Garden Matters & (shhh...) Crochet

Full spring has arrived all at once, along with the liquid gold blossoms of forsythia. 
 

The colors of these photos have not been enhanced, the blooms really are this brilliant!

   

The ground has finally warmed and dried out enough to allow for gardening, albeit somewhat later than usual. I've been pulling weeds, cleaning out debris and planting the vegetable bed with kale, lettuces, radicchio, snow peas, onions and radishes. Tomatoes and peppers must wait until the soil warms more thoroughly, they're usually in by June.

The little bit of green on the right is lemon thyme and the green shoots in the background are chives, both plants that overwinter beautifully here in our US zone 6 climate. 

Since the completion of my Greyhaven hat pattern (currently being test knit by my trusty team of intrepid knitters: Josefina, Laurie, Julia, Kim, Paula, Connie and Cheryl), I've taken some time to do a little crocheting. 

The photos above and at the top of the post show my current project, a lacy cardigan worked in grayish-natural color silk and wool blend yarn from Drops, called Silke-Tweed, that's been in my stash for years. 

The negative attitude many knitters exhibit towards the C-word (crochet) bemuses me as this lovely art form is simply another interesting way to combine beauty and utility through fiber. Although I don't perhaps love crochet nearly as much as I do knitting, I enjoy this alternative yarn technique for a change of pace.

At present I'm also swatching ideas for my next knitting projects now that the hat pattern is about ready. Look for the hat release announcement here very soon.

Thanks for stopping by today, peace, blessings and happy stitching to you!

FO - Fall Shawl

My Fall Shawl is finished just in time to wear for our Thanksgiving festivities!  I love how a colorful scarf dresses up the simplest of outfits.

This project was inspired by a photo of colorful autumn leaves and berries I took out in the woods this month,

using this Noro Kureyon Sock yarn,

 

as well as a skein of Isager Spinni (Wool 1) in a deep charcoal heather for an edging to ground the multi-color striping effect a bit.

The colors are rich, autumnal and more subtle than usual for many Noro yarns.

I used every scrap of the Noro and only had about 5 yards of the Isager left over.

The rustic, slightly rough feeling of both of these yarns has great appeal for me, although a few spots in the Noro yarn were a bit too slubby for my taste so I cut those out.  

These are not yarns for someone in love with soft, soft, soft, rather they are alive with texture and color in a way a smooth yarn cannot be.  However, I still cannot imagine wearing socks knit with the Kureyon Sock - too rough even for me!

Last week we attended another spin-in at Temptations in Dublin.  It was a small group but it made for interesting conversations.

One gal in the group owns Himalayan cats and is in the process of spinning up their fur into yarn to knit mittens.  For the kittens. Seriously.

ACHOO!!!!!!!!!

 

I am still slogging away on some boring Louet Coopworth roving that came with my wheel.  I'm planning a 3-ply and since I have 2 pounds of the stuff, probably something like a chunky cable sweater.  That's going to be a ways down the road though.

 

As I reflected on the many blessings I have to be thankful for - love, freedom, knitting! - it occurred to me that there are also some things that can go unappreciated.

These things can sometimes even be annoying or difficult to deal with, but viewed through a different lens, they can sometimes also represent good things.  I bring you my new Thanksgiving list of things I am grateful for:

1. A tangled mess of yarn - because this means I have the physical ability to knit and the yarn to do it with.

2. A mountain of laundry to wash - because this represents the fact that I have not only enough clothing to wear, but enough multiples of things like socks and shirts that I'm able to let them stay dirty (a few days at least) until I find time to wash them.

3. My husband's dirty underthings - (ugh!!) but really, it means I have someone this close enough to me in my life and still love him, and him me.

4. A dirty bathtub and toilet - because this means I have a home with clean, hot, running water with which to bathe and with which I am able to clean these things - something so many people in this world do not have. 

5. A sink full of dirty dishes - because they are evidence that I have had not just enough to eat to keep me alive, but abundant choices as well.

Wishing you a peaceful week of great cooking and knitting, safe journeys and lots of Thanksgiving goodies!

Hello Ewe!

 

I just love the face on this sweetly curious sheep from our visit to a historical farm last weekend.  She seems to be saying 'hello you (ewe)!' in a friendly and cheery way.  More about our farm visit later on. First the knitting.

This project is a leftover from my vacation last month.  For travel knitting I enjoy working on patterns by other designers and I knew I wanted to bring large (cardigan) and small (shawlette, hats) projects.

After dithering over several cardigans, I chose this one because I had the pattern yarn, Berroco's Blackstone Tweed, in stash and that was the deciding factor. 

The pattern is Pipibird's Harvest Moon, and it's going pretty well so far.  I started this on my trip but it got sidetracked with my Ishbel shawl and the hats. Fairly boring with miles of endless stockinette, I've managed to slog through quite a ways and begun knitting down the bodice. Hopefully the agony will be over soon.

My crochet Noro shawl is about 60% complete and looking very autumnal I think.  I can't wait to finish this so I can wear it.

I don't knit with a lot of Noro, but the colors of this skein of Kureyon Sock were perfect for fall, and I like the slubby, thick-thin, rough texture.  Not a yarn for an elegant, refined, stitch-centric shawl, but perfect for something this earthy and simple. 

I've been playing around with different buttonholes and scoping out buttons for one of my current pattern projects.  This one is interesting.

Last weekend found us busy with a visit from my cousin Mike and our outing to Slate Run Living Historical Farm.

Lots of farm life activity was going on including cooking and broom-making, but they were sadly lacking a spinner, knitter or weaver on the premises!

I haven't posted nearly enough about spinning lately, but then, I haven't been spinning much lately either, much to my chagrin.  However, this week is another spin-in at an area LYS so hopefully I'll have more to share on that topic soon.  

Autumn Inspiration on the Needles & Hook

This time of year it seems the calendar starts to fly by.  Wasn't it just hot as blazes?  Now the air is cool and crisp with curls of woodsmoke rising from chimneys, mornings are frosty and I'm in the mood for warm, woolie things to wear.  I've winnowed down my works-in-progress (WIP's), but still have a lot going on.

This morning I went to one of my favorite nearby parks and took this photo.

The silvery-frosted leaves and berries against the backdrop of golds, greens and oranges made me want to get stitching!  I went home and dug through my stash to find several candidates but the winner was, hands down, a skein of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn in colorway S242.  

It seems Eisaku Noro must have a penchant for these same shades of Autumn as I have.

I've used the Kureyon Sock to start a crocheted shawlette called Elise Shawl  by designer Evan Plevinski.  This photo shows his shawl, mine is shown in the photos above and at the top of the post.

After the set-up rows, the pattern is a simple two-row repeat worked from the neck down, using only basic crochet stitches like double and triple crochet.  I'm working it with a US size I hook. Fast and fun so far!

Also on my needles are a gazillion prototypes for a hat to match my Lavande neckwarmer pattern, 

a cardigan, from another designer, left over from my vacation (more details when I have photos to share) and a couple of versions of this pattern project.

I'm also playing around with yarns for a variation on the Greyhaven cowl.  And I am excited to announce...

...that Greyhaven was voted as the November knitalong free pattern project for the Ravelry Cowls group!  Thanks to everyone who voted for this pattern.  By the way, I uploaded a new version of the pattern on November 1st, 2010, so if you downloaded one before that date, go ahead and grab a new one. 

This cowl KAL will be going on all month, so it's not too late to join if you still want to.  Some members have already completed multiple versions and are still casting on for more, many looking ahead to making holiday gifts. 

As for KAL's, the Ravelry Anthropologie group Brandywine Falls KAL will continue for quite awhile, so there's plenty of time to join in on that one too.  

This week when I stopped at the post office to pick up my mail, I had a surprise package waiting from my very talented, Chicago-based Ravelry buddy Loren (Twisted1 on Ravelry).  It contained some awesome birthday goodies including cute project gift tags, a Vogue stitch pattern calendar, and most especially this gorgeous scarf she knit for me!

Loren has been working a lot lately with Jane Thornley's amazing tutorials using color and texture in multiple yarns, and designed this scarf herself and titled it Ephemera.  Thank you so much Loren, I love it!  You're so thoughtful! 

Happy stitching everyone!