Tag Archives: Knitting & Spinning

I’ve signed up for & watched a couple of the cooking freebies — specifically Dipped, Dusted & Rolled:  Handmade Chocolates and Modern Buttercream.

Be warned — the content of the Chocolates class is good, but the teacher notes she went to a football game the day prior, screamed too much, and lost her voice.  Her voice is quite distractingly unpleasant.  But, again, the content is good.  Do read through the comments & questions for each lesson — there is a little bit of confusion re: flavoring the ganache (correct) vs flavoring the dipping chocolate (not done, leave it plain).

I’d like to try making these chocolates — as she points out, you get to eat your mistakes.  And even if your first chocolates aren’t as pretty as hers, they should still taste delicious!

The Buttercream class was nicely presented.  As for the Chocolates class, the content is quite good, and I think if you followed his steps carefully your cake would turn out gorgeous.  For me, though, this just seems a bit too tricky and finicky to tackle at this point.  I’m more of a brownies or flourless chocolate cake sort of cake baker.  And yes, it’s my own darn fault in the past for not letting cakes cool before frosting them.  But if you have the patience and equipment, the cake, with all its tiers and layers, is quite lovely!

I’m still in Austin visiting the family, but I just wanted to let you guys know that Craftsy is having a great sale!

I’m still in Austin visiting the family, but I just wanted to let you guys know that Craftsy is having a great sale!

Since Dave & I are heading to Austin next week to be visiting my family, of course I took advantage of the situation to set up a visit to a LYS!

I’ll be teaching a 2 hr version of my Aran Lace class at The Knitting Nest in Austin Texas next week — December 20th to be precise. Check out this newsletter link for more info on times, signing up, and so on (scroll down).  That’s a sample of the class project, a lovely worsted weight cowl (pattern to be published soon) on the left — don’t worry, we’ll practice the various stitches before diving in to the cowl!

I’ll be hanging out a bit before & after to sign copies of California Revival Knits and just to chat.

After Christmas — Sunday Jan 20th to be precise — I’ll be teaching my Beading Stranded Motifs class at Alamitos Bay Yarn Company in Long Beach.  Lagniappe is the class project for this class, and you’ll get the pattern popped into your Ravelry library.  And yep, book signings there too!  Check out their events page for more info.

And of course, I’ll be at Madrona in February! I’ll be teaching the Aran Lace class, as well as my Style Guide and Indie Publishing classes.  Saturday I’ll be showing samples from California Revival Knits and demoing some of the techniques.

The Wednesday before Madrona starts, the day I fly in, I’ll be doing something really nifty locally, but I don’t know if it’s supposed to be secret or if it’s okay to talk about it, so, I’ll post more when I can!

I’ve been a big fan of Craftsy classes from the start.

I love that you can access them anytime via wifi, and revisit lessons as necessary.

I love that they have a selection of free classes, so you can try out the platform.

I love that the selection of those free classes is awesome.  For example, you must check out Deb Robson’s Know Your Wool Class, if you have any interest at all in the glorious variety of sheep breeds!

The paid classes, ranging from $29.99-49.00, with most of the knitting classes $39.99, are less expensive than taking classes in-person.  And they go on sale often — like now, with all classes $19.99 through Nov 26.

Yes, it’s a different experience — nothing beats the comradery of taking classes surrounded by your peeps — but, considering many of the Craftsy classes run 7-9 hrs of video, you do get to go more indepth than you often can in standard classes, and can work on bigger projects, since your knitting (or sewing) time is done outside of the videos.  You can ask and answer questions on the class boards, both of your instructor and of your fellow students.  You can also share your projects.

I’ll be doing a series of reviews of the various classes in which I’m enrolled.  They include knitting, sewing, cooking, jewelry making…did I say I was a bit addicted?

I’m wondering if Craftsy will become the Lynda.com of the crafting world…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Code THANKS in my Rav store for 25% off your purchase 11/22-11/30.  :)

It’s obvious that I’m a big fan of charts.  I can work from line by line instructions, and there are often times I choose to do so, but I love how charts depict what your knitting should look like.

But not everyone loves them.  In fact, a fair number of people hate them.  My mom in law, despite being a very graphical learner, hates them.

However, I do think it’s worth having a working knowledge of using them, if at all possible, so you can work with patterns that are charts only.

I strongly recommend JC Briar’s book – I interviewed JC here.

Here’s a quick overview of using charts in the meantime!

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Charts are a graphical, or visual, way of displaying a pattern.  Each stitch occupies one square of the chart.  What happens to that stitch is designated by various symbols.  Stitch patterns that use multiple stitches, such as cables, extend over the number of stitches, or squares, required to work them.

Being able to read charts allows you to use stitch dictionaries from other countries, such as Japan & Germany, without needing to understand the language.

Unfortunately, chart symbols are not standardized.  However, each chart should have an associated legend & key (often patterns, or books, will include one legend & key for all the charts in the pattern or book, which is a perfectly fine option).

If a stitch is uncommon or tricky, directions on how to work the stitch should be included (of course, ‘uncommon’ or ‘tricky’ is very subjective, and dependent on the skill level of the knitter!).

Read charts from right to left if you’re working on the right side of your knitting, and from left to right if you’re on the wrong side.  If you’re working in the round, read each line of the chart from right to left.   Basically, you’re reading the chart in the same direction you are knitting.

One thing to note that is very critical:  Symbols depict how the knitting appears from the right side.  (Rarely a designer will chart what stitches you work, regardless of whether you’re on the right or wrong side.  I find this utterly confusing for knitters, and think it negates the underlying principal of charts; that is, what is charted depicts how your knitting looks.)

If a chart is to be worked in the round, it will have the row numbers along the right edge of the chart (see example below).  If it’s to be worked flat, the wrong side row numbers will be along the left edge, and the right side row numbers along the right edge.

Repeats may be surrounded by bold lines or highlighted.  Pattern instructions will tell you how many times to work the repeat.

Many Japanese or Aran patterns, or patterns that have multiple different stitch patterns,  have individual charts for each stitch pattern.  The pattern instructions will tell you in which order to knit these.  This is especially common if the stitch patterns have different row counts.

Charts can be created in Excel, Word, Illustator or other vector based programs, or in various different charting programs (Envisioknit, StitchMastery, etc).

This little sample chart has a fair amount going on, with a cable stitch, a couple different decreases, and varying stitch counts.  It’s a stitch pattern from Annie Maloney’s Aran Lace stitch dictionary, and is one of the smaller lace cables.

I’ve shown it as worked in the round (row numbers along the right edge).  Note that there’s a ‘no stitch’ block;  the stitch count varies from row to row because of the decrease in row 4.  Note the yarnover in row 6;  that brings you back up to the original stitch count.

So, row 1 would be p1, k5, p1.  Row 2 is p1, k1, yo, k1, ssk, k1, p1.  And so on.

(If it were knitted flat, and Row 1 was a wrong side row, you would work k1, p5, k1.)

I’m sure every designer organizes their business in different ways, but I thought I’d share with you a little bit of how I’ve chosen to organize things.

Right now, since I’m primarily focused  on working on both my next book of my own designs and Hitch, I don’t worry about keeping track of various calls for submissions and so on — simply because I’m saying ‘no’ to nearly everything that comes up.

I do have an Excel document that lists all my patterns, and where they’re published (through Cooperative Press, on Ravelry, on Craftsy, through Deep South Fibers, on KnitPicks, etc).  I refer to it to see where I still need to upload patterns, where to update patterns if errata is found, and so on.

Each project (Hitch & the new book) has its own Excel document (or Excel & Google Doc, in the case of Hitch).  I keep track of designs, yarns, colorways, etc on these. One of the things I do, that I don’t know if others do, is sort the projects based on colorways to see if I need to change anything for better balance of colors.  (This comes in to play because I have an overarching palette for each collection.) I keep track of whether I’ve requested and received yarn.  I try to come up with monthly goals & what project I should be working on at what time.  I keep track of whether or not the sample will be knit by a sample knitter, who that knitter is, and so on.

I have a folder for Patterns Published and one for Patterns in Progress.  Patterns Published is divided into either collections/books or type of patterns. California Revival Knits has its own folder, with pattern subfolders underneath it.  I have folders for sweaters, mittens, socks, scarves/cowls/shawls, and so on.  Each pattern gets its own folder within its category, with subfolders for charts, photos, etc.

Patterns in Progress has either collection/book folders, with individual patterns as subfolders, or just pattern folders, for standalone patterns.  It also has a subfolder called Patterns Turned In, which are patterns that are completed, but not yet published.

I also have folders for the classes I teach, ads for Ravelry, tech editing, and so on.

All these folders are kept in Dropbox, which means they’re on my laptop, Dave’s laptop, and our desk top.  I’ve also saved them to an external hard drive attached to the desktop.  I don’t update that as often as I probably ought to.

I keep track of my daily to do list in Evernote.  (I do a lot more in Evernote, but the daily to do list is key for me.)

For things that aren’t digital, I have a couple zip binders (similar to these, but more plain) with plastic sleeves.  I store old swatches, sketches, handwritten design notes that I want to keep,  colorcards, etc in these.

Periodically I’m consumed with the need to procrastinate go through and streamline all of this:  I’ll standardize file names, delete what I think is fine to delete, and so on.

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Here are all the posts in the series:

Project Organization:  Introduction
Project Organization:  Overview
Project Organization:  The Stash (Design Yarn)
Project Organization: The Stash (PersonalYarn)
Project Organization:  Knitting Books
Project Organization:  Knitting Tools
Project Organization:  The Business of Knitting

Congrats to Susan W!  I’ve emailed you a copy of the PDF.

There’s a new KAL up in the group — this one is a pick-your-own pattern from any of my designs, with a goal of encouraging you to meet any holiday knitting deadlines you may’ve set for yourself.  Post your cast on info before midnight PST November 8th to get a chance to win some patterns!

I’m a big believer in the work-to-glory ratio analysis of knitting projects, especially when it comes to gifts for knitworthy, but nonknitting, friends and family.  Basically, something with a good work-to-glory ratio is a project that is either exquisitely beautiful or intricate but really isn’t that hard.  Of course what is ‘hard’ depends on the individual knitter!

What are some of the projects I’d recommend that I think have a good work-to-glory ratio?

Anything with beads using the crochet hook method.  Seriously, this is such an easy technique, but gives such gorgeous results.  I recommend Lagniappe (options for full, fingerless, or just cuffs) or, though it has a bit more going on, Josephine.

For those of you comfortable with it, simple stranding. Quatrefoil & TailGate are both designed with simple geometric repeats with short floats.  Combine a variegated yarn with a solid for more visual complexity (but without more work).

Simple lace. The Peacock Stole is actually pretty straightforward.

If you want something smaller, but are comfortable with a lace pattern that’s a tiny bit more difficult, look at the Undersea Garden cowl.  There’s no reason you can’t add beads to the fingering weight version for the extra bling!

Another lacy cowl that is fun is the Zylphia Cowl.  You can probably get two out of a skein of sock yarn.

Mittens with fancy cuffs.  All the mittens in the Mittens! booklet (Ocotillo, Quercus, and Manzanita) have simple stockinette bodies.  These can be worked in DK or worsted, fingerless or full, and are great for stashbusting.  You can work the cuff and body in totally different yarns if you’d like — go for contrasting colors and/or textures.

Blue Lupine, published separately, follows the same idea.

Cabling, like beading, is another simple technique with a big payoff. Some of my earlier patterns play a lot with cables;  my favorites include the Wanna Hold Your Hand mitts, the Love You Dad socks, and the Dave Finally Gets His socks.  These patterns were all designed with gift-giving in mind.  The AppleJack Cowl, a more recent pattern, is all about big lush cables.

Prefer a challenge??  Tackle the Peacock Cowl or Peacock Mitts.  For a more moderate challenge, how about the Ravens in Snow fingerless mitts?

Are you knitting gifts for folks this holiday season?