Happy New Year!

Liz and I are knitting alone together this new year! I'm up in Alaska visiting, and as usual, Liz has been yarn pushing very well.

As a result, we are mostly knitting the same colors, inspired by the colors of Fairbanks' darkest days. 

For the New Year, we would like to gift to knitters a free .pdf version of the Man Hat pattern. Enjoy!

Love,
Haven

Happy Galentine's Day!

Cyril, the Knit Hedgehog, sends his love!

xoxo,

Liz

Fingerless Mitts & Fall Knitting

I've been knitting a lot (surprise!) this fall. This is the time of year that I panic a little and start making/collecting warm layers for the impending winter.  To that effect I've begun a few projects for myself, and finished a couple of patterns for fingerless mitts. 

Fingerless Mitts
While traveling in Oregon this summer I picked up some Malabrigo Finito at Close Knit in Portland. I loved the yarn, and decided to experiment with some fingerless mitts.  The result - Nettle Mitts!

Made from one skein of Malabrigo Finito (200 yards/50 grams), using 2.5mm dpns.

And I finally wrote-up a pattern that I developed a few years ago at the request of a certain knitting friend... Harriet Mitts - made with worsted weight yarn and size US 8 dpns, featuring braided cables.  I knit-up this pair using Cascade Greenland, a lovely dense, superwash worsted weight wool.

Thanks to Suzette & Rowan for their hand-modeling skills, and patience!

I recently made a pair of tante ehm's Camp Out Fingerless Mitts out of Kama (new from NORO) for INUA.  I love the colors and the clever construction!

Other Knitting
I'm currently working on a smoke ring for myself from some qiviuq that I had stashed away.  The pattern is Silk Smoke Ring from Heart Strings - I've made at least 6 smoke rings using this pattern.  I love it, and recommend it constantly to customers! It's pretty easy to follow (charted & written instructions), and makes a reversible lace cowl!

And finally I've been slowly working away on Brooklyn Tweed's Stasis Pullover. I'm using Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift in Charcoal and Pebble.  This is the first sweater I've made using Spindrift, and I'm excited to see how it goes.  So far so good - I've finished both sleeves and am currently knitting the body. Soon I'll get to join the pieces and knit the fun yoke section!

Ok - back to knitting!

-Liz

YES, Cowls!

As would be expected, my needles have been busy with summer cowls as well. Kindreds. Liz was working on the Fillory Cowl pattern when I was up in Alaska visiting this February March, so I optimistically started one for summer in Wild Ginger and Orchid.

The Gemini in me then immediately coveted an opposite. In preparation for a trip to Georgia, and to sate my neon craving, I looked again to Liz for inspiration, and decided to knit a Clapotis in eye-scorching coral. The yarn is Dream in Color Everlasting Sock in Tang.

I find it surprisingly difficult to find neons in non-acrylic yarn, but this skein of Tang fit the bill. I knit fewer than the recommended number of repeats, blocked fairly heavily, crocheted the two shorter ends together, and ended up with exactly what I wanted: a geometric openwork neon cowl. How's that for specific?

Another great neon that I recently picked up was Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool in Citrine.
What's your favorite neon? 
Edited to add Cao.

 

Cowls!

Hellooo

I finally got around to formatting and publishing a couple of my recent designs! This spring I went completely cowl-crazy! More specifically tubular, twisted, cowl-crazy.  This stockinette cowl is called Fillory, and is now a free download on ravelry! 'Fillory' is the name of the fantastical land in Lev Grossman's excellent books The Magicians and The Magician King.

I knitted the following three cowls out of The Fibre Company's delicious Canopy Fingering, though any sock weight yarn would do. The Fillory Cowl can be made with several different stripe patterns as shown below.

Type 1: MC = Brazil Nut, CC = Orchid

Type 2: MC = Quetzal, CC = Orchid

Type 3: MC Kingfisher, CC River Dolphin

My second tubular cowl pattern is called Arya.  This cowl is of course named after Arya Stark from George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (a.k.a. Game of Thrones). It's a lacier cowl that I plan to wear on summer evenings.  I made mine out of 3 skeins of Shibui Knits Sock yarn in Ash.

That's it for my recent designs.  Right now I've jumped on the bandwagon and I'm currently knitting Veera Välimäki's Color Affection.  We just received a shipment of MadelineTosh Tosh Merino Light at INUA, and I couldn't help myself!  I'm hoping to get a local knitalong going, but I might have to knit a second one for that! 

Happy Knitting,

Liz 

2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Back to the Blog!

After a long hiatus we are officially back to blogging! This may have something to do with the change in weather (we are entering prime knitting season after all), but who knows! Things that we have missed since the last blog include:

Haven & Liz in Hotsprings, MT.

I visited Haven and we got to knit alone together!

Summer in Alaska and some lovely road trips.

And fall in Fairbanks.

I also published a new pattern called Andromeda, which I can finally start to wear now that winter is coming! Other recent knitting projects include Veera Välimäki's Wanderlust Pullover - it's blocking now and I'll share pics once I get the buttons sewn-on. Can't wait to share more patterns, and pictures of life and new knitting. Sorry again about lack of blogging but we're back at it!

Happy Knitting,
Liz