Delicate colours and textures

After a winter of bright knits (pond scum anyone?), I'm now ready for more delicate colours. Not necessarily what one would think of as "pastel", but more subtle, faded hues.

Dove and putty greys, linen whites, pale straw yellows, fawn browns...



I think this beret is a lovely example of a delicate hue highlighted with little bright punctuations. It's Koigu's KPPPM in the softest shell pink, dotted with teeny specks of peach, coral, indigo, moss.... I love this little hat.



I used the Purl Bee beret pattern, but in reverse stockinette stitch which produces a subtle texture that diffuses the variegation so prettily.

Speaking of delicate, I could live in this world for ever! It just seems so relaxing. It's probably also the lack of real life clutter: no unopened mail, dust bunnies, dirty laundry piles, unwashed dishes. So unlike my real house. A girl can dream though....

(In case you're wondering what colour the Koigu is, I'm afraid to say that the skein was bought a million years ago and I no longer have the label. I checked the Koigu website and I didn't see this colourway so they may not make it anymore...)

Perfect gift for the person who has everything?

I don't know if you've seen this, but it's just kookoo for Cocoapuffs, especially the second one.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Like Lazarus

Holy Mackerel! I've just come back from the dead, y'all.

I had the worst case of influenza, kicking me so low that
I DIDN'T KNIT FOR TEN DAYS STRAIGHT!
You read that right. Ten days. It was hell.

But finally, this morning I woke up and felt like living again, so I polished these babies off on my lunch hour.



You'll have to forgive me, I took excessive amounts of glamour shots.




Indulge me, will ya? I've been an unwell woman starved for a little bit of knitting.




Pattern: Snicket Socks, by Sabine Riefler, from the now defunct Magknits (whoa, the poop really hit the fan on this one while I was "away"). If you want the pattern, go to Sabine's website, she's provided a link to a Google cache of the pattern. I made two major mods: a flap heel instead of a short-row heel, and reverse stockinette heel/sole/toe.



Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight, in Pond Scum (I love love love this colour). It was my first ever skein of STR, and really enjoyed working with it. It's got a stiff, tight twist that really shows off all those knit-in-back cables. Not so easy on the hands though.

Dark and light

Many of you asked which Perl Grey kit I ended up buying. Guided by my desire for something totally mindless, cozy and neutral, I went with Jo, a simple turtleneck that's knitted sideways, in once piece.


Colour choice had a significant role in my selection, as I totally fell in love with the dark, raven-ey hues in this kit. As you know, darks are notoriously difficult to capture, so imagine this as a darker, deeper, more saturated mélange.


I also bought myself another present: a ball winder. I know, I know, it was about time, right? No more tightly-wound rolly-polly balls for me. Center-pull yarn cakes, here I come.

As a total contrast to the moody tones of Jo, I'm also working on some extremely vibrant Snicket Socks.


Socks that Rock "Pondscum".

Happy knitting!

Kooshy

Phew, I managed to post this just under the wire for Malabrigo March.


I actually finished this shawl several weeks ago, and was waiting for my personal photographer to be free to take some modeled shots. Unfortunately, with both of us so busy working overtime, it never happened. So the chair will have to do.

Pattern: Wool Peddler's Shawl, Cheryl Oberle, from Folk Shawls
Yarn: 5 skeins of Malabrigo worsted weight in Natural
Needles: 5 mm



Made no modifications to the pattern except for the fact that it calls for a much lighter weight yarn, but I wanted a super-warm portable blanket. The garter section by the neck makes it especially cozy. I love it.

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday. I'm off to buy myself a Perl Grey sweater kit with some birthday money that's been burning a hole in my pocket for the last 2 months. Squeeee!

"Unvented" Noro striped mitts

The idea for these mitts came to me when I saw these beautiful socks, and these lovely gloves. Throw in the ubiquitous Noro Striped scarf motif, and you get:



Unvented Noro striped mitts.



Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, #252, 2 skeins
Needles: 4mm
Pattern: totally improvised as I went

I should say that I fudged the colour sequence quite a bit by spit-splicing out the darker bits, and joining together the blues and greens to get the colours in the right order.

The unvented part is a little ode to EZ, since I didn't follow a pattern, but did use her afterthought thumb trick, which was inspired by this post.

Isn't it great how knitting blogs can send little explosions of creative ideas to the brain?

Let it snow!

If you're sick of the white stuff, this is not the post for you. You might want to find a nice Australian or Hawaiian blog to click to.

Many people here are really fed up with winter. They want it to stop. Now.
Just pick a random Harlot post and you'll hear all about it.

But me? I can't get enough!!!! This is by far the best winter EVER. I don't even care that we got rear-ended last week (obviously, the only casualty was our bumper).

We've had some serious snow in Canada this winter. Crazy snow. Record-breaking-contender snow. Close to 12 feet and still counting! We're in the midst of yet another crazy snowstorm, and I say, if you can't beat em, join em.

The secret to loving winter? Put your warm woolly handknits on and get outside! So my friends and I went out for a little ski.



There were a few hills.



A few spills.


And a lot of smiles.


So get out there and enjoy the fresh, clean air while you can. It won't be long till we're slathering on the bug juice and turning on the air-conditioner.