Forests of Fall Smoke Ring

Now, this project was fun to knit.... I decided on a smoke ring, wimple, or cowl, if you will. I used a lovely yarn from Biscotte & Cie in the Boreal Forest colorway. I've been having fun using up my stash by the way, it's so much fun to just shop for yarn in your own house!

First August project completion is my Forest of Fall Smoke Ring and I am so pleased with it.

This pattern is the Wavy Feathers Wimple pattern, and it is such a lovely knit. It knits up quickly, is easy to remember, and is nearly mindless knitting with enough variety to quell boredom.

It is so soft and squishy... I think I'm officially becoming addicted to cowls. Now I want to have many so I can throw them on whenever I like. It's really the kind of thing I can wear all day long and it doesn't get in the way - which is a plus with five kids and always having full hands - but it's snuggly and warm, but not too hot even with temps in the 60's. This is knit from a 80% superwash wool with 20% nylon.

This last picture is taken before I blocked it, and really it's quite fine without blocking. The blocking pulls out the pattern of course, and gives it some extra size, but it's very stretchy and I imagine that I can just machine wash it and dry, then take out when it's a little damp and sort of shape it for a quick dry. 

The Elvish Cami Project

During July I ended up working on the Inamorata Camisole. I began it three times, with the third time seeming to be the one that was charmed. I'm not sure why, but although I got gauge with a #6 needle when I tested it, I had to go way down and use a #2 and #4 when I was knitting it. This is why I ended up re-starting it because the first time I knit it, it was about 6 inches too large.

I used my 'Prince of the Wood Elves' colorway (this is a colorway that's named after Legolas from Lord of the Rings) and thus began my Elvish Cami. I held it double during the entire project and it created a very nice, and dense fabric. It's quite cool and comfortable to wear as well. So after all of my work, I needed to find the perfect buttons. A local Portland clay artisan was the answer. BeadFreaky makes these lovely clay buttons, beads and pendants. I absolutely love the tree buttons with the yarn, all coming together to make my Elvish Cami be what I pictured in my mind.

The best part is that the yarn is a superwash and I decided to try washing it inside a pillowcase the other day. I also tossed said pillowcase into the dryer on medium and then pulled it out after a regular cycle and hung it up to finish up drying since it was just the slightest bit damp. It looked just as fabulous as when I'd soaked it by hand and blocked it! I have to love that "wash and wear" aspect. Superwash yarns are beginning to really get on my good side, I'm telling you...

Teaching my kids the art of the fiber arts

Today was "take your kids to work day". My husband brought my older boys to work with him today, and I starting thinking that I could keep Morgana home with me and I could show her how I create my hand painted yarns. Thinking of it, our 3 year old Gabriel has been desperately wanting to dye his own yarn, after watching me dye my Alice in Wonderland series of yarns.

The day started off pretty darn nice. I slept in to 7am, which is wonderful on a school day. I made myself some coffee, and let my morning just come along slowly since I had plenty of time to kill while I waited for my husband to come back with the car.

The yarn journey started at Northwest Wools in the village. They both picked out some alpaca/wool blend to dye. Morgana told me she wanted me to knit a stuffed kitty, and she wanted pink and gold ochre for her yarn. Gabriel just wanted blue yarn so I could knit him a puppy.

Gabriel getting on with his blue painting!

Morgana begins with pink, after she figured out how she wanted to paint her color sections.

Gabe has used two blues, green, and now a third tone of blue. You can see me starting off my Trail Blazer red for my playoff socks :)

She added in her gold ochre to her pink.

Gabriels yarn wrapped and ready to be heated to set the dye.

She's all done! I think her colors look like a Spring sunset.

We wrapped up M's yarn and it's getting ready to be heated.

When Gabriel was done, he did red, blues, greens, and created some purples. He took some of my black dye I mixed up and he added a little of that to it. His yarn is heat set, and cooling here.

Go Blazers! Almost done painting the yarn. Black dye is sooo messy I had to really be careful using such dark colors to not let them contaminate each other or seep while keeping an eye on the kids and their dye. 

A little self-made bed he made while waiting for his yarn to set. Peregrin looks on in the background, admiring  his brothers work. For a 14 month old, he really did good playing calmly while we got three skeins of yarn painted. Seriously.

Not a great representation of the the colors, but here are their yarns, hand-dyed by a 3 yo and a 6 yo, and heated, cooled, rinsed and now hanging up to dry. Should be ready in about 2 days, then it's onto winding it into a knittable ball of yarn, and knitting these skeins into a kitty and a puppy.

Kiddo Mitts Pattern with pictures to show two at a time cast on

Kiddo Mitts

(in Harry Potter Gryffindor 'Apprenti Sorcier', see yarn description below)

These are on my 8 year old, who is petite and slender, but have enough ribbing stretch in them to accommodate most kids age 3 years to 8 years or more. They are easily adapted by adding in two to four stitches on the cast on edge to fit kids with larger hands and arms.

Needles: size US 2, 47" circular

Yarn: Biscotte & Cie 'Apprenti Sorcier'

Skills: magic loop, two at a time, long-tail CO, knit, purl, peasant thumb

(picture instructions below for getting started if you haven't knit two at a time on magic loop before)

I knit these two at a time on magic loop. If you prefer, you can work them one at a time on DPNs or on a circular. Just cast on like you normally would instead of following the cast on I'm giving.

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CO 48 sts and pull the end loop of the circular needle out so there are 24 sts on each side.

Push the sts back up to the needle tips and exchange the end st from each needle to close the circle. Then, pull back down so you can cast on for second mitt.

With a second ball of yarn, CO 24 sts (half of your total sts for one mitt) onto one needle for your second mitt.

Now, use your other needle to transfer these sts purlwise to your other needle.

This will put your working end where it needs to be to cast onto the other needle and close your circle by exchanging end sts like before.

Holding the working end of the yarn, ready to cast on the remaining 24 sts onto the other needle.

Two sts cast onto second needle using long tail cast on.

All sts cast on for second mitt, ready to exchange sts to close the circle and begin knitting.

(images above are knit using Biscotte & Cie's dark wizard colorway)

Both mitts cast on, circles closed by exchanging sts, with separate balls of yarn for each mitt. Ready to knit :)

Now that we are cast on and ready to go, when you are working with two at a time, you will knit along the first side of one mitt, then you will knit along one side and the other side of the second mitt, then you can finish up the last side of the first mitt and you will have completed one full round on each mitt at this point. I find it helpful to add a little stitch marker to the first mitt (or sock if I'm knitting socks) so that I always remember when I complete a full round on both. I usually just attach an clasp-type marker to the first row of knitting after I've completed a few full rounds and leave it there until I'm done.

*K2, P2* repeat in asterisks for each round, until you have knit 3" or 4" for the cuff and hand portion of the mitt. My example is knit in 4" length.

Using a waste yarn of contrasting color (important it's contrasting so you can find it easily), knit 7 sts onto waste yarn, then tuck ends inside work and pick up regular working yarn, leaving a comfortable float where you knit with the waste yarn.

Continuing knitting in pattern of K2, P2 for another 1" to 1.5" (example is knit in about 1") to complete the mitt. Use a stretchy bind off like Elizabeth Zimmermann's Sewn Bind Off

note: I usually bind off one side and then use the needle I just finished on to transfer sts onto so I can continue around in my bind off. You will only need to do this for the first mitt, as when you get to the second it's the only one left on the needles.

Now you are ready to knit the thumb.

Carefully remove your waste yarn and put the live sts onto your needles. Knit around first 7 sts, pick up 2 sts on side, continue onto other needle, knitting other 7 sts and pick up two more sts on other side of thumb.

Continue in pattern now of K2, P2 for about 5 rnds and bind off using EZ's bind off like described above for mitt bind off.

Do the same for second mitt. Any questions or corrections, please comment or email me so I can update. Thanks!