Nothing Wrong with a Quiet Christmas

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday even with all the Covid restrictions. We are a careful bunch, so I bet you are all having a quiet day, as are we.

I've spent much of the first week of my winter break baking cookies. I love baking, so it has been a good distraction from all the bad stuff in the news -- including possible school reopenings, even though the largest ICU in Madison is at 100% capacity.

I highly recommend this recipe, Browned Butter Coconut Cookies from the Smitten Kitchen. I made them for the first, but not last, time this year!

I also made a pair of Isaac's Mitts for myself. They are very warm and cozy -- perfect for walks on warmer winter days.

And with a finish, comes a cast on. I have been decluttering every day, including my yarn stash. I have so many lovely fingering leftovers that I decided it was time for a Habitation Throw from Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade:

I just love making things with leftovers. They don't always turn out as well as I'd envisioned, but I have an awful lot of fun pulling together the colors.

The temperature here is below 0, so it's a good day to stay home, Zoom with family, and do some knitting.

And thanks for the compliments on the poncho in my last post. It's the Winter Ridge Poncho from Ewetopia, knit with yarn specially milled for that pattern. Ewetopia is both a store and dyer in Viroqua, Wis., and I can vouch for the quality of her wool and patterns.

A peaceful day to all!

This is Ewetopia

On Saturday, Keith and I decided to head up to Viroqua for the day. It's a town in the Driftless Region, which is hilly and pretty because it was not flattened by any glaciers. My main goal was to sketch, but I'm still working on that drawing.

However, there was another draw:

This is Ewetopia! It is both a brand and a store. The store is gorgeous -- airy and comfy and filled with yummy yarn. There is a wonderful are for knitting and another for children to play. Everywhere you turn, there are are surprises, like handmade pewter buttons.

The business is owned by Kate Ashley Wright (right) and her mom, Lisa Ashley. They are so warm and friendly; you just want to sit down with them and knit!

Ewetopia yarn is beautiful. The colors are luscious and the yarn is soft and inviting. Kate and Lisa also write patterns. Last year, I knit up the Winter Ridge Poncho, using their pattern and yarn, and it is both beautiful and wearable. I haven't been to the store before; fortunately for me, they vend at the Madison Knitting Guild once a year.

I spent a ton of time wandering around the store and petting the yarn!

Aren't the Ewetopia colors beautiful? And isn't Ewetopia a brilliant name?

If you're not driving distance from Viroqua, don't worry. You can visit the store virtually and shop online here.

So, do you think I bought anything?

A Class With Laura Nelkin: Swoon!

Madison may not be a big city, but it is a big knitting city. We had our Knit In this weekend, and the line-up of teachers was amazing. Saturday morning, a friend and I took a class on knitting with bead from Laura Nelkin, author of Knockout Knits.

The class was amazing. Did you know that you should never use beads on single-ply yarn? Me, neither. It's not strong enough. Also to be avoided are wool/silk blends and cashmere. I also learned that you need to use bigger beads when you are placing beads (like with a crochet hook) than when you pre-string beads.

This is the Stellanti Shawl, which was our favorite one of her samples. The beaded sections are super easy so this is definitely going in my queue. Nelkin is quite funny. She described more difficult projects as being "anti-Alzheimer's patterns."

I do love knitting jewelry, though I haven't made any for quite some time. Nelkin's samples gave me plenty of inspiration.

The class was just for a half day, so we shopped after scarfing down some sandwiches from home. It turns out that I am quite the Wisconsin shopper. The two reddish/pink skeins are going into a second Perhaps, Perhaps. They were dyed by Sun Valley Fibers (Mount Horeb, Wis.), and I cannot say enough good things about their yarns. They are stunningly beautiful, a joy to knit with, and hold up well to wear.

I could not resist the mini skeins from Ewetopia (Viroqua, Wis.). All my favorite colors in one package! I'm looking for the right poncho or shawl pattern. Let me know if you have any ideas -- though I should mention that the yarn is DK weight.

Last but not least is the gradient cake in blue and purple, which I bought to make an Antarktis out of, but now I'm thinking it would make a good Stellanti. Such tough choices.!The yarn is by Knit Circus, which is right here in Madison. Yes, I am lucky!

This seems like enough for one post, so I'll tell you about fair isle with Mary Jane Mucklestone later!

A Poncho and Some Books

I really should be working on a couple of pairs of socks, both of which are gifts, but I can't seem to stop knitting rounds on my Winter Ridge Poncho. I am getting close to the final stage -- the neck -- so it's hard to slow down.

I'm knitting this as a KAL with my knitting pal, Marsha, and she has finished hers because she wants to take it with her on a cruise later this week. She modeled it for me yesterday and she looked darling in it. It will be perfect for cool days on deck. And the best part is that Ewetopia has kits available on their web site again -- just use the link above.

Add caption

I finished Satin Island, and I liked it but it's not for everyone. Even though it's a novel, it reads almost like nonfiction. It's filled with all kinds of thought-provoking passages like this from the first page: "People need foundation myths, some imprint of year zero, a bolt that secures the scaffolding that in turn holds fast the entire architecture of reality ..."  Definitely a demanding read.

The plot kind of falls apart in the last quarter of the book, but I finished it anyway.  The narrator is a corporate archaeologist who is supposed to capture the narrative of the large company he works for.  Honestly, I'm not even sure if he accomplished that task. Like I said, it's interesting, but it's not for everyone.

As an antidote to all that thinking, I picked up Malice by Keigo Higashino, a mystery from Japan.  I'm about 50 pages into it and I look forward to picking it up each night. It's told from various viewpoints -- and I love that approach. It is definitely a nice change!

I'll be linking up with Ginny to Yarn Along.

A Very Small Knit Along

At the Madison Knitting Guild a couple months ago, my friend Marsha and I decided to do a knit-along. Every month we swear we aren't going to be tempted by the vendors at the meeting, and most most months we fail.

One of the vendors  was Ewetopia, a store about an hour away, in Viroqua. Owner Kate Ashley-Wright is a talented dyer and designer, and there was lots of yummy stuff to look at and pet. One of her kits on display was the Winter Ridge poncho (she calls it a cowl shawl). We didn't think much about it until we noticed that a good number of the other knitters were wearing it.

Then we fell in love with it, and decided to knit it together in a gray cashmere/silver mohair  combination.

It's good thing that we decided to work on it together. You start at the bottom with a loopy edging with is very pretty, but also quite tricky to figure out. It took both of us to figure out the directions and get it right.

I am sure Marsha will finish far ahead of me. Not only does she knit faster -- she's a picker and I'm a thrower -- but she is retired! That's OK. I love the way this is coming out and it will be worth the wait.

New Use for Sock Yarn

I know I'm not the only knitter who can't seem to resist buying self-patterning yarn. A lot of people are knitting the Christmas colorway of Heritage Handpaints, and a few days ago I posted my work sock, with a pink and blue pattern of that yarn.

Still, there's a limit to the number plain vanilla socks I want to knit, so I'm trying out a pattern for a hat with self-patterning sock yarn, and so far I love it:

I like the thinner bands you get with a larger diameter. It's just kind of fun to see a variation.

After watching the first season on Amazon Prime, I'm reading The Man in the High Castle.

I actually thought the series went off the tracks in the last two episodes of the season, so I'm liking the book better. It is more subtle and, at least in the first 50 pages, the plot is very different. I think the writers of the TV version got too hung up on building a romance. We'll see if the book continues to hold my interest.

The Madison Knitting Guild met Monday night. Our guest speaker was a fabulous dyer from rural Wisconsin, Kate Wright. She has a retail store in Viroqua and sells her yarn online under the brand name Ewetopia. I didn't snap any pictures, but you can find her fabulous yarn here. It is amazing how many great dyers are out there.

I'll be joining Ginny for Yarn Along. Hope to see you there.