Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone! How about a late-for-Christmas present?

I cobbled together this cowl as a present for my mom and to use up some really nice fingering cashmere I had from School Products. It's kind of a combination of the shape/button of Knitty Gritty Thoughts' Spiral Cowl (a pattern you know I love) with the stitch pattern in Leila Raabe's Shaelyn, another beautiful pattern I'm dying to try. I have to admit I didn't buy the Shaelyn pattern -- just eyeballed it and assumed that the wavy stripes were done in "Crest of the Wave," an old Shetland lace pattern.

I see that School Products no longer has the yarn I used, but this would be a good project for one skein of Jade Sapphire 2-ply.

The pattern is for a woman's cowl -- if you want to make one for a child, it could easily be done by taking out one or two pattern repeats (the pattern repeat is 12 stitches) and knitting only three stripes of the lace pattern. Or if you want your cowl to be bigger, cast on an extra 12 stitches and work five stripes of the lace pattern.

Update 1/14: Thanks to Marina Carelli, who has translated the pattern into Italian. You can download the pdf (in both languages) here.

Grazie a Marina Carelli, che ha tradotto il disegno in italiano. È possibile scaricare il pdf (in le due lingue) qui.

Update 1/14: Thanks to Lilian Sant'Anna, who translated the pattern into Portuguese.
Obrigado a Lilian Sant’Anna, que traduziu o padrão de Natal Cowl em Português.
 

Christmas Cowl

Size: 21 inches circumference, 9 inches tall
Gauge: 7 stitches and 9 rows = 1 inch
Yarn: 200-300 yards fingering weight yarn in something light and luxurious, like cashmere.
Needles: 16-inch circular needle, size 3 or whatever size will give you gauge
Notions: one stitch marker, tapestry needle, one coordinating button

Glossary
K: knit
P: purl
K2tog: knit two stitches together
Ssk: slip-slip-knit: slip the next two stitches one by one as if to knit. Return both stitches to left needle, then knit them together through the back loop
YO: yarn over

Instructions

Cast on 144 stitches and join to work in the round, being careful not to twist. Place a stitch marker at the beginning of the round (where you just joined yarn).

Work two garter ridges: Knit one round, purl one round, repeat these two rounds once.

Work one repeat of Crest of the Wave pattern:

Round 1: Knit
Round 2: Purl
Round 3: *k2tog twice, (YO, k1) x 3, YO, ssk twice, k1, repeat from * to end of round
Round 4: Knit
Round 5: Repeat round 3
Round 6: Knit
Round 7: Repeat round 3
Round 8: Knit
Round 9: Repeat round 3
Round 10: Knit
Round 11: Knit
Round 12: Purl

Work 12 rounds stockinette (knit all rounds).
Work another repeat of Crest of the Wave pattern.

Continue alternating 12-round stripes of stockinette and stripes of Crest of the Wave pattern until there are four stripes of Crest of the Wave. Then work two more garter ridges (knit one round, purl one round, repeat these two rows once). Bind off loosely (I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bindoff).

Weave in ends and block very well -- I recommend wet blocking. You can stretch your cowl slightly in blocking it to open up the lace pattern and to make sure your fabric has some drape. You will find that the lace pattern is more "wavy" on the bottom than the top -- feel free to try to pin it in such a way that you make both the top and bottom as wavy as possible. I did this, and it sort of worked.

To finish your cowl, pick up three stitches at the top edge and knit a length of i-cord about 1.5 inches long. Make this length of 1-cord into a buttonhole loop by tacking down end of i-cord next to where you picked up the stitches and weaving in the end. Try on your cowl with the buttonhole loop at the top and fold over the loop to overlap cowl at the neck as tight as you would like it to be. Mark the place where the buttonhole falls when you do this, then sew your button at this place.

Your cowl is done! You can wear it loose and unbuttoned (like my lovely Mom is wearing it in the picture), or you can tighten it around your neck with the button to keep out the wind.

Not dead.

Or, as one commenter hopefully speculated, married.

I've just gotten really busy, and also I lost my camera battery charger and was too cheap to buy a new one for $80. I eventually found a cheaper replacement, so now I can photograph these lovelies:


One FO, a Multnomah shawl in Fibre Company Road to China Light. I adore both this yarn and this pattern. The yarn is unbelievably soft and incredibly warm -- alpaca, camel and silk combine to make this like a little heater for my shoulders.

I am calling this my hubris shawl, because I had to rip it out and reknit it like 4 times, because I didn't bother to read the pattern very carefully.


I never thought I was a shawl person, but I love it, so I'm working on another, a Daybreak shawl in Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! Also an unbelievably gorgeous yarn, soft and kettle dyed. I'm not 100% sold on this color combination, but I'm waiting to see once there are more orange stripes.


And it's all orange and green/teal, all the time here, evidently, because I also made myself a pair of Endpaper mitts in two colors of Knitpicks Stroll yarn. They're already pilly after only a few weeks of use, but that's to be expected with this yarn, and it was super cheap.


Okay. I can't promise to blog with much more regularity, but I'll try. And at least now I can post pictures again!

Backstage pass (ish)

So a commenter has asked me to share how I store all my crafting supplies in a NYC apartment. I think I've posted this picture before, but here's my storage solution:


I have a whole armoire dedicated to yarn and fabric storage. I also have been making a concerted effort lately to keep my stash small and knit only from stash. So far it's worked. It is necessary in a small space not to waste too much of it on storing things you never use. But, I mean, there's a whole piece of storage furniture in my apartment just for craft supplies, so I'm certainly not a model of space-efficiency.

But I think the real reason I can do it is because I'm single. I have space for an armoire full of yarn because I don't need two dressers in my bedroom. That's also why I have been able to sew so much this summer. Normally, when my apartment is clean, my dining area looks like this:


But for much of the summer, that whole table was covered with piles of fabric, a sewing machine, a cutting station, and a blocking/ironing board. I could never do that if there were someone else living here -- let alone kids around.

Lemons, lemonade. Frankly I'd rather be married with kids, but in the meantime, I can knit and sew a lot.

Fall FO's!

My glorious, super-bright picnic blanket is done!


It's about 5' x 7', uses lots and lots of scraps, and is pleasingly puckered just like a well-loved heirloom. It has snaps to roll it up for toting to picnic locations and rock pockets to weight it down:


I've already used it once and am mightily pleased with myself. And what's this little lump sitting atop my picnic blanket?


Ah, yes, knitting. I've missed you, old friend.

Oh, and in other news, here's a lovely photo of the recipient of the "Sock Yarn Stranded" prototype, looking all cute and cuddly in her sweater:


I see lots of pills on those elbows. Hope that's from hard use!

a string quilt and and a nerd-out

It's late August, and I'm still on a knitting-hiatus quilting jag. I think it's the novelty, the fact that it's not a lapful of hot wool, and the fact that I'm not inspired by any particular knitting projects that have combined to make this the summer of quilting. I'm working on a string quilt right now. It's a really cool technique that involves paper piecing and lots of scraps. In a typical move for me, I am fanatically working on a project that will be finished just as the season for using it has passed: in this case, a picnic blanket. But I don't care -- the colors are just so beautiful together! I love how improvisational it is, too -- the color combinations and the width of the stripes are all pretty much random. I had a lot of scraps of Heather Ross Mendocino and Lightning Bugs fabric left over from various projects, plus quite a bit of Amy Butler fabric left over from sewing my sister a bunch of scrub caps and a little bit of Joel Dewberry Deer Valley left over from that recent wedding present project, but I did have to supplement with some fat quarters I bought, so it's not totally comprised of scraps. But I'd say it's about 60% scraps -- so not exactly free, but significantly cheaper than a quilt you bought all the materials for new.

My other obsession of late has been watching "The Pillars of the Earth," the miniseries of a Ken Follett book about the Middle Ages. I had to watch this one -- not only is it about the period I study (well, actually I'm a late medievalist, but let's not split hairs), but it also stars Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen)!

(Starz publicity photo)

It's really more of a "Medieval Times"-ish soap opera treatment than a historical movie, but it's pretty fun to watch. But it reminded me of a beef I have with "historical" movies: why do these movies always include someone inventing something modern? In this miniseries so far, they have invented Gothic ribbed vaults and the concept of buying on credit. In the recent "Robin Hood" movie, Robin invented the Magna Carta, for pete's sake!

Another thing that irritates me about "medieval" fictions: why does everything set in medieval England have to include some sort of goddess-worshipping witch woman?

(Starz publicity photo)

The one in this movie actually has dreadlocks, and in one memorable bit of dialogue, when the prior asks her why she doesn't worship god, she says, "I just worship her a different way." Ugh.*

Anyway, if you're a nerd like me, you should watch it! It's all on Netflix, if you subscribe.

The next time I post, perhaps there will be some actual knitting to talk about!

*by which I mean, not, "ugh, she thinks god is a woman," but, "ugh, why does every empowered woman have to be a witch?"

lest you think that I've been abducted by aliens,

I haven't. I've been lazy. It's summer, and I can't seem to motivate to do anything. Except sew. I've become obsessed. I decided to try quilting, and it's totally addictive. Not needing or wanting any quilts for my own apartment has not stopped me from making them. I've finished a baby quilt and then started my current project, which is a set of placemats, towels, potholders, and napkins for a friend of mine who's getting married.


Unlike knitting, where you can basically do whatever you need to do with a starter kit and the equipment is not particularly varied, quilting really can't be done perfectly without an investment in some special stuff -- namely, a rotary cutter, a quarter-inch foot, and a walking foot (I haven't gotten brave enough to try freehand quilting with an embroidery/darning foot). I've been tediously machine-quilting these placemats with parallel lines about 1/4 inch apart. It is pretty boring, but it looks great! And it's less boring than hand-quilting probably would be.


I have discovered that really beautiful fabric is expensive. This Joel Dewberry fabric for the placemats, for example. And rotary cutter blades are expensive. In fact, the crazy cost of quilting supplies has made me feel a little less guilty about knitting supplies: a quilt is much more expensive than a sweater to make (unless you're making a tiny quilt or you're using only quiviut yarn or something).

Oh, and quilting is much messier than knitting. My apartment is a gigantic mess right now. There are little scraps of thread and fabric everywhere. It's nice that even when you're knitting a big afghan or something you can still pack it up and put it neatly away if you need to.

Okay, off to sew some more!

Sweetness

Finishing the Orals and the school year has made me want to do nothing but fall back on sheer relaxing pleasure knitting, which for me, unsurprisingly, is making top-down baby sweaters. I bought this yarn back in April to help sweeten a sort of miserable birthday spent alone and under the crushing stress of last-minute studying, and it actually did help.

The yarn is Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in "Cedar" with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Andersonville" as a contrast. They looked great together in the skein because there was a little touch of the cedar color in the Lorna's Laces. I bought them intending to make the mosaic-yoke "Cardigan B" from my "Steps to Stranded" patterns, but when I came to knitting the mosaic part, that stripe of cedar color turned out to muddy the crispness of the pattern, and my pretty squares looked more like smudges. So I improvised something that would work with this yarn.


Instead of six rows of mosaic pattern in alternating sequence, I worked four rows of garter stitch in the Lorna's Laces separated by two rows of stockinette in the Sweet Georgia. The beginning of each garter stitch section is where I worked my yoke increases.

I think it looks very nice, and it's a sweet little variation on the pattern. So if you're looking for a variation on the "Steps to Stranded" pattern, I'd recommend it, especially with yarns that are just a little too close in color to make the most of a stranded or mosaic pattern.


A note on the yarn: in my previous post I had expressed some doubt about the Sweet Georgia yarn, but I rescind that comment: after wet-blocking this yarn is heavenly -- soft and sort of silky feeling with no scratchiness, and it seems to have lost the fuzziness that was making me worry about how well it will hold up. I think if I were knitting socks with it I would still knit them at a pretty tight gauge just to be sure -- and this yarn is a relatively fat sockweight, so knitting on one's normal sock needles would already be knitting it pretty tightly. But at the looser gauge of this baby garment, it drapes beautifully.

adorbs

Just whipped up a few matching accessories for two of the "Steps to Stranded" prototypes I knit last year. My mom wants to give a present to the baby granddaughter of one of her friends and asked if I had any baby sweaters hanging around the apartment. What a silly question!


In fact I have four unclaimed baby sweaters hanging around the apartment. I'm kind of glad to be getting rid of these because I feel like holding onto that many baby items is probably jinxing my ability ever actually to have a baby myself.


Once again, Saartje's Booties come through! I adjusted this pattern to use sock-weight yarn and size 1 needles at a gauge of 8 stitches/inch, because Lorna's Laces is really quite thin. My adjustments: cast on 39 stitches, which makes 19 stitches on either side of the center stitch, increase to 63 stitches, then knit straight to 12 garter ridges. On decrease row k19, ssk 6 times, k1, k2tog 6 times, k19. BO center 27 stitches. For the straps CO 15 extra stitches to make straps 27 stitches altogether. Those notes make sense if you look at the original pattern. I knit them flat because I don't mind seaming and I hate purling, but in retrospect I'd probably use Fleegle's in-the-round variation.

Phew!

I passed my Orals, and I am celebrating by knitting another yoked baby sweater. I feel no shame about knitting a baby sweater with no intended recipient -- and I'm not alone; Grumperina just spoke on the subject herself.

This is made with some splurge yarn -- Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Andersonville" and Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in "Cedar." Both are just gorgeous, sophisticated colors, and they work really well together. I have some questions about how well the Sweet Georgia will hold up as it seems a little fuzzy from the get-go, but I don't care. Who could resist that glorious, complex shade of blue-green?

As summer approaches I am lining up some more knitting projects and taking a vow that I will actually finish at least two sweaters I've been sitting on. And of course, I've also got to start writing the dissertation!!

Bellyphant!

Sorry about the gap in posting there, gentle readers! I have been studying for the Orals like a madwoman. I hope I can make up for my e-silence by offering at long last the pattern for my baby sweater with elephants on the belly -- or as I've dubbed it, the Bellyphant Cardigan!

Click here to download the 9-page pattern pdf for $4.99 (Ravelry dowload):




This one is a first for me, because it's a bottom-up raglan instead of a top-down. The difference was necessitated by the design's having the elephants at the bottom of the sweater -- unless you want to do some math, it's much easier to start with the stranded portion and then knit in stripes until it's the right length, rather than starting at the top with the stripes and then beginning the stranded portion at the appropriate number of inches from the bottom of the sweater.


The details:

Size 3-6 (6-9, 12-18) months
Finished Measurements 21” (22”, 25”) chest, 10.5” (11”, 12.5”) long
Gauge 6 stitches and 8 rows = 1 inch

Requirements
Size US 3 (3.25 mm) straight or circular needles. I would recommend a long circular needle
Size 3 (3.25 mm) double-pointed needles or long circular needle for magic loop
300-400 yards sport weight yarn in main color (MC) (I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in brown #11); about 200-300 yards sport weight yarn in contrast color (CC) (I used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in pink #15 or teal #203)
8 stitch markers
2 Stitch holders or scrap yarn
Tapestry needle
7-10 Coordinating buttons

Skills required: knitting flat and in the round, stranded knitting done flat, 2x2 ribbing, paired decreases, three-needle bindoff, picking up stitches

The pattern includes a glossary of all abbreviations as well as illustrated instructions for ssk (slip-slip-knit decreases), picking up stitches, and working three-needle bindoff.

This pattern does require flat colorwork (not knit in the round), and there are some pretty large stretches of one color only in some rows. If you’d like, you may prefer to knit it in intarsia rather than stranded knitting. The colorwork section is only 11 rows, though, so I think it's reasonable.

Click here to download the 9-page pattern pdf for $4.99 (Ravelry dowload):




The original recipient of this sweater adores it, and I've worked up two more of them to sell for my choir's silent auction. So the pattern has been test-knit by me in two different sizes and knit a total of 3 times over the last 6 months or so.

That's it, my friends! As soon as I'm done with the Orals I promise I will post again. I'm so looking forward to knitting again, and indeed to doing anything with my spare time other than read about medieval lay devotion!

C'est chouette!

Louise Robert, aka Biscotte from Biscotte et Cie has graciously translated my Sheep Yoke Baby cardigan into French! Cliquez ici if you'd like to download it!

Snow day update

The snow is falling into the trees outside my window; school is canceled; I'm sitting here in my nightgown and grandfather's old sweater knitting a sock heel and reading Judith Butler for orals. It's just a lovely day.


A few quick updates:

1. Thanks so much for buying my patterns this past month! I was able to donate $125 to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief because of pattern sales during my pledge period.

2. The giant doily blanket is coming along well. I don't know how to crochet so I am finishing the edges with an easy knitted-on lace; picture above. It's an eight-row repeat that goes on sideways and eats up 1 doily stitch every other row (so four rows total each pattern repeat). It's slow going, but I like the way it looks. I've done about 1/4 of the blanket edge so far.

3. The elephant sweater is all finished and awaiting buttons. It's heart-squeezingly cute. Still working on the pattern. The elephants are an 18-stitch repeat, so it's kind of hard to figure out whether it's even possible to write it for different sizes than the one I made it in.

Wins of the Week

I am pleased to report of a number of wins, both epic and not. It has been a big week for:

1) Haiti Relief. Thanks to readers like you, I have been able to donate more than $100 to the American Red Cross, and I am only halfway through my pledge period.


2) Elephants. The new baby sweater is almost finished, and it is pretty freakin' cute. Question, though: I've been holding off on the button band because I am wondering if the body of this looks too long. Thoughts, gentle readers?


3) Snow. There was a minor snowstorm last week and apparently a biggie in the making. Which also makes this a good week for...


4) Delivery. I have just discovered the joys of Fresh Direct and PJ Wines deliveries. It's surprisingly exciting to get a pile of boxes from Fresh Direct delivered up to one's door -- kind of like getting a present, even though you know what is in it!


5) Cleaning tips from Ravelry: I pulled my beautiful cashmere spiral mitts out of my bag on Thursday and discovered that a red liquid ink pen had exploded all over the cuff of one of them. It looked like a bloodbath! But Ravelry forum posts came to the rescue: turns out hair spray and rubbing alcohol remove ink (in fact, I bet the hair spray works because it contains alcohol). So after some liberal hair-spraying and rubbing with alcohol prep pads (all I had in the medicine cabinet) and a good wash with shampoo and conditioner, this is what remains of the ink. The two little spots you see were quarter-sized deep red blotches. Pretty sweet! Plus, the mitts are now softer and fluffier than ever!


6) Fingerless mitts: the possibility of my spiral mitts' being destroyed led me to reconsider the fondness I have developed for them. They are surprisingly useful both indoors and out -- especially indoors, as my living room is quite cold and having just that little bit of cashmere around my wrists is surprisingly helpful in keeping my warm. So I cast on for a pair of October Leaves fingerless mitts with some Dream in Color Smooshy in "Gothic Rose" that's been languishing in my sock yarn drawer for more than a year. What a lovely pattern, and what a beautiful yarn! And fingerless mitts take up a surprisingly small amount of yarn. Which led to this being a good week for...


7) Cable earwarmers. This is a Bamboozled in the same yarn, held doubled this time. This is also a great pattern, and the only mod I made was to add a cable repeat (my row gauge was off from the pattern's) and to switch out the ties for buttonhole tabs.


Also wins, but not documentable in photo form:

8) Belated resolutions. I've been on a weight loss kick and have lost between 3 and 5 pounds, depending, oddly, on where I place the scale in my apartment. Magnetic anomalies? Ah, that reminds me...

9) Lost. It's back on, and it seems great so far. Much better than last season.

10) Emma. The Masterpiece Theater series has been adorable! Which leads to...

11) Cable TV. I finally caved and got cable for my apartment. I realize that both ABC and PBS are not cable channels, but my old antenna only picked up 2 channels.

12) Productivity. Shockingly, considering that the previous three entries on this list were television-related, I have been able to get a lot done in the last week and am now sitting smugly at the cafe blogging with hardly anything hanging over my head for the upcoming week. Indeed, the two pieces of reading I have stacked in front of me at the moment are not even things I have been assigned to read! (They are, however, medieval).

That's it! Anyone want another earwarmer picture?

Thanks!

A big thank you to everyone who's bought my patterns since I pledged to donate to Haiti relief -- already I've been able to donate more than I otherwise would have, thanks to you, and I will continue to do so until 2/14. If you're still looking to help, please do check out the "Help for Haiti" pattern sales on Ravelry. Knitters have been making a big difference: Yarn Harlot reports that her readers have donated an astounding amount so far!

Meanwhile, some knitting pictures.

The Stor Lysedug is making good progress, but unfortunately it's impossible to photograph in any way that doesn't look like a giant gray blob.


Having never knit a giant doily with aran-weight yarn, I have found this quite a pleasing project so far. It's a pretty quick knit, despite the fact that as I near the end the rounds are taking longer and longer to finish. I'm not sure how big this will be by the time I finish. I was hoping for something like 6' in diameter, but I think it will more likely be 5' -- still big enough for a lap blanket, but just barely.

I am usually a fan of knitting from charts, but that's kind of impossible to do with a circular pattern like this, and there's something cool about the element of surprise in reading written-out directions. This pattern uses all k2tog's and directional double decreases; I've been knitting it as written, but I'd like to try it again with ssk's for symmetry and symmetrical double decreases.

Meanwhile, I'm working on a new pattern, for a friend's baby boy to be born soon. There was a request for elephants:

A little help

On Ravelry, lots of pattern designers have pledged to donate a percentage of their pattern sales to Haitian relief efforts of their choice. I'm joining the effort: I'll donate 50% of proceeds from my pattern sales from now until 2/14 to the American Red Cross for their Haitian relief efforts.

My patterns for sale, just to recap, are Radcliffe Cardigan, Steps to Stranded (sweaters A, B, C, and the set), and Sock Yarn Stranded.

Ravelry now includes a "Help for Haiti" tag search that lets you see all the designers who are donating to Haiti relief -- there are tons of great patterns on there, and some designers report being able to donate pretty large amounts of money after just a day of listing their Help for Haiti patterns. So if you were thinking of buying a pattern but were waiting, or felt like it was too decadent to buy a pattern, now you can buy all the stuff you've been waiting around on, while feeling good about helping out in the process!

2010: A (Storage) Space Odyssey

Because the new place has less closet space and I am using some of my furniture differently, I've been experiencing a bit of a storage crunch. Combine that with the fact that my mom shouted, "Stop the insanity!" as we were unpacking my yarn stash at the new place, and it seemed like a good time for a little destashing. SO! Here's your opportunity to help me out: anyone want any of this stuff? Write me at the e-mail address listed in the sidebar and let me know if you'd like to buy any of the following (paypal only, please; prices include US shipping; international shipping would be extra):

6 balls Lana Grossa "Merino 2000" in a nice slate/cadet blue (413). Sportweight 100% merino, 176 yards/ball for a total of +1000 yards. $40.

3 skeins hand-dyed laceweight silk (originally from School Products). Can't remember the yardage on this; one skein is untouched and two have been wound into balls. This was definitely enough to make a lace shawl, which was the reason I bought it in the first place. It is quite thin. $12. SOLD.

Two skeins each of Knitpicks Imagination hand-dyed alpaca/merino blend in "Wicked Stepmother" (purple blend on left) and "Frog Prince" (the green blend on bottom right). Fingering weight 50% superwash merino, 25% superfine alpaca, 25% nylon, 219 yards/skein for a total of +400 yards in each color. One skein of each has been balled but has not been knit. $8 each color or $15 for both colors. WICKED STEPMOTHER SOLD.

7 skeins Ella Rae Classic wool in periwinkle blue (46). Worsted weight 100% wool, 219 yards/skein for a total of +1500 yards. $30.

1 skein Cascade Heritage sock yarn in tan (5610). Fingering weight 75% superwash merino, 25% nylon, 437 yards/skein. This has been balled, and about 75 yards of it have been knit and frogged. $10.

12 skeins Jo Sharp Classic DK wool in forest green ("venice"). DK weight 100% wool, 107 yards/skein for a total of +1200 yards. I knit one small swatch with it, so one skein is slightly smaller than the others. $40.

And one hand-knit for sale (this one I am sad to part with, but I don't have a baby to give it to, and it's depressing to have beautiful baby sweaters sitting around one's apartment, not to mention the fact that it seems like it will jinx one's ability ever to produce such babies on one's own):

One size 3-6 months baby sweater, brown prototype for my "Chronicles of Narnia" pattern. This was knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. $125.

And, so that this post is not entirely capitalist whoredom, here's a shot of my most recent knitting project: a blanket-sized doily knit with aran-weight Reynolds Candide on size 9 needles. The pattern I'm using is "Stor Lysedug" from Yarn Over free patterns. I decided I needed a TV-watching afghan because my living room is cold, and it's fun to knit a big beautiful lace thing with big yarn. This has been so much fun that I might take a crack at a Hemlock Ring next, perhaps in softer, slightly lighter wool, for a friend's baby (one that really does exist).