two knits of ivory

Madtosh DK in Logwood Okay, so yarn can't jingle or jangle. But these are the words that my muse calls forth. She speaks, I write. "So sue me," as we used to say back in the day. I've started my ninth Shetland Triangle...in Sundara ASM. Sundara ASM in Marina over Icicles Yum Yummity Yum Yum, Yum Yum Yum Yum. I didn't get any conventional shots of the last two shawls I finished, my Fjording Shetland and the Mint Chocolate Chip Ishbel. Here's a pic of the latter taken by muse: I bought this ridiculously expensive purse back in June or July and so I've spent the summer saving my pennies up again, with nary a skein stashed in e.o.n.s. After finishing up this merino/cashmere blend Ishbel I fell off the wagon and bought a six pack of Madelinetosh's Pashima , which is merino, silk, and cashmere. Ooh la la. I've got a motif design bonging around in my brain. It refuses to coalesce. That's why I started the Shetland. I need ...

I've recently (maybe April or May) realized that I don't seem to enjoy knitting stockinette with lace, which is different than knitting stockinette, then lace, which I really love. An example of a great stockinette and lace combo is the Ishbel pattern (Sundara FSM in caramel apple): What I find mind achingly dull to knit is a lace project that couples plain knitting with lace on each row. Current proof of this malaise inducing phenomena maybe found in my knitting basket, a Saroyan scarf: I want one of these scarves; the pattern is absolutely lovely. My body just doesn't want to knit it. Why I don't really know. I first got an inkling into this inclination when I attempted to design a wide scarf using the day lily lace motif: This project turned out to only be a swatch. Even though the day lily lace pattern is engaging, and this madelinetosh DK yarn in the violin colorway is deadly scrumptious, I just couldn't find the will to continue knitting the proj...

I don't know about the rest of the raglan sweater knitters out there, but when I knit a top down sweater, there is always a lull in the knitting when I get near the point at which a) I want to take the armholes off the needles or b) the armholes need to be removed from the needles. After stewing in my knit bin for a month, I finally got up the chutzpah to go forward, knitting a few more rows before taking the arms off. After that the knitting has been full steam ahead. I love this Madtosh DK colorway, Terrarium - even more than I love her DK colorway, Cove. The yarn itself has a wonderful, plushy texture, preferable to Sundara's much sturdier, more tightly spun, sport weight. But for colors both companies have stolen equal parts of my heart. Even though Neil Young is heading into the desert (on a horse with no name) when he sings "It felt good to get out of the rain...," the phrase has married itself to this project. The colorway name, Terrarium, reach...

Many, many, many moons ago I went through a Herman Hesse phase. I devoured, rather than savored, each book of his I read. So it is no wonder that I remember very little. Only one idea I came across in his writings took root in my chaotic mind and this was the supposition by a character that the act of biological reproduction is a necessary psychological step, or evolution, for man. The narcissism of youth must make way for the selfless devotion, an all important transformative experience, of parenthood. Now that I am an adult, and a little less naive, I can plainly see all around me that birthing babies doesn't cure narcissism. My birth sure as heck didn't cure it in my family. But that doesn't mean there is no truth to Hesse's belief. I still believe in his theory even though I was never able to test it out myself. By the time I was healed enough to embrace motherhood my body no longer could provide for me. I am both proud and angry about the four years I ...

So it's March. Again. March came with a lot of tension and some of that tension was from a miasmic bout of creativity that manifested as a fulsomely clogged consciousness. A constipation of the mind, if you will. How else can I describe this? It's like I am mentally paralyzed until I start doing whatever it is that I am inspired to do. The second of the two new projects is really new to me. I'm designing a lace scarf using the ever so intriguing Day Flower lace panel. With the laptop I find it really easy to jot down ever step I make just in case I want to finally, finally, finally, maybe, make a pattern for public consumption. Public consumption? Interfacing with the publick? Maybe. The pattern needs definite tweaking but she is lovely:

Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The Carriage held but just Ourselves And Immortality. ~ Emily Dickinson This is the thought that came to me as I opened the "new post" window. My muse speaks and I never understand her. 'S okay. I'm used to it. I am growing more and more devoted each day to giving her free reign. Or, should I say, my capacity for indulging her is growing each and every day? Some days she takes on mythic proportions. Other days? Notsomuch. There was a bit of a lull in knitting at chez yarn. 'S okay, too. I'm listening to my inner knitter agitate over the fact I haven't had an FO in forever and I've cast on a new project. She can suck an egg. Yeah. That's the ticket. Wow, there's a tone change. This project, another pair of Waving Lace socks with Sundara sock yarn, has been given the frothy name "Escape to Russet Moon Mountain." (If you're into Twilight snark, tak...

Most of the time I don't like using patterns. With larger items, like sweaters, it's a crap shoot on sizing. Even worse, I usually take long breaks with sweaters, so I am guaranteed to lose my place. I am meticulous about many, many things. Medical professionals might even add obsessive compulsive, but tracking my knitting progress is not one of these things. When I put a sweater down for a few weeks, I'm not going to remember where I was. I'm just not. And to be honest, I don't want to track my progress so minutely, so carefully that I'll be able to pick up the project a week or two after having last worked on it and be able to pinpoint exactly where I am. That's just not my way of knitting. If you couple this with a nature that thinks backtracking is the root of at least one or two evils, and a general preference for winging it, it makes absolutely no sense for me to knit from patterns. Now this means it took me a lot longer to ramp up to the kno...

I cannot count how many times in the past two months I thought I finally was going to get ahead of the curve only to find myself behind a seemingly insurmountable mountain of work and life obligations. I'm in government finance and its budget season, so the forces in my world have been excessively engaging, at their best, and infuriatingly obtuse, at their worst. Ugh. But, you know there is an amazing silver lining, and one that I keep coming back to time and again. It's already February. That's right, February. I have been far too busy to even notice winter passing me by. Now, that is something to celebrate at chez yarn. Usually by the winter solstice, which is December 21st or 22nd, I am miserably counting down the hours and days and weeks and months left of the dark days of winter. This misery wallowing begins the moment we turn the clocks back. I'm in awe of how busy I've been to really, and I mean really, acknowledge the time of year. It's like ...

Sweater pattern knitting is all about Trust and Faith. These are two things of which I am in constant want. Yet I am driven to knit sweaters. Driven, as in obsessively thinking about this and only this when I should be doing any number of things adults need to do to make money and keep a roof over their heads. (Deep breath taken; slowly exhaled.) My first two sweaters were disastrous affairs due to my poor choice of materials. They fit physically, but they weren't fit for public consumption. The third sweater was a success and saw many years of useful service until recent evolutions in color fashion have given it a dated appearance. My fourth sweater, though, is a minor masterpiece to me. No, I had no clue on how to measure yarn gauge, so it does not fit my husband perfectly. And, no, I had no clue how to adjust the cable patterns to account for the shoulder decreases, so the cables on the shoulder look a bit odd in places. But, but, but, I designed the Aran panel myself an...

I washed and blocked the Wide Leaf Winter Set last weekend and finally have the FOs for show and tell. It was amazing to me how quickly all of these pieces knit up. Aside from the finishing, they were done within a week I think. The scarf and mitts were each done in one day. Working with mostly fingerweight yarns has skewed this knitter's perception on things. It's no wonder I've got the fire in my belly to knit up the other scarf/winter sets I have planned. Wide Leaf Scarf First up is the scarf. I loved the yarn, the colorway, and this fabulous wide leaf stitch. The scarf has a lot of texture, accentuating the muted, but colorful, hues in the yarn. The only misgiving I have with the scarf is it's length; I didn't have the yardage to go the distance. Yarn Maple Creek Farm Merino in the PA Fall colorway. Approximately 325 yards. Love this yarn, love this vendor, I can't wait to get more yarn from her at Rhinebeck. Needles Knitpicks Harmony Options size US 10 1/2...

With the exception of sock yarn, I am, for some unknown reason, not comfortable stashing much yarn. The presence of these yarns in my bins triggers a constant, uncomfortable, OCD-esque humming in my mind. In the past few weeks, as the spring fogginess dispersed, the hum picked up and I have been driven to find the perfect project for ALL of the non fingering (or lighter) weight yarns in my stash. Project 1: Patons Classic Merino Afghan 1. Log Cabin #1 , 2. Log Cabin #2 , 3. Log Cabin 3.0 , 4. IMG_1448 Over a year ago, I picked up 18 skeins of Patons Classic Merino, for an afghan to match a summer quilt. I originally planned on knitting a striped chevron but I got as far as the swatch before moving on. This winter I fell in love with garter stitch when knitting a BSJ jacket and got on the log cabin wagon. On my first attempt I thought I'd double up the yarn, alternating the solid sections with a section mixing the colors every other half row. After finishing the first row I realized...

Although I will have an FO of this lovely project in the upcoming week, I've been hit with a bit of knitting ugh by this afternoon of the weekend. Thursday afternoon my shawl pin came in from that dodgy (not to be named) etsy retailer I mentioned the other day. The pin is perfect. And though I do feel I got value for my money, a quick look at the pin shows that what I thought I purchased is not what I received. The three ends of the metal in this piece indicate it is silver or nickel plated copper, the etsy shop description said it is sterling silver. I think it is my obligation to inform etsy about the false advertising, don't you think? I wore the pin and shawl on Friday, though, and I felt like a million bucks. My professed loathing for knitting triangular shawls waned sharply all day. I now want to knit a million of them. I'm short and squat and when I wore the shawl I actually felt glamorous. You can't put a price on that kind of feeling, and at my age it...

My knitting mojo is on a rampage. I'm designing again. I'll never be yarnissima , but just doing something new, having my own meagre muse bloom, is something special to me. As I have mentioned time and time again, I am drawn to the knitted leaf motif, and in my stash, I've been drawn to the palette of the recent Maple Creek Farm acquisition. So I've put this leaf pattern to work with this palette and come up with a hat, fingerless mitt and scarf set. The hat and mitts are done, but I'm not yet finished tweaking the hat. Here are the mitts and scarf. (The beginnings of the hat are in the upper right hand picture of the scarf.) The hat pattern would be peeerrrfect for a baby, as the pattern creates scalloping on the edge. It just needs a little work. (If only I had a baby to model it on!) I almost have completed knitting each end of the scarf, which I've knit separately, as I plan to Kitchener them together. I haven't yet considered how I'm going to how to...

I've been trying to put my finger on the source of the all-encompassing malaise that settled into my life this past spring. It is like a hundred pound albatross. I'm not depressed or even a tad dysphoric. I'm just tired. In an email exchange with fellow knit blogger, Kristin , a phrase came to mind that encapsulates what I'm feeling: high maintenance. Every single activity I engage in, whether it's as banal as tooth brushing, or as fun as reading, anything other than malingering, just seems to be experienced as high maintenance. Once I could define what I feel, my spirits lifted a bit. Sounds strange, but it's true. Once I understand what I'm up against my natural drive to adapt kicked in and one of the first things I found the energy to tackle was my Sunshine and Shadows Shawl...errrr triangle. A week and a half ago I spent a solid half an hour struggling with the beginning of the final lace pattern, redoing the first 20 stitches or so who knows how many ti...

My Sunday morning waking dream was the design of a sweater using the much neglected Cascade 220 Superwash that's nearing a year in my stash. Ya know, cuz the best time to knit a sweater is the cusp of summer, right? :-/ This lovely yarn has been the subject of several design schemes, none of which came to fruition, including a sweater or two. The heathered tones scream out to become the vining twine leaf pattern I used in Project Stole . I'm thinking of just transposing the stole's motif right onto the front and back of a sweater, paired with a mini cabled rib for the neck, arm, and waistbands. But before I even think of designing something as ambitious as that, I've got to find the end of the Sunshine and Shadow Shawl , which has, by nature of my pattern dyslexia morphed into a leaf and medallion triangle. Who knew that the patterns in a book called "Knitting Lace Triangles " were the size of large hankerchiefs and not adult-bodied-sized shawls. Yes, ...