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!

New version of the pattern added 19 February 2010.

By popular request (and my own long-delayed intention), the Columbia pattern has been modified to include a medium size that will fit smaller heads or those who like a real beret rather than a beret/snood. I’ve also corrected the instructions for setting up the stitches to knit the ties on top. Get the new version here:

Columbia Beret 1.2

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. The Columbia wool will full quite readily if you wish to tailor the fit after knitting.

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!