Tag Archives: Stopover

Red Stopover bliss, more yarn

Posted on January 4, 2017 | 6 comments

I love my new Stopover. It fits just like the blue one, except the sleeves are 3/4″ longer, which is perfect.

In the end, I chose pink for the color pops. I don’t usually like pink and red together, but I love this. I think it works because it’s just a little pink, an accent.

I was inspired by TrudyG’s Stopover on Instagram. I loved it when I first saw it last spring during the BangOutASweater KAL, and the colors have been in the back of my mind ever since. Thanks, Trudy, for letting me share your picture here. (Trudy’s Stopover on Ravelry, for more pictures and details.)

A lot of people loved the multicolored color pops, but that wasn’t the look I wanted. At least not on this one. But now I’m thinking: Wouldn’t a dark gray Stopover be awesome with the same white and mid-gray for contrast colors, and then a rainbow at the yoke? There are 12 “feathers”, so I could do a six color rainbow twice around. Would it be crazy to have three Stopovers? I love the way they fit, and can knit them mostly on auto-pilot. But it does take knitting time, and I have several design projects in the queue. Hmmmm.

Not that the design queue stopped me from buying this yarn yesterday. Malabrigo Rasta, in Zarzamora. It’s for a quick little brioche scarf project from the fine folks at Mason-Dixon Knitting. I’ve been meaning to explore brioche, and this is a quick entrée into that world. I’ll be taking a brioche class with JC Briar at Madrona, but couldn’t resist a little taste now.

Oh! Mom’s home from Antarctica, and she did get her Kilter hat in time for the trip. I’m happy to report that she loved both.

What’s on your needles for January? For me, the linen mini-skeins (I guess those Mason-Dixon gals are getting to me!) and the Rasta so far. The linen counts as design project and as knitting, so double duty there. You?

6 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged BangOutASweater, kilter, mason dixon knitting, Stopover

Puff the magic pastry, encore

Posted on January 1, 2017 | 4 comments

Happy new year!

Apparently I’m a fan of the repeat, especially for things that are quick, easy, and look good. My Stopover is a case in point.

So are Korknisse.

I’m also a fan of the quick and easy in the kitchen, but it has to be delicious.

One of my go-to desserts is a simple pear tart. Fresh sliced pears tossed with lemon juice, arranged on a bed of puff pastry, brushed with butter and sprinkled with sugar before a little turn in the oven.

Paired (peared? hah!) with my favorite bourbon caramel sauce, this is a heavenly dish. My favorite aunt sends me pears at Christmas, so we had pear tart with Hanukkah dinner last Saturday.

What else can you do with puff pastry? These chocolate chip pinwheels showed up in my Facebook feed as something I did 3 years ago. Looking at the recipe, I thought it could benefit from a hotter oven than the previous go-round, so I had to try it again to figure out time and temperature. We had these on the last night of Hanukkah yesterday. A week bookended with brisket, latkes, and puff pastry is a good week indeed.

Chocolate pinwheel puffs
Yield: 9 pretty puffs, and two not so pretty ones

Ingredients:
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (I used Pepperidge Farm)
3/4 to 1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 egg
sprinkle of sugar, optional

Thaw puff pastry for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Use a little non-stick spray in the bottom of a standard muffin tin to keep melted chocolate from sticking, or paper muffin cups.

Use a rolling pin to roll out dough to about 12″ by 12″, not a lot thinner, mostly just to roll out the creases. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips over the surface. I’m guessing on the amount, you could go lighter or heavier if you want. Let your conscience be your guide. Mine looked like this. (sorry, bad kitchen lighting)

Roll the dough up into a tube. Scramble the egg to make an egg wash, and brush some on the edge to seal the roll. Slice the roll into 1 inch pieces. Place the pieces into the muffin pan. They look like they’re too small for the pan, but they’ll puff up. The two end pieces won’t be as pretty; you can add additional chocolate chips to make up for it. Brush the pinwheels lightly with the egg wash, and sprinkle them with sugar for a bit of sparkle and crunch if you’d like.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-17 minutes, until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Eat the not quite so pretty end pieces first to hide the evidence.

I’m on to blocking for my Stopover. I was shocked at the difference in feel between the unblocked red sweater and the blocked blue sweater. Blocking is magic with Lopi! I’m hoping it’s dry tomorrow, so I can show you which color I chose for the color pops.

Happy knitting, and happy munching!

4 Comments

Posted in foodies!, Knit, recipe

Tagged chocolate pinwheel puffs, korknisse, pear tart, puff pastry, Stopover

Same song, second verse

Posted on December 31, 2016 | 9 comments

I finished knitting my Stopover last night, and it’s on to the color pops! I like duplicate stitch for this part, so I don’t have to commit to a color until the very end. I used the spring green last night. In the light of day, I’m not sure it has enough pop when used as single stitches.

The other auditioning colors, from left to right:
Lopi yellow, Lopi orange, Lopi rose, Malabrigo purple, and Malabrigo yellow.

I like the Lopi yellow, except it makes the red start to read more brick than garnet. I like garnet. The rose is monochromatically girly. I could also keep the spring green. What do you think?

To me, this is the most fun part of the project!

9 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged BangOutASweater, Stopover

Stopover to Aloha

Posted on December 29, 2016 | 3 comments

Is my Stopover done?

Nah, who knits with Lopi in Hawaii? Well, me, just for a bit, but I also brought some linen to play with. This is the Euroflax Sport mini skein set from Mason Dixon Knitting, in Sea.

I think they are spot on with the colors! I had an idea for this set, and after six swatches, I think it knows what it’s doing.

It’s on hold, now that I’m home, and cold! But the plan is set.

I knit a sleeve on the flight home, stopped to prep for Hanukkah and Christmas, and knit the other sleeve in the last couple days. I didn’t have my row counting stitch marker with me on vacation, so I made do with a piece of contrast color yarn, flipped from front to back or back to front each time I made an increase. One must make do with the tools at hand. I think I actually like this better than the row counter; it’s very visual.

I now have three tubes, and am headed toward something resembling a sweater. I am really looking forward to wearing this! In the meantime, here are some vacation pictures because, aloha.

The full moon coincided with the beginning of our time on Maui, and you know how I am about the moonset. So glad I took my real camera with me; the iPhone can do most things, but not this.

We had a couple stellar day trips. One was to the Lāna’i Cat Sanctuary (512 cats!) on the next island over. Fun day, with two ferry rides, drinks at the Four Seasons, and some tide pooling on a very beautiful beach.

We saw three whales playing near a sailboat in the sunset from our ferry back to Lahaina.

My favorite day included a hike to the Nakalele Blowhole. This is Mother Nature at her most impressive.

Rainbows everywhere! (If you’re curious about the gifs, I’m using an app called Motion Stills, free from Google, that makes gifs from iPhone “live photos.” It has image stabilization, which is awesome. It can also make short videos from the same photos.)

We really enjoyed the wraparound lanai on our rental condo. We had views of Lana’i and Moloka’i. Erosion has taken away the beach, but we were there for the views, including monk seals and green turtles swimming past. A perfect getaway.

Sneak peek at a new shawl design debuting in January. Until then, aloha!

3 Comments

Posted in cat, Knit, travel, yarn

Tagged Aloha, euroflax, linen, maui, moonset, Stopover

Christmas not Christmas colors

Posted on December 12, 2016 | 3 comments

I love my blue Stopover sweater; I wear it a lot! The sweater is light as a cloud, and the Lopi yarn does not pill at all.

I knit it last spring in 8 days during the BangOutASweater KAL. I’ve decided I need another one, this time in red.

My first color combo made sense in the skein, but when I started knitting my swatch the black was too harsh. It was red, black, and one of the grays. Note how the black is the darkest tone in the picture above. I wasn’t happy, so I pulled out some pink and green from my leftovers to see if that helped. I wanted a cloudy feeling to go with my light as a cloud sweater.

We had an ice storm last week, and that meant I couldn’t get to the yarn store to pick another color. I almost got desperate and cast on with the green to go with light ash and red, but was afraid it would be too Christmassy.

On Saturday things were thawed enough that I could stop at the Knitting Bee and pick another color, as well as teach at For Yarn’s Sake. Here’s what I have now.

I love that the garnet red as the main color is the deepest tone, just like the lapis blue is on my original sweater. The light ash and white are like frosting at the edge. I’ll still use the spring green, but only as the color pops on the yoke (where the yellow is on the blue sweater). Just a little Christmas, but not overwhelming. I’m cruising along, and have finished one ball of red and am on to the waist shaping. Go, go, go!

What’s on your needles? Are you gift knitting? Done? I finished my Kilter hat for Mom, and it’s on its way and hopefully will be helpful on her trip to Antarctica. I want pictures!

3 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged BangOutASweater, kilter hat, Lopi, Stopover

FO: Stopover BangOutASweater

Posted on February 24, 2016 | 6 comments

Well, that was a hoot!

I knit this Stopover in 8 days, and then set it aside to wait for my color pop swap yarn to arrive in the mail. What a difference a color pop makes!

The swap yarn arrived shortly after I got home from Madrona. (Go back to the previous two posts if you missed the Madrona fun.) I auditioned all but the purples, which were too dark against the lapis background. And I tried my green one more time.

Orange, yellow, green? Yellow! It looks like daffodils and bluebells in spring.

I’m super happy with this sweater. Thanks so much to bluecanarygirl (Ravelry) for organizing the yarn swap. The yellow makes my heart sing.

The sweater fits perfectly, with a bit of ease but not a ton. It did not change size with blocking (I didn’t want it to). I did spin some of the water out of it, but I put it into the top loading washer in an up and down orientation so the spin wouldn’t elongate the body or arms. Short spin, rearrange, short spin. Pat out to dry.

The Lett-Lopi wool isn’t super scritchy; it’s like wearing a cloud. Except at the neck. I took the FO picture without a turtleneck under it, because I wanted to show the neckline (you can see a bit of my black T). But yesterday I wore it with turtleneck, and it was perfect.

Thanks to Mary Jane Mucklestone for a perfect pattern, and Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner at Mason-Dixon Knitting for dreaming up this very fun KAL! You can see a collage of FO’s over at the MDK blog; I see me in there! That post has links to all the help you’d ever need if you want to bang out a Stopover of your own. My Ravelry project page with notes is here.

Other recent fun? Clara Parkes was here to read from her new book, Knitlandia, at Powell’s in Portland last Saturday. Guess who won a Claramel?

The green knitting in the photo is done! Time to block, and finish up the pattern. Reveal coming soon…

6 Comments

Posted in KAL, Knit, yarn

Tagged BangOutASweater, clara parkes, mason dixon knitting, Stopover

Bang Bang BangOutASweater!

Posted on February 9, 2016 | 14 comments

I finished all the knitting on my Stopover last night! Monday to Monday, and done. Except for the color pops. I’m waiting for my swap of color pops to come in the mail, and I’ll duplicate stitch them when I choose a color!

Mods: I made a rolled neck edging because I don’t want Lett-Lopi ribbing at my neck. I skipped the last row of colorwork, knit a round with my neck color. Changed to smaller needles (US9) and knit 7 more rows (so 8 rows total). No neck decrease, just kept the stitches left over from the colorwork section. Bound off with larger needle (US10.5). It makes a lovely rolled edge, and the neck hole is not tight around my neck.

I knit the whole thing one size larger, to compensate for my difference in gauge. I used the sleeve cast on number for the next smaller size, and continued the increases until I reached the right number.

Still need to graft the underarms, weave in ends, add color pops, wash and block. But I’m calling this 99% finished. All the knitting is done!

This was a quick fun knit. Sweater is 40.5 inches around, a nice sweatshirt-y fit. Now that I know what it’s like, I can see making one more fitted, but not too fitted. But I have other things to work on right now.

I’m getting ready for Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. I’m teaching a mini-class on blocking on Thursday. You KNOW I love blocking! Are you going to Madrona? Hope to see you there!

14 Comments

Posted in events, KAL, Knit

Tagged BangOutASweater, Madrona Fiber Arts Festival, mason dixon knitting, Stopover

New pattern: Meander Cowl

Posted on February 8, 2016 | 1 comment

Pattern launch! Introducing the Meander Cowl. Read down for Ravelry coupon code…

In between banging out a sweater and pillow and poncho, I’ve also been blocking and finishing Meander Cowls. Remember this from last month?

I also knit a fingering weight version of it, this time in Delicious Yarns Sweets Fingering, Green Tea colorway.

It’s even airier than its sport weight cousin. I love them both.

These elegant infinity cowls are knit flat with one 100 gram skein of fingering or sport weight yarn, then seamed to form a loop which can be worn single or doubled. The lace and cable pattern meanders back and forth along the length of the cowl, creating zigzag edges.

The Meander Cowl pattern is available for $6 as a pdf download through Ravelry. Meander Cowl link here. To celebrate its release, I’m offering 20% off with coupon code MEANDER through February 22, 2016. I hope you knit one! It’s light and airy and perfect for winter or spring.

Sweets Fingering and Two Sweets Sport from Delicious Yarns feature a pop of color that wanders across the lace and cables. Blocking brings out the best in the airy zigzag lace. This cowl would also be gorgeous in a semi-solid color. Each skein of Delicious Yarns is dyed by hand, and is unique. My original cowl is on the bottom of the picture below, and my test knitter’s cowl is on the top. So very different, but both are gorgeous.

Here’s the Green Tea, before winding. So pretty!

It’s starting to feel like spring here. Yesterday I was banging out a sleeve in my back yard! I wore the green Meander, and it was perfect. No coat. Odd for February, but the sunshine was a pleasant surprise. How’s your weather?

1 Comment

Posted in KAL, Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged BangOutASweater, Delicious Yarns, Meander Cowl, Stopover

Banging out Sleeves

Posted on February 5, 2016 | 2 comments

I knit a sleeve yesterday. An entire sleeve. This is quick knitting, I tell ya! I’m on the second sleeve now.

I could have knit both sleeves yesterday; they’re that fast. But I took some time out to seam this pillow.

It’s another Snowy Woods Log Cabin Blocks pillow. I made it with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash Bulky for the Knit Picks IDP program. The pattern will be for sale on the Knit Picks site, as well as the the version that’s already up on Ravelry. More Snowy Woods! More Log Cabinning!

I also took time out to make these pillows. (Whoa. Just noticed they’re the same color as the log cabin pillow. We have a palette here.)

I was inspired to make these when I saw the cat pillows over at Mason-Dixon Knitting last month. The fabric was printed by Spoonflower. Now my grown kids can have their own cats at their respective abodes!

I’m not sure what Mookie thinks of them. But I’m sure I’ll never get that little top hat on her again.

Apparently yesterday was a very Mason-Dixon Knitting day. The #BangOutASweater KAL, the cat pillows…and I learned to log cabin from the first Mason-DIxon Knitting book. I made this blanket way back in 2008-2009.

So thanks, Ann and Kay! You’ve changed my life!

Back to the sleeves…some people are already finished with their first KAL Stopovers, and starting a second one! I’m looking forward to starting the yoke patterning. Just have to power through this sleeve, first.

2 Comments

Posted in Blogging, KAL, Knit, Other craftiness, yarn

Tagged BangOutASweater, log cabin, mason dixon knitting, snowy woods, spoonflower, Stopover

Banging along…obsessed

Posted on February 4, 2016 | 2 comments

I was trying to balance my projects, but this #BangOutASweater KAL has me obsessed. Sometimes you have to give in to the momentum. I’ve been knitting like a fiend for the past couple of days. I’m feeling a little twitchy without this in my hands. I may have knitted at a few stoplights. Or not. I’ll never tell. But I finished the waist shaping on Tuesday.

I was out and about on Wednesday, but managed to knit over post-gym coffee, and then in the evening. The body is done!

On to the first sleeve. The cast on looked enormous, and I have small wrists, so I started with 4 fewer stitches (next smaller size). It will catch up as I go; I’m making the longer sleeve length.