Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Little Herringbone Scarf - WIP

It's official. I am only creative in the colder months. I have finally picked up my needles recently after nearly a year of not knitting anything! Yikes! It is very clear to me that the quietness and isolative (is that a word? it should be) qualities of winter are highly conducive to crafting and knitting.

Here goes:



I saw this scarf and its pattern at a LYS and just had to give it a try. One side is all purls, the other is this little herringbone pattern which is just lovely to look at. But allow me to say - this one has been a BEAR so far! I've started it and frogged it several times, ranting and cursing, and finally seeking help from aforementioned LYS ("Knitting Treasures" on Court Street in Plymouth, MA and they are wonderful there!) Now I think I've got the hang of it. Phew!

Made with Manos Del Uruguay yarn- one of my fav's- 2 skeins, size 11 needles (but I don't have size 11 so I am using my 10 1/2's). I love the uneven-ness of the yarn, so you will see a slight variance in my stitches as the yarn randomly gets fatter and thinner.


Now I'm a "tight knitter", and with this pattern I have had to be very aware of keeping my stitches loose. Just FYI if this might apply to you.


Here is the pattern:

Cast on 30 stitches.

Row 1: K1, *sl 1, K1, psso, but before dropping the slipped stitch from the left needle, knit into the back of it*, until you have one stitch left, K1.

Row 2: P2tog, do not slip the stitches off the left needle, purl the first stitch (the one closest to the tip of the needle) again, slip both stitches off the needle*.

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you run out of yarn.

Bind off. Weave in ends.


And here is the sweet little bear mobile I bought from the very excellent ememem on etsy. I could not resist purchasing him, and he brings me joy. Amongst the treasures he is carrying, there is a little prism which sends sparkles across my kitchen. It's the little things, you know....



Happy Holidays to All...

Moved!

I nearly thought I'd never post anything again, and it still will be some time before I have any creations to share, but I have moved recently, and the long chore of unpacking has begun. I will try to get back to regular postings, but I really don't know when that will start at this point! Wish me luck! (Mr. Biddles is doing very, very well in his new home!)

Ruffle Scarf - Done

Yay! It's done!


Oh it's so pretty! And warm!


I love the contrasting strip of stitches down the middle for the length of the scarf.


And it rolls up into a neat woolie cinnamon bun!



The pattern again is:

Ruffle Scarf
Materials 350 yards of yarn
Needles: size depends on yarn of choice. Choose one size larger than what the yarn calls for.
Directions: Cast on 20 stitches.
Row 1: Knit 8 stitches, turn.
Row 2: Knit 8 stitches, turn.
Row 3: Knit 6 stitches, turn.
Row 4: Knit 6 stitches, turn.
Row 5: Knit 4 stitches, turn.
Row 6: Knit 4 stitches, turn.
Row 7: Knit all 20 stitches.
Repeat rows 1-7.
Save enough yarn at the end to bind off.

Current WIP - Ruffle Scarf Pattern

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It's so undulating!

I found this lovely wool, hand-painted yarn and got a free pattern for the scarf at a LYS after I saw their sample scarf. I thought it was such a lovely pattern, very organic, and in colors of blue and green would be very aquatic. It's a hard scarf to 'model' so please excuse the pics.


I'm probably going to use the whole skein, which I believe is over 400 yards. I just think it looks nicer the more that can be left draped across the torso. The pattern uses a lot of yarn, of course, with all the ruffles. What I had not known until I got this pattern is that you could make ruffles so easily while knitting. I always thought of ruffles as a crocheting possibility but not with knitting.


Here is the pattern.

Ruffle Scarf
Materials 350 yards of yarn
Needles: size depends on yarn of choice. Choose one size larger than what the yarn calls for.
Directions: Cast on 20 stitches.
Row 1: Knit 8 stitches, turn.
Row 2: Knit 8 stitches, turn.
Row 3: Knit 6 stitches, turn.
Row 4: Knit 6 stitches, turn.
Row 5: Knit 4 stitches, turn.
Row 6: Knit 4 stitches, turn.
Row 7: Knit all 20 stitches.
Repeat rows 1-7.
Save enough yarn at the end to bind off.


That's it! Easy peasy.

And here is Mr. Biddles on the computer. Literally.


And my latest favorite pic of him. Ehhhn.

Just in case...

I had fun taking the "Is your cat plotting to kill you?" quiz.

Merry Christmas!

Finished Amulet Bag

I felted the amulet bag by hand last night. It really wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I used a small basin of hot water with a little wool soap, and I scrubbed the bag with a crumpled up plastic bread bag for 30-40 minutes. A good workout for the arms and hands! I did some shaping after I rinsed to keep things symmetrical as possible. This morning it was completely dried.

I'm pretty pleased with it. I think the only thing I would have changed about it is maybe having knitted it smaller. I'm thinking about adding a loop and a button - wooden or shell to keep with the natural, organic look.

Tough taking pictures in natural light today, but here it is:

Mr. Biddles! D'oh!

What's that tail doing in my picture? Sigh.

I really love how the colors blend. Manos del Uruguay yarn - have I mentioned how much I love it? If you look hard you can probably see there several spots where it felted in a way that almost looks like french knots, all twisted and curly. I'm happy about that because it adds interest and dimension.

Just a reminder what it looked like before felting:


It was still snowing this morning. Hi Crow!

SNOW!!!!!

We got some serious snow overnight, and it is still snowing.

So pretty...


This tree looks familiar.....

Ah, there he is:

Tufted titmouse enjoying some seed:

Cascade.
Knitted by candlelight last night during the power outage. Here is the amulet bag, pre-felting. Looks pretty horrible, doesn't it? LOL

Felted Amulet Bag

I'm making my first venture into felting (well, felting on purpose). It's going to be a gift so I hope it comes out ok.

Hopefully (fingers crossed) it will come out looking something like this:


The pattern is from Judith Durant's recent book. I'm really loving this book so far. Nice projects and what's really cool is they are arranged in the book by yarn weight. I'm a big fan of short-and-sweet projects and this book is chock full of really nice ones.

I love Manos yarn. I just love love love it. Beautiful to work with and the most gorgeous colors.



Most projects almost always teach me something new and unexpected, as this surely did. I didn't realize you could make a tube by knitting on DP's and slipping stitches. I was a little perplexed when I started the pattern, then when I saw the tube magically growing, I said, "WHY didn't I know about this trick before???!!!" It's pretty nifty, I'll tell you.

I just need to bind off and make the cord. I'll keep you posted.....

Let's check in with Biddlepants.

A-ha. He is doing his eggplant impression.


Hi cutie!


Aaaah. Nappies. Zzzzzzzzz.....

Cookies Cookies Cookies

Ok so I've been on a roll lately. I love cookies. They are little pieces of art. Don't cookies make people happy? They make me happy, for sure. So fun to make, even if it is a lot of work. Christmas gives me the perfect excuse to make a mess of cookies. I planned ahead which ones I wanted to make, wrote up an ingredients list, and have been slowly working away at it and putting them in the freezer. The ones that need to be iced (like the chocolate trees at the bottom, and the sugar cookies I'll be making later this week) will be thawed out and iced Christmas Eve Day.

Here are the latest. I have used my shortbread mold. The tricky part is getting the cookie batter to fill in all the design. You can't tell if you managed to do that or not until after the cookie is done baking. Next time I use it, I'm going to experiment a bit to see what is the best way to do this.

The mold:

Slap that batter on a greased mold:

Pat it down with your fingers:

Poke the top with a fork. (I forgot this step once, and it didn't seem to make a difference, fwiw)

It is done baking: (I sprinkled a little raw sugar on it before it baked.)

Let it sit for 15 minutes or so, then flip it and hopefully it will pop right out. I only had trouble once because I forgot to re-grease the pan (lightly with olive oil), but it didn't give me a hard time.

See the indentations where there shouldn't be?

Ah well, still pretty and yummy!

I made ginger shortbread, lemon shortbread, plain shortbread of course, and orange spice shortbread. The recipe for shortbread is so easy and well - short - that just changing the flavoring ingredients is all it takes to alter the recipe.


Then I made chocolate cookies. Lots of cocoa in these babies! YUM! Ah the sun is setting on the trees. A fun day of baking.


Mr. Biddles was close-by to supervise. See how excited he is about all the cookies?


Yup. It's a tough life.