Beam Me Up...

...Scotty -- a slouchy tam from Anne Hanson of Knitspot.  Knit in some Koigu PPPM (Painter's Palette Premium Merino), a fingering weight 100% wool, 175 yards per 50 g. skein.  The price on the label was only $8.50 (US), so it's obviously been in the stash for a while!

Wearin' O' the Green

OK, it's not March, but green has jumped to the forefront here at Mingling Yarn.  First up:  a crochet summer cardigan.  This is one of my own 'designs' -- which basically means I plugged a couple of simple stitch patterns into a very basic shape.  The yarn is an oldie from the stash - Italy Baby by Plymouth Yarn.  It's 100% cotton in a fingering weight.  The sleeves are 3/4 length and done in a simple mesh stitch.  The body of the cardigan is another simple stitch from a Japanese stitch compendium - Crochet Patterns Book 300.

 

 

 

 

Then we have a jaunty green beret.  This one is from ancient stash.  Koigu KPPPM (Painter's Palette Premium Merino) plus some coordinating KPM (Koigu Premium Merino).  The top is done in the KPPPM, the underside in the solid(ish) color.  This is a pattern from Interweave Crochet, Winter 2008 - Pinwheel Beret.  The only modification I made was to make the 'plate' portion a bit bigger than the pattern called for - in other words I increased more than called for.  Dead easy pattern that gives a nice result.  It was a bit of a bore, doing all that sc, but I worked on it during the move, so boring fit the bill.

Here's a view of the underside -

 

 

Eventually she hopes...

...it will all come together in perfect harmony. Until then, here's a photo of the random pieces of Sally Melville's Cross-Over-Rib top.

You'll notice that the original is done in all one color of Koigu -- my version, however, is not. I'd like to say it was a deliberate design decision, but in truth, that's what I had. I've collected quite a few random skeins of Koigu over the years, probably with an eye to making socks -- or knitting something modular, but somehow they just never got knit. So, we shall see. It's an awful lot of knitting if it doesn't work out!

The back has a third color introduced, (a darker shade of olive), with the two yarns of the fronts blended at the bottom. This was done to tie together the colors of the front, and, more importantly, to ensure that there would be enough yarn to knit the back. Here's hoping!

Here's a closeup of the back -- (clicking makes bigger)

It will take a lot more knitting until it's finished (34 stitches x 40 rows per 4" goes slowly around here!), but I'm powering through, because I have some absolutely lovely Color-Changing Cotton from Wolle that I can't wait to get started on.

And who knows? Maybe there will be a photo of a sleek Italian vintage sewing machine to feast your eyes on soon!

Sandrine...

...who made her debut (last week) on someone else's blog actually.

Stats: Sandrine by Bonne Marie Burns of Chic Knits. Yarn is Rowan Lenpur Linen, color blanche. Sleeves were shortened from the original design.

Currently on the needles --



This one is also a Bonne Marie design -- can you tell I'm a fan? Not sold on the website though -- this one's from the book Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines. It's knit from Gjestal Naturgarn, which is knitting to a larger gauge than the called for yarn, so a little math is being done. I'm also shortening the jacket's length by a bit. It seems a little strange to be knitting with a heavy wool now that spring is finally here, but I'm thinking I'll be just a little ahead of the game come autumn!

And just to show a little crochet love --




Gotta love those Koigu leftovers! Pattern is from Interweave Crochet.

Biltmore

So, we took a little jaunt down to Asheville, NC -- lovely area, you'd think I would have brought a camera, yes? Well, no, so you'll just have to imagine your own lovely place. One of the things we did (naturally) was tour Biltmore Estate, which bills itself as "America's Largest Home" -- although if no one lives there, is it really a home? But I digress. It's large, it's impressive, and filled with the sort of things you'd expect the ultra-wealthy of 1895 to have in their homes, but all I could think about? The only place in the entire pile that had decent light for stitching was the massive, cold, stone staircase! How did they manage? Even on a bright, sunny day with the home's lights on it was so dark -- thank goodness for today's abundant natural light and full-spectrum lighting!

The spouse came back with a nasty, brutish cold, which he graciously shared with me, so only little projects to spotlight. I did manage to finish the Selbu Modern beret, and what an attractive little hat it is. Worked in Koigu PPM/PPPM it was a nice re-introduction to 2-color knitting for me. The pattern was available free from Rosie's Yarn Cellar -- not sure if it was for a limited time only, or if it's still there, but poke around if you're interested.

I still need some work on properly controlling tension once the work leaves the circular needle and is on dpn's, but it's quite attractive nonetheless. Color me pleased! Hopefully, this is a practice run for the long marinating Starmore vest.

The car trip knitting was (no surprise) some socks -- and won't those colors brighten up a winter's day?