We'll start our Santa Fe travelogue with two photos of the Romanesque-style St. Francis Cathedral. No downtown building may be built higher than the cathedral's bell towers. The cathedral is the mother church for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe which covers all of northern New Mexico including Albuquerque. I'm always amazed they still manage to have services there with all the tourists wandering through at all hours of the day.









Archbishop Lamy completed the church in 1884 and is buried under the sanctuary - he was the subject of Willa Cather's Pulitzer-prize winning novel Death Comes for the Archbishop. St. Francis is the patron saint of Santa Fe and the complete name of the city is the La Villa de la Santa Fe San Francisco de Assisi (Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi). Since 1610 Santa Fe has been under four different flags: Spain, Mexico, the U.S. Confederacy and the United States.







Enough with the history. For some reason the rabbit mitten is taking forever so I'm not going to make more than 1 pair for the HRS. Next I think I'm going to come up with a pair of bunny slippers. I was thinking of using Cascade 220, doing a simple pair of roll-top socks, and then adding embroidery eyes and some separately knit ears. Oh yes, and a pom pom tail on the heel. Too silly? Does anyone know how well Cascade 220 would hold up for slippers or socks?

Not much going on in the knitting department lately.



I've been having trouble finding enough fiber things to photograph for this blog so this week I'll start showing some photos I took around Santa Fe. It is an intensely visual city that should transcend even my awful photography skills. I hope Snapfish will get the photos online by tomorrow.



To further prove my awfulness at photography, I like to call this one Still Life: Persian Cat with Watermelon.

Today was a wonderful mail day. Stasia kindly sent me the most beautiful bunny stitch markers in memory of Flip. I had been whining about how much I wanted some rabbit stitch markers and Stasia went to the trouble to find the raw materials and then make such a wonderful design. They have blue beads and some terrific silver bunnies at the bottom. I love them and am going to use them for Malin immediately. I will get another disposable camera tomorrow to take a photo so you can all be jealous. Thanks Stasia! Now I have to find something fun to send back to her for her generosity.



I also received my Nature Spun worsted for Na Craga from Herrschners. It is in an unusual color called Meadow Green but it is more of a teal. Actually the color looks completely different in daytime and nighttime. But really when can you buy wool yarn for an Alice Starmore sweater in a size large for under $30 anyway?



I went back to Herrschners today for their new weekly sale like a lemming. When will the madness stop? I have so much yarn and I keep buying it. sigh Well at least I buy it for a specific purpose. I used to just buy yarn because I liked it. I bought some fingering weight Nature Spun to make itty bitty socks for Christmas decorations. The Colorado HRS is having a Bunny Boutique Christmas sale so I wanted to come up with something small they can sell. If you're wondering why I'm in NM knitting for a Colorado rabbit rescue, it is because my sweet rabbit Flip was adopted from them. And they helped me quite a bit with his health problems over the years. I'm glad I can knit for them as a tribute to my very-much-missed black bunny.







Jack the cat wishes I spent less time online buying yarn and missing certain rabbits and more time playing with him. Of course that is a bit difficult with his daily 18 hour naps.

Bunny Mittens

I knit 10 carrots today. Now how often can you really say something like that? I finished two more bunnies & carrots hats and have now decided to try something else. I am making another pair of bunny mittens similar to the ones shown here but this time in Country Garden DK and size 4 needles instead of 3. The ones in the photo are done in Heilo. I will see later if I need to go down a needle size on the hand. I haven't decided what pattern to use on the hand. I also think I need to come up with some sort of a rabbit-related headband in worsted weight yarn.

PRODUCTIVITY



In an effort to become more productive, I am going to start listing my 2-week knitting goals here for my three main goals, similar to how they do it in Productive Spinners. The only reason I'm not joining up there again is that I have no spinning goals, just knitting. But I do feel I'm less productive lately and getting behind with more and more actual projects planned. And you can see how I've suffered dearly from startitis from yesterday's entry.



My 3 knitting goals are:



1. Dale of Norway Trondheim sweater - both sleeves and bottom ribbing are finished. 2 Week Goal - Knit above the bottom colorwork to the dreaded boring plain part.



2. Alice Starmore's Malin from In the Hebrides - both sleeves and up to main pattern on both front and back. 2 Week Goal - 4 more inches on front and back



3. Continue to make items for the rabbit shelter. I'd like about 6 items for them in early September and I currently have 1 1/2. 2 Week Goal - Finish 3 1/2 more items.







Here's another photo of Malin in progress. It really is going to be beautiful and it is a pretty fast knit (size 8 needles) so I hope to finish this soon.

Ginny asked about the Dale of Norway Kashmir sweater. You can purchase the pattern alone at Bea Ellis Knitwear or the entire kit at Allegro Yarns which includes a good photo. If you decide to make it in the Tiur, I recommend purchasing the pattern before getting the actual yarn because there are three colorways and all the colorways are quite similar. You really need to see the actual pattern photo to decide on your colorway. There are also optional beads used in the sweater - I haven't yet decided whether or not to use them.



I have too many projects waiting in the wings. I've put off the Paradoxical Mittens for a while after discovering a mistake I can't live with in the early stages of the mitten and ripping back. My future WIPs include:



1. Lucy Neatby's Paradoxical Mittens

2. The silk/rayon Heartstrings Fiberarts Maple Leaves lace scarf

3. Dale of Norway's Kashmir in Tiur

4. Alice Starmore's Na Craga in Nature Spun

5. Borealis Sweaterscapes' Landscape socks (see photo of patterns below)

6. Two pairs of Sanquhar gloves

7. Cast On Mitered Mittens with handspun yarn

8. Arnhild's Norwegian gloves

9. Norwegian mitten kit from NFA in Istra (I forget the pattern name)

10. Baby sweater

I have to say I still have hope for Interweave Knits. I received my issue on Friday and I still have hope.



I'm especially happy to see the article by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts on intarsia in the round, a technique I'd like to try. The actual design doesn't turn me on but I could make the socks for the learning experience and then give them away. The last IK that had a PGR sock design (the dresser scarf socks) also intrigued me. I like learning new techniques and I learned how to kitchener garter stitch together.



I like the colorwork mittens and hat. The debut of a new column on historical knits by researcher extraordinaire Deborah Pulliam is encouraging. My subscription runs out next issue and at this point I'm aiming to re-subscribe. Because Spin-Off is far and away my favorite knitting magazine, I don't see why Interweave can't do better with IK. So kudos for IK - you are on the right track even if you haven't arrived at the destination yet.









Here's where I am on Trondheim. I practically have to force myself to knit this puppy because I'm having such a bad reaction to the plastic feel of the Emu Superwash DK. But I'm too far gone to stop now and I have the Tiur to make Kashmir waiting in the wings when I finally finish. I've heard such good things about working with Tiur and can't wait to see for myself.