MORE Cedar Leaf!

I told you this pattern was spreading likes weeds… here is my friend Kris’s Cedar Leaf Shawlette – in a gorgeous green. Kris bought the same Brooks Farm Solo Silk that I did at MDSW’11.  The colorways at Brooks Farm are not named or numbered, as far as I can tell.  This is such a moody green, with grey and blue undertones.  Kris knit this up and gifted it to a May graduate. Isn’t she gorgeous?  This color is perfect on her! I have a feeling I’ll be knitting this pattern again at some point, too.  Wouldn’t it look great in come autumnal leafy colorways, like Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in “Foliage”?  I’ve already made some socks from Foliage and I really loved the yarn.

One last shot of Kris’s shawlette…

Another spring shawlette

These things are popping up like weeds… I made another Cedar Leaf Shawlette for my colleague, Karen, who is retiring this month: The yarn is Brooks Farm Solo Silk, a single ply of silk and fine wool (50/50).  It is lovely. Knit on a size 5 needle, there is plenty of drape in this.The leaf edging is very entertaining to knit, and the perfect detail on an otherwise simple crescent-shaped scarf. I hope Karen loves it.  We will miss her tremendously at the library.

Book review: The Joy of Sox

I haven’t accomplished a ton of knitting this week… the weather was quite good and so I spent a lot more time than usual outdoors trying to get the yard into shape for spring.  The weeds grow so quickly!  However, I did manage to cast on for another Cedar Leaf Shawlette, and as of last night, the stockinette portion is done.  I’ll take this with me on the airplane today and get started on the leaves:

This photo doesn’t quite do justice to the true color of this yarn – it’s a bit washed out here.  I’ll get a better one when the project is finished. This is a retirement gift for a colleague and I hope to have it done for the reception.

I have a small stack of books I’ve been meaning to tell you about.  I recently succumbed to The Joy of Sox.  I kept seeing patterns from this book pop up that I liked, and when I had a 50% off coupon and saw it at AC Moore, I jumped. 

I can take or leave the whole “sexy socks” theme – it is minorly amusing.  But let me show you the 7 (yes, seven) patterns I queued!

A Roll in the Hay (by Gina House), above, is a good pattern for a solid or semi-solid yarn.  It features wheat sheaves as the major design element, and some ribbing and seed stitch to fill in the blanks.  Very attractive.

Make-Up Socks (by Kristin Kapur) is another good choice for a solid or semi-solid yarn and was already in my Ravelry queue before I bought the book. It has some climbing vines that are quite fetching.  I could use my green Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine for these…

Royal Flush (by Mona Schmidt) is another good choice for a solid yarn (hmmm, I’m sensing a theme here).  The traveling twisted stitches up the sides remind me of DNA models.   These would require a lot of concentration – definitely not office knitting.  I couldn’t find a photo to snag so you’ll have to click through to Ravelry to see these lovelies.

Girl’s Best Friend Thigh Highs (by Star Athena) have always intrigued me.  I’m not sure why – I’m not a thigh-high kind of girl.  I don’t wear snazzy short skirts with tights and boots in the winter, for which socks like these would be perfect.  But I like them just the same – aren’t the diamonds fun?  So there.  Perhaps I could make a knee-high version.  Again, no easy photo to snag, so click through to Ravelry.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (by Janine le Cras), above, is another stitch show-off pattern best for a solid yarn.  This one features a heart-like cable that I actually like.  Most of the heart cables look cheesy to me.  Perhaps a contender for a Valentine’s Day knit in 2012?

Warm Up Socks (by Sauniell Connally) is one I looked at for quite a while, trying to decide if I liked them or not.  There is a fishnet-like panel in these and normally I’m not a lacy sock person.  But something about these intrigues me…  Even the Ravelry photo isn’t great because the sock is shown on blockers rather than a foot, but the one in the book is fetching.  (Why doesn’t the publisher always submit photos to Ravelry? I don’t know!)

And finally, Sole Mates (by Alyson Johnson) is a good choice for semi-solid or solid yarn.  The cable down the back of the sock is lovely, and it extends onto the heel flap.  I’d want to wear these with open-heeled shoes to show that off. Do click through to Ravelry to see the detail!

This book also contains some instructional content that would be helpful for a newer sock knitter, as well as some “knitty bits” panels sprinkled throughout the book with interesting facts – like showing off one hand-dyed yarn knit up in stockinette, ribbing, lace, and cable – the yarn looks sooooo different!  The book has a hard cover with a spiral binding – my favorite package for knitting books.  If I really make all 7 of these patterns, it will have been quite a bargain!

Spring has sprung!

Here is my Cedar Leaf Shawlette, finished and ready to go to work! This was such a fun, fast, satisfying project.  I finished it in a week.  The week included a couple of heavy knitting days, but also many days where I didn’t touch the needles at all.  The first part was mindless enough that I could have done it at work (though I started on a weekend, so that was the weekend part).  The leaf edging wasn’t really office knitting.The pattern very specifically said that blocking was needed to make the leaves behave properly.  I started to fret about this partway through, since I was knitting with a sock yarn containing nylon (this Crock O Dye is actually a superwash/nylon/silk blend).  Both the superwash treatment and the nylon fight against blocking.  You WANT these qualities in sock yarn so that the socks spring back into shape after wearing and washing.  You generally don’t want those qualities in lace.  Oops. However, I knit this sock yarn on a US 5 needle, and thanks to that – and the silk content, I think – the final product seems to drape just fine.  Note: the designer calls for a wool/silk blend in DK weight on size 7 needles.  I downsized a bit since I was working with fingering weight yarn.

I have received so many compliments already at the office today, and it’s only lunchtime.  I’m thrilled with how this came out. It is the perfect accessory for this time of year, when it’s chilly in the morning but wearing a jacket feels like a bit much.

My mom might need one of these for her birthday this year…

Cedar growth spurt

My Cedar Leaf Shawlette has definitely experienced a growth spurt today – 13 leaves have sprouted since this morning!There will be 30 leaves in all, so I’m nearing the halfway point. The way this edging goes on is interesting.  You can see above that the edge stitches on the body are still live (on the pink cable).  I cast 5 stitches on to the dpn to begin the first leaf, and then there is a lot of increasing and decreasing and eating up of the edge stitches.  18 rows later, there is a new leaf and 5 stitches on the dpn again.  I’m ready to start another leaf above.

Leaf detail:Bonny, Saroyan looks like a fraternal twin to Cedar Leaf Shawlette, and the Ravelry description even mentions compares the two patterns.  I say “go for it!”

A bit of spring

I’ve been wanting a very small shawl or scarf to wrap around my neck on chilly spring mornings here (or in my ultra chilly office).  I’ve been musing about this for at least a couple of weeks, but Friday night I got serious and spent some time on Ravelry looking for candidates that could be knit out of stash sock yarn.

Saturday morning I reevaluated my two finalists, Cedar Leaf Shawlette and Sugared Violets.

Here is Alana Dakos’s Cedar Leaf Shawlette (worn like a shawl – but truly, I intend to wear it more like a scarf):

And here is Rose Beck’s Sugared Violets (again, a small crescent-shaped shawl that I would wear like a scarf):

I was feeling the pull of spring green, so I picked this Knit One, Crochet Too Crock-O-Dye sock yarn from stash.  The yardage was a better match for the Cedar Leaf project, so that made my decision for me. I have just finished the main part of the garment.  Now it’s time to figure out how to attach those perky little leaves. Maybe I’ll be sporting this by the end of the week!