woolythyme

too much of a good thing....

What was I thinking when I ordered the Kauni for the mitered cross blanket a few years ago?  Maybe I had planned to double it?  SHEESSH.  Who knows?  Blanket.  Check.  Pine bough cowl (one of the favorite things I've ever knit).  Check.  And now...a simple linen stitch cowl...

not as thick and heavy as the Pine Bough, which is knit as a tube...double thickness, then since it's fair isle stranding...makes it a quadruple-thickness, wooly-wool cowl around the neck.  Warm. Actually----WARM! (just what we need this year....we're looking at another week with temps over 70 degrees...and they deny global warming...right.)

The linen stitch cowl is a nice weight.  But, enough is enough with the Kauni yarn for a while.

although Freddy is lobbying for a doggy bed, I think.

 

And then, there is the linen stitch...

I only finished up this cowl because it was started, it was going to be a quick 'tick' in the FO column, and because I was 'in the groove'...

Peppered stripe wrap is finally finished...

all 8+ feet of it...all linen stitch, (which I think equates to roughly 6.5 miles of stockinette or 4.75 miles of garter stitch).  

I'm done with linen stitch (for a while).  I'm done with Kauni (for a while).

Now what?  I really don't know.  70 degree weather leaves me rather uninspired.  What's on YOUR needles?  I'm in a rather 'magpie' mood...looking for that next shiny thing.  Tempt me.  Please.

Until then....back to the mystery socks.  You can't see them.  They are a mystery, right?

yarnalonging....

Five weeks in to 2017 and I haven't made a single yarn purchase yet. (this might be a record.)  Needles, yes. (not my fault---blame security in El Salvador)  Yarn, no. 

This full version Hansel used some Knit Picks Bare from a purchase last year when I thought I was ready to dive into natural dyeing and didn't, some sock yarn I bought on our holiday trip to Germany (still enough left for socks! I hope---see below) and some Jamieson Spindrift from a 2005 trip to Shetland.  Thank goodness yarn doesn't get stale.  True to form, none of this yarn was used for it's purchased purpose. (can you tell I'm feeling rather smug using all this stash for what turned out to be a rather substantial shawl!!!)

On the needles now, a Kristen Kapur mystery sock (ssssh.  it's a mystery, you can't see it; you wouldn't want to see it anyway.  We're on clue 2; I'm still on clue 1) and the hap for Harriet shawl that lost its needles on the trip.  I've just about reached the mid-point....and if I was excited about any other project, this would most likely head to time-out.  (Maybe I would love it more if it was grey.)

Reading.....  Books for Living.  From last week.  Still liking it.

!LOVING! the cup (and tea) I won a while ago in a drawing at Mysistersknitter.  Andi had to send it twice....first time, it decided to return itself to her.  Really happy it decided living here was going to be OK.

 

joining Ginny for yarnalong!

yarnalong....

Reading:  I just finished Boys on the Boat and Weight of Water...both were great reads. As so often happens....after reading a really good book, I have a hard time settling in on just a ho-hum one.   I sampled and rejected a couple before settling down with Flight of Dreams...the story of the last days of the final flight of the Hindenburg. So far----GOOD!

Knitting:  Hubby's Christmas/Birthday (oops) sweater....the Goat Herder Pullover by Ann Budd, knit with Shelter.  Not sure if this really is his gift, or mine----I love knitting with Shelter.  A joy.  And, for the portable project, I just cast on Tide Mittens from Knitting from the North by Hilary Grant. (I really LOVE this book!!!  And love Spindrift even more than Shelter, so I'm really in a very happy knitting place.)   I'm looking at about 10 hours in the car and since I have the attention span of a gnat, I know I'll need at least two diversions to keep me sane.

Why more mittens---when we're having another 50+ degree day (after setting a Christmas day record of 72?)

Because these turned out so darn cute!

can't see the forest for the trees....

 

 

Home again.  Home again.

I've just spent the most magical week touring the Christmas markets of Austria and Germany along the Danube...marred only by the tragic events in Berlin as we returned home.  My heart goes out to all effected by this horrendous act of terrorism.    

I'll share some of the trip with you when I've had a chance to wade through the photos (unless, of course, you'd like to see all 500+ pictures now??  No?  OK.)  

This book was in the stack of mail waiting for me;  I really want to knit just about everything in it.  To keep from having a major cast on party, I'm calling it a Christmas present....and refraining from casting on until next week.  (and you really believe that, don't you?)

Until then, I'm knitting a forest, with plans of stringing the trees on an I-cord and making a winter garland.  I thought briefly about decorating the trees, but that simply makes it too seasonal in a season that is nearing its end.  It will hang where my generic garland now hangs...

Back to lumbering.....

 

ode to the cowl.....

Cowls are the winter solution to warm.  Simple as that.  They stay put.  They can cozy up and keep your nose warm.  Or they can simply hang loose and pretend to be a scarf. And they can't fall off and get lost, which is an added bonus.  If it's a really long cowl, you can wrap it around your head AND your neck if you are in a big hurry and escape without grabbing a hat.  (ask me how I know this.)

As much as I want to nab a shawl or a scarf when I run out the door....I almost always grab a cowl.  

You can knit them with fingering wt yarn and close to your neck (like the 3-colored cashmere cowl of Joji Locatelli).  You can use leftovers like Favorite Things pictured above (thanks Rob, for modeling) or wing it like this.  You can knit it in GREY!!! (this really IS my favorite!) or Gradient-grey (!!!) or in bright colours like albers or pine-bough.  (maybe those are my favorites.)  There are mindless cowls like raya that make great quick gifts or lacey ones like imogen that aren't mindless or quick.  

You can knit them in the round.  You can knit them flat and seam them.  Can you tell?  I! Love! COWLS!!

Guess what is on my needles now?

 

How did you guess?

Added bonus.  One size fits all.

 

 

                          * * * * * *

I'm sort of between books at the moment....just finished rereading Anna Quindlen's Still Life with Bread Crumbs and loved it even more the second time around.  I'm going to cruise around yarnalong at Ginny's today to find my next book!

the week of the shawl....+ giveaway reminder

I've settled into a rhythm this week after a crazy cast-on one last week.  (Blame it on the *giveaway book...if you haven't entered for a chance to win, you can still post a comment here; Freddy will announce the winner next Monday.)

Shawls.  Yes.  Plural.  It's the week of the shawls.

 

I've been hopping among...

 

Abide (from the new Drop Dead Easy Knits...see *giveaway)--the leaf edging is knit into the body of the shawl; when the last stitch is stitched you are DONE.  A brilliant pattern.  And it truly is easy.

 

Kelpie-2 (a Jared Flood pattern). The body is mindless garter stitch with a yarn over decorative border stitch added every 4 rows.  I have miles to go before the border is added, which will alter this from a totally mindless knit, to a not-so-mindless knit that might end up in time-out (like Kelpie-1, which has been neglected well over a year).  

 

Finally,  Peppered Stripes Wrap (a Purlsoho free pattern), knit in the hated, boring, linen stitch which, I swear, takes twice as many rows/inch than any other pattern.  But, you can get into a rhythm, and this yarn is yummy, and I love the finished look.   I must not be the only one who struggles with linen stitch, because in spite of the fact that this is an incredibly gorgeous finished wrap, only 7 of us are knitting it (according to Ravelry) and only 1 has finished it. I want to be #2. 

All three patterns result is a classic, simple shawl. 

 

Reading....

I think I'm re-reading Dreamers of the Day, by Mary Doria Russell. Maybe I'm through the re-reading part and on the part that I failed to finish first time around. It's not a long book and it's really not bad.  (The story of a 40-year old schoolteacher from Ohio who takes her 'trip of a lifetime' in 1921 to Egypt, arriving just as the Cairo Peace Conference begins.  She's drawn into the company of Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell.)

I've been listening to Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. I LOVE everything Pollan has ever written, and somehow I missed this one (or read it in 2008 when it was published and forgot every single word...highly unlikely).  You would think that an 8 year old food book would be slightly dated, but if anything, I'm thinking that the industry simply hasn't learned a single thing in 8 years.  We still allow our choices to made through lobbyists and media (should we eat low fat? saturated fat? ban trans fat? low carb? high carb?) Shouldn't we actually be looking at the foods themselves???...oops.  (The meat and dairy industries won't allow THAT!)  Does it really take a rocket scientist (or nutritionalist) to see there is a serious  problem with eating manufactured food-like substances rather than real food?  In our western-culture attempts to 'improve' upon foods, we have created a diet that has resulted in the most obese, cancer-ridden, diabetic, heart diseased society in the world.

Pollan's advice:  Eat Food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.

 

Simple.  I like simple....in my knitting AND my food.

St. Kilda

 

 

I first learned the story of St. Kilda as I was wandering around Kelvingrove Art Museum last year. Photos of sheep on a wall and knitted things in a case...of course, I'm going to stop and see what it's all about.  

St. Kilda is an archipelago on the western-most edge of the Outer Hebrides...40 miles from the closest land.  It most likely was inhabited for close to two millennia, although never boasting more than 180 or so residents at any one time.  It was officially evacuated in 1930; the population now consists of some military personnel and archeologists....and sheep.  The islands' native Boreray and Soay sheep are two of the oldest and rarest of all British breeds, so there is only enough wool to make a limited amount of St. Kilda yarn every year.  The fibers are combined with native Shetland wool to create a lovely yarn with plenty of bounce....perfect for shawls.   

 

Pattern:  Kelpie (Jared Flood)

Yarn:  Blacker's St. Kilda (limited edition) in Isle of Dun and Stac Lee colours available from Claire at The Woolly Thistle.

 

Reading: I'm reading a book that I apparently read (or at least started) a while ago...I finally got to a part that I really remembered reading. (How could you forgot Winston Churchhill making the main character join him while he painted pyramids?) Up until then, I thought I might have read something similar.  Obviously, if it wasn't a good enough storyline to remember, than it probably isn't good enough to recommend...and anyway, the book is in the other room, and I can't remember the title.  

I'm old.
 

 

 

yarnalong...

Daelyn pullover is off the needles and being blocked.  It was a delightfully quick knit ( for me, not being one to knit with worsted wt yarn very often!)  Of course, I would have preferred that it was grey, rather than this grey-ish beige, but this is what was left in the stash.  I may or may not try to get a photo of me in it, but rest assured that it will be worn.  It's long, oversized, cozy and just the thing to knock around the house in all winter long.  

At this very minute in time....I'm not knitting anything.  (That is....actively knitting; there are a ga-boodle of UFOs kicking around and one just may get adopted as 'project of the week' but I'm making no committments. Of course, I just bound off the neck about 10 minutes ago.)  It's a very weird feeling for me having nothing I'm drooling over starting.  Yes.  I took my temperature and it doesn't appear that I'm sick.

Books?  I finished Frankenstein (Mary Shelley version) and liked it much more than I thought I would when I was about half-way through.  Keeping with the 'Frank' theme, I followed up with Julia Claiborne Johnson's debut novel, Be Frank With Me.  It's a quirky story about a young woman sent cross country by a publisher to help a struggling author get her long awaited second novel written.  Her job was to 'do what it takes' to get this accomplished...which included cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the recluse author's 9 year old son, Frank.  Frank obviously is autistic, although a diagnosis is never given in the novel; he's a delightful, bizarre kid---who is obsessed with old movies, misfittingly brilliant, and attires himself in creative, if somewhat ridiculous, turn-of-the-century get-ups.  It's a good little story....pretty well written....that kept me up one night until the wee hours of the morning to finish.  It'll put a smile on your face.

I'm joining Ginny and yarnalong and hoping to find something I can't wait to cast on!

Flaum...still

Flaum.  sigh.  I've finally reached the second sleeve.  I feel as if I've been working on this sweater half my life.  The fisherman ribbing is finished. yay! what a pain!  The pockets are in (although not attached until after blocking.)  wooo-whooo!  The sleeves on double points are not.  boo.  

I was reading a blog earlier this week and Meredith had many of my same laments....hers resulted in five lovely large balls of yarn that will someday be something else.  Flaum won.

I know I'll love this sweater. Actually, I already do.  It's simple, cropped, swingy....and of course, grey.  I've tried it on (of course I have) and it's good (although my tubular cast-off was a bit wonky in the beginning and needed a good 'adjustment' which fortunately worked....ripping that out would have been reason enough to ditch the whole project!!!  surely, I've done that cast-off before???????)

It just looks so silly with the skinny ribbed sleeves and ribbed, puckery pockets. (That's why I keep stopping to try it on.  Yep.  Still looks fine ON...still looks ridiculous OFF.)   I know a good blocking will work the same miracle for this ribbing as it does for lace.  It will, won't it?  (please confirm this...please?)

Flaum will be done this week.  In spite of dozens (literally) of other things on needles scattered willy-nilly around the house, none are screaming to be worked on.  Flaum has no immediate competition.  (This could dramatically change any minute as we all know.)

It's probably taken as long as it has to knit thus far, because even though I knew it was NOT a good idea, I tried to read while knitting.  Fisherman ribbing (how many k1b did I miss??!?) ...plain ribbing (pockets)...then fisherman again resulted in missing the change---and of course, needing to rip back.  Then, the ribbing got off when, after a decrease round  I  had k1, p1, a k2 (stuck in the middle), p1, k1, p1 ---the k2 I totally missed which mucked up the rest of the whole round.  (blah, blah, blah, blah) 

A Gentleman in Moscow was totally worth all the knitting angst it caused.  You would think a book that takes place over decades in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow...our hero is on house arrest...couldn't have action, intrigue, and mystery---and you would be so wrong.  Great story.  Well written.  Read it!

My book club (which I can't attend because I now have class when they meet) is reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  I found it in the public domain and started it yesterday (it's nothing like I thought it would be)...and then my internet connection went south.  If I have time to get to the library or bookstore today I'll solve this problem.  I need a BOOK in hand.  With pages to turn.  

And a reason to use a bookmark!

a gnat has a longer attention span..

The last 24 hours, I've been merrily casting on---willy-nilly.

First, this cowl--using yarn I was gifted a couple years ago.

Then, 

the shawl Ginny showed last Yarnalong...

 

And finally, some fingerless mitts (Christmas gift)

WHOA.  I did the ribbing with the 'smaller' dps, then went to change to the larger ones.....and (you guessed it) none to be had.  Now, I'm a knitter who not only has knit a very very long time, but one who has accumulated an insanely large collection of needles in every imaginable size, shape, and in every available material known to mankind.  And to not have a single size 6 (although what I'd do with only one...??) is of course unthinkable.  Not even the old icky plastic ones---or the despicable aluminum ones were to be had.  There must be at the very least three (probably more) unfinished projects hogging (and hiding) these needles somewhere.

I'm on a mission.  (I now sort of know how Freddy feels when he's on a ball band mission.)  T-O-T-A-L-L-Y focused and T-O-T-A-L-L-Y obsessed.

I yanked out all the projects not deeply buried, luckily (rather quickly) found some 6's in the process of knitting a sleeve....which allowed my obsessive search to end----but wait.  What's that grey goodie? FLAUM!!!  My missing Flaum.  I loved Flaum.  Maybe Flaum would like to go to Rhinebeck? Why did I ever put it away?

OH, yeah. yuck.

It only took tinking 660+ stitches to get back on track...silly me.  Doing a k1tbl instead of the k1b...totally screwed up three rows. (Steph, you must R-E-A-D the directions, not just glance at them!!!)  We're sailing now.

(Until the next shiney thing enters this magpie's line of vision.)

 

Reading....I've been a bit more dedicated.  

Still enjoying A Gentleman in Moscow. And I'm listening to Last Days of Night (by Graham Moore)...the story of Edison's lawsuit against Westinghouse over the incandescent light bulb.  I never realized what a conniving, sleazy character Edison was...or the part Tesla played in all this.  

I'm really engaged with the story...

 

Flaum is making great strides. 

 

and the 'winner' of the passalong book from last week is.....

AsKatKnits!  (Hope you enjoy!)