Sage Knits

And sometimes when you’re not…

I have just finished another test knit for Cosymakes.  This time I made a fair isle toddler hat named Loon.  This was my first real shot at fair isle and I really enjoyed the challenge.  The yarn is Cosy’s Snapdragon Sport.

Cosette provided the yarn and pattern and I get to keep the finished project.  I also get to choose to receive two of her patterns.  And at some point she will post all of the test knitters’ finished hats on her blog and on Ravelry. 

I really enjoy test knitting.  For starters, it puts me in touch with designers.  And the more I can learn from designers, dyers, and spinners, the better. 

I have actually produced a lot over the last 6 months…maybe someday I will post some of those things.

Cheers ya’ll!

Four years ago, at the first Stitches South in Atlanta (at least it was my first and I think it was theirs), I bought this yarn at the Sanguine Gryphon booth.

This is their Free Range organic wool line which is a DK weight in the color Crevecoeur.   I was nuts about their yarns.  Sadly a year or so ago the company split into two companies The Verdant Gryphon and Cephalopod Yarns.  I have not yet purchased yarn from either one, but the yarns on both sites look wonderful. 

Last fall, I started a Tea Leaves Cardigan with this yarn but as with many other projects I start, I grew bored and put this one aside for a year.  I am proud to say that 2 days ago, I finished the sweater.  It needs buttons and a good blocking but here it is:

This is a monumental event for me since this is the first adult sweater that I have completed.  It helped that this pattern was all knit as one piece.  I hate putting together sweaters.  

I started a cowl as soon as I finished this one but about 1/4 of the way through it and I am not liking it at all.  Ripping that one out today and starting a sock, I think.

It is Labor Day and I am finishing with some of my other recent pictures wishing summer goodbye

We have been to Snowbird Mountain Lodge many times over the last 20 years.  It is a wonderfully relaxing place.  A little on the rustic side but really the only objectionable thing about the accommodations is the really bad towels.  They feed you like you are on a cruise ship.  It just never stops.  I highly recommend their mountain trout dinners.  They have always been the best thing on the menu.

Also got to meet some of the natives:

I should have taken some pictures of the bar since we spent more than a little part of our days there.  But I will leave you with our second favorite place to hang out:

I feel the need to get my zen on.  No one at my house is happy with their work environment right now.  It happens.  I don’t know when it will change so we do what we can to manage how it affects us.  So we have spent a quiet weekend doing a few things around the house but mostly relaxing and doing whatever will take our minds off of work.   Adult beverages have helped us with the relaxing part.  But as always, knitting is the balm that eases my soul.

I bought this yarn at SAFF last October.  I love anything with long color repeats but this one just goes to black on all of their colors and I fell in love with it.

So this weekend, I started the Shinkan-Zen Shawl.  Very easy and soothing to knit.  Just a series of stockinette sections alternated with moss stitch sections and ending with a pleated edge. 

Here is what I have so far:

So here is (hopefully) to a good new week. 

Cheers ya’ll!

So today, let’s talk about Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Sweater.  I find it totally fascinating.   Everyone in the knitting world knows how brilliant she was.  And almost everyone in the knitting world has probably made one of these so no great discovery on my part. 

I started with this great yarn I got from my Dragonfly Fibers yarn club.  It came with a pattern for a herringbone neckwarmer but after 2 bad starts on the pattern, I decided it was really meant for a baby sweater:

I knew I didn’t have enough yarn so I went to their website and ordered a skein of this and simply added it when I ran out of the Super Djinni:

(Sorry about the blurry picture but it seems to be the only one I took.)  The Djinni sock was about half the thickness of the Super Djinni so I held it double and came up with the same gauge.  I am pretty happy with the outcome.

So for those few who do not know the surprise, you knit up a lovely little blob like this:

And fold in the edges to become this:

Ta-dah!  So all that is left to do is sew up the top of the arms and sew on buttons. 

I had such big plans for Stitches this year.  I signed up for 3 classes -  more than I ever have and I was so ready for it when it got here.  Or so I thought.  My first class was Thursday afternoon and I was starting to notice that the cough I started on Tuesday was becoming more than a little obnoxious.

I decided to ignore it and the congestion I was starting to feel and following my class, went to the Market.  We found the Market to be smaller this year and not as interesting.  Of course, Melissa and I still managed to find pretty yarn to buy.

Unfortunately, that was the last I saw of Stitches.  The cough turned into the cold from hell and I was totally out of commission for the next 3 days.  I missed 2 of my 3 classes.  And one of them was one by Melissa Leapman!! Her classes are always my favorite.  So it goes.

I so love this yarn!  I made quick hats for all of the men in my family last winter.  Of course it is Malibrigo so what is not to love?  Older son had a friend that loved the son’s hat.  So with that kind of flattery, I had to make his friend a hat too. 

So quick and easy to knit up.  I think it only took about 3-4 hours to knit this up.  I even impressed older son with how quickly I made it.  And if you know me at all, you know I am not a particularly fast knitter.  Maybe someday I will master continental knitting and will be able to fly through my projects.  But probably not.  Life is too short to rush through it, right?

I wish I could tell you the color of Rasta that I used for the hat but I don’t have the ball band with me because this is what I am doing this week:

Cheers!