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!

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!