Knitting, Lot's of FO's

I have been finishing a lot of projects lately. Feeling the need to find all my needles missing in action or held captive on different projects. Finishing projects and gaining back needles is much more fulfuilling then buying more needles because I can not find the size I need.

Botanical Hat by Stephen West

I made this for Wesley. It was sort of an add on christmas present I made when he came down mid January for a visit. I used Casacade for the black and Noro silk garden for the color. This is a really fun hat to make. I think there are at least 3 of them in the knitting group now. The guys seem to really like it too. It is reversible and designed from a really cool architectural design. Very guy like.

Barb's Koigu Ruffle by Kit Huchin

I was looking for something fast and with a lot of color. This has been in my queue for a while. I went stash diving into the Koigue corner and come up with this. The pattern is a really easy knit as long as you can get past the idea that you cast on and cast off a crazy number of stitches (648!!) But you are knitting two together right away for the ruffle...... It was a great addition to my wardrobe.

Hemlock Ring by BooklynTweed:

This has been in my queue even longer then the ruffle scarf. I used the Knitpicks City Tweed in Brocade. I love this yarn. It is really soft and the tweed is wonderful. I made mine bigger then the pattern so I could use it as a lap blanket. I had a hard time getting the blanket to block perfectly flat. I would go up at least 3 sizes needles sizes bigger to cast off and use Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy bind off for the k2tog sections and a regular bind of during the yarn over sections. I really enjoy using this as a lap blanket in the evenings while I knit.

Byzantine by Susan Pandorf

This was one of the most fun projects I have done in a long time. Mosaic knitting is really easy and fast and watching the colors change made me happy!

Clapotis by Kate Gilbert

 This is one of the most knit projects on Ravelry (14,735 as of this post). The pattern came out in Knitty the Fall of 2004. I resisted knitting this one for years and then within a few of months I have now finished my second one. Why did I finally fall you ask?

Because of Noro sock yarn and Noro Scarf Stripping. I love love the way this turned out and the silk garden sock yarn is pretty soft.

Whirligig Shrug by Stefanie Japel

 I knit this up really fast for a class. It is another great instant gratification knit. The pattern is from Interweave Knits Weekends 2009. I used Soft Wave Cotton from Queensland. I think it was a closeout yarn from Webs at some point. It was in my stash. Of course Miss Claire will end up with this at some point. It sure is fun having a little princess to knit for after having boys of my own.

Last, but the most fun of all, is Mr. Bender, a character from Futurama. This is a B-day gift for Wesley. We used to enjoy watching this show together when he still lived at home. As an art student he has great appreciation for such creations.

I have most of my needles back and the knitting is a bit quiet right now. The only thing really on my needles is Baudelaire by Cookie A , my second pair of Toe-up socks. I am already on the second sock in less then a week. The pattern is easy to memorize, learned a new heel and I just love knitting these. Socks may be back in my life just in time for summer!

How many needles are missing in action at your house?

Stitches West 2010

Stitches West was mind boggling and inspiring. From the opening presentation to my last purchase of Malabrio Lace, it was just what I needed. I realized, believe it or not, that I have been yarn deprived since Unraveled closed. I loved ordering yarn, opening the new boxes of yarn and most of all stocking the yarns on the shelves. Tactel and color therapy and I got payed for it!!

Thursday's Opening Presentation was with Jane Slicer Smith (Swing Swagger Drape) and Anna Walden of Twisted Sisters.

I was very taken with Jane's talk and her patterns. She uses a lot of color, love that, and the drape and fit of her sweaters is very impressive. The photographer for XRX was wearing her sweaters throughout the weekend and they all where wonderful. My favorites are:

Greta Swagger was my favorite. The shape of this cardigan and perfectly placed cables is just beautiful.

Jane was wearing this one done in different shades of green and longer. Beautiful!!

Metro A-Line. I saw a couple of people wearing this one and it looked really good on everyone.

Anna taked mostly about her garments. Her things are not my taste but her construction is very ingenious. I wish she had talked about dying fibers and colors since that is what I really know her for.

Thank goodness the Market opened Thursday evening for those registered for classes. This was about the only time you could walk around and see everything without the crowds.

My goal was to find MadalineTosh yarn and Qiviuet. I was sucessful and glad I made MadalineTosh first on this list for it flew off the shelves. My first color choice was already picked over but I got a sweaters worth of Duchess, black and purple. Beautiful!!

And 2 skeins of the Moss.

My second stop was for Qiviut. This is like gold. One tiny little skein of about 200 yards can run $70+. It is the soft undercoat of the MuskOx. There is not that much undercoat (see the link) and they collect what falls off. But it is the softest yarn ever. They have some of the skeins mixed with silk and/or merino. The blends lower the price point a lot and it is still really soft. I got one skien of the Royal blend

and one of the softest Suri Merino I have ever felt. These yarns made the cashmere feel course.

The classes I signed up for where all about shapping without really seeing the shaping. Especially around armholes and necklines. No more "stair step" shaping around here! They where very good and I learned a lot of little tricks that will make me look really good as a teacher. After all, that was the whole reason for trekking up here in the first place.

And you thought it was the yarn!

Here are some of my other aquisitions:

Malabrigo Lace to make a really cool scarf pattern that is due in the mail any day now.

Redfish is an amazing hand dyer. She has about 50 shades of the rainbow. Her booth was a wonder of color. She also had socks knitted from her lace weight bamboo yarn. The most delicate socks ever knitted on "000" (yes there are needles that small). I bought some for those socks, now I just have to unearth my "000" needles.

Feltz Inc had wonderful felted kits. Her bags a really well done. I got this kit for this wavy felted bag. It was so cool. She includes all the hardware and sewing directions for the lining which I really appreciate.

Next up was the Habu Booth. It was great to see all of these yarns and lots of samples knit up in it. This is a Japanese company based in New York. Their yarns are constructed of many very interesting things such as paper and stainless steal along with the usual fiber suspect blended in amazing ways.

They had the Aeolian Shawl from Knitty.com knit in bamboo lace.

It was so stunning I had to get some.

Just for fun. The felted flowers are part of the roving.
Scarf? Little bag??

Ruffling yarn (trendsetter Cha Cha) along with Merino 8

for another cute little scarf only in black and gray. The ruffles made with the cha cha yarn is really cute by itself too.

Last but not least there was a presentation by Anna Ziboorg. She is a retired MIT professor that now lives in the Mountains, on a vineyard, by herself and knits. Has she found heaven??

Her book "Magnificent Mittens" has been updated with socks. She figured out how to turn the same mitten patterns into socks. The one problem with stranded knitting is it doesn't stretch very well and makes it hard to get the socks over your heel. Replacing the sole with regular stockinet was the answer and she found a very elegant way to add the sole and heel to the stranded piece. She was just a delight and I am really glad I got to meet her.

So you guessed it. I have to try that too.

Now the only question is.....

How long is it going to take me to knit up my stash from Stitches 2010??
Any one care to place a wager?

The Finished Project Parade

I have finally put up a lot of my FO's on Ravelery which means that I have finally taken pictures of everything. Here are some of the projects that have been keeping me busy the last couple of months.

Baby Blanket Tulip Style

Yarn: Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton
1 skein of pink, cream and green. 2 skeins of the brown
Needle: #10
Cast-on 100 stitches.
Blanket measures about 32x32

I love this yarn. It is really soft and has a lovely weight to it. This pattern was inspired by the Tulip Baby Sweater. You do a seed stitch pattern on the row that you add the new color and that makes the "eyelet" effect. I think EraLunaris came up with the idea.
Simply Lovely!

Veyla Gloves

Pattern: Yoslda's Veyla
Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss 1 skein (had a good amount left over)
Needle: #3

I loved making these gloves. The lace is a simple 23 stitch pattern (except for evil row 4). The pick up edge for the hand is done with the wrong side facing and the slip stitches form a wonderful edge. The thumb is shaped with yarn overs, genius. Every little detail is just beautiful. I hope I have time to knit another pair of these for myself. Yes, these are mine!

Beaumont Tam

Pattern: Jared Flood's Beaumont Tam
Yarn: Classic Elite Fresco in Cool Raspberry and Graystone
Needle: #4 and #8

I love this yarn. It has some angora which makes that wonderful halo that looks so good in color work. I never noticed the angora when I was knitting it. It wasn't on my cloths or in my nose. The finished hat is so soft and lushes.

The hat pattern was a fun knit. Easy to understand. I enlarged the charts so I could see what I was doing. Have I told you how much I love color?

Damson

Pattern: Ysolda's Damson
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock Yarn
Needle: #6

I have knitted several of Ysolda's patterns and have enjoyed them all. This one is no exception. Super simple, lot's of garter stitch, yarn overs and K2tog. Talk about something you don't have to think about yet the results are wonderful.

Malabrigo, need I say anything more. A simply beautiful pattern + luxury yarn = my definition of heaven.

Most of these project where either for classes or for christmas. I am starting to think about classes for the winter and what I want to knit. The goal is to make them one and the same. I find that the project I love to knit are the classes that end up with most of the buzz.

What are you looking forward to knitting after the holidays?

New Books!!

I LOVE FALL. I love everything about fall. The colors, the smells, the sounds, the food, the list goes on and on. Of course knitting takes on a whole new dimension in the fall. The wools and alpacas come out to play and the new fall knitting books hit the shelves. I have been waiting for these two books to come out and I was not disappointed.

First up is Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Toys:
These are some of the cutest toys ever. Here are a few of my favorite projects.

I am going to make these for me to use!

Need I say anything???

These ducks are on Wheels. How brilliant is that!!

Princess and the Pea

She has about 4 or 5 "topsy-turvy" dolls. Turn one inside to get the other one. I have not looked to see what the process for knitting these little guys are but I love love love them.

I have already got this little guy on the needles.

Kristin Nicholas is one of my favorite color knitters. She has a wonderful blog about her knitting and her life on the farm. She has been blogging about the patterns in her new book with lots of pictures.

My favorite part of the book is the beginning. She talks a lot about using color and the how to do so. There is talk about swatching for color (another reason to knit up those little squares).

Lots of instruction on fair-isle, steeking, making up your own patterns, the magic of embellishing and duplicate stitching.
She talks about where she gets her inspiration, which surprise surprise is all around her.
These are my favorite pics in the front of the book before you even get to the outstanding patterns.

This is just the inside cover!

I want a stack of knitting like this sitting on a chair in my living room. Could you pass that and not smile? I sure couldn't!

You're smiling aren't you??

This is one of my favorite things in the book and I am going to make me at least one. Call it a design board, inspiration wall, Walk by and smile space?? Call it anything you want but what fun is this??

This covered ottoman has inspired me to cover my poor beat-up ottoman and possibly the chair that goes with it. I will do the ottoman first so that if I am over this idea at the end of that project I will not be without a chair.

I am thinking this pattern from Mason-Dixon "Outside the Lines" could be nice.
I would knit it with a much smaller gauge yarn so the pattern won't be as big. Haven't really checked to see if it will work but could be prudy!

There are more books to be talked about and a few magazines. What have you been inspired by?

New Post!! Fall Knitting Classes!!

If you read past posts you will see that fall is my most favorite time of year. What better time to bring some focus back to my poor neglected blog.

I have been working very hard on getting Marvels of Knitting ready for the fall. The new fall classes have been added here and now I am a knitting fool trying to get all the samples made up by next week for the Class Fair.

So far my favorite knit is the Fingerless Gloves by Ysolda. The lace cuffs where easy and fun to do. I love the way the thumbs where increased for and the the little leaf detail is just lovely. There is just enough to keep the interest yet it is a pretty simple knit for an intermediate beginner.

After i finish this post I am going to start the Beaumont Tam by Jared Flood of Brooklyntweed. He is one of my favorite designers. His esthetics's are so simple, clean and beautiful and his photography makes everything look fabulous. I am going to be using Classic Elite's Fresco, the yarn used in the pattern. This is a new yarn for me to try out! It has angora in it so I will let you know how that goes.

On the needles is Damson, another Ysolda design. I am using my Malabrigo Sock Yarn. It is a dream to knit with and the colors are working really well. This is a really easy beginning lace design. Anyone that can knit and do "yarn overs" can knit this. It is a perfect first lace type of project because you can practice all the little tricks for knitting lace without having to concentrate so much on a lace chart.

After I have all these projects done then I will have to rest my hands for a bit. Which means I will have some time to dream about new knits and new yarns while watching the leaves starting to change and hopefully enjoying some cooler weather.

Designing (don't laugh)

We are putting together classes for the next two months at Unraveled. For some reason, that I can't think of right now, I got the idea that I wanted to teach beginning lace. Ok, nothing wrong with that, but then I decided that I wanted to have my own lace scarf pattern for the class.

Ok, what was i thinking. I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday going through stitch pattern books and online resources, doing the math, and doing the charting. I came up with something that works really well mathematically but now that I have a few inches knitted I don't like it. I could have just found a nice "all over" pattern, add a little boarder and be done with it. But no, I was doing something asymmetrical, because that is that type of girl I am, (a little off on one side). The lines of the two main patterns are too much alike and I don't like it.
So now I have the choice to start over or use the Fiber Trends Cocoon Lace Pattern AC-73 by lace master Evelyn Clark.

Yup, I think I am going to choose "Cocooning" and go back to my Lady E! Decision made? Stay tuned.

Speaking of Lady E, she is out of hybernation and almost done. I have just under 2 skeins left.

Next up is Mom's Christmas Present. Argyle Golf Club Covers. She is going to be golfing again in Utah before I know it so I have to get going on these.

I have Fallen

The ten little elves at my house want a break. I have been knitting and knitting and knitting. So I brought them over to the computer to type for a change of pace. I will but up more picks of all the holiday goodness when it is all finished.

But I have Fallen for Webs and thier pre order of Kauni (cow-nee) yarn.

I am in love with so many of the projects that are up on Ravelry using this amazing yarn. This Tote is probably my favorite. Makes my felting heart go pitter patter and we have those handles at the store!

Then there are all of the Lace Shawls. For these color changes I would tackle lace!

Color work on the sweaters that looks much harder then it really is

So I have several skeins of several colors on pre-order. Do I have company in my weakened state?