February Girlie

The February Lady is nothing short of a phenomenon. Everybody has made one it seems. (Heck, I've made three of them!) Based on the February Baby sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman, it seems like everybody gets to enjoy the February fabulousness.

And now that's absolutely true. Ellana has knit a February Lady for her daughter, Lily. And this February Girlie looks fabulous!

Ellana made the smallest size, used a smaller needle, and made the sweater shorter. It's knit out of Cascade Sierra Quattro, a wonderful cotton/wool blend.

Happy Spring!

I know the weather is chilly and rainy right now, but it is Spring! We've had a few days when it's been undeniable. We'll have a few more days this weekend.

If you've been around the Knit Nook lately, you are aware of the current season.

Take these birdies for instance. Becca made the blue bird (free pattern here) and the Mayor made the yellow duckie (which I can't find the pattern for on Ravelry--but have you ever done a search for "bird"? It's AMAZING!) Both projects were knit (yep! not all adorable animals are crocheted) out of washcloth cotton.

Our Mayor threw herself into Easter knitting. She also made a mama sheep (with removable coat) and baby sheep out of Plush. The pattern is called Sheep in Sheep's Clothing--how cute is that? [rav link] The Easter bunny was good to some grandchildren this year!

You just had to check out their little butts, too. Look at blue bird's tail feathers!

Wellspring Auction

For the last few years, we've donated a basket of yarn and a gift certificate for the Wellspring Silent Auction.

This year, we thought we would do a bit more.

We collected squares and then Jane (our Mayor) put them together. It's a beautiful blanket, with hundreds of dollars worth of yarn and hundreds of hours of time and care invested in it. We know it will get a lot of bids!

Thanks to everybody who helped with the blanket. If you would like to support Wellspring, the auction is April 21. Contact Wellspring for more information.

Jane, Me, and Keith were only some of the people who helped knit this blanket. But we were the only ones in the shop to pose with it! Lucky us!

The Bear turns into a Dog

First, Tonya made Otto. (Read her blog post about it here.) Then, we decided to schedule a class (Sunday, June 7, 14, and 21--read the description here.)

A friend of mine who moved away last year just had a baby. I decided to make an Otto.

But the more I knitted, the more I kept declaring that its cute little face "looked just like my dog, Harper."

So the bear became a dog.

For those of you unfamiliar with my dog, he only has three legs.

There he is, lifting his stump to pee on a fire hydrant--just like the real Harper. I always tell him that he's such a cliche when he does that.

Can I just say that when I was taking these pictures, there was a man picking his daughter up from the school across the street, and he started talking to me about the stuffed animal and I couldn't understand a single word he said. And that's when I realized he was speaking in German. What the...?

Lenpur Linen

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I love spring. Well, not the allergies and fluctuating weather (really? sunshine and 70 degrees and tomorrow it's going to snow?! that hardly seems fair.) but I love the yarn!

The favorite spring yarn around here seems to be Rowan Lenpur Linen.

First of all, the colors:

All those greens!

I know what you're thinking. Linen is stiff and hard to work with. And what the heck is "lenpur" anyway? But I'm here to calm your fears. Lenpur is cultivated wood fiber (yes, it's a link for lenpur.net) and this yarn is soft and wonderful, even before washing. And at a DK gauge, it's perfect for spring sweaters.

Like this one. (And that's Summer Tweed underneath--another perennial favorite!)

The book has a few beautiful sweaters in it. Including the one on the cover. Did I mention that the stitch definition is fantastic? We've even got a few people making the Yosemite sweater out of it!

Personally, I like this sweater. Although I realize that it probably has more to do with the big chunky necklace and the pool. (If she was holding a puppy, or standing on the beach, I would be done for!)

Check this out

This is so cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw



Have a great weekend!

Daylily

I've never been fond of novelty yarns. Maybe it's because I learned to knit at the peak of scarf mania at a wonderful yarn store, so I learned my derisive attitude along with my knit and purl stitches. I tend to like natural fibers and hand dyed colors.

So why the heck am I so in love with Daylily? [rav link]

It's a cotton/nylon/acrylic blend. It looks like a ribbon, but it's not. The colors are interesting, subtle but shimmering. Usually I'm lusting after the 100% cottons this time of year (I love spring and summer knitting--cotton is my jam!) But I find that everyday I'm at the shop, I end up bringing a ball of Daylily to sit next to me at the table so I can just look at it.


I'm not alone. Most other people have fallen for this sweater.



Carla was good enough to model it for us (since I always hate when sweaters are just shown on hangers--it always makes me think, "What's wrong with it that a human being doesn't want to try it on?" But worse is when baby sweaters are modeled by dolls. Gives me the hebejeebees!) and she was also kind enough to wear a dress that coordinated so nicely with the garment.

It's the Scoop Necked Cardigan from the Daylily book. A very versatile cardigan that takes 7 - 12 skeins.

But I'm not going to make it. I was thinking (dreaming, scheming) about a short-sleeved February Lady. [rav link] The perfect spring sweater.