I am Biased

Gentle Reader, as anyone who has visited this vicinity with any regularity will know, the Knitty Pilgrim is strongly biased towards anything Noro. A quick review of recent postings will attest to this fact. Indeed, four of these last five musings have been devoted to Noro creations of one stripe or other.

There is something so satisfying in the knitting of a Noro yarn: a kind of quaint homespun-ness in its varying thicknesses, its pleasing scratchiness that, upon further manipulation, softens with time. Most of all, there is the outrageous inventiveness of Mr. Noro's ever-changing colorways. One feels that even the simplest of garments knit of Noro yarn yields unique and eye-catching artistry.

Thus, have we here, a new Bias Scarf, this time knit using Noro Kureyon Sock yarn on US #3 needles. Best of all, the entire adult-length scarf was knit using a single skein, making it not only lovely to look at, but economical as well. Well suited to these turbulent times, don't you agree? Well suited indeed...

Bias Scarf

Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn #S236

US #3 circular needles
1 Skein and lots of little garter stitches

Crazy Mixed Up Sox

Pleased, as ever, to share with you, Gentle Reader, my latest finished object - the Crazy Mixed Up Sox, knitted from a single skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock. As you may surmise, the Pilgrim wound the skein into a single center-pull ball, and then pulled alternately from each end of the ball to achieve the playful alternating striping.

As ever, one is amazed by Noro's colorific drama ever-unfolding. With the completely random alternating stripes, one never knows what one will get. Delightfully so.

All hail Noro.

CrazySoxyCool!

Finished Object - Noro Blanket

The Pilgrim is quite pleased to report that the new Noro blanket is now complete. I will admit that at the outset I was a tad worried that the Kureyon might prove to be a bit scratchy (the Pilgrim has worked mostly with Silk Garden until now), but indeed it is not. It is, in fact, quite soft and cuddly and, therefore, perfect for throwing over the legs as needed.

Enjoy the above photo, depicting the finished object in situ. I believe it "works," no?

Noro Newness

Once upon a time, some of you may recall, the Pilgrim embarked on a blanket project dubbed the Piggyback Throw. It was an auspicious start, and a lot of fun to watch it grow. Sadly, that effort ended badly, a casualty of the great neighbor renovation debacle of 2007 which, as previously reported, soiled much of the Pilgrim's stash with a thick coating of plaster dust rendering much of it, including the Piggyback Throw, hopelessly, irretrievably unusable.

And now, nearly a full year later, the Pilgrim once again embarks on another big blanket journey; this time with a beautiful Noro Kureyon (#164) colorway purchased in bulk and on sale (!!).

It is truly a delight to behold the shifting tones as the color-changing drama unfolds. It seems to make the knitting go faster; and indeed perhaps it does, as one never wants to put it down until the full skein has finished. Once completed, one feels it will make a right proper throw. A right proper throw indeed.

Don't you think of anything but socks?

Shhh... an admission: the Pilgrim is a socks-addict. Indeed, he is obsessed with the Long-Suffering Other's longstanding obsession with stipey socks of any sort. To feed this need, one recently discovered the lovely Lorna's Laces Sock yarn. Yes, one knows he has arrived quite late to the cotillion, but oh, what a delightful dance it is!

Pilgrim's first Lorna's Laces Socks!

So pleased was he with this initial experience, that ... well ...

Yes, a delightful splash of Lorna's has been added to the increasingly large Pilgrim Socks Stash. Lots of splendid socks-fueled highs ahead....

Sock Porn!

Diagarter Scarf

A while back, you may recall, the Pilgrim shared a stash-busting experiment -- the Diagonal Garter Scarf, which was a playful way to use up some lovely Noro Silk Garden that for many months had been hanging out in the limbo land of the yarn closet.

Well, it is finished, and I believe the auspicious start proved right. Tis a scarf a Pilgrim will wear with some satisfaction, should winter ever decide to come.

Sadly, or not so, the Pilgrim has been on a spree of late, and, as a consequence, the yarn closet is once more expanding beyond its seams. What, pray tell, is a Pilgrim to do?

Only what one can do, one supposes.

Pick up sticks.

And knit.

How one spent one's summer vacation

Gentle Reader, be it known far and wide that the Pilgrim has returned from his long summer holiday. And quite the jaunt it was, hither and thither across European soils: time spent relaxing with family, and friends, and people not known to one at all, including, one might say, bizarre close encounters with a female member of the United States Supreme Court (at an adjacent dining table), and a certain very blonde head of a famed Italian fashion house (in the airplane seat just opposite on the return journey home). And her little dog, too...

Indeed, wonderful diversions all, and now, alas, I am back.

And although it was a terrific trip for the appetite and the soul, one cannot state that it was great for the knitting. Nay, one might say that the Pilgrim experienced a most frustrating time with the garment he chose to bring along.

Not so very long ago, some of you may recall a certain "hoodie" the Pilgrim knit up for his nephew, the young and exceedingly polite Matthew. Well, the Pilgrim has dreamt of just such an item for himself long since - but in cotton rather than wool.

To start, one found a fiber he was willing to try - Cascade Yarns Sierra Pima Cotton / Merino Wool 80-20 blend in a suitable shade of gray. He decided to forego the undoubtedly modern Noro striping, and settled instead upon a contrast of the same fiber - in black, of course. It was at this point that the trouble began...

False start 1:

Although the Pilgrim spent much more time than that to which he is accustomed testing his gauge and whatnot, after knitting the hood (back and forth) and then shifting to in-the-round for the body, he discovered, much to his dismay, that the gauge too had suffered a shift. The back-and-forth section was a at least two needle sizes larger than the in-the-round! And so, alas, there was nothing to do but to frog the frigger and start anew.

False start 2:

At our second destination along the trip, all was going well. One had compensated by knitting very tightly on the purl side of the back-and-forth hood section, and switched to a larger needle size and a looser knit for the in-the-round. Blithely did one knit...and knit...and knit...round and round and round and round. Happily adding a stripe here and there, varying the pattern with whim and whimsy. Oh what fun. That is...until one decided actually to try the blasted thing on. TOO SMALL. Ridiculously so. And so, the Pilgrim frogged the so-and-so, and frogged and frogged some more!

At our final stop - at our friends' lovely home in the Dordogne - one screwed up one's courage, took needles in hand and started again. And so far, so good. Sharing herewith, the current state of things.

Until next time, very fond regards from a somewhat relaxed and exceedingly long-winded Knitty P!

On Pilgrimage

Gentle Reader, the Knitty Pilgrim is away on vacation. Do check back in early August for more adventures in knittery. Until then...Happy Knitting!

Summer Socks

Gentle Reader, fellow Pilgrims amongst you surely will recognize that the Knitty Pilgrim is not one to indulge in trendy abbreviation. No. The Knitty Pilgrim does not "text." One does not find here flippant mentions of the "FO" or "LYS." The Pilgrim is seldom moved to exclaim "OMG!" or indicate that one is "LMAO!" The Pilgrim is inclined to insert two proper spaces following the period at the end of a sentence, and always to include the punctuation inside the quotation mark.

The Pilgrim is a dying breed, I fear. A dinosaur. A curmudgeon. Alas.

Nevertheless, he still can be known to take some small delight in the completion of yet another in a series of silly, stripey socks for the Long-Suffering Other. In cotton, no less, and just in time for Summer.

Behold: happy, if long-suffering, feet!

P.S. OK, regular readers amongst you will recognize one notable abbreviation in the Knitty Pilgrim lexicon: the "L-SO."

Do feel free to share what you yourselves are knitting to welcome Summer!

And, until next time, kind regards. -- K.P.

In Memoriam

The Master

Yves Saint Laurent

Spring Awakening

One knows that spring has arrived with the appearance lilacs for sale outside every deli on the Upper West Side. At long last, we are experiencing here in the City a burst of lovely, winsome weather.

Ah Spring! The trees bud, the tulips bloom, and city faces bear giddy smiles. A euphoria is felt in spite of oneself, and one's best efforts to appear steady, stern.

Yet, with this joyous surge also dawns a dilemma: What to knit? And, frankly, who wants to? Who wants to knit when there are buds to sniff and parks to roam in all their fleeting, springtime splendor? For a Pilgrim as Knitty as oneself, 'tis quite the quandary.

On reflection, one realizes 'tis nature's way of telling the Pilgrim: Lighten Up! Think small! Think cotton! Think Socks!

And so, the Pilgrim embarks on yet another in a series of stripey socks for the L-SO. This time, doing the striping oneself using three different cotton yarns in a royal blue, a light blue and a very spring-y green.

Tedious it 'tis, but oh how uplifting for Long-Suffering feet!

One down, one more to go. May they put a Spring in his step!

Once more into the stash...

Continuing one's stashbusting ritual, the Pilgrim came across a few random skeins of his beloved Noro Silk Garden: five of them, in fact, in the same color scheme, crying out for attention.

What to do with them, one didn't have a clue. And so, taking up needles, the Pilgrim started to play.

Here we have the beginnings of a bias-knit, diagonal striping garter stitch scarf. And so far, so good: if I do say so myself, a most auspicious start!

Stashbusting 2

Continuing one's stash attack, the Pilgrim recently completed this fingerless glove (well, two of them actually) using a luscious little skein from the stash.

Mountain Colors Hand-Painted Yarns
"Mountain Goat"
55% Mohair
45% Wool

The hand-painted variegation serves to obscure the cabling pattern on the back of the hand. But how can one describe the touch and texture of this lovely yarn? One can't.

The Pilgrim has never been one to wear such a thing, but you may take him at his word when he tells you that he absolutely LOVES. THESE. GLOVES. Another new-found delight from the ongoing stashbusting scheme!

Pattern:
"Beer Gloves" by Kurt Fausset
from the book "Son of Stitch 'N Bitch"

Stashbusting Pilgrim

A quick scarf project is as good a way to use up a leftover skein or two as any. It is for times like these that the Pilgrim keeps his trusty stitch guides at hand.

Yea, even the lowly scarf can be a way to keep one's mind creatively engaged and, indeed, serve as an incubator of ideas for larger projects yet to come.

Matching a pattern to a fiber in a way one has not tried before can create lovely little scarf surprises for oneself or one's friends.

Case in point, the Diagonal Garter Ribbing scarf created from a bit of leftover Rowan Felted Tweed, and a simple stitch pattern from Debbie Bliss' "How To Knit."

I love how the traveling diagonals meld with the rich, tweedy goodness of the fiber, which was doubled in this case to add some tweedy bulk.

I call this a success, and one that I believe I will enjoy all to myself...

Putting one's feet up...

Taking a pilgrimage to the country for a few days in celebration of our presidents (current one notwithstanding), and taking some time to put up one's feet. But not before sharing the latest stripey socks for the Long-Suffering Other, who will also be putting up feet, not unlike the recent photo at right. Note the particular, long-suffering quality, lessened only slightly by newly knit stripes.

Ah, the three-day weekend...

Lost in Austen

Please tell me that the Pilgrim is not the only one to be lost in Austen of late. With PBS running The Complete Jane Austen over the course of six or seven Sundays (and what great knitting accompaniment that is!), he has found himself completely immersed. So much, in fact, that he has declared 2008 the year that he will read (or reread) the complete works.

Tis a reasonable goal: there are, I believe, but six published full-length novels. And as one can see, I have run out already and purchased the Penguin Classics set.


To date I have completed reading "Sense and Sensibility," as the dog-eared paperback at right will attest.

"P & P" would logically come next - as it did originally in print. But do chime in, Gentle Reader, with your thoughts. Which of Miss Austen's oeuvre should the Pilgrim pick up next?

I do look forward to your comments and, as always, your thoughts.

Until next time...
Happy Reading.
- KP

Uncle-ar Pride (or, Having Gifted the Hoodie)

Awww shucks.

I guess this means he liked it...he really liked it!

Hoodie - Whole

Happy to report that the hoodie is complete. Methinks it came out rather well. And yet, we wonder what the nephew will think...

Knit fit for a Nephew

Over the past year or so, the Pilgrim has created a number of knits for the L-S O's adorable neice, the eight-year-old Princess Mary. Mary is more precisely a Pink Princess. Absolutely anything is fine by her...as long as it's pink. And so, she has been the happy recipient of an exceedingly soft and fuzzy pink scarf with fringe, and a lovely pink, green and white striped cotton tank dress knit entirely in stockinette with pink garter stitch trim - very Lilly Pulitzer! What joy to create little things for such an adorable little one!

But, one doesn't want to neglect her older brother, the 13-year-old Matthew, now does one? It's just not so easy, though, to find a project or pattern that feels a right fit for a young, newly teen boy.

Enter the new book, Son of Stitch 'N Bitch - another little Christmas gift from the L-S O. How pleased was I to find the knit hoodie featured on the far-left side of the cover, below:

And in close-up here:

Perfectly suited, it seems, for an active 13-year-old, don't you agree?

Although the Pilgrim certainly approves of the brown version in the book, for Matthew I have chosen a largely gray (surprise) and blue scheme. And despite the fact that my gauge was wrong and I had to rip it out once and start anew, so far I think it's coming out rather well.

And a little magic of my own

Resuming the big bind-off parade, one mustn't neglect one's own version of the "magic scarf." This one the Pilgrim knit just for himself. Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend, knit long-ways. 400 stitches of pure garter love.

Scarf Magic

The Pilgrim received an inquiry as to how he got the stockinette to lay so flat. Indeed, the scarf is not stockinette, but single k1 p1 rib throughout. I have chosen not to block it, so it remains smushed together to resemble stockinette, yet lays impeccably flat.

I love this scarf. The L-SO has taken to calling it "The Magic Scarf" because, he says, due to its coloration it miraculously goes with literally everything.

Herewith, another view:

New Year - New Gear

With a tip of the Pilgrim hat, I bid each and every one of you a fond Happy New Year! Yes, after several weeks of hiatus and hibernation, we are back, and many thanks to those of you who have written to inquire of our wellbeing. Your kind words of encouragement are appreciated immensely.

And so, without further ado, let the bind-off parade begin.

Object 1: Above. Striped Scarf (with special nod to Jared). Noro Silk Garden, alternating stripes in similar colorways. The perfect stocking stuffer to feed the Long-Suffering Other's ongoing stripe fixation. And I am extremely happy to report that he L-O-V-E-S it. As he himself put it, it's his FAVORITE SCARF EVER.

But wait, there's more...

Tiger Stripe Socks for the L-SO. Stripey socks of any sort make for happy, if Long-Suffering, feet.

And what, you may ask, did the L-SO surprise me with?

Happy hands...