The woods can be a mysterious place.  It’s no wonder that over the centuries, people have made up many a tale of magical creatures living deep in the lush, thicket of the forests.  I imagined that you were to ever stumble upon a fairy, gnome, or elf, they might be wearing something like the Elfin Cable Cardi.  This cropped cardigan is perfect for jaunts in the hills or mountains, especially for the up and coming fall season.  An excellent layering piece for your next short walk or long hike.

I’m considering this my first grown up project.  Honestly, I’m surprised that it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to.  The picture in my head matched the finished product, I wish everything worked out like that.  Presenting my Elfin Cable Cardi (available here, on Ravelry)!

The small size takes only three skeins of Cascade 220, with some to spare, so this project can be very economical.  Once you get into the groove of the cable pattern, you’ll fly right through this project.

Notice that there’s only one seam, such a relief.

After finishing this project, I have a craving for more cables (one would think I’ve had enough, but oh no, not me).  But first, a few WIPs require my attention…

There’s silence in my house again.  Wee One is in school and my SIL, Cassie, and her SO, Alan, made their way back to Pennsylvania just yesterday.  We get so few visitors, their company was greatly appreciated and welcomed.  However, Cassie’s vegan and thus our meals were, too.  I’m exhausted and those little vienna sausages look like choice cuts right now.  Let the carnage begin.

I wish I had taken more pictures, but Alan was right on top of that.  We asked for them to send us a disk and hopefully I can share some highlights from their visit.  You can head over to my Flickr for a few tidbits.

My secret project is finished and awaiting the perfect buttons (which, of course, had to be ordered from the buttondrawer.com).  This time has given me a chance to write out the pattern in its entirety.  A few finishing touches and it should be available by the end of the week.

Here is the Lichen Hat for my SIL.  I actually completed it before she arrived (funny, because I usually don’t finish gifts until several months after they’ve departed, this is a strange feeling).  As before, it’s the LichenHat because the yarn is Knit Picks’ Telemark in Lichen.  I had two strays and my SIL looks better in yellow/mustard colors than myself.

Currently, I’m on something.  No, not drugs.  I’m designing something big.  But it’s uber secret, I’m sorry, I just don’t want to spoil anything.  I promise I big, grand photo shoot in the end…  And a pattern.  SQUEE!

What a relief it is to have finished a knitting project, and even more so that I was able to knit from my new book afterall.  I found some stray skeins hiding out in some boxes and after some quick calculations and a few yarn searches, I concluded that there was ample yardage to make this hat.

The hat turned out a little larger than I had anticipated, but the Telemark is sport weight whereas the recommended yarn is closer to fingering weight.  Eh, whatever.  I’ll live.  Here are a few more details:

Pattern:  Uh, well, I’m still working on the translation.  But it came from the Japanese book Simple Knit Wardrobe (I’ve also seen it deciphered as Easy Knit Wardrobe).  For now, it’s the Bayberry Hat.

Yarn:  Knit Picks’ Telemark in Bayberry, two skeins.

Needles/Hooks:  (2) US 3 16″ circular needles and 3.5 mm crochet hook.

There were two more skeins of the Telemark in Lichen, which are currently being transformed into an additional hat for my SIL.  This hat is so quick, I see a last-minute gift tradition brewing already.  Imagine a baby version…  AW!  Sigh.  A friend is pregnant (and a cousin, but we already know that one is a boy) and will, hopefully, be spying that X or Y chromosome soon.

I’m routing for a XX just so I can make another hat.

A lot goes into the arrival of an anticipated book, I think.  The knitting books, especially those coming from Hong Kong, cause me to spend a lot of energy just pining for them.  This time, to a degree that my knitting projects have suffered (but I did finish the first sleeve on my mom’s Slouchy Cardigan, so nah). 

Le sigh.  It is here.  And although I can decipher the patterns just fine, I’m considering taking a course in Japanese just because I love their patterns.  I am, in a sense, a knitting dork.  Does anyone know of any Japanese lessons in Savannah?

All of these things want to be mine.

They told me.

Don’t look at me like that.

You should never mock crazy people.  Ever.  And never ever mock crazy knitters. 

I didn’t just sit around this whole time I was absent from the blogiverse.  I jumped back into reading, non knitting related reading.  There were two Alice Hoffman books sitting, untouched, on my bookshelf that needed tending to.  The Ice Queen and Skylight Confessions.  Both of which were really good, but I’m still partial to Practical Magic and The Foretelling.  I know The Foretelling is a meant for younger readers (like, teens, I suppose), but oh the glory that is woman.  We rock.  I insist that Wee One grow up with that book as constant reminder of our awesomeness.

Today, however, I just finished Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job.  I was in constant giggles, any author who includes “fucktard” in their vocabulary and refers to a select group of women as “fuck puppets” certainly has my approval.  Brava. 

Back to knitting.  We’re all aware of the rising costs of food prices and gas.  Argh.  I have a pretty piddly stash, not much of anything, really.  What is on my needles is what I have and, to my dismay, the new pattern book is going to have to standby for a spell before I can actually jump on those decadent projects.  Maybe, though, one of these days I’ll be able to show you a finished project!

The carnage is over.  It took four days to completely rip out the entire Bed Jacket.  And apparently, I’m really awesome at hiding my ends because it took about twenty minutes just to find the first one.  After all of that, though, I don’t even feel like winding it into a ball (still need ball winder). 

So, with a revived seven skeins of Farmhouse Yarns’ Silk Spun Cotton, I set to work finding a more suitiable pattern.  After much deliberation, I settled on Rowan 42’s Artic.  Of course, the gauge is off so I knocked down the needles to a size US 8 and it seems to be working out. 

The new addition makes three, half completed WIPs in my possession, the others being the Slouchy Cardigan and the Bazaar Socks.  I wish I had a picture of the first finished sock, but it’s been loaned out to Wild Fibre for a display.  This weekend I plan to retrieve it as I’ve lost my color notes and need to refer to the sock. 

I also fell in love with a book that I just can’t seem to get my grubby little hands on.  I found it on Amazon’s Japanese site priced at ¥ 1,050, but the shipping is ¥ 3,000.  Gas prices have really cut into my yarn/book funds, darn it.

August 14th brings my one year bloggiversary.  I don’t know how to celebrate.  I was thinking about upgrading to custom CSS.  New pretty blog, maybe, we’ll see.  August is always a busy month, but even more so this year.  Wee One starts school (OMFG) on August 6th, my birthday is the 17th, and SIL and her boyfriend are visiting on the 21st through the 25th.  I’m dizzy just thinking about it. 

I need to finish all of these projects…

You might find this post to be shocking and perverse.

Okay, just breath.

I’m ripping out my finished Bed Jacket from Romantic Handknits.  Excuse me whilst I go vomit.

I had been thinking about for a while, several months at least.  It’s been just over a year since I finished it, yet it had only been worn once.  After that, it was quickly taken off because it was just too warm. 

You see, I started this project before I knew where our new USCG billet would be located.  At the time, we were stationed in Keokuk, Iowa (Worse.  Town.  EVER.), which was quite cold.  Out of Mr. Yarn Bearer’s ten picks, nine of them were located in the northeast (scattered throughout Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut), the very last pick was in the south (Savannah, Georgia).  I was sure I would be needing that bed jacket.

Well, you know how that story ended.  There’s nine hanks of discontinued Farmhouse Yarns’ Silk Spun Cotton in there.  I covet the Silk Spun Cotton and I can’t believe it’s gone, it would be a travesty to let all that precious yarny goodness just waste away in my closet.

I don’t know what I’m going to make with it now, certainly something that can be used often.  I’ll post when the massacre had ended.  I figured I’d at least take pictures with the new camera, just for proof that it once was.  My heart, she is sad.

Let me share with you something that I find rather humorous.  When I checked my blog stats today (I admit that I check my stats), I found the top search word people used to find The Yarn Bearer, for today, was the word ”Whore.”

I’m flattered.

SHHHH!  Quiet…

Do you here that?

Me neither.  It’s silence.  That can only mean one thing…  Wee One went to Grandma’s house yesterday and will be gone for nearly a fortnight  I have no idea what to do with myself.  Should be able to get a lot of knitting done.  This the first time she has been away from us for more than one night (and that was over a year ago when we had to do house hunting, not exactly a vacation).

Mr. Yarn Bearer had only been home from work for maybe fifteen minutes when he said, “Not going to lie, I miss her already.”  Meanwhile, I was dancing around the living room.

Ahem.  I’m working on a pair of Priscilla Gibson-Roberts’ Bazaar Socks and plan to whip them out before Wee One returns.  With the price of gas these days, I’m trying to knit from my stash as much as possible.  Considering that I own Knit Picks’ Palette Sampler, I’ll be able to work up quite a few Bazaar Socks.

I’m feeling ballsy these days, tempted by patterns that scream, “You must commit a full year of your life to me or suffer from everlasting shame!”  Okay, that’s dramatic, BUT I really want to jump into an Alice Starmore sweater, be it for Wee One, Mr. Yarn Bearer or myself.  Perhaps knitting for the Wee One will be less strenuous and cost effective. 

I almost feel like I’ve been spending too much time knitting, almost some.  Our fluffy cat, Tippy, must agree as he is slapping me in the face as I type this (for a cat, he has his high maintenance moments).  I had been so focused on Little Nelson for those eight days, and here I am, about to commit to something even more grand. 

Before I get into a Starmore pattern, Mr. Yarn Bearer actually requested a knitted item from me.  SQUEE!  You must understand, Mr. Yarn Bearer is very much a jeans and tee shirt kind of guy (when not in uniform).  I have always pushed patterns, all different kinds of patterns, onto him, hoping that maybe one would stand out and he might bow down and say, “KAYLA!  Oh, ingenious lady of amazing dexterity, grace me with this (insert pattern category here) so that I might strut my stuff in its fibery goodness!”  That’s how it comes out in my head anyway.

In actuality, it came out more like this:

“You did a good job on Wee One’s vest.”

“Oh!  You like it.  Sweet.”

“I’d like a vest to go with my fedora.”

“REALLY?!  Wait, to go with your fedora?”

The conversation went through so many twists and turns about his fiber preference (he had one?!  ah, apparently cotton being the primary, should have seen that coming) and what cables should go where (he wants them to look like suspenders, but we calls those princess seams, I’ll leave that out of future conversations).  He’s decided on Brown Sheep’s Cotton Fleece in Charcoal and I’m sketching things up right now to go over the constructs with him tomorrow.  I’ll have to document my journey of collaborative knitting with Mr. Yarn Bearer, should be very irritating satisfying.