The pleasant land of counter pane

A favorite book of my childhood (and my own children's, I hope) sprang  to mind today - A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. 

As I was knitting along on my Color Affection Shawl, I had a chance to look at it in extreme close up and I realized that it looked just like the hills and valleys of Stevenson's little world. A knitted one, to be sure, but it was easy enough to imagine little roads and rails running along its ridges.

A Color Affection shawl in progress

A world in miniature - hills and vales

Perhaps it's time to look at things from another perspective again . . . .

I gave this a try after coming home late last night from a dinner out with the ladies. All I could see in my dingy winter alleyway was the fabulous moon. Alas, all the camera could see was the street light down the block.

On another note, the Rolie Polie Cowl was released into the wild. I wore it to all my hockey games this weekend - very cosy and warm! Exactly what I was wanting.

Sometimes the worst photos tell the best stories

Who would ever have guessed that this little cutie . . .

would ever grow up to be such a reluctant sock model?

And one who wears such big socks already? Youngest Child is on his way to being renamed Biggest Feet! This was a carry along project this winter so it was only worked on here and there - hockey games, meetings, lunches, church services, etc. Thankfully, I finished them before his feet grew anymore! 

The yarn is some inexpensive Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Weight Solids that I picked up at a general craft store. It is not a bad sock yarn and very reasonably priced. It is a little thin for my taste - I like a more circular, rolled sock yarn. 

Now that's a phrase no non-knitter will understand! I mean a rounder yarn because it's usually a three ply sock yarn. This one is just very thin feeling - not soft or lofty at all. But, it seems very hard wearing so it's a good yarn for boys' socks.

Also, a little FYI for knitters: I've had these sock blockers for over five years and have used them about twice. Don't bother with them!

The worst photo this week is the traditional "hat in progress" photo. Too small to wear yet too big to put on the dog . . .

This is a quick Winter Wonderland Hat from Kristin Nicholas. It uses one strand of worsted weight yarn and two strands of sock yarn. A good way to use up extra sock yarn and it's a quick knit! This one is for a charitable event this weekend. The pattern wasn't in my library until recently but I really enjoy Kristin's work and I highly recommend her blog - very lovely photographs and boy, is it colorful! She has a new book out as well that I'm looking forward to reading - Crafting a Colorful Home.

Now, back to those mittens before Youngest Child's hands get any bigger . . .

Snow days and work days

Unfortunately, as a mom, snow days are work days! 

When the weather looks like this . . . 

. . . a knitter's mind is drawn to socks. 

This particular pair is for Youngest Child - but his feet are growing so fast, that I think I'm doomed to keep knitting and knitting and knitting. Actually, this has been my carry along project for months and I'm just picking it up here and there when I need something mindless to knit. It's my long tern library go-to pattern for socks - Wise Hilda's Basic Ribbed Socks - and it's a dandy pattern. I think I'll be finishing up this week.

Now, if only my model would hold still and use his courtesy feet!*

Feet are bursting out all over here!

On my own personal knitting front, I'm almost done with my Rolie Polie Cowl.

It's going to be huge - but perfect for cold spring days. I think it is a bit sheddy right now for wearing over knit turtlenecks but it will be great for wearing over long sleeve tee shirts this slightly-less-cold spring.

Outside of knitting, I've been starting up my running again in order to get ready for some spring races. I like running because (like swimming) it's a very introspective sport. Lots of time to think things over by yourself!

A little treat for you here - a video made by a local photographer featuring running in Saint Paul as well as music from one of my favorite bands, Cloud Cult.

*In Korean pop culture, courtesy legs are when a much taller celebrity widens their stance so that the shorter celebrity standing next to them can be photographed better. 

Another week, another two inches

Meet the fuzziest, softest, coziest cowl ever.

It's been my easy, carry along project this week when I wasn't working on another Hexipuff. Man, that bag o'puffs better turn up soon! Only five accomplished this week.

Pet Me!

The pattern is the Rolie Polie cowl and the yarn is the super soft Angora Gardens - 60 % Shetland wool, 40 % Angora - a local DK weight yarn from Minnesota. Soft is the key word here!  Now that I've gotten past the sections that I used when I tried my previous cowl, the Upstairs Downstairs Cowl, it's also no longer quite as sheddy. 

Good thing I wear a lot of gray as it is!

That lap blanket? Also gray.

Youngest Child (perhaps I should start referring to him as Young Master Daisy?) asked for these Owl Mittens some time ago when he was still in his Harry Potter phase. Well, as I'm knitting them in a light worsted weight instead of the fingering weight called for, they will be fitting him for the next few years.

Quite frankly, thought, I don't know if I could stand to knit them on any smaller needles. The pattern is clear and readable - just very dense. 

I've made SpillyJane Knits patterns before and she has a good eye for design. Some of her patterns include bacon, gnomes, chairs and bow ties. Amazing stuff!

Of course, this pair of mittens involves a lot of gray . . . I'm sensing a theme? 

A little bit of winter

. . .  made me a little bit behind on the posting front!  If it's winter in Minnesota, it's hockey season. And that means I'm spending the weekend watching this kind of scene - penning and unpenning the youth of America.

Whose letting these dogs out?

Otherwise known as a hockey tournament. We're on our third game of the weekend right now and that usually means a lot of knitting for me. Unfortunately, I brought along my Owl Mittens by SpillyJaneKnits from my library.  A lovely pattern that I've had in my library for over a year. A pattern that I forgot to enlarge. 

Oh, my aching eyes! I'm just not able to knit in the stands.

I have been able to knit in my hotel room, however. I'm using a larger yarn than the pattern calls for - the Stone and Pepper Nature Spun color ways - and watching a few Japanese television dramas to kill the time between games. This one?  Atashinchi no Danshi - a crazy "anime style" drama about what it means to be a family. English sub titles, of course, but still quite fun. 

One more game tonight and then playoffs tomorrow! Onward!

Important things to remember

(Otherwise known as Love Your Library - Page 1)

A year ago, I heard about a cute little pattern, guaranteed to use up your leftover sock yarn, called The Beekeeper's Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits. Using up leftovers? That seemed right up my alley and I promptly started the journey. 

I even joined a Ravelry group dedicated to posting pictures of Hexipuffs on my Instagram. 

This is a really cute and easy pattern and will be a favorite in my library. After a year of on and off Hexipuff crafting - the thing I've learned the most?

Don't misplace your bag of completed Hexipuffs! 

I have a basket that I fill with Hexipuffs as I complete them. It isn't big enough to hold them all so I dump them into a shopping bag every so often. 

This is the shopping bag of missing Hexipuffs! Ack! I think it has about sixty puffs - maybe even eighty. I'm thinking of just ripping apart my sewing room and yarn closet. Unfortunately, I was stashing things left and right before Christmas and the bag might be hiding almost anywhere.

Today, I laid out the "unbagged" Hexipuffs I could find and lined them up -  160 in rows.

I referred back to my copy of the pattern and, technically, I could quit and make the smallest size. I really want to make the 3x4 size, however, which requires 384 puffs. So, I'll be puffing away in the New Year as well. 

Probably because I only have sock yarn in colors that I like, I am pleased at how well the colors are meshing up.

Time to start looking for that buried treasure!

What a difference a week makes

First off -

Happy New Year! 

Like many other people, I  made a few knitting resolutions last January. Inspired by 14-in-2014 groups on Ravelry.com, I decided to participate in a variety of challenges. Walking/running more miles per month? Done. Swimming more miles? Didn't make it. Knitting 14 projects as gifts? Made it by one. 14 units of stash used up? Done.

If I had managed to blog about my last two projects of 2014 in 2014, I would have met my "14 posts about what I finished" goal. As it is, I totally spaced out on them.

This lovely pink and purple beauty was gift for Middle Daughter who - even though she's working and moved out - decided she needed a Christmas stocking. It's the same Cascade Christmas Stocking by Marji LaFreniere and Cascade Yarns that I've made before - all the patterns are interchangeable and they make a really cute, colorful stocking.

A great thing about this pattern is that it uses up a lot of odds and ends of yarn. As long as the gauge is the same from yarn to yarn, you can use almost anything.

I also finally finished my gray Cranberry Capelet. 

Really, this pattern is like knitting a sweater but without the pesky sleeves.

It's also very cosy and I wear it around the house quite a bit. The Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool Worsted is very soft and cozy as well. 

I guess I should have finished this up in time to keep me from catching a cold. I spent most of last weekend in bed, working on a few more Hexipuffs.

Being a few Hexipuffs short for my Beekeeper's Quilt, I think that I'll continuing this project into 2015 as well.

Hmm, what to do in 2015? I'm thinking the "15 Mixed Projects" challenge in the 15 in 2015 Ravelry Group. Those are new projects as well as old projects, new stash or old stash. Basically, we're just finishing up stuff as quickly as possible. Works for me!

I'm also joining the Love Your Library Challenge 2015 from Snapdragon crafts.  Like many of us crafters, Blogger Emily loves books. And for the last few years, she's been trying to actually use them. 

"It's still the same challenge to actually use the books, patterns, and magazines we've collected over the years!" she writes. She's specializing in a subset of her knitting books but I think I'm just going to work at least 15 patterns from books or pamphlets in my library. 

I know that my four unfinished works from 2014 will be on this list - they are all from books or patterns already in my library - my Upstairs, Downstairs cowl, the 2014 Advent Scarf,  the Green Socks (based on Wise Hilda's Basic Ribbed Socks) and the River Grass Gansey. The other ten will be coming from some combination of my library.

Halleluia! My knitting group at Lila and Claudines is going to be working on Ganseys this winter. Time to finish that pup up!

Let the New Year roll!

Not really much of an anniversary

Okay, I know some writers get all excited about 'Blog-aversaries" but yeah, I totally forgot. 

Nine years ago, Ladies and Gents, I got this wild idea to write about knitting.

It was much more of a "thing" then and I was much more regular about postings. Now, I am still the "over scheduled knitter" described in my very first blog post. Let's take a look, shall we?

- "Lazy knitters don't move fast." 

Whoo, boy, is that the truth. Whether it's my knitting life or my sporting life, my times just never get faster. But - they aren't really getting longer, either, so there!

 - "Probably that there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish all that I want - and still get a nap." 

Add in a huge amount of reading and Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese drama watching and I think I am down to no sleep/just naps.

- "Minnesota might just be heaven for knitters. Ample yarn stores, great local knitters and (mostly) beautiful weather make for relaxing knitting." 

Still absolutely true. Sure, some stores have come and gone but I am hurting in no way for yarn. And all this fresh snow makes for great skiing!

In that first blog post, I was racing against time to knit a Babies & Bears Sweater baby sweater. 

This month, I just finished (and raced to mail) a Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater.  No one I know is having babies any more so this was a sentimental kind of project. And darling!

- "I am not a slow knitter, just an overscheduled one. I keep finding the next project - and starting it."

Still absolutely true. I have seven projects in the works right now - from an almost finished cape, three sweaters, a pair of socks, a pair of mittens and my year-long hexi puff project. BUT I also have 33 projects queued up and ready to go. Over, over, over scheduled. 

- "Thanks for stopping by." 

Still true as well. While I may be blogging more sparsely, I have no intention of quitting this knitting blog home. A good portion of every day is about fibers arts for me and I'd still rather knit, spin, weave or blog instead of sleeping. Here's to the next nine years!

In the words of Tablo:

"It’s gonna be a late night.

But baby I’m comin’ home."

The shortest distance between two points

The return of autumn always means more knitting for me. Knitting is much more bearable during cool weather and the temperature change always makes me start looking for my sweaters.

So, the yarn has been flowing, so to speak.

First, I knit up an early Christmas present (a Lady Londenberry shawlette) out of Cascade Yarns' Venezia Bulky.

Next,  

another Mother Bear for the Mother Bear Project.

Then, a few bike rides later . . .

I finished up my EZ Saddle Shoulder Aran sweater.

Time to enjoy some of our beautiful Minnesota weather!

"Hello from the top of the Highland Park Water Tower!"

Socks and Love - an introductory lecture on Ravelry.com

Oh, you can find almost anything on Ravelry.com. Yarns and patterns. Yarn stores and sellers. Korean drama lovers, German Shepherd owners, Formula One fans and sock appreciation societies. 

And poetry . . .

“Ode to My Socks” by Pablo Neruda

(translated by Robert Bly) 

Mara Mori brought me 

a pair of socks 

which she knitted herself 

with her sheepherder’s hands, 

two socks as soft as rabbits. 

I slipped my feet into them 

as if they were two cases 

knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin, 

Violent socks, 

my feet were two fish made of wool, 

two long sharks 

sea blue, shot through 

by one golden thread, 

two immense blackbirds, 

two cannons, 

my feet were honored in this way 

by these heavenly socks. 

They were so handsome for the first time 

my feet seemed to me unacceptable 

like two decrepit firemen, 

firemen unworthy of that woven fire, 

of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation 

to save them somewhere as schoolboys 

keep fireflies, 

as learned men collect 

sacred texts, 

I resisted the mad impulse to put them 

in a golden cage and each day give them 

birdseed and pieces of pink melon. 

Like explorers in the jungle 

who hand over the very rare green deer 

to the spit and eat it with remorse, 

I stretched out my feet and pulled on 

the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this: 

beauty is twice beauty 

and what is good is doubly good 

when it is a matter of two socks 

made of wool in winter.

Other people's hats - and hands

Everyone knows that knitting tends to lag in the summertime. It's just too hot to work on large projects. I should know! My red sweater is waiting to be steeked while two of my other knitting partners are still on vacation and/or finishing up their versions of the Saddle Shouldered Aran.

In the meantime, I've been doing some small projects for the Minnesota Knitters' Guild's Service Committee. This year, the committee has gone high tech and "virtual" in an effort to get more knitters across the state knitting for more groups in a larger service area - Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota.  

The 11 service committee members across the state are meeting via email to plan collection drives for different groups that might not be on Twin Cities knitters' radar. This year, the project is for warm hats, mittens and gloves for adults and adolescents. 

So far, we are collecting warm winter items for  Changing Gaits (an organization that uses horses to help people with a variety of behavioral issues), the Red Lake Indian Reservation, Barrels of Hope in Waterville, MN, Lutheran Social Services,  and two St. Paul schools - Como Park and Washington Senior High Schools. 

Whew! That's a lot of hats and warm gloves.

I'll admit it - my own contributions have been minimal so far. Two hats and some mittens. However, the MKG is hoping that each of of our over 650 members will complete at least two items for this drive. That's going to keep a lot of people warm.

Pattern is "Everyone's favorite hat" by Evelyn A. Clark.

My sampler hat for my EZ Saddle Shoulder Aran.

1/2 of my Instant Mittens - pattern by Mary Jane Mucklestone

"Can I take this off now?"

Next up, another Windschief by Stephen West and a Pup Tent Cap by Catherine Gamroth. I highly recommend these two patterns as fun and quick to complete. 

Recently, the MKG posted their request on Ravelry.com.

"Bring your knitted items to the monthly Guild meetings. If you cannot attend the monthly meetings, you can mail your donations to the Textile Center of Minnesota at 

3000 University Avenue SE, 

Minneapolis, MN, 55414

Attention: Minnesota Knitter’s 

Guild Service Committee. 

If you would like yarn for yourself or your knitting group, please send your request to Betty Hanna at infomaster@knitters.org and some supplies will be mailed to you. We recently received several very generous donations and are well stocked with yarn! 

Everyone who donates, whether a Guild member or not, will have his or her name entered into drawings for prizes. The drawings will take place at the August, 2014 and January, 2015 Guild meetings. 

Start those needles clicking!"

So, if your sweaters or baby blankets are just too tedious right now - hats and mittens are quick, lightweight and could win you fabulous prizes!

Let the sun shine in!

After about six months of on-and-off again knitting (Who am I kidding? I only knit on it during Wednesday Knitting Group at Lila and Claudine's Yarn Shop) - the EZ Saddle Shouldered Aran is blocked and waiting to be steeked.

I had to wait until someone went to camp and freed up a bed in order to block it!

The sheep fold cables all worked out but I added some extra pins to make sure they lined up correctly.

June finished up on a sunny note so I had a hard time finding a model for my 

Autumn Understory Cowl.

It was just too hot! The pattern was quite easy, however, and I'm sure to make another one.

Summer sunshine also brings flowers and flowers bring garden tours.

These terribly cute, tiny towns turned up on a local garden tour.

Sweater delivery, anyone?

Green Acres is where I long to be!

And when the sun goes down - summer grilling! 

Mr. Daisy and I went to a grilling class last week in Minneapolis and learned to grill chicken, steaks and pizza.

Every bite was delicious! 

Cabling come hell or high water

Well, the water is here already! In honor of the massive amounts of rain in Minnesota, I've been knitting on just one project - my EZ saddle shouldered aran - and it's coming along quite nicely for a project that I started in January!

The knitting group that I started this with has almost all finished their sweaters (a motivating factor!) and I'm working on the saddle shoulder portion.

(Yes, yes, the worst photo in the world! As soon as I get the shoulders finished I'll put it the dummy for a proper fit!)

I have tried it on and the fit seems to be a go for now. Fitting always gives me the final frisson of danger - will it end up being my sweater or should I give it away?

Of course, since May, I've also finished my two cowls. The first one, the pink Annabella's Cowl, was finished some time ago but not in time to go to France with it's owner.

My second cowl, the Sunbae Cowl,  a Cupido Cowl pattern by Hiroko Fukatsu, was finished just in time for some of the rainiest and hottest days of the year so far.

It's a huge, soft circular scarf and I can't wait for the fall to wear it! I had a hard time finding a model who could bear to wear it right now, though.      

Outside of all the knitting and the rain, our family/business team Achieve More ran together in the GAI Lederhosenlauf 5 k at the Germanic-American Institute. 

A post race brat and beer is great motivation!