Catching up (again)

Hey Robin!
With the passing of the holidays, I finally find myself able to get some pictures taken and organized. Whee! A lot got completed in the mad scramble to clear off some needles before the New Year, what a relief that is. The ability to start new projects that don't really have a deadline is somewhat foreign lately...

Here we go. First up, I finished pair #2 of Through the Garden Gate. I like them in variegated!

Pattern: My own: Through the Garden Gate

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks that Rock Heavyweight in Loch Ness colorway.

Next is a hat request from the Darling Hubster. I used the Point-Down Toque pattern which really just turns out to be a rough guideline. It worked fine for my purposes and Hub is really happy with it. He especially likes the tassle I think. The yarn was a gift from him (bless him), and I don't think he meant to give me yarn so I would make him a hat... but it's a great color and I definitely think it belongs as this hat.

Project: Scat (yes, I know what that means but it's a hat/scarf!)

Yarn: Patton's Classic Wool in... blue.

Next is one of the items I gifted which I didn't want to show before just in case. This was a gift for my Dad's best friend. She's really a special person and I wanted to make her something to keep her neck and hands warm when she rides her bike to work on a chilly morning. Here's a pic of her wearing the cowl, it looks so great on her!

Pattern: Melony Cowl

Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Rich Chocolate colorway

Lastly, here's a design I've been working on and I would like to 'sneak peek' it to you all today in hopes of gauging some interest in a written pattern. I saw a commercially produced hood like this somewhere and started working on designing one in my head. Finally got some pretty chunky-weight yarn and gave it a go. Alterations will be necessary, but mostly the finished product will look like this:

I love the gentle cabling and the way it covers my head. I also like that there's no seaming! I know, seaming is NOT hard, but any chance to avoid it is a good thing in my book. I am looking for a good name for it as well, any ideas?

That's all I got today, Later!

Beowulf I am not....

Hey Robin!
I have neglected to update you on my FO's recently! Allow me to rectify that aberration!

First up we have my "Sonnet" cardigan. I would be happy to bow to the desires of the designer regarding the name, but this puppy took me almost a year to complete (my bad, not hers) and so I redub thee EPIC POEM! Or "Saga" for short:

 Isn't she purdy? The yarn is a 50/50 merino/silk blend that is just luscious. (Malabrigo Silky Merino in Cloudy Sky colorway) It is one of my favorite yarns to play with as you will see in the next FO. The buttons are temporary placeholders... I haven't decided what to change them to. Currently they are a mis-matched set of shell-like white buttons. Some people have told me they like that about them, but I am not sure it's my preferred final look. Time will tell. The construction on this one is unique in that it is knitted side to side instead of bottom to top (or vice versa). I liked the idea of it... and I think I might make another someday, perhaps trading out the stitch-detail with something else.

Our next FO is a sort of a test-change to a friend's cowl design (cowl, gaiter.... potato, potah-to) It's a beaded pattern, a great one for the beginner with just lovely results. She designed it for worsted, but I found a skein of the Silky Merino that was screaming to be a lighter-weight version of the original (the silky is a DK weight, which is smaller-diameter than a worsted... for those of you unfamiliar with yarn weights) I got some fantastic beads to go with it and Viola!

Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in the Tatami colorway with size 6/O beads.

Sorry for the unmodelled photo, I have been under the weather lately and not looking my best...

Another test-knit that was recently finished is another awesome hat by my friend Nina Machlin Dayton. She's a brilliant designer of things for one-skein usage. I love helping her with her projects. This one is a beret with some unique engineering. Instead of the usual hat construction, which is knit in the round, this one is knit back and forth on straight needles and grafted at the end. I have gotten very good at the grafting lately!

I give you: The Medici

Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Sunset colorway (love it!)

I believe that's all the knitting news that's fit to print! October is "Stockpile Month" in my Malabrigo Junkie world. All of us are knitting like crazy women in preparation for the Holidays. I won't be entering any contests but I am using the fervor to knock some projects out so that I'm not bleary-eyed and crazed on Xmas eve ;) Wish me luck!!

Later.

I'm waiting for someone to call it a "scowl"

Hey Robin!
Finished another! I've got cowls coming outta my ears. Perhaps I should put some aside as gifts! Oh if only most of the people I know-and-love didn't live in the Southwest!

This is the Beechwood Cowl by Ilga Leja. Feast your orbits!

It's a 100% Alpaca from Spunky Eclectic in the Mahogany colorway, which i got from a recent swap-buddy. Luuuurves it!

I'm sorry the pictures suck... AGAIN. I would take a pic of me wearing it, but it's stuffy around here lately and I just can't be bothered. Not complaining though! The cool weather will be here sooner than I like and I can model some items then...

See the pretty pin?!

Plus having your school district's teachers on strike put a bit of a wrench in the works when it comes to projects.... my Dad and I made elaborate plans to have him here soon after school started in order to add some insulation to the walls on our bedrooms (we had to do it backwards, that was fun) and possibly re-arrange the cabinets in the kitchen so that the room could be opened up and a kitchen table be added! W00t! I finally got the kitchen-flow that I have been wanting since we moved in! Hey, it only took 4 years.

Here's an extraordinarily-bad picture of "before" but you can kind of see the "u" shaped countertop. Which made a peninsula that was for food prep and eating (there's a little ledge on the other side which allows people to sit and eat).

He was so widdle!

So the peninsula is gone, the dishwasher is moved against the wall so that I don't have to do contortionism to get dishes put away (it was either that or open the door/take the dish/close the door/put the dish away... not fun) yay for easy dish removal! The new countertop is a butcherblock from IKEA that I am oiling so it can be used for food prep and it's an imminently more usable space. It's amazing... seriously.

Woohoo! New space!

The floors have een changed from half linoleum/half carpet to ALL laminate click-it-type floating floors. It's cheap but functional because it was recommended not to get the floor I REALLY want until I am also getting the cabinets I really want... so now I have 10 years to decide (the warranty on the new floor)

Look ma! No floors!

And lastly, when we were done, the Doodle bug christened the new floor in the best way he knew how. I love this picture.

Seriously, I am the luckiest gal in the world to have a Dad who will fly 1000 miles to help me work on my house! I mean he's supposed to be on vacation and this type stuff is what he does for a LIVING!! Thanks Dad, you really are the best!

Here's hoping you and Emme can come up and see the new layout sometime!

Later!

Hot Vegas Sands

Hey Robin!
I think I had already mentioned that I made a cowl out of the Silky Merino Malabrigo that my Malabrigo-Swap partner sent me. It's such a gorgeous color and I luuuurve the silky (evidenced by the fact that I have since ordered 5 skeins of silky and make a Clapotis out of it... but that's another blog post on another day). Anyhoo, I wanted to share the deets about the cowl because I am pretty durn proud of it.

There is no lack of cowl patterns to be found on Ravelry. Seriously. Tons. And yet none of them was exactly-right for what I wanted... so I looked in other places (scarf designs) and found the perfect pattern. I have been wanting to make the scarf for so long, this was a way to temper that desire and still get something I wanted. I give you: Vegas Sands! (Thought it was pretty perfect as the pattern I "stole" from is called Shifting Sands and the color reminds me a LOT of the neon entry at the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas.)

I used the basic dimensions found in many cowl patterns, extrapolated a stitch count from what Grumperina said about her stitch and went to town. It was a seriously fast knit and very satisfying! I highly recommend Grumperina's tutorial on how to cable without a cable kneedle. And now, for the first time I will share my own pattern! Enjoy and please feel free to make your own version and share a picture with me!

Vegas Sands (the cowl)

Materials:
1 skein Malabrigo Silky Merino in Amoroso colorway (or Intenso)
Size 7 circs, 16” length
Tapestry kneedle

Gauge: approx 5 sts/inch in stockinette, approx 22 sts/4 inches in pattern

Finished size: about 8” long by 18” around

Pattern stitch (adapted from Grumperina’s Shifting Sands Scarf):
Worked over 4 rows:
Row 1 (RS): *1/2LC, K2, repeat to end
Row 2 and 4: knit
Row 3: *k2, 1/2RC, rep to end

Pattern:

CO 105 sts using whatever method you like to give you a nice-edge, but remembering not to start too tightly as this does have to fit over your head! The edges will curl a little, but I consider that part of the charm. If you would like it to not-curl, perhaps go with a picot-hem at both edges? I haven’t tried that yet, but it would probably work well.

Knit first row, joining the ends and being sure to place a marker at the beginning of the row.

Next row: begin the pattern stitch and continue knitting in the round until the piece measures approx 8”. End with a row 4 if you can, but I really don't think it matters all that much. Bind off loosely in your favorite manner, I used a bobble-style picot bind off because I like to know which edge is the top:

Work picot bind off as follows:
*Knit 1 st. Slip knit st back to left-hand needle. Use cable cast on method to cast on 2 sts. Bind off 7 sts. Repeat from * until all sts are bound off. Cut yarn. Using yarn tail, connect the first picot point of the round to the last bound-off stitch.

Finishing: Weave in ends, block if you want (but I didn’t) wear around the house and look MAGNIFICENT!

Abbreviations:
1/2LC: slip 1 st to cable kneedle and hold in front, k2, then knit1 from cn
1/2RC: slip 2 sts to cn and hold in back, k1, then k2 from cn

cn: cable kneedle
co: cast on

Note: there were no test-knits so if you find any errors please let me know!

Later!