2008 February Archive at a fine kettle of stitches

Monthly Archive for February, 2008

Warm Hands, Cool Colours

Published

on February 27, 2008

. 1 Comment

I love these mitts! Soft and scrunchy and warm. I’ve been wearing them everywhere. I forget to take them off in shops though, since my fingers are free, and I only notice when I get really hot. And they match pretty well with my flower petal shawlette which I wear as a scarf.I’ve been noticing changes in my colour palette again. For a while I was gravitating towards earthy tones, especially deep rich browns. Now I seem to want more colour, either bright shiny colours or softer somewhat pastel-ish hues.

For quite awhile I pushed myself away from the bright pinks, jewel purples and cool vivid reds which I used to love, just to try and expand my personal palette. It was actually uncomfortable to consider these colours since I have been avoiding them for so long, but they just make me so cheerful when I work with them. I really owe this release to the vagaries of computer monitors. I ordered what I thought would be a plum-coloured yarn which turned out to be the purple of these mitts, and a dusky pink lace yarn which, when it arrived, was shades of bubblegum. And I love them both!

As for the pastels, I’ve been drawn to clear mid-tones like sky blue, spring green, butter yellow and coral; or dusky colours: orchid pinks with a touch of gray, celadon and not-quite seafoam, antiqued alice blue. Everything I brought home last weekend was a pastel shade.I think I’ll be enjoying these colours for some time to come but who knows what’ll strike my fancy next!

Graple Glovelets
yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Silk (alas, no longer available), heavy dk weight
needles: 4mm Brittany birch dpns
pattern: an adaptation of Cozy Cable Socks by Terry Morris (Ravelry link)
I used the medallion cable flanked by 2 4-st cables, and used a 2/2 rib around the rest of the mitt, worked from the wrist upwards. I started the thumb gusset at the bottom of the 2nd medallion, in a purl section a couple of stitches towards the back from the side center. It would have been better if I’d started it farther down as it sort of pouches outward instead of flowing smoothly.

Considering the Tunic

Published

Deb

on February 25, 2008

in Design Junkie and knitting

. 0 Comments

While in Moncton on Saturday Kelly and I each got a different issue of Sandra. I love this magazine; it’s full of beautiful patterns and cheap to boot. I’ve got one from several years ago and there are sweaters in it that I would happily make and wear today. This issue, Dec. 2007, is a mixed bag with some great pieces and some rather odd ones. Here’s a variation on the cabled yoke sweater that we’ve been seeing everywhere. There are a lot of cables in this issue, over half the designs have cables or twisted-stitch/ faux-cable patterns. Most of the rest have some other sort of deep texture, too.

There’s also a goodly portion of tunics with bell-like sleeves. This green one really caught my eye. I like the idea of the cables and colourwork combined, the contrast of colour and texture. I don’t know as if I’d make this exact sweater but I’m certainly inspired by it. I can never stick to a pattern anyway. And I would definitely make it shorter. The line where the cables stop is more the length I like, about the top of the hips. I’m too short to really be a tunic person.

Speaking of oversized: I thnk it was totally appropos that I found this one while in a store I visited a lot in my teen years, because this design is straight out of the 80’s. Even the sunglasses on her head mimic the scarf that would have been tied around her head back then. Mind you, a real 80’s girl would have had her collar turned up, giant poofy bangs, leggings instead of slacks and a double-wrap belt full of grommets. And even though this gal has some broad shoulders, shoulder pads would have been de rigeur.

Ah, the days of my youth. Like, totally

In search of Bamboo

Published

Deb

on February 24, 2008

in Fibre

. 2 Comments

I spent the day yesterday running around with Kelly and fondling yarn. Kelly had never been to London-Wul and Heidi is having a sale this weekend so we drove up (Kelly drove, I apparently just babbled for the entire day. Kelly probably knows more about me and my family than she ever wanted to.) to see if there were any goodies to be found. I made my little wishlist before we left with a few special projects in mind.

We left a little early, so I navigated us downtown to Reid’s magazine shop. Kelly had never been to this magical emporium either (actually, come to think of it, she’d never been to any of the places we went yesterday) and I think she was quite pleased witht the selection. I have loved Reid’s since my Dad first took me there in the early 80’s. They’ve always had the best magazine selection in the city, and certainly much better than any magazine shop around here. I forced myself to stop after I had 5 mags in my hand but I did pick up a yummy chocolate bar (they’ve also always had a great selection of candy bars, and were the first and only place downtown to carry Zero bars for years. Yum.). I got the new FiberArts, a Marie Claire idées (the Christmas one was surprisingly still on the stand so I grabbed it) Sandra and Jewelry Arts mag. I also found the latest Polymer Café for Mom.

When we got to London-Wul there were several people wandering around the shop already. I looked around for a while, chatted with Heidi, helped Kelly find some black roving and picked up a skein or two I liked. I ended up putting them back, though when I discovered the shelves of odd-lots. Lots of beautiful stuff to choose from. I found a gorgeous fluffy mohair in powder blue and some wool/silk 3-ply hand-dyed in sweet pastels. And, cof couse I got some of Heidi’s hand-dyed roving in a very spring-time colourway. I also got to meet Kelly’s friend and fellow knit-blogger, Jennifer, in town for a mini-vacation.

We headed off to Jean’s Restaurant for lunch. This place has been there for as long as I can remember, and that’s a while ago since I lived in Moncton through all of my teen years. I’ts not very big, has several booths and lunch-counter in the middle and is one of those working-man’s diners that every city has and cherishes. I think it was probably the best place to take Kelly who is a big fan of the Big Stop. We had hot turkey sandwiches and I couldn’t finish half of mine (I never can, they come on those big platters. I should really learn to ask for just half the food).

After we waddled out of the restaurant, I once again displayed my superb navigational skills by managing to get us to Cricket Cove. I did, however, not point out the parking lot until we were passing it… oops. Yeah, those navigational skills? Not so much. This was the second time I had managed to lead us beyond our intended destination. Anyhooo… We ran into Jennifer again coming out of the shop. She showed us some bamboo yarn she had gotten in a lovely pink colour, Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo. This looked like exactly what I needed for one of the items on my list, to make a pair of booties for a brand-new wee cousin in Florida. Inside, I looked around and found lots of the bamboo yarn… but Jennifer had apparently bought every ball of pink! Oh, well, Cherie had said everybody had given her yellow and green stuff, so the green would do. Then Kelly, who is much taller than both me and the clerk at the shop, found one last ball of pink tucked in behind the others up on a top shelf. Yay, Kelly! You’re my hero! I managed to check another item of mylist with some Marisol Sulka, and left very happy with both the pink and green babybamboo.

After a quick trip to the Corn Crib (whole foods store) for some gluten free oatmeal for my aunties and dark chocolate for my mother, we headed back out and I proceeded to talk us back home (I mentioned the babbling, right?).

I made it home with all my swag and took off my shoes and relaxed. You know it’s a good day when you need a nap afterwards.

Doin’ the Amanda, part 2: Done!

Published

Deb

on February 22, 2008

in Uncategorized and knitting

. 0 Comments

I finished this hat several days ago but just got some photos last night. K graciously donned the chapeau and smiled real purty for me.

If the edge looks a little stretched out, that’s because it is. This shape of hat really doesn’t suit me so I was trying different ways of wearing it, widening the brim, folding up part of the brim. I think I’d like to make another with more garter stitch at the edge so I can fold it up in the front and wear it like a ’30’s cloche.

I used Handpaintedyarn.com’s Handspun Buky in the Trienty Tres colourway, on 5mm needles. The colours are gorgeous and rich and the yarn really softens up with handling. The fabric is very flexible and stretchy. I had several people try it on and none of them felt it was too small or too big, including me with my humungo-noggin.