KnitMe

I Have Been There

Yes, the WEBS year end sale coincided with my annual trip north, and it suddenly sank in: I will be 30 miles from WEBS. So through rain and sleet, we went.

This is a view of about 1/3 of the main room.

Besides this main room, which has a spinning corner, there is a loom room, a small closeout room, a huge warehouse-like closeout room, and a sit-and-knit room. And that's just the parts that are open to customers. It is huge. It is just like I imagined it to be, only neater.

I goofed up and bought a lot of yarn.

Laines du Nord Cashsilk closeout colors were 3.99 for 25 grams (normally 9.00). I bought a bag of purple and 4 balls of emerald green to make the Princess Mitts from The Knitter's Book of Yarn. One mitt is already half done and as I knit it I'm wishing I'd bought more of this color, it is lovely.

I also bought a bag of WEBS new Florence (merino, acrylic, and kid mohair) to substitute for brushed alpaca in the lace cardigan from the last IK (but all in one color!). I am not sure it will be the perfect substitute, but it is very soft and just might work. It's hard to guess how much yardage the pattern uses, because it has so many contrast colors, but luckily I should be able to get more if I need it.

And I got a hank of that new Classic Elite Alpaca Sox yarn to try out.

It was a yummy day.

I have accomplished some knitting since the last time I posted. I finished Emily's Selbuvotter mittens (Annemor #4) with chart tweaks:

They don't look all that much like cats, but they look less like dogs.

I couldn't help starting a pair for myself. This one is NHM #9, also in Telemark.

For some reason, the white and purple Telemark feel a bit loftier and lighter than the two shades of blue that I used for the other pair. It is not as hard on my hands. I am really delighted with how they are turning out.

I also finished my Loksins socks. They turned out great. This photo does not do them justice.

I started a plain pair of garter rib socks for Emily in off-white Knit Picks Risata. They are coming out really nice, so far I like the yarn very much.

On a whim I started the Seville jacket from Oat Couture, in purple Brown Sheep Prairie Silks that were marinating at the bottom of my stash. This was on a day that nothing appealed to me. Now it's languishing because other things have caught my interest, but it is a pleasant boring knit. It's not much to photograph right now because it has a plain stockinette back and a plain stockinette left front.

I've made more progress on Autumn Rose, although it stalled a little because I didn't take it with me on my holiday trip.

I think these colors really sing, in a medieval-tapestry sort of way, and the yarn has an appealing hand when knit up at this gauge.

When I got home from vacation, I had a huge box from Morning Sun Fiber Barn in Iowa - it contained three batches of fleece I'd sent off for processing. This is 2 1/4 pounds of Cormo from 'Peggy'.

I also have about a pound of shetland X merino and about a pound and a half of grey shetland. They did a great job with these - the shetland was a mess of vegetable matter so of course it still has some in the roving but the two fine fleeces are picture-perfect.

That's about all - I am not thinking clearly because my 6 1/2 year old is having a tantrum downstairs...

A sad farewell to Dan Fogelberg, one of the pre-eminent voices of my college years.

There is no Eden or heavenly gate
That you're going to make it to one day
And all of the answers you seek can be found
In the dreams that you dream along the way...

-"Part of the Plan", Souvenirs, 1974

Warm Fuzzies

Before I take off on my annual midwinter trek to Hawaii, I"d like to show you my North Dakota winter knitting FO's.

Selbuvotter for my sweetie. The pattern is Annemor#13 from Terri Shea's wonderful Selbuvotter book.They are knitted in Harrisville New England Shetland, on 2.75 mm dpns. They are my first mittens and my first go at colorwork. Both the recipient and I are pretty pleased with how they turned out:

Socks for both of us. His are blocked and ready for the gifting; mine just came off the needles. They are knitted in Lisa Souza's Sock!. She named this fresh and subtle colorway 'Giverny'. I was lucky to get some of the first skeins out of the dyepot. I think I have a first edition of a classic!

Warm fuzzy socks for my very own, in Mountain Colors Bearfoot. The colorway is Thunderhead. The yarn was a gift from Kerry, who knows that 'color and cozy' make the perfect match tor a northern winter. Thanks, Kerry!

Finally I'll leave you with a little spinning. This is a 6 oz. skein of wool/mohair mill-end roving from Detta. I spun it on the Lendrum. I think it wants to be a scarf, or maybe a hat or mittens. Doesn't it look right at home in a snowbank?

So today I will say "Uff da! It's cold outside." At the end of the week I'll be saying "Aloha, Molokai!"
Happy holidays to all.

Tangled Yoke

I finished Tangled Yoke last Wednesday.

I am very happy with how it fits. I made the smallest size, knowing that I would probably have just a hair bigger gauge than called for, and it turned out right. It is as light as a feather - I only used 6 50g hanks of Silky Wool.

I found some plain plastic buttons on eBay for really cheap - off white with a little swirl in them. They are perfect. And I have about 65 of them now, in a little bottle, waiting for the next time I need plain 1/2 inch buttons...

The shape is quite elegant - the yoke sits in exactly the right place on the shoulders and the waist shaping is subtle.

This took exactly 2 months to knit, I started it on October 5th. I used my Knitpicks Harmony size 5 needle points and they were very nice to work with.

I cast on for Autumn Rose on Thursday, but somehow the photo I took of it didn't make it where I needed it to be, so you won't see it this week. I have completed the 15 rows of ribbing and am ready to start the pattern. I think there is already an error in the pattern - based upon reading what it says and looking at the picture. After the ribbing rows, you knit a single setup/increase row in the main gold color. Then it tells you to start the chart, and the first row of the chart is a row in the same gold color. But if you look at the photos, it is totally clear that there is only ONE row of gold before the medallions begin. So, I am taking the setup row as row 1 of the chart, and moving on from there.

In other news, I started the second Selbuvotter mitten while I ponder what else I would like to be working on right now. I'll get that finished up fairly soon, and then we can set them aside until Emily is about 10.

Loksin!

So, if these socks are called Loksins, this must be a Loksin.

This yarn makes me happy. I am going to have to get more Sky Drama stuff from Lisa.

One might expect that such a colorway would totally obscure the patterning on the sock, but I don't think it does. Of course, it would show more in a pale solid, but I think it shows up amazingly well in this intensely colored yarn.

We are done with hats for awhile! Here is the finished Greenery hat.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, it was a good pattern to show off the two yarns I used. I did block it, because unblocked it was too long and narrow. It could still use another block to rearrange the shape a bit more.

Tangled Yoke is coming down the home stretch.

I'm not the biggest fan of raglan shaping in general, but I do like the magic moment when the thing drops off your needle and IT'S A SWEATER.

I just have the buttonbands left to do, and I have to find 9 1/2-inch buttons that match up with this beige tweed. There just isn't anyplace to go get ordinary La Mode buttons anymore, not within half an hour's drive.

This is a detail of the center back of the yoke pattern.

I kept playing with my fast whorl on the Symphony - I grabbed a few miscellaneous combed samples and started spinning really fine. This is about 75 yards/12 grams of what I think is laceweight - the single was 1/3 cormo, 1/3 rambouillet, and 1/3 shetland X merino.

I then started spinning some of the camel/silk blend I have been struggling with on my spindles for a year or more. This is much easier.