Light N' Whispy Knitting

My Dropped Stitch scarf is coming along nicely:

I love this scarf! It's just the right blend of fabulous hand-painted fingering weight yarn (Rowan's Fine Art) with a whispy bit of gorgeousness (Rowan's Kid Silk Haze Stripes). Paradise Fibers sells the kit for the scarf. I didn't really get how to do the twisted dropped stitch, or rather, it was too hard for me to do with one hand ('wrap the yarn around both needles and then around the left needle once more'), so I just wrapped the yarn around the needle twice. They may have gotten more length by doing it the way that was stated in the pattern, and I don't get the 'twist' by wrapping the yarn twice around the needle, but mine looks almost the same. I may do another one, wrapping the yarn three times around the needle. This scarf is addictive to knit! I absolutely love Kid Silk Haze Stripe. It makes me gaga with its beautifulness.

I decided to knit another garter stitch scarf with a skein of Haiku (60% mohair, 40% silk) that was in Rachel's stash. We had a model on display in Unique One that sold a lot of Haiku. I started it in a quiet moment at one of the Spa Knit and Spin shows, because the Haiku wasn't selling; after I started knitting the sample, people started buying it. I finished it after the show was done, and as soon as I put it up, bam! The Haiku was flying out the door.

(This color is called Rice Fields. The marker is placed to mark when I started today; I try to get 2" done every day.)

The pattern for the scarf is simple: Cast 40 stitches onto a 5.0 mm/8 US needle and knit til you almost run out of yarn. Bind off.  That's it. It's a little bit tricky until you get the hang of knitting such fine yarn on biggish needles, but trust me, you can do it! The resulting scarf is anything but simple; the colors are fabulous, the yarn feels luxurious, and it will be a gift (or accessory for YOU) that says "I am elegant!". I don't remember how long the scarf is, but it is long (I'll tell you when I finish my scarf). I had a customer who used to make two, shorter scarves out of one skein to give to friends, which actually would be very economical. Still, $24 - $29 for a skein of Haiku isn't bad. One skein of hand dyed sock yarn is probably more than that, more if it has as much silk as Haiku does.

Anyway. Have fun knitting! 

October

Fall colors ...

I took these pictures when I was in Winterville at the end of September, but they were stunning and colorful!  I love seeing the crisp reds, the playful yellows, and the magnificent oranges.

I love reading, too, and one of my favorite books to read in October is Headstones and Monuments by Steve Ogden. 

It's a delightful collection of scary ghost stories (but not too scary!) that will entertain you on the dark, windy nights leading up to Halloween. If you like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, you will like Headstones and Monuments. Remember telling ghost stories at night around the campfire? Yeah. It's a collection of that kind of really good ghost stories. And Steve's artwork is excellent!

I love new fall mittens:

Orange, my favorite fall color, and dark brown. Both are handspun yarns; one I spun before my stroke (the dark brown; I think it was Coopworth), and one after (the orange, which I got from Sharon in Nova Scotia; it's Romney, I believe), so they are blended together, the before and after, making a new whole. Like me!

The pattern, previously a Mystery Mitten Knit, is Soria Moria vott, and it will be featured in Tori Seierstad's mitten e-book coming later this autumn. Tori makes good mittens! Until the book comes out, you can join the I Make Mittens group on Ravelry, and follow Tori's progress.