a recent project

For the last few weeks I've been working on a piece using my Brooklyn Tweed Shelter yarn that my mom gave me for Christmas. My thing these days has been working through an entire project before starting something new. At least that's what I've been forcing myself to do with knitting projects, otherwise I find I'll abandon a project and never return to it. This stickin' to it thing has been really good. I know that it's saved me money, because I've been limiting myself to buying yarn for the project at hand rather than the project that I dream about starting down the road. Besides, I find it fun to go get what you need and get started right away rather than waiting to finish something else up first. After making four cowls using the softest baby alpaca yarn this winter I wanted to try something a little more interesting and challenging...and thus picked the Romney Kerchief (why it's called that, I have no idea).

A quick five dollar download later, I was facing the prospect of learning a new method of casting on before I could get started. This was the perfect pattern, really. It challenged me to learn a few new things (grafting garter stitch, blocking, blah blah...) but was still relatively straightforward. I know this might be boring knitting talk for those of you who don't knit, but you might be interested in knowing that YouTube is a great source of knitting tutorial videos. I learned to everything I needed to know to make this piece from videos I found there.

Now I have two balls of Shelter left in a beautiful red colour called "Long Johns". I'm considering whether to tackle another of these kerchiefs or to try something new, perhaps this cable and lace cowl. Ultimately I dream of getting up the guts to tackle this beauty or perhaps this gorgeous sweater. Are you knitting anything these days?

five friday favourites: knitting

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Though all of a sudden Vancouver is being inundated with humid, hot Hawaiian air (this is what they tell me), earlier this week it felt like the right time of year to bust out some wool and knitting needles. I scoured the internet for some tips on the type of thing that I wanted to make (more on what I made another day) and found some great stuff along the way.

Great stuff like this company that has "Brooklyn" in its name (pretty much a pre req. these days for company names): Brooklyn Tweed. But honestly I love their 100% American wool yarns, especially this awesome colour called "long johns". I think I would make it into mittens. Their patterns also look pretty great, and I love the fact that you just download .pdfs from their site for some instant gratification.

I was looking for a finer, textured cowl pattern, but I also came across this super chunky pattern from Martha Stewart. If you want to make something giant really quickly I'm pretty sure it would do the trick.

In my search for exciting (and, let's face it, low commitment) patterns I also found this knitting-centric tumblr: Knitting, Fuck Yeah! It's packed with pages of properly linked patterns and is a great visual collection of knitting inspiration.

I have never been successful with intarsia (using two or more colours in the same row to make magical gloves or mitts like these), but my mom has mastered the double knit New England/Maritimes mitten. I hope that she makes me a pair that I can pick up in Calgary at Christmas time! If I had a picture of her handy work I'd post it as my fourth favourite (though it's technically my first favourite). Instead, I'll just let you know that someday soon she hopes to get her knitwear company, Bow Valley Knits, up and running.

And finally, if you can't afford $100 Norwegian mittens, you could make your own. Mitts are a pretty easy project to take on to learn a few more basic skills, like working in the round and increasing/decreasing. These ones look super easy and would get you started.

There you go, people. The best of the things that I found this week before I just made up my own pattern for what I wanted to make and winged everything. Also, starting a new project may or may not have been an excuse just to use the manual winding machine at the yarn store. I love those things!

five friday favourites

This week is the first time that autumn weather has made an appearance in Vancouver. It makes me excited to get a new sweater or two, bake spiced cookies, and watch a lot (and I mean, a lot) of movies. As much as I don't want summer to ever go away and though I would never say that I was ready for summer to end, there is a certain excitement brewing about the fall slow down. And my first fall without school in, well, almost forever. For me fall is a time to still be outside a lot, enjoying bike rides and trips to farms and mountains whenever possible, but with a little less going on in general. It feels like there is breathing room, though maybe that just has something to do with the fact that I finished school this spring and that our wedding is now a couple of weeks behind us.

Anyway, on to the fall-related finds. First of all, I was excited to discover that you can buy mini doughnuts on Etsy. I think I might have to order some of those dudes to our American mailbox address just because I can. The rest of these picks are all about thick knitwear, cold weather, and smokey campfires. Click on the links below to see more.

1. The gorgeous Blanket poster by Debbie Carlos

2. Woodsmoke and Vanilla perfume oil by FlourishBathBody

3. Two dozen (!!!) pumpkin spice doughbabies by donutsandmore

4. Crochet genius Yokoo's Soopascarf

5. Raincity Boot Warmers by Vancouver's own Kove

So, these are the handmade things that I think would really help me survive the non-summer months this year. What autumn-y things have you found lately?

If you'd like to see more of my fall finds, I have three new treasuries on Etsy: Around the Campfire, Sweater Weather, and Awesome Autumn.