Fall Run Cowl.

So check out the pretty cowl that I knit - the Fall Run Cowl:

I LOVE it.  It's big and drape-y and so very very FALL.

I've been wearing it constantly since I finished it a couple weeks ago.

cheesy with a z picture of me in the cowl.  It's tough photographing yourself!

So the backstory... I dyed up a batch of yarn using the same stipple dye / layering technique as my wildly popular "Color Run" colorway with a palette limited to autumn colors:

I snagged a skein for myself directly from the dye pots b/c MINE.  MINE.  ALL MINE.

SERIOUSLY, THOUGH.

I knew I wanted to knit a big cowl that I could wear all season... but I wasn't sure that one skein of DK would be enough.  And the rest of that dye lot sold out before I could steal another skein for myself.  So I dug through my pile of yarn that I can't sell for whatever reason (knots or tangles or weirdness with the dye) and came up with this combo:

YEEEESSSSSS.

Then I spent hours on ravelry trying to find the perfect pattern.  I knew I wanted something that showed off each color individually because they are both beautiful on their own:

I definitely did not want stripes.  After knitting two Chasing Rainbows shawls in a row I'm OVER stripes.  However I'm lazy and didn't want to do any intense colorwork or follow any charts or any of that.  So I wanted to only knit with one color at a time... but NOT have the result be stripes.

Seems Legit.

I also wanted it to have some texture - like the woods in the fall.

I wanted it to be big enough to wrap around my neck twice.  But not so crazy big that I couldn't wear it only looped once:

In the end I came up with my own design.  Because nothing was exactly what I wanted.  I'm so, so, SO happy with the result:

Yay fall!

Anyways I just put the pattern up on Ravelry and I"m offering it free through this Friday.

FALL RUN COWL

(edited to add - to get the pattern for free just click that link and add it to your Ravelry store - when you check out it will ring up as free!)

The yarn to knit this is also available in the Destination Yarn Shop. My cowl is knit out of the Fall Run and Pine Forest colorways although I think just about any combination would look great.  The texture and the not-stripes really works well with variegated yarns:

Yay for a new cowl and a new pattern!

PS - if any of your are in the Pittsburgh area I will be at the Indie Knit and Spin there this weekend.  Come and say hi!

Hi.

Mom's can do it all, right?

So!  First of all.  I AM NOT PREGNANT.  Just had to put that front and center because it seems like the last two times I talked about a vague "big thing" and then disappeared it was because there was a baby involved.  But no.  NOOOOPE.  NO.  To the point where because everyone I know is pregnant I am in the awesome/slightly painful process of purging all of the baby things.  ANYWAYS.

The big thing that caused me to disappear for a bit was that Destination Yarn - my hand dyed yarn company - was a vendor at STITCHESmidwest:

It's one of the biggest knitting shows in the country and is held at an actual convention center.  It was awesome and amazing and I learned SO much about knitting and business and vending and dying.  It was refreshing down to my core and also exhausting.

My "I can't believe I"m doing this!" face

Because of Stitches Destination Yarn has taken off in ways I couldn't have imagined.  Turning this little hobby of mine that was basically just bonus into an actual business and an actual for real job is amazing.  And overwhelming.  And awesome.  And insane.

And I"m going to work my butt off and make sure it really happens because THIS.  This is what I have wanted.  This is the goal I've been vaguely (and at times in a very crooked path) working towards for years now.

But that means that there has been NO balance.  I am all Destination Yarn all the time.  So everything else - with the exception of my kids/husband - has disappeared into a world of non-essentials.  However, I'm learning that there HAS to be balance.  And a balanced version of my life absolutely involves this blog.  I've been doing this for almost a decade now and I missed it sorely.

Plus having creative outlet that isn't all Destination Yarn is healthy and fuels creativity in other areas.

I'm just not sure what that looks like yet.  Honestly, probably like this.  An old school web-journal.  With stuff about my kids that isn't all click-baity (part of my break was fueled by some serious disgust with the world of parenting on the internet.  I may or may not get into that later but suffice it to say you will find no Listicles of Judging here).

There will always be knitting and yarn and travel and Cleveland and whatever is fueling my creative engine at the moment.  I may separate out the business stuff... I might not.  I'm working on figuring all of that out.

But yeah.  Baby steps toward balance.  Baby steps towards doing it all.  By opening up a browser window and writing something today I have at least taken that first, tiny step.  BOOM.

Road Trip Prep: PACK ALL THE YARN.

So!   Very soon we leave on an epic road trip.  The kind that Google Maps laughs at you when you type in and just gives you the time it would take to fly there.  Because noone in their right mind wants to drive 1300 miles one way with 3 kids in the car, right?

Shut up, google.

Yes.  We are taking the kids to South Dakota.  By way of Chicago (because our daughter begged us to stop there).  It's going to be epic.  I've never been to this part of the country before so I'm really excited. We've been planning/organizing/practice hiking/packing for what feels like months.  SO MUCH PACKING.  The big question is... how much yarn does one bring for 40 some hours in the car?

ALL THE YARN.  You bring ALL OF IT.

I suppose that isn't realistic (although I have been known to sneak yarn in the car under the seats in case of emergency).  So I'm focusing on projects.  Obviously I have to bring my #ALLINCLE socks:

Don't even talk about the fact that I will be in South Dakota when Cleveland brings home it's first championship in my lifetime.  I CAN'T EVEN.

But a pair of socks is not going to be enough.  So I dyed up a shiny new colorway that I"m hoping will match a good part of our trip.  Introducing, PRAIRIE:

greeeeeeeen!!!!

It's a kettle dyed / stipple dyed colorway.  So it is mainly a total green with a few tiny flicks of dark green throughout.  It is swatching up beautifully:

An epic trip deserves an epic project.  So I'm going to knit this:

Photo from the Ravelry pattern page linked below.

It's the Feather and Fan-tastic pattern that I found while stalking everything knit in fingering weight on Ravelry.  I think it's beautiful.  The lace is enough to keep it interesting without taking away from the yarn.  Plus the wavy-ness of the pattern will mimic the wavy prairie grass.  I like that.

Photo from the Ravelry pattern page linked above.

Also the pattern is based on something that Lady Edith wore on Downton Abbey and she's the bestest so.... yeah.  Had to knit it.

Yay for epic adventures and epic projects!

PS all of this yarn is available at Destination Yarn.

Chevron Baby Blanket.

So check out the chevron baby blanket I knit for my friend's new daughter!

MMMM CHEVRON GOODNESS.

Isn't it pretty! I'm so happy with how it came out.

I knit it in direct violation of my "don't knit for newborns" rule.  See newborns grow SO FLIPPING FAST that I usually give a hand knit as a first birthday gift instead.  A sweater that is worn with the sleeves flipped up on a 1 year old will still fit at 2 and sometimes even for another winter.  But newborns?  Maybe you get a month out of it.  And they'll probably puke on it. Blergh.  HOWEVER this kid got me to break my rule:

So. Much. Adorable.

Because she is a 3rd child.  And 3rd kids don't get hand knits.  No, really.  My daughter could have worn something hand made every day of her infancy.  The dude - my middle child - also had piles of handmade goodness even if it was significantly less than his sister.  Tiny?  Well... I didn't even knit for Tiny.  In my defense I had 2 other kids to look after while redoing our entire basement pregnant so....

AT LEAST MY GRANDMA KNIT FOR ME.

When my friend found out she was pregnant for the 3rd time I knew that I wanted to make that baby something very special. All her own.

Sidenote:  When Tiny was first born my mom told my dad she was worried that as the little one he would end up with "the shit end of the stick."  And my dad famously said "there's no shit on that stick."  Meaning that in our little family it doesn't matter when you were born because it's going to be good.  Which is exactly how I feel about it.  Tiny may not have as much attention from me, specifically, but he has more attention overall.  Because he has 2 siblings that adore him.

Also he gets to play with all of his siblings toys.

Anyways!  The chevrons!  I started with this pattern and then decided that I needed to knit it in bulky yarn.  A tiny baby in a bulky knit = ADORABLE.

I used Plymouth Encore Bulky in bright, girly colors and repeated the 3 stripe pattern down the whole blanket:

I also added in a garter stitch edging all around to give it a more finished look:

Mmmmmm.  Edging.

I changed the size of the pattern to make sense with the bulky yarn.  If you want to do the same thing I wrote it all out on my Ravelry project page.  The whole thing took 2 balls of each of the pinks and one of the blue.  It knit up faster than I expected and was really fun to work on.

Yay for 3rd babies and Yay for handknits!

Cheers! I'm 35!

So!  Today is my 35th birthday.  RIGHT?

Although I think I used up all of my I AM SO OLD angst last year with 34 because this year really isn't getting to me at all.  I'm feeling like... I'm 35.  What up.  Sure I'm another box on forms and such but I'm also really happy with my life.  We've had a lot of very hard, very sleep deprived years to get to this point.  And finally we are on the cusp of a whole bunch of awesome.  Both for this year and the foreseeable future.  So yeah.  35?  BRING IT ON.

And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with a shawl named Cheers!

Cheers!  By Laura Nelkin

I'm knitting with this very happy yarn:

"Color Run" by Destination Yarn

 The yarn  is one of  my new, speckled dyed colorways.  They are SO FUN to dye and possibly even funner to knit. (Available now from Destination Yarn!)
(btw @DestinationYarn is now on instagram and I tend to post dying behind the scenes stuff there if you are interested). 

I'm using a dark grey for the border (Storm Clouds semi-solid also by Destination Yarn) and I had some woe about the beads.  The only size 8 beads I could find at craft stores were lame.  I tried to make them work but my swatch said NOPE:

Can you even see the beads?

Not really.  Blah.

So I ordered some online and am so glad I did.  They came yesterday and BOOM:

It's going to be awesome.  It took so very much will power to fold the laundry last night instead of stringing these beads on immediately.  But!  What a nice birthday treat.

So yeah. With that I"m going to spend my birthday knitting in the sunshine.  At least until a kid needs me (so for like 5 minutes).

Pic from Easter.  B/c this wouldn't be a real post without a picture of my kids.  Also Tiny is wearing an Owls Sweater I knit for the Dude way back in the day.