First the cropped eyelet cardi that I test knit for The Andi Pants. For this picture, Melissa said “Pretend you’re playing castenets!” That’s Maggie down at my feet helping.

And here I am with Mortimer (aka Scaredy Cat) who officially lives around the corner and over the fence, but who likes to join our knitting afternoons.

Here’s Victorine, which Bob was helping to block recently. The yarn is Henry’s Attic Alpaca Marl.

And detail. One great aspect of this shawl it that it’s knit from the point up, so it works with pretty much any amount/gauge of yarn.

An Ulmus that I knit for Melissa out of Malabrigo Sock and Berocco Ultra Alpaca.

And two detail shots—the slipped stitch pattern makes this shawl extra bouncy and mixes the colors wonderfully.

Finally, here’s Skuld. I loved this knit. I’m loving the second knit in the Norns series—and I’ve already signed up for the fall three-pattern subscription which will be for shawls inspired by world heritage sites.

We are off now for a camping > Shakespeare festival > beach retreat vacation. I took great care to bring plenty of yarns and patterns, but I’m already finding out that the yarn I’ve brought isn’t necessarily suitable for the pattern I chose. Oh well, maybe I’ll have to bu some more.

To put it simply, I fell in love. The mix of fibers (80% cotton/20% wool) is just magic. It feels like cotton on the skin, but there’s just enough wool in it to keep my hands from getting sore as I work with it. This will definitely be one of my go-to yarns in the future.

And back to the test-knit.

Isn’t this detailing lovely? Now I’ve just got to sew the buttons on. We aren’t having sweater weather right now, but this sweater will be getting a lot of use come fall.

Once the pattern is widely available, I’ll post an update and a link.

P.S. If you’re interested, Andi has a nice review of several cotton-blend yarns she tried on this sweater over at her blog.

First up is a blocking shot of Skuld, pattern from Knit and Knag. When I first saw this shawl on Ravelry, I knew I had to knit it. Had to. Soon. As in immediately.

This blocking picture is a bit of a tease, as I don’t yet have a shot of it off the boards, but I’ll remedy that soon.

This shawl is part of a three month “Seasons of Lace” series. For $24, you get one new shawl pattern each month throughout the summer, each of them inspired by one of the norns—the Scandinavian fates, who spin, measure, and cut the thread of life.

As you can see, the shaping of this shawl is unique. I pinned it out doubled over to make sure the two halves were symmetrical.

I knit this shawl from one of my favorite yarns: alpaca marl from Henry’s Attic. It comes in big, 600-yard skeins, and I weighed mine carefully as I progressed to be sure I was using every bit that I could, which resulted in my getting an extra repeat on either side of the shawl.

At the same time that I was blocking Skuld, I pulled out another project for blocking—Victorine, pattern from Baxter Knits, worked in a different color of Henry’s Attic alpaca marl.

I’d knit this shawl for Melissa, so of course Bob (who is not our cat, but who loves her with such a passion that he’s made the one-mile journey from his “official” home to her yard nine times now) had to help with the blocking.

*****

And now for the cilantro part of this post.

Melissa is one of those people with an instinct for making up her own recipes that combine flavors in interesting, delicious ways. Case in point: her latest creation—

Thai Cilantro Pesto

In a food processor combine the following ingredients, blending until they reach a thick, pate-like texture.

1 large bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 handful or so of basil
4 tablespoons hot pepper infused olive oil
2″ length of ginger root coarsely chopped
1/2 cup peanuts
salt and pepper as desired
1-2 teaspoons water as needed to achieve desired texture

If you don’t have pepper-infused olive oil, just add a pinch of whatever kind of hot pepper you prefer.

The finished product is deliciously complex, spicy, tangy, and just a bit sweet all at once. Serve it as a spread on crackers, baguette slices, or toast or stir it into warm pasta. Yum!

Given my fondness for moss stitch it should come as no surprise that my first pattern through Knit Pick’s Independent Designer Program is the “I Love Moss Stitch Shawl.”

I made up the pattern for this on a road trip last summer. I had two different but coordinating skeins of hand-dyed yarn, and I wanted a pattern that would show them off to best advantage, not be too complicated to interfere with watching the world going by outside my window, and not be so boring that it drove me to distraction.

When I blocked this shawl, I pinned the ruffle into pleats.

I love how they hang on the finished piece—drape-y and crisp all at once.

If you use the link above to get to my pattern, you’ll see that the sample is knitted in different—and much more vivid—colors. I think that’s one of the strengths of this pattern: it works well with a range of yarns.

If you’d like to buy a copy, you can download one for just $1.99 via Knit Picks. And if you have any questions, you know where to fine me: right here at What If Knits.

My choices:

I feel a bit overwhelmed by the variety of stitch patterns in this jacket, but imagine replacing some of them with stockinette or garter. The overall lines of the piece would become the main feature—and they’re darling.

This cardigan strikes me as one of those basic pieces that one could wear over and over again. I can imagine it in cotton for spring and in alpaca or angora for winter.

I’d like to have this cardigan tossed in the back seat of my car for impromptu beach walks. I know some people would prefer long sleeves on a garment this bulky, but I like to keep my sleeves short or 3/4-length for the sake of thermoregulation.

And isn’t this one a beauty? I could pull it on over almost anything and look both polished and comfortable at the same time.

Lucky me—Thea said “yes.”

Note that the actual color is a woodsy heathered yellow-green—available for a song at Little Knits—but the camera had other ideas.

What I love about this sweater is the detailing. A pretty, pretty front with interesting shaping and lace along the opening.

And the back has a matching lace panel.

Because this is a top-down sweater, you can try it on as you work on it to get just the fit you like. I opted for slightly loose and swing-y.

The one change I made on my version is that I worked the neck/front band in garter stitch. Nothing wrong with the original—I just wanted to and Thea was good enough to humor me.

I really loved the test-knitting process: trying to imagine the questions different knitters might ask as they worked on the piece, looking for spots where I could suggest a bit of wording that would help make things even clearer. Mind you, the pattern was good from the get-go: well written and easy to follow. When I get to sweater design someday, I’ll be better for having worked with Thea in this capacity.

Up next? I get to test-knit Shiraz. I’ve got six skeins of peacock blue Cascade 220 that are waiting for that baby to get back from the tech editor.

The pattern is available through Ravelery. If you’re not on Ravelry, you can drop Thea a line via her blog—I’m sure she’ll be able work something out with you.

I don’t know if this stitch is an original or if it comes from a dictionary I haven’t seen before—but the price of the pattern is worth it just for this stitch. Don’t like the garment it’s featured on? Buy the pattern anyway and knit it up into a stole or insert it into a tried-and-true favorite sweater.

I’m knitting mine up (going with the pattern as written; it definitely offers the comforts promised in the title) in Cascade 220, a heather called Japanese Maple. The leaves are going to look all russet-autumn-glorious. I’ll be turning circles in front of every mirror I come across, just so I can keep admiring them.

For the record, while this pattern has cardi it its name, it’s really more of a shrug—a big, loose drapey shrug, not one of those tight little things that won’t ever close in the front. Once the weather gets cool enough, I probably won’t be taking it off for weeks at a time.

P.S. Pockets! It’s got pockets! Gotta love that.

I have a glorious summer stretched out in front of me with nothing much planned but sitting in the shade of an apple tree and knitting for hours every day.

In my initial bliss I’m pulling out various projects that I got bogged down on. I’m sure you know the kind I mean—the ones that really are worth finishing, but that are going to require some tweaking or frogging or other fuddlements and frustrations before they’ll be done.

Yesterday I pulled out an Ulmus that I’d stopped working on when I discovered halfway through the leaf edging that I did not, in fact, have a second skein of that red-black Berroco Alpaca Fina that I was sure was hiding in my stash somewhere. My friend Chris was good enough to pick up another skein for me at a shop over in San Jose, but it was a different dye lot, and the difference really showed, so I spent the better part of a baseball game ripping out the old edging, carefully picking up the 270-odd stitches, then hand-winding the new skein of yarn so I could begin knitting. The edging has 34 rows. I was on row 22 when I ran out the first time—now I’ve worked my way back to row 19.

After this project is done, I’ve got a Swing Cardigan most of the way done in a yummy, yummy henna green Elsebeth Lavold Baby Llama. I stopped working on that one when I hit the neck bind-off. Not that a neck bind-off is rocket science, but just that I was so exhausted every day when I got home from work that I didn’t trust myself not to make a complete mess of it. After the neck bind-off, it’s just underarm seams and button bands. Hooray!

Glorious, glorious summer. Yes, I have to calculate grades and write narrative evaluations, but it’s literally months until I have to be in front of a class again. And after the last set of essays is marked, I won’t face another pile of those until late September.

Let the knitting begin!

On:
• Melissa’s vest in Lavendar Rowan Aran Tweed
• Citron Shawl in amoroso Malabrigo
• Spanish Armada Shawl in amazing green/blue hand-dyed alpaca lace from Lisa Souza
• Girasole in bright orange cotton/silk blend

Excavations:
• Child’s sweater in soft orange silk/wool blend
• Slip-stitch scarf in black and grey wool/camel blend
• Aran Cabled Shrug for my sister in dark green Lamb’s Pride Bulky

Part of the issue seems to be that his mom moved from a house to an apartment, and apartment living does not agree with Bob. He prefer the nautical life, which in his case means living under a tarp on the boat in our neighbor’s driveway.

Bob’s favorite pastime is staring at Melissa’s door in hopes of food. When mealtime gets close, he’s right up beside it, staring, staring, staring, and doing little pull-ups so he can peer through the window that’s set in the top half of it.

But even when mealtime is a long way off and he’s puttering about the yard, he keeps an eye out for Melissa, just in case. As bringer-of-food, she occupies a particularly large place in his fluffy little heart.

Take a look at the picture below. Can you spot Bob? He’s right there, staring up at the bedroom window and hoping for a treat.