You Can Do It

 

"If you think you can, you can, 

if you think you can't, 

you're right." 

  - Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay

May Day Spinning and Knitting

 

Gosh, there is a lot of stuff going on around here including only a little knitting this week, and work on two upcoming patterns.  

The patterns are coming along nicely, Spring weather has arrived and although I had to wait on more yarn to arrive to finish up the pattern projects, I am finally knitting the last version and putting the final touches on the first pattern. 

The "Grasshopper" colorway Madeline Tosh Merino Light yarn shown in the photo above is one I've been working with for this pattern and it positively shouts "Spring!" to me and makes me smile.

The non-knitting parts of my life are a bit chaotic right now, and I feel like my head is spinning sometimes, so I decided this would be a good time to take a short timeout from work on the patterns and do some spinning.

I've finished a bobbin of fingering weight singles in the beige Coopworth and decided I needed to work on something with a little color.  

The beige will eventually be multi-plied to knit some sort of coat or jacket from it, but that yarn will most likely take me the rest of the year to complete since I plan to intersperse working on it with other, more vibrant fibers.

  

Craving some cheerful color, I went stash diving.  I didn't have anything light-colored (wool festival anyone?), but I did pull this pretty BFL hand-painted roving from Handwoven by Tina in the "Wildflower" colorway out of my stash to play with.  

 

OK, all you expert spinners out there, please keep in mind I'm not super experienced as a spinner and be kind in your assessment of my spinning.  Our little spinning group at Temptations seems to have become defunct, and I miss having other spinners to consult with for advice.  I'm mostly learning from videos, Youtube and written materials.

The fiber is soft and well-prepared, and very easy to spin, great for the relaxation I was seeking.  After deciding I wanted to knit a shawl with the finished yarn, I split the 4 oz. bundle into two even portions, then split those into five thinner sections each before drafting them to spin.  

One end is much darker than the other.  

Although the singles is slightly different than I expected, I love the way the colors are blending in the twist and can't wait to see how it looks when knit up. 

This has certainly whetted my appetite for colorful spinning and knitting and I'm looking forward to attending the 16th annual Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio at the end of this month.  

Held May 28th and 29th at a fairgrounds about an hour south of Cleveland, this show features workshops in knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning, tatting, carding fibers, felting and more, competitions for fleeces and handspun yarns, multiple buildings filled with vendors, demonstrations, a sheep show and sale, and loads of other fun things to see and do.  

Our dog always has a great time riding in her backpack.

Every year that I attend Great Lakes, I see lots of beautiful fiber and yarn, take tons of photos, and leave with great memories.  

This year I'll definitely be on the lookout for some fresh, light colorways, inspired by the beautiful, native wildflowers.  Although I live in a densely populated, semi-urban area, my city is ringed by many beautiful parks featuring wooded nature trails.  My husband and I try to visit all the different parks, and this is where I get many of my photos, shared here on this blog.

This weekend I was able to snap a few more examples of our local flora, including this  Geranium maculatum, commonly known as Wild, or Cranesbill, geranium.  

Violets of every color are abundant.

Jack in the pulpit is a more unusual sight.

And this blue beauty is a stunner, but I'm not familiar with it's name.

I hope you are enjoying Spring wherever you are, happy knitting and happy May Day! 

Knitting Pattern WIP and Knitscene Summer 2011 Review

It's been tough to get online, on Ravelry or blog lately as I've been crazy busy with several things, including this new knitting pattern project, shown above.

The striped project is one of about four I'm knitting (another one was shown in a previous post), in different combinations of color, yarn, etc. and all in various stages of completion.  I love the process of experimenting with color, texture, shape, proportion, etc.

This WIP version is finished, but not blocked, and I don't consider a project a true 'FO' until it is blocked.   The pattern should be ready for test knitting soon, probably by the end of the month. 

The little bit of warm rain we've had recently has brought a fresh cleanness to the air and the evidence that although the old saying may be "April showers bring May flowers," in our case here in central Ohio, it's April flowers!   This is only the beginning of a spectacular show to come.

This little cutie, Dutchman's Breeches/  Dicentra cucullaria, always reminds me of my grandmother's love for wildflowers and our many times walking together, admiring them.

Anemone/  Thalictrum thalictroides is blooming in abundance in the woods right now.  I loved this double-flowering beauty. 

Sorry for the grainy photos, but the light was very poor and it was windy, thus it was difficult for me to catch the flowers without motion.

Of course, these flowering bulbs from my garden are not wildflowers, but I think they are pretty nonetheless.  I love the gentle fragrance and joyful abandon with which grape hyacinths/ muscari reseed themselves. 

These lemon-hued miniature tulips are sweet and cheerful and make for beautiful photos.  Can you tell I admire Georgia O' Keefe's work?

 

You may have been as excited as I was to hear that Knitscene magazine, a sister publication of Interweave Knits, has just published it's first ever Summer issue, and will now be published four times per year.  I always enjoy reading Knitscene's articles and love it's patterns that emphasize clean, straightforward, fashionable looks.  Congratulations editor Lisa Shroyer and everyone on the staff at Knitscene!

With this great news, I wanted to post a few of my favorites from this auspicious issue.  I always think it interesting to see what patterns end up being the popular ones from any new book or magazine.  

There are a lot of great looks represented here, many of them touching on hot trends for the 2011 season, including stripes, simple shapes, and lace (all patterns and photos, Knitscene.com). 

Amy Christoffers was the featured designer in this issue, and her Windsor Cardi presents an abundant lace look in a restrained silhouette, perfect for dressing up or down. 

A simpler look for those who only want to dabble in lace is the Strafford Tee, another Amy Christoffers pattern.

Courtney Kelley's Starboard Cape is a cute little topper for camis or sundresses.

And summer is always a great time for simple knitting projects to take along with you as you travel, get together with friends, etc., and this issue is packed with examples of that, including some top-down constructions, like Tanis Gray's Lodi Cardigan,

And Hannah Fettig's Sackets Harbor Pullover. 

Of course, there are many more patterns than I can show here, so check them out.

Summer Knitting

Summer is truly upon us now that the 4th is over and the days are in the 90's, but that doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for picking up my knitting!  I admit; however, to a preference for lightweight yarns and projects.

June was my month to work up the slate Hempathy top, mentioned in some other posts.  I'll try to get a few good photos of it posted this week sometime.

I've also been adding bits here and there to my little alpaca shawlette.  This is one of those projects I love to have around to pick up and work a row or two when I don't feel like working on other things.  It's also light enough to not feel hot while it sits on my lap. 

I had a vague idea that I wanted a textured shawl in my favorite wide triangle shape, so I just went ahead and cast on the yarn, Misti Alpaca Lace in a lovely hand-painted colorway #22.

The purples, greens, blues, pinks and golds reminds me so much of the wildflowers along the nature trails where we like to hike and run.  In the spring, there's columbine, cranesbill, dogwood, violets, trillium and phlox and those have phased through to wild roses, honeysuckle, Queen Anne's lace, echinacea and rudbeckia amongst many others in recent weeks.

 I started the shawl with a garter stitch tab and began working down in garter stitch, with a 3 stitch border on each edge, and increases worked on each outside edge and on either side of the center stitch on right side rows, and on the outside edges only on wrong side rows.   This increase method makes the triangle shallow and wide - a great shape to wear draped as a scarf or wrapped to accent the shoulders.  And I love working multi-colored yarn in a texture like garter stitch because the nature of the stitch adds a three-dimensional quality to the surface to help break up pooling and splotches.

I'll be posting more about this project and yarn later.   Right now, I' m also working on a bunch of new designs - a soft cardi-shrug, a scarf pattern and several top-secret projects for publication.  The cardigan was a big hit at the knitting events I've attended lately but I want to knit it up in a couple of other yarns before making a final decision.  The pattern is mostly written though, and will be test-knit soon. And that's just for starters, there's a few other things cooking at various stages of 'done-ness' as well as those mentioned already, but I'll save those for another time.

Have a great week!

Natural vs. Neutral and Recipe

Recently I was pondering a new knitting project and what yarn I wanted to use.  After some consideration, I decided on a natural color.  I realized then, that when I think of 'natural' colors, what I really mean is neutral colored, or natural sheep and plant colors like the obvious and myriad shades of white, beige, brown, gray, black and green.   All colors I am particularly fond of.

But I am constantly amazed by the spectacular colors found in nature. This morning I came across such an abundance of wildflowers that I had to share some photos here. 

 

  The wild roses are about gone now, but this little beauty was still blooming brightly, scenting the cool morning air with a fresh, pleasant fragrance that invited you to stop and enjoy. 

I'm not sure what the name of this flower is, but it grows en masse here and the butterflies love it.  Talk about spectacular!  The next time you think of color in a yarn or knitting project, be sure to add these 'natural' colors to the list of possibilities!

In an attempt to eat more fresh, organic foods, we managed to put in a small vegetable and herb garden in our yard last fall.  Thinking we had better start small so as not to try to do too much the first season, we only built it to about 4 x 8 feet but the fecundity of the little patch has already overwhelmed us!  

It is only the end of June and we have harvested armloads of radishes, peas, onions, chives, lavender, rosemary, thyme, mint and cilantro.  And I can hardly believe how large the cucumbers have grown already.  So I thought it only fitting to share a favorite, simple recipe using some of these same ingredients.  

The cool fresh taste of the cucumber and cilantro is nicely balanced with the bite of the peppers.  Add as much or as little of the hot stuff as you like, and feel free to experiment with the other ingredients to your liking, perhaps omitting a flavor and substituting something fresh from your own garden.  Chill well to allow the flavors to meld before serving - if you can wait that long!  It's great as a dip, or fantastic as a topping for other dishes.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. 

Cool Cucumber Salsa

2 cups cucumber, chopped

2 large cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp Poblano chili pepper, diced

1 cup sweet red bell pepper, diced

3 green onions, diced

2-3 tbsp cilantro, chopped

2 tbsp mint, chopped

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp lime zest, grated

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

1/2 tsp black pepper (to taste)

Combine cucumbers, garlic, peppers, onions and herbs, stir to blend.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.