New yarn. New ideas. So little time.

First off, New yarn.
I am absolutely in love with the Shifting Sands Scarf that jared, from brooklyntweed, finished off recently and I wanted to try my hand at it. So I picked up some Malabrigo (I just loved the way his Frank Ochre had subtle color variations, so I had to use Malabrigo).

I was originally going to do the scarf in Apple Green. Fortunately, not only did my lys not have it, but thinking back on it that green may have been a little too bright to go with anything I might wear it with hah!

I decided a nice burgundy would work well, but I forgot that I needed two skeins of it to get a decent length scarf. Another brilliant move by me.

As for new ideas, I plan to knit up the Hemlock Ring Blanket (also inspired by jared) as a gift and maybe another for me! I've already ordered the Cascade Ecological Wool (also in "Latte"), I'm just itching to start it!

I also am in love with his Swisher sweater too. I want to get Knitting From the Top by Barbara Walker so that I can make this! I plan to do it in Cascade 220 - Yakima Heather (9459) and Walnut Heather (8013). I was thinking about doing it closer to jareds and choose a more copper-y color instead of the Walnut Heather. I really like naturals so I think the Walnut Heather is best. Then there's the Aran sweater I'm attempting to write a pattern for, not going to well. As well as many other sweaters I'd loove to knit.

I am also attempting to write a pattern for a knitted messenger bag that I would use exclusively for transporting my knitting. I was thinking of doing a manly fabric pattern, such as a houndstooth, done in fair isle using two different shades of natural wool. The line it with suit-grade fabric to keep everything from falling through the knitting. I'm hoping it will work out, any suggestions would be appreciated!

Ugh, so many projects in the planning stages! I'm itching to do some actual knitting.

Keep on knitting!

Field Guide to Knitting

In my re-kindled love of knitting, I decided that I needed a book on knitting. Nothing much, just something to spark some inspiration. It was off to Barnes & Noble.

Once I got to B&N, I headed straight for the craft section and found the knitting books all laid out in their knitty glory. There were so. many. to. choose. from. If I had the cash, I would have bought them all, no joke. Alas, I did not. There were some only on socks, there were some only on sweaters, there were some only on chunky wool for pete's sake! I was like a fat kid in a candy store! (no offense meant, I was once a fat kid!)

I decided I wanted a book on stitch patterns, full patterns. I looked at the Stitchionaries, but they were a) too expensive and b) a little dis-organized for my taste. I looked at a couple others, but their photography and yarn choice turned me off even more (neon pinks, olive greens, and mustard-y oranges all on the same page!). No, those wouldn't do at all.




Then I found the Field Guide to Knitting. It's not a bad book, granted the name sounds slightly ostentatious - entire title being Field Guide to Knitting: How to Identify, Select, and Work Virtually Every Stitch. It's probably not the best book on stitch patterns they had to offer, but the price was right ($15.95) and each section's pictures were knit in monochromatic wool (Knit and Purl Stitches were in shades of red, Cables were in gold/brown, Openwork and Lace were in blue/purple, etc.), and it has a LOT of stitch patterns - it says 200+ and I believe it.

I'm really enjoying thumbing through it and thinking where I could use the patterns. I already have a few projects in mind.

If you're looking for a good book on stitch patterns, this is your way to go. It's not as specialized as books like Knitting on the Edge, but it has a good selection to get you started.

Keep on Knitting!


Edited to Add: I've just come up with a sinister idea to attept to knit up a 5x5 in. swatch and post my results and opinions on the pattern. This may fail to come to fruition, but it's an idea I may decide to run with.

I'm back

Wellll, I sure have taken quite a long break, haven't I?

I haven't even signed onto this blog since late January, and for that I apologize. I've had some stuff going on... mostly life - school, love life, working, etc.

I have... knitting "swings"... for lack of a better term. Yes, they are like mood swings. I will be completely absorbed in my knitting for about four months, and then out of no where I don't want to do it anymore. I can't explain it, but now my knitting swings are in favor of knitting.

I've been doing more getting back into my love of knitting more than actual knitting. In doing so, I've come to appreciate wool. Before I was fine using acrylic or wool/acrylic blend. Somehow, I made my way onto flickr and was looking through a lot of knitting pictures and decided that not only is wool natural and really nice to feel and wear, but it's also reeally nice to look at. The texture of the yarn is just amazing! I'm sure most of you already know that by now, though.

Unfortunately right now isn't a good time for me to be splurging on really nice wool, so I'll have to stick with the wool/acrylic blends (my favorite and easiest to purchase is Wool Ease by Lion Brand). However, that may change as I've just done some research and found a couple of LYSs that I might have to check for some decently priced wool.

Recently, I've been on a sock binge. Not a serious one, just something to pass the time. SSS has struck on both "pair" that I've knitted, but it doesn't bother me. I wasn't expecting to actually finish a pair anyway.

In my traversing of flickr pics, I happened upon Jared's blog BrooklynTweed. If you haven't been there. O.M.G. this guy is amazing. Not to mention he's a guy! We need more guy knitters out there! There is so much I love about his work. The natural color schemes for one, are exactly what I like. His photography just makes the work jump out at you and make you need to knit it.

Take, for instance, his Hemlock Ring Blanket. As a guy, I'm not big on lace, but this pattern (that he created/adapted (from a doily, no less!)) looks like a great blanket to have around, and also a great gift idea. This is definitely something I would be willing to put forth a big of cash for some nice wool.

He does a lot of sweaters, hats, and scarves which are basically my favorite things to knit. I already have a large queue of his things (most of which are his cardigans).

Enough about Jared (haha), back to me. Hopefully I will actually be posting some stuff here soon. I plan on doing a bit on my socks that I'm knitting (now that I'm thinking about it, they're really more or less practice using different techniques and stitch patterns, so I don't feel so bad that I have a bad case of SSS).

I'm rambling now, but keep checking back. There will be some stuff here, I promise.

Keep on knitting!