Friday, June 30, 2006

MOUNTAIN STREAM SCARF



This lace scarf is knit using techniques from traditional Orenberg shawls. It is a small but challenging project and a nice introduction to the Orenberg construction.



TECHNIQUES USED
    Provisional cast-on
    Short rows
    Grafting
    Charts
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS

Width: 11 inches (after blocking) Length: 50 inches (after blocking)

YARN & NEEDLES
  • 1 skein, Rowan Kidsilk Haze (You will come extremely close to running out of yarn. If that makes you nervous, or if you'd like a longer scarf, purchase two skeins of Kidsilk Haze.)
  • Size 6 US needles.
The cost of the pattern is $6.50 and all payments must be made through PayPal. To purchase the pattern, simply click the link below:


Once you make your payment, you will receive instructions on how to download the pattern. These instructions will be sent to the email address you used to make the PayPal payment so please check that account. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file. If you do not have the reader, you can download it
here.


Please do not violate my copyright! This pattern is for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not reproduce the pattern for distribution, sale, or any other purpose. Finished items made from this pattern may not be sold.

All pictures, patterns, text and content on this page are the sole property of Susan Pierce Lawrence ©2006. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website is strictly prohibited.





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Thursday, June 29, 2006

Get It While You Can

I stopped off at Spinderella's on my way home from work and picked up my order of thrums. She's nearly out of both colorways I ordered so act fast before it's gone.

Mountain Spruces:

Picture 127

Picture 126

Soothing Gardens:

Picture 130

Picture 129

Worthy Cause


Michaela is organizing a fund-raising effort for Emma's son, Oliver. Details are on Kerrie's blog and I've shamelessly lifted them verbatim here:

The lovely Michaela who makes so many wonderful wacky things for Hipknits came up with a great fundraising idea to raise some extra funds for Emma and Oliver's Fund.

Her idea is to get as many knitters as possible to donate a skein (or more) of yarn from their stash that we can put together and auction as a whole stash on ebay. The only stipulation is that the yarn must be new with ball band. I offered to collect the yarns for her so that she didn't have to give out her address to the whole internet. The first deadline for sending in donations is the end of July but if this is popular I'm sure that she may well do it again. Please send anything that you'd like to donate to the following address :


Oliver's Fund
c/o HipKnits
G25 Allen House
Station Road
Sawbridgeworth
Herts
CM21 9JX
UK


Michaela will be gathering all the donations together and sorting them out into mini stashes to auction. She is going to keep the auctions small enough (just under 2 kilos) so that they can be posted internationally. I know that Michaela has been contacting some of the big yarn companies about donating yarn so there will be lots and lots of goodies to bid on - how exciting!

Knitters are such generous people, I'm sure that you'll all be able to dig into your stash and find at least 1 ball of yarn that deserves a new home. Thanks so much in advance!



I'll be sending a couple of skeins from my stash to Kerrie for the auction.
Perhaps you have something that you can part with for a good cause.


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NANTASKET BASKET



The Nantasket Basket is a small felted basket with a unique handle and a circular base. The bottom features a sturdy, cleverly knit edge that allows the basket to stand upright.

Instructions are provided for two versions.

Version I has plain sides:


Version II uses a slip-stitch pattern to mimic the look of wicker.



Each version requires two, 100g skeins of a worsted-weight 100% wool yarn (approximately 220-250 yards per skein) that felts easily. Good choices are Nature Spun Worsted, Cascade 220, Plymouth Galway, or Dale of Norway Heilo. Both have a finished size of approximately 4.5 inches tall and 6.5 inches around the base.

The cost of the pattern is $5.50 and all payments must be made through PayPal. To purchase the pattern, simply click the link below:




Once you make your payment, you will receive instructions on how to download the pattern. These instructions will be sent to the email address you used to make the PayPal payment so please check that account. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file. If you do not have the reader, you can download it here.


Please do not violate my copyright! This pattern is for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not reproduce the pattern for distribution, sale, or any other purpose. Finished items made from this pattern may not be sold.

All pictures, patterns, text and content on this page are the sole property of Susan Pierce Lawrence ©2005. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website is strictly prohibited.






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Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Wait, Is That Really An FO?

Here's something you haven't seen for a while on this blog . . . an FO.

Remember that uber-cheap 100% linen yarn I got during the Ogden yarn crawl:

Picture 122

Well, I put this to good use on it:

Picture 121

And came up with this:

Picture 123

Yes, it's crocheted and, yes, it's fabulous. I used to own a bunch of these bags that I brought with me to the grocery store but one-by-one I misplaced them. When I discovered the $1.00-a-ball linen yarn, I got my heart set on making a replacement. I decided to search for a crochet pattern since I knew it would be a hell of a lot faster to crochet it than to knit it. Thanks to Crochet Pattern Central, I found the perfect pattern here.

I made the smaller version and it's not quite as large as the one described in the pattern, but it's plenty big. Here's what the bag looked like with the contents next to it:

Picture 124

Kinda unbelievable that it could stretch enough to accommodate all that yarn, but it does and without any problem.

Thanks, Natalie, for a great pattern.


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Monday, June 26, 2006

Saturday Sky - Two Days Late

I was sifting through the photos of Saturday's Bat Mitzvah blow out and discovered a wonderful photo of the Saturday evening sky in SLC. So, Sandy, here you go -- two days late.

Picture 014

Thanks to everyone who left me comments or sent emails about the Bat Mitzvah. The service and the evening party went off without a hitch. Well, until the DJ tripped a circuit breaker during the party, throwing the room into darkness and abruptly silencing the music. But, calmer heads than mine prevailed and the outage was short-lived. L'Chaim!!

Break Out Your Wallets


Spinderella (a/k/a Lynn Snell) just added some new thrums to her web site. I learned to spin on her thrums and can testify that they're perfect for beginners and fun for more advanced spinners, too. You certainly end up with an interesting, one-of-a-kind yarn.


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Saturday, June 24, 2006

Sandy's Saturday Sky

Sandy has come up with the wonderful idea of posting a photo of your sky on your blog every Saturday.



Snag her button and get out the camera.


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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

M is for . . .

M&Ms

But not just any M&Ms; personalized M&Ms:



Remember these? Well, the time has finally come to serve them up!

If I make it through this weekend (especially the evening party to which 100 teenagers have RSVP’d) it will be a Miracle.

Mazel Tov to the Bat Mitzvah!



(And, yes, that's one big-ass print.)


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Monday, June 19, 2006

Deal of the Century

The fiber excursion to Ogden began exactly as planned. The group met up at my house and we piled into Katherine’s minivan for the 40-minute ride. We arrived at Knit Craft Studio just shy of 11:00 and were greeted by this:



Closer inspection revealed that the shop didn’t open 'til 11:00.
Phew, dodged that bullet.
Since there appeared to be no sign of life, we walked a couple of blocks to the Ben Lomond Hotel to use their “facilities.” We returned shortly after 11:00 to discover conflicting "Closed" and "Open" signs but still no signs of life.

Hello . . . anyone home:



Not to be deterred by ambiguous signage, we took the opportunity for a group shot in front of the shop. From left to right you've got Teri, Katherine, Camille, Eliza, and Kaitlyn.



After the photo op, we left a bitchy polite note on the door asking to please be called on our cell phone when the shop opened.

Undaunted, we moved on to Stop #2 - The Needlepoint Joint. And what to our wondering eye did appear? How about a sign informing us that the $1.00 skeins of clearance yarn could be found at the back of the store. Come again; did you say $1.00 yarn?? We approached the back of the store cautiously, expecting to be confronted with mounds of acrylic. Oh contraire. I scored some Noro and some Lang 100% linen yarn for the obscene total of $7.00.
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The employees, sensing an opportunity to unload all their sale yarn in one, 30-minute feeding frenzy, then brought out the big guns. Crates of assorted Adrienne Vittadini yarns at the equally ridiculous price of $2.00 a skein. Teri has a nice photo of the bounty on her blog.

I restrained myself but picked up 10 skeins of Marissa for a sweater.



And lest you think I only bought sale yarns, I also got Sheila McGregor’s wonderful book on Scandanavian knitting, a huge hank of laceweight merino (that didn't want to be photographed) in a pretty blush color, and three Shetland shawl patterns.



Two of the patterns are ones I’ve been coveting since I saw Polly’s post about Gladys Amedro's Shetland lace book. Who knew they could be found just 60 miles from home!

After The Needlepoint Joint, we had a lovely lunch at Roosters. While dining, we received the long-awaited call that Knit Craft Studio was, indeed, open for business. I neglected to take any photos of the interior of the building but Eliza and Teri both captured the essence of the place perfectly so check out their posts.

The final haul:

Picture 005

Katherine photographing the final haul (that's a deep trunk, ladies):

Picture 006

No blog post can do the day justice; especially the somewhat raucous lunch.
Thanks for a great time, grrls!!


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Friday, June 16, 2006

Estes Widows

UnForseen circumstances intervened to foil my plan to attend the Estes Park Wool Market this weekend. But others were able to travel from the far corners of the country to attend. Recognize anyone?



That's Birdsong on the left and Carole on the right. And you all know Margene and Mr. Margene in the center. We had a wonderful dinner last night at my favorite local restaurant. I have to say, maybe personalities really do bleed through correctly on blogs because both Carole and Birdsong were exactly as I imagined they'd be. We had a bit of fun at Carole's expense, mocking her Boston accent. She was a good sport about it and, hey, I've been mocked for the same accent many times in my life.
Have a great time at Estes, grrls.

The other Estes Widows and I have planned a shorter, one-day excursion to Ogden on Saturday. Unless the farmer's market looks promising, we're heading straight to Knit Craft Studio (a/k/a Haunted House of Knitting Horrors), then Roosters for lunch (yum), and capping everything off with a visit to The Needlepoint Joint. If anyone in Odgen wants to meet up at any time Saturday, send me an email. You'll know who we are because we'll be wearing these uber-fantabulous t-shirts:






Amazing, huh! They are the creation of the oft-imitated-but-never-duplicated Katherine Of It All. Can you tell that I love Katherine to death. I so want to be her when I grow up. Anyway, I can't begin to describe how amazing this shirt is. But, trust me, it's waaaaaaay amazing. Click on the link to Katherine's blog (I command you to click on the link) and see how she created the shirts, starting with a hand-carved linoleum block. You'll have to scroll back to the June 10th post to see the beginning of the process.

Every knitter needs one of these shirts so beg and plead with Katherine to make more.


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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Wired

Someone sent me an email the other day asking if I was still knitting. The short answer is "yes"; the longer answer is that the things I'm knitting are secrets that I can't show on my blog yet.

I do have one recent FO, however, that's not a secret:



When I was purchasing some joke crochet booklets for Michaele's birthday gift, I happened upon a fairly decent booklet that described how to crochet with wire. Well, I can't let the crocheters have all the fun now, can I. But, to be perfectly honest, I didn't knit or crochet the bracelet. I used this instead:



What a flashback to your youth, huh.


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Sunday, June 11, 2006

Pimp My Dyes

I was kept busy this weekend filling some special-order dye jobs.

For Margene, the as-yet unnamed colorway from last week that I most certainly will be repeating again:



For Holly, a huge hank of Stormy Seas:




And, last but not least, for Sibylle, some 50/50 merino/silk laceweight that I may not be able to bring myself to part with:



Look at that sheen! And the colors just scream sunshine.



Excuse me while I go dye up some more of this.

See something you like?? Email me and I'll let you know if I will be dyeing more of that colorway some time soon.


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Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Dyed and Gone to Cara

In case you’ve been living under a knit-blogger’s rock, you know that Cara has organized a Spin-Out for Central Park on June 24th. She’s also coordinating a donation drive for Heifer International. I won't repeat everything Cara has already eloquently said, so just hop over to this site in which she explains it all. I would, however, like to emphasize that there will be prizes, uber-fantastic prizes, for those who donate to Heifer using the Registry Cara has set up.

I can't make it to the Spin-Out (unfortunately, DD expects me to attend her Bat Mitzvah that day) but I promised Cara I’d donate some hand-dyed roving so I broke out the dyepot to create the perfect colorway for the event.

Voila:



And, in case you were wondering what it will look like spun up, I just might have kept a little for myself:


Not content to stop at roving, I added some yarn to the dyepot. On the top is a 100% merino superwash yarn and the bottom is a wool/nylon sock yarn. I find it so interesting that I got such different results using the exact same concentration of dye.


And, what's this??


Who knew you could use your kitchen for something other than dyeing fiber.


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Sunday, June 04, 2006

Guess Who

Bloggers taking photos of bloggers taking photos:



Any guesses as to who's on the other side of that chicken?


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Saturday, June 03, 2006

The Weekend

As usual, I’m late to the keyboard and Margene has already fully documented some of the frivolity of this past weekend. But here’s my spin on the activities.

Saturday


On Saturday, Margene and I drove to the hinterlands Teri’s house for a wool-dyeing extravaganza. I brought my camera but neglected to take a single photo so you’ll have to visit the blogs of my sister witches cohorts to see "the process."

Using nothing more than Kool Aid, wool, and our unmanicured hands, we managed to dye eight skeins of yarn in about 6 hours. Well, that includes a break for lunch. Teri instructed us in the proper method to obtain the perfect skein of her signature "Blood Orange" colorway. And Margene kept us entertained with her potty mouth.

The end result was eight skeins of luscious yarn, five of which you can see in this photo Margene took.




Monday


I actually have some of my own photos from Monday’s adventure which, for me, was really an adventure since I have . . . er . . . a bit of an aversion to . . . nature.

I think you can figure out the activity from this little photo essay.









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Running commentary on my unending quest to knit up my stash.