The Boy Hat and the Blueberry Scarf

Two FOs to share today! Work has been total insanity, with limited knitting time. Today we have one long overdue FO, and one quick Christmas knit.

I finished up Saviche's belated birthday present:


Blueberry Scarf
Pattern: A simple stitch pattern advertised in a SWTC newsletter a few months back. The pattern is K1, YO, K2tog* repeat from * across both sides.
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL, a bulky y 12 WPI yarn
Needles: 6mm Bamboo straights



This turned into a looooong skinny scarf. I though casting on 30 stitches in a chunky yarn would produce a wider scarf, but not so much. The stitch pattern must have narrowed it down a bit. Rather than frog and start over, I decided to make a long skinny scarf. The recipient lives in LA, and would probably stifle inside a chunky wool scarf anyway!

Happy belated birthday Saviche!

Next up, The Boy Hat, made for my little sister's BF for Christmas. He does not spend a ton of time browsing the knit blogs, so I think the Christmas surprise will stay intact.

Colin's Ribbed Hat
Pattern: The Boy Hat, by LimulusKnits
Yarn: Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends, in a charcoal grey
Needles: 4.5 mm bamboo dpns


The clever decreases are what makes this hat fun and interesting. Plus, I got to use 8 stitch markers, which is always fun times. The way the ribbing intersects on the crown reminds me of Gothic architecture, flying butresses and all that. I foresee a couple more of these fun, quick hats in the future. Coming up tomorrow, 2 free patterns! Stay tuned :)

Goodbye Beads

This weekend I decided to purge my bead stash. From ages 8-16 beading was my craft of choice, and I amassed a huge quantity of beads. I swear I still have beads that I picked out when I was 10 years old. Needless to say, my taste has changed. Somehow a yin yang beaded necklace does not seem as cool as it did in 1995. I got out my beading supplies to fix a friend's bracelet (which I discovered I need more supplies to do) and ended up going through the beads. 99% are going to be donated, but I did keep a few.

I also decided that while I had everything out, I might as well makes a hodgepodge collection of stitch markers. Some, like the butterfly one above are an homage to my 4th grade beading tastes. Others are just cool, funky beads I didn't want to get rid of.



I cast on The Boy Hat as a Christmas present for my sister's BF. I started it on US 8 needles, which proved to be way to huge, ripped back about 2 inches, and started again on size US 7 needles. The yarn is Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends, a synthetic and cashmere blend that makes for a nice soft machine washable hat.

A shot of the Sharks warming up on Saturday:

They lost to Edmonton, but the Sharks are still #1 in the NHL!

Oh, Canada

Back from vacation! Vacation = eating my way through the Pacific Northwest with three awesome friends.

Vancouver, BC is amazing. The food is delicious and diverse, the city is clean, and the architecture gorgeous. By the end of our first day in Vancouver we were checking out real estate prices and wondering about becoming a citizen of the Commonwealth.

One of the things I loved most about Vancouver was the appreciation for outdoor space. They have a fantastic park, Stanley Park, the streets are lush and tree-lined, and the majority of apartment buildings had terrace, balcony, or roof gardens--bringing some fresh air and beautiful foliage into the urban landscape.

Here is a shot from the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Just a few minutes outside of downtown, this is apparently the biggest tourist trap in the area, but we could not resist the lure of a temperate rain forest and and a nice forest stroll.




Vancouver at Sunset, from our hotel room, looking toward English Bay.

Vancouver from our balcony in morning sunshine.



Did I mention that in Vancouver we gorged ourselves silly? Great food in that city. In Vancouver we ate salmon in these various ways: smoked salmon jerky, sashimi, in assorted sushi rolls, in fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, more sashimi, salmon artichoke dip, salmon pie, seafood quiche, and some more sashimi. I may have missed a few...

After Vancouver, we sailed for Victoria. Victoria itself was an underwhelming city with a few great buildings, and a lot of empty shops.




The highlight was definitely the gorgeous ferry ride from the mainland to Vancouver Island. Spectacular!


After Victoria we said good bye to two wonderful travel partners, and explored Seattle on our own for a few days. More goooooooooood food. We bough a crab, a pound of shrimp, a crusty loaf of olive sourdough, and a cranberry apple piroshki at Pike's Place market to make one of the best picnic style dinners ever. Not quite a picnic in an outdoor sense, but what else can you do when the Office season premiere is on but hunker down with some tasty snacks. Bears, beets, Battle Star Galactica.

We rowed all about Lake Union. More like N rowed me all about Lake Union in a cute wooden row boat rented from the Center For Wooden Boats in Seattle. And look, Sleepless in Seattle style houseboats!


Sweet Chinatown dragon...

We return very relaxed and happy, and still ready to move to Vancouver! I only went to one knitting store (the very cute So Much Yarn in Seattle) but restrained myself. I would love to be able to continue to restrain myself and knit from my stash until 2009. I did buy a couple cute fabric scraps at the Underground Quilter in Seattle's Pike's Place Market. I love quilting stores! The cotton, the prints, the adorably small bundles!

I do have some FO action shots!



My latest FO: Turn a Mountain Square
Pattern: Turn a Square Hat by Brooklyn Tweed
Yarn: Bernat Natural Cashmere (the dark grey) and Rowan Natural Silk Aran in Indigo
Comments: Seeing as this is the third one of these babies I have knitted, I will not go on too much. The only mod I made from the original was to knit on dpns not circs. The raglan decreases are at the joins in the needles, making the decreases a bit loose. I do not usually have laddering at my joins, but in this case with the decreases, they did crop up.

Oh! I know I said I would not go on too much, but I will share a mega dunce moment. The first two times I made the hat (having never made anything with color changes before) I did not know what "carry the other color" meant. I was cutting my yarn at every color change, making a mega mess of ends to deal with. I ended up hand felting the ends so they wouldn't run. Lots of ends. Tons. Like Monster from the Muppet's hair. It wasn't until I had started this third one, and was in the car, sans scissors, that I realized what was going on. I thought I wasn't going to be able to knit much on the car ride, since I did not have scissors and could not clip the ends. So I just knitted on anyway, thinking I could cut and tie off for felting when I got home. At the second color change it became gloriously clear: I had been mega dense about the directions! You are not supposed to cut the yarn, you are supposed to CARRY the unused color. Duh. Big time.

It is times like that I realize I my knitting career has been short and unproductive! Speaking of which, this month is my second knitaversary. The first year, I was still crocheting a lot, and only finished 1.5 scarves in my first year! That's it! Here in year two, I have completed a bunch more scarves, hats, booties, a cowl, socks, and am working on my first lace. I have picked up spinning (and sewing!) and taught several people how to knit. I hope that year three will bring my first sweater and a ton of awesome sockies!

The grey-red hat is turn a square #1, made for N. The blue-grey turn a square it #3, the Mountain version. The awesome short row hat to the right is made by our very own Kristina, out of some lovely Claudia's hand painted. I must say, there is nothing better than seeing good friends appreciating good knitting! These homemade hats were on these heads for at least a few hours everyday on this vacation.

The Fog Repeller

As mentioned I was working on Jared Flood's Turn a Square pattern, very generously posted as a free download on Ravelry. Before downloading, beware...very satisfying and addicting pattern.



The Fog Repeller
Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease (grey) and Noro Silk Garden color 84
Needles: 4.5mm bamboo dpns



Let me tell you, this is just a lovely little knit. Its simplicity is gorgeous and makes the raglan style decreased stand out as the main attraction. The raglan style decreases make the stripes on the crown square, which I love the look of. Pictured below before blocking, the raglan decreases are a bit puffy/stiff. The hat is going to block tonight, hopefully! I have read much about raglan, but this was my first try. I have to say, its fun, easy, and almost makes me want to start a some sort of knitted leviathan/simple raglan top down sweater (we all have different definitions of intimidation!)




Some close ups of the yarn. I am not a huge Noro fan in FOs, and this was my first time working with it in a project. I have to say I loved it! Its incredibly soft, and the colors are subtle, and beautiful. I think the colors are extra gorgeous isolated into the grey. The grey makes them look extra spectacular, and takes the edge off the sometimes overwhelming effect of all-Noro FOs.



I really enjoyed this pattern. It is perfect Olympic knitting, as it does not require much fussing, and the decreases are intuitive. I made only one mod, and knitted them on dpns not circs, owing to only having long circs and a strong aversion to magic loop.


This is an instant gratification project, it only took a couple hours to complete. This is coming from a super slow knitter. I consider myself a bit of a knitting manatee or sea turtle, while Kristina is an agile, speedy dolphin or swordfish... or something fast and sea dwelling.


This knit was so fast and fun (and I had left over yarn) that I promptly cast on and finished a second one for a friend's birthday. And then I cast on another one (more leftover yarn!) for a third friend...its an addicting pattern!



Picture of the day of China Beach, Sea Cliff, Baker Beach, and in the very back, the Presidio. It looks so summery! In sad news, my 6:12am wake up is getting darker by the day, and thus harder to drag out of bed.

Happy Friday!

Current WIP: Brooklyn Tweed's Turn A Square Hat. I cast on yesterday afternoon and expect to cast off tonight, its a quick knit.

This is my first project involving Noro. I have to admit, I have been a bit skeptical of Noro, despite its massive fan club. I love the idea of a natural, not overly processed silk, but have never fallen in love with a Noro FO. I decided to give it a try for this hat, knowing that the grey would need the wonderful Noro colors to bring it to life. This is Noro Silk Garden color 84, ordered from Webs.

There is a bit more pink in it than I would have liked, since its for my bf, but its easy to exclude the pink given the striping pattern. I do have a bunch of pink scraps now...perhaps destined for a smaller turn a square for my sister this winter.


The grey yarn is some ball band-less lion brand wool ease from my stash. It has been at the bottom of my oldest stash tote for as long as I can remember. This project is a great stash buster, even though I bought the noro for this project, I am using stash wool ease!

Seen below, my birthday stitch markers hand crafted by Kristina in action:





In non-knitting related events, I loved the Chihuly exhibit so much that I revisited today. Below is one of the outdoor pieces, seen below in Golden Gate Park from the tower of the de Young museum. It lights up at night and is amazing.

And a forest inspired indoor piece (I never thought I would be one of those people who takes pictures in museums, but I wanted to share!) It doesn't do the piece justice, but you get the idea.


Some yummy treats I made Wednesday night...
and the parting weekend shot of Dave, the Mountain Dog: