Must... Stripe... Evenly

Hello friends! Last week I talked all about the socks that were being knit over here. This week I'd like the share the neckwear. I finally finished my last Christmas knit, the Deep Sea Wanderer cowl for my brother.

Connor was kind enough to model it for me, but then he started making sounds about how nice it was and that maybe he'd like to have one at some point. I have a feeling this isn't my last dance with the pattern.

I also finished up weaving a University of Kentucky themed scarf. I used the fibonacci sequence as a starting point, but didn't stick to it 100%.

Meanwhile, I still love socks. I started my Christmas socks...

And promptly abandoned them in favor of finishing my Denature socks. I'm not sure how everyone else decided to get things done, but I check things off the list by what is bothering me the most. The Denature Socks have been on the needles since July and I'm ready to have them finished.

Connor and I watched Stranger Things and I was able to power through much of the leg of the second sock. Just last night I got to the heel and realized that my stripes were not going to match. Mismatched stripes are too much for my little knitter's heart to take, so I ripped back, got some spare grey that I had wound off the ball earlier, and made the grey stripe before the heel longer.

Although.... now that I'm typing this, I'm thinking that I might rip back again and make the green stripe before the final grey stripe a little longer so I can hide how thick the grey stripe is.

Something tells me the saga of this sock is not over. Is anyone else out there as obsessive about their knitting as me? Or you you more of a "No one will see that mistake" kind of knitter?

A Midsummer's Night Knit

At Stitches West in 2014, I got to talking with the wonderful people over at Dragonfly Fibers. I left with a skein of yarn and a plan. Despite my vision, the stitches didn't play nice... until now. I'm so happy to present to you all the two piece collection: A Midsummer's Night Knit.

The first piece of the collection consists of the Titania Cowl. The cowl has a triangular bottom that is blended into a more traditional cowl shape. I'm always surprised by how even a gauzy bit of knitting can provide so much warmth. I was pretty cold when we took these photos.... until I put the cowl on.

The second piece to the collection are the Oberon Mitts. Fit for a fairy king... or those who aspire to be fairy royalty, these mitts have a leaf motif on the top of the hand as well as in the thumb gusset.

Both the cowl and mitts can be made from one skein of Damsel. I used the Spanish Moss colorway.

The collection, which is at a discounted price together, can be found on the bear-ears.com and ravelry. They can also be purchased individually. The Titania Cowl can be found at these links: bear-ears.com, ravelry, and craftsy. The Oberon Mitts can be found at these links: bear-ears.com, ravelry, and craftsy.

Mr. Bear Ears Knits On

Connor has finished his second project! He now has a very warm 2x2 ribbed cowl out of Anzula's For Better Or Worsted in the Mariana color way. We used Purl Soho's Lovely Ribbed Cowl as a starting point.

This is the face of a man who enjoys the feeling of wool, silk, and cashmere on his skin. And since he has been wearing his cowl, I've been able to steal use his scarf.

I've also added this to his project page on ravelry. I didn't know that when I convinced him that he should have a ravelry page, I'd be maintaing it. I just tell myself he's Mr. Bear Ears, not Mr. Social Media.

I had bought him the yarn at Stitches West last year. I asked him if he wanted a scarf. He said yes, so I handed him the yarn and told him there was some assembly required. I'm proud that he rose to the challenge and made himself a cowl. (He decided he wanted the yarn to become a cowl rather than a scarf in the end.

We've been talking about what he might want to knit next. He's thinking of making fingerless mitts. I'm trying to talk him into knitting me a sweater. We shall see.

A Friendly Cowl With Socks On The Side

Another week, another FO. After six months with low finished project numbers, even I'm surprised. This project started when my buddy Alina came by our place, saw a skein prominently displayed (I was going to make a hat out of it), and told me that it reminded her of camping, forests, and the stars swirling overhead. Clearly this skein needed to be knit up for her.

She expressed interest in a large cowl. I knew I didn't have enough of the skein. (It's a mystery skein, by the way. It was given to me by a good friend. I have no idea what it is or who it is by. It had no tag.) So I bought a skein of Malabrigo Rios in the Purple Mystery color way. There is no mystery about how purple the skein is: it's nearly electric. Seed stitch insured that the colorful skein would look like dappled light once knit rather than something an angry preschooler finger painted. I knit 2/3 of the cowl in the mystery skein and 1/3 in the purple. I think it came out beautifully and Alina was surprised to receive it.

I wore this the day I gifted it to make sure I didn't leave it at home. My Mum saw me in it and wanted to know why I was wearing Alina's cowl.

Promptly after finishing the cowl, I cast on my Pucker socks. I'm using a skein of Hedgehog Fiber's Twist Sock in the Budgie color way and a skein of Baah! La Jolla in the La Perla color way. After buying all those white skeins for my Sheep May Safely Graze socks, I feel the need to use them.

The Pucker socks require quite a bit of concentration, as it turns out, so I've also cast on a pair of vanilla socks out of Canon Hand Dyes' Charles base in the We're All Mad In Here color way. I have knit with this color way before, although in a different base. Those socks suffered the fate that many of my early socks did and the color faded terribly. But since I've started re-fixing my socks and have started using a different wool wash, I have high hopes that these will stay nice and bright.

Imagiknit And Twin Peaks

I've been wanting to visit Imagiknit in San Francisco for quite some time, but it can be a tough sell to my family. Trips to SF tend to be along the waterfront, not the Castro. I told Connor I hadn't been to the shop or the Castro and he thought we ought to make a trip out.
It was everything I could have wanted and more. So much yarn. So much possibility. After touching all the yarn, Connor gave some valuable feedback that kept me from buying "several options" and sticking to the yarn I actually wanted.

And what does an hour in a yarn shop get you? The three skeins of white Koigu that you meant to buy in the first place.

After Imagiknit,  Connor took me to another place I hadn't been before: Twin Peaks. At least I think we went there...

It was really windy and foggy. We got a good view of our hair flying in our faces. There will be another trip at some point.

Representing with our knits. I'm wearing Beyond The Pines and Connor is wearing a cowl I made for him that has no pattern presently.

I had a lovely day and I'm glad we got to go for a few hours. And I'm excited to plan new things for that white yarn.

Crazy Person

So... it's been three weeks since I last got onto the blog. What has happened? Well, Connor and I have decided on a short engagement and will be getting married on March 1st of this year. This means we are running around at full speed arranging All The Things. Also, I was offered the most amazing job and started this month. But with great amazingness come great responsibility. I look forward to sharing more details in the future.
I also hope to be able to knit again at some point. I think I've knit maybe five rounds in the last three weeks. Despite this fact, I have still ordered yarn (that hasn't shown up yet) to knit a shawl for the wedding. I am a crazy person.

My poor, neglected projects. On the left is a Seadragonus sock and on the right is a mistake rib cowl.

As if there wasn't enough going on, in between New Zealand and now Connor and I have been in Kentucky as well as Oregon visiting each other's family. I hope to have some time to catch up on everything in the near future. Who else has crazy notions of fitting three months worth of work into one?

Skyway

I've been a bit lax in the knitting department. Fear not! I have been knitting... it just so happens that all my projects are a bit involved. So without further ado, I give you my hand spun cowl.

I bought the 2 ounce "mystery" batt from Moonrover. I knew that I would love it even without seeing it. I'm calling the color way Skyway.

It only took me an evening to spin it into a 218 yard single.

And another week for the cowl. The color progression makes it seem like a landscape. I love it!

Too bad today was 105 F/ 40.5 C. I can't wait until it is cool enough to wear it during the day.

I bought a second mystery batt as well. I'm calling this color way Sunset.

It spun up so quickly and easily. Yum.

Labels Are Only The Beginning

I've made some labels for my knitting and it only took forever. Photoshop decided to close on me right as I was saving. How kind. Even though the tag is based on my blog header, it still had to be made nearly from scratch so that all the trees and type would fit.

Looks familiar doesn't it.

I was happy to find that I had some ribbon. I knew that one day my obsessive yarn/ribbon hoarding would come in handy.

The collection has grown since this photo was taken

I took the cowl and headband to the farmer's market. I brought an extra tag for the bear hat I brought by last week, but as it ends up a half hour after I left, it was bought.

I'm hoping to open an etsy store some time in the near future. Labels down. Everything else to go.

Of Knitting and Birthdays

More knitting for the Farmers Market. I initially frogged this cowl a few rounds in. I'm happier with the end result. For those of you who are unfamiliar with knit-speak: Frogged = Unraveled.

The cowl is so comfy. Perfect for cold weather. Too bad it has warmed up over the last two days. I much prefer winter to spring. Too many spring allergies for my liking.

After I finished the cowl I had just a bit of yarn left for a cute little headband, which I knit twice. The first draft didn't show off the pattern very well, so I decided to knit some cables into it. A little crochet flower helped to embellish the piece.

My birthday was two days ago. I had a bunch of friends over to eat food and watch movies (Demolition Man and The World Is Not Enough).

So heavy

Forty-eight inches of sandwichy goodness. My favorite. Turkey Avocado.

A.J. commented that people reading my blog might believe that I would go to the trouble of pretending to have two twenty-four inch sandwiches. I thought that was silly, but just in case, here is A.J. grabbing a piece of sandwich.

Scooter had a lovely day too. I should note that moments ago Brennan made a joke about Scooter listening to Pet Sounds (by the Beach Boys). Haha...