And the kids got coke and chocolate bars

Pattern: Thoreau Hat by Terri Kruse (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Quince & Co. Lark (100% wool), colorways Bark and Nasturtium
Needles: U.S. 7 Harmony wood 24″ circulars (magic-loop)

Sometimes you get on a hot streak, and sometimes you can’t wake up the cards. Early this year I suddenly hit the jackpot on three or four blog contests, all at the same time, winning yarn and books and such. One of those windfalls was this Quince & Co. yarn. I fell in love with its sturdy, honest richness. I wanted to knit it immediately.

Noel needed a hat. I’ve made him a balaclava and a scarf and even a sweater for the frigid temperatures of Park City at Sundance time (he didn’t get to go this year, but I hold out hope for the future). But if he’s going to keep up his walking regimen in even the relatively tame Arkansas winter, he needs a warm hat. The proportions of colors I received in this yarn reminded me of a hat I saw in a magazine, with a pop of color around the brim. I searched and searched, until I found it. Man, do I ever love this hat.

Pattern: Easy Missoni Style Long Moebius Cowl by Haley Waxburg
Yarn: Plymouth Happy Feet DK (90% merino, 10% nylon), colorway 55
Needles: U.S. 11 24″ Harmony wood Options circulars

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been trying to find my motivation to knit in different places. It’s not that I am tired of knitting; it’s that I have a number of stalled projects that are sapping my willpower. I feel like a failure for not taking care of the business I’ve already started. So I look to necessity or to pleasure for motivation. I need a warm hat for my walks to school, or a long-sleeve cardigan for layering — that’s necessity. I want to use a yarn that I really enjoy, or make a type of pattern I’ve long wanted to try — that’s pleasure.

And yet, even when determined to follow these muses, I get sidetracked into my other motivations. Necessity drove me toward attractive accessories Knitwise could sell at its annual Craftin’ for CASA event. The perennial desire to use up stash yarn I’ve had for years, yarn that has been taunting me with my inability to find a pattern suited for it, led me to this DK yarn I bought from the Dizzy Sheep in the distant past. Brilliant pink is emphatically not my color, but it is most definitely the kind of color that will draw the eye when displayed for sale.

The motivations you need sometimes come along as a surprise once the work begins. Held double, this yarn made a decadent squishy soft fabric. I learned the cool moebius cast-on, and could see myself knitting moebiuses (mobeii?) as go-to travel projects. Circular needles (I don’t take my beautiful and expensive Signature straights through airports, since confiscation can’t always be predicted), easily memorized pattern, plenty of mindless knitting for meetings and sessions.

On the other hand, I plowed through this one pretty fast — so fast that I didn’t put down the needle size or how many skeins I used on the project’s Ravelry page. Maybe it wouldn’t last long enough for my travel needs.

It didn’t last long at the sale, either. The lovely Ashley took it home, and CASA of the 20th Judicial District took home the proceeds. Stash busted, children benefited, knitter happy, necks and hearts warmed.

Now this is my turn

Pattern: Graham by Jennifer Adams
Yarn: Dream In Color Classy (100% superwash merino), colorway Cocoa Kiss
Needles: U.S. 5 (for ribbing) & 7 Zephyr acrylic Options 36″ circular (magic loop)

As 2012 drew to a close, I was craving pleasure in my yarn. What knitters call “yumminess.” The kind of sensual experience in the hands, on the needles, and in the stitch pattern that feels almost too luxurious to be called work. I took two beautiful skeins of yarn on our post-Christmas trip to the barrier islands of Georgia, and as we were waiting for the plane to whisk us there, I cast on with the worsted weight hand-dyed merino. The kind of substantial yet buttery yarn that the snow we’d left behind seemed to call for.

Almost every second that I wasn’t at the beach, gathering shells and spotting birds with Cady Gray, I had this hat in my hand, knitting inside out in broken rib and admiring the waffle-ish texture developing on the opposite side of the fabric. I started the decreases the day before we left, and found I had miscounted my cast-on, forcing me to improvise an extra set. But by the time we got on the plane for the first leg of the trip home, I was in the rhythm, and didn’t even need to cross off the row-by-row instructions during the flight.

I sat a row back from Noel and the kids, next to a young man in the middle seat who put his head down and politely asked me to get water from the attendant when she came by for drink orders. I couldn’t tell if he were feeling poorly or not. But as I knit the last stitches and used my needles to draw the tail through them, one by one, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to give him the hat. I had no recipient in mind; in color, texture, and shape it was perfect for a young man; and with his lanky frame and longish blond hair, I thought he’d be the type to wear a hat well. He broke into a huge smile, and told me how much it would be appreciated during the cold Chicago winter as he completed his poetry degree at DePaul. I just had a chance to snap a few pictures with his permission (and Instagram one covertly during deplaning, the top one of this post) before the hat was gone forever, off to its connection somewhere else in the Nashville airport.

I began the hat with the aim of my own enjoyment. I ended it with the aim of a holiday surprise, something completely unexpected that might brighten the day of a chance acquaintance. The pleasure I wanted to extract from the process of knitting became, in the end — and not without a twinge of regret for the loss of the material object and its potential value as souvenir, gift, or fundraising item — inextricable from the impulse to create with it an indelible moment and a connection between people thrown together in their travels. I hope somewhere Walker, the young man who received the hat, is warm and full of hope for the new year.

I know all at once who I am

Pattern: HoneyCowl by Jessica K.
Yarn: Knit Picks Biggo (50% nylon, 50% merino), colorway Carnelian
Needles: U.S. 11 Harmony wood Options 24″ circulars (magic-loop)

2012 was not about planning. All year, it seemed, events simply overtook me, and all I could do was hang on and ride the wave. In some areas of my life, that was frustrating, as things I wanted to accomplish fell by the wayside and ordinary life ground to a halt, victims of crisis after crisis. But in my knitting, I was able to embrace the tide and roll with the unexpected. Indeed, I often looked forward to it.

Such was the case when Knit Picks offered a free hank of their bulky merino blend Biggo. Free yarn? Yes, please. When it came, the color, lightness, and silky-soft hand reminded me of the Misti Alpaca Chunky I used for my Raspberry Layers. I couldn’t resist finding a one-skein pattern and getting started right away.

Nine days later I was casting off. Extreme texture, vibrant color, a chunky barrier against the cold, a bold splash against winter’s gray. Who needs planning or predictability when life brings you free yarn and the time to knit it?

I’m a fool to think something so impossible

Pattern: The Boy Hat by Elizabeth Heath-Heckman
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted (100% merino) colorway Nostalgia
Needles: U.S. 7 Harmony wood Options 24″ circular needles (magic loop)

More catching up with little knits and random gifts from the past year! After the Ravellenic Games this year, I was in a hat mood. The thought of single skeins, easily portable bags, quick finishes appealed to me. I assuaged the yearning with this quick beanie using a orphan skein of my beloved Malabrigo. It’s on the charity shelf waiting to warm and brighten someone’s winter.

Pattern: Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf by Karen Baumer
Yarn: Wisdom Yarns Ballad (100% merino), colorway 317
Needles: U.S. 8 Signature straights

For some reason, every time I score yarn at Tuesday Morning, I can’t wait to use it up right away. It must be something deep in my Protestant or perhaps Scottish heritage. A skein of luxury yarn sits in my stash for years; an everyday purchase waits forlornly to be utilized; but bargain yarn demands to jump onto the needles within hours or days of coming home with me. This Noro knockoff became a new version of one of the very first scarves I made for a family member. This time I made a lot fewer mistakes, which I’m sure the eventual charitable recipient will appreciate.

Pattern: Intuitive by Julia Zahle (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino (100% wool), colorway Bright Red
Needles: U.S. 5 and 8 Zephyr acrylic Options 24″ circular needles (magic loop)

I had this project in reserve in the Ravellenics in case I got done with my Montague Vest early and needed a quick extra medal opportunity. The longing I felt to turn to it when the vest seemed far too hefty to drag out in the heat of summer — well, that’s the source of my determination to make hats hats and more hats after the Games. This single ball was left over from a 2008 Christmas project, Alex’s Irish Hiking Scarf.

More to come …

Everything it seems I like’s a little bit stronger

Pattern: Washington Square by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Kettle Dyed (100% Peruvian Highland wool), colorway Jay
Needles: U.S. 8 Harmony wood Options 36″ circular needle (knit flat)

A sweater is a saga. It starts from deep necessity, both of the external and obvious kind (I’m cold, and all my sweaters have three-quarter sleeves making them insufficiently cozy) and of the internal and nebulous kind (these jaunts round the block aren’t doing it for me; my feet itch for a long journey).

Every saga ends with a miracle. The miracle is that you came to the end, that the pieces were connected, that the threads were woven in, that the story now lies in front of you complete in a way that was unimaginable when it was in process.

You feel moved to confess how many doubts you had along the way. Doubts about whether your stock of material would last, even though the other examples to which you looked for guidance assured you that you had enough. Doubts about whether the recipe was leading you astray. Doubts about whether the process of finishing, of tidying up, of shaping and blocking and making ready for public view, would redeem the infelicities and imbalances that nagged at you while you worked.

The biggest doubt of all, of course, is the one you had to overcome (or at least ignore) right at the outset: the doubt that this saga would end up being the story of you. That it would fit you and suit you. No amount of research can reassure on this point. Every sweater is a leap of faith. And when you don it for the first time and find that it makes you even more like you are or would like to be, the saga ends with that quietest note of triumph, the homecoming. Those sweaters are miracles. They never feel like your work, like your doing. All you can do is be grateful when they come along.

Let her dance to our favorite song

Pattern: Shaelyn by Leila Raabe (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal (75% merino, 25% nylon), colorway Royalty
Needles: U.S. 5 Harmony wood Options 24″ circular (knit flat)

This was my travel knitting project during our summer vacation to Atlanta. As longtime readers will remember, I have very specific requirements for travel knitting. The project has to be fine gauge, to get maximum knitting mileage out of yarn that takes up minimal space in the luggage. Socks do the trick, but socks have one drawback — I’m not experienced enough to be able to turn heels without lengthy careful attention, so sock projects always come to a point where I can’t easily pick up and put down the knitting at a moment’s notice. So my default travel knitting is a fingering weight scarf.

And lately I’ve been all over lacy triangular scarves. I think my favorite one I ever made was this Larch for my mom — or maybe it’s a matter of absence making the heart grown fonder. The Shaelyn pattern reminded me of that one, only with more lace. I did have to count rows, and sometimes with travel knitting I go for something truly mindless, but since I wasn’t going to be knitting while sitting in meetings or conference sessions, I craved a bit of complexity.

Purple knits are always in style at my workplace, since the university’s colors are purple and gray. And I love nothing better than a colorful accessory. I tend not to wear neutral outfits, so I’m piling color on top of color in most cases. But I don’t care what purple does and doesn’t go with. Red, green, blue, another shade of purple — that pretty much describes my wardrobe of solid, basic tees, and I’ll throw a scarf of almost any color on top of any of them.

Tone-on-tone, semisolid yarns are my absolute favorite to knit with. The colors are always one-of-a-kind, rarely pool or stripe unattractively, and never fail to coordinate. The result is a garment or accessory that couldn’t be purchased off the rack — a true original, a statement, a signature. This beautiful scarf, with its luxurious deep hues and gracefully shaped textures, perfectly illustrates that quality

She couldn’t help thinking that there was a little more to life somewhere else

Pattern: Noro Scarf (two-tone diagonal garter stitch) by Suzanne Pietrzak
Yarn: Bernat Mosaic (100% acrylic), colorways Calypso and Spectrum
Needles: U.S. 8 Signature straights

Time to play catch-up! I have several finished objects going back to 2011 that have not yet been blogged. This simple, colorful slant on the classic Noro scarf was completed on the eve of our Craftin’ for CASA sale last year, and was purchased by Claire for her sister Marie.

Pattern: Harris Tweed by Luise O’Neill
Yarn: Tuesday Morning Exquisite Chunky (57% merino, 33% microfiber, 10% cashmere), colorway Cream
Needles: U.S. 10 Signature straights

This was also for the CASA sale. I loved knitting this one; this beautiful three-dimensional, fully reversible, unisex-appropriate stitch pattern deserves to be more widely known. I’d also love to get my hands on more of this yarn, which I picked up at Tuesday Morning; some people have said it’s relabeled Rowan Cashsoft.

Pattern: Enjoyable-Rib Scarf by Anne K.
Yarn: Moda Dea Tweedle Dee (80% acrylic, 16% wool, 4% rayon), colorway Thunder
Needles: U.S. 10 Signature straights

By my count, I’ve knit this pattern five times. I often go looking for another simple but visually interesting rib pattern for chunky yarn, but I always come back to this one. So satisfying. This one hasn’t found a home yet.

Pattern: Habit-Forming Scarf by Elizabeth Morrison (PDF link)
Yarn: Diakeito DiaFelice (50% wool, 28% nylon, 22% mohair), colorway 506
Needles: U.S. 8 Signature straights

I bought this yarn in Japan during my September 2011 visit, and knit it up over the Christmas break. It took me a lot of experimentation to find a stitch that showed off the colors, which are wool and mohair encased in a shimmery nylon casing. I was bedeviled by the fabric’s tendency to curl into a tube, though. If I recall correctly, I donated this to a silent auction to benefit Conway Cradle Care.

Pattern: Reversible Cabled Brioche Stitch Scarf by Saralyn Harvey
Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk (55% alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino), colorway Scarlet
Needles: U.S. 7 Signature straights

Ah, brioche stitch. There is nothing like you for squooshy ribbing. Throw in big reversible cables and a luxury yarn, and you have the perfect scarf. Only fault I can find with it is that the complexity of the ribbed reversible cables incorporating yarn-over-heavy brioche made the use of a cable needle (or in my case, a DPN) imperative. I donated this one to the Conway Cradle Care silent auction too. I hope it brought in a good price.

Pattern: JustRight Dishcloth by Deborah Ellis
Yarn: Ella Rae Baby Cotton (88% cotton, 12% nylon), colorways Ecru and Ink
Hook: 5.5mm (I) Tulip Etimo

Pattern: Squaring the Spiral Dishcloth by Deborah Ellis
Yarn: Ella Rae Baby Cotton (88% cotton, 12% nylon), colorways Ecru and Ink
Hook: 3.5mm (E) Tulip Etimo

Two crochet dishcloths for CG’s second-grade teacher whose favorite fashion look is zebra print. These both come from a lovely e-book of crochet dishcloths, containing patterns both basic and quite striking. I love using this DK-weight cotton blend that I picked up at Tuesday Morning; it’s soft, smooth, and drapey.

Pattern: A Beautifully Simple Coaster by Deborah Ellis
Yarn: Louisa Harding Nautical Cotton (100% cotton), colorways Sage and Light Blue
Hook: 4mm (G) Tulip Etimo

And this was the teacher gift for AA’s fifth grade homeroom teacher. I was really itching to crochet up some cotton last December, clearly. More Tuesday Morning yarn; I like the sage green a lot better in combination with the bright blue than alone. Six coasters in the set, three of each color.

Pattern: Sixty Cables by Gabi Krisztián (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Solid (80% wool, 20% nylon), colorway Pond
Needles: U.S. 4 and 6 Zephyr Options 24″ circular needle (magic loop style)

I started this faux-cable hat for the Craftin’ for CASA sale, but didn’t finish it in time. Terrific textured hat pattern with just the amount of slouch I like. Still doesn’t have a home; might be part of this year’s upcoming sale for CASA.

Pattern: Lacy Baktus by Terhi Montonen
Yarn: Inca Sportlace Hand-Painted (75% wool, 25% nylon), overdyed with Easter egg dye
Needles: U.S. 5 Zephyr Options 24″ circular (knit flat)

This is one of the two skeins I overdyed (full story here) in my first crockpot kettle dyeing experiment. I started with the colorway I liked less, the reds and pinks and yellows, just to see how the fabric looked knitted up. When I ran out of yarn, I added a purple corner in Knit Picks Palette (leftovers from my Endpaper Mitts). Although at the time I liked it as a homage to a very famous version by bluepeninsula (used as a guide and inspiration by many Ravelers), every time I put it on I worry that it just looks like a kludge. So I haven’t actually worn it yet, and might end up donating or selling it.

Pattern: Forked Cluster Stitch Washcloth by Oshinn Reid
Yarn: Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted (100% cotton), colorway Bermuda Heather
Hook: 5.5mm (I) Tulip Etimo

Pattern: A Practically Hyperbolic Dishcloth by Deborah Ellis
Yarn: Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted (100% cotton), colorway Bermuda Heather
Hook: 5.5mm (I) Tulip Etimo

Two quick crochet washcloths made as a housewarming gift for a new faculty member. The Practically Hyperbolic was already a favorite; the Forked Cluster Stitch was new to me and made a very handsome texture. I’ll definitely use it again. Excuse the horrible indoor Instagram photography — I only had to time to snap a quick pic after they were given.

Believe it or not, there’s still more … but that’s enough for one day and one post!