Knitting

Oakdale Poncho and Stormcrow Hat

Posted on by Virginia

With winter right around the corner, we took advantage of a nice autumn walk in one of our favorite parks to showcase two new patterns. The first is Oakdale Poncho, an easy-to-knit piece that is perfect for wearing on those in-between days, indoors or out.

Oakdale Poncho

Knit with Malabrigo’s Dos Tierras yarn, a blend of wool and alpaca, gives the fabric a lovely drape.

Oakdale Poncho

The second pattern is a smart hat that is also a quick and easy knit, making it a perfect project for gift giving (especially for some of those hard-to-buy-for men).

Stormcrow Hat

Stormcrow is knit with Blue Sky Fiber’s Woolstok, a 100% wool yarn that comes in a variety of easy-to-combine colors.

Stormcrow Hat

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Shoe Polish, Superwash and Strawberry-Rhubarb Goodness

Posted on by Dan

Shoe Polish Socks

Virginia has a new sock pattern available knit with Madelinetosh Twist Light. It’s an asymmetrical pattern that incorporates both cables and lace. Simple, but elegant.

Shoe Polish Socks

Pattern can be found on Ravelry.

Handspun Superwash Merino

And, my spinning has yielded about 230 yards of 3-ply (using the chain-ply method) yarn from 4.5 oz. of superwash merino. It’s a little thicker than what can reasonably fit through my CSM (another thing to be shared later), so this yarn might have to wait to become something else.

In the meantime… we enjoyed “harvesting” some fruit when organizing the freezer, yielding a super simple strawberry-rhubarb crisp. So simple, that a written recipe is hardly needed. Essentially pile the frozen strawberries and rhubarb into a big bowl, defrost for a bit. Add some honey (1/4 cup, more or less depending on desired sugar load), a sprinkling of flour (I use a gluten-free blend) and cinnamon. Spread that into a 9×13 pan, top with some ground-together pecans, oats, olive oil (just a drizzle) and molasses (another drizzle). Bake for 50 minutes at 375ºF (more or less until the bubbling is on the thicker side).

If you’re feeling a little more decadent, top with a little vanilla ice cream!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

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The saga of the linen towels

Posted on by Virginia

When Quince launched Sparrow it just came in natural and I fell in love. I ordered some, and when it came I thought about how beautiful linen towels would be, so I bought some more…

Then I realized how insane it would be to knit towels on such tiny needles, so I decided I would try to weave them. I had done some weaving in college and with the help of a refresher private lesson or two I thought I would be good to go. So I rented a floor loom for a couple of months. That first lesson revealed I would need to buy a lot more Sparrow, so much more due to the loom waste that it was just too excessive.

V weaving

So, I did what any fiber lover would do, I bought more linen, much, much finer and more suitable to weaving. And I wove a set of towels…

Linen Towels

Linen Towels

Linen Towels

But I still had my Sparrow..

I thought it would be cool to knit them after all, but approach it like a meditation, to knit just a couple rows a day, or about 20-30 minutes. I started on a Winter Solstice… I actually stuck with it through both bath towels and into the hand towel but somewhere about October I got distracted and lost my mojo, so the project marinated for over a year.

Linen Towels

I finally dug it out this winter and finished the hand towel and one wash cloth. All seed stitch, all on 3mm needles. This is by far the craziest project or pair of projects I have ever done, but I love both sets!

Linen Towels

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