Phin!

So I alluded to a new, exciting thing in my apartment in my last post. That "thing" is a dog! Meet Phin:

Phin (short for Finnegan) is a 5 month old lab/husky mix (we think). He's the most enormous puppy you'll meet - we were at the vet on Tuesday and he weighs 54 lbs. He's pretty darn cute, but life with a puppy takes a lot of adjusting.

Suddenly there is this creature who wants up on the futon with you when all you want is to knit! And then falls asleep on your feet, but you need that book/computer/phone/knitting from over there! But we are all adjusting well. Britt and I now get up almost every day between 6 and 6:30. We try to take turns letting one of us sleep a little later. We go to bed around 10 every night. We eat dinner earlier. Some things are still hard to figure out - how do you best unload groceries from the car?

But we like Phin. He's sweet, and smart, and we're working hard on training him. We live in downtown, and his foster family was way out in the suburbs, and so all the people and cars have been a hard adjustment for him. We take obedience classes, which all three of us love - Phin gets controlled exposure to other people, and we get help in how to teach him!

So my knitting has slowed down a bit. I can no longer come home from work and curl up on the couch with my knitting bag and knit for hours straight. Instead, I get home, take the dog out, start dinner, take the dog for a walk, feed the dog, eat dinner, take the dog out, play with the dog, kennel the dog - and then think about knitting. I am definitely getting my 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week and then some, which is great!

Until next time!

Emily's Cowl

I rarely knit in a super bulky yarn. Clearly I have been missing out on something. First of all, an evening to start and finish a knit project! Second, the cushy-ness of it! Third, the warmth! Just look at that seed stitch in the sun - isn't it cozy?

Don't you just want to wrap yourself in it? I did - so much that I'm buying a third ball to knit one for myself. This is a Churchmouse pattern that was sent out in their winter printed newsletter. Confession time: I have been on Churchmouse's email list for 3 years, but only learned about the printed newsletter when my roommate received the most recent one. Now I am on their mailing list, too (I hope). 

This pattern is the Last Minute Cowl in seed stitch - there is a ribbed version as well. It knit up, as noted, super fast. I used Rowan Tumble in colorway 569. Tumble is an alpaca-cotton blend - 90% alpaca, 10% cotton. I knit the Last Minute Cowl for my brother's girlfriend Emily. Emily has been a part of our family for almost 4 years now - I think this is the first time I've even sort of gotten it together for the holidays.

This had just enough drape and just enough structure. If you had a shawl pin, you could pin it closed high on your neck, but even without it stays cozy-close. It was a little big on Emily, because she is petite, but I think it'll work out well for her. I tried it on a few times - over a t-shirt, under a coat, with a sweater - and it was lovely to wear each time. I'm kinda jealous - not that it will take me long to knit mine once I finally purchase my yarn!

The beautiful Moxie, posing with the yarn. She doesn't get to sit on my bed much at the moment though. Stay tuned for the reason why!

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!

More finished objects!

My Liesl cowl is finished! In fact, it's been finished since mid-October, but as noted, I'm not the greatest at photographing things. Plus, the Liesl Cowl went straight into my rotation of cozy things to wear out in the world. And with that lovely polar vortex we had a few weeks ago, it has seen a lot of use. The Liesl cowl, if you'll recall started out as a lovely pile of 5 skeins of Quince & Co.'s lark yarn in the marsh colorway:

I then learned how to cast on provisionally, and spent a while memorizing a cable chart, trying to create some sort of nemonic device to remember which slash meant cable front and which meant cable back. I failed at that, but I did learn to "read" my knitting, and could quickly and easily braid my cables without a pattern, which felt like quite the accomplishment!

I started knitting it in late winter/early spring, but did not finish before summer hit. I took it on a trip to Duluth in June - I wish I had taken a picture of me knitting it there, but alas, I did not. I finished it in late September/early October, but it was the end of October before I got around to blocking it. Blocking it did squash my cables some (they are popping back out a little but oops). It felt like it took forever to dry, but mostly I was impatient, because I had worn it a few times before blocking and just wanted it back already.

It has a nice, thick, squashy feel, and drapes well, but also still stands up against the wind and my coat collar. In fact, it has turned out so well that my granmom has asked me to knit one for her - which I have just recently cast on, in the lark-peacock colorway.

Here I am wearing my cowl with my aunt who is an award-winning chocolatier in Portland, OR. Her shop is called Alma and she makes the most delicious (and beautiful) chocolates. The Habanero Caramel Bonbon is divine. 

And if you look back to this post, I am wearing the Liesl with my not-quite-cousin L. 

Fingerless Mittens, Take One

Of all the things I knit, I keep coming back to fingerless mittens. (Fingerless gloves? Whatever. You know what I mean.) Until my two most recent projects, I've always followed some pattern. These ones, though, I just sort of started knitting without much plan. I had some stash to use up - who doesn't?! - and didn't even pay attention to weight of yarn, which was maybe not my brightest decision ever. (Scroll to the bottom for a basic pattern).

So. Remember those? I started working on them last January (aka a YEAR ago), and actually finished them in October, and just haven't gotten 'round to taking blog photos. (See my resolutions from last post!) For once, finished even meant blocked and everything, but alas, I am a bad blogger.

So this is the finished product. There are a few things that I would do differently, but all in all, I am pretty durn pleased with them. They were designed with a man's hands in mind, but it turned out they were a sweater-curse-project, and he was out-of-picture by the time I finished the first one. I cast on 36 stitches, which was probably somewhere between 4-6 stitches too many, and then when I bound off the thumb, I (for reasons I no longer remember) added 3 stitches, for a final stitch count of 39. That was a bad decision; I don't recommend it. I also ended up frogging and re-knitting the second mitt at least 3 times to get it to match the first. That was a huge bummer. 

I love the stripes. I worked really hard to do jog-less strips, and although the jog-less stripe point is not visible here, it actually worked really well. Because I didn't know yarn weights, I ended up doing 3 rows of green for 2 rows of grey; I think the grey is a bulky while the green is an aran. Embarrassingly,  I do not remember purchasing the yarn, and really truly don't know who made them. The green MAY be a Rowan yarn of some kind, but I just have a kind of feeling that's the case.

You can download a .pdf of the pattern here. I have edited the pattern to reflect what I learned while knitting these up! Please post any pattern questions, comments, problems in the comments of this post.