Crazy Zauberball is Happiness for Your Feet

I’m sitting here on this very chilly Monday, after another snowed-in weekend in the Witch City. On these super cold days, I always reach for my Crazy Zauberball socks. I rarely stray away from hand-dyed sock yarns for socks, but Zauberall is one of my few exceptions (along with Regia Premium Merino Yak).

About six years ago, I whipped up this pair of Wintersmith Socks in their Kleiner Fuchs colorway. Today, they’re showing some signs of being well-loved over the years (a few pills, definitely plenty of cat hair from living with four cats), but they’re good as new.

My Crazy Zauberball socks always come out in the depths of winter. All the colorways in this sock yarn collection are gorgeous long striping gradients, and the burst of color on my feet always cheers me up - even if they’re hiding inside my snow boots.

Zauberball can be a little scary to my fellow East Coast knitters. West Coast knitters are more rugged, and they tend to have a greater appreciation for rustic, hard-wearing wools. They know how to layer them, and that these rustic woolens are warmer and offer better protection against the harsh temperatures. East Coast knitters tend to prefer softer wools, leaning more heavily towards the softer hand of merino wool.

Rustic wools are the unsung heroes of super cold weather knitting. Even I can admit that Zauberball is a little too scritchy and itchy for crisp fall days (I stick to my hand-dyed merino blends for that season), but it’s perfect for winter. The itchy barbs in wool lay flatter the colder it gets, so while your Zauberball socks may feel like too much in October, by February, they are the best things to wrap your feet in.

The Wintersmith Socks are a pattern I wrote a few years ago, specifically with Crazy Zauberball in mind. This sock pattern is knit toe-up with a short row heel, and the plain stockinette really lets the beautiful gradient colors shine. But it also has a special detail: the Wintersmith Socks feature a princess sole! This means the sole is knit with purl side facing out, so you get to walk on the smooth stockinette side. This simple detail really makes all the difference!

Wondering if you should make a pair? You can also check out Tessa’s gorgeous Crazy Zauberball socks!

Lifelines

Did you know that you can install an insurance policy for your mistakes into your knitting? Lifelines are a valuable tool to save your stitches! A lifeline is a smooth, much thinner thread that is placed through every stitch in a row. The stitches are not moved off the needles, the thread runs straight through a row and then is ignored unless you decide you need it. One of the most valuable traits of a lifeline is that it helps keep your stitches oriented in the correct direction. No accidental twisted stitches!

How does a lifeline work? After you “install” the lineline, you just keep knitting! If you make a mistake you can’t fix, you can comfortably rip back to the lineline to save your progress. Add a new lifeline after every vertical chart repeat, or anywhere you want a little safety net.

Lifelines are useful if you’re about to:

• try something new

• try something challenging 

• deviate from the pattern 

• or you want the confidence that you won’t need to frog beyond that point in the future

Our favorite things to use for lifelines:

• Embroidery floss

• Dental floss

• Crochet thread

• Scrap yarn

• TKB knitting cords

Did you know that your Chiaogoo Circular Needles have a lifeline hole built into them? At the base of your needle is a hole where you can tie your lifeline, then you just knit your row as usual! If you tie your lifeline to your left needle your lifeline will run through your last row, if you tie your lifeline to your right needle your lifeline will run through your current row. (Warning: This method is not recommend for patterns with a lot of stitch markers as your lifeline will need to be untied and retied to the needle to exclude every stitch marker). Make sure you leave a few inches on either side of your lifeline so that your knitting can stretch and the lifeline doesn’t fall out of the edge stitches.

The lifeline hole on your needle is located where the needle meets the cord.

I used #10 crochet thread. This was about as thick of a string that would fit through the needle.

Tie a knot tight enough to make it through a row of knitting, but loose enough to take it off easily when you reach a stitch marker or finish the row.

If you don’t have needles with a lifeline hole in them, that's ok! You can simply use your darning needle to thread all your stitches onto your lifeline.  Tip: If you’re using circular needles, move your stitches to the cable to make it easier to thread your needle through your stitches.

Slippy V Triangle Shawl

I’ve been looking for that perfect pattern that will show off that one skein of Spincycle Dyed in the Wool that made my heart leap when I saw it. Stephen West’s Pattern Slippy V Triangle Shawl does just that! Just two skeins of fingering weight yarn set the backdrop to showcase any special skein of Spincycle yarn.

Little eyelets decorate the fabric and it’s all framed by textured ribbing. You can knit this shawl as large as you want by simply repeating the pattern if you have more yarn.

This easy slip stitch pattern has so much contrast color yarn showing on the right side of the fabric that it makes the most out of a Spincycle skein and celebrates those beautiful color shifts!

We think this shawl would look great in a tonal, fingering weight, single ply merino yarn like La Bien Aimee Merino Singles or Malabrigo Mechita. Both would look great paired with Spincycle Dyed in the Wool. This will make a soft and drapey shawl.

Malabrigo Mechita: Dried Orange | Spincycle Dyed In The Wool: Melencholia

La Bien Aimee: Anemone | Spincycle Dyed in the Wool: Midsommar

La Bien Aimee: Highgarden | Spincycle Dyed in the Wool: Rosy Maple

Malabrigo Mechita: Pegaso | Spincycle Dyed In The Wool: Verba Volant

Malabrigo Mechita: Three Little Pigs | Spincycle Dyed In The Wool: Wallflower

Malabrigo Mechita: Frank Ochre | Spincycle Dyed In The Wool: Nostalgia

Malabrigo Mechita: Sabiduria | Spincycle Dyed In The Wool: Light-Years

La Bien Aimee: RGO Tomato | Spincycle Dyed in the Wool: Burning Sensation

Snapshots from the Blizzard!

Happy Monday, friends! Our little Salem shop was closed all weekend as we hunkered down for a massive snowstorm. Halfway through the blizzard, I went out for a walk (with many many layers on) down to the wharf to check on the shop. Here are some mid-storm snapshots!

Not pictured: the giant mountain of plowed snow right behind me

Giant snow storms mean two things: hours and hours of shoveling, and hours and hours of knitting time. I cast on a baby cardigan Saturday morning, and was almost done when it was time to shovel on Sunday! What did you knit this weekend?

Pattern: Sweetest Thing by Melissa LaBarre

Size: 6-12 months

Yarn: 2 skeins of Berroco Vintage in Calico 5172

Why I love it: it’s a top-down seamless cardigan that works up quickly and has just enough interest with the stitch pattern to keep you engaged - and it comes both charted and written!

Where to Eat in Salem: Passage to India

Part of our new Visiting the Witch City series, in our Where to Eat in Salem posts, I will be sharing some of our favorite restaurants, and visiting new ones to tell you all about it!

This week, Cathy and I visited one of my longtime favorite restaurants in Salem, Passage to India. Affectionally called “Passage,” this family-owned authentic Indian restaurant is right in the heart of downtown - in fact they’re right across the street from our friends at Hauswitch on Washington Street! Downtown Salem is very pedestrian-friendly, so it’s super easy to get to this restaurant

The menu has something for everyone. There are extensive vegetarian and gluten-free options, and they’re all delicious! There are also several vegan options.

We started with paneer pakora, which I always order when I visit Indian restaurants - so far, Passage has my favorite. They are made with stuffed homemade cottage cheese slices, and fried in chickpea batter.

For the main course, we shared chicken tikka masala (always a favorite), and matter paneer. Matter paneer is a classic northern Indian dish made with homemade cottage cheese pieces cooked with peas and spices. Note: when I say spices, I mean flavor not pepper! This is not a spicy “hot” dish.

Cathy wearing her From the Embers shawl!

Delicious!

Passage has been a favorite of mine for over a decade, I highly recommend adding this restaurant to your itinerary when you visit Salem!

Bonus: there is booth seating available, which makes this restaurant super knitter-friendly! Just tuck your project bag next to you in the booth.