Making Time for Knitting

I'm surrounded by yarn at least two days a week -- at The Shop where I work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, The Crafty Lady in Lacombe, AB.

And...I'm surrounded by yarn at home, as I have a fairly (ahem!) healthy stash.  :-)

Recently Lori, my employer, asked me to make up a sample for the shop in some new NORO yarn we're expecting.  The supplier had left us a skein of "Tennen" in a wonderful tweedy grey; I promptly looked the yarn up on Ravelry to see what folks have made of it.  Being a new yarn, there weren't a lot of examples, but I fell hard for the Snowy Winter Cowl -- a free download from designer Laura Reinbach.


This is usually knit in a more solid colour but it turned out just fine in the wool/mohair/silk, slightly thick-thin, slightly striped "Tennen"...







Then there are the "House Socks" inspired by -- you guessed it! -- Harry Potter.  My daughter, as I've mentioned before, is a die-hard fan, and requested a pair in Gryffindor colours.   I've been working on these on and off for a couple of months now.  The yarn (Diamond Yarn's "Footsie" in "Maroon" and Regia Yarn's "4-fatig" (4-ply) in yellow -- now discontinued) is quite fine and I was using 2.25 mm needles!

The pattern, designed by Alison Hansel, is found in her book Charmed Knits (Wily Books, May 2007) which, in addition to being available for purchase online, is found in our Regional Library.  When I began,  I was interested in only one pattern -- the socks with narrow stripes, per my daughter's request.  Just finished, they're now washed and will be wrapped and in the mail to her tomorrow...

However, the book contains more than sock patterns: sweaters, an owl "stuffie", at least one blanket...I might just have to get my hands on a copy before it goes out of print!

On the needles now?

• A pair of plain 2:2 ribbed socks from scrap yarn;
• A "Reverse Psychology" shawlette, designed by Mindy Ross, which I'm making for a friend, knit in "Cottage Socks", a hand-dyed yarn from Canada's own Fleece Artist yarns;
• Another pair of "Little Red Riding Slippers" (DROPS Designs) for my daughter to replace ones that came to a sad end at the hands of her washer and dryer... (!)  These ones are being made from Vintage Chunky by Berocco -- a machine-washable wool-and-synthetic blend in colour #6154 -- "Crimson", a yummy red; and
• An afghan square -- one of several in the "Knitterati Mystery Afghan Knit-Along" from Cascade Yarns.  I've decided that for now I'm making only the whole-knit squares (not Fair Isle or intarsia) as I am using a lovely 'aran' weight yarn in a blue green heather that has great stitch definition.  

Fleece Artist "Cottage Socks" yarn
Colour-way: "Sangria"

These projects are a combination of mindless and complex...and should be enough to keep me out of trouble when I'm not in the sewdio, eh?

The snow's stopped falling; the sun is out; the sky is blue; the walks have been shovelled...it's time for a nap!

Happy Sunday, everyone!