i’ve been wanting big iris in our flower beds ever since we moved here—i love their lush flowers.

david has planted several batches of miniature iris, but their blooming gets lost among our other plantings. finally this year, we have at least one big fat iris and today, it bloomed. what a beauty, eh?

love the brown and purple mix of colors and that little flame of yellow at the center. must. get. more

while our neighbors have poppies that are already wide open, ours are still shut tight. typically, they don’t bloom until memorial day, but once that day arrives each year they bust open right on schedule.

i’m looking forward to seeing many pink and red flowers this weekend. i do wish we had the orangey-red ones—another thing to add to the wish list for the yard. the bed where they live needs a complete overhaul; it would be good to have some lavender and rosemary there, along with the poppies and sage.

speaking of gardens,  barb brought over this adorable fairy garden; she’s now selling supplies for them in her fly by night fairie gardens and made one each for susan and i. mine is in the sunroom where we can enjoy it when taking a break. barb has lots of great stuff on there to put together one of your own; this is a wonderful project to begin now with a child or an elder, so they can work on it throughout the summer months, maybe incorporating some reading, writing, and storytelling for good measure.

i have not started yet another pair of socks to get in the way of the ones i showed you the other day—this is the cuff for a fingerless mitt to match those socks. well, to match them in design anyway, hehe. i’m knitting with our breakfast blend fingering yarn in the espresso colorway; isn’t it yummy? i’ve been wanting something in this color ever since it came in (what i really want is a sweater in the espresso DK, but i don’t have time right now to knit one).

these will be a quick, cute accessory project, perfect for traveling. starting next week, i’m going to be away for half of every week until the end of june, except for the middle week when the book chapter is due. which means that bigger projects will most likely suffer a bit and small projects will just be easier all around (and better blog fodder).

speaking of larger projects, i’ve swatched my sea pearl for the sweater i want to knit with it and all is in alignment to begin except that i need to make myself some charts. my wishes and plans seem always to exceed the actual work time i have each day lately, but i do want to get this on the needles in the next week or so, before all that travel starts. even if i can’t work on it a lot at first, it will be in a state where all i have to do is take it out of its project bag to settle in and get some work done. i can worry about pattern writing later on when i’m home for a stretch.

oh wow, i stepped outside the back door this morning and found our climbing hydrangea covered with blooms.

i can’t get over how big this vine is now—it looks sasquatch this year! seems just a few years ago that i was trying to train it to climb the bottom of the trellis.

and another thing i can’t believe it’s time for already

wherever does the time go??

this weekend we have a couple of special things for you—first we open sales of our new BNW cheviot sock yarn on friday and then on monday, a special memorial day surprise that you won’t want to miss; i promise it will be fun. have a great week; summer is almost here!

awww, the fringe tree is in bloom; isn’t it sweet? and it’s nice and breezy this week so the fringes shiver and shake all day, sending the scent straight onto the office windows, mmm.

this isn’t the best photo of my asparagus, but we’ve been picking some every day and eating it every few days when we have collected a big enough bunch to make something.

like this pasta with sautéed mushrooms, grilled asparagus, and black olives—my favorite. there’s no recipe; just sauté all that stuff with garlic and oil and put it on cooked pasta. it takes about thirty minutes, tops, perfect for hot weather meals.

it’s been a super-busy week around here since my last post—LOTS of knitting and another chapter of BNK done and dusted. we shipped a very interesting yarn this month which was really inspiring to design with (more about the yarn near the end of this post!). so much so that in addition to (spoiler alert!) the originally planned design, i snuck in a last-minute extra option, which i then had to knit with just a week to go before publication. so that’s why i was absent most of last week.

in fact, when i finally came up for air i found all manner of goodies waiting for me—more asparagus, which i cut yesterday and grilled for dinner last night with salmon. also, tender little swiss chard that sprang up all over the garden beds, which i picked this morning while it was still cool. we’ll sauté that with a few more stalks of asparagus and a handful of mushrooms to fill some omelets for dinner. mm-mmm.

the best part is, we didn’t have to do a thing to get that stuff; it all came back from last year, haha.

oh, and another thing that happened last weekend was that anne marie visited and the spinners came over for a party. we ordered in a full array of indian dishes

we opened wine and proceeded to carry on and make a LOT of noise for a few hours, haha. mister knitspot even joined us to eat, brave soul.

linda and beckie came, too; it was a lot of fun.

barb brought her bloch ness test knit, which she made up in our breakfast blend DK (which we are working on restocking). it only has one button now, but the rest are on the way—she got them custom made from buttonalia on etsy. there are some really cute choices there for useg with natural yarn colors.

naturally susan had to try it on as well and it does look great on her.

especially from the back, i think. anne marie is knitting a sample for us in our new romney/merino blend and once she’s done, we’ll release the pattern.

we just got word yesterday that our full order of romney/merino DK is ready to ship, which got me ALL excited. i am counting the days til it gets here, but with a holiday weekend looming, i’m not optimistic that we’ll see it before next tuesday. but you ever know . . .

anyway, it was really fun to have everyone together again; one thing i love about us is that we make sure to meet up a couple of times a year. one of these days we’re going to have to go to anne marie’s—maybe for maryland S&W next may . . .

like i said, once my secret knitting for the month was off the needles, i was itchy to get my hands on something completely different and get to work on some smaller projects i can knit in public; i’m going to be traveling a lot in june and i was completely out of public knitting to take along.

i’ve been thinking that it’s time to get a lightweight lace scarf going; something to add to my little nothings collection in a stitch pattern i can memorize easily, to drag around in my purse for impromtu knitting opportunities. and i wanted something with some color . . .

this exquisite lace silk/merino blend from indigo moon is just the ticket; a smooth, lustrous multi-ply lace weight in the most heavenly blue—the color of a late evening sky. i heart it.

it’s been in my stash for a couple of years, waiting for the right project. i just want to knit with this color, so i’m swatching to find the perfect motif to show it off and still experimenting.

then i started a random pair of socks in the new yarn we’ll be offering in our shop very soon. this is our “ghillie” 3-ply sock/fingering yarn, spun from 100% cheviot wool. cheviot is a soft but tough wool fiber used traditionally to make hardwearing scottish tweed and twill cloth as well as for knitting kilt hose.

we shipped ghillie to our BNK club this month to great acclaim from our members and are now preparing it for general release this friday. haha, of course, i’m hoping to have a sock ready to use in the store listing photos. think i can manage it? did i foil myself from the start by making it david-size instead of anne-size??

i dunno, it’s pretty smooth knitting; i could do it .  .

actually, i started the sock in the pattern we shipped with the club, but then realized my mistake—if i knit that design for a store listing, we won’t be able to sell the pattern with the yarn. DUH (the fine points of marketing present a big learning curve for me).

fortunately, i realized my mistake right away and ripped out the start of that first cuff to begin something new—a sock based on the strömming cap pattern. i’m excited; this pattern has been on my list for a while and now i have a very good reason to start it.

cheviot is such an interesting wool—it’s a fine, soft, springy fiber that is nevertheless sometimes classified as longwool because it also has a longer staple, is resilient and durable, and resists felting. and as you can see from the photo, it can have a some lustre. it makes a light fabric with a kind of crunchy hand (which sometimes masks its softness) and offers incredibly crisp stitch definition. when you wash it, the yarn brightens even more and blooms to make a smooth, cohesive surface.

(washed on the left, unwashed on the right)

i’ve enjoyed knitting with it a LOT. this yarn would work well for many of my long list of sock patterns—and with father’s day right around the corner, you might be looking for ideas. it’d also be great for many of my friend cookie‘s patterns, perfect for showing off all those twist-stitch motifs she’s so fond of. and if you know anyone who loves knitting kilt hose, this is the yarn for them.

we gave our club members first crack at our supply, so we are already sold out of the oversized (600 yards) skeins but have regular 4-ounce skeins (450 yards) left that will go on sale friday in our online yarn shop. and since it looks like this one is going to be popular, we are already working on a re-order of both small and large skeins.

speaking of socks, prodded by our dear friend helen, i made time the week before last to finally write up another pattern idea i’d had for a while, this one based on the squish me cap design (haha, i guess i like my socks to match my hats)

helen’s got one pair of socks done and our other friend, carol is knitting a pair here on this side of the pond in our own breakfast blend fingering (color espresso, mm), which i’ll be able to use for photography. for carol’s pair, we decided to dispense with the ribbed cuff and bring the main texture all the way to the top (as in the original cap design). the pattern will include options for both.

the pattern is all written and proofed; we just need to gather samples and do photography, yay; i’m back in the sock business for real. i even have an idea for a third pattern i want o write up very soon.

phew—lots of news! i actually have more knitting news to share, but i think i’ll save that for thursday; why drown you now and starve you later? especially when i have so much calling me on my desk. so why don’t we reconvene in a couple of days’ time to see what else is going on at chez knitspot (and maybe see some sock progress, eh?)

wow, i can’t believe it’s already time to release the next selection from the bare naked knitspot 2012 club. this time it’s a crescent shawl, knit from a fine unmercerized cotton lace yarn that knits up as soft as cashmere (really.).

wait a sec! i hear you saying—is that color i see?? isn’t BNK supposed to be an UNdyed yarn club??
what—did you all cave at the prospect of yet another neutral yarn pick??

believe me, i’m sure a few of our members thought the same when they opened their club packages last may—that somehow i’d lost my train of thought or something, haha.

but no—the cotton fiber that makes up this yarn grows in colors—all the ones you see on this page and more!

(this is one of my all-time favorite photos of my dear kim3; it captures her so well)

just look at the drape this yarn offers—SOooo soft and snuggly. easy to knit with too—this is not your dime store crochet cotton, no way.

this was one of my favorite chapters of last year’s BNK eBook to write—so full of interesting historical research, contemporary environmental information, and plant science; it was fantastic fun and brought me in contact with new friends, stephanie and steve at ecobutterfly organics.

stephanie has been incredibly helpful in educating me about the production of color grown organic cotton, but also about the global fiber industry and environmental responsibility. she is a constant source of encouragement to do a little more each day in making personal choices that are healthy for the earth.

it is one of several chapters in that book which i go back to read over again now and then. i find the story of this cotton so inspiring—the people involved have that pioneer spirit that on tough days, reminds me that my work has a purpose beyond myself, beyond making a living. it’s very comforting.

haha, it was worth the work of writing that whole book just for this result!

anyway . . . shown above, tall size crescent shawl in ecobutterfly qoperfina lace, a color grown organic cotton yarn which contains 3 percent fine copper fiber (a healing agent), here in precious deep green, one of the most rare colors (this was the color we shipped to the club last may) and deep golden brown

shown below, petite size crescent shawls in ecobutterfly organic cotton lace (no copper content) in colors sage (i see it only in qoperfina at the moment) and vicuna. i couldn’t stop knitting these soft little crescent scarves; they go into my suitcase on nearly every trip.

to purchase pattern or view complete pattern information, please click here to visit the knitspot pattern shop. or purchase the pattern in our ravelry pattern shop.

as mentioned earlier,  wandering thyme is also included in the BNK 2012 eBook, collection—12 terrific accessory patterns, each one multi-sized and suitable for gifting or keeping; many will have universal appeal for women, men, and children alike. purchase the eBook collection from the knitspot club website or in our ravelry pattern shop (it takes a few seconds to view).

another fun thing to do—click here to view the wandering thyme project pages to see more examples of these shawls knit by club members and photographed on a variety of people and in alternate yarns.

i’m sure glad we waited a few days for the oatmeal cowl to arrive, so we could add it to the photo shoot—isn’t it adorable on zach? sarah and i had a lot of fun getting him loosened up for the camera.

(i know—that doesn’t sound right, but trust me, it was all suitable for public consumption)

now that we’ve turned him into a model though, no one can get him to do his regular job any more, haha. just kidding—zach is a great co-worker.

but i do think the modeling bug has bitten him . . . just a little.

sculling is a new cowl design in three sizes, two of which can be knit with 400 yards or less of fingering weight yarn.

the fabric is light and lofty with both openwork and deep texture to make it a standout accessory with function and versatility.

it can be warm when you want it to be and more a decorative accessory when the weather is fine.

shown here in bare naked wools breakfast blend fingering yarn, a luscious merino/alpaca/nylon blend, color oatmeal (above) and burnt toast (below)

using a softer spun yarn such as the breakfast blend will result in a cowl with nice drape.

to purchase the knitspot version of the pattern or view complete pattern information, please click here to visit the knitspot pattern shop.

i can’t thank our friend candy enough for knitting up this beautiful oatmeal cowl, which looks so awesome on zach. sarah and zach are great sports to do some modeling in the middle of a work day—and so is mister knitspot for giving them some time off from club duties.

it really does take a village and we are so grateful for the one that surrounds us!

This entire week I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with emotion knowing that Mother’s Day was on Sunday. Mother’s Day. A day that has always been my mom’s day. A day that I never thought would be reserved for me.

Well…that’s not entirely true. Buddy, the good doggie that he is, gets me a card and a Starbuck’s gift card every year since I rescued him. He’s really thoughtful.

All my life I thought I would be a dog mom. I would love my four-legged fur babies like I had birthed them myself. But once I got married, I wanted a child to love and raise with the love of my life. I couldn’t believe I had this feeling, never having it before. I had heard about it from friends and relatives, but never had it happened to me. I remember asking my mom years ago about the concern of not ever having the “feeling” and her response was, “I can’t promise that you will have it, but if you do, you’ll know it is right.” I felt that response was a bunch of hooey. Such a mom answer. But, just like she said, I had the feeling and it was right.

We found out we were pregnant just a couple days before our first wedding anniversary. It was the best present! We were beside ourselves. We spent the next eight months preparing for baby.

We downloaded apps so that we could track baby’s approximate growth on a daily basis. We turned my office into a nursery and decorated it with a Peter Rabbit theme. Matt researched every baby accessory on the market for its safety and durability. Then I approved the final purchase based on aesthetics; it was a great compromise. We read everything we could about babies and also took parenting, cloth diapering, and baby wearing classes. And the week before the baby was due, we felt we weren’t prepared at all. Panic set in. Could we have done more? Do we have everything we need? I think I called my mom on the hour with tearful questions for a week straight. Her response always was, “you’ll be fine, you’ll be great parents, now get some rest.”

Padraig was born on Aug 22, 2012, and all my fears and anxiety went away when the doctor placed him in my arms and I saw the overwhelming look of joy in Matt’s face. That day I became a mother and every day I strive to be a good mom.

I have a great person to look up to as an example and I hope that I can be half the mom she is to me. Everyone I know calls her Martha (as in Martha Stewart). She could plumb a bathroom, make some curtains, plant a flowerbed, and have a crown roast on the table by sun down. She’s also one of those moms that is everybody’s mom. Have you known women like this? They’re amazing. She has an endless amount of love to give and so many people over the years felt my mom was their second mom. I can’t ever imagine being like this. It’s amazing that I remember to put on pants most days.

Growing up I remember telling my mom I couldn’t believe she made my baby food and used cloth diapers. Wasn’t it gross to rinse out diapers, wash them and reuse them? Why in the world would you spend the time making baby food that you could buy in a jar? As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I started researching cloth diapers. For so, so many reasons they are better for baby. As gross as it all is, I don’t seem to mind washing diapers. Funny, isn’t it?

And, without hesitation, I have made all of his food since he was able to try solids.

In so many ways I am turning into my mother. Every time I hear someone say that about me, I don’t cringe. I smile, because it would be such an honor to be a fraction of what she is. This photo of us, taken when I was 12 weeks old, really sums this all up.

She has held my hand through every aspect of my life since the day I was born. And now, I must do the same for my child. Last Mother’s Day she gave me a locket with the above photo inside. She left the other half empty for a future photo of me holding my child’s hand at the same age. My father took the original photo in 1978, and we had him take the photo in November of me with Padraig.

I rarely take this locket off and I love that as I browse through pictures of the last year, it is visible in so many special moments. Like this one from Christmas after we opened our matching Sky Caps my mom made us.

Matt has a special morning planned, for us to spend together as a family. He wanted our first Mother’s Day to be just us; I couldn’t agree more.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone and enjoy this special day celebrating your mother! And in case you need a last minute gift…wouldn’t mom love a membership to FIFC 2013 or a gift certificate to the knitspot shop? I know this mom would!

i’ve had this secret under wraps (no pun intended) far too long—i was all set to bust out with a hint in last saturday’s post when i’d finally blocked my scarf version but managed to contain my excitement like a big girl after all.

many of you may have even seen the wheaten wrap or throw by now, as it was included in the most recent wool people collection from brooklyn tweed—where it is, of course, shown in shelter and loft yarns.

naturally, i was anxious to knit it up in bare naked wools yarn too, and our stone soup blend was the perfect option, in fingering for the wrap and DK for the throw. light and airy, they both show off the textures beautifully in a blend of natural fiber tones while offering the character and hand which is very similar to the original yarns.

this project originated with an invitation last fall to submit design ideas for wool people 5. i’d had a great experience working with the BT team on the first wool people collection, but had to back out in 2012, after my accident in august put me behind. so i jumped at the chance to participate again this year. BT sent along a skein of loft and a skein of shelter to play with and i went shopping in my stitch dictionaries for inspiration.

i submitted a couple of ideas and jared chose my blanket/wrap/scarf design from among them. i was so glad he picked that one; i felt this stitch pattern was the perfect vehicle for his airy yarns

illuminating them with light and at the same time, showing off their cushy hand.

jared decided he wanted the large throw (in shelter) to use for photography, along with a wrap (in loft). normally not a problem because we have the most awesome test and sample knitters, but this was five weeks before the deadline—which was christmas. oy!

was there really anyone who would take on this task? as i said, we know some awesome, generous knitters, so i put out some tentative feelers and phoebe and vanessa stepped up enthusiastically to take a break from christmas knitting and make these samples happen.

how lucky am i to know such incredible knitters?? phoebe took the wrap in hand, knit in BT loft; jared chose the blanket fort colorway for this one, a pretty grey lavender.

i set about on a far more manageable project in BT loft—the scarf version in color foothills. with christmas travel on the horizon, this would be a great take along project.

and i did take it everywhere for the next couple of months actually (my sample wasn’t needed for photography), finishing it up only recently. the pattern is easily memorized and lends itself to being picked up and put down without a lot of reacquainting.

it hung around while i traveled and got caught up on other work until finally last weekend, it had its date with a bath and blocking wires—the transformation was remarkable; it grew to a wonderful size and openness.

vanessa, bless her heart, knit the big throw in BT shelter, color storm cloud—and yes, it was a LOT of knitting in a very short time, even for her. as not-so-good luck would have it (and we don’t ever wish for situations like this), poor vanessa had severely twisted her knee in a tangle with the dog and had to be laid up in bed for several weeks nursing it. the blanket project was her convalescent knitting, growing over her lap and down her legs as the weather grew colder.

she was finished by the second week of december—vanessa is SO my hero—and bundled the blanket off to me for blocking, which i was of course, thrilled to do (i know—geeky, right?). i received the blanket in the afternoon mail and put it right on to soak that evening after class. due to its bulk, i used the washing machine for soaking and spinning, placing the blanket in a large mesh bag.

david helped me get it spread out on the floor to dry; getting all those columns of pattern to lay straight was a real feat, even with two of us working at it (have i mentioned lately that mister knitspot is a sweetheart??). we intended to use blocking wires, but found it was easier to work the fabric by hand, allowing its weight to “pin” it down.

i just love the way it turned out; i was now anxious for our own yarns to start arriving on site so we could knit a sample in one of them. when the stone soup blend came in, i knew that was the one—it’s tweedy texture and complex of natural fibers would be stunning as wheaten, albeit different than the BT yarns.

shown above, the stole in size medium in bare naked wools stone soup fingering, color pumice.

the large throw is shown in BT shelter, color storm cloud; will also work beautifully in bare naked wools stone soup DK, or our romney/merino DK coming due out soon.

the scarf is shown in BT loft, color foothills; a great spring green.

our version of the pattern has all these options PLUS a bonus—when i was getting it ready for publication on our end, i added a baby blanket version, knowing how popular they are with our knitters. who couldn’t use another baby gift option?

to purchase the knitspot version of the pattern or view complete pattern information, please click here to visit the knitspot pattern shop.

tremendous thanks and applause to phoebe and vanessa—they are the only reason i have something to show you today, trust me! they really came through in a pinch and i am incredibly grateful to them both.

by the way, vanessa, after doing all that knitting on the blanket, cheerfully agreed to knit the stone soup stole version as well . . . i know—crazy generous, right?

phoebe too, has completed many knitspot test knits and samples; i have a gorgeous rendition of gnarled oakwoods which she recently completed in our new romney wool yarn, which i’m planning to reveal very soon.

and of course, many, many thanks to jared flood and the brooklyn tweed team for inviting me to participate in the wool people design series and provide generous yarn support for developing these patterns.