I’ve been silent for a while. Not because I do not love you, but because my husband and I spent a lovely week away at The Sea Ranch with no internet, no phone, no television (well, not for me – he turned on the TV after I went to bed. Okay, I’ll confess to having watched one hour of TV on a Sunday night – 60 Minutes. Sue me.)

I did a lot of this

We went away, as we often do this time of year, to celebrate our anniversary. It was our 14th. So to celebrate, I brought about 14 knitting projects. I am only half kidding. AND I brought a box of beads. But we’ll save that for another post, or I’ll never get done.

Rocky did a lot of this

So here’s what I worked on while we were away . . . . . As you know, three friends are expecting three babies, so I’ve been knitting a lot of baby stuff. On our way to Sea Ranch we stopped at Balls & Skeins in Sebastopol and I bought baby yarn for two projects – one to be determined, and one for this little bed jacket (yes, another bed jacket – three babies, remember?).

Not taken at the Sea Ranch!

The pattern comes from K2Tog, where I work – or used to work (more on that later) and is something Ellen, the owner of the store, took from an old vintage magazine. I don’t know which one, because all I have is a photocopy of the original pattern. It is a pretty good one – tho I made some changes to the border of the sleeves and bottom. It’s top down and has minimal seaming – just under the arms. I’ll share this pattern here in a future post. The yarn is a Filatura di Crosa’s “Zarina Print,” which I liked a lot.

I also continued to work on the Baby Wrap Sweater  from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. I finished the blue one I was making with Madeline Tosh Sock and Koigu, and began a second one:

Baby Wrap #2

Now, don’t ask me what the colored yarn here is. I can’t remember. I can’t find the tag, which was black. It is a super wash sock yarn I probably bought at Imagiknit. The green is the beautiful “Tenacious” yarn in color “Vivid” from Sincere Sheep, purchased at the trunk show dyer Brooke Sinnes did at K2Tog.

Taffy did a lot of this

You know, we had a whole week, so I took a couple of projects I’ve been putting off working on, either because they involved too much brain power or they were too boring so I’d have to be distracted by the view. Let’s talk about the easy one first. My friends Rachelle and Matt are really excellent, largely self-taught knitters and I love when they come into the store – they are always excited and upbeat about knitting. No whining! A while ago Matt decided he wanted to try and knit himself a tie and I helped him pick out a yarn (Claudia Handpaints Cotton Ball) and said just make a simple stockinette stitch tie, and slip the first stitch of every row so it won’t curl.

Fast forward a few weeks and he comes in with this pretty tie – except its more like a pretty blue tube. He blocked it, he sent it to the cleaners to be blocked – still a tube. I felt bad because this wasn’t cheap yarn and I guided him to it. So I said let me try something. I took it to Sea Ranch, unravelled a corner and began knitting it again on a size 6 needle. After a few inches, I wet blocked it and . . . .

Hope this is flat enough

I suspect Matt was using too small of a needle and was not slipping the first stitch of every row consistently enough.

Now for the hard stuff. At Stitches West this year, I bought the pattern for Lisianthus, a gorgeous shawl by Rosemary Hill. I had just the yarn – a skein of A Verb for Keeping Warm‘s beautiful lace silk yarn. But the pattern wants you to start in the round – not easy if puppies are gonna jump in your lap or the phone might ring. Perfect for figuring out at Sea Ranch.

BITCH BITCH BITCH

WHAT A BITCH THIS LISANTHUS IS!!!! But I got it started . . .

BIGGER BITCH

I also worked a lot on my Fickleknitter/Zen Yarn Garden KAL Mystery Shawl. I cannot overemphasize how great this yarn is. I am really loving the pattern, too. So far there are four clues, or parts. I just finished clue 3 and now am going on to the border.  Buy this yarn and this pattern when they become available. I’ll save pictures for this baby for another post. This one is too long as it is.

Terry did a lot of this