Iceland Bound

I blocked the Salt Creek cowl in the nick of time, and this afternoon, Lumberjack and I are getting on a plane to Iceland!  The bags are packed, Mr. Mackie is safely with my parents, and I'm definitely not freaking out at all, really, I swear!!

Have a great couple of weeks, and hopefully I'll be able to check in while we're there!

WIP: Salt Creek Cowl

 

So I mentioned my scheme for a skein of fabulous alpaca last week, and this is the work in progress!  It's another cowl, based on my Salt Creek hat pattern.  I changed the gauge for a drapier fabric, but otherwise retained a lot of elements from the original pattern.  I'm not 100% sold on the proportion of cable to garter stitch, but I'll see how it turns out after it's blocked.

This yarn, Juniper Moon Herriot, is wonderful to work with - it actually leaves my hands feeling soft and moisturized, which is usually the opposite of how they feel when I work with alpaca!  At about $20 a skein retail, it's a little on the pricey side, but I think the quality is well worth the pricetag.

Sorry to be so quiet this week - Lumberjack and I are in the process of getting our ducks in a row for the trip, so I've been cleaning, busting ass at school, running errands, and catching up with friends as Monday draws closer.  I'm not sure how busy we'll be while we're gone, so posting may be a bit sporadic for the next two weeks, but hopefully I'll return with lots of stories and pictures!

Happy Friday!

New Coat

Sadly, as I have mentioned before, this coat has given up the ghost.  It started looking pretty bad last winter - the lining has torn out at the armholes, one of the pockets is held on by a safety pin, and the back is getting threadbare about the shoulders.  I bought it about five years ago, and it got me through many an Ohio winter, and part of a Kansai winter too.  I love the crap out of this coat.  I love the shape (so clean and flattering!), and the zip front (so easy!), and the toggles (just enough interest!).  I am super sad to see it go.

And recently, my need for a proper coat has become acute, because a week from today, Lumberjack and I are going to Iceland for a music festival.

 

So on Saturday, with T-9 days to go, Lumberjack, my mom, and I went on an excursion to find me a coat.  We went to several different place, but nothing was quite right - probably because in my mind, I was so attached to The Coat that all I wanted was a new one exactly like it.  And finally, weary and defeated by our disappointing coat quest, we were in a Banana Republic factory store as a last ditch effort.  As I looked around the back of the store near the other coats, I saw a flash of toggle on a rack of black coats tucked away near the men's section.  Curious, I went over, and there it was: my yoked, zipped, toggled, wonderful coat.  A little longer, yes, and no hood, but essentially everything I loved about The Coat was there.

It's funny, because I would never have chosen this style as my favorite if I hadn't owned my old coat for so long.  It's military-inspired and not very girly, neither of which are usually my thing.  But there is something so sharp and versatile about it.  Maybe it is the fact that it's not a very feminine look that I like it so much - it provides a nice contrast to the pink, flippy things that I wear.  Who knows.  But what I do know is that the air has started to turn here in Seattle, Iceland draws closer every day, and I will plenty warm wherever my journeys may take me.

Friday Morning

  

So far, today has been a pretty quiet morning.  The weather has been rainy and cool, and in response, all I want to do is eat soup and hang out with Mackie.  This week was busy at school - I finished all of my black dress patternwork, steamed my black wool fabric, and cut out the pattern pieces.  Last night, I started construction of the dress, and when I pinned the front and back bodice pieces together to check the fit before finalizing anything, it fit absolutely perfectly.  Paradoxically, the wool gives it both a crispness and a softness - the fabric itself is pretty structured, but it has just the slightest amount of give that the treated cotton muslin doesn't.  Just another reason to love wool.

Speaking of which, I've started another shawl project.  Who's surprised?

I'm using Abstract Fiber Arts Matisse, a light fingering weight superwash BFL yarn, in the colorway Alfafa.  I'm curious to see how it blocks out, because it's just a little stiff and scratchy, and very tightly twisted.  I'm knitting another Ashton Shawlette, and scheming another Dee O'Keefe design in some Prairie.

In the last few weeks, my lack of knitting time has apparently been converted into pattern & yarn matching brilliance.  I have been sifting through Ravelry patterns hard, and finding all sorts of things to knit from stash yarn.  It's funny how this sort of thing comes in waves - I'll have weeks where I have no idea what to knit, and my stash weighs me down, but then I'll have a week like this where I'll get flashes of inspiration every two seconds and I want to Knit All The Things.

Last of all, the grey yarn is a new baby alpaca by Juniper Moon Farms.  It's worsted weight, and it is like butter.  I have a weird relationship with alpaca yarn: most of the time I'm not huge fan, but sometimes I touch an alpaca yarn and cannot live without it in my life.  Herriot was one of the latter - natural color; incredible softness; a warm, rustic wooliness that I can't resist.  I've started scheming about making a cowl out of it, based on the Salt Creek hat pattern.  We'll see how that goes.

And of course, there's Mr. Mackie!  He was being really sleepy and cute this morning, and I managed to get a few good pictures of him with his curlers still in.

Happy Friday!