Off the needles: Dotted Rays

"Dotted Rays" by Stephen West

Started: June 28, 2015

Finished: July 11, 2015

Fiber: Madelinetosh Pashmina DK in "Holi" - 2 skeins

Notes: 2 countries, 2 weeks, one shawl. My sweet friend Virginia gifted me this beautiful yarn back in March and when I decided to go with my O-Wool Local for my Pure shawl, I knew this would be my next yarn to use, but couldn't find the right pattern. This yarn is loud and bright and beautiful so eventually I landed on Stephen West - all of these things describe his style and his patterns. I knit the small version of Dotted Rays and it was almost exactly 2 skeins. The pattern took some concentration at first, and I found that it was really helpful to place stitch markers every time I turned a short row, it made keeping track of where I was in each row so much simpler. There's also a great little tutorial over at Odette-DS's ravelry page that helped me get started! 

As the project grew, it became more and more of mindless garter which was just what I wanted on my vacation in Mexico. The I-cord bind-off took a while, but I think it's worth it, the piece looks so finished and I even wore it to a coffee shop yesterday, couldn't resist. :) It'll be hard to wait to wear this until the fall, the colors are just so summer-y. 

I'm really glad that I knit this, it stretched my color palette and my ideas about shawl construction! And to top it off, there's this awesome video. :)

I hope everyone is having an awesome summer! I'm excited about my next two projects, one spinning and one which is going to be a massive undertaking. I can't wait to get started and am swatching this week!

Off the needles: Pure

Pure|Worsted by cabinfour

Started: May 30, 2015

Finished: June 16, 2015

Fiber: O-Wool Local, one skein each of Gingko Nut and Steelhead

Notes: After much debating I decided to go with a yarn I knew I would love for a pattern I had a feeling I would love. Now that I have knit a few large shawls, it's really fun to compare the construction techniques and how it affects the overall shape of the finished piece, and how it grows on your needles! Pure starts with a stockinette section, a textured stitch section, and then straight garter for the border. I picked up these two skeins of Local in the 2nds quality section of O-Wools website a few months ago and really wanted to use both of them up, so I did the stockinette section as normal, did 1.5 sections of the textured stitch, and then a little less than the garter section originally called for (because I ran out!). I love the versions of Pure that I saw that were only one color, so to unify the two colors in this one I decided to add in a stripe of the yellow before finishing the textured section, too, and I think it came out really lovely. Towards the end of that section, I was quite ready for it to be over - after knitting miles of stockinette in my Gable I forgot how slow pretty much every other stitch pattern is! 

The only other modifications I made were to go down a needle size to US 7 so it would be nice and dense (and because I'm a loose knitter generally). As expected, this yarn was a delight and I highly recommend it to anyone who has never tried it! Jocelyn's dedication to fair pricing and good relationships with her farmers is very much what I'm about, and I just love the way that my hands feel so soft after a long session of knitting with it. 

The background for these photos is a bit different, you may notice, because the Mr. and I moved this weekend to a little cottage in Chapel Hill. It has been a crazy week of unpacking and organizing, the little moments of "this used to go here in our old space, how does it go here" that happen as your belongings get accustomed to new surroundings. We are really loving it more every day and can't wait to spend time on our front porch and back deck soaking up some summer sun. 

In a week we leave for Mexico for family vacation and I'm sure the next 7 days will move by as if in standstill. My biggest question right now is, will the security guards let me take a drop spindle on an international flight?? Thoughts and experiences are welcome :)

Have a lovely Friday afternoon, we are headed to go see "Inside Out" in a few minutes!

Off the needles: Gable

It's done! It's done! It's done!

Gable by Hannah Fettig

Started: March 18, 2015

Finished: May 28, 2015

Fiber: O-Wash Fingering in color "Barn Owl", 3.5 skeins

Notes: This was SUCH a great first sweater. I've admired Hannah's classic and beautiful designs for a long time and knew I wanted to knit one, and this one is just great! The twisted rib was simple but just different enough to be interesting, and I even took on short rows. Only somewhat successfully, but still. Like I mentioned in my first post about this sweater, I was a little nervous about not alternating skeins with this yarn that came with instructions to do so, but even now looking at it I can't tell even the slightest variation or pooling of color, so I'm glad I didn't go through that process for this project. 

I knit a size 38" to accommodate for the intended 1-2" of ease. The only real modifications I made were to knit the sleeves about a half inch shorter, and when I got to the collar I got a bit impatient and only knit about 1.5" instead of 2". :) And the only real panic moment I had (aside from the short rows) was when I blocked the sweater and laid it out flat to dry. The weight of the water, even after I dried it with a towel, stretched the garments' gauge out significantly. Even though the yarn is an organic superwash, I was afraid to throw it in the dryer. However, when I did put it in the dryer for about 10 minutes, it went right back to the gauge I had swatched and was perfect. How great is that? One of my favorite things about this piece is that I don't have to worry about accidentally shrinking it, but also that the fiber was made organically. And it is so soft. It's been such a bummer that I finished it right as summer is really kicking in here, because I just want to wear it all. the. time. 

I'm not going to lie, I definitely got a little bit sentimental finishing this sweater, as I thought about all that knitting has brought to my life over the past few years and all the ways that I'm excited to grow. If anyone is looking for a fun, slightly challenging first sweater, I highly recommend it. Thank you to Jocelyn for making this awesome yarn, and thank you Hannah for this beautiful pattern! I cannot wait to knit more. 

And just for kicks, here's a picture of a sleepy kitten :)

The great debate for Pure

Well, I'm doing it again. The classic, I'm-almost-done-with-a-project-lets-preemptively-start-working-on-the-next-one dance I seem to do every time a monster project is close to being done.

Tonight I joined all of the pieces of my Gable together and while I'm so excited, I'm also catching all of the infectious energy surrounding Marlee and the wonderful news that Have Company is going to be Grand Rapid's first LYS! It's been so fun to watch a brand I love become a yarn store that I wish I could visit in person. If you can, please go check out their Kickstarter and help if you are able. It's going to be so lovely, I just know it.

Anyways! Marlee is hosting a Pure KAL starting next week, and I'm definitely going to join. Pure is on my short list of summer shawls I just wrote about, after all! The great debate is as follows. I have this lovely Madelintosh Pashmina that was a gift from a friend. It is only sport weight, but held double it could be exactly on gauge for the worsted version of Pure. It is so soft, perfect for snuggling next to skin and the colors are so vibrant, but I'm not sure how two individual skeins would look held double (the colorway is Holi, and the skeins are rather individualistic!).

On the other hand, I also recently purchased two skeins of O-Wool Local, which I knit my Mountain Moss Shawl with this past fall, and it was by far my most worn piece for the past few months. With Local, I could knit Pure in two colors, one for the border and one for the middle section. It is a little bit more rustic, but it definitely fits the aesthetic of the pattern, being simple and lovely and one of my favorite yarns.

I'd love to hear everyone's opinions about this! In the end, I guess I could just knit Pure twice, but I love both of these yarns so much, I don't want to waste a bit!

Love: simple textured shawls

1/2/3/4

Lately I've been dreaming of summer vacation, of getting this sweater off of my needles, and of long stretches of time to knit on a beach. Or on my porch, or anywhere, really. And what I want to be knitting the most in this dream scenario is a shawl (because you can't have too many) and of something simple, but interesting. Beautiful, but mindless. The winner out of this bunch may just very well be Pure, thanks to this picture that Hannah Garr posted weeks ago and I still can't get out of my head. Hers is knit in Madelintosh Optic, which is amazing, and for my birthday this year my lovely friend gifted me two skeins of "Holi" by Madelintosh that I think would knit up so wonderfully like the Optic. 

I've no trouble knitting with wool all year long, but I'm just curious what everyone else is planning on knitting this summer! The tanks the Quince and Co recently released have got me thinking about more garments for my wardrobe, but I have to buckle down and finish Gable first!

Gable progress

I realized it's been a while since I gave an update about my first sweater! Luckily, there's lots to talk about. 

The twisted rib is really elegant, and with a minor mishap in counting I even managed the short rows without much difficulty. A little side shaping, a lot of stockinette and the body was done. Huzzah!

I have a little bit of doubt about the sleeves. I tried the first one as I went and it seemed a bit baggy, even though I was on gauge and was following the size prescribed in the pattern for my body size. The model in the picture for Gable is wearing a button down under the sweater, so it's possible that the ease is intended and it is going to look great. Only time will tell.

Since this picture was taken, I'm about two-thirds of the way through the second sleeve and then starts the yoke! I've been told that the yoke tends to go quickly on bottom-up sweaters, which is a relief. I want to finish this guy before Me Made May is over!

Aside from the fact that it's taken me so long to make, it's nowhere even close to being seasonally appropriate anymore, I am loving this.

What about you, do you knit sweaters all year round, or just when it's cold outside? From all of my experience with linen and cotton, I am a wool girl all the way through. 

Carolina Fiber Fest

A few weeks ago, the day was completely perfect, not a cloud in the sky, and I drove my Civic out past Chapel Hill towards the Carolina Fiber Fest. My first and only other experience with fiber fests being Rhinebeck, the queen of all festivals, I didn't know what to expect. But I'm so glad I went!

I showed up around 1 PM, just in time for the sheep herding demonstration, which was crazy! The border collies were so incredibly well trained, even the smallest changes in the intonation of the whistle and they knew which way to go. I was hoping for a chance to get up close with some sheep, but it was still a really fun experience. 

There were about 30 vendors in two different warehouses so I went and perused, not really sure what I was coming for but knowing I was going to leave with something! ;) I finally made it all the way over to Heelside Farms' tent and on a whim, decided to buy a drop spindle. The sweet woman who sold it to me asked if I knew how to use it, and when I replied that I didn't, she had her son sit down with me to show me how. 20 minutes later, I knew how to spin! It was such a thrill, and I was so excited, I went by Echoview and picked up some alpaca fiber, and then to another vendor (that I can't remember, ugh!) and bought some Shetland roving. 

I finished off my frankly WONDERFUL afternoon with a chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick. I kid you not. (And it was awesome, and I should have bought 20 of them.)

If my knitting was going slowly before, it has gone half speed recently because of all of this lovely spinning. I first finished 2 oz of single ply Borderlecister that came with my spindle from Heelside, and have been alternating between the alpaca and Shetland roving whenever my spindle fills up. And though it's wonky and uneven still, I'm getting the hang of it and it is so beautiful and fun. 

Love: fringe

1/2/3

As I write this post, I'm catching up on the season premiere of the final season of Mad Men, so I can't even pretend that that doesn't have something to do with my recent knitwear loves. The 70s seem to be coming back in a big way, and I love it! Lexington was love at first sight when I saw it in BT's Winter Collection (along with this, and this, and this, and let's be honest everything). The big pockets sold me, and of course, the fringe. Farmhouse is so fun, because I feel like it's such a classic looking shawl, but with the fun twist with the long fringe added as well. And Selsey is just such stunning colorwork, and it's knit up in one of my favorite yarns, so it's basically perfect. 

I don't know what it is, but the fringe is just really such a favorite of mine recently. The pairing of oversized, squishy, huggable knits and the long fringe makes me really happy.