Kid Stuff

These adorable children belong to my niece and nephew, Jeanie & Jesse. Jesse is JennyK's brother and she is in love with these kids.  While she was visiting for Christmas she helped me with ideas of what the kid's might like and I came up with a purse for Kiki, a hat for Dilly and a scarf for Chanze. Please note the cute little orange scarf that Jenny made for Dylan to match his hat (she learned how to purl!).  The purse and scarf were made up as I went but the cute little earflap hat is my version of an Nicky Epstein pattern that I found in my Family Circle easy Baby Knits book.  I found all the yarn for these projects in my stash and it was a great way the spend the week we were all snowed in for Christmas.  

More Socks!

A girl can never have too many pairs of handknitted socks.  My beautiful striped socks are made from a gift of yarn that one of my girlfriends brought to me when we had a dinner party here at Woodinvilla.  I'm sorry but I can't find the yarn wrapper to give you the details :( I just went with my standard sock pattern.  I LOVE plain socks because they are so comfortable to wear and so relaxing to knit.  Jenny's tweedy house socks are Cascade 220 Superwash.  They are a little tight on her but she loves them and says they're toasty.   I knitted them for her while she was here visiting for Christmas.

I LOVE Blocking!

I had so much fun with this project :)  This lovely scarf is a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law, Mel.  I still haven't given it to her because the snow storms in December eliminated our family holiday get together.  That's the bad news...  the good news is I get to fondly gaze upon it a little longer.

The pattern is Lace Ribbon Scarf which you can get for free on knitty.com by following the link. It is not a difficult lace pattern and is easily memorized after you get through a few repeats of the pattern.  I did find it slow going on the size 3 needles.  Overall I have to say I did enjoy the knitting of it.  The really fun part was using my new blocking wires!  The transformation from clump to lovely scarf was as good as I've read about on many blogs.  When I finished the scarf and looked at the rumply blob after casting off I had to call upon my faith in the process.  I got online immediately and ordered my blocking wires from Angelika's (it's called Fiber Fantasy's Blocker's Kit). As usual her service was impeccable and I had them at my doorstep within a couple of days.  I gave the blob a good soak in some Eucalan and went to work with the wires.  I was nervous until I saw it pinned out on the guest bed and then I just kept coming upstairs to look at it.  It was really hard waiting the requisite  24 hours to unpin.  But it was worth the wait!  I held it up, folded it, tried it on, folded it again and again.  A blocked lace piece is just so irresistible.  

The model is our delightful, delicious, well-fed  JennyK.  She just left for home in Portland this weekend after a two week visit.  We miss her already even if she did eat us out of house and home ;)   

Mitts For a Friend

We're snowed in...  maybe I should say iced in.  When it snows in Seattle the big problem is always the icy roads.  Ice on a hill is very dangerous and we live on and are surrounded by hills just like everyone else around here. 

Anyhow, the nice thing about being homebound is I get to knit and fool around with yarn to my heart's content.  I just took pictures of these cozy mitts I made for my potter friend, Jean.  They are a gift for her 60th birthday last month.  I had one done when I went to her birthday dinner so at least she got to see her present on her birthday!  I was in the middle of painting my living room and my knitting time was seriously diminished by that project.  Anyhow I've got them done but I can't get them to Jean this week because all our plans have been cancelled by the snowy, icy, very cold weather.  

I knit up these generic mitts (I used a mitten pattern for the basic shape and and changed it to please myself) with Classic Elite Moorland in tawny birch and some left over Paca-Peds in fireside as an accent on the ribbing.  I used the Moorland for my friend, Sally's, neckwarmer and I loved it so here it is again.  The Paca-Peds if left over from, the now famous in certain circles, Mikey's sox.

Fingerless mitts are one of those things I just didn't get until I had a pair of my own. Sometimes you want  to warm your hands a bit and keep your fingers available.  These little mitts are the perfect way to keep busy fingers free.

Cashmere & Alpaca

I got to knit these scarves with fabulous yarn.  The long scarf is for my brother Mike for his 50th birthday and it is knit with Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande Paint in color #8815.  This stuff is thick, soft, luxurious, cuddly... you get the idea.  The whole time I was knitting the scarf I kept stopping to fondle it.  I even made Paul & Mike & Julie fondle it so they would understand my idiosyncrasies ;)  The cute little neckwarmer is for Julie.  She saw the scarf at Island Wool in Friday Harbor and fell in love with it.  How could I say no when she offered to buy the Classic Yarns Cashmere Tweed if I would knit it for her.  I never say no to cashmere! Her color choice was Sisal and it will look great on her.  

I knit Mikes scarf on size 10 (US) turbo addis and it is a simple rib pattern:

row 1:  *k3, yf S1PW yb, repeat from*, end with k3

row 2:  k1, yf S1PW yb, *k3, S1PW yb, repeat from *, end with k1

b/o on row one in a k3, p1 patten

This pattern is know as Eve's Rib

For Julie's scarf I used the same rib pattern.  For the ruffles on the ends I c/0 60 and then k2tog for the first 2 rows to end with 15 sts for the length of the scarf.  A couple of inches into the scarf I did a one row button hole over 9 stitches.  At the end of the scarf I k1f&b of each stitch for the last 2 rows to end with 60 sts and b/o knitwise.   This is a free pattern that I got from Island Wool in Friday Harbor.  I took Mike & Julie in during our island vacation and let them pick their own yarn.  You have to admit...  they both have VERY good taste!

Finally thank you very much to Julie for sending me the picture of her and Mikey wearing their beautiful new scarves.  I didn't get them finished before they had to leave and go back home to Pennsylvania so I had to mail them.  

Real Men Love Handknit Socks Too

How irresistable is he?  My brother, Mikey, was admiring these socks again while I was finishing them during his recent visit from Pennsylvania.  Mike & I saw each other in Florida in September where we met up with our other brothers for a wake...  our dad passed away on September 2nd.  I miss him every day.  These socks were the project I took with me on that trip.  I needed something portable and mindless for the plane and while I was there.  So Mike saw these socks on my needles in Florida when they were just a few inches big.  I didn't get very far with them on the trip because I just couldn't stay focused.   When he admired them again as I completed them I had him try them on and they fit perfectly and he was so nice with his compliments and seemed to REALLY like them.  So of course I had to give them to him. Doesn't he look adorable?

I knit my standard plain sock on size 2 turbo addis with Paca-Peds alpaca blend superwash in color #604, fireside.  This beautiful yarn was a gift from my knitting buddy, Claudia.  You can find her at A New Yarn in Seattle.  If you haven't been there and you're in the area go check it out....  you never know what treasures and fab deals you might find there.  

My First Handspun!

Needless to say I am VERY proud of myself!  I spun this lovely yarn from Teeswater & Cottswold roving I bought from Marilyn Lucero of Black Hills Woolies in Custer, SD.  She doesn't have a website but you can email her at mclucero@gwtc.net   I found her at The Black Sheep Festival in Eugene, OR last summer.  I spun it with my spindle from SpindleWood Co.,  I plied it using my Katie a-Go-Go, I wound my skeins using my Nancy's Niddy Noddy then I gave it a bath in Eucalan, whomped it and wound this gorgeous ball.  I think I have enough to make a very cozy pair of fingerless mitts for myself.   Since it is my very first handspun I've promised myself not to give them away...  I'm always giving my stuff away, but a girl's gotta keep some history for herself.   I think I'm just going to keep this ball to gaze upon for a while though...  I can't bear to part with it.