Hat for Brigid

Another Earflap Hat!
This one for my other co-worker, Brigid. Despite how much I love them, I don’t think I’ll make one for myself, since I think they look kinda silly on me.
I have a Fake Isle hat in the works for me!

I spent the day helping with our big “5th Anniversary Sale” at the yarn shop today! That was quite fun since most of us who work there were there, and I don’t get to see them very often. It was very busy too, lots of friendly people I even met some new Ravelers to add to my friends list! They are big fans of Storm Moon Knits yarn, and they practically cleaned us out! I haven’t bought any yet, but I’m rather fond of her “Gaz” colorway, so maybe next time we get some more in I’ll splurge.

We decided that on the couch watching March of the Penguins was where we needed to be tonight. I’ve been fighting a nasty cold/flu thing all week, and while I feel better than I did during the week, my hearing and balance is a bit off and I still feel icky. Thank goodness for tea! And fleece pjs *snuggle*

My Monk hat made for Real Monks..er..Nuns!

I was contacted recently by Willow Million of “String of Gems” in California, thanking me for my Monk Hat Pattern which she informed me they were using to knit hats to take with them to Tibet to give to 250 Buddhist Nuns whose livlihood they help support! I love the idea of contributing to something that will help people so directly. And they do need our help! They are trying to get 250 hats BY March 3rd. So if you have some extra wool yarn, and an extra hour or two, please knit a hat for them!

Excerped from the message I received from Willow:

You may know that Cathy (owner of Inner Journey in Los Gatos, CA andmember of Gyalwa Gyatso Buddhist Center in Campbell, CA) is a tirelesssupporter 250 nuns near Lhasa, Tibet.
I am knitting some wool hats forthe nuns and looking for other knitters who would like to participate. Cathy would personally deliver any hats we can complete when shevisits them in March. She is leaving on March 12, so I am setting mypersonal deadline for March 3. I have already researched the yarn,which is very reasonably-priced and the pattern, which knits upquickly with size 11 needles.

Here is some background information about the nuns and their needs:
IntroducingString of Gems A foundation dedicated to the financial welfare of Buddhist Nunsin and around Lhasa, Tibet. String of Gems was founded in 2001 around a dinner table at theShambala Hotel in Lhasa, Tibet. After 2 previous trips to Tibet, wewanted to give something back to the people and country we were forming a definite attachment to. The more time we spent with theTibetan people, the more we saw how important their religious identityand culture was to them. These are a kind and gentle people who walk their Buddhist beliefs everyday. Of all the things we could do to help the people of Tibet., one need above all became very apparent once we were introduced to a group of Buddhist Nuns. They needed help gettingtheir day to day needs met. They seemed to have been abandoned byeveryone! Since 1949, more than 6,000 monasteries and nunneries have been destroyed. Thousands of Tibetans have fled into exile, followingtheir spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. What may be lesswell known is that, currently, Tibetans are still subjected to gross human rights violations everyday. The exile of thousands of Tibetan and Chinese monks and nuns continues today as China’s genocidal politics persist. There are numerous nunneries and thousands of nunsin residence who are barely surviving. These humble nuns have next tonothing except their belief’s and are in need of so many things frombasics like shoes, blankets, food, and tools to overwhelming itemssuch as roads to their nunneries, yaks to haul firewood and supplies,and repairs for the nunnery buildings themselves. In Tibet women are still second class citizens and nuns in particular are under aconstant threat of personal and religious prosecution.We are currently financially helping 4 Nunneries in the Lhasa area:Garu, Mechong Ri , Chupsong, and Nemo. There are approximately 250nuns currently occupying these nunneries. About every six months wewire money to a much-trusted Tibetan friend who takes these funds outto each nunnery where it is used to buy everything from rice and gheeto sutra books and Stupas. It is impossible to wire large amounts ofmoney into the personal account of a Tibetan citizen as it acts as ared flag for the Chinese government.
String of Gems is a grass roots group of individuals dedicated to the ongoing financial needs of these extraordinary women.
Bless you for helping us get in touch with knitters who would bewilling to make some Hats for Nuns.Yours in the Dharma, Willow

Here’s the page she made with the address to send the hats to, desired yarn to use, and you can learn a little more about their organization:
http://mysite.verizon.net/reso5cyd/hatsfornuns/

Thanks for your help and your interest in their cause!

6-Degrees of Karabella

So the other day the new-er girl in my office came up to me holding a new “Runway Knits” book, which I had not yet had the pleasure of perusing yet. She exclaimed “It’s my Aunt’s!”, by which I thought she meant that she had purchased it for or borrowed it from her aunt, as she (co-worker) is just learning to knit. No, that’s not what she meant. She meant that her Aunt WROTE the book. Her Aunt (well, techincally her mother’s cousin) is the creator of Karabella Yarns, Berta Karapetyan, and the Author of “Runway Knits”, designer for Donna Karen, etc! *Squee!*
AND she’s close with her! She want me to come with her if she goes to NYC to go her her store, School Products! How cool is that? What’s funny is that, as a non-knitter, she never realised that any of this could possibly be a big deal.
That’s my little brush with knitting greatness for the month

Also, I’ve been smitten by YanBallBoogie’s Fourteen (Briche, buttoned neck-warmer). However, I’m using a true brioche rather than fisherman’s rib, and mine’s wider, and I’m using 2 strands of Catalina Baby Alpaca Chunky in black. It is YUMMY. I was thinking of making it into a real scarf, but I only have 4 balls, and still want to make a matching hat. 2 balls will be perfect length for the neckwarmer.

My First 3-Ply!

I’ve been lazily spinning up this lovely Cormo/Alpaca roving I bought at Sheep and Wool (from Foxhill Farm) for a long time now, and finally I got to try my hand at plying it! This was my first non-Navajo 3-ply job, and I think I did pretty well. I still need some work on plying, but I used the “Spice Jar top” trick and I think that helped. (You run each of the plies through a whole in the lid and it helps to keep them separated).
It’s about a sport weight I think, about 13 or 14 WPI if I’m figuring that correctly. I’m not sure what to do with it yet, but I think it could be lovely as some twisted-stitch mittens (if I have enough).
Here it is!

Also some WIPs!
Here’s the very beginnings of my GreenGable Pullover I found on Ravelry. I originally was going to make the Leaf Lace Pullover with this yarn, but the more FOs I saw of it, the less I liked it. It just looks kindof frumpy on everyone. I LOVE the bold cabling in this design, and I think the Polar will show it off nicely!

And here’s my languishing Pomatomus sock. Stitch patterns usually never give me a problem, but I keep getting lost in this one! I think I just need a good few hours to push throuh the complicated bits, instead of trying to work on it when I’m distracted. I’m using Ellen Cooper hand-dyed Merino.

Xmas Loot! And Hats!

An adorable Alpaca finger puppet! I got a grey one around here too somewhere…must be buried in my stocking.

I got 5 colors of Alpaca top my Mom got from a farm near my hometown! How wonderful is that?! J has already decided that he NEEDS an earflap hat from the back Alpaca. He also picked out the chunky orange Malabrigo below for stripes.

Also, spinning books!

hehe I’m so easy to buy for.

So, remember that pink/lavender chunky handspun I made from the NC wool my mom got me? Well, I turned it into and earflap hat for my sis for giftmas! Here’s J modelling the hat. info on Ravelry, I’m RedThread:

And here’s another version of the same hat, that I made for a coworker who is moving to Chicago. It’s Noro Kureyon and Cascade 220 held together. This is the Knitty Gritty Camo Earflap Hat Pattern, if you were wondering.

Find me on Ravelry! I’m RedThread

December Recap

January is here!
Unfortunately, this year’s “Selfish Knitting Month” is going to be postponed until February, as I’m still working on some late giftmas presents
I’m hoping to build a new home for the blog soon! A home page for easy access to pattern and pictures, and hopefully handspun yarn for sale!
In the meantime, I have added a link in the sidebar for the Dragon Scarf.

December was very eventful! Full of parties and friends and family and food, along with plenty of stress, from things like buying a car, and having way too much crap to do at work.
J and I celebrated our 4th New Year’s Eve together by having a beautiful, luscious, dinner at Red Maple. I tried my first Vouvray while there, and will have to seek out a bottle in the near future! It went wonderfully with my pomagranite grilled swordfish and purple potato salad! Joe thuroughly enjoyed his beef tenderloin and spinach mashed potatoes as well. Unfortunately we didn’t make it out to the party at the club later due J not feeling well, but there’s always next year

For Solstice this year J and I put together a huge feast for 4 of our closest friends. As I didn’t cook for Thanksgiving, and knew I wouldn’t be cooking for xmas, this was my one chance to have my own Holiday Dinner. It involved much planning and a few evenings of prep, but it was well worth it! Here’s the spread:
*Cranberry and Pink Champagne cocktails when my guests arrived
*toasty crustini topped with honey-walnut goat cheese, warm saute’d pear, and a curl of proscuitto as an appatizer
*Handmade winter squash ravioli cut into star shapes, in a sage cream sauce; for the first course.
*Roast Goose with Brandied-Cranberry reduction sauce (Thanks Emeril!)
*Quinoa with squash and dried fruit
*Roasted beet salad with fennel and herbed goat cheese over greens
*Mocha-Walnut cookies with Dublin Mudslide ice cream for dessert

Everything came out just as planned, and wonderfully delicious! Goose takes a little work, but was easier than expected. I don’t think I’ll bother making my own pasta dough again though, at least not until I buy a Kitchen Aid mixer with a pasta attachment! I wish I’d taken pictures! I was too busy to think about it..

December limit reached!

Sorry Everyone!
My Download Limit for December has been reached!
Dragon Scarf Pattern will be available for download again in January. I am very sorry for this inconvenience.
Alternatively, you can email me and we can set up a private paypal transaction if you need it immediately redqueen715 at yahoo

CHINESE LUCK DRAGON SCARF PATTERN!!!

It’s here! I’ve had this thing done for months, but couldn’t get it converted correctly into a pdf! Thanks to kind people on Ravelry who offered to help me, it’s now ready to go! Click on the “Buy Now” link to download a copy for $6.00 US that will be delivered to you via email.

About the Chinese Luck Dragon Scarf:
This scarf won first place at the 2005 Washington D.C. “Scarf Style Scarf Contest” sponsored by Interweave Knits, to benefit orphans and AIDS victims. It is also the scarf that launched the “Red Scarf Project”, and part of the proceeds of every pattern sale will be donated to The Orphan Foundation of America. It features two layers of texture and color, with i-cord details, and fastens by pulling the tail through the mouth.
Read my original post about this scarf!

Materials:
Lamb’s Pride Worsted, Cascade 220 Wool or
100 grams worsted weight wool 1 full hank each of red (MC) and yellow (CC1), or any 2 contrasting colored worsted weight yarns.
One ball of Crystal Palace Yarns Squiggle (50gr, 100yds) in “Firecracker” (red/yellow/orange print) (CC2)
Needles: US#9, plus two double pointed needles or one circular needle size 7 or 8 for i-cord
crochet hook
tapestry needle
Gauge: 4 st/in (gauge is relatively unimportant for this scarf, as long as you use a worsted weight yarn)
Email any questions about the pattern or problems you encounter to me at wishchick99@yahoo.com
If you are having trouble using the Buy Now button, please click this link to purchase the pattern

Errata:
In the “Scale Pattern” section Row 1 should end “K2”
and Row 3 should end “P1”

My Downstream package!

So, I was silly and didn’t take pictures of the K1T2 package I sent out, and I wish I did, BUT Cindy did!
I’ll outline the contents for you anyway:
2 kinds of locally distributed loose teas from small businesses
-whole leaf white tea with melon and pear
-black tea with vanilla
One bar of local handmade Green Tea soap
One skein of Trecking wool/bamboo sock yarn in neutral grey/green/orange/browns, that coordinates beautifully with the Carnelian stitch markers that I made
6 cherry blossom shaped teacup coasters in maroon
A tea ball for the loose tea
A honey-lemon tea stirrer
And a tin full of tiny Earl Grey Tea shortbread cookies, made by me!

Knit1Tea2 Package!

I had soo much fun with this swap! I got to shop for yarn and tea and make pretty things and talk to very nice other knitters.. all in all a great experience Not to mention the wonderful package I received yesterday! Thank you so much, Jennifer!
So, the goods, I got:

FOUR kinds of organic Green Tea! Lemon Mint, Sencha, “Fog Lifter” green tea, and a Genmai Matcha. I haven’t seen Matcha since I left Japan, so that should be interesting! Also because that one is a genmai matcha, it has toasted brown rice in it. Looks very different from the matcha I’m used to. I’m sure it will be excellent
AND I got a TEA STICK to steep them in! I’m sooo excited about this, I’ve wanted one for a long time now and had never seen it in person. VERY cool invention. Check it out! http://gamilacompany.com/tea/

I got a pack of yummy-looking Chocolate scone mix, a skein of Malabrigo worstead in varigated greens (SO SOFT), a Caribou Coffee car coaster, some cafe mints, and a handknit tea towel and washcloth set! And look! The tea towel has a teapot knit into it and it says TEA at the bottom! How clever! I couldn’t get a good picture of the washcloth, but it has a teacup and says tea as well

And it all came with a nice little note all tight in a tin. Thank you so much Knit and Tea pal! The yarn is so soft it will have to be a hat or neckwarmer..something next to the skin