Baby It's Cold Outside! (Easy Winter Knits)

As usual I have been remiss in posting anything on the blog. Spending too much time on Ravelry but here are a few pictures of what I've been knitting/spinning. 

At the top are Sabrina Mitts by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. The pattern is available at Ravelry and I used Quince &Co. in the "Tern" colorway for the purple mitts. The pattern asks you to use the lace pattern only on the arms but I extended it all the way up the backs of the hands. After all, that's the fun part for me.  I liked it so well that I made two pairs so that each of my nieces could have a set. Then, when a co-worker suddenly moved back to the East Coast, I decided to make her a pair using my E-Lux 2012 Fiber Club selection from A Verb for Keeping Warm. It's a targhee/silk/merino blend in their "Floof" colorway. Really fun and very warm!

Since I prefer to make easy lace in the winter, I then stole some of my sisters handspun Verb BFL yarn  in "Transnational Fury"colorway and knit "Sweet Dreams" By Boo Knits. I loved it and it only took a few days to knit even with adding the beads to it so I decided to knit a second one once again out of a Verb Yarn that I lost the belly band to. I know it had some Cashmere in it and it's a heavier yarn than I am used to using but it worked really well for this little shawl.

As for spinning, I have been watching a very nice video podcast called The Knit Girllls for awhile now and the owner of Fiber Optics has made a colorway using the hosts favorite colors calling it the "Rouge-Violet=Cerulean Gradient".  I had never spun a Gradient before so I bought two braids and spun them up thin so I can make a 2 ply lace weight yarn.  Of course, there is the question of what to do with it once I've plied it up but that is a problem for another day. Suffice it to say that it spun up nicely and is a 80/20 Merino/Silk . 

Many times, I have spun some lace weight yarn and it just sits in the stash until I find something I want to knit that will work with it.  That was the case with a ball of yarn  I made out of a Tussah/Cashmere fiber from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks in the colorway "Autumn". I finally choose "Estonian Jewel"  by Beatrice Olsson using US 3 needles. Here are a few blocking shots and I will post pictures when it's dry.  There are lots of projects that are on "hold" until I shake off the Winter lethargy but I hope to get back to them once the weather warms up.

That's it for now! I hope everyone had a Happy and Safe holiday season and I look forward to 2013 with much crafting glee!!!!

Six Sided Doily from Handarbeits-Vorlage 73m (For the girl who waited)

Handarbeits-Vorlage 73. Six sided doily by Herbert Niebling knit with US 000 and US 00 needles using Filato Di Cantu #30 cotton thread. I knit this specifically as "bridal lace" for the host of "Round the Twist", Carin Boelman who will be getting married this Fall just before Thanksgiving. I have enjoyed her video blog for many years while she generously shared her projects and slices of her life with all the viewers. I'm so happy she found her true love. It was a joy to knit this lace even though I screwed up the mesh towards the very end. If you look at the last set of bells and leaves, you will see that the mesh does not line up in the center. Could have been me, could have been the pattern. Didn't catch it until I was getting ready to cast-off.  I was afraid to rip it back in case I didn't finish it in time so it remains for posterity.  Not too bad though.

Along with the lace, viewers of her video blog are also knitting little cupcakes for the wedding as favors.  The pattern for the cupcakes I made is from the book Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi. I used sock yarn, contemporary seed beads, some of my tatted edgings I made as well as antique French jet hearts, dove and flower sequins and cut beads.Here are pictures of the ones I sent her. 

I have some "duty" knitting I have to do for a person who retired and some lace as a favor for a friend.  Some how those all looked so unappealing after the fun of bridal lace and mini cupcakes that I have decided to knit something else "just for laughs" before I put my nose to the grindstone.  I guess the "duty" knitting will have to wait :-)  Until the next post. Happy Knitting!

Tulipanes " Pink Much?"

“Tulipanes” by Herbert Niebling using handspun yarn made from 50/50 silk/merino in colorway “Sugar”from “A Verb For Keeping Warm” plied with Miss Babs “Scarlet Ibis” Merino/Bamboo/Tussah Silk. I used US 0 needles and it ended up with a 54” diameter shawl. The Miss Babs fiber turned out a bit too bright for my taste but what the heck, it's a learning opportunity :-)

Frühling (AKA Spring) Dry at last!

 Just a few pictures of Fruhling now that it's dry. I'm knitting on 3 smaller Nieblings now. One older one that never got finished and two more recent. I hope they go faster so you will get to see them sooner.  I have a Shetland Lace stole I was working on but I think that the yarn I spun is not really that spectacular. I may have to start all over again on that one, sigh!  Until later!

Frühling. This took for freaking ever to finish!

I have not really had time to post anything for quite some time. The only thing I've been knitting on is this project which I am very happy to say is now done.

Herbert Nieblings Frühling. 60 inches in diameter using US 0000 needles for the very center leaves and US 000 needles for the rest. I used naturally dyed silk thread from “ A Verb For Keeping Warm” in the Tidepools colorway. This was a custom order done as a favor for me because I wanted to do a larger project but needed something fairly thin to work with. There are a few errors but nothing major.  

I tried to get this sucker done in time for Stitches West 2012 but it was taking over an hour to go around the work for one row and I just ran out of time.  Though I love how it came out, I just want to knit smaller projects for awhile before I tackle anything this large again.  Of course, I have a stash of really nice threads to pick from and a pile of patterns to choose from so you just never know :-) Until next time.....  

In The Works (Slow Progress)

Lately, I have only been posting when I finish something but I'm so slow that there are long gaps between posts so, with fleegle's encouragement, I am putting up an "in progress" post of things I'm actively working on. These three projects all use different weights of yarns and different size needles.The variety helps not only with boredom but to ease up on my hands.

At the top you have Wisenflor or "Violettes". This is another Herbert Niebling pattern that has been re-printed in English by Doilyhead I'm knitting on US 3 with "Shimming" 100% Tussah Silk from A Verb For Keeping Warm in the Royale colorway. At 218 rows, it will make a good sized circular shawl though this would not count as one of my "favorite" knits. I'm not crazy about the center of this lace. There is another version of the pattern with a better center out there but I somehow settled on this one. Still, I'm half way through the pattern so I will finish this one eventually. The yarn is great at least.

Next up is Fruhling which is another Niebling pattern. I'm using a silk thread to knit this one which was custom dyed for me by the folks at Verb in the "Tidepools" colorway. Kristine offered to do this for me because I wanted to knit the larger Nieblings without ending up with an Afghan instead of a shawl and most of the yarn at Verb would be too big. Fruhling is a 370 row pattern and I knit the center small leaves using US 0000 and then switched to US 000. I will continue with this size needle for the bulk of the shawl but I may switch to US 00 needles towards the end if it looks like it will not lie flat. I wish the pictures were better because this yarn has subtle color shifts in it. It's fantastic to knit with too:-)

The last picture is of another retirement shawl I'm making. The co-worker asked me to make something that was like "Legends Of The Shetland Seas" so I spun a standard lace weight yarn out of Lisa Souza Cash/Merino roving in the "Mahogany" colorway and I'm knitting Hazel Carters Sampler Shawl again. I knit this once before out of a Yarn Place yarn but my hand spun yarn is heavier and will fluff up a bit because of the Cashmere. I'm using US 0 needles but plan to block it aggressively when I'm done.

That's it for now! Maybe next time I post I will have actually finished something!

Angus' Dream Shawl (Back In The Saddle Again)

It's been some time since I last posted. I had to take a break from knitting because of pain in my arms. Like many others out there, I've had to work out ways to avoid injury so I now alternate with a non knitting related hobby to give my arms a rest. Now that I can knit lace again, here is a little shawl made from yarn left overs that did not make the cut when I was making Legends of the Shetland Seas.

The pattern is Angus' Dream by Tiziana Sammuri on Ravelry. Knit from the center back of the neck outwards it's a cleaver little shawlette that uses Shetland Lace motifs. It's a great way to use up small amounts of yarn.

The fiber is Lisa Souza BFL and Merino when I spun into lace weight singles then plied. The colorway s Petroglyph. It blocked beautifully and is warmer than you might think!

Until next time!

Retirement Gift (Madli's Shawl)

It's been a good long time since I posted but much of what I've been doing has not been lace related. This however, is the most recently finished project. Madli's Shawl is another Estonian lace project from the Nancy Bush book. Since it was knit for a co-worker who is to retire, she picked the color and shape as well as the fiber content if not the actual pattern. The Madli's Shawl is a simple but pretty knit which can be worn casually if desired.

I had fleegle dye me purple silk yarn in her AK47 base and it knit up beautifully with spectacular drape and softness. It almost feels as if there must be cashmere in it only it's 100% silk. I love silk because it blocks and holds shape so well. It's wonderful for a stole because it's not too warm to wear a stole is easy for people to wear.

Because of the time-frame, I had to put aside any other knitting to finish this one in time. Now that it's finally done, I'm trying to finish up on three shawls before I start anything new so there should be more for me to post soon!

Damson & Squirreling Away For The Future

Winter slow-down has overtaken me. I'm only knitting short projects that don't make you crazy, mixing cookie dough and planning for next years potential projects. See above a small shawl called "Damson" from the book "Whimsical Little Knits 2" by Ysolda Teague. The yarn is a 2 ply hand spun I made from one of my Verb Fiber Club selections in Targee in the "Sweet Tart" colorway. I would not usually think of knitting this type of shawlette except the hand spun yarn I produced had sections that I knew would end up being stripes once knit. This is an interesting way of using up a small amount of fiber and breaking up the stripes at the same time. The pin is a vintage "faux ivory" (some kind of plastic) carved rose which looks sweet with it. Of course, I'd never wear this thing but it is cute.

Below that is more fiber from A Verb For Keeping Warm for me to spin. The green skeins "Parrotlette" in merino/silk are actually more green, below that is another Fiber Club shipment with Yak, Silk, and Merino "The Best Bite", 3 skeins of Gaia laceweight and some Verb fiber in Orange that I can't remember the name of but just had to have. It's not like I'm going to run out of yarn of fiber in the near future but I just could not help myself! There is more but I will have to put that in another post.

Lastly here are two books. The new lace book by Margarete Stove "Wrapped In Lace", I bought for her amazing knowledge and techniques rather than the patterns. The patterns are nice but as I looked at them I kept thinking there were too many "blank" spaces that I would have to fill with lace motifs. For me, less is not more. Still, I'm never sorry to have one of her books in my knitting library because there is always something interesting in them that helps me down the line.

The second book is an aberration on my part. It's called, "Selbuvotter" . It's not lace and I'm not into mittens or gloves but this is a flat out wonderful book that I had to have. Every once in awhile I have to have something but I don't know why. It may take weeks, months or even years before the reason reveals itself but it always does. So I will drool over this book and some day something may "click" and I will have a new obsession .

I will try to post again before the end of the year if I finish my current lace project.Until then I hope everyone is healthy, happy and with those they love this Holiday season :-)