I Think I Made Winter Go Away...

...by finishing my Penelope Poncho. This super-bulky poncho (or as my son commented, "You're knitting a Snuggie!") was meant to be a stand-in for the blanket that I've been "wearing" in my drafty home office. I finished it today, just as the temperature skyrocketed to nearly 50 degrees--which feels like 80 degrees in comparison to the past 6 weeks or so.

The poncho was fun, easy and I think it looks nice. I think I'll still have some drafty days to wear it inside, but soon I may also be able to use it as outerwear in that transitional period between coat and light jacket.

I've also been making nice progress on my Manos Autumn Throw, with the discipline that I work on it every Saturday at Knitting Group and continue with a few extra rows during the rest of the weekend. I hope to have it finished by next winter!

Now that the poncho is done, I'll cast on my second GAP-tastic Cowl to use up the yarn I had left from the Shalom Cardi. I still need to determine, based on where I am on that, what project I will take on our forthcoming trip to California. Two long flights with ample knitting time!

In foodie news, we had a wonderful dinner at Quality Italian in NYC this weekend while my son was home for spring break. Just as delicious the second time.

Tomorrow I will try my next crockpot recipe, a Creole Shrimp dish from The Southern Bite. Will report back on how it turns out!

New Finished Object: Burberry Inspired Cowl

While waiting for the serious snow to come down tonight, I took some indoor pictures of my newest finished object, the Burberry Inspired Cowl. It's knit out of one of my all-time favorite yarns, Misti Alpaca Chunky, in a color way that Misti calls "Chartreuse Melange," but I call a variation on olive green. Like the other cowl I made from this yarn, this one feels like a warm and luxurious hug around my neck!

Hopefully this new addition to my winter wardrobe will be out playing in the snow tomorrow! Stay tuned.

Repurposing Yarn

I went to my first Big Apple Knitters Guild meeting last Saturday, to meet a friend who had been my classmate in the Craft Yarn Council's Certified Instructor Program at FIT in December.

The January BAKG meeting is always a yarn auction that benefits the Guild. Given the tremendous size of my stash, I sat and knit through 99% of the auction and didn't bid on anything, until a lonely bag of what looked like dark green and black variegated yarn came up at the end of the auction. No one seemed to want it, and I thought it was pretty, so I bid $3 and got it. My friend recommended that I reskein and wash the yarn, since it was wound into very tight balls and washing it would give it new life (and remove any trace of pets if there had been any in the previous yarn owner's home).

I went home that night and did just that, winding the yarn around my knees instead of getting out my wooden swift and ball winder. Lo and behold, I discovered that the yarn was actually a strand of dark green wool and a strand of black wool wound together:

but some of the balls had a fuzzy, thin black strand instead of one that matched the thickness and characteristics of the dark green.

Once my skeins were washed and hung to dry, I studied them and decided to get rid of the fuzzy thin black and replace it with a comparable black yarn once I knew the yarn weight. When all were dry and beautifully rewound into cakes,

I determined that each yarn was worsted weight, and held together, they made a bulky weight that watched to about 14 stitches/4" on #9 needles.

I have about 380 yards of the dark green/black combo, and another 338 yards of the dark green that will wait for a comparable black companion (I think KnitPicks Wool of the Andes will work just fine). And I've decided that the Shalom Cardigan will look great knit up in this yarn. I'll probably order the KnitPicks yarn within the next week and hopefully cast on soon!

Some people may be wondering whether all of this work and analysis was worth it for a $3 bag of yarn, but I got a lot of satisfaction out of this whole process and learned a great deal. Besides, I think it's kind of cool to repurpose yarn that has its own mysterious history. I'll keep you posted as the story continues!

P.S. I've been busy making several very warm knitted accessories, starting with my Never-ending Story Cowl. Will post details soon!

2014 - A Transitional Year in Review

Well, my assumption that my new job would give me more time to knit and to blog has not exactly panned out, but I feel the tide beginning to turn now, as we reach the end of the year.

In my annual knitting recap, according to Ravelry I've completed 15 projects this year, and that doesn't count the pretty hefty amount of contract knitting I did all summer and through the fall, ending at the beginning of December. It also leaves out all of the knitted accessories I made for a craft show where I sold (or tried to sell!) items from my Etsy shop.



My 15 finished objects include: 3 scarves or cowls, 3 hats, 2 shawls, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of fingerless gloves, 1 poncho, 1 tank top, and 1 Valentine's Day washcloth. I may finish another item--the Never-ending Story Cowl, which I just started last night with yarn I bought two years ago (from two LYS's that have since gone out of business), and from one of my favorite go-to knitting books, Cowlgirls.

In early December I also completed the Craft Yarn Council's Certified Knitting Instructor program over a weekend at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. It was a fabulous experience--I met great people and learned a lot, and I'm probably going to start teaching at my local public library after the New Year and see where we go from there. That motivated me to find a local knitting group, and I have been enjoying my Saturday mornings with the Union County Crafters in NJ. I would like to try to attend meetings of the Big Apple Knitting Guild in NYC with my CYC class friends; I think I'll be able to make that happen in 2015.

I will also pick up the contract knitting again, but need a bit more time to luxuriate in my own projects from deep stash that I love so much!

Wishing all of you a productive year filled with gratifying and relaxing knitting and crafting!