The photo says it all. I’m consumed with knitting The Plucky Knitter’s new Paint By Numbers Hat.
Category: Knitting
A New Knit: Grannie Annie
Here is the start of my Grannie Annie shawl, cast on this past Saturday.
It's going to be a multi-colored affair, using a simple fan and feather lace pattern to create texture and shape.
The colors pattern randomly throughout. I'm hoping to end up with something warm and beautiful that will look just right against winter whites.
Grannie Annie is going to be my relaxing airplane knitting for the next couple of months. The pattern is simple enough to knit while carrying on a conversation.
The yarn I'm using for this is my newest addiction, The Plucky Knitter's Cachet. This yarn is a knitter's Nirvana – 100% cashmere that is listed as an Aran weight but knits up closer to a dk or light worsted for me. This yarn is expensive and worth every penny of it. Grannie Annie will be my third shawl in Cachet and my enthusiasm for knitting with this yarn continues to grow with every project.
Knitters Helping Knitter (Make Sure You Read This)
Today on the Mason-Dixon Knitting Blog, they are sharing the patterns of Emily Ringelman, a Baton Rouge knitter and designer who has lost 90% of her furniture and household belongings in the devastating Louisiana floods. They also link to Emily's patterns, which are really wonderful and for sale on Ravelry, as a way of helping her start to recover. I'm going to go buy all of her patterns. I'm sure I'll knit them at some point. And for good measure, I'm going to buy a few sets to gift to friends.
The situation in Louisiana is horrific. We heard that in one small Parish of about 1300 people, more than 1000 had lost everything. Here's one small opportunity to help one of our own, while larger efforts to help are getting underway.
Head on over and let's load Emily's paypal up for her today so she can restock on some basics while going through an incredibly tough time.
That Wonderful Feeling When You Finish Knitting
I finished Vitsippa. It now goes into the category of memory-knits, because it will forever be the project I was knitting when I was here. (Glacier Park, Montana)
It is also one of those knits that is infinitely enjoyable — the pattern is well written and easy to follow for a project that looks rather complicated. At the end, you're left with a feeling of great satisfaction. And, it was a skill builder for me as I'm trying to improve my fairisle skills to get ready for knitting this sweater. I enjoy stranded knitting, but I'm still working on the evenness of my stitches and on feeling completely awkward with the whole knitting with the yarn held in two different hands thing. Vitsippa helped a lot with both of those issues.
As soon as I finished, I immediately wove in the ends and put Vitsippa on my head. And didn't want to take it off, even though it's over 90` here. I had no trouble finding a model for it. In fact, before I was done, everyone in the house had it on their head. The ribbing is deep and stretchy (I hate it when there isn't enough ribbing on a hat). I used a long tail cast on, and it worked perfectly. The finished hat is comfortable, beautiful and not too tight — pretty much the hat you're going to reach for every time you hit the trails all winter.
Almost Off The Needles
After a late-night knitting binge, my Oak Park is almost ready to come off of my needles. I hope to finish it today and get it ready for blocking.
I’m going to miss knitting it! The cashmere yarn is like knitting with butter. But since I’ll get to keep it wrapped around my neck as soon as the weather cools off, that will be some compensation.
The cashmere is remarkably light weight for a shawl knit from worsted yarn. And the color is perfect with my wardrobe, since I wear a lot of black. This may just be my favorite knit of all time.
Knitting And Waiting
Delta may be down, but I'm not! Despite the 4:30 am notice that my flight was canceled, I'm making good use of my time while waiting for rebooking. This is my Oak Park in Plucky Cachet. I'm about half way.
Knit In Progress: Vested Interest
Now that I’m about three-quarters of the way through knitting Vested Interest, I can tell you it’s the perfect summer knit.
It’s lightweight to carry around and knit, and especially in Linen, something I’ll be able to wear as soon as it’s finished.
It’s easy. You get a pretty, fitted garment, but virtually the entire project is stockinette. If you can knit, purl, and cast on using the back word Knit method for the armholes, you can manage this one easily.
And finally, it’s something that I will wear a lot. Although I’m often a process knitter, knitting for the pure enjoyment of the technique itself, this piece looks like it could have come off of an Eileen Fisher clothing rack. It is the perfect accent for summer neutrals and the black I more typically wear. As you can see, I’m enjoying trying it on while it’s still on the needles.
My version is knit in Quince and Co.’s Kestrel, a 100% linen tape or chainette style yarn. However, the pattern notes that you could substitute a wool yarn for a winter version. This pattern is versatile enough that I can envision lots of successful variations using a variety of fibers and modifications.