And I think it's gonna be a long long time...

until I'll be able to wear this, at the snail's pace I'm knitting. But I'm just happy to knit, for ten minutes here and there. Can't wait for winter break!



The yarn I'm using is Valley Yarns Northampton. It's very similar to Cascade 220, but I think it's softer and cheaper. It's a bit fuzzy and the cables don't pop so much, which I was convinced I didn't want anyway (the photo makes it look more contrasty than it really is). I wanted them to be more subtle. But I keep thinking about it.

Squeezing in a few projects

I miss coming here, but school is keeping me busy and I was silly enough to enroll for summer as well, so there has been little time to craft. But I'm not quite ready to give up the blog, so it'll probably straggle along until I graduate. I managed to squeeze in some knitting a few months ago. There have been many lovely textured shawls on ravelry and the gorgeous skein of Malabrigo sock yarn I got for my birthday didn't want to be socks. It's more of a kerchief than a shawl, but that works; it's lightweight and soft and great for when it's just a bit chilly.




Pattern: textured shawl recipe by orlane, available here
Yarn: 1 skein of Malabrigo sock yarn in eggplant
Needles: US 5
Mods: The number of rows had to be adjusted due to the smaller gauge: I knit 4x 26 rows alternating stockinette and textured pattern, 22 rows of stockinette, 6 rows of textured, ending with 19 rows of garter st.

Right now I'm working on a sewn bag, all that's left is the zipper and the lining.

I should be cataloging

But I'd rather be blogging. So this will be just a quick post, and then it's back to homework.
What do you do with knits you don't have much use for? I admit to being rather reckless when it comes to things that have outlived their purpose or aren't quite right. They're either frogged, given to someone who will love them more than I do, or passed on to Goodwill. That is how this blanket came to be:

It once was this:

Was that a gasp I heard?
My Flicca was lovely, but except for the photoshoot and one other time I never wore it. It was just a bit too heavy and cumbersome and sat neatly folded in my sweater drawer for a good year or so. Between two humans and a cat, we had only one wool blanket in the house (so you can guess who got to use that blanket) and another was desperately needed. Frogging went rather quickly without any pangs of regret, and in about a month I had a big almost 6'x5' garter stitch blanket with a scalloped crochet border. I've used it a lot and feel so happy every time I do.
Lesson learned: People use yarn with acrylic for a reason: it's lighter than 100% wool. I'll remember that next time I feel like knitting a coat again.

Sanity Beret

I was afraid blogger wouldn't let me log in after not having posted for so long but it still works, yay! Where have I been? Alive and kicking but really busy. I started grad school last fall and took a full course load on top of working 40 hours a week. There was no time for anything not school related, no knitting, no blogging, no watching movies, no socializing. I got home from work and hit the books. I woke up on the weekends and started to study right after breakfast. It was hard but it was also fun and I kept surprising myself by pushing the boundaries of what I thought I can do further and further. There was however one point right after midterms where I needed to knit something so my mind could relax a little and my senses enjoy something other than a plastic keyboard. It needed to be quick and useful so I picked the cabled beret from Debbie Bliss new magazine and soft non-itchy wool. It took me just a day to finish it and it is perfect. I've been wearing it a lot since then, but during our annual Bodega Bay outing last weekend it was actually too hot (we've had crazy warm temps in California the last week) to wear.


It was a lovely day, not a cloud in the sky. The seals were having fun bodysurfing the waves, it was amazing to watch. I could stare at the waves rolling in all day long.

Pattern: Cabled Beret from Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine Fall/Winter 2008
Yarn: 2.5 skeins Louisa Harding Kashmir Aran, color 13
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm and US 8 / 5.0 mm
Mods: I knit this in the round instead of flat to avoid seaming (to keep the pattern correct I cast on two sts less).
I'm not sure I would use the yarn for a sweater (it was difficult to get the sts even though it may have been me), but it feels very soft without being itchy on my head. After wearing it now for a few months I think it was a great choice for the beret.