Thanks for Knitting

We went to the Oregon Coast for Thanksgiving and spent a good part of the week knitting while watching the waves roll in. The weather had been horribly stormy the week before we went, in fact we came skating in on the heels of the last storm--the power came back on an hour before we arrived. Very glad we decided to go on Sunday, not Saturday!

While I had just a smidgen of my Autumn Shawl left to finish, I packed up a big bag of kitchen cotton, a couple of dishcloth patterns and settled in to knit a pile for Christmas gifts. I have to admit, dishcloth knitting isn't my favorite, but I really do like having them in the kitchen and they make good gifts, so I left myself no choice but to knit them by only bringing them to work on.

Of course there is my go-to pattern, the Ballband dishcloth, that is easy to do and is a workhorse in the kitchen when you put it through its paces. I did this one in a variety of colors including a few in Christmas colors. I really love this one, with the blue/green variegated and the pretty lime green. I got so I was knitting these on remote.

Then I went on to try a new pattern that I had been dying to give a knit. This one is from the Purl Bee, which always has such cute patterns and crafty ideas. Taking a cue from the quilters, they came up with this Log Cabin wash cloths. I love that you can take four small skeins of kitchen cotton and come up with four really neat dishcloths.

These things are like popcorn, you just keep casting on and knitting without any thought until you realize all the yarn is used up and then you start scrounging around for more combinations. Hence this one, which I think I will keep as it isn't all that cute.

At the last minute, I had also thrown in the Twined hat I've been knitting. This is another one just like my green one, that I wear every morning to walk Matthew to school. I knew I should probably make another one before I start being referred to as that "green-hat lady who never takes it off."

You never know, but it could happen. So I decided to mix things up a little with this pink one. Yeah, I know, it isn't much different--but this Lisa Ellis design is the best hat pattern and the warmest hat you will ever own.

Now back to throwing projects in the car at the last minute is that you don't think it through. I started doing the decreases and realized I'd forgotten the dpns for when the stitch count gets to small for the circs. And while, yes, I know I could have bought another set, (because I did go to Custom Threads in Astoria and took a quick dash through Fred Meyer in Warrenton for some tax free Christmas shopping) I just couldn't do it when I have a perfectly good set at home. So this is where I stopped, which coincided with us stopping at Starbucks on the way down and switching who was driving.

Note to self: remember the dpns and when husband says he doesn't want a coffee, order him one anyway so he doesn't drink yours.

Addicted to Entrelac

Walked into A Good Yarn Shop and found myself faced with a sample of this Autumn Shawl by Jojoland. It was like putting a leftover bowl of Halloween Butterfingers in front of me.



Ever since I took the entrelac class last summer, I haven't been able to shake the bug. It is a knitting addiction. Just one more little rectangle, I tell myself. I'll just finish this row. Then it becomes, I'll just finish this skein and see where the next one takes me.



I was right in the middle of this hat for a friend who is going through chemo for ovarian cancer, so I had a very good reason to get the hat done, but the allure of entrelac was too much and I cast on the moment I got home. After two of days of knitting like a madwoman, I bundled it all up, packed it under the bed and told myself I couldn't get it out until I finished the chemo cap. Voila! A finished hat.



Amazing how fast you can finish something when there is entrelac under the bed.

Dog Gone

I have had Jill Eaton's Bow Wow Sweater pattern in my pattern collection for years. I've had yarn to knit the pattern for nearly as long. But as the years passed, I never got around to knitting it. As a mom with two sons, there is really no excuse for not having knit this quintessential boy sweater.



So when my cousin's son's wife had a baby boy (is that a long strung out line of relations or what?!) I knew I had to knit this sweater. My boys are almost too big for it, and I thought that I would give it a try in a smaller size before I knit in the larger sizes for my growing pair of lads.

What I love about this sweater is the color. That yellow just screams little boy. It also screams, "I'll be able to spot you across a crowded playground like no one's business." So I dug out the skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease that I had stashed and cast on for Wyatt. It is really an easy sweater to knit, and super simple: Here it is already to sew up the side seams:



You can't tell by my washed out pictures, but the color is really a good goldenrod, and not this faded yellow. Here it is all sewn up:



Isn't that just adorable? And if Wyatt is half the trouble his grandfather was (my cousin) his poor parents will need that bright color to keep tabs on him.

Because I Promised

I saw my aunts recently and they both read my blog. And of course they were on me for not updating it more often. But with summer on, the kids at home and just everything happening, having the time to settle in and share has been short at best. So a little craft round-up.

Last spring after spending way too much time lurking about the Lady Eleanor page on Ravelry, I swore that this fall I would take a class on Entrelac. Entrelac is crazy easy, but when you read the instructions it is hard to just have faith that it will work. It is rather like Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. Just knit it as the instructions tell you to, and don't sweat anything past your current row of knitting.

Then joyfully and triumphantly watch it all come together.

But for some reason I couldn't take that leap of faith with entrelac and resorted to taking a class at Renaissance Yarns in Kent. Yeah, I could have probably found a bunch of tutorials on YouTube, or done it by digging in and knitting it, but I thought taking a class would do the trick quickly--immerse me in the technique and learn the tricks.



And I boy did I love it! I was hooked by the second tier. This is my working sample done in Wisdom Yarns Poem.

I was also spurred on to learn entrelac by a one skein project I saw at Seattle Yarn, the Simply Lovely Little Clutch. Before I even took the class, I'd picked up a skein of the Noro Tidiori that the pattern calls for.



So I took the class, fell in love, and then the next day, we went off on vacation. I had the clutch pattern and one skein of Tidiori, and knit the clutch up the first day--falling hopelessly and helplessly in love with entrelac and this fun pattern.



When folded for the clutch, it looks like this:



or this, depending on the side. That is the joy of this yarn, both sides are unique.



So the next morning I jumped online to find more yarn, imagine my horror when I discovered that this particular Noro yarn has been discontinued. So I got online and hunted down as many skeins as I could find--between eBay and Ravelry I had enough to feed the obsession.



Since then, I've been knitting Simply Lovely Clutches for everyone. I've done eight of them so far. I made myself quit this weekend, before I forget how to knit anything else.



I plan on finishing them with i-cord borders and line them with a bright and fun silk fabric. They close with the magnetic snap. And voila!

So what am I going to do with 8 clutches? Christmas gifts, folks. Teacher presents, friends, but not aunts. I've got other plans for them.

Monkeying Around

I saw a book in Crafter's Choice recently that made me laugh. It was about repurposing old pillowcases. Ya, wha-a-at? So I ordered Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase from the library and much to my surprise and chagrin, it is actually a really fun book.



So much so, that Friday night, I dug out some funny monkey fabric I'd picked up for some long forgotten project and made a groovy little project bag in about 45 minutes. It was fast, fun and now I have a nice sized, summery monkeyshines bag to haul around my latest WIP.



Which as it turns out, fits my latest project in the "Wrestling WIPs" challenge, My Lacy Stole. The yarn is Sundara's Basil over Buttercup, which I think is currently part of her July month of color. The hues and sparkle to this yarn is wonderful and it is lovely to knit with. And best of all, I have only 11 more pattern repeats and then I am done.



The pattern is free from Lion Brand and easy to do, if you cheat like I do--using stitch markers to remind me where every repeat is, and an excel chart of the stitch pattern that I check off on each row, so it is never an issue which row I am on.



Oddly enough, I haven't had the least urge to cast on any new projects--there has been a real delight in picking up these old, nagging WIPs and just getting them done. I think that is because I know that next month I am going to dive head first into Christmas knitting. I have three projects I want to cast on and finish over the month, and then I will be well ahead in my usual Fall panic over "what the heck to knit for Christmas???!!"

Am I jumping the gun? Are you knitting for Christmas yet?