FO: Butternut Scarf!

I bought yarn and pattern for this project at Sock Summit in 2009 (Glory Days DK weight BFL, dyed by Briar Rose Fibers, pattern by Anne Hanson) and cast on last October.  Somehow I got very sidetracked and only just now finished it.  Still, just in time for fall! I tend to like my scarves on the long side, and I figured there wasn’t much point in saving leftover yarn, so I kept going for a while.  The finished, blocked scarf is 9.5” wide and 79” long. This is my first real lace piece and it needed to be blocked seriously, as lace does.  Luckily, my friend Gretchen has blocking wires, which I borrowed for this task.I also had a heck of a time photographing this.  I’m not sure the colors are done justice in these pictures.  Come visit, and I’ll show you my scarf!

October is for Orange

Fall is probably my favorite season.  There are things I adore about every season, but fall has a whole lot going for it:

• the return of cool air
• bright colors - blue skies, orange pumpkins, apples in red and green and yellow, mums in purple and rust and orange and yellow and red
• high apple season - bring on the applesauce, cider, and pie!
• two birthdays in my family (one is mine)… 

Fall is a season when knitting feels right.  I wore wool socks for the first time in a long time a couple of weeks ago. 

And each time fall rolls around, I itch to knit a very autumnal sock.  This year I pulled a very orange skein out of stash:

This is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in colorway “Foliage.”  It has so many yummy shades of orange in it.  I’m using Charlene Schurch’s Braided Cable with Garter Bead pattern on a sock for Sweetie.  Kris is making a sock in this pattern, and hers is stunning (I’m happy to steal inspiration when I see good stuff!).  The yarn color is more like the first picture than the one below.  I’m not far enough along for you to see the pattern yet, but I have cast on:

I also finished my Ecology Socks last week.  I know it took me a few weeks from start to finish, but the number of hours couldn’t have been many.  This sportweight yarn just flies off the needles.  These will be so cozy this winter!I knit an afterthought heel on these to preserve the striping pattern.  The heel is knit exactly like the toe, with a kitchener graft at the end.  Very comfy.  And look how well they match!  Matching is definitely not required in my socks, but I’m pleased that I can do it when I want to. I’m getting close to the finish line on my Butternut Scarf.  I’ll push to complete it this week so I can actually wear it this fall.

Happy fall!

The votes are in and it’s a win!

While I have been traveling to Kansas (there’s no place like home…), swamped at work, and not posting on my blog, many of you have been VOTING - and for that I sincerely thank you.  My Fjordland socks won the Summer of Color contest!  Check out Allison’s post to see all the winners! I really have my mother to thank for this win.  While in Kansas, I mentioned to her that I entered this contest and wanted her to vote for me.  She said “oh, email me the info and I’ll have the members of my quilting group vote. Lots of them admire the socks you knit for me.”  I’m not sure if she contacted just quilters or the whole Fabric & Fiber crowd at Sun City Texas….but I think every single one of them voted – plus a few bridge and bunko players, to boot.  If only my father was a big emailer, we could have engaged the golf contingent, too!  In fact, when it became clear to me how many votes Mom was rustling up, I got off my duff and emailed everyone who might possibly be not annoyed by an email asking for a vote.  It was pretty fun, actually.So fun, in fact, that I’m moved to sponsor my own contest.  If you voted for Socks 12 in the Summer of Color contest (be honest, folks, you know who you are!), leave a comment on this post to enter to win a pair of socks handknit by me for you.  I’ll conduct a sock interview (putting my reference librarian skills to use) and we’ll come up with a yarn/pattern combo that is to your liking.  Enter by midnight on Tuesday, August 17 – I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner.  Make sure your comment leaves me enough info so I know how to reach you (shoutout to Sun City)!

In other knitting news, I think I doubled the length of the butternut scarf (this was my airplane knitting).  This isn’t a great photo because it’s hard to take good photos of scarves in progress, but here it is:I also started a new plain vanilla sock in a self-striping yarn, suitable for knitting while chatting with family.  I made it to the heel by the time I arrived home (it’s almost done now but I have no visual documentation!): I also scored a beautiful skein of sock yarn at Wildflower Yarns in Manhattan – this is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine (50% wool, 20% alpaca, 30% nylon) in color 1275, which has the most wonderful name: Pea Soup Mix.  I haven’t worked with Ultra Alpaca Fine before: I hardly knit a stitch this past weekend, though, because it’s berry season (my favorite farm).  When berries are in, you pick:  And when the berries are picked, you make jam: I branched out some this year.  In addition to the usual raspberry-blackberry jam, I also did a blackberry-peach combo (with cinnamon and lime) and something called Peach Melba jam (which is 4 parts peach to 1 part raspberry and results in the most amazing pinkish orange color).  The peaches this year are so good, one of the few benefits of a too-dry summer (my favorite peach place).  I got on a roll on Sunday and finished about 3 dozen jars.  Mmmmmm.

And that’s enough for today!  Now, I’m going to settle in with my Simply Sock Yarn colorcards and think about which 4 colors might work best in the Mad for Plaid socks.

Thanks again to the 114 people who voted for Socks 12.  If I ever run for public office, I’m hiring my mom to be my campaign manager!

Fall into a new scarf

I’m not a prolific scarf knitter, but I tend to get the itch about once a year.  It’s that time.  The bulk of the leaves have fallen from the trees.  Dusk is falling when I leave work at 5 pm.  The days are still warm, but it can be 40 degrees when I leave home in the morning. 

Scarf weather. I got both this yarn and pattern at the Briar Rose Fibers booth at Sock Summit back in August.  The yarn is Briar Rose Glory Days, a DK weight Blue Face Leicester.  Briar Rose yarns don’t have colorways – each skein is unique.  Many of them are quite large, too, so that you have enough for your project – this skein is 1000 yards/16 oz.  (I wish now that I’d taken a picture of one of those man-sized hanks we saw at the booth – truly impressive!)  This particular yarn seemed moody and contemplative, perfect for late fall.

I’m using Anne Hanson’s (Knitspot) pattern Butternut Scarf.  The pattern calls for a laceweight yarn and this is much heavier, so I reduced the number of pattern repeats from 4 to 2. 

The back of the scarf is different but no less attractive, in my book.  I hate scarves that only look good on one side.  You can always tell in photographs when a scarf has been styled to only show one side.  Bleh!  Real scarves don’t behave like that!  My scarves don’t have to be identical on both sides, but they do need to be attractive on both sides.  Here’s how the back is shaping up: This charted pattern is a 24-row repeat and requires paying attention on each row (no easy purl-back lace) so I’ve been knitting on it exclusively at home.  I need to step up the pace if I’m going to wear it this fall, though!