Pints & Purls Edition 18: Wassail Winter Ale

This is the eighteenth in a series of installments that will highlight one of my favorite brews and which knits to go with it!  None of the breweries or yarn companies are compensating me – these are just my opinions on my personal experiences!

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Brew: Winter Ale

Brewer: Full Sail

Malts: All the good ones

Hops: A fabulous blend

Flavors:  This beer showed some of it’s best elements right off the bat – immediately after popping the cap a sweet, thick beer-y aroma filled my nose.  The flavor did not disappoint – full flavor and lots of it!  Malty with a slight coffee side taste, as a darker beer should be but with a nice hoppy, crisp finish.  The taste of this beer is like the feeling you get when you put on your winter coat in a warm house then walk out into single-digit weather.

Knit Pairings:  With the coming of the winter season, not only are we seeing changing landscapes and dropping temperatures but more wool sweaters, socks, hats and winter-themed beers as well!  Because of the full, warming but crisp flavor I recommend knitting a sweater with the same elements.  Warm and cozy, possibly ove-rsized with cushy but crisply knitted cables.  It sounds perfect to me!

Notes:  See?  I told you it wasn’t all IPA’s all the time. Pfft.

Let me know what you think!  Suggestions for future beers, more/different information to include, this is a work in progress so I won’t be offended by constructive advice!

WIP Wednesday: More Seekrit Projects

Remember when I said I wouldn’t have anymore seekrit projects for a while?

I lied.

This, I can’t show you because the person it’s for reads this thing on occasion and it needs to be a seekrit until after the holiday season.  But let me just say, I hope this person loves it, because I’m loving knitting it 😉

The sweater is back on the needles and working right along, by the way.  I know you were wondering.  I’ll share progress pictures next week!

Linking up with Tami as usual!  What are you working on this week?  Have you started your gift-giving knitting?

The Orange Yarn

I’ve gotten a few questions about what I plan to make with that gorgeous orange-y red lace weight yarn I picked up at the Taos Wool Festival.  When I originally bought it, I thought it’d be so perfect knit up into something intricate and lacy and detailed like the phenomenal shawls that were in the yarn store’s booth.  Naturally, my mind went to traditional lace shawls but I thought the super bright color needed something more modern so off to Ravelry I went.

I love the way you can search for just about anything you could imagine in Ravelry, seriously.  I especially love that I was able to specify my search by the weight of yarn and yardage I had.  The results were, of course, fabulous and there were pages and pages of beautiful things to look at.  Shawls, of course, but also sweaters!  Full sweaters out of a single skein?  Why wouldn’t I attempt such a feat?

So, needless to say, the idea of a shawl slowly slipped out the window and the idea of knitting a lacy lightweight sweater out of this statement yarn started percolating in my head and I debated between a few but I believe I’ve decided on one, with a few mods planned.

I want to do this Atalanta sweater – it fits many of my requirements and original ideas: it’s lacey, it’s a cardigan, it gets a lot of bang for not a lot of buck (very little yardage required) and bonus! It’s a free pattern!  I plan to make the fronts actual fronts because I like my cardigans to close sometimes and based on the yardage requirements, I should be able to.

But never fear knitters, I do have plans for intricate lace shawls (including beads!) for the near future with another gorgeous yarn you’ve seen before 😉

Pints & Purls Edition 17: Guinness – Guest Post!

This is the seventeenth in a series of installments that will highlight one of my favorite brews and which knits to go with it!  None of the breweries or yarn companies are compensating me – these are just my opinions on my personal experiences!

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First off, I’d like to thank Kirsten of kfklever for guest posting this week!  And, for all those dark beer drinkers out there who are sick of my hop-tastic choices, she’s chosen one I think you’ll all like 😉

Brew: Guinness Draught

Brewer: Guinness

Malts: Subtle aromas of roasted coffee and caramel

Hops:

Flavors: A strong rich flavor with a medium amount of sweetness and a super creamy finish makes this stout a delight to drink. Colloquially known as “Steak in a Bottle”, Guinness is a thick stout with a full-bodied taste that is sure to delight chocolate and steak lovers everywhere. The Nitro base makes for a smooth taste that is easy to drink.

Knit Pairings: Guinness goes great with cold nights when you can curl up by the fire. Try knitting a cozily cabled cowl with a DK weight tweed that matches the warm hearty flavors; a favorite is Rowan Felted Tweed DK. Bonus points if you use color #161, a beautiful green that matches the lush hillsides of Ireland. With 191 yards, you’ll run out of beer before you run out of yarn, and your finished cowl will keep you warmer longer than your Guinness pint!

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Again, a special thanks to Kirsten for this week’s Pints & Purls post!

Let me know what you think!  Suggestions for future beers, more/different information to include, this is a work in progress so I won’t be offended by constructive advice!

WIP Wednesday: Sweater Surgery

Last week I asked you guys what I should do about the center panel of my Miranda Sweater once I realized that I had been missing entire rows throughout all of the cable turns!

Most of you said to leave it alone since it was consistent and I was probably the only person who would notice.  Usually, that would be totally fine with me but with this particular sweater, I just kept looking at it and knowing that it was so wrong.  I decided to rip out just the center panel and reknit it to match the required cable turns.

Now that the center panel is correct, I’m moving right along and am very happy with how it’s coming!  Definitely worth the surgery, in my opinion.

Linking up with Tami as always!  What are you working on this week?

More Weekend Yarn Adventures!

This past weekend I spent with more yarny adventures!  Saturday I taught a Tiny Sweater Class at Yarn & Coffee and Sunday I had a Trunk Show at The Yarn Store at Nob Hill and they were both fabulous.

I was able to talk to lots of interesting knitters, eat cookies, work on my sweater, drink hot chocolate, eat another cookie, talk to more knitters and spend time breathing in the yarn and fiber fumes.

Sadly, these are my last events in Albuquerque, but they were so fun!   I really appreciate the local knitting scene making me feel welcome and at home, I know that the Loveland and Fort Collins knitting scenes will be the same and I’ll get to meet even more fun, funny and fabulous fiber folk!

If you’re interested in making one of these adorable little things for your holiday decorations, just wait a few days!  The pattern for the Tiny Sweater will be published here on the blog soon with plenty of notes to customize it and make it easier to fandangle those beginning stitches on dpns!

Destash Extravaganza and A Pattern Sale!

Ok, so now that I’ve spilled my latest excitement, I need to find a way to lighten my load (almost literally, it’s really more of a space saver since yarn doesn’t weigh much) and also pay for the move.  This is a winning situation for you as I’m destashing many different types, weights, colors and fibers of yarns as reasonable prices and am willing to ship worldwide!

I’ve been listing some of my yarns on Ravelry already and more will follow, if you see one you want just send me a PM and we can work out the details!  If there’s more than one you that catches your eye, you’ll save on shipping 😉

Also, I’m offering a 15% off sale on any of my self-published single patterns and a $1 off coupon for The Vagabond’s Closet ebook.  There is no limit as to how many times the coupons can be used, and the sale will end on Moving Day – November 2^nd at midnight.

Thank you all for your support in all my adventures so far, just knowing that there are folks out there who care enough to read my blog at all makes me feel warm and fuzzy and part of an awesome community.

WIP Wednesday: The Sweater

Still working on the Miranda sweater…sort of.  She’s been in time out the past few days.  After a rather stressful Monday I tried to de-stress with some me-knitting when I realized suddenly that I’d been missing out on 2 entire rows for each cable detail down the entire front of the sweater.

So, needless to say, I was a little bit more upset than the already upset Monday had made me.  Now I’m debating doing some major surgery and ripping out the center panel only and re-knitting it properly, or continuing on and calling it a ‘design element’.  Ripping out the entire sweater, shoulders and all, isn’t an option, I’d probably just set the damn thing on fire at that point.  But it’s Malabrigo and if you know me, you know I’m The Malabrigo Addict so I just can’t set it on fire. Even if the sweater deserves it after being knit and ripped and knit and ripped so many times.

So which would you do?  Major surgery or design element?  Linking up with Tami as always!

(Yes, these are all plane pictures…sweaters are *not* too big to knit on planes. Proof.)

Exciting News!

I’ve been teasing you all with this Big News long enough, today I’m spillin’ the beans!

I’m moving. Again. Back to Colorado.  To a town called Loveland.  This past weekend I visited the area to find a place to live, scope out where I’ll be working and get acquainted with my soon-to-be New Town.

Why I am I moving yet again?  Well, because we all know I love love LOVE Colorado, and also because I accepted an exciting new career opportunity!

I’m going to be the newest Project Editor for Interweave, Knitscene, Knit. Wear. and all the other knitting magazines published by F+W Media!

Obviously, I’m super excited for this opportunity but it does come at a small cost – at the end of October I’ll be closing up my Freelance Tech Editing Services.  Don’t worry about this here blog though, I’m definitely going to keep it up, it’s a part of me now and I can’t let it go!

So, now you all know my Big Secret and I hope you’ll continue to join me virtually, or in person, on my adventures!

Continueing the Fiber Binge Weekend

After getting such a huge Fiber High on Saturday, I had to continue the trend on Sunday, it would’ve been too abrupt a withdrawal to just stop it right there.  And besides, I had PLANS!  Needs and wants and ideas and things to act on lest this yarn somehow disappear before I could make something with it.

Andrea, luckily, was up for round 2 of Fiber Binging and we started off at the Yarn Store at Nob Hill where we both purchased a few skeins of yarn for future projects and I, a tiny crochet hook for beading.  I came home with 3 skeins of Zealana Rimu, a 60% New Zealand/40% Possum mix in the most gorgeous and difficult dark turquoise dk weight yarn with little bits of a darker (what I believe to be natural) fibers spun in.  I imagine these three skeins to become a matching hat and mitt set!

We then visited the bead store up the road and picked out some super awesome brightly colored seed beads to go with this yarn from Bittersweet Woolery for a hopefully-soon-future project.

The day was capped with plenty of time sitting around at our usual watering hole doing what we do best – knitting and sipping brews!

What’s your favorite place to enjoy some knitting time?  Did you indulge in any recent stash enhancements?