Baby, it's Cold Outside

Holiday Gift Set

I love knitting gifts.  I recently gave this holiday gift set to Kaitlin who is a grad student at the University of Nevada, Reno.  Thank goodness it is cold in Reno so she can wear it this winter.  Here in Northern California where I live, temps have been in the 60's and even 70's so my own hand-knits have not even seen the light of day.  

I loved putting this gift set together using Classic Elite's Fresco yarn in color Cinder.  This was my first time knitting with Fresco and I loved knitting with it.  Fresco is a lovely combo of wool, baby alpaca and a bit of angora.  It works up beautifully on the needles and creates such a soft and luxurious knit fabric.

 Climbing Cables Hat

As for the gift set details, I chose Hannah Fettig's Climbing Cables Hat for the hat.  I found and purchased Hannah's PDF pattern on Ravelry.  The pattern is in chart form and is an easy pattern to follow.  You can view my project on Ravelry with my personal notes and height alteration I made to it.

Fresco Lace Cowl

For the cowl, I chose Cecily Glowik's Fresco Lace Cowl .  Kaitlin is very fashionable and I love the style of this cowl which is like an infinity scarf then doubled up into a cowl size.  You can find my personal notes for it on Ravelry.  Kaitlin loved it and said "it's perfect to wear on cold mornings around campus". 

I highly recommend both patterns and thank both designers for their beautiful designs.  I look forward to knitting a set like this for me....

maybe to wear next winter!


(Baby, it's cold outside gift tag by Knitterella.)

Great Scot!

My Scottish Souvenir 

A souvenir from Scotland...

I've just finished knitting my Rose Red beret by 

Scottish designer, Ysolda Teague. 

 K1 Yarns Knitting Boutique

On holiday in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2011,

I brought along a shopping list to buy Scottish Orkney Angora yarn so I could knit Ysolda’s Rose Red beret.  After a morning tour of Edinburgh Castle, I couldn't wait to find K1 Yarns Knitting Boutique and shop for yarn!  It was an easy find for a tourist..just off the Royal Mile in Old Town.

 Orkney Angora St Magnus DK

Oh, which color to choose for my Rose Red?  Ysolda's version in scarlet red is divine but since I don’t wear red, I naturally chose my favorite color turquoise instead.

Getting Started

The Rose Red pattern is knit from the top down beginning with an i-cord. It’s a bit fiddly at first on the double point needles but it gets easier every round. Since this is a lace and cable pattern, I used stitch markers for each lace repeat to help keep me on track.

My Rose Red

I loved knitting with this yarn, love Ysolda's pattern and love my Scottish souvenir!

I'm Cable Ready!

 Melissa Leapman

I'm cable ready now...

thanks to Melissa Leapman

 and

her Cable Ready class that I took today.

Melissa flew all the way out from New York City

exclusively for two days of classes for my knitting guild,

the Camellia City Stockinettes. 

I must say,

designer events and classes

are a wonderful perk of belonging to my local TKGA guild.

 Cable Ready

I really liked Melissa's relaxed teaching style.

She has a simple and straightforward approach

to explaining things. 

For her Cable Ready class,
she broke down the basics

 and taught us to knit with charts. 

 She told us,

 "Charts show the way the resulting fabric will look
 and you can knit faster".

 Heart Cable

In our class,

she taught us two simple cable maneuvers (with 4 stitches)

that resulted in mastering the

honeycomb, braid and rope cable motif. 

 Thanks to Melissa's instruction,

I did all my class cable exercises by chart

(a first for me). 

I'm pretty excited to be able to knit cables now by charts.

Melissa also taught us how to knit heart cables,
two-colored cables

and gave us some color stranding tips, too.

The best part of taking a designer's class...

is all the tips and tricks you pick up from them!

Melissa's Books

During class,

I had a chance to ask Melissa a few questions.

She learned to crochet at the age of 4.

She is a "self taught" knitter

who taught herself to knit in high school.

She attributes that to her teaching style. 

She is an east coast gal who ended up in New York in college

 and stayed in New York City.  Lucky her!

Her latest book Stashbuster Knits has just hit the shelves

and she has exciting things planned for the future.
(Sorry I can't tell you about them now.)

You can though keep up with Melissa and her latest news
on her Facebook page.

Melissa is a popular instructor at Stitches events around the US

 and other venues. 

 Take her classes if you ever have a chance! 

It was a pleasure to meet Melissa today

and learn more about cables.

I can truly say...

I'm cable ready now!

Men's Heavenly Cable Sweater

Allison knitting her

"Heavenly Cable Sweater"

I met Allison last Friday at my favorite LYS Knitique. I was at the knitting table when Allison came in to knit. I could see she was knitting something special so I immediately asked her what she was knitting. She told me it was a sweater from the book Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting. I was pretty excited to see a project being knit from Lorna Miser's new book so I asked Allison to tell me more.

Here is Allison's story:

Allison met Lorna at the book signing party at Knitique a few weeks back. Allison told me she has been going through a difficult time in her life right now. Her husband is on a year long deployment in Iraq amongst other things, too. When she got home that night after meeting Lorna , she sat down and read the entire book...cover to cover.

Men's Heavenly Cable Sweater

Allison says "Lorna's book and it's stories really gave me encouragement". Allison fell in love with the Men's Cable Sweater pattern from the "Appointment in Heaven" story. She is knitting it for her husband for a surprise Christmas present this year. (So shhh...it's a surprise!) She is knitting it in Cascade 220 Superwash in, of course, a great looking "Army green" color!

Every knitter has a story of how they learned to knit. Like many knitters, Allison's Grandmother, an avid knitter, taught her to knit when she was in junior high. She remembers knitting a sweater back then and never knitting again. A few years back a co-worker nudged her back into knitting and it all came back to her.

This is Allison's first cabled sweater. She loves knitting cables. Allison says " it is her dream with knitting to be as good as her Grandmother". I think you've accomplished that Allison! When your grandmother (who is 92yrs old) sees it...she will be so proud of you!

Your Grandmother's knitting legacy will live on with you...just as Lorna's Grandmother Helen's legacy lives on with her!