Making Valentines – FOR ME

Today is Valentines Day and I am on my own. My husband is in Wisconsin visiting his mother. It is -11 degrees. Good.

So I had a lot of time for knitting this last weekend and I finished a couple of projects. First, I completed Fickle Knitter’s “Flambe” shawl using one skein of Sincere Sheep‘s “Keen.” This was just a blast to knit. I love knitting triangles, and this one had a great rhythm to the pattern, which was easily memorized. I have also never done a lace pattern that has “stripes.” Pretty cool. And I finished it just in time for the Michelle Miller’s, the designer, visit to our store on Feb 22. I will wear it proudly!

The other thing I loved about knitting this was the yarn. I bought a skein of Keen at the Interweave Knitting Lab show held in San Mateo last year. Brooke Sinnes, the owner and dyer behind the business, only uses natural dyes, and she warned me this yarn, dyed with indigo, would leave my hands blue. It did, but nothing got on my clothes or anything else, and I would just wash my hands after knitting and it would be gone. It was a skein of blue-faced Leicester– my first (that I know of) made from this breed – and it was a tightly wound fingering weight yarn. I don’t know if I have the words to accurately describe how much I loved working with this yarn or why. I just loved the way it felt going through my fingers, I loved the stitch definition. I just couldn’t put it down and I WANT MORE. Brooke and Sincere Sheep will be at Stitches West and you better believe I’ll be there with $$$ in hand.

Flambe

All right, let’s see. The other thing I worked on was a hat made from a single skein of Madeline Tosh “Vintage” in “Mansfield’s Garden Party.” I bought this skein at Balls and Skeins in Sebastopol as Terry and I were on our way to the Sea Ranch last month. I am not usually a fan of yarn this variegated, but there was something about this one. It looked like a bouquet of  spring flowers right here in the middle of winter (or what passes for winter in Northern California). Anyway, not much you can do with one skein besides a hat, so I searched Ravelry and found this pretty nice FREE pattern for a slouchy beret. I wanted something that I could knit while reading, so I was looking for something pretty simple – just knit and purl. And I’m happy to say I read through half my stack of New York Times while making this. When I finished, I felt the colors of the yarn needed something – a little punctuation to draw the eye and make certain shades stand out. So I dug through my button box (a pretty big box) and found this great reproduction of a vintage button I bought years ago – I think at Stitches – made by “Wave of the Wand.” I have attached it for a safety pin for now so I can move it around, change it, etc. I love it!

Slouchy hat

And then there’s the two babies my editor at Religion News Service and his partner are expecting. I already designated this Elizabeth Zimmerman “Baby Surprise” sweater I had stashed away for them, and I have another baby sweater made from a vintage pattern not he needles. But I have always wanted to try my hand at Saartje’s Booties, a very popular Ravelry pattern. And viola! Made

EZ's Baby Surprise

with Crystal Palace “Bunny Hop” on size 2 needles. The buttons are two vintage mother-of-pearl ones dug out of – you know where.

Saartje's Booties

That’s it. That was my weekend. That and a trip to see “The Artist” (fab!) and two hours absorbed by Downton Abbey. What am I going to when that concludes next week? More knitting, I am sure.