Well, a year ago, I decided I needed felted Gnomes (we have lots of felting kits) for Meredith to give her for her birthday. These super cute little kits we have make 2 Gnomes, each with a different colored coat. I had the bright idea that Meredith and I could name our Gnomes and hide them around the house, coming up on them unexpectedly and then hiding them again. Cute idea right? Well, I don’t needle felt. And don’t have any desire to needle felt. So I asked Kendra (our resident felter) to make them for me and I would pay her. Kendra didn’t really want me to pay her so she asked if we could barter. I said yes and she asked me to make a pair of socks for her middle son. Enter: “No problem. I can get this done. It will be a piece of cake.” Honestly, a pair of kid’s socks? I could have had them done in a weekend. But I didn’t. As a matter of fact, I just finished them this Sunday past, exactly ONE Year Later.

Reasons? Or rather, Excuses? I didn’t like the yarn and it was a very dark blue making it hard to see the tiny stitches; I didn’t have a real foot in front of me to measure so I was knitting by the seat of my pants wondering if the sock would fit… Possibly valid excuses for tardiness. But an entire year? Add the fact that I had Gnomes in the house for the entire year and my humiliation and mortification are complete. I am coming clean in public to scourge my guilt and help remind myself to think twice before saying yes.

On a slightly related note I have a sock mending idea for you. A customer came in (I think Ursula Smith?) and told Jane about this idea so she tried it and then I had to try it… Instead of darning socks (or throwing them away!) try needle felting the hole with roving. You’ll know from what I said earlier that I have never needle felted before and was a little nervous. The whole sharp jabbing thing is a little much for me as I tend to be clumsy in normal circumstances, never mind while holding extremely sharp, barbed needles. But I was motivated because this pair of socks was a special gift, they are covered in polka dots and they are cashmere. I am not throwing them away. So away I went and look at the results! It beats darning or tossing and adds character.

[Note from Amos, Halcyon Yarn's resident tech dork:] This video looks best in fullscreen (it is HD) and can also be seen on our vimeo page. Just picked up a Canon T2i camera, and this is pretty much the first video clip shot on the camera… Be sure to view it in high definition if your internet connection is fast enough… Technically, there is room for improvement, (still learning the camera, and didn’t have time for multiple shoots today), but if folks find this video useful we’re psycked to do more!

Gwynn Woobie Tutorial from Halcyon Yarn on Vimeo.

The yarn is very very soft, the silk adds a touch of sheen to the cotton and the 15% wool adds elasticity to the blend. The skeins are FAT at 220 yards each and you all know how much I love the gorgeous self-striping Noro colorways.

The Silk Garden woobie is coming along famously. In spite of the temptation to knit this single strip in perpetuity, I have decided to cast it off. To begin with, I had planned on 3 long strips sewn together. But after laying it on top of my own Silk Garden woobie, I have decided to do 3 shortish strips sewn together sideways. Still toying with the idea of switching the colors on the middle panel – bright blue as the raised color, grays as background. We will know soon…

One project I am presently working on is a blanket (aka: Woobie: a cozy yummy to wrap up in to feel better even if you felt good to begin with) using Noro Silk Garden. It is a gift for the dearest friend I have ever had. She deserves a woobie like nobody’s business. Knitting with Silk Garden always makes me happy what with the silk and gorgeous color ways. It keeps any project from being tedious, especially a long-term commitment project like a blanket.

This blanket in particular has my imagination all fired up. I found it in a Jane Ellison book; it’s called Blythe. Hers is made of 12 different squares sewn up all hodge-podge. Loved the stitch pattern right away but not how blocky and chunky it looked in the end result. So I am going to do 3 long strips of the stitch pattern and sew them together lengthwise for a more fluid effect. (Casting on the total width of the woobie would ruin the height of the blocks of color throughout each skein.) Although I can understand the desire to knit square after square and experiment with different skeins and colors, I just happen to be in love with the two colors I chose.

This particular pattern (honeycomb maybe?) is a wonderful study in the changing and shifting color ways of Noro. You use two different colors: one is the background and the other is the raised stitch. Watching them flow together and change is a constant pleasure. This stitch would also make a striking scarf, especially used horizontally.

On a completely different note, a certain You Tube video has been circling among our ranks all week, Pringle of Scotland Animation by David Shrigley. We have decided to share it with you because we can’t stop laughing about it. We have given it a rating of ATR: a touch ribald.

Things we have been up to:

We have all been designing and knitting like crazy to come up with a slew of new hat patterns for all of you for a special February promotion, which will start next week. Here are two I have been working on: an adult Como roll brim hat and a children’s Kureyon roll brim hat. These and MANY more will be available next week – watch for your newsletter.

Announcement 1:

On Monday February 1 from 2-8 pm we will have Linda Cortright in the shop. She is the founder and publisher of Wild Fibers Magazine. (If you haven’t seen it, you don’t know what you are missing. Published here in Maine and about all things fiber; Amazing Photographs!) She also founded Keep the Fleece as a celebration to honor the United Nations International Year of Natural Fibres in 2009. She started a project called the World’s Longest Scarf in 2009 to promote the importance of natural fibers by creating the world’s longest scarf made from natural fibers. It is now nearly 1000 feet long! Each row in the scarf represents one dollar donated to Heifer International which provides fiber animals to poor families to enable them to become self-supporting. She needs help sewing it up!! SO she will be here at the shop with all these yards of scarves and we need recruits to come and help stitch them together. Come if you are local, call a friend or two; it should be great fun. At the very least, read up about it. It is a great cause for fiber awareness.

Announcement 2:

I have finally gotten Michael to agree to a blog post for all the weavers out there! (I simply talked him to death until he had to agree. He called me a car salesman and I tried not to be offended.) He is starting with one post a month and I have warned him he may need to do more depending on interest and feedback. He will have his own spot on the homepage where you can click and get right to his post which is called ‘Advancing the Warp’. He will be talking about what he is working on, what he is planning and answering FAQ’s from weavers and anyone else who has one! Be sure and tune in….

The pattern itself is lovely. All leaves and trailing vines… As lace goes it’s not a hard pattern to get the rhythm of and it only patterns on the right side. (On the back you are knitting knits and purling purls.) But what makes it truly amazing is the scale. Two strands of a super bulky yarn knit on size 35 needles. 1.25 stitches per inch. How often do you get to look at knitting on this type of scale?

I think knitting itself is magical; it will forever astound me that a person can pick up yarn and two sticks and make a garment. (or any other thing) You don’t even have to understand knitting to make something. You just need to master the knit stitch. You can go along forever without really understanding it and then you knit something at a gauge of 1.25 stitches to the inch. WOW! Suddenly the difference between SSK and K2tog makes all the sense in the world. These trailing vines have forever changed the way I look at lace and I loved it to begin with.

You don’t have to go crazy and buy 20 balls of Como and a pair of size 35 needles. Pick a lovely lace pattern and your favorite bulky yarn. Go a little crazy and double it on size 15′s and watch this magic happen for yourself. Call me and I’ll help you with the chart.

Christmas Stocking was finished too, all except the name in duplicate stitch. I didn’t think it was necessary to hurry and put her name on it in light of the fact that she decided not to use it this year. You heard me right. I didn’t make myself one and due to unfortunate circumstances I found myself without a stocking this year. While out shopping for my Christmas gifts at Old Navy, she bought me a fleece stocking, which they had on sale for $1.00. She gave it to me before Christmas and proclaimed that our stockings didn’t match. Could we please go back to Old Navy and get a stocking for her so our stockings would look alike? (How to resist?) A couple of days later I was graciously given a lovely hand-knit stocking. When I showed it to her she agreed that we could use the homemade ones next year… The purple striped/pink jeweled one is mine.

I also managed to knock out one of those super bulky weekend pullovers for my cousin Sandy who helped me lay ceramic tile in my new house. In Christmas Red of course. We clash beautifully when I wear my bright purple one.

So! On to new and improved projects. The most exciting (and ridiculous)thing I am knitting is the Leaf Lace Shawl from the Vogue Knitting Shawls and Wraps compilation. I have seen this wrap before in one of their mags and was transfixed by it then. The photography is stunning and as crazy as it looks, it begs to be knit. I found myself with 20 balls of Debbie Bliss butter yellow Como that I impulsively bought when the distributor sent it to us by mistake. I could not resist the color and had at least three sweaters in mind (as usual). I settled on one in the Como book, cast on and knit in the round up to the armholes. I them divided it into front and back and knit most of the back. Then the sweater got very comfortable in my knitting basket and began to languish. I should have had this sweater done by Christmas and I didn’t even want to work on it. When this Shawls and Wraps book crossed my desk this week and I saw the pic on the back cover, I knew. So I went home and frogged the 10 balls of yellow I had knit and cast on the shawl. The Como is bulkier than the yarn in the pattern so instead of a 19 I am using a 35 (because the yarn is doubled). Doesn’t that make it even more over the top ridiculous? Using 20 balls of Como for a wrap is a kind of absurd my co-workers are used to so I am off to the races! I have one of ten total chart repeats done. Check back for progress…

There is just so much knitting you can do for yourself before you run out of room for it all.  I have filled my drawers, my closet shelves, a cedar chest and given lots of it away.  But as long as I’m at Halcyon, there will be another skein of yarn or a pattern that just cries out to go home with me.  That leads to my computer/yarn storage/Christmas tree room–which is another story for another day.  I’m trying to convince my family that the Christmas tree would look lovelier in another room or I will be as busy as one of Santa’s elves moving yarn!

For years, I have been offering to knit sweaters, socks anything for my three sons.  When they were little, I could do that.  But now, except for the occasional winter hat, or the mittens we sent to Afghanistan, I get painful expressions and attempts at tactful responses.  Imagine my elation when my eldest (and biggest) last year came into the store and announced that he wanted a sweater. Be careful what you wish for!  He chose the pattern, one that requires reading every line of a 52 row repeat (for a 49″ chest!)   And he chose the yarn, Bulky Black Lambs Pride!  Now, I am mother-bound to make this sweater but……..  I gave him the yarn and pattern wrapped for his birthday last February and promised the sweater would soon follow.  Always excited about starting a new project, I sat down and cast on.  Do you know how many prettier, more exciting colorways there are here?  Since starting that sweater, I have started and finished four Side-to-Side cardigans–3 in patagonia, and one in the red Noro Iro, the Christening gown, a Baby Fiesta Dress, a rug for my husband’s birthday, an Einstein Coat in Noro Kochoran, a Lopi sweater, the February Lady Sweater in Lana Bambu, a Slytherin hat for his youngest brother (big mistake!), at least one neck warmer in Malabrigo Silky Merino, three felted bags, two Victorian Stoles and a partridge in a pear tree…(That doesn’t even cover all the works in various stages of progress!)  Now, the Lopi sweater and the Einstein Coat were both group knit-along projects.  Anytime Nolan dropped in, he was sure to comment, “That doesn’t look like my sweater.”   And everyone feels duty bound to use the greeting, “How’s Nolan’s sweater coming?”  Today I have on my latest temptation–the Silver Creek Bulky Seed Stitch Vest in Kochoran.  The colorway is shades of rose and green, perfect for the season (will also work around Valentines Day)!  And I love it!  But as I sewed the last button on last night, I swore to myself (because no one else would believe me) that I will not knit another thing until I finish Nolan’s sweater and that I will do that by Christmas!  ( The men in my family are taking odds on whether that is this Christmas or next!)  At least it’s bulky and I’m almost through with the back!  Oops!  Noro just arrived to be put away, maybe with a blindfold on!  May your holidays be filled with color!

Sorry for the short post. It is getting ready for Monday time with the kindergartener and I am exhausted. I set tile at my house yesterday for 10 hours…

Next post look for a finished stocking and some tidbits on my next sweater – the Concetta Cardigan from the brown stitch. Give me a shout if you have already made this thing. It is gorgeous.

Back to this week’s title – Eureka!!! I have had one of those amazing Eureka Moments! in my knitting. It has been a long time since I had one (which simply means I haven’t been challenging myself) and oh did it feel good!! I mentioned in last week’s post that I was going to knit Meredith a Christmas stocking this year and true to form, I couldn’t get it cast on until after Thanksgiving. No matter how soon the stores insist on foisting Christmas on us, it never starts for me until the Thanksgiving leftovers are in the fridge. This presents a problem time-wise since my holiday knitting time is very short; but that’s the way it is.

Last year (around this time) I started this same stocking. The New Ancestral Christmas Stocking in the second Mason Dixon book. (there is alot I love about this book but the fair isle instructions and this stocking pattern make it worth its weight in gold.) I started it (because Meredith needs a handknit stocking) and because it  has instructions for learning the two circular needle way of knitting socks. (On page 116 of this book there is one skinny column of instructions and that is how I learned this method. Short and to the point.) When I started this stocking last year, I couldn’t quite decipher the instructions on page 65 regarding weaving the long strands behind the work. It wasn’t clicking and I wasn’t motivated enough to keep trying. Plus, I was so excited to have learned the two circular needle method for socks that I picked up sock yarn and didn’t stop until well into the new year.

So. Yesterday I cast on The Stocking. (I am changing up the pattern a bit – I am leaving out the argyle portion because it is partially done in duplicate stitch and my patience will only go so far.) I am doing a striped portion then the snowflake and then more stripes. Last night I finished the first portion of stripes and geared up for the snowflake. I got the Fair Isle instructions out and I was determined this time to GET IT. My Dad even scanned the snowflake portion of the chart to blow it up for me so I wouldn’t go blind. I had no excuses not to go for it. I read page 65 and tried it with yarn. Again and again. Until the Eureka Moment! I got it!  I finally got it! The instructions finally made sense and I was fair isle knitting with both hands and weaving the yarn behind the work and it looks Fabulous!! At the beginning of the instructions she promises to ‘Talk you down’ (after a very funny bit about the movie Airport 1975) and she did!! Just take a gander at the beginnings of my gorgeous fair isle snowflake! Look at those beautiful tidy strands on the back! I did all that yesterday – two circular needles is SO fast – I might have time to knit my own self a stocking.

I took all these pictures at the playground with Meredith today. We were taking advantage of this unheard of late November warm sunny weather…Now I must go knit The Stocking.