Still Alive and Knitting!

      Hm, yes, despite my thesis' best efforts, I am still alive.  My apologies for the disappearance, but the past year has been hard.  For anyone who has done a doctorate, I hit the rough patch where nothing works and there is no plan and I wake up at 4am and wonder what am I doing AAAAAHHH!!!  I kept swimming and got past it.  Knitting was there for me and it was either that or take up some rather unhealthy habits.  Things are slowly getting better.  I am hoping for Transfer Panel in the next month.  For anyone unfamiliar with academia, this is when you meet a panel of three people and present the revised version of your thesis project and a sample chapter for feedback.  It's the halfway point of the Irish Ph.D.  While things will still be stressful, and I'm sure I'm going to have more 4am freakouts, I will get a vote of confidence in my project.  I can't wait to get it over with.

     Back to the knitting . . . the last several months has been using knitting as a coping mechanism.  I have no mental bandwidth at the moment, so I have been focusing on garter stitch shawls and vanilla socks.  Coming up is The Knitgirllls Stash Dash.  This is a craftalong run by two podcasters that runs from late May to late August.  The goal is to craft a certain amount of stash yarn; the set levels are 3km, 5km, 7km, 10km, and 15km.  Goodness knows I have enough WIPs and balled yarns lying around from the autumn, so here we go!  Normally I compete in the 5km category, but I will challenge myself this year and aim for 7km.  I already have an almost-completed pair of vanilla socks, but I've already made a list of current and hibernating WIPs to complete:

Current WIPs:
  Mithral in Fyberspates Cumulus: 30% completed
  Meriboo Cabled Cowls in Louisa Harding Orielle: 0% completed

Hibernating WIPs:
   A Second Chance for Mr. Rushworth Socks in Knitpicks Stroll: 45% completed
   Winterchild in Zitron Fil Royal: 75% completed
   Innsmouth Bodice in Baa Ram Ewe Dovestone DK: 0%
   Hurricane Ridge cowl in Malabrigo Finito: 0%

Also on the list because the yarn is already balled up:
    Bonny in Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace
    Cobweb in Malabrigo Silkpaca
    Almost Autumn in Malabrigo Merino Lace Superwash
    Narcissis pseudo-narcissis cuffs in Arucania Botany Lace 
    Riyito in Malabrigo Sock
    Pomme de Pin Cardigan in Wollemeise Pure 100% Merino Superwash
    City of Roses in Drops Baby Merino
    Maia Fingerless Mitts in Arucania Botany Lace
    Raitahullannus in Malabrigo Finito
    Heaven Scent in Manos del Uruguay Lace
    Cheddar the CraftLit Critter in Hedgehog Fibres Sock
    Florac Pumpkin in Lousia Harding Trenzar
    Geek Socks in Knitpicks Felici
    Leonore Socks in Knitpicks Stroll 

It's a long list and I know I won't get to it all, but it's nice to have some options and to clear out the WIPs.  I doubt I'll even get through this list before classes start again in the autumn, but it would be nice if 80% of it was completed by the first day of autumn (September 22).  Onward Knitty Soldiers!

Moving Again and Yarn Storage

While I was away, we moved again.  The past few weeks have been spent on opening boxes and reorganising things in the new house.  The house where we currently live is unfurnished, so we're having to make do with what furniture we have to hand. Currently my room looks like this:

I still need to put together a canvas wardrobe so I have somewhere to hang clothes, but I've been able to assemble a bookcase to store a few things and decorate the place a little.  My substantial stash has proven very useful as room decor.  I am using a ceramic bowl that I got in Seville back in March and a glass one from Tiger in order to display some pretty skeins of Hedgehog Fibres and my Boo-Knits Shawl-a-long yarn.  With this rainy "summer" we're having, I need all the shine and sparkle I can get.

The lack of storage space has caused me to rethink my knitting plans for next year.  I don't really have much room to store more yarn other than a bit of space under the bed.  I technically shouldn't be buying yarn anyway since I vowed to stashdown 10km of yarn by the end of this year, which is going rather disasterously I have to say.  It's clear I need to knit up what I've got here before I can bring anything over from the Mother Stash, which rules out all the plans I had made.  I looked at my queue and saw that most of the yarn I had here already were either for shawls or sweaters.  Since it's physical space that is the issue, I decided to "air" the stash and pile up the yarn according to project type to see which was bigger.  The sweater pile looked like this:

The shawl piled up like this:

I think you can tell just by looking that the sweater pile takes up more, but just to be sure, let us compare them side-byside, bearing in mind that I took away a few skeins from the shawl pile before taking this photo:

Yep, sweater pile is bigger.  There are about eight sweaters/tops' worth of yarn in there, so I think I will join IntSweMoDo or International Sweater-a-Month Dodecathlon for 2016.  12 sweaters in a year is a bit nuts to say the least, but I will need sweaters more than shawls next year.  I've also learned that to have a project-oriented approach to stashdown is much more effective than trying to reach a number.  I'll just be having to pick up four more sweater quantities to make this work, which should be easy enough as I tend to go home twice a year.  Most of my Irish Stash is 4ply/fingering weight, so I'm leaning towards my sweater quantities in heavier weights to fill in the gaps.  Perhaps in 2017 when I'm in my fourth year of Ph.D. I'll declare it Year of Accessories as that might be all that I'll be able to pull off while I finish my thesis.  It's the plan for now, anyway.

WWKIP Day and Summer Planning

     It seems the Irish weather decided to celebrate Worldwide Knit in Public Day, too, by giving us a proper summer's day.  For us, that means it was nearly 20*C (almost 70*F) with the sunshine and the humidity, so it was a little difficult to wear the handknits.  Nevertheless, we had fun, though we were mostly in the shade.  This is Knit! had the celebratory spirit with cakes, a few offers, and a fun photobooth.  You can check out the fun on their Twitter feed @ThisisKnit.  I may have completely blown my stashdown goals and bought a skein of laceweight.  Behold a skein of teal Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace.

 It's a 45/55 silk/merino blend.  It's also a kilometer of yarn.  Yep, there went my hopes for a 10k net stash loss for this year.  I had made a little money proofreading this week and decided to splash out.  Originally I thought I would pick up spinning fiber for my first ever Tour de Fleece this summer since I joined Team Ireland, but was enabled into this beautiful skein.  I think it will become a Snow Angel by Boo Knits, though I haven't decided on what size.  I may go big and make the extra large.  Either way, it looks great with silver-lined gold beads, no?

      Otherwise, it's been a crazy month.  Between restructuring my thesis and writing my first conference paper plus preparing to move house (again!), it's been stressful.  I've been working away on three largish projects to maintain my sanity.  Two are gift knits and can't be shown here, but one is for me because I just couldn't take all the gift knitting anymore.  It's a Leftie by Martina Behm using the leftovers from my NaKniSweMo cardigan in Drops Delight and Drops 4-ply Alpaca:

The Drops Delight that I'm using is the Mauve-Vert colorway, but I cut out the green bits because they disappear into the charcoal grey alpaca.  This means that I get a purple tonal scarf, which I am quite happy with if it weren't for the wintry colours.  This is my travel project because it is so small and easy to carry.  I'll be taking with me to the conference next weekend since I'll be packing light. If I bend time to my will, I will get a large chunk of it done there, but I have my doubts about my abilities.

      Lately there has been a lot of planning going on behind the scenes.  I'm going home exactly one week from today and then onto Peru after a few days at home.  We'll be in Peru a little over a week before I come home.  Then I will be home for a few days before the long trek back to Ireland.  There will be a lot of travel time between planes and buses, so I'm planning how much I can get done and what projects to take so I don't run out.  I can't show any of them here because they are all gift knits. (I wasn't joking when I said a lot of gift knitting was going on this summer.)  Rest assured that I have planned well for all this travelling. On the home front, I'm not sure if we are moving at the end of this month or the next, but I'd rather not break into boxes unless I have to, so I have had yarn wound to make sure I am covered until the end of August.  I generally take August off and knit just for me, and this year I have planned to do a Boo Knits Shawl-a-long.  Here are the planned yarns and beads in the order I intend to knit them:

This skein of Malabrigo Sock in the colorway Indiecita will become a Love in a Mist.

This skein of Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Hunter will become a Mustardseed.

This skein of Artesano Alpaca Silk Lace in Russian Purple will be a Rainshine.

This Pearl Malabrigo Silkpaca will become a Cobweb with two different colours of beads.

Finally, this Malabrigo Superwash lace in Arequita will become an Almost Autumn.

I know this is way too ambitious, but I get that way after too much gift knitting.  I may have to take off a week in July to get all this done.  Oh well!

Oh, and there are also plans for next year.  At the moment, they look like this:

There are evil plans afoot, I tell you, evil plans.  Stay tuned!

Well, what else was I supposed to do?

I deleted this blog about two months ago.  I thought that it was useless trying to keep it up when I never wrote in here and I didn't think I would because I had nothing interesting to say.  I don't know what's changed, whether I'm just looking for new ways to procrastinate writing my thesis or I just need to write about something other than poetry for awhile, but the memory of this blog came back to haunt me.  I don't expect people to be reading this religiously, or become famous, or whatever other reasons people blog for.  I guess what I need is a visual knitting diary similar to the Ravelry project pages, but with more space so I can expound on a bit.  Maybe this will be a space for the stuff that doesn't make it onto the project page or really doesn't belong there in the first place.  You know, some of the life stuff that affects knitting.  I don't plan on this being a spill-the-beans confessional, but sometimes life intersects with knitting.  So here goes.

Lately, I've been tired.  I've got a lot of gift knitting on at the moment and it's sapping my knitting mojo.  Don't get me wrong, nobody on the gift list is demanding handknit presents, but because I'm in grad school and can't afford to buy really nice presents, I knit something instead.  This all came to a head a few weeks ago when I had two fine-gauge projects on the go at the same time with a long line of knits for other people coming after them.  I felt . . . resentful?  Not quite because I didn't want to give the recipients their gifts, but because so much of my time was being taken up by things for other people.  It got to the point that I didn't want to knit anymore.  I have learned in the past that my mojo goes haywire after four or six projects for other people, but generally I would just attempt something crazy, like knit a 1,600 detailed lace cardigan in a month.  I've never had my mojo completely disappear, though.  I knew drastic measures had to be taken.  So I did three things:

1) I rewrote my gift list.  I went through my list and cut out some things.  Did that person really need that handknit item right now or if I could go buy something nice instead?  How many hats did a baby need if I also gave x?  Could this project be scaled down, say from a large blanket to a stroller-sized one?  Not everything got cut because the gifts will help me get rid of stash yarn, but it made my list more manageable.

2) I took the space I had and filled it with knits for me.  This is my hobby, so I need to start putting myself first.  I started this off by knitting a laceweight Color Affection shawl, which shows you how much crazy had built up.  After it, though, I planned out four or five projects and then scheduled a knit for myself.  It will help with the crazy buildup.  I also scheduled my birth month (August) off so I could work on knits for myself.

3) I scheduled 2016 as a year-off.  Yes, that's right, I'm taking the whole year off from gift-knitting.  Okay, I might do a few, but it will be small, small things, like a cowl or a small hat or toy for my little nephews, but, again, this is my hobby and I need to start putting myself first.  I'll still be stashing down because I built up quite a bit of stash before going back to the convent and I'm certain knitting for me will make me buy less yarn.  I'm already planning what I will knit.  It will be glorious my friends, absolutely glorious.

Until then, it's on with the gift knits!

Ascending from Hades . . . I hope

Apologies for neglecting the blog as of late.  February was a very busy month as I had to submit my thesis proposal, which took longer than expected, and I've also had ongoing health issues.  The health issues haven't fully resolved themselves yet and we are about to plunge forward into finals at school, so I am sure I am in for some more drama down the road.  Nevertheless, I will have knitting with me.

Here's what I've been up to in the interim:

      My Falling Stars pullover continues.  I have finished the body and one of the sleeves, and started sleeve #2 when on one of my medical adventures.

The immense swathes of stockinette are killing me on this sweater and I am definitely discovering the Stockinette Black Hole.  The body was the worst as it took fifteen to twenty minutes to complete a row.  The 1x1 ribbing wasn't much better.  I didn't follow conventional knitting wisdom here and go down a needle size for the ribbing.  There were two reasons for this.  One, I had lengthened the sweater by a half an inch and wanted to make sure it went over my hips without being too tight.  Second, I don't have a 2.5mm needle long enough to do Magic Loop on this sweater and I didn't want to buy another one.  The ribbing looks a little stretched, but it will do.  I've put the body on an extra cable and the sleeve on waste yarn as I'm not sure about the length.  Unless it grows during blocking, I might have to rip out the ribbing on the body and add an extra half an inch to make sure my backside isn't exposed.  Since steam blocking is preferred here due to the humidity, I doubt I'm going to get much growth.  I'll try it on once I finish the second sleeve and see what I think.

 The only other project on the needles are the Jaywalkers for my Mom for American Mother's Day.  I'm knitting them out of KnitPicks self-striping sock yarn Felici, colorway Cochineal on 2.5mm needles.  I'm knitting the smallest size and I'm actually knitting these at a tighter gauge than called for, 8.25 stitches per inch, as this yarn is quite stretchy and, if it's like the Stroll base at all, it will grow slightly after it's been washed.  I did go down to a 2mm needle for the ribbing as the number of stitches cast-on for the zigzag pattern would be way too much for a normal cuff.  I'm almost to the toe on the first sock.

Why socks for Mother's Day?  I'll admit it's not the most romantic notion.  It was actually my Mother who got me knitting socks.  She suggested one day that it would be really cool to knit socks like one of her knitting co-workers, a prolific sock knitter.  She was very kind and got me Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks to get me going.  I'd recommend it for a beginning sock knitter as it discusses yarn selection, techniques, the need for negative ease, and walks you through a basic sock.  It also gives basic sock patterns for various weights of yarn as well, and a few more complicated sock patterns.  I did have to use a few YouTube videos for a few techniques (the Knitpicks Sock tutorial rings a bell) as I have to see something new performed in order for me to get it, but Ann Budd's book is sound.

I'm getting a little stircrazy at the moment with my projects.  It feels like everything has been on the needles too long and I long to cast on something else.  I've got Wendy D. Johnson's Manly Aran socks and the Semi Swedish hat in my queue for my brother, but they are both to be done in grey.  Anne Hanson's Almost Ovals scarf is also in the queue, but for my sister-in-law in a purple silk laceweight.  None of these are appealing to me.  I want something bright to counteract the grey days we are having, and something for me.  Maybe something with this yarn:

Especially when it looks like this inside.

This is yarn my friend Siona gifted me when I visited Spain recently.  It's from Lithuania and it's a bit rough, but I was thinking of making Gail (aka nightsongs) with it.  We shall see.  Time for tea.

It's time for a fort

I really should not invoke the unholy power of evil bacteria and foul Irish weather.  It's been pretty cold here this week, with showers on and off, and I am still sick.  The doctor at Student Health Services has told me that if I am not better by Tuesday, she will refer me to the Ear, Eye, and Throat Hospital for examination.  Since that sounds expensive, I've been trying to stay home, keep warm, and take my meds, or at least as much as it is possible in the first week of classes.  And I wonder why I am still sick. 

This has been good for my knitting, though.  The socks are finished.

These are the Chrysanthemum Frutescens socks by Hunter Hammersen, from her book Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet.  Considering I accidentally knit these at a tighter gauge than called for, they came out really well.  I love the bright color (Foilage, Knitpicks Stroll Tonal), although now it is discontinued.  I found the picot edge a little fiddly, as it's the kind where you have to knit the current live stitches to the stitches held in the provisional cast-on.  Nevertheless, it's a very nice picot edge that lies flat against the leg, so the effort is worth it. 

As the weather is being particularly unhelpful, I've cast on a sweater.  Currently it looks like this:

     It's the Falling stars sweater that Knitpicks originally put out two years ago as a kit.  At the time, they only offered blue and grey versions, and since I love color, I choose the blue.  Now they have a purple and a green/natural version, which you can get as kits here.  The sweater uses elements from the Bohus style of colorwork, which uses fine gauge and purl bumps.  I love it.  The colors change every couple of rows, which keeps things interesting, but the motifs aren't that complicated so you can do it at 5AM while trying to get back to sleep because you are tired and sick.  Not that I would know anything about that. *cough, cough* 
     This sweater will be for the Knitabulls Sweater KAL for January and February.  I love the Knitabulls podcast and try to watch it every week.  I want to adopt the host Diane for my aunt; she is always so happy in her shows and enthusiastic about her various crafts.  She's always a beam of sunshine in my week.
     As I'm housebound for the rest of the weekend,  I'm starting to assemble a fort of yarn and books.  The sweater should be enough to hold me out on the yarn end, and I have plenty of books to read.  In addition to my reading for my normal classes, I've started doing the background reading for my thesis.  My book fort looks something like this:

I'm excited.  This is going to be fun.

A Comedy of Errors

        I have finally returned to Ireland and have somewhat adjusted to the time difference.  Apparently my brain took its vacation early, though, as I said in the last post that I would have WIPS and neglected to include them.  The brain vacation didn't stop there, either.  Take this shawl, for example.

It's Winterchild by Carmen Oliveras which I'm making in Zitron Fil Royal, a 100% alpaca laceweight.  I finished the body months ago and am now working on the knitted on border.  It's my first time doing this technique and I find it somewhat fiddly.  I seem to be making the join too tight and I'm worried this is going to block out wonky.  Maybe I'm also irritated at myself that this thing has been on the needles for over a year and it's not finished yet.  You want to know what's really getting my goat, though?  That tiny ball in the bowl is all the yarn I have for this shawl; I forgot the other skein back in the States.  Grr!  And I love alpaca!

Round Two came with this skein of Cascade 220 Superwash.

I had planned to make it into The Proverbial Cap by Meg Swansen for ages.  I planned on it being my sister-in-law's present for Christmas.  The pattern is pretty and it's got lots of twisted stitches that make my heart sing.  The problem?  I forgot the pattern.  It's back in the US, too.

Round Three came with my Chrysanthemum frutescens socks.

I had noticed since the beginning that everything was coming out tight.  I thought that it was the pattern since I've been getting 8 stitches to the inch on US0/2mm since I started knitting socks with this yarn (Knitpicks Stroll Tonal, Foliage colorway, by the way).  I plowed ahead, still slightly concerned that everything looked tight.  I started the gusset decreases during my long layover in Washington, DC airport and tried the sock on for fit.  It became very obvious the sock was very tight, although I was knitting the large size of this pattern, which is for a 9.5 inch foot.  I pulled out my tape measure and checked the gauge.  It turns out that my gauge has tightened up and I now knit nine stitches to the inch.  I had to add two extra stitches to the foot to make sure it would fit.  They are very lovely socks, but from now on, I'm doing a gauge swatch!  I hope to finish the socks this weekend partly because the weather is currently like this:

Overcast with sides of cold and damp.

And partly because I am sick.  I was fighting a throat bug over the holidays and it came back as a vicious throat and ear infection earlier this week.  Since I've done all of my homework reading for classes, I can knit and start some reading for my thesis.  Should I finish the socks, I have all this to play with:

Knitting, first crochet project, and spindle spinning.  Bring it on, foul Irish weather and evil bacteria! 

Plans, plans, WIPs

As I mentioned in the last post, I have big plans for the new year.  Since my stash and I have a long distance relationship, I've been piling up a small mountain of yarn to take back with me based on what I've got in my queue.  Some will be for me and some - okay, a lot - will become various birthday and Christmas gifts.  Yes, I start early.

So my plan is to turn this. . .

. . . into knits in the next eight months.

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2013 is to make more wool socks for me.  I'm mostly motivated by my cycling in Ireland.  That moist cold really sinks into your bones and sticks around.  While I'm pretty well covered for sweaters and okay for hats, I really need some warm footwear.  For the last year, I've been an inactive member of Sock Knitters Anonymous.  This is a group on Ravelry with monthly challenges in the in three categories of theme, dedicated designers, and the mystery sock.  I plan on getting on the sock bandwagon and trying to complete a challenge a month.  I've got several socks lined up.  First is Hunter Hammerson's Chrysanthemum frutescens in Knitpicks Stroll, colorway Foilage.

I'm doing the theme challenge for January, "Flora and Fauna."  It's orange because, eh, why not?  It's winter and I need bright colors like nobody's business.  I'm also taking all this back with me for socks as well.

Also on the Sock To-do List For Me: Wendy Johnson's Norwegian Rose, Rose Hiver's Fireweeds, Cookie A's Twisted Flower . . . And probably a few more.

I'm also taking back a few sweater quantities for me.   I'm loving stranded colorwork at the moment, so I dug out my Falling Stars kit from Knitpicks in blues.  I might do the hat, but we'll see how it goes.

I need more bright colors, so I'm taking my Valley Yarns Longmeadow (colorway Coral) for Lizette.  This pattern came out in the Spring 2011 Twist Collective and received a lot of press when the Yarn Harlot blogged about knitting it.  Longmeadow is the recommended yarn and it feels soft and a bit slick.  I'm definitely using the wooden needles on that one.

In the new year, I also plan on learning how to crochet with some Debbie Bliss Ecobaby for a Calm Cowl.  I'm also taking my spindle and fiber along to revive my spinning.

This is the gift pile.  It is rather large, but it's not every present I'll make in the next twelve months.  Generally I try to get my Christmas presents done by the end of September.  Since my family can see this blog, I will not mention what these are going to become, but let's say hats, socks, and scarves are on the table.

  
The break has been productive, knitting-wise.  I finished scarf for my mom with her Quivit Luxury Blend from Windy Valley Muskox and a Fernfrost scarf in Hedgehog fibres Pure Cashmere Lace in Sour Cherry.  I also completed a Cable Baby Hat in Knitpicks Stroll for the baby.

It was great to play with luxury fibers.  My mom says that her scarf is very lightweight, but very warm, so I can't wait to play with her 100% quivit yarn sometime in the future.  The Hedgehog Fibres cashmere was fun to work with.  It's so soft and beautiful to look at, and when it was still a WIP, it was the Universal Stress Ball the week before Christmas.  (It was highly successful.)  As a finished object, just looking at it makes me feel better.  When I soaked it, it didn't run at all and it blocked out beautifully.  I have a few more skeins of her yarns, and I will be very sad when I run out.  This is when I wish I still had a job.  

    Well, tomorrow I fly back home, so it's time to cram the last of the yarn and fiber into the suitcase.  Thanks, US, it's been great, but I have a date with Ulysses. 

Life gets in the way

Oh my goodness, it's past Christmas!  It's past New Year's!  My apologies for neglecting the blog.  My Master's program really heated up in November.  I had to work harder and then we had exams starting at the beginning of December.  We also had our first long essay due and I had to try and remember how I used to do analysis.  Working on that essay caused me to question if I wanted to write my thesis on what I was planning or if I want to change it.  It was a mental tornado.  Now I am home and it's past the holidays.  I am grateful for the opportunity to see my family, especially after the death in the family and the birth of another family member.  We also have another animal member in the family.

His name is Jojo.  At the end of August he showed up on our back doorstep skinny as a rail.  We live near a highway, so we think someone dumped him and he found his way to our neighborhood.  He was mostly an outdoor cat until a coyote attacked him; now, he spends most of the day sleeping in the house and goes out at night.  He's a very sweet cat and enjoys being petted.  He even allows the dog to jump all over him when she's playing.  I'm surprised how much I like him since I'm allergic to cats.  So far, I haven't had too major a reaction - just some sneezing and slightly itchy eyes.  He seems to have charmed everyone, though.

Despite all the work, I had time to finish off the Christmas knits. 

Simple gloves for older bro.

Irish Hiking Hat for younger bro

For the new baby: Sunnyside cardigan

For Grandma: Eleanor cowl

The last was a last minute gift.  I was in the middle of writing my essay when I realized I hadn't made a present for my Grandma.  I decided that it was necessary for my her to have a knit gift.  I couldn't get the yarn the pattern called for, so I subbed a fingering weight yarn and added an extra lace repeat while using the needle sizes called for in the pattern.  I probably didn't need that extra repeat and wouldn't use it again.  Also, another knitter suggested that you could put beads on the smaller diamonds in the pattern.  Just an idea.

I also got some knitting for me.  I finished off my mittens just before we got a cold snap in my part of Ireland.  Since I cycle everywhere, these mittens were a welcome addition to my winter wardrobe.

Hedda Knits' La Joie du Printemps

I also finished a cashmere scarf for me using Anne Hanson's Fernfrost pattern.

The yarn I used was Hedgehog Fibres Cashmere Lace in the colorway Sour Cherry.  I was impressed because the red dye did not run at all.  I love Hedgehog's colors and can't wait to spin some of her roving that I have.  The scarf blocked out wide (12 inches or 30cm) but only 50 inches, or 125 cm.  If I made this pattern again, I would make it longer, perhaps using 200-300 yards more than what the pattern called for.

I got to play with more luxury fibers when I reminded Mom that she had some yarn hiding in the closet.  Three years ago, my Mom came with me to my first Stitches, a major fiber retail show that occurs in four regions of the US.  Every year, a company called Windy Valley Muskox vends and they sell qiviut and qiviut blend yarns.  Qiviut is the down fiber of the muskox that is shed naturally every summer.  It is light and very warm . . . and rather expensive.  My Mom likes the good stuff, so she purchased a skein of Qiviut Luxury Blend, a 45/45/10 qiviut/merino/silk blend, and a skein of Pure Qiviut.  I knitted up the Qiviut Luxury Blend in the Little Shells Scarf pattern my Mom got at the same time.  The result was this:

And some detail:

My Mom likes it as it is lightweight but very warm.  Perhaps I'll get around to knitting the other skein before I leave again because I've big plans for the new year.  To be continued. . . .