Knit Progress: A few more hats

I think I broke a personal record for hats knit in one week! I managed to knit eight hats from the balls of scrap yarn I created last weekend. I was having so much fun pairing the colors, I couldn’t stop. The hats above are the last 4 I created at the end of the week. The last two pictures are of the same hat. I like the subtle color transitions in some of them – the gray one stands out to me especially, but I also like the vibrance of the teal and green and the purples & reds.

I also purchased a few more skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino to round out my glove inventory. It took a while, but I finally settled on three colors that I call Apple Harvest – a golden “Topaz”, a beautiful deep red “Burgundy”, and a granny smith shade of “Lettuce.” I’ll be working on gloves for the next week or two and then it’s back to holiday presents!

Knit Progress: Yarn Scrap Hats

I’m still working away at creating a bunch of things for the arts festival and trying to work from my existing yarn stash to maximize materials. Out with the old to make way for the new! After finishing up the last round of gloves, I had a small bag filled with scrappy little balls of yarn that I was saving to make pinwheels out of later.

I pulled the bag out and organized them by color into a rainbow of little balls and decided to Russian join them into larger balls by color to use in hat projects! The hats above are what they’ve turned into so far, combined with my stash of sock yarn leftovers to create highly textured and completely one-of-a-kind color combinations.

Its been so much fun to pair the yarns and see how it will all come out. I still have enough yarn to make a few more., stay tuned!

Prints: “Untitled (Abstraction)”

 

The first new print for fall is now complete. Continuing in the two-color tradition of  “Untitled (Double O),” rough-edged artwork is hand printed in tasty mocha and mint.

Minty fresh and ready to go from the shop.

Ready. Set. Go.

The workshop is cleaned out, cleaned up and ready to go. Artwork has been selected, paper’s in, color choices are becoming clear, and a schedule is in place.  That last one is a first. I usually have so many ideas and then tend to get seduced by the latest sketch (which then sends me off course), that I thought I’d try implementing a schedule. Buckling down and charting a course that includes a select number of favorite ideas might lead to some interesting results. Or maybe just more results. That’s the thinking, of course.

Conversely, I’m trying to loosen up a bit more in terms of working method. I was a little too rigid in the spring and therefore was unable to get as many prints out as I would have liked. I’m going with more forgiving artwork and compositions than in seasons past and will adopt a more go-with-the-flow attitude—even it it requires some reminding now and again. Embracing the process and embracing more of the mistakes this time out.

I have one edition under my belt so far and the process seems to be working well. I’m very much looking forward to more. Here’s hoping you are too.

 

Yarn Love: Malabrigos’ Silky Merino

Fall is just around the corner, which means kicking the knitting into high gear for the Cherokee Heights Arts Festival and Holiday presents! When I started my stash busting/inventory building this summer I had a few skeins of Malabrigo’s Silky Merino that were perfect for making some fingerless gloves. I was knitting with size US5 needles and found that after blocking, I loved the lighter, looser fabric that the yarn creates, as well as the beautiful sheen and softness perfect for gloves. I fell in love with the combination and bought a number of other colors and can’t seem to stop!

The gloves above will mostly be given away as presents (except the teal pair which I made to match my fall sweater coat), but I’m making a few more pairs for the festival. I’ve found that I can get one and a half pairs of gloves from one skein, so I am combining the remnants of two colors to make a third pair. That’s a pretty good return for a moderately priced, but luxurious-feeling skein!