MakeOne

A few more things...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:12:04 GMT

Twisted Stitch Socks

I love the look of twisted stitches (knit through the back loop); that really makes the pattern stand out.

The stitches look best if all rows are twisted so an object knit flat would have to have stitches that were 'purl through the back loop' and that can be awkward, so it would be easier to work twisted stitches in a project done in the round i.e. hats, socks, mitts, etc.

I am looking forward to playing with some of the stitch patterns in this book for a pair socks soon.

In the meantime I knit this sock design using two similar type of stitch patterns from other books in my library. Loved the feel of the yarn, not crazy about the pooling but I do like the colors. It is really difficult to take a decent photo of your own feet!!

Very nice yarn:	Twinkle Toes by Chameleon Colorworks Dyeworks & Fiber Studio;
	Merino/Tencel, 1 skein, 100g equal 360 yards, Color: Peacock
Pattern:	My own design

Son In Law Socks

Finished the second sock, although these look like argyle they are actually fair isle.

Remind me not to knit with three colors on the same row again.

Here's David showing off his new socks:

Life is better with good lighting.......

Last week I bought the cutest little "Mini Ott Light" at Tuesday Morning.

It is so much easier to knit in the evening with the bright light that this provides,

should be easier to knit dark colors - I'd like to make a black shawl one of these days.

Gnocchi Scarf

The other day at Kirkwood Knittery, Susie was working on the cutest scarf made from Gnocchi by Lana Grossa.

It reminds of cattails and looks like cotton balls when knit up.

This is the simplest and quickest project, it is nothing but garter stitch.

You knit the chain between the puffs.

You would think it would have been easy but I can make things so hard -

I cast on too many times to count:

� Didn't see any option but to use a backwards-e cast on.

Very bulky stuff, first needle I tried (size 9) too small to keep control.

Also I am a continental knitter but found that it was easier to work this 'yarn'

by throwing with from my right hand. Frog.

� Change to Size 11 Denise needles, cast on and knit a few rows. Too tight. Frog.

� Settle on Size 10.5 Denise needles, cast on and knit a few rows.

Still seems loose, maybe I should twist the stitches. Frog.

� Cast on, knit a few rows with twisted stitches, still not right. Frog.

� Cast on and knit a few rows regular.

Looks weird along the side edges, puffs sitting vertically v. horizontally across the row.

Don't remember Suzie's looking this. Frog.

� Look up this yarn on Ravelry. See 8 similar projects. One is by my friend Anita who noted that she slipped the first stitch of every row. Cast on and knit slipping the first stitch - should I slip knitwise or purlwise? Try a few rows both ways. Decide on purlwise. Frog.

� Cast on and knit about 8". Hold it up to check my progress. Slipped stitches are tighter than the other stitches causing the scarf to bow/arc at the bottom edge. Frog.

� Decide that life would be easier if I'd ever learn to put KISS into practice

(keep it simple, stupid.)

Keep it simple: Cast on 8 stitches with backwards 'e' method. Knit 8 sts. Turn. Knit 8 sts. Turn.

Finally - success! Well, success until I reach the bind off....

� Regular bind off, too tight, frog the bind off.

� What would work? Needs to be loose like Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.

Couldn't remember exactly how that went and I was too lazy to look it up.

Decided that my bind off needs backwards 'e' 's to be similar to the cast on.

Here is what I came up with:

#Knit one.

Create a backwards 'e' stitch with the chain between the next two puffs.

Pass the knit over the 'e'.

Knit the next stitch.

Pass the 'e' over.##

Repeat from # to ## to the last stitch.

Bind off previous stitch and draw the tail through the last stitch.

Final step: Sew (with matching thread and needle) in all the ends.

Voila - Finished!!

Fall finished objects............

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:41:06 GMT

Beaded scarf

This was a fun project, nice yarn, pretty colors, easy pattern:

Very pretty yarn:	Swiss Mountain (65% Cashmere/35% Silk) by Handmaiden from LoopyEwe. One skein, 50g, 180 yards; I think the color is called Nova Scotia.
Beads:	Size 8 from Ladybug Beads.
Pattern:	Center portion of Waves of Grain by Rosemary Hill available free at Knitty, Fall 2008.
Recipient:	Lovely daughter.

Twisted Candle Flame Cardigan

As I wrote in a previous post My friend Gerta lent me her copy of "Omas Strickgeheimnisse" and I was enchanted with the stitch pattern "Tulpen mit verschrankten Maschen". Not sure what that translates to but I'm calling this Twisted Candle Flame Sweater:

Yarn:		Adrienne Vittadini Alexa, 100% cotton tape yarn, worsted weight; 16 skeins, 50g and 100 yards per skein, purchased at Kirkwood Knittery.
Stitch Pattern:		Twisted Candle Flame from Omas Strickgeheimnisse.
Buttons:		from Joann's
Designer:		Me
Recipient:		Me

Cute Baby Sweater

I saw this cute ball of yarn at The Weaving Dept. at Myers House -

tucked inside the ball are darling little buttons and two sweater patterns

(cardigan and pullover).

It isn't the greatest yarn (lots of thick and thin) but it turned out cute,

it's machine washable and was quick to do -

now we just need someone in my family to have a baby who can wear it!

Yarn/Pattern/Buttons:

Cotton Kisses by Plymouth Yarn Companypurchased at

The Weaving Dept at Myers House.

One skein, 200g, 396 yards.

Stitch Pattern:

Made it up.

Recipient:

To be determined.

Sock in Progress?

I love the glitter sock yarn from Berroco and bought a skein in pink/green/orange.

Of course after many swatches I couldn't settle on stitch pattern.

In the meantime I ordered some Gloss sock yarn in Black from Knitpicks.

I thought it would be nice to have some black handknit socks - what was I thinking?

Very hard to see to work on black yarn. Need to try some better lighting.

It occurred to me that I could combine these two yarns and came up with this. Finished the first sock but it is loose at the ankle even though done on 64 stitches with Size 1 U.S. needles; the Gloss sock yarn is a bit on the heavy side.

This may end up in the frog pond.

More to follow soon...............

Poor Neglected Blog.....

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:50:23 GMT

....it was a busy summer; that's my excuse for neglecting this blog for so long.

It was also the best summer ever in St. Louis for gorgeous weather.

Most of our summers are excessively hot, humid and miserable.

This year there was only one week in June that was miserable.

Other than that week the rest of the summer we have had the most

gorgeous tolerable summer weather anyone can remember.

So to pick up where I left off.......our daughter was married on July 11, 2009:

They are so cute together! I think they both look so very young.

It's hard to fathom that we have a married daughter.

Her husband is a U.S. Marine and returned to duty in Iraq shortly after the wedding,

so our daughter continues to live with us until he returns to the States (could be October).

She has started her own blog and is working on making jewelry (including stitch markers!) and fimo clay characters (trying to convince her to do buttons!)

My friend Fran is not only a knitter but a spinner and weaver.

She wove this lovely dishtowel and dishcloth for me:

My friend Barb is an amazing knitter, quilter, embroider.

For my birthday last week she made this darling tote bag for me,

it even has my name embroidered on it:

It's a very cool turnabout to have hand-crafted objects made for me!

Finally finished the second entrelac sock.

But there was not enough yarn to finish the toe so I substituted a plain off white

sock yarn which is why the toes look different color-wise than the rest of the foot.

This sweater is really comfortable, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.

It hangs better on me than my mannequin since she is way smaller than I am.

The yarn is Southwest Optimum DK purchased from Flying Fingers. It is so soft

and drapey that it feels more like cashmere than 100% wool.

I began at the bottom and by the time I had knitted to the waistline I had tired of

knitting the German Herringbone stitch pattern (First Treasury of Knitting Patterns

by Barbara Walker) even though it is one of my favorites.

So I chose a coordinating stitch pattern and worked the bodice in two pieces:

left wrist to center back/front and right wrist to center back/front, joining at the center back.

This meant that unblocked there were little poofs of stitches at center back, but they blocked out flat (yay!).

The bodice stitch pattern is Reverse Fern Stitch (Charted Knitting Designs; a Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns, also by Barbara Walker)

I started a lace sweater design using stitch patterns from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush, and cashmere laceweight yarn from Colourmart, but so far only one sleeve is complete:

I saw these these darling slippers here on Ravelry.

The pattern is written in several languages (including English) and was actually quite easy.

The heel is worked first, then stitches are cast on for the foot and the rest is worked in round ending at the toe.

The pattern begins by casting on at the top of the heel section, working decreases

to the center of the heel, then increases to the bottom of the heel, and finally

seaming the heel along the sides before casting on additional stitches for the foot.

I worked it a bit differently casting on at the base of the heel and working increases

in the round.

I was a little disappointed that the gray yarn in the kit is several shades lighter

than what is pictured above, therefore the fair isle detail does not show as well

since there is not enough contrast between the two yarn colors.

There are often projects that are unsuccessful which I have not included in this blog.

Last spring I did a tank top that was just awful and now I can't find it so I'm not sure

if I ripped it out and hid the yarn or simply trashed it.

Now here's another work in progress tank top and I'm not sure if I want to finish

it or not. I would need to rework the bottom of the skirt for a few inches.

The yarn is bamboo that I bought from the mark down bin at Kirkwood Knittery.

There were several skeins of turqoise and two skeins of multi blue/white color.

The crossover portion is inspired by a design that was in Knitter's magazine.

The top is knit in a slip stitch rib and the skirt is the 'wrong' side of Half-fisherman's Rib.

This sock is for my favorite son-in-law, David.

Hopefully he will like them.

Hopefully they will fit.

Hopefully I am motivated to knit the second sock.

The yarn is by Universal Yarns purchased at Kirkwood Knittery.

My friend Gerta shared this book with me, which is written in German.

I'm in love with several stitch patterns from this book,

especially a version of the candle flame pattern done in twisted stitches.

In my stash I had 16 skeins of Alexa (a tape yarn by Adrienne Vittadini).

This Twisted Candle Flame sweater is my current work in progress.

I've completed the fronts and the back and have begun the sleeves.

And that concludes the synopsis of MakeOne's 2009 summer knitting......

Finished Objects....

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:06:32 GMT

Project:

Shetland Tea Shawl by Dale Long
Published in "A Gathering of Lace"
Yarn: Alpaca With a Twist Fino, 2 skeins

Blocking:

Finished:

Project:

Arch-shaped socks
by Jen Showalter
Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett
Based on this pattern, but worked toe up.

It is really difficult to take a photo of your own feet!

Project:

Handkerchief for Daughter's Wedding Day
Godmother's Edging from Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Yarn is 2/28 cashmere from Colourmart.
Embroidery design from old heirloom sewing/shadow embroidery patterns in my collection.
Fabric repurposed linen from a ribbon embroidery project that I never finished.
Sequins and beads are bridal alterations leftovers.

Daughter has decided that she will not actually soil this hankie as then
she would have to BLOCK IT (OMG).

Project:

Wedding Veil for Daughter

Veils at the bridal salons start at well over $100, plus my daughter wants to wear her veil vertically to complement the planned french twist hairdo.

So it was decided that Mom would try to make one.

This was so easy, and cost about $10.
Two yards of 72" wide tulle folded in half, then in half again.
Cut a 36" 1/4 circle with very sharp scissors, then cut another circle 3" radius from center point.
Unfolded, pressed, folded in half, ran two rows of stitching 1/4" and 3/8" from edger of inner circle.
Tied threads at one end, pulled up bobbin threads from other end, until edge was about 3/4" long gathered. Sewed a piece of ribbon over the rough edge.
Once we have tried the veil on with the dress I will permanently attach it and the trim with a glue gun to the comb.

Note:

This morning I posted the Hexagon Scarf pattern to my Ravelry Store.

It is priced at $2.50 and can be purchased through Paypal even if you are not a member of Ravelry. Just click the "Buy Now" button on my sidebar, this will take you to Paypal where you can purchase the pattern to download.

I had a hard time getting this to post and format correctly today, therefore....

Note to self: Do all Blogdrive editing from Internet Explorer, not from Google.

Lerwick is Finished!

Fri, 08 May 2009 22:46:43 GMT

Blocking..........

Done Done Done ...................

Lerwick

By: Sharon Miller

Heirloom Knitting

Yarn: Wool/Silk from Colourmart

Worked on Size 1 U.S. 24" needle

The book is $43.00 plus shipping from Schoolhouse Press.

I will sell this book for $30.00, there are no marks in it, contact me

if interested.

Lerwick

Sat, 02 May 2009 03:31:25 GMT

My last post was when I had finished the edging of the Lerwick shawl.

Since then I have worked the border (completed 4/16/09) and the center which I completed today; all that's left is to graft and block.

This was the most time consuming project I have done to date. It was tedious and awkward to me to work with such fine yarn (oh yeah right - that's why I ordered a cone of laceweight cashmere so I can torture myself some more). I made more errors in this shawl than any other project I have made to date but there was no way I was going to frog since the rows contained approx. 1,000 stitches; I fixed any mistake as best I could and moved on.

Maybe fine weight lace knitting is just not my thing and I should add it to my list of knitting techniques that I don't enjoy working: felting, entrelac, intarsia for example.

Deborah (RogueKnit) finished her Lerwick - it's gorgeous.

Next post: Lerwick blocked.

Progress

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:38:48 GMT

After at least six weeks, I have finally finished the edging on the Lerwick shawl. Feels good to have made some progress.

The yarn is 2/20 or 2/30 (can't read the label) which means extremely fine and the stitch pattern is worked on both sides - those two factors really slowed me down, plus there were 128 repeats of the 16 row pattern (36,864 stitches) - no wonder it took so long.

The last step was to graft the two ends together. I wanted to graft it in pattern and knew that would be really confusing even though it was only 15 stitches. I decided to make a swatch in a heavier yarn with the row that was to be grafted knit with a contrasting color that I could follow when I did the actual graft:

After my sweet husband set up some lighting so that I could see what I was doing, I was ready to begin the operation (he said it looked like I was performing surgery):

I removed the provisional cast on and put those stitches on a second dpn, checked five times to make sure that I didn't have the length of edging twisted and was correctly matching up the ends, hitched up my glasses for optimal magnification and began..........

TADA!

The next process is to pick up stitches (1,200+) along the straight edge (only took three tries to get it right) and knit the mitred border which is about 100 rows long - this could take a while - so far the four rows that I have knit took about 2 hours per row.

On Sunday I went to a spin-in at Barb's (I don't spin but the nice fiber ladies let me bring my knitting). A couple hours of knitting, eating, chatting - before I knew it I was ready to knit the toe on the second sock of a pair I've been working on since the start of the year. Always glad to finish the second sock! The pattern is a 7-stitch twisted rib cable. The yarn is by Neighborhood Fiber Company (purchased at The Loopy Ewe):

I had a lot of fun designing and knitting this colorful modular scarf in Crystal Palace Mini-Mochi purchased at The Kirkwood Knittery. The pattern is being test knit and then it will be available on Ravelry and on my blog through Ravelry (you don't need to be a member of Ravelry to purchase a pattern). The scarf is knit in garter stitch trapezoids, there are no seams. One length is knit with the first skein and the second length is attached as it is knit with the second skein:

This yarn is a very loosely spun fingering weight wool. It's very soft and has a pretty halo (makes it hard to rip out) with long repeats of various colors.

Almeara

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:05:22 GMT

In the latest Vogue Knitting (Winter 2008/2009)� there is a pattern for a gorgeous pair of gloves, "Almeara", by Jared Flood (Brooklyn Tweed) and an accompanying article about Jared, "All you need is glove".

�

Here are my Almeara's knit in Elsebeth Lavold Angora which has been languishing in my stash for quite a� while.�� They were a lot of fun to knit and went very quickly, taking a little more than 4 evenings and less than three skeins to complete.

�

This yarn is heavier than the recommended yarn (Rowan Scottish Tweed DK), so my gloves are a little bit large and bulky but they are warm and fit over my rings - I love them!

�

The gloves start with an i-cord cast-on.� That is a new cast-on for me and� it is very cool.�

I am glad� to have it in my repertoire and can't wait to use it on future projects/designs.

�

Before blocking the fingers curl toward the palm since the palm side is done in garter stitch - that makes them look good without even having any fingers inside!

�

There are a number of errors in this pattern.� Also there are a couple decrease rows that I thought could be worked better than the instructions given, although these may not have been errors.� Here are my notes, bold/red are the changes I noted to the pattern.� I think that most of these were quite obvious and many knitters would be able to make these corrections on their own without too much confusion.

�

Left Middle Finger

Round 4: k9, p1, k4, p1, k1

�

Left Thumb - Round 4 was omitted.

Round 4: p3, k8, p8

�

Right Pinkie

I thought the cables should be reversed:

Row 1: 4 st LC, k2, p1, k8

Row 3: k2, 4 st RC, p1, k8

�

Right Ring Finger

I thought the decreases should be worked:�

[K2tog] 2x, [ssk] 2x, [p2tog] 3x, p1

�

Right Middle Finger

First sentence... 'work 5 palm sts',�

would be clearer if it read:� purl 5 palm sts'.

Round 4: k1, p1, k4, p1, k9

Decrease round ends with 8 sts.

�

Right Index Finger

I thought the Decrease Round should read:

ssk, [k2tog] 3x, [p2tog] 4x, p1

�

Right Thumb:

Decrease Round should read:

[k2tog] 4x, p1, [p2tog] 5x -- 10 sts.

Maybe in my next career I'll be tech editor.

�

Looking for my knitting mojo....

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:17:10 GMT

Haven't posted for a while feeling that I had nothing to say or show.

A couple weeks ago I was feeling uninspired and couldn't get interested in any of my works in progress or any new projects.

I had decided that the next day I would go to Kirkwood Knittery for some inspiration.

That evening I received an invitation from RogueKnits - she and Brooke had decided to knit the Lerwick Shawl by Sharon Miller and Deborah invited me to play too.

Isn't it funny how things like that work out? I was feeling so down on the knitting and at a loss of what to do next and the next thing you know Deborah comes along presenting me with a project challenging enough to help get my mojo back. (Plus the $1 skein bin at Kirkwood Knittery is always helpful too!)

Sharon Miller (Heirloom Knitting - click the link for some gorgeous shawl eye candy) wrote this pattern to copy an antique shawl, the finished shawl measures approximately 65" square and takes 2000-2500 yards of 2-ply.

Deborah anticipates that it will take her three weeks to complete this shawl - knowing how fast Deborah knits all those awesome lace objects, I believe that she will do just that.

I am just getting started on this project having the book and yarn in my possession for only a few days.

I have never knit with yarn this fine, I have never knit a lace stitch pattern that is patterned on both sides with a garter background - this will definitely be a challenge for moi.

The instructions give options for knitting the shawl from edging to border to center - or vice versa.

Starting with the sideways edging appeals to me as that is my least favorite part of a shawl to knit [I dislike having to flip the whole piece over every other row to attach it at the end of every second row to the shawl. I could knit every other row backwards if it was a plain row, but this edging is patterned on both sides and would take me forever (I tried it)]. In fact several times I have knit an edging separately and attached it by hooking the live stitches of the shawl to the chain selvage of the edging as per Joan Schrouder's instructions in Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves - the procedure is a bit scary but works fine.

I'll be using a 2-ply from Colourmart, color is Stone, a blend of 50% merino/50% silk. The pattern calls for a size 3 US needle but as an extremely loose knitter I knit this swatch with Size 1 US dpn's (now I need a find a source for a Size 1 US circ):

Naturally I have already decided to re-swatch and slightly change the edging. Why? Because the insertion is a four row repeat and the edging is given as a 14 row repeat, plus it's bugging me that the two little triangular sections between the edging and the insertion don't match.

Bring on the mojo.....

A few finished object's...

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:06:48 GMT

Here are a few finished object's since my last post...

A pair of socks in J. Knits yarn, stitch pattern from Treasury #3:

One entrelac sock in two colors of Shibui, some day I'll knit the second sock:

A vest that began as a circular shrug that didn't work out: the gray yarn is Needful Yarns Disco; the Multi-color sparkly yarn is by Artyarns (this yarn used to be a tam that didn't work out due to the weight of the beads), still need to get a closure:

I also knit this beret by the Rainey Sisters for my sister, Beth and forget to take a photograph.

Lastly I've started another pair of socks in a multicolor pink yarn, not liking the yarn but loving the color[s] and I'm working on a Shetland Tea Shawl (Gathering of Lace) in Alpaca With A Twist Fino:

No Knitting Content Today...

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:46:19 GMT

Sorry for the lack of a post the last few weeks, and further for no knitting content this date.

This week's excuse is that a) I had a cold and didn't do much knitting and b) I've been pre-occupied with DD's college graduation and the holidays.

Being the proud Mom, I just have to share some photos of this milestone..........

Happy Holidays!

Fair Isle Mitts

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:33:17 GMT

It's can be hard to find just the right shade of pink yarn. Recently I bought the perfect fuschia color of Cascade Heritage at The Loopy Ewe and was looking forward to making some socks for myself. I was having a fun time deciding if I wanted to design a pattern or use one of the other patterns I'd been admiring, like Clessidra or Bayerische, maybe even Baudelaire.

My daughter was to home to visit and I said isn't this the nicest shade of fushcia? She said, 'oh that would be perfect for those gloves you promised to make me'.....so much for my fuschia socks.

This pattern: Classic Elite Nederland Opera Mitts by Mary Jane Mucklestone

We decided I would use shades of gray for the fair isle patterning and conveniently I had just purchased cream, gray and dark gray sock yarn (Pace by Universal Yarns) at the Kirkwood Knittery.

The pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, so I adjusted the stitch counts for fingering weight. Instead of 48 stitches as given in the pattern, I used 72 sts.

She didn't want the gloves to go past her elbow as shown in the pattern, so I figured using the same number of rounds with fingering weight should end up just the right length. She is tiny and they are longer than I anticipated, but she seemed to be pleased.

Finished Shetland Shawl, etc.

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:38:21 GMT

The Flower Scarf pattern has been downloaded over 1,000 times and there are 51 Flower Scarf projects on Ravelry -- that is amazing to me.

Joann made a second Woven Diamonds Faroese:

The shetland style shawl is finished. Why did I call it 'shetland style'? I began with a cast of one stitch for the center section, increased one stitch every row until the center square reached it's full diagonal width, decreased one stitch every row until 1 stitch remained; picked up stitches all around the square placing markers at each corner and knit the first border, the second border and finally the edging increasing at each side of the four corner stitches every other row.

As I wrote in an earlier post I couldn't decide on an edging for this shawl. Most of the other shawls I have made have a sideways edging (this type of edging is knit perpendicular to the body of the shawl and attached to the live shawl stitches once for every two edging rows). A sideways edging is very stretchy since there is no bind off; ideal for a shawl. However, it takes a very long time to work even if it's fairly narrow. I was getting tired of working on this shawl and decided that in this case it would be nice to work an edging that could be bound off.

Also, since the center and first border stitch patterns are very angular, I felt that the rest of the stitch patterns needed to be more rounded/softer so I settled on four repeats of Horseshoe lace from First Treasury of Knitting Patterns as a second border. Then I chose a simple edging from Knitted Lace of Estonia that I worked for eight rows before binding off.

I've been forever looking for a good looking loose bind off option.

I've read in several places on the internet that the following is a stretchy bind off:

'*knit two together through the back loop, place resulting stitch on left hand needle, repeat from *'

But I don't find that to be stretchy at all; every two stitches are being reduced to one stitch making it even less stretchy than a regular (knit two, pass the first stitch over, knit the next stitch, repeat) bind off.

I was excited to find the solution in Knitted Lace of Estonia, the bind off above needs one step added in order to be stretchy....like this:

knit 1, place stitch back on left hand needle, knit two together through the back loop,

*knit the next stitch, knit this stitch and the previous stitch together through the back loop; repeat from *.

Also I modified it a little by substituting 'knit 1 through the back loop' rather than 'knit 1' which seemed to lay a little flatter.

It took nearly two hours to bind off approximately 600 stitches but even so the whole procedure took less time than a sideways border.

Deborah (Rogue Knit on Ravelry) is an awesome lace knitter and her knitting is gorgeous. She thinks the key is in the blocking (she is an excellent knitter to begin with but careful blocking does make a huge difference in the look of the finished lace). Deborah wrote a most informative post on her blog about her method of blocking and since I was just about out of Eucalan, I took a short drive to the nearest Walgreens (what is it with Walgreens anyway - there are six of them in the City of O'Fallon which has a population of 76,000) and bought the Pantene (even had a dollar off coupon). It certainly smelled better than woolwash.

The shawl measures about 50" square and could have been a bit larger, but it's close enough. I'm pleased with how it turned out although I'm not in love with it yet - it takes a while until I love my finished objects - I know that I am my own worst critic, but I think that after spending so much time on a project I'm tired of it and need some distance before I can go back with a less critical eye and think 'that's really nice - did I actually do that?'.

This and That....

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:55:24 GMT

Finished Object:

Crochet Cardigan,

Stitch pattern is called 'Marguerite' from one of the Harmony Guides,

worked in Brown Sheep Cotton Fine.

Design is my own.

I really like how this turned out - it drapes and fits really well (obviously my mannequin is

way smaller than I am) - I will probably actually wear this sweater.

Still in Progress:

Garter Stitch Yoke Jacket, finish is pending: one sleeve, buttons, blocking.

worked in reclaimed Reynolds Mandalay (100% silk).

This might be fun to do in a self striping yarn ?

An experiment to see how a yoked sweater would fit (i.e. can you raise your arms)

and the answer is - probably if you don't make the yoke way too long like I did.........

Step Into My 'Office'......

I spend most of my time knitting in my 'office' (that's what DH calls it) -

everything I need is within reach other than the 'library' which is approximately

10 steps away in the next room.

Cozy sofa....with laptop accessory:

Task lighting (could use improvement)

with communications devices /table almost always littered with work[knitting]ing tools:

Lantern Moon 'file cabinet' for needles, notes, rulers, markers, etc.:

Basket of UFO's:

Additional Filing Cabinet

(at any time contains a multitude of stitch markers, pencils and sock needles):

Library:

Magazine collection:

Etc.

Also in progress a pair of socks designated for my sister in Jojoland.

Started a Shetland Tea Shawl in two colors, already scheming how to change the edging and last section of 576 stitches/38(?) rows.

I'm still working on the gray beret, trying to get it to come out like the one in my mind and still have it work as a writable pattern that would make sense to someone other than me......

Finished Faroese shawls; Blocking shawls; a Cabled Tam design

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:56:28 GMT

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 these 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...

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:16:19 GMT

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....

Bad Blogger

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:08:07 GMT

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

Excuses, excuses:

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

On the Duplicate Designing Phenomenon

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:07:47 GMT

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.

Inspiring Retail Designs

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:07:36 GMT

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:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2968174?tuid=000006cb-006f-0861-6c61-726765727669&id=8021363&largeImg=0&tname=product

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.

Updates

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:13:21 GMT

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 Storeor by clicking the link at the lefthand side of this page in my 'profile' setion.

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!

Flower Scarf

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.