my new t-town.

Last Friday my dad and I set out for the twelve hour journey to Tulsa. We drove so that I could have my car here, and boy was it a long one. We pulled out of our Jocelyn Hollow drive at 7am and into the Brander’s at 7pm. But really, the drive was great. We stopped every few hours and fueled up our tank and our bodies, stretched our legs, and spent the car ride singing our favorite country songs and admiring the scenery. Once we got to Shelley’s, we pretty much immediately headed to Los Cabos for our favorite: mexican and margs. I had the shrimp tacos yummm. 

 We made our first stop in Memphis for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and I managed to cast on and start the ribbing for "Mohair is Better". 

Later, we stopped in Arkansas when we saw a sign for an overlook. We thought it would be a nice opportunity to stretch our legs and take in a nice view, but we found the overlook to be fairly unexciting. 

The next day my dad and I visited both of the amazing Loops locations (he was blown away) and both of the Ihloff locations. Ihloff’s is an Aveda salon here in Tulsa that we just had to check out as we are also Aveda salon owners. Afterwords, we ate lunch at Queenie’s (a Brander family favorite) in Utica Square, delicious chicken salad and lemonade :). I took my dad to the airport after lunch and as Trish would say, “I hate the leaving”. We said our goodbyes and it was time for me to say hello to Tulsa, my new t-town (Tuscaloosa is referred to as t-town). 

That night, we all (and by all I mean me, Shelley, Brent, and their three kids: Sam, Cecily, and Mallory) went to the Shock game, courtside seats! The Tulsa Shock is the state’s WNBA team. On our way there they all warned me that the Shock hadn’t been doing so well, but not to worry the games were still a ton of fun. After an exciting victory by the Shock, the Brander’s had dubbed me their good luck charm...and so far, my good luck has not totally run out. We finished the night at Wolfgang Puck’s, which was fantastic. I had a bowl of french onion and a raspberry lemondrop, or as I ordered it - a laspberry remondrop - you’d think I’d already had a few.  

All of Sunday, I spent knitting and relaxing and made great headway into the next cowl, “Mohair is Better”. Although I gotta say, Brushed Suri (Blue Sky’s mohair alternative) is better, and not as itchy. This cowl introduced a new stitch pattern to me, the trinity stitch. At first, I found it mildly frustrating as there are many P3togs with that fuzzy suri yarn. But as I relaxed and loosened my tension a little and ditched the continental, the pattern got easier and easier. It has been refreshing to have a slightly more complex cowl pattern and I always love to add new stitches and skills to my knitting repertoire. 

 The trinity stitch adds amazing texture to this cowl. When the cowl is finished it is flipped to the wrong side so the bumps of the stitch pattern really stand out. 

I just love the volume of this cowl, it adds a bit of drama. In Cowlgirls, Cathy actually shows two of these stacked on top of each other, making it even more voluminous. Eventually, I may make a second, I really do like the effect. And what's so fantastic about this cowl is that it only takes ONE skein of Brushed Suri. Click here to buy Brushed Suri!

Monday was split between Loops South and Utica. I went to each store for a couple of hours and took some time to tidy up and familiarize myself with the store organization and inventory. I also had the opportunity to see some old friends from the Loops Troop, Gina and Cindy and Sherri and Harriet as well as meet some new ones, Pat and Emily. Everyone here in Tulsa is so warm and welcoming, it already feels like home sweet home :).  

Yesterday was my first real day of training at South, and it was exciting! The store was crazy busy all morning and it was so fun to meet new people and help them with their projects. Shelley and I had a quick photoshoot with some great new quick and easy scarf patterns, and I already made the main page on the Loops website! I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the Bergere de France Origin display and this week we are featuring the Merinos and “Fit to be Tied” at Loops South. Come stop by so you can make my cowl! 

Mariel. 

overdue.

Well I have to say, I was a little shocked to look at the calendar today and see that it had been over a month since my last post. Exactly one week from my post on “in the snood”, something horrific happened. Devastating storms tore through the southeast, destroying much of a place I love and call home, Tuscaloosa. 

Home alone and panicking about the nearing tornado, there was only one person I could think to call...Trish. My go-to comforter has gotten me through scary house sittings and interview jitters. Trish, as she always says, is just a text or call away - despite the 3,000 miles between us. So naturally, when the tree limbs started snapping, I called Trish.

She advised me to start by making the palace of all palaces...in my bathtub. I’m sick I don’t have a picture of this, but the whole no power thing meant no good pictures. I grabbed couch pillows and blankets and got to work. I built myself a lovely little haven stocked with my knitting and my computer. Trish then smartly advised me to somehow cover the bathroom window in the event of broken glass. (I started with this huge fleece blanket that my grandmother made me, but when the packing tape wouldn’t hold I settled on pillow cases and trash bags.) I arranged candles on the back of the toilet, lit them, and got cozy. Well, not exactly cozy...I suppose about as cozy as you could be in a bathtub during a deadly tornado. “I LOVE this plan, paint your nails,” Trish said. And for a minute I thought, hmm this might be really nice. Yeah, right. A torturous thirty minutes of absolute am I going to live or die fear later, I came out of the bathroom and opened my front door. 

The storm had finally ended and outside, for a moment anyway, everything was quiet and calm. People began emerging from their homes, migrating to their porches to sit and wait. We turned on our car radio and listened for hours, just starting to realize the immense devastation that had just occurred. No power, no cell service, no internet, we banded together and gathered our resources. My neighbors in front of me - Casey, Jack, and Chris are from south Alabama, and having been through several hurricanes growing up knew just what to do. We cleaned out our fridges and cooked what we had on the grill, bought a couple cases of beer and tried to take our minds off things. Funny enough, beer and ice were the two commodities that gas stations and grocery stores couldn’t keep in stock post-storm. 

By Thursday (the day after), the University had sent an email explaining that due to the circumstances exams were to be cancelled and if we were able to leave Tuscaloosa to do so immediately. I grabbed some clothes for the week and cleaned out the rest of the fridge. Since I had washed and therefore destroyed Bella’s carrier the week before, I scoured the streets for empty cardboard boxes. I found one, had Jack cut some large slits in it, and in went Bella. I loaded the meowing/howling cardboard box (Bella really doesn’t travel well) and hit the road. 

I made it back to Nashville safely, finally. One week later and I was back on the road again. I drove down to Birmingham to catch a flight to Baltimore where I would reunite with Trish at Maryland Sheep and Wool. Maryland Sheep and Wool takes place every year in Frederick, MD and I believe is the biggest sheep and fiber festival today. If you have never been to a fiber festival, go! They are so much fun and quite a sight to see! There was barn after barn full of vendors from all over the US selling everything from wheels to whole fleeces to handmade baskets to Irish music. Not to mention the several barns that were full of sheep! I saw a ton of different breeds I had never seen (I’m sort of a sheep novice). Here are some of them:

 These are called Jacob's sheep, I liked their spotted coats. 

 I believe this is a colored corridale. I texted the pictures to Trish and she said that its hard to tell with the coats on but this wool looks finer and that there are a lot of colored corris on the market, so thats probably what this guy is. 

 This one cracked me up because he has some dreads on top! This one Trish said is either a Lincoln or a Wensleydale...

 These guys, you can't really tell by the picture, were huge! These are also probably colored corridales. 

 Now, this one could be either a Lincoln or a Wensleydale but after googling some pictures, I have decided that it is a Wensleydale. I may not be an expert on sheep breeds, but I sure do like them. 

I spent about half of the weekend shopping and catching up with friends and the other half working, and I didn’t exactly go to work. See, I was there to visit with Trish who was actually working at the WooLee Winder booth with Nathan and Alexandra. And two booths down was what appeared to be the must-have product this year, Signature needles. Now, I had never heard of these needles before, but by the end of the day I was practically selling them. The Signature needles were so popular that all day there was a line about three booths long. People praised their smooth and quick capabilities and some even claimed they would never buy another needle brand. 

Trish and I, rather reluctantly, became tag-team traffic control. In order to keep the WooLee Winder booth and the one next door from being blocked, Trish and I had to direct and patrol the Signature customers. By the end, we had quite a nice system going. I would stand by the booth and hand out pricing guides and direct interested customers to Trish, who would wave with her pink fan and then direct them to the back of the line. (We had to keep a huge gap in the line to keep the other booths open, which led to a lot of chaos and confusion.) When the customers were finished paying, I would wave to Trish to send the next in line. Once the line finally lulled, the gals at Signature were so impressed by my take-charge volunteerism that they sent me home with a nice set of Signature Stiletto dpns. (For my non-knitter friends, dpns stands for double point needles, which are used for things like socks and gloves.) If one set of fancy needles wasn’t enough, a trip to see Sheila and Michael Ernst would do the trick. Sheila and Michael are old friends of Trish who I met last year at Black Sheep Gathering. They make the most beautiful and amazing glass knitting needles. I left their booth with two sets of circulars...one for me and one for my sister’s birthday. 

I ended the weekend in DC with a short visit with my Aunt Paul and Uncle Veronica (that’s what I called them when I was a kid, confused by the fact that my family ordered every other aunt and uncle with the woman first: Aunt Amy and Uncle Robert, Aunt Terry and Uncle Don, Aunt Judy and Uncle Mike, etc). They took me on a nice little scenic view of the Potomac River and then into the city for delicious dim sum at a trendy restaurant, Ping Pong. After massive amounts of dim sum and strawberry-vanilla bubble tea, we went to Union station. We walked around the shops a while and then P & V sent me back to Baltimore via train to catch my flight home. I had never ridden on a train before, so it was kind of exciting to me! 

I got back to Birmingham at about 9:00 pm and got on 59 headed to Tuscaloosa. This was going to be my first time back since I fled after the storm. Sam met me down there since I was a little worried about my apartment and just had no idea what to expect. The next day we got in the car and decided to drive around to see some of the devastated areas. I think that was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Even though I had heard about the city’s condition and even seen pictures, it wasn’t really real until I saw it firsthand. Driving down 15th Street I saw the first stripped and warped tree, I remember commenting “Well, I guess this is the beginning.” At this point, I still had no idea what I was in for. On the other side of this tree were the remains of neighborhoods and businesses, as far as the eye could see on both sides of the street. We pulled off 15th and headed deep into the destruction. Instantly, my eyes filled with tears. I don’t even think there are words to describe what I felt and saw there. Tuscaloosa has a way of capturing its residents, its infectious spirit penetrates deep and never truly leaves you. Seeing Tuscaloosa this way was just unbearable. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the recent storms in the Southeast, as well as those in Joplin and the newest affected area - Massachusetts. 

Sam and I spent the rest of the week packing and closing down my apartment for the summer. We fixed lightbulbs, changed the air filter, hung pictures, you know everything that I should have done while I was actually there for school. But hey, a few less things to do when I get back in August. We finally left on Thursday and drove back to Nashville. 

While all of this was happening, I knitted up the cowl next in line, “fit to be tied”. The cowl is knit double with two different yarns, I used Bergere de France Origin’s Merinos and Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze in different shades of purple (my favorite!). This gives the cowl a beautiful sort of iridescence and the Kidsilk adds a really nice halo. I used four skeins of the worsted and 2 skeins of the lace-weight. Click on the following links to order this yarn from the Loops website, an excellent excuse to see the recent site additions! And while you're on the website, sign up for the Loops Scoop. It is an email newsletter that Loops sends every two weeks. It has info on upcoming classes and store events, plus shares with you the store's new loot and great free patterns! Click here to buy Merinos! Click here to buy Kidsilk! If you are unsure which colors to choose, call the store - the loops troops always love to help with your projects!

The cowl turned out exactly as I hoped, but it certainly tested my already short attention span. I made it through the 25 inches of the beaded rib pattern alright, but I found the 46 inch, in-the-round, stockinette tie absolutely daunting. Frankly, half way through the tie I wanted to give up. I thought, how many more inches of this can I take? But let me tell you, it was totally worth it! The tie really makes this cowl, hence the name, and really wasn’t as bad as I convinced myself. 

What threw me for a loop was seaming the cowl. The instructions read, “Join one end of the cowl to the other, being careful not to twist the tube”. The cowl is knit 25 inches long so that the ribbing can be worn horizontally and so the cowl must be seamed. At first the seaming baffled me and a couple of other much more experienced knitters, but eventually it dawned on me! By folding the cowl in half so that the open ends are lined up, the cowl can be sewed up with a simple whip stitch through all four layers. The tie is a perfect added touch to hide my not-so attractive sewing job.

Now, early tomorrow morning I am heading to the Bahamas to spend a week with Sam’s family. I am taking with me the yarn for “wrapsody in blue” and “mohair is better”. There is usually lots of knitting time down there, so I hope to have good progress to share once I get back! Stay posted :)

Mariel. 

in the snood. out of order.

You could say that I am a fan of order. My clothes are hung by color and weight. My yarn stash, grouped by color. My methods for organizing my school work are refined to the most meticulous of details. And thus far, I have upheld my personal vow to knit my cowls in order of the book. I like order. But with a surprise shipment of Tanglewood, I am allowing myself a slight deviation from my plan, absolutely unable to resist the temptation of knitting with Tanglewood. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to see a package on my doorstep bearing the infamous Tanglewood return stamp (a stamp I became quite accustomed to using while shipping out orders last summer). Inside, I found two honking skeins of Northwest Autumn in superwash, fresh off the drying rack. The yarn is still filled with the aroma of fresh lavender from setting. I wound the yarn immediately, casted on all 90 stitches and dove right in. 

This eyelet cowl was featured in Vogue Knitting Holiday 2009. After adoring Trish’s many knitted samples of this cowl, she directed me to the magazine. This was my introduction to Cathy Carron, and well to Vogue Knitting to begin with. Trish told me all about the cowl and how it would be appearing in Cathy’s upcoming book, Cowlgirls. Emily, the “together” intern, immediately photocopied two of this pattern and it has been sitting in my notebook since. Emily would be the one to photocopy the pattern, huh Trish? 

My cowl is in the same colorway, Northwest Autumn, as the one in the book. Cathy uses Trish’s MAC (merino/angora/cashmere) and I used superwash. The superwash is moderately less expensive and still looks great! The colors are so rich and amazing. They scream Northwest Autumn and just looking at this cowl makes me long for my days in St. Helens. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t wish I was waking up to the majestic mountains and lush foliage of the Pacific Northwest. 

This is the absolute best yarn for knitting. Not only does it feel like heaven, even the superwash, every stitch is unique. I often found myself saying “Okay, just knit to the end of this stretch of color,” until I saw the next stretch of color and was saying it all over again! The yarn is addicting. Literally. Many know Tanglewood yarn as “the crack yarn,” keeps you coming back for more and more and more. I think Gina Hills of Loops would attest to this... she has quite the stash of Tanglewood!

The pattern and the yarn makes this cowl blissfully easy to knit, the most difficult skill being a yarn over. However, Cathy's note in the book is that this would be a great beginner piece for the novice lace knitter - great recommendation. The yarn over rows make the cowl a quick knit and with the climbing temperatures, it was a relief to knit something eyelet. Many have commented that this is their favorite cowl so far, I just might have to agree :)

Next I am jumping back to my order and continuing with “fit to be tied” in my favorite color, purple! Until next time. 

Mariel. 

hello world.

While Adrienne and I were having a big week in the big apple, our sister Keely was having a big week too. Keely, the middle child, was home in Nashville nine months pregnant with her first child. Initially I had assumed my parents would be coming to New York with me, but they weren’t about to miss the birth of their first grandchild. The baby was due on Saturday March 19. Adrienne and I would be getting back home at 4:00 pm that Saturday. We spent the whole week praying the baby would hold out until we made it back! 

Saturday night we went to dinner in Greenwich Village at the Tavern on Jane. Keely and her husband Derek were eating dinner at Cancun in Bellevue. By the time our food made it to the table and before Keely and Derek ordered, they were on the way to the hospital! We stayed up anxiously awaiting a phone call and a picture, enjoying delicious treats from Magnolia Bakery. I take that back...Adrienne stayed up and I fell asleep, begging her to wake me as soon as the baby was born. 

Finally, at 1:19 am baby Olivia Jane Tant was born. Absolutely beautiful! Perfect and healthy and amazingly sweet. We went straight from the airport to the hospital to see our new and first niece!

Here is Olivia coming home from the hospital, in the same outfit me and both my sisters went home in! 

I love her SO much! It is so hard to be at school almost 4 hours away from her.  

Shortly after making it home from NY, I finished “wrapture”! It’s really tough to say, but this may be my favorite cowl so far. Incredibly warm and cozy, this cowl goes from neck to elbows and covers everything in between! 

To make this cowl, I used four skeins of Malabrigo Rasta. This is probably some of the most exciting yarn I have ever knit. Every, and I mean every, stitch is different. The rich colors brought warmth and comfort with each click of my needles. 

“Wrapture” is also probably my most well-traveled cowl. I knitted it in my classrooms, in Sam’s Vandy dorm room, in the subways in New York.

The “wrapture” is the perfect addition to anyone’s fall wardrobe. Man, it sounds crazy to be thinking about a fall wardrobe. It was like 75 here today in Tuscaloosa. But I’ll be knitting these puppies ALL summer long!

I used the Coronilla colorway for my cowl, but here is a picture of Gina (a lovely Loops Troop member and friend) in her “wrapture”. 

She used the Laguna Nero colorway. What a great name. Gina is so lovely, I miss her and all of my other friends in Tulsa!

Next, I am skipping ahead to “in the snood”. Cathy used Tanglewood MAC (merino/angora/cashmere) for this cowl in Northwest Autumn and Trish, another one of my sponsors and one of my dearest friends, sent me Autumn in superwash! Can’t wait to get moving on this eyelet cowl. 

Mariel. 

new york state of mind.

The last two weeks have been absolutely incredible and a LOT of excitement has been going on around here. Let’s take a minute and rewind to two weeks ago, Saturday March 12th. I spent an early, long, and tiring Saturday running around Nashville with my nine month pregnant sister, Keely, shopping for interview clothing for my New York interviews that I would be leaving for at o’dark thirty Sunday morning. Last minute preparations: usual Snetman fashion. 

Sunday, daylight savings mind you, Sam kindly drove my other sister, Adrienne and I to the airport at 4 am (really 3 am to us). Our adventurous week in NY got off to a rather unpleasant start when I found myself vomiting outside the airport, caused by a lack of sleep, food and a newer development in carsickness. Adrienne and I made it to New York at 11:30 am, sleep deprived (now two hours behind) but excited. Adrienne is almost nine years older than me so she was already out of the house for most of my adolescence. Our week in NY together was an amazing opportunity for us to get in some much needed sister bonding. 

When we first arrived, we headed straight to our hotel, The Jane Hotel on the west side. The Jane had been recommended to me as a trendy, cool, and affordable stay in the city. The Jane may be affordable but roomy is not in its description. The elevator was out of service so we headed up the four flights of steps to our room, admiring the struggling bellhop lugging our two huge suitcases up each step. 

We turned the lock peered inside, and man I wish there had been a picture of our faces. The hotel is set-up to be like a ship. So the smaller rooms have bunks and then there are some bigger “Captain’s Quarters” that have a little more space. We had a bunk room, and let me tell you it was nothing BUT bunks. The amount of space between the bunks and our wall was exactly the width of our suitcases! There was no closet and community bathrooms. The interiors were amazing, definitely trendy and cool as promised, but for the purpose of our trip - interviews - The Jane simply wouldn’t do. 

Thanks to a fabulous find on Expedia, Adrienne and I were movin’ on up to the east side. We checked out of The Jane and into The Waldorf Astoria. Talk about an upgrade! Every time we made it back to the room, we each plopped down on our own queen beds and said, “God, we’re so lucky to be here, this is the life!” or “THANK GOD we moved!” Not to hate on The Jane though, if it was just one person and a small bag of belongings, it would be beyond perfect. It sure did make us appreciate our Park Avenue view though. 

Our first night, we ventured to Times Square to eat and feel the rush of probably one of the most crowded (and touristy) areas in New York's cityscape. 

The week was exciting but busy. I had never been to Manhattan before so just walking out of the lobby was the beginning of an exciting adventure to me. I had seven interviews at some big name fashion companies spread out from Monday to Friday. Most of the days were spent getting ready for the interviews (showering, dressing, answering practice questions), going to the interviews, and coming home to change out of the interview clothing. When we first got there we made a huge list of places to go and eat and see. Somehow, we really only managed to make it to Soho...almost everyday. We loved Soho! Lots of cool shops and eateries and a little less hustle and bustle downtown. 

While in Soho, we HAD to stop at Dash! Dash is the Kardashian's store and as fans of the family and shows we had to at least check it out. By the way, our mom looks remarkably like Kris Jenner, the mother to the Kardashian girls. It is funny looking at this picture because I can really see how much my sister and I look alike. We had tons of people ask us if we were twins or sisters in the least. Adrienne loved the twin comment because she could proudly announce that she was nine years older than me! If I had bangs, I think we would really look like twins. 

We may not have seen the Statue of Liberty or gone to the top of the Rock or walked the Brooklyn Bridge but we had a great time getting to know Soho and the upper east side. When we left it really seemed like we had grasped the layout of the city and had some quality subway time, we became excellent navigators and found the key to finding our way lay usually in logic.

We did make it to a show however. Adrienne and I are BIG musical buffs so going to a Broadway show was at the top of our priority lists. We went to Mary Poppins at the New Amsterdam Theater! It was absolutely phenomenal. It was such a fun and witty show that left us laughing, singing, and nearly crying at curtain call. All around fantastic!

The other top of my priority list was a trip to Purl Soho. If you are unfamiliar with Purl, it is a yarn store in Soho, whose blog I have been stalking for the last several months. Purl is a long white room full to the the brim of lovely color-arranged yarns and fabrics. 

I thought I might faint upon entering, I had been talking about my visit to Purl for weeks. Adrienne, who is also a crafter (mainly cross stitch and needlepoint), was once again converted to knitting. Like me, she learned to knit from our grandmother at a young age but stuck more with the cross stitching and needlepointing. Adrienne walked out with 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca’s cotton worsted in a lovely variegated green and some needles, ready to begin a stockinette scarf. I left with two skeins of the beloved but crazy knit collage. A few days later, we found ourselves back in Purl, checking out with a few more goodies. 

Overall the week was a success. My interviews went amazingly well - still waiting to hear - and we had a great time getting to see the city and catching up with a few old friends. The highlight of my trip though was lunch with Cathy Carron, the author of Cowlgirls!! Cathy is one of the most incredible and inspiring women I have ever met. She is so personable and interesting, I just loved listening to her talk. And Cathy LOVES fashion! I thought that was super cool and it was really fun to talk names with her and hear about the designers that inspire her. She took Adrienne and I to a lovely lunch at The Mercer Kitchen in Soho (surprise surprise) and we seriously could have stayed for hours. It was so much fun and I look forward to staying in touch with Cathy!

I didn’t manage to get a picture with Cathy, but I did bring my book for her to sign!

Now hmmm, I have managed to talk all NY and no knitting! Cowl #5, wrapture came with me and I worked on it steadily all week long. The Malabrigo Rasta is so unbelievable it left people speechless. All over the city, anywhere I was knitting, people were fondling and staring at my beautiful creation. Even Cathy had to write down the name of the yarn for the possibility of a future project. I would be sitting in the subway and people next to me would just starting touching my cowl in awe. Naturally, I loved all the attention my knitting was bringing me. I even brought several cowls to my interviews to show them off and show the companies what I really liked to do and several companies asked if I would be interested in design! I thought this was really exciting and who knows, I may try pursuing it!

I am so bad about taking pictures as I am knitting. I get so addicted that I can’t even set it down long enough to snap a picture or two. These pictures just don't even do this cowl justice though. This yarn is SO amazing, the colors are so rich and deep, it is a little hard to tell with these pictures. 

Here is Adrienne and I knitting in the Ronald Regan airport in DC on our way back to Nashville. 

I am going to leave my post here for today. The wrapture is finished and I have even more exciting news but I am going to save the rest for the next post, or else this may go on for hours! Happy knitting. 

Mariel. 

whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

This week, well really more like this month, deserves five whoas. That is about where I am today. After my very first, and mind you, probably 2 hour long phone conversation with Trish, I had accepted the phrases “I LOVE that plan!” and “whoa whoa whoa” into my vocabulary. Early into my two-month stretch of living with Trish, I understood “whoa whoa whoa” to be appropriate for displaying several different emotions:

We have 32 hours worth of work to do in 14 hours - whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!

Trish’s description of herself in pants (Trish hates pants and insists on skirts) - whoa whoa whoa.

Beaded yarn - whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

8 spinner boxes ready to go - whoa whoa whoa whoa. 

The amazing interiors of the new Loops South - whoa whoa whoa!

Yorkshire pudding almost ready - whoa whoa whoa whoa!

Having Angela plying (the current Tanglewood intern) - whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!

But this month has been five whoas - just totally overwhelming, there is no other nice way to put it. With spring break just around the corner, teachers have been piling on the tests and papers, amassing a sea of overworked and sleep-deprived college kids desperate for a break. I am starting to realize why I have never attempted an 18-hour semester before now...

On top of my overload of coursework, I have been preparing for interviews in New York over spring break. I have never been to the big city and my first trip will be a nerve-racking six days subject to judgement from some big name fashion companies, along with VogueKnitting. I am VERY excited about this opportunity to live and work in NY for 8 weeks in the coming fall, but I am nervous and anxious to say the least. My past weeks have been filled with resume sending, flight and hotel booking, and interview clothes searching. Mostly right now, I just want to get the interviews over with!

One very exciting moment to look forward to though, is lunch with and a look at Cathy Carron’s studio! The author of Cowlgirls! How neat, right? I will get a chance to meet and spend some time with Cathy and show her everything I have finished so far, I can’t wait!

But in the meantime, I have been able to reknit “need for tweed”. I was able to knock it out in just a couple of days, now quite familiar and quick with the pattern. 

I found this pattern to be extremely easy and straightforward. It is essentially a basket weave, but in the last row of each 6-row repeat, the knit stitches are slightly different. Instead of just knitting them, you knit the second stitch through the back loop first, and then knit the first stitch. The book explains it very clearly and I found it pretty obvious. The pattern is lovely, simple and clean. 

Bella is a fan of "need for tweed" too! I couldn't seem to tear her away from it...

I absolutely love the colors the Loops Troops picked out for this cowl. It screams “hazy shade of winter” to me. Mostly a couple hues of gray, one pale pinkish, one bluish, nestled with a rich mossy green. Truly a pleasure to knit, even the second time around!

Next I will be moving onto “wrapture”. I CANNOT wait for this one! I have had the yarn for this for weeks and it has been staring at me sweetly from my stash, begging to be wound and fondled. The note enclosed with this yarn read, “One word for ya, RASTA!” 

Previously, Shelley had skipped over “wrapture,” assuring me Loops had ordered the most perfect yarn for it while at market. And boy, was Shelley right! Rasta is my must-have yarn pick. 

Made by Malabrigo, Rasta is a kettle dyed, bulky merino bliss. My Rasta is a rich variegation of browns, melting from copper to chocolate. This colorway is called Coronilla.  

As soon as I stop at the yarn store tomorrow for the right needles, I will be casting on enthusiastically! As always, more updates to come - hopefully sooner this week ;)!

a little too human.

Apparently my ability to read and follow directions has been impaired. I’ve been working on “need for tweed” for about a week now, making lovely progress, admiring and appreciating the perfect and defined stitches - an important moment for a newly converted continental knitter. 

Stuck in the middle of a horrific week academically, I pulled out my cowl to knit on and relax while I enjoyed the finally gorgeous weather from my stoop of a porch during my hour long break between classes. I was thrilled to be done with the first section and on to the second. I attached my Debbie Bliss Glen to my already knitted Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran section and dove into the greyish pink yarn with enthusiasm. I had my Cowlgirls in my lap, which I am rarely without by the way (it even comes to class with me), to admire the picture and future for my cowl while diligently following the directions, or so I thought anyway... 

But really my direction following at this point was okay, it was my direction following a week ago that was going to get me in trouble. A pattern set into the Glen - daydreaming Trish might read this as “one glass into my Glenlivet...” - and many deep gazes into the book’s photograph and it hits me. I used the WRONG yarn for the wrong sections in the cowl! The pattern calls for two skeins of Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed and one skein of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino chunky - I am substituting Luxury Tweed for Glen. Now if only I had read the directions more carefully or even thought about it logically, I would have seen the cowl as a sandwich : Luxury Tweed - Cashmerino - Luxury Tweed. But no, of course not. I thought of it as: Cashmerino - Glen - Glen, what a dummy!

So here is my lovely “need for tweed”, halfway done and waiting to be ripped out, stitch by stitch. 

At least I had these beautiful Valentine’s roses from Sam to cheer me up! 

And a grow your own diamond ring from my friend Annie. 

The completed transformation. 

I had high hopes that this cowl would be ready to show off tonight, but it looks like I’m in for the long haul. I had plans of getting back on track this weekend when I had seemingly nothing to do, but instead chose to rip apart my apartment, move around ALL of the furniture, and attempt to put it back together again. Not so helpful for finishing my cowl, but it needed to be done, in a big way. More “need for tweed” updates to come this week!