i am a butterfly…

Posts Tagged ‘noro’

My day 3 post for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, and I’m amazed that I’m still going! A post every day for three days? It’s a miracle.

Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way. TAGGING CODE: knitcroblo3

This is an easy answer for me: Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. His work almost always makes me swoon. Whether it’s one of his own designs or a classic pattern that he knit with his own style, I just love everything he produces. From his yarn choices, to his color choices, to his photography… I love it all. Even better, he designs so many great patterns for men, which is hard to find most of the time.

Several of my favorite knitted pieces are Jared Flood designs. My favorite, to date, is the Noro Striped Scarf:

I loved this so much I knit two of them, one for Scott and one for me. It was only because I ran out of Noro that I stopped knitting at two. I plan to knit more of them in different colorways.

Two of my favorite hats are also Jared Flood designs:

The blue one is Habitat, knit for Scott. The pink and brown one is Koolhaas, knit for me. I haven’t worn mine anywhere yet except out to play in the snow in the park, but Scott gets so many compliments on his Habitat. I plan to knit at least two more of those, one each for me and Scott, both in Noro. Koolhaas is another pattern I plan to knit again, also in Noro.

I’m normally all about new. It’s a rare book or movie that makes me want to read or see it more than once, and I feel the same way about knitting patterns. The fact that I want to knit these patterns again says a lot about them and about their designer. And these three are just the beginning. There are so many more of his patterns I want to try, including the ones in his book, Made In Brooklyn. Without a doubt, he’s my choice for “one great knitter.”

Because I don’t want the front page to be without a photo. Here’s a preview of the Colorado Mitts, which have been done for a while and I just need to get around to photographing them.

And I know I’ve shown them at this particular stage before, but blue! Wood! Pretty!

These were meant to be started on the flight to Denver, but I was so tired for most of the trip that I didn’t cast on for the first one until we were settled in Lyons for a couple of days. The knitting is going really quickly and I’m deeply in love with the cables. Which I know you can’t see here, since this is only about 4 rows into the knitting.

Pattern: Lady Eleanor, from Scarf Style
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden #268

I started this project in October 2007 and finished it last weekend. The knitting was actually done for some time, but it took me a while to get around to the fringe.

I love this pattern. I love this scarf/stole. She’s stunningly beautiful, and I can’t even believe that I knit this wonder. The pattern is deceptively simple, but completing this project made me feel like a Knitter, with a capital ‘K.’

One very valuable lesson learned after knitting this: I can use my washer to soak and spin large knitting projects without damaging them. I wasn’t looking forward to squeezing out the water by hand after soaking something this big. I was trepidatious going into it, but the washer worked perfectly. No agitation or rinsing. Just a soak – with Soak – and a short spin cycle. It came out practically dry and completely unharmed.

I know a lot of people who knit this stole skipped the knotted fringe, but I like the little delicacy that it adds. And since it’s imperfectly knotted with such a rustic looking yarn, it balances out the stole quite well.

Lizard Ridge
Originally uploaded by kendiala.

The seaming has begun. It’s actually not as bad as I thought it would be. So far, I have two 3 block strips sewn.

I’ve been meaning to knit Calorimetry for a long time now, and I finally got around to it last weekend. Please ignore my needs-to-be-colored grey hair in these photos.

It was a really quick and easy knit, both times I knit it. Both, you’re asking yourself? Yes. I knit it twice, because the first time, it was way too wide and stuck off the back of my head a ridiculous amount. So I frogged that one and re-knit, casting on 8 fewer stitches and doing only 5 repeats of row 5 instead of 15.

The result is a much better fitting Calorimetry, but it’s still not perfect. I discovered while modelling it for these photos that it’s still way too long. Rather than re-knit, I tried buttoning it on the third hole, rather than the first. That was perfect.

All in all, I really love this pattern. I knit it in just a few hours, each time, and it’s so easy. I love the concept of it, too, because I like to wear my hair up often and can’t when I have to wear a hat, so it’s perfect. I’ll definitely be knitting a second one, but this time I plan to cast on 92 stitches instead of the 120 the pattern says.

But I’ve been knitting. Really.

• I finished my last Lizard Ridge block a few days ago, and I’m about half done with weaving in ends. I decided to use Cascade 220 in colorway #8892 for the seaming and crochet edging, and I just now placed an order with WEBS for the yarn. Once I’m done with the ends, I’ll steam block everything and, hopefully, I’ll have the Cascade 220 by then and I can start seaming. I’m so excited to snuggle under this completed blanket.
• Lady Eleanor has been washed and blocked, and I finished weaving in ends this afternoon. All that’s left is the fringe, which I WILL complete tomorrow.
• The Stirrup Socks have been on hold, because I got it in my head to finish up Lizard Ridge and I’ve really been pushing on that. I’m mostly done with sock #1 and should complete it over the weekend. I like to immediately start on sock #2 when I finish a first sock, to avoid Second Sock Syndrome, so hopefully I’ll have plenty of progress on sock #2 by Monday night.

I’m trying to decide what my next project will be, because having only socks on the needles isn’t enough. I may start on Calorimetry. Or maybe a Juneau Fair Isle Hat. If I knit that the Juneau hat, I don’t plan to do the fair isle pattern. I plan to use Kureyon and use Cascade 220 that will be left over from Lizard Ridge for the applied i-cord edging. I ordered 2 skeins of Cascade 220, which is more than sufficient for Lizard Ridge, so I’ll have plenty left over.

And photos! I’ll have photos soon!