Published–Me–Really

August 4th.  Next Wednesday.  Knitcircus magazine, Issue 11,  goes live with one of my patterns in it.  Yeah, I’m excited.

Some time ago I wrote about this magazine.  Some very talented women from Madison, Wisconsin created this magazine, and it has such a great spirit.  I wrote a fan letter.  I had to.    Like Charlotte Yarn, this was first about community and then about business.

Knitcircus was successful as a slick paper, booklet size magazine.  You can still get some of the back issues in that format.  By becoming an ezine, publishing costs can be spent more creatively and the audience is growing and growing.  It is exciting to be a small part of that.

So what’s my pattern?  Socks.  They have a pretty eyelet rib for the cuff, and an amazing heel.  Wait until you see the photos they took.  These are my distortion of their photos because I’m not allowed to show anything until after the big unveiling.

But there is so much more—

This issue is the “biggest and best ever–24 patterns, interviews with

Soulemama, Adrienne Martini and Cat Bordhi and a new column by Wendy

Johnson of Wendy Knits.”

Jaala, the driving force and nurturing editor, has announced Giveaways!  She calls it a  “giveaway-palooza we’re organizing as part of our Fall kickoff. We’ve got lots of free patterns and subscriptions to give away to blog readers, plus knitting and sewing books and hand-dyed yarns.”

Stay tuned for more info on this, and check out turtlegirl76′s blog.  Cristi loves a giveaway.  Surely you already read her.  Tabby Tuesday is like a comic strip only better–and I’m a dog person.  And then there’s the knitting stuff.

You know, I have resisted submitting patterns to anyone because of the delay between creation and sharing.  Now that I’ve been blessed with friends who want to test knit for me, maybe . . . . .

Anyway, please join me next Wednesday to read the articles and check out all the patterns.  Wait.  Go on over and check out the summer issue.  Just click on the Knitcircus graphic in the sidebar.  You might see something interesting if you check out Jaala’s blog.

Walker Treasury

Barbara Walker.  The other great Mother of Modern Knitting.  The market is full of stitch dictionaries, many in full color, but none rivals any of the five published by Barbara Walker for depth and learning.  So once upon a time, some knitters got together and made color happen.  They created an online database where they and their knitsibs could post pictures of the patterns in the Walker books in living color—and talk about them.

The patterns are copywritten, so to knit these items, you must own the books—and why would you not?  I recently joined the group.

I have LEARNED to love to swatch.  It was clearly a learning process, and I’m glad I pursued it.  I will knit a swatch just to see what it looks like when I finish.  That’s all.   Now I can give it a purpose.  I can photograph it and post it to this site so others can get a full color view of a new st/color pattern.

Here is my first one.  It is called Shadow Box Pattern, and it looks like lots of little windows in slanted sunshine.  I started with the green as the third color, but it didn’t pop; I changed to the turquoise which I liked better.  I think this would be an interesting color exercise if you did a swatch using the same three colors but changing where you put each.  Each would be the A, then the B, and finally the C color.  If you do this, send me a picture.

I expected something different from this next one, but was more than pleased with the result.  This looks very complicated, but isn’t.  It is slip stitch knitting where you only use one color at a time.  I really like the three colors I chose.  I should try to figure out why, like is it the value placement or something, but I’m content just to like them.

This is Four Color Fancy Pattern.  I learned a new trick with this.  I carried the three colors up the side rather than do an insane cut and weave-in thing.  The selvedge I used worked wonderfully.

If you look closely at the right selvedge, you can see that it bulges at the beginning and then gets smooth.  The bulging edge was when I worked the last st in the wrong side row, then took the new color from under all the others hanging on the edge and started the next color on the RS row.

To get the edge smooth, I used a selvedge I learned from Horst Schultz in one of his Patchwork Knitting books years ago.

WS row:  Work all except the last st.  Slip the last st to your LH needle purlwise.  (Yes, this leaves the working yarn in a funny place.)

RS row:  K the first st (the slipped one) through the back loop.  This will twist it and make a neat chain edge.  If you are carrying several colors up the edge, this will gather them and carry them upward behind the 2nd st instead of the first, which means they will not form a bulge on the selvedge.

I feel clever.   Actually it was dumb luck, but that’s how I figure out most things and I’m grateful.

Now that you have acquired a new tip, it’s time to mosey over to the Walker Project site and look around.  Maybe you will want to volunteer;  maybe you’ll just want to look.  And yes, there is a Walker Treasury group on Ravelry.

Caveat:  If you decide to join, the website is fidgity.  Volunteer group and all that.  But people will help.

Conquering the fiddley start

Holding it steady

Starting a project with lace weight yarn and only a few stitches is annoying because the yarn flips and flops everywhere.  I just added a weight and was much happier.  If you are knitting the Daybreak Gold Shawl, try this.  Check out the classes tab above to get the scoop on the Charlotte Yarn Knitalong using Zephyr yarn.  You can make any shawl you wish.  I’ll be sharing some lace knitting tips.

Another failure—The socks I started for Steve this month turned out to be too little to go onto his foot.  This is the result of trying so hard to fit his dainty ankle.  New sock knitting rule:  Steve gets simple ribbing and arch shaped foot knit with a yarn that feels great in my hands.  That way—-we both win.  I get simple, mindless knitting and he gets a pair of socks.

Yarn from Colorado

Since I teach at Charlotte Yarn, I get a discount on my personal yarn buys.  So why would I buy something in Colorado that we sell at the shop???  COLOR!

No shop can carry every color of every yarn.  And these hand dyers will slip new colorways in without your even knowing it.  Besides, as Oscar Wilde said, the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

I’m proud to say I only bought 4 skeins.

First–

Blue Heron Rayon Metallic--Deep Water/Silver

Remi has lots of this at Charlotte Yarn, but I’ve never seen this color.  Rayon is a favorite fiber of mine and I have held many skeins of this;  I’m glad I waited for this one.I have 550 yards of this and I think it needs to be a shoulder hugging shawl.  For me.   Edie, the owner of Woolly Works Farm is a fellow camper and I need to support her.  Truly.

Next–Ella Rae Lace Merino

Speaking of color—I bought this for two reasons:  1.  the colorway is just a bit outside my comfort zone.  There is some brown tucked into this colorway and I don’t do brown, but I don’t want to be in a rut.  2.  I told Remi I would do something to highlight this yarn and then she would have to buy more.  Must keep my word.

Why would this gorgeous yarn need help?  It is extra fine Merino, superwash, 460 luscious yarns for only $24.  The problem is, and the yarn rep agrees with me, the yarn is MISnamed.  It is named Lace Merino.  It is not lace weight yarn.  It is fingering weight, sock weight, which is why Charlotte Yarn has it shelved in the sock yarn section.

I picked it up several times and was confused by the name.  Surely others were too.So–Socks?  Shawl? Scarf?  I don’t know yet.  But it is teal, turquoise, red, lt. navy—and it feels so great—soft, yet crisply spun.  You can see why I had to have it, right?

Last is two skeins of a yarn I’d only seen online.  Remi introduced me to Mirasol yarns.  I have a bunch of their fingering handpaint.  At a new shop in Ft.Collins, Your Daily Fiber, I found Mirasol Tupa on the wall in dazzling jewel tone colors.It’s a bit darker than this.  It is a plied yarn, 50-50 merino and silk, drapes beautifully, 137 yards per 50 grams, only $10.  I can’t believe I only bought 2 skeins.  It isn’t important what this will be.  It will mix with some other yarn probably.  The main reason I HAD to buy this is to show Remi so she will order lots of it.  Then we can all have some.  The colors and the silk—you will swoon.

Camp is more than just buying yarn.  The other side effect of camp is seeing what everyone has been knitting all year and making notes of what you have to have in the pattern category.  I’m still gathering some pictures of some of these projects and will share them soon.

More later–

Mary Ellen’s Knitting

Mary Ellen is my mentor, my guru, both for knitting and for parenting adults.  She, her daughter Paula Sue and daughter-in-law Mimi come to camp each year.  Mary Ellen makes Fair Isle and complex cable knitting look easy.  And fast.  She knits sweaters in abundance each and every year.  One year she and Paula Sue, a really good colorist and quilter, collaborated on a fair isle sweater.  Finding the perfect complement of colors is hard and requires much swatching.  Mary Ellen swatches–Not the 4″ or 8″ squares usually recommended.  NO, for Mary Ellen, you swatch a sweater at the full size of the sweater.

The swatches that don’t make it into completed sweaters are large.  Paula Sue cannot stand letting them just sit, so she creates with them.  The following purse is Mary Ellen’s knitting as designed by Paula Sue and the lining is all Paula Sue.  I will treasure it.  When I am not using it, it will hang on the screen in the living room.  It must be shared.

The Lining:

What I Bought at Camp

Handknit Estonian Gloves

These gloves were knit by an Estonian woman and sent to American with Nancy Bush.  Nancy sells these, mittens, socks, etc., for these women to supplement their income and make their lives better.   Most of the items are very colorful and include lots of braids and colorwork.  I choose these somewhat minimalist gloves because they were beautiful and because they fit my hands, my short, stubby hands, perfectly.  It felt very good to do something to help a knitsib in another culture.  Here’s some closeups:

Both sides of the gloves

Eyelet pattern on glove top

Precise fingertips

Pattern on the thumb

Braid and cast on

I paid only $40 for these which was a great price I thought.  Take a look through Nancy’s book Folk Knitting in Estonia and you will see lots of examples of the mittens and socks with all the beautiful colorwork.  If you are interested in buying some of this for yourself, get in touch with Nancy Bush at her website,  www.woolywest.com.

Tomorrow I’ll share the other non-yarn item I bought from a very clever Mother-Daughter duo who come to camp each year.  You will love it.

More later–

Back From Camp

Nupps unblocked! Purl 7 together.

Look! I can knit nupps (rhymes with soup). That was my main goal as I headed to camp and I did it—thanks to the great Nancy Bush.

Besides nupps, we learned Estonian braids and knitted the following sampler

Jay's sampler labeled

Shelagh's sampler

What can you do with a small sampler?

Betty and Aileen embellish commercial mittens.

We learned two kinds of nupps–lace ones as above and non-lace ones as on my Estonian Button Stitch socks. Then we really looked closely at Estonian lace patterns.
This is my sample.  Note the cast on which is much easier than the eloop I had been using for lace.   I used Hempathy for my class sample because I love it and it has “bite” to hold the eyelets open; this is such a great yarn for warmer climates.  Unfortunately I used size 3 needles, and they were too small.  This is only three lace patterns and I plan to knit some others–at least finish the ball, and I’ll try a larger needle when I do.  I do think the nupps are too large in this yarn.  Maybe they should stay in a lace weight yarn–or fingering.  This is sport/dk.

Nancy was amazing.  She is so well prepared; she’s spent a lifetime studying Estonian knitting and culture.  Her stories were entertaining and interesting;  if she leads a group over there, I’m definitely going.  She didn’t want her picture posted–after a certain  age, who does? But this one captures her joy as she approaches class and it is quite handsome, so I’m sharing it.  She is a magnificent teacher and you guys know I don’t say that about many people.  I learned so much this year and I can’t wait to share it.

This is the Crown Prince shawl from Lace Knitting in Estonia, her latest book.

Hundreds of nupps

I didn’t want to interrupt what Nancy was saying to ask for the bottle to be moved.  It does give a scale reference, and the whole table references the focus we put on food and drink.  Mary Ellen always brings great chocolates and Nancy rewarded us for good behavior by sharing a giant Estonian chocolate of dark chocolate and hazelnut.  Ymmmmm.

This is the Leaf and Nupp shawl from the same book.  (Blurriness due to moving camera;  you can’t look at these shawls without trembling with envy.)  I’ve started it and it’s fun to knit, but isn’t really public knitting.  The women of Haapsalu would not be happy with my shawl because it is Zephry yarn from Charlotte Yarn in Malibu Blue.  Not really traditional.  But it is going to be beautiful.

The last class was about Vintage Socks.  I don’t have any pictures, so I’ll save comments until I receive some from fellow campers.  Learned some excellent cast ons and will probably put them together with some of the braids for a sock cuff.

More later–

Dooley–A new hat pattern

Dooley $6.00

Why Dooley?  My undergraduate degree is from Emory University.  Emory has no football.  No major NCAA sports.  This is part of the requirements of our endowment from the Candler family.  Candler equals Coke as in Coca-Cola.  Yep.  Every time I drink one, Emory gets money.  You don’t mess with that kind of endowment.  So when I was there all we had was a soccer team–Emory Eagles–and in that day, no one had ever heard of soccer.

Pink Granite

So Emory needed a better mascot—and we had one.  Dooley was a mythical student who took the form of a skeleton and haunted the campus especially during the special days in spring.  Georgia Tech students kidnapped him at least once which gave us some street cred.  Anyway, he was fun (he dismissed classes at will) and we loved him.  Emory also is built of granite and pink marble–Georgia minerals–at least the original buildings.  I have a piece from an old construction site on my mantle.  When I saw the yarn used to design this hat was named Pink Granite, I got all weepy and named the hat Dooley.

Not a great story but it’s mine.  The hat is great.  It’s a slouch that can also work as a sit on top of the head model.  Vicki likes it best that way.

Dooley Upright

Debbie Carlson and Donna Richardson did the test knitting, so the pattern is perfect.

I used two ball of Rowan Purelife Revive in Pink Granite and 32 inch circs in sizes 6 and 4.  The Magic Loop technique I used is great for easy visibility and fitting.  All you need to do to try it on in process is just slide all the stitches to the cable.  Tidy.  And it has a great, complex looking stitch that is dead easy to knit.

Pattern is $6.00 and available at Charlotte Yarn in hardcopy, and here and at Ravelry as a download.

Pastry Chef–New Pattern

Pastry Chef

First up is an apron.  Yep, a non-cook designed an apron.  It was the hand drying application that interested me.  Am I the only one who can’t find the dish cloth when I need it?  Lots of nice compliments on it at the shop yesterday.  Susan asked if clothes were optional.  Let your conscience be your guide.  And maybe your age.

I used two balls of Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Cotton and a size 8 needle. Pattern is $6.00.

Thanks to Jean Russell for test knitting this and finding some not so clear places in the instructions.  Hope no one else does.  This is available in hardcopy at Charlotte Yarn and for download on Ravelry.  It’s easy and has an interesting construction which uses picked up sts and knitting off in another direction.

Here’s some pics of design underway.

Apron Sash

Stitch Detail

Bottom border

No Bib Version

Tomorrow Dooley—my best pattern ever!

Paulie’s

My DSIL Paul likes his birthday socks– and he says they fit!  Pure luck.  Check out the picture he sent; surely it says love.

Here’s the other part of his pose with his ever-patient wife, DD#1.  If a man will do this for socks, well, he should have more.

Turtlegirl76 has been on my mind recently.  She is such a precise knitter, among other laudatory adjectives.  She actually has the measurements of her family’s feet.  She would never worry about fit through a pair of socks.  She knows!  I bought my favorite sock blockers from her.  I think her grandfather cut them out and she painted them — with measurements for the foot.  So here’s my new plan—

Measure everyone in the family and get Steve to make me one sock blocker for each person so I can use them to adjust the fit as I knit.  Paint each the these festively indicating favorite cuff length and other data.  Hang somewhere to decorate the house when not in use.  A family gallery of sorts.  Maybe, if I can get everyone together, have a paint party and get each person to paint their own.

Of course, this means pressure to produce more socks.  Good thing I have a truckload of sock yarn stash.  But nothing compared to that of Turtlegirl76.

More later–