Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am!

I told you about my current Ysolda kick in my last post, so you should not be surprised that I have two more items of her design to show off today. The first one is the Icing Swirl Hat from the Whimsical Little Knits collection. It's made with chunky yarn, so it only took me a few hours of knitting and then I had a fun little hat to wear. I am so ready for Fall, it's not even funny.


My second item is actually a repeat of Ishbel, also from the Whimsical Little Knits collection. I consider her to be the sister of my first as it was done in the same yarn, but a different colorway. I think of her as the bolder, younger sister who is always getting into trouble. Not that I actually know a person like that...


While I was knitting these projects, I tried to think about why I like Ysolda's patterns so much and I came up with a few thoughts: (1) the designs are beautiful; (2) the knitting is challenging enough to be fun but not so complicated that you can't hold a conversation; (3) the patterns are logical and easy to follow. All of these things add up to give the most important quality of a great pattern, something that is as fun to wear as it is to knit. And that is exactly why I will be knitting more of Ysolda's patterns.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Greens

In addition to your normal knitting content, I've decided to start a little photography project on my blog. Partly because I'm trying to improve my photography skills and partly to focus on the things I have instead of the things I think I need.

The idea behind 'My Favorite Greens' is to photograph things I own that I truly love. Since most of these items are in my favorite color, green, I decided to use this color as my theme. So for the next few months, look for a mid-week photo and description of one of my favorite greens.

A New Trend

If you have been paying attention to my very few knitting projects this summer, you may see a trend developing. I'll give you a clue. Since June, the only three knitting projects I've worked on are a Vivian cardigan, an Ishbel shawlette, and a Damson shawlette. The correlation between these three patterns? They were all designed by Ysolda Teague.


You could say that I am now firmly on the Ysolda bandwagon. Since seeing her lovely work in person (and meeting the designer herself) at a trunk show in June, I've come to realize all of the great patterns she's done. So when she announced the publication of her second pattern booklet, Whimsical Little Knits 2, I jumped to buy it. She's releasing the patterns one at a time, with a new pattern available for download each week. The first week was Damson and this week's pattern was Veyla:


Needless to say, Veyla was a relatively quick knit. I worked it up in Knit Picks Shimmer in the Cummulus colorway, with the laceweight held double to approximate a fingering weight. Between the alpaca-silk yarn and all of the wonderful little details of the pattern (from the cuff edging to the little leaf detail on the back of the hand), these mitts are divine. The special finishing touch was using mismatched buttons from my late great-aunt's vintage button collection. I can already tell that these mitts are going to be a favorite of mine!


So there is another Ysolda pattern checked off the list. I still have to finish the Vivian cardigan, hopefully before it gets too cold, and I actually just cast on another Ishbel this week (the one I was thinking to make on my vacation). As these patterns represent just a few of Ysolda's beautiful designs, I don't expect this new knitting trend to end anytime soon.

And The Winner Is...

...Damson, by a landslide. I did not work on anything else during my National Parks trip, other than this wonderful little shawl. I cast on as we headed West, knit it by our evening campfires, and finished it just as we got back into my home state of Wisconsin. And I am so in love with the results:


I bought the yarn from handdyer Knitting Notions during last year's Wisconsin Sheep & Wool and was so in love with the color that I have been saving it for something special. When Ysolda came out with her latest shawlette pattern on the day before I left for vacation, I knew right away that I had finally found the project for this green yarn. This is one of those projects that I adore so much that, once it is done blocking, I cannot take off for at least a week.


I should say that it was not a completely smooth ride to get to this point. I was within 5 rows of finishing with the pattern as-written, when I realized that I probably did not have enough yarn to make it to the end. After thinking about all of the possible solutions to this problem, I ended up frogging the lace section and reknitting it to save yarn. Here are my notes if you want to reproduce what I did:

- Omit the last 4 rows of garter stitch.
- Remove 2 stitches from every row of each lace repeat, one on either side of the double decrease. This means that you will knit 2 less rows in the lace section.
- Fudge the double yo border row. I think I knit 2 st instead of 4 st before starting the yo pattern and everything worked out fine.
- Work everything else as written, with the exception of omitting the stitches in the lace repeat.

FYI, the tag on this skein said it had 420 yards while the pattern calls for a 440 yard skein. I was working with the recommended size 6 needles, though I don't know how my gauge compares. I'm really not sure why the yardage was such a big issue but I will probably not be the only one with this problem, so I thought I would share my notes.


Besides the little hiccup with the yardage, the project went very smoothly. It was really nice to have something to knit in the evenings, mostly because I wanted to sit down and give my tired feet a rest! The trip itself was wonderful; husband and I went on several awesome hikes, enjoyed high tea in Canada, and took over 600 pictures! As promised in my last post, I'm sharing some of the best ones with you:

A double rainbow over Badlands National Park

A panoramic view of the Badlands

St. Mary's Lake in Glacier National Park

A mountain goat in Glacier Park

Left to right: Grinell Lake, Grinell Falls, and Grinell Glacier

A bighorn sheep on our hike up to Grinell Glacier

The sunset over Glacier Park on our final night

Vacation Crafts

I'm spending the week in Montana at Glacier National Park, but all you get is this post on the crafts I took with me. I promise there will be beautiful pictures when I get back!


My main project for the road is a cross-stitch portrait, done in three shades of gray. I'm not going to tell you whose potrait I am stitching until I at least get the face done, but I will give you a clue that is a Nobel Laureate. You may now call me a geek.


I've also packed a knitting project because I always take a knitting on the road, ever since I discovered that I could knit in the car without getting carsick. Socks or a sweater are usually a good choice for this, but I'm going to make another Ishbel. I really enjoyed knitting the first one and absolutely love wearing the finished product around the house. I just hope that this new one won't permanently smell like campfire.

Last-minute edit: Ysolda just came out with a new shawlette, Damson, which is just beautiful. I'm throwing another skein of sock yarn in my bag and will make up my mind about which to knit first when I'm on the road.

Change Of A[d]Dress

I'm blogging a little earlier in the week than normal because I leave for vacation tomorrow. Husband and I are road-tripping out to Glacier National Park, via Badlands National Park, to spend some time in the great outdoors and celebrate husband completing grad school. I've got a post lined up for when I am gone describing my vacation project (because I simply cannot go on vacation without bringing my crafts with me). But in the meantime, I've got another dress to show off:


I'm really on a roll with these shirred dresses! Probably because you can whip one up in a couple hours, with minimal cutting and fussing, and you only need one and a half yards of fabric. I made this one a little longer than the first and added a slit along the back seam to give my legs more room than the 45 inches dictated by the fabric. Between how easy it was to make and the bold print, I'm really smitten with it!

Ishbel

I'm proud to show off my first knitted FO of the summer!


It wasn't until sitting down to write this post that I realized the last time I finished a knitted item was May! For all of the crafting I've done and creative ideas I've had this summer, hardly any of it was knitting. And as much as I love embroidery, needle felting, and sewing, it still feels nice to knit.


Part of the drive towards completion was due to the great pattern, Ishbel. Not too simple, not too large, interesting and beautiful enough to keep my attention during these warm summer months. Done in kettle-dyed Araucania Ranco Solid in mauve, the resulting scarf is really lovely. If it wasn't 90 degrees outside, I would consider wearing it all week.


I hope that you enjoyed this little knitted item, because next up on this list is cross-stitch then sewing! I'll be back next week to show off what I'm working on, even if it is not on my usual type of needles.