Mozarthuys Cowl

When I was on my honeymoon, I was determined to buy yarn from overseas. When we were in Bruges, I found a yarn store that was a little cramped, but the lady who worked there was very sweet. The yarn I bought was actually from Spain, but... still from overseas. I only bought one hank of it and it was super bulky and I knew it would be a scarf or a cowl. After knitting one cowl that didn't work out so well, I found the pattern for it. This is Marian (Ravelry link). But since I bought the yarn in Bruges and it will always remind me of Bruges, I'm calling it my Mozarthuys Cowl, after our favorite restaurant there.

Pattern: Marian by Jane Richmond

Yarn: Katia Nordic Print
Mods: The directions say to cast on 45 stitches and use size 19 needles. I cast on 40 stitches and used 15s. The result is a much smaller cowl than what its supposed to be... but I think I like it better this way. Also, you're supposed to twist the first stitch after you cast on to create the twist in the cowl. I think I twisted it twice instead of just once. No biggie.

This yarn was great to work with, not too splitty. Its very soft and will definitely keep me warm under my coats this winter!

The short sleeved polo goes well with the cowl

Its my first cowl and I'm very excited about it!

This was Erm's idea

Not enough time!

Where have I been?? I don't even know!

Real quick, because we're busy getting ready for a wedding this weekend. This past weekend we went on our annual sailing trip.

We sailed from Salem to Gloucester for lunch and back! Best sailing day we've ever had. Perfect weather, perfect lunch, and perfect company.

I also tried my hand at a minted pea soup:

which was not very good. Those onions and peas are from our CSA and are delicious! And the mint is from our mint plant that Farmer Erm takes care of and is also delicious! But... the soup wasn't minty enough for me. And I think that to get me out of the mindset that pea soup is supposed to be warm and comforting it should be pretty minty and summery. So this soup... not a hit. Back to the drawing board.

I also ran a PR (personal record) this week! Running in the rain agrees with me, I guess. Between that and some tips I got from my personal-trainer-friend, I shaved 13 seconds off of my time and finally passed a milestone I've been trying to reach since I started running two years ago!!!

The good news is that in all my busy-ness, I am finding time to start AND finish small projects. The bad news is that I don't have a picture of the cowl I finished on Wednesday. Next post shall be about the cowl!

Have a great weekend!

I love quick hits

I didn't win the contest. So sad.


However, nothing picks me up like a quick FO, even if its just a baby hat! My third Baby Cables hat!





A friend who has a baby boy who looks dangerously like Adam Lambert is the recipient of this hat. I need to come up with a baby hat pattern of my own that I can make and sell. I started this one on Sunday afternoon and finished it Monday night. I showed it to Erm this morning, his reaction was "you finished that already?". Ahhhh...


And my longer term project is a shawl for me. I bought this yarn awhile ago, its one of the only yarns I've ever bought with no idea for what I'd do with it, just because I loved it. I thought it looked like a dead squirrel, Erm thought it looked like potatoes. Anyway... I went nuts looking for a shawl to knit with it and came up with this pattern... I can't remember where it is to link it, but it strikes me as pretty basic. Funny coincidence, now that its knitting up, I think a friend of mine has this shawl someone knit for her in a greenish/blueish/brownish yarn. Mine is just brown. I'm SUPER excited, as this pattern is easy and I can tell this shawl is going to be the right balance of warm and not too warm and go with a lot of my fall clothes, because I wear a lot of browns.

I think I finally found the perfect pattern for this yarn!

CONTEST

As I was browsing my blogs this morning I came across another contest! Wandering Cat Studio is having a contest with awesome prizes here!

It ends tomorrow so hurry up!

Excitement and confusuion in knitting land...

First of all… I am only 6 inches of ribbing away from being done with my Coquette Lace Tube Top! As exciting as that is… its more exciting that I tried it on, and it fits! I can’t wait for it to be done. No pictures yet, I don’t want to jinx it.

Secondly, I used the gift card that Erm gave me for Christmas (can you believe that I’ve had it for 6 months and not used it yet?) and went to Knit Pickings and bought the pattern and some of the yarn to start the Great American Afghan. I pretty much copied the colors from the pattern, but they didn’t have the exact colorways, so I matched the best I could. I love them all, especially all together.

Each square measures 12” x 12” and highlights a different technique, stitch, etc. I’m really excited to learn some new things and have a great afghan.

Lastly, I am at a loss. The yarn I bought to finish Erm’s socks is very pretty, but not what I normally buy. It’s a variegated tealish color. I thought I knew what I was going to make with it, but after one pattern repeat, I don’t think I want to do the whole sock in that pattern. The yarn isn’t quite as light as in the picture, but gives a good idea.

I am looking for a cuff-down, non-lace pattern that will look good with this yarn. I’ve been looking since I got it. Its my new quest. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll make something up.

Arrivals

First of all, my new camera is here!!! We came back from a cookout on Friday and it was waiting at my door. I got the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8. I love it! It was quite reasonably priced on Amazon and while I was a bit nervous about dull pictures, I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Another thing that finally arrived is SUMMER in the Northeast. We only had 2 days that it was above 80 in June, and it was the second rainiest June on record! The forecast had more bad weather this weekend, but it was beautiful on Saturday and Sunday!!!

Saturday we spent a bunch of time weeding in our front yard. Yes, I was weeding on a national holiday. Just like our forefathers wanted. Then we decided to get our CSA vegetables. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is pretty cool. You sign up at the beginning of the season for your "shares" of the farm's vegetables, fruits, eggs, livestock, dairy, etc. Some farms have more options than others. This was our first year, so we just did the vegetable share, and the herb and fresh flower share. Every week you go to the farm and pick up your share from whatever they've harvested that week/day. I love it so far. We're actually having a tough time eating all of our vegetables, we get a LOT. And most of the time, its been harvested within 25 minutes of us getting there... doesn't get much fresher than that!

So we walk into the farm and look at the board:

YES. Pick your own peas!

Farmer Erm picking peas

Really, really fresh peas

And then we went to visit the farm animals.

Just call me the Goat Whisperer

And then we got our harvested vegetables and went home and had a relaxing night. With salad, of course.

Yesterday we visited two more farms. This was totally not planned to be a farm filled weekend, it just ended up that way. After our adventures with the in-laws, we went to buy some patio furniture! We have been in our house for almost 4 years and have no patio furniture. It was time to bite the bullet. No pictures of said furniture, because what the furniture sits on is embarrassingly in need of a power washing. But we set it up and put out some snacks and ended the weekend relaxing and enjoying our backyard in the beautiful weather...

I'm not the only crafty one in the family!

Not having a camera is really killing my blogging! I have so many things to be taking pictures of. Luckily, I ordered a new one and it is on its way!

I do have pictures to share that were taken by someone else, though. Last night I ran the second race of the Good Times Series with my cousin Charlotte. Charlotte has really hopped on the running bandwagon and she's pretty good at it! We enjoy running races. Its fun for us to do together and when there's a lot of people, its a blast. This series has 8 races, each with a different theme.

Last night was Classic TShirt Night. Everyone was encouraged to wear a classic race shirt from the past. Well we didn't have any, so we made our own! Actually, Charlotte made them, me and my creative husband contributed the ideas. Next up, we'll be ruling the world. There were awards for oldest race shirt, shirt from a race the farthest away, most colorful, and best homemade shirt... guess who won that one??

The back said "HIT THE BRICKS"... get it?

Fittingly enough, we won t-shirt frames! I'll be framing this bad boy once those letters are ironed on and it is returned to me.

And... I ran my best 5K time ever! Between that and the tshirts, it was a really exciting night! We're thinking of running next week's race. And the one after that... and the one after that...