Sprout!

I lovingly knit the last stitch on my baby blanket, and I'm positively beaming to share it with you ....


I designed this blanket in an embossed leaf pattern. It's definitely a challenging pattern, since the stitch count changes over the course of each sprout, but the extra fabric that's made for each leaf gives it a gorgeous, rich, three-dimensional texture.


It uses 3 skeins of Spud & Chloe 'Sweater,' which is a lovely machine-washable blend of organic cotton and superwash wool, in the color 'Grass.' I think the color is more of a celery green than a grass green, but in any case, it's cheery and bright and gender neutral. And it has such a lusciously soft hand!


The seeds of this blanket, so to speak, were planted several years ago, when I made a friend a baby blanket with this leaf motif in one of the early organic cotton yarns (see it here). For years, I've had it in mind to improve on the pattern and find a machine-washable yarn for it. When I found out that another friend was having her first baby, and I learned about the new Spud & Chloe yarn line, it was the perfect time to revisit the pattern.


I chose the increases and decreases with special care, so that the back of the blanket would be as beautiful and symmetrical as the front. I just love this blanket.


It's already packed up and in the mail to my friend. I am so excited for her! And I found the perfect handmade card to go with it -- a darling letterpress card from sweetbeets.

The pattern is all written up and available for sale on Ravelry. If you'd like to buy it, you can either click here to purchase and download it from Ravelry, or you can send me an email at evergreenknits@gmail.com.

And as always, to thank you my readers I'll be giving away five copies of the pattern in a little comments contest. To enter, just leave me a comment! I'll draw names this Friday, October 3.

Knitting in Nature

Perfect moment: Wilderness. Knitting between rock climbs. Falcon crying overhead. Isis curled up my side ...


Sitting upon my situpon, no less! And here's my view of the scene. I'm not making anything in particular, just swatching for my next project with Earth Arts indigo-dyed wool yarn


The story is that Mountain Man and I went up to Isolation Canyon for a beautiful Sunday of rock climbing. If you want to get a sense of the vastness of these rock walls, you can check out the photo from the last time we were there. (The cliffs behind me in that photo are the ones we climbed today.)

I finished knitting the baby blanket on the drive there - at last! And I love it! I didn't have time to photograph it earlier in the day, though, and by the time we made it back to the car, the sun was down and the stars were up.

Mount Lemmon weekend

This past weekend, Mountain Man and I loaded up the truck and headed up to mountains for camping and climbing, while I got in good, solid hours of knitting during the drive and around the campfire. This is getting to be such a familiar story that I feel quite boring telling it!


All the same, it was awfully beautiful. We went to Mount Lemmon this time, driving the back way through Oracle and up the dirt roads on the north side of the mountain, laughing and listening to Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson (it's hard to beat "Mammas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys" for a singalong).

There's not much to show on the knitting front. I did finish that leaf-patterned blanket, but I wanted to tinker with the pattern, so I'm re-knitting it now. It looks pretty much the same as it did the last time!

The one fiber anecdote that may be interesting has to do with my latest "hair taping." This is a medieval hairstyle in which you braid your hair in two braids, wrap it around your head, and then literally sew it in place. I didn't have any ribbon with which to sew it, though, so instead I used a few yards of a handpainted wool yarn.


It's definitely a little odd, but I'm still just getting the hang of it. The most important thing was that it keeps my waist-length hair secure while I'm rock climbing.

Outdoor Seating

A "sit-upon" is described by the 1940 Girl Scout Handbook as follows: "It is not wise to sit or lie on damp ground, so put your sweater or "sit-upon" under you. A sit-upon is a piece of waterproof material about eighteen inches square that a wise hiker carries along in a compact roll to use while resting, eating, or sitting around the campfire."


I decided to knit myself one after a long, cold day of rock climbing last January, when I spent many hours sitting on freezing rocks. My sit-upon is knit in a ribbed cable with a rugged worsted wool, which yields a dense, reversible, and doubly-thick fabric. An oilcloth backing makes it waterproof.


Here is the pattern for you, just in time for autumnal hikes, picnics, and football games. I'll also be putting this on Ravelry as a free download.

Sizes:
Small (17" wide x 15" tall), Medium (20.25" x 17"), Large (23.5" x 19")
note: You can knit it to any size by casting on more stitches (repeats of 8 stitches) and knitting more rows (repeats of 8 rows). I started with such a small size to make it fit in my climbing pack.

Materials:
* Yarn: S [M,L] takes 2 [2,3] skeins of Bartlett Yarns Fisherman 2-ply (100% wool; 210 yds/4 oz) in the color "Bark"
* Knitting Needles: US 7/4.5mm circular needle, at least 24" long
* Notions: cable needle, tapestry needle
* Waterproof backing (optional): oilcloth or vinyl fabric. I made holes along the edge of the oilcloth with a small (3 mm) holepunch and crocheted it to the knitted sit-upon with a F-5/3.75 mm hook.


Gauge:
16 st/24 rows = 4" in stockinette stitch

Abbreviations:
K = knit
P = purl
C8B = "cable 8 back": Slip next 4 stitches to cable needle and hold to back of work; [K1,P1] twice from the left needle, then [K1,P1] twice from the cable needle

Pattern:
* Cast on: 128 [160, 184] stitches
* Bottom edge: knit in [K1, P1] ribbing for 5 rows
* Main fabric: knit a cable row by knitting across in C8B, then knit seven rows of [K1, P1] ribbing. Repeat these 8 rows until piece measures 14" [16", 18"] tall
* Top edge: work one more cable row, then [K1, P1] ribbing for 5 rows
* Bind off

Finishing:
Weave in ends using the tapestry needle.
If you want to add an oilcloth backing, cut a piece of oilcloth to fit the size of the knit fabric. Punch holes approximately every quarter inch (6 mm) along the four edges of the oilcloth. Attach the backing to the knit fabric with single crochet or simple sewing stitches (blanket or whip stitch). Alternatively, you could attach it with velcro or by machine- or hand-sewing.


Enjoy!!

Flagstaff weekend

I'm still recuperating after an incredible but thoroughly exhausting weekend in Flagstaff. Mountain Man and I headed north to escape the horrendous heat we've been having in the Phoenix valley (last week hovered around 110). It was glorious to be up in the cooler mountains, camping under starry skies, knitting by the campfire, and getting out for some awesome hikes and climbs.

Hiking around the San Francisco mountains.

Naturally-dyed Churro yarn from the farmers' market

Aspen forest

Leafy baby blanket

I'm pretty psyched about this new knitting project, which is a baby blanket with an embossed leaf motif. I spent a long time last week working out the leaf charts, and the knitting flew by over the weekend (sometimes those traffic delays come in handy, ha ha).

It's knit in the new Spud & Chloe 'Sweater' yarn, an aran weight organic cotton and superwash wool blend. I LOVE this yarn. It's fabulously soft, has commendable stitch definition, and, best of all, is machine washable. I'm really enjoying knitting this up!

light blue

This top is about the redemption of my blue cotton top. I unraveled it all the way to the smocking and re-knit it. I made it slender this time, with garter stitch stripes down the sides.


I like it now. I'm glad I took the time to do it right.

If you don't remember what it looked like before, you're kind of out of luck. I decided that it was so hideously unflattering that I took down the post of me wearing it! (Although you can see it hanging here).

And that's the end of my Vermont summer knitting. I'm back in Phoenix. Been back for almost a week. It's good to get back to regular life, but it does make me a little blue. Light blue, you might say. Like my top.

I'll leave you with a dose of gorgeous deep blue from Vermont .... a blue jay feather on our stone wall, found the morning that we left.

verdant Vermont shawl

The shawl is finished, and when I wear it, I feel as though I have wrapped the green Vermont hills around my shoulders. The colors are intensely vegetal. The lace patterns are leaf-inspired. And every stitch was lovingly made on this trip to Vermont.


I designed it as a half-pi shawl (i.e. the increases are made in concentric rings rather than in rays) with three sections of leafy lace stitch patterns and a garter stitch border. The final lace pattern, "ivy leaf," gives it a gently scalloped edge. I'm in love with it.



I knew I wanted to knit such a shawl as soon as Mountain Man gave me this yarn. The entire process -- inspiration, sketching, swatching, calculating, knitting -- took just two weeks. I really kicked into high gear for this one because I did so want to finish it on this trip!!


I'm very proud of how this pattern turned out, and I'll definitely be writing it up. Any ideas for pattern names? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

the silver hours

There are summer days when Vermont sparkles with sunshine and clear, bright colors. Sky blue. Grass green. Buttercup yellow.

But even those days begin with chilly, mist-shrouded mornings, and I love the silvery hours just as fiercely as the golden ones. I'd like to bottle up this grayness and take it back to the desert...

Green acorn, stone wall

Antique silver

Lichen on beech bark

Knitting needles, yarn, stone, moss

I've finished the shawl, by the way. Good thing, too, since I probably won't be able to move my arms for days after waterskiing this morning. Pictures to come soon!

knitting in Vermont

I'm back in the Green Mountain state for a spell. Appropriately enough, I brought along my green yarn and am plowing through a leaf-patterned shawl that I've designed for it.


It is so glorious here! We've been kayaking


and considering the waterlilies

and catching painted turtles


Truly a place to nourish one's soul (and inspire some serious knitting!)

magnificence

Mountain Man returned home yesterday from two weeks of fieldwork in the Atacama desert, and he brought me back a magnificent jewel: a ball of handspun, naturally dyed alpaca yarn in a luminous grass green. He found it in an artisan's shop in San Pedro de Atacama and carefully transported it home amongst the rock samples and dusty boots.

Now that's love.

flaxen

I finished the second lingering project -- a silk and linen camisole -- just before leaving Taos. Larky snapped this photo of my moments before I climbed into the truck and started the long drive home.

Yarn: Hand Maiden Flaxen, 2 skeins in Peridot
Needles: Size 3 circular

This top was a long time in coming. Originally I envisioned something like my blue hemp cami from a couple of years ago, only with a narrow cable down the center of the front and back. Then I hit a snag in the top shaping and put it down in frustration for an entire year.


This summer, I thought I'd salvage it by turning it into a simple tube top. But I hit another snag: I'd miscounted when placing the cables, such that when the front cable was centered, the back cable was off by 6 stitches. In the end, I ran with the asymmetry and turned the tube around me so that the cables were well off-center and could lead into cabled straps. Thank goodness I hadn't done any waist shaping.


The only thing I'd like to change is to have it a bit looser. I'd made it so small because I wasn't sure that 2 skeins would give me enough yardage for a roomier top (also, when I started it last summer, I was a wee bit smaller myself!).

But all things considered, I'm happy with how it turned out. The gray-green colors are soft and subtle, and the silk/linen blend drapes beautifully without losing its crisp stitches. It's one of the loveliest yarns I've ever knit.

last days in Taos

My time in Taos is drawing to a close. Before I leave, though, I wanted to share a few of the more colorful experiences of the last few days. First up: a visit to Phi Beta Paca, a lovely alpaca farm on Taos's high sagebrush plains. I love, love, love alpacas, and this was a particularly spirited and friendly bunch.

Sociable little beasts

comical faces

Larky's fuzzy ears

On Sunday morning we helped out on a barn razing, which is to say that we took down a small barn (a chicken coop, actually) to move to another property. Manual labor can feel damn good sometimes. And my eyes were drawn to the contrasting textures of the day ...

Tin roof

Weathered planks and leather

And on Sunday afternoon, I finally made it out to the Taos Pueblo. The thunder clouds had moved in, and we were struck with a dust storm in the late afternoon, and it made for an eerie but very cool atmosphere.

Taos Pueblo

Adobe Window

Chili peppers after a dust storm

Taos is such a captivating place, and I wish I could stay longer. Maybe even forever ....

One shoulder tunic

I finished the first of my stagnating projects. This one-shouldered tunic is splendidly simple, which, of course, means that it was very complicated to figure out.


Here are the basic details: knit from the bottom up, with a turned hem, straight middle, and angled, mirrored front and back. It's knit in just over 2 skeins of Farmhouse Yarn's kettle-dyed bamboo on size 5 needles. The angled top is made by binding off 2 stitches at the beginning of each row, finished off with 2 rows of double crochet.

It grew nearly 2 inches in length and an inch in width with blocking, unexpectedly transforming it from a tight top into a flowing tunic. It's lovely and very easy to wear. I wore it today, in fact, when we went to visit the amazing Earthships just outside of Taos. And, awesomely, I wasn't the strangest-looking person there.


So, that pattern synopsis sounds simple enough, but it took me a long time to get it all figured out. I finished the main body by April or May. I knit up the front top with what I thought would be a clever, self-finishing method: turning the outer 3 stitches into I-cord and doing the decreases as K2tog next to I-cord. But this made for a tight and inelastic edge that pulled the fabric weirdly. I was so frustrated that I just put the project down for a month or two.

When I picked the project last week, I quickly figured out that I needed to decrease by binding off stitches at the edge. But it took me 8 painful tries before I got it all done with the right angle, needle size, gauge, and dyelot (unfortunately, my third skein was drastically different from the first two, so I needed to knit every last inch of those before adding in the third skein). I was so relieved to have it finished. And I'm so pleased with the (ultimately) simple formula that I plan to make another one soon and then write up the pattern for the blog.

On another note, I've gotten requests for "more Isis." Here she is, looking regal and serious against a backdrop of sage and mountains. It's ridiculous how much I love this beast.

Welcome to Taos

As you may have guessed from the sagebrush and clear light of the last post, I'm not in Arizona anymore. Mountain Man and I are in Taos, New Mexico. And how I love this place, with its rugged, high desert beauty, its summer thunderstorms crashing through the big sky, its perfume of sage and pinon pine!

It's a landscape that really resonates with me (or should that be the other way around?), and I feel so blessed to be able to escape the heat and house-sit for friends here for a couple of weeks.

The knitting projects that I brought with me are all fittingly in blues and silvery sage greens. I didn't plan it that way. It just happened that I wanted to bring along some projects that had been stalled for a while, and the colors were serendipitous.


From left to right: first, a simple tank top in Hand Maiden Flaxen, which has been lying unfinished for over a year; second, that dreadful cotton smock that I'm going to frog and re-knit; third, a slinky one-shouldered top in Farmhouse Bamboo.

I'd love to have these all finished by the time we descend back to Phoenix.