Monthly Archives: May 2014

The Wild West: Cables — Sedona

SUNSET CAT-118Oh, I love this back cable pattern.  I’m a sucker for dense, elaborate cable patterns, and this one totally fits the bill.

For Sedona, I combined elements of the main cable from Jackalope with the undulating side cable and seed stitch from Slide Rock.

I also devised the wavy twisty cable that sits between the outer cables and the main motif.  It was fun playing with it to get it to nestle up against the main cable but also keep an allowable distance between it and the outer cables.

Want a closer look?SUNSET CAT-119The back outer cables are repeated on the front. Simple I cord edging, similar to that on the neckline of Bisbee, makes for tidy finishing.

Pattern Details

Romance

This vest / waistcoat takes elements from both Jackalope and Slide Rock for the motifs. I-cord finishes all the edges. The back has short rows to lengthen it a bit.

I’m not done with this stitch pattern! Look for Sedona Deconstructed, a pullover, this coming winter.

Pattern Notes
This vest is worked initially in pieces from the top down and is then joined at the armholes, and continued in one piece.

The shoulder short rows are charted for each size.

All of the cable patterns for the back repeat are included in one chart for ease of reference.

Sizes
XS (S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X).

Finished Measurements
Bust: 32 (36, 40, 43½, 47, 52, 56)in / 81 (92, 101, 110, 120, 132, 142)cm; to fit with 1–2in / 2–5cm ease.
Length: 18 (18, 18, 18, 19.75, 19.75, 19.75)in / 74.5 (74.5, 74.5, 74.5, 81.5, 81.5, 81.5)cm

Yarn
Anzula For Better or Worsted, 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon (Polyamide), (200 yds / 183m per 4.06 oz / 115g), 4 (5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7) skeins, shown in Seaside.

Needles
US6 / 4mm needles or size needed to obtain gauge
(2) US5 / 3.75mm DPNs for I cord

Gauge
22 sts and 36 rows = 4in / 10cm in Seed Stitch using US6 / 4mm needles
30 sts and 36 rows = 4in / 10cm in cabled patterns

Notions
(2) stitch markers (minimum); (5) 1⅛ buttons (buttons shown are JHB International Style 92547 Silversmith); cable needle; yarn needle

Skills
cabling, reading charts, short rows, I cord, applied I cord

The Shepherd and The Shearer: The Sketches

I am a couple days late posting the sketches for The Shepherd and The Shearer 2014– a million apologies!

As I mentioned in my last TSATS post, we are crazy excited to have, once again, collaborated with two ROCKSTARS of the knit wear design world, Pamela Wynne and Cecily Glowik MacDonald. Both designers started on this project months ago and we’ve been seeing some sneaky peeks along the way.

Both designers will be blogging here next week about their own project, their inspiration and their process, but I did want to give you a taste of what’s to come in the meantime. Remember these are just sketches– the designer will elucidate their own visions next week.

Our brief to the designers was to create an heirloom quality, cabled, unisex sweater that would pair with our purpose-made, Sheep-to-Sweater TSATS yarn. We love what they have come up with so far!

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Cecily Glowik MacDonald

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Pamela Wynne

Our TSATS kits will go on sale on Monday– so many more details then. For full background on The Shepherd and The Shearer, start here. For more info on this year’s project, read here. And for more info on Pamela Wynne and Cecily Glowik MacDonald, read here.

Surprise Lamb

I’m going to steal Susan’s blog post again – it’s sooooo much easier than running back in the house, cleaning myself off and writing one myself!

A lamb made its way into the world while we were at Tractor Supply.  And I thought for sure my two sheep would lamb before any of Susan’s sheep did, but nooooooooo.

 

by Susan on May 15, 2014

Amy came home from the feed store and found this little surprise awaiting her.

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photo 5Another ram lamb, born to Georgia this afternoon. We’re calling this one Stauton, because Austin Val asked.


Tagged: Farm, Pets

Lamb Number Three

Amy came home from the feed store and found this little surprise awaiting her.

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photo 5Another ram lamb, born to Georgia this afternoon. We’re calling this one Stauton, because Austin Val asked.

 

A Vineyard School House …

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My mother’s step-cousin was born in this house in Indian Hill in 1911. He lived in this house, built in 1752, until he died. He was quite a guy. He was a master at building things and he could fix absolutely anything. Over the years he added on to the family homestead, and when there wasn’t anymore he could do there he turned his sights to –

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— the one room school house up the road where he’d gone to school. He purchased the school house and set about renovating it.

When his daughter got married she and her husband moved into it. I had the pleasure of going there for dinner and I was in awe. The original wooden floors had been beautifully restored, but more than that, you could see clearly the marks where the desks had once been. A couple of the desks had been salvaged and were part of the living room. The closet was, of course the former cloak room with, the original coat hooks. And to top things off the school bell was once again working. I hardly ever enjoyed being in a classroom quite as much as I did that night at dinner many years ago.


Time

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If you had all the time in the world, what would you read?


Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!


Porthole View …

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- by Joan -

(mvobsession.com)


Farm Fresh Lambs!

We’ve had a lot going on here lately, and I’m going to let Susan tell you all about it (from her blog post today):

Amy and Neve welcomed two new members of the flock yesterday! Twin ram lambs made their appearance between 10:30 and midnight last night. Both are in great shape, as is there mama, Willoughby.

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The winners of our naming convention vote were Pat Hommel with Virginia Place Names and Kari Bahana, who nominated London Underground Stations. We have chosen to name the Cormo lambs Virginia Places and the Colored lambs for the underground stations, which meant that Pat and her family got to name these two lovelies.

May I present to you, Monticello and Galax, the first member of our 2014 flock.


Tagged: Farm, Pets

Farm Fresh Lambs!

Amy and Neve welcomed two new members of the flock yesterday! Twin ram lambs made their appearance between 10:30 and midnight last night. Both are in great shape, as is there mama, Willoughby.

photo 2

photo

photo 3

photo 4

photo 5

 

photo

photo

photo 2

The winners of our naming convention vote were Pat Hommel with Virginia Place Names and Kari Bahana, who nominated London Underground Stations. We have chosen to name the Cormo lambs Virginia Places and the Colored lambs for the underground stations, which meant that Pat and her family got to name these two lovelies.

May I present to you, Monticello and Galax, the first member of our 2014 flock.

Review: Cast On Bind Off (Paperback)

Review: Cast On Bind Off (Paperback) post image

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First, the facts:

Title: Cast On Bind Off: 211 Ways to Begin and End Your Knitting

Author: Cap Sease

Published by: Martingale, 2014 (paperback)

Pages: 160

Type: Knitting techniques

Chapters:
Cast-Ons
Bind-Offs

KS: Cast On Bind Off

The In-Depth Look:

A reissue of the 2012 hardcover, this time in more convenient paperback!

It’s hard to review a book that’s been around for a while–don’t people already know what’s in there? But that doesn’t lessen the “need to know” element, and in this case … you need to know.

Casting on and binding off your knitting … I think we can all agree that that’s important. If you don’t know how to stop or start properly, it’s never going to matter how perfect or beautiful the knitting in between is. Eventually, things will just unravel into a fuzzy, chaotic mess, and that’ll be it.

Except … most of us know only a few ways of starting and stopping. In fact, I’d wager that most knitters only really know one or two ways to get their stitches safely on or off their needles. Maybe three or four if they have a reference book handy. And almost everyone has a favorite, go-to method that they use for almost everything.

The beauty of this book, though, is the fact that, like so many other things with knitting, there’s so much more. There are dozens of different methods. In fact, according to Cap Sease, the brilliant mind behind this collection, there are 211 of them.

I’m betting that’s approximately 200 more cast on/bind off methods than you were aware of.

Maybe you looked at this book when it first came out in hardcover and thought, “That looks really interesting, but…” before putting it down. Hardcover books can be expensive, after all, and heavy to lug about in a knitting bag.

Which is why you NEED to know that Cast On, Bind Off is now available in paperback. You can find it at your local yarn shop or at Amazon.com.

This review copy was kindly donated by the publisher. Thank you!

My Gush: Just as good in paperback