Transitions

After many years of talking about it, we finally spent all summer in a different city, Milwaukee. My last Thursday, I visited an up and coming neighborhood called Bay View where i stumbled upon a sweet little used bookstore with resident cats, Fiber Fever yarn store, and an old fashioned habidashery. It also looked like one could eat yummy things here, but time was not on my side.

Bookstore with funny cats!

Handmade hats, new and restored, made on antique equipment.

The souvenir yarn from Fiber Fever yarn store is worsted weight from a Shetland sheep named Flora, who lives on the Rose Boulder Farm in Wisconsin.

I transformed the yarn into a hat using the Mossy Lane Hat pattern two weekends ago on a trip to New Jersey. (I used size 4 & 6 needles.) Its a perfect way to transition from a lovely summer to leaf peeping this fall.

After a long and early cold snap at the end of August and drought conditions, many trees are changing color early and shedding their leaves already. Enjoy the last day of summer, and of course, the delightful return of cool weather in the fall! Happy knitting!

Vanilla Velvet Mini

I finished this mini cowl (Vanilla Velvet pattern by Anne Hanson) a few months ago, but I finally blocked it. I used Shady Grove Alpaca farm yarn, Moonstar Sock with added nylon. When I first got the yarn back from the mill on 2016, my friend Lolita took a look at a few of my sample projects and exclaimed that this was the yarn that would show cables and lace the best. Sadly, it took me 9 years to give it a try. She was right!

I also washed the yarn before I knit the pattern so the yarn would preshrink. When my mom knit the sample socks, they shrank a few sizes after washing. I went down to size 1 needles, thus making the cowl much smaller than I intended. Since I already started knitting, I decided to make a tiny cowl with less pattern repeats. If I make it again, I will select the larger size and knit the recommended pattern repeats.

Two ways to wear: as a cowl and folded under as a turtleneck under a sweater. In spite of the added nylon, I still feel itchy while wearing, so I guess it's not the answer to my alpaca alergy.

The before pictures: I think prewashing the yarn made a big difference in the product, and the blocking was still needed to make the stitches appear smooth and expanded.

Happy Knitting in this early fall weather!

Alpaca Afterword

Recently I received a text from our friends at Big Pine Acre Alpacas who adopted our remaining herd last summer. Our youngest cria, Cherise, had just given birth to a baby boy at the end of June! I suggested some names - Good Lovin’, Cosmic Charlie, maybe Reuben to go with the Cherise - all Grateful Dead song titles, of course. So adorable! But as life sometimes happens, I got another text a few days later that the little guy had suddenly died. Heartbreaking… He looked a bit like his grandma, Peggy-Oh, with that white face!

We also caught up with news about the other animals, and as it turns out, Dark Star didn’t make it through the winter. He was 13.5 years old and lived a good life. No cause of death is known, as with so many other animals we had. He did have all sorts of suspicious bumps on his skin, which maybe contributed. 

He sure was a handsome man, and such a sweetheart. 

Rest easy, Dark Star. Shady Grove Alpacas’ first cria on September 5, 2011, Labor Day, to late winter 2025. 

The inspiration for our logo, he will always be our yarn mascot! ❤️

Change of Seasons Hat/Gaiter

Summer finish #1 is the Change of Seasons Hat/Gaiter from Mountain Meadow Wool company. It’s been a while since I worked with Shady Grove Alpacas yarn, and Dark Star’s Lopi spun does not disappoint!

The yarn is a good deal thicker than the pattern-recommended sport weight yarn. Knitting was done in two quick spurts. 

I enjoyed learning a new technique called the stitch by stitch hem from the ChillyDog YouTube channel. 

As advertised, the piece of clothing can also function as a cowl or gaiter for the neck. Next time I knit one, I will add more stitches during the increase row. I had 43 stitches on the needles and only added 4. It’s snug when you pull it over your head, but feels nice on the neck. It’s a bit tight if you want it to cover your mouth as well. 

The other change I would make is using different yarn or even something like smooth shoelaces inside the yarn tube. This yarn is pretty delicate and I’m not sure how long it will hold up with constant cinching. 

All in all, satisfying to complete and check it off the list! What will I knit next?

Summer Knitting Reboot

 After a week of decompressing after a tough semester of teaching orchestra, I am ready to take a look at some summer knitting. I unearthed a half finished cowl/hat made from Shady Grove Dark Star, some cool painted yarn I got for my birthday a few years ago, and a sock pattern with yarn. 

Not sure what’s first, but I’m looking forward to being productive in some other non-teaching way. 

Happy Summer! Is anyone else freezing? Maybe I should knit a sweater instead…

So. Close.

When you’re trying to use up all the yarn in your stash, the potential for playing yarn chicken is high. Note the nine unbound stitches remaining. NINE. Ugh! I do not want one pattern repeat of yarn left over AGAIN in the stash. 

By some miracle, I had leftover yarn from my Shalom Cardigan (2009) that was a precise match, though not quite the right thickness.

The yarn substitution worked out perfectly, and after a nice wash, I have a cozy, squishy new lap blanket. 

And I can’t tell which corner has the substitute yarn for the last 9 stitches!!

Yarn is hand-spun by Anne Cohee for the 1990 Maryland Wool Show. The sheep was a brown Romney named Helga. I had 10.5 skeins of yarn, which was held double for this project.

So, the sixth Done by Monday blanket, the “Basketweave,” is ready for someone’s lap. Finally cut the ends off today, but the knitting has been complete for a month… 

These blankets have a true and recorded legacy. So fun!

And finally, a few baking projects. These sourdough rolls are wonderful, and I keep losing the recipe. So here is the LINK. I reduce the sugar to 1-2 Tablespoons. 

And for Easter I finally baked the gluten free Hungarian Hazelnut Cake. Prepare to drool and fantasize eating a slice every day! I took some suggestions from the comments and wrapped/refrigerated the baked cake over night. The apricot jam in the middle and whipped cream (with a little added powdered sugar) on top is also very good. I decided to freeze a few slices, and there was not harm done to taste or texture when I ate them a week later. I do think that I will split the layers next time and try the cake with whipped cream in the middle. Other suggestions were to add vanilla to the cake batter and some flavored liquor such as Frangelico to the whipped cream. 

New Hobby Unlocked

Watch out world! I do in fact have a new hobby, and it’s crocheting. Thankfully, I already have so much yarn to use, but may need new patterns, kits, and hooks. Who is scared for me?! (Me. I’m scared! Haha!)

When I started teaching my niece to crochet a few weeks ago, I idly started knitting a longer thin strip. It looked like the brim of a hat, so connecting it in a circle seemed like a good next step. Picking up stitches was pretty easy and then I improvised the decreases. I’ll have to pull up a video to see if my strategy has a name. 

Trying it on after every other round was helpful to see if I was deceasing at the right pace. I started decreasing every 11 stitches for 6 rounds, then decreased every 4th stitch every third round for several rounds. Finally the decrease was at every stitch, making the top of the hat a little hole-y, but I’m pondering whether to add a Pom Pom. 

Fun, no-brand yarn has interesting color choices, but since it was free, I’m calling it “whimsical.”

And for my record keeping, some spring flowers that are blooming around the house. 

March 28

March 25

March 22

March 20

March 13

March 13

This tree came down in a storm on March 15, and our neighbor saw it and shoved it into the woods with his tractor. My neighbors are amazing!