September 2010

Virginia & North Carolina

The trip to visit my daughter and son-in-law was fun.  We visited Williamsburg and Jamestown in Virginia, then headed back to NC where we spent a day in New Bern and another at the beach.

            

In New Bern, NC we went to a paint your own pottery which was fun and a new experience for me. These were the three projects we completed:  a mug by my Daughter, a dragon by my Son-in-law, and a devilled egg plate by moi.

           
 

Yorkshire Terrier

Before we left I had been working on this project for my daughter.  The pattern is "Perfect Pups, Yorkshire Terrier" by Alan Dart; although the pattern calls for Sirdar brand yarn, I substituted Bernat Satin for the body and Lion Brand Homespun for the fur.

  

It doesn't much resemble my real yorkies (Dorie & Buddy) but was an interesting project and a change from shawls, socks and sweaters.

  

More baby hats

This one is a pattern I just made up, worked top down, notes on my Ravelry Project Page.  

The yarn (Plymouth Yarn, Oh My!)  was really soft, I would use it again although I did read on Ravelry where several people stated that after washing projects from this yarn holes developed in the finished object.

This hat was fun to do, it's called Poppy Baby Hat; 

yarn is Plymouth Yarn Dreambaby DK Prints.

Another Baby Blanket

Spiderweb Baby Afghan by Carole Rutter Tippet published in Leisure Arts #3205, Snuggle Up Baby Afghans.  

The pattern calls for DK weight but I used 9 skeins of Phildar Pegase +, a worsted weight acrylic.  

This afghan could have been a little larger if I hadn't left the 10th skein in the seat pocket of the plane my earlier trip to North Carolina.

 In The Pink

I've been working on this shawl (In The Pink by Izzy Knits); I am using Jojoland Melody for the swirled sections; the edging will be a solid color of Jojoland Ballad.

  

Finished Faroese shawls, Blocking shawls, a Cabled Tam Design

Regina (Rubicon on Ravelry) finished her Woven Diamonds Faroese...I think it turned out stunning!

She made a couple modifications to the pattern, if you are on Ravelry her notes are here:
Rubicon's Woven Diamonds Faroese.

I failed to show a photo of Fran's Woven Diamond Faroese. Fran was the first one to work the pattern - as a matter of fact she was the one who admired my blue one and encouraged me to write it up.

You can see Fran's shawl on her blog here: Fran's Woven Diamonds Faroese

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am working on a shetland style shawl design in Jojoland fingering weight wool. I have yet to find just the right edging so I have put this project on hold as I await Nancy Bush's new book, " Knitted Lace of Estonia " I'm hoping that there may contain an edging that will work or a stitch pattern that will inspire me to create an edging. In the meantime I blocked the shawl to see how the size is working out and to determine how wide the edging needs to be.

I used to block my shawls on towels laid over the carpet in the spare bedroom (which was once my sewing room and has since become the stash room). However, we have a little Yorkie named Buddy....

who was making a mess of the carpet when no one was looking and had to pull it up.

When we did that I could see that I wasn't helping the situation by blocking on it. Sometimes I spray my shawls with water to re-dampen them once they are pinned out, and that was also leaving water stains on the carpet backing.

Recently I found some interlocking mats at Big Lots (I also saw the same ones at Tuesday Morning).

I bought two sets at a very reasonable price. They seem to work great for blocking, I can pin into them and still shift the whole surface around if I need to. The wrong side of the mats is smooth. They did have a very strong rubber smell when I first opened the package but that seems to have dissipated.

Last year I took a fair isle hat class at Kirkwood Knittery taught by Brooke Nico.

I wasn't too fond of the result on my first attempt, so that that first hat lives at the shop. I had much better luck with my second design and also made matching fingerless gloves (background is brown shetland wool and the patterning consists of many different pieces of leftover variegated sock yarns).  Not one to wear hats, I found that I really liked the way this one looked and it didn't smash my hair too badly.

To block this tam none of my plates were the right size (of course not); instead I made a 10" diameter circle out of cardboard and covered it with plastic wrap.  Stretching the tam over the cardboard form, I threaded a piece of waste yarn through the edge of the ribbing (this works great if the edge is worked with a tubular cast-on) and drew it up into a small circle.  This was much better than using pins to keep the hat on the form while it blocked.

         

The last few weeks I've had an idea for a cabled tam inspired by the celtic cables in Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elizabeth Lavold and the patterns charted by the girl from auntie for her awesome designs.

I worked a few swatches and a prototype just to see how cables might work:

I bought a skein of Classic Elite's Alpaca Sox at Knit and Caboodle to use for the actual tam in a soft gray color. Next I worked a portion of the stitch pattern as a fingerless glove to determine the gauge. Then I played with the stitch pattern in excel for many hours to decide on the best way to work it. Finally I cast on and knit, this is the result:

It didn't turn out exactly as I'd pictured it, still deciding if I ought to publish it or not - leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Ravelry Love...

Ravelry is fun, fun, fun - the more time I spend there the more I like it.  It's a knitting party 24/7.  

I love seeing everyone's finished objects. My favorite part of the Greater St. Louis Knitter's Guild meetings has always been the portion at the end called 'Show and Share', one aspect that I love about Ravelry is that it is like a giant Show and Share! It's very inspiring to see what people are working on.

It's really been inspiring to post the Flower Scarf free pattern (download it here or here) - I am fascinated that it has been downloaded 373 times and favorited 243 times to date and there are 17 posted Flower Scarf projects listed - very cool.  Susan (I'm Knitting As Fast as I Can) is knitting a Flower Scarf and at the same time working on continental style knitting - I have visited her blog before and admired her patterns - so it's fun that someone I 'know' (is there term for that?) is knitting my pattern.

The Woven Diamonds Faroese has been favorited 67 times and several copies of the pattern have sold in my Ravelry shop (MakeOne's Ravelry Pattern Store).   Regina (Rubicon) is working on the Woven Diamonds Faroese - she chose the prettiest color yarn - can't wait to see how it turns out.

Ariel Socks have been favorited 41 times.  Nancy (Knitarooooo) is making Ariel Socks and posted a nice comment about the pattern on her Ravelry project page.

It's fun too to review my friends 'activity' page.

Plus there is an amazing amount of information in the forums.

And with over 7,800 groups there is a group for just about anything one could think of.

Gotta go back to Ravelry now and get my fix....

Updates

Woven Diamonds Faroese Shawl Classes.........
The class at Kirkwood Knittery was a lot of fun and I learned a bit about teaching.  It was rewarding to see several of my 'students' complete their shawl...here's a photo of JoAnn's shawl before blocking:

Barb's been working on her shawl but her grandson put a crimp in her progress.....you might say that this shawl is so much fun even babies eat it up!

I'll be teaching this class again, this time at Knit 'n Caboodle starting in September.  Contact Knit and Caboodle in St. Charles, MO or watch for information in their newsletter if you're interested in taking this class.

Patterns now also available at Loopy Ewe............
the patterns for Woven Diamonds Faroese, Ariel Socks and Man's First Socks are now available at Loopy Ewe.

UPDATE 09/24/2008 - Woven Diamonds Faroese pattern is also available through my Ravelry Pattern Store or by clicking the link at the right hand side of this page in my 'profile' section.

The three patterns are also available at Kirkwood Knittery and Knit and Caboodle.

Also be sure to check out the Flower Scarf - it is a quick project that uses approximately 150 yards of laceweight yarn. I knit this one with cashmere/silk from Hand Maiden.

It's a FREE PATTERN!

Guild Workshops.....

Last weekend the Greater St. Louis Knitter's Guild hosted workshops by Lily Chin for Guild Members.

Friday evening she spoke about What to Look For in Yarn and gave some tips to help evaluate various yarns and how they behave.  She talked about her stash (so large it has it's own storage space lease), gave some great and amusing ideas for places to store your stash, and advice about why one should not feel guilty for having a stash.

Saturday morning I attended her workshop on Pinstripe Knitting and came away with a lot of ideas for using that technique.

Saturday afternoon the subjects were Design Inspiration and Interpreting Fashion Trends.

Lily brought along a lot of her original garments - very cool to see and touch actual garments that have appeared in magazines and books.  I got to be one of the models which was a lot of fun.

I very much enjoyed meeting and chatting with Lily.  It was really a great event.

On Shawls....

My daughter asked recently what I was working on....

When I replied, "a shawl" she said "How many do you need?"

Obviously she is not a Knitter or even a knitter.

Any Knitter knows that how many shawls (or any other knitted item) you have made is beside the point.

I like knitting shawls, I like to wear them too but mostly I like knitting and designing them.

My first experience with shawls was a class on faroese shawls taught by Joan Schrouder and sponsored by the Greater St. Louis Knitter's Guild in the spring of 2004. I was totally lost.

But I have learned much since then, thank goodness I have her invaluable handouts,
and have enjoyed and been inspired by these books:

  

I love these books for stitch patterns:

  

A Shetland Shawl

The first shawl I made was inspired by the instructions for a shetland shawl in "Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves".  The yarn is alpaca/silk from Elann.  I didn't do a great job of knitting or designing this shawl and one day plan to make it again with improvements, but I was quite proud that it turned out so nice and I've worn it a lot to the point where it is showing wear and tear, needs to be reblocked:

A Pi R Square Shawl

Next I made a "Pi R Square" shawl from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book 'Knitting Around'.  The yarn is Silky Wool by Elizabeth Lavold.  I added a border/collar.  The 'square' portions of the shawl came out to be too long, so I knitted i-cord and laced it through the yarnovers to gather it up.  I like wearing this shawl although it is a bit cumbersome, it drapes beautifully:

A Flower Basket Shawl

I love all the beautiful shawls that Evelyn Clark designs.  Here is my Flower Basket Shawl knitted in gray laceweight merino with the yarn doubled.  It is knit exactly as given in the pattern from the Fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.

I also made the Swallowtail Shawl (Fall 2006, Interweave Knits) although I knit it as a square rather than a triangle.   I don't have any photos and it turned out too small so I gave it to my eight year old cousin Mira (she was thrilled and now wants to learn how to knit).

Flemish Block Cap Shawl

When Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today was released I was inspired to make a 'cap shawl', but not one to be satisfied with following directions I decided to base the increases on the principle of the cap shawl shaping in the book but inserted my own choice of stitch pattern and border.  This yarn is from http://handpaintedyarn.com/, but I purchased it on ebay.  Very interesting, soft, handspun, thick and thin, lots of yardage for the price.  I'm really pleased with the way this shawl turned out, it's a little odd to wear because of the swirl shaping it skews when folded in half, so it works better to just fold back a section as if it's a collar.

Woven Diamonds Faroese Shawl

Finally I made it back to faroese shawls once I could understand what was going on by studying the notes from Joan's class and the articles/patterns in Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves and A Gathering of Lace.  I designed a shawl that is similar to the yellow and blue faroese by Meg Swanson in Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves, but again elected to use my own choice of stitch patterns for the gusset and border. I prefer lace that has a stockinette background, I think it shows the stitches better, so my faroese shawl has stockinette background on the border and gusset but the edging and side panels above the border are knit in garter stitch.  The yarn is Brown Sheep Naturespun Sport 100% wool.  I've worn it a lot, the yarn is pilling some and I've just re-blocked it.

My friend Fran begged me for this pattern so she earned the title of Test Knitter.  Unfortunately my first attempts at writing the pattern had errors and Fran spent a lot of time starting over - I'm still amazed that she stuck it out.  There is a photo of it on her blog.  In any event - the pattern is correct and clear and I will soon make it available for sale and teach it as a class at Kirkwood Knittery.  I decided to 'test knit' it myself and needed to find an easier way to finish the neckline where the last stitches are joined - so I just completed a version in white cotton/rayon by Dalegarn that I purchased at Knit N Caboodle.   I like it a lot and look forward to wearing it soon.

The 2/3 Pi Shawl

In between the two faroese shawls I found some gorgeous hand dyed silk/wool laceweight yarn at The Loopy Ewe . Not only did I love the color, I loved the name that the hand dyer goes by, Chewy Spaghetti.  I decided to make a modified version of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Pi Shawl' from Knitter's Almanac and Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves.
I thought it would be nice to have it open in the front so rather than make a full circle that is usually worn folded in half and draped over the shoulders, I used my pi r square shawl to determine that 2/3 pi would be enough to go around my body. I  cast on with a provisional cast on working increases according to the pi shawl formula. Then I added a very simple knitted on border from Barbara Abbey's book Knitting Lace. I folded back the border to create a 'collar' when I blocked it.  I think it has sort of an antique look to it.

Hmmm - how many shawls does one need?