Tag Archives: Knitting & Spinning

You all know I’m a big fan of the Craftsy classes.  If you’ve not taken one, or if you have and want more (they are like potato chips!), here’s your chance to win a free class!

How can you win?  Use this link to register for Craftsy, if you’ve not yet, and to enter the contest.

In the meantime, don’t forget that Craftsy has some great free classes as well.  I’ve taken Know Your Wool and Short Rows, but there are plenty of other free classes to try as well (scroll down).

I’d love to hear what class you’d choose if you win!

…is now open!  You can use these links:  Aran Lace & Twisted Stitches to sign up.

The class project for the Aran Lace class is my Achillea Cowl (shown on the left).  I’ll bring samples of it & other Aran Lace patterns I’ve designed (such as my Applejack Cowl and Lupine Mitts).  I’ll also check with the vendors to see if anyone will be selling copies of the Aran Lace stitch dictionary by Annie Maloney (in previous classes, everyone’s wanted a copy of this stitch dictionary!).

I’m currently designing a new pattern for the Twisted Stitch class. In previous classes I’ve used my Let’s do the Twist mitts, but I think working with worsted weight yarn will be much easier for folks than fingering or sport weight.  I’m working up the cowl in gorgeous Serenity Worsted by Zen Yarn Garden in Frosted Teal.

Have you been to the Taos Wool Festival?  If yes, or if you’ve just been to the area, let me know your favorite things to do, places to eat, etc!  I’m bringing my mom along as a vacation for before/after the show.

For better or worse, as an indie designer, you get to learn a lot about things that seem unrelated to designing — such as html, css, web design, and so on.

Over the next week or so I’ll be totally overhauling my blog. I’m updating to Thesis 2 (I’m currently running Thesis 1.8.3), which is NOT a simple update. The entire Thesis interface totally changed, and based on the number of ‘oh my gawd I’m totally lost and don’t even know what to ask about where to start’ posts on the forum, I’m not the only one who was initially lost.

I’ve found some good tutorials (I’ll add the links later for you) and am feeling fairly confident. I’ll be playing with my veterinarian page first, setting up the various templates with that. I think I can save the ‘skin’ I make, with all the various templates, and can import it into this page.

I’m going towards a nice clean look, with a static landing page, easier navigation, and so on.

What prompted this? Well, it’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for a long time, but I also wanted to do a logo redesign, and saw no point in doing the blog when the colors, fonts, images, etc were going to be dictated by the final logo.

I worked with MJ Gumayagay and I love what she came up with! You may’ve noticed it as the new header to the blog; I added that several days ago. It’s now being used in various other places: my Ravelry group, my Mailchimp newsletter, and so on. I need to update my patterns (yet again), this time with the logo & fonts (I purchased an awesome font, Gotham, which MJ used for the SUNSET CAT DESIGNS portion of the logo).

And did you notice the colors? Turquoise, my favorite! and a nice sand-evoking taupe. The logo looks awesome in black & white as well.

What do you think?

Let’s see…

I’ll be teaching at the Taos Wool Festival in October:  Aran Lace & Twisted Stitches.  I’m hoping to visit some LYSs while I’m there.  I’m bringing my mom along, so we’ll be making a small vacation out of the trip.

I used to use my Let’s Do the Twist mitts for my Twisted Stitches class, but have realized that it’s easier to folks to learn with worsted weight rather than fingering or sport.

I’m currently designing & knitting up a worsted weight cowl, using Zen Yarn Garden’s Serenity….which is just scrumptious. The colorway is Frosted Teal but to me in real life my skeins read as one of my favorite colors…turquoise.  (I love turquoise in all its variations, from greenish to sky blue.)

The other nice thing about the class project being a cowl is that I can use a larger variety of stitch patterns (and larger stitch patterns themselves).    I’ll be self publishing the pattern in the next couple months.

In other knitting news, I’m working on a super secret project to be published later this year.  I’m also still working on second book projects, of course.  And Hitch is moving along.

Tech editing-wise, I fear I’m still not accepting new clients, and don’t know when I will be.  I’ll post on the tech editing page when I am.

In totally nonknitting news, we finally did a video of Rigel playing with balloons.

Stitch Definition, Annie Maloney, 2013.

Stitch Definition is Annie’s latest stitch dictionary, with 111 new stitch patterns, and four of Annie’s own designs incorporating them.

The format is the same as Aran Lace:  a solid introduction covering the ins and outs of the stitches, yarn choices (including as section on handspun yarn), general design, shawl design, combining stitch patterns, etc.  The second chapter goes into detail on abbreviations, how to work yarnovers depending on the situation, etc.

It’s a simple, spiral-bound book, printed on a solid weight of paper (no bleed through of the images), with a protective plastic overlay for the front (cardstock) cover.  Photos are black and white.

Stitches 1-59 are lace patterns, to include all over patterns, columns, and edgings.  60-81 are Lace Cables (like those in Aran Lace, though some appear more on the lacy side than is included in that book). 82-111 are cable patterns.

The remainder of the book includes the four patterns:  Merioneth, a lacy scarf; Glamorgan (shown left, photo © Annie Maloney) a cable & lace cable stole; Lanberis Pass, a cabled wall hanging (VERY pretty); and Capel Curig, an intricately cabled throw.

Highly recommended!  As a designer, I’m constantly looking for new stitch patterns that are different than what most folks are using, and I love the thought and dedication that Annie puts into developing her stitches.

I received my copy from the author.

You all know I’m a fan of Craftsy classes….and they’re having a sale April 5-8!

New classes will be on sale each day (and I heard the most classes on Saturday) so if you don’t see the one(s) you’re wanting on, say, Friday, go ahead & use the link to check back on the next day.

The April/May KAL over at the Rav group is the Peacock Stole from California Revival Knits.

From the group KAL announcement:

This is, I think, a good beginner lace project — maybe not for your first lace (though I’m sure many/most folks could do it as such) but early on in your lace knitting career.

The stitch patterns are vintage stitch patterns of equal stitch repeats that flow into each other (aided by small transition sections).

This is super easy to customize: because the repeats are lined up, you can easily make the stole wider or narrower. And of course you can make it longer or shorter (though I do recommend retaining the proportions).

Thought the pattern is written for DK, you could easily do fingering or laceweight.

For those of you who didn’t purchase the entire book, or don’t plan on purchasing the entire book, do note the pattern is now available as a standalone pattern.

Did you notice that last bit?  In case you missed the last blog post?  All the patterns from CRK except for the sweaters (which will be coming soon as well) are available for purchase as single patterns.

In case you didn’t know, all the patterns (except for the sweaters) from California Revival Knits are now up for ind individual download on Ravelry.   Great news if there was just one that really grabbed you!

On other notes, the Yarnover Truck launch party was yesterday.  The truck is so pretty!  Maridee and Barbra have done such a wonderful job with it.  It’s stocked with gorgeous yarns and fun knitting accoutrements.  And patterns, including some of mine, and some from Michelle/Fickleknitter (who also did a pattern for the launch, a gorgeous shawl called the Little Debbie shawl, which takes just one skein of lovely yarn from Baah! Yarn).

For whatever reason, the Yarnover Truck is not considered a LYS by Ravelry, but they’ve set up a system to sell PDFs via Ravelry that’s quite nifty.

Check out articles here & here (I’m mentioned in the first!).

Other stuff: I’m going to be doing a couple patterns for a couple different publications.  How’s that for being nebulous?  And Hitch is nearly to layout, it’s apparently next in line.  And work continues in the meantime on the 2nd book.

Just in time for the Yarnover Truck Launch party this Saturday:  the Surf’s Up Fingerless Mitts!

Yes, that’s me in a rash guard. Come on, after the Madrona Talent Show, you guys aren’t surprised by anything I do, right?

Anyhow, the mitts.  Adorable, super fast to work up, with all the little details I like to include:  comfortable, anatomically correct, offset thumb gussets; mirrored images; workable floats; lifted increases for the gussets; and more.

They feature surfboards on the palm and back of the hand,  palm trees on the thumb gussets, and waves on the top & bottom borders.  Of course the surfboard and palm tree stitch patterns  are original.

Check out all the extra pics on Ravelry.

Here’s the pertinent pattern data:

One Size
Finished Measurements

Fits up to 8in / 20.5cm palm circumference

Actual palm circumference above thumb: 73/4in / 19.5cm

Total Length: 61/4in / 16.5cm

Yarn

MC: Baah! Yarns La Jolla, 100% Merino, 400yd/ 100gm, 1 ball, Pink Flamingo

CC: Baah! Yarns La Jolla, 100% Merino, 400yd/ 100gm, 1 ball, Yarn Truck

My mitts weigh 1.7oz/48g for the pair.

Needles

US 2/ 2.75mm needles, or size to obtain gauge.
US 11/2/ 2.5mm needles

Gauge

30 sts & 50 rounds = 4in/ 10cm in stranded Stockinette stitch on US2 needles

30 sts & 50 rounds = 4in/ 10cm in Garter st on US1.5 needles. See pattern notes regarding gauge.

Notions

(3) stitch markers, one unique for beginning of round; yarn needle; waste yarn

Skills Required

Stranded knitting, knitting in the round, reading charts

Come to the Launch Party March 23rd 2013 & see them in person!

Congrats to commenter #18, Zabbers!  I’ve emailed you.