Great Horned Owl
I'm on vacation but Cathartic Ink is not. Enjoy these posts, and I'll be back with even more content after the end of my Great New England Tour of Aught Nine
One of the brilliant hansigurumi patterns by Hansi Singh. I knit this back in July as a gift for Lisa, my favorite owl lover. Knit in three colors of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes it took me way longer than it should have since I kept getting distracted. The knitting itself was not super time consuming and the construction was interesting (brilliant, really. Super neat uses for short rows) but I would have liked a few more schematics. This one would be okay for wee ones if you omitted his fuzzy beak fluff and the fluff around his legs, but since they're not sewn in, it would be super easy for the very wee to pull them out and choke.
Oregon Wine Country
I'm on vacation but Cathartic Ink is not. Enjoy these posts, and I'll be back with even more content after the end of my Great New England Tour of Aught Nine
One of the many great things about living in the Willamette Valley is that it's the heart of wine making in Oregon. There are many fabulous wineries all up and down the valley, with several located just a short drive outside of Eugene. Last Friday I joined my husband and his company on a little tour of two of the wineries, Sweet Cheeks Winery and Silvan Ridge Winery for an afternoon of revelry and wine tasting.
We've had wines from both wineries before, and I'd originally chosen Sweet Cheeks' wines because of their amazing labels. I am constantly analyzing the world around me for examples of good design and there's just something I love about the Sweet Cheeks' packaging. Their logo can be seen here, on the side of their building:
The winery is located in Crow so the logo just seems so perfectly suited to the business. And to making really lovely labels, because let's face it, if you're not a wine enthusiast the label might be what makes you choose one wine over another.
Silvan Ridge was also lovely, although their logo is a bit less noteworthy. Their wines, on the other hand, are quite delicious. We had tried their Early Muscat--a sweet, semi-sparkling wine--before and loved it, enough that we brought a bottle home with us. We also both enjoyed their Pinot Gris. And this trip also solidified in my mind that I just don't care for red wines. I like their deep, rich color and they smell good to me but in the end? I just don't enjoy the way they taste. Maybe I just haven't found the right one yet.
And what trip with a big group of people is complete without some goofing around? At both wineries we played a mini tournament of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the winner taking home a bottle of wine of their choice. Get 20 people in a room and I can promise you that everyone will have a slightly different way to play that game too. We also took a few jumpity photos, like this one here:
All in all, I think everyone had a great deal of fun and we're definitely planning to visit some of the other local wineries around here before too much time passes.
Nearly Wordless Wednesday :: Leaving on a Jet Plane
I'm leaving my husband and the cats at home for a two-week visit with friends and family back home. There will be some posts while I'm away, but I didn't get as many photos edited as I wanted to so they may be fewer than I originally planned.
Sagano
I recently got the chance to test knit for Laura Chau of Cosmicpluto Knits. I've been on a real shawl/shawlette kick this summer, completing 6.5 of them since May. So when she called for test knitters for her new bamboo inspired shawl I jumped on the chance, even though she needed it completed within five days. The pattern calls for 450 yards of fingering weight yarn so I rifled through my stash and decided to use Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga! in the colorway Blue Lobster. This is a very cushy, soft yarn (80/10/10 merino/cashmere/nylon) and I used a little over 415 yards, even with adding an extra "joint" to the bamboo rib chart.
As written, the pattern measures about 42"x13". My finished shawl, with the extra bit of edging blocked gently to 46"x16". Big enough to wrap comfortable around my neck, but not big enough to wear as a traditional, shoulder covering shawl (at least not for me. Someone with more narrow shoulders and a smaller bust would probably be able to though.)
Neither of the two stitch patterns are complicate, per se, but they are a little hard on the hands. There's a lot of needle acrobatics involved which wore my hands out in the 3.5 days it took me to knit this. The end result is stunning though. The texture makes it dense and squishy, but it still has a great deal of drape and softness to it. And I love how the ribbed edge looks a lot like ruffles. Very sweet. The yarn itself was great to use, and the color is amazing, so deep and vibrant. All in all, I love this shawl! The pattern is available for purchase now.
Constantly Playing Catchup
It seems like the more I try to slow things down and enjoy them, the faster time flies. In the past month I've been to a wedding shower, a wedding rehearsal and a wedding (yay! Jodie and Anthony). Then I got bronchitis and a hefty hit of fall allergies followed by a big overhaul of the front yard (in progress still) and then a trip to Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (more on that later, if I can squeeze it in). We also emptied the storage unit we were renting, and I've been harvesting the tail end of my summer garden, making ketchup and canning tomato sauce and drying tomatoes. We got a composter. I've knit two shawls and half of a fair isle hat. And now? Now I'm making lists preparing for a whirlwind two-week solo-trip home. I'm leaving my husband here in Oregon for this one, and I'll pack my first week with family and my second week with east coast fiber folks (particularly Miss Sunshinewalks) and Rhinebeck! I'm hoping for a slow-down to happen in November, but I'm not holding my breath.