I have always said I’d never knit an afghan. I am a quilter and, frankly, I like quilts better when it comes to form and function. Also, they are much faster to produce. And yet, a few months ago I started contemplated knitting a blanket with leftover sock yarn. I’ve seen some really colorful ones and I’ve become . . . intrigued.

The week before Christmas I spent some time planning and researching. I studied various mitered square techniques. I knew I wanted my squares to be joined together as I went along since I am not being a big fan of seaming. And I knew I wanted them to be squares and not diamonds. I cobbled together ideas from this mitered square blanket pattern and this mitered square wrap and shawl and then I took the plunge.

I’ve got several squares completed so far and I love it. Each square is simple and fast and I’m taking excellent notes so that I can put it down and pick it up much later and (hopefully) not be confused.

There’s just one problem. Since I was so sure I’d never knit a blanket I didn’t actually save my sock yarn leftovers. All those socks I’ve knit over the years and I’ve only got enough yarn to knit 12 unique squares.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.

I am so happy to be showing you photos of my finished Hawthorne today. This is partially because it’s nice to talk about finished hand knits but it’s also because I have this rule about not wearing my hand knits until I’ve posted about them on the blog and I am quite anxious to wear this one. Okay, if we’re being completely honest I should probably confess that I did wear this already last Friday night . . . but I haven’t worn it since. I only cheated on you a tiny bit.

I loved knitting this scarf. Or shawl. I truthfully can’t decide what to call it but it doesn’t really matter because it was so much fun to knit. The yarn, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Peru, was wonderful to work with and the color is gorgeous for a dreary winter day.

It’s knit from the bottom edge and, while it takes a while to cast on all those stitches, then you get right into working with the charts and it just moves along so quickly and beautifully.

I love the points.

And these sets of three – what are they? Leaves?

Once you finish with the charts it’s all short rows in garter stitch. This took longer than I thought it would but it was still pretty quick. The garter rows are smooshy and scunchable and soft.

It’s warm and wonderful when wrapped around my neck and now that you’ve seen it I can wear it with pleasure. Yay!

I didn’t write about socks yesterday because neither pair looks all that different than they did last week. The reason for that is two-fold. First, I worked hard and steady on the Vivian sweater for Hannah. The knitting on that is now finished and I just need to get a zipper. Second, I started Hawthorne.

This is not the yarn I originally intended to use but I saw this skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Peru at Webs last week and it sort of jumped into my basket. I am really enjoying knitting this pattern and the yarn is a pleasure to work with.

Those socks can wait.

Way back in June, while my dear friend Hillary was in the throes of labor, I started a blanket.

I started this blanket because I love Hillary and her family. They have had me as a guest in their home on two different occasions and they are gracious and welcoming. They are fun and friendly and warm. I wanted to make something for this new addition to their family to show them how happy I was about the whole darn thing.

Hillary and Bruce chose not to find out the sex of the baby so I had Kim custom dye this yarn for me in two beautiful shades of green. I started on Hillary’s due date and I knit on and on while she labored and I thought of her and wished her strength and comfort with every stitch.

After Bruce called to tell me about the safe arrival of their daughter I rejoiced at the news and I knit on some more. I pictured the happiness and love that was surrounding this family and wished I was with them.

I finally finished the blanket in July and then it sat and sat and sat until I photographed it a few weeks ago and mailed it off to Hillary. I justified my delay with the knowledge that summer is warm where Hillary lives and I didn’t think the blanket would be much needed.

Now that it is finally with it’s intended recipient I can show it to you in all it’s beauty. The pattern, Abby’s Blanket by the uber talented Kirsten, was a joy to knit.

And the two shades of green compliment each other perfectly. I love the open lace of the center and the squooshy smooshy garter stitch edge.

It brought me such happiness to knit this for Hillary and Marissa. I hope it brings them all the love and comfort in the world.

I’ve been diligently plugging away on the Vivian sweater for Hannah.

The back is done and one sleeve is done. I’m so close to the finish line I can practically see it. This is good because I promised I wouldn’t start anything else until this sweater was done.

You know what they say about promises, right?

A month or so ago I was at a library network meeting and I was knitting away on socks, as I’m wont to do at these monthly meetings. My friend Olivia was sitting next to me and she was also knitting but she was not knitting socks. She was knitting a Hitchhiker Scarf. You know where this is going, right?

I logged onto Ravelry with my precious my iPhone so that I could queue it up but found it was already in my queue. Hunh. I didn’t remember adding it but then I saw it was knit with Wollmeise and I’m pretty sure that’s why I put it in my queue. You see, I’ve been sort of . . . collecting . . . Wollmeise but I haven’t actually knit anything with it. I decided, with Olivia’s prodding, that it was time to take the plunge.

I am so glad I did.

The pattern is very simple and makes a great showcase for the color changes in this vibrant sock yarn.

The little sawteeth along the edge provide nice visual appeal.

I sort of couldn’t stop photographing them.

The garter stitch does get a little tedious but it knits up into such a squooshy fabric that it’s totally worth a little boredom.

I’m still not sure I understand the  frenzy that surrounds this yarn but I am glad I knit this scarf with it. It will be like a warm flame around my neck this fall.

And now that I’ve popped my Wollmeise cherry I’m sure I’ll be on the look out for more projects that use it.

I have participated in something called Dish Rag Tag for the past 5 years. It’s a knitting relay race that involves getting a box with a dish rag and some other goodies in it, knitting a new dish rag and then sending it along to the next member of your team. It spans all 50 states and has 11 teams of 10 knitters each this year. And it’s fun!

I often forget to blog about it because I get in a sort of frenzy when that box arrives at my house. I clear the decks so that I can immediately get that dish rag knit and get the box back in the mail. This year, for the first time ever, I was able to provide same day turn around for my team. That’s right – I got the box, knit the dish rag, and mailed it to the next knitter all in the same day. Yay me!

I even remembered to take a picture of my dish rag before I mailed it off. I can’t show you much detail and I can’t share the pattern because the competition is still going strong, but I can tell you it’s a good one and I’ll be making it again once the race is finished. That stitch marker you see is one of the prizes my team won the year Emily called the race Son of Dish Rag Tag.

While team glory is nice (I placed 3rd the first time I raced, 2nd the 2nd time, and 1st the 3rd time so I’ve gotten some pretty good prizes over the years) the prezzies are also nice. Those are my goodies, sent to me by Jo-Ann, the team member knitting just prior to me. Good stuff, eh?

A knitting relay race is a fun time. If you ever get the chance to race in one you should go for it!

For as long as I can remember I have loved to make things. As a kid I would say to my mom, “I feel like making something today.” And God love that woman, she always found something for me to do. I would glue things and put glitter on things. I would make homemade greeting cards and holiday decorations. I would draw and paint and be busy and I was happy.

As I got older and went to camp I learned new skills. I made God’s eyes and candles and soap. One summer in the mid 1970s I learned to macrame and I came home from camp utterly inspired. My mom took me to the store and we bought jute and beads and that Christmas everyone in the family got a macrame plant hanger.

When I was in my early 20s I learned counted cross stitch from a friend at work. I loved the designs and working with all the brightly colored floss. I made framed pictures and samplers and baby bibs and stitched obsessively for many years.

In my early 30s I learned to quilt. I again became obsessed and amassed a huge fabric stash and an impressive collection of quilting books and magazines. I made many quilts, starting with simple strip quilts and graduating to more complex blocks and scrap quilts. I quilted almost exclusively with my sewing machine, except for the binding, which I sewed by hand. I realized over time that sewing the binding was very enjoyable. I would sit on the couch and watch TV and have a beautiful quilt in my lap while I stitched that binding in place.

You can see where this is going, can’t you?

I realized, through the process of quilting, that I liked portable crafts. I liked crafts I could work on while watching TV or listening to music or sitting on the deck. And I realized that I wanted to learn to knit.

It’s been 12 years this month since Lois taught me to knit. In that time I have progressed from simple scarves to complex shawls and sweaters. I have amassed a collection of yarn that far surpasses my fabric collection and I haven’t looked back yet. I started a knitting blog for cryin’ out loud and I’ve made friends and traveled and learned to spin all because I like to make things.

My kids always call me crafty and I guess that I am. I don’t think I have any special gift for crafting, I’m just determined when it comes to learning something new and I like to be busy.

And knitting? Knitting keeps me very busy.

A week or so ago I was contacted by Mary Beth Klatt about writing a review for her new iPhone and iPad app, Yarn U. She offered to allow me to download the app for free if I would talk about here on my blog and I readily agreed. I will admit I was a bit flattered to be asked as I don’t generally think of my blog as popular enough for this sort of thing and I’m happy to admit that I can tell you that this is a great app for yarn lovers.

Basically, it acts as an encyclopedia of yarn for your device. You can search by yarn name, weight, or type, you can sort by name or fiber, and you can read lots of information about the yarns included. I would say that most of the big name yarns are listed and there is good, practical information on each one. There are also lots and lots of photos, both of the yarns and of projects knit with particular yarns. There is a spot where you can add comments and make corrections as well suggest more information or places that should be included.

I think this app would be very handy when visiting a yarn shop as you can access it easily and see what projects have been knit with a particular yarn. I know a lot of us are still hoping for a Ravelry app but in the meantime I think this one would be quite useful. The price, $2.99, is very reasonable for the information you get and I would recommend the purchase.

Also, Hannah has a friend from school who is competing for a role in a movie. He needs lots of views and likes on his YouTube audition video to improve his chances. Won’t you help him out?

Just follow the link and like it. Thanks!

Spring in New England, as many of you know, means warm-ish days and cool-ish nights. It’s  the perfect time of year for a nice pair of new armwarmers.

The pattern is loosely based on the Albina Armwarmers except that I made them much longer than the pattern calls for and I did not include the button section at the top.

Basically I knit a gauge swatch and then figured out how many stitches to cast on based on that. I knit a bit of twisted rib at the top and then switched to stockinette and kept going. And going. I actually didn’t plan to make them quite this long but I was working on them at a Town Meeting and the meeting went on and on and so did my stockinette portion of the mitts. Good thing I’m flexible about stuff like that.

The yarn is some of my handspun – I think it’s Spunky Eclectic in the color Tulips but I’m honestly not sure because it’s from back in the day when I wasn’t very good about labeling my handspun. I actually thought, back then, that I would remember it all. How ridiculous! Perhaps Manise, the keeper of all fiber clubs and colorways, will identify it.

The colors remind me of a campfire and they would be perfect to wear around a campfire – hence the name.

They are pretty and soft and just the right thing for this time of year. I love ‘em!