patternlove <3

In the spirit of Halloween, I bring you the work of Anne-Marie Dunbar of thingsandideas.wordpress.com, who makes some really kick-ass knitted monster masks. I love the sculptural detail she brings to her creations; they are truly marvelous.

Cthulhuclava

Dracoclava

Baalaclava

Jack-o'-clava

Halloween is 12 short days away! Start knitting, folks!

patternlove <3

I cast on for Hawthorne on Monday, and I'm already in love. The lace is intricate, the yarn is so, so soft...and the construction of this shawl/scarf is pure genius. This is flying off my needles; I warrant that I'll have it finished by the weekend. :)

an autumn agenda

Autumn is here-here, and I've finally embraced it. I'll miss summer days and short-wearing, but at least now I can do the following unapologetically:

...eat scalding hot homemade chicken noodle soup by the gallon.

...curl up on the couch with my puppy and smooch.

...oogle at the pretty leaves outside my bedroom window.

...cast on for a new fall scarf with some sumptuous Malabrigo Worsted. I'm thinking cables...lots of cables.

Ahhh, autumn. Welcome back, old friend.

patternlove <3

A day late, I know. I was up until 1 am last night, obsessed with the concept of pooling shawl patterns. I've never been a fan of variegated yarn; the beautiful skein that caught my eye in the shop, with its distinct and often contrasting colors, looks gorgeous in the hank, but once I wind it and start knitting, I realize that the different colors are a detriment, rather than an asset, to whatever I'm knitting. The colors get muddy and lost, or they're entirely distracting and, let's face it, ugly.

So when I stumbled upon the concept of intentionally pooling a hand-dyed skein of yarn, I was instantly hooked. The basic concept is to figure out how long the "repeat" of color in your yarn is, and then figure out how many stitches it will take, on your chosen needle size, to get all the different colors to line up. Sounds confusing, right? It's okay, I have pictures.


See how the colors of these yarns line up, like magic? I think it's pretty nifty. So nifty, in fact, that I purchased this tutorial to help get me started. It's a really helpful guide to choosing the right yarn, and for calculating your gauge and stitches against the length of the color repeat. Which is great if you're math-impaired, which I most certainly am. In addition, the guide came with three patterns, and a bunch of stitch patterns that work well with the pooling technique, with "choose your own adventure" instructions on how to customize a pooling shawl. So, so cool. I couldn't wait to get started, and so I cast on last night, tweaked my gauge a few times, and then finally went to bed, my head spinning with the possibilities. Needless to say, I dreamed about color pooling.