Thank you all for your warm reception of the new free patterns! Reading your comments has been a bright spot in a dark December. I’m ready to look forward: after the way 2008 ended, 2009 just has to be an improvement. It’s already favored us with a glorious sunny day when rain was predicted:

And also with a windfall of wool and good books. I always stop into Island Wools when I’m up home, and today I went in knowing I didn’t need a thing, but eager to see the kind yarn store ladies and their latest goods. Browsing the local offerings, I uncovered three skeins of unmarked handspun. They were very different from the abundance of thick-and-thin, lanolin-sodden wool singles on offer from a spinner on Waldron Island. I liked them. I inquired about them. We entered into a little exchange of local trivia - the yarn was spun by Edie so-and-so’s former daughter-in-law, who moved off the island, but her sheep are still here; so-and-so is looking after them at that little place across from Portland Fair. They weren’t expensive, and in all there were sixteen ounces of DK or worsted weight–perhaps enough for a sweater if I threw in leftovers from my Amanda cardigan and a skein of chocolate Coopworth I have at home for yoke patterning. I bought them.

I saw the sheep in their pasture, and my best guess is that they’re natural colored Romneys. Medium-size, fluffy (not curly), small ears, chunky legs, dark faces (some with a splash of white), coats variegated from almost chocolatey to pale grey-beige. The yarn is oatmeal-grey, with deep brown fibers sprinkled richly through. It’s not merino, but it’s fairly soft and should be fine over a shirt.

Besides knitting sweaters like they’re going out of style (I have somehow committed myself to four sweaters for family on top of the ones I want to make for myself), here’s what I’m burning to do in 2009: walk part of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. I don’t know if it will even be possible, financially or time-wise, for us to journey to Europe this year, but I bought a book about it and the dreaming has commenced. What are your big dreams for this new year?

To close out 2008, here’s another free pattern for you. I made these fingerless gloves and cowl for Mr. G’s mom for Christmas, and now that I have a few relaxing days up home I’ve polished up the instructions. I knit the set using some scrummy Rio de la Plata 3-Ply Thread that’s been marinating in the stash: the plump, soft plies give beautiful stitch definition and the kettle-dyed “Rabbit” gray shifts ever so slightly in hue. (Rio de la Plata has inexplicably discontinued this gorgeous yarn; their Lana del Artista seems quite similar, but I haven’t seen it in person to tell. The yardage is a little less, but 3 skeins would still suffice. Any soft, heavy Aran weight will serve.) I chose the Shadow Cable from Barbara Walker’s first treasury, cast on a picot edge for a touch of dramatic flair, and designed on the fly.

Here’s the PDF: Queen of Shadows Fingerless Gloves and Cowl

How about some more pictures?

Happy knitting for 2009!

Back in September I promised you a pattern for a quick and easy beret I had worked up for the school auction. I was meaning to make some adjustments to the fit and to produce a second hat for a friend who had admired it. That second hat is in the mail to Worcester, Massachusetts now, and I’ve finally written and pdf’ed the instructions. Get ‘em here:

columbiaberet.pdf

The wool I used is a soft 2-ply Columbia wool from Oregon’s Imperial Stock Ranch; you could substitute any worsted weight wool, but a fuzzy woolen-spun will give you a cohesive, warm fabric. The slouchy beret is worked on needles slightly smaller than recommended for extra structure and a felt-like hand. Lines of yarnover eyelets swirl decoratively up to a knit-on garter-stitch topper.

After a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week that started with news of a loss and ended with a howling snowstorm, I’m not sure what to write here. Monday feels like half a lifetime ago. I have been low and the hurt is still very near. But I can still knit myself forward, one stitch at a time, “with hope and confidence, through all crises,” as the Zimmermann Doctrine demands. Since I’m keeping my words close, here are pictures of the Christmas knitting I can safely show:

Those last are Clara Parkes’s Maine Morning Mitts, or rather, my approximation of Maine Morning Mitts, since I don’t actually have the pattern. I’m pretty sure I made the thumbs too big. The yarn is some Bouton d’Or Aida wool that’s been skulking in the stash this past age. Soft, springy, brightly marled. These go to a relative for Mr. G’s family exchange, along with some good Portland coffee and a few other goodies.

I’ll be back, and more loquacious, in a few days. With a little gift for my readers, if all turns out well!