Tag: wool

Bathtub Full of Yarn? Yes, Please!

Posted on Posted in field trips, yarnTagged , , , , 8 Comments

One of my planned destinations on my trip to Oklahoma was SWAK Knits in Guthrie. I had visited many years ago, and I was really glad to find they are still there. The shop is bursting full of all kinds of goodies, including a bath tub full of yarn!

I picked up some new driftwood needles and colorful yarn, which the shop owner, Keely, caked for me.

The gold is Blue Sky Alpacas Highland Wool, and the blue and green is Mrs. Crosby’s Steamer Trunk Merino in Peacock.

I love marigold. It’s one of my favorite colors, but I never wear it since it doesn’t look very good on me. I couldn’t help myself with this yarn, though. I have two skeins and I’m thinking of making mittens, since I can look at that gorgeous color on my hands!

I’m not sure what the Mrs. Crosby’s is destined to be.

The boys found some treasures of their own at one of the antique stores.

There is one more yarn store in OKC to visit!

Blogging from the Road

Posted on Posted in fiber love, field trips, sweaters, Works in Progress (WIPs)Tagged , 3 Comments

Hi from the road! I’m knitting in the back seat and wanted to share the beautiful texture of this yarn. This is the Midnight Merino Raglan I haven’t worked on in a while, but this is great car knitting. I’m glad the stitches are plain so they can show off the texture.

I made it to the knotwork on Celtic Myths, but that’s too fussy for the car.

Year of the Sweater

Posted on Posted in finished objects, sweaters, Uncategorized, yarnTagged , , 7 Comments

Hello! It’s snowing again. This should not surprise me. It’s March in Ohio.

I spent most of my studio time today preparing knitting for my trip to Oklahoma. Because I am taking four sweaters to knit on for the week. FOUR. The Oa, Midnight Merino Raglan, and two new ones: Cricket Hitofude and Meara XO.

I think we can safely call this The Year of the Sweater.

This is a merino and silk yarn in colorway Cricket for the Hitofude cardigan. This is my spring cardi I wanted to wear with my new tunic. It didn’t take me long to work out what I wanted.

Have you ever seen the Gilmore Girls episode when Lorelei is preparing for her wedding with Luke and all the planning falls together seamlessly so she knew it was meant to be? That’s what happened with this sweater.

If you’ve seen that episode, you know it turns out to be ill fated, but let’s stay positive and assume Cricket will come together seamlessly. The top of the cardigan is begun like a shrug. Have you ever knit a shrug?

Also, are you participating in Make It Yourself March? I am participating on Instagram, and one of the prompts later in the month is “most worn.” In preparation, I photographed myself in this shrug I knit about 10 years ago.

I wear this shrug every winter, most recently over this Mata Traders blouse. It’s knit from Knitpicks alpaca and silk, and the pattern may have been Knitpicks too. I can’t remember.

That first photo is a little goofy, but I never know how to pose myself in photos, so I typically ham it up.

It is also, according to Skeinherder, Malabrigo March. I thought that was the perfect excuse I didn’t need to buy a single skein of Malabrigo in my favorite color, cerulean. (That’s fun to say.) What will I make? I am thinking I will make the perfect beanie. When I know what that means, I will let you know.

Here is my tweedy Fibre Co. Arranmore yarn in colorway Meara. I’m calling the sweater Meara XO because it’s an all over cable pattern with XOs down the center front and back.

The pattern, Staghorn, is from the book A Fine Fleece. I like calling it XO because in The Expanse (and apparently the military) they call the executive officer XO. I secretly want my staff at work to call me XO as a term of endearment. But, as you know, nicknames cannot be forced.

Look at this hank of gradient yarn that turned out to be five different hanks of single color yarn. Boy do I feel stupid. I guess I’ll have to buy another hank of verifiably gradient yarn so I can knit my Bramen Cowl for the first lesson from Year of Techniques. (I copied Quiteayarnblog.) There were so many techniques on the list I didn’t know, I signed right up!

I think I’ll hold off on buying the yarn so I have an excuse to go yarn shopping in OKC when I’m there.

I’m still reknitting the bottom of my Carbeth. I’ve had to rip it out twice. But I think third time’s the charm on this one.

I’ve linked to two other bloggers in this post. I really blog for the community. Thanks for reading my blog and being part of my community!

Ohio Star Cowl

Posted on Posted in design, fiber love, finished objects, scarves and cowls, yarnTagged , , , 14 Comments

I finished my Ohio Star Bandandit Cowl. I’m pleased because it came out exactly as I designed it. So in that sense, it is a successful design.

It is also a successful garment. It fits, it keeps me warm, and it will stay up over my nose when I need it to.

The star motif is subtle and that’s fine. This isn’t a super exciting design, but it works. I mainly made this for hiking. The Bare Naked Wools Better Breakfast DK is also very soft and very warm. I think I’d like to knit an oversized cardigan out of it.

Slapdash Saturday

Posted on Posted in design, scarves and cowls, sewing, sweaters, what makes me tick, Works in Progress (WIPs)Tagged , , 5 Comments

I ripped back several inches of the Ohio Star Cowl. As you can see here, my short rows were too steep.

It looks like a sleeve! I will reknit it, decreasing into a more shallow point at the bottom front. Here is a better look at the textured star, which I hope will block out nicely.

And here you can see my math scribbles on a corner of knitters graph paper because I forgot my journal.

Today I started sewing again!

Okay, no actual sewing, but some pattern cutting. I hope to get started tomorrow. I have plenty of fabric to match my plaids, but my goal here is a folksy mismatching of plaid, on the pockets at least.

I also decided I love my red Targhee sweater too much to not be able to throw it on over jeans- with no shirt underneath because it is super soft- which means it needs a handspan of length added to the bottom to cover my hips. I spent a good deal of my time ripping out stitches.

I stopped before ripping out all the ribbing because it was lunch time. I’ll finish tomorrow.

Here’s my swatch for one of the Warm Hands contest designs. I’ve decided to forget about the contest since it may not be happening, and I promised myself I didn’t have to put anything out there this year if I didn’t feel like it. And I’m not feeling like it. Ostrich Sleeves will have to wait.

Today I realized why I cram so much creativity in on the weekend. When I was working as a store manager, I used that part of my brain every day on photography and social media. Now that part of my brain doesn’t get much exercise during the work week, so I’m hitting it hard on the weekend.

After studio time it was Date Saturday. Bob and I went out for Mexican food, saw Green Book, and picked up Ethiopian food to take home for dinner. We ate out twice today! How decadent.

Studio Sunday

Posted on Posted in art, design, fiber loveTagged , , , , 6 Comments

Bob and I had a lovely hike yesterday, and I got lucky with this photo, which I plan to make into a felt painting.

Today’s essay from Knitting Season Club is about losing yourself in the creative process. I don’t need any help with that as I am a daydreamer by nature, but she did share two songs from Alice Coltrane. How refreshing to be introduced to a female jazz great, and I now have a new favorite song which I am currently listening to on repeat as I swatch in the studio.

I have two design ideas for the Warm Hands competition. I am swatching for both today. One design is for Milarrochy Tweed, the other is for Ard Thir. These arm warmers were knit for me by my friend Marjorie (holla!) and they, along with this alpaca poncho from Bolivia, are my inspiration for one design.

The other is a spin off of a design I was already working on. I’m being careful not to put too much out there, because designs aren’t considered if they’ve already been made public.

And I got some new yarn this week!

This is Cabecou Lace in Sel Gris. I will knit Anne Hanson’s Dust Devils with it. This yarn smells really good, by the way. I had a hankering (get it?) to knit something lace this summer.

I’d better stop yapping and get swatching.

Saturyay

Posted on Posted in design, mittens and gloves, socksTagged , 4 Comments

February is that month when you’re supposed to finish it, frog it, or forget about it. I don’t normally follow prompts, but I realized I was avoiding knitting on my sock, probably because it was boring. So I frogged it.

I tried to get JoJo to wear it like a turtleneck, hoping she would run around and help me pull the yarn out, but no such luck. I kept saying, “C’mere! C’mon! It’ll be fun!” And Bob said, “Are you hearing yourself?” So I gave up.

I love this yarn and I have a couple of cabled clog sock patterns, so I’ll cast on one of those at some point probably. Although I’m more than a little smitten with the Purl Soho toe up sock pattern. The only pair of socks I knit that I actually wear were toe up, which makes me want to get the pattern even more.

I spent some time perusing glove and mitten patterns to see if I could get inspired. I wanted to knit myself some gloves this year from Milarrochy Tweed. I thought, “Perfect! I’ll design myself some gloves and submit the design to the contest!” But I’m completely uninspired.

I was hoping I would be able to get a sense of what my design aesthetic is by what I like, but my likes are all over the place! I like bright colorwork, subdued cables, comfy cozies, clever textures, funny graphics, and over the top cosplay.

I told myself, “Make a pair of gloves that you would enjoy knitting and wearing.” But I don’t know what that is. I currently wear knit alpaca gloves and mittens from Bolivia, and I would say they are very warm and on the plain side. I would get bored knitting them by hand. (Sock lesson learned!)

I would also like to make some thrummed mittens one day, and the Ard Thir yarn might be a good fit for that.

Today is date day/night and we are going hiking and then to dinner. I look forward to posting hiking in the naturehood photos tomorrow! Have a great weekend!

Friyay -All the Things

Posted on Posted in what makes me tick, yarnTagged , , , 3 Comments

I received my first installment of the School of Wool Club from Knitspot.

It’s a skein of sport weight Targhee! How did they know I love the squishy sponginess of Targhee?

Look at this beautiful yarn inspired by the coloring of the female cardinal:

(📷 copyright cornbreadandhoney)

And check out this Harry Potter inspired knitting themed enamel pin!



Did you hear Kate Davies is having another design contest? I want to enter but I have zero ideas at this point.

I’m so glad it’s Friday.

Sunday Studio Time

Posted on Posted in design, scarves and cowls, sweaters, Works in Progress (WIPs)Tagged , , , , 5 Comments

I was good and completed my swatch for The Oa on the smaller sized needle. I haven’t steamed it yet. I also threw in a row of the green for color C to see how it would show up and I’m really glad I did, because it doesn’t! Show up that is. I also tried some knit 2 of A and C before binding off, just to be sure. Someone who has more experience with colorwork probably would have seen this coming. It’s ok, though. I ordered two balls of black and I’m sure that will work.

This week’s Knitting Season assignment was to write every day with the prompt, “Remember when I…” So I wrote about the time I dyed this silk top blue, spun it into yarn, and knit it into this tam. It’s a little beat up now. I wore it and so did some of the kids, which made me happy. It inspires me. I think I might like to save up and get a spinning wheel again.

I also spent some time working on this design for a colorwork Ohio Star Cowl and beanie.

And the original Ohio Star Bandandit is almost done, but I ran out of yarn! I ordered another 2 ounce hank and am looking forward to blocking it and wearing it. I want to knit another one with more texture work in The Fibre Co Arranmore Light in St. Claire, the bobbly tam yarn.

So it has been a productive week. I guess I am slowly but surely getting closer to reaching my goals.

People ask me how I do all of this on top of a full time job and my very part time work with Haven Herbs, and I can say with certainty it’s because Bob does all of the shopping, cooking, and cleaning. And he does it because he likes it. I do my own laundry and dishes, and clean the bathroom sometimes, but that’s really it. So shout out to Bob! ❤️ Also, I only have one kid still in school and he is super low key. ❤️

And I’m a much happier person when I am knitting. ❤️

ETA: I cut a steeeeeeek!