A Fortnight of Finishing

Do you know the word "fortnight"? The dictionary defines it "a period of two weeks." It may be due my fondness for English novels, where this word is often seen, but I am always looking for a good excuse to use it.

Happily for me, the last fortnight has been full of finished objects: a total of 5 major projects and one minor project have made the last two weeks of my knitting very satisfying. Are you ready for the reveal? Here we go!

On April 20, after months and months, I finally finished my I'm in Focus, Veera Välimäki's design, Shift of Focus. I cast it on last September, so it took over 7 months to complete. It was A LOT of garter stitch! That being said, I really like the finished cardigan, and I love, love, love the yarn, Hazel Knits DK Lively in the Queen of the Night colorway. This was the project that got a bit of a sneak peek in the last post, and here is the finished photo:

On April 22, I finished a project that had been on the needles since early February, a sock project that I called That Crafty Honey Badger! The pattern is Honey Badger by Irishgirlieknits, and the yarn is Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Paula Mae—A Night at the Show colorway.  I won the yarn in 2012 in a KAL drawing in the Irishgirlieknits Ravelry group, so I knew I had to knit one of her patterns with the yarn. The pattern was easy but interesting, and I love how the socks turned out. I will definitely knit these socks again.

Next up was my Shades of Purple Beret, finished on April 23. I purchased the yarn, The Fibre Company Canopy Fingering, at WEBS on my annual November visit. I purchased it with the pattern, Kate Gagnon Osborn's En Blekksprut Beret, in mind. I'm really proud of myself for not waiting a year or two to knit it! I'm also finding that I am really getting to like stranded knitting. I may even embark on another two color project later this year, so stay tuned. Here is the finished beret:

The following day, April 24, I finished Sending a Little Love With Castanets, Melissa J. Goodale's shawl pattern, Castanets. I knit this for the March-April Hazel Knits knit along. The idea behind the KAL was to find a pattern that was at least six months old and that had less than 25 projects. Extra points were assigned for stash yarn more than a year old (definitely!) and a colorway (Sapphire) not part of the Hazel Knits lineup. My project was number 17 for the pattern, but I notice that there are now 27, so maybe it is getting some more love. It certainly should, because it is an interesting pattern and such a pretty shawl! Mel has some variations to the pattern (garter stitch instead of stockinette, a larger size and a two-color version) that I may try in the future. I will definitely knit this pattern again sometime!

On May 1, I finished my car project, which I called The Most Boring Car Project Ever. No, it wasn't the pattern, Ann Budd's 8 Stitches Per Inch Socks (my go-to plain vanilla pattern), that was boring; it was the yarn. For the past several months, I have been knitting my car project socks in self-striping and self-patterning yarn (see my knitting goals for 2014 for more on this), and I had thrown this yarn into the hopper for that effort. Mistake! The yarn was definitely not self-patterning and so boring, although the finished socks look nice. Here they are:

On May 2, I finished the last of the fortnight's projects, Dishcloth Thank You Gift, two cotton dishcloths for my friends, Jill and Dick. We had dinner with them a couple weeks ago, and Jill gave me four big balls of Lion Brand Cotton dishcloth yarn that a friend who had stayed with them for a few months left behind when she moved out. Dick mentioned that they hadn't had any hand knit dishcloths since Jill's aunt died a few years ago, and I thought what better thing to send along with a thank you note than two dishcloths! I knit one using the Grandmother's Favorite pattern, and the other using Variation on a Theme, which is a pattern based on Grandmother's Favorite. I'm not a grandmother, but these two patterns are definitely my dishcloth favorites! Here they are, Grandmother's Favorite on the left and Variation on a Theme on the right.

The fortnight is now over, and I don't expect that there will be any finished objects for a while, but keep an eye on the blog for some in-progress knitting coming up soon.

In the meantime, happy knitting!

Spring Knitting or Spring Hiking?

This was my dilemma as I sat down to write a new post, after three weeks of not doing so. Because I can't decide, I'm going to give you a little bit of both.

First the knitting: I've been working on socks, a shawl and a hat.  None are finished yet, but the socks and the shawl are getting close.  Here are one of the three pairs of socks I'm working on, Irishgirlieknits Honey Badger. I took the photo a few days ago, so I am almost to the heel now on the second sock.

I'm going to save a photo of the shawl for when it's done, but I will show you the hat I'm working on:

As you can see it's colorwork, Kate Gagnon Osborn's En Blekksprut Beret. I am currently much further along than the photo shows; I have finished the Fair Isle portion, and just started the stripes. The yarn, Fibre Company Canopy Fingering, is yummy.

I have one other BIG project that is off the needles, but not quite ready to be photographed. I'll give you a teaser photo for now, though.

On to hiking! There is a lot of snow in the mountains, so we have been hiking almost exclusively in the foothills, and, with one exception, we have gone to Cougar Mountain. In fact, we have hiked in Cougar Mountain four times in the last month. It has been a treat to watch spring advance a little each time we go there. Here is some of what we have seen:

The view of Lake Sammamish on a gray day, but with a bit of new green beginning to appear.

Beautiful blossoms, hidden in the forest.

Salmonberry blossoms, skunk cabbages and trilliums.

Tall trees, with new leaves silhouetted against a blue sky.

Yes, It's definitely spring!

A Lot of Stitches West, 2014 Edition

Stitches West, 2014—FANTASTIC!

That doesn't make for much of a blog post, so I'll try to cover the highlights here. You may remember from last year's Stitches blog post, that I went by myself and only spent Thursday and an hour or so on Friday morning at Stitches. This year I had lots of company, and I got to spend almost three full days there. My friend Nancy and I shared a hotel room, and Sarah and Martha also came and were only three floors below us in the Hyatt.

We knew it was going to be a good day on Thursday when we looked out our hotel room window and saw this spectacular sunrise:

Like last year, Barb (knittybarb) and her daughter Tracie (alittleposy) arranged to meet us first thing on Thursday and we attended the opening spotlight together. This year, the speaker was Myra Wood, and she gave a fascinating talk, based on her new book, Knit in New Directions.

Then we moved on to the "speed-dating" luncheon, where the Stitches instructors move from table to table every five minutes and do a short presentation on their classes, designs and other interests. Sarah and Martha, who had just arrived from the airport, joined Nancy, Barb, Tracie, me and two of Barb's friends, Pat and Mary, at our lunch table. We had a lot of fun, and got a lead on some cool project bags, which you will see later in this post. After lunch, Martha took a photo of (left to right) me, Sarah, Barb and Nancy, and Nancy texted the photo to Sharon (SheKnits) Dreifuss. We all listened to her former podcast, and met through the She-Knits group on Ravelry. Thanks to Nancy for sharing the photo with me.

In the afternoon, I took a class on lace edgings from Myra Wood, and she was just as interesting as she had been in the morning. I learned some new skills for shawl knitting, too.

Thursday evening was the Market Preview, which is open only to people registered for classes or events. Just like last year, it was huge and overwhelming, but amazing, at the same time. Unlike last year, however, I was not  prepared with a good list of what I wanted to look at and buy, and that was a mistake. I spent too much time just wandering, and that contributed to the feeling of being overwhelmed. I did buy some yarn, though, which I'll share at the end of this post. I also managed to take a photo of one of the vendors at the Verdant Gryphon booth:

On Friday, I took a class entitled "Disaster Recovery" from J.C. Brier. It, too, was an excellent class, and I learned how to (finally) drop down and pick up dropped stitches, something that I had never learned how to do in all of my years of knitting. Hooray! 

Friday evening, Nancy, Sarah, Martha and I attended the fashion show, and Nancy and I attended the dinner afterwards. We saw some amazing knitted garments, some of which I would never in the world consider knitting myself (too difficult) but I would love to own them!

On both Friday and Saturday mornings, I took a walk on a walking/ bicycle trail that runs behind the hotel and convention center. It was wonderful to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. On Saturday, Martha and Sarah joined me.

Speaking of sunshine, it was so beautiful that we were able to eat our lunch outside on both Friday and Saturday. Here is a little corner of the hotel's courtyard, where we ate our lunch:

When I wasn't in class or the market, I was busily knitting on my final Halos of Hope hat for Knitters Brewing Company's team in the podcaster throw down. The deadline for turning in hats was Stitches West, and I bound off my final hat on Saturday morning, and immediately took it to the Knitters Brewing Company booth in the market and turned it in to Wendy:

It was such a treat to meet and talk to both Wendy and Kelie, who host the Yarn on Tap podcast, one of my favorites. I bought some of their yarn, too, as you will see at the end of this post.

My last event at Stitches, and one of my favorites, was the podcaster meet-up, which was held in the Hyatt bar on Saturday afternoon. It was lots of fun to hang out with my knitting friends. Here is a photo of Nancy with fellow She-Knitter Debra (Javanut). It was so nice to see Debra again this year!

It was also fun to meet and hangout with some of the podcasters that I've been listening to over the past six years. I got to talk with Dr. Gemma from Cogknitive, Gayle and Sharlene from The Yarniacs, and of course, Barb and Tracie, the 2 Knit Lit Chicks. I also sat and knitted with Seattle podcaster, Erin, from Doubleknit, who I seem to run into at almost every fiber event that I go to. I even remembered to take a couple photos of the meet-up:

So that is my time at Stitches for this year, except for one thing: my market purchases. Here is the promised photo of what I bought:

Clockwise, from the top: nesting bags (4) from Neece's Pieces, Knitters Brewing Company Zebra sock kit, two skeins of self-striping sock yarn from Invictus Yarns, Miss Babs Yowza, What a Skein in the Prince colorway, Knitters Brewing Company Brewski in the Framboise colorway, and a Della Q interchangeable needle case.

I'll say it again—Stitches West, 2014—FANTASTIC!

A Little Bit Madrona, 2014 Edition

You may remember that last year I wrote a post with a similar title to this one about my adventures at Madrona and Stitches West. This year, I was able to attend both events again, but because I was at Stitches West for almost three full days this time, I am going to talk about each event in separate posts.

First up was Madrona. Unlike in previous years, this year I decided not to stay in the hotel, and when registration rolled around last November, none of the three- or six-hour classes appealed to me. So instead, I decided to go down to Tacoma for only one day, Thursday, February 13. I also signed up for two 90-minute mini-classes when they were opened for registration in January.

The first class was "Original Lace Design". I took the class solely to experience the legendary Evelyn Clark. She was wonderful, and I learned many new things about lace in the class, although I don't think I'll be doing a lace design anytime soon.

My second class was "Knitting with Your iPad", taught by Debbi Stone. Again, an excellent class. Even though I use knitCompanion, there are times when I don't want to go to all the trouble to set up a pattern in kC, and Debbi showed us some cool apps that will provide me with some other options to use with simpler patterns.

When I wasn't in class, I hung out in the beautiful Hotel Murano. The hotel is located a short walk from the Museum of Glass, so there are amazing glass art pieces located throughout the hotel. Here is the spectacular blown glass chandelier in the lobby:

I'm sure you are wondering if I spent any time in the Madrona marketplace. Of course I did! It seemed a bit smaller this year, with one favorite vendor, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, missing. (Sadly, Tina has given up vending at shows.) I made only one purchase, and I bet you can guess what it was:

Hazel Knits, of course! The colorway is Heartthrob, and it is a slightly more deep pink-red than the photo shows. Those reds can be so hard to photograph!

As we did last year, my friend Sarah and I met for dinner and went to our favorite Japanese restaurant. Then we went  to the third annual Teacher Talent Show, a Madrona highlight, which I still can't tell you about. Remember: what happens at Madrona stays at Madrona. We had a great time, and laughed a lot. When the talent show was over, I didn't have to do the hour-long drive home; I got to stay in Sarah's cozy upstairs guest room and drive home in the morning. Thanks, Sarah!

So that is Madrona in a nutshell. Up next is the much bigger Stitches West, which happened only a week later. That post will be coming up in a few days, so stay tuned.

Winter in the Pacific Northwest

A lot of people think that here in the Northwest, winter looks like this every day:

I will admit that sometimes winter looks very much like those photos, but this winter we have been treated to much more variety in our weather. Do you want to see? Take a look below:

Obviously, not just a succession of rainy days all winter long. But let's keep it our little secret, shall we?

Knitting in a Winter Wonderland

Have you been wondering where I've been? I've been absent from the blog for a couple weeks for a good reason: last weekend I attended the Knitajourney Mid-winter Retreat in Duluth, Minnesota. I know, I know, I can hear you already: "Minnesota in the winter? Are you crazy?" But I love Minnesota in all seasons. I spent 18 years and many Christmases and vacations of my life there, and in many ways I still consider it home. As a result, going there in the winter isn't as awful as it sounds.

That being said, it was pretty darn cold, and there was a lot of snow! This is the view from the second floor of the retreat house.

But the truth is that when you spend time in a cozy and beautiful house with a group of knitting friends, the cold doesn't really matter. This is our wonderful retreat house:

Here is the room I stayed in, and what I found next to my bed:

We ate very well:

Some of us went on a walk along the creek in the snow.

We went on a yarn crawl to two area yarn stores. One of them, Playing With Yarn, had more yarn per square foot than just about any yarn store I've ever been in. It also had a spectacular view of Lake Superior.

Mostly, what we did was knit and talk and enjoy the warmth of the fire and of our friendship.

Many thanks to Susan, Alison, Betsy, Laurie, Ceci, Ellen, Lisa and Lisa. You made the weekend perfect. Let's do it again next year!

Annual Goals, the 2014 Edition

Well, here I am, with the third annual goals post. This year, all of my goals are knitting-related. "What?" I can hear you asking, "No photography goals, no reading goals, no hiking goals?" That is correct, and I'll tell you why: I did such a great job with those goals last year, that I'm giving myself the year off. In 2013, I completed a photo-a-day challenge, I read 52 books, and I did 22 weekly hikes. I also accomplished my long-standing goal of walking a half-marathon. Giving myself a pass on these types of goals in 2014 does not mean that I won't be taking photographs, reading or hiking, but it does mean that I am going to be more relaxed about doing those things. You can expect to see my photography here on the blog, and I will definitely feature weekly hikes in the summer. Who knows, I might even have an occasional book review here, too.

So, let's get down to the knitting goals:

1. Continue to finish or frog those long-standing UFOs and lingering WIPs.

I did fairly well on this goal in 2013. I finished two UFOs, one from 2011 and the other from 2012, and I frogged a project from 2011. I still have one UFO from 2009, one from 2011, and a couple lingering WIPs from 2013 that need to be dealt with. I hope that these will all be wrapped up in one way or another in the first three months of the year.

2. Knit from my stash as much as possible, and buy less yarn than last year.

This goal is on my list every year, and every year I say that I did a little better on this than the year before. I'm saying the same thing this year, but I'm hoping that at this time next year I'll have a significantly smaller stash.

3. Knit down my stash of self-patterning and self-striping yarn.

This goal shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. I have about 13 of these yarns currently in my stash, and I almost always have a plain vanilla sock in a self-striping or self-patterning yarn on the needles. Back in November, I got the idea that it would be more fun to knit with these yarns if the choice was random. So I wrote each yarn name and colorway on a slip of paper and had Mr. D draw one out of a hat. I just finished that first pair of socks two days ago:

Mr. D has already randomly selected the yarn for the next pair, and I'll be casting it on soon. Watch for more of these FOs on the blog in the coming year.

4. Knit projects with the gift yarn in my stash and the gift patterns and books in my library.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have received many skeins of yarn as gifts over the past six years and I've knit with almost none of it. This year, that is going to change. I have done a little better with knitting gift patterns: this past year I knit two of the three patterns I received as gifts from Ravelry friends last Christmas. But I am also counting the patterns in books I have received as gifts, and if you include all those patterns, I'm not doing well at all. Stay tuned to see if I can change that in the coming year.

How about you? What are your goals for the year? Whatever they are, I hope your New Year is a happy and healthy one!