Feeling Frenchy

I have no idea if this hat has any true French origins, but I love saying the word "beret". I have my own personal French expert with whom I might consult on this point (she knows who she is). But, for now, let's just move on to the eye-candy, shall we?





Pattern: One-Day Beret from Kirsten at Through the Loops.
Yarn: Coordinating colors of Koigu (KPM and KPPPM) (not gonna give you the color #s as you probably can't find it now anyway)
Purchased at: Purl Soho in NYC on a girls' weekend with my sis.
Needles: US 1 & 2 circs from KnitPicks
Button: Handcarved ebony wood button from my LYS.




I loved this pattern. Because you work it from the top down, you can use any weight yarn without the dreaded GAUGE swatch. I used sock yarn, so it took more than one day, but it was worth it. The colors in this yarn just entranced me as I knitted. KPPPM is a unique experience.

I think I will be making another one of these hats with this:




It's Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in the "New England Fall" colorway. I picked up three skeins of this at Earth Guild in Ashevile a while back. Total impulse buy, but can you blame me? The bulkier weight will be perfect for this hat.

And so I will be extra Frenchy in my berets this winter. Speaking of France, we were driving around town a few days ago when my littlest guy yelled, "Look, it's Paris!" He was pointing to a cell tower. We may need to plan a trip to France.

Ravelry . . . nuff said

If you know about Ravelry, I need not say a word. If you don't know about it, you might want to check it out. I am trying to put a button in my sidebar to take you to my Ravelry profile page. Wish me luck.

A Day to Remember

In a flurry of post-holiday, selfish knitting, I made myself this scarf. Though I have a lovely and functional fleece scarf that my sister made for me, I wanted to have a scarf made out of yarn by me. I whipped this up pretty quick.

Yarn: Plymouth Baby Alpaca Worsted Paint acquired in Asheville during a yarn crawl with my spa peeps

Colorway: hmmmmmm . . . where is that ball band?

Pattern: Just a simple basket weave until I ran out of yarn

Needles: US 10 Hiya Hiya circulars (starting to love these needles)

Sooooo soft.

I was pleased with how it turned out and wanted to show it off in some nice photos in natural light. So I decided to have it modeled by one of the bronze statues in front of the museum I pass on my walk to the office. I selected Mr. Thomas Day as the lucky model.

I chose Thomas Day in honor of the recent Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and the upcoming start of Black History Month in February. Here's a quote from the museum's web page describing him:

"a free African American who, through his skills and personal endeavors, became one of the most prolific producers of furniture in the state during the antebellum period. Day accomplished this even though the enslavement of African Americans and restrictive laws against free blacks characterized the society in which he lived."

By all accounts, Mr. Day was quite a talented craftsman. But the more I read about Mr. Day, the more I realize how much I don't know about African American history. While Mr. Day was subject to the many legal restrictions imposed upon free blacks, according to one website detailing his life, Mr. Day owned slaves. I can hardly get through books that describe slavery in detail as I often become emotionally overwhelmed by the evils of it all. So the idea of a free African American owning slaves gives me pause. I need to learn more of the story. I guess that's the purpose of Black History Month. I'll be at the library.*

ETA: *I found this transcript of a Black Issues Forum on UNC-TV discussing "Black Slave Owners & Free Slaves." It provides more perspective on what Thomas Day was all about.

must. breathe.

Now that I have stopped hyperventilating, I must show you what was in the box I just opened. Look at this:


Remember this day? Not a good day. That is UNTIL I found out that my name was drawn for the weekly winner of the Random Acts of Kindness Contest sponsored by Sheri at the Loopy Ewe. I haven't won anything since a Pippi Longstocking look-alike contest when I was a kid. Yea. Still working through the issues associated with THAT win.

But I will have a grand time working through this win. To keep things consistent, I heard the thud of the package on my porch as I was lying in bed nursing the FLU. But Flu-shmu. This package fixed me right up. It included several wonderful patterns, a red loopy bell, a lovely shawl pin, a skein of Cider Moon "Glacier" in the "Forest Floor" colorway (DH is already coveting that one) and a skein of Wollmeise sock yarn in the "Suzanne" colorway. I've wanted some of this yarn ever since seeing the Yarn Harlot's Wollmeise socks. Let's take a closer look, shall we?


Wow. How exciting. I am just blown away. Although, this new sock yarn will require a revision to the sock knitting resolutions that I have been formulating. More on that soon.

Now, fever returning, must go hold Wollmeise to forehead.

Bowled over

And now back to our FO programming.

I had been wanting to try the felted bowl pattern in Leigh Radford's book One Skein for a while. While poking around my LYS one day, I stumbled upon a nice selection of the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky that the pattern used. The colors were so gorgeous and rich, that I had trouble choosing colors. So, I bought not one, but THREE shades of purple and not one, but THREE shade of green and decided to make nested bowls from the coordinating colors.

Although the book pattern was for a knitted bowl, I decided to crochet them instead. I find that felted crocheted fabric is thicker and more structurally sound, and I wanted these bowls to be chunky little nests of felted goodness.

The purple set gifted to my mom.

These purples match the three purples in her Purple People Heater blanket.

The green set gifted to my sister.

All snuggled in their nest.

Feeling left out, I had to make myself one. I bought this yummy golden yellow Lamb's Pride worsted while visiting Asheville for the weekend. (If you are ever in Asheville, do not miss Earth Guild. I lose my mind in that place.) I meant to buy bulky weight but was apparently so enchanted with the color that I ceased reading labels. But the bowl turned out okay.



The apples love the TLC.



Give felted bowls a try. They are simple, fast, functional and satisfying. Great relief after the holiday crafting fury.

Okay, back to the yarn.

My absence from this blog through the holidays is directly related to yarn. All my spare time was used to finish up all the gift knitting and crocheting. No excuses. Just sayin.

Here are a few of the gifted FO's that have been officially declassified:

The I'll Packa Hat for my dad. ( It's made of alpaca) I crack myself up.

For the ribbing, I used a bit of black alpaca (Blue Sky) which was a souvenir skein from a girls' weekend with my spa peeps in DC. The red alpaca (for which I lost the ball band - oops) was a souvenir skein from a trip to Asheville with my sister.

Next up, the Purple People Heater afghan for my mom.

Made of soft Homespun from Lion Brand in colors that just HAD to belong to my mom.

The Easter Parade Chevron Scarf for my sister.

The blocking shot.

It matched her sweater perfectly the day that I gave it to her.

Clearly, the fates approve. Made with Lorna's Laces shepherd sock in Purple Iris and Happy Valley colorways. But, I must say, making long, repetitive things with sock yarn? Not sure I will be doing that again. Dang.

So as not to give you FOverload, we'll wrap up with the Arkansas Lap Blanket I made for my husband's grandfather who was recently confined to a wheelchair.

Made from stash scraps of this and that bulky weight. I was going for something large enough to cover his legs, but small enough not to get caught up in the wheels. There have been no reports of accidents or wheelchair malfunctions to date, so I hope we're good.

Well, I still have lots more to post regarding FOs, WIPs, 2008 yarn resolutions/plots, and yummy additions to stash. Don't touch that dial!

Just to clarify . . .

This is one of my favorite birthday cards ever received from a dear friend last year. It raises an important question not so easily resolved.

However, on the trip back from my parents' house on New Years, I found undeniable proof of the answer:

No one would put this on a sign if it were incorrect. Right? RIGHT?

Discuss.