Catching Up with a Few Projects

It's been a while since I posted about knitting, but I haven't stopped knitting ha ha. Here are a few recent and older projects.

The picture above is of a scarf/cowl/neckwarmer I made for Akiko a long time ago--her daughter Alicia (in the picture) borrows it from her all the time. I decided that Alicia needed her own version; here it is in blue below. Both are made of worsted weight wool, and the information about the pattern is in my previous post here.

The lacy shawl below is "Phoenix," and the yarn is a DK weight camel and silk blend called "Tundra" from Pagewood Farms. I made it for my ballet teacher, Tamara, and she wears it with a lot of flair!

The sweater pattern on the left below is called "Brynna" and is made from a light worsted weight cotton "Cascade Ultra Pima." On the right is "Summer Flies" knit with the beautiful sport weight wool by Malabrigo "Arroyo." Both are real hits and I wear them a lot. I wear the little shawl as a scarf wrapped around my neck. All the patterns can be found at ravelry.

Just Some Knitting Stuff

I recently purchased this enormous knitting bag, and it is so handy and so pretty to look at. At the risk of sounding horribly consumeristic and like a spokesperson for the "Vera Bradley" company, these bags are wonderful. They come many sizes and shapes, and if you sign up for the mailing list, you get a coupon for lots of money off. Then you are hooked, I guess. As you can see, the bag has several pockets inside and holds a ton of stuff.

Here's a top I recently finished, made of a light worsted weight wool and linen blend yarn--Berroco "Linsey." The pattern is the "Aria Shell" by Angela Hahn, in the spring issue of Interweave Knits.

And here's another finished project--yes, one more mini-shawl/scarf. You can't have too many of these! They are a blast to make and are just so pretty and practical. But actually, I do end up giving some away; I can't wear them all. (As always, let me know if you like something I've made, and I'll make one for you, in the colors you like!)

The yarn is a DK weight, plant fiber and cotton blend from Queensland Collection, "Haze." The pattern is called "Ripples," by Annelie Wallborn. (You can find it on Ravelry.)

Finished Project Roundup

Good friend and favorite knit-wear model Josie is back in Spokane for a bit, so we took some photos of a few of my latest projects. Some of these have appeared here before, but I can't resist showing them again so nicely modeled. The pictures were taken in our apartment--you can get a sense of the spectacular view I've been wanting to show you.

Lola Little Colonnade

Quick Sock Yarn Scarf

Quick and Cozy Cabled Cowl

Simple Ribbed Shrug

Now I'm on to Neckwarmers

I found a pattern for a cabled neckwarmer ("Chic Cabled Cowl" by Elizabeth Eisenstein on ravelry) that knits up quickly and is fun and easy to make. The finished cowl is very comfortable, warm, and even rather cute. I've gotten lots of compliments on this one! The first version is made of Lion Brand Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend. 

And this one is made of Vickie Howell Sheep(ish) by Caron, also a wool blend.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Catching Up with Projects

It's been a while since I've posted any finished projects, so tonight I thought I would try to remedy that just a bit. In addition to the things shown here, I've finished three pairs of socks, a dishcloth or two, and maybe even yet another scarf or shawlette. The picture of me is a little scary, I know.

This is the "Featherlishous Neck Warmer," designed by Victoria Myers and knitted with Araucania "Aysen," an absolutely gorgeous worsted weight yarn made of merino wool, alpaca and silk. I remember I just had to have this yarn, and then it took some time until I found a good way to use it (typical for yarn addicts!). I enjoy wearing this a lot because it is very warm and fits nicely around my neck without having to worry about wrapping and securing the ends (it is one circular piece).

Scarves, shawls, and shawlettes are very popular to knit and to wear right now--I make them often and really do enjoy wearing them. Here is Stephen West's "Little Colonnade" knitted in "Lola," a hand-painted, super soft worsted weight yarn. Because the yarn is so soft and drapes so nicely, I can scrunch this up and put it in my purse or bag and then put it over my shoulders in over-air-conditioned restaurants or stores. In the winter I will wear it with the bottom of the triangle in front and the ends wrapped around my neck.

Some time ago Akiko mentioned that she liked a crocheted tank top I had made, so I made one for her too. The pattern is "Sweet Tea" by Doris Chan, and the yarn is a silk and wool sport-weight blend by Mirasol Yarn Nuna.

And here's "Edwin's Sweater II" for the son of friends in Munich. The pattern is called "Children's Neck Down Cardigan,"  by Diane Soucy and the yarn is Paton's "Decor," a wool and acrylic blend that is self-striping. I used my favorite method of sweater knitting for this--it is made all in one piece with no seams.

Various Ways of Crafting

The anthology in the picture has just come out, and it contains three poems I translated into German. I have been the English native speaker consultant in a poetry translating workshop here in Munich, and I got so caught up in the project that I had to try my hand at translating into German, a very difficult endeavor for a non-native speaker. I couldn't have done it without the help of my German friend Ulrike. Thank you, Ulrike!

The poems we translated were written by contemporary British poets who write and publish a great deal of award-winning poetry. You can read more about them and read some of their poems here. Eleven of them came to Munich for a Literatur Festival that we organized and hosted for them. It was a super-intense 3 day exchange of creativity and poetry, and all involved enjoyed the experience a lot.

In knitting news, I have a crochet scarf to show off, made of self-striping sock yarn. I made something similar before, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the result. This new one is made of Schoppel Wolle Zauberball, a fingering weight, mostly wool blend. The pattern from ravelry, is called "Cascading Stylish Shawl" (I did the scarf version).

April Update

Life has been very busy since I got back from New Zealand three weeks ago. It seems there are never-ending household chores to attend to, and now there are even more since we decided to put the house up for sale. Then there are the dogs...they'll take as much care and attention as you can give them. Then there are the miscellaneous things, like trying to open up the cabin for the season, discovering the pipes had frozen, and dealing with the consequences of all of that...sigh.

I've also been translating poetry in my spare time and reading and translating Old English. I've put together a panel presentation for the fall conference of the American Literary Translators Association as well.

But, of course, I'm still knitting! I've been trying to do some serious stash busting. Above is a scarf I made out of mohair purchased in New Zealand, and below is "Fran's Sweater."



On Monday I leave for another semester in Munich.

Edwin's Sweater and a Warm Scarf

As busy as I am here, I try to fit in knitting almost every day. It's my therapy! Here are a couple of recent finished projects.

Friends in Munich just had a baby, so they got a little blue sweater with some cute sheep buttons.



Here's a close-up of the very soft yarn (Lana Grossa Cinque, worsted-weight, wool and acrylic blend) and the cute buttons. The pattern is "Babies Neckdown Cardigan" by Knitting Pure and Simple.



I found some fun yarn on sale and made this very warm scarf/shawl. The yarn, called "Gedifra Seymor Double," is a bulky-weight wool and acrylic blend; the pattern is from ravelry: "Merino Stripes Wide Scarf."



Speaking of scarves, I frogged (unraveled) the mobius! I really liked it, but when I tried to unravel part of it to fix a mistake, I started unraveling at the wrong end, and then it was impossible to recover the rest. So now the yarn is sitting in balls waiting to be turned into another scarf or mobius.

A Stocking, a Mobius and Kloster Andechs

The second in the series of five stockings for Sigrid's family has been completed. I am not a fast knitter, so this project will probably go on for some time. It will also go on for a while due to the fact that I seem to have "Crafter's Attention Deficit Disorder" (CADD), which just means that I love to start projects but not to finish them!

If the project is quick, I can usually manage to finish it before my CADD sets in. Below is a mobius scarf that I finished in about a week here in Munich. I love it and wear it almost every day. The yarn is a bulky weight, variegated, 100% wool called "Schoppel Wolle Pur" and I came up with the pattern myself.





Conrad and I went to Kloster Andechs (Andechs Monastery) outside of Munich today. We took public transportation to a small town about an hour away and then walked some three miles to the Kloster. It's well worth the hike--we enjoyed spectacular views, the beautiful monastery and church, and some scrumptious Apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce afterwards.

The Alps are in the distance on the picture below. Unfortunately, we couldn't capture them well with our little camera.

No More Hats!

Well, this crazy beanie and hat knitting project is finally coming to an end. I'm ready to move on to something else for a while--like finishing several WIPs started long ago. Below are a few pictures of my latest frenzy.

Here are all the beanies and an ear-flap hat knitted for Greg. There's one beanie in the bunch that I haven't yet described--it's the one in the middle made of a purplish varigated all wool yarn called "Rhythm." The caps are being blocked on balloons, a technique I read about on another knitter's blog. They look like little balloon people, sitting there so nicely.



This is Greg's ear-flap hat knitted from a worsted weight blend that self stripes. It's called "Classic Worsted Tapestry" and was purchased at the yarn store (Ana-Cross Stich) in Anacortes on our recent vacation to Guemes Island. The pattern was written by one of the women who works in the shop, Fran Jepperson.



I know, I look kinda scary, but the picture shows the hat well!

Sock Yarn Scarf

I needed a quick and easy project for some instant gratification, and I found it with this crocheted scarf made out of one skein of sock yarn. The yarn is a wool and nylon sock-weight blend, and the pattern, by designer Doris Chan, is in the summer issue of Interweave Crochet. You really don't even need a pattern to make this--it is just done in single crochet with a large hook. The trick is in the blocking--you soak the scarf in cold water and then stretch it out a lot on a towel and let it dry to get the lacy look. (My friend Josie is modeling for me--she's a natural!).

Late February Update

My current knitting projects are: socks on two needles, the clapotis, a baby sweater, a top-down cream-colored sweater for me, and another top-down cotton sweater in shades of orange for me started eons ago. Oh, and the pink lace scarf also started eons ago.

I am taking a sock class to master the two-needle technique, and I found that once I got the idea in the first session, I didn't really need the rest of the classes. Since I paid for it and committed to it, I will probably finish the class, but I'm rather annoyed at having to sit in a class where I already know the stuff (a good lesson for a teacher, no?!). I'm also surprised that I appear to be the youngest person there. Knitting is supposed to be so young and trendy!! Not on the north side of Spokane, I guess.

Other news: the local paper is raking the VA docs over the coals...again. It is very demoralizing for Greg and all involved because the story contains lies that Greg and the VA cannot set straight due to confidentiality laws. Also, the conversation that was reported was fabricated by the vet's family, and the reporter wrote it as though it were the truth. How do you fix that? The more you deny it, the guiltier you look. This is now the 6th or 7th time Greg and his docs have been in the paper for supposed sub-standard care issues, and each time it causes such an uproar within the VA system and mountains of work to deal with it. Greg is having trouble recruiting new docs because they don't want to end up with their names all over the local paper and strong innuendos of malpractice. One perceptive citizen wrote a letter to the editor saying that VA doctors are the latest victims and scapegoats of the Iraq war.

Here's an article in the New York Times about the difficulties faced by the humanities in this time of budget cutting. What's interesting to me about this topic is that it is really nothing new...this battle has been going on for a long time. I think we should just admit defeat and figure out ways to reinvent ourselves. I know that sounds vague...I don't have a real plan. It just seems that we are wasting a lot of energy fighting this particular battle. I have dealt with it in my own life by becoming an English instructor! Now there's a practical, useful skill!

Speaking of which, many of you already know that I am going to Munich to be a lecturer in the English department at the university. I'm leaving on March 23, so the time is getting nearer. I am excited and also anxious about this big change in our lives...excited to have a real and hopefully interesting and fulfilling job and anxious about my family here...especially the dogs! But we are all committed to working this out, so I feel very positive about it. I should have some fun blog entries in Munich.

Scarves

When I began knitting in earnest a few years ago, I must have made about a gazzilion scarves...OK, it wasn't that many, but it was a lot. I had a long commute on the bus to go to my teaching job, and I often knitted to pass the time. I gave away many of those scarves, and I unraveled some and turned them into other projects, but I still have several, and I really like to wear them. Now I don't knit (or crochet) scarves so often, but I did just finish one, and another is on the needles. The one below was a WIP (see Project Updates), and I decided to finally finish it (remember my new resolve to get my WIPS taken care of?). When I got it out and measured it, I discovered it was already long enough and only needed the fringe. That was a nice surprise!

The "clapotis" is going to be wide enough to be a scarf or a shawl. The yarn is variegated, and the colors tend to "pool" so I am alternating skeins as I knit. I switch between skeins every other row, and carry the yarn that's not being used up the side.

More Projects

Akiko really liked the pink ballet sweater, so I offered to make one for her too. The problem is that I couldn't find an adult pattern that was similar to the child's sweater, and I'm not very good at figuring out how to knit things without a pattern (although I'd like to learn how to do that at some point). But then we realized that Akiko is so small--maybe a size 0 or 2--that we could use the large size on the child's pattern. So that's the plan! I could probably figure out how to lengthen the body or sleeves a bit if needed. Here's a picture of the yarn I bought for Akiko's sweater:

It's a worsted weight 100% wool called "Cascade 220." It's very soft to the touch, and the pink is absolutely luscious.

Like any good knitter, I have several WIPs (Works In Progress) to show as well. I wonder how bad I am about starting a new project before I've finished the last one--I usually have 3-4 going at once. That's why I don't finish my projects very quickly I suppose, but it keeps it interesting for me. I wonder what the average number of WIPs is for knitters...

Below is a recently started vest for a little boy (Tracey, this one's for you). I'm making the smallest size, which looks like it would fit a 2 year old. I like to give baby gifts that the kid can grow into, so this would qualify since the baby is only 3 months old right now! The yarn is a softly variegated worsted weight wool made in Italy called "Vero." It's fun to knit with because you can see the stripe pattern develop as you go, and this yarn feels marvellous--soft, yet substantial. The pattern is from Naturally Fashion Collection #FC21.

Finally, here's a picture of a lace scarf I started during the summer. The yarn is a wool and silk blend 2 ply from Naturally called "Dawn." I've never knit a lace pattern before so I chose this very easy one to start with. The pattern is also from Naturally, #N1089.

I'll save my other WIPs for a later blog (yes, there are more).