Knitting in the Big City

Moebius Cowl

Lovely addition to my cowl collection! It's about 40 inches long and doubles up nicely.

Project: Moebius cowl
Pattern: Easy Missoni Style Mobius Cowl by Haley Waxenbeg (Found on Ravelry and it’s free!)
Yarn - Manos Silk Blend – color 3117? from The Point. Took 3 skeins, I only had 8 feet of yarn left after bindoff!
Needles – Bryspun Circular 11/40 inch 8

1 – Easy pattern.
2 – Love, love, love the Manos Silk Blend - so soft!
3 - Definitely watch Cat Bordhi demonstrated this technique on YouTube. (google: Cat Bordhi Moebius)
4 - I like this some much I'm almost done with the shorter version of the cowl. It will be a gift for a friend.
5– The most difficult part about the Moebius is the cast on and knitting the first two rows.
6 - As you knit the cowl the cast on row becomes the middle of the piece. As you knit the row you are knitting on one side and then the other side of the cast on row. In the picture below, the orange marker is the cast on row, the yellow and the green markers show the current row (you can see a bit of the Bryspun circular cable by the yellow marker. When the yellow marker comes off the needle it means you are done with your row.

Project: Godzilla scarf
Pattern:
1. Row 1 slip one stitch, knit 4
2. Row 2, slip 1 purl 4
3. Knit to desired length, fringe as desired.

Yarn - King Extra – color 2008 dye 322 (Pumpkin)
Needles – Addi Turbo 8

Godzilla is the office pet of a co-worker. He’s sort of our aisle’s mascot. I used the remaining yarn from Zigzag cowl to knit a scarf for Godzilla. The pumpkin color accents his natural coloring quite nicely.

Big Blue Mittens

Project: Big Blue Mittens
Pattern: October 2008 house pattern from the Point knitting café.
Yarn: Aracunia Limari, one blue skein, one black skein
Needles: Clover 10.5 DPNs

Of course my first football game was to be played in under freezing temperatures. After evaluating the wardrobe I determine there was a lack of mittens. So on January 10 I went to knitting circle determined to find yarn and a pattern for mittens to wear to the Giants playoff game on January 11. With store manager Alyssa’s assistance I picked everything out. With the pink sample mittens in front of me I finished the first mitten in 3 hours. Went home, ate dinner and finished the second mitten in 2.5 hours. Worn them to the game the next day.

1 - Limari is incredible soft but sheds since it has some mohair in it.
2 - I really wanted cream instead of black but there was none. Blue and cream would have worked for Yankees mittens, which are needed in April and October.
3 - I used more black than blue but there was more than enough left of each to make another project so a few weeks later I made the Big Blue Cowl.
4 - Killed me to buy yarn but bulky weight is something my yarn stash does not do.
5- I learned how to knit gusseted thumbs instead of afterthought thumbs.

Zig Zag Cowl

Project: Zigzag cowl

Pattern: Zigzag cowl (Found on Ravelry and it’s free!)
Yarn - King Extra – color 2008 dye 322 (Pumpkin)
Needles – Addi Turbo 8

1 – Easy pattern.
2 – Yarn is quite splitty. I have a couple of other skeins from King but I won’t this brand purchase in the future.
3 – This is the yarn I wanted to use but the gauge was off. The cowl is slightly bigger than I’d like.

Goodbye to Yarn Connection

After 20 years of making midtown Manhattan knitters happy, Yarn Connection closed in mid-January. On my last visit I was quite surprise to see a good bit of yarn left: there were still Rowan, some Manos, cashmere and cashmere blends etc.

I bought 3 items:


Jordana Paige Knitting bag in purple.

I’m really use to having zippers on all my bags. The closure will take some getting used. At 50% off I couldn’t resist getting it. Sadly Yarn Connection was the only place I knew that carried Jordana’s bags.


Extra large men’s vest sample, made with Manos.

I confessed to Jane that I wanted to “repurpose” the yarn and she said “Go for it. You’re not insulting me since I didn’t make it. It’ll yield a good bit of yarn for a nice project.” It was quite nice, with cables and bobbles galore. It’s been a bear to frog but I’m almost done. I got the only sample knitter that actually alternated two skeins of yarn as he or she knit! I think the teal will make a lovely cardigan.


Yoroi sweater sample

This sweater started my whole relationship with Jane and her store, Yarn Connection. I walked in one day, fell in love with this sample and saw that the Noro Yoroi yarn was on sale for half price. Jane told me that she would mail me the pattern as soon as she had a chance to copy it. To my surprise the pattern was in my mailbox the following week. That was almost 5 years ago and when I saw this sweater being sold I had to buy it. An impulse purchase but it reminds me of what a good yarn store can be to its customers.

I almost always cull through the stash during Super Bowl weekend and I found the yarn and pattern. Judging by how the sample fits me, I will have to tailor the shoulders a bit more and make the upper arms less bulky. No matter, I know when I finally knit up Yoroi I will think of Jane, Angela and Yarn Connection and be happy that they were part of my knitting life.

Woolgirl

Lovely package from Woolgirl-

What did I get?

A couple of skeins whose colors are based on Woolgirl's dog and cat (Abby and Kitty's Eyes). Mini skeins in Not Pink, Not Green, and Not Black for sock toes and heels. Little surprises were candy, Soak wash and a pretty stitch marker! Very pleased.

Sweet Magnolia

Yarn Pirate Fingering weight
480 yards Superwash Merino
Sweet Magnolia (white, pink, violet and celery green)

I've been eyeing the Sweet Magnolia colorway from Yarn Pirate and lo and be hold, sometime last week her shop was open for orders. I waited a week for the items to be dyed but the wait was worth it - I love the colors! Again, more than enough for socks but probably destined for a scarf or lacy wrap of some sort. Maybe another Clapotis (can you tell I really love Kate Gilbert's pattern?). I've got about 1400 yards - any suggestions?

Join the new sock club or get the special colorway?

Simply Sock Yarn Company opened up a sock club a couple of weeks ago. At the same
time Cherry Tree Hill dyed a special anniversary colorway for SSYC. I opted for the colorway:

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
420 yds
SSYC special colorway (cream, pink(light and dark), and brown)

These skeins were not bought with socks in mind but a shawl or scarf - something lace.

I didn't sign up for the sock club because I'm still weighing how much I like getting "surprise" yarn. So far with Blue Moon I do like all three skeins but I haven't been doing the patterns. Well I started the first
one with no real motivation to finish. I love the make-up of the second skein but again, I'm not motivated to do much with it. The third skein is summery and vibrant but again, I'm not sure I'm going to use the pattern that came with it.

Diet is a four letter word

Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome
80 superwash merino, 20 nylon
480 yards
top - Winterberry (purple, fuschia, indigo)
bottom- Martha's Vineyard (blue, green, purple)

V-e-r-y nice, a very light sheen to the yarn, terrific yardage for those of us making socks for bigger feet!
Apparently CTH is testing this out and is interested in any patterns anyone develops using this yarn.

Beads and lace

No its not a Stevie Nicks song.

This is how far I got with the April scarf pattern that was in the Swallow Hill kit. It’s a two row lace repeat and unfortunately the instructions given for the “make-up” yarnover in the last 3 stitches is very confusing. Fortunately, it’s similar to the lace scarf I made from the Debbie Bliss Silk pattern book so I was able to decipher it after frogging once. My friend Carol frogged hers 4 times!

Boo was interested in my knitting until she realized it wasn’t any type of food. She did fall asleep next to it (of course after I put the camera away).