take photographs. I used Vermont O~Wool's Classic-2 ply which is an organic merino wool. Every time I knit with merino I get so thrilled with the softness and elasticity that I declare I will only knit with merino wool from here on out. Of course I make the same ridiculous pronouncements whenever I knit with cashmere as well!

To my knitter's eye there was something weird about this sweater when I first saw it in the Territory Ahead catalog. On second viewing I realized half of it is inside out so the floats are on the front. What do you think? They call it a mixed-knit sweater and the upper sleeves are lower torso are inside out.

Here's a view of storm clouds approaching the Sandia Mountains. This is actually the other side of the Sandia Mountains that you usually see in my photos and was taken in Bernalillo, NM. They call my side of the mountains the green side so I guess this is the dry side of the mountains. Some say the mountains are named Sandia (watermelon in Spanish) because of the gorgeous rosy color they turn in a sunset but I've also heard that the early Native American settlers actually grew watermelon.

Today's Color Knitting Links:

Check out Mary Ann's gorgeous Polar Bear Chullo pattern in the winter Twist Collective. If I wasn't still laboring to finish another fine gauge hat (Selbu Modern) I'd cast on for this one immediately. Mary Ann also is offering yarn kits for the pattern HERE. Also in Twist Collective is the Frost Tapestry pattern - you get the pattern for the hat, mittens, and neckwarmer that calls for Elann's Peruvian Pure Alpaca.

Mitten knitter extraordinaire Ann (pinneguri on Ravelry) offers some beautiful free colorwork patterns - I just love her Latvian mitten pattern.

Here's another tutorial on How To Catch Floats in Fair Isle Knitting.

Bea Ellis Knitwear is having a 20% off sale on Dale of Norway's Baby Ull yarn. Would you believe that I've never knit with it? I even have some in my stash. I'm going to pick out some colors to design a pair of colorwork gloves.

Here's an apron useful for color knitters to help keep track of all the balls of yarn while you're knitting. I like that they mention it helps you avoid tripping over a strand of yarn when you get up to answer the door. Been there, done that a million times!

For those of you who love traditional Fair Isle knitting in naturally-colored wool, check out the always-amazing Ron Schweitzer. It looks like his newest collection is called Shetland Lighthouses.

Dale of Norway now sells directly to the public. Check out their close-out pattern and book shop to grab all the booklets before they disappear forever.

I just found these gorgeous hats on the Virtual Yarns web site. It sounds like you get enough Hebridean 2-ply yarn in 10 colors and the patterns from Ms. Starmore to make all three hats for around $60 US. HERE's a larger view. Breathtaking!!

Minty Collection

Mints and candy canes were my whimsical inspiration this week. The skeins I created reflect the cheerful spirit of the holiday season. I am offering this week's colorways in 3 great yars, Merino sock, Silky Toes, an new 50% Merino, 50% Silk fingering weight yarn, and a Pixie Lace, my Merino/Silk blend lace.And this week, each skein comes with its handmade companion stitch marker.
I hope you will enjoy the Minty Collection.

Off thiw weekend and back on Nov. 15

SockPixie is away this weekend, and will be back with a candy-cane collection on November 15.
Have a great weekend!

Stranded Knitting from Sundance Catalog

Has anyone else noticed more stranded knitted items in holiday catalogs this year? A while back when it suddenly became difficult to find stranded knitting patterns I wrote to an editor of a print knitting magazine and she emailed back that they weren't including as much stranded patterns because colorwork wasn't as popular on the runways and in the stores. Dare I hope that the increase in stranded patterns in catalogs means color knitting will finally become popular again???

The following photos are from the current Sundance Catalog, the cover of which is shown below.

I adore this last sweater/coat! If only I lived in a colder climate!

Flamenco!

This week my inspiration came from Spain, and from Flamenco. I love the grace, strength and passion of that dance, and the wonderful dresses worn by the dancers. The colors seem to be an integral part of the visual pleasure of the dance. I created bold colorways, with strong contrasts, and of course called the collection the Flamenco Collection.

I hope you will enjoy my version of Flamenco!

DH Wearing Too Many Handknits

Here's DH wearing a variety of my handknits for his Halloween office party. He said he was an Olympic snowboarder?!?!

He's wearing the Dale of Norway SLC sweater, the Dale Lake Louise headband I just finished around his neck, some Nordic mittens I made from an out-of-print Japanese book about Scandinavian knitting, cross-country ski socks I improvised using storebought handspun and patterns from an  Elizabeth Zimmermann book, and finally a helmet hat that is at least 10 years old using my own handspun from Peace Fleece wool. I think that hat pattern was in an old issue of Knitter's. The hat is his favorite and he really likes it for sitting around a fire on backpacking trips with the guys.

I still adore the Salt Lake City Olympic sweater - it really was my favorite knit of all time.

Unfortunately not a single one of these patterns is still in print. I just found out the Dale Commemorative Collection booklet with the Whistler sweater (and the headband he's wearing around his neck) and the Japanese booklet of Nordic patterns are no longer available. However I did find this interesting Japanese booklet of stranded hats. I think by adding in shipping it would be almost $30 here so I'm probably going to pass.