Utopia Hat
Pattern | Utopia Hat by Smariek
Yarn | Handpaintedyarn.com Colonial in Carmenere
Needles | 5mm circulars

With winter fast approaching and having little to zero decent beanies to call my own - I could pinch HB’s but he has been stashing his in his coat pocket which he wears to work every day - I decided to quickly knit up one for use soon. This is supposed to match some fingerless gloves that I’ve been working on for like…ever and there wasn’t enough for a beret so a beanie it was.

As for my fingerless gloves, they are still in the making - somehow I’m awfully slow with any project that comes in twos.

The yarn is a single spun aran weight yarn from Handpaintedyarn.com and is suitable for felting. Pretty easy to knit if you ask me. Despite being a single ply, it has a good stretch quality and turned out rather well for this project. I made some modifications since I don’t want anything overly long. I don’t exactly have a big head so I did two cables for each of the upper and lower patterns and shortened the rest by a few lines. It turned out to be just perfect. Any more and I would end up with a cone shaped beanie.

Overall, I’m happy with this project. It’s good to get back into the knitting game again. Now if only I can speed it up a little while working on other stuff like this gift card thingie, my spinning, classes and work…

With winter fast approaching, I thought I’d knit up some socks for Nil since he did mention that I never seem to knit up anything useful for him. He doesn’t think scarves are very useful…o’well…he doesn’t need them, actually. XD

Anyway, I’ve decided to work on these with one of my own Merino-Bamboo handdyes named Mountain Blue. It’s a two-coloured yarn and so far, it’s showing up as self-striping but I’m anxious to see how the colour blends on as I progress further up the foot length as well as cabling.

I’m actually loving the colourway - the bamboo gives it a soft heathery look and it’s still very masculine - and I plan on replicating this colourway for regular superwash sock yarns.

So yup, time to spin, spin and knit, knit!!!

Diamond Skinny Scarf
Pattern | Based on a stitch dictionary
Yarn | Rowan Tapestry in 173
Needles | 5mm

The item is actually for the shop (listed here) but it has been a while since I last showcased my finished FO…including the shawl design I churned up (which is being featured on my shop blog).

The yarn was lovely to work with and a wool-soy blend has never ceased to amaze me. The colourway was an unexpected purchase from Maryann’s stash and I thought it would go well with the current season (autumn). The smooth yet light texture of the yarn gave the finished product a very ethereal and airy feel, making it suitable for any type of weather condition. Now, top that with some gorgeous soft stripes of brown-chocolate, taupe and purple! Absolutely delish, if you ask me!

The pattern is easy to knit up and quick too…I took about under a week, if you count the other distractions and all to finish this. Anyway, there are more pictures on the shop listing here - do have a go look-see! I hope to churn out more handknitted scarves - am working on a thick-thin lacy one at the moment. Looking at the colours just excites me!!!

On the side, I wonder what people think about diets and weight loss pills…reading a BTB’s (Bride-To-Be’s) struggle with her weight yoyo-ing just before the big day brings back fond memories.

…would be some lovely handknitted lace scarflettes!!!! Yes, this is a shameless plug but hey, it’s a good shameless plug!

More about this first lace design of mine here and oh, if you want to get your hands on it, it’s for sale up here!!!

If you must know, I’m currently knitting up the 2nd design in some handdyed blue-silver laceweight merino-cashmere-silk yarn! YUM-MEH!

Here’s a sneak peek to tempt you while I get busy on writing out the pattern.

I finally completed knitting up the design that I’ve been working on. With another shawl in tow, the two are now drying out on the blocking mat. With any luck, I should be able to churn out the pattern on PDF with some lovely pics AND showcase it on the shop’s blog.

In the meantime, it’s back to the knitting and drawing board for another two patterns PLUS getting back to my weaving. Modelling the scarves today felt strangely good - sometimes, I think I need to be reminded about how soft and warm my handwoven scarves are.

After handpainting, there is kettle dyeing and as you can see, the test skein above yielded some pretty remarkable results. Sometimes it’s unbelievable what some dye, hot water and vinegar can do to yarn (and roving). Plus the beauty about kettle dyeing mixed with handpainting is that it cuts my working time by at least half!!! So that means a higher production level!

Anyway, this little baby is a small 18 gms (or so) skein of merino-cashmere-silk laceweight that I’m brought in specially for the store. I can’t really sell it so am using it to knit a smallish-lace triangle scarf-lette design that I’m currently working on. It’s based on a combination of two stitch patterns that I found in Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles. If it goes well and passes the whole copyright thing (I did my own charts, instructions and all as well, so I hope it’s not a problem since stitches aren’t copyrighted), I hope to either knit shawls based on this or publish this. *keeps fingers crossed*

In the meantime, there’s always some good autumn weather - we’re thinking of doing a 20.5 km ride around the lake area - to look forward to plus heaps of other stuff to get busy with, not including assignments like term life insurance quotes…

Since Nil and I caught the flu (thanks to me, actually), the house has been abuzz with a certain air - I can’t really pinpoint exactly what it is. While I’m getting better, the flu is going full course with Nil. Still, dyeing is out of the question since I don’t want to sneeze away precious dye powder and neither did I intend of moving about when my nose & ears are still blocked (read: lousy balance). Maybe some Air O Swiss humidifiers would work with the sneezing and stuff?

So I figured knitting would be a good enough therapy except that I wasted about a day knitting the wrong thing. Yes, I was off to a shaky start over the weekend. Blame it on me not reading instructions properly. Then I hit a roadblock - the flu somehow caused my brain to go into overdrive so I managed to confuse myself properly.

All is good now - after consulting the designer and some people on Ravelry (YAY!), I’ve resorted to the old-fashioned yet very reliable method of jotting down rows as I’m chugging along. With some luck, I hope to finish it when autumn arrives…or at least mid-autumn anyway.