Saturday Mornings!

{Coconut Raspberry muffins - modified
from a blueberry muffin recipe found on
www.elanaspantry.com. Delish}

This Saturday morning is a particularly interesting and beautiful one indeed. You see, I had plans to go shake it up at Zumba, but somewhere along the way I decided that a walk with my dear little papillon would be better. Fresh snow on top of Autumn colors is really what makes a November morning such as this rather grand. But somewhere along the way, I decided to use my "free" Saturday morning to eat a coconut raspberry muffin (my new gluten & dairy free baking secret - coconut!), listen to Debussy radio on Pandora and catch up on my blog! So here I am. My lack of posts does not mean I have not been knitting! Since my last post, I've had the chance to bestow a couple of my Summer knitting projects to a couple friends as gifts and start a lovely lace scarf.

{On the needles: Shell lace patterned scarf knit with Prism Symphony in Shadow
Alternating two skeins due to differences in dye lot - big lesson to buy all you
need when you buy the yarn!! In this case, I decided I wanted another skein after
I started knitting the scarf and had to tear out what I had already knitted to
alternate yarns and accommodate for the differences in dye lot.}

{Applewood Beret (on Ravelry) knit in
Mountain Colors Twizzle in Firestorm.
Gifted to my lovely friend, Bre!}

{Susie's Reading Mitts (on Ravelry). Cannot remember the
yarn I knit these in. I gifted them to my dear friend, Amanda!
I learned a new skill knitting these - the Picot Edge!}

Summer of....

LOVE! ZUMBA! MIRACLES! SUNSHINE AMAZING-NESS! ADMIRING GOD'S BEAUTIFUL CREATION! Whatever you want to call it, I believe it's been a too short, but otherwise awesome summer. Between taking pictures of weddings and nature adventures, it's wonder I actually had anytime to knit! I'm still working on projects I started in June, but they are getting done... slowly :)

{Lake Michigan at Sunrise,
near Bailey's Harbor, WI}

{Lake Michigan - Washington Island}

This last week, I noticed that the nights started to get a little chilly - a quaint little reminder that my favorite season - Autumn - is right around the corner! I love everything about Autumn. The way that summer just kind of fades right into it.... the temperature fades, the smell fades, the colors fade. Crisp, sunshiny mornings, warm afternoons, bundling up in a hoody in the evening. Oh! and once all the photo editing from the summer's myriad of pictures is finished, I might be able to get some knitting done. So please enjoy these photos I have managed to process during the busy-ness of Summer - I promise to have more done soon, some that might even involve yarn! These photos were taken in Wisconsin, at my cousin's wedding, in Montana and at my friend's wedding in Vancouver/Portland.

{Clark Fork River at Sunset off Hwy 200}

{Plant Hike with Montana Native Plant Society}

{Plant Hike with Montana Native Plant Society}

{Fish Boil! at my cousin's rehearsal dinner}

{My cousin's pretty dress}

{Cousin's kids at my
other cousin's rehearsal dinner}

{My cousin's pretty flowers}

{My friend and her groom}

{My friend's pretty shoes}

{My friend on her groom's bike}

{My friend's pretty dress}

My Cozy New England Autumn Scarf

and that's what it is - took me a while to figure out a name for it. But it's cozy, and I knit it for my cousin who resides in New England, it's currently Autumn, and it's a pretty scarf. My mom passed along this delightfully chunky Malibrigo in "Red Java" a while ago and a few weeks ago, I decided to pick it up and do something with it. I started it as a scarf for myself, but after seeing how quickly I was able to knit it up, I knew I could have it done by the time I went to Rhode Island. (See, this is the only way I can actually get anything done - knitting for someone else and having a timeline!) My cousin has always wanted me to knit her something, so I knew this was going to be perfect for her!! :) I diligently knitted stitch by stitch, row by row, cable twist by cable twist, right up until the night before I was going to see her. I was in Manhattan at my grandparent's apartment when I finished and was grateful for the little bit of counter-space in the back of their apartment that was just the perfect size to block it! It was dry by morning! Tucked it into my little suitcase for the 3 1/2 hour trek up to Providence, RI and after a little Thai food, a chill folk concert, and settling into her guest room, a.k.a. her living room/computer room, I presented the scarf to her with a smile; she was delighted and wore it for the rest of the weekend. This made my heart very happy.

Now, here's to remembering how I made it!

I believe I started out casting on 20 stitches of chunky weight yarn onto size 13 needles
knit across one row then started the cable pattern:
(panel of 14 stitches + 6 stitches for selvage.)
Row 1 and all other WS rows: k1, p2, k1, p12, k1, p2, slip last stitch
Row 2: k3, p1, 2/2 LC, k4, 2/2 RC, p1, k2, slip last stitch
Row 4: k3, p1, k2, 2/2 LC, 2/2 RC, k2, p1, k2, slip last stitch
Row 6: k3, p1, k4, 2/2 LC, k4, p1, k2, slip last stitch
Repeat rows 1-6 until you've reached desired length, knit across one row, then bind off one row
Tuck in ends and block

and in case you don't know what any of this means:
WS = wrong side

k = knit
p = purl

2/2 LC = 2/2 Left Cross
slip 2 stitches onto a cable needle and hold in front of work, knit next two stitches from left hand needle, knit the two stitches from the cable needle.

2/2 RC = 2/2 Right Cross
slip 2 stitches onto a cable needle and hold in back of work, knit next two stitches from left hand needle, knit the two stitches from the cable needle.

This scarf is best enjoyed on a blustery Fall day with a cup of tea. :)

So. about that lovely yellow malibrigo

I made it into a scarf. I finished the knitting part about 6 months ago. It's been wallowing in the chaos that is my room ever since then. Just got it out today to block and finish. Since it was only about half a skein, it's a pretty short scarf, so I attached a button to make it come together and I love it! Going to wear it tomorrow with a grey t-shirt :) perfect for my favorite time of year - Autumn!













I used the scrunchable scarf pattern I found on Ravelry - the hyperlink to the orginal pattern doesn't seem to be working though, so here's what you do:

Cast on a multiple of 3 sts (plus one on each edge for a selvage. I slipped the selvage stitch at the end of my rows to make it smoother)
The pattern repeat is just K2, P1 - on both sides. Because you are working with an odd number of sts, you get a column of knit sts, a column of purls, and a column of moss st. It pleats itself and its reversible, but its very flexible.




This got me thinking of how much I really love the color yellow and a certain poem by Emily Dickinson and a certain sunset from one of the best sunset spots in my geographical area, Spade's Mountain watchtower ~ Enjoy <3