Flint Knits

You probably already know that Ashley is totally awesome, and superbly talented, right? But have you seen her fabulous patchwork scarves? Because they’re, well, fabulous.

She and I spent Sunday afternoon together, in matching Rowanspun sweaters, and did some serious burrito eating (Chipotle) and yarn shopping (Threadbear). And she gave me one of her brilliant new scarves. I might be in love.

Check out her post, because she took all the sweet photos, and both her camera and her prose are vastly superior to mine.

Threadbear has a great stock of Dream in Color worsted weight right now, and just happened to have the color I needed to finish my Elizabeth Zimmermann baby sweater. So I spent my Sunday night not preparing to teach on Monday, but watching two new classics of American Cinema (Slingblade and Ghostbusters II), and finishing up the sweater.

pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann, baby sweater on two needles, from The Knitter’s Almanac

yarn: Dream in Color worsted, in Cool Fire
needles: US7 Addi Turbos

Then I cranked out a pair of two-hour booties. I don’t much like the look of worsted weight booties, but jeez, they’re fast.

pattern: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, from Lion Brand.
[PDF from Dreamweaver Yarns]

Both the sweater and the booties are for my wee, adorable niece Claire who, as a twenty-first century baby, has her own blog.

They’re shown here on a table (actually one of a set of 5 TV trays) that my late grandmother Pamela Wynne (yep, I’m her namesake) made 30 years ago.

She was a photographer in the UK during WWII, and was one of the most talented artists I’ve ever known. She did everything — painting, sewing, knitting, sculpture, ceramics, home renovation, furniture building, dollmaking — and she did it well.

She was always game for any new thing (this led to some unfortunate periods in the 1980s that included plastic canvas needlepoint and puffy paint art), and she taught my mother and me everything we know about crafting.

This sweater is totally my grandma’s style — exactly the kind of thing she would have made, were she still around, for her great-grandaughter (though she would have used pale pink yarn and much frillier buttons, and probably added some matching satin ribbon).

Thanks for teaching me how to make stuff, Grandma. My life is much better for it.

Wow, you guys are cluing me in so much fabulous craftiness that I missed while away — keep it up! I’ll post a list of my favorites after the contest is over on Sunday night.

And see if you can sneak in before the end of Nova’s Blogiversary contest — she needs pattern ideas for her 550 yards of Wollmeise Poison Nr 5.

I’ve added another single sock to my pile, along with Tiffany and Zokni — I finally found a use for the Koigu from my Dead Baudelaire:

Child’s First Sock in Shell Pattern
Nancy Bush, Knitting Vintage Socks

I did 6 repeats instead of 7, because I was short on yarn. I used an eye of partridge heel, because I felt like it. The shell pattern is easy to memorize, and perfect for road-knitting.

Less appropriate for road-knitting is Sandi Wiseheart’s Summer Lace Shawlette, which I’m making for a friend to wear in her September wedding. I may have to break down and buy a longer needle to finish this one out.

The yarn is Henry’s Attic undyed silk/merino blend, and is lovely to work with … except I’m a massive klutz, and am thus totally paranoid that I’m going to muck it up with sticky fingers or grape juice or something. I took it on tour, but was too afraid to bring it out of its freezer bag. So I’m plugging away at it now, on account of the upcoming deadline, but am already getting distracted by Fall sweater lust.

And remember my stunted Elizabeth Zimmerman baby jacket? The one where I couldn’t find the second skein of yarn, and which was almost certainly going to get frogged or become some sort of bizarre Baby Bolero?

I finally decided to just buy another skein of the yarn, alternate rows between the two skeins, and hope the lots weren’t too different (yes, I know, this is no minor risk when it comes to hand dyed yarns).

But then I had a minor crisis regarding the colorway — I had lost the ball band. Was it Lipstick Lava? In Vino Veritas? Cool Fire? Ruby Road?

So I sent an email to Dream in Color, and within the hour they sent a response — Veronica had looked at the photos of my half-finished sweater, and informed me that I was without a doubt using Cool Fire.

Oh, and if you haven’t knit with Dream in Color, you should. Their Smooshy sock yarn is heaven to knit with, totally squeezable and beautifully dyed.

My collection of Dream in Color “Smooshy” sock yarn:
Happy Forest, Chinatown Apple, and Blue Lagoon.

Yep. I was sure I had a second skein of this lovely Dream in Color yarn, but it’s nowhere to be found. Sadly, I also can’t find the label to this one, so I’m not even sure what colorway it is. “Lipstick Lava” maybe?

Anyway, I’m going to sit on it for a while before I frog, because it’s so damn pretty and squishy.

In lieu of real knitting content (as I curse the yarn gods, as well as my own shortsightedness), please enjoy last night’s dinner:

Throw a few handfuls of arugula in a food processor or blender with garlic, basil, and a bit of hard cheese. Blend it up. Drizzle in some olive oil as you keep processing. Stir in salt and pepper.

Cook some penne in lots of boiling salted water. Throw in some chopped green beans (same size as the noodles) for the last 3 minutes of cooking time. Put it all together with some fresh chopped tomatoes on top.

Those of you in the US, enjoy your day off! I’ll be spending mine at Flint’s 2nd annual Lumberjack Fest. I missed the flapjack breakfast, but am hoping to arrive in time for the live music and feats of strength (log rolling, log splitting, log tossing). It’s really just a bunch of my friends having a cookout with a theme, but it’s tons of fun.

My sister is due in less than 2 weeks with our family’s first baby, so we’re all tremendously excited. Our super-talented mom has been registering her excitement by knitting up a disturbing storm of easter-egg-colored synthetic fluff. What to do?

Ah, what better antidote to the frilly pastels of the infantwear mafia than the classic clean lines of Elizabeth Zimmerman? I figured I could count on Adrian to bring some crayon-bright cheeriness to the party, and she didn’t disappoint.

Thank you to Julia, who encouraged me to do the i-cord bind-off and add applied i-cord around the neck. And how could I not, after seeing how beautifully hers turned out?

And much love to Ange for lending advice and putting up with my frantic indecision as I picked up one contrast yarn after another at Imagiknit. And a good thing we settled on one, since I’m not sure 2 skeins of Fat Sock would have quite done the job. And Louet Gems is always a joy. I’d intended to do more stripes, but the variegated was so pleasing (really? variegated? pleasing? who AM I?) that I couldn’t bear to break it up any further.

I used the Addi Lace needles because I was dying to try them out, and they were perfect for picking up stitches and doing all the paired M1 increases. I don’t know nothin’ about dressing no babies, but I’m hoping this will fit the little creature come fall/winter time.