Affaire de coeur?

A year ago last August, I began a dalliance with a little something new. I was hot off my affair with a summer love that was promised to another and could never be mine. Foolishly, I thought I could just move on and this hot little number would make me forget all about summer.

At my age, I should know better. After all, we all know rebound affairs never work now, don't we?

Still, I didn't let that stop me and last October, I began to pursue my new interest with abandon.

Perhaps you remember this steamy run in I had with the Louet yarn on a cone and a US size 6 lace needle. Shamefully, I never finished it and truth be told, I dumped it like a hot potato when we ran into trouble on row 116. Shortly after the break-up, the holidays came around and I was busy--my mind too preoccupied to attend to mindful knitting--and then I had to compete in the Knitting Olympics. Really, it was one excuse and project after another. I did well ignoring the siren call of the lace until I accidentally bumped into it while reorganizing my knitting room.


Pitter-patter went my heart. I told myself this was just gas or some other form of mistaken heart palpitations. I shoved it back into the depths of the closet, but it never left my mind.

In a moment of insanity today, I plucked the Pretty as a Peacock shawl out of the bag where it's been taking up space, attempted 4 times to knit row 116 and ended up ripping back to row 99 where the lifeline was living. Not such an auspicious new beginning, but in doing so, I found where we went wrong. I was attempting to read and knit the written version, but realized to my chagrin...THERE ARE MISTAKES in the written version. Gargantuan mistakes. Not mine, and not the shawl's, but the author's.

I'm an idiot. I should have known that this beautiful piece of art would not knowingly lead me down the path of unrequited love.

I think now that my head is in a different place, this shawl and I will begin anew and we'll take it one day at a time. I have donned my rose colored glasses and we will swear to one another that we'll only use the charted version of the pattern.

Words are cheap.

If I ever buy a country cottage...

I'll have the market cornered on cozy.

Apparently, someone had a slow hospicie sort of night last night. I got one call misdirected to me and meant for the pediatric hospice nurse. I don't do peds. Never. Ever.

Not wasting any time at all, I cast on with the Moguls using half the stitch count and big fat needles. The border was done in about 10 minutes at which point I switched to US size 6 needles and doubled the stitch count. I love big yarn and this selection really gave me a quick start. I chose a 20 row/20 stitch repeating pattern for the Fair Isle part and finished that this morning.

By Michigan/Perdue game time, I was working on the top and finished right about the time Penn State scored its second goal in Columbus, Ohio. In case they haven't noticed in Ohio, there is a strong possibility of pigs flying. Take cover.

And now, thanks to the inspiration found in Color by Kristin, I have a warm covering for my teapot.

Coloring my world

Though there are an abundance of patterns out there that I wound never want to change, there are plenty around that I would--if just for the chance to make them my own.


On Ravelry, at the click of a button, I found about 400 tea cozy patterns that I had to narrow down. I eliminated the crocheted items because I can't crochet...not enough needles. I focused on worsted weight wools and eliminated everything else. I didn't want to pay for the pattern. Call me cheap, but hey, why not? I wanted to use multiples of rich, bright colors, so I selected only color work patterns. I even looked for a tea topper two ways: cozy and cosy.


When all was said and done, even when I added the more costly patterns back in, nothing spoke to me. That's when I recalled that there was such a pattern I liked in the Kristin Nicholas book, Color by Kristin.


I'm ashamed to tell you that even though I take care of all of my books, my copy of Kristin's book gives new meaning to the term dog-earred. While Stinkerbell McBookeater did not chew this book, her canine pal did. Bad dog. Still, it's only the cover that got chewed and all of the inspiring patterns are still intact.

I put the book and several worsted weight yarns I collected into a basket I picked up at a new shop in my neighborhood. Using the pattern for Kristin's cozy as a jumping off point, I then set out to think how make it my own. I selected the Mountain Colors Moguls yarn in Bitter Root as the cuff of this piece and chose a Fair Isle stitch pattern from the dictionary of stitches in Kristin's book. I'll stick with the mitered top as in the pattern.


This will be my weekend project and I'll show photos of my progress. By Sunday, I'm hoping the tea will stay hot between trips to the teapot.

A note on those yarns: with the exception of the Moguls, everything else in that basket is Michigan made from Stonehedge Farm & Fiber Mill. If you've never knit with this gorgeous merino wool, I encourage you to give it a try. You'll never look at Cascade 220 in the same way once you've felt the soft hand of Shepherd's Wool.

Fade Isle Knitting?

Not one to let my needles be still for long, I stumbled across a hat pattern I just had to have. I perused the pattern, free of course, and went shopping for yarn right upstairs in the yarn studio.

Abandoning everything else I had going, I cast on to knit tam C using Galway in a pale green for the main color and for the contrast, Nashua Wooly Stripes Tweed. This clever use of a striped yarn as contrast allows the Fair Isle knitter to use only 2 colorways. Ultimately, this means NO ENDS TO WEAVE! Not too shabby. Not being much of a fan of the pattern recommended Noro yarn (I hate knots in my yarn), my selection for the contrast was much more subtle than the usually vibrant colors of Noro. The entire time I was knitting the hat, I felt I'd made a mistake with the colors and was creating a hat with a pattern that wouldn't be discernible, but I didn't let that stop me.

I'm so glad because I could not have been more wrong.

Gorgeous. And it fits. This one just might be for me.

Because I don't look good in a hat with ribbing, I changed up the pattern a bit by throwing in a braided cast on for fun. I knit 4 rows of corrugated ribbing as in the pattern and then threw in a braid with the arrows pointing in the opposite direction of the cast on braid.

Next up? I think that gorgeous teapot that I bought from Debra needs a Fair Isle cozy on cold winter nights.

What's a little tendonitis?

Especially when the outcome is as pretty as this.


I've been determined for a week to finish this poncho I started late last winter. Despite the aching feelings in my left wrist, and the one edge I knit in stockinette instead of garter stitch (that I refuse to fix), here is the completed pattern, Erika, from last year's Rowan Classic Winter Solace. Though I've been exaggerating that I've been knitting miles and miles of stockinette stitch, the truth is, it only feels that way. I've only knit 9/10s of a mile of yarn to get to the end of this.

What I'm searching for now is another hat or cowl to cast on for charity knit night tonight at Sue's. I'm thinking something chunky to change it up a bit.

3 Guesses...

Who has been overdosing on HGTV again?

Here is one of the colors we've chosen as an accent color on one or two walls in an undisclosed location. Oh my, but that is some dark, dark paint. It's Rainstorm, by Behr. The primary color is Millstream and the ceiling and trim will be white. I had fun playing with the colors on the Behr website where one can slap virtual paint on the virtual walls of your own room. You just have to upload your own photos and get to painting.

Want to venture a guess as to which room I got bold enough to let walls speak so loudly?

True Confession

At times, even a fur coat is not enough.

Sometimes, I demonstrate a profound lack of intellect.

While my kitchen is miniature small, I find I have decent enough storage and the space is OK for one cook. There isn't much room for two people wielding sharp knives. It's comfortable for me though, and everything is new which is a plus. The big advantage to a small space is that it takes no time at all to clean. However, there is something that I missed on inspection when we bought this home, and the irony here is that there weren't any appliances present to block my view of what was missing. I just didn't see it and so did not recognize that what should have been there, simply was not.

There are no heating vents.

While there are plenty of things to keep things cold like granite, tile floors and stainless steel, the only thing keeping me warm in there are a couple of rugs and a small space heater that I picked up on Saturday. It also helps to be clad in wool.

The buddy system helps.

Did I mention it's cold here in the Big D? Freezing, frosty, nippy, chilly, frigid, and near wintry. Oh wait. Wintry? That's right. Thursday night into Friday morning will bring a rain/snow mix. As I write this at 11 AM, it's only 37 degrees (that's 3 degrees for my friends who measure in celsius).

Miles and miles of stockinette take time to knit and help keep my lap warm. Sadly, I have not learned to knit and cook simultaneously.

Tell me again...why did I need to buy a home with character?