Ribbon Candy Cowl

When I set out designing this pattern it looked quite a bit more Christmas-ey in my head than in execution.  Luckily the end result is a much more universal pattern that can be worn any time of year.

$3.00

The Ribbon Candy Cowl is made using 3 yarns.  Two colors are used for the colorwork body of the cowl and the third is used to make the bands.  The example I show here used 2 balls, one red and one white of a 420 yard sock yarn, for the colorwork body of the cowl and an undyed sock yarn for the bands.  The colorwork portion of the pattern uses equal parts of each color and is meant to be repeated until the yarn runs out.  If you have 2 balls of yarn that are roughly 200yds/180m each, the cowl will be roughly 11"/28cm in height.  If you have 2 balls of yarn that are roughly 400yds/360m each, the cowl will be roughly 20"/51cm in height.  The ribbed bands require 150yds/137m of yarn.

My favorite thing about this pattern is that the jog between rows is completely hidden in the spiral.  There is no way of seeing where one row ends and another begins.  

Time to Stop Being a Hermit

It's the start of the year and time to share some things.

Patterns:  

I have two new-ish (I published them in the fall of last year) patterns. 

*my apologies on the scary coloring of the pic.

As soon as fall weather hits I cannot get enough of Pumpkin themed stuff.  Large glittered pumpkins ala Martha Stewart, nerdy carved jack-o-lanterns of Firefly characters, Trader Joe's pumpkin greek yogurt...  I think the only pumpkin thing I don't like is Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte's (I hate them with a fiery passion despite their excellent cozy marketing).  So this year I decided to whip up a quick pumpkin pattern that could be used before and after Halloweeen, something that could be worn a little longer than the Hocus Pocus pattern.  The chart for this one is fairly small so you can adjust the pattern easily if you wish to change the yarn weight, size of the cowl, or if you want to use it for something else altogether.

This winter hat was designed on a lark Christmas 2011 and is the first thing I knit using yarn I spun (the green and grey version).  The green yarn was an awesome sparkly batt I got from the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn a few years ago, post pool, pre riverside.  The grey yarn is alpaca that came from a farm in Callicoon, NY.  We visited the farm and got to meet all the alpacas.  If you have a chance to visit an alpaca farm I highly recommend it, they are adorable and so soft.  

The pattern includes instructions for a large or medium hat using bulky, aran, or dk weight yarn.

Christmassy Happenings:

Once again I went back "home/home" (CO as opposed to "home" which is NY) for 12th night.  Christmas day was spent in NY seeing Les Mis and eating Chinese food like 75% of the population of the city.  No lie, I took a lovely walk from the theatre in Chelsea to my favorite Chinatown dumpling place and I passed multiple people talking about Russell Crowe's singing.  

I decided to take a bunch of "Christmas in NY" pics this year.  I know it's a fairly common subject but NY does the holidays so well.  

If Christmasy pictures of NY are your thing, there are a lot more in my flickr.

A few days after Christmas I  took off of Colorado for some fresh air and family.  My deer friend came around to see me.

*please note that this is an absolutely horrible example of how to behave with wildlife.  Deer are wild animals and can hurt you.  If I still worked at the zoo I would be getting a stern lecture right about now.  Yes, I worked at a zoo in high school.

We named her Stella.  This is the second time she has visited me at Christmas.  Most of the deer are not afraid of humans but don't dare approach, Stella on the other hand is curious and will walk right up to our door and sniff until someone comes out to see her.  In internet terms, she thinks she's people.

The rest of the trip was lovely even though I was working through that dreadful flu that swept the country.  I saw high school friends, post college friends, and spent many marvelous hours sitting in the kitchen jabbering at my mom.  I also fit in a few trips to my favorite Colorado Springs places Panino's, Wimbergers, Salsa Latina, La Casita and fit in a movie, Silver Linings Playbook, with my dad at the awesome indie theatre, Kimball's, where they still allow you to bring ice cream from the the amazing Josh and John's next door.  Not so fun fact, movies are a good $5+ cheaper in CO than NY.  

OMG Have You Heard of This?!:

Lastly, over Christmas vaca I discovered Miranda.  

I'm completely obsessed.  I think I've watched every episode 10 times at this point.  Had to order this from Amazon UK which is surprisingly affordable and fast.

My mom, ever ready to replace TV watching with book reading, ordered Miranda Hart's book from Amazon UK as well.

It's going to live with Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling's books on the awesome and very funny ladies shelf.

Well it is lovely catching up with the dear blog again.  Now I am going to go enjoy the snow that fell last night.

Knitting For The Cousins

I've started a tradition that every Christmas a few family members will get something hand knit. I'm lucky that I come from a family that understands the value of handmade objects and appreciates the time and effort that went into them. Usually the family member is my dad, sister or brother (my mom is a knitter so she gets yarn) but this year it my cousins' turn. Last year one of them wanted a hat but by the time I found out, I was swamped in Christmas knitting and it could not be done, so this year I made their gifts a priority. I have a lot of cousins but these three grew up nearby and we have celebrated many holidays together. The eldest is the receiver of the book boxes, the boxes full of whatever books I finished recently keeping my bookshelves manageable.

With help from the eldest cousin who I drafted as an elf, because all older siblings are elves at Christmas, I came up with these projects.

The first I am calling the Hat for the Boy Cousin. I would embarrass him if I described him in the same silly flowery language I use for the girls but I don't want to share his name so I am simply calling him Boy Cousin M. This hat I actually made ages ago, with him in mind, but it was waiting until I made things for the other two. It is made out of some buttery Karabella Aurora 8, that stuff is sooo nice to knit with.

The second hat is for Sweet Cousin M. She wanted a slouchy blue and silver or white hat. I ended up using a single ply bulky Cascade yarn (I have no idea what it is called) with my Starflower Flake pattern. Then I encrusted the starflower flakes (the white part) with size 6 Swarovski heat set transmission rhinestones. In normal human terms, those are teeny tiny, I think the smallest, crystal rhinestones you can get that have the heat set glue on the back. Transmission means they are clear, no foil on the back, with an iridescent finish. The size is so small you do not really see the rhinestones themselves from a few feet away, but you certainly see sparkle. I would say this has close to 500 rhinestones on it.

Extreme Close-up shot!

It might be one of my favorite projects. In person it just sparkles like freshly fallen snow. It would have been really difficult to gift had it fit my enormous head, luckily it was made for her much smaller head.

Finally, this is the cowl I made for my Dearest Cousin D. I decided she needed a cowl instead of a hat. I worked up a cowl variation of the Pop Blossoms Hat. I failed to get any sort of gauge or measurements from the finished product so this pattern is waiting while I knit another sample. The red was supposed to be more maroon but that was the closest I could get so it looks a bit Gryffindor. The red/maroon is Cascade Eco+ and the gold is three strands of Vanna's Glamour yarn from Lion Brand. This stuff is great for sparkly colorwork.

I was compelled to stop stalling and write this post because this week two of them were in a bad car accident. They are both fine, a little sore since seat belts save lives and leave bruises and welts doing so. I am so thankful they are ok. I talked to one of them yesterday and it was all I could do not to cry into the phone out of relief. It has not been a good winter for several of my friends so I am all too aware how lucky we are. Anyway, I was thinking about them so much I thought I would blog about them.