Spontaneous Scarf

CASHMERE SALE ALERT!!! CASHMERE SALE ALERT!!

Did that get your attention? Just two days after I was whining about the current lack of thin yarns at Elann they miraculously offer up some Peruvian Collection Baby Cashmere (alpaca/wool/cashmere blend) in fingering weight. I bought all of the colors to play with as it was only $2.75 a skein. I ordered enough to make several projects from Folk Knitting in Estonia including Merike's gloves and Kristi's mittens. Geane has inspired me by working on Kalev's mittens from the same book. My sincere apologies to those of you on a yarn diet - I feel like I'm waving a hot steaming piece of pizza dripping with cheese in front of someone virtuously eating a celery stick.



This close-up of the brown Spontaneous Scarf shows the woven look. The Spontaneous Scarf pattern is from a recent issue of Spin-Off magazine. Essentially you just cast on as many stitches as you can on about a size 6-8 long circular needle. (However many stitches you cast on determines how long the scarf will be.) Then you do seed stitch with a different yarn each row. Leave long yarn tails (after knitting these are knotted together and become the fringe) on each row. Knit until scarf is the width you like. I like to use the same yarn to bind off as I used to cast on - it gives it a neater more finished look. You can vary yarn thicknesses, fibers, colors, etc. Here's the red/blue Spontaneous Scarf which I made narrower than usual.



These are mindless and quick gifts that can be made from your stash. You can also make a stole by making the scarf much wider. Try making scarves in variations on one color or in complementary colors or all jewel tones or naturals, etc.

Well I survived Patternwork's web site long enough to order some yarn. I ordered some light purple Nature Spun to make the Cast On Austrian hat and mittens, some sale DK cotton for a flower washcloth, the Los Lobe mini-sock earring pattern, a beaded star kit and the size 0000 needles to make both. I guess I'll be getting a scanner just in time because there is no other way I'll be able to photograph anything tiny well enough to show on this blog.





Here is another attempt to photograph my knitted lizard. I really like the way he turned out with a mouth that is open but I should have made the tail longer.











I haven't posted any photos of Bosco the flame-point Himalayan cat in a long time. We're trying to give him a lot of extra attention lately as he was quite bonded with Snickerdoodle the rabbit and he really misses him.







Progress continues on the Aran sandal sock and I'm almost to the heel. I'm not sure why it is going so slow but it is speeding up as I memorize the pattern. I did just notice that the bottom of the sole is seed stitch and I'm not sure about that. If I changed it to stockinette stitch the gauge will change and the sock might be too wide. Hmmm...

"Let me warn you that a genuine interest in knitting can keep you fascinated, eagerly pursuing it, and never satisfied through a lifetime."



From Woman's Day Book of American Needlework, Rose Wilder Lane, 1963





One of my Christmas gifts arrived early and I just had to open it. It was Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick and I'm quite fond of it. This is such a good example of a book that can offer knitting projects for both the beginner (including the obligatory garter stitch scarf pattern with size 35 needles) and projects for the rest of us. I really have to make the PGR finger puppets which are quite detailed and knit from the top down. I also want to make some flower washcloths and DH has asked for the intarsia chair cushion for his oak rocking chair. I want to get the cushion done by Christmas (at least the knitted part) so I should get swatching tomorrow.



I want to purchase some yarn for a few projects but am having trouble finding what I'm looking for. I checked out Elann and of the 92 yarns they currently offer, 58 are thicker than worsted weight. Worsted weight is as thick as I can go and I try to even limit that. All those thick heavy yarns and fat needles are hard on my hands. I'm trying to find some sport weight yarn in just the right color for the Austrian hat and mittens on the current Cast On and some simple sport weight cotton in very bright colors for the flower washcloths (not chenille).



Here's one of my favorite tools - an inexpensive music stand for holding patterns and charts. I also have a scissors, tape measurer, and pen that hang from it. The thing in the middle is a nice magnetized chart holder I ordered from Schoolhouse Press. There is a ruler magnet and some other magnets that help keep your place in a chart.

This weekend I learned that the music of the Grateful Dead is the perfect accompaniment to hand spinning. DH found an old Dead concert on public tv he wanted to watch and I was working on spinning some Easter egg dyed kid mohair for the cover mittens of the new Spin-Off. This is the first time I've spun a yarn for a specific project and the yarn is quite pretty. We'll see if I can get gauge with it...



I took the Aran sandal socks to Thanksgiving at a friend's house and made a mistake so I gave up on that. I thought I'd spin the mohair on my purpleheart Bosworth spindle to give myself something mindless to do the rest of the weekend.



Here are some of the gorgeous socks in the new Katherine Misegades (formerly Pence) pattern book, The Tongue River Farm Sock Collection.







And here's a pair of socks from her previous book A Time to Knit Stockings.

Mittens in the Snow

I have been reading about Christmas gifts in other blogs. While I agree that hand knit gifts are inappropriate for some people (like most of the males in my family), I do give hand knit gifts to those who want them. I dislike knitting on demand so this year I chose a variety of projects that interested me and knit them. Yesterday I divided my gift knitting into three piles for three long-distance girlfriends and their families. Since they all have growing families I have no desire to agonize over sizes so I've made items in a variety of sizes and colors. I'll include a note saying to use whatever they can and give the rest away. This is kind of similar to my knitting box idea.

Last year I didn't have time to give hand knit gifts. Fortunately I found Baltic Shop. If you look under Crafts, then Gloves & Mittens you'll find some beautiful authentic hand knit Latvian gloves for less than the price of a kit to make them. I believe all of them are under $20. I sent some gloves to my mother last year and she really loved them. I may buy myself some Kurzeme mittens one of these days to analyze their construction.

I doubt I'll get much knitting done this weekend. We're going to spend Thanksgiving with a big crowd at a friend's house so I can just sit around all day and knit. Ahhh, heaven. I hope you all have an equally perfect day. Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be back Monday.

The Cormo wool I bought at Taos Wool Festival from Elsa Sheep & Wool (pictured with the t-shirt I bought) is a complete revelation. It is incredibly soft and feels almost as soft as the cashmere I made some Estonian mittens with earlier this year. You can feel the lanolin in the wool and it is so beautifully bright. I feel almost like I'm in love with this stuff and I simply have to buy a whole sweater's worth next year. I'm greatly enjoying doing the Aran Sandal socks from Socks, Socks, Socks with it.



Perhaps all this love stuff is because we saw the movie Love Actually this weekend. Nice piece of Christmas fluff although Colin Firth works for me year-round.



I apologize again for the poor quality of photos for this blog. Santa Claus is getting me a new scanner for Christmas so I can do a lot more up to date photos and show little details better for the blog. So just hold on for a little longer...

Turkey Mittens

GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE









I just had to knit something especially for Thanksgiving so here are the November turkey mittens from the pattern booklet A Year of Mittens (I believe Patternworks still sells it). The mittens were knit in Country Garden DK and size 4 dpns and are a bit large for my hands.

I finished another hat this weekend and decided I'm done with my Christmas knitting. I was just sick of it. I started the Aran Sandal Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks for myself in some beautiful Cormo yarn I bought at Taos Wool Festival. It is nice occasionally to get a break from colorwork and not be surrounded by 50 million balls of yarn on the couch.