Tag Archives: Knitting

My Isabeau shawl just came out! It’s in the absolutely beautiful lace collection Joyful Knits from Knit Picks. Isn’t the model gorgeous?

Isabeau is worked in Knit Picks Shadow, a soft 100% Merino laceweight, from the edging up. It’s garter stitch lace, so the wrong sides are just knit.

Finished Measurements
15.75” tall at edge; 29.75” tall at center; 77” long at cast on edge; 46.75” long at bind off edge

Yarn
Knit Picks Shadow, 100% Merino Wool (440 yds / 402 m per 1.76 oz / 50g), 2 skeins. Shown in Oregon Coast 23656.

Needles
US 2.5 (3.25mm) 32″ or longer circular needles, or size to obtain gauge

Gauge
22 sts and 24 rows = 4” over lace pattern, blocked. (Gauge for this project is approximate)

Notions
Yarn Needle
Stitch Markers as desired

Notes
This crescent shawl is worked from the bottom up beginning with the lace edging. It’s finished with garter stitch short rows.

Only right side rows of the lace edging are charted. Knit the wrong side rows.

Last chance!  Get 50% off all (not just some, ALL) Craftsy classes!

I’m particularly excited about Amy Herzog’s new class, Simple Techniques for a Super Fit.  I love her take on taking your own body shape into account in choosing flattering patterns – and how to adapt patterns as needed to achieve the same.

Two finishing classses, Seaming Beyond the Basics with John Brinegar and The Essential Guide to Finishing Handknits with Anne Hanson, are also on my list to watch.  Finishing is so critical to a handcrafted, not “handmade”, finished object.

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I don’t have a single room that I use as a studio, but I do have a couple key areas!

The bulk of my work happens at my computer. It’s in what we call the dining room nook. At some point in time in our house’s existence (I think pretty early on, since all the walls are still lathand plaster) someone enclosed the side of the front porch that was adjacent to the dining room. It’s the perfect spot for my computer desk.  There’s plenty of natural light (tons of windows). We used to have a daybed in here, but have moved that into the spare/guest bedroom.

The desk was my maternal grandma’s.  I found the Eames Aluminum Management Chair on Craigslist (sheepskin is from Ikea).  I use a MacBook Retina Pro running Bootcamp and Windows 7, and have a large screen that’s hooked up to it.

I also have a garage sale table that I painted turquoise, and an Ikea RÅSKOG Cart, in the same area. I keep ink bottles in the drawer in the table.  Yarn for designing is in the cart.I also have a large cabinet with drawers that we found at a garage sale. This is against the wall in the dining room across from the dining nook. It contains all sorts of things — yarns for designing, swatches, color samples, knitting needles and other tools, and more.

Finally, here’s where I do most of my knitting!  On the couch, in that corner. The big window behind the couch gives a view of our front yard. There’s also two side windows, not shown, on the other wall perpendicular to that wall.  It’s also a very bright sunny room.

Not pictured: the Craigslist bookcase in which I store all my knitting books and a bit of personal yarn.

I generally like to knit my own samples. Sometimes, though, timewise, that just doesn’t work out, and I have a sample knitter do the samples for me.

A good sample knitter — one who knits the pattern as written, doesn’t make assumptions, gets gauge, works to the agreed deadline, etc — is worth their weight in gold. An awesome sample knitter — such as Annette, who’s done quite a few samples (Revetment, Caridwen, Breakwater, to name a few) for me recently — is priceless. She does the above plus catches mistakes I’ve missed, she’s fast as lightning, and she’s an incredible knitter.  I trust her to block the finished objects – not something I’d generally ask a sample knitter!

I was planning on doing a companion shawl to Estuarine (currently in testing here), shown to the left, that would be a little more approachable yet still have some of the same features. The Morro Shawl is a sideways-knit, crescent-shaped shawl, offered in two sizes (two different yarn weights) (but is also extremely customizable to your gauge and yarn quantity). It has the same dot knit textured pattern and the same cable-y wavy lace and cable edging, but both are worked at the same time (no knitted on edging, no picking up stitches).

Here are the two swatches.  The first is in Fibre Company Meadow in Hydrangea; the second is Fibre Company Knightsbridge in Skyworth.

It should be up for testing soon! Keep an eye on the Ravelry group, here, and in the newsletter.

I’m in progress on the as-of-yet-still-unnamed Mrs Crosby Reticule Shawl. My goal date for the sample to be finished is the June summer TNNA show.

I frogged my initial prototype.

I just wasn’t liking it. In fact I was rather hating it.

You may recall I posted about this shawl about a month ago.  It’s a companion piece to Isn’t It Romantic?, but worked in laceweight yarn (Mrs Crosby Reticule, 100% merino) and a totally different shape. It (still) starts with a few cast on stitches, and grows into a wedge/curled shape shawl.

The main body of the shawl HAD a simple stockinette and lace panel design. I even sort of blocked it out, keeping it on the circular needle, to see how it would look. It was, to me, for this project, boring and a little messy looking.  I didn’t like the edges. I didn’t like the lace rib.

One of the things that I’ve found as a designer is that I can go through several love/hate phases on a project. Even if there’s a time I’m not really sure of a project, often if I trust myself and power on, all will turn out fine.  I didn’t get that feeling of uncertainty on this one, though. I was simply hating it.

That’s part of being a designer, too – knowing when something isn’t working, and trusting yourself on that, too.

And it is always better to frog sooner than later.

I spent a day playing with different stitch patterns (I use Stitch Maps in lieu of swatching and as an initial check on stitch counts) and redoing the charts. I ended up choosing a very pretty leaf lace panel, from one of the Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries, for the main body of the shawl.

It now makes me happy.

Just a quick note to let you all know I’m going to be doing a meet & greet / book signing at VKL: Pasadena from 12-1 on Sunday May 15th at the Yarnover Truck.

Come say hi!

(Here’s some more Estuarine eye candy in the meantime.)

Oh, and a cat picture.

I finished the Cumbria shawl!  It now has a name: Estuarine Shawl.

Dave gasped when he saw it laid out for blocking.  He’s always been supportive, and enthusiastic, about my work, but this was the first time I ever got that reaction!  I heard a similar gasp from my mom in law Rosemary when he texted her a pic of the blocking shawl, too (they were chatting on speaker phone).

Interested in getting your hands on the pattern early?  (It’s due to be published in mid June.) I’m looking for testers in my Ravelry group here.

In the meantime, here are some more pics (including a blocking pic) and the pattern details.

One Size

Finished Measurements
Height: Height: 33½ in / 85 cm
Top Edge: 85¼ in / 216.5 cm

Yarn
The Fibre Company Cumbria Fingering, 60% Merino Wool, 30% Masham/MassamWool, 10% Mohair (328 yds / 300 m per 3.53 oz / 100 g).
4 skeins (1173 yds / 1073 m) MC (shown in Helvellyn)
2 skeins (624 yds / 571 m) CC (shown in Scafell Pike)
Sample used 1066 yds / 975 m MC and 567 yds / 518 m CC

Needles
US3 / 3.25 mm, or size to obtain gauge

Gauge
20 sts and 31 rounds = 4 in / 10 cm in side panel stitch pattern (blocked)
Note that this shawl is blocked quite vigorously. See notes on blocking.

Notions
(4) stitch markers, yarn needle

Skills
simple intarsia; stranding; cabling; reading charts; knitted on edging; garter stitch tab; provisional cast on if desired; knitted cast on

Testing needs: 4-7 testers. I’d love to see someone do this as a single color shawl, and someone else do the main body in one color and a contrasting edging.

Due date: June 11th 2016

Please PM me that you agree to the testing policies (link here) and include your email address so I can send you an invite to the google doc & send you a link to the pattern. (If you have a google account, please send me the email address associated with it.)

This pattern has been sent to the tech editor.

My Craftsy class Custom Colorwork Techniques: Mitts went live Monday.

It’s all about choosing and customizing motifs for your own mitts. The focus is on motifs at the wrist and then the top cuff, but I also touch upon tips and hints for motifs on other parts of the mitts. I review charts, knitting math specific to the mitts, color choices, fiber choices, and more!

My goal is that you end up designing mitts that you love. I’m really excited to see what everyone will come up with!

Please click here for 50% off on the class.

Here’s a preview:

http://www.craftsy.com/video/course?courseId=10634

Here are some pics Craftsy took of my samples, swatches, etc.

I can’t say enough how fantastic everyone was (and is!) at Craftsy.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Laura, I wish I could be like you when I grow up. You are awesome! Greg, you made me believe every supportive word you gave me — that’s a huge gift. Gabe, here’s the Dance of Joy once more. Ryan, thank you for being so patient through all the Cintiq! Kim, we never met in person, but thank you for all those weeks of hard work and fine tuning