december

It's hard to believe we've reached the final month of the year. Fall flew by way too fast--it was all just a blur, really. From August to late November, work kept me moving at a steady pace. For those of you who don't know, a big of my job is to oversee the production of all the marketing and advertising content that goes into hiring Amazon.com's seasonal workers, so they can pick, pack, and ship all of your holiday orders. As you can imagine, this is quite a feat! We're starting to wind down now, so I'm beginning to shift my focus back to all things knitting. 

Somehow through all the chaos, I've started to combine my love of knitting with my passion for marketing and branding. I released my very first pattern for sale, The Giving Mitts, which was both extremely nerve-wracking and exciting. After dozens of hours fretting over making sure every detail was perfect, pushing the 'publish to Ravelry' button felt exhilarating! The #knitstagram community has been so supportive and it's been so much fun seeing everyone's posts. 

I also sent in two design submissions--a pair of lace socks to The Fibre Co.'s YSP 2 collection, and a worsted-weight cowl to Quince & Co.'s Scarves, etc. 7. The Fibre Co. ended up passing on my design, but I really enjoyed the whole process of coming up with the design concept, knitting a prototype, and branding the submission PDF. Actually, if I'm being honest, while I love the challenge of knitwear design, the best part of a submission is the pattern branding. I have so much fun staging the photos, setting the PDF layouts, choosing the fonts, writing the copy, and sharing glimpses on social media. 

All of this, I hope,  is good practice for down the road. My son graduates high school next year, so the question of  what's next has been a common theme around our home. Lately, we've been obsessively looking at real estate in Maine and are seriously considering a move up North. It would be a dream to move to small, coastal town and provide marketing support to a fiber company. In January, we're thinking about heading Down East to check out some of the small towns we've been researching. We hope that seeing them in winter will provide us with a realistic view of what it might be like to live there. If you have any suggestions on where to look, I'd love to hear them!  

hello, weekend!

Is anyone else out there ready for summer to be over? There were a few mornings this week where I felt that back-to-school, fall-tinge in the air and got really excited. So much so, that I wore two cabled sweaters to work this week, which baffled some of my co-workers. Part of it's because they keep the air conditioning on so high, and part of it's because I'm hoping to wish autumn into existence... 

What's everyone up to this weekend? Now that my Berkeley class is finally over, I plan on knocking out at least four 28-row repeats of lace on my Topiary Wrap. That will bring me up to 10 completed repeats, which means there are 8 more to go before I get to the cast-off side ribbing. This thing is going to be gigantic. I also plan on swatching some of my new Tosh Vintage--there's a new cowl design in my sketchbook and want to see how the speckles look in the stitch pattern. 

Here's a little #knitspiration to get your weekend started:

No. 1 :: I've been wanting to knit Gudrun's Fidra Hat for some time now, and I think pairing the pattern with The Fibre Co.'s Arranmore yarn in Finian might result in the perfect October hat, don't you?

No. 2 :: Hunter Ammersen just released her second collection of shawls in her new book, Curls 2. There are 14 patterns total, all in the most gorgeous stitch combinations. Check out the individual designs here. 

No. 3 :: This time of year puts me in an organizing mood, and these wool Twig & Horn notions pouches, with their cotton muslin lining and bison leather pulls, are a little fancier than the old chocolate tin I'm currently using. Bonus: these would make excellent back-to-school pencil holders. 

No. 4 :: Since I primarily knit with circulars now, my straight needles have all but strangely disappeared. These artisan knitting needles might convince me to start growing my collection again! Hand-carved out of reclaimed apple wood branches, these beauties would look so pretty displayed in a ceramic vase, wouldn't they?

Hope your weekend's filled with lots of coffee and wool....

Photos courtesy of: Kelbourne Woolens, Pantsville Press, Quince & Co., Never Not Knitting

have a great weekend

Summer weekends are slowly coming to a close. The boy went back to school yesterday and it's hard to believe that my little guy is now a 10th grader. In just three short years, he'll be off to school and we'll be empty nesters...it's kind of bizarre to think about. He's starting driver's ed this year, which I'm completely unprepared for--I have a hard time picturing him behind the wheel of a car, especially since I still have to remind him to close the cereal box before putting it back into the pantry. Teenagers. 

What's everyone up to this weekend? I'm so excited because the hubby and I are going to see Barbra Streisand in concert this Saturday! My parents gave me the tickets for my 40th birthday--my Dad and I are huge fans (I know, I have pretty old musical tastes), so the four of us are going to have a fun night on the town in Philadelphia. 

Other than that, I'll be finishing up my test knit for Alicia Plummer's new hat design (it's super cute!) and getting back to work on my Topiary Wrap. Also, I'd like to finally write up the pattern for a pair of socks I designed a while back and put it in my Ravelry shop. I'll be putting out a call for test knitters soon! 

Here's your weekend #knitspiration:

• Jared Flood's book, Woolens finally came out and it looks spectacular. I want to knit everything, starting with this Fair Hills Scarf. Check out the book preview here.  
• The Fringe and Friends Knitalong kicked off this week, and it's fun to watch everyone's progress on Instagram: #fringeandfriendskal2016. If you're interested in learning about top-down sweater construction, Karen has a ton of great tutorials on her blog, including how to incorporate a stitch pattern. 
• The Fibre Co. launched their new Arranmore line of yarn inspired by Ireland's Northern Headlands. Comprised of cashmere, silk, and fine merino, this gorgeous line of tweed yarn comes in 18 colorways. Check out the collection of patterns here. (Carrowkeel by Kate Gagnon Osborn is my favorite of the bunch.) 

Have fun!

The Barnwood Hat

Last weekend, my second attempt at the Barnwood Hat finally came off the needles. The first one that I knit was gigantic because I was too lazy to check gauge, so for this version, I went down to size 5 needles for the ribbing and size 7 for the lace pattern. This one fits much, much better! Lesson learned: always. check. gauge.

The pattern calls for the alternate cable cast on, which I've never done before. Now that I know how to do it, I don't think I'll ever do a long tail cast on a ribbed edge with a long tail cast on ever again! Wooly Wormhead has an easy-to-follow tutorial here. As per the instructions, after casting on my stitches, I worked the first row of the hat flat before joining in the round. The alternate cable cast on gives the hat a nice, stretchy, neatly-ribbed edge. It appears as if there's no cast on at all—as if the 1x1 rib simply manifested. Clever. 

The hat is knit in The Fibre Co.'s Acadia yarn in the Mountain Ash colorway. The fiber's a soft, drapey, DK-weight blend of merino wool, alpaca, and silk. I'm so in love with this yarn. It would be absolutely gorgeous knit into a classic crewneck sweater. The silk noil (the short fiber left over from combing wool or spinning silk) gives the yarn a slight tweed effect, adding to the rustic feel of the hat. It ever-so-slightly camouflages the leaf pattern until the hat is worn. 

It's still a teeny-bit slouchy, but I think that's because my noggin's a bit small at 21". If I were to knit this for myself, I'd probably cast on for the teen version. I'm excited to pack this one up and send it out to someone very special this week!

Visit Ravelry for full project details