double batch

cooling off

summer is fading and this chickadee is feeling blue...and green...

sunny afternoon...in the summertime

and in summer space

sunrise/sunset

here's another take on the neighborhood version of the dipped infinity scarf. this is the purples colorway and it is currently available for purchase online! it is a delicious blend of blushing berries knit in the yummiest superwash merino on the market.

you provide the needles and the knitting power, everything else is included in the kit. you'll get the pattern and eight small skeins of yarn with just enough yardage to finish up with few leftovers.

the sample above was hand-dyed and hand-knit by karida of neighborhood fiber co. what an overachiever! and a brilliantly talented one at that.

love is like falling...

...and falling is like this:

this is a sample for neighborhood fiber co using eight different colors of their very own studio sock, a 100% superwash merino fingering weight yarn. the pattern is dipped infinity scarf, by cosmicpluto knits. and you can buy the yarn and the pattern as part of a pre-made kit from nfc's big cartel site.

there are three colorways to choose from, previously blogged about here.

the color change kept this knit fun and interesting. it was exciting to start a new section and to see how it finally turned out. the finished product reminded me of fall, which seems so far away amid these sultry summer days.

all in the family

way back when, my mom and i collaborated on a quilt. it was one of the first that she'd ever made, and my first attempt as well. since then, she's barely let her sewing machine cool down! her skills, which were never anything to sneeze at, have just sharpened like a hot needle. her piecing is super precise and her binding is just beautiful.

since that first faltering attempt, she's gone on to make many a magical quilt. like everything made by hand, they carry a bit of the maker along with them. and all of the quilts that my mom has had hands on are happy, comforting and warm...just like her.

her most recent really is a gem. she embroidered each panel by hand! then pieced the panels together perfectly. it was hand quilted by another woman, who also did an excellent job, and then returned to my mom for her to apply the binding. the finished product is a family heirloom, the kind of thing that should be passed down the generations with loving words about its creator.

way to sew mom!

desafinado

love is like a never-ending melody
poets have compared it to a symphony
a symphony conducted by the lighting of the moon
but our song of love is slightly out of tune

- from desafinado, by antonio carlos jobim

in the world of this chickadee, music and knitting are very often linked together. patterns will bring songs to mind and those songs are sung or hummed or played or thought of in time to the rhythm of the needles. sometimes musical moods contribute to color combination. in this case, they helped select the name of the next pair of socks.

skew, a sock pattern by lana holden, immediately had me singing desafinado. the song's title means "slightly out of tune" in portuguese. and these socks are slightly off center too. starting at the toe and working their way up on a slant, their construction is a total surprise. every aspect of this sock was something new...from the cast-on, to the kitchenered heel, to the short row spiral of the stocking.

the yarn lent itself rather well to the climbing corkscrew. it was something from the stash, cherrytree hill supersock select, a low micron merino which means that it is softer than the usual sock yarn but still superwash.

if you were around when these were on the needles, apologies for my own more than slightly out of tune rendition of the classic bossa nova. here's a marvelous rendition, by the brazilian master joão gilberto:

jaywalking

the jaywalker sock pattern by grumperina deserves all the credit for inspiring this chickadee to knit socks. they never looked all that interesting or fun, until this pattern popped up on ravelry. now with a couple of completed pairs under my soles, i've learned that socks are extremely addictive and enjoyable to knit.

a stashed yarn, dream in color smooshy (in ruby river), met up with a stashed pattern with great results! the two go quite well together, don't you think? the smooshy is a super superwash wool which means that it can meet up with the machine when it is time for a touch-up.

can't wait to walk down the street (responsibly, lawfully, obeying all rules and crossing only with the light in crosswalks...of course) in these!

summer stock

behold the latest bags in space:

that 70's bag

just when you thought it was safe to click on this chickadee...the bags are back!