Bad Blogger

I am a bad blogger, I know that I  should write more often.

Excuses, excuses:

1. Some days I think what could I possibly have to say that would be interesting and hasn't already been written about.
2. Other days I have so many ideas on what to write about that rather than choose one I choose none.
3. Most days I'd rather knit than blog.
4. Also I'm lazy.

I hereby resolve to be a better blogger.


What have I finished recently?
As a rule I prefer to have no more than three objects in process, usually a pair of socks, a larger project such as a sweater or a shawl, and a third project which could be who knows what.  If I have more UFO's then that it feels like I will never get anything finished and they only thing I love more than starting a new project is finishing a project (I get bored in the middle obviously). 


Right now I have no socks in progress. 


The most recent (probably in the last six months) socks that I finished are these:

      
               Ariel (pair #2)                                                                     Ariel (pair #3)
Plymouth Yarn's Happy Feet, color no. 4.                          J.Knits SuperwashMe Light
This yarn was actually too heavy for this pattern             
and this pair is a little too big.
                        
Unnamed                                                                      Unnamed, Stranded
German Herringbone stitch pattern                   Regia Silk (dark Brown)
Fortissima Socka Disco3 yarn                                    J.Knits SuperwashMe Light (cinnamon)
                                                                                          Variegated that I think is Schoeller Stahl

Plain Old Plain Old
Berroco Sox

I already blogged about the Nordstrom's knock-off sweater which I finished in June 2008.
This tank top was finished in August 2008. I love the flat cables (they are not actual cables but instead are made with increases/decreases).  The stitch pattern is in 'The Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns'.  However, when I swatched the pattern as given in the book it was severely biased:

       

The reason is that it is only shown as increasing in one direction.
I rewrote the chart so that the 'cables' alternated one left/one right which eliminated the bias:
The yarn is Classic Elite Premier (cotton/tencel) that I've been wanting to use for a project for quite a while and although I loved knitting with it,  when worn for the first time the yarn left fuzzies all over me and I could feel it getting longer/stretching all evening.
Last Spring (not sure exactly when but I am sure it was too warm to wear by the time I finished it) I finished this sweater  (The solid color is an alpaca yarn and the variegated is a handpainted sock yarn):

It took a couple weekends to make a quilt for my daughter.  She wanted the numerous sorority t-shirts that she had amassed made into a blanket.  This photo was taken before the actual quilting took place, it took several days just to baste it.  I tried to avoid basting but I should know better and had to rip out my first quilting attempt.  I now remember why I only ever made one quilt before, and I don't plan on making any others any time soon.  I know it looks upside down - I should have shot the photo from the other end of the table.

What am I working on now?

This shetland shawl design in Jojoland Fingering Weight wool.  Still need to decide on the edging:

Top down garter stitch cardigan inspired by one from Victoria's Secret (see earlier post).  The yarn is Reynolds Mandalay, 100% silk, no fun to knit with at all.  This yarn had a previous life as another sweater that I never finished as noted in an earlier post.

A crochet cardigan in Brown Sheep Cotton Fine.  I thought this would be a nice change of pace and would go more quickly than a knit cardigan, but the stitch pattern I chose (marguerite) is slow to work and I'm struggling to keep an even gauge.

I've been admiring these sweaters where the cable goes around the yoke:
Tahki Stacy Charles Zara Cabled Tunic as seen in Interweave Knits; 

Lion Brand's  Cable Luxe Tunic


Armed with knowledge from an article in The Best of Vogue Knitting Magazine by Meg Swenson titled 'EPS Revisited' and inspired by this charted cable pattern from the girl from auntie as well as Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elizabeth Lavold, I have been swatching for a  cabled yoke cardigan design in Brown Sheep Sport.

This cable will be worked sideways around the yoke with  a narrower version at the cuff.  After reading Meg's article I came to understand that in a circular yoke only about 1/2 of the yoke involves increasing (if working top down) or decreasing (if working bottom up), the remainder is knit even to the armhole - now I see (lightbulb moment) how the sweaters with the sideways cable work.

Well that was quite a long post - took hours to do, my own fault - I vow to try and be a more frequent blogger!

Inspiring Retail Designs

I can spend hours on the internet looking for inspiration and noting current knitwear trends on the websites of retailers (Dillards, Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom's, Bloomingdales, Ralph Lauren, Spiegel, Victoria's Secret, etc. etc.)

I had so much fun creating (knitting a knock off) of this sweater:

Here is my version:

Recently I noticed this sweater on the Victoria's Secret website:

The last few days I have been working on knitting something similar for myself not necessarily as a pattern to publish.  I'm using a yarn that I am "re-purposing" (that's a new term I keep hearing on HGTV - it seems to have replaced their catch phrase from last year "makes it pop") from an unfinished sweater that I frogged last week. Not my favorite yarn (Reynolds Mandalay, 100% silk) - if it doesn't work out I'll send it back to the bottom of the frog pond permanently.

Then coincidentally, yesterday I came across this blog of someone else admiring this type of design: Olgajazzy.

On the Duplicate Designing Phenomenon

There is a phenomenon that has been discussed on other knitting blogs across the net, and even noted by Lily Chin at a last month's Greater St. Louis Knitters' Guild event: it is quite common for designers to come up with very similar designs at nearly the same time.

I talked about this on my July 13 post below relating to the stitch pattern used in the ever popular Monkey Socks.

This morning I woke to find this thread on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/patterns/323852#reply_form.

If you're not on Ravelry, Krystofer came up with a sock design that he also didn't realize was essentially the same as Monkey socks: http://queerknits.blogspot.com/.

So 'unventing' applies not only to technique, but also to design.

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 Socks - Part Three

Ariel Socks

The thing that most fascinates me most about knitting is:  strip everything else away and there's really only one stitch - Knit. All other results, especially stitch patterns, are generated by manipulating and combining the knit stitch.  That's magical.

For a long time I had been admiring a stitch pattern titled Fish-Scale Lace in the perpetual calendar '365 Knitting Stitches a Year' (May 31).

Last Fall I bought a very lovely skein of J. Knits and chose to use this stitch pattern for a pair of socks. I always admire sock patterns that offer something a bit unusual and I worked the lace pattern into the heel. My friend Candy really admired my socks and suggested that the pattern ought to be published.

So I went to visit Sheri at the Loopy Ewe (those of us who live near the Loopy Ewe and can go there in person are so lucky - are we not?) to see if she thought this would be a marketable pattern.  Sheri said they looked great, but wait - isn't this the same stitch pattern as 'the Monkey Socks' from Knitty?  

I had heard of the Monkey Socks but wasn't really familiar with the pattern.  It turned out that Sheri was correct - it was the same stitch pattern.  It's a weird phenomenon that seems to repeatedly happen... knit designers coming up with strikingly similar designs.

Back to the drawing board.  Still loved the stitch pattern and the back of the heel treatment.  What if I used the stitch pattern in a panel format rather than an all over design?  Place twisted ribs at the sides for stretchiness, turn the panel the opposite direction for the front/instep to lead into the toe, maybe try that box toe shaping I found on the internet, use the pretty J. Knits SuperwashMe Light that I bought while at Loopy Ewe - hmmm.......

.....and thus we have ARIEL SOCKS (fish scale lace --> mermaid ---> Ariel - get it?):

and Back..... 

Ariel socks are a lot of fun to knit. They seem to go quickly - completing each repeat of the 14 row stitch pattern keeps it moving along. The one/one twisted rib cuff is 2.25" deep which not only looks really nice but provides enough stretchy rib to keep the sock from sliding on the leg. The box toe looks good too and is comfortable to wear. I love, love, love the SuperwashMe Light yarn - there are 550 yards per skein - plenty there to make a much longer sock. Although any light-ish weight sock yarn will work (i.e. Opal, Trekking, etc.). Also subtle color changes will look best (i.e. stripes would be too busy for the stitch pattern).

The color 'Iowa' is actually more of a cinnamon and very pretty, but after photographing these socks in several different sessions I never could get my camera to pick up the color properly - they really are not as orange as they look in the photos.

My friend Barb was the first to knit a pair - she wrote:

    "The pattern is fun.
     They are fun to make but not so hard you can't remember the pattern.
     I thought about giving these as a gift but I like them too much!"

'Ariel' will soon be available for purchase from The Loopy Ewe and is also currently available in the St. Louis area at:

Chris' Needlecraft Supply http://www.chrisneedlecraftsupply.com/

Hearthstone Knits (http://hearthstoneyarns.com/)
Kirkwood Knittery (http://kirkwoodknittery.com/)
Knit Escape (http://www.knitescape.blogspot.com/)
Knit N Caboodle (http://www.knitandcaboodle.com/)
The Weaving Department at Myers House (http://www.gslkg.com/weavingdept.html)

UPDATE 09/24/2008:

The Ariel sock pattern is now also available in my Ravelry Pattern Store, or by clicking the link on the righthand side of this page.

On Socks - Part Two

Man's First Socks:  -  A Short Story

Once upon a time (recently) a Knitter (me) asked her husband (mine) if he would wear hand-knit socks if she were to knit a pair especially for him.  The Husband (poster child for the typical blue, brown, gray male wardrobe) said, "Do they have to be in those funky colors [read: like those that you wear]?"

And so the Knitter carefully chose a conservative solid dark color in a soft light weight yarn.  She settled on a ribbed pattern with a simple stitch motif to keep herself occupied for the duration of the leg.  Hoping that the Husband would actually wear his first pair of hand-knit socks, she knew that scenario would be more likely if the socks were as similar as possible to commercially manufactured (read: Gold Toe Fuzzy) socks that the Husband preferred.  Therefore she chose to knit a short row heel instead of a more knitterly flap/heel/gusset combination.

Now the Husband proudly shows off his hand-knit socks and the Knitter will never tell the Husband that the pattern is named 'Man's First Socks' or that knitting patterns even have a name – Knitter's are entitled to a few secrets.

Perhaps he'll soon receive another pair.

On Socks - Part One

First Socks

Not long after I became a Knitter, my friend Barb said to me "you should try socks – they're fun".  Socks, I thought, who'd want to knit socks ?  They look hard and there are all those tiny stitches on itty bitty needles – no thanks.  But as I attended knit-ins and guild meetings all around me knitters were knitting socks! Well – there must be something to this, I thought, perhaps I should try it. That first pair was certainly confusing – it took several tries to find a pattern that made any sense - the instructions that worked for me were in Sally Melville's book, The Purl Stitch.

But Barb was right – it was fun!

I was so excited – I had actually made a pair of socks !

As much fun as the first pair had been, I was not satisfied with the common heel or the fit of the ankle or the pointy toe.  Barb explained that she uses several size needles to achieve the perfect fit – the smallest size for the ribbing/heel/toe, the largest size for the calf, and a middle size for the ankle and instep.  That would take care of the sizing issues but what about the weird heel (to me, a new knitter, the 'common heel' [flap, heel, gusset] seemed weird) and pointy toe.

Off to the library and to the internet I went in search of the perfect (for me) sock techniques.  I was amazed by the myriad of choices – cuff down/toe up, common heel/short row heel, wedge toe/modified wedge toe/rounded toe/anatomical toe, double points/two circ's/magic loop needles, not to mention the myriad of colors, fibers and stitch patterns.  This was so exciting – I could be my own designer!