Fancy Yarn

I was just visiting Mom and she gave me this amazing yarn!  She bought it at an art fair or something (I didn't quite understand. The lady may have just been hanging out in a random parking lot...) from this woman who raises the animals, sheers them, and spins and dyes the yarn.  So cool!  I would love to get to see the production side of yarn.  It's so crazy how spinning and crocheting/knitting are often mutually exclusive, even though you can't do either if you don't have spun yarn!

Anyway, these are some of the nicest yarns I've ever had.  I'm actually kind of nervous to use them because I'm afraid I won't do them justice and whatever I make won't stand up to the integrity of the yarn itself.  Ah, the burdens of being a crafter!

Another challenge is that I have relatively limited amounts of each yarn, really only enough to make a hat and/or mittens in each.  Or maybe a relatively short and narrow scarf.  Mom wants me to make something for her combining the purple and neutral ones (2nd and 3rd photos below) but a) she doesn't like/want anything that I can make with this amount of yarn and b) I'm not crazy about that color combination.  I don't think it looks bad, per say, but it doesn't really look good either.  Perhaps because each yarn is so rich on its own, putting them together dampens the effect rather than making them looking better.  I'm going to my local yarn store this weekend for suggestions of what to do with it and to see if they have any other yarn I can combine it with to provide more yardage.  So we shall see...  Stay tuned to see what I create!

I was a dummy and threw away the label for this one before noting the materials, but I assume it's similar to the others.   I  think I'm going to make a hat for myself with it - I have about 50 yards.

Grey alpaca and grey fine wool - 210 yards

Natural indigo with rainbow wools - 160 yards

Please feel free to comment with any suggestions on what I could make!  These are all worsted to bulky weight yarns (I'm a bad judge, but I'd lean more towards bulky).  I'd also like stick to knitting since it uses less yarn.

You can see the spinning website here (personally, I don't think the website's so good, but she has some nice yarn so...).  The farm is Wauka Valley - there's also a link to it on the spinning wesbite.

Colorful Cable Hat with Earflaps

When I first learned to knit, my friend Zina commented on how she really liked the colors of yarn I was using.  So, to be an awesome friend, I made a hat for her with it.  Granted, it was only my second hat, but it still came out really well and she wears it all the time.  A few weeks later, I made hats for myself and another friend using a very nice, 100% hand-dyed wool.  And I let it slip that Zina's hat was made with acrylic yarn I'd hat lying around for years.  Since then, she's be pestering me non-stop for a colorful hat.

Well, she's moving to another country, so I decided what better send off than this cabled, earflap hat.  Not that she'll really needs it where she's going....  This is the first pattern that's I've really written myself, and the first earflap hat I've made.  The idea came from this Chunky Cabled Earflap Hat, but aside from learning how to do the increases on the earflaps, I didn't look at any pattern!  (Clearly, I'm pleased with myself!)  Admittedly, there are a few mistakes, but that's what makes it personal, right?  Zina seemed to like it as well, and hopefully she'll get some good use out of it.

Granny Stripe Cowl

My good friend Lara is moving to away, so I made this cowl for her as half (very belated) holiday gift and half going-away present.  The pattern was inspired in part Attic 24's Granny Stripe afghan and in part by this two-colored cowl from Purl Bee.  I also needed something that would work up pretty quickly because I only had a few days to finish it before Lara moved.

I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn, I think in color bourbon (I threw the packaging away...).  I used to work with this yarn a lot when I first starting crocheting, but then I stopped.  This project reminded me why.  The finish project is very soft and has a nice texture, but it's a pain to work with!  Making the foundation chain was especially difficult because the individual stitches were tough to see.

Knitting Group

I've been wanting to be a part of a knitting/crochet group for a while.  There's open knit at my local yarn shop two nights a week, but for some reason that seems intimidating.  A friend has hosted a few knitting groups, but I've always had previous engagements.  And, honestly, despite how fun and helpful I think it would be to be part of a group, I'm quite cozy sitting on my own couch watching TV in my pajamas while I knit, so why mess with what's working.

Last Friday, I finally decided to step outside my comfort zone and go for it.  A friend forwarded me an email she got from her neighborhood coop - some people were trying to start a group and anyone was welcome to come.  So, my trusty knitting buddy and I emailed that we would be there and, come Friday night while others our age were heading out to the bar, we went off to knit in a stranger's living room!  IT WAS SO FUN!!!  Firstly, this woman's house was GORGEOUS!  She's lived all over the world and has artwork from her travels hanging on the walls.  I'd say she's in her early 60's and she's been knitting since she was a child, so she has a lot of experience.  She served as teacher for those who had questions or were just learning.  Another girl and I also offered a few tips, but for the most part we let the host handle it.  It seemed like most people were just getting started with knitting.  In addition to me and Sab, there were two other people who came with projects in hand.  One girl was working on a very pretty lace scarf.  The other was just getting back into knitting - she had started off making a scarf, but it was turning into more a large swatch/small blankie type thing.  Either way, it was really pretty and the yarn was luxurious.  Everyone else either came to learn how to knit, or were just starting new projects after a long hiatus and needed some help picking knitting back up.

All in all, it was a really fun time.  We're scheduled to do it again this week, so hopefully people come back.  It will be nice as we all get to know each other and can just chat rather than trying to force conversation or only talk about knitting.

Here are a few shots from the night:

That's Sab in the back working on her beautiful (though tedious) shawl for her Grandmother.

Domestic Goats T-Shirts

Because we are awesome, my trivia team was invited to the trivia invitationals at the end of January!  Since we're already convinced of our intellectual prowess, we decided we'd earn some bonus points in the Spirit category.  Our team names is the Domestic Goats, so, in addition to finding a stuffed goat and hopefully some goat horns, we made these awesome t-shirts!  I thought of the idea of the goat sitting on top of his house because there was a goat that lived down the street from me that always did this.  He was sitting up there so often that I used him as a landmark when directing people to my house: "Turn left at that street - you'll see a goat sitting on top of his house" (yes, I grew up in the boonies).

So, with an iron and some transfer paper, Domestic Goat Tees were born!  We each have a clever nickname loosely based on trivia or our team name:

Zeiga - which means "goat" in German
Posh Goat - she's definitely the fanciest of us all
Cooper - Because he knew coopers are barrel makers
Shirley - this is me; I order Shirley Temples during trivia every week - well, now I don't so much as order them as the waiter just brings them because he knows what we all drink without asking.
OOOH Face!!! - This is my boyfriend.  Whenever there's a question he knows (which is often), he gets this look and kind of shrugs his shoulders as if to say "Is that even a real question?  You're insulting my intelligence by asking that."
That Guy - You'd have know Zack...

Semi-finished project - mine is the light purple/pink one

Tits ironing on the goats!

Wavy Cables

I made this hat and the Waffle Hat as holiday presents for friends.  I just taught myself (thanks YouTube) to cable and so I was excited to try this pattern.  It's so fun to be able to do more than just basic knits and purls!  I used Berroco Peruvia Quick in color Nautica for this hat and followed the Plum Cabled Hat Pattern by Molly Jane Wick, available for free on Ravelry.

I really love the twists and turns in this hat and the texture that the cables create.  I also really liked this yarn.  It worked up relatively quickly and I ended with a ridiculously warm and stylish hat - well, my friend did.  Perhaps I will once I finish all my holiday gifts (yes, I'm very behind).  My one comment for this pattern is check your gauge!  I didn't, and I paid for it.  I ended up knitting this hat three times because my first two attempts ended up ridiculously small!  The third and final could have maybe used a little more length, but the circumference was good so I refused to rip it out and start over for a fourth time.

Guest Post - Jen's Headband

To encourage my friends to let their crafty sides shine, I've decided to start a new section for Guest Posts!  The first installment comes from my good friend Jen who, in her busy life as a 3rd year law student, managed to find time to knit this pretty and practical headband.  Side note - this is her first knitting project (I'm pretty sure - correct me if I'm wrong JHal)!

You can download the pattern for free here.  Jen used Patons Classic Wool in Light Grey Marle and ended up knitting a few more than the suggested 86 rows to have the headband fit comfortably.  According to her, "This is a GREAT project: a way to practice a basic stitch without thinking too hard about counting, easily modifiable, and (nearly) INSTANT gratification."