Ms. Loophole

Today is one of those August days in which you can feel the first hint of Fall in the air.  For the first time in the morning, you think “perhaps I should have brought a sweater.”  Everywhere you look, stores have adorned their window displays with lush, cozy garments in anticipation of autumn.  And, if you’re into fashion, you’re counting the days until the Vogue September Issue is released.  In other words, it was the perfect day to finish my first Fall accessory:  a long cowl with deep, warm colours.

I named this project  ”Once, Twice, Three Times a Scarf” because you can wrap it around one, two, or three times (or none at all) depending on your style preference, or how chilly it is outside.

Here it is in its full glory.  I’ve included this shot so you can get a sense of the scarf’s overall size – I can’t see myself ever venturing out like this – too impractical:  I’d catch it on something or it would end up in my coffee.

Here it is wrapped once around my neck, so that it doubles as a headscarf.  (I know there’s a proper name for this style, but my vocabulary is temporarily failing me.)  This style I will actually wear, as the wind tunnel between my office and the courthouse is pretty wicked, and this should help me to avoid looking completely disheveled (I always look partially disheveled, and I’ve come to accept this over time).

Here it is wrapped around my neck twice, which is how all the kids are wearing cowls these days.  Worn this way, a cowl can be a nice way to liven up a winter turtleneck, especially if you have a cold office.  Also a great option for those lovely Fall walks I can’t wait to go on.

Finally, when Winter hits, you’ll likely opt for the “triple wrap” or “Canadian” option.  With the scarf wrapped around your neck three times, it’s very difficult for any snow, wind or other atmospheric debris to get inside your coat.  Nothing makes one shiver quite like a giant snowflake that has managed to sneak by your scarf.

This project was an absolute joy to knit, from start to finish.  It took just over a week, and just under three balls of Noro Silk Garden (colourway: 20/F), knit in the round on a 5mm needle.   The cast-on is a bit daunting (280 stitches), but the four row pattern is easy to memorize and results in a scarf that is both eye-catching and elegant.   The Pattern, available on Ravelry for free, is the Twisted Rib Neckwarmer, by Michelle Johnston.  It’s a keeper.  This scarf would be a great Christmas gift project (I know knitters are still mostly in a state of denial about this, but we’re creeping up on the holiday season sooner than you think).   Given how large the scarf is, I find it really surprising that it only took 300m of yarn.  You know what that means?  A cashmere splurge is totally justified.  As this is one of those patterns that looks completely different depending on the yarn you use, I may knit another one in a plain colour, maybe a rich neutral.   As it’s knit on circulars and the pattern is so simple, this project also ranks high on the portability scale, which is in part why it flew off my needles (that and I used Noro, which is self-striping, so I would keep knitting just to watch the colours change.  It doesn’t take much to excite me.)

Hello there!  I know it’s been nearly six months (but who’s counting?).  There has been a decent amount of knitting going on, but there have also been a lot of other distractions.  Combine that with my almost pathological need to not sit in front of a computer when I’m away from the office and the result is a serious dearth in blog activity.  Once I figure out how to blog with our Ipad, things should improve.  Of course, for that to happen, I would have to wrest the beloved toy from Mr. Loophole’s hands, which is easier said then done.  The poor fellow recently tore a tendon in his foot, so I wasn’t about to add to his misery by taking the Ipad away from him.  (He did express his steadfast belief that knitted socks, especially brand new socks, have healing properties).

So, having made my excuses, let’s proceed to the main event: the unveiling of my Icarus Shawl.  I still remember the first time I saw this pattern.  It was the summer of 2006, and the Fall Interweave had just been released.  I was a brand new knitter, so this was the very first Interweave issue that I ever purchased.  (For the record, it’s still one of my all-time favourites). The sight of this pattern took my breath away – the shawl looked so elegant and sophisticated.  As soon as I laid eyes on it, I vowed to accomplish whatever knitting feats were necessary in order to make one.  (Remember: I first saw this pattern durng the P.S. era (pre-sock) – stocking stitch and ribbing were all I was capable of churning out).

Fast forward six years (during which time I also finished school, got married, became a grown-up, cranked out 40+ pairs of socks, 10+ sweaters and a few dozen other knitted accessories) and I finally lived up to my word.

Here is the story of my Icarus shawl.

It seems quite fitting that I knitted the body of this shawl while watching the first two seasons of Downton Abbey, a time when silk shawls were a luxury item worn in the finest drawing rooms.  While my living room hardly compares to the Abbey’s resplendent drawing room, I’m confident this shawl could rival any of Lady Mary Grantham’s.

Here it is all finished, but not yet blocked:

For the non-knitters among you, lace knitting looks like a disheveled dishrag until it is blocked.  I like to think of blocking as a mini-spa trip for my recently finished project.  First, it has a delightful bubble bath with Soak fibre wash:

Then, it goes for an intense yoga class, where it is stretches as much as it possibly can:

Finally, it rests for about 24 hours, and when it’s dryer than Dowager Grantham’s humour, it’s ready to be unpinned and worn.

The view from my balcony is hardly as majestic as the Downton Abbey grounds, but I think this shawl would be right at home in such a setting.  I plan on wearing it to the theater when the 2012-13 season kicks off, on airplanes, and anytime I need a little “Downtown Abbey”  vibe in my life.

Yarn:  Koigu Mori (4 skeins) and MacIntosh cashmere lace (100 yards, when I ran out of the Mori)

Needle: 3.75 mm, Addi Lace

Greetings,

Thanks for your patience between posts – Mr. Loophole and I recently went on a trip to Cuba, and as I’m learning (this whole “regular vacations” thing is still a bit novel after being in school for so long), the week before and after a vacation are, well, utter mayhem.

But it’s all worth it to spend seven glorious days here:

Although my tan is rapidly fading,  the fond memories of a week with my loved ones, my Kindle and the best pina coladas on earth will last a lifetime.  Oddly enough, I did remarkably little knitting while on vacation.  Gasp.  This is quite unusual as normally when I find myself with large amounts of free time,  I get in as much knitting as possible.  Perhaps it was the warm weather, or the fact that I brought some very engaging beach reading, or the above-referenced pina coladas, but I only knit about half a sock.  Maybe I should rename this post “Sock on the Beach”.

These are for Mr. Loophole (of course), and are made out of Sweet Georgia 100% merino sock yarn.  The yarn is very soft and has a lovely “bounce” to it.  I’m test-driving the new Knitters Pride needles, and these are the Cubics DPNs, which are square, and quite pretty to look at – the wood grain vaguely resembles animal print.  If you’re a fan of wooden sock needles, I highly recommend you give these a whirl.  However, the more I knit socks (and we’re coming up on my 6th sock-iversary this August), the more I realize that I’m partial to metal needles.  I think it’s the speed factor as I find I knit much faster with metal needles than I do with wooden ones.  In any event, these needles are a great choice for wood lovers.

Now that I’m out of the tropical sun, I decided to finish my alpaca cowl.  (To be fair, there has been absolutely nothing to complain about this winter in Edmonton.  It’s been unseasonably warm, and when we got a few flurries yesterday, it almost seemed like a bizarre occurrence). This is the Lava Flow Cowl [rav link], which I just cast off this afternoon.

In terms of modifications, I did a few extra pattern repeats, and I did a 3 needle bind-off as I wanted an actual seam for support as cables are heavy (especially cables this big) and I used 100% baby alpaca yarn, which is liable to stretch quite a bit.  This is my first cowl (when they first came out, I wanted to see if the trend survived more than a season before I invested serious knitting time.  It looks like they’re here to stay).  As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is a very special yarn from an alpaca farm in Ontario.  I met the prize-winning cria (baby alpaca) that provided this amazing fiber and I enjoyed knitting every stitch.  Well, almost every stitch – there was a  tense moment when my wooden cable needle snapped, but luckily Mr. Loophole is a whiz with crazy glue (I’ve been banned from using it.  Long story). For future reference, do not attempt large cables (i.e. 24 stitches across) with a wooden cable needle – go straight for the metal.

In my post-casting off glow, I’m going to spend a leisurely afternoon figuring out what’s next on my knitting queue (aside from finishing the socks that never end, pictured above).  Stay tuned.

My primary goal this week was to finish my Nighttime Reading Shrug.  I diligently worked on the sleeves, and patiently completed the ribbing, and then, overcome by eagerness and anticipation, when reading the final pattern instruction to “use the sewn bind-off,” I decided, “nah! I’ll just bind off how I normally would.  It’ll be faster.”  False logic at its finest.

The reason that the professional, published and well-respected designer of this lovely pattern included those fateful words (and knitting patterns are written in a short of short-hand, so that Every. Word. Counts.) is that she meant “if you don’t use the sewn bind-off, and presume to substitute your own bind off, the edging of the shrug will be way too tight and you’ll only be able to wriggle one arm into it, before wailing in agony, distress and regret that you should have heeded the call to use the sewn bind-off.”  In other words, she accurately predicted my Friday night.

So, I ripped back my Lucy Neatby Modified bind-off, and executed, for the first time, the sewn bind-off.   Drum roll please…..the shrug fit perfectly.

What did I learn from this?  Not that I’m stubborn and impatient.  I already knew that.  I learned to respect the designer, and that while knitting is a pretty flexible craft, the art of modifying patterns doesn’t work in all circumstances.  If you prefer fisherman’s rib to picot edge, God speed, but mess not with the sewn bind-off.  Its super-stretchy properties mean that the designer likely put it there for a reason.

Overall, I’m quite happy with how this project turned out.  It’s like a little hug during a particularly dark and dreary time of the year when, were it not for my trusty mood lamp and a plane ticket for Cuba, I’d probably be weeping into my sock stash.

If you find this time of year difficult, and many of us do, give the following recipe a try.  It’s packed full of omega-3s (“good fats”) and will give your brain a boost.  It is also, if I do say so, quite tasty.

“Portabello Pick Me Up”

Ingredients:

As many portabello mushrooms as you have diners.  (The recipe for the filler will fill about four)

- 1 cup of walnuts

- 1 tin of lentils

- 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (for filling) and 1/2 cup for onion topping

- 1/2 cup parsley

- 5 cloves of garlic

- 2 tablespoons of olive or grape seed oil

- one red onion

Instructions:

Clean mushrooms and scrape insides to create small hollow for filling.  Add walnuts, 3/4 cup of lentils, 4 table spoons of balsamic vinegar, parsley and garlic to food processor and blend until smooth.

Lightly coat mushrooms and bottom of baking dish with olive oil, and fill mushrooms to top with lentil and walnut filling.  Place in oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, dice one red onion into long slices and heat 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar over medium heat in saucepan.  Add onions, and let simmer and caramelize for 1/2 hour or so.  By the end, the onions should be almost black and limp.

Remove mushrooms from oven and spoon onion topping onto mushrooms.

Enjoy!  Wine is optional, but a light red will do nicely.

As I sit down to post (notice how I’m sticking to my Sunday blogging schedule?), the Golden Globes pre-show is just starting.  For reasons I can’t quite explain, as the Golden Globes is my favourite awards show, I’ve somehow managed to miss the GG’s for the last three years, so I was quite determined to catch them this year.  Luckily, the weather cooperated – we got some snow last night and it’s chilly, chilly, chilly outside, so a perfect night to stay in by the fire.

As I watched some of the pre-show coverage, I got to thinking about why there isn’t a Knitting Awards of sorts? (If there is, please forgive my ignorance and let me know where I can get the low-down).  Non-knitters who are reading this, don’t balk – knitting has all the necessary ingredients for an awards show:  fans, stars, designers – we could totally have a Knitting Awards.  The categories could be best pattern (sweater, sock, lace and accessory), best blog, best designer, best new yarn (that one would be contentious).  And of course it would be an excellent excuse for knitters to get together and have a big ol’ party.

In the meantime, here’s an update of my knitting.  I’m pleased to report that my Nighttime Reading Shawl is on the blocking board – all that’s left is to knit the ribbed band, and hope for the best in terms of fit:

I am so excited that I managed to successfully complete a lace pattern!  Even better – I did so while listening to an Audiobook.  I am barely containing my enthusiasm to cast on a shawl.  All in good time.  This is the most suspenseful part of the knitting process for me – the “will it fit?” moment.  Although the sleeves seemed to take forever (isn’t that always the way), overall, I really enjoyed knitting this project. It was my first time knitting lace in the round, and I got a kick out of the fact that as the project grew, I could toss my ball of yarn in the handy little “basket” that the lace pattern created.  How can you not love it when your project comes with its own carrying case?

Here is my first sock project for 2012.  Of course, these are for Mr. Loophole – no surprise there.  I’m using Sweet Georgia Handpainted Sock yarn, which is quite lofty and is creating a very soft fabric.  I’m using 2.5mm needles, from the  new Knitter’s Pride line. I’m using the square, wooden  DPNs.  They don’t give me the speed I’d get with metal needles, but they are smooth and pretty to look at – easy on the hands too:

I imagine that I’ll make some serious progress on these socks this evening as they require minimal attention – so I can focus on what matters: THE DRESSES!

In keeping with the spirit of my last post, in which I announced that I was going to move away from the “to-do” list approach to knitting, and embrace a more “we’ll see how it goes” attitude, I thought it might be fun to devise a Knitting Wish List.  This isn’t a declaration of what I intend to knit in 2012; rather, it’s a list of projects that I would like to be able to bundle myself in, either this year, or sometime in the future.

1.  Cabled Cowl

• we’ve been very spoiled so far in Edmonton in terms of weather.  The Canadian in me knows that we’re in for a walloping soon to compensate for two months of mild weather.  So in addition to booking a trip to Cuba, I’d also like a ridiculously warm scarf to snuggle up in when I have to face the elements.

2.  Shoulder Warmer for Nighttime Reading

• I’d like a nice shrug to wear when I’m reading in bed so that my shoulders don’t get chilly.

3.  Symphony Shawl

• For years now, I’ve been dreaming of a captivating shawl to wear when Mr. Loophole and I go to the symphony or the theatre.  This will also involve purchasing Just The Right Dress to wear with this shawl.

5.  Slouchy Hat

• I have now knit enough hats to know that beanie-type toques do not flatter me.  At all.  My favourite hat is a slouchy, cabled number, but a woman who lives in a climate where it’s winter for 7 months of the year needs more than one hat she adores.

6.  Tweedy Cabled Pullover

• Mr. Loophole and I love going on nature walks.  I am certain I would love these walks even more if I had a gorgeous tweedy, cabled pullover to wear when we go romping in the woods.

7.  Stylish Sweater Coat

•  For the days where I look and feel like something the cat’s dragged in, but need to go out in public to acquire “requisites” (doesn’t that turn of phrase make running errands sound so much more sophisticated?), I’d love a stylish sweater coat that I can throw over jeans and a t-shirt, that will allow me to dash out the door looking fabulous despite lack of sleep and preparation.

So that’s my wish list.  And here’s what I’ve done to make my knitting wishes come true:

Alpaca Cowl

This is a very special project for me.  I have had this yarn in my stash since the Spring of 2009, when in between jobs I had a lovely stretch of vacation time which I used to visit my family in Ontario.  My uncle took me to an alpaca farm near Goderich, and as a “way to pass your bar ads!” present, gave me this ridiculously luxurious hank of baby alpaca.  This fibre comes from a prize-winner, who I had the joy of meeting.  So it goes without saying that a very special pattern had to come along before I cast on.   Enter, the Lava Flow Cowl. The sumptuousness of the yarn is ideal for ribbing, and the large cables give it a simple elegance.  I am enjoying every stitch, and am going to do pattern repeats until I run out of yarn (I have just under 300 yards).

In case you’re curious, the background is our new ottoman.  We got the matching chair, but have not been able to sit on it for this reason:

I also started the Nighttime Reading Shrug.

This project has been a revelation for me.  As you know, I approach lace with a certain amount of trepidation because aside from one small shawl, my lace projects have been exercises in frogging and frustration.  While knitting the first 43 rows of the chart for the Camellia Shrug from KnitScene, I realized why lace has been giving me trouble – I’m too scatterbrained! Until now, I assumed that the complexity of lace charts required complete silence and concentration, and it was only in these circumstances that I would attempt to knit lace, without much success as my mind would wander after 30 seconds or so.  Yesterday, I tried knitting lace while listening to an Audiobook and – magic!  I could listen and knit at the same time, without losing either the story or my stitches.  I am so excited by this development, as I’ve been avoiding lace patterns and looking wistfully at my lace stash for quite some time now.  All this may change.

What’s on your Knitting Wishlist?

After a record-long absence, I’m back.  For those of you who inquired and expressed concern, thank you.  All is well.  The blog had to take a back seat this Fall for reasons I won’t bore you with here (mostly because they have nothing to do with knitting), but I am very excited about more regular posts in 2012.   I am also very excited about the obvious yet profound realization I had this year that if I don’t actually schedule something, it doesn’t happen (and even when I do, life often sometimes intervenes).  This is true of work, of the gym, of errands, of letters, of phone calls (yes, I still write letters and talk on the phone and nothing, not even an Ipad, will change that), and of course, of bogging.  So, Sunday evenings are now officially the time I have set aside for blogging.   If it’s been a busy week and there’s not much knitting to show off, then I’ll post about some of my adventures this Fall, a “retrospective” of sorts. As this task is in my Iphone calendar, it is statistically way more likely to happen.

This post may be a bit scattered, as Mr. Loophole and I are painting over the holiday season.  Not very festive perhaps, but we rarely both have time off when we’re both actually at home and not travelling somewhere, so carpe paint brush diem.

Mr. Loophole is the more patient of the two of us, while he’s been taping and painting the edges, I’ve been distracting myself and trying to remain calm about the fact that our bed is in the living room temporarily and the condo is in a state of barely controlled chaos.  (For reasons I can’t yet explain, this year I have become much more of a neat-freak.) So I decided to immerse myself in something that has been bothering me for a while now:  the absolutely ridiculous amount of yarn I’ve amassed.  Now, I am a woman who loves a big stash, don’t get me wrong.  However, the size of my stash was starting to cause me more grief than joy, so it was time to reassess.  I asked myself what a “comfortable” amount of yarn was, in my opinion.  It turns out, I am comfortable putting this yarn up for sale (keep an eye on Ravelry if you’re interested) 

and donating two more bags of yarn to Goodwill.   What I’m left with is two containers of sock yarn, one small container each for baby yarn, lace and smaller projects, and my chest of sweater yarn.  I find this a much more manageable stash.  It’s still a decent amount of yarn, but it no longer feels like a woolly burden.

Despite the roller-coaster-esque trajectory of this year, I am pleased to report that I completed more knitted projects in 2011 than I did in 2010.  Here are the stats:

3 Sweaters

9 Pairs of (Adult) Socks

5 Baby Hats

2 Baby Sweaters

1 Pair of Baby Booties

4 Accessories (scarves, mitts, etc.)

Total = 24 FOs (Finished Objects)

For the record, that kicks last year’s total of 19′s butt by 5 FOs.

I’m woefully behind on updating my Ravelry page, so I’m only going to post a few photos here of my projects:

This bootie pattern is from Erika Knight’s book Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, which as you know is my favourite source for baby patterns.  The bootie pattern I used before trying this one was all stocking stitch, and the garter stitch sole in Knight’s pattern takes the project to a whole new level both aesthetically and structurally.  [Project notes: yarn - Alchemy Sanctuary, a wool silk blend that is absolutely divine, on 3.75 needles].

As the 2011 numbers show, socks were my stand-by project this year, which isn’t surprising given the amount of travelling (I have now vowed to only take socks or small projects when I travel – no more sweaters), waiting around, and “must knit to keep sanity” moments that occurred this year.  Clearly Mr. Loophole benefits from this, as he is now the proud wearer of 6 new pairs of socks, the latest of which are featured below:

These are made with Tanis Fibre Arts (my first time using this yarn – I now understand what all the fuss was about) in the “Glacier” colour-way.  Mr. Loophole loves these and they make a frequent appearance.

You may recall that in 2011, I set the rather ambitious, and in hindsight, unrealistic, “5 Year Plan.”   Clearly, I came nowhere close.   So, it’s time to change the approach. 5 Year Plans are fine for other more serious things, but when it comes to knitting, I’m going to move away from a “To-Do” list style plan with tasks, goals, milestones and other things that remind me of work, and embrace a more “Knit Happens” approach.  Ultimately, I’d like my knitting to feel less like my law practice, and more like my yoga practice.

And now I’m going to paint (light charcoal, in case you’re interested).  Thanks for your patience during this challenging year.  Adios 2011, and thanks for all you taught me.