Advent Giveaway

Would you like to win one of my handknit cashmere hats? Make your way over to the beautiful blog A Butterfly in my Hair for Vibeke's Advent giveaways (what a good idea!).

But be quick, you only have till the 18th of December to leave a comment.

xoxo

Candlelight

I've blogged before about my love for beeswax candles. I had several people asking me where I get mine after my last post. My favourites are from Pheylonian. They are amazing quality, smell wonderful, and with proper care, last a really long time.

Such a wonderful way to light up these cold and dark days.

Warm weekend

Oooh, it was sooo cold this weekend. We had our first "real" (staying on the ground) snow.

But it was so warm inside, with the help of some comfort knitting, beeswax candles and cups of tea.

I also caught up on my sleep, listened to some sublime music (in memory of the recently departed John Taverner, rest in peace), and added several items to my never-ending knitting queue:

Fairy snow cap
Stars in the sky shawl
Port o' Leith pullover and cowl
Firth o' Forth cardigan
Siri cardigan

Lots here to keep me warm. I hope you're keeping warm too.

Warms the cockles of my knitty heart...

There's a new Brooklyn Tweed Wool People collection out, and it features one of my samples.

Photo courtesy of Jared Flood

Little Wave is a saddle-shoulder cabled cardigan designed by Gudrun Johnston. I knit the men's version, modeled here by none other than the dashing Jared Flood (he's a lovely person in real life too). It's knit in Shelter in the cast iron colourway.

Photo courtesy of Jared Flood

This is such an interesting and entertaining knit! I would say it requires intermediate skill to make, as there are a lot of technical details that come together simultaneously to make a beautifully shaped piece.

Photo courtesy of Jared Flood

I'm in love with the women's version in that beautiful embers colourway.

Be sure to check out the collection. It's chock-a-block with handsome pieces. Lots here to warm a knitter's heart. My fingers are itching to cast-on for this beauty from Leila Raabe:

 It would have been the perfect thing to keep my ears warm on this morning's run (it was cooooold, around -10 C, that's 14 degrees F)!

 Speaking of heart-warming, thank you for all the warm comments you've left on my last few posts. It's been nice to be back here and in touch with all of you.

The golden hour

Once in a golden hour,
I cast to earth a seed,
And up there grew a flower,
That others called a weed.

Alfred Tennyson

That lovely extra hour of sleep this morning meant that the gloaming came an hour earlier too. I got "caught" by surprise on my afternoon walk when the sun started to set. But what luck, as the light was absolutely magical.

I took some photos of my finally-finished woodland shawl. It's a lovely pattern, easy to remember and oh so pretty. The perfect thing to throw on when taking a walk in the golden hour.

What I've been knitting, part 3

I've been quite the lazy blogger, relying on the samples I've been making (and more importantly, their impeccably styled and gorgeously modeled photos) to keep this poor neglected blog limping along.

Again today, I present to you a beautiful Hannah Fettig design that I had the chance to knit up.

Kaye Cardigan

This sweater is part of the Yoked Collection that Hannah designed for Quince and Co's deeply beautiful Owl yarn. I can't wait to get my hands on a sweater's worth of this gorgeous stuff! Perhaps to make this beauty:

Birdy Fair Isle Cardigan

(Thanks to Hannah and Carrie Bostick Hoge for letting me use her gorgeous pictures)

This coming weekend, my plan is to take lots and lots of my own photos. I do have some personal knitting to show you, and will also try to get out for a little woodland ramble. Here's hoping I mend my lazy ways...

What I've been knitting, part 2

Next up are three samples I made for Hannah Fettig's Little Knitbot collection. She took some of her most popular designs and scaled them down for wee folk.

Bitty Breezy

 

Fledgling Featherweight

Wispy Cardi

The yarn for these sweaters is a new one for me, The Fibre Company Meadow. It's a beautiful blend of merino, llama, silk, linen. The different fibres take in the dye at varying intensities, creating a yarn that has a lot of depth, which is a quality that The Fibre Company excels at. It's got a lovely hand: drapey, heathery, shimmery, with a touch of rustic. And oh, the colours!

(Thank you Hannah for letting me knit for you and use your photos!)

What I've been knitting, part 1

So you may be wondering what's been on my needles these last few months. I've been lucky enough to knit some samples for some of my favourite knitterly peeps.

First up, two pieces for Brooklyn Tweed's latest collection: BT Men.

Quay is a beautiful cabled scarf designed by Jared Flood.

The other sample I made was Fort, a great everyday pullover also designed by Jared.

You can read more about this classic sweater and what inspired the design here.

The rest of the Men's collection is just as gorgeous. My husband is eyeing Redford, and I would love to sink my teeth into a version of Timberline for me, making it a bit longer for a perfect forest-rambling sweater.

(As always, thank you to Brooklyn Tweed for giving me this wonderful opportunity, as well as letting me use their gorgeous photos.)

When in Rome

Oh my, is it August already? The last few months have been a blur. I certainly didn't mean to be away from blogland this long. I've missed you!

This has been a lovely summer. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary by taking a romantic trip to Rome. We rented an apartment for 3 weeks and basically did as the Romans do!

Super-sized wonders

The streets of Trastevere, where we stayed

The room where John Keats spent the last months of his life, near the Spanish Steps

Jasmine grows everywhere, filling the air with a heavenly scent

Our quiet street, in Trastevere

Roman funerary inscriptions outside Santa Maria in Trastevere

The cafe where I had my morning cappuccino

Dwarfed by a massive bougainvillea

Evening in beautiful Trastevere

It's hard not to fall in love with Rome, especially when you really have the time to settle in and go beyond the obvious tourist attractions. Of course we did all the touristy things too, and they were amazing (the Pantheon and the Vatican museum being the highlights for me), but what was even better was rambling with no plans, letting serendipity be our guide.

The light!

More dramatic skies

The Pantheon

Angels everywhere

Eating like kings (or should I say Emperors)

I could definitely live here.

Making a wish

Legend has it that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the Trevi fountain, you will come back to Rome. Let's hope it works!!! Arrivederci bella Roma!