Camping Shawl

While I was camping with GiGi this summer, the main project I brought with me was a simple garter stitch shawl.  The yarn I used was a lovely, warm angora, wool, and silk handspun that Athie gave me for Christmas last year. 

While this may seem like a wonderful idea, the family was looking at me like I was crazy because it was a hot, steamy week in Arkansas in June when we went camping. 

I had actually started it near the end of May in NYC which, as some of you may know, can be nice and cool.  But it was one of only two projects that I'd brought with me to work on at GiGi's house and I'd finished the other one on the flight in. 

Yet, as it turns out, I barely worked on it while I was there.  GiGi had a friend that she wanted to give a lace shawl, but she's not that fond of lace knitting (crazy, I know!).  So we bartered a trade. She offered to knit a long overdue item that I'd been meaning to make (as a thank you gift for someone) on the condition that I would knit the shawl for her. 

How could I say no to that? I'd been putting off knitting that hat (yes, I said hat) for over a year.  So she gave me some yarn (100% Silk, Pingouin Pure Soie) and one of my own designs to knit. 

The Ceuta Shawl is the second shawl design that I published when I was starting out, so it had been several years since I had knit it.  I really enjoyed knitting it and it only took me about four vacation days to complete. 

 

It wasn't until after I got home (and into the air conditioning) that I finished the angora Camping Shawl.  And I almost immediately cast on another one.  That one is knit in a Merino and Silk hand dyed yarn. 

Unfortunately, the dyer has since stopped dyeing.  (I hear it's the only way to live.)  The colorway is called Canned Peaches.  I call it 'Wow-that's-a-fabulous-orange-yarn.' 

The yarn was also given to me by Athie (for a birthday during her pre-spinning days).  She has fantastic taste in yarn, doesn't she?  It also seems that she knows my color preferences a little too well.

Not that I'm complaining,
Joyce


P.S. I forgot to mention that the Camping Shawl is free on Ravelry.  It's knit side to side in garter stitch and is great for restful knitting in between big, complicated projects. download now

Troy's Folly

By now most of us have heard the mythological tale of Helen and Paris and the events that started the Trojan war.  If not, Wikipedia has a rather thorough article about it.  Go, check it out, I'll wait...

(Ah, you're back.  I missed you.) 

Such a tragic story.  One of love, intrigue, and men with swords.  However, despite it's seemingly romantic nature (which I've been told is the perfect way to name a shawl) the story of Helen and Paris is not the origin of the name of this shawl.

It turns out that also filled with love, intrigue, but sadly no men with swords, is the naming of a shawl.  Often I find one that I love and fits the pattern perfectly only to go on Ravelry and discover that, alas, it is taken.  So I'm cast about on a sea of shawl namelessness (I'm pretty sure that's a real word) and forced to turn to those closest to me to help me find a suitable name.  And sometimes, I ask Hubbie....

Hubbie is a sweet man, but he cannot be trusted with the naming of a shawl.  He will most often come up with names that seems perfectly fine until after a moment  I realize that they are, in fact, quite crude. (Morning Wood is just one of the many that comes to mind.) 

If you haven't figured it out by now, Hubbie's real name is Troy. His mother chose to name him that instead of the serial killer inducing 'John Wayne.' (Thank you, Mom!)  So if you're wondering what Troy's Folly really is... It's trying to help me name shawls.

If only Troy would take me to Paris,
Joyce

PS The purple shawl is in Madeline Tosh Merino Light in Lolita.  The green one is in Knit Picks Stroll Tonal Sock in Canopy.

Visiting GiGi

I'm at GiGi's this week.  We are camping which I enjoy (except the heat).  Given that I'm an entomologist, I actually like bugs so they don't bother me. (Except ticks and mosquitoes. I'm not that crazy!)
 
While we camp we do lots of athletic things like hike, swim, and bike.  (This is my visiting GiGi bike.  She stores it for me during the eleven months and two/three weeks I can't ride it.  She's cool like that!)

But, during our rest times (which really don't come often enough for me), we knit. This week I'm playing with shapes.  I have been experimenting with the side to side garter stitch shawl.

This one will be parallelogram shaped.  It's knit in Knit Picks Stroll Sock Bare that's been dyed in Strawberry Kool-aid. 

This one is an elongated half oval.  The yarn was handspun by Athie.  It's merino, silk and angora.  The colorway is called Rose Garden and it can be found at Crystal Creek Fibers.  I love love love this yarn.  It's soft and shimmery and just plain gorgeous.  (And I'm not just saying this because I'm trying to persuade Athie to give me more.  But if it helps...)

Is it time to knit yet,
Joyce

In progress

I tend to take shots of my projects while they are in progress.  But, given that I can't show most of them to you until they are finished, I forget to post pictures of the projects in progress.  So here are a few.

Helen's Grace:

The Magenta version of Troy's Folly.  Knit in Madeline Tosh Merino Light.  (I love love love this yarn!!!)

Omelet:

I hope you've enjoyed these amorphous blobs (I know I did!),
Joyce

Fuzzy Bottom

As I mentioned in my ode to bunny hair, due to my love of angora, I was inspired to design a small, very simple shawlette with some angora that captured my heart.  Here it is:

This is Fuzzy Bottom.  So named because, well, it has a fuzzy bottom.  Which can be more easily seen in the next picture.

This shawlette is great if you have only a small amount of a luxurious yarn.  You know which one I mean.  You bought it because it was too luscious to resist, but ignored the fact that it was only 45 yards.  The body of the shawlette is constructed with an angora/merino blend (Classic Elite Lush in Lipstick), but the edge is worked in Malabrigo 100% Angora in Ravelry Red.  The skein contained only about 40 yards of the spectacular stuff, but it made a great edging to a scarf sized shawlette.

Oh, and did I mention that the pattern is free?  download now

Trying not to feel silly about wearing sunglasses in the bathroom,

Joyce

Helen's Grace

My mother, Helen, passed away in December 2008.  When I was a teenager we had something of a difficult relationship, but I hear that that’s not unusual. 

Over the years, as I grew older and less hormonal and she grew older and more mellow, we managed to forge a strong and loving relationship.  One of the things I admired most about my mother was her ability to face adversity with grace and dignity. 

The life she lived was not an easy one, but she always made the people around her feel loved. 

Helen’s Grace is my memorial to her.  To the values, love of beauty, and joy of people that she taught me. 

I love you Maman,
Haci

P.S. The shawl is worked in KnitPicks Aloft in Fairy Tale.  It's a lovely, soft yarn that's equivalent to Kid Silk Haze in feel, but tremendously better in price.

Ginkgo Leaf Shawlette

One day I was in Knitty City (the most awesome yarn store ever, aka TMAYSE) and discovered that Pearl, the lovely lady that owns Knitty City (TMAYSE), sews.  She makes quilts and scarves.  I’ve seen examples of her quilts around the shop for a couple of years now and didn’t realize that she was the one who made them.  The scarves that she makes are constructed out of vintage kimono silk.  They are really beautiful.  I became particularly enamored of one that had falling red and green gingko leaves on cream background. 

It was so beautiful I bought it and became inspired to design a shawl with a similar motif.  The result is the Gingko Leaf Shawlette. 

The first version is knit in Malabrigo Rios in Archangel.

The second version is knit in KnitPicks Andean Silk in Woodland Sage.



Ah, the joys of scarves and shawls,

Joyce

Gentle Rain

The Gentle Rain shawl will forever be Snowman’s Blush to me.  Ok, maybe I should start at the beginning. 

Once upon a time there was a shawl with no name that was going to be knit in pink yarn... 

One day TK and I were sitting on the train on our way home from somewhere, and I requested that she help me name my latest shawl design (‘cause she’s good like that).  

For those of you who’ve never been to New York, subway train cars have a lot of advertisements, not just on the walls, but along the ceiling and sometimes even on the outside of the cars.  They advertise everything from tv shows to beer to universities to bunion doctors.  The subway car that we were sitting in that day just happened to be advertising peanuts.  I know, crazy huh?  

Anyway, as we sat there and discussed the shawl, TK suddenly said to me, “You should name it snowman’s blush!” I responded with, “Huh?”   (FYI, my witty repartee makes me a hit at all the parties.)  She then pointed to one the peanut ads on the wall.  It was of a couple of guys running naked through the snow and the tag line read, “Gives you the energy to make a snowman blush.” And my brain said, “Eureka!” We’d been tossing around names like first blush, blush of spring, and such, but why not Snowman’s Blush? It’s weird and funny and I loved it.  But… cue ominous music…

It became Gentle Rain instead.  When I realized that I was going to submit it to KnitPicks, I decided I wanted to knit it in Alpaca Cloud.  But… seriously, where is that music coming from?... they didn’t have any pink Alpaca Cloud.  Plus Stacey, the IDP designer liaison at KnitPicks looked at me funny via email (hey! It’s possible.) when I told her the name.  So we decided on light blue (Waltz colorway) and a name change.  And that’s how a snowman’s blush became a gentle rain.  But we’ll always know it’s true identity.

I hope it doesn’t lose its CIA job over this,

Joyce

P.S. The second version in in Zephyr laceweight.

Omelet Shawl

Woohoo! I'm in Knitty again.  It's been pretty hard to keep it to myself, but finally I can say, "Yay, I have a pattern in the Spring/Summer 2011 Knitty!"

I've named it Omelet.  I know the name is a bit weird, but what else could I call a bright yellow half circle? 

My model this time is Hubbie's lovely niece, Annie.  She was kind enough to step in when my first model fell through.  Thanks Annie!

I have to thank TK for helping me come up with ideas for the photoshoot.  I took the pictures in my mother-in-law's kitchen/dining room which is located 1300 miles from New York, but TK was with me in spirit.

I found Omelet to be pretty a tasty knit although I really had to pay attention to the pattern while knitting it.  It is definitely not movie knitting.

Man, all of those fruits and veggies are making me hungry,

Joyce

P.S. This is still my favorite picture from the photoshoot.  Maybe I should have told her that she's Annie, not Alice, and therefore, can't go through the looking glass but can content herself in the fact that the sun'll come out tomorrow.

Bunny hair love

I love angora.  I'd own a dozen angora bunnies, but I live in the city and am really allergic to rabbits.  When I was in my early twenties, I actually lost a job because of it.  (It's hard to groom rabbits when your nose is running around the room mocking you!)
Luckily for me, there are nice people out there that harvest bunny hair, wash it, dye it, and then sell it to me!  I love those people.  Hubbie understands and says he isn't jealous in the slightest.  I've chosen to believe him because it means lovely yarn.
I recently got to indulge in my angora love.  TK, Lana (one of the ladies from our knitting group), and I want to dinner in the village.  (Can I just say jalapeno hushpuppies with maple butter?  Soooooo yummy!)  (Please excuse me while I wipe the drool off of my keyboard.) Before dinner we went to Downtown Yarns and I came across Malabrigo Handspun Angora. (said with a sign worthy of a teenaged girl with her first crush)  I love love love love love it! 

So soft, so lovely, such small yardage.  It was only 40 yards and a bit pricey, but worth it.  It claimed to be a worsted weight, but it worked up bulky.  I paired it with some Classic Elite Lush and made it into a shawlette.



It's a small shawlette, but the perfect size for a scarf.  As soon as I have it photographed, I'll put up some pictures.

Did I mention that I'm in love?

Joyce

Harvest Basket Shawlette

The Harvest Basket Shawlette and I have a long and somewhat agonized history.  You see, Harvest Basket is one of the first shawls I designed (somewhere in the first five for sure).  And while I loved it and thought it would be beautiful, every time I tried to knit it, things went badly.

There was nothing wrong with the pattern, as a matter of fact, TK said that it was one of the simplest ones she'd knit for me.

But it didn't work for me.  The first time I tried to knit it, I didn't like the yarn I'd chosen.  The second time, I didn't like the yarn/pattern combination.  So about that time I decided maybe it wasn't the yarn, maybe it was the pattern.  Thus, the next time I tried to knit it, I tried to redesign the pattern, failing miserably.  So I put the pattern on the shelf for a while.  And then forgot about the poor thing.

Until about 6 months later.  I was browsing through my old patterns (there are a surprising amount of those. Sadly, for most of them, it was love at the time they were designed, and now it's meh) and came across Harvest Basket and thought I'd give it another shot at redesign.  But when I opened the file, I realized that it really was great as is.  However, given our checkered past, I was reluctant to give it another try.  Then I remembered...

I have a test knitter!  TK! So I gave her a call and much to my joy and happiness, she agreed to take on the knitting of the Harvest Basket Shawlette.  And she finished it in less than two weeks!  (Did I mention that TK rocks?)  In Malabrigo Sock in Terracota, the shawlette is soft and warm.

Best of all, Harvest Basket is free!

download now

And that's really the best price for anything,

Joyce

Note: I originally designed Harvest Basket to be knit with variegated yarn.  I feel that the simple lace won't get lost in the variegation.

Weekend knitting

I spent most of Sunday knitting and watching Netflix.  Netflix watch instantly has transformed my world.  I rarely watch tv.  That's not to say that I don't watch any tv, but with the joy that is dvr technology, I (like much of the country, I suspect) don't watch my tv shows when they're on regular tv.  I'm much too distracted for that! (Plus one comes on while I'm at work and another comes on the night of knitting group. What was CBS thinking?!?!)

But, I only watch three shows regularly.  Which means that when I want to knit a project that is somewhat complicated, I have to search for something to watch.  Netflix has come to my rescue.  They have tons of tv shows and movies that I can stream to my computer.  I will admit that I mostly watch the PBS and History Channel shows that they have available, but Hubbie and I have recently begun watching Futurama together.

Given that it has been the spooky time of year, I've been watching a lot of shows on ghosts.  I love this time of year because I get to gorge myself of ghost stories.  Reading them, listening to them, watching tv shows on them.  So much fun.  I don't actually believe in ghosts (I think), but I grew up in a family with a tradition of telling ghost stories at get togethers.  I used to love to sit next to my mom as she told stories of the house that she lived in that she thought was haunted.  I'd get chills and goosebumps.  It was awesome!

Sadly, my family is now spread over a good portion of the country, so the tradition hasn't continued.  Instead I turn to the internet and Netflix and the ghost stories of others to give me my Halloween chills.

My glut of weekend tv watching go me through a garter stitch scarf and 70% of the shawlette version of Mercia.

Winnie the wonderdog was kind enough to model the scarf for me.  He's such a cutie (but also a total spaz. The only reason he sat still long enough to take this picture was Hubbie standing behind me holding a treat.)

It's knit in an angora wool Handspun by Jamie Harmon.  It's really quite soft and lovely.

I'm knitting the shawlette version of Mercia in the Knit Picks Stroll Tonal sock that was left over from the shawlette version of Butterfly Bush.  It is the perfect amount and the yellow shows off the stitch pattern really well.

It's about time Mother Nature realized it was Autumn,
Joyce

Butterfly Bush Shawl

The Butterfly Bush shawl was the first shawl that I charted from my design notebook.  (The others had thus far been designed using stitch dictionaries.)  The design notebook goes everywhere with me (except to the lab today which meant that I had to design my Mother In Law's Christmas shawl on the back of another pattern. Oops!)

Originally knit in Malabrigo Silky Merino in Pollen, I sent pictures to Knit Picks and requested yarn support.  Much to my joy, they said yes and sent me yarn.  (I love yarn! Sorry, got distracted for a minute.)
The DK shawl is worked in Knit Picks Gloss DK in Jade on size 8 needles.

The fingering weight shawlette is worked in Stroll Sock Tonal in Golden Glow on size 5 needles.

The pattern for Butterfly Bush is available through Knit Picks or by clicking on the button below.

GiGi laid claim to the Jade version before it was even finished, but that's only because she wanted the Malabrigo version.  But... I had to put my foot down and say no.  I know, shocking, isn't it?

It's a pity I don't really look good in yellow,
Joyce