flourpower

Fresh off the needles is the newest shawl from veera valikmai – color affection.

Rather that agonizing over what colors to use myself, I let the plucky knitter choose them for me.  I ordered the parlor games kit made up of three colors of primo fingering.  The green is my new favorite shade, I think I need to find a sweater’s worth immediately.

This shawl is very long crescent shape that is very versatile.  I seem to favor wearing it either as a scarf or a kerchief.  It will also be great in the summer draped over my shoulders, but that seems like it is still a long ways away.  I have another kit on order, so expect to see another one of these knit up in the future!

Pattern: color affection by veera valimaki
Yarn: the plucky knitter primo fingering in faded grandeur (green), elegant elephant (grey) and en vogue (pink) – 1 skein each
Needles: 4mm

My knitting year’s resolution is to knit more sweaters than I did last year.  Last year I knit two.  I am one third of the way towards reaching this goal.

The i-cord edging and simple lace details were what drew me to soay.  It’s knit in sport weight yarn and has elbow length sleeves, making it perfect for spring.  So of course I had to knit it up in a beautiful, sunshiny yellow!  The cardigan is knit seamlessly from the bottom up and uses a three needle bind off for the shoulder seams and short row sleeve caps are knit from stitches picked up around the armhole.

Pattern: soay by gudrun johnston
Yarn: mirasol yarns nuna in metallic gold, 4 skeins
Needles: 3.5mm and 3.75mm in various lengths
Buttons: from button button, of course!

Because 15 000 knitters can’t be wrong, I chose cookie a’s monkey to be my inaugural pattern of 2012.

I started out 2011 with socks, so I thought I might as well start off 2012 that way too.  Especially considering that my stash of sock yarn is completely out of control.  In fact it might be time to consider a self imposed sock club, yarn harlot style.

Pattern: monkey by cookie a. available free at knitty or in knit. sock. love.
Yarn: hedgehog fibres sock yarn in vector
Needles: 2.25 mm dpns

Vacations are good.  They give you time to catch up on things like movie watching (double feature today), knitting (time to dig into color affection) and taking photos of projects you finished a month ago.  While I am still waiting to complete my first project of 2012 (it’s close people, I just have to decrease the toe of a sock and voila!) I thought I would share one of my last knits of 2011 – stripe study.

This is one of the few times where I actually used yarn I purchased for its intended purpose.  I bought these two skeins on etsy from sweet fiber and had always planned on using them to make this shawl.  I wavered many times, but in the end went back to my original plan.

This is one of four patterns I knit from veera valimaki last year.  I love her simple, eye catching designs.  The have a lot of pizazz, but are also great mindless knits perfect for knitting with friends.

Pattern: stripe study by veera valimaki

Yarn: sweet merino lite by sweet fiber in teal and spanish coin, 1 skein of each

Needles: 4mm

I managed to squeeze one last finished object into 2011 – the rustling leaves beret by Alana Dakos.

The pattern is from Coastal Knits, a self published book from Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig.  I will admit that I bought this book mainly because I was so drawn to this beret.  But there are quite a few patterns that I see myself knitting from it, including the rocky coast cardigan and water’s edge cardigan.  (In case you are wondering, I resolve to knit more than two sweaters this year).

This was the first time I used eyre light from madelinetosh.  It is a non-superwash fingering weight yarn that is very luxurious.  It’s a blend of merino, alpaca and silk and has just the right amount of shimmer to it.  Knit with it if you get the chance.

Pattern: rustling leaves beret by Alana Dakos

Yarn: madelinetosh eyre light in venetian, about 145m

Needles: 2.75 and 3.25mm

Thanks for following my knitting and farm adventures in 2011.  Here’s to many more in 2012!

Earlier this month, I made a shocking discovery about my knitting from the past year.  I had only knit one sweater.  I couldn’t wrap up 2011 with this being the case.  At the time I was poring over the premiere issue of knit.wear thinking how many of the sweaters appealed to me, so I chose one and cast on.  Luckily it was made out of bulky yarn so it wasn’t impossible for me to finish by the year’s end.

The selvedge cardigan was done blocking this past week and I can tell you it is a winner.  A single day hasn’t passed that I have not put it on, either for the whole day or part of it just to take the chill off.  It will be my go-to cardigan for these cool months and I am even contemplating making another.

Pattern: selvedge cardigan by Amy Christoffers

Yarn: Berroco Peruvia Quick in gris marengo, 7 skeins

Needles: 6.5mm and 6mm

As soon as I received my skein of hedgehog fibres sock in maleficent I knew that it had to become a hat and mitt set.  Luckily, I was able to acquire a second skein through the generosity of another raveler so I could make it happen!

Hat pattern: rikke hat, free pattern
Yarn: hedgehog fibres sock in maleficent (club colorway), held double
Needles: 3.5mm and 4.5mm

Mittens: EZ‘s mitered mittens…again
Yarn: hedgehog fibres sock in maleficent (club colorway), held double
Needles: 3.75mm

I think I have found my go-to mitten pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s mitered mittens.  They are simple to knit, but interesting to look at and would be easy to adapt to any weight of yarn you like.  I’m already scheming up my next pair.

Pattern: mitered mittens by Elizabeth Zimmermann from Knitter’s Almanac

Yarn: malabrigo yarn rios in teal feather, 1 skein

Needles: 4mm dpns