Good-bye to Wesley

 Hi all -

It's been several busy weeks since I last posted. Part of that time was spent with my family in Florida where we attended a family wedding ceremony for my nephew. It was a fun trip and a beautiful ceremony! Unfortunately, when I returned home, I let the cats outside as I usually do and Wesley has not returned. He has been known to disappear for a couple of days, but it's been a week and a half so it's unlikely that he will return. As you can imagine, I'm very sad. But at least he had a wonderful 15 years of living up here with full access to the great outdoors. That gives me a lot of comfort! I hope you don't mind if I share some pictures of him with you!

Wesley and Buttercup when they were adopted

Wesley playing as a kitten

Young Wesley enjoying the great outdoors

Yin-yang

Wesley

At a friend's house during fire evacuation

Up close and personal

With Lance towards the end

With Grace soon after her adoption

Wesley was an incredible cat and he will be sorely missed!!

When I haven't been traveling, I've been knitting. I've continued to work on projects for the Joji Locatelli Fall Knit-Along, which ends at the end of this month. Most of these projects are also Christmas presents, so I'm almost ready for the holidays, too!

I've made a bunch of hats as Christmas presents. For my nephews and brother-in-law, I decided to make hats using Joji's Upper East Side pattern in different yarns:

Upper East Side in Berroco Ultra Wool DK

Upper East Side in Cloudborn Fibers Alpaca Wool Silk DK

Upper East Side in Knit Picks City Tweed DK

I think this is a nice pattern for a hat for a man with a lot of nice texture. It's always fun to see how the different yarns change the look and feel of the same pattern! I'm not sure yet who will get which hat.

I made Joji's Field of Wildflowers hat for my sister:

Field of Wildflowers

I made this pattern once before in a solid yarn. I wasn't sure if the texture of the knitting would get lost in the changing colors of the yarn, but Joji's sample used a multi-colored yarn so I decided to go for it. I really like how it turned out!

I also made Joji's Lantern Lights hat for my new niece (my nephew's new wife):

Lantern Lights

This hat also has a nice texture and I made a slouchy version that I think will be very comfortable and will look good.

Finally, I just finished my At Dawn shawl also designed by Joji:

At Dawn

This shawl will be a gift for one of my other nieces. Grace is doing her first modeling gig with this shawl, sitting under the hammock as I took the picture. She's a little too hyper at this point to do more direct modeling for me, but I think you'll be seeing her in knitwear soon!

That's all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Nancy

Grace's First Birthday!

 Hi all -

Yep, Grace turned a year old today! She's no longer a puppy so I'll be expecting big things from her! 😆 Sorry I don't have any new pictures of her! I need to find my small camera that I used to take on walks with Lance. It's been probably 5 years since I've used it so it's hiding somewhere. I don't carry my phone on walks since we don't have cell coverage up here and I don't want to lose it, so the small camera is great. But, Grace did get her long morning walk with a ball, got more ball throwing in the backyard, got a little brushing and ended fun time with catching meatball treats. Definitely a good day for her! She's napping now....

I've been working away at cowls for Cowltober. I finished the Peeping Cowl designed by Joji Locatelli. This cowl will be a gift for my sister for Christmas:

Peeping Cowl - full length

Peeping Cowl - like it will look when worn

This will be a great gift for my sister who takes her dogs to the dog park every morning at 5:00 in Kansas City. It's going to be getting cold there pretty soon! I ended up having not quite enough of the purple yarn to finish the cowl. I could have used the dark gray for the last section rather than the purple, but I really liked the look of the purple on both ends so I ordered another skein of yarn instead. I ordered several colors of the yarn to get the free shipping, so I'll have more choices available when looking at other projects like this in the future. It's nice to be able to start some new projects on a whim without having to wait for yarn to arrive!

I also made a To infinity and beyond cowl designed by Joji Locatelli:

To infinity and beyond

This is a cute little cowl made with some beautiful yarn. The picture doesn't do the colors justice! The top edge is a little wonky in the photo because of my bad blocking job. I haven't decided what I'll be doing with this cowl so I won't bother reblocking it at this time. If I keep it, I won't care about the top edge.

Finally, I made a Fringed Denim Cowl designed by Joji Locatelli:

Fringed Denim Cowl

I don't think you can see it in the picture, but this is a really pretty sparkly yarn. And it knitted up really soft. I've decided to keep this one for myself! It's a little shorter than the pattern because I only had enough yarn for 4 full repeats rather than the 5 called for in the pattern. I could have put in a shorter fifth repeat, but I liked the length that it was already. I haven't blocked it yet, but blocking will make the cowl a bit longer and will open up the lace pattern. For the knitters out there, I knew that I didn't have enough yarn for 5 repeats without wasting time knitting and then frogging (unknitting - rip it, rip it) by using a scale. I measured the remaining yarn after each repeat so knew how much yarn it took for each section (just over 22 grams). Since I only had 19 grams left after the 4th repeat, I knew I couldn't knit another full repeat. Another tip for knitters is that this cowl started with a provisional cast on so I could graft the beginning edge to the ending edge to get a clean, invisible join. I used a trick I learned from Laura Nelkin to create the provisional cast on and the first row of knitting easily using a length of 2mm silicon tubing available from Amazon. This tubing is great for knitters! Here you can see it on the cast on side of the knitting in progress:

Fringed Denim Cowl - progress photo

This is wonderful stuff for the provisional cast-on because it's quicker since you can provisionally cast-on directly on the cord. The cord has stability so it holds the stitches just like a circular needle cord would hold it and it's really easy to to put the stitches back on the needle because the tubing is hollow so you can just push the tip of your needle into it and the silicon material will hold it in place while you move the stitches over. This stuff is also wonderful for using instead of scrap yarn so you can try on a sweater in the middle of knitting to see if you need to make adjustments as you go along and to see when you have things at the desired length, etc. And it's cheap! Only $12 for almost 55 yards of tubing.

Well, that's all I have for now. I hope everyone is doing well!

Nancy

Cowltober Begins

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is doing well. We're doing great here! Grace is settling into her new home. She has plenty of toys (mostly left over from Lance, but she doesn't care):

And she is getting along fine with the cats:

Of course, she also tries to play with the cats, but they aren't fans of that. But they are working things out. We've started going to a weekly dog class to help us learn how to keep her attention when there are other dogs around. She's doing better at that, but still has a long way to go. She's still a couple of weeks shy of her first birthday, so that's understandable. She's doing great on walks and I think we've made some progress on the car sickness. She doesn't throw up every time we go to town anymore, but still does sometimes. We haven't made much progress on the separation anxiety. I need to work on that more, but I feel like we're working on so much stuff that some of these things will have to wait. She's very sweet and smart. And she's also very fast! It's fun to watch her streak through the forest, jumping over logs as she goes!

As far a knitting goes, October is Cowltober. Every year, one of my favorite designers, Laura Nelkin, celebrates October with a Cowltober knit-along. This year is no different. All of her cowl patterns are on sale all month and you have a chance to win a prize if you post pictures of any cowl (by any designer) that you are currently working on. This fits in well with my Joji Locatelli fall knit-along since October has a special mini-challenge where you two chances for a prize if you are working on a one-skein cowl or shawl project. I'm doing a lot of double-dipping for prizes, while making a lot of progress on my Christmas presents! Laura also has a mystery cowl knit-along starting on Oct 13. I have purchase my yarn and am ready to go when the first part of the pattern drops!

My first cowl for this month is the Paris in Berlin cowl designed by Joji Locatelli. I've already finished this one:

Paris in Berlin

Paris in Berlin side view

I love how this turned out! You can see the texture of the knitting better in person. The construction of this cowl fooled me a little. You start by knitting a triangle, then join two of the points of the triangle and knit the rest in the round. 

Paris in Berlin beginning triangle

So, in. my mind this meant that we were starting the cowl from the bottom point, but the shape of the triangle didn't work for that. It turns out that you are starting at the top of the cowl and the beginning triangle pushes the rows to be at a diagonal as you move down the cowl. It gives the cowl a very nice shape! This cowl will be a gift for one of my nieces.

I also started another one-skein shawl for this Joji mini-challenge. This one is the To Infinity and Beyond cowl designed by Joji Locatelli:

To Infinity and Beyond

I've just started this cowl and have made it through the first of the five repeats of the pattern. It's made with a beautiful yarn from Malabrigo. They have such beautiful colors! I'm not sure who will be getting this cowl.

Finally, I've also made a lot of progress on my Peeping Cowl designed by Joji Locatelli:

Peeping Cowl

This has been a background project for a while, but it's getting close to being done. I have one more striped section and the final border to go. As you can see, this is a really tall cowl that is worn bunched up around the neck to provide a lot of warmth. And it can also be pulled up over your mouth, nose and ears if it's really cold. This will be a gift for one of my sisters who takes her dogs to the dog park every morning at 5am. It can be pretty cold in Kansas City in the winter at that time so cowls like this can be very useful! And the yarn is a superwash merino/nylon mix so it should survive when she puts it in the washer and dryer, which she inevitably will do even if I tell her not to. So this should be perfect for her!

I also started the Stephen West mystery knit-along. I don't have any pictures to show because some people thought that the geometric design reminded them of swastikas so Stephen appropriately redesigned the first part. I had started on the original design, so need to start over with the new design. I'll share that once I get restarted.

That's all I have for now....

Nancy

Several Shawls

 Hi all -

We're moving into fall here with the aspen leaves turning. The leaves are dropping now, but I've really enjoyed their beauty! We've been having some unusually warm weather, but it's supposed to cool down a bit next week. We even have our first chance of snow for the season on Tuesday night. We usually have a small amount of snow sometime in September, so it looks like we're having a late start. I'll have to get my winter tires soon!

I've been furiously knitting away on my project for the Joji Locatelli Fall Knit-Along. I finished my Echoes of Color shawl. This isn't a very good picture, but it shows the shape of the shawl and you can see the fringe on the bottom edges:

Echoes of Color

This picture shows the color and design better:

Echoes of Color close-up

And this one has the best representation of the colors:

Echoes of Color close-up

I really love how this shawl turned out! I think the colors are gorgeous! This is from my favorite color palette -- caramel with jewel tones. It's going to be a gift for one of my sisters.

I was also able to complete a second shawl -- Pure Joy:

Pure Joy

Again, not the greatest picture, but the close-ups show the details better:

Pure Joy close-up

Pure Joy close-up

Pure Joy close-up

I wasn't sure how these colors would work together, but I really love how they turned out! For those of you who are knitters, I didn't quite make this shawl correctly. The pattern uses short rows for the shaping and I misunderstood what method was supposed to be used, so I used German short rows instead of wrap-and-turn. While each method is valid for short rows, there a bit of a difference in how you count the stitches so my short rows ended up a little shorter than they were supposed to be. That means that the wedges are a little narrower and shorter than they are supposed to be on the end where they all come together. But I stayed consistent in how I did things and nobody will know about the mistake but me. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this shawl or give it to one of my nieces. I love the color combination, but I'm not sure if any of them will.

I've also started a third shawl -- At Dawn:

At Dawn

This shawl also uses short rows for the shaping, but this time I'm doing it correctly. It's hard to visualize what the final shawl will look like at this point, but it will end up as a mirror image where the mirrored side will be the darker color with light colored stripes. This will be a gift for one of my nieces.

In the background, I've also made progress on my Peeping Cowl:

Peeping Cowl

At this point, I've pulled in all four colors that will be used in the cowl. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the darker color in the stripes on the top is a dark gray and not the purple that is used below. I have two more solid sections (in each of the grays) separated by two more striped sections, then there'll be some ribbing in the purple to finish off the cowl. This will probably be a give for my other sister.

That's all of the progress I've made so far. October has a mini-challenge for making one-skein cowls and shawls so I'll switch gears tomorrow and start another cowl that uses a single skein of yarn. I also have a couple of mystery knit-alongs starting up next month. First, Stephen West starts his annual mystery shawl project on Oct 5. He's an incredible designer who specializes in very modern designs with an incredible use of color and interesting techniques. This will the first time I've joined in. Also, Laura Nelkin, who is my favorite knit designer, has a mystery cowl project starting on Oct 13. I'm really looking forward to both of these! We'll see what I have time to get done with all of this going on. My biggest priority is that I'll work on whatever projects bring me joy!

I hope everyone is doing well!

Nancy

Echoes of Color Shawl Almost Done

 Hi all -

Things are going well here. Grace is adjusting to her new home. We're making good progress with her separation anxiety and her fear of the car. She's really settling in well to her new home!

The Joji Locatelli Fall Knit-Along (FKAL) that I talked about last time has started. It lasts for 3 months (Sept-Nov). The basic rules are that you sign up for a list of projects before the knit-along begins. Then, you work on those projects during the 3 months. Projects must be started and finished during that time. Anything you finish gives you a chance to win a prize. There are also monthly "mini-challenges". In the month of September, there's a work-in-pogress (WIP) challenge. If you finish a Joji project that you started before the FKAL during the month of September, you get a chance at a prize (this is the only exception to the "must start 9/1 or later" rule for the rest of the FKAL). All of my prior Joji projects were already finished so I couldn't do this challenge. October has a single-skein shawl or cowl challenge. If you start and finish a shawl or cowl that uses only a single skein of yarn, you get a chance at a prize. These projects also qualify for the regular FKAL prizes, so these will get you two chances at a prize. The November challenge is a holiday knitting challenge. If you finish anything in the month of November that has any relation to a holiday, you get a chance at a prize. So, this could be holiday gifts, something made with holiday (any holiday) colors, whatever. You can start the project in any FKAL month (since it has to be one of the regular FKAL projects), but you have to finish it in November. I'm using the FKAL to make my holiday gifts, so this is the perfect mini-challenge for me! Now I just have to decide if I'll get some projects mostly done then save the finish for November for the extra prize chance or if I'll finish things.....

The first FKAL project I've started is the Echoes of Color shawl designed by Joji (of course):

Echoes of Color

I chose some beautiful Malabrigo yarn for this in my favorite color palette (caramel with jewel tones). I'm making the large size of the shawl, so this is a LOT of knitting, but you are changing colors a lot so it keeps your interest. I'm almost done with the main body of the shawl, then there will be some rows that are knit along the top of the shawl. This is going to be a Christmas present for one of my sisters. I'm thinking that the large size will make it nice to keep by the couch to put over her shoulders on those cooler winter evenings when you need a little extra something while watching TV.

I realized that I also needed a small project to work on outside while playing ball with Grace. Grace loves to play ball and she knows how to do it, but she has some trouble giving up the ball. I play with two balls so I can pick up the one ball while she's chasing the other, but now she likes to drop the ball where I can't reach it from the deck so we have a lot of time where I'm waiting for her to decide to put the ball where I can reach it so I can throw the other ball. A small project is the perfect thing to work on while I wait! So I've made a small start on the Peeping Cowl:

Peeping Cowl

This is a cowl made with 4 colors and has sections of stripes mixed with sections of lace. Here are the yarns that I chose to use out of my stash:

Peeping Cowl yarns

I think this will be a fun cowl! I haven't decided what I'll do with it when I'm finished. I could keep it or give it as a gift or donate it to the homeless shelter.

Outside of the FKAL, I also finally sat down and added the August installment to my Juni Throw designed by Katy Petersen:

Juni Throw

This is the project for the Jimmy Beans Wool Blanket Club, where we get a new skein of yarn and a new piece of the pattern every month. It's hard to believe we are 2/3 of the way through this project! Here's what the pattern for August looks like:

Juni Throw close-up

That's it for my progress this time. It'll be interesting to see where my knitting takes me this fall! Along with the Joji FKAL, Stephen West has an annual mystery shawl KAL every fall. He's a really interesting knit designer from Amsterdam. He makes really colorful modern designs with really interesting construction. I purchased the pattern and ordered some yarn, but will have to decide if I have time to participate. For the mystery KAL, you don't know what you're knitting when you start and you get pieces of the pattern at regular intervals until you have a surprise finished shawl at the end. And now Laura Nelkin, another favorite knit designer of mine, is having a mystery cowl KAL for the month of October. I'd like to participate in that, too. So we'll see where I end up spending my time....

I hope everyone is doing well! The aspen are on the verge of changing colors in my neighborhood so I'm looking forward to some incredibly beautiful walks with Grace!

Nancy

Meet Grace

 Hi all -

Sorry for the long delay since my last post. August ended up being a busy month. With Lance's passing, I was finally able to go to Kansas City to visit the family. It had been a year and a half since my last visit, so this was a long time coming! I had a great time with my family! We went to the "Barbie" movie, got massages and pedicures, and spent some quality time together. My hairdresser is in KC, so I finally got to get my hair cut. It feels so much better being short again!! And I helped my sister start to go through all of the stuff that has accumulated in her house over the years. We made some great progress and she felt so good about what we did! Then, the day after I got back home, I went to the Humane Society and adopted a new dog. Meet Grace:

Grace in the pool at the shelter

Grace in her bed at home with some of her many toys

Grace hunting squirrels in her new backyard

Grace is a 10-month old puppy of mixed breed. I'm not sure what breeds exactly, but people have guessed she might be part Rottweiler, part Akita and part Shepard. She has her first vet visit tomorrow so I'll see what he thinks she might be. She's a very sweet, well-behaved little girl and she gets along with the cats great! She's taking up most of my time right now.

Other than that, I've continued to make crochet of the Lion Brand market bags that I like so well. I've been making them in a variety of colors, concentrating on colors that might be more appealing to men:

These are all made with Bamboo Pop yarn, which is a 50% cotton, 50% rayon from bamboo yarn. It makes a really soft yet strong bag. I really like how these turn out. These will all be Christmas presents for members of my family.

I've also been getting ready for Joji Locatelli's Fall Knit-Along (KAL). I've never dong this KAL before, but I think it's going to be fun. It runs Sept-Nov. You have to sign up ahead of time with which of Joji's patterns you might make. It's okay if you don't end up making the patterns that you sign up for, but you can only work on those patterns for the KAL. There are a bunch of prizes and people join in from all over the world. (Joji is from Argentina.) It sounds like a really fun and supportive group! So I've been spending some time looking through Joji's patterns and deciding what I might make. I've picked out several shawl and cowl patterns as gifts for the women in my family and some hats for the men. I picked out yarn for a bunch of the projects and wound some of the yarn into cakes so I'm ready to start with my first project on Sept 1 (you can't start before then). I signed up for more projects than I think I'll be able to finish so I'll have options depending on what I feel like working on. It will be nice if I can get all of my gifts finished!

That's all that's happening on my end. I hope everyone is doing well!

Nancy

Brioche Bun Scarf Finished

 Hi all -

I hope everyone is having a good summer and is staying cool! We've been having pleasant temperatures at my house, but have continued to have unusual amounts of rain. The storms Monday and Tuesday evenings were severe and we lost internet at my house Monday evening through Tuesday noon, then lost power for about 5 hours on Tuesday evening, with the internet having a bit of trouble recovering after that. We had some trouble with slow internet yesterday, but everything seems to be recovered today. I'm crossing my fingers that everything continues to stay up!

I've been doing a lot of crochet this week. First, I finished my Brioche Bun Scarf designed by High Desert Yarn:

Brioche Bun Scarf

Brioche Bun Scarf detail

I can't tell you how much I love this scarf! It's squishy and warm and the full fringe looks wonderful! This one is for my niece, but I'm sure I'll be making more of these!

I also made a Faith Over Fear Beanie designed by Kristen Caldwell:

Faith Over Fear Beanie

I think this hat looks good, but I'm not sure about the practicality of the brim. The brim has a pretty look, but it feels like it will just stretch out and not hold the hat on your head well. I'm soaking the hat in wool wash right now so I can block it to see how it feels after the yarn softens up a bit. This will be a good lesson in the best construction for crocheted hats. There are some other stitches that designers use for hats, so I'll have to try some of those to see what I think. And another thought would be to knit them brim then crochet the rest of the hat.

Another project I made this week is a Granny Square Scrap Bag designed by Selena Baca:

Granny Square Scrap Bag

Granny Square Scrap Bag

I really love how this bag turned out! I followed the pattern except for a few small changes. The way they had you do the corners sounded to me like they would be a little baggy so I changed those a little. This change added four extra clusters to the rounds of the body, so when I got to the top I added some decreases to a round to make the opening a little smaller and get back to the original stitch count. Finally, I added an extra round to the body to get my colors to work out. This will probably be a gift for one of my sisters, depending on what other stuff I get completed before Christmas. (Christmas seems like a long way away, but time is short if you make the gifts that you give!)

I also started making a Hannah's Starlight Cowl designed by Joy Clements:

Hannah's Starlight Cowl

This yarn is a little harder to work with because it's a wool/silk blend. The silk gives the wool strength so that the yarn doesn't stretch at all. This can make it a little difficult to get the hook through the holes. The beginning of this cowl was really slow going between the difficult yarn and trying a new-to-me technique where you create the foundation chain and the first row at the same time. But it seems to be going faster now that I've got a bit of the body done. I think this will end up being a soft, luxurious cowl when it's finished. 

Finally, I finished my Quintessential Slouch designed by Jane Veitenheimer:

Quintessential Slouch

I like this hat better now that it's done, but I don't know if I'll make another garter stitch hat. It just looks a bit sloppier to me than a stockinette hat does.

That's all for this week....

Nancy