I started a gift project over the weekend. The target of my gift approved the yarn, and asked for a scarf. I skimmed some patterns, and combined elements I liked. I’m using some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, held double, in a basic linen stitch scarf. I fancied it up a bit by beginning with an i-cord cast on, and transitioning that directly into an i-cord edging. The gift target has approved the swatch, so I am good to go! 🙂
Author remilyknits
FO Friday: Sheep Head Hat
I’m so pleased with my Sheep Head Hat! 🙂
I used CEY’s soft and lovely Vail, which is an alpaca/bamboo blend, available is eight naturally-dyed shades of grey and brown. When I bought the yarn for this project, only six shades were out — the other two were added with this fall’s line of new colors.
Project: Sheep Head Hat
Pattern: sheep heid
Designer: Kate Davies
Available: £2.75 GBP on Ravelry
Yarn: Classic Elite Yarn’s Moutaintop Vail, six hues
The original pattern called for nine natural sheep colors, so I had to modify my hat to use the six shades I had to work with. I lost a bit of the dynamics of the original hat, but I still love my version. The alpaca-bamboo fingering weight yarn is amazingly soft and lightweight. The standing sheep in the hat body are adorable, but I love the graphic rams-head decreases on the top. UPDATE: my hat was featured in the CEY blog!
Yarn Shop Review: WEBS
Yes, it’s true … until last week, I had never been to the famous WEBS, located in Northampton, MA! I know, I know. It’s only a couple hours away, and I actually head that direction all the time … for family vacations, and for dog agility trials. How is it that I’ve never been there before? For one thing, I guarantee you the Wrath of Bored Children if I scheduled a stop at WEBS halfway to our family vacation destination (Nana and Boppa’s lake house in upstate New York). For another thing, dog agility trials usually take place during business hours — making yarn shop stops difficult. Also, showing up at a yarn shop tired, dirty, and covered with dog hair … not the best plan.
So, there you have it — all my excuses rolled up together. You can imagine my delight when my friend suggested we visit together! I was thrilled. She had a business meeting in the area, and asked me along for the ride — and the side trip to WEBS.
I have heard stories of how overwhelming this Mecca of yarn shops can be, so I made sure to have a list (with photos!) of what projects I would consider buying yarn for. I also was willing to consider speculative yarn purchases, though it had to be a great deal AND yarn I loved in order to qualify. I’m pleased to say that I refrained from buying off-list, and managed to spend a mere $65 (after WEB’s generous discount — they even let me and my friend combine purchase totals to get the best possible discount). Details follow, after a quick review.
WEBS is huge — at least four times the floor area of any shop I’ve been to before. They had many, many gorgeous yarns, including most (all?) of the Madelinetosh yarns, a good selection of Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and several yarns I’ve never seen before. It was great to be able to feel their own yarn line (Valley Yarns) in person. I peeked into the classroom area (jealous!), and the discount shelves in the back warehouse were impressive to say the least. There is a whole section devoted to spinning, and a lot of weaving yarns too. (I successfully bypassed those areas — I don’t need any more hobbies!)
Staff were plentiful, friendly, and helpful. I was pleased to have my latest FO (a Catkin in Tosh Light, French Grey and Byzantine) recognized and praised. Turns out one of the staff is a Catkin fanatic — what fun!
On to the purchases: I bought some beautiful Madelinetosh Prairie in Turquoise — 840 yards of gorgeous merino laceweight single-ply yarn, enough to make a Mariposa of my very own. In fact, I’ve already cast on! 🙂
I’ve had Escargot in my queue for quite a while. Love the swirl! I’ve had a hard time finding the right colored yarn for this project … so I popped it on the list for the WEBS trip. I’m pleased to say I found Valley Superwash in shades of plummy Mulberry and cheerful Grass green that suited my fancy. I’m sorry to say that I can’t seem to photograph the yarn to reveal true colors — the plum looks more like hot pink in my photos :(. The stock photo from WEBS is a better match.
Last but not least, I found yarn for a Lavenda Droplet Jumper. I had hoped to find the right fingering-weight solid-colored yarn in WEBS famous back warehouse shelves. Alas, I struck out. Instead, I settled on some Cascade Fingering in Ruby Red. The store only had six skeins, in two different dye lots. But, lucky me, the “other” warehouse had the eight skeins I required, all in one dye lot! Because I was in the store but the skeins were not, WEBS offered to ship them to me for free. It’s not quite as nice as taking home the yarn, but UPS claims the yarn will be with me soon — getting pretty yarn in the mail is fun too!
Cast-On Monday: Lace Project the Second, a Hat Re-do, and Peacock-Blue Mariposa
Alas, my Pebbled Beanie in William Morris Tosh Light just didn’t look right. I frogged back to the ribbing, because I still wanted a hat. I surfed Ravelry a bit, found something that inspired me, and I’m winging it from there. Here’s the first few rounds — basically I’m doing a simple travelling knit stitch on a reverse stockinette background. I plan to have the direction zig and zag “some” — should be cool. I still love the yarn.
Today a friend came over to knit. We sat outside on the deck in the cool September sun and knit while our dogs rambled around the yard — in other words, nearly idyllic afternoon! I couldn’t resist the lure of casting on Something New. So, I wound my new lace Madelinetosh in Turquoise and started a Mariposa.
I guess I must have contracted cast-on-itis today, because I also wound the yarn and cast on for the second lace shawlette in a planned set-of-three series. What can I say, inspiration hit me like a bag of bricks! 🙂 Here is the pretty hand-dyed merino/tencel from Mind’s Eye that I’m using for this design project (the puppy helped me shop):
FO Friday: Purple Hedgehog Hat
I made a very silly hat! Also, a very warm hat.
Want to make one just like it? I have plenty of yarn leftover — if you promise to make a hedgehog hat, I’ll send you my leftover Mushishi.
Project: Purple Hedgehog Hat
Pattern: Hedgehog
Designer: Mercè Janer
Available: FREE from Knitty.com
Yarn: Plymouth Yarns Mushishi #12
I picked up some Mushishi as a “courtesy purchase” while checking out a LYS. The long color changes seemed just right for the short-row hedgehog hat. I love how yarn and hat came together for this project. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste … but I love a silly hat sometimes!
The hat is worked flat, with each bump worked as a set of short rows. For the hat you work a row of bumps, work a couple stockinette rows (decreasing the overall number of stitches), and then work a row of bumps back the other way. I definitely put my new(ish) skill of “knitting both directions without turning” to good use with all those short rows!
In addition to a delightfully silly look, the bumps also trap air — this is a one WARM hat. I look forward to wearing it for more than a few minutes at a go, come this winter.
Cast-on Monday: William Morris Pebbles
This week, I finally cast did cast on for my Pebbled Beanie in Tosh Light (William Morris colorway). I’ve finished the ribbing, the increase round, and a couple repeats of the pattern. It’s not fast knitting, but it’s only a hat and I love the yarn, so it’s going along fine.
FO Friday: Poodle for Hire
Some time ago, I donated a custom-knit dog to a raffle to benefit a friend (sad details here). The lucky winner was the family of Zacharia the mini poodle. Everyone say, “Aw, what a cutie!”
This project turned out to be harder than I initially anticipated. It was hard to find the right fiber to make the poodle’s fur look right. I ended up with Bernat Pipsqueak … which was WAY WAY to large a yarn. So, I un-plied it, and knit with individual strands — this took a lot of time, but it gave me the look I was going for. Eventually.
Project: Poodle for Hire
Pattern: Poodle
Designer: Joanna Osborne and Sally Muir
Available: in Knit Your Own Dog: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigree Pooches
Yarn: Bernat Pipsqueak and Swish DK
As I have come to expect from the KYOD series, this toy poodle was constructed in multiple flat pieces, then sewn together. I used Swish DK for the toes and face, and the Pipsqueak every else. I ended up modding the ears and tail, but other than that this was knit as-written. Doing the PULT stitch is Pipsqueak was especially exciting.
I’m not completely happy with how the legs came together with the body, but I think Knit Zacharia is recognizably a poodle … so I am satisfied.
Book Review: Cast On, Bind Off (54 Step-by-Step Methods), by Leslie Ann Bestor
My in-laws sent me books for my birthday too! Yay! This one is especially awesome:
Cast On, Bind Off is small but packed with immediately-useful information. In fact, it contains all the information I was hoping for when I first paged through The Principles of Knitting
The thing that makes this book better than Principles is the awareness of different names for the same method. While Principles is frighteningly complete, one thing that bothered me was the re-naming of several techniques. Now, I understand that the re-naming served to distinguish and clarify etc., but if you look for a “long tail cast on” that that book, you won’t find it by that name. On the flip side, Cast On lists a variety of alternate names for each method, which will help readers find the cast on they’re looking for even if they don’t know it by the most common (or “best”) name.
One thing Cast On does assume is that the knitter works right-handed, and with Western stitch mount (leading leg in front of needle). Lefties may be best served by viewing the pictures in a mirror, and I’m not sure what to do for the leading-leg-in-back folks. (Though, they all seem exquisitely aware of stitch mount, and can likely compensate on their own.)
A few things I learned just browsing through the book:
- the way you hold your left hand during long-tail cast on can be described as “slingshot” and everyone will hold their hand correctly, yay!
- “my” way of doing the knitted cast-on is a common variation, with exactly the purpose I imagined
- I don’t actually do Emily Ocker’s cast on for circular items … somewhere along the way, I changed to the “invisible” circular cast on
- there are all sorts of cool two-color cast-on’s that I’ve never heard of before (I like tri-color braided cast-on best!)
Cast On Monday: Firewood Goodale
I was going to cast on for a hat last week. Really! I wound my Tosh Light (in William Morris)…
… then I put it in a bag with the right size needle and my copy of Weekend Hats …
… and then I waited for the right moment to cast on.
But, instead … I bought new yarn at the Hub Mills Store when I worked on Friday. Pashmina in Firewood
The photo does not really do it justice. This on one of those layers-upon-layers colorways — rainbows under water, oil in a jar, gorgeous beyond reckoning! I’m making myself a Goodale cardigan with it. I’ve already got about two inches done. It is so soft and pretty! The William Morris hat will have to wait a bit longer.
FO Friday: Wavelength
The May 2012 club shipment from BMFA was a gorgeous variegate skein with most (if not all) of my favorite colors. Yay! I chose to do the not-a-sock pattern:
Project: Wavelength
Pattern: Breaking Waves
Designer: Carson Demers
Available: sometime after May 2013
Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength (May 2012 Club Colorway)
This pattern began at the neck with stockinette …. that was gathered into three-dimensional waves every so often. It was a cool technique! After a few repeats of that, it transmuted into some fairly standard lace. I heard rumors that many knitters threw in an extra lace repeat without running short, but I chose to knit as-written — I like a small scarf-size shawl, and I wanted to save some yarn for hexipuffs.
Remily Knits 