more knitting nature
i am officially obsessed with this book. it's so bad i can't finish one project without wanting to run out and get yarn for something else. in need of a fast project, i decided to knit the droplet hat at the end of the book. i used the called-for yarn (again - this is amazing - i usually sub the yarn and choose poorly):
a day later i finished the hat...
and decided i didn't like it. it's a little too small. i like a hat that covers my head and that i can snug down over my ears. since i ride my bike everywhere, it's got to be warm and snug. plus it kind of reminds me of a bathing cap that a woman in the 50s would wear. not sure why. so i'm going to frog it and try knitting a modified version of
Wendy at Knit and Tonic's natty. i'll have to change it a bit because the gauge is much different. i don't care for mine to be reversible so i'm leaving that out too. i've basically rewritten the pattern for what i want to make and i'm nervous. it'll kill me to knit two hats out of this yarn (which i loooove) and not like either of them.
also, i'm putting my celery-colored
pure silk to use, making an open-work scarf. the pattern is from blue sky alpacas, called the opera scarf (it was a free pattern, but i couldn't find it on their website just now).
hope everyone's having a great weekend!
~r
p.s. oh, and i'm desperate to buy some supermerino and make
this.
p.p.s. i'm off to buy a pair of cleats (i joined a softball league), as well as a new pair of sneakers since my @#(! dog ate mine...
knitting nature i love you
aaaah i have so many projects going on and so much swimming around in my head, i'm just going to blurt it out. or maybe list it out.
1) i love knitting nature so much
2) i had a wonderful holiday break - i hope everyone else out there did, as well. the only knitted gift i made was a
shifting sands scarf for my dad. i unfortunately don't have a picture of it, but i knit it with knitpicks merino style in nutmeg (a kind of sandy tan color - how appropriate!). i cast on 53 sts (or whatever the pattern calls for) and even knit on size 5s, this made for a very wide and substantial scarf. the pattern is beautiful - thank you grumperina! if i were to knit another, though, i would knit it with fatter yarn, casting on fewer stitches. it seemed to take forever to finish the thing! i would also knit it with a solid-colored, but subtley-variegated yarn. i have some hand-dyed merino from uruguay that would have been perfect, but it was purple and i didn't have enough. alas... fyi: including fringe, the scarf took 5 (!) skeins of yarn. no wonder it took so long to make, the mini cables just sucked up the yarn - and my time.
3) i got lots of knitting loot for christmas, but i was most excited about knitting nature. i had been drooling over this book since it first came out, but just couldn't bring myself to buy it for myself. silly, i know, since i CAN bring myself to buy lots of other things for myself. like $150 worth of yarn from WEBS. oops. and a $75 E-Z sew blocking board. and $300 blinds for my living room windows. but a $30 beautiful book?? no way!! anyway, i LOVE the book so much, i immediately dove into 2 projects. first, the sunflower tam, just to get something going quick. here is in progress:
i'm knitting this on size 9 needles, in the called for lite lopi (in marine heather, just like the child model - only i'm making the adult size). it was a nice quick knit and i loved seeing the phyllotaxis pattern emerge, but i must say i found the "LT" a difficult to do. since this photo, i've completed the beret (tam? what's the difference?) and will post a picture on a head soon. for real. btw - see the other knitting books i got in the background??
i'm also super excited about the rams horn jacket. this is a shot of the right front. not a great photo, but i wanted you to see the contrasting light blue hem. i didn't mean for it to show at all, but now i'm really glad you just see the edging of blue.
the hem is knit in ella rae wool on size 6 needles and the main sweater is knit on size 7s in classic elite skye tweed in upland green heather. this is a nice yarn - perfect for a jacket / sweater - and is cheap at
WEBS right now. got get some!
4) the
melody's shawl is coming along, although seemingly at a snail's pace. it's like those bowls of pasta you sometimes order in a restaurant and you eat and eat and yet the amount of pasta in the bowl appears not to change? know what i mean? knitting a gigantic scarf / shawl with hundreds of yards of laceweight yarn means that you knit (in this case, around and around in circles) and the ball of yarn doesn't get any smaller. the yarn, however, is gorgeous and i just know i'm going to love it when it's completed. knit loosely on 10s, it knits into a fabric that's kind of spongy and light, but yet warm and soft and cozy. mmm
5) i do have more, but i'll save it for another post, which i will do soon. for real again!
~r
