Stash Queen

Very Easy Vest

One of my favorite yarn shops is Soper Creek Yarn in Bowmanville.  I often visit it when I'm down south at Mom's, sometimes with my non-knitting friend Jude.  I often knit for her, since she likes interesting designs, is willing to pay for good yarn, and wears colors that are a change for me.  Last year we saw a shop sample which she was very taken with.  It turned out to be an original design, a quick and easy knit calling for only two large balls of James C. Brett Marble Chunky, inexpensive too this time.

I won't give away the pattern; visit the shop and buy some yarn for yourself.  But I'd like to show you the interesting the construction.

The whole thing is a ribbed rectangle, 2 X 2 at the top and bottom, 1 X 1 in the center back section.

To assemble, the 2 X 2 rib sections are fanned out and pulled together on each side, leaving the 1 X 1 sections open for armholes.

Now you can see that the piece becomes a circular vest or shrug.

I tried it on with the safety pin markers in place so that you can see where the seams end up.  The ribbed section at the top folds over to become a cozy shawl collar.

Cool, eh!  Now my sister is knitting one for herself.  This one went home with my mom at New Year's, and Jude phoned last week to say that she finally picked it up.  We're having an unusually mild winter, which is well deserved after the last two, but I think this will still get lots of wear.

 

 

January Report / Fresh Start?

Not much blogging last year, although there was a lot of knitting, including a bumper crop of Christmas gifts.  My current blog here does not support photo albums, so I will attempt to keep my Ravelry notebook up to date as my complete archive.  On Ravelry I am "canstash," both because I can and do continue to feed the stash which threatens to overtake the house, and because I am proudly Canadian.

My biggest project last fall was a new afghan for my sister.  I've knit the pattern once before (Plaid Texture afghan, free from Patons) in dark, rich colors, but this time I went for a more modern palette, to match white leather couches and pale gray walls. I would even knit this pattern again:  I love its thermally texture.  The only change I made was to widen the border.  The original was just one stripe, making a very narrow edging.

She loved it!

Another gift received with excitement was the Star Wars hat I made for my oldest grandson (free pattern on Ravelry).  We've all been fans forever, and still have the 1980's original Millenium Falcon, ak ak,  and a large collection of figures that my daughter played with back then.  We enjoyed The Force Awakens immensely, finding it a return to the spirit and adventure of A New Hope.  Kudos to J. J. Abrams and the new generation of actors taking lead roles!

 

The last Christmas gift free pattern that I want to recommend is the Amanda hat.  I made this one for Mom in Fleece Artist BFL Aran in variegated soft pinks and gray.  My friend Anne Marie made it the gift of the year, knitting about ten of them for all the girls and  women in her family, adapting the stitch count for the little ones.  All much appreciated, and an interesting texture stitch for the knitter.  It looks good in multicolored yarn, solid colors, or even with contrast color for the garter stitch sections.

First finished object of 2016 is also a hat, for my daughter's birthday.  I wanted to try out some Americo yarn, purchased on our mother/daughter weekend in Toronto last October.  She wanted a fine knit, close fitting hat, similar to the ones she buys at Roots.  Together we chose the Rick Rack Hat by Olga Buraya-Kefelian.  The large number of stitches, constantly knit in twisted stitches, right one row then left, were discouraging in cotton yarn with no stretch, knit on smaller than usual needles.  My hands ached, and my attention often wavered, necessitating some ripping in the early days of knitting.  Finally I found a rhythm.  When I got to the final section and saw the genius, original way that the designer handled the decreases, keeping the design going, I really began to appreciate the pattern.  Now I'll probably knit it again, but definitely in wool next time.

Beautiful hat, beautiful girls.  I'm a lucky knitter.

 

 

 

Top This!

I saw these kits on a blog I check often.  I had to check the source, and found that the price on WEBS was quite reasonable, even considering US$ and shipping to Canada.  I have a granddaughter and my friend Jude has three, so I ordered some girly pink kits - two bunnies, a kitty, and a unicorn.

I think they're all super cute.  Our princess got to choose first, immediately picked the bunny, and never waivered.  She pulled it on, even though it was a chunky hat on a hot day.  She's hard to catch standing still for a photo, and the bunny was sometimes looking out over her back, but these photos will give you an idea.

 

 

(Sideways again - WHY?!)

The yarn is one self striping or jacquard ball with pattern on the label.  The hats are well planned, coming with a foam disk to set under the hat and act as a base for the stuffy head, and the head itself has a thin satin ribbon sewn in, so it can easily be threaded through the top of the hat, tied in a bow inside, and removed for washing the hat.  My husband and I started thinking of other kids among our friends and family, and next thing I was ordering six more hats for baby and Christmas gifts.  Right now they've been back ordered for six weeks, but I hope they come through eventually.

 

The princess also got a new sweater.  This is another project that I began in order to help a friend who was having trouble with the edging.  The only way that I could figure it out was to knit it myself.  The pattern, Alice, is from Sublime, who publish lots of beautiful patterns, but it doesn't happen to be a brand that I use often.  Sometimes I'm not sure how the directions are counting the starting stitch or the one that's left when you're casting off inside a row and then knitting a few stitches for the pattern repeat.  It took a couple of tries to get the number of stitches for the row to work out right.  After that it's all plain stockinette, easy-peasy.

The yarn an old Bernat soy and acrylic blend.  It's nice and soft.  You can't go wrong with a white, goes-with-anything cardigan.  The style is deliberately short, not a bolero but cropped.  It looks nice over a longer tee or a dress.

Next it will be my turn for a sweater.  If the season is almost over, at least I'll have something new ready for next summer.

Shawls, Shawls, Shawls

I did tackle the "Jackpot" shawl again in colours better suited for me, just two colours this time.  Pink is good to match or accent pretty much everything in my summer closet.  The knitting went quickly with my corrected chart.  I was proud when I saw that the designer credited my "sharp eyes" with the errata on the Ravelry page for the design.  This is now my favorite summer shawl, the one I leave hanging over a dining room chair, ready to grab as I head out the door to a concert in the park or a backyard barbecue.

 

While the spring installment of the Outlander series was airing, I decided that I should finish the fall KAL and not start the new one just yet .  So I dug out the project bag and finished the traveling slip stitch sections, very happy with the results.  The technique is not difficult once you've followed the instructions for a couple of repeats.  But like many of the people who joined the KAL, I don't really find that the mesh border suits the body of the shawl.  The large holes in the intsructions are formed the same way as those in the Little Colonnade pattern, which I love, so I decided to line up the holes using that pattern as my guide.  But duh, somehow I ended up with the wrong side of the border on the right side of the body.  I tried to convince myself that it could work as an interesting design feature, but I think the border is going to get frogged to be corrected or changed again.  Meanwhile the shawl sits, awaiting new inspiration.

 

Since I was too undecided to finish the Outlander shawl, I looked around for another UFO that might be finished quickly and set my sights on the Stephen West shawl I had started for my friend Jude last summer.  (It's a surprise, not yarn she purchased herself, so she won't know how long it was in the works unless she reads this.)  I had left it partway through the last section, before the final increase for the 12 row border.  Those last rows had over 700 stitches, so although it was easy enough to knit in public or while helping my friends on a knitting afternoon, it was still a lot of knitting.  Finally, the pattern calls for a picot bind off, which prolongs getting the shawl off the needles to an almost unbearable level of anticipation.  But I love the shape, size, and look of this shawl so much that again I'm thinking of starting again to knit one for myself.  Knitting the first version in colours that I don't wear myself seems to be the only guarantee that a project will be gifted as originally planned.  The yarn in this one is Knit Picks Stroll Handpainted in the Hayride colorway.  I thought the dusty pink would be more rust, but the gold and green are definitely Jude's colours, so hopefully she'll think the bit of pink will work okay for her.

 

My nephew is getting married in August and I helped my mom pick out a beautiful crocheted lace sheath dress for the occasion.  It has short sleeves, but she is still worried that it will be cool and asked if I had a shawl that would work with the dress, which is a jewel tone somewhere between a jade and a teal colour.  Most of my shawls are on the purple, blue, burgundy side of the colour wheel, not a neutral in the bunch.  Although I've often thought it would be useful to have a shawl that would go with everything, once in a shop, the colorful yarns always seduce me.  I wanted to start  a cream coloured shawl immediately, so I popped into Carol's shop and bought the only yarn that was the right colour in the right weight, Berroco Comfort Sock.  I realized it was acrylic but thought it could work; it felt nice, and Mom's not a yarn snob at all.   So I chose a stole pattern suitably named Diamonds for Mother, and dove in.

I knew the yarn wouldn't block out like wool, but I took the piece off the needles after I had knitted the first edge and one repeat of the chart and blocked it to see how it would look.  It flattened out and opened up nicely, so I kept going.  The stole in this pattern was narrower than some others I looked at, so I added one extra repeat of the chart.  It is a very lovely design, classic, simple, and elegant.  The designer, Shui Kuen Kozinski, suggests an alternative method for making the nupps which is quite painless compared to the traditional method, and I think it gives an equally good result.  I will use her method from now on and fear nupps no longer.  I can't say enough good things about this pattern.  But I wish I had found a better yarn.  The Comfort sock does not drape or hold its shape as well as my shawls made with better fibre, as I should have known.  All that work is really worth a better yarn.

 

I finished the stole last Thursday with about three weeks to go until the wedding.  I'm crazy enough to think that I can still make something else in that time.  In my stash I found some Sunbeam Shantung, long discontinued, that I inherited from my aunt when she died of cancer in 1988.  I pulled out the pattern for my largest triangular shawl, and started knitting.  Three days in, this is what I've got. 

 

Draper is an easy pattern, and I should finish quickly.  I don't like the colour of this yarn as well as the cream (it looks more oatmeal in person), and I hope it softens up after soaking, but the body of the fabric is much more pleasing.  I'll take both shawls down for the wedding, and we'll see which one Mom likes best.

Addi, my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter, recently came up to me while I was knitting, and said, "Knitting. ... Mitts?"  I smiled and replied, "Actually, it's a shawl."  She looked at me quizzically and repeated, "Sawl?", paused a moment, then said, "No sawl.  Mitts.", and walked off.

I think I will be done with shawls for a while.  Is it already too late to start on all those summer sweaters I was dreaming of? 

 

 

 

 

Most Fun Since the Surprise Jacket

Look at the weird shape I've knit in garter stitch.  Maybe you can tell that it's going to be a mitten.  But what's up with the backwards thumb on one side?  Take a good look at the folding step below.

I inserted the white cardboard so that you can see the arrangement better.  What you might have thought would be a side seam is not;  it ends up on the palm side at the inside of the thumb.  Then that upside down thumb part flips up to become the other half of the thumb top.  Cool, eh!  (Yes, I am proudly Canadian.)

The pattern is from a Swedish collection, Warm Mittens and Socks by Eva Trotzig, which I just picked up from the Knit Picks book sale.  (I needed a new ball winder since my twenty-five-year-old one cracked.  Then I needed to get the order up to the amount for the most reasonable international shipping cost.  You know how it goes.)  Trotzig suggests that the mitts can be knit in stripes utilizing short lengths of leftover yarn, just tying the ends together at the cuff side for a decorative finish.  She has some nice examples in the book photos.  I knit these mittens in black sport/DK weight yarn frogged from an unfinished intarsia sweater from the 90's, so I got a chance to use up some small balls, but I did darn in the ends.  I think I'd like to make a really crazy pair next with every garter ridge a different color, Joseph's Technicolor Dream Mittens.

The large photo in Trotzig's book shows plain color mittens sewn together the usual way, with a striped cuff added for length.  I chose to add an extra 10 stitches to the pattern on the cuff end so I didn't need a cuff.  I could always add on later if I change my mind.  I decided to change up the mitten a bit by crocheting the seam together with an accent color.  (The Chanteleine yarn originally came in a Vogue kit with four colors of Chistmas tree lights looping around on a yellow line on the black tweed background.OMG, the stuff we used to knit!)  I'd seen this finish on another lengthwise mitten pattern by Colleen Egan.  This is how it turned out:

I considered carrying on the crochet as a fake seam to go all around the mitten and make it symmetrical, but I rather like the way this bright seam goes just where it's needed and highlights the unusual construction of the mitten.  So for now at least, I'm leaving the seam just the way it is.  I may put a row of single crochet around the cuffs though when I put the second mitten together.  I left it open to challenge my Monday knitting friends.

To Addina, From Adina

My granddaughter is named after her paternal Bis-Nonna (Italian for great grandmother), with a slight change in spelling.  My mother-in-law passed away eight years ago.  Now my daughter and her family live in Nonna's house in town here.

Recently, while searching the top shelf of the yarn room closet for some long lost sewing kits, I found a large bag I did not remember having.  It turned out to be the last afghan my mother-in-law was working on before she lost the energy for crafting.  She liked to crochet the afghan stitch in squares or panels, then use cross stitch to add flowers.  I am still using the afghan she gave me for Christmas over thirty years ago, and I'm sure my sister-in-law still has hers too.

 

The new one had all the hard work done. The panels were complete and joined.

For finishing, Ma had put one row of single crochet all around and then barely started to fringe one end.  The board that was the right width for cutting fringe was at the bottom of the bag along with the leftover wool.  There seemed to be quite a bit, perhaps enough to do a border instead.  I got out my book for crocheted borders and picked a couple that I thought would go well with the V-stitch she'd used to join the panels.  The first border that I tried was four rows around and denser than the one in the photo, but by the end of row one I could calculate that I wasn't going to have enough yarn.  I ripped and restarted with a narrower, more open border.  I think it will still be enough to make the edge look finished.

I'm halfway around the second, final row and enjoying the opportunity to crochet.  When it's done, I'm giving the afghan to my daughter for her daughter, whether she chooses to let her use it now or when she's a little older, or save it for her hope chest (if modern girls even recognize the term).  I think it's only fair that Addina should have Adina's last afghan.

 

 

Jackpot Shawl

Full Definition of JACKPOT from the Merriam Webster Dictionary

1:  a (1) :  a hand or game of draw poker in which a pair of jacks or better is required to open

        (2) :  a large pot (as in poker) formed by the accumulation of stakes from previous play

 

     b (1) :  a combination on a slot machine that wins a top prize or all the coins available for

                  paying out

        (2) :  the sum so won

 

     c :  the top prize in a game or contest (as a lottery) that is typically a large fund of money

           formed by the accumulation of unwon prizes

 

2:  an impressive, often unexpected success or reward

 

3:  chiefly West :  a tight spot :  jam

 

Until I moved here, I only knew the first two definitions of "jackpot;"  the term always held a positive connotation for me.  The first time I heard my husband swearing about the "jackpot" he'd run into in trying to fix something, I was stupified.  I thought he was using the wrong word; English is his second language, after all.  But it seems in the north here, the third, negative usage is quite common.  And it seems the best word to describe my recent encounter with a certain knitting chart.

 

Last summer my friend Anne Marie ordered some Cotlin yarn from Knit Picks and the pattern for the Sea Glass Shawl, but didn't get round to knitting it.  She's going to Florida in March and thought a cotton shawl would be nice to have for the trip, so she made it a priority in her new year's projects.  The striped portion was easy peasy, but then she found herself in a real jackpot.  I spent one Monday afternoon trying to help her sort it out, but only more ripping ensued.  We could not get the right stitch count for the charted lace.  She fared no better in a couple more attempts at home later in the week and phoned me on Saturday to vent her frustration and alert me that the next Monday would find us right back where we were the week before.  

 

I knew that my only hope in figuring out what was going wrong would be to knit the pattern myself.  I wandered into my yarn room and found a couple of discontinued colors of Patons Grace that I had bought at $.99 a ball about five years ago without knowing what I would ever do with them.  It wouldn't have the drape of a linen blend, but it was a slightly finer yarn and loosely knit should work out okay.  The striped section did go quickly, and by the end of our girls' Super Bowl evening I was caught up and ready to start the lace.  I went to Michael's on Monday to buy two balls of ivory color Grace for the lace insertion.  (It's up to $5.49 a ball now, but still a cheap shawl since my other 4 balls were bargains.)

 

Row 1 worked out fine, but there was a yarnover symbol on row 2, which reason said should be a plain purl row.  So I trusted my own judgement and didn't do it. On row 3 it seemed that the yarnover should be there, in the square above the one where it was printed.  But the last section of the chart still didn't add up.  I finally realized that in order for the sections to be symmetrical, since the chart was repeated in the same order on the other side of the center stitch, there was another yarnover missing too.  I was able pass on the corrections and all seemed to be well.   I got further than we had ever been before.  Until Row 25.  I struggled, and strained my eyes, and did math, and then found the designer on Ravelry and emailed her for help.  Too stubborn to give up and go to bed, I finally recognized where a yarnover had been omitted from the chart again, and emailed the designer again to tell her I'd solved my own problem.  Only to run into another jackpot on Row 27.  This time I thought to compare the chart with the line by line written instructions (I hate them and do much better with charts normally), and found that a K2tog symbol had been omitted.  It was after midnight by this time, but I fired off another email to the designer.  I was polite, assuming that all the errors were publisher's typos, but made the point that she should be aware of the problems and get the errata on the publisher's site.  I was surprised no one else had commented on problems or inquired about corrections.  I got such a nice reply from the designer, with apologies for my frustration and assurances that she would contact Knit Picks right away and post corrections on the Ravelry pattern page as well.  She hoped I'd have no further problems, but I did have to write back one more time to tell her that Row 33 had one extra stitch at the end of the chart that shouldn't have been there at all. The written instructions do seem to be correct throughout.

 

 

I posted all the chart corrections in the notes on my Ravelry project page for anyone else who wants to make this shawl.  Because it really is a nice blend of modern and traditional, with its stripes and its lace.  The striping follows an unusual sequence that is really cool and eye catching.  The lace circles are lovely and dense, while the mesh surrounding them opens up nicely with blocking.  The pattern looks good made like the original in three colors, or like the designer's second version in two colors.  I have more Patons Grace in the stash.  Now that I have it all figured out, I think I'm going to knit another one.

First FO's of 15

First FO of 2015 is another Norah Gaughan cabled hat,  in Patons Classic Wool.  This one is more a cap, not as slouchy as Blossom.   I like the hat, but I haven't worn it so it may go in the gift bin.  There are only so many hats I can wear, even in rotation.  With the wind chill ranging from highs of - 33 C to lows of -47 this last week, I do think I've worn a hat more days already this winter than ever before.

 

 I used the free trial period in January for the Creativebug site to pick up the hat pattern.  I cancelled my membership without subscribing though.  Creativebug is set up so that you pay a $10 monthly fee which renews automatically on a credit card until you cancel, and you get access to all the classes on the site.  However, I was really only interested in the few knitting ones by known designers, like Norah Gaughan and Gudrun Johnston from Shetland Trader.  The offerings at the level I want were not enough to be worth $120 US per year for me.  I buy two or three Craftsy courses per year, usually when they're on sale for $15 to $25.  Most Creativebug classes are quite short too, in comparison to Craftsy.  I would rather pay more for an in-depth course with more patterns or applications.  Creativebug may be just right for some people who want to try a lot of different little craft projects, but I remain a Craftsy fan for serious learning.

My next FO was a UFO from early last year, the Meier cardigan from the cover of Metropolitan Knits.  It was in a time-out while I worried about modifications I had made to narrow the shoulders.  I finished one sleeve per pattern instructions and sewed it in to make sure I hadn't frigged up the armhole too much.  Whew! it looked okay, so I quickly knit up the other sleeve and had a finished garment on my hands.  I went to Fabricland to buy buttons, and for once the cheapest buttons on the rack were the best color match and suited me fine.  Serendipity in the end.

 

Anne Marie and I have another friend knitting with us on Mondays now.  Pat has had to take the year off, babysitting for a little granddaughter.  But Diana decided that she'd like to knit again, after a long period of concentrating on stained glass as a hobby.  She's making accessories for herself and her daughters, and after I helped her find a cowl pattern in Cowlgirls for a pretty mohair blend she'd chosen, I decided I should try the pattern too, the better to help her if necessary.  (But it really wasn't necessary; her skills are refreshing fast.)  I had some Emu Butterfly inherited from my aunt about 1989, so this is truly vintage yarn.  It knit into a lovely, light, fluffy cowl, if I can just find someone who doesn't find mohair too itchy.

 

Stash diving, I also found the remains of an old boucle, maybe Sirdar, that was sold in huge balls so you would get a really long gradient color change.  It reminded me of another cowl pattern I wanted to try, one I picked up on Ravelry, that was photographed in a similar textured yarn.  Hawl is a cowl/neckwarmer  with an I-cord threaded through the top so that it can also be pulled up and worn as a hat, handy if conditions change.  It's designed for kids, but the teen size fits an adult. 

 

I've seen a few of these convertible accessories, and this is a good basic pattern that you could use with your own colorwork ideas or textured stitch patterns to change it up.  I'll probably knit it again out of a yarn I like better.

So January was a productive month with a completed cardigan and three items to replenish the gift bin.

 

 

 

 

 

Try, Try Again

I have a new computer, and if I can get used to Windows 8 and Photoshop Elements 13, there's hope again for blogging in my future.  I want to do a quick summary of my knitting in the last two months of 2014.  It was a bumper year for small items for Christmas giving.  There were:

Cowls for my nephew's fiancee, my young friend Steph, and my niece.  From left to right:  Infinitude, Purl Ridge and Avery.

Teddy Bear mittens and Color Pop beanies

For my daughter's friend's daughters (got that?).  Thanks to them, our princess has an extensive wardrobe of beautiful, hardly worn clothing from pj's and play clothes to designer dresses.  These are just a small thank you for all we have received.

Bunny mittens for our princess.  Couldn't leave her out when I was in cute animal mittens mode.

I made her some babies too.  She is a real little  mother, covering her dolls with blankies, feeding them bottles, and giving them lots of hugs and kisses.  This pattern by Amy Gaines is quick and easy and fun to make, not too fiddly at all.  The hats come off (there's also a headband with a bow), and the babies can be knit bald or with a switch to a hair color for the top of the head.

 

New kitchen towels for Mom;  it's been awhile.  The diminishing cables don't show up well in variegated yarn;  I'll use a plain color when I knit them again.   (I can't get these photos to switch to portrait orientation.  Sorry about the kink in your neck.  I'll try to get that figured out for next time.)

Zuzu's Petals for my sister, the cowl/shawlette hybrid by Carina Spencer.  What an easy style to wear!  Dressy too, in a sequined acrylic and wool blend yarn from Premier.

A guy hat for my sister's boyfriend.  This was his first family gathering with us.  This was also the first time I've knit Mustikka in adult size with worsted weight yarn instead of the sport/DK weight I used for the boys a couple of years ago.  I still like this cable a lot.

Boot cuffs are popular this year.  I tried two patterns with the cable going different directions. The horizontal ones for Stephanie are Braided Boot Cuffs.  Would you believe she paid $30 for a pair very like these from a specialty shop before she asked if I had a pattern and could knit her another pair!  I made a pair for my niece too, after she saw the others when she was here for Christmas.

For my daughter, for variety, I switched to vertical cables in the Jennifer Boot Cuffs.  These are knit on dp's and don't have to be seamed, an advantage in the opinion of some knitters.  The braided cuffs above are knit flat and seamed or grafted, but the seam is short, so don't let that dissuade you.   I like the looks of both patterns. 

The ones that got away without photos were the last of the Parisian Twist Headwraps, in rust (you've seen lots of those in the previous post), and some striped flip-top mittens to match, for my nephew's stepdaughter.  Also two little hats for the twins born to my other nephew last April.  Amanda Keeys' Baby Beanies has been getting quite a workout.  (It's the source of the Color Pop beanies too.)  I knit the Little Boy Blue pattern for the Mansie in the same colors shown in the book photo.  I knit the same Classic Cap that I had made for our princess for the SwissMiss, but in a nice mauve Bernat Satin this time.  Since both hats had tassels, I felt they made a nice set.  These items were the last to be finished, since we didn't see my husband's side of the family until the new year/birthday celebrations.  My daughter and my younger grandson are a year older already.

New for me:  Norah Gaughan's Blossom Hat from an old Vogue magazine, in the specified Blackstone Tweed yarn, a gift from my friend Jude, for whom I often knit.

And mittens which I think match quite well, Northanger Abbey mittens from the Fall 2012 Jane Austen Knits magazine.  They also called for Blackstone Tweed and knit up beautifully.  I did make the cuffs about 3 inches shorter - 7 inches was much more than I needed jammed into my parka sleeves.  These are still longer than most.

I also knit myself some house slippers from the old Patons free leaflet your grandmother might have used. as mine did.  I updated them with a little flower as shown in My Grandmother's Knitting, instead of the traditional pompom.  I did put Puffy Paint dots on the soles so I won't wipe out on the hardwood floors.

The yarn is a discontinued bulky acrylic/alpaca blend, Patons Rumor, which I got in a batch of knitting needles, patterns, and yarn from the president of our Italian Ladies' Auxiliary.  This is the third time that I've received in a roundabout way the stash of someone who's passed on.  I've become that lady you call when you have knitting related stuff to give away free to a good home.  I spent a lovely afternoon browsing  a little suitcase full of vintage pattern books and used some of the yarn for these slippers and some Wool Ease for my niece's boot cuffs.  I'd like to think that my friend's daughter's late mother-in-law somehow knows that her things came to someone who appreciated and made use of them.

I think that ends the 2014 roundup.  I'm looking forward to getting back to some garment knitting for myself in 2015, before gift season comes around again.

 

 

Where To Begin?

Don't ask where the last two months have gone! Short trips with family, and friends, company at home a couple of times, doctors' appointments, and helping out with the grandkids. No blogging, but some knitting and knitting related shopping.

One of my trips was to Manitoulin Island with my mom. We didn't make it last year, so it was wonderful to see my family there all doing well, both my uncles in their eighties still out cutting wood for the winter. We enjoyed some nice drives and walks, viewing the fall colours on those last warm days, including our usual ramble through the Silver Water Cemetery, visiting the generations who have passed and making sure their plots show they are still cared for.

This trip I decided it was time to visit Fresh Isle Fibers and meet my blog friend Marion face to face. She was at home in Gore Bay with her deck full of recently dyed yarn, with the dye pots still set up in the back yard. I fell in love with some  coreopsis and cochineal coloured skeins that weren't even fully dry yet. How fresh can you get! I had commented on the blog when she showed some beautiful new yellows, and confess I had that purchase in the back of my mind all the time. So I snatched up two skeins and they finished drying on Aunt Stella's deck, where they perfectly matched her fall flowers.

 

This is the set I plan to make for myself with this yarn:  Chime, hat, cowl, and fingerless mitts by Amy Christoffers. 

But I got waylaid by this pattern, the Parisian Twist Headband.  This is the one that started it all.

I bought the pattern to make a headband at Christmastime for my daughter, who's in her thirties and wears headbands often.  When my nineteen year old niece asked for a headband, I thought I'd try it out on her, so I made one and took it with me to the Island to give to Mom to take back to Jenna.  My eighty year old aunt tried it on and asked if I'd make one for her.  Next, Mom said, "Well, if she's getting one, I think I should have one too."  Then my aunt thought that one would make a great gift for someone's birthday and offered to pay me to make another one for her to gift.  But I knit for love, not money.    Anyway ...

I've knit ten of these now, for daughter, friend's daughter, neice in law, step neice, friend, and I haven't saved them for Christmas.  Everyone who sees them loves them.  Most are knit from vintage balls of Shetland Chunky, some from new Premier Serenity yarns on sale at Michael's.  This called for slight adaptations of the increases and decreases because the pattern was written for worsted yarn doubled and used a unique method.  My headband is the only one knit as written, with a special yarn, Malabrigo Rios in the Arco Iris colorway, purchased on my last trip to Needles in the Hay. 

 Aunt Stella let me raid her button box and I found enough large buttons for all my headbands, including this beautiful antique jewelled button which I saved for mine.  More than enough payment for the couple of things I knit for her.  Thanks again!