For those of you who have been missing me, I’m also blogging for Urban Yarns now, so if you need a little extra Gourmet Crafter fix, you can check out www.urbanyarnsblog.com for more from me.

I’m hoping to show you my first couple of finished projects soon!

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I know a lot of things about knitting. Not everything (that’s for sure!) but a lot of things. One of the things I usually know is how much yardage I need to make something. How do I know this you ask? Because it says on the pattern. It says it right on the pattern. This is how much yardage you will need to complete this project. Even though I know this, I did not listen last weekend. Ignoring this information has not ended well. I am not impressed with my attempt and I deserve to have wasted the time it took to knit this shawl that is too small, even for a scarf. Lame.

While I mostly blame myself, I also kind of blame Madelintosh. It’s partially their fault for making such beautiful and alluring yarn. I was at the yarn shop and I spotted the beautiful Madelintosh down low. I didn’t even know it was going to be there! It caught me completely off guard. There was a beautiful red, golden yellow, and the one that caught my eye was (of course) a greeny blue. I picked it up, petted it a bit, and then asked the all important question: is there another skein of this? The answer was no. I knew what I wanted to make, a lacy scarf for my Aunty. I even went to the yarn store with a mission! I also knew that one skein of dk weight yarn was not enough. Not even close. So, with reckless disregard for the rules of knitting, I purchased the beautiful skein of yarn.

I went home and cast on for my second Shetland Triangle. I was happily knitting for a few hours when I noticed my yarn getting a little low. I ignored this fact and went to bed, sure that there would be enough yarn to complete it tomorrow. There was not. There IS not. Finally I had to give in to the truth: there is not enough yarn here to complete my project. I sulked for a bit but now I’ve chosen a new pattern. This pattern calls for the amount of yarn that I have. A novel idea! Don’t let this happen to you.

There is much news in the land of Gourmet Crafter Yarn! There are 2 new weights to add to the family: Worsted and Cashmere. There’s also a new way to purchase Gourmet Crafter Yarn: Etsy! I’ve finally got my Etsy store up and running with yarns for sale. If you haven’t checked out GC yarn yet, it’s time.

Hastings Graffiti

Gourmet Sock:

80% superwash merino/ 10% cashmere/ 10% nylon

28 stitches per 4 inches

380 yards per 115g skein

Recommended needle size: US 1-3

This yarn is perfect for a nice pair of socks or a small shawl.

Robin's Egg

Gourmet Worsted:

80% superwash merino/ 10% cashmere/ 10% nylon

18 stitches per 4 inches

200 yards per 115g skein

Recommended needle size: US 8

Tofino Fern

Gourmet Cashmere

100% cashmere

22 stitches per 4 inches

180 yards per 50g skein

Recommended needle size: US 4-6

These are just a few of the colourways available. For more info click here.

To visit my Etsy shop click here.

Well, I haven’t had as much knitting time as I would like lately but I have managed to finish a few items of interest! One of the great things about starting 4 lace shawls at once is the great feeling of accomplishment when you cast them all off in the same week! I got to wear a different beautiful, colourful, lacy scarf almost every day this week!

The first 3 were in the sumptuous Cashsilk Lace from SweetGeorgia. The yarn was a dream to work with and as I finished the scarves I started to get a real obsession going. I am imagining a little basket full of lacy scarves in all of the beautiful Cashsilk colours…..the pocketbook may never allow such a thing, but a spoiled knitter can dream can’t she?!

The first item up is my beautiful Sunflower. I have been itching to knit one of Emily’s patterns for what seems like FOREVER and I finally got to it with her beautiful Sunflower Shawl. Call me unimaginative but I felt this pattern would only be true in yellow and of course, SweetGeorgia does an awesome yellow called Saffron. The pattern was very easy to follow and clearly laid out. Well done Ems! I got 3 repeats of the seed pattern and 1 repeat of the leaf pattern plus transitions and edging charts.

The next shawl I undertook was the Shetland Triangle by Evelyn Clark. I am completely smitten with this pattern! It was easy to memorize the pattern and I really like the finished product. The way the pinecones are shaped give it almost a circular look, just beautiful. It’s in the ever lovely Riptide colourway that I am slowly knitting into my life.

Next up is my pretty pink Ishbel shawl in a sock weight. I wanted something pink on the advice of Kathleen at UY and I went with Casbah because it is such a soft sock yarn. The pattern is by Ysolda Teague, whose work I have recently become acquainted with, and I really like the finished product. It might just be me but I had a hard time figuring out how the lace was working, how things were shifting and lining up. It didn’t make the shawl impossible, it just meant I had to consult the pattern more often than I like.

Last is my Ginger coloured Brandywine shawl. I have finished this baby but I haven’t taken any updated photos. This shawl started out quite difficult but it got a lot easier as it went. It was knitted from tip out, instead of from the middle of the top like the other ones. The bottom was a tough chart but I focused on the ferry so not a big deal. Love the colour and the squishy garter stitch in the middle. I was pretty satisfied over all.

Next up: I have a Traveling Woman and a Photosynthesis on the go!

That’s right. I have taken on the most daunting task of organizing the stash. I want to knit up what I’ve got for the next little while (off to a bad start though, don’t want to talk about it). My lovely mother came over last weekend and I hauled yarn out of every nook and cranny in the house. It was really coming out of the wood works though! There were a couple of bins in the bedroom closet, some piles in the living room, in jars on a shelf, in baskets, in boxes, I had it strewn all over the living room! It was like a heavenly nightmare. The yarn was piled high and then I found the bag.

The bag was full of acrylic yarn from way way back. It’s in kind of earthy colours and squeaks when you knit it. Seeing that yarn again brought back memories of my first knits. They were blankets composed of wide strips of different stitches with seed stitch around the borders. I would find a stitch I liked from my 99 Knit Stitches book (possible circa 1970) and then do a little math, add a border and knit away. I had some plastic double points with elastic bands on the ends from my mumsy and I would knit about half of one, then start 2 more (4 double points means you can work on 3 strips at a time, I was a multi-project knitter right from the start). I made these blankets over 6 feet long for my tall dad and brothers. They were monstrosities but they are still around. There are 3 of these babies at my parents house. They have been washed a couple of times and they still look the same as the day I knit them.

I digress of course. I organized my yarn in a couple of different ways. Each stash is unique and if you decide to organize your own you will almost certainly have different categories, but here are the ones I went with:

Large Bin 1: Worsted (mostly Malabrigo, I have some projects in mind for that)

Large Bin 2: Cascade

Large Bin 3: Odds and sods. These are the ends or 1/2 balls left over from various projects. I haven’t quite decided what to do with these ones. Perhaps a pom-pom project of sorts?

Large Bin 4: Cottons. I don’t think this really counts as a whole large bin because it contains 2 blankets that are stitches away from being finished. I suppose it does count until I ACTUALLY finish them.

Small Bin 1: Blue Sky Alpacas, everything except the sport and melange

Small Bin 2: Blue Sky Alpacas sport and melange. Lots of colourwork means lots of leftovers!

Small Bin 3: Sweet Sweet Georgia (Emily saw this bin and commented on what a spoiled knitter I am, she is right of course)

Small Bin 4: Sock yarn! I am loving this bin right now. One of my favorite things about sock yarn is that there are so many things you can do with one skein. I am just plotting my return to socks after my Christmas sock blitz.

All it took was a couple of days and a trip to Ikea but I am ready for anything the knitting world might bring!

Here is my latest design: the Pinecone Cowl. I have been a bit obsessed with lace lately and I thought I would like to design a bit of lace for myself. While I’m not ready to tackle a full shawl (soon, but not yet) I returned to a format I love: the cowl. I love knitting cowls for so many reasons. They are a great small project amid my sweaters, blankets, fair isle, and other larger projects. Cowls are also a great way to try out a yarn.

A sweater is a big yarn comittment. You are going to be spending some serious time and energy with that yarn both while knitting and while wearing it. Cowls are small and you can get a good feel for a yarn. Working a small project of any kind is not a bad way to get to know a yarn.

This pattern is knit in the round so there are only 2 little ends to weave in! After working on (but not finishing) 2 fair isle sweaters I can really appreciate minimal finishing required. The yarn, Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino, is an absolute dream! I picked up this skein from the good people at BSA as a little thanks for my free pattern they recently featured. This colourway is called dusk and I found it quite charming. Almost a mushroomy brown.

The lace pattern is inspired by the shape of the mighty pinecone. Although this cowl is a little lacy there is still more than enough warmth for those chilly Spring evenings.

To puchase this pattern for $5 you can get instant gratification through Ravelry here

or you can purchase it through paypal here and a PDF of the pattern will be emailed to you shortly.

The lovely people at Blue Sky Alpacas have chosen my free placemat pattern as their staff pick for the month of March! When I found this out a few weeks ago I immediately told my husband that I was kind of a big deal on the internet. He thought that was pretty funny. I thought I would use this moment to recap some great BSA patterns and projects I’ve done. For more on this pattern you can check it out here.

First up are the placemats. They are a VERY quick knit since they use a worsted weight cotton held doubled on 8mm needles.  I used the colours Ladybug, Dandelion, Wasabi, and Pumpkin. They were fun and kind of Springy. They remind me of when I first started kntting and I would make blankets out of sampler strips. A different stitch for each one to make them ecclectic.

Next is the ever popular Antler Mittens. These are knit with my latest favorite yarn, BSA Worsted Hand Dyes. They are soooooo soft, a 16 stitch gauge, and they have very subtle colour variations. So beautiful to knit with and as a finished product.

I’ve also knit up a 2×2 cable scarf in the bulky. This scarf was originally knit in a thinner yarn on smaller needles but on the larger scale I quite like how it stands up straight. Plus, any excuse to use big fat buttons must be taken!

Last but not least are my two fair isle mitten: Birds Nest and Maple Leaf. These are knit with BSA Sport and Melange and the Birds Nest mittens are lined with the sumptious brushed suri. I knit the Canada mittens a couple of times, a pair for Mom for the Olympics and my pair resides at Urban Yarns.

Thus concludes my adventures with Blue Sky Alpacas but I’m working on a little somthing with the Suri Merino right now, I’ll let you know about it shortly!

Well, the Olympics are over (it’s been a week, when does the sadness go away?) and my sweater is still not done. While I do feel like a bit of a failure I have had lots of reassurances that it was a really hard project and I’ve done well. This tells me I have surrounded myself with nice people who had more reasonable expectations of how much they could knit in 2 weeks and a couple of days. Anyway, I’m over it and I moved on to a couple of new projects in the beautiful Cashsilk Lace from SweetGeorgia. I spent the weekend taking serious advantage of Emily’s lace expertise.

Brandywine

and Sunflower

They sound like hippy children kind of.They are coming together beautifully! I’m on a mission to master the world of lace this summer in an effort to knit all of the amazing lace and sock yarn I seem to have accrued. My hubby is out of town next weekend and it is time to reassess the stash. It could get ugly!

I have complete Olympic fever. I spent yesterday wandering around the crowded streets of Vancouver and it was amazing. The energy in town is infectious and the torch/cauldron was inspirational. I spent the day today cheering on our Canadian women’s hockey team at UBC’s Thunderbird. I even knit up a pair of Maple Leaf Mittens for mumsy to show her pride! (you can see them in this pic, very tiny).

I’m also working away on the Dude sweater for the Knitting Olympics. The sweater is  a tribute to the sweater in the movie The Big Lebowski. I so enjoyed drinking White Russians and watching that movie with my cousins in Winnipeg this past summer that I really just had to knit it. It is unfortunately all done in a 1×1 rib so that’s a bit time consuming but I still love the pattern. Very clearly written and well charted. I’m knitting the large size in Cascade Eco Wool.

Must get back to events!

February has begun and I am ready with some projects under my belt: I have finished some things! It was sort of my goal to knit up some of those hibernating projects that have been nagging at the back of my mind this year but with so many yummy yarns and colours flowing through the shop it has been damn near impossible!

The first project I finished that was not part of the stash was my newest pattern: The Canadian 2010 Headband. I thought this would be a nice little number to wear to the Olympics. I was lucky enough to get tickets to 2 women’s hockey games and 1 men’s hockey. I’m pretty stoked! I made this headband with some of my own hand dyed yarn (the blue/green) and Debbie Bliss Rialto DK. Kits will be available at Urban Yarns shortly. It’s a quick knit with snowflakes and maple leaves, who could ask for more?

The other finished object is my February Lady. I knit it up with Sweetgeorgia Superwash Worsted. 44″ bust meant 14 skeins but it was worth it. I’m still not sure the buttons were quite right but no matter, they are easy to change if I change my mind, right? I’m so smitten with the project I’m working on the baby version from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac, FO forthcoming.

For those of you who can’t get enough Gourmet Crafter I will also be blogging for Urban Yarns on Mondays so you can check me out there too!