Cream and Sugar Cowl and a Few Other Things

Last year at Stitches West (2011, that is) I was making my way towards Alana Dakos' booth when I came across a woman wearing a really lovely version of Alana's  Cream and Sugar Cowl.  I asked if I could take a picture of her and she graciously said yes:

                                                                                   

Her color choice is one of my favorite colors and I believe she bought the yarn at Wool Candy. That Fall I  contacted a knitting group near where I live and they urged me to join them  but due to personal issues, I ended up not having the time to join them.  Fast forward to this April and I looked them up again and made plans to meet up with them.  I took a closer look at their members and thought one looked familiar - looked through my old Stitches photos and who should pop up but knittybarb in the Cream and Sugar Cowl!  Two days later I was at 24 Hour Fitness and I noticed the woman sitting next to me looked awfully familiar - yes, it was her - we were definitely meant to meet!  We both had a good laugh about all this and I really enjoyed getting together with her group.  In addition to being a very talented knitter, Barb and her daughter also have a very popular podcast called 2 knit lit chicks that is really fun to listen to.  They seem to know everything that is going on in the knitting world in the Bay Area and they invite friends to join them to talk about their various knitting projects.  The second half of the podcast is about books and since I enjoy reading and am always on the prowl for a good book to read, I really find this part interesting.

Barb was kind enough to give me permission to show some of her wonderful projects, including her
version of Spectra which was made with Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn:

Here's her Wingspan made with Noro Taiyo:

                                                                                                                                                                 

Anyone looking for a cute book to read to young children and knitting related as well?  Have you seen the new book, Extra Yarn ?  A friend sent me a copy to read to my little grandson and it is really fun with lots of great photos:

                                                                                               

It's about a young girl who finds a box of yarn and keeps knitting and knitting not only sweaters and mittens but she seems to have taken to yarnbombing in a big way:

 

                                                                            

   

                                                                 Have a good week everybody!


            

                                                                                 

 
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                   

My Cabled Caplet

Ok, so this is not the most appropriate project to be working on with the weather scheduled to be in the 80's this weekend, but I've finished the knitting on my Linie Montana cardigan and there really is nothing to show there until I finish sewing it together.  When I was at Stitches West back in February my sister and I bought some Cascade Soft Spun for this Cabled Capelet with the idea of doing our own mini KAL and thus finishing this up in no time.  We are finally getting around to it and it really is a fun project.  I made this once before for my daughter in Denver:

                                                                                   

   

We saw the sample at a place called the Lamb Shoppe and if you are ever in Denver and looking for a good yarn shop, I would highly recommend this one.  It's owned by two ladies who are expert knitters with a great sense of color and style.  They carry all types of yarn from Rowan, Noro, Classic Elite, and Madelinetosh  to yarn by local indie dyers.  The shop itself is pretty big and they usually have a lot of sweater samples to look at for inspiration as well.

Here is the beginning of my Cabled Capelet II

                 

                                                                             

                                                                                   

  Cascade's Soft Spun is  100% wool and not plied.  This is knit on size 11 needles and the yarn is doubled so I really think I can finish this off in no time if I just stick to it.  That's a provisional cast on and I will be joining it together with a Kitchener stitch.  Needless to say, it is very warm and my daughter wears it a lot in the winter; as for my sister, she works in San Francisco and so I think she could probably wear this year round ( a little Mark Twain humor - he said the coldest winter he ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco).

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

                                                                                                                                             


                                                                             

Oh, Those Stephen West Shawls!

I'm not much of a lace knitter, and so shawls are not really my thing. Whenever I see someone wearing one of those beautiful, intricate,  lacy shawls,  such as this one, I admire the work that went into them and think, not for me:

                                                                               


   Enter Stephen West with his fabulous designs.  It seems everyone is knitting a Stephen West shawl and they all look quite happy to be doing so; they look like quick projects that don't require alot of concentration or spending time ripping out mistakes made in a lace knitted shawl.   Here are a few examples of what I have seen at various knitting meet ups:

This is the very popular Daybreak and I have seen a number of versions of this:

                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                         
My friend Sue was working on the Little Colonnade last week:

 See how happy she is?  An attractive shawl with no tearing out trauma!

                                                                                  

Love this one in blue:

Here's the Earth and Sky shawlette done by noliegirl who was showing us a couple of Stephen West projects at Green Planet Yarn in Campbell.   She did this in Madelinetosh sock yarn. Take the time to check out her Ravelry projects page;  she has done some really beautiful work with alot of interesting shawls.

                                                                                  

Here is Stephen West's Spectra that she was working on using Kureyon sock yarn: 

                                                                                   

I've picked out two Stephen West projects for myself; the Bandwith hat that I'm going to do in Madelinetosh Vintage  and Earth and Sky similar to this one.  Kind of reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright design.

        Off to finish what I've got on my needles now!                                                                              

Playing the Tourist in NYC

Not alot of knitting going on this past week as I was in New York City for a family gathering.  Although I grew up near here, it has been awhile since I spent any time in The City and there have been alot of changes going on and as Martha would say "It's a Good Thing".  The whole trip was a delight and it was fun visiting and experiencing this nicer, gentrified New York.  Of course, some things don't change and it is always the highlight of any trip to New York to see this:

                                                                                   

The High Line is an old elevated rail track that runs through New York.  It was about to be torn down as an ugly eyesore when some of the local residents saw the potential for an elevated garden and walking path through the neighborhood, similar to one in Paris.  With Mayor Bloomberg's support, they saved the High Line and the walkway has become a huge success with lovely gardens, a constant stream of visitors and it's now a "must see" on any visitor's trip to the city.

                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                         

Our hotel was the Marriott at Battery Park.  We asked if we were near The World Trade Center when we booked the room and they said yes, but didn't tell us how close.  Here is the view as you walk out our hotel:

                                                                                           
This is One World Trade and construction goes on here 7 days a week and late into the night.  Amazingly, it was very quiet in the hotel and this turned out to be a very convenient spot for visiting lots of spots like the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and the South Street Seaport.  Here is the Memorial Garden that is now open to the public:

                                                                               

                                                                                 

                                                                               

Here's the South Street Seaport near the Brooklyn Bridge:

                                                                                   

Oh yes, and I finished my husband's socks, which really came in handy on this trip.  As you can see the weather was very overcast and cold but we were thankful the rain held off.  Here's the socks:

                                                                             

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!  Going over to Andrea's blog to see what other fiber folks have been up to.

Gale Zucker and Her Fabulous Granny Square Afghan

Gale Zucker is a knitter, professional photographer and teaches classes on photographing your knitting.  I like to check in with her blog, she shoots sheep shots, on a regular basis because there is always something interesting going on over there and, of course, the photography is first rate.    Recently, she has been blogging about a big project she undertook, known as The Big Ass Granny Afghan.  It's now done and the result is fabulous!  Here's just one of her great photos which she kindly gave me permission to show:

                                                                                 
                                                                                   
Unfortunately for me this is done in crochet, a craft I have yet to master, and so I won't doing one of these any time soon, but I Pinned this picture just because I like to look at it!

A while back I blogged about  how much I  enjoyed her first book Shear Spirit   in which Gale traveled around the country interviewing sheep ranch owners from New Mexico to Maine who were living their dream, and she and Joan Tapper now have a new book called Craft Activism which is a tribute to the growing craft movement in all its shapes and forms:

                                                                                     


Perhaps there's a knitting version of that Granny Square afghan out there somewhere....