vogue knitting live 2016

Hi friends!  I hope you're having a wonderful, relaxing weekend full of all of your favorite things.  I certainly am!  This morning, I woke up early and cleaned my apartment, did some yoga, and headed out to Brooklyn to meet up with my brother.  We had a delicious brunch at The Bounty, which is a completely charming restaurant.  We actually tried to check out a few other places first-- one was closed, one was closed down completely, and one had a very confusing ordering system and there wasn't much seating.  It worked out for the best, though-- both the food and the ambiance of The Bounty were perfect for a relaxed Saturday morning.  Zach ordered the mackerel and scrambled eggs on toast, and I had biscuits with sausage gravy.  Both dishes were yummy, but we both agreed that the biscuits and gravy were hard to beat.  Definitely a good choice if you're looking for a cozy, reasonably-priced-for-New-York option in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The other reason I was in Greenpoint was to meet up with some knitting friends at Gauge and Tension!  I spent an absolutely wonderful afternoon knitting with Jennie and Devon from the Tiny Paper Foxes podcast, Jaclyn from the Brooklyn Knitfolk podcast, Denise from the Yarn Geek podcast, Michael from the Penuin Coffee Klatchd podcast, and Allison, who works at Gauge and Tension.  Jennie, along with Eric from the Sticks + Twine podcast, hosted a meetup after Vogue Knitting Live a few weeks ago, so I'd already met a few of these lovely people, and it was great to have some more time with them, as well as meeting a few new friends!

Speaking of Vogue Knitting Live, today I'd like to share my VKL purchases!  I went to the VKL marketplace with my friend Kristina, who is incredibly fun to shop with.  Our tastes in color are almost complete opposites, so we're never competing for the same skein, and we are both expert enablers.  As Jennie would say, it was a Festival of Woolpiggery.

First is this beautiful skein from Narwhal Needlework.  Look at those colors!  The blush, the raspberry, the deep brown-- the speckles!  For crying out loud, the speckles!  I fell in love with this skein from a few booths away and zoomed right over to purchase it.  This is a superwash merino and nylon blend, fingering weight, and the colorway is called Coffee Date.  Too cute!

Next up is this beautiful tweedy skein, also from Narwhal Needlework.  Every once in a while, I run across a dyer who just speaks to me with their color sense.  Narwhal Needlework is definitely one of those dyers.  There was nothing in their booth that I wouldn't love to knit.  This is another fingering weight, in the colorway Marooned.

These two beautiful skeins are by Hedgehog Fibres, purchased at the StevenBe booth.  Both are in the colorway Opalite, but I couldn't choose which weight of yarn to get, so I decided to get both!  The sock yarn is a superwash merino/ nylon blend, and the merino singles are, obviously, merino, in a worsted weight.

I think I picked up and put down this yarn about five times before finally committing to purchasing it.  There is a lot of tonal blush yarn in my yarn stash, and I wasn't sure I needed another skein-- but I kept picking up this one and squeezing it and rubbing it against my cheek and even sniffing it (it's so sheepy!), and I finally decided to buy it.  After all, the reason I have so much tonal blush yarn in my stash is because I love tonal blush yarn.  This is Mohonk from Jill Draper Makes Stuff, a gorgeous sport-weight Cormo wool, in the Tiny Dancer colorway.

Last but not least are these two gorgeous skeins of sparkly fingering weight from Holiday Yarns, in the colorway Silver Screen.  I purchased these as an option for my Crazed Scandinavian Cowl, but ended up choosing the darker gray from my last post.  I'm so glad I bought these though, because they will look lovely in a colorwork project with some lavender or pale blue-- ooh, or yellow!  Wouldn't these be lovely paired with a mustard color?

Well, lovelies, I hope you have a fantastic Saturday night!  I'll be spending the rest of the evening knitting, snuggling Bucky and Cocoa, sipping tea, and reading the latest issue of Artful Blogging magazine.  Maybe I'll do a little journaling, too.  Getting wild and crazy over here!

♥

gray and blush

 

This weekend has been incredibly cozy.  I came home Friday after work, got into my pajamas (begin as you mean to go on, right?), and settled in for a snowy weekend inside.  Friday night was spent cleaning and organizing, because I can't relax if my apartment isn't tidy, and I guess the organizing bug was still in my system on Saturday morning, because I decided to take on a pretty mammoth task: organizing my yarn stash.  That entailed taking every single skein and braid out of my yarn cabinet-- have I mentioned that I have a lot of yarn and spinning fiber?  I'm hoping to do a little stash tour soon, too.  The up close and personal view of my many, many yards of yarn and ounces of fiber was a little intimidating, to be honest, but it was also exciting.  It also gave me a chance to see trends in my yarn purchasing, and while I have a lot of lavender and a lot of pale blue, the majority of my stash is gray and blush.  

 

Since I have so much of it, and because gray and blush go with pretty much everything in my wardrobe, I decided to cast on a few projects.  The two soft, lovely yarns above are O-Wool Legacy Bulky in Desert Blush and Cascade 128 Bulky in Silver.  The Cascade 128 Bulky was a gift from my lovely friend and coworker Kristina-- she knit a gorgeous fisherman's rib scarf out of it and when I said that I loved it, she passed along her four extra skeins to me!  Kristina, that was so generous of you, thank you so much. These are going to become the Color Dipped Scarf from Purl Soho.  This will be my first try at brioche knitting and I'm pretty excited about it!  

I spent most of this weekend knitting on the Crazed Scandinavian Cowl by Wendy Johnson.  I'm still relatively new at colorwork, as this is only my fourth colorwork project, so I find myself un-knitting quite often and my tension is occasionally a little wonky (which will hopefully even out in blocking).  I'm enjoying it nonetheless, and these yarns make it such a pleasant project to knit on.  The blush yarn is Kraemer Sterling Sock in the Pink Pearl colorway, purchased at Vogue Knitting Live in January of 2015 at the Woolbearers booth.  The gray is from Holiday Yarns, in the Silver Sock base, in the Badger Black colorway--and that color name makes my little Hufflepuff heart very happy.  I purchased this yarn at Vogue Knitting Live 2016, just over a week ago. (I'll be sharing the rest of my purchases with you in my next post, and guess what?  Gray and blush.  All of it.)   These are definitely dyed up on the same base from Kraemer, consisting of merino, silk, and nylon, so the two yarns work perfectly together.  This is an at-home-only project for me, so I've also cast on some socks for my mom so that I'll have something to knit on the train and while watching podcasts, since I need to follow a chart closely for this cowl.  Now that I'm finally finished with my Christmas knitting, I want to cast on all the things!

I hope your week is off to a great start!  

♥

tiny owl knits swap: received

Hello lovelies!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

Today I'd like to share with you what I received in the Tiny Owl Knits Common Room Swap on Ravelry.  I was very, very spoiled by my sender, who goes by SoEffie on Ravelry.

 

Here's a group shot of everything that was in the swap package I received!  Isn't the tissue paper and ribbon adorable?

 

This is right after I unwrapped everything-- it was so exciting!   The tea is delicious, and the little cream-colored case is perfect for storing my cable needles.

 

This owl card was filled with a sweet message from Effie.  I love the beautiful patterns on the owl's wings!  I'm going to frame this and add it to the gallery-wall I'm working on in my front hallway.

 

The beautiful green flowered project bag in the lower right corner of the group photo is reversible-- the inside fabric has this charming owl print, I just love it!

 

I am in awe of Effie's embroidery skills!  This little owl pouch is so precious.  I haven't decided what to put in it yet-- maybe a little lavender sachet to keep my knitted items nicely scented?

 

Effie had filled the owlie pouch with these beautiful hand-made stitch markers.  They're so delicate and pretty!

 

Isn't this owl stationery set so sweet?  It was so thoughtful of Effie to send a desk set.  I love all things stationery-related!

 

Effie also included this beautiful yarn.  It's Araucania Ruca Multi, a DK weight yarn made of sugar cane in the prettiest pink, pale green, teal, violet, and gray.

Last but certainly not least are these two lovely leaf washcloths!  They're so soft and cushy.

Thank you so much, Effie!  Everything in the package was so lovingly crafted.  I love it all!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone!

♥

on the needles: twigs and willows

Hello!

Friday's snippets post included a sneak peek of the sweater I'm knitting.  Today I'd like to share more about it!

I'm currently knitting the Twigs and Willows cardigan, by Alana Dakos, from her beautiful new book, Botanical Knits.  I'm using Ella Rae Classic Heathers yarn in color 130-- it's a deep olive green, with brighter green heathered into it.  It's lovely to work with-- it feels satisfyingly woolly to knit, but when I washed and blocked my gauge swatch, I was surprised at how soft it became.  Alana's sample cardigan is knit in a woolen spun (basically, lighter and fluffier) yarn, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, and I'm using a worsted (more densely) spun yarn, so I was a little concerned that the overall shape of the leaf motifs would be overshadowed by the individual stitch definition.  That worry disappeared as soon as my swatch was dry.  The Ella Rae Classic bloomed just the right amount when it was washed.

I tried a new-to-me technique for the ribbing!  I used the eastern purl variation on ribbing, as described in Ysolda Teague's book, Little Red in the City.  Just as a side note, while I haven't knit any of the sweaters from Little Red in the City yet, I refer to the book constantly for technique notes.  The illustrations are extremely clear, and Ysolda goes into detail about why one would choose a particular stitch over another, as well as a writing a fantastic section about fitting your knitwear for your specific measurements.  It's incredibly helpful.  Anyway, the eastern purl rib is designed to prevent the final knit stitch of each rib from becoming loose and uneven.  Essentially, you throw the yarn clockwise around the working needle instead of counter-clockwise, then knit those stitches through the back loop on the following row.  It takes a few rows to get used to, but I think it's worth the effort.  I'm so pleased with the results!  

I have the back and both front pieces of my Twigs and Willows cardigan finished, and the first sleeve about halfway done.  I'm hoping to finish the sweater in the next week or so.  Yay!

I hope your week is off to a lovely start!

♥

dunzo list

Lately I have finished a lot of things.

In other words, I have a bunch of things on my dunzo list which should definitely be spelled 'donezo' considering it's based on the word 'done,' but apparently this nonsensical word is also spelled nonsensically.

Except, unlike Tom's list, mine are all good things!

First up:  the Woodland Gable wrap.


Here it is, on display in my local yarn shop.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out-- and it's absolutely enormous!  As it should be, considering that there's nearly a mile of yarn in this wrap.


My LYS owner, Jan, did a gorgeous job of displaying the wrap, of course.
She has such an eye for visual merchandising.

Next on the dunzo list: the Bonjour, Girl socks!

Ta-da!  These are the softest, coziest socks in the world (or at least in my sock drawer.  Close enough.).  I love the cable and lace pattern on the front of the socks, but fair warning: the heel instructions for this pattern are a little bit questionable.  After some research, I think the problem is the instructions for doing wrap and turn short rows.  In short, this pattern instructs the knitter to start wrapping the stitch before slipping it to the left needle, so the stitch ends up being on the wrong side of the wrap when you go to knit them together.  At first I thought it was just that this was my first time turning heels, but it looks like other people on Ravelry have had the same issue with this pattern.  As long as you know to look out for it, and use alternate wrap and turn instructions, I think you'd be okay knitting this pattern.  For more details on other modifications I made to this pattern, check out my Ravelry project page.

Lastly, I'm dunzo with reading The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (which still looks exactly the same, so no photograph of that.).  Overall, it was a satisfying read.  One rather major plot point came to a conclusion that felt like a bit of a cop-out to me, but in general, I was happy with the way things turned out.  How's that for vague and mysterious?

So there we have it.
My dunzo list.
And if they invited me, I would totally go play putt-putt with anything on it.

I hope you're having a lovely week!

♥

on the wheel: easter fiber!

Hi there!

Ok, before I show you my recently acquired fiber-y goodness, here's a little bit of backstory.  I decided that 2013 was going to be the year I started living a healthier lifestyle, and since January 1st, I've lost about twenty pounds.  Woohoo!  My brother and I grew up getting amazing Easter baskets every year, and it's a tradition my mom has continued even though we're both adults.  This year, though, an enormous basket of chocolate seemed a little counterproductive.  When I mentioned that to my mom,   she said that she wanted to give me some spinning fiber for Easter instead.  How sweet is that!

In a fantastic coincidence, a new fiber mill opened nearby last weekend!  My mom and I took a ride to the Skirted Fleece Mill for the opening day.  It was so much fun!  I'm in the habit of looking at hand-painted spinning fiber on Etsy before I go to sleep (which is a terrible idea, by the way, when you're sleepy and your resistance is low), but there really is nothing like seeing it in person.  

How cute is their logo!  The little gray creature is obviously a sheep, but the other one is a yak.  They have yaks!  We got to see a baby one snacking on some hay, which was just adorable.

My mom and I came home with these two gorgeous 8 ounce braids of fiber.  The one on the left is a blend of merino wool, alpaca, and silk in the most beautiful Maxfield Parrish blues and natural cream.  The one on the right is Corriedale wool that reminds me of the crocuses that start popping up around Easter, even though some years they have to push through the snow to be seen.

I immediately started spinning the Corriedale braid, and I love it.  I've never spun Corriedale before, but if this is any indication of how it usually spins, it's going to become one of my favorite fibers.  It's soft like merino, but a bit sturdier, and it has the sheen of silk or bamboo without the slipperiness.  The fiber prep on this braid is really lovely, too.  It's easy to draft and spins very consistently and smoothly.  It's spinning up as a laceweight single, which I'm going to two-ply into a sock-weight yarn.  I'm hoping to get enough yardage for the Still Light Tunic if I make the collar, sleeve ribbing, and bottom ribbing in either cream or gray.  Added advantage of losing weight-- it takes less yardage to knit a sweater!  Yay!

I hope you're having a wonderful week!

♥

on the needles: bonjour, girl socks

Hi, and happy Friday!

I hope you've had a great week.

I'm currently knitting on my second pair of socks, in Dream in Color's Smooshy yarn in the "Into the Mystic" colorway.  The pattern is Open Windows, by Rebecca Hickman.  I'm knitting on two size 1 circular needles, and the teeny-tiny needles are making a firm, squishy fabric.  Confession time: this is actually the second sock of the pair.  I was too excited about knitting the first one to stop to take a picture!

I'm calling these my "Bonjour, Girl" socks because the cables and lace remind me of the windows that the villagers in Beauty and the Beast throw open to shout "Bonjour!" to Belle.  But ever since seeing this overdubbed version of the song (which is not exactly child friendly, consider yourself warned), I can't help thinking of the villagers saying "Bonjour, girl" instead.  

Since Dream in Color Smooshy is 100% superwash merino wool, without any added nylon for durability, I switched out the ribbed heel in the pattern for an eye of partridge heel-- the offset slipped stitches make for a doubly thick fabric.  I'm hoping this will help the socks last a long time, and I love how it shows off the different colors in the yarn!  I need to hustle on these socks-- they're supposed to be for this round of Nerd Wars, which ends in six days.  Eek!  I'm increasing for the heel gusset on the second sock, which adds a lot of stitches, but after turning the heel, knitting the leg of the sock goes pretty quickly.  I think I'll be able to get it done without too much trouble.

Have a lovely evening!
♥

on the needles: woodland gable wrap

Happy Friday!

Today I'd like to share one of the projects on my knitting needles-- the Woodland Gable Wrap.

This is a shop sample for my lovely local yarn shop.

The pattern is the Gable Wrap, and it's a combination of garter stitch and crossed elongated stitches created by wrapping stitches, then dropping the wraps off the needles on the following row.  

This wrap is knit in the Findley Dappled yarn from Juniper Moon Farm, in the Woodland colorway.  It's a 50% merino wool, 50% silk blend, and it is absolutely delightful to knit with.  The silk gives it beautiful drape and sheen, but it still has that lovely woolly feel as I'm knitting it.  Even though it's in a laceweight yarn, this wrap works up fairly quickly due to the dropped wrapped stitches-- that row adds a good three-quarters of an inch every time you knit it!  Incidentally, this wrap takes two skeins of Findley Dappled at 798 yards per skein, for a total of 1596 yards, making it the largest amount of yardage I've ever knit into a single project.  I'm just a few yards away from being finished with the first skein.

The Gable Wrap is an enjoyable knit, not too simple and not too complex.  It's an easy pattern to memorize and perfect for knitting in the car, since you don't have to look at it constantly while you're working on it.  Mine accompanied me to New York last week, so I worked on it on the bus into the city, in the café of a Barnes and Noble, in Grand Central Station, and on the train back out of the city.

It likes to think of itself as being very worldly and sophisticated.

As per usual, more details can be found on my Ravelry project page.
I hope you've had a fantastic week!

♥

fairytale forest cowl

Happy Friday!

Phew, this week has been a whirlwind!  But in the best possible way.  I hope you've had a fantastic week, too!

I recently whipped up this cowl, and it is the softest, coziest thing in the world.  I knit it out of some wool/angora/silk/sparkle yarn that I spun from a fiber batt I purchased at the Endless Mountains Fiber Festival in September.  The pattern is the Blushing Lace Cowl by Lauren Weinhold.  The only modification I made was to knit one extra repeat past the end of each round on the slipped-stitch rounds for a more seamless look.  

The slipped stitches really show off the little blips of color in the yarn, and the airy lace pattern made the most of my small amount of yardage.  The bright pops against the dreamy purple main color reminded me of the fairies who flit through the air in Fantasia.  

Hence the name Fairytale Forest!
The cowl is so snuggly, but even when it's doubled up it's not bulky at all-- perfect for days when I'm sewing and want to be warm without anything in danger of getting caught in my sewing machine.  Also, have I mentioned how wonderfully, ridiculously soft this cowl is?  Have I discussed that at all?  I feel like I'm wearing a cozy cloud.

I hope your weekend is off to a wonderful start!
♥

tea time bee time ♥

Good morning, sunshines!  

Or afternoon.  

Or evening.  

Whatever the case may be for you at the moment.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was participating in Nerd Wards on Ravelry.  I posted my first project submission yesterday-- this bee hive tea cozy!  It's knit from some of my early handspun, which isn't the softest yarn in the world, but the squishy bee hive ridges improve it a lot.  

The challenge for this particular project was to choose a character from another kind of nerdiness, then make something that reminds you of something you would have on a date with that character.  Naturally, I chose Winnie the Pooh-- he loves tea, and he loves honey, so I think he'd love a honey-themed tea cozy!  

The other part of every challenge is to find a way to tie your project into your team.  Since I'm on Team Precious, I needed to connect my tea cozy with something from Tolkien's writing, or the movie adaptations.  Luckily for me, there are plenty of examples of hobbits either drinking tea or offering tea to their guests.

Was anybody else a nervous wreck during this scene in The Hobbit?   All of Bilbo's lovely plates and bowls and cups being tossed around-- Eeeeeeek!

Honey is also mentioned several times, either on its own or as an ingredient in foods like honey cakes (and someone actually devised a recipe for them, based on the description in The Hobbit!  How cool is that!)  So it was easy-peasy to relate my tea cozy back to Tolkien's work.

As per usual, more technical details and modifications can be found on my Ravelry project page.

Have a beautiful day!
♥

swirl shawl

Happy Sunday, lovelies!

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

I recently finished a sample knit for my local yarn shop-- the Jojoland Melody Swirl Shawl.  It's made up of 82 hexagons with a swirling lace pattern.  

I used the magic loop method on my size 6 Knitpicks Harmony Options needles.  When I started, each hexagon took about an hour to make, but by the last two rows of hexagones, I had it down to 40 minutes or so.  And since each hexagon is knitted onto the ones before, there's no seaming, and there's no epic bind-off at the end!  Yay!  

Here it is on display.  It was so exciting to see my knitting among the other gorgeous samples!  

By the way, isn't my LYS the cutest shop?  It's comfy and cozy and full of the most beautiful yarn. (There are a few more pictures of it here.)

For more technical notes, check my Ravelry project page.

Woohoo!  There is nothing like the satisfaction of completing a big project.

♥

peppermint rose

Have I mentioned that I watch and listen to a lot of knitting podcasts?

Well, I do.

One of my favorite video podcasts is The Stockinette Zombies.  Megan and Amy knit beautiful projects, and sometime they host knit-alongs.  One of their recent knit-alongs was called the Crazy KAL-- basically, giving in to the urge to cast on ridiculous, crazy projects!  I participated by starting my Busy Bee Blanket.  That fell into the 'crazy' category because a) it's a blanket knitted from sock yarn, b) I didn't actually knit socks at the time, even though this blanket is designed to use up leftover bits of sock yarn, and c) mine is going to be made of more than 600 little knitted hexagons!

The lovely ladies of the Stockinette Zombies randomly selected prize winners for the KAL... and I won a prize!  

Yaaaaay!

I won a gorgeous skein of worsted weight superwash merino wool by Cakewalk Yarns, in the Peppermint Bark color.  It is some of the softest, squishiest yarn I've ever knit with.  

I knit my lovely prize into a beret.  I used the Cabled Rangoli Hat pattern, with a few modifications (all the technical details are on my Ravelry project page.)  This was my first cabled hat, and my first project with bobbles!

I'm calling this my Peppermint Rose beret after one of my favorite childhood movies, which some kind soul has put on Youtube! I just discovered this and it's taking all my willpower to finish writing this post instead of dropping everything to watch the movie right this second.  A movie about a magic garden, starring a bunch of girls with fab hair and ruffly bloomers?  You bet I loved it.  I can't tell you how many times my family was subjected to it.  I brought it home pretty much every time we went to the video store (remember those?).

...Now I'm going to go do something important and grown-up.

I'm definitely not about to go watch that movie.

Nope, not me.

I hope you're having a great week!

♥

playing catch-up

Hi there, ladies and gents.

I hope you are having a fantastic January!

It's been a bit quiet around here lately-- between the holidays and being sick on and off for the past few weeks, I've either been gift-knitting like a madwoman or snuggled up in bed, sipping tea (and maybe whining just a little).  But I'm excited to get back to blogging.

the Christmas Spice tea has little snowflake sprinkles in it-- how cute is that!

My brother's girlfriend sent up this delicious tea for Christmas (thank you Sheila!) and I've been having at least three cups of it every day because it's just so tasty.  I think the Strawberry Honey is my favorite.  I've been getting a lot of knitting done between the inevitable caffeine crashes.

Speaking of which, I finished my Robins' Feathers shawl!

snow boots instead of ballet flats in shawl photos this time of year...

I'm pretty excited to have knit my first big lace project.  Yay!  You'll be seeing more of this shawl soon-- I want to post a photo of myself wearing it because it's huge and I don't really wear shawls draped around my shoulders.  It makes a lovely scarf-ish wrap, though.  But y'know who needs to see me looking bleary and cold-stricken?  Nobody, that's who.  So it'll have to wait until I'm no longer sniffly.  

Anyway, my Robins' Feathers shawl took a couple tries to get going, but now I feel confident in my ability to read complex charts, and I'm already trying to decide on another shawl to cast on.  I think it's going to be the Hogwarts Express.  I've been spinning up some soft, fawn-brown alpaca for the Pomme de Pin cardigan, but I'm not going to have enough yardage, and I think it'll be a better match for the Hogwarts Express anyway.  ...And c'mon, how could I not knit it?  It's snuggly and Harry Potter themed.  I'm also still knitting away on my busy bee quilt, so I'll show you my progress on that soon, too.

I hope you have a wonderful evening!

♥