Here is a picture of the terracotta wool,silk, mohair scarf I crocheted; the two hooks I bought are in the picture too:
Here's a shot of the spike-motif cotton shawl I'm crocheting from Crazy Cotton:
and here's a closeup of one of the motifs:
(my niece made the quilt from vintage fabrics)
I finished the Jo Sharp gansey (actually, just before Valentine's Day). Here's a picture of it:
I also knit another scarf for my friend whose house burned. Her favorite scarf had been a long, red one that she had knit from the Vogue Scarf book, the "Geometric Scarf". She had made it in Dale of Norway's Baby Ull, a fingering weight yarn knit on size 4 needles, about 7 inches wide in mostly k2,p2 ribbing, and 80 inches long. I recreated it for her. I think people always feel better when they are wearing things that are familiar and comfortable. When her house burned, suddenly she was without her favorite clothes. We all have that favorite sweater or shirt or pants or scarf that we wear when we want to really be ourselves, to be comfortable and to be "us". I wanted to give her something that would recreate that feeling for her. I think she really liked it.
I also finished a beautiful crocheted scarf this week. At a show in Portland I purchased a couple of absolutely gorgeous hand-turned crochet hooks of exotic woods, and used one to crochet a lovely scarf from yarn purchased from Friends Folly Farm. The yarn is called "Friendz Blendz" and it is 33% each wool, silk, and mohair, and I got a warm, cozy terra cotta color. It is very soft and light feeling. and the silk gives it a lovely sheen. The textured crochet stitches reflect the light better than a simple knit stitch would. Perhaps I'll get a photo of it sometime. It's in the Christmas box.
The crochet bug has really got me lately. I am working on, of all things, a crocheted doily in size 20 crochet cotton from England on a size 1.25mm steel hook. Also have a size E aluminum hook wrangling a gorgeous spiral-motif shawl out of sport weight Crazy Cotton (a KFI yarn). It's a pattern from a great new book, the Vogue On the Go Crocheted Scarves book. I love it. I'll try to get a picture of that one, too.
My Pagode jacket from Hanne Falkenberg has about 18 rows to go on the back, and then I just have to pick up stitches and knit the bottom of the sleeves, and pick up stitches and knit in the pockets. Then I can wear it! I'll definitely get a picture of that one when it's done.
I also started a glitzy little decorative scarf from Plymouth's new totally wonderful yarn called 24K -- It has beautiful colors blended together with a large dose of gold threads running through the yarn. Like knitting with sunlight. I'm doing a narrow, like 3" wide, diagonal garter stitch scarf. It is pretty cool.
Also brought home some of Plymouth's Icona, a ribbon yarn, to design a snazzy little something for the store, and it'll probably turn into a knitting cruise pattern, too. I'm not usually much for ribbon yarns, but this one really floats my boat. Don't know why, I just like it.
I've been working on the turquoise Seacolors (wool/mohair blend, Nanny Kennedy hand dyes it using cold seawater) Meadowcroft gansey a little this week, too; I've been picking away at it for a couple years now, doing a round here and there. I want to finish it, but I really don't like working on it, and I don't know why. Love the color, love the yarn, like the pattern, but something about it just seems like work, not so much like fun. Maybe it's the bamboo needles, the yarn seems to drag on them, feels kind of sticky. Maybe I should switch to Addi Turbos.
Speaking of turbos, I went to a quizilla and took a quiz called "What kind of needles are you?". No surprise, I turned out to be Addi Turbos:
You are "turbo" charged.
Fast moving and classy, you get things done with
power and grace. Your expensive tastes can be
deceiving, since what you really value is
quality and efficiency. As you're careening
around those corners in life, finishing a dozen
knitted objects each month, stop and smell the
roses. Don't miss the beauty of process!
What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Okay, so I was whining about not having gotten anything done so far this year. I finally jumped in and knit -- and yes, completed -- a quick novelty yarn scarf to give my friend MJ, whose house burned. Then I knit a pair of Regia Stretch socks for her too, and gave them to her right away. She needs to replace all those hand knit socks she once owned. Then I finished a mohair scarf for a Christmas gift for next year, and I finished a 2-strand Fortissima sock yarn pair of socks also for Christmas next year. So. My Christmas box has a couple gifts in it and I feel a little better. :)
With all that knitting, I haven't done a stitch on the Brown Sweater, but all I have left to do is half a sleeve. The body, one sleeve and the neck are all done, sewn together, and the ends woven in. I figure there are only a couple nights' worth of work to complete it fully. Then it will be done and I can attack the dog-hair hat. I think the hat will be a lot of fun, once I actually start it. It will be kind of cool to make it up as I go.