First Spring Finished Object!

Following that heavy poncho from my last post--which I HAVE worn in my chilly home office--I veered completely in the other direction and knit an airy, lacy silk scarf called Allegria, a beautiful pattern by Emma Fassio. I used the gorgeous Habu Silk that was left over from my daughter's Ombre Tank Top, in the natural color, and I think it came out great. I was especially happy to take a few photos of it outside, and hopefully will get someone to take pics of it on me over the weekend.

This was a great introduction to using lace weight yarn, which I think I have only done one other time. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but I got to love it, and it's certainly a nice change from all of the bulky things I knit all winter and that dominate my Etsy shop. I may now shop for some lace weight for the Nuvem shawl when I go on the NJ Wool Walk on Friday with one of my Panera knitting group friends.

Now that the scarf is done, I'm moving on to more stash-busting, and I'm determined to use up the 1900 yards of bright red Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece that has been in my stash since 2008. I guess it's the oldest worsted in my stash. I had originally bought it for the Central Park Hoodie, but my taste has changed a bit (although I would like to make that sweater one day), and after some back and forth with a bunch of patterns, I've decided on the A-line Hoodie by Diane Soucy, from the book Knit Red: Stitching for Women's Heart Health. I've had this book for years and this sweater was one of the reasons I bought the book--but I've never knit one thing from it. So if I successfully complete this project, I will not only have used up a nice chunk of stash, but also used a book for the first time. Good for me!

Back to the Wool Walk, we're planning on going to about 6 shops on Friday--will report back!

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.

Cocooning with Knitting and the Slow Cooker

It sounds like we will be getting a substantial amount of snow here in NJ tomorrow night into Tuesday. While I work from home so I can do my job regardless of the storm, the forecast has motivated me to stock up on comfort food and start some cozy knitting projects.

We bought a slow cooker last winter and I have fallen in love with it. There are so many healthy recipes and it's so easy! Even for someone who is not a great cook (me), I can make delicious meals that cook while I'm working upstairs all day. Last week I made a favorite, Soy & Lime Chicken Wings,
and today I picked up a Pork Shoulder to make this Slow Cooker Pork Roast. I think it's going to be delicious!

As for knitting, I did start working on the Shalom Cardigan using the "mystery" yarn I blogged about last week. The yarn feels great and I think this is going to knit up quickly. It's fairly mindless so I can take it with me to my book group this week (unless, of course, we are snowed out). But for my business trip to Chicago this coming weekend, I think I'll take my Monkey Socks, which have been on my needles for ages as a back-up project. It would be nice to have another pair of socks to rotate in to my sock drawer during these cold, snowy days!

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!

Beginnings and Endings

When I last posted (which I thought was longer ago than it's been), I had hinted about a new job and even some knitting-related work. Well, all of that has come to fruition. Two weeks ago I left my full-time job of 17 years, and this week I started a new job where I will be working from home, selling advertising and marketing solutions to suppliers in the library industry. I'm really hoping that this will give me more time to relax and fit in my knitting and other crafty pursuits while remaining engaged in meaningful work. Will let you all know how it goes!

I had secured a once-weekly job at a LYS, but that is now on hold for a few months. I hope it does happen, as this is something I've always wanted to do. In the meantime, I've been doing quite a bit of contract knitting throughout the summer. It's fun and provides a very small extra income, but I want to make sure it doesn't overtake my time and preference to knit for myself, my family, and my Etsy customers. So that will be another variable to watch this fall.

After finishing the contract knitting, I went back to the Braided Gem Socks for my son. Finished last night, and they are beautiful. I love the pattern and the yarn, and I think they will keep him very warm when the cold Michigan winter inevitably arrives.

As soon as I bound off, I wound my next ball of sock yarn--a Socks That Rock Lightweight skein from the 2008 Rockin' Sock Club! After this one, I have one skein to go from that club. I can't believe it's taken me so long to get through it--I guess I've had other sock yarn skeins sneak in between. I'm going to make Cookie A's Monkeys with this skein--I wasn't wild about the pattern that came with the yarn (a reason, along with my inability to keep up with the shipments, that I stopped renewing membership to this club), so I will do the Monkeys, a pattern I've been wanting to make for years.

To wind this yarn, I used my new and improved Royal Ball Winder. I think I had had my old one for 30 years and it was just "tired." This new one works like a dream and the skein wound up in no time. A nice little treat for myself.

With college football and the NFL this weekend, I'll have lots of knitting time and can make a dent in my current projects before my next round of contract knitting kicks in.

Hope to be more frequent with the blog posts now that I have all of this free time....hahahaha!