Wings Cowl

What a labor of love! But I adore this Wing Cowl.

The question remains about whether to block it - is is super-cozy as is and think that I will give it a trial run this winter without blocking. I adore the colors; far out of my comfort zone.

Handmade Holidays

The first handmade gift of the holiday season is for myself - a new double-pointed knitting needle roll.  Using fabrics from our trip to Japan last February I put this sweet little roll together in about an hour.  It replaces my much larger needle case crafted in 2008.  That one was made to accommodate 10 to 14-inch straight needles.  In the years since I made that case I have gravitated towards using circular needles and my little double points kept falling out of the over sized roll. 

I am just in love with this little case - it is perfectly sized and the fabrics make me so happy.

This next gift is a whimsical tree ornament from the Posie Gets Cozy collection that I have been working through.  When I was working the most recent set of three ornaments I made a rookie mistake by crafting two identical trees when I should have made mirror images!  I even make this mistake TWICE - on the snowflake ornament too - just goes to show that crafting and mothering at the same time don't always work out the way that you expect.  Yikes.  At first I was disappointed/frustrated by my silly error, but quickly realized that with a little more effort I could turn it into a second ornament.  This second tree will go to my Mother-in-Law for Christmas.

The kit was actually sold out for this set of ornaments so I purchased the pattern and then ordered felt and matching floss from Prairie Woolens.    

This cowl, completed a couple months ago, will head to my Sister-in-Law.

This next needle case will go to my niece who has recently learned to knit.  I purchased sets of aluminum straight needles (which she seems to prefer) from Ebay and crafted the case to fit them.  Paired with some skeins of yarn it will make a great starter knitting kit for her.  And since I am partial to them, I put in a couple circular needles and double-points to round out the collection for her too.

Speaking of knitting, we have THREE new knitters under our roof!  This past month I taught my three older daughters to knit and they just took off.  The scarves they are creating are incredible and they couldn't be more excited to watch their own progress.  Abby (below) is wearing the first thing she ever knit - a red scarf for her favorite 5th grade teacher.  We had to google 'average length for a men's scarf' which came back about about 6 feet.  Abby decided to cut this one off at 5 feet.

My eight year old is part of a Girl Scout Troop that is focused heavily on the arts.  This past month they went to a local pottery studio that also carries a great selection of beads.  She was so into it!  In that short afternoon she made earrings for her older sisters.

The following week she and I took a separate trip to a local beading store and made more earrings for older sisters and a necklace for her younger sister.

I am so excited the crafting and creating is becoming a part of what we can do together as a family and that they are all excited to make things for others.  While I didn't 'make' as much this year as I have in years past I am finding so much joy in seeing my girls make for others.

FO's: Birthday knitting

colorway: peach melba

A couple months ago I agreed to help a friend teach 18 7-year-olds how to knit at a birthday party.  I am not sure how successful we were, but many of the girls seemed really happy with their introduction to knitting - my daughters included.

As a thank you my friend gifted me a very generous gift certificate to the store that hosted the party, a local yarn/fabric shop Stitcher's Crossing.  My girls, excited by their brief introduction to knitting, eagerly picked out a couple skeins of yarn for themselves.

And then the skeins sat.

I am not one to push knitting on my kids - it wouldn't end happily for any of us - but the lovely skeins they picked out (they have very good taste in yarn) were eating away at me.

As it turns out, their own birthday is coming up in a few short days and I convinced them each to let me knit up a quick project with their special yarn.  We talked it over and daughter #1 wanted a cowl and daughter #2 asked for a hat.  Easy peasy. 

colorway: royal

And, as I promised them, there is half a skein left to practice their knits and purls if they so choose.  Now if that yarn sits for another month I may try to convince them that they each need both a hat and cowl...they are such easy and gratifying projects I'd love to knit those up for them too.

The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Maxima - the cowl is 75 sts in the round with single purl rows at 5 rows in from each end, and the hat is the Vanilla Twist Hat, substituting cables for a rib edging.

FO: Circle scarf vs. cowl

I came home from a meeting the other week wearing my most beloved FO in recent memory.  My husband said, "Oh!  You have a circle scarf!"  My reply?  "No, I knit my own cowl."  As the husband of an avid knitter, I would have expected him to incorporate the word cowl into his vocabulary.  Much the way that I throw around words like router or end grain.

So I ask you - it is really called a circle scarf?  Or is that what men call them, while us gals refer to them as cowls?  Or am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?

Either way, it is lovely.  The perfect color (it goes with red, brown, turquoise, black, gray...) and the perfect size.  I bound off at a narrower width then I first expected, but I am so happy with the sizing - and now I have extra yarn to keep for another future project.  Finished measurements are approximately 24 inches in diameter, and 7 inches wide.  The pattern can be found for free here.

Handspun

First Harvest: Backyard, Colorway: Sugar Maple

 

Lovely fabric.  And that color!  Check out the story behind this yarn here.

 

I'm working it into the honey cowl, medium size.  Should be just long enough to wrap twice around my neck, and cozy enough to keep me warm this winter.

Oh fall...

Burberry cowl in organic cotton (colorway: almond)

I love you fall.

I love the way to make me feel about knitting.

I love the way you make my husband obsess about face cords.

I love the additional layers I get to wear.

I love the smell of slow-roasted food.

I love your gentle rains and wet leaves, even though they get tracked all the way through the house on tiny feet.

I love that you recall the birth of my middle daughter.

I love how you shed your layer of green in favor of more becoming colors.

I love the way you bring forth my instinct to prepare. And while the necessity of preparing for the barren months ahead has long-been dispensed with (thanks modernization), I love that you kindle the vestiges of this need deep within me.

I love the way you remind me that things change - life is dynamic - and that honoring the cycles in all parts of life is important.

Not-so-Noro hat at the WI River (rav link)



Baby shrug for friends' newborn daughter (rav link)



WIP: one sock done, one to go.  Pomatomus by Cookie A.