Leaf-needle shawl, Fingerless gloves, Christmas Stocking and Chardon-knitting.

I really hate these piled up blog posts but so many things have been going on in the shop that I just have to backlog the fun and spill it all out to you all when I get a moment or hour.

The Leaf-Needle Shawl

11/8/2012 This is a lovely vine that grows all over an arbor at our local park.  It has what looks like small grapes but I am not sure if it is a grape vine or not.  The pinky reds are lovely and this allows me to rerun the yarn from yesterday that is so much fun to knit with.  The amitola by Louisa Harding is a single ply fingering weight yarn with a very long striping.  I went all the way around with 400 stitches and did not get through one of the color changes.


11/9/2012
I feel the need for green.  There is still plenty of it in the Pacific Northwest and I have already done plenty of the yellow in the yellow leaves but the lime green is one of my favorite colors.  I have a skein of a similar shade in a lace-weight lopi (Einband) yarn to use for this row.

Lopi Einband lace weight yarn in Lime

11/10/2012

 I used to think that Magnolias were just grown int he south but surprisingly we have very similar weather conditions up here in Hillsboro/Portland Oregon as they do in many parts of the south.  In my previous neighborhood there were Magnolia trees that towered over the homes and bloomed lovely dinner plate sized blooms.  In Orenco they mostly live in pots near businesses. This one stands in front of our local Indian restaurant.

Black Trillium Fibres makes a lovely silk/wool yarn called Canopy.  This makes a lovely Magnolia color for my row.




Fingerless Gloves:

 Brandi, one of my wonderful customers is a knitting machine :)  She knits lovely things and then lets me borrow them to show in the store.  I am soooo grateful for her generosity.
  The latest is this lovely pair of fingerless gloves using from Cascade's superwash sport weight yarn.  This yarn is lovely to work with and so soft.  Brandi found this pattern on ravelry.  The hemming technique is wonderful on this one and the colorwork looks lovely.

Christmas Stocking:

For the last several Tuesday nights a couple of us have been working on Christmas stockings.  I used this free pattern available online.  It is a basic pattern and although very easy to work up.  The pattern does not come with any colorwork patterns so those trees in the pattern photo have to be hunted for online.  I found these horses (my daughter loves her horses) at the Lopi webpage and luckily they stitch numbers matched up nicely so I didnt have to adjust the design to fit.

 I am not fully happy with the stocking foot and heel. The white for the heel is much to long and the foot too short. I didn't like the patterns version of just a short square in the back but when I tried carrying in the color all through the heel turn it became a whole new kind of problem.  I am planning on doing a second stocking for my grandson and will use another pattern or change this one for that. This pattern has you work the instep first and then work the heel turn. I much prefer to work the heel, turn it and then pick up stitches to along the side so that the remainder of the foot can be worked in the round. 

The method and stitch numbers I have in mind result in a shorter amount of heel contrast color. Picking up stitches along the sides makes it easier to control any loose stitches and/or holes (the one above had several yarnovers that I had to reinforce when I was done). and I also like the ridges that are made in the heel gusset from the knit two together and slip, slip, knit stitches used as decreased along the sides of the foot.  I will make sure and include both stockings side by side when I get a chance to put the new one together

Chardon-knitting:

Last night was the second Friday and that means....CHARDON-KNITTING!!!  There was just four of us last night but we had a great time!  We drank David Hill Pinot Gris.  We made our first Christmas ornament of the season.  I very cute and easy ball of yarn with needles.  and then we worked on our own projects.  It is great fun and the next chardon-knitting session will be December 14.  Any adult can register online by linking to the date on the calendar.

 Brandi working on a pair of socks using Regia Alaska self striping yarn.

 Dorrie working on her Christmas ornament

 Dorie Crocheting a slouchy hat.  Just because it is called Chardon-knitting does not mean we don't work any kind of craftiness with our wine!! chardon-crafty just isn't as catchy sounding.

 Lynn looking up photos of her grand children to show us.

 Finished knitters Christmas ornaments.

 A toast with David Hill Pinot Gris.