woolythyme

souvenir yarn...

Artfiber:  Tsuki turquoise #10

bought in 2011 on a trip to San Francisco....at Artfiber 

cast on immediately (of course) and knit 2"

 

Fast forward....2019.  Look what I found.  Tsuki is a mohair/silk blend which combines for the lushest, softest, loveliest fiber ever.  This drop stitch wrap is a classic.  I wish I knew why it's been in limbo for 8 years.  

 

The pattern (written for this yarn) calls for 66" before bind off.  I've now knit 10".  I guess if I was a betting person, I'd bet this will once again find itself in time-out before the last 56" are knit.

I sure hope not.  

 

 

* * * * * * * * * *  

Have you caught the drift of the current knitting madness?  I'm desperately trying to finish UFOs and remove bags that are taking up valuable real estate in a cupboard.  The Kauni vest was a success.  Done.  The square baby blanket is finished using cotton that almost made it to the church yard sale. Success.  The no-show socks got frogged, but freed up my #0 dp needles and sprung one of my favorite project bags back in the  bag rotation, so I'm also calling this a success. A pair of mystery kal socks...done, and gifted in time for DIL's birthday.  'Take me to Spain' got frogged...another successful bag recoup as well as some favorite Addi lace needles back in circulation. I feel I'm actually starting to win this battle!

56" more inches to go, and then.....hold on to your hat.  ONE UFO left (in the cupboard).

I can do it!

time and time again.....

My affair (note:  this is not a love affair) with Kauni wool began sometime around 2007;  I have the YarnHarlot to blame for it. 

I think we can all (all knitters, that is!) find at least one or ten things that she's inspired us to knit---whether we really wanted to knit them or not.  For me, it was the Kauni Cardigan.  I still think this is one of the most beautiful things ever created.  Who knows what I quit knitting so I could immediately cast on this beauty the minute my carefully copy-catted yarn arrived from somewhere.  

Are you all familiar with this yarn?  The colours are intense and rich.  The repeats are long, and in 2007 long repeats were not as common as they are today.  So, it was novel...and pretty....and colourful (this must have been before the black/grey/neutral phase of my life began).  I was going to be the proud owner of the most beautiful sweater in the world.  And maybe I would have...except for the fact that Kauni is one of the wooliest wools you are ever going to come across.  The cardigan was knit with either slip stitch? or fair isle?.... the details don't matter as much as the fact that either technique was going to produce a garment that carries yarn across the back, making it double-thickness.  And, of course, it's scratchy, so you must wear another layer underneath.  Since 2007 the only time I even briefly thought about this 'sweater-that-got-away' was as I was packing for Iceland last December.  I still own a half dozen handknit beauties from the years we lived in Buffalo.  They all look brand new....maybe a bit dated, but definitely new.  (Well, all except one that was obviously a meal for a family of moths and had to be culled from the sweater stash.)  Fashionista I'm not, but you all already knew that, right?

Now I have a heap of Kauni and it's not going to be a sweater.  According to Ravelry,  that yarn of mine has had a history, most of which I'd totally forgotten.  In 2012 I started a shawl called Light Waves. And frogged it.  I guess I decided Wingspan was a better way to use the yarn....and I actually knit this shawl and finished it in about a month.  I'm really glad I made this, because it was gifted to a dear friend whose middle-name could easily be 'Bright, Colorful, Happy' when she was undergoing some really really bad health issues; it brightened her day.

Right after that I started the Cascade Vest, obviously didn't find the love, let it linger in limbo for a couple years, and frogged it in 2014. I had apparently had my eye on the Mitered Cross Blanket for sometime....and had an 'aha' moment, thinking that gem (Kay Gardiner is also a major enabler in my life) would be a great way to use up this yarn....if only I had some BLACK to set off the colors.  I found some.  I bought it.  I bought a lot.

Linen stitch cowl.

Pine Bough cowl. 

Finally....Mitered Cross Blanket.  

And in a desperate attempt to finally use up this yarn....I cast on the Maude Vest.

Look closely.  It's the very same vest (under a different name) that I cast on in 2014 and ripped out.

All goes 'round comes 'round. 

a renewed commitment...

The past two months I've been lucky to post twice a month.  What's with that?  (This is the blogger who at one time...posted daily!) I blamed it for awhile on my AWOL mojo, but we all knew that was just an excuse, right?  Lazy?  Uninspired?  Distracted?  Who knows?  Even Freddy has been uncharacteristically silent.....although he really REALLY wanted to tell you all about his foray into restricted territory with the Halloween candy.  A belly ache sort of shut him down.

I totally 'get it'...those of you who have jumped ship to instagram.  Just so you know....I miss you.  A whole lot. 

After my extended silence, I'm not sure anyone is even still visiting here.  But just in case there are a few die-hard knitters still haunting my space....I'm going to try to beef up the posts.  I actually have been knitting.  (I even have a few FO that just need their Kodak moment.)  

The above baby blanket...a rather quick little project, but the perfect size, the perfect pattern (take that to mean mindless....I read Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk while knitting it) and it came in at a respectable price to make it a nice little gift.  Just 2.5 skeins of Saratoga.

Not sure what this is about... the somewhat monogamous knitter I've become.  Needing a new project, I did go to the unending WIP pile and pulled out Idlewild, a lovely pullover by Julie Hoover that for some reason I stopped knitting after completing the front and half the back.  Maybe the fact that I was knitting it with sport weight yarn and it calls for worsted weight might have had something to do with the fact that I was thinking it just wasn't going to be the oversized, throw-on for all occasions knit I had hoped.  So, I ripped it out.  

There is always a silver lining.  Look what I found?

MY FAVORITE JENNY the POTTER stitch marker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I immediately cast on Koto Pullover (don't ask, of course, I could have jumped back in that WIP pile, but what's the fun in that?)...brooklyntweed (using some old yarn in the stash) and I am one very happy camper! knitter!!  

 

Stay tuned!

Surely this won't happen again....

Remember this?

No? Let me remind you.  This was going to be the project that found my missing mojo.  But, something just wasn't quite right.  I knew it, and in true knitterly fashion, I continued to knit anyway.  I finally got out the pattern (I was on a long car ride....Fred told you we were gone last week.) Yep.  My mistake was on row two when I failed to do a braid after doing the two coloured cast on.  Now I have just a roll-y cuff.  I could maybe pick up stitches and do an I-cord edging.  Maybe.  So I continued knitting (still not happy) until it was time to put the thumb on hold. Man, I'm using a lot of yarn.  Time to get out the pattern again.  Oops.  See that lovely ginger coloured skein?  I have one of them.  And guess how much it takes for TWO mittens?  TWO!!  (duh) 

Just for future reference, please note:  it took less than two miles driving time to rip out a week's worth of knitting.

Now what?

I have this great spool of cotton/rayon blend that I got from somewhere sometime ago.  No label.  (sorry, Fred)  No yardage.  But....it sure looks like lots of yarn, doesn't it?

I think I'll make another featherweight cardigan.  I've made it a couple times before, so I'm probably  not going to mess up the pattern. 

I wonder how many miles it will take to rip out a not-quite-done cardigan? 

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.

 

more dots...

I really love a good dot.  Any kind.  Polka dots.  Splattered dots.  Holey dots. A good bokeh.  You name it.  Needless to say, Seurat is my hero.

But the polka dot scarf was letting me down.  It was one of those projects that as you keep knitting on it, you keep thinking......this is r-e-a-l-l-y not looking so great. Is it going to be an '800+-yards-of-laceweight' mistake? 99% of the time I end up wishing that I had gone with my gut, ripping out when the thought first hits me, and saving weeks of futile, wasted knitting.       

The only thing that kept me going and gave me an ounce of hope was the fact that this could be considered 'lace' and we all know that lace looks like sh*t when you are knitting it.  And then we block it and magic happens and you wonder why you couldn't envision the miracle all the time.

This was the story of The Polka Dot Scarf.

 

It's pretty much perfection in a summer scarf.  Ultra light weight, even though it's merino wool.  Classically simple.  Easily memorized pattern that uses a gazillion yards of fiber (so it's perfectly portable for travel knitting or bleacher sitting).  Being grey only endears it that much more.

I love it so much (and since my knitting mojo is still MIA and I really don't have anything else I care about knitting)....

I cast on another.

Variegated?  Oh, gosh.  I don't know.  It's sort of pooling.  These colours? Not sure I like them. This is silk.  Will it block as well as wool? Polka Dot Scarf....you're not going to let me down, are you?

Way too soon to tell.  

Guess I'll just keep have to keep on knitting.

a knitter's spring cleaning...

First up, is this cowl that has spent much too long in an unfinished state.  It's actually not really finished now, but it's done.  By that, I mean...I decided it was time to end this project.  First of all, it is very, very wide....and it's knit in the round, which mean that you have a double layer of wooliness going around your neck.  To make it a reasonable width, I have to fold it in half.  So...that's like having 4 layers of wooly wool going around your neck once.  Had I continued to the stated length in the pattern, not only would I have been knitting sometime into the next millennium, but this lovely monster could easily have wrapped my neck at least 3 times...doubled over, that would have been an even dozen layers thick?!?  Unreasonable.  It's done.

Rill is also finished.  It had been hanging out almost as long as the cowl in a partial state of un-doneness.  Now it's done.  Thank you German short-rows.  I love you.

One short sock is finished. I apparently put it in a good safe place, because I couldn't find it for a photo op.

A couple more hexagons are off the needle.  I've 'stored' the finished ones in a basket on a really high shelf.  I toss finished ones up into it (my version of knitting basketball) and I'm such a lazy-butt it's been probably close to a year since I've counted how many I've done.  I still have worsted weight yarn left, so I guess I'm not done yet.  And here's a mystery for you..... how have I accumulate so many odd skeins of WORSTED weight yarn----and in colours, yet!!----when I really only knit with grey fingering or lace weight yarn? 

Speaking of which...

I needed a mindless project, and I really hadn't started anything in quite a while (which may account for my recent knitting malaise), so I started this Polka Dot scarf by Churchmouse Yarns.

I'm a sucker for polka dots...of any kind.  These are big holes, which will need a nice blocking before they show up well.  This is EASY...mindless...and lovely.  I hesitated actually buying this pattern...how hard is it to make holes in knitted fabric?  But like all Churchmouse patterns, the attentions are in the details, and the details in this one  will make it a very classy, very well finished scarf.  The yarn was in the stash.

And it's grey. 

And it's lace weight. 

What's not to love?
 

spring knitting....

It's spring...isn't it?  Snow is predicted tonight, but I'm sure they don't really mean it.  I put away all my wintery winter clothes...got out what passed for transitional spring clothes last year, and pretty much wonder what I really wore, since everything looks blah this year.  

So I grabbed the knitting needles.

Meet Aibrean by Isabell Kraemer.  I've yet to meet a pattern of hers that I didn't love.   Of course, I would rather be knitting it in a lovely silvery grey, but the stash only had purple. It IS linen, though, so I'm pretending I love purple as much as I would have loved grey.  And who am I kidding?

By the time I finish knitting this....the temps will be nearing the 90s and it really won't matter what colour it is!

a monday moment....or two

A long lost friend.  Rusty by Steinunn Birna Gudjonsdottir has been shuffled around in the 'yarn closet' for what seems like years (but since I failed to input a start date in Ravelry, I guess we'll never know how many).  Oh, wait!!! 

rummage--rummage--rummage--FOUND IT!!

 

The invoice from Tolt Yarn and Wool was still in the project bag.  April 2, 2016.  Not so long ago after all.  I'm sure the minute the yarn arrived, I dove into this.  I really, really wanted to make this sweater.  I wonder what happened?

It uses Lopi Plotulopi, an unspun worsted wooly wool that comes in 'plates' (see the grey plate above?) You c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y wind the plate into a ball and then even more C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y begin knitting.  I feel I have a real advantage using this yarn because I'm an extremely loose knitter.  Tight knitters....I think you're toast.  

This yarn breaks if you simply look at it funny.  Tug on it and it seems to dissolve in your hands. I've never used anything quite so fragile. 

In spite of the yarn being worsted, wooly wooly wooly, and finicky, the pieces I've knit are wonderfully light and airy. Because of the long fibers, this yarn is supposed to wear like iron, while remaining soft and making an extremely warm garment. Fingers crossed. 

I haven't exactly been knitting up a storm these days, but I have given this sweater two full days of my attention.  That's a record around here lately. 

I have a deadline. November 28th.

 

Because that's the day I leave for ICELAND!!!!!

and this Icelandic wool sweater is coming with me.

mittens, mittens....

I didn't have anything else I really wanted to knit, so I opted for the mitten lining, which I was avoiding like the proverbial plague.  I thought it was going to be fiddly, tedious, and would still result in flared cuffs. Wrong.  Wrong.  Wrong.

The linings of these Snowfling Mittens were really a breeze to knit, and of course, they are l-i-n-i-n-g and only visible as a mere peek of colour. Super fine finishing wasn't a high priority.  And besides.  The lining is CASHMERE!  It's decadent.  The 'tactile' was going to out-weight the 'visual' any day.

Peek!

 

 I can't begin to tell you how lovely these are.  The kit was from  Tanis Fiber Arts and when I received it (nearly two years ago) I was sort of disappointed.  The green was not the colour I had hoped....I loved the apple green lining, but didn't think it looked that great with the main mitten colours.  I knit them in what was undoubtedly a I-have-nothing-else-I-want-to-knit-right-now funk.  And then they sat for well over a year in time out.

This is obviously why I'm not----and never will be----a designer.  I have no vision.  My colour sense is also obviously lacking (probably why I tend to steer towards black and grey).  These are hands down (pun intended) my favorite mittens of all time.

So, I'm not real sure why I have more mittens on the needles right now.

Mayflooer mittens from Fair Isle Style.

But, I do.  

Grey and grey.  I picked the colours myself.