Tag Archives: peace fleece

FO: peace fleece pinwheel.

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A lot of Friday Night Lights went into the making of this Peace Fleece pinwheel blanket. I ran out of yarn with about half of one wedge to bind off, and managed to use some handspun in a similar color. I used up all of my remaining Peace Fleece in this colorway, and if I were to knit this again in the same yarn, I might consider going up a needle size, more for comfort while knitting than anything else. I’m really happy with the way this pattern looks in a tweedy/flecked woolly yarn. The weather is turning cold, and I’m excited to get this belated wedding gift in the mail!

Cool weather means it is time to break out the knitwear. I wore my whisper cardigan with jeans and a scarf for a lunch date with friends last week. I really like this sweater, and I’m thinking about knitting another in fingering weight yarn.

Aren’t the zinnias I picked at the farm last week lovely?

One more: Boh being silly under the porch table. I brought this weekend’s pile of grading out here this morning, and Boh insisted on keeping watch from this position while I worked. Happy weekend!

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can’t lose.

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I spent the whole weekend on the couch with Boh waiting out some food poisoning or a stomach bug. There was a lot I was hoping to get done this weekend that did not get done. But on the bright side, being a knitter means that even when I feel terrible, I can still make progress on something. My Peace Fleece pinwheel blanket is much more blob-like than it was before I got sick. (Can’t lose.) Plus, I finally let myself begin a full-on Friday Night Lights binge. It’s going to be sort of tough to get back into the pace of the week after a very quiet, sedentary, bland-food-filled weekend. Before I head to campus, I thought you might want to see a couple of pictures of just how sweet Boh can be when I’m feeling lousy.

He is such a good boy. Happy Monday, everyone! More soon.

(legs) outstretched.

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I snapped both of these pictures today, and only realized that they sort of go together when I pulled them off of my camera. It is officially long-underwear-season. At least some of mine is stripey. (Brrr!)

Here’s a broader view of this evening, if you will. Boh, asleep. Me, knitting and grading. A few more papers to go. And I’m on the last row before the lace section of terra. More soon.

fake it ’til you make it.

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That’s what K. said today when I tried to articulate that I felt the need to at least “look” put-together, even if I don’t feel like it right now. See?

Wednesday, before I got completely soaked below my raincoat and above my boots. Luckily, the torrential rains turned to snow for the walk back home.

And today, before bundling up in a down vest, handspun fingerless mitts, my handspun wurm hat, and my trusty pink spindle-spun cowl.  Hooray for the arrival of handknit weather!

And here is Boh. He doesn’t fake it.

I came home between commitments today to walk Boh, read for fun, and drink a pot of tea.

And start the last repeat of the basic portion of my terra shawl. Thank you all for your kind comments on yesterday’s post. As I work to process the end of a meaningful relationship, I am just so thankful for my craft and for my community, both here in blogland and in real life.

greens: avocado, kale, terra.

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Power breakfast.

Garlicky kale. (From this recipe.) Seems almost too simple, but this is delicious. (Well, I thought so. B was a good sport and had a bite, but his take on this kale was that it “feels like the skin of a bat.” More for me!)

Time for the second ball of Peace Fleece. I set aside a few hours on Saturday morning for knitting and podcasts, and made some serious progress on this shawl. I’m hoping to squeeze a few rows into my Monday morning to help me get ready for the day — last week’s writing is the subject of this afternoon’s discussion…

rewards.

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It is going to be another long day of writing. But I made good progress yesterday on my revisions, and last night I rewarded myself with sushi and yarn-winding.

And ten rows of Terra. Brokeknits is so right — this garter stitch pattern is rhythmic and restorative. Maybe I’ll knit a row or two after I adimpleate my coffee mug. (That’s the word I adopted yesterday here.)

just what i needed.

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That song by The Cars always makes me smile. Back in 2004, I found myself road-tripping across the country with a new colleague, en route to our new jobs as part of a youth voting initiative. Things that stand out from the drive? My first experiences with ‘driving’ stick (think me doing the driving, and my friend P. doing the shifting), and a lot of time spent trying to figure out what The Cars are actually saying after the line, “I guess you’re just what I needed.”

“I needed someone to –eed.” (The answer is that it alternates: feed and bleed.)

Anyway, I bring all of this up because Mary, a ravelry friend of mine, seemed to know just what I needed this week:

On Thursday, I returned home from campus to discover that she’d gifted me the pattern for Terra, a gorgeous shawl by Jared Flood designed to highlight his new yarn line, SHELTER.

After making it through what I absolutely needed to get done this week, I came home yesterday and spent some time indulging in a little daydreaming about what yarn to use for this absolutely stunning shawl, and I settled on some seafoamy green, tweedy Peace Fleece. And I can’t wait to cast on.

Mary, this was just what I needed this week. Thank you.

I also finally got around to winding yarn for the next sections of my ripe bananas lap blanket testknit (say that five times fast). Note that one of these balls is hand-wound — I think it took me awhile to get the rhythm of the niddy-noddy down, and some of my early skeins are twisted. I did some intense handspun wrangling to get all of this untangled and into a tidy ball. This kind of mindless task was also what I needed yesterday. So it’s cool.

Lastly, another action shot of my textured shawl recipe shawl. I do wish it was a little bigger, but it really is perfect for when I just need a little extra warmth on my walk to campus in the morning.

Alright, time to earn some more knitting and outside time by finishing off another book in the pile. Happy weekend!

red buttons.

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[Picture-heavy post today!]

Before buttons:

beforebuttons

Yesterday I slipped my 28thirty on to take Boh around the block, and snapped a few pictures of me wearing it. Then I realized that it would be so worth it to sit down, sew on the buttons I’d chosen, and actually finish the sweater!

After buttons:

buttons1

buttons2-dark

buttons-allbuttoned

buttons-arm

buttons3

I can’t help it. I love this sweater. One more picture:

buttons-closeuo

project details:

28thirty, by the Zephyr Girls.

size: 36-39″

yarn: Peace Fleece, colorway grassroots, 4.5 skeins (buttons from ebay)

needles: US 7

mods: lengthened body to hit at hips, followed pattern for yoke and sleeves, but found that sleeves were way too loose — decreased severely on either side of center underarm every other row until stitch count was down to the XS size. decreased a few more time as directed in the pattern at wrist. (I am mostly happy with how this turned out — will likely be useful when I layer this over lots of other things, but over a t-shirt, there is some extra room there in the chest near where the sleeves start.)

victory? yes.

scones and sweaters.

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Self-explanatory, no?

scones

Heidi’s maple syrup scone recipe was super easy, and incredibly delicious. I even called my mom to tell her about it. Maple syrup is a big thing around here, so I can get jars full of different grades of local syrup at the co-op. This recipe perfectly highlighted that hard-to-describe but oh-so-good maple syrup sweetness. And it is quick enough to make impulsively. And then ruin your dinner by eating one (or two) moments after the scones come out of the oven. You’ve been warned.

Next up: 28thirty is blocked! And dry! No buttons yet, but I have some options, and am waiting for some of last week’s ebay purchases to arrive so that I can play around with size/color. Here are some rooster-in-the-mirror-wearing-the-sweater-even-though-the-sleeves-are-still-damp weekend pictures. (Apologies for my hyphen abuse today.)

28thirtyblocked-blurry

28thirtyblocked-closeup

28thirtysideblocked

28thirtyblocked

Also, I really love this picture:

amytiltedpic

Trying to take pictures of yourself using the hold-your-arm-out-at-a-ridiculous-angle approach occasionally yields unexpectedly delightful results.

I’ve also made some significant progress on Whisper:

whisper-sleeve1

boh-whisper-sleeve

Boh thought about knitting a few rows this morning, but ultimately decided that he’d rather take a nap.

I lengthened the sleeve to about 9.5 inches so that it falls just past my elbow, thinking that when I block this, I’ll get a bit more length. I’m into a big stretch of stockinette, which makes this project perfect for some of the lectures on my list this week.

I woke up with the sun today, well before my alarm. It has been awhile since I’ve done that, as the winter sun rarely appears before the appointed wake-up time. The days are lengthening now, and I like it.