Catching Up

It's Halloween, a great occasion for dressing up here in the US. DD2 has to play in her school band tonight at a High School football game. They are all dressing up in Halloween costumes for the event. She had planned to dress as black panther and started knitting K. Schmidts Official Kitty62 Hat last weekend. By Sunday night she'd completed the main part of the hat, only to discover that it was too small. She stretched it over a plate for a few hours which, thankfully, made it wearable. By Wednesday though, panic was setting in. She'd never made earflaps before or picked up stitches, so it was Mum to the rescue. I took over the project and started making the earflaps, I-cord ties and the ears.




It's now countdown time and I have one ear to go. I've already told her that we'll have to forego the pom-poms. There's just not enough time for that. Will I make it? I have 5hrs before she needs to wear it!

Meanwhile, I've almost finished the left front of the Central Park Hoodie. I'm still loving making this piece. Cables are my thing. I just love the artistry of them.

Next time I will knit this jacket in the round though. It's a little frustrating going through the same process up to the armholes three separate times (and I hate sewing up seams), but it's a good exercise in sweater construction, I suppose.

My yarn arrived for hubby's Christmas hat too. Now I'm really committed to making him one. I've picked out the pattern and am sure he'll love wearing it when he's out in the garage or roaming the garden. It's KnitPicks Telemark in a deep navy.

Fiber Fanatic

I seem to be getting overexcited! I don't know what it is: the time of year, pending election or just my mood, but I seem to have so many projects either on the go or queued.

It's ridiculous. I'm passionately pursuing yarn as if I'm an addict (I'm not, am I??!!). I have so many knitting books on loan from the library that hubby has started looking at me with a "don't-mind-her-she's-one-skein-short-of-a-bag" sort of expression on his face and I'm perusing knitting magazines and websites like a woman possessed. Suddenly my thirst is unquenchable.

Then I wonder why I have no time for knitting!

It's not as if I'm exactly overrun with hours in the day to complete my projects anyway. With three active children and an absent spouse (he travels), I have more than enough to do just holding hearth and home together and trying to get to grips with American culture. To be struck down by sweaty palms and a racing heart just by the sight of the latest copy of "Interweave Knits" is really more than a woman can bear.

I need therapy!

I'd better go and cast on. After all knitting really is the best therapy I know.

Central Park Hoodie

Isn't this looking divine? I am so excited about how this jacket is looking. I've just got to the armhole shaping on the back now and I'm in love! I had forgotten just how much I love cables. The Cascade 220 is knitting up beautifully too. It didn't feel especially wonderful when I touched it in the shop, but it's a whole different experience when it's knitted up.

I am totally satisfied....and I'm only on the first part of it!

WIPs And Gifts

Well I finished the Odessa Hat and it looks lovely. The blue beads add a subtle elegant touch to the piece which will suit its recipient perfectly. I also came across the tube of pearl beads that I was sure I'd bought in the summer, but couldn't find when I went to start this project. (That's how I ended up using the blue ones.) I found them in a pocket in my handbag! Looks like I've been walking around with them in there for months!!

I now seem to have several works in progress (WIPs). Despite a totally manic weekend when my time was certainly not my own, I did manage to get myself organised enough beforehand, so that I had a small project with me wherever I happened to be. The project in question is Nicky Epstein's Chameleon again. This is my second version and on Thursday I took a moment to wind a skein of Cascade 220 (whose shade is aptly named Puget Sound) into a suitable ball for the project. I do not have a swift, so resorted to my Nan's tried and tested trick with a couple of chair backs. My greatest challenge was completing this exercise before the cat decided to investigate! Thankfully, I just got finished before my large ginger and white bundle of fluff strolled languidly into the kitchen to check out what I was doing.

I repeated the same procedure with the lilac Cascade 220 that I am using to knit the Central Park Hoodie. I cast on on Saturday evening and am so excited to see this pattern taking shape.

I managed to score a whole bag of this yarn at a closing sale at the beginning of the summer and it's knitting up beautifully.

My other WIP is the Strawberry hat that I'm making for my niece. As I've hit the construction of the top, it's not such a portable project anymore (I actually have to concentrate a bit now!) so I'll be working on it at home over the next few days. It will be another of my Christmas projects completed, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself now.

I'm now awaiting the arrival of a KnitPicks order which will contain some beautiful yarn for my final Christmas project - a lovely hat for the man in my life. After 20yrs, it's about time I knitted him something!

Hidden Treasure

I've borrowed a book from the library called "Selbuvotter Biography of a Knitting Tradition." It is written by Terri Shea, a knitter from Seattle who has been researching the history of Selbu mittens (the black and white Fair Isle mittens traditional to Norway.) As I was reading the historical background information about these beautiful knitted items, I discovered her reference to The Evangelist of Selbu knitting. This woman was so keen to preserve the tradition and quality of the Selbu technique, that she spread the gospel throughout the country. I was extremely excited to discover that she was none other than Annichen Sibbern Bøhn, the author of the book that I found in the secondhand bookshop last week!

Her book of Norske Strikkemønstre (Norwegian Knitting Designs) was first published in 1929 and received huge acclaim. It was so popular that it was kept in print for several decades and eventually translated into English in 1965.

Looks like I really did strike gold with my 1947 find last week!

Hat Spotting

Isn't it funny how you start looking at knitted items that other people are wearing. At church on Sunday, I found myself looking at this very sweet little knitted grey jacket that a lady was wearing. It caught my eye because it was a knitted fabric, possibly a handknit, with a very interesting basket weave pattern worked into it.

It's the same when I'm watching my son's soccer games. Now that the weather has turned more autumnal, people are breaking out the winter headgear, so there I am spotting different styles and wondering how I can make them into knitted hats. I then race home and draw a quick sketch, so that I don't forget what I've seen.

In the meantime, I'm cracking on with my Christmas projects. Yesterday, I finished my second Odessa hat and I must say the blue beads on the blue yarn have actually been pleasantly surprising. It's a cute little hat with a very feminine design, which knits up quickly once you get into the pattern.

I have now cast on in King Cole Merino Blend DK for a strawberry hat for my niece. I love this yarn because it's so easy to work with. My pattern is an old one from a Norwegian magazine, which I have used several times before with great success. The little green stitches incorporated throughout really give it the look of a summer fruit. Every child looks cute in this hat!

Stash And Dash?

I've finally turned a corner on my terrible cold and have got back to knitting again. I cast on for another Odessa hat by Grumperina, this time in blue. I have blue beads too, which I'm still not sure about. They are almost the same shade as the yarn, so sometimes I feel that it's hardly worth knitting them in. However, the person I'm knitting for this time likes her clothing items to make a subtle statement, so I'm sure they'll suit her in the end just fine.

Now, I wanted to mention stitch markers. How do you manage with them? Last weekend when I was making the Center Square hat, I tried using my daughters collection of plastic stitch markers to mark the decreases for the shaping. This was a first for me as I'm an old-fashioned knitter and have always used remnants of old yarn to mark my stitches with. I thought it would be a good experiment though, so I gave it a try.

It was indeed a useful exercise. I didn't get on with them at all. Every time I got to a marker it felt bulky in my hands and the inflexibility of the plastic really annoyed me. Consequently, I've gone back to my tried and tested bits of contrast yarn!

On another note, yesterday I went stash diving (like dumpster diving only for a different kind of treasure!) In fact I had a major sort out. The corner of the room where I knit has become increasingly untidy in recent weeks and my stash has been spreading all over the place. I couldn't run from it any longer. It was time to do something.

It was a wonderful experience. I came across some beautiful yarns that I hadn't exactly forgotten about, but I hadn't got round to either. I am now completely out of Ziploc bags as I've packaged everything up nicely to keep it safe from those dreaded moths. My knitting area is positively pristine (not sure how long it'll stay that way though) and my stash looks so much neater now. Amazingly, I can fit even more yarn into my baskets than I could before!

Hmmmm, that has an ominous sound about it.

A Touch Of Class.

I just have to share with you the fantastic book I found in our local secondhand bookstore on Friday. I was just browsing the Norwegian section (for the first time in fact) and came across this wonderful book of traditional stranded knitting charts, published in 1947!

Not only is the book beautiful to look at but it is full of absolute treasures for a former Norwegian resident and Fair Isle knitter. I feel like I struck gold!

This is helping me deal with the fact that my cold is so bad that I don't have the energy for anything. Just breathing seems to be taking the best from me today.

To top it all, on Saturday I decided to knit up a quick hat to wear down at my sons soccer game next weekend. Center Square by London Nelson is just such a knit. I cast on with Patons Classic Wool Merino from my Canadian delivery and made the whole thing in one day. Should have checked my gauge first though. It came out too big. Double stranding the yarn made a good chunky hat, but my knitting seems to have been quite loose. I should have dropped a needle size.

As I tried to peer out from beneath the cast on edge, I debated whether to just turn up the brim. This would lose some of the Fairisle pattern though and reveal the stranded underside. Instead I decided to felt the hat. This was the first time I'd felted in my American washing machine and I have to confess that I prefer my old one where I could set the exact temperature for the wash. Still, it was a quick knit I reasoned, so I'd take the risk. I threw in the hat with some Norwegian Grønnsåpe and hoped for the best.

The result was a little tight, but after some serious stretching and shaping, looks pretty cool I think. It's lovely and warm and will certainly keep the cold wind out, but at the same time has a classy look about it.

Move over Audrey Hepburn!

Socks..... and seasonal savories.

I'm coming down with a cold. I've already drunk four cups of tea and it's only 10.30 am. My nose is dripping and my head feels as if it's about to explode, so I think I have a hot date with my PJ's this weekend.
Creativity has not been diminished though. Last weekend I took receipt of a box of yarn from Canada. It's always so exciting, even although I know exactly what's in there because I ordered it. I just love to take out the balls of yarn, luxuriate in their texture and dream about the projects that I have planned for them. In this case it's hats.

I'm doing well on The Little Guy's socks too. I have chosen to just do a basic stockinette with the Reggio sock yarn, keeping it quick and simple so that I can get back to my hats.

My sister loved the baby blanket, which arrived safely in the UK by mail at the beginning of the week. It was surprisingly quick. My mum even called to say she'd seen it and what a beautiful keepsake it is. They all adore it. I am hugely proud of it and very happy to be able to express the love I have for the niece that I've never met, in such a personal way.

Tomatoes are still flowing in the garden. I'll be picking the last of them over the weekend I think. I've managed to make two quarts of pasta sauce this week and I have more tomatoes soaking in hot water (to remove their skins) as I write.

In the mean time, I think I'll be curling up on the sofa with a box of tissues, a movie and some knitting. Mind you, it is football season and I do enjoy watching a good game. I just have to be careful that I don't stab myself with my knitting needles when things get too exciting!

Until next week,

Keep clickin'