Valentine

Pattern: Helleborous

Yarn: Ornaghi Filati Superkid

Needle: US 9

Start: February 4, 2009

Finish: February 12, 2009

I had to interrupt my sweater knitting to do some gift knitting. I decided at the last minute to knit a scarf for my friend Heidi for Valentine's Day. I had this yarn on hand and it worked perfectly with the pattern. I held it double and about half way I thought I was going to run out of yarn before it was long enough, but I just kept knitting and ended up with a scarf that was about 60 inches long. If I would have had time to block it, I could have probably gotten another couple inches, but I didn't have time. It turned out great and looked beautiful. I really hope she likes it as much as I do! I love mohair - its so soft and so warm, despite all the holes. I have another mohair project on my mind.

I hope ya'll had a nice Valentine's Day... Alex and I decided last minute (I was looking for an excuse to take my new car on a little road trip) to go up to Pagosa Springs for a night to sit in the hot springs and relax. It was snowing and really nice, but COLD! I persuaded Alex to go cross country skiing - he had never done it before. He has been downhill skiing since he was 4 years old, but had an accident last season and tore his ACL, so he hasn't gone since then. He said cross-country skiing was like 'driving a ferrari all your life and then being demoted to a golf cart'. So, um, I guess he wasn't sold it. I think next time we're gonna try snowshoeing instead.

distracted

Summer makes me distracted. I have started a number of things this summer only to get distracted away from them. For example, this gorgeous scarf that I started when I was out west and haven't picked up since:

Lace Ribbon Scarf
Knitty Spring 2008
southwest trading company's soysilk

Hopefully as fall rolls in I will pick this scarf back up, as well as the herringbone clutch that I started last spring.

And hopefully, as fall rolls in I will be wearing a cute skirt that I have been working on. It looks a little tight but I swear, I tried it on when it was only a few inches long and it fit. I swear. That's what I keep telling myself when I look at my butt compared to the area inside of this skirt's rounds. It is not from a pattern, but it is similar to a couple patterns, including the flirty skirt, and Tina's Skirt because the body of it is in the same butterfly stitch. The bottom of mine is going to be a band of green... can you imagine it?
Also-- I am using the yarn that I thrifted back in mpls for $2.50!!

Springtime Scarf

Did this scarf mostly in a really boring GIS lecture, and on the airplane to and from Oregon last week. Sorry, didn't take any pictures there... They wouldn't have sufficed anyway. Really easy pattern: Nereides. I used smaller needles (8) & yarn (Ironstone Warehouse Flake Cotton), and it turned out really well. I like it a lot better than the one in the pattern. It will be perfect for spring, if it ever comes.

Cream of Carrot

Pattern: Cream of Spinach

Yarn: Classic Elite Miracle, 2 skeins

Needles: US 8

Start: 12/26/07

Finish: 1/6/08

Another winner! I feel so lucky that I have been ending up with some awesome suff lately... you never know how things are going to turn out, but I love this scarf. Its very delicate and feminine, but in an organic, earthy sort of way. Kind of how I like to think of myself :)

This yarn is an alpaca/tencel blend, and it drapes just beautifully. It is incredibly soft, has a great sheen to it, and just a little halo. Its delicious. And the color is amazing. I don't think these photos capture the color in all its glory and I just don't know how to describe it. I guess you'll just have to come here to visit the scarf sometime.

P.S. I love scarves. I don't think I could ever have too many.

Warm Necks

Jill's Christmas scarf: The pattern is Clapotis from Knitty. It turned out really well. I used this great green shade of Kraemer Yarns Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair, which turned out really well on the size 8 needles. It took a while and got a little repetitive, but it was worth it. The timing was a little late for Christmas, but you'll get that. And it's gorgeous!







Dave's Birthday Scarf:
This one is for my friend Dave's birthday, to match the hat that I made for him for Christmas. I am quite proud of my timing (his birthday is Jan 21, so I'll have plenty of time to mail it to him in Milwaukee by then). The scarf is a farrow rib, which I copied from the scarf Jill made for our Dad. It is really cozy and warm. The original pattern I was going to use, "My So-Called Scarf," just didn't work well with the yarn, even though I might still use it for something else. I'm happy the way this one turned out.
More photos of these on Ravelry, too.

More Christmas Knits

A few of the smaller items I made for Christmas gifts...

Top: Mistake Rib Scarf for my dad, made with Paton's Classic Merino Wool.

Middle: Utopia Hat for my friend Mary, made with Classic Elite Renissance and a little of the Patons. I absolutely love how this turned out and I know Mary will love it too.

Bottom: Wisp Scarf for Jamie, made with Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I didn't put the buttons on it because I didn't think you would wear it like a caplet. I really love how this turned out, too. I think it will actually be pretty warm. I just love how mohair looks.

Welcome, Autumn!

I love putting on socks for the first time every fall. And its even better when they are handknit ones! Fall is in the air - even though it is still 85 here in 'bama, the air is a little crisper, and the breeze blows a little more often. It doesn't take much to get me in the mood for fall... it is my favorite season. I took this picture a couple days ago when it was actually cool enough to justify socks, but I have to tell you. The dead leaves? They're from the draught - the tree in my front yard is dying.

I finished up my spring greenie scarf:

Pattern: Midwest Moonlight, but Leigh Radford

Source: Scarf Style

Yarn: Jaeger Monte Cristo, from the thrift store

I like it - the yarn is perfect for the pattern and I love how it feels and how it drapes. But the color? I'm still working on liking it. I have a brown leather jacket that I think it will look really nice with.

To welcome in autumn, I am starting on a fallish pair of socks, and I made venison stew for dinner. It doesn't get more autumn than that. Now, if only it wasn't so hot outside!

All Yarn Still Intact

Thankfully, the burglar didn't have a taste for yarn, so all my yarn and yarn paraphernalia are still intact. Last night I finished up this hat that I have been working on for a while:

The yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed and I got the idea from a pattern in the book The Yarn Girl's Guide to Beyond the Basics, but I didn't really follow the pattern. It has a hemmed edge, which is tres chic :) I have lots of yarn left over, so I will be able to make more hats with this yummy yarn. Tweed is so fallish and I love it! It seems like around this time every year I get the itch to make hats. I have been seeing all kinds of cute hat patterns lately - cabled hats, lace hats, striped hats, berets... I want to make them all. But see, here in Alabama, I rarely ever need a hat, yet, I already have 3, no 4, hats. Oh well, some day I will move somewhere very cold where I will need many hats. Until then, they will sulk in my drawer with my ever growing collection scarves.

Oooh, speaking of scarves. I started a kinda fun, funky scarf a couple weeks ago, but it was sidelined for the aforementioned hat.
I'm not really sure who this is for. I'm not really a bright color person, but I do kind of like the funkiness of it. The pattern is Midwest Moonlight from the book Scarf Style and the yarn is Jaeger Monte Cristo. I got this yarn at the thrift store a while back and it has been sitting in my stash while I wondered what I could possible do with bright green cotton yarn. I saw this pattern and it just seemed to fit. What do you think?

Liesel

So you're probably wondering if I did any knitting on vacation, right? I finished the socks for my dad on the drive up. And one afternoon at home, I finished the scarf for my aunt:

Pattern: Liesel by Mary Joy Gumayagay

Yarn: Classic Elite Renaissance, 2 skeins

Needle: #8

Start: 7/14/07

Finish: 8/23/07

This was a really easy and fun scarf to knit. It went fairly fast, and even faster because I didn't make it very long. I didn't memorize the pattern, but since it was so small, I didn't really mess up much at all. I love how this yarn and the pattern mix so well... I wasn't sure about using a variagated yarn with this pattern, I always tend to question using variagated yarns and patterns because a lot of times they seem to fight with each other. But this time they don't, do they?

So, I've got my first Christmas gift finished and it's only September... pretty good, eh? Well, I know that this fall is going to be crazy at school, so I wanted to get an early start. I'm almost through with a second Christmas gift as well, but then that will be it for a while.

Are you gals planning any Christmas knitting?

Bird Nerd

Ovenbird. My favorite. Have you ever seen a bird with more personality?

Northern Flicker. It is absolutely beautiful, don't you think? The yellow coloration on its wings comes from what it eats. Birds from the west have redish/pink wings & birds from the east have yellow wings. Interesting, huh?

These pictures were taken last fall at a bird banding station that was run by one of the other grad students in my department. They caught a ton of birds migrating south for the winter. A friend and I went one day to help out, and these were pictures he took.

And I present to you the entrlac scarf:

Winter Blues?

I like the shoes!! The sweater is cute, too... I think you just need a better shirt to wear under it... although I'm not sure what...keep trying! :) Not much new here.... I went on a date this past weekend that was really nice. We went and saw a live jazz band in this place called the Artists Quarter in St. Paul. Its in the basement and its just a little place with a circle bar in the middle and black walls and a small stage, and the jazz was really good. Dad would have liked it. As far as the guy, he's really nice and funny and easy to talk to, blah, blah, blah... I really like him, but I don't know. For some reason he seems to think he can't really go out on a date or hang out unless it is to drink, and he's had some bad luck with drinking lately, so he thinks its better to not do anything. Its kind of depressing. What else is depressing is the fact that the news tells me that we will have 60 consecutive hours of sub-zero temperatures this weekend. This time last year I was swimming in the ocean at midday and midnight and watching the southern cross migrate across the sky.

I'd love to come there for my spring break, which is by the way, March 10 - 18. But only if we do something exciting. How busy will you be then? Because I hate to say it, but Huntsville just doesn't attract me very much. But first, I need to figure out how I'd pay for a ticket there. There are also this trip through the Center for Outdoor Adventure (like the Everglades one) to Okefenokee in Georgia-- two days backpacking Cumberland Island and three days paddling. $325 for everything... I was thinking about doing that, too. We'll see.

So here's my new bulletin board... and the scarf I am making out of yellow yarn and the kool-aide dyed yarn you gave me. Its going slow because I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it and ended up starting over a good way into it like four times. But I think I've got it down now and I like it so I want it to be done...

As far as my big decision... The biggest problem is, I know what I have to do, and I know that right now I am ok with it, because I'm making new friends and enjoying my geology classes and job...its all very new and novel. But I also know that no matter how much I get to travel this spring and summer (which is actually a lot, I know) I will still have to spend all winter here next year. I will need a change of scene and I'll get sick of this job and these people and want something else. I know I will wish I went if I don't go. And I hate that feeling, but how could I leave and risk losing everything I'm establishing here now? Arg. I'm looking at it like a lose-lose situation, when it really should be a win-win situation.

But I have a feeling that I will have to deal with this type of dilhemma for the rest of my life just because of how I am.

Conundrum

Here is a picture of how far I am on the entrelac scarf. I'll send you the directions whenever I get around to sending you the rest of the stuff I have been intending to send you for about a month now... The scarf is coming along quite nicely, but I am starting to wish it was finished. I have been working on it incessently for weeks now. Its my only project. Except for the quilt for Bill. I finally brought my sewing machine back yesterday and upgraded to a nicer model. It works much better and I am ready to have a sew-a-thon so that I can get the quilt done by V Day.





Now, about your conundrum. It seems to me that you are leaning towards just staying in MN. I think it would probably be the best career decision... what with your new job and everything. Stuff like that always has the potential to lead to bigger and better things, especially if publications are involved. Let me think some more though. I do think that either way, you should probably take a trip to the dirty south this spring so we can hang out. Looks like Mom & Dad are backing out and aren't coming anymore. Something about having to work....





Hope you're enjoying your below-zero weather up there. Bill is keeping me up to date on your weather situation & boy am I glad I am in Alabama. Its cold here, too, though. Like, 25 degrees. It got down to 14 last night. Thats darn cold for here! If only it would snow.





I'm off to the post office to mail 2 reserach proposals I have been working on all last week and this weekend. Wish me luck!



But the boys wanted to tell you they're ready for you to take them on their walk: