jaunty SOB pocket square

Is there a jaunty SOB in your life who likes pocket squares? Here is a deluxe, hand knit, 100% silk, pocket square for you. The seed stitch makes a fabulous fabric that gives wonderful, sculptural folds.

Materials:
Size 0 needles (I used circular just because that's what I had)
Handmaiden Swiss Silk, 100% silk, fine fingering weight, 432 yards per skein. One pocket square uses approximately 75 yards.

Gauge: 29 stitches and 30 rows to 4 inches.
Finished size: 6.5" x 6.5"

Seed stitch:
Row one: *Knit 1, purl 1. Repeat from * across.
Row two: *Purl 1, knit 1. Repeat from * across.

Directions:
Cast on 50 stitches
Knit seed stitch until piece measures 6.5"
Bind off

And voila!
Father's Day is coming up.

Download the pdf.

albers cowl #2 and some sewing

My second Albers Cowl, design by Ann Weaver. I gave Albers Cowl #1 away to a friend and then decided I couldn't live without one in my life and felt compelled to make another one. This one is all Cephalopod Skinny Bugga! with the exception of the white, which is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock. I'm also wearing another Ann Weaver design underneath, that's Ambergris, which I've been wearing almost constantly this cold and damp spring. My usual photographer has been out of the country so Girl took these with an iphone, pretty darn good I must say. I recommend elementary school photographers for everyone.

One modification that I've made this time is to make four squares instead of three, which gives is just enough length to make it easier to double wrap around my neck. I made three versions of square #1 and one of square #2. I didn't think I could possibly love the second version as much as the first because I adored the first one so much, but I do. A total win again, I highly recommend this pattern.

Here are the squares all laid out before sewing together. The pattern is fun, easy and never gets boring.

I've been desperate to do some sewing. I want to make this dress in light denim and have gotten as far as sewing the muslin together and got stuck. The pattern is Butterick 5639. The Huz was away for a long time, I've had a lot of work, the kids are on vacation, blah blah blah, in other words, life has been getting in the way of crafting. As soon as I have a free couple of hours, I'm going to cut this baby out. I'll eliminate the gathers at the front for the denim and I'm just crazy about those pockets.

Here's a little look at what spring has been like around here, fairly gray and dismal, the cowl and my Ambergris sweater have been the perfect remedy. But, the sun is finally out today and the spring flowers are popping and one of these days, in typical New England style, it will suddenly be summer.

eggmania and weaving

Pigs in a basket, what can I say? It had to happen. It's time for a new rodent to host Easter. Lord Chubbington on the left and Foggy on the right, both very handsome boars. They have recently begun co-habiting and there is plenty of rumble strutting, chuttering, ball dragging, mounting, and other hijinks, no real fighting though.

Easter is my favorite holiday mainly because we have so much fun doing the eggs and it's a low key family time for us. This is the first time I experimented with natural dyes. The eggs above were done with onion skin for the brownish ones and red cabbage for the bluish ones. With the lighter ones I initially forgot to add the vinegar so they didn't absorb as much dye, but I like how delicate they are. For directions on how to make the dye I followed this blog post from the Kitchn.

These are the best of our letter eggs, just used some sticky, glittery ones from Michaels.

Best rubber band eggs.

Quail eggs. Almost too pretty to dye.

We made another Angel Pie or Pavlova this year. There is a layer of lemon curd between the meringue and the fruit. It's the first time I've actually heard the Boy say that something was too sweet, I didn't know he had a threshold. The meringue and the lemon curd separately are both incredibly delicious but the combo is pretty potent. I followed this great article in the Wall Street Journal for the recipe.

The quail eggs came from the Seacoast Winter Farmer's Market. I've been trying to get there all winter and I'm so glad that I did, what a treat. Packed with all kinds of great local foods, products and such a great vibe. While I was there I ran into my friend Inga who was demonstrating how to use a back strap loom. She was with her Riverslea Farm spinning group and the women behind her were spinning the fiber that she was then weaving, so awesome! This was their version of a sheep to shawl event.

Here is a closer look at her lovely weaving. I love how simple the back strap loom is, no need for a giant piece of equipment, just a heddle, some slats of wood, straps, and some binder clips and you're good to go.

a new hat and a tunic top

A new hat that I'm crazy about as it seems filled with so many possibilities. Dozens of ways to re-knit it are flying around in my noggin, the first variation is already percolating and wait until you see the crown. The yarn is Jamieson and Smith Shetland Heritage. The yarn is very soft and though it does have a tiny bit of itch, it is naturally perfect for fair isle knitting and I plan on knitting with this stuff forever.

A tunic top for my daughter. Got the sewing bug, must be the spring light. It's been eons since I sewed a garment, it's so satisfying to make it in just a few days though I do hate that the sewing takes over my bedroom. The pattern is Butterick B4684, which has some nice variations for the neckline. I made the XS and took it in at the shoulders and the side a bit. She is hovering between the larger girls sizes and small women's sizes and this worked out nicely. Now let's just hope the picky little bugger wears it.

crawling out of hibernation

Crawling out of my hibernation cave I see that what has kept me going through the dark winter months is the mindless beauty of garter stitch. A new Albers Cowl with Cephalapod Skinny Bugga has been growing. The colors on this one are a bit more subtle and mellow than my first version and I'm not sure if it has quite the magic of the first one, but it's hard to beat how lovely Cephalapod colors are.

This is the first Albers Cowl that I made. I gave this one away to a friend who kept admiring it and then her mom passed away and I didn't feel like it was mine to keep anymore, that it had just been mine for awhile. I hope it makes her feel loved to wear it.

Moderne Blanket got a few new rows. The rows are pretty long now, so they take awhile. I'm OK with picking this project up in between others, there's no hurry.

A package of yarn arrived all the way from Scotland. I've coveted this yarn, Jamieson and Smith Shetland Heritage, for quite awhile and finally broke down and ordered some. Jamieson and Smith worked with The Shetland Museum and other specialists to recreate the texture and colors of yarn found in historical garments in the museum. All this makes it very cool in my book and I've always admired the historical garments that stick to primary colors so this yarn was irresistible to me. Made a wee swatchlet, potentially for a hat.
 

Writing up the pattern for my Ticker Tape scarf is done. This was one of my New Year's goals, rah! For making the charts, I used MacStitch software which is a lot more versatile than Excel for charting. Now Ann Weaver is test knitting it for me, what an honor, I'm super psyched.

heartbreak and new curtains

This sweater broke my heart, it is so freakin beautiful but it is really too small for me to wear. I can squeeze into it but it will never be comfortable. And yes, I did swatch and block it.

 So what went wrong?

1. I think I should have gone up a size and worked with positive ease in the bust as the pattern suggested rather than going for 0” ease. I tend to knit things large though so perhaps I overcompensated.
   
2. The big difference is the yarn. I adore Miss Babs Northumbria DK, the color Vlads' Red is fabulous and I love the way BFL wears, but it is pretty firm. The yarn suggested for the pattern is silk and camel which is soft and grows a lot.
   
3. I typically knit sweaters in the round so it was hard for me to tell how it was fitting until the pieces were blocked and sewn together.
   

That said, the pattern, Leaving by Anne Hanson, is well written and the yarn is fabulous, I would use them both again. Do I have it in me to knit it again? Maybe, this was fairly tortuous due to the disappointment at the end and how much my wrists were bothering me as I worked on it. If I do, I will go up a needle size and pattern size and knit it in the round. Meanwhile, I hope I can find someone petite enough to wear this sweater who will appreciate it.

Made some new kitchen curtains this week. Bought some 100% linen in a natural color and stenciled it using Lotta Jansdottir ready made stencils.

Here is a detail of the new curtains and below are the old curtains. I loved the fabric of the old ones but they were getting faded. Turns out the Huz hated them all along because he thought they were "too crazy". He's much happier with the new ones which he thinks are happy and modern in an understated way.

Girl was experimenting with the stencils too and did these elephants and is quite proud with how they turned out. Maybe we'll turn it into a placemat?

Here is a shot of the Jansdottir book and the materials I used. The paint and brushes were purchased at Joanne's, I also used some temporary adhesive spray which really helped hold the stencils in place. This was quick, easy and cheap but I would love to try some fabric paint that doesn't look quite so much like it's sitting on top of the fabric. Perhaps I need silkscreen paints?

This little fatty was sitting right outside our kitchen windows. We have a squirrel feeder with a jar that we can see from the table and love to watch the food scuffles amongst the rodent-y locals. Sometimes they crawl into the jar and fall asleep in the sunshine.

thank you!

Thank you so much to everyone who purchased yarn. I was really pleased to see most of it sell, it's a relief to have the yarn out of my stash and for a good cause too, a win win. One kind person even paid me more than twice what I was asking because it was for a good cause, so touching. The remaining yarn I have posted on Ravelry where it will hopefully be purchased. It felt really good to package up all that yarn and mail it all over the country, even the UK. After shipping, the yarn brought in $170, which I have rounded up to $200 and donated to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund.

The sleeves for Leaving are moving along. I'm knitting them two at a time on circulars, which is a new experience since I usually knit in the round. No second sleeve syndrome or being stranded on sleeve island for me! I like knowing that they're both exactly the same and it's really not any harder to have two balls of yarn. The only way in which I screw up is occasionally forgetting to knit across the second one and just turning around and purling back on the first. This is easily remedied by sliding the first sleeve back on to the right needle and then the other sleeve becomes the first one. Can't say that I'm looking forward to seaming though, I much prefer sweaters in the round, it seems to me that is one of the geniuses of knitting that you can tackle the third dimension as you go in comparison with making garments out of fabric.