woolythyme

if you see my knitting mojo would you please send him home?

Back in the 'good ole days' of early 'retirement' I'd get up, gobble some oatmeal, and settle in my 'knitting' chair with a good book and my latest project.  Sometimes I'd be listening to that book....sometimes with an easy, mindless project, I'd be reading that book.  And that was my day.  I'm not kidding.  8? 9? 10 hours of blissful knitting and reading ....occasionally even more.  

My friends would see something new---like a lace weight shawl or an afghan....and say....oh, did you whip that out yesterday?  Well, almost, although I probably had a good 120+ hours of work in it.  Socks?  A pair easily in two days.  The hours?  A LOT!  You know how it is when you see the 'finish line' of a project looming.  I was probably kitchnering at 3 am.  

I haven't seen a good marathon knitting day in months.  I haven't wanted to see a good marathon knitting day in months.  I thought my knitting mojo was just taking a little break; after all, that happens to us all, right?  Mine, though, I think has permanently moved out of town.  

This little project was supposed to lure it back.  Fun.  Fair isle.  Portable.  Pretty. 

I knit three rounds the last two days.

 

I've been out and about looking.  Mojo, where are you?

I guess I've been looking in the wrong places.

 

yarnalong...listen, read, knit, repeat....

In order to break up the endless yet careful Plotulopi knitting, I pulled out the small flower mitts I started a couple months ago.  When they went to time-out, I was real unhappy with my colour choices.  Oh, the grey was fine. (of course it was!!!) I just felt the flowers weren't pretty at all.  I guess they bloomed a bit in their hideaway bag because I'm not finding them as despicable as I remembered.  I was four rows from finishing the fair isle section of the second mitt.  They are maybe two hours (??)from being finished.  What was I thinking, deserting them at this stage?  

All I can think of is---I wasn't listening to a good audible book at the time.  (That really can make a huge difference!) I've got a good one now.  The Readers of Broken Wheel by Katarina Bivald reminds me just a bit of Britt Marie Was Here.  A quiet, underdog arrives in a community needing some spark...and she provides it. This time 'she' is Sara, a Swede, who has traveled to Broken Wheel, Iowa, to holiday with her bibliophile pen-pal...only to discover upon her arrival that her friend has just died.  

My real book (the one I read, not the one I listen to) is Lily and the Octopus and I really like this one as well.  I want to be sad.  I know what's coming.  But the writing is snappy and engaging and so far I'm turning the pages!!  Another goodie.

 

What are you reading? Listening to? Knitting?  Join yarnalong!! Lots of inspiration there.

5 years, but who's counting?.....

I finally did it.  I cast on for Rydraud. It's a free pattern on Ravelry from Steinunn Birna Gudjonsdottir and it's a beauty.  I definitely wouldn't recommend it for a novice knitter...the pattern is rather sketchy, and the yarn is challenging.  But not as challenging as I feared, which was the reason I've put off the start for so long.

The Plotulopi comes in large 'plates' of unspun Icelandic wool (I ordered mine from Tolt, but Schoolhouse Press also carries it)...

The directions say you can knit from these plates, but while this one was tied and contained, the three dark grey plates were not. As I separated the dark stack, they started to tangle.  

I v-e-r-y  c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y wound them into balls, and even being ever so careful, I found the yarn easily breaking.

This is probably the first time in my knitting history that being an extremely loose knitter has been to my advantage.  After the 6cm broken rib edging, the yarn has broken less. (Of course it's going to break when a 23 pound enthusiastic Freddy pounces on it.)

The cardigan is knit in the round with only two purl stitches at the beginning of the row to position where the steek will be cut. I can tell already it's going to be impossible to see this without somehow outlining it in a light colour.  I'll worry about that later.  

The yarn reminded me a lot of the unspun Lopi Icelandic wool that was distributed by Reynolds years ago and that is now discontinued.  It appears these same 'Reynolds' yarns are now sold and distributed by Istex (the Icelandic producer of the Plotulopi) under the name Alafoss Lopi.

This sweater was knit at least 15 or 20 years ago with Reynold's Lopi.  It has worn amazingly well and is still loved by me and a whole new generation of pups who get walked in the winter while I wear it.  (I'm sure Freddy is not associating the sweater with a walk...he simply loves to roll around in my photo shoots.)

Here's hoping the Rydraud will wear as well!

 

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The winner of Knit Local in the 5 year blogiversary drawing is Dawn'l.  Yes.  Today was the day...5 years ago...that I hit the publish button---twice, and made a duplicate post.  I've been stuttering my way through ever since.  Thanks for joining me on my knitting journey!!!

books vs ravelry?...and a giveaway

When was the last time you looked to your knitting books for inspiration before clicking around in Ravelry?  Yeah.  Me, too.

I've vowed to change that.  (I make a lot of vows I don't keep, so don't hold me to this!!!) My last book purge turned into a browsing spree and I discovered so many wonderful patterns I had totally forgotten.  They were at one time or another on the 'I-have-to-cast-this-on-immediately' list or in the 'I-must-make-this-NOW' queue. Somehow they got buried. 

 

Knit Local was one such book.

There are actually some patterns 'out there' that are only available in their books. The Scandinavian hat is one of them--a great, quick hat, knit using dk yarn.  In this case, mystery stuff from the stash---the ivory was obviously alpaca but the red I think was supposed to be mitts for a grand who changed her mind about colour before I got them made. The two worked well together.

The hat is ever so slightly oversized...which I've found helps to control hat-head syndrome...

(I obviously don't do selfies)

and the deep ribbed brim can be doubled over to accommodate smaller beings...

 

Every book I own was bought for a reason.  Sometimes, even two or three!  So...my new self-imposed 'rule':

I will always have at least one project on the needles from a book I already own.

I have choices.

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Anyone want to join me?  We can start a book club!!!

To aid and abet....now that I've knit the reason I purchased this book, I'm having a little giveaway.  To enter the drawing for Local Knits just leave a comment here or on Instagram @woolythyme1 with a way for me to contact you!!!  Giveaway will end August 14th (the day I started blogging.....5 years ago!!!)

my fickled, fickled, knitting mojo.....

First of all, I must take a moment to thank this awesome, generous knitting community for the support you all have already shown for the Christmas at Sea project.

I finished the 1898 hat yesterday; interesting construction, quick to knit, and enough yarn leftover for a couple mitered squares.  One of the many things I love about this charity is the variety of patterns they suggest (free on the website above);  the assortment of handcrafted things they put in the Christmas boxes can keep even an attention-deficit knitter like myself content.  (If you would like to add your contributions to this Paducah 'collection center', please email me or RAV message me---woolythyme1 for my address.  You, of course, could send directly to SCI.)

Most of the SCI projects are small.  For me, I'll most likely 'break up' larger projects with a hat knit here and there.  I love mitering, but I'm feeling the need for one of those breaks, and a single hat didn't do it for me.  So, I started rummaging in the stash for yarn for perhaps another hat, when Boxy (in her bag) fell out of my closet.  HEY!  I L-O-V-E that sweater!  (No, I don't NEED that sweater, but I think I'll love her to death if she's ever done.)  OK, Boxy, you are back in the 'active' pile of knitting.

THEN, still planning ahead for some SCI knitting...I was sure I had a Seamen's scarf pattern that was printed in an OLD old old Piecework, eons ago.  Of course, I saved it.  Didn't I?  It's here somewhere....OH, look!  Mary Jane Mucklestone's book, fair isle style.  It was stuck in with 'loose patterns' instead of on the book shelf.  (For Pete's sake....I'm a LIBRARIAN.  I KNOW a misplaced item is a lost item.)  Well, this is found again, I've wanted to make Gudrun Johnston's Bressay dress since I bought the book, so I stopped my scarf-search and ordered yarn for the dress.

While on the computer, I checked my emails, followed a link from Andrea (thisknittedlife...if you don't know her, you really must; her blog is always a very fun read)   to Craftsy's Architexture Scarf kit (I've had that pattern fav'd since it was still in the test-knit stage) and promptly ordered one....it was very reasonably priced.

So, in less than 20 minutes, I went from blah-ly picking up my mitered blanket again (wondering where in the world my knitting mojo has gone), to having Boxy, Architexture, Bressay, another Seamen's 1898, and a Mariner's scarf...all jumping up and down, screaming 'knit me first'.     

 

OK, mojo....you choose.

Hitofude.....interrupted

I have truly loved working on Hitofude.... every minute of it.  If you have followed this blog at all, you know that I can blast through projects pretty fast sometimes.  Too fast, really.  That old addage...stop and smell the roses? It goes for knitting, too.  There are some projects that are just like those bouquets of flowers--or a good book....they need to be savored and enjoyed, and I'm putting Hitofude in that category.

It is an extremely simple pattern to knit....the lace is basic.  Very intuitive; so easy to remember.  But, the construction (for me) is very creative.  I worried just a teeny bit last week-- I was ready to start the body increases, and feared that you would have to juggle charts and write down where you were, and add in a pattern as you accumulated enough added stitches.  Phew.  No such thing.  The additional stitches are added simply and look lovely.

I've completed two of the four body increase sections.  Each is 16 rows long.  16 increase rows + baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies = one Cardinals baseball game.  (I'm a fan.  I watch a whole lot of baseball.  This could have been finished this week.)

I've happily let other things distract me so I can savor this process just a little longer.

Like circles.  I'm thinking 9 rows of circles x 11 rows might be about the right size for a throw.  The circles are finished. (yep.  99 of them. compulsive? OK.  Sure.)  I'm waiting for the background yarn to arrive.  What started out as purely a stash-buster has now grown into an investment. (I hate when that happens.)

On that one(!) cool(er) morning over the weekend, when I whipped out the fall decorations....I also cast on for Helen Tindall's Shwook, the hat she designed for Shetland Wool Week (October 4-12).  I think the idea was to knit it up and wear it to the festivities so you could identify other kindred spirits, but since I won't be making the festival, I decided to knit on it that first week of October.  I didn't exactly cheat....I just got the boring ribbing out of the way so I'll be ready to 'fair isle for fall'.

 Lori made this before her Shetland trip; I like her colors much better than what I chose, but this is another stash buster project, so it is what it is.

 

and finally...

a friend and I went to an arts and craft fair over the weekend; there was a weaver...

she had kits....

 

the rest is history.  This might even be a bit too hippy for me.  Maybe not.  It was fun.  (The weaving loom was made from a piece of foam board....a great project for kids.)

 

So, you see....there is still loads of time to join Karen and me for the Hitofude knitalong.  I have a few more distractions kicking around that will at least keep ME knitting on mine for another few weeks!!!!