Tag Archives: Neep Heid

Tea–YOP#6 Week 11 post

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

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

Neep

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Neep crown decreases

Neep crown decreases

I believe I finished the knitting on this one in March of ’14 but stalled when it came to weaving in the zillionty ends.  Also I had somehow dropped a few stitches at end of decrease and didn’t notice until it was time to tuck the icord into cap.  Either way I obviously lost steam and only picked it up because it is starting to cool and I needed my pile of hats.  I have a serious love of tams/berets.

Such a lovely knit.   Really fun project all around.  Not sure how I feel about the i-cord cast on for general use.  Maybe I just need more practice with it but the first row seems very elongated and therefore heavy proportionally.  I am not taking a picture of that bit.  I am not displeased but that pick up looks clumsy to me.  I kinda looked at other projects on Ravelry and noticed the same thing on those so I guess I will practice, practice, practice and either chalk up that look to the actual technique or general knitterly inexperience with the method.

More pictures:

the row of leaves that make up crown

the row of leaves that make up crown

I like the colors Kate Davies picked.  The only one that stood out to me was the green.  I believe it is the only non heathered shade in the whole cap.  I know Jamieson & Smith has cut their shade range several times and maybe there were no heathered mid greens available?  It didn’t bother me enough to go digging in my stash of shetland yarns.  I love, love, love the yellow green.  Not a color I normally would pick for myself but I find those mustard greens appealing somehow.  This one is particularly gorgeous.  I stashed a few more hanks after my initial order came in.

a bit of corrugated ribbing and turnip bits

a bit of corrugated ribbing and turnip bits

 

mmmm shetland.  I need some more shetland knits.  Look how cozy it looks but still lightweight with gorgeous drape.

Coincidentally I wove in the last end and put it to block over a plate on November 1st.  The beginning of Wovember.  I have yet to participate in Wovember, nor do I intend to this year, but when I noticed I smiled.   Knits that make you happy during knitting, wearing and thinking of them….

Happy Knits!

yarny days and knitterly evenings

Love Bites

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
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

Belated Weekend Report

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

These weekend reports would be more interesting if I had weekday reports I guess.  Back when I started doing them I was blogging nearly every day except for Sat and Sun so the Mon was a ketchup sort of post.  Oh well I will be pleased if I manage to blog twice a month.  Hey so I was actually thinking of going all old school and keeping a knitting diary.  On paper!  And then figured blogs were old school enough ever since Ravelry became the fabulous database that it is.  Really it is such an invaluable tool for discovering new patterns and getting notes.  Much more encompassing than following a dozen or so blogs ever could be.  But I do miss getting to know bloggers so the platform not really being widespread makes me a bit sad.  Hence me trying to be old school.

Anyway I had a very productive week and day.  I finished Rock Island on Thursday and immediately wound my yarn for Neep Heid by the fabulous Kate Davies.  I blocked Rock Island on Friday and unpinned it Saturday in time to take it to the Greater St Louis Knitters Guild meeting but didn’t because I wasn’t sure I would stay the full 2 hours for show and share.  I might take it next month to show off.  You, lucky readers, get to see tons of pictures.  Anyway I worked on my Neep Heid during guild meeting and finished the actual knitting yesterday.  I took it with me to the middle child’s dental appointment and was horrified, while weaving in the zillion and one ends to find some stitches just hanging out.  I have no clue how that happened.  AND I cast on for some Endpaper Mitts.

So are you ready for lots of pictures?  First the Neep Heid mess shots {innards and outer}:

Neep Heid innards

Neep Heid innards

 

the innards.  I could have tried splicing the colors but that seemed rather tight with sometimes no stitches between the last color and new one.  I also could have just carried the colors up along the inside but I wanted to try and eliminate the jog without doing all that knit in row below first stitch stuff.  The hat is gorgeous and I am hoping my innards end up looking presentable in the end

just a few stitches hanging out....

just a few stitches hanging out….

I have no clue how this possibly could have happened.  I mean I had the proper number of stitches at end for my i-cord and everything.  Best I can figure is that somehow I pulled out the tail through the stitches on inside but I haven’t messed with the top portion yet.  I plan on undoing my i-cord and tinking back however many rows it takes me to get to where that is.  I think we are at the last 2 rows of chart?  I haven’t looked too closely yet because I was so traumatized when I noticed it.  After having turned the hat inside and out several times over and being on the road no less.  But see how pretty it is otherwise?  Yeah baby.

Rock Island draped over TV for black backdrop.

Rock Island draped over TV for black backdrop.

For some reason the holes look kinda big on the left.  Oi.  They aren’t in person.  Note the lovely gate for adorable grandson in background.

Rock Island folded over itself

Rock Island folded over itself

I love this.  I, as usual, suffer from blocking fail.  I didn’t bother to measure out the distance between points and used wires.  The poor shawl was practically dry before I was finished laying it out.  I adore how the yarn, Classic Elite’s Silky Lace, gives it a slight heathered look.  The silk took the dye differently than the alpaca and if you are able to blow this up you an see the glorious little glints of silkiness in there.  It gives it a nice rustic look.  LOVE

obligatory over a lamp shot to further illustrate gauziness

obligatory over a lamp shot to further illustrate gauziness

 

caption says it all.  While knitting I did note that the centered decrease was looser on the right side than on the left side.  I either took this picture from WS of shawl OR I overcompensated during blocking.  Thankfully EZ has proven to be correct when she wrote that time is a great stitch leveler.  I expect this to look stellar after a couple of washings. ^;..;^  YaY

slightly crumpled Rock Island

slightly crumpled Rock Island

Gah it is so pretty.  Also despite being disappointed by how little yarn the project took I am so happy I went with alpaca.  It totally stretched out to a satisfactory size without my putting any real stress on it.  Huzzah for stretchy alpaca and its amazing lack of bounce back.  More love for my yarn choice.

Rock Island over the wheel

Rock Island over the wheel

Another favorite shot.  I am always trying to be a better photographer of knits and yarns.  Not trying to the point of taking classes or anything but you know~ trying to be interesting and clear.  Even through double layers it is still sheer.

artsy wrought iron Rock Island shot taken outside

artsy wrought iron Rock Island shot taken outside

see aiming for interesting….

So a few details are in order?  The pattern was a gift but I purchased the yarn used in sample in April ’11 for my birthday pressie to self.  The yarn called for is Lorna’s Laces Helens Lace and comes in 1250 yd hanks.  Very generous considering I only used 528 yds of the lovely Classic Elite Silky Lace yarn.  I am most pleased that I changed the yarn.  The alpaca fills in the holes a wee bit and the whole shawl is less crunchy than Helens Lace would have been.  Mind you I like Helen’s Lace as much as the next person and really like the color pictured as well.

 

yarny days and knitterly evenings