Fjord and Piper's Journey

Although I love shawls, I have never been completely certain what I would do with a finished one. The "shawl" I finished using a Brooklyn Tweed baby blanket pattern is really closer to a lap blanket, and I often curl up with in wrapped around me when I go to bed. For those of you who live in cold climates, a wool shawl underneath a down comforter is heaven. In fact, if it is warmer than 20, don't try it, because you will wake up unbelievably sweaty. It is not particularly comfortable to wear around the apartment. This fall, I was looking for a simple pattern to knit, one that would be repetitive and soothing and look lovely, and I came across the Quince and Co pattern Piper's Journey. It knit up quick, and I wear it at least three times a week!

I knit the pattern in Quince and Co Sparrow, in the Fjord color. Fjord is much bluer than the blue-grey in the photo above, but not as indigo-blue as the photo immediately below. I loved working with Sparrow; it's plump and soft and knit up quickly and cleanly. The garter stitch body is wonderfully cushy and the lace edging just the right amount of stretchy. 

The photo above was taken at the point when I realized that I did not, in fact, have enough yarn to complete the project. More importantly, the photo allows you to see some of the construction of the shawl. You knit the garter-stitch body first, with a eyelet edging that uses a double yarn-over to be extra stretchy (that was a pattern feature I found super mind-blowing). Then, when you have the required number of stitches, you cast on additional stitches and start knitting the lace border, picking up (live) garter edge stitches as you go. You can see that I am at the eyelet edging in the photo above, having knit almost the entire lace border. I HATE sewing edges on, so I loved that particular construction. 

You can see the lace edging and the garter body here. This is a pre-blocked photo, so I did stretch both the garter and the lace out before I called this project complete. The pattern dimensions are for just under 12 inches of width, but my row gauge is loose, and I ended up with about 15. This actually works well for me, since I am 6 feet tall, and the wider a shawl is, the less ridiculous it looks on me. And I wear this shawl all the time. I wear it as seen in the photo below, in a take on the traditional body-wrap shawl. I cross it over my chest and tie the ends in back. It keeps me cosy and the ends stay out of my way while I work. (It is not the most flattering picture of me ever, but it turns out that taking blog photos of yourself is crazy difficult, before you start worrying about looking good).

The photo above and the photo below are probably the best photos in terms of "real" color representation. Moxie, one of Britt's cats, was helping me take blog photos. Mostly because I like natural light, and the best place is the end of my bed. Coincidentally, both cats quite enjoy lounging on the end of my bed, and while I was able to shoo George away, Moxie lived up to her name and refused to budge. They are remarkably polite about balls of yarn, though, so a few photos of them and my knitting is hardly a problem.

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your February. The weather people say we are about to have another polar vortex here in Minneapolis, so we'll work on keeping warm. 

My projects: I have finished my mom's birthday present, have two live WIPs, and three WIPs in varying stages of "live". I have five FOs photographed but not posted. 

Knitting for Granmom

As you may recall, my granmom is a knitter. This summer, she picked out a project - a shawl - to give my mom for Christmas.

I wrote out the pattern line-by-line for her, and she gamely cast-on. About 20 rows in, it became apparent that her neuropathy would keep her from completing the project - or even really getting anywhere on it. The pattern calls for two yarn weights, including a mohair. As she couldn't feel the mohair yarn, knitting it was somewhat problematic. Being a good granddaughter, I offered to knit the pattern for her, giving my mom a joint Christmas present. I was SO CLOSE to finishing it before Christmas, but the girls I nanny gave me a lovely Christmas gift - the stomach flu. So instead of spending my Christmas eve knitting, I spent it curled up on the bathroom floor. Not my best Christmas Eve ever.

I took the shawl with me when we went up north and when I wasn't cross-country skiing, I was knitting. I finally bound off while watching The Sting. I then discovered that I am really bad at doing a selvedge stitch loosely, which caused the whole shawl to be slightly (very) lopsided. Not noticeable when worn; very noticeable when blocking!

The pattern is Balsam Lake, by Don Waalen. It was designed for the Shop Hop 2013, for the yarn store StevenBe. The pattern came in a kit, with yarns dyed for the Shop Hop. The yarns are called Rumple and Angel Hair, but by the time I saw the yarns, they were already on bobbins and had no tags. I liked working with both yarns, though switching back to the mohair every fourth row was always a shock. I did run out of the Rumple and made a few pattern changes on the fly because of it. Ravelry projects suggest I am not the only person to struggle with a loose-enough selvedge edge. I also didn't block the lace edging as well as I might have, but I was pretty done with the project by the time I got to blocking it!

Balsam Lake is extremely lightweight, and very warm. Although the only photo of it being worn is a mirror selfie, it is lovely on my mom - the colors are super great for her! It's the first major knitting gift I've created, which is pretty exciting for me. I learned a lot from knitting Balsam Lake (aprx 300 stitches across is toooooo many), but I don't think I will attempt this shawl again. Mostly, I think, because I really like the matching (but not aligned) variegated colorways, and I don't know of anyone who makes matching variegated silk and mohair yarns. Oh well!

I hope you all are well, and that you had a good Friday, and a good Valentine's Day if you were celebrating that contentious holiday. My Valentine's Day gift to myself was a 2+ hour ski at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, which was beautiful. I saw one other skier, and pretty much had the place to myself, the birds, and the dormant trees.

Mohair Cowl

Several summers ago I was in Seattle for the 4th of July. I was there for an ultimate tournament called Potlatch, with a group of current students and alumni from my alma mater. Because of a knee injury, I was not able to play, so on one of the days I took a trip to Bainbridge, and visited Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. It was a lovely grey Pacific Northwest day, and what a lovely shop! I had already discovered Churchmouse patterns via ravelry and my roommate, but I had no idea that Churchmouse is also a purveyor of fine teas. I instantly fell even more in love, because how could I not love a store that combines two of my greatest loves - tea and knitting?

Churchmouse patterns are often done with simple stitches. They use a lot of stockinette and garter stitch. The construction of garments is clever. Final products look classy - but are also cozy and warm. As a Minnesotan (it's a high of 13 today), I appreciate the final two points more than I can say. This post's project is Churchmouses' Mohair Cowl. I knit it in Isager Silk Mohair 52, which is called Dusty Plum. The color is most true-to-life in the first photo. (The pattern calls for Kidsilk Haze, but I was not sold on any of the colors my LYS had in stock). The pattern is simple, using a simple increase/decrease to create fabric draped on a bias. I learned a new technique, which I am very proud of - Kitchener stitch. 

I wear this cowl all the time. ALL THE TIME. It is unbelievably cozy and also holy cow helps keep me warm. The first time I wore it, I happened to be biking to a meeting and I grabbed this cowl because I thought to myself, "It's so lightweight! It'll be just the right amount of extra warmth". Um, yes, not true. I completely overheated on my just-over-a-mile commute, and did not cool off until an hour into my meeting. I have since upgraded my appreciation for the warmth of mohair (and the amount of heat I generate while biking). 

In other, non-knitting news, this weekend I skied in the Twin Cities Loppet, an urban ski race. I did a 10k, and exceeded my time goal, which was to ski it in under 2 hours. It was a great day to ski, and a really great non-competitive race. It's a great course - the first 5k is in a wooded park and has some good winding-ness and hills, and then the last 5k is on the chain of lakes (Cedar, Brownie, Isles, Calhoun), and flat. Although I was sore the next day, it was one of my best days of skiing ever - I felt like my stride was even, and something about my poling just clicked. 

Hope you all are having a lovely start to your February!