Knitting on Impulse

Wild Skies Mittens

These were such fun to create.

 
I had a couple of goals in mind with these mittens:

Firstly, of course, was the challenge of creating a balanced design with equal quantities of the five Wild Skies colourways (a single Quintet in Summit Sock, in this case). To be honest, pink with blue is a little out of my comfort zone, but I persisted in the belief that nature does not err and the sky would surely have its own intrinsic harmony. The hot hues of Alpenglow are nicely tempered by Grey Day, while the somber blues of Twilight have a steadying influence on the bright energies of Dawn and Ultraviolet. The most brilliant colourways were allowed to play together only in small doses within the trim and mitten tips.

Secondly, in keeping with January's theme of Possibility, I wanted a sense of lavish exuberance, and I was inspired to that end by Lizbeth Upitis' wonderful book documenting the mittens of Latvia. I utilised a traditional sun motif as the centrepiece (as befits the sky), modifying the surrounding flourishes to fit.

The palms, however, were designed in a fit of pure whimsy:

 

The perfectionist in me can't help but conceed that it would be nice if all the letters fell in areas of identical contrast, but the design was intended to honor the spirit of impulsive ecstasy - that happy creative place where every possibility is on the table, and the work of pruning and perfecting still a long ways off. For me, it does exactly that.

Annui

is the Inuktitut word for falling snow, more specifically, the mesmerizing dance of gently drifting flakes unhindered by wind:

 

Inspired by the gradual accumulation of enormous feathery crystals on the murky twilight forest, the design also echoes the light and dark duality of our winter landscape.
 

Light and dark, yin and yang... all places have possibility.
 

 

Knit up from two half skeins of Bluefaced Bliss Worsted (ie. a BFL Worsted Duet), Annui was designed to be graphically striking as well as quick and simple to knit. The pattern will be available soon, in 5 sizes, with an alternate graphic option for the middle size, and the deep ribbing makes it pretty much foolproof to fit. (I had hoped to have it published for the gifting season, but c'est la vie.) It has gone off for tech editing and after that, testing, and... the coordinating mittens are nearly complete. Fortunately, there's still plenty of snow left in the year!

Resolution Day 10/26: Ornamental

It's technically not an indulgence from today, because I noodled it up a little while ago, but I think it's blog-worthy:

 
 
The yarn is fingering wt BFL in Copper and Heathergreen.

I was inspired by the Norwegian book that Anne blogged about, and that seems to be taking the Norwegian knitting world by storm,  but since it's written (not surprisingly) in Norwegian, I figured I'd just experiment on my own.  It's a fun way to play with colour on a small scale.

The Happy

I'm slowly waking up to two facts (one new, one as old as my adulthood, but nevertheless something I have perennially failed to come to grips with.)

1) That business last November with the abruptly ramped up workload, reduced resources, and through-the-roof stress? Turns out that was not a one time thing after all.  It may be annual, biannual... details are sketchy, but it's definitely back in full swing this month.

2) The truly useable, getting-important-stuff-done days in December? Adds up to about two weeks. That isn't a lot, considering what's on the the December To-Do list.

Those two factors combined last year to crush my seasonal happy and have been well on track to do the same again in 2010. I realize that lots of people don't celebrate Christmas (though very many people do celebrate something about light and connectedness around Solstice time) and still more have too much pain attached to the season to do anything but endure it, but for me, personally, it has always been a good and needful thing:  twinkling lights, warm fires, and little indulgences; traditions, rememberings, and milestones that mark the time, counting out safe passage through the darkest days of the dark season.

I don't control the external factors, but I'm not ready to give up on that safe passage... for me or my children. It is all too easy to drown in the urgent, succumb to the guilt-driven insistence that moments of pleasure must wait for all the work to be done, but before long there is only grimness and clock-despair and a horrid steel trap squeezing the life out of the brain.

So: I hereby resolve that on each of the crazy days between now and December 17th (the last day of school, when the possibility of kid-free productivity flies off into the ether like so many startled pigeons) I will indulge in a lovely thing, and post about it... even IF all my emails are not yet answered and the house is trashed and the website update isn't finished and the dinner dishes have not been cleared.  As part of that goal, I further resolve to make time for knitting - exactly what I want to, joyfully and without stress, and to gift it only to such rare people as will be enraptured by the magnificence of the object and the hours of loving labour contained therein.  My children are two such, and I further resolve to knit for them as the mood strikes, rather than being put off by the futility of engineering a surprise.

Here's one to kick things off:

 
It is suddenly stupidly cold and windy right now, well worthy of the prairies, only with the added bonus of coastal humidity, and Somebody grew out of all his winter mitts. I worked on these between chores yesterday and stayed up late to finish the second in time for school this morning. I may have overdone the thrumming a little, but once we wiggled and squished a tunnel through all that lovely merino roving, they fit just fine and kept him toasty warm through the -20 degree wind chill. Best of all was the poignant gratitude on his face this morning as he asked, "You stayed up that late? Just For Me?" That right there is the real deal behind the seemingly corny platitudes about love in every stitch. (Added bonus: his matching blue hat, the original Griflet, that has been tragically missing for more than two weeks, turned up like magic this afternoon. Good things beget good things.)

The Griflet Hat

Like so much of what I knit, this design grew from a functional idea.

When winter's chill deepens, and a breeze begins to blow, the ears get painfully cold, and a regular hat doesn't quite do the trick. Unfortunately, neither do standard earflaps - left to dangle at the sides of a hat, they tend to funnel, rather than repel, the wind, which rather defeats the purpose.

Griflet features a knitted on border that pulls the flaps and hat brim together, snugging in the edge just a little to create a secure cocoon. The increase in warmth is dramatic, providing enhanced protection for the face and back of the neck as well as the ears. 

The original prototype was created for my son, whose love of all things brave and knightly led to the graphic, textured design, and later the name - Sir Griflet was one of King Arthur's lesser known knights.

 

His sister immediately wanted one, being an active, outdoor soul:

and it turns out to be eminently appropriate for adventures of the grown-up kind:

 

The pattern is written for three sizes, to fit head circumferences of 20 (21-22, 22-23) inches, which equates roughly to toddler or young child (child/small adult, average/large adult.)

Yarn: 190-220 yds of worsted or light aran weight wool (though admittedly, those estimates are generous - both a tester and I knit the largest size from a single 190 yd skein of Merely Worsted - there wasn't much leftover, but it was quite do-able). My own hat is knit from Merely Worsted in Beary Surprise; my son's from Merely Worsted in Blueberry Skies, and my daughter's from Merino Whisper in Alpenglow Xtreme.
 
Skill level: intermediate or adventurous beginner. The bobbles around the border are not onerous, as they are constructed after the fashion of i-cord and therefore do not require the work to be flipped back and forth.

The Griflet pattern PDF is available for purchase and download via Ravelry, though you do not have to be a Ravelry member to purchase.

Enjoy!

Sampler Shawl - photographed, at last

Long overdue, but it just hasn't been outdoor FO weather for so long, at least not on a good hair day when hubby was around to wield the camera.

I got the modelled shots done a week ago, and by the time I realized I'd forgotten to photograph it flat, it was raining again.

The pattern was designed as a freebie for purchasers of my fingering weight sampler pack, but would work equally well for a single skein of sock or other fingering weight yarn, and the pattern can be continued as long as desired to create a larger version. Taxes permitting, I'll finally get it written up for testers this week and then sent off to the intrepid knitters who volunteered to knit it sight unseen. And after that, the PDF goes out to everyone who bought fingering samplers, and probably up for sale on Rav for more general use.

French and Fingerless

Reminiscent of the classic Provençal blue and gold colour scheme, in any case. These were my computer nightmare destressing project, and served rather well in that capacity.

I spent a while trying to chart a clever and original Fleur De Lys, only to be forced to admit that a basic five stitch diamond creates a pretty decent miniature version:

Sometimes you can't improve on simplicity. I do love the rich and layered look of colourwork done in two semi-solids.

 
(Yup, I photographed them in an Irish pub, rather than a French restaurant. That's just where the budget is at, right now.)  

Pattern: my own

Yarn: Summit Sock in Blueberry Skies and Pumpkin Pie (both of which have just been fully restocked in the Summit, as well as the Mere and Blissful Sock bases.)

Thanks so much for all the offers of test knitting - I will be organizing all that in the next couple of days. (Today was consumed with packing orders and doing up applications for summer venues.)

Xtreme Whispering

Somewhere way back in the Before Times (ie. pre-Olympics) I had a cute little earflap hat pattern all written and graded and tech edited and in need of an hour or two of formatting before soliciting test knitters. About that time, I finished up the second largest size for myself, using the original yarn of choice, Merely Worsted. There was about a yard leftover, which wasn't much of a buffer, and almost certainly would not make the largest size. I grumbled a little, and began another hat (this time for my daughter) in Merino Whisper, which being a softly spun single rather than a tightly spun 4ply, has more yardage in the skein.

The hat was finally completed 3 weeks ago (with loads of yarn to spare)... and photographed on our walk the other day (the colourway is Alpenglow Xtreme):

I've found the absolute best way to stress-test a yarn is to knit it into a garment for one of my kids. This hat has been worn every day for three weeks, usually in rain or wet snow, stuffed in a sodden lump in the bottom of a back-pack, generally treated with a complete lack of delicacy or consideration... and it looks like new. Not bad for a softly spun merino single, eh? It must be the superwash treatment that makes it so resilient to pilling, because it is a genuinely soft and lovely yarn.

It's got pretty decent elasticity and stitch definition , too - I'd originally envisioned it as a low-stress luxury accessory yarn (cowls, scarves, and such-like), but I think I'm seeing a sweater in my future.

 

Back to the hat... anybody want to test knit?  I can't promise the pattern this week, but definitely by next - we're on spring break this week, so concentrating-at-the-computer time is scarce.

Sampler Shawl

I promised a mini-shawl pattern waaaaay back when the first fingering sampler packs came out, and I've been working on it, truly I have. 

I generated a multitude of promising ideas, and whipped up all manner of possibilities by the seat of my pants, thereby creating a sizeable pile of partial shawls and abandoned swatches. Finally, I did what I ought to have done in the first place, and set down the baseline requirements: dimensions to optimally combine efficient use of yardage with practical wearability, undulating lines to maximize the dramatic effect of colour changes, intuitive internal logic, and flexibility in yarn requirement (ie. short pattern repeat to allow every scrap of yarn to be used and bind off on any given row). I gave angst-ridden artsy brain the day off, put math brain in gear, and had a viable algorithm in a surprisingly short time.

It is very cute and wearable as is, and I expect will improve considerably with blocking... I think this is the one!

The shawl used up a 6 x 60 yd fingering weight sampler pack, and would also be ideal for a single 100 gm skein of just about any fingering weight yarn, though I suspect it would also be lovely in a larger, 2 skein version. The garter stitch construction and strong graphic lines would be particularly effective for highly variegated yarns.

I'll block it over the next couple of days, and I hope to have at least a beta version of the pattern ready by next week (not to mention some more sampler packs) but that will depend on the state of this sinus headache, which is seriously inhibiting focused computer work. (You know the kind - every time you cough, your eyeballs want to pop right out of their sockets, and you feel all dizzy and foggy like there isn't enough room for your brain? SO not what I needed for getting back up to speed this week.)

Speaking of computer sessions, I have got a nice selection of laceweight reskeined and ready to go, so I will try to photograph and upload them tomorrow... and try out the new newsletter program (just so's you know to expect something that looks a little different).

Family Knitwear

Website update to follow... well... right now.