Photos – Page 9 – Cowtown Knits

Merry Giftmas II

December 24, 20121 Comment

So, whatever became of all that jelly I made in the fall? You know, the ones I blogged about here. Well, it all came in handy now that the Christmas gift-giving season is upon us. I had made crab apple, rhubarb, jalapeno, and mint, all of which happened to be either reddish or green. I packaged up one red and one green bottle in a cellophane bag and added a tag, badda bing, badda boom, quick gift for friends! Yes, it was a lot of work back in the fall, but none at all now that it’s busy Christmas season.

Merry Giftmas

December 19, 20121 Comment

I decided to knit something for A’s preschool teachers for Christmas this year. I had the same thought last year, but in typical Kate fashion, my thoughtfulness came far too late to actually act upon. But this year I was on it! And to make sure I hadn’t bitten off more than I could chew, I chose a pair of mittens with bulky yarn that would knit up very quickly. Bella’s Mittens, by Marielle Henault, is a ridiculously popular pattern that has been on my radar for a while. I happened to have some beautiful bulky alpaca that C’s coworker (an alpaca farmer) gave me that I’d been saving for the right project. Here are the results…

These soft, lovely yarns are really special. The alpacas live just north of the city on C’s co-worker’s farm. She takes the fiber to be spun at Custom Woolen Mills, where they use antique machines to spin the yarn. I just think this is so cool, and particularly environmentally friendly considering that there is essentially zero shipping involved. I am going to try and get more yarn from her in the future!

Anywho… I printed up a tag for the mitts as I couldn’t bear the thought of them getting accidentally felted. I attached them with a little bow, wrapped them up and put them in a gift bag along with some Two-Tone Peppermint Bark. And now I’m off now to deliver them!

Mmmmm… Cashmere

November 15, 20121 Comment

I am knitting (and designing!) with some absolutely incredible cashmere yarn right now and I just had to share the yummyness. In order to truly appreciate cashmere one must touch/rub/fondle it, but the colours of the hand-dyed yarn are so beautiful that they deserve a photo. I happened to see these two skeins of this Hand Maiden hand dyed 4-ply 100% cashmere for 50% off at the Loop recently and I couldn’t walk out of there without them. I’ve said it before, I’m a sucker for bright, highly variegated yarns, even though they can be a bit of a challenge to work with.

I swatched a lot before realizing that only the simplest of stitch patterns was going to work with this yarn, so I’m working with seed stitch. The project will be a scarf/infinity scarf/cowl, because they’re so hot right now, but it’s hard to come up with something that hasn’t already been done. I’m hoping that this design, while simple, will be elegant enough to capture potential buyers. Here is a sneak peak…

PS. I will likely be MIA for the next little bit, holidays and moving are taking over my life.

Thrummed Mitts Part III

November 5, 2012Leave a comment

And now for the final installment of the thrummed mittens saga, I present the lady-sized version. These were knit for the mom of the two boys for whom I had knit the previous versions. She is a dear friend of mine, my university roommate from many moons ago. She is also the same friend who helped me learn to knit way back then.
These mittens are a little more sophisticated, knit with a beautiful mauve Cascade 220 Heathers. The thrums were made with some roving I bought a long time ago that had cream, rust and a cream/rust/mauve blend. I used the one colour for each row of thrums, which gave them a subtle stripe pattern. I’m really happy with how these turned out, I hope Tamara is too!

Pippa Toque Knit Along

November 4, 2012Leave a comment

stunning Pippa crop — I really just needed an excuse to post this beautiful picture.

I’m hosting my first KAL! To those who are not deeply involved in the online knitting community, this stands for Knit-ALong (I know, it should just be KA, KAL bugs me every time I see it.) This means I am hosting a forum thread on Ravelry in which people who are knitting the Pippa Toque can talk about it and show pictures of their projects. Three winners will be randomly drawn from those who have posted pictures of their finished projects. The winners will be gifted a free pattern of their choice from my pattern store. If you’re interested you can join in here,the more the merrier! (You’ll need a Ravelry account, which is free and oh so useful.)