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February Wrap-Up

February is always a short month, and yet I got so many things done. Behold:

PRETTY QUIVIUT:
Pretty Thing
Pattern: Pretty Thing by Stephenie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Windy Valley Muskox Qiviuk, a magnificent surprise that I won as a door prize at the Ravelry Rhinebeck Party last fall.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Notes: Wow. Magnificent combination of yarn and pattern. Despite all the lace, this is insanely warm, so warm that when I tried it on in the house once it was blocked I started feeling overheated immediately. This will be magnificent for days when I need to dress up a little. The yarn… oh, the yarn. I can only say thank you, and wow. I will be making the pattern again, but that yarn was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I enjoyed every moment of working with it. This is a FO I will treasure.

GREEN CLAPOTIS
Green Clapotis

Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: Estelle Cadenza, in the oh-so-descriptive colorway of 960, which came to me as a destash from the excellent Glenna.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
Notes: This is a project that I had on my to-do list for nearly a year, when Glenna came to New York on a visit and like a yarn fairy, left destashed skeins in her wake, including this green goodness that magically went wonderfully with my Anemoi mittens. Since I like to make a Clapotis every year (it’s just one of my many delightful quirks) this seemed like an excellent choice for this year’s. The yarn works delightfully, with just enough silk content (20%) to make it soft and inviting without weighing down the wool after it’s gone through a bath.

This is a marvelous FO that works just as I’d hoped with the mittens, and sometime I might even photograph them together for you.

OLYMPIC HAT
Olympic Hat
I wrote this little beauty up yesterday.

OLYMPIC FEATHERWEIGHT
Olympics Sweater
This is an in-progress shot. You will hear a lot more about this one.

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Aurum

So, as promised, here is the Olympic project I did finish:

OLYMPICS HAT
Olympic Hat

Pattern: Olympics Reindeer Hat, by Helena Bristow, which she kindly created by deconstructing the hats worn by the US Olympics team for the Opening Ceremony.
Yarn: Stash diving! The red and blue are Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, and the White is Webs Northampton.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm and US 6/4.0 mm
Notes: I fell in love with these hats immediately, because they were just so lovely. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, well, here:

olympics hat

That is the hat. (There were other hats, like the awkward medal-logo intarsia thing that Lindsay Vonn was wearing, but they were just not as awesome as this one.) It was designed by Ralph Lauren Polo, and they sell their version, but those versions are pretty pricy, and there’s really something shameful about buying a hat when one is perfectly capable of knitting their own version with their own hands. I fell in love with the design, and I knew I wanted one of these hats, but I wasn’t expecting to make it as an Ravelympics project.

Then I hit the really long rows on the raglan shaping of my Featherweight sweater. Those are long rows, guys. Over 400 stitches a row. They were taking forever, and I was getting, frankly, bored. And I was starting to become concerned about finishing. I needed a break, and my stash has some red and blue and white worsted that looked just about right. So I put the sweater aside and finished this hat in two nights. I KNOW. Something about switching from laceweight to worsted was just inspiring, and despite the inevitable struggle to keep my gauge in colorwork in order, it just clicked beautifully.

I did make a few modifications, mostly born over the fact that I didn’t have a whole skein of blue, so instead of doubling the hem as the original does, I did a few rows of ribbing on a smaller needle. I also chopped out the last chart, which was the colorwork at the top of the hat, and just did a solid red, and made the tassels red to match. I started the decreases earlier as well, since this hat was tall. And finally, I did the reindeer antlers with a duplicate stitch to avoid having long floats in those sections.

This is a big hat. See:

Olympic Hat

I’m really happy with how it came out. It’s insanely warm and I think it will make an excellent hat for winter sports. And shoveling. Which I hope to not be doing again until next winter. (I just jinxed it, didn’t I.)

And despite the fact that the Featherweight was not completed before the end of the Olympics, I finished my hat so I get a medal!
Bobicus Maximus

Medals are like the icing on an already delicious cake.

I might make this hat again someday. My row gauge was obviously gigantic in comparison to the original, and my colors didn’t match at all. The original has stately dark red and federal blue. I love my more cheerful, bright colors, but they do make for a different impression. I think I would enjoy having the choice between the more serious versus playful versions, and if I could get the row gauge to cooperate I could take a stab at the colorwork in the crown. All of this is to say I loved making this hat so much I’d be willing to make it a second time.

And, just to add to my glee, I did finish the sweater, and wove in the ends yesterday and now it just needs a wash and block. So I think it was an excellent experience all around.

I’m kind of missing watching fun sports like bobsled and curling, though. I think I have Olympics withdrawal. When does the World Cup start again?

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Success!

Guys, I can’t believe it, but she pulled it off.

Melissa would like to present proof that she managed to redo the edging on her Ravelympics project before the torch went out:

Success!

I am halfway through picking up stitches for the collar of my sweater, while I watch Russia’s introduction. I have a feeling if I knew the folklore that is being referenced I’d be a little less confused. Note to self: read up on Russia before 2014!

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Serious Citius Fail

So the Vancouver Olympics closing ceremonies are later today, the men’s hockey final is blaring away on the television downstairs (I like both teams, so I am simply rooting for whoever is down at that give moment. Haters to the left.) and I am knitting with Melissa, while her husband makes poutine and nachos (fine sporting foods of our gold medal competitors, of course).

My sweater? Is missing a collar, so it won’t medal:

Olympic Sweater

But it looks pretty good as it stands, so as far as I’m concerned it finished the race.

Olympics Sweater

All is not lost! I finished a knock-off Olympic hat, inspired by the beautiful colorwork numbers the American athletes wore during the Opening Ceremonies, and that medaled. I think I’ll give it its own post.

Sadly, Melissa did not have the same luck that I did. I present a little Olympic photoessay which I have entitled Faster, Stronger, Drunker:

First, the Rathlete warms up with a sports beverage:
Refueling

She continues to stay hydrated, despite the rigors of a difficult course:
Desperation

But finally, even she must recognize that she has been defeated:
The agony of defeat

There’s still three inches of border to knit on, and…only three inches of yarn. She’s going to have another, er, sports drink and see if she can’t get some mittens wrapped up before the torch goes out. I’m going to join her and start picking up the stitches for the collar on my sweater. Further updates as we get closer!

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Citius

I am participating in the Ravelympics.

Ravelympics

This, when it grows up, is going to be a Featherweight Cardigan. Right now, on Day 3, I am almost done with the raglan increases. And I best be getting back to it. These figure skaters are making me feel like I need graceful things in my life, and what could be more graceful than a fine-gauge cardigan, I ask you?

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January Wrap Up

January was a quiet, unsnowy month. (Unlike right now,with an honest-to-goodness blizzard outside!)

RON NEW YEAR’S SOCKS
New Year's Socks
Pattern: Plain Stockinette sock
Yarn: Opel Harry Potter sock yarn in Ron colorway
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: How much fun were these? I had my eye on this colorway for a while, and happened upon a vendor at Vermont Sheep & Wool last year who had one skein hiding in her wares. It became mine very quickly, and I threw it in my bag on my way out to visit Melissa and her husband over New Year’s. And then I remembered the superstition that the way you spend New Year’s is the way you’ll spend the coming year. So at twenty minutes to midnight on New Year’s Eve, I cast on these socks. I think it worked, because January was full of lots of yarn and knitting.

AESTLIGHT
Aestlight
Pattern: Aestlight Shawl by Gudrun Johnson
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash in colorway True Love, a gift from Melissa
Needles: US6/4.0mm
Notes: Oh, wow, this came out amazing, didn’t it? I’m so so happy with it. The pattern is great, just complicated enough to make me pay attention, but easy enough that I didn’t have any frustration. I knit the large size, which grew with blocking into a generous length that works as either a shawl or a scarf.

Aestlight

I wore it to my knit night on Monday, and the cashier in Starbucks complimented on it as soon as I stepped up to order. She just made my day with that.

Aestlight

I love the Bird’s Eye Lace, and it looks so dramatic and impressive once it’s blocked. (Actually, it looks dramatic and impressive even before it’s blocked.) This is my first project with Wollmeise, and after a wash and blocking it softened up and gained a wonderful drape. The color is really outstanding, and the vibrancy of it really is a wonderful antidote for that monochrome feeling you get in midwinter.

It’s cold and blustery out there:

Quack
so I am curled up with a new sock project and a toasty fire keeping the cold of the snow at bay. Curl up with your yarn and stay warm!

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Sing of happy, not sad

Anybody else who grew up with Sesame Street remember that one? I rediscovered it a few years ago, and now it earworms its way into my brain frequently. Today is a day to sing of some happy.

Since January is over, so is my little fundraiser. I totaled up my sales of October Leaves, figured out what half of the profits came out to, and I’m really really proud to announce that with your help, I will be making a donation to Doctors Without Borders of $285. (I threw in a buck and change to make it a nice round number.)

Thank you to everyone who bought or gifted a copy. I hope you enjoy knitting your mitts up. I know I keep saying it, but I’m so proud of all the knitters (and crocheters) who pitched in and did this amazing thing. For example, LSG, my home base on Ravelry, has been keeping track of member donations and the current total comes to over $47,000! And Casey over at Ravelry set up a special tag for all the designers donating money from their patterns — I might have done some shopping in there over the month as well. There were a whole lot of people pitching in and they all get my thanks.

Aestlight
The snowman in my backyard approves of you all and your generosity. Thank you all for your help.

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Hibernating

The weather has alternated between cold and colder lately, and it makes me want to curl up next to the fire and just stay there. The problem with that plan is that I forget to show you things, like my finished Ron socks:

New Year's Socks

Which socks I have worn several times already and I adore. Oranges and blues and dusky purples, mmm. I really hope Opal makes more Potter-themed yarns for the next movie, and that there are more colorways I can belatedly fall in love with like I did with this one. More like this, Opal, thank you kindly.

And then there is the Wollmeise Aestlight:

Wollmeise Aestlight

It’s finished now, although it wasn’t when I took this picture. Here it was only past the bird’s eye lace. Now, the long, long border is done, the ends are all woven in and it just needs a blocking — tomorrow, hopefully. And then I will have to figure out how to best photograph it, because it came out delightfully huge. I am very excited to wear it; I just have to figure out what I’m making to go with it. Such trials.

And then, there’s the work in progress:

Clapotis

Yes, it’s a Clapotis. I have to knit one every year. It’s a law. Go check. This is going to be a companion to my Anemoi mittens.

And I’m even working on my spinning:

Handspun

I’m still terribly new to all this spindle business but it’s slowly coming together. See? I have yarn!

In between all of that I’ve been watching pattern sales slowly grow and counting how much money I will be able to donate. I’m well over $200 now, and yesterday I reached 200 copies of October Leaves off to new homes. (You know Count von Count? Yeah, just like that. TWO! TWO HUNDRED COPIES! AH AH AH.) I’m really looking forward to hitting send on that donation and sending some of this largess, this community, to where it’s needed. Just a few days left until I can give you all the grand total. (See how subtle that hint was, stragglers?) And in the meantime, you all have my most heartfelt thanks, for buying October Leaves and all the other patterns out there who teamed up to make such an amazing fundraiser. I am so, so proud to be a part of this community.

Now, all of you go cast on. I want to see your mitts. I’ll be right here, curled up with yarn, hibernating.

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Mindboggling

So my favorite place to hang out on Ravelry is a little group called LSG, a group filled with some fine ladies and gents with hearts of gold. (And language of profanity, but that’s why it’s fun.) They set a goal to raise $5069 yesterday for Haiti relief, because that’s how many people are willing to admit they’re LSGers.

In 24 hours, they have raised almost $7,000, and donations are still pouring in. It makes my little heart go pitter-pat.

And I’m not the only one who’s pledged time, or money, or pattern sales. Kristen Rengren has complied a list of knitters, yarnies, and designers who are pledging their products, as well as a run-down of aid organizations accepting donations. There’s some great stuff on that list, so you should click through and check it out. Kristen herself is donating 50% of her sales from two of her terrific patterns this month, and I appreciate that she went ahead and made a list so I could just link you all to it.

I said it in the last post, but I say it again. Knitters are an amazing community, and I’m proud to be in it.

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Mending the World

Yesterday I bumped into a mention of the Hebrew phrase tikkun olam, which means “mending the world.” It’s a Jewish belief, with a lot of meanings and history, but the one I am most familiar with is the importance of doing good works to make the world better. I love the translation, and the idea.

And the world could certainly use a lot of mending today. Yesterday’s earthquake in Haiti has left uncountable numbers of dead and injured. Even aid groups who were already in the country are struggling with their own losses, of facilities and personnel. Rene Preval, Haiti’s president, was blunt: “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.”

I’m typing this on a laptop, sitting on my comfortable bed in a warm house. Downstairs my mom is cooking dinner for her family, and there’s a fire in the wood stove keeping us toasty. We have a roof and food and clean water, and we’re healthy and prosperous.

So here’s what I’m doing.
October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

I am donating 50% of my profits from January sales of the October Leaves Fingerless Mitts. I’m incredibly lucky, because not only am I prosperous and safe tonight, but I have this little pattern out there in the world that people love and are willing to purchase with their own hard-earned money. So I am going to share that luck with people who desperately need it tonight. On January 31 I will tally up my sales for the month and I am going to send that money to Doctors Without Borders. I will let you all know what it works out to, of course, when I make that donation.

If you’ve already bought October Leaves and you want to chip in, this would be a great excuse to try out Rav’s new gift feature, by the bye.
And if you’d like to pitch in, faithful reader, but you’re not on Ravelry, (and why not, Ravelry is amazing) you can follow this link to purchase.

Why do I do this? I’m a knitter. I love being a knitter. Even before the Yarn Harlot birthed the idea of Knitters Without Borders, we’ve been giving our time and our money and our knitting to people who need it. I’m proud to stand up and take my turn in a very small way in this amazing community of givers.

And another reason? I’m a New Yorker. I know the feeling of watching the sky fall down, and the entire world holding out its hands for us to lean on. My turn to hold out my hands. It’s as simple as that. My turn to mend.

And, but this goes without being said, I love you guys. Stay safe.