FO - Mohair Shrug

At last!  The room has been painted, the day was a beautiful one and I had a moment to photograph at least one recently finished object - a shrug in Elann's Super Kydd mohair blend.  The yarn is not as soft as I would like, but the knit fabric is light and lofty.

I've made several shrugs of this sort and I find this slightly slouchy, drapey style a nice layer for extra warmth during transitional seasons like spring and fall.  This version is knit in a simple stockinette and eyelet row repeat.

It needs a good blocking, but I really wanted to prove that - Yes! - I am actually knitting these days, LOL...

The air is balmy, the birds are singing and I couldn't let the vernal equinox go by without wishing everyone in the northern hemisphere a 'Happy Spring' with this photo of a crocus from my garden and a quote from English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley - 

And Spring arose on the garden fair, 

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

We are already enjoying tender young chives from the garden,

And the little garlic patch is growing like crazy.  

Pretty soon it will be time for greens and snow peas - yum!

As we enjoy the turning of the season, I want to remember to keep the people of Japan in our hearts, prayers and assistance in whatever way we can.  Each individual, doing something positive in even a small way, collectively, can become a mighty thing.  

Peace, blessings and happy knitting to you!

Getting Cozy

This snowy weather really gets my knitting fires burning.  All I want to do these days is knit, knit, knit, eat a little dark chocolate, knit, play in the snow, drink some hot tea, and knit some more.   Of course, real life doesn't cooperate with my knitting plans!

Mostly I've been knitting my beige heather wool cardigan and my grey mohair cardi shrug.  Both have had their ups and downs and will likely be some time before completion, but I'm happy overall with the progress made this week.   

In order to to make progress on the cardigan, I ripped out and restarted it from the beginning - twice.  

It was OK, but not a love thing.  So I went back to the stitch pattern and played around with it, adding some stitches and changing the proportions slightly.  Then I mixed in more tweaks to the top-down shaping, and I like it much better.  

The mohair shrug is a third version of the two I made last year, this time in a different stitch pattern and yarn.  

I still have several more versions I want to make, at least one in sock or fingering weight yarn.

While on my Michigan trip I found another button option for my grey cardigan.  I've loved the suggestions left on Ravelry and the comments to previous posts so far, thank you especially Doreen and Diana!  This bone one is really too small, but it works temporarily at least.

What with the trip last week, the crazy weather and power outage, and various commitments and appointments, I've not been able to correspond much, but to all my blogging friends and Ravelry pals I owe messages to, that is on my schedule for this week.

I hope to have more photos of my current WIPs soon and planned for the next post is a rundown of my trip north to Michigan.

One exciting thing at my post office box when I returned last week was a surprise package from the lovely Anne-Sara, proprietor of the equally lovely Wisp yarn shop in Granville (that I reviewed in a December 22nd post).  

Wisp is a wonderfully inspiring shop full of beautiful yarns, British home items, and books among other treasures.  

The books are cool, vintage-style cloth-bound editions like this one, with adorable little ribbon bookmarks.  Anne-Sara was so sweet to send me this copy by one of my favorite authors, Jane Austen - thank you so much Anne-Sara!!  

Wisp is offering a special discount of 20% off the price of all red and pink yarn until Valentine's Day.  Maybe a little hint to your sweetie, that a yarn trip to Wisp might be just the thing to put a sparkle in your eye, is in order? 

 

Tonight I leave you with a favorite poem of mine. 

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening  

by Robert Frost

 Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

WIP Wednesday and a Favorite Thing

This week, amongst other things, I've been prepping for a fiber adventure.  I'll be away from the blog for a few days longer than usual (I try to post at least once every week), but when I come back I should have some new yarn shops to share here and a run-down of my trip to a very snowy and knit-friendly place!  

I've got lots of knitting to work on while away, including my usual scarves, a new top-down cardigan, and a mohair shrug.  

The cardigan, in natural beige heather Cascade 220, is based mainly on a traditional stitch pattern I have been experimenting with all month.  It's a simple, pretty lace stitch combined with some other textures for a warm sweater I really need for this winter weather.  The cast on is shown in the first photo at the top of this post.

After I swatched and decided on the stitch patterns I scrapped the earlier red yarn, shown below, as it was not right for the texture I am using now.  I'll save that for another project.

The shrug WIP is a tweaked version of the two I knit in 2010.  I love the Louet Euroflax linen one I made last summer, but was less than totally thrilled with the Malabrigo Worsted version, and I'm now giving mohair a try before deciding which to write up as a pattern first.  

At present, I am knitting with the charcoal grey Elann Super Kydd mohair blend yarn I frogged from an earlier pullover.  I loved the pullover (and definitely plan a pattern project down the road), but this yarn was just too scratchy for me to wear next-to-skin, so I thought I'd use it to experiment with for this outer layer project instead.  

Obviously, I've not progressed very far yet, but hope to get a lot done during the trip.   

Alright now, the following is not a paid endorsement, LOL, just stuff I find good enough to share here as a 'Favorite Thing'.  

Although I don't use a lot of cosmetics or beauty products, when I do, I want to know I'm getting my money's worth and one company has been a tremendous help with this. 

Paula Begoun, aka the "Cosmetics Cop," had such resounding success from her books Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me (now in it's 8th edition) and The Original Beauty Bible, that she founded two websites: Paula'sChoice.com, and Beautypedia.com, a product website and review website, respectively.  

Beautypedia experts analyze nearly every cosmetic and beauty product, from most major companies, available in the US.   Searching the database of professionally lab-tested products has saved me a ton of money over the years, by allowing me to read the professional reviews of the real product without the marketing hype.

I was happy to see that from now until the end of February, the entire Beautypedia database of thousands of product reviews is free to search (normally it costs $15-25 a year), so have fun.

I'll be back after this trip with lots of photos of my yarnie adventure and, hopefully, more FO's.  Until then, peace, blessings and happy knitting!

FO's - Misti and Mohair Lace Projects

 

Last weekend, Labor Day weekend, we went on a road trip to my MIL's home on the shores of Lake Erie, Ohio's Great Lake.  We spent the weekend zipping around the area, or just hanging around the house.  It's nice to get away from the regular routine once in a while.

On Monday morning, we got up around dawn and walked out to the beach for some spectacular sunrise photos.  

It's so peaceful in the early morning when no one is around yet, and even the gulls are quiet.

 

The lake was glassy smooth and calm and we walked along with our tea and coffee, enjoying the serenity and yet contemplating our soon return to the hectic, work-a-day world.

Some of the best parts about the trip were I got to visit two yarn shops (which I'll share in my next post) and I was able to finish more knitting projects!  Some of the FO's are blocking but I did manage to get a few photos.

The photo at the top of the post is a lace cowl in Feza Iplik Kid Mohair blend yarn. This yarn is typically mohair-sticky, but makes a pretty and soft lace cowl for a bargain price.  It may not be as luscious as my favorite mohair/ silk blends, but it makes a beautiful project.  I knitted this piece on US 7/ 4.5 mm needles to keep it light and airy. 

I also finally took a few photos of my shawlette in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace.  I loved the colors, which remind me of spring wildflowers - phlox, cranesbill, violets, spring beauties, and dogwoods.  I wanted to keep it fairly simple since the yarn was so colorful, and started with a garter stitch tab and worked down from the neck in a wide triangle silhouette.  

I intended to stay simple with just garter stitch, but the exquisitely soft alpaca begged to be made into something feminine, so after the garter section, I added some simple lace and a small ruffle. I love the silky softness and pretty colors over a plain camisole top for summer and cooler, early fall evenings.  

The yarn, while lovely, is a delicate weight and maddeningly slippery, so wood or bamboo needles are highly recommended!  I knitted this on US 6/ 4mm Knitpicks Harmony circular wood needles, which have a nicely pointed tip, great for lace or tiny yarn.

I have much more to share, but I will save that for next time...

Goodbye Summer and a Peachy Recipe

 

As expected, summer has flown by!  The empty swings at the park made me feel just a bit wistful as I contemplated the season's passing, but I love autumn and am definitely ready for cooler weather.  

I can't believe it as the end of August already and I've hardly managed to accomplish half my to-do list.  At least I did finish a few knitting projects and I've started a few more.  

Off the needles this week was my grey-beige alpaca lace Lesia Loop cowl project, currently blocking. The Brushed Suri alpaca yarn makes this a lovely, cozy knit.  Although the brushed fiber is slightly difficult to frog back - as I soon discovered! - it's not quite as tough as ripping out mohair.  

I've also finished my lightweight alpaca lace shawlette, but I'm waiting to take photos for that momentarily. 

This week I'm beginning a mohair pullover, and working on several gift cowls and hats, including this lace cowl in natural-color Kid Mohair blend by Feza.  It's not my favorite mohair yarn, but I had it in stash already and wanted to use it up.  I plan to knit this again in something softer, probably alpaca.  I am using a traditional Estonian lace stitch for this project.

The garden has lost it's steam with the record heat and lack of rainfall, but I still go out every morning and pick a ton of ripe tomatoes, chives, rosemary and other herbs.  I think I feel a marinara sauce coming on!

This time of year I also love to indulge in fresh peaches - as pies, cobblers, smoothies, slightly warmed and topped with creme anglaise, cooked into preserves or compotes, or just plain sliced and eaten as is.   Although we mostly stick to a low-glycemic lifestyle, we still love to make room for special occasion treats.

 

Last week we celebrated the dog's third birthday (any special day is a good excuse for a treat like this!) with a special peach pound cake and ice cream. And yes, the dog had a tiny taste of each too!

I must say that I LOVE to cook, but I love to knit more.  So to balance out these two things, I usually use little cooking short cuts, in this case, a good-quality packaged cake mix as the base for this recipe.  Doing this also allows me to keep just a few basic mixes in the cupboard without the need to take up space with full-sized packages of things I use only occasionally - flour, sugar, etc, and saves me more time to knit!

The chopped peaches in this recipe cook on the bottom and create a sort of baked-in fruit compote that works wonderfully when the the cake is turned updside-down to eat.  We like a slice just barely warmed and top it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and a few fresh peach slices.   I hope you enjoy this easy, quick summer indulgence. 

Upside Down Peach Pound Cake

Ingredients:

8 oz. butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar or equivalent substitute (I use stevia)

1 tsp. vanilla

6 eggs

1 yellow cake mix, 1/4 cup reserved (mine is Trader Joe's brand)

2-3 cups chopped peaches (fresh or frozen, I like it sort of gooey so I use 3)

Several fresh peach slices to garnish, if desired 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*

Grease a 9x13 cake pan (I use the empty butter wrappers to do this) and set aside.

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar/ substitute in large mixing bowl with an electric mixer.  Add vanilla, then, one at a time, add eggs, beating thoroughly after each addition.  Slowly add cake mix, beating thoroughly.  Set aside.

In another bowl, stir reserved cake mix over peaches to coat, spread coated peaches evenly in bottom of cake pan.  Pour batter over peaches into cake pan.

Bake until center of cake is done and the top springs back slightly to the touch, about 50-60 minutes.  Cool before serving.  This cake can be eaten immediately after cooling, but it is even better if it rests, tightly covered, for several hours or overnight before serving.