Here’s the well-known double helix

Pattern: Unbiased by Jody Pirello
Yarn: Plymouth Yarns Mushishi (95% wool, 5% silk), colorway 03
Needles: U.S. 8 Signature Needle Arts straights for scarf body, Zephyr acrylic Options 24″ circular for edgings

Every knitter who has become serious enough — or obsessive enough — about the craft will recognize this scarf. Not because you’ve knit it, but because you’re knitting something like it right now. You see, it’s been my Anywhere Project for the past two months.

The Anywhere Project is the one you keep in a bag and grab whenever you’re heading out the door. It’s a project that’s so easily memorized that you can pick it up and put it down at a moment’s notice without ever losing your place. It’s a project that is large enough to reliably need plenty of work any time you have a spare second to knit, but not one that is so large it’s difficult to tote. Small, light, easy, endless.

The body of this scarf is a four-row pattern that produces striking diagonal lines. It’s perfect for this subtly striped, rustic yarn, producing airy impressions of shifting color rather than bold blocks. There’s lace on every row. God help you if you have to fix a mistake — ripping is not an option when both right side and wrong side rows feature yarn-overs. I tinked back a row or two several times, eight or nine rows a few times. But you want it to be endless. That’s why it’s an Anywhere Project. Anything that makes it longer just postpones the moment you have to find a new Anywhere Project.

Is there a better yarn for an Anywhere Project than one that comes in hanks of 491 yards? Only one ball of yarn to take with you; only four ends to weave in (provisional cast on, bind-off on other end, starting the edging at the cast-on edge, bind-off on the cast-on end). I stopped when I had about as much yarn left as a fist covered by my other hand — no more than 150 yards, I reckoned, probably closer to 100. When I couldn’t make sense of the directions for the ninety-degree turn required to start the knitted-on perpendicular lace edging, I shot Jody Pirello (savannahchik on Ravelry) a PM. She set me straight, and I was off to the races. Ended to my surprise with 25 yards still left.

That’s nine feet of scarf in length, ten inches wide. It’s an extravagant wrap, the kind an operatic diva might sport while sweeping in the stage door. But it’s not the finished object I value most. It’s the two months of Anytime, Anywhere Knitting — digging in my bag, pulling out my gorgeous precision needles, reeling off a row or a repeat or even an hour or two of knitting, without diminishing by any appreciable amount what was left to do. My Anywhere Project has become an Any Day Scarf, as rare as a black-tie ball, as exotic as a celebrity sighting, as ordinary as a breezy walk to work. Luckily a new Anywhere Project is already in progress, with hours upon hours of pleasure and productivity still to come.

It’s been no bed of roses

Pattern: Heather Hoodie Vest by Debbie O’Neill
Yarn: Cascade Eco+ (100% wool), colorway 8447
Needles: U.S. 10 Harmony wood Options 60″ circular (knit flat)

Sometimes the stars align. Sometimes it’s love at first sight. Sometimes all the hard work and the little difficulties along the way get smoothed out by the effortless perfection of the result.

Like thousands of knitters, I was struck by the wearable, youthful, chunky style of the Heather Hoodie Vest in the Fall 2009 issue of Knitscene. When Kathleen Cubley, editor of Knitting Daily, announced that the pattern would be her next knit-along, I took it as a sign and began scouring my stash for an appropriate yarn.

Swatched: January 4. Cast-on: January 5. Finished knitting approximately 837 yards of yarn: January 17. Wet-blocked, buttons added, and worn for the first time: January 24.

Love.

What was the reason I became so single-minded about this cabled vest? Was it the big needles and relatively quick progress? Was it the lofty, wooly yarn in a brilliant red? Was it the sheer usefulness and currency of the item — a warm wrap for the torso, an insulating hood for the head?

I don’t know. All I know is that the more I knit it, the more I wanted it to be finished. I had a hunch that it was going to be something really special. I worked hard at converting it to be knit in one piece from the bottom ribbing to the armholes, and to adjust the number of picked-up stitches for the hood and the button band. There were no guarantees that this would suit me — I’ve never had any similar items in my wardrobe — yet I couldn’t wait to put it on.

And now I never want to take it off. It’s my early Valentine to myself. There’s love in every cozy, flattering, perfectly calculated stitch.

Maybe then your blues will fade away

Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans by Amy Swenson
Yarn: Patons Classic Merino (100% wool), colorway Sage
Needles: U.S. 7 and 6 Zephyr acrylic Options 60″ circular needles

Everybody has a favorite sweater. The one you throw on Saturdays for raking leaves, the one that’s perfect for the walk in the woods or the trip to the grocery store. The one that’s perfectly casual, perfectly cosy, and makes you look in the mirror exactly how you feel inside.

This is my favorite sweater.

Thank you, Patons Classic Merino, for being consistent, lightweight, dirt cheap, and easily blockable to open up the cable and rib pattern of this sweater. Thank you, Amy Swenson, for somehow knowing the exactly sweater that I yearned for before I ever even considered knitting a sweater. Thank you, Knitty, for making it free and available. Thank you, Grumperina, for making cabling without a needle second nature and lightning fast. Thank you, Christmas knitting list, for giving me a craving to make something that would take longer than a week and that I could keep for myself.

Words cannot express how much I love this sweater. This sweater — classic, easy, timeless, handmade. I never could have guessed in all its pleasurable hours of knitting that it would be so utterly perfect.

That’s when my love comes tumblin’ down

Pattern: An Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Wisdom Yarns Poems (100% wool), colorway 571
Needles: U.S. 10 1/2 Harmony wood Options 32″ circular (magic-loop style)

Big yarn. Big needles. Bulky cables. It’s the same impulse that led to my scarf in Tweedle Dee for Mrs. Bennett. And on November 29 of last year, it led me to search out a chunky hat that would match the sorority-girl fashion sense of my beautiful, stylish teaching assistant Lauren.

I held this shaded-stripes worsted-weight yarn double, and it might have actually been a little better with size 11 needles; the fabric was just a smidge on the stiff side. Tried to match the color repeats up, but ended up with them staggered a bit. No matter. I love these grays, dark to light, and the rough-hewn sensibility of the yarn made the knitting rugged and wintry.

The knitting took all of two hours from cast-on to weave-in. After soaking and aggressive blocking around a mixing bowl, it was a perfect fit. And when I gave it to Lauren, it looked beautiful atop her head. She’s one to appreciate the handmade, as an avid crocheter and sewer herself. It was exactly as I envisioned it: big, warm, yet for all that, a subtle pleasure.

In the sea from you to me

Pattern: One-Row Handspun Scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Knit Picks Decadence (100% alpaca, discontinued), colorway Tide
Needles: U.S. 9 Signature Needle Arts straights

I admit that I have been on a scarf kick this winter. The advantages to scarf knitting were compelling: Knittable on my beautiful straight needles, portable and easily memorized patterns, one size fits all.

When I unpacked this yarn from my stash, the pattern I had included with it was a pair of felted slippers. But this is luxury yarn. It seemed a shame to use it without patterning, without curb appeal, without pizzaz. So I went looking for scarves that would work with 240 yards of pure alpaca goodness.

It was Teresa — needlenhook on Ravelry — who inspired me. She knit the ultra-simple, insanely rewarding One-Row Handspun Scarf (4000 projects and counting) with this yarn on a nice big needle and then blocked the heck out of it. Suddenly a simple scarf became embracing, luxuriously lacey, almost a stole. When I saw her photos of the scarf draped dramatically around a dress form, I knew I had found what this yarn wanted to be.

My sister-in-law Sherri was the lucky recipient of this glorious knit. I’m sorry to see it leave my needles, my stash, and my gift bin. But I know it will warm and soothe her as much in the wearing as it did me in the knitting. And isn’t that what handknit gifts are all about?

Where the skies are blue

Pattern: Humanity by Denise Lotter
Yarn: Berroco Blackstone Tweed (65% wool, 25% superkid mohair, 10% angora), colorway Wintry Mix
Needles: U.S. 6 Harmony wood Options 24″ circular needles (one-at-a-time Magic Loop)

When you knit something you really love — something in a truly extraordinary yarn, something that conveys elegance and sophistication — the tough part is figuring out who deserves it.

I knit these from two precious balls of Blackstone Tweed that I bought during a Dizzy Sheep Spin-Off on Labor Day weekend. I had seen some beautiful projects made from this yarn, and I wanted to try it. At first I thought I would make a male-appropriate scarf, but the yarn was not making a good-looking fabric at the kind of needle size I wanted to use for an aran weight (10’s first, then 8’s). So after seeing on Ravelry that most projects used sizes 5 to 7, I reconsidered my scarf idea (not really enough yardage for a scarf knit at that gauge).

The mitts that emerged when I began knitting the Humanity pattern were a revelation. The fabric was soft and foggy, the stitch definition obscured not by the fuzz or halo of the fiber, but by the almost mini-chenille texture of the felted-feeling yarn. The big cables don’t pop, but I really love the way they rise out of the fabric’s misty background.

Ultimately we decided that Noel’s nephew Daniel, a college student and political activist, would be the likeliest to appreciate this fine and subtle creation. And although his reaction when he first unwrapped and slipped them on was appreciative, it was half an hour later that our confidence was shown to be well placed. While we all opened presents and conveyed appreciation, Daniel wore the gloves. He came up to me after it was all over. “You know what? These are legit,” he said.

Exactly the word I was searching for. Daniel, you have proved yourself knit-worthy.

Head out on the highway

Pattern: Kary’s Chevron Scarf
Yarn: Claudia Handpaints Fingering (100% merino), colorways Maple Leaf and Walk In The Woods
Needles: U.S. 5 Zephyr acrylic Options 24″ circular needles (knit flat)

‘Tis the season for gift knit to reach their destinations, and therefore to be revealed here in public! First up is this soft, vibrant scarf with a simple waving chevron pattern. I started this scarf, as I have done so many, because there was a trip coming up. I needed a portable project; all scarves aren’t portable, but the more yardage you can get in one compact hank (meaning fingering or laceweight), the more portable they become. I needed a simple project, something I could knit in conference sessions and on plane; and it doesn’t get much simpler than this 4 row repeat with only one patterned row.

I bought this yarn from dizzysheep.com simply out of a desire to try a yarn that has been used for many beautiful knits on Ravelry and has many rave reviews. It’s just as glorious as I hoped. Soft (especially at this drapey gauge), sproingy, and colors you can get lost in. Comparable to my beloved Koigu PPPM for inspiring colors and amazing, consistent, smooth hand.

And here’s the recipient, my sister-in-law Dawn, who seemed very happy with her scarf. I thought it fit her colorful, extroverted style while remaining elegant and wearable for almost any occasion.

And it provides a nice counterpart to the scarf her husband (my brother Doug) received, which I blogged here some months ago. I’ve now wrapped the necks of everyone on my side of the family … except my father. Time to start working on that for next Christmas.

Slip to the dark side

Pattern: rpm by Aija Goto
Size: 9.5 (L)
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock (70% wool, 30% nylon), colorway S40
Needles: U.S. 1.5 nickel Options 40″ fixed circulars (two-at-once Magic Loop style)

I tend to start knitting a pair of socks because of one very specific circumstance: I’m about to leave on a trip. These socks were hurriedly cast on right before I left for the AAR annual meeting in Montreal. And they turned out to be perfect travel and meeting knitting. They feature a stitch pattern that, once established, is exceedingly easy to read off the knitting, meaning you don’t have to consult your printout. And the luminous color changes in the inimitable Kureyon style make the knitting endlessly fascinating and pleasurable, even while it remains very simple.

Having learned my lesson from a succession of wearable but snug socks, I caved to reality and knit the larger size. For awhile after turning the heel I thought they might be too big. But once finished, they are well-nigh perfect — slipping on and off easily, the slightest slouch on the leg accentuating the spiral stitch pattern. If I knit socks with this yarn again — and I hope to do so, I’m a Kureyon junkie — I’ll go down to 1’s or 0’s. The fabric in these socks is just slightly on the loose side. But again, because of the casual effect and subtle slouchiness, it doesn’t detract at all. And the thick unspun portions that are Kureyon trademarks might bulge out unpleasantly at too tight a gauge. As knit here, they fit right in with the bloomed stitches once it’s washed.

These pictures were taken on a darkly overcast Christmas Eve morning, in the middle of an epic rain. I love the way the colors take on an ultraviolet glow in this light. There’s nothing like Noro, and I feel like an undercover alchemist wearing it on my feet.

Like walking on stage

Pattern: Enjoyable-Rib Scarf by Anne K.
Yarn: Moda Dea Tweedle Dee (80% acrylic, 16% wool, 4% nylon), colorway Sahara
Needle: U.S. 11 Zephyr acrylic Options 24″ circulars (knit back and forth)

It all started with this yarn.

The news that Coats and Clark was discontinuing their Moda Dea brand yarn was announced on Ravelry, and somebody commented that they would really miss Tweedle Dee, which had been for years their go-to yarn for gift scarves and hats. I looked it up on Ravelry. Super-bulky shaded colorways? I filed the yarn away in my “watch for this one” mental cabinet. Super-bulky yarns have become a bit of an obsession of mine lately. I’ve been craving the giant squishiness of them, dreaming of huge stitched scarves, blankets, cowls, wraps, sweater-coats.

And then one day it happened: Tweedle Dee appeared on Herrschner’s Yarn Sale site … at 75% off. I pounced. I could barely wait to cast on after it arrived. Weeks of knitting Christmas accessories, an endless sock-yarn scarf, even all the worsted-weight stuff was getting to feel too small and confining. I wanted a Big Knit.

So I spent way to much time flipping through my Ravelry favorites, looking for the goliath scarf I had envisioned. Truthfully, it was Wenlan Chia’s Wisteria (Rav link) that I craved. But I needed a pattern that I had or could get on short notice, not one in a book I didn’t own. After several false starts in various smooshy ribbing and lacey combinations, I returned to this Red Scarf Project standby. It’s got just the combination of a deep texture and openness that I was looking for. Two days later it was done. One day later it had my very first foray into fringe hanging off the end. Six feet of dangly, lofty, drapey winter high fashion.

I rode a rollercoaster of feelings about this colorway while knitting. Dirty snow? Wet beach? Dust bowl? But eventually I decided that despite its periodic ugliness, I really, really liked it. When I wound the scarf around my neck, it felt exactly like my dream. My affection for it meant that I could give it to its intended recipient — Archer’s third grade teacher, a hip young thing — with a clear conscience. But it also meant that giving it away was harder than the spirit of Christmas would dictate.

I want to know right now what will it be

Pattern: Diagonal Lace Scarf by Helena Frank
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted (100% merino), colorway Sealing Wax
Needles: U.S. 7 Signature stiletto 10″ straights

I have a stash of accessories stacked in the guest room, each with a little Moo MiniCard attached. Most of them will be gifts. Some may go to charity. I’m not sure which is which at this point, so I’ve been hesitant to blog about them, lest the recipients see them ahead of Santa’s arrival. But at some point, the Malabrigo (and the cute pictures of your little girl) make their own demands.

There’s been a rash of plans-not-working recently. I decide what I want the yarn to be, package it up all neat and tidy, and set it on the shelf. But when I take it down, the yarn doesn’t want to cooperate.

No problem like that here. One skein, beautiful needles, back and forth. I did the first few rows several times before I figured out how to read the knitting and do the repeat automatically. But there was never any doubt that this warm embrace of yarn wanted to stretch out, enjoy some negative space, rise into texture that you don’t want to stop touching.

A scarf is as much about the skin as the cold wind on the other side. Cover your neck, your ribs, your wrists, your toes, and see if you don’t feel warm all the way through.