Under The Burled Arch

The 2026 Iknitarod is in the books.  The trail was pretty clear the whole way and about halfway to Nome I picked up a couple of Iknitariders who saw all the purple yarns and couldn't resist joining the fun.

"I wonder what this is for?"

"This purple matches my sweater!"

"And this one matches my whole outfit!"

There was a bit of clean up, but nothing the team couldn't handle and from there it was smooth sailing.

The front or "right" side.

The back, which is actually the side you are looking at while you are working.  This is technically the "wrong" side, but I always kind of like the back sides better.

As always, I learned a lot as I punched along.  I also learned a lot after I finished.  There are some colors here that are too close to each other, but I didn't notice how too close until I took these pictures.  I'm not sure if I'll take anything out and change things around or just leave it as is as a reminder to watch for that and a couple other nitpicky things that I wouldn't do again.

All in all it was very fun and I'm looking forward to my next project.  And it was nice to hang out with one of my all time favorite sheep for a bit :-).

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time there was a little lamb living in London, England.  Not out in the countryside, but right in the city!  They've never shared how they got rescued by Loved Before, but their adoption profile said their name was Merino and that...

"Despite being a sheep, they never grow fluffy wool and shiver in winter.  Once, they tried to warm up by snuggling with the cat, who was not amused.  Merino's charm lies in their endless quest for warmth and their knack for finding the sunniest spot."

I'm sure it's no surprise that I couldn't resist helping a little lamb.  Even stuffy sheep need to be rescued sometimes!

Merino arrived safe and sound, albeit a bit chilly because it was so long ago it was still winter.

I set the Iknitarod vest aside and started their sweater right away.

And to help Merino not feel too homesick, we watched eleventy episodes of  The Great British Baking Show.  

 

And then, like magic, a warm wool sweater.  Not really.  I've never managed to pull off a quickly knit sweater before, so why start now.  It's been long ago enough though that I don't really remember what my issues were except for general nit picking and needing to make the sleeves longer.

The best part was how both sheep made a new best friend and enjoyed all sorts of adventures together as we got back on the Iknitarod Trail.

And it turns out, Merino just hadn't found the right cat to snuggle up with.  Bullseye made a couple of new best friends as well :-).

The yarn for Merino's sweater was some Woody that I'd spun for the Tour de Fleece a couple of years ago.  Little sweaters like these are a fun way to use up sample skeins and practice new techniques...like knitting sweaters.  

And the 2025 Tour de Fleece starts in just over two weeks.  

WHAT!?! :-o

Now Where Did I Put That Red Lantern

The Iknitarod is finally over!  Well, technically the Iknitarod was over months ago, but my team, hindered by me, finally crossed under The Burled Arch last week...just as the weather here turned into full on hot and humid Kentucky summer-time.  Oh, to be in Alaska.

This cute vest is the Petite Knits Lulu Slipover and this is the second of her patterns I've completed and I can recommend it as a fun and interesting knit.  It starts at the top of the back and is knit down to the bottom edge.  You then pick up stitches at the shoulders and knit down the front.

You pick up stitches to add the mock turtle neck and pick up stitches to knit around the arms and then pick up stitches on each bottom corner and double knit up the sides to the bottom of the sleeves and add button holes on the two front corners and buttons on the back two.  

Every bind off was an Italian bind off, which is basically Kitchener stitch, and I can say after doing it so. many. times.  I now have it down pat.  It's a pretty bind off and I'm glad to have that in my arsenal.  I also liked how the four plackets were added on and I'd use that technique again as well.

The yarn is Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb and it took a beating with as many mistakes as I made and had to rip out and start back and rip out and start back and rip out (you know, the usual...) and it held up perfectly.  You just can't beat some good medium wools with a bit of long wool blended in :-).

I enjoyed knitting this and really can't say why it took so long, but I am glad to finally have it finished so I can start my next project.  There's always a next project :-).

And as far as the Red Lantern, not to fear, my Iknitariders had everything under control :-).

Post Card From The Trail

Quick Iknitarod check in.  It's late and I'm tired which is never a good combo for blogging, but the last few days have been crazy busy.  More about all that later.

I'm still mushing along and I'm so happy to have a new dog team to follow as I knit and that's made the race fun again.  Justin Olnes of Rerun Kennel is racing a team made up of 75% rescued dogs.  This is a great story and if you're interested, check him out.

On the Iknitarod Trail, I've finished the back of the vest (minus the bind off at the bottom) and am ready to pick up the stitches at the top edge to start down the front.  I was hoping to get that started tonight, but I had other duties and now I'm tired and headed for "one of my 8s" (mandatory eight hour rests ;-).

Mushing on!

Who Am I?

I like this little cartoon.  I really didn't think I'd be able to successfully put that many friends into a small square, but it works :-).

I didn't do my Muffin sweater right.  It's now a yoke sweater with Mrs. Pepperpot's white showing.  Much better.  I fed Muffin a lot of bottles, but she never lived in my kitchen so I hadn't included her in the yarn mix...but she fits perfectly in this scenario.

I don't have a stuffed sheep Iknitarider this year.  I stewed on that a bit and finally decided Bea was obviously my rider this year.  Duh.

I've finally cast on and have a few rows knitted.  I really struggled with what to knit this year and had it narrowed down to two choices, neither of which I was super thrilled with.  One I will do eventually.  The other...maybe with some different yarn.  I ended up going with a back burner third choice.

More to come!

March

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I took out as many pictures as I could and it's still a long one.  I left a bunch of weaving pictures in because there were so many steps for that project that I wanted to remember.  There are a lot of Archie and Possum pictures, too.  And Maisie in her puffy coat.  We can never have too any pictures of that :-).  

The 2023 Iknitarod Warp Is A Wrap

Sweet little Maggie, once again demonstrating her wool worthiness.  She has shown a significant interest in everything I've brought out to the barn or barn lot and she's equally interested in WIPs (works in progress) and finished items.  I think I'll be making something from her wool this year!

Aside from the interesting structure, the beauty of a V shawl is how easy it is to wear.  No shawl pin needed.  It will stay put on your shoulders even as you are carried outside on a breezy afternoon :-).

This is where the two pieces are woven together after the front panels are finished.  The pattern I used is a representation of the Fibonacci sequence.  I used five warp threads for each "one" so instead of 1,1,2,3,5,8 I threaded 5,5,10,15,25,40.

I was prepared to really only focus on the back pattern, but I'm equally happy with the simple stripes on the front as well.  I think it's a nice, clean look.

I really enjoyed working with this yarn - the Lamb Camp Legacy blend from all the sons and daughters of Rocky and Jared when they were working over at Tring Farm.  It was easy to warp and weave and it held up well to all my weaving and unweaving and weaving and unweaving and weaving and...  It fulled really well and is surprisingly soft, even up next to my face.

I waffled on what to do with my fringe.  I am not a huge fan of twisted fringe.  I just don't love the look or the feel.  Being a Cotswold cross yarn I was concerned about the fringe felting together into a big mess so I sampled a couple of ways to keep it under control.  

I had the best luck putting big pieces of shipping tape over all the loose yarn before I washed it.  The knots still got a bit fuzzy though so I'm going to keep thinking on it as I get ready to warp up another version.  I think my next V project is going to be a mobius scarf.

All in all I, now that I'm a few days out from the fiddly joining work, I can say I really enjoyed this project and another successful Iknitarod is in the books :-).

"I somehow thought there'd be more knitting."

 

Scenes From The Iknitarod Trail

It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I missed out on a bunch of the actual Iditarod race coverage and was only in and out of the Iknitarod Ravelry group chats which are always so fun, interesting and educational, but I still enjoyed my run this year.  I love learning new techniques and the V shawl did not disappoint.

Here are some highlights.  There are a few more on IG, but these hit the high spots.  I was going to just stick the official photo here at the top, but there are a few I'd like to share so they'll come later today.

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A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)

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