glamour shots to catch up

While I was out photographing my North Sea wrap yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and great lighting to take pictures of some knit pieces that I have finished since 2021 (and also a way better picture of my Shetland shawl than I had).

Shetland shawl August 2017 - June 2019. Literally one of my favorite things I've ever made and I never took very good photos of it. It's 6 feet square, so that's a challenge. It's folded in half here the way I've been wearing it. 

Phoenix started week 22 of pandemic, according to blog post titles (August 2020) and finished Aug 16 2021which is the day after I went back to work.

This is a pattern out of my Colorwork Shawls book by Melanie Berg and made with some beautifully hand dyed wool and silk yarn from a woman I met at Stitches West the one time I went. The stripes between the green and blue yarn didn't workout quite as well as I imagined, but the wash of color against the bright orange is still pretty and you can still see the interesting geometry of the sideways construction. 

Scarf of my own design Feb 20 - Mar 27 2022. Very cozy yarn from Monarch Knitting in Monterey. I can remember purposely choosing a combination of colors that I don't normally wear. 

Unlike many of the wool-based knits I make, this one feels good on my skin and doesn't seem to irritate it if I wear it a long time. It's extremely soft, and I wonder if I'd ever be brave enough to knit a sweater with it. 

This crochet blanket was a fun thing I made in April of 2022. I can't remember how, where, or why I got this yarn but I suspect the pattern may have been something from the label. 

I made the blanket shorter than was called for and got to play with making some wonderfully dense pompoms to add onto the ends using the rest of the yarn. It's a great blanket for the couch, and those pompoms never get old. 

Fractured is a cowl that Dave picked colors out for a while back on one of our trips down to Monterey. It's Brooklyn Tweed yarn from Monarch Knitting, and I finally cast it on this past year and worked on it sporadically from January to December.

I started it in January intending to have it done for his birthday in February, but it was slower going than I hoped. I blocked it out over the holidays and am amazed at how much everything evened out. It looks great and I'm hoping it suits his oceanside lifestyle.

giant julekuler

Made for Dave and the cats, who now live in Santa Cruz. The moose pattern has been his favorite, and we affectionately call Laker "moose" so it felt especially appropriate. Instead of the usual size, I used some chunky yarn leftover from a pair of hats we've got and some vampire-slaying needles. It turned out looking great, I should keep that in mind for more. 

 

Storage ottoman

This is a cool thing. After we got my comfy corner chair in the bedroom, Dave and I knew we wanted an ottoman to go with it. I had thought about one of those chunky yarn poofs, but in addition to them being basically huge cat toys they are also EXPENSIVE for what they are. I could have tried making one but instead Dave came up with another solution - we could make a storage ottoman together! 

We started it well before my surgery in February and he put the finishing touches on by the time I was able to make it up the stairs and want to sit in the chair afterwards. It is the perfect height to keep my legs out straight in front of me and to support the sore and achy spots. 

We used oak boards for the body and I added foam and some amazing scrunchy velvety fabric to plywood for the top. The top didn’t turn out as squishy as I was thinking, but it is firm and supportive which is nice. Staining took some time as well as finding hardware we liked. These handles are 100% necessary because it is a heavy thing! I’m not sure how Dave would have gotten it up the stairs otherwise.

For some fun and to hide the plywood top I used spray adhesive (which had not so great success, but it’s on there) to put this cute mischievous kitty print inside. We framed it with some more wood so the staples and edge of the fabric are covered. Down in the corner there you can see the felt tabs Dave added to avoid the top thunking closed. Even with the two hinge brackets we used it still wants to close pretty quick because it’s a bit… substantial. 

I lined the bottom with a heavy duty felt that makes it look quite polished. In addition to being a great thing to sit on to put on shoes, to rest legs on post surgery, and to generally enhance chair reclining comfort, it is a great place to store all of my physical therapy paraphernalia! I’m still impressed that my foam roller fits in there perfectly. It certainly wasn’t purpose-made, but looks like it. Go us. 

 

week sixteen

Dave bought wood for this project just days before our quarantine started in March. Of course we didn’t know then that we’d be at home for so long, but it turned out that this tack locker was a great project to keep us occupied in the early weeks of the pandemic. It’s been functional since mid-May and got it’s fabulous trim treatment in June, but this weekend we put the final icing on the cake with the bee decals. On the 4th Dave bbq’d on the driveway while I fiddled with a popsicle stick and the bee. 

I’m super happy with how it turned out. It fits (nearly) all of my barn stuff and keeps me organized and contained so I’m not looking in five places for things to grab and take with me. I especially love that we finally found a home for my random assortment of drawer knobs from Anthropologie. Along with the wall paper we chose, they really make the whole thing quirky and very ‘me’. 

There are cubbies on the bottom where I have room for blankets and saddle pads, and a nice big area under the saddle rack where I can keep my barn bag with all my grooming tools as well as a wash bucket behind. The shelves are all lined with a clear plastic shelf liner we picked up at Home Depot, and that has worked really well keeping the paint from getting scratched up. 

We modified the right hand side of the bottom cubbies to have a cut out so my helmet/boot bag could slide in and be stored. That’s way better than having it floating around the garage to catch sawdust. There’s still a half shelf in there where I keep a box of more leather cleaning things. 

This wall paper was totally worth the expense. I found it on Spoonflower and it’s pretty perfect. We even put some of the extra up on the panel in the right hand door so there’s a sassy little palomino looking out from between the bridle hooks. It was quite easy to get in there, though I did have some apprehension about it, and it’s stayed on really well so far. Instead of the wooden saddle rack in the design I opted for a metal one that we just bolted through the back panel. 

The vinyl bee decals were purchased from a vendor on Etsy. They’re pretty perfect and I think just what Dave had in mind when he first suggested doing a painted or vinyl design on the doors. Hopefully they’ll stick on for a while; the rough wood isn't’ exactly the perfect substrate. If it starts to become an issue a layer of clear coat might be in order. 

Very fun project for this year and a really great way to spend some time in the garage doing some woodworking with Dave. Brought back memories of building sets in high school, for sure! 

week fourteen

As masks have become required apparel in pretty much every situation when we leave our house, it was time to add to Dave and my respective wardrobes of one. We’ve multiplied up to four each now. If I’m honest it is pretty fun to pick out fun prints and color combinations and I’ve come to love my husband even more for having the humor and personality to wear them. I found some great flamingo and science fabric for me, and got some sushi and camping prints for Dave.

I’ve mainly been sticking to the tie back masks because I will get rubs behind my ears just from thinking about putting elastic back there. There have been times that it would have been really nice to not have to stop and tie up, though, so I made each of us one with elastic for those quick on/off situations. For those I used a pattern that was super simple to make from a couple rectangles of fabric. The pattern I’ve used most is one my mom shared with me and requires the extra step of tracing a template out and a few more seams to get the face-shaped mask. Both work just fine on us. 

For the tie backs, I’ve been using Wright’s double fold bias binding. They’re pretty inexpensive and come in lots of cool colors. The real bonus is that they are already ironed. I could (and probably will) definitely make my own ties from strips of fabric but the appeal of not having to iron those long skinny strips is so great. I did goof on the purple binding, though. Notice how it’s much skinnier? It’s important to make sure your package of bias binding says “extra wide” double fold. To be perfectly honest, the skinny one worked out just fine but I think it has more grip on my head if it’s the wider tape. 

My first ties were kind of ad hoc and pretty random based on the length of the strips I had in my stash already. There was pretty much no thought that went into it. After looking at several patterns and their approaches I’ve decided my go-to is this: use a 9-inch strip and tie into a loop with a square knot; hide the knot in the side channel on the mask; use an 18-inch strip on each side and attach to the loops by folding over a small tab and sewing it down so it loops freely over the first piece. The side loop provides some pull back both “up” and “down” on the sides so the mask doesn't bunch up weird and the fold-over tab attachment approach for the side ties means they can move up and down as they need to in order to fit best with whatever hat/ponytail etc. it has to get around to tie securely. It also means you use 1.5 yards of the binding for each mask which gives you 2 masks from each 3 yard package. 

This set here with the double ties is for a friend’s daughter. She wasn’t feeling very positive about wearing a mask as she gets to go out into the world a bit more in the coming weeks, but said if she could have one that was basically the same as the ones her nanny wears then she’d try it. Ta da! They took more binding, more like 2 yards each, but turned out super and were quick to make as well. These ties are sewn directly into the seams of the mask. I’ve also seen versions where the binding is sewn directly across the top and bottom of the mask to enclose that seam, too. I’m hoping these will make wearing a mask a little more approachable, and I love that I can share my girl science fabric with her. 

Dave and I make quite the pair when we are out and about with our bright fabric faces, but why not try to make this as bearable as possible? The way I see it, at least we can each get a chuckle together as we don our masks and step out of the car or peek around the grocery aisle to recognize the sushi face at the other end. 

strange times

I wrapped up April 2020 with an afternoon in the studio. I got a lot of progress done on the next set of pineapple quilt blocks, but first I made some face masks for Dave and I. Strange times indeed. I have resisted this for a while, perhaps out of a little bit of stubbornness and hope. At this point we have had our shelter in place extended through the end of May and it seems that while health authorities are mostly recommending masks rather than requiring them, a lot of businesses will be requiring patrons to wear masks. That's fine, we'll do it. We even have N95 masks from fire season last year that we've already been wearing when we go out. I have found it difficult to breathe with my N95 plus seasonal allergies, so today I decided to make myself an alternative. The other thing I like about these masks is that I can throw them in the wash frequently. If we have to wear them often and over the long term, that's a good thing. 

Mom sent me a couple of patterns, this being one of them. It wasn't at all difficult and was pretty fun to pair up fabrics for both me and Dave. I picked a cheery peace-love-owls print and Dave chose a blue ikat. I settled on this orange flannel bike print for the lining. It should be nice to have the flannel against our faces and there's the practical point that orange won't show rubbed off makeup quite as much... The ties got weird but I think they'll work. I know having elastic on my ears would end up in all kinds of rubs and sores, so I don't even want to go there. Instead I found some random scraps of bias tape in my stash, sewed it together at the open edge, and threaded the pieces through the channels meant for the elastic on this design. We just have to pull tight enough to tie our strings so the masks don't bulge out funny on the sides, but the way I see it pulling I believe the elastic would have made it do the same thing. 

If we have to go out in masks, why not have some cheerful prints on our faces? It may seem incongruous given the (understandable) general stress that seems to have descended over the folks that are out and about, but maybe that's just the point. 

Stan seems to have no problem with this whole situation, though I'm not certain he is wearing the masks in an effective configuration. May we all have his sense of confidence and unflappable calm in the weeks to come. 

inversions

Chunky yarn is great. Hats are great. Hat's made with chunky yarn? A knitter's addiction. The last couple evenings I took a break from tiny yarn and tiny color work patches to try out yet another Arne & Carlos pattern, this Norwegian color work hat. It's from their New Nordic collection with Rowan, and I have to say it was so fun I did it twice!

I jest. Actually, when Dave and I went to Monterey one of the last couple times we visited a yarn store and he bought me this pretty chunky yarn with the request "can you make me one of those hats Arne makes?" (he may have watched more than a few YouTube videos with me...) How can a girl say no? His second request was that I make one in inverse colors so we could match. I married a good one! 

I'm pretty proud of my tension on these, the floats on the back also look superb. If I had to do it over again I'd probably go up a needle size. I must knit somewhat tightly? They fit, but I did try to wet block Dave's to get it to relax a little bit more. That worked but it's taking forever to dry! Also, the red yarn bled a LOT. I didn't want my white one to get red stains on it, so I decided not to block. I'm sure it will grow over time like the other hats I've made. Dave also made that point ("well, they don't get any smaller with wear, dear") 

It's not exactly winter here. In fact, Spring is in full swing in our garden with flowers and leaves popping out everywhere. We've had several salads and meals of kale from our veggie garden, too. But! These hats were too cute and too fun to wait until winter again. You never know, maybe we will have another cold snap and then we can be "that couple" when we go out. Even with social distancing folks will know we are a pair. 

hipster hoopla

Inspired by finishing one hoop, I pulled out the supplies for yet another I've had waiting to be made for a while. I can't recall when I got these cute wooden pieces, probably a couple years ago after the holidays. With them I also had two remnants of flannel plaid. I chose this green one over a more simple red and gray because I liked the extra contrast and smaller patterning better for this. 

This was pretty simple. Originally I had the fabric in the hoop so the squares were just straight across and vertical like a piece of graph paper, but somewhere along the way I decided to rotate it so they were on point. I cut the fabric a couple inches away from the hoop (much more overhang than the flower hoop) and used pearl cotton and a running stitch to cinch it taut. Then all I had to do was hot glue the wooden ornaments to the fabric. I have to say, the hot glue gun smell reminds me so much of being a kid -- that's what you get when you have a really crafty mom!

Instead of leaving the back of this one open, I found myself a piece of felt and used a blanket stitch along the edge to close it up. I used red pearl cotton, which looks quite festive. It's funny it took me so long to get started on this because it didn't take very long at all to finish! Very happy with the result, and I bet Dave has totally forgotten I was going to make this for him, so it will be a nice surprise at Christmas. 

mandarin votter

Vacations are for knitting! This is Dave's happy face when I finished the second thumb and his mittens were all but complete. Worth every stitch. 

I started these just a few days before we went to visit his folks for the holidays and ended up taking them with me to work on while there. Not airplane knitting, but definitely couch knitting. (Maybe someday I'll want to do serious color work on a plane, but I'm not there yet.) I finished them a couple days before we left for home.

This is another wonderful pattern from Arne and Carlos in their book Favorite Designs that Dave got me for my birthday. I've had an A&C end to the year for sure! They are called Akle Mittens and use a diamond motif found on traditional tapestries hung in Norwegian homes (or so the book tells me). The pattern says they are sized 'for women and girls', but since finished measurements were also listed, I ended up making the girls size for Dave. These would fit me too. Maybe they like their mittens very large? Or they have large hands? Regardless. These fit. 

I used the same leftovers from the hat I made for Dave in October plus some white I had as one more accent color and the blue I bought last month for the background. I really like that blue, especially with these colors. I did not end up using up any of these yarns so I added one more leftover to the stash, but I still think this was a marvelous stash buster project as I had all but one of the yarns already handy and ended up with these fabulous mittens. In the balance there is likely less overall yarn in the stash. 

There were, as I told Dave this morning with yarn needle in hand, approximately 35,000 ends to weave in. But I ripped off the proverbial BandAid and sat down to do it last night as soon as we finished unpacking. I managed to finish one mitten before declaring defeat and heading to bed. The second got finished before breakfast. Just look at how satisfyingly neat the insides look. The double thickness of wool will make these especially warm. 

The knitting went fairly quickly because, unlike most of the Christmas balls I've been working on, there was no float twisting required. Since the floats are relatively short the way it is designed, I could just set up with one yarn on each index finger and knit away. In that way I think this pattern is actually a really nice one to start learning stranded knitting. 

Mandarin Votter is Norwegian for Tangerine Mittens, to go along with the Tangerine hat. Of course, since these are some of Dave's favorite colors these mittens will go with several of his other hats and scarves as well. For blocking I did a quick press with a hot iron and a damp cloth around the mittens. These are comfortably snug right now so I didn't want to stretch them out anymore like I did the stranded mittens I made for myself. In this case I think they will loosen a little bit with use to be perfect. 

It is no exaggeration to say that these were one of my favorite knitting projects ever. I love the geometric design, making them was relatively easy (it's always hard for me to do thumbs), and they worked up fast. VERY satisfied.

Pattern: Akle Mittens from Arne and Carlos Favorite Designs book (my Ravelry page)
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in 'Barley', 'Grove Mix', and 'Persimmon', Patons North America Classic Wool in 'Winter White', and Cascade 220 Heathers in 'Blue'
Needles: US 2.5 and US 4 dpns

stanford pride

I started this scarf last September, bound off in February, and finally blocked it at the beginning of August. Dave will be ready for this football season! Last year when it got chilly at night in Stanford Stadium he wore *gasp* a blue and yellow scarf. Cal colors. The horror. I gave him a hard time about it and he, being quick of mind and wit, suggested that I make him a more appropriately colored accessory. This was hard to argue with, and so a project was born. 

He picked out this yarn at the King's Mountain Art Fair, which I am looking forward to again this year. The woman who dyed the yarn is a local right in the neighborhood up on the mountain where we want to live someday. While enthusiastic that he found the right colors, in a self-striping yarn no less, Dave had no idea of the commitment required to take lightweight fingering yarn in one end and come out with a scarf on the other. Yikes! If only it came in worsted. Good thing I like him a lot. 

Dave was into chevrons at the time and so he picked this pattern out of a few options I showed him. I was worried it would come out looking a little bit feminine with the lacy yarn over bits, especially with the lightweight yarn, but in the end it's totally fine. The only modification I made was to change the type of decrease at the points to make a symmetrical center decrease rather than the right-leaning one in the pattern. 

The striping of the yarn along with the width I picked serendipitously ended up giving me this really interesting pooling where the stripes on the edge are thicker and the ones in the middle are thinner and jumbled up a bit more. I don't think I could have planned that. I suppose I could have fiddled around to see what width would give me pure and regular stripes, but I asked Dave how he felt about it after a few inches when I realized it was going to continue repeating itself and he liked it so I stuck with it. 

I used just one skein of the two we got, so I will have another chance to play with this yarn. Maybe I'll make him some matching mitts! And a hat for me? Go 'Card.

Stanford Pride scarf (my Ravelry page)
Pattern: Sunray Scarf by Annick Willemans
Yarn: Schafenfreude Fibers Luster Sock
Needle: US 4
Size: 10" x 54"

not-so-violent waffles

The moniker for this post comes from an inaccurate, but hilariously consistent, read of the pattern name: Violet Waffles. Turns out if you glance at the pattern title quickly, it - for some reason - reads as Violent Waffles. No waffles, violent or otherwise, were harmed in the making of this hat.

I started this just before we left for Chicago so I would have some easy knitting to do on the plane. It was supposed to be modified to be a double layer reversible hat (essentially two hats joined together at the brim). In the end, when Dave tried it on, he decided he would rather leave it just the one layer but with a longer brim than I made so he could flip it up and still completely cover his ears. Because of Plan A: double layer hat, I had used a provisional cast on so fulfilling that request was no problem. I forgot that the stitches would be offset by a half stitch when the provisional cast on was unzipped. Upon realizing that I thought that maybe I'd have a problem with the ribbing join turning out wonky, but I tried it out for a few rows and it doesn't look weird at all. In fact, if I didn't know, I wouldn't notice.

This is a great pattern to keep in mind for a quick gift. I finished the as-written hat in just a few days (though the extra brim had to wait a while because I only took one color with me on vacation). The pattern was knit in Madelinetosh DK with no modifications other than a few extra rows of brim and I didn't use the smaller needle for the ribbing. Court & Spark is the main color and the trim is El Greco, hand picked by Dave at Knit, Purl on our Portland trip. (Ravelry project page)

All in all, super happy with the pattern, the project, and the finish. I think maybe I should try some more hats! Alas it isn't that cold here, but maybe everyone in Chicago gets a hat for Christmas next year ;).