My grandmother, the knitting matriarch of the family, turned 95 today.  The family gathered to celebrate with cake and ice cream and champagne.

My mom made a delicious banana cake garnished with chocolate coated strawberries.  It was quite an elegant dessert party.

I brought my newest finished project to show and tell after dessert.  My handspun blue/green/purple yarn has now become a hat.  It’s a one-of-a-kind toque that will warm the head of a friend of mine this winter.

It is soft, stretchy and long enough to keep ears toasty warm.  I am very pleased with how the blue-green and blue-purple colourways have blended together to form waves and strata of colours.  Cables are almost lost in the stripes…but I needed the cables to keep me interested, and to add elasticity.

This hat has many hours of love and care spun into the yarn, and knit into the stitches.  I hope it brings much warmth and comfort to the wearer all winter long.

This is the music of my teenaged years.

This song, Beati Quorum Via by Charles Villiers Stanford is one that immediately brings me back to being a member of the Cantabile Youth Choir on tour in England.  I close my eyes and can still imagine all faces and all the places that meant so much to me.  This was the music that we’d spontaneously sing on the bus across the British countryside, and inside some of the most glorious cathedrals along our way.

Yorkminster Cathedral

Memories have flooded back today, for many reasons, but some of the happier memories returned thanks to this song.  For yet again, in July, we’re embarking on a tour of England and Scotland with Cantabile (the adult choirs this time), and I find myself once more lucky enough to sing evensong at Yorkminster Cathedral.

Today was spent remembering, and singing, while on our choir retreat at Rideau Acres.  We learned lots of  music for the upcoming season and tour….here’s my new favourite Requiem by Eliza Gilkyson arranged by Craig Hella Johnson.  It’s simple, but carries so much emotion in both words and harmonies.

During our breaks we walked around and got to enjoy the changing colours, and get chased by a few geese.

I was able to knit a few rows on my hat too.  Little by little progress is being made.

What music brings back memories for you?

Isn’t fall wonderful when the sun shines?

Turning leaves….

….interesting fungus both big…

…and small…

Gourds….

….bushels of apples….

….pumpkins….

….cloud filled skies with the sun streaming through.

I’ve been inspired to start knitting a hat.

It’s a top down beanie, and the pattern is inventing itself as I go.  I’m loving how the nightgreens/nightviolets handspun yarn that I finished a while ago looks when it is knit up.

There’s nothing like eating watermelon with feet dangling off the dock, toes dipping in the water, listening to the loons call from a distant corner of the lake.

I’ve taken a few days away from the computer to sit in the woods, by the water, and enjoy the company of family.

My knitting came with me.  I picked up a ball of brown Life DK from Wool-Tyme.  This yarn is such a joy to work with. It feels like wool, it has a nice shine and softness to it, the brown colour has glints of green, blue, pink, orange in it–it will coordinate with many outfits, and it is completely machine washable–something VERY important for baby clothes. It is the same brand of yarn that I made the Eilidh sweater from.

I’m working on a little sweater for a friend who has just had a baby girl.  Making up the pattern as you go is such fun, but you have to be sure to either keep notes, or finish it fast so you remember what you did in previous rows.  I’m trying the “finish it fast” approach.  The ends got sewn by Monday morning!

front view

back view

I really like how the neck turned out, the cables continue from the front and back, framing the neck, and meeting up along the shoulder.  I think I might incorporate these ideas into other projects.  What is best (in my opinion) is that I did not have to sew ANYTHING!  There are no stitches picked up either!

front of neck

The body is knit from the bottom up, in the round.  The front and back are knit flat, but the shoulders are joined by a three needle bind off.  I like the look of the neck as it is, so I will not add any ribbed border.  The sleeve openings are also nicely defined by the seed stitch.

back of neck

I look forward to seeing this sweater in action.  I hope it could be a dress this fall, and a sweater next year.

]]> http://www.swatchless.com/2010/07/cottage-knitting/feed/ 5 http://www.swatchless.com/2010/07/a-hat-of-a-different-colour/ http://www.swatchless.com/2010/07/a-hat-of-a-different-colour/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:27:58 +0000 swatchless http://www.swatchless.com/?p=1809

I sent out a request for test knitters for the hat pattern I wrote up earlier in the week, but I think everyone was feeling a little opposed to knitting winter hats while it’s so hot!

It’s a challenge to proof-read a pattern without going through the steps all over again, so….voilà…another hat!  This time it is made with Lion Brand Cotton Ease, a lovely soft blend of cotton and acrylic.  It is light weight and has more drape than the wool version.  It’s machine washable too!

The pattern will be available as soon as I can get a few good photos of it in action.

I knit a wool hat today.

It is close to 35 C with the humidity.  It’s the kind of heat that makes you want to go outside and lay on the grass under a sprinkler…if only we could have sprinklers.

This is the kind of heat that conjures up memories of being in a phone booth at noon in Kyoto in August.  It’s a sticky muggy heat when sweat seems to trickle at even the thought of moving.

And I knit a hat……I must be going crazy.

Now, to find someone crazy enough to model it….

Note:  The pattern will be coming soon, in case someone in the southern hemisphere feels like wearing wool.

Yesterday I met with Eilidh and her mom to take some pictures in the park to illustrate the “Eilidh” cabled vest pattern.  It was a lovely day, sunny and warm.  We found a spot in the shade, and got the wee one all dressed up, and sitting up.  Now, sitting up is new for her, and maybe she rolled a bit too far forward, squishing her stomach….or maybe she’d just been fed….but before any pictures could even be taken, she spit up down the front of the vest.

Thank goodness mommies always carry a bag full of wipey things.  We cleaned her up (you’d never know the vest was dirty in that picture!)….but she was really not into the whole modeling thing.  There were lots of pictures that look like this one!

Cuddles with mommy made it all better.

Funny thing is, when you take pictures of grown ups, you never have to worry about if they will spit up, or spontaneously cry when you get out the camera!  Thanks for being such a good sport Eilidh, and thanks to her mommy for letting her be a model!

What’s your craziest photo taking situation?

Download the .pdf for $5.00 CAD

Eilidh (Ay’-lee) is a Gaelic name that means LIGHT.

When my friend told me that she was choosing a Gaelic name for her little girl, I knew I needed to knit her something with lots of cables.

This celtic cabled vest will look charming on any little one, and could even be worn, over tights, as a dress by a very young girl.  Knit almost entirely in the round in double knitting weight yarn, this vest is quick to finish.  The cables are predictable, which is great for beginners, but each row is different enough to keep the expert entertained.

Here's Eilidh, who is just learning how to sit up!

The pattern is explained in row by row instructions, and also in chart form.

Download the .pdf pattern for $5.00 CAD

Thanks to Eilidh and her mom who met me in the park today for the pattern photo shoot, and thanks to Jean for test knitting this pattern and providing excellent feedback.

If you like this pattern, check out my others!

It was a very productive weekend.  Not only did I sing in a choir concert, but somehow time was also dedicated to this little sweater which is now just about completed!  It needs a few ends sewn in, and a good blocking, and it will be good to go.  I love the yarn Life DK; it feels like wool, but is a machine washable blend of 75% acrylic and 25% wool. In case you are wondering, this colour was 2346 “Mixtures Blue Haze”

This little sweater vest will fit a 2-3 year old, but in the mean time, it is long enough to be a sweater dress for a 6-9 month old.  I polled several mothers who agreed with my measurements and my logic.  Can’t you imagine a darling baby girl wearing this over tights?

I might just have to get another colour and test knit my pattern!  The entire sweater vest took less than 100g of yarn, and the pattern is only 90 rows, but each row is different from the last.

The pattern will be available later this spring.  If any patient knitter with an eye for detail would like to test knit the pattern, please contact me!

I recently remembered something….

I love cable knitting!!  20 rows into this little sweater and I’m totally hooked.  Maybe it is the fact that each row is different so I will never get bored of it.  Maybe it is because I can work in convenient 4 row chunks between doing all the other things that need to get done.  Maybe it is because it has been a LONG time since I did a lot of cable knitting.

Have you knit cables before?

Don’t be intimidated….they look very intense, but step by step, row by row, they are pretty easy to figure out.

I remember my very first cable knitting project.  Back in the early 90s boxy fishermen’s sweaters were pretty cool (in my middle-school mind anyway).  I was excited when my mom took me to Lewiscraft to buy more 50g balls of cream coloured acrylic yarn than I could hold in my arms.  Back then I was naive–I didn’t really know that there was anything but acrylic yarn.  This isn’t entirely my fault though since the ’80s thought acrylic was awesome!

My first cable sweater was knit in pieces then [badly] sewn together–these days I avoid sewing thing at all cost!  My first cable sweater took a lot of patience to get set up properly because I didn’t really understand  how the cables work.  I was counting stitches, and counting rows and checking things off step by step on the pattern. I remember being fascinated by how the cables worked, but frustrated because if I made a mistake I’d have to rip WAY back to fix it.

The second cable sweater (knit one year later) was more exciting to make because I knew what I was getting into.  I chose my pattern more carefully and could make more sense of the charts and instructions.  I remember knitting it during math class once my homework was done (yes…I was THAT kid!)

Since those two adventures in cables I’ve dabbled in cable socks, some were tame, others not so tame!  These socks are Rhiannon by Cookie A that I knit for a guy who wears kilts from time to time.

I am now enjoying the freedom of creating my own cable patterns.  The stress of pattern reading has been eliminated.  I simply have to remember what I want it to look like, and count rows in groups of 4.  (I hope I haven’t just jinxed myself!)

If you are interested in starting into the adventure of cable knitting, here’s an easy and quirky beginner cable project: the DNA scarf.

Image source (http://www.twosheep.com/helix/)

Make one for the geek in your life!

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