You know it’s winter when everyone in the house gets a cold, and all three of us have been suffering for a couple of weeks now. Of course it had to come just when the weather warmed up and we finally recover when the cold hits again.  We’ve experienced the heaviest snows in 18 years, and to see a snowy Dorset is a wonderful sight.  Makes me wish we could have  Christmas all over again.  I did have this lovely knit to keep me company during my recovery.

It is the Wabi Sabi Shawl pattern from Yarned knit with Noro Silk Garden Lite. The yarn I received as a present from my mother in law and I had been itching to use it for months. With only two skeins I managed to do 7 pattern repeats, making a fairly narrow scarf, though I could have squeezed one more out of the last skein. This is a present for my mother who could truly use a nice scarf in the nasty Wisconsin winter.

I loved knitting this, mostly because Noro is soo lovely but the pattern was great. With almost 200 stitches per row I was worried it was going to be a real slog, but the garter stitch was peacefully mindless and the extended stitches kept my interest.  I love how the special stitches look like crochet shells, and the texture is wonderfully squishy.  I’ve even warmed up to fringed edgings.  I only wish I had a ton more yarn to make a beautiful textured throw to snuggle under as the snow falls.

I don’t dare check when the last time I updated was. It seems like years ago, particularly now that my time is completely monopolised by a very beautiful and very demanding little man. 2008 was a very poor year for knitting for me, but I don’t mind since I have the best finished project anyone could hope for.

2009 is a year of new beginnings, new baby, new president and new knitting. I am very slowly getting back to my feet with my hobbies. I’m enjoying knitting more than ever now, perhaps because I only have little pockets of time that I really have to relish when I get them. These days just getting out of my pajamas before noon seems like an accomplishment, and going grocery shopping is a downright adventure. I have managed to finish a hat for my bub to wear in this particularly chilly winter.

It is the Thorpe hat from Through the Loops modified for a baby’s head. Basically I just increased until it looked like it’d fit and then winged the earflaps. The yarn is a some leftover Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and Jaeger Shetland Aran. I loved knitting this and it was so quick that I finished it a day of on and off knitting. If only cardigans could be so easy to finish.

I’m trying to keep to one project at a time now as that’s probably my only hope of finishing anything.  Currently it’s something rather special for someone’s birthday, which is nearly finished and hopefully can be sent off this week if I don’t slack off.  A new knitting group has been started in my little village and that will at least give me a couple hours of knitting a week.

I everyone had a wonderful holiday and new year and here’s hoping 2009 is as exciting as 2008.

I’m so sorry, I never intended to be away from the blog this long. To be honest, there has been no knitting going on since I last wrote. Instead I was busy experiencing all of the typical first trimester symptoms, particularly fatigue and queasiness. My morning sickness wasn’t too bad and I’m sure a lot of women have it way worse, but the sensation was like being motion sick all the time. Every time I picked up the needles my stomach would turn. Even baking and cooking has been left to the wayside as I ate too many cracker based dinners. I’ve also had to learn to give up all of my favourite foods: cold cuts, unpastuerized milk, soft cheese, not to begin the list the stuff that made me feel ill. Finally, at about 10 weeks, I’m finding it easing away. I’ve had my first real meals in what seems like years, and don’t even need to take an hour (okay two hour) nap in the afternoon. I’ve started cooking again and it looks like maybe even knitting will be back on the books.

This is extremely good news because I had an exceptionally nice stash enhancement experience at Wonderwool Wales at the end of April. Yes, I went to one of the largest fibre festivals in the UK and did not blog about it. That is how bad I am. A big Wonderwool update is coming very soon!

Finally, Karen, tagged me ages ago and I’m now going to post my six non-important facts about myself. I’m going to cheat a little because I have no idea who to tag next, but the thought is still there.

Here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules.
3) Share six non-important things / habits / quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least three people.
5) Be sure the people you tagged KNOW you tagged them by commenting what you did.

1. I can poach the perfect egg everytime. I always say that if Gordon Ramsay was going to come over to my house for lunch I would make him a salad lyonnaise, complete with poached egg.
2. I met my husband 7 years ago in a chatroom online.
3. I still don’t have my driving license because I have horrible driving anxiety. Basically, every time I get behind the wheel I get visions of crashing and killing everyone. I’m fine as a passenger though.
4. I’m 50% Korean and even though I used to speak it fluently as a child all I can remember are baby words and words for food.
5. I have an incredibly poor sense of direction and get lost really easily. I lived in York for 4 years and it took me over a year to get to grips with the layout of the centre. When I take walks around here if we go a slightly different way I get confused and don’t recognise anything.
6. The thing I miss most about the U.S. (besides friends and family) is the snack food, the variety is staggering. We have nothing in comparison. My favourites used to be any sort of fair food, Cheetohs, and Taco Bell.

Next post will be a knitty one, I promise!

Back before I went to Cornwall I gave you a sneak peek at a project that I had just finished but hadn’t modeled.  I now can present the Tilted Duster.

I love this cardigan probably more than any of my other knits.  It is warm and fashionable and I have the satisfaction of reusing a great yarn.  I frogged my second sweater, Rogue, made out of Rowan Magpie Aran to make this.  I never really wore Rogue, it was a challenging knit and I learned a lot and did wear it a bit, but it was baggy and heavy and got tossed to the side.  The yarn is a really sturdy yarn and I had just enough to finish this project.  It probably took me a couple of months altogether but it did go in hibernation for a while.  The sleeves and top half went very quickly but man, that skirt took ages.  I finally took it out of hibernation and finished it over a few bad movies and episodes of Voyager.  I’ve not blocked it because I was so keen to wear it, so I think it’ll look a bit smoother and flatter once I do.  I don’t know when that’ll be because I never take it off.

The only thing I maybe don’t like about it is the collar, it is just a bit too big, but seems to roll over pretty well.  I did knit the smallest size and everyone was complaining about the sleeves being so tight so I knit them the next size up and a bit longer and I’d say they’re pretty perfect.

Now for the surprise.  Did you  happen to notice anything different about me in those photos?  No?  I’ll give you a little hint.

I am pregnant!  Big cookies for those who may have guessed it!  I am about 6 weeks along and am so pleased, we have wanted children for a while now and was a bit surprised myself when my test came out positive while we were in Cornwall (in a cafe, of all places to pee on a stick).   I am due about December 1st which means I have seven months to knit a whole arsenal of baby clothes.  I have even started on a tiny guernsey and I can’t believe that there’ll be someone small enough to wear it.  I’m sure I’ll be a baby bore over the next months (and years) but I promise there’ll still be some knitting.  Thank goodness the Tilted Duster is the perfect cardigan for my future bump.

So I’m finally back in lovely green Dorset and it feels just so good to be home.  Sometimes you don’t realise how much you love where you live until you go somewhere else.  We did have a nice time and there were some really great highlights to the trip.

The Eden Project is pretty amazing, particularly if you love plants.  The biomes are very impressive and certainly make you feel as if you were in the mediterranean or rainforest.  Thankfully we went at a time when it wasn’t too busy but I can imagine it positively heaves with people in the summer.

The Trebah gardens is nestled in a valley at the mouth of the Helford estuary.  It was beautiful this time of year with all of the camillias out.  A really nice peaceful place with a fantastic little cafe to boot.  One of my favourite spots was the bamboo area.

There are so many different varieties, and walking through them reminds me of walking through the mountain temples around Kyoto last spring.  But even that wasn’t my favourite part of the trip.

This is the start of the National Trust’s Penrose Estate near Helston.  We had spent a frustrating day driving around the Lizard peninsula only to find everywhere covered in fog.  Talk about a disappointment, about five miles inland it was a clear beautiful day.  Just before we went home I suggested we stop here for a little walk.  It started out with beautiful woodland full of bluebells.  

Then you start walking around Loe Pool, a tranquil lake with areas of marsh and reed beds full of wildlife.

Until, slightly exhausted, you reach the sea at Loe Bar.  Made up of shingle and sand it was a dramatic change from the woodland that we walked through, and there were lots of little plants growing right on the sand.  Dandelions and daisies toward the lakeside and sea beets and kale towards the sea.  The fog had lifted and we were finally able to see the fantastic view out to sea, I couldn’t believe how secluded and quiet it was, a real gem.

It was nice to see family again and the weather was fair pretty much the whole week.  I did get a little bit of knitting done but I did get distracted by views like this.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I talk about knitting and make a big (very big) announcement.

The lack of knitting means that I’ve had an unusual amount of time available for spinning.  Which is perfect when you have delicious roving that is just begging to be spun up.  Over the course of 3 or 4 days I finished a yarn that just seems to epitomise spring.

I had so much fun spinning this up, I loved seeing the colour changes emerge, sometimes very muted, othertimes quite strong.  I navajo plied it into a sock yarn, which was quite an adventure.  I’ve never navajo plied and it felt more like a battle than plying when I first started out.  By the end I really got into the rhythm.  I’m still battling my problem of underspinning/underplying and there are points at the navajo chains where my plies are coming apart a little.  Seems like I need to set my wheel at an even higher ratio.  No matter, I still love it.  A huge thanks to Karen for enabling me to make such a fantastic yarn!  Colourways like this are worth their weight in gold.

I’m glad I’ve finished this because I really needed something to keep me occupied over the next week in Cornwall.  I can’t guarantee that the weather will be cooperative so a nice pair of spring handknit socks seems to be in order.

I hope everyone’s had a nice Easter break, I know we have.  As far as actual Easter celebrations go all I did was make a batch of hot crossed buns.  It’s a bit hard to get in the Easter spirit when it’s still cold enough to snow.  Most of our time was spent at a pottery exhibition David was showing at.  He was able to go down and do some throwing as a bit of a demonstration to visitors.  Both of the items he had for sale sold so it was a good start for him.  I stuck around to watch him get messy with clay and watch a rather scary bit of inferno known as a raku firing.  The rest of the time was spent relaxing and getting down to the needles.

I spent one of my evenings going through all of my handknits and frogging those poor neglected knits.  One was a blue and cream striped scarf of Rowan Polar that I had made David about 5 years ago when I started knitting.  I don’t think he wore it once.  No matter, they make lovely loafers.  The pattern calls for two strands of Malabrigo worsted held together, and I can only imagine how lovely they must be, but one strand of Polar feels beautifully soft and cushy.

I finished them in two sittings over two evenings.  They are easy, quick and wonderfully warm.  He even wears them as “welly warmers”, keeping his toes warm as we splash through the spring mud.  I am so knitting myself a pair out of some purple Lamb’s Pride Bulky I’ve had in the stash forever.

As if knitting loafers wasn’t enough excitement, Karen came over yesterday for a fantastic  day of fiber chat and hanging out at the beach.  She has been dyeing like crazy recently and have made some absolutely lovely colourways based on photos.  I am always stunned by the richness and accuracy of her colours and can’t wait for her online store to open officially.  I doubt she will need much publicity since I am very willing to make myself poor with rovings such as this.

This is a beautiful roving based on a photo of hay (can you imagine?  Hay!), and I love the subtle colours and mix of greens, purples, oranges, and creams.  It is blue faced leicester so we know it will spin up nicely but I just feel  my spinning isn’t even worthy of such loveliness.  But how yummy would navajo plied sock yarn be in this?  And if that is not enough to be madly jealous about I also got a lovely set of stitch markers.

They are even nicer in person, believe me.  I had been using flimsy little markers I had gotten for free and was even resorting to tying rings of yarn so something had to be done.  These rose quartz stitch markers are beautifully made and have a great weight to them, you just know they will last for years.  I am only too lucky to have such a generous and talented friend, but don’t worry, I’ll be paying her back with plenty of dyeing (and cake making) labour quite soon.

I’ll give you a sneak peak at something big that I have finished but still need to model.  It’s been on the needles for a long time and I am glad that it’s finally over with.  The end result is fabulous though, and I hope I’ll get a chance to take photos before we go on holiday to Cornwall next week.  And for the record, I actually don’t have anything on the needles at the moment!  This is definitely a moment to remember, and no, I have no idea what to make next.

What does a knitter do when faced with freezing cold hands?  Knits some mitts of course.

I am loving these quick knits I’ve been doing lately, they break up the monotony of larger projects and are so satisfying.  These are a free pattern from “Last Minuted Knitted Gifts” and are so ridiculously quick to make that you could finish them in one sitting.  I think the traveling ribs add such a pleasant texture, and make what would be very plain mitts into something just a bit more interesting.

They are knit with my own handspun shetland, my first real attempt at spinning anything thicker than fingering weight.  They are very soft and warm, but I’m always disappointed with the stitch definition with my handspun, it’s all just a bit too fuzzy.  I’m also very tempted to overdye them.  The earth mother in me says to embrace the lovely natural grey, but the fashionista in me says that grey does nothing for me.  If I do it’ll be in a rich green which will maybe turn out a muted, foresty colour.  For now, I am just enjoying the feeling of having nice warm hands to wrap around my favourite mug of tea.  I don’t think I’ll be taking these off anytime soon.

So I promised that there’d be an exciting update. Something is different about the Wife, can you see what it is?

If you said “The hair!” you get a cookie, I got my haircut the other day and decided to go for it and get it really short. My hair is pretty fine and looks so flat and lifeless when I have it longer. This way it looks thicker and has a bit of texture, I’m really pleased with it. I also got in cut hoping that the weather might improve, so far no luck with that.But wait, what am I wearing in that photo? That beautiful bright blue bit of lace?

It’s Ene’s Scarf from Scarf Style, something that’s been hibernating for a rather long time. It feels like I’ve been working on it for over a year, but mainly that’s because it took about 5 goes before I successfully cast on and started the lace. I was originally going to make it in Kidsilk Haze, but casting all the mohair was a nightmare. When I saw four balls of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4 ply on offer I knew exactly what to make.   It took an evening of watching Predator to finally finish it.  I love love love this shawl, at first I thought ‘when am I going to wear this?’. Answer: all the frickin’ time. It’s about 6 feet long and so versatile, I had a great time figuring out different ways to wear it besides just tying it in the front.

Scarf Style – Just fold it over so it’s about the width of a scarf and wrap it around your neck. It’s super warm, cozy, and makes you feel a bit like a movie star.

Cape – This is so easy, just throw the ends over your shoulders or even bring them back around the front and tie the ends ascot style. This makes it look like a great little cape or capelet, and is how I wear it over my jacket outside.

Shrug – Throw it over your arms and either let it hang or tie it around the back for a shrug look. Great over a sleeveless dress, cami, or just to keep the ends out of your way.

Wrap – This is my favourite! Wrap the ends around your front and tie them in the back. This is very warm and functional and looks a bit like a cropped wrap sweater.

Skirt - Kind of like a sarong, you just wrap the shawl around your waist for a quick lacy skirt. Great over a plain skirt, pair of jeans, leggings or a swimsuit.

Dress – I wrapped one end around my bust and the other around my waist and tied them on the side. I think this would be so cute over a swimsuit on the beach, but if you’re daring then maybe over a minidress or slip.

Who says shawls are for grandmas?

I’ve got so many things to report and photos to take but the weather is refusing to cooperate.  Hopefully tomorrow you’ll see a finished object, a fashion guide, and something missing from the Wife.   If you are bored and like ceramics and pottery head over to the Husband’s blog “Off the Hump“  (He refused to call it “The Husband Pots”).