Knitting

Baktus

Posted on by Dan

With 31 days in the hospital you’d think I’d be able to get some scratchcrafty projects started and/or finished. Alas, being under the weather for most of the time, I did not do much. Virginia, on the other hand, had lots of time to knit while she hung out at my bedside. Among the four or five pairs of socks finished, she started and finished this nifty shawl.

Baktus

The pattern is Baktus, a free pattern by Strikkelise.

Baktus

It is knit with a combination of Koigu and Cherry Tree Hill fingering yarn.

Baktus

The socks are viewable by clicking on the Flickr link on the sidebar. I think she worked on some other projects, but I have hard time remembering what all was going on for the two weeks or so that I was feeling the worst. So, there might be some other project posts in the next little while. And, I have to say, it feels good to be able to post something other than life in the hospital, cancer treatments, and such.

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Comfrey

Posted on by Dan

Comfrey

Virginia, with the month or so remaining of winter (optimistically speaking), finished another cardigan. This is Comfrey from Rowan’s Purelife – The Organic Wool Collection. She knit this using a yarn from Thirteen Mile Lamb and Wool — a fantastic small farm in Montana that raises sheep (to quote from their Web site), “without using chemical fertilizers and herbicides on our fields, and the sheep grow on grass, clover and alfalfa with no antibiotics or hormone supplements. The livestock are fenced out of the creeks to protect both local wildlife habitat and the quality of the sheeps’ drinking water. Our principal protection against native predators are our guard dogs and llamas and our own vigilance; because we have chosen not to use lethal control methods against coyotes, bears, wolves, mountain lions, our ranch is certified as “predator friendly”. It is a choice which, like many of our land management decisions, acknowledges risk in the interest of learning how to coexist with native species while caring for the land.”

Comfrey

Not only that, but they also use both naturally colored wool and natural dyes for their yarns. Their color palette is quite something. I think Virginia had a tough time picking between the colors that they have. But, this is, in my opinion, a very suitable choice for this sweater.

Comfrey

I think she agrees, too.

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Springtime Bunnies and Socks

Posted on by Dan

Inspired by the foraging bunnies in our back yard, a sign that Spring is on its way, I decided to show my support for warmer weather by making some little effigies.

Springtime Bunny

Of course, there’s never just one bunny in the yard. So, true to nature, I started putting together a whole warren.

Springtime Bunnies

Although, I have a feeling I did something to anger the weather gods, because I just finished shoveling 8 inches of snow off our sidewalks and driveway this evening. So, looks like we’ll be waiting a little while longer for Spring.

In knitting news, Virginia finished making a pair of socks from the new “Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn” book by Interweave. Our friend Barb (owner of Wild Geese Fibres) designed this particular pattern in the book, and this pair was knit with Koigu.

Sock #36 (52 Sock Challenge)

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On the Mend

Posted on by Dan

I haven’t been forthcoming with much detail on my hip problem (not exactly scratchcrafty news), but since I’ve mentioned it, I feel like I should at least say things are, as far as I can tell, clearing up. (It’s hard not to be a little skeptical at the process of elimination that is often used by the health care industry in trying to determine a diagnosis, but that’s a discussion for another day–or not.)

At any rate, I must have been channeling some healing vibes (or maybe it’s the thought of approaching springtime), because I made a few more happy-go-lucky felted friends. I think it’s important to be reminded every once in awhile that we should not be taking life too seriously. Having a couple of these guys in strategic places around the house provide a subtle reminder of that.

Felted Swinging Bears

Now that I’m back at work, my spinning production will decrease a bit. I did manage to finish another 4 oz. of sock yarn. This 3-ply yarn (yielding about 300 yards) was spun from some superwash colonial wool that we dyed last summer. It’s always satisfying pulling out and using stash that’s been sitting around for awhile.

Handspun - Superwash Colonial

And, Virginia is back at making socks. She finished this pair a week or so ago. It’s her own pattern, knit using KnitPicks Essential.

Sock #35 (52 Sock Challenge)

Log Cabin Blanket

Posted on by Dan

Several years ago I thought it would be fun to give Virginia the gift of the Palette Sampler. I can’t remember how many balls of yarn they included in the sampler, but I think it was one of each of their colors. It just so happened that one of her friends decided that this would be a fun gift, too. Suffice it to say, she had to do some major rearranging to accommodate this sudden (and large) influx of yarn.

Some of you may remember the Fair Isle sweater she created with some of the yarn.  As exciting as it was to design and knit a sweater like that, she could have knit another 20 sweaters just like it, and still have some of that yarn left over. No doing.

Thus was born the Log Cabin Blanket, a garter stitch extravaganza using the fingering-weight yarn doubled.

Log Cabin

Two years in the making, this blanket has seen a lot of television. I believe it made it through PBS’s entire Jane Austen series last winter, not to mention a collection of several complete seasons of shows like, Flight of the Conchords, Jeeves and Wooster… now that I think about  it, the blanket may have actually witnessed Mr. Darcy’s penetrating looks several times over the course of its creation.

Log Cabin

The final push came this weekend. The last row had been picked up (all 250 stitches of it) and all that was required to move it from its basket to the bed was several hours of heavy knitting (and some crochet around the edges).

It’s done. And, now that KnitPicks has refined their color palette to more heathery and somewhat more sophisticated colors, Virginia has (not surprisingly) opened herself up to the possibility of trying something like this, again. Until then, it’s nice to have some space back, and a significant chunk taken out of her stash.

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