I'm loving the start of this cable.
Linen. Silk. Cables. Why have I never done this before? (Ignore the fuzzy yarn at the top-it's my provisional cast on.)
Category: Knitting Update: Works in Progress
A Sweater & A Great New Tool
I'm incredibly happy to have separated the sleeves for my Mithril sweater. That were a lot of tiny stitches there for awhile, and I was afraid I was going to run out of room on my needles with all of the increasing! But just at the moment where I really couldn't fit another round of increases on the needles, it was time to separate!
Linen and silk are genius together in a yarn. It's slightly rustic — are you knitting in some romantic setting in Ireland? But it's also a yarn I want to knit a sweatshirt out of to wear over yoga pants. And I bet I could wear the same sweater for a night out. I'm slightly obsessed with this yarn at the moment. It's this. Elliebelly Chemise.
And just in time, because you can bet all of those stitches did not want to stay on the needles when the sweater went back into my project bag at the end of knitting time, I discovered something called a "Needle Keeper Notions Tube." Essentially, it's a plastic tube with a solid cap on one end and a cap with a slit on the other. You can poke your needles down into it and the stitches can't escape. It's mad genius. I have no idea why I didn't find something like this earlier and spare myself considerable heartbreak with those projects that slipped off the needles at inopportune times! No affiliation, but I bought mine here on Etsy.
Problem solved.
Mithril. Now In Silk And Linen.
I've cast on for the Mithril Tee Shirt pattern.
It is, actually, being knit by me. But Harry, my huge Maine Coon Cat, thinks it's his project. I've never seen a cat so attracted to linen and silk. You sort of get the appeal for them with wool, but this one is a little bit of a mystery. He's very protective of it, though.
The yarn is a DK weight blend of 65% silk and 35% linen, Elliebelly Chemise. It has everything I like about knitting with linen, but the silk makes it slide nicely through my fingers and it doesn't have the scratchy feeling linen can sometimes have when you knit with it. This is my first foray into sweater knitting with this yarn — it's been a standard for scarves and wraps. And I'm interested in compiling a list of pattern ideas for it, so please chime in in the comments if you have any!
Food and Knitting
We are back from a successful spring break/college tour exercise and as you would expect, my house is a disastrous mess (college son left in charge of dogs and cats). There is a veritable Mount Denali of laundry to be done, spring plants arrived while we were gone and need planting, and, with work starting back up tomorrow, I've got A LOT to do today. All of those have-to-do's compete with my want-to-do's: hanging out with family and knitting.
(Silver Spoons. Almost done. Incredibly gorgeous. Must finish today.)
The chore that takes up the most time for me is menu planning. I love to cook, but I've got one child who is Pescetarian (I had to look it up too, when she announced this was what she was four years ago, no meat, only fish), one who is an avowed red meat eater, and a husband whose tastes are rather whimsical. In other words, I really can't win here. So I try to offer a balanced diet of what can be cooked after getting home from work at night and ignore those who are critical of what I think are my outstanding efforts given all of the constraints. Seriously, planning for all of this is a chore, but if I do, Hubs does the grocery shopping. I consider it reclaimed knitting time.
I thought I would share this week's meals, for those of you looking for a short cut of your own on this chore for the week. I've devoted an hour to picking out some weight conscious recipes (we over-ate on spring break, it was amazing. Hen of the Wood.) that are reasonably quick or can be prepped ahead of time. I hope having these handy will help you get in more knitting time today!
Tonight, Sunday, we're having Parmesan Chicken Breasts. I'll upscale the recipe a little bit by using Panko Bread Crumbs and just a little mist of Olive Oil on the chicken breasts to help the crumbs stick and promote a little browning. We like authentic Greek Salads — the version without lettuce. I'll use this recipe and also serve some steamed Broccoli on the side.
Monday night we are having an old favorite, from a Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook. You can love her or hate her, and her idea of what's in the typical pantry is insanely crazy, but we love her recipes. I'm not typically a fan of canned tuna, but her Brown Rice Pasta with Tuna and Capers is a huge hit in our house, and with a simple side salad, it's a meal all on its own. You can leave out the anchovies if you think you don't like them, but consider trying it out and not telling anyone. They'll never know and they add a lot of flavor! I'm adding a simple Watermelon with Feta Cheese and Mint salad as a side dish. It's too early for watermelon to taste summer ripe, but I think I can fake it with the hint of mint in this recipe.
Tuesday: We're having Sandwiches with Beet Hummus and Greens. They will make the vegetarian crew happy. The meat eaters may end up at Five Guys, but that's their problem! These Lemon Pepper Vegetables are great too. I'm going to steam mine and add seasonings, and serve them on the side.
Wednesday is the last night I'll be cooking this week, as I've got a combination of work commitments that will get me off the hook for the rest of the week. The New York Times recipes are reliably good and usually pretty interesting. I'm going to try their Braised Lamb with Egg and Lemon. It appeals to me because it's best if made the night before, so I can cook it Tuesday evening while, um, knitting, and have it ready to go for dinner on Wednesday. I'll probably braise some carrots and parsnips in the pot when I reheat it and serve it with a side salad.
What’s On My Needles?
Silver Spoons is on my needles at the moment. And I've been singularly devoted to it, which is unusual for me.
It's so beautiful that I'm hoping to finish it up quickly, even though it's gotten quite large.
Each row is taking me a L-O-N-G time. Have you noticed the hoard of videos cropping up on knitting blogs and Instagram lately, where knitters are taking video of themselves knitting up close? And, fast! I look at these videos and they look like light speed to me. I am not a fast knitter. But this cashmere feels so lovely as it moves through my fingers, that I will try not to bemoan my slow knitter status and devote myself to enjoying the process.
Knitting With Spoons
I'm into the third repeat of my Silver Spoons Shawl, hopelessly in love with the pattern, hopelessly in love with the yarn. There are some projects where you don't want the knitting to stop. This is one of them. It's a simple enough pattern to knit while meeting a friend for coffee or talking with family at the end of the day.
Many knitters are making this with a contrast color on the border. My current plan is to knit mine as a solid, although it's tempting to edge it in black or perhaps a pop of color. If this one isn't in your queue, it should be there. And, rumor has it, there is a sport weight version of the pattern coming out next month.
Very Close To A Sweater
[If you are looking for information on the Adventurous April Knit Along or this week's yarn give away for the KAL, click here]
Glacier is almost done. No mind that it has been almost six months since I startedknitting it. I've knit 12 other projects while it was in progress, including an Arlo cabled sweater for my son, and I currently have four shawls in various states of progress that I've worked on along with Glacier. But Glacier is really the love of my knitting life. It has all of those cables, and that buttery soft Plucky Knitter Snug yarn with its Alpaca and its Cashmere. It makes me smile just to think about it — even during that dark time when I realized I had missed a cable cross on a nine stitch cable and I was four pattern repeats further up the back.
Glacier is almost done. The pieces are all knit. I'm going to block them this weekend and then hope for a good long day the following weekend where I can weave in ends, seam (always my arch-nemesis), and knit the collar. The pattern designer, Martin Storey, is a cable artist. They are simply beautiful.
I've spent so much time with these cables that I'm not quite sure what I'll do without them. I've even dreamed about knitting them. The pattern is one that sears itself into your brain is easily memorized, and I catch myself wondering how it would look in linen, or in a summer white version with pale blue stripes around the bottom. I think Glacier, which comes in one of those big beautiful Rowan pattern books that are full of eye candy and inspiration, is a project I'll revisit, at least once. But for now, it's on to finishing.