More Than Just a Hat

Forest

More hats. So what is special about these hats? The yarn! They are from Patty at Sporfarm in The Dalles, Oregon.

Vineyard is hand-spun merino, fingering weight. Forest is wool, closer to worsted weight. Sporfarm yarns have beautiful colors and are a joy to knit with. I have a little of each left over that will show up in some other project.


The pattern is Heads are Round, a great, all-purpose top-down hat pattern. They look a little pointy-headed on my “model” but they fit very well on a real head.

Vineyard

More Shetland Lace

Shetland lace is one of the most beautiful techniques in knitting. This new book, A Legacy of Shetland Lace, is about more than just knitting. It has history, tradition, personal stories, and culture as well as knitting. I especially like the stories of the knitters who have patterns in the book.

The book is great as a stand-alone story of Shetland knitting. But if you love Shetland lace, your library also must include Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller; Shetland Lace by Gladys Amedro; and The Art of Shetland Lace by Sarah Don. The new publication is a wonderful addition to our knowledge and love of Shetland lace.

The only problem I have with A Legacy of Shetland Lace is deciding which pattern to knit first.

Deep in the Forest

I do not wear mittens. I do not like stranded knitting. But when I saw these mittens, I had to knit them. I actually knit three mittens. The first one was way too big so I took it out, made some changes, and re-knit it, along with a mate. They are still big but wearable (not that I wear mittens but if I did, I would wear these).

The pattern is Deep in the Forest by Tuulia Salmela. The yarn is Jamieson’s Spindrift in Natural White and Pine.

Now the changes I made: Provisional cast-on of 60 stitches on 2mm needles. Completed the cuff, folded it, removed the provisional cast-on and knit the two ends of the cuff together. Then I  knit 1 round, increasing to 70 stitches. At this point, I changed to 2.5mm needles and knit the rest of the mitten as written.

I did not find the chart difficult to follow, but I did copy and increase the chart to 11” x 17” paper.

I really like the Latvian braid at the cuff. I would use this again sometime, maybe on a hat? I wear hats. But not mittens.

Another Wine and Wool Tour

A long weekend in the Columbia Gorge area of Oregon resulted in great finds in wine and wool.

We toured several vineyards in The Dalles, some of which had been pruned and some that were scheduled for pruning soon. Most of the vineyards are set in gorgeous areas surrounded my mountains (although Mount Hood was shrouded in clouds) and by acres and acres of cherry, pear, and apple trees. I would love to go back when the fruit trees are blossoming.

We also had a chance to taste some great Columbia Gorge wines, particularly wines from The Pines 1852 and Viento.

Now to the wool side of the trip. We met several fiber critters: alpacas at Foothills Yarn & Fiber in Hood River and  Sporfarm in The Dalles. Foothills is new to me and I am excited to try the yarn. I have purchased yarn from Sporfarm for many years and have enjoyed every stitch. We also visited Knot Another Hat in Hood River.

Top: alpacas at Foothills
Below: Shetland sheep at Sporfarm

Left to right: Noro (on sale!) from Knot Another Hat;
alpaca from Foothills; and from Sporfarm, wool in Forest,
merino in Vineyard, and natural shades of
Blue-Faced Leicester

We also enjoyed the scenery along the Gorge, which is ― well, gorgeous ― such as this view from our hotel near sunset on a cloudy day. The next day the mountains had a dusting of snow.

Guess I need to stop talking and start knitting!

Jessica’s Shawl

We were delighted in 2011 when my nephew Ryan introduced his bride-to-be to our family. We were especially delighted (and slightly scared) that she seemed to fit right in. I offered to knit a shawl for her — not specifically a wedding shawl but a shawl in honor of her wedding. After electronic discussion, she chose exactly what I hoped she would choose: a Faroese shawl made from a red yarn that I had purchased in Italy.

The yarn: Pura Lana Zephir from Albozzi Filati Alma, Torino, Italy; 2/25; 1,250 meters/100 grams. The color is red most of the time, but in some lights looks like a deep magenta/rose. The shop has a huge selection (as you can see from the Web site) and the yarn is beautiful. If/when I return to Torino, I will definitely buy more.

The pattern is Barbara, from Stahman’s Scarves and Shawls by Myrna Stahman. I used 3.25mm needles. The only change I made to the shawl was to attach the border with an SSK instead of a K2tog. Just my preference.

Jessica tried on the shawl before it was finished to check the length.

The shawl used about 1,100 yards. With the remainder, I made a scarf for Jessica using Sivia Harding’s Little Leaf Lace Scarf pattern, one of my favorites for relatively small amounts of yarn. Finished size is 5 inches by 68 inches.

Jessica, I hope you like wearing these as much as I enjoyed knitting them!

The wedding, in 2012, was lovely.

Two from South Africa

Last September, my husband had an opportunity to visit Cape Town, South Africa. Because he is the Best Husband in the World, he went yarn shopping, as you can see here.  I have finished two projects from my gift yarns, which are from Nurturing Fibres and the dyepots of the talented Carlé.

The trick was finding the right pattern to highlight the yarn. I think I succeeded.

The pink one (color name Georgina) is Nancy Bush’s Stork’s Nest pattern. The finished size is 7 inches by 62 inches.

The green one — Dappled Forest — is the Crest of the Wave design from Barbara Walker’s first Treasury. It is 7 inches wide by 60 inches long.

Both scarves were knit on 3.25mm needles.

The yarns were a joy to knit with and I enjoyed seeing the colors emerge.

A Tradition Continues

In my family, new members are welcomed with a Christmas stocking, usually knit by me or my mother. The newest member is Baby Ford, third child of my cousin and his wife.

For this stocking I chose the Cascade Yarns Christmas Stockings pattern, with changes, of course.

I did use Cascade 220: 8505 white, 8894 green, 7818 blue, and 9404 red. I knit it on US 4 needles because I am a “relaxed” (that is, loose) knitter and I like the stocking fabric to be a little tighter than usual. One change I made was a short-row heel; the specified heel looked out of proportion to my eye.

Some of the designs came from the Cascade pattern; others came from other sources. I especially like the blue and white section, which is from Annemore #7, a design in Selbuvotter by Terri Shea. It looks very Christmas-y to me.

I used duplicate stitch for the name because I finished the stocking before is name was revealed.

I was lucky to get Baby Ford as my assignment. My mother will knit stockings for this cousin’s sister, who had twins a few weeks before Ford was born. She decided to aim for Christmas 2013 for her stockings. I did advise my uncle — grandfather to all of these babies — that someone in the next generation needs to learn how to knit stockings if he wants the tradition to continue.

So happy holidays to the newest members of the family, their parents, grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-uncles, and cousins of all degrees of separation.