The first thing I picked up to keep my hands busy was my own Blooming Sun Hat (my design,  in Crochet Today May/June 2010) worked in Knit One Crochet Too’s Ty Dy Cotton. I have been reading about the yarn on Ravelry,  and crocheters like it because it has long color repeats (important for the tall and yarn-eating crochet stitch). I finally found some of it close-to-locally when Paul took me on a Hill Country Yarn Crawl of my very own for my birthday last month, so I bought a ball to swatch with. The yardage is generous –another plus for crocheters!– so I figured I would be able to make the hat with enough to spare for swatching. Overall, I like how the coloring worked out, but I actually think that a stiffer cotton (such as the Red Heart Eco-Cotton I used for the magazine) was well suited for this hat, as it made the whole thing a bit more stiff. A cotton linen blend would be nice as well–it all depends what you are going for. I do love that the lighter weight of this yarn and I already wore the hat outside  to do some gardening this morning.

I’m also thisclose to finishing another pair of Easy Does It Crocheted Socks from the aptly named book, Crocheted Socks: 16 Fun-To-Stitch Patterns. I started these with my sock class that I taught at  Yarnivore using Stroll sock yarn from Knit Picks (leftover from a forthcoming design). Since I needed a sock to demonstrate on I figured I would go ahead and make the pair, I just made them short anklets since I had used part of the skein for the other project and knew I wouldn’t have enough to make a full cuff. I am proud to say that I guessed just right and ended up with just a few yards left of yarn– it feels so good to USE it UP sometimes, doesn’t it? I have so much stash leftover from book and mag projects and I really hate to let it languish, but I do start to get sick of a yarn if I already made the intended project, the scrap project, and still have more left! Heh! Anyway, the socks fit perfectly, I just need to sew up the toe. Unfortunately, in my opinion these socks are an example of what short color repeats look like in crochet—ugly. While I love the colors of this yarn, I don’t really like the way it pooled here, which happened because the repeats are too short (for this stitch pattern, in crochet). If you end up with a yarn like this, try alternating it with a solid to space out the pools–that’s what I did for the forthcoming project and I like it much better. But, hey, free socks to wear around the house!

The last thing in the works right now is actually on my knitting needles– I got them out last night and cast on for my Rippley Sweet BonBon Baby Blanket, a free pattern on Ravelry,  from Austin’s great yarn shop, Hill Country Weavers. One of my favorite students came in with the yarn and pattern for a couple of these and I helped her with them, and then when I was in their store this weekend I could no longer resist starting my own.  I had about 3 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton left over from Tricia Royal’s Mod Cross Pillow in Crochet Adorned and they all matched well with one of multicolored Filatura Di Crosa Bon Bon skeins (the pom-pom yarn) in the store, so I went ahead and got it, along with the red cotton. I’m going to make my blanket stripey so I can work with what I have. This is another favorite way for me to use stash/leftover yarns–buy just a little of something new to make them fun again. And- knit with them instead of crocheting with them (or vice versa). The stitch pattern on this project  is relatively simple but I find that it helps to place a marker between each repeat so that if you get hung up somewhere it’s easy to follow the repeat and figure out which section is the problem. It’s very addictive to work this, too- in fact I’m trying to avoid it right now so I can actually get some things done today.

That’s what’s new over here– what’s on your hooks and needles?

What I love about Kristin’s work  is that she’s not afraid to use color- and lots of it. Whereas other designers might shy away from the amount of yarn needed, or all the tails to weave in, Kristin goes for it. Of course, it probably helps that she was able to create her own yarn line with all sorts of great colors to mix and match. (Finding several colors that go together within one line of yarn is much harder than it sounds!)

She’s also not afraid to combine crafty techniques (swoon- a woman after my own heart)– and throughout the book, illustrates ways to combine surface embroidery with fairisle knitting to create stunning effects that even advanced beginners can achieve! Plus,  Kristin gives you information on how to be your own designer. The book comes with a glossary of colorwork stitch patterns, and each project gives you instructions on which designs you can pick and substitute easily in the project. She even goes so far as to do the math for you–ie, if you have 60 stitches in which to work, she’ll lay out the multiples you can use (2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 20, etc), to correspond with the glossary of color charts that is  also set up by number of stitch repeats. Grand!!

I decided that I wanted to make a project from the book for my review, because as you may know, I’m not a terrific knitter. I like to knit, but I hardly have the time for it (and if I get too good at it, I might start to mix it in to crochet designs!). There were many doable projects in the book that didn’t seem like a huge time investment- such as mittens, hats, socks, and pillows. A lot of the items are for cold-weather wear (naturally), so I settled on something small and cute for instant gratification.

I picked a set of slippers from the Family Slippers, and I started with the infant size, figuring it would be good practice in case I decide to make the larger sizes. They booties are adorable, and all told, took me about 5 hours to knit (I made some silly mistakes- I’m still learning!). Since I happened to have some of her lovely Julia yarn on hand, I went ahead  and used it. As I’ve said, the colors and tones are just amazing, and the bit of  alpaca makes the yarn luxurious to work with . All of the designs in the book are made with Julia yarn, and when you think about it, that’s kind of great because once you get gauge, you can jump into all of the projects. Of course, any worsted weight yarn will do–and that combined with the colorwork aspect makes this an excellent book for stash-busting.

If you’d like to be entered to win a free copy of Color by Kristin, leave a comment here by Tuesday at 12 noon central time. Please throw out some ideas of cute beginner/advanced beginner knitting projects for me (as in, specific patterns you’ve worked and enjoyed) in your comments, or tell me how long you’ve been knitting and what got you started. Good luck!

@ the Museum of Modern Art

Wall Cushions at MoMA

Flowers in Fort Greene (on the way to the Brooklyn Flea)

Pretty houses in Fort Greene

I’m here for a few more days, and will hopefully post some more inspiration when I get home. I actually do miss Montana. I saw a few herds of pronghorn and some strange desert winter landscapes on the way to the Billings airport (I turned to Paul and asked if he felt like we were on Mars), and I’m excited about the onset of Spring. I hope.

I used some hand dyed wool, flannel, suiting and cotton. This was my first attemp with the triangles, and I think they came out pretty well. Although I must say that I cannot WAIT till I get to use my walking foot! Here’s a closeup.

Peep peep!

Once I get a chance to take some good photos, I’ll be adding three more cake hats to my etsy shop. These three are special because they flew to Edmonton (Canada) and back just to be with you. Fun. I put the finishing pom-poms on this morning.

I added a few new button necklaces last night, in case you’re interested. I sold one to my high school history teacher while at a Christmas Eve party– that was pretty cool. She also owns the first (and only) painting I ever sold.

These are some of the leaves popping  up around downtown. They are so pretty!! Most of them are already falling off in droves and rustling around the sidewalks and streets. 

I also wandered across campus, where I passed these sidewalk stencils (at a sorority house, I believe), some juicy looking berries, and the duck ponds. The ducks are a little crazy- they all came traipsing over once I sat down to say hello. And begged for bread, of course.

I came back exhausted, but rejuvenated. I need to remember to go outside (for more than ten minutes) more often! More pics on flickr.

This morning I insisted we hike, since yesterday was rainy (mostly shower, only slightly snow) and today was gorgeous. We didn’t stay long because there are always things to do, but I loved all of the colors in the leaves! I never feel like I get to observe enough, I could stand over plants and stare at horses through fences for hours.

After that, Paul went to the studio. I stayed home and cleaned up, then decided to cook him an early birthday meal (it’s tomorrow). I made baked breaded acorn squash, rosemary lemon chicken and a little spinach salad. It was delicious! And there is squash leftover. I love fall, with all of it’s oddly shaped gourds. I definitely need to make something with pumpkin soon.

P.S. If you are participating in the Patchwork Swap, you should have received an email from me by now. If you didn’t, please email me to let me know.

This week I worked up some pretty placemats to brighten our eating area. I bought this pretty print in Austin, and previously used it to transform my air conditioning box into a “table” (nice camoflauge). Since I don’t need an air conditioner in Montana, I once again had the pretty fabric. It was a royal pain to sew, and as I was working on theseI thought of a couple of ways the project could have been much easier, but alas, I am stubborn. Were I to do it again, I would have sandwiched the oilcloth together (wrong sides facing) and used a bias tape around the edge to sew them together. This would eliminate both the hassle of turning the placemats inside out, the sewing through four layers of oilcloth, and the drag on the machine (oilcloth likes to stick!). Or, I could have pinked the edges and sewn them together. But I didn’ t want water seeping in, and I wanted them to be completely wipeable (hence no fabric bias  tape). Now I know!

All in all, it was worth the challenge. I secretly like testing the bounds of my cheap-o sewing machine by feeding it different materials.

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we arrived safely in Bozeman last night, greeted by a glowing orange sun setting over the Bridger Mountains. The trip was amazing–we drove through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming and then, Montana. Over the 2500 miles we got to stop and see old friends and beautiful landscapes (my favorite being the Badlands in South Dakota). I’ll do a full update when I get set up– but it might be a while.