Find a scarf pattern to knit this winter.
Some of my favorite beginner knitting projects were winter scarves. And they are something I would wear often when I lived in New Hampshire. Usually the repeats are simple enough that a scarf project can be picked up and worked on at any time without losing your place.
Continue reading “Choosing a Winter Scarf Pattern to Knit”I arrived in New Hampshire for an extended visit in March 2021, after two years of not traveling north (thanks Covid). On the first weekend of my visit, my kids and I took a walk on a Harris Center trail, which is in Dublin or Hanock, I believe. There are a lot of trails in the area and this is only one of them.
This one is 2 miles long and makes a loop through the woods and along the water, with pretty views. I was so happy to be here where walking and hiking is fun, and the weather is cool enough to be enjoyable.
For some reason I didn’t get many photos on this hike, and most were of us, which I won’t share. Maybe I was too busy skirting the ice on the paths and trying not to fall! Although the day was sunny and beautiful, snow and ice still stuck to the ground in the woods.
This trail begins in a field, where we parked in mud. March is mud season, so there ya go. There is one slight hill at the beginning of the walk, but the rest of the hike is pretty flat. It winds around a lake, or pond, not sure of the name. We saw a few ducks and geese in the water, which still had ice in places.
The day we went there were not a lot of hikers. We met one couple on the path and saw a few more people. The most stunning thing we found (IMO) on this hike was a big tree which was completely chewed around the bottom by beavers! Why? I thought beavers chewed on small trees to make them fall to use for building. But this tree was big.
It made me wonder if they were using this wood to sharpen their teeth, or do they have some big building plans in mind? I also wonder if someone will cut the tree down before it falls in a storm.
One of the most wonderful things about New Hampshire is how pristine it is. The air is crisp to breath, waterways are clear, and all the surrounding nature is a joy to behold and explore. People take care of New Hampshire land.
You can read more about the Harris Center here.
The day after this hike, we drove up north to visit the Woodstock Brewery.
The day before we took this hike, my daughter drove me to visit Harrisville Designs in the town of, yup, Harrisville. I don’t know much about the area’s history, but apparently someone named Harris made a big impression!
We took another beautiful, and more exerting, hike on Easter Day. That one gave us some wonderful views and I will write about it, and share photos, soon.
Ever since learning that yarn I buy online is spun in a New Hampshire town near where I use to live, I’ve wanted to go back to the area and visit the shop.
I had the chance to do that while on a resent visit to New Hampshire. Harrisville Designs sells Brooklyn Tweed yarn, and a lot more, but the Brooklyn Tweed is spun at that location. See this similar view in their video.
Even though I did some knitting years ago when I lived in a town quite close to Harrisville, I knew nothing about types of yarn and never knit with Brooklyn Tweed. After I moved away, all I wanted to do was get back to the area and visit Harrisville Designs. The quaint town of Harrisville is known for all it’s brick mill buildings.
My daughter drove us to Harrisville on a beautiful, sunny day in March. Clumps of snow still dotted the ground and it was cold enough that I wore my Cobblestone Cardigan and Katie’s Kep.
We were still wearing face masks because of Covid, as were the women working in the store. Right away they commented on my hat, which I think stands out as a hand-knit. Then they asked about my sweater, which I said was knit with Brooklyn Tweed “Shelter” yarn. They were friendly, and we chatted a while about yarns and patterns through our masks.
Because we visited Harrisville Designs on a weekend day, and it was a beautiful day, there were no other customers in the store. Most likely people were outside hiking and enjoying the sunshine. But, that gave my daughter and I the whole place to ourselves! What a wonderful place for a fiber crafter to visit.
We dug through buttons which were displayed in cute little trays. We admired the hand knits displayed all over the store. My daughter always chose the most difficult-looking sweater patterns when picking out her favorites. She is not a knitter and laughed at the fact that I kept saying, “That looks difficult and over my head”.
I noticed a display of Sincycle yarn which I am familiar with. I have two skeins at home in Florida which I bought online. Because I have to fly back home at some point, I had to curtail my buying, but couldn’t resist purchasing a little skein of orange Spincycle.
A loom was set up in the back of the store with sample weaving projects. Weaving needs were all displayed in this section. I’m not a weaver, but it gave me a chance to tell my daughter about my grandmother’s loom and how I remember seeing it in her tiny house, and then it was eventually moved to the barn. Her loom may have come from this store.
Harrisville Designs famous potholder kits were on display in the weaving section. (This is an affiliate link to Amazon, I may make a small percentage from a clickthrough)
When we were finished shopping, we took a walk over a path that gives a good view of the Mill buildings, both upstream and down. See the upstream photo at the beginning of this post and in the slideshow at the end. The place is quite picturesque, even in the usually dreary month of March.
After crossing the footpath we crossed Main Street to visit the historic Harrisville General Store. Apparently this is the oldest, continuous general store and has been in operation since 1838.
Inside was a counter with prepared food, some empty tables, shelves with food items, and a cooler section. No one greeted us and we were generally unimpressed. BUT, it is Covid times, so things may be different when it’s not.
I could have gone nuts buying yarn and patterns in Harrisville Designs, but as I mentioned, I have to pack and fly in a few weeks. I yearn to be living in New Hampshire once again and places like this make me homesick. It was a lovely day spent with my daughter, and a good memory to hold onto.
Colorwork sock knitting the “Wild Angelica” pattern. A fun pattern for those who enjoy knitting socks.
This lesson is mainly for me. When I began knitting the Wild Angelica Socks pattern by Runningyarn, for some reason I got confused after the cuff.
This is not really shocking since I have not knit many socks. But I have knit colorwork hats and mittens. I began to do the color work with the dominant color being dark blue – held in my left hand. This was wrong! The dark color should be the background of this design.
As you should be able to see quite clearly in my photo here, once I changed to holding the tan color as dominant, the pattern begins to pop. This mistake is entirely my own, as the pattern is very clear. I have no explanation for my dimwittedness.
It’s all the same pattern, but just after I finished knitting the cuff, I knit with the dark blue yarn in my left hand – as the dominant color. As the floral pattern began to show, I didn’t like the looks of it. That is when I switched the blue yarn to my right hand. Wow, those tan flowers really began to show nicely. DUH! The difference is striking, so I wanted to share this info. It does matter how you hold your yarn to knit colorwork patterns. Not that I doubted it, because experienced knitters always preach it.
I also messed up while knitting the cuff of this sock, but I’m not going back to start over. They are socks. No one will be closely inspecting my knitting abilities at my ankles. I want to get on with it and see if I can manage the rest of the project (yes, I did!). The lessons I learn from this pair will help when I go on to knit more socks. Runningyarn has more pretty patterns like this one, as her specialty seems to be colorwork knitting.
If you haven’t yet learned to knit using two hands, the basic way to hold the yarn is with the Main Color (dark blue here) coming OVER the Contrast Color behind the work. As you pick up the strand to knit, keep this in mind. If you use two hands, CC in left and MC in right, it will happen naturally. I wrote a previous post on colorwork knitting.
The Wild Angelica Socks pattern designer explains this clearly in her pattern.
Knitting this pattern was fun. I love all kinds of 2-stranded colorwork knitting and I needed practice knitting socks. For the colorwork chart, I used the Knit Companion app on my iPad where I could see it much more clearly.
All directions were very well written, and for the most part, easy to follow. I am not an experienced sock knitter and the heel / heel flap area gave me pause. I had not saved out any extra blue yarn for the heel. I was knitting from a ball and not a cake, so I couldn’t knit from the inside. Fortunately, I did have two balls of the tan yarn. I made up for it by using blue at the toe.
The floral design is pretty and I love the little design on the bottom. I would not attempt this as a beginner sock knitter, but I have enough experience to understand the pattern and do the colorwork. I’m inspired to knit more stranded colorwork socks.
As far as this sock pair goes, I will always know which sock was knit first because of the color dominance mistake.
How to read colorwork charts for Fair Isle and mosaic knitting.
Knitting a simple wool chair pad to use up some heavy weight and worsted wool. This DIY pattern uses Fair Isle, colorwork that is simple and can easily be changed.
Five cozy scarf patterns to begin knitting this Fall. Keep for yourself or give to friends and family. The selection has small and long scarves, with many free patterns included.
Writing a blog, sharing photos, and doing research and making links takes time. Lately I don’t think the time spent doing all that is worth enough to continue. I have stopped writing my gardening blog, and downgraded my seashells/ boating / camping blog. I’ve been spread too thin for too long. The past 18 years…
How many projects do you have on your needles? It is not uncommon to find that fellow knitters have many things going at once.
A new year means a brand new knitting project to begin. What will you be making?
New England's Narrow Road 