My mom wanted a rainbow scarf, which is the perfect occasion to buy some Noro. The sad part about knitting this is that my ball winder absolutely hated Silk Garden and I lost several yards off of all four skeins. The cool thing about knitting this is that 1x1 ribbing can be used if you want a squishy stockinette-looking scarf without curling.

It’s fun to photograph.

HELLO. I hope everyone is well. I’ve been doing a lot of knitting, but it’s all been fairly uninspired so I’ve been knitting and ripping and re-knitting and, I mean basically it’s been about the process lately. I’ve been stuck in preproduction, something I haven’t been advanced enough to appreciate until recently. I guess it’s more conceptual, like considering how the finished fabric will drape and the textile equivalent of mood and tambre, a skill beyond mastering how to knit and how to purl. That’s where I’ve been getting stuck in my knitting, like my garments don’t “tell a story”, and did I mention that I’m five seasons of Project Runway more advanced than I was four months ago?

So what you see above is the Urchin beret in a stash yarn I was gifted by Cirilia in the fall of 2007. I only had enough yarn to work six or seven repeats on size 7 needles, knitting the small, but I blocked it over a dinner plate and it’s got a very lovely shape now. But the best part is that my second week here in Portland I scored a gorgeous coat for $15 and —

— THE COAT MATCHES THE YARN AND —

— I ALSO HAVE A MATCHING BAG (also inherited from Cirilia.)
Do not let the lighting fool you; the coat and the bag and the yarn are all the same color. The yarn has little flecks of like glitter material in it so it catches the light.
Fabulously, I also matched last year with my Foliage beret and Michael Kors winter coat and LG enV (not pictured.)

I also knit up some garter stitch mitts, also an Ysolda pattern. I have a lot of this pink tweed that I bought several years ago on closeout and have rued the purchase ever since, but it’s rustic quality seems appropriate for garter stitch fingerless mitts, all tweedy and scratchy and not at all capable of holding a shape.

Hi how is everyone? I’m really good! Recently, Catskill Merino Sheep Farm featured my first Urchin beret on their blog. It was a total honor, and the yarn was given the name Mystery, inspired by the nickname I’d given it in my blog. So that was totally cool! Anyway I’d like to present something I knit many weeks ago: similar cabled hats for NEWLYWEDS Todd and Lisa.
I knit both hats in two different weights of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino so that they would both have an equivalent amount of cashmere (or not) and chose two cabled patterns so that the hats would have similar styles but not the same style.

Shedir was knit in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby in a cranberry-ish colorway. I went down to size 2 needles, which was a lesson I learned from my last (my first!) Shedir. I used a tubular cast on and I’m proud of it!

Koolhaas is the first pattern I ever purchased, and it took like three seconds to knit. I had to speed up the decreases because the hat was getting really long and I also LOST half a ball of yarn somewhere in Oregon. Anyway it is SUCH an easy pattern - only left-slanting cables which are much easier to do than right slanting ones.

Speaking of Interweave, Shayna Zelko, a friend from high school, was just published in Interweave’s Winter 2008 issue! Hers is the Welt and Rib Cardigan and it’s a turtleneck with some very subtle detailing going on. It’s so gorgoeus. Congratulations to Shayna!