in the mood for ....

COLOR:

CLUE 1 & 2 OF THE DOODLER (WESTKNITS MKAL 2015)

COMFORT:

SKYP SOCKS

CABLES: 

REVERSIBLE BRAIDED COWL

CHRISTMAS:

MITTEN GARLAND ADVENT

  

.... in other words, all the things! I think that the more hectic life gets around here, the more new and shiny distractions are needed to cope with the stress. But it's all good and I am so grateful for the craziness of my work and home life. Also grateful for all of you who have hung in there with my sporadic blogging this year. So, what's new? Are holiday preparations and knitting/crafting/baking in full swing or are you in denial? I love this time of year and have been trying to fit in as much holiday merrymaking as possible with my two guys. The house is decorated, none of the shopping is done, and there will be cookies coming out of the oven soon. Seems like I'm right on schedule ;)

a sheepish weekend

Happily exhausted and recovering from a weekend full of fiber, yarn, good friends and fried artichokes. And lots of adorable sheep:

Every year I go to Maryland Sheep and Wool with a wish list and every year I end up ignoring it. But that's half the fun! This year also came with the temptation of an indie pop-up store at the Knot House with irresistible vendors like YOTH Yarns, Duck Duck Wool, O-wool, and Magpie Fibers. Skeins of yarn were jumping off the shelves and into my shopping bag faster than you can say Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep. 

The weather was beautiful but warm, so I ended up wearing my sheep heid which drew some smiles. It was the perfect accessory for a sheepish weekend :)

Here are some details on the hat: the yarn is from my never-ending stash of knitpicks palette. I've been drawing lots of color inspiration recently from everyday objects such as interesting packaging, printed shirts from my closet and flowers from the backyard. This particular color combination for sheep heid came from one of my favorite flannel shirts.

Doesn't it look like the sheep are standing in a meadow of flowers?

A Matter of Tension

After finishing up my second crochet project ever, I felt like I was ready to take up a new crafty challenge. Brioche, reversible cables, double knitting...Bring It On! To say that I was overconfident would be an understatement. But then when my feet touched the ground again, I decided to start out with something a little bit less ambitious, like working on my rusty fair isle knitting skills. After scoping out some projects on ravelry and the blogosphere, I settled on a simple matching cowl and mitts set a la the ever stylish Kate Davies. It seemed best to start with the cowl in order to get a feel for stranded knitting again without having to deal with double pointed needles. I also thought that I would be like the other cool kids and learn how to do two-handed stranded knitting. The result? A perfect mess! My tension went from too loose to too tight. My left hand cramped up. It seemed like it took forever to knit just one round. I know that practice makes perfect and that any new skill is difficult in the beginning. But the deal breaker for me was when I looked at the fabric I had knitted and saw how uneven and puckered it was. Rip! Now I am happily sailing along, using my old and tested method of picking up and dropping each color with my right hand. It's not cool but it works for me. Here is what I have so far:

I love the simple look of this motif.

(check out WIP Wednesday with Tami's Amis for knitting and crochet projects from the coolest crafters around)