Dear Ellen,
My needles have been a clickin’ and my spindle and wheel have been a spinnin’ — one reason my blog posts had fallen behind.? Here’s a quick run down of the fiber activities from the summer.
I knit a scarf that I called my Four Star Scarf as an appreciation gift for Chief of Naval Operations Greenert’s willingness to preside and speak at my retirement.? Navy blue and gold, of course.
Fooling Around is almost complete.? You can see some of my mattress stitching mastery in this collage.? The sweater is fully pieced now, but I need to attach the hook and eye closure and get some modeled shots.? Soon.
Hiya, Brooke! is named for a grad school classmate of mine. ? It’s the Hyla Brook shawl pattern by Paula Emons-Fuessle, Prairiepiper of the Knitting Pipeline podcast.? A very relaxing and enjoyable pattern that turns out a most wearable shawlette.? I really like Paula’s patterns, having also knitted Piper’s Journey and admitting I just bought her newest pattern, Ellison Bay.? One thing I love is the background she gives about her inspiration for each.? Hyla Brook is inspired by the hyla, the European tree frog, and a brook named for it’s population thereof.? The lace pattern is called hyla lace and you can just imagine the little peepers all in a row.? I modified mine slightly from Paula’s pattern so that the lace would be symmetrical mirror images from the spine. It’s not blocked yet in this pattern, but will be soon.? You can see an end waiting to be woven in…you wouldn’t have any experience in loose ends would you?? (Heh!)
Hoof Jam is my own pattern made from the Alisha Goes Around Marmalade (of Ponies) fingering weight in the Landscape colorway that you gifted me at Christmas.? The pattern is toe up with ribbed horseshoe cables along the outside of the cuffs and eye of partridge heels.? (How could I not use horseshoe cables when knitting with Marmalade of Ponies???)? A sock pattern like this, that has a nice stretch of stockinette with only a short stretch of patterning each round is a nice balance between challenging and boring.? It’s very knittable during social settings and even with adult beverages!? After the wedding this will be one of the patterns that makes it up onto Ravelry for sale.
Lazy Sunrise, knit from Kauni Effektgarn is a cleverly assymetric shawl in the Lazy Katy pattern by Birgit Freyer that really shows this yarn off well.? It was a pretty darned fast knit too.? Either that or I just couldn’t put it down as watching the colorway work through it’s gradients was so much fun.
I finished up a few mitts — the Mrs. Beeton mitts by Brenda Dayne.? (Mine are called Fancy Pants for my Wrists.)
And I finished the my Beady Ayes mitts based on the Opposites Attract Heavily Beaded Cuff Pattern by Susanna Hansson that I started in the class we took from Susanna at Yarnover.? I couldn’t leave well enough alone and felt compelled to add a bit of ruffle and some eyelet edging to Susanna’s basic pattern.? I still have other mitts in the works — those Bohus mitts for which you gave me the yarn and pattern several years ago.
Ori-mommy has been in the works.? I’ve finished my piece — the large rectangle, and Marie is making good progress on her piece — the smaller rectangle.? She hopes to be done by the wedding so she can leave it with me for seaming together and blocking.
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Iteration number two of the Sunny Day at Sea Hat, Mittens and Stripey Neck Gaiter is complete.? A few more modifications and I’ll work on getting this set put together as a pattern.
Twin Boy Bunting was sent off to you for your use in completing your Twin Girl Bunting.? I’m so glad to hear from you that you finished yours (despite my efforts to sabotage my accidental mistake in not providing notes on the color chart) and that Julie loved them!
? Summer Skies Tank was finished in time for autumn to kick in.? That’s okay as I need to lose a few more pounds before it would look great on me.? Right now it looks good, but great would be so much better!
Sitting and waiting for me to return to it is Death Spiral.? It will be some great travel knitting for post-wedding events.? Right now it needs to be patient while I finish up the wedding knitting!
Country Gentlewoman is done except for closures and sleeves.? Here it’s drying, having just soaked for about 15 minutes in, well, Soak, of course.? I wanted to wet block the body so I’d be extremely confident about closure placement and sleeve length. ? I still have 12 days, so I feel like I’m in good shape.? It fits well, and looks great with the palazzo pants I’ll be wearing…no mother-of-the-groom dress for me!
And finally, the Valentine Ring Bearer’s Pillow still has half a backing and the side edging to complete.? I am going to have it done this week so Libby can help add the blue and gold ribbons (her colors) to make it more festive for the wedding.? Those will come right off after the big day and the pillow will be a nice addition to their bedroom decor.
As for spinning, my big summer achievement is 1900 yards of DK weight Wensleydale 2 ply.? I love, love, love it.? And have plans for it to become the Larch cardigan.? You’ll see it at Rhinebeck (in process!) for sure!? I also have a nice little yurt of natural colored finn on my lark spindle.? I’m going to chain ply it — hopefully about 100 yards worth for dyeing in my natural dyeing class at Rhinebeck.
That’s all I’m covering right now — believe it or not, there are a few other projects for which I have yet to create Ravelry pages.? At least this clears my backlog of posting, so now maybe I can keep up a bit better.? I’ll try!
Love, Jan