Neckwarmer

On Friday night P.A. and I grabbed a moment to pop out for a drink at our local watering hole. We were due to attend the District Dance Championships to watch DD2 compete with her High School Hip Hop Dance Team on Saturday and then he had a 7pm flight to Copenhagen to round off the day. In amongst all that we had to pack clothes, prepare gifts for family members in the UK (his final destination), on the off chance he might see some of them and...oh, yes,.......do our taxes! In light of all this, a farewell drink on Friday seemed like a necessity.

There was just one problem. I wanted to wear my new neckwarmer and........... I hadn't quite finished it yet. There I was knitting a few rows in between loads of laundry; lipstick on, hair done and outfit ready. The only item remaining was the neckwarmer.

I'd been planning it for some time. I had one skein of red Frog Tree Merino in my stash and had picked up a skein of SWTC Calypso ribbon yarn from the bargain bucket at my LYS a few months back. The two could probably be knit up together, I thought, and vowed to experiment. The project began last week. I used US11 needles and started with a drop stitch pattern. I knitted half the yarn before I decided that the fabric it was creating was really not what I had imagined. It was turning out way too floaty and the two types of yarn were just not complimenting each other in any way at all.

I frogged and started again. I cast on 25sts and did a knit 4 rows, purl 4 rows, design. Although the resulting fabric was much denser, it still wasn't quite what I'd envisioned (this 'minds eye' business can be quite infuriating at times!)

I ripped it all out again and cast on 25sts.

In desperation I resigned myself to the embarrassment of basic garter stitch. OK, so I wasn't going to produce some fantastic arty piece with loops, twirls and endlessly complicated yarn overs. I'd just have to suck it up and face the knitting group on Thurday looking like an 8yr old, with my vibrant mauve jumbo needles and garter stitch square.

I got well through my neckwarmer at knitting that day, taking the ergonomic tack to explain my needle size (after all I had been knitting a lot of socks recently.) My Central Park Hoodie proved a great distraction too and there was a whole lot of spinning going on, so I got back home relatively unscathed in the 'street cred' department.

I cast off the neckwarmer moments before venturing out on Friday night. As I secured it with a marcazite pin, I realised that I'd created a lushious looking warm, springy fabric with all the passion of a Chanel tweed. I felt very Jackie O as I teamed my red and black masterpiece with a black rollneck sweater, black suede jacket, black trousers and knee high boots. The electrifying red of the neckwarmer was the piece de resistance and centre piece of the outfit. It looked amazing.

I will certainly never knock garter stitch again. In fact, I'm sorely tempted by the thought of a Chanel jacket right now.

Hmmmmm, I wonder?!!

Small Projects And Time Management

I've finished the Chameleon hat and it looks great! It's a wonderful pattern and can be worn in many different ways. You just choose how you want to fold the brim. I decided that I wanted to create a cloche hat style and so folded the hat up higher on one side than the other before I blocked it. The reversable pattern makes it look so effective folded this way. The Frog Tree yarn is beautifully soft and was fine to work with. I really love the look of this hat and will certainly be making more.

I've also finished another Hope hat just in time for it to go off to Tanzania this weekend. The bright green and gold colours are sure to delight an African child.

Meanwhile I've cast on again for those Reggio sock yarn socks that my son has been asking me to make him for the past year. I think he'll be getting them for Christmas. Yes, time is flying and so my thoughts have turned to all those projects I want to get done for Christmas. To narrow them down (and maintain my focus) I'm just going to knit for those I truely love and who appreciate my handmade items. Otherwise I end up stressed out on projects for others and my nearest and dearest have to wait.

Have a good week everyone and 'Keep Clicking!'

Creative Achievements

Things are beginning to come to an end in the garden now. I picked some tomatoes and the last of the cucumbers this week. I used up the pickles by making Sweet Pickle Relish, which made the house stink a bit, but will taste lovely on a burger or with some cheese and crackers.

To add to the homely smells, I have baked about 6 loaves of bread. My family adore them. The sandwich diet inherent to Norwegian life has left us all with a love of quality baking, so my investment in a bread machine when I moved to the US has really paid off. I've found that if I load up the machine with 2lbs of ingredients and set it on the dough cycle, it produces a wonderful dough that is easy for me to throw into two loaf tins and bake quickly in the oven. I make brown and white and then load them into the freezer to get us through a busy weekend (or week depending on what's going on.) I love to bake with yeast and have made all kinds of dough over the years: cinammon rolls, pizza rolls, German Stollen at Christmas....... the list goes on. Recently I found out that my Great Grandfather was a baker. It must be in the genes!

On the knitting front, the Frog Tree yarn was so tempting that I cast on for Nicky Epstein's Chameleon hat this week. I love the colour of this yarn and have nicknamed it raspberry sorbet. The design is looking amazing. It's easy to achieve once you get into it and so far so good with the yarn too.

I also recycled an old yoga mat last weekend when I was clearing out the garage. I cut it into 5 widths, one for each of us, so that we have something to sit on at football games this season. Those metal bleachers can be quite cold in October!

Finally, my piece de resistance for this week has been the completion of the Heart baby Blanket for my niece. I pinned it out on the bed, spritzed it with water and left it to dry. It turned out beautifully and I'm hugely proud of it. Hope she enjoys living with it as much as I enjoyed making it.

More Excitement

Well, I've had yarn coming at me from all angles this week. It's been wonderful.

On Wednesday my parcel arrived from Norway from my Nordic Knitters swap partner. We were linked up via Ravelry and have been planning a summer swap - 100g of yarn plus anything that reminds us of summer where we are. It's been great fun. I have sent her Knit Picks, as she can't get it over there and she sent me the most wonderful sock yarn by Drops Garnstudio called Fabel.

I really enjoyed putting together my parcel. I found some MarketSpice tea bags from Pike Place Market in Seattle, some M&M's, a beaded stitch marker, a card showing the Seattle skyline at sunset and some packets of Kool-Aid, which I'm told are great for dying yarn as well as being a summer drink. I dread to think what they do to our insides though if they dye yarn so wonderfully!

My parcel from my pal contained some chocolates, iced tea, beaded stitch markers, coffee and some seeds - a real summery package:

The same day my yarn from Yarn Forward arrived in the mail. I'd bought this several weeks ago as I started making a blanket for my niece last Autumn and, not quite getting a handle on the whole Imperial and Metric thing, managed to run out of yarn. My LYS no longer carried it, so I ordered online from Yarn Forward in Canada. At last I can continue my blanket. I'm so relieved. The plan is to knit in both yarns alternately to try to avoid getting a line across the work caused by different dye lots.

Yesterday, the pull of "Let It Rain" closing its doors was too much and I just had to go back to that yarn store to see what they had left. I'd debated last Saturday about getting some lilac Cascade 220 and some gorgeous Frog Tree 100% alpaca in cream. They were both still there so I have added them to my stash. I now have enough projects to keep me going for some considerable time!

As to the Little Guy's socks? I've started working on a pattern for them. There's been a lot of scribbling in a notebook and studying of pointed versus flat toe seams, but I'm getting there. It'll be interesting. Now I'd better go and plant the tomato vines that are growing out of control on my kitchen windowsill!