Simple hats and scarves

I know you're all still diggin' out, or swimming out, or drying out your CD cases by the heater because you left your car window down. As Shakespeare said,

"Now is the winter of our discontent."

Certainly this winter would qualify for that famous quotation. It seems like it has been winter for a year, so it's not too late to whip up a simle cap and scarf, just to break the monotony. Darrell did the for his sister Lauren, (left) and her friend Jackie, (rright).

Lauren's eggplant scarf and hat are simple ribbing made with Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande. Jackie's grey hat and scarf are also made from Baby Alpaca Grande. The hat is the Amanda hat, free on Ravelry, the scarf a simple garter and drop stitch pattern. You can contact Darrell for the pattern, but it's so easy to knit a couple of rows, the do yarn-overs and drop tham on the next row. A new hat and scarf in dark days of winter, when we're looking for our children , or ddigging our car out, or traveling long distances in the snow, fog, rain, ice, ad nauseum, is a pick-me-up. And while you're knitting your winter item, you can be meditating on what you are going to knit for spring. Honest, it's right around the corner.

"The sun'll come out, tomorrow..............."

This is the Queen Ewe modeling the Whirligig Scarf knitted with Art Yarns Beaded Silk and Sequins. This one is for sale for $225.00, as it took three hanks of this high quality and heavily beaded and sequined yarn. The longest part of this twisted scarf has 1250 stitches on it. It would make a great gift for a very special person.

Once again, we would love to hear what other yarns you would like us to carry, especially for Spring and Summer. We do have Cascade Sierra, a cotton yarn in beautiful colors that knits up beautifully. (Clilck on our yarns button to see all of the warmer weather yarns). We also have Great Adirondak silk and bamboo in beautiful colors, a real quality yarn. I have knitted three Clapotis with this yarn and always receive compliments when I wear them. The clapotis pattern can be found on Knitty.com and can be knit with many different yarns. We hope those of you in the Midwest and East are digging out without too many problems, and are wearing all of those great items you have knit to stay WARM.

Karen's Plymouth Encore Cable Sweater

This is Karen from Tucson. You can tell by her smile how much fun she is to spend time with. She comes to Kanab twice a year to volunteer in Cats at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. If you have seen the program "Dog Town," on the Nat Geo channel, it is filmed At Best Friend's, the largest no kill animal sanctuary in the country. Volunteers come year round from all over the world to volunteer their time with the animals. She orders yarn from us and we always go out to dinner with her when she comes to Kanab. We clicked the first time she came into the store. She knit this cable sweater with Plymouth Encore and did a great job. She loves knitting with Plymouth Janee the best. More to follow with Karen. She will be back in May when we have our Greyhound Gathering. If you have adopted a greyhound from being euthanized, or just have one, you should go to the Kanab website to find out about it.

Gisela's Damask Rose Scarf

We're so excited to be able to display Gisela's Damask Rose scarf. We would love for you to send us your finished work in a photo, so that we can share the accomplishments of our Cozy Ewe knitters and crocheters. Gisela's scarf was done with Malabrigo's Paris Night, a very popular color, but would look good in many other Malabrigo and other yarns, as well. We knit many of our lace scarves and shawls with sock yarn, as well as lace weight. There are so many interestingn patterns and projects to knit, it's hard to decide.
We encourage all of our customer/friends to send us photos of their finished projects so that we can enjoy each other's work. It makes Winter more bearable, besides.

Mea culpa

Just a quick mea culpa regarding the name of the strangled vines scarf on Ravelry. It is the "Strangling Vines" scarf. Still fun and worth it to knit if you want to try a less daunting lace project to get yourself started. Have fun.
The Queen Ewe

My latest projects...

I've been receiving a steady flow of pressure to get pics of these items on the blog....the lace scarf (Classic Elite pattern "Silky Alpaca Lace Scarf")was knitted with 1 skein of Bergundy Malabrigo Lace...I strung my own beads onto the yarn before knitting...I used about 250 sterling silver, 250 garnet pressed glass, and 150 Swarovsky crystals...stringing the beads on was not a simple task becasue I chose to use such small beads (1.5 mil to 2.5 mil), but the finished product was well worth the extra effort...the big shawl is the Luna Moth shawl...I used about 900 yards of Redwood Bark Malabrigo Silky Merino DK and a size 6 circular needle....both of these projects were fairly simple as far as lace knitting goes...I would encourage anyone to try a simple lace project at least once...the finished items are always so delicate and stunning that you can't help but get hooked on it!

Pictures, be forgiving.

Hello, to all of you who are buried somewhere underneath the snow in the East, and to the rest of you, who have either been rained on or snowed on for days. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...etc."

I want to thank all of those who have accepted our invitation to join us on facebook. I have, of course, being a woman, read all of the messages, and felt I must put pictures on the blog of, not only the Strangled Vine scarf, but also the easier, Feather and Fan lace scarf, knitted in Plymouth Cashmere and merino. Please be forgiving, as I took them with my cell phone camera and the quality is not as clear as I would like them to be. It will, however, give you some idea of what the finished product looks like, and in the hands of a better knitter, it is really great. I really like the way the pattern turned out, and if you are not distracted ( live alone in retirement, or in a cloister, or monastery) this will be a piece of cake. It's not so great if you are dodging schnauzers. Of note, the pups have been signed up for two weeks of boot camp, but I'll be long gone and back in Kanab by then. I wonder what they'll look like with their heads shaved and a fatigue hat.

Tomorrow I return to the land of the red rocks, and the town with two traffic lights, my son Darrell,two grandchildren, and my two dogs, Lola, the English Bulldog, and Bear, my 108 lb. yellow lab. OH, and Fred, the only species (parrot) that talks more than my ex mother-in-law.

Here are the pictures. We have about 12 balls of the Skacel Mosco left, but any DK weight will do. Try the Malabrigo DK. I was thinking how beautiful this scarf would be knitted up with that. As a side note, I am now knitting the Russula Cap (free on Ravelry) to match the Strangled Vine scarf. Notice it is not made out of lace. Zen is just around the corner.