paper pieced posies

Well. Here's a project I haven't shared in quite some time. I intend to finish at least 3 quilts before Christmas. Typing it here it makes it kind of real and feels like I've committed a little more concretely to the idea. Take that, self. This is one of the three, for my youngest niece. I had a few blocks to finish the last time this appeared, and it turned out having a little EPP pouch of supplies and basted hexagons handy by the couch really helped with that. Any evening we were relaxing in front of the TV also involved stitching.

I started out thinking I'd add another round to these diamonds before stitching them together in rows to form a center panel, but after playing around with them for a while I decided that I could make a couple of flowers with them by combining them into groups of six. Mom, who was visiting at the time, agreed so I took that as a stamp of approval and started sewing. Once the flowers are done I'll take a big background pieced from linen and one of my favorite pink fabrics and artfully sew them down to finish the top. Avanti!

seeing the forest for the trees

This blanket of mine is just flying off the needles! I've zipped my way through a few balls of yarn and quite a few inches. It has been following me around for whenever the itch to stitch strikes. I love the fact that I've had that bag since I was a kid and the horse crazy phase is still around. 

The first few rows of just knitting or purling all the way across took a bit of determination to get through, but once I hit the flowers and trees the pattern repeats kept it interesting and rows were ticked off in no time. Funny how that works isn't it? I have one section of flowers and one of trees finished, which is about 1/3 of the blanket body. There's a border though, so I'd say I'm about 25% of the way through overall. Not bad!

The tree branches are just a series of small 2x1 or 2x2 cables, made much easier from having worked a bunch of cabling on the project I just finished. The knit stitches that make up the trees pop off of a background of purls creating a 3D pattern.  

These flowers are quite interesting in construction with clustered stitches for the heads and overlaying a single knit stitch for the leaves. I had never seen anything like this before, it's neat! Took me a few tries to figure out what the instructions meant, but once I did it once it made perfect sense and remembering how hasn't been a problem. 

I've done a few crocheted blankets, I haven't ever knit one before. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. 

Samhainn, finished

Wow, this was such a fun project! As soon as I got my second skein of whiskey barrel wound up I finished this in a flash. The center garter stitch section only took me a couple evenings (and an hour in the lovely garden by Memorial Church on campus on lunch break) to whip up. Mom helped me pick out the color combination and I really like the way it turned out. Despite the fact that California doesn't have much of an autumn in my neck of the woods I'm starting to feel it looking at this! I've got some acorn earrings that will pair so nicely with this, too. 

The yarn, madeline tosh dk, is my new favorite. I have been using so much of her single ply fingering weight yarn because that's what I'd been able to find in my local yarn shops, but it looks like Nine Rubies will be carrying this multi-ply dk weight yarn now. It's dense and squishy and absolutely lovely to work with. In true madtosh form all of the colors are stunning. It also works up very quickly compared to lighter weight yarns. It took me no time at all to get all those inches of cables off the needles. 

Speaking of cables, I learned a lot on this one. Cable patterns have seemed like something I would never be great at being able to do without referring to the pattern every step, but a few inches into this one and something finally clicked and I can cross stitches pretty intuitively now. The other thing that was so handy, and which I think contributed to the aforementioned click, was learning how to cable without a cable needle. Being able to just rearrange the stitches and keep on knitting really sped things up and made it so much simpler. Of course it's best when there aren't many stitches involved, these are all 2x2 crosses. The blanket I'm working on has small cables, too, and since finishing this I've found myself able to work through those charts much better.

This will need some light blocking to even out some puckers in the middle, but even without it drapes nicely and is plenty 'neat' enough to wear right away. I *really* like the cable border -- the texture, the color, the pattern, everything. Also the way the border joins with the center section looks quite professional and a testament to the detail Ysolda puts into her patterns. It looks like a running chain all along the edge, but was accomplished with some simple slipped selvedges that flipped over like magic after picking up the center stitches. I'll update the dimensions once the blocking is done, but for now the specifics:

Pattern: Hediye by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Madeline Tosh DK in 'Terra' and 'Whiskey Barrel'
Needle: Size 7
Dimensions: 56" x 22"

cables for fall

I couldn't resist casting on just one more project! This is one of the skeins of yarn I bought at Nine Rubies earlier this month and it is working up nicely into a Hediye, a pattern from Ysolda Teague's Knitworthy collection. Each Knitworthy project I've done so far turned out great and was a fun, quick knit. This is living up to that as well.

I LOVE the color, whiskey barrel, and how this yarn is working up. It's so springy and the stitch definition is lovely. The pattern looks more complicated than it actually is, and by this point I've memorized the repeat. I'm also taking Ysolda's advice and practicing cabling without a cable needle. Since these are just four-stitch cables, I haven't had any problem with dropped stitches (yet!) and it does go much faster. I am really enjoying learning new skills with this, which makes me want to work on it all the time! It's been following me around, since it's still quite compact and portable. 

I've been reading so much about folks working on cabled projects for fall that it seems I had to join in the fun. With an Aidez, a Tree of Life, and this all going at once I can see the theme for this season is textured knitting! Lots of cables to be had. 

a bit of blanket

Before I got all the yarn I could get my hands on vacation week, I was limiting myself to finishing projects I had on the needles before doing more than just casting on and test tasting something new. That led to the completion of Mo Chridhe, Endor, Kelpie, and recently Fomhar. Not bad!! My sweater is still going but I needed another project to break it up. Can't have just one can we?

Mom gifted me yarn and the pattern for a Tree of Life afghan some time ago. It looks like a really fun pattern. Mission Finish Things accomplished, I now have a few inches done and one ball of yarn knit up. It is working up rather quickly for me because it's fun to see the motifs emerge with each row! 

I really like the gray she picked and am looking forward to an autumn of stitching up my little forest. 

Fomhar, stitched

Another side effect of Mom's vacation was lots of evening time to chat, relax, and work on yarny projects. Mom brought her Pendulum along and I had this stole to sit and work on. One day we even took our projects to a local park bench for a few hours in the afternoon. I was happy to see that a few folks who walked by peeked over and smiled. It was pretty funny though because while I was working on crochet and Mom on knitting, we are each actually much more comfortable with the opposite! I was teaching Mom wrap & turns while grumbling about tangling my stitches making clusters. It was one of my favorite parts of the vacation though. I wish we could spend more time on park benches whiling the time away like that. All I had to think about was what stitch came next and 'ooh how pretty the leaves look in this light'. Bliss!

Turns out there are a LOT of clusters in these borders! It made for slow going, but a few days of diligent work brought me to the end of the final round on the last evening Mom was here. I'm curious to see how the clusters and chain loops end up looking when the piece is blocked. (It's really difficult to photograph this yarn and get the colors to shine through, but in the photo below the color shows up really well.)

I'm super excited this is finished just in time for Fall. I hope it gets cool enough that this will be a nice layer to bring along to work and play. Stay tuned for the block.  

shopping extravaganza part 2: yarn

In this latest installment of "what I did on my Mom's summer vacation" I bring you yarn. In addition to visiting a trail of fabric shops, we also ended up at some yarn shops. And really, who goes into a yarn shop and doesn't come out with a little something? I have yet to figure out that skill!

These first skeins technically weren't purchased while Mom was here, but I did get them at a place we visited our first day, Fengari in Half Moon bay. I happened upon Fengari recently while visiting HMB Main Street with Dave, and I am so glad I did. Once inside one wanders through a jumble of colorful yarns piled high and low, in corners and on shelves. The lovelies below are Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK. The color, alizarin, is a wonderful pinky purple with streaks of orange and blueish purple mixed in. I think it's going to look great as a Kir Royale.

On our jaunt over to 'Joann's across the Bay' Mom and I enjoyed walking through their large yarn section. Again, the local store just doesn't have much but this one has more colors and more yarn types. There was a range of Lion Brand yarns including a variety of their beautifully colored fisherman's wool. I was actually really happy to see that many brands are coming out with some high quality acrylic yarns. I love my Madtosh, but wool sometimes gets to me. The yarn below is Red Heart Unforgettable, one of their boutique acrylic yarns, and it is as soft as it looks! All of the color combinations they had were gorgeous, though variegated. It would be nice to see some solids one day. I'm not sure what I'll do with this yarn, but Mom got both me and her a couple skeins to experiment with. 

No trip would be complete without a stop into Nine Rubies in San Mateo. We had fun walking around and looking at all the samples they had knit up and enjoying the orderly shelves of yarn. I'm going to figure out how to make it to a knit night there someday, though that might be hard on my wallet. I can't walk in there without coming out with something. Case in point: the top cake, Tosh Merino Light in Calligraphy, is a wonderful mix of blush, dove gray, and cream. I have decided I'm going to learn to make socks with it. The other two are Tosh DK in Terra and Whiskey Barrel. I've already started knitting them into a Hediye. Mom helped me pick out the colors. I had the brown in my hand and she suggested I branch out into colors I don't usually use (I was looking at greens and purples). The orange is going to make this a great Fall piece. 

After picking up all of that yarn you'd hardly think I needed any more. But the King's Mountain Art Fair was this past weekend and of course we took Mom up the mountain to enjoy it. There's a great mixture of artisans at this event: jewelry, paintings, pottery, clothing, even a haberdashery! In addition to the booths with already-made items, there were a couple of folks who had yarn, much to my delight. I wasn't going to pick any up, but Dave actually mentioned how pretty the variegated skein was and asked if I wanted some. How could I refuse!? We picked out the second to go with it so I can make a larger piece with both of them. They are a merino/nylon blend and feel soft and springy to the touch. Can't wait to wind these up and work with them. I'll probably try a triangle wrap with stripes!

All together this is quite the stash infusion. I've been really good at using yarn from my stash for projects this past year so I do feel like I had some room for these. It also helps that I've tried sticking to picking out a project, or at least a type of project, when I get the yarn rather than just buying willy nilly. That said, keep an eye out for these to start turning into projects soon!