Tea–YOP#6 Week 11 post

YOP6_Banner_perfect_lines_slightly_larger_medium

It seems as if the only times I post is for YOP.  Mainly because I have been good about staying on track with my highly mutable list. Woo hoo

I finally finished the My Cup of Tea Socks.  I guess I shouldn’t say finally but it basically took me a week to sit down and graft together the last toe so yeah not too inspired to finish.  The yarn was purchased on Etsy from Hedgehog fibres in 2009 so deep stash being used up here.  I am going to end up giving them to Tyler and here he is modeling the socks:

My Cup of Tea socks

My Cup of Tea socks

 

The yarn was darker and glossier pre-knitting and washing.  The water was pretty green when I dunked them in for the washing and I suspect it will continue to bleed for a while.  Tyler has been asking for them while I was knitting them but I told him he was out of luck.  I am a sneaky Christmas gift knitter that way o.0.

Anywho they were laid out to dry Friday night and I started winding yarn for some tamalicious fun.  Hey I have news!

So before we went on vacation last month I was looking for some papers I had on my desk and the desk basically gave up the ghost when I moved it to check to see if they had fallen off the back or side.  It was one of those inexpensive particle board desks from Target I believe about 15 yrs ago for the kids and has been moved multiple times.  Anyway it kinda collapsed and instead of having the beloved one reassemble it I threw it out in a fit.  Which means I am concentrating on the yarn piles that were on my desk.  Which takes us back to my first YOP post and a list check up so to speak.

I originally listed several piles or bags of yarn to tackle along with general project goals since the yarn piles were too numerous for me to get through.  The first list of yarn piles started with my desk yarns and it makes sense that I now focus on these items since the desk is no more.  They were:

On the Desk:

  • kypria
  • hedgehog fibres fingering in merino, bamboo & silk @350 meters per Etsy listing = My Cup of Tea Socks
  • the yarn for Angharad
  • Lamoramere-gift from Angela on my birthday eep 12 yrs ago.
  • yarn for 2 tams <missing a few colors here or there. Purchasing piecemeal due to job hours being cut. (purchased 7.15.16)
  • 400 yds of cashmere-gift from Stitching girl Toni years and years ago
  • and sock yarn remnants. Some of these remnants are practically full balls for example the orange Eidos I used for stripes on my gentleman’s railway socks

Project wise we had (I edited my wording to make it easier to track):

1)Socks:

  • Husband 4 pairs 3 pairs
  • Tyler 3 pairs 2 pairs
  • Myself 3 pairs

2)Sweater for me.

3)Something Lace

4)Purchase Reef Yarns

& “My Tams. Please I need the preciousness.”

 

AHA this digression is going somewhere.  My friend Lorraine, aka Sheriff of Knittingham, aka Twisted Traditions designed a lovely tam I admired called The West Wind, based upon a painting of the same name by Tom Thomson. She is a fabulous designer if you are unfamiliar with her work.  Anyway I had all the colors but 2 called for in the tam and, as you can see above,  it was one of my on both the desk piles and the project list.  I started winding the yarn Friday after washing the socks and they are lovely:

The West Wind yarns

The West Wind yarns

This is another stash buster project for me, despite having to pick up a couple of balls, because I had the yellow, dark green, dark blue, burgundy, and pink in my stash.  In fact they had been in my stash so long that they were in hank form. J & S yarns switched to ball form in 2002 per their blog.  It is also a fairly simple project with only 7 colors.  Compare that to the Midnight Tam which calls for 11 shades and  you can imagine how much easier it is to work.  Also it starts off with a XO pattern which is easier to work than something pictorial such as the Neeps Heid.

And if that were not enough I almost felt like crying when I started knitting it.  The pure joy of working fair isle is so overwhelmingly happy making I cannot even begin to describe it.  I suspect I will have a FO soon unless I put off weaving in the ends forever {It took about a  year for me to sit down and weave in the ends for Neeps}

 

yarny days and knitterly evenings to all

Elka

Midnight Sun Tam

Still Luminous After All These Years

 

 

this one is a bit of a cheat. I cast on Aug 10, 2004 and was finished by Aug 30, 2014. It remains my favorite knit thing ever.

Every fall I pull out all my knitted things and wash them… just as I do every spring before putting them away. The tam served as a backdrop for the lovely mitts I knit as a gift.

But woe! A hole!

 

 

my finger peeking through a hole ;-(

my finger peeking through a hole ;-(

 

But YaY! Repaired:

 

mended column of golden stitches

mended column of golden stitches

 

I pulled out the pictures from my old blog posts.

 

In progress...

In progress…

 

 

Tam finished

Tam finished

I purchased the kit from Two Swans Yarns which is defunct. I used the original Autumn that was called for in the pattern and it was very hard to find at the time since Alice Starmore had severed ties with Jamiesons and Unicorn both which made that particular shade, one of her custom colors, obsolete. I believe it has now been replaced by Autumn Mix and the pattern still survives.

It was glorious fun to knit and produces a stunning finished project. I always keep my eyes peeled for more of Sandy Blue’s work.  Unfortunately for me she only did two fair isle pieces that I am familiar with and the other is all golden warm sunny colors for a tam.  I might just purchase the pattern for that one since I really do love me a tam.

Bonus: I believe mending is part of Wovember.

yarny days and knitterly evenings, Elka

Love Bites

Winter Hats & swap

Winter Hats & swap

 

I couldn’t help noticing that my gift for my Love Bites Swap partner would perfectly compliment my tam collection.  I have them set out in a pile waiting a wash and block before winter sets in and would put my knitting down on them before turning down the lights at night.  Okay the Neep Heid is still awaiting ends weaving but it is in the winter hat pile nonetheless.  Thinking about all those ends has me wondering if I cut my yarn at end of every change when knitting the Midnight Sun Tam designed by Sandy Blue.  Midnight Sun Tam remains one of my favorite finished objects ever.  Ahem.  I digress.

So Hunter Hammersen blogs over at Violently Domestic and I first noticed her work when she was offering free sock patterns on Ravelry. Slant I believe was the first that I noticed.  One of her recent projects consists of 3 books inspired by Curiosity Cabinets and the drawings of various plants and animals one would find in illustrated books of such things.  I was drawn to the pattern for fingerless mitts called Serpula Contortuplicata.  Wow does auto correct throw a fit over that one!  It is very organic with the cables going first this way then that. I also liked the open spaces created by the cable crosses–I find it rather gothic somehow.

Things I learned knitting this:

I like having pdfs of my knitting patterns!  I believe this is the first time I ever knit something without having a hard copy of the pattern {unless I was designing myself of course}

Knitting laceweight mohair with stainless steel double points is a recipe for stitches slithering off the ends.

I should trust my judgement.

Assuming somebody might read this and be unawares I spent a good part of 10 yrs as a sample garment knitter for yarn companies.  It kept me occupied and gave me some extra spending money when the kids were babies.  Part of sample garment knitting is, in my opinion, proofing the instructions.

Hunter’s chart for the hand portion begins with a slipped stitch and I decided to follow it despite my feelings that she intended us to slip the first stitch of each row instead of each repeat.  I contacted Hunter after I finished my project and mentioned the chart vs row question and she is updating the pattern.  BTW I don’t know if it is just because knitters are such a great group but Hunter is another person I have corresponded with a few times in the past and she is always a delight.

Two posts about two different indie knit folks who are very nice to deal with ^5 to knitters.

But Look:

Serpula Contortuplicata

Serpula Contortuplicata

 

Look Again:

 

Organic

Organic

So seriously pretty.  Luckily I have a second hank of the yarn and will reknit this for me.  It definitely belongs in my wardrobe since it goes so well with all my hats.  I look forward to making myself a pair.

Belongs in my closet

Belongs in my closet

 

And of course I hope my swap partner loves them.  How could she not?  Soft, silky, organic with spooky holes for Halloween fun.

 

 

yarny days and knitterly evenings