Archives

Live Oak Shawlette Is Finished!

Feb14

Happy Valentine’s Day!  It’s a little foggy outside and the weather is cool but I’m enjoying the day regardless.

It is finished!  I finished my Live Oak Shawlette last Friday, blocked it and wore it to church on Sunday.  I love the way it feels and looks.  The pattern called for sock yarn but the sock yarn I had wasn’t something I wanted to use so I went browsing through my stash and came up with the Schulana  Mosco.  I don’t think it’s as stretchy as the sock yarn would be.  It received a lot of compliments.   And, at this size it can also be worn as a scarf around my neck.  I Love It!!

Live Oak Shawlette being blocked.

Wearing the shawlette to church.

At the moment, I am wandering around touching my yarn, browsing through patterns but I have not cast on anything new.  I am not sure what I want to do next.  My daughter wants a hat “that fits.”  She thinks the Habitat Hat is too big.  And she wants something knitted in lavender/purple.  That will probably be what I knit next.  I will let you know what she decides.  I wish I could show you a picture of her wearing it but those pictures are in my “dead” computer.

take care,

Transitions Lead to Drastic Changes

Jul31

It’s been six weeks since I moved in the middle of June.  The only knitting I have put around my fingers is the two sweaters I started back in April.  What I really mean is that my yarn is still in plastic bins.  I can’t get to the stash for all the hard plastic.  And these bins are either stacked in the floor of the closet under my hanging clothes or around the bed in the extra bedroom and there’s even one bin still languishing in the far back corner of the rental storage unit.

Also in even more bins and boxes are fabrics and patterns and magazines related to my sewing hobby.  I have already made the decision to concentrate on the knitting as it’s more mobile, more creative in some ways, and I’m more sane when I knit than when I sew.  With sewing I am stuck by myself in the bedroom with the machine.  With knitting I can be all over the house, yard, town, even the county!  I discarded a lot of stuff during the move as I have reached the age where I know I am not “going to get to it, one day.”  Especially if I keep up this knitting.  Even with what I discarded, there is wwaaayyy too much left.  So, let’s get real.  I am not going to do anything with all that fabric. So what do I do with it all?  It definitely is not going to the garbage can to be picked up by the mean green machine on Tuesdays.  A good friend is active in the Homemakers club where I previously lived and I will cull out what I do not plan on using which will be about 75 percent of it.  I plan on keeping about two bins for myself.  She can have the rest.  What is really bothering me about all this excess is that I cannot get a grip on what I do have so I can create all these wonderful and beautiful things which are in my imagination.  And who wants to spend all morning searching for that particular yarn or piece of fabric?  And when it is found, you are mentally tired and want to move on to something else.

When all this material is sorted out, the first thing I will to do is to make a quilt from my mother’s house-dresses and remnants from the dresses I made my daughter when she was a baby and toddler.  Plus, there is fabric from dresses I cut out and never made for her.  Long before I was born, Mama made a quilt top using the Grandmother’s Fan pattern and that is what I will use as my pattern.  As you can see she used a yellow cotton broadcloth for the background but I think I will use a blue as that is the color I most associate with her.  Also, most of her dresses were predominately blue.  Perhaps I was unconsciously influenced by her when I picked the blue yarns for the two sweaters I just finished.

Mama's quilt top

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close up of Mama's quilt top

I Love Them ALL!

Jul20

I realized I do not have a favorite yarn when I saw the post on Creative Knitting’s Facebook page that asked the questions “Do you have a favorite bulky yarn? What projects do you make with it?”  I don’t have a favorite bulky, worsted, fingering or any other weight yarn.  I love them all!  I realized that I’m more into textures, colors, and how the yarn feels.  I may be planning a project with a specific yarn that has been suggested for the pattern but get completely sidetracked when my eyes stray and I am enticed to use a completely different yarn for any of the above reasons.

I will buy yarn for no other reason than I like, no, make that LOVE, the way it feels between my fingers, or the color just makes me drool.  I am not that way with picking out a pattern or a general project, for it is rare that I do not make a change in the pattern, no matter how slight.  Perhaps I am lured by color most of all.  Years ago when I was smocking bishop dresses for my daughter and before that working cross stitch, I would buy floss just because I loved the color.  Recently I gave my stash of floss to the teen-ager for her to use making friendship bracelets and such.  When she returns home from camp and she is bored, and waiting for school to start, I will ask her to count just how many skeins of embroidery floss she does have, and I will let you know.

Fleece Artist Sea Wood, 70% Merino Wood, 30% Seacell

The variegated yarns of blues and greens just make my fingers itch to start knitting.  This is one of my favorite skeins of yarn:  Fleece Artist’s Sea Wool in gorgeous blues.  Doesn’t it make you think of swimming in cool, clear water on a hot, summer morning?  I may never make anything with it, I  am content to just feel it and look at it.  I bought this from Knit Nouveau in Homewood, Alabama, before it went out of business.

 

 

Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca D.K.. 100% Alpaca

This Baby Alpaca D.K. from Plymouth Yarn is so soft and the colors are so luscious.  I made the scarf “Latifa” from Knitty’s website for my niece and used a beautiful sock yarn for the ruffles that miraculously had all the colors.  I bought this yarn from a LSY in Destin, Florida.

Latifa Scarf from Knitty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jo Sharp Silkwood Aran Tweed, 85% Wool, 10% Silk, 5% Cashmere

When I got to Knit Nouveau’s  going out of business sale there were only three skeins of this Jo Sharp’s Silkwood Aran Tweed left.  I absolutely love this green and ohhhh, the way it feels makes you want to squeeze it non-stop.

 

 

 

 

Plymouth Yarn Royal Silk Merino, 51% Silk, 49% Merino Wood

Now in contrast to all these blues and greens I have in my stash a bag of beautiful pale yellow yarn, Plymouth Yarn’s Royal Silk Merino.  I bought this from Little Knits online at least four years ago.  Did not have a pattern I wanted to knit with it or know when I could get to it,  but I had to have it.  I oooooed, and aaahhhed for days after it came in the mail.  I still do when I get it out to just look at it.  Someday I will find the perfect pattern for this yarn.

These are a few of my favorite yarns.  They are spun from different fibers and are of different weights and textures.  There appears to be no rhyme or reason as to why I love them.  I just do.  What are a few of your favorite yarns and what do you find so appealing about them?

What a Wonderful Day!

Oct14

Last Tuesday was a wonderful autumn day with the sun shining and the yellow leaves swaying in the breeze.  On this day my daughter had her braces taken off after two and a half years!  What a beautiful smile and worth every rubber band found on bathroom counters and tabletops.  Since it was a Special Day we went to a yarn shop in Birmingham to buy yarn for the Central Park Hoodie that I’ve been promising for two years. I bought the pattern on Ravelry. She wanted a gray soft yarn and I wanted a wool yarn that was washable.  We’re talking teen-ager here and I wasn’t going to be taking this to the dry cleaners, which is 14 miles away.  And I certainly wasn’t going to be hand washing this hoodie.  We settled on Berroco’s Vintage, which is a nice, washable wool blend of acrylic, wool and nylon the medium gray colorway number 5107.  Progress is coming right along with the hoodie but I’m worried that it won’t be warm enough.  I’m knitting this using a size 8 needle and the fabric is not very dense.  It’s great to work with, the yarn is sliding off my Hiya Hiya circulars.  The cable stitches are showing up great in this yarn.

Below are pictures of the swatch I made before knitting and yes, the size 8 called for in the pattern made gauge without any needle adjustments.  I like the way the yarn bloomed after washing, too.

After deciding on this yarn, Only Daughter wanted a pair of gloves in a contrasting color to go with this hoodie. She picked out another Berroco yarn for the gloves in lovely blue.  I’m planning on using a pattern I found on Ravelry, The Malabrigo Gloves; only I’m not using that particular yarn.  If the swatch doesn’t look right, I’ll find another pattern.  If you have any other suggestions please let me know. 

The Special Day was topped off with going to Books-A-Million and getting three books for her and one for me!

Love This Color!

Sep13

Bought this simple cotton yarn at Wal-Mart the other day for no other reason than I love this color yellow.  It’s Peaches and Crème and will probably be used to knit up a washcloth but doubtfully of the kitchen type.  More of the bathroom washcloth type.  Now I have to find a pattern I think will show off the color.  Any suggestions?  A lacy pattern, perhaps, or textured?