sneaking in f!

gah, have been in fort lauderdale all last week, for some reason my laptop was having problems connecting to tom's wireless server. i didn't feel like changing the ip address...
so here is f, late to the party ;-)





fern- alice sta*more pattern from stillwater, probably my favorite a.s. book. (every time i think of the book, the band manager's voice from almost famous plays in my head- stiiiillllwwaaaaatttteeeerrrrrrrr!)







vy hebredian yarn in machair,
cardiganized ala junieann. i love it :-)

















of course i forgot to bring st.ciaran with me. luckily i packed the koigu yarn for the sweater from handpaint country.

lookie what i got :-)

a lovely brown box :-)
full of the selkie needed to finish st.ciaran.
melinda had the most beautiful scarf on at madrona, the seaweed scarf in sea ivory. hmm, i have plenty of leftover 3ply sea ivory from knitting inishmore.
maybe ddil will get the seaweed scarf and a matching pair of mittens next christmas.

lazy day on the screen porch.

where was i?

oh yes, still waiting for more selkie, so i can finish st.ciaran...
in the meantime, i've been kanoodling around with a couple of st*rmore designs that have been calling to me for ages.


first we have grapevine (being inspired my mem's shetland dk version), using limpet in 2ply. the 2ply is giving a lovely lightweight fabric, and the back is measuring 21", perfect :-) now have to wait for more yarn to arrive in the mail, as i was only playing with leftovers.




next up, st.brigid. the 3ply selkie was originally meant for st.brigid, but the amendment for the small size from vy has a tighter gauge than the original sweater in aran knitting. living in florida, i don't need an even warmer sweater, so started playing around with some leftover 2ply in lapwing. this color is just spectacular.

since i'd rather have a cardigan than a pullover, here are my 2 options for the fronts: the one in lapwing has the 2 smaller cables and 2 braids, with the thought that the center cable will look like the main cable cut in half. the second one in sundew (ran out of lapwing) has the main cable flanked by 2 braids. i'm leaning towards the second, as i love the large cable, also the first option has the middle braid coming straight up the middle of my boob, not what i need to accentuate ;-)

all opinions will be greatly appreciated!

anonymous, madrona is the madrona fiber arts retreat. truly wonderful.

and a sky for sandy :-)

a tale of two swatches

ah hebredian 3 ply, how i love thee. i love your soft hand, i love your rich heathered colors.
but i didn't love my selkie for the crossed in translation sweater. bah, the colors in selkie were too much with the patterns of crossed and twisted stitches on every row. the pattern was just lost, i think this sweater would be better in a solid color yarn with more of a twist. so the stitches will pop. (sorry i didn't take a photo, i was too disgusted before i frogged).

next try, looking through all my books for a starmore that could be cardiganized like fern. hmm, irish moss from aran knitting is a good candidate, and it has cabling on only the right side rows ;-) started the back, but wait, the same problem. the glorious colors in the yarn are not being shown to their best advantage with all the tightly twisted stitches. (maybe i'm not being completely honest as the photo looks pretty good).



swatch again, this time plain stockinette. ah, lovely, the sumptuous colors are shining through!
last fall when i knit dunadd, i couldn't decide whether to knit it with selkie or lapwing. dd pointed out that lapwing would provide a nice contrast with our new couch and love seat, whereas selkie is almost exactly the same color. so lapwing is was.

but i still loved the selkie on the couch. aha! st.ciaran is the perfect answer :-) beautiful cable patterns, the perfect complement to selkie. now i am awaiting 3 more skeins....

E is for

epinephrine, without which i would be dead many times over.



most of my friends know that i developed an allergy to bees, wasps and ants a few years ago. it is a double bummer, as we have so many of the above insects in florida!
i carry an epipen with me, but at home, i was using so many of them for a while, and they are not cheap, that we got a vial from a doctor friend. now i can give myself injections wth a syringe, much more cost effective ;-)
thank god for epinephrine and benadryl, my friends for life :-)

snow anyone?

now that my mittens are done, i need some snow to play in!

thanks so much adrian, for the fun pattern, so well written and easy to knit :-)
i love my squirrel and oak mittens, they fit me perfectly.

the only changes i made were the braid cast-on, and the 2 colored yo braid from nancy bush's folk knitting in estonia. also, i used one size smaller needle for the cuffs.

rowan yorkshire tweed dk in goose and rowan scottish tweed in peat both from two swans yarn.

what next? christine's fern in selkie is so lovely, hmm, i do have a mess o' selkie in the stash. searching through all my books late last night. st.brigid was the intended sweater, but i need another heavy pullover like i need a pair of mittens ;-)
here swatchie swatchie swatchie.

p.s. thanks to all who left a compliment on my olympic sweater :-) there were a couple of people i couldn't link to to send a thanks. and anne, the bronte scarf pattern can be found in rowan's a yorkshire fable book.