Adventures in Spinning: She Learns to Sample

I have really missed writing to you guys. It feels like time is moving so fast with this baby, and work is so busy that everything is just passing me by. There is so much that I want to document - in both my knitting and pregnant life - and somehow the opportunity eludes me. There are times when I don't write because I don't feel like it - usually I get tired of hearing my own voice and just need to go away to have something new to say - but this has been an involuntary hiatus. If I could I would stop time and just sit here and fill pages.

Cherry and Burning Bush singles - note the lightness in the singles to the far right which came from the "inside" of the roving.

When work is done I am usually tired enough that I can't do anything that requires math, deep thought, or being at the computer. (I have pregnancy brain so badly already that I went into the bathroom at the obygyn's office to give a sample - not because I had to go but because they needed a sample - and just completely forgot to pee in the cup. It wasn't until I got all the way back and the nurse asked about the sample that I realized I had forgotten. D'oh!) This lack of brainpower has translated into time spent spinning and knitting very simple things.

The spinning has been fantastic (the knitting has also been quite satisfying). I have some gorgeous merino/silk (80/20) roving from Spunky Eclectic in the Burning Bush colorway, that I decided I wanted to spin to make something for the baby. Surfing around on ravelry, I found this beautiful Baby Surprise Jacket done in 2-ply Burning Bush handspun, and fell positively in love. I decided that I would spin my roving up into a 2-ply for a Tomten Jacket. (Also an EZ design and kind of similar).

Gorgeous rich alpaca singles - slippery after working with merino silk!

The only issue was that I only had 4 ounces of Burning Bush and I wasn't sure how far that would go. (I really need to start documenting my handspun so that I have a good idea of how much yardage I can expect to get out of a given amount of roving.) To make it go further, I decided that instead of plying it all on itself, I would do one 2-ply of Burning Bush and one 2-ply of Burning Bush and Chameleon Colorworks Cherry or maybe just ply all of the Burning Bush singles with some medium brown alpaca that I have 4 ounces of and make it go really far.

The Burning Bush roving.I should back up and tell you that when it comes to roving, I pretty much do things the exact same way every time, except that sometimes I will spin a singles instead of a 2-ply, and I also vary the weight. I know, so creative! Anyhoo, although I have read all about different ways to use the same roving and combine rovings, for some reason I just have very little patience for spinning a little, plying it, and seeing if I like what I get. Finally it hit me that my method of spinning was a lot like making a sweater without a swatch. When I taught beginning knitting I would always do my best to make swatching fun - both because it is so essential to gauge and because it is such a great way to get your creative juices flowing. I have always made a point of saying that if you don't swatch, your entire sweater becomes your swatch. It's the same with spinning - if you just pick a method and go until you are out of roving, what you've got is what you've got - your sample is your yarn. Sometimes that is great and a wonderful way to just let go. Other times, not so much.

So, after a very cool ravelry discussion on the zillion different things that I could do with these Burning Bush singles, I decided to take some sage advice and actually sample. I am so glad that I did. I knew that both the brown and the red would dominate the Burning Bush colors, but I really had no idea how much. In this case, I really like the bright crazy colors of the roving, so there is no real incentive to mute them with a solid, but in so many other instances, this would be a great tool to have in my back pocket. In one little session of sampling I learned a ton about how to mute or preserve bright color. I also completely changed direction and decided that for this project I would mute the color and use the brown. I really like the red as well, so I may order a few more ounces of Burning Bush to ply with the cherry for some other baby project.

The swatches - brown alpaca and burning bush for now; swirled with cherry for later.

I'm also glad that I followed the sampling sequence that I have. To make sampling fun, I spun up most of the singles for the Burning Bush and Cherry rovings first, and also spun up quite a bit of the alpaca as well. I knew that I would be happy with all of these singles at the same weight even if I didn't end up plying them together, and I also knew that I would have more fun if I didn't have to work through all of the singles after sampling. (Again, impatience.) This would not work when sampling different weights, of course, but since I knew I wanted to end up with fingering to light DK weight, it was a great method for my purposes. My method worked out especially well, because the Burning Bush varies quite a bit in intensity, getting much lighter near the "inside" of the roving. When I actually get to the knitting phase, I will counteract that a bit by switching between skeins to get a striping effect.

The sampling part was awesome. I wish I had some shots of the 10 yards or so that I spun so that you could see how different the yarn looks skeined as opposed to knitted. I have plenty more to spin, so I'll be sure to do that later for those of you who are as geeky and new to spinning as I am. I really love both the alpaca and cherry version. Now the only problem is the project. I love the Tomten Jacket and do want to make it eventually (Baby Surprise Jacket, too), but I think for such a special handspun I need to come up with something of my own. We'll see.....

Everything's Coming Up Pansies

Well, not everything, but the crochet sure is. I spent a recent weekend in Portland with Marnie, and naturally was once again inspired to crochet. Ms. Marnie is one kick-ass crocheter. It was a fun, whorlwind of a time, as our weekend crafting visits always are, with plenty of things to be inspired by: the excellent Japanese bookstore, a new bright red motorcycle for Leo, and a great trek out to Abundant Yarn for Larissa's debut of Knitalong, her very first book.

To me they look like little pansy balloons, flying away..."

I'm really not sure where to start. Abundant Yarn is just that - abundant! It's an amazing store, and definitely tops my list of all-time favorite LYS's. The selection is fabulous with tons of yarn in each colorway, and the aisles go on forever. Abundant Yarn dyes its own line of yarns which are especially pretty, and they carry many of my favorite lines of yarn along with some lines that were previously unknown to me (or at least untouched!). They also have a lovely cafe and seating area, so it is a very easy place to gather and knit, or gather and watch a friend debut her book! The store catered the event (quite nicely and also abundantly) and there was a huge turnout. I haven't read Knitalong cover to cover yet, but what I have read I have really enjoyed. It's a book that has a great deal of written substance in addition to cute patterns (many by Larissa, like the fast and famous Meathead, and several by Adrian Bizilla - who wouldn't be drawn by that?). For me the writing is what is so great about it. It is definitely a book for our community and our knitting "generation" (and by that I mean the internet knitting generation of the 2000's, including knitters from all age groups). It memorializes our time in a wonderful way, and I am really looking forward to immersing myself in it. It's always great to see Larissa. We didn't try to monopolize her this time around, since she had so many other guests to attend to, but we did catch our first glimpses of Sebastian darting through the yarn in his handknit hat. What a cutie.

Other than that, the weekend was very quick and spent predominantly on the sofa in front of one of Leo's legendary fires, crafting away. I utilized every spare moment of my Marnie time to get versed in the language of crochet charts (I love charts - the universal language!), and produced a pansy and a cute little chain. I think that except for when I encounter the occasional exceptionally difficult manuever I should be alright crocheting solo for a bit. My plan is to make many of these little pansy motifs and string them together in a blanket-like fashion to make a binky for the baby. Nothing very big, as I would surely go mad from over-pansying, just something to hold on to, drag around and enjoy. I love the brightness of the cornflower and lavender colors, but to give the blanket a little sophistication I added in several duller shades as well. The dulls seem to help ground everything, but the brights sure are fun to play with.

It's a Hoolia Wheel! Crochet and Creativity

I've had a bit of monkey mind lately (just what it sounds like, but here's a link), probably induced by cabin fever. Whenever monkey mind strikes, I feel the need to experiment a little, with no particular goal in mind. Sometimes I am able to do this with knitting (and that 's a great thing), but my knitting is pretty structured, so in the last year or so I've turned to crafts that are newer to me to blow off a little creative steam. These are things I'm not nearly as systematic about - spinning, cross stitch, crochet - and so I feel a lot freer to just do without any planning ahead, and see what happens.

The Hoolia Wheel.I am very inexperienced in crochet. Whenever I have Miss Marnie around for a few days I can make what would seem to be great progress, but as soon as I am without a guide, I tend to get lost. I have a hard time remembering how many times to wrap what and how to get from one spot in a motif to another elegantly. I have an easy enough time understanding the charts in Japanese craft books, but I'm not sure exactly where to start and there are techniques and conventions that I just don't "get" yet. I cannot read "written out" crochet patterns to save my life!

Yesterday, inspired by this beautiful washcloth, I decided that I would attempt yet another crochet motif. The only motif that I have ever completed without getting lost halfway through is the granny square. An accomplishment? Yes! Cute? Yes! But I kinda need to move on from there. So I looked through my crochet stitch dictionary and found several "intermediate" motifs that I liked. (Apparently there is no such thing as a "beginner" motif - even the granny square is "intermediate". Seems unfair.) The problem was that all the directions were written out, and I could not for the life of me figure out what to do once I got to the second round of anything. So, back to square one. I decided that since there were illustrations of the single crochet, half-double crochet, double crochet and triple crochet, I would work through those systematically, and learn to use them in rows and rounds. I did that, and I think I understand the stitches better, though to be honest, I have to go back and re-read how many times to wrap the yarn around the needle, etc. again before making a particular stitch to remind myself that I do know how to do it.

I got bored with these exercises, and I really, really wanted to make a motif. Reading the written out directions I just could not get it, though. So I decided that I would just make one up instead. I know the stitches (or can look them up! Einstein said that you should never bother to memorize anything you can look up...), I can work in rounds, and I understand the basic principles of increasing from knitting. I can do this, right?

I did! Voila! The Hoolia Wheel! Can I just say that I love it? Now, I know that I have surely just re-invented the wheel (pun intended) because what I did was so simple that I am sure someone (and perhaps many someones?) have crocheted it before. But. It's new to me, I did not learn it from a book, and so somehow it is more mine than many other complicated things I've done. It's just freaking glorious.

Okay, so here's the creativity part of the title. I had a boyfriend right after college who was wonderful at drawing. He did a self-portrait that I will never forget, both because it was so well-rendered and so introspective - he was really able to capture an aspect of himself that would be identifiable to anyone who knew him. But he would never call himself an artist. Only a draftsman. He explained that a draftsman was someone who was trained in the technical execution of drawing, but that an artist was someone who created organically without having to know the rules, working from within himself rather than from within the context of "art." I question whether he was right about himself, but I think there was a lot in the definition that he gave me.

Again. 'Cause I like it.Almost every knitting friend whose designs I admire has told me that she started designing because she found it to be too much trouble to work from a pattern. I realize that in my early knitting days this was the case for me, too, because although I did have access to Vogue Knitting, for the most part there weren't a wide array of commercial designs that appealed to my 20-something sensibilities. I heavily modified a lot of things - a Filatura di Crosa tank became a mini-dress! - and designed some of the more complicated pieces I've done. Not because I was trying to design (I certainly was not resizing!), but because it was really the only way to make things I liked. They had to come from my head. I wasn't limited in the techniques I used, because I didn't have a knitting community to help me gauge what was difficult. I just had June Hemmons Hiatt as a guide, and well, she did everything.

After a few years, I discovered Rowan Magazine, and I fell in love with patterns. I found more and more designers I really loved in Vogue soon after that (can we say Norah Gaughan?), and by the time Melanie Fallick's Knitting in America was released I was a goner. I was such a pattern junkie (still am!), and I gained a lot from that transition, but I lost something, too. Somehow having so much available to me caused me to stop creating things myself. There were good aspects to this - I could learn a lot by following someone else's footsteps and enjoy a way of thinking other than my own. But the more I learned, the more "rules" my structured little mind created. I became more proficient over time (and to toot my own horn I think I became a very good knitting teacher), but I also really boxed myself in. "Designing" and "knitting" became separate things.

My design "technique" now mostly comprises piecing together known elements in new ways. There is nothing wrong with this, and I think it can be helpful to think of design in this way, because for many of us, this is exactly what it is. You see a neckline that you like and think, "Now how could I incorporate that into something lacy and delicate?" and you play around and find a way to mesh things that you'd like to see together. There is creativity there, but for me it's much more at the "draftsman" (craftswoman?) level of creativity - nicely done technical execution with the "flair" originating in the combination of elements.

When I think of artistry, I think of designers like Mary Walker Phillips, Norah Gaughan, Teva Durham, Annie Modesitt, and Debbie New. You may not love, or even like, everything that these women create, but their designs often reach heights that other beautifully rendered but contextualized, structured pieces will never attain. There is something undeniably special about them. These are not the workhorses of your closet that will get everyday use - they are the statement pieces that uniquely define us.

I think that the artistry of these designers comes from transcending the rules of knitting and looking beyond the techniques that are known and on into those places in their own minds which still just contain possibility. For my own little mind, the easiest way to do this is to not know the rules. Structure is so much a part of how I learn that if I have it in place, it is nearly impossible to leave behind. I have to push myself to mess around and do "creativity exercises" if I want to come anywhere close to pushing an envelope. I work to be artistic, and often that takes so much work (almost always, actually) that I revert to being a sound craftswoman - it's my natural mode. Now again, I am not poo-pooing myself or saying that I don't enjoy that kind of creativity, because quite honestly I do, and if I never engaged in it there would be fewer of those great staples in my closet that I rely on. But. There is a real thrill when you do something that is totally out of the blue - really just out of your head - and look at it and think "That is good."

Making the Hoolia Wheel was that way for me. A small thing, really - just a motif - but at the same time a personal revelation. Because of this, I've decided to do two things: First, push myself to do a few more of those "creativity exercises" in knitting, and second, go about crochet an entirely different way. I am not going to seek out the rules, read patterns ravenously, or study it up in the way that I do with everything else. I'm just going to do it and see what happens. It will probably kill me - wish me luck!

Last Minute Giftie

I used to be pretty good about offering the occasional freebie pattern - especially at Christmas. The last few years the freebies have been harder to fit in, mostly because it takes time to write out patterns in intelligible terms. By the time I have time, I'm already on to something else. When Ann showed such a keen interest in obtaining my dad's vest pattern for her knitting circle, I decided it would be a nice opportunity to slip in a little freebie before 2007 comes to a close. So while Moxie was cheering on the Patriots, I was happily pattern drafting. Voila!

The vest is written for a 44" shirt size, with tips for re-sizing. It's a quickie, so please read over the pattern carefully for errors before proceeding. If you spot an error, please let me know. We'll revise as we go along. Happy New Year! xox, J

Woman on the edge of her 40's

I got a letter from my mom the other day, and inside there was a photo of three older women and one older man. Before I even read the letter I wondered to myself "Why did she send this picture?," because I didn't recognize anyone in it. And then I looked again and realized that I was staring my own mother in the face and hadn't known it, which was rather shocking. Apparently she thought this might be my reaction, because the first line of her letter was "Who are all these old people, anyway?" In my defense, mom is sporting a new 'do that looks pretty different from her usual hairstyle (Ma - Mox says you're looking good!), and it has been a while since we've seen each other in person. But still. Pretty crazy.

I find that I remind myself of my mom in weird ways now. Last night while reading Malcolm Gladwell's Blink (which I stole from my mom last time I was at the house), I fell asleep on the couch in my robe and slippers with a raggedy old blanket and two cats on my chest. This is exactly what my mom would do in the winter. Even worse, it was her 30-year-old couch that I fell asleep on. She had the couch that we grew up with re-covered and sent out to me several years ago when I was couchless, and I still haven't replaced it. Like hers, the arms are in tatters where the cats have sharpened their claws on it. (Not exactly a huge incentive to buy a new couch.)

Then this morning I made stove-top hot chocolate, as I do every morning in the winter. Just like my mom did. (Hey ma - do you still have the yellow ladle with the black handle? That just came back to me.) And retired once again to the couch to read for a few hours before work, under a sea of cats. (And dogs, too - that's my own personal addition, though I am working on getting my mom a dog. She's still not sure, but if you live in the LA area, pop over and look at Kate. She's one of my favorite rescues and she needs a loving - knitting! - home.)

I have looked like I'm in my twenties for at least twenty years - from about puberty until fairly recently. One of the really interesting things about taking photos for the blog is that I occasionally get a glimpse of myself in a whole new light. This morning I realized that, at least in the closer-up photo, I look like a woman in her 30's, which is pretty good, because I'm actually getting closer to my 40's by the day.

Many of you have lived a few more years of life than I have and will consider this old hat (and maybe even just plain silly), but it is weird when in your mind you're still on the edge of 17 and the person you see in the photo is quite a bit older than that. (Old enough, even, to have a 17 year-old of her own.) I remember my parents at my age and I think they looked younger than me. I'm happy, though. I see myself with a gentle, more approving eye than I would have in earlier years. Many things become gray over time - opinions, perspectives, and hair, and I think that is for the good. Even love becomes an accepting shade of gray, and pulls together the things that we thought had fallen apart. I'm doing pretty well, and it will be interesting to see where this body takes me next.*

I meant to talk to you about the Mishka process this morning, but that will have to wait. It is done (!!!), and I am very happy with it. For those who asked, I do plan to publish it independently, although I am not sure exactly when. The pattern is complete and in a nice format, but only in my size. It still needs to be re-sized and tech-edited.

I did end up using the slipped stitch crochet edging along the hem, which smoothed it out just enough. It was too organic in its loose, wavy incarnation to properly mirror the tidier neckline. The edging brought it into more harmony. Anyway, I will leave that for another day. For now enjoy the photos. Thank you all, as always, for your warm encouragement and great advice. Sometimes it takes a village to build a hemline.

*I'm hoping for snow white - my dad is snow white - and if I don't get that naturally I may have my hair stylist hook me up!

Mishka is Finished!

Well, I think it is.

I don't often do the infamous bathroom mirror shot, but this morning it's nippy and I have no desire to take photos of myself in a sleeveless shell in 40 degree weather. In my Chicago days I would have worn shorts on a day like today, but after living on the west coast for several years I've become a big puss! Taking these photos was a fun challenge. I got several good shots of my toiletries. I can highly recommend both lubriderm and secret clinical strength, which is why I featured them here. Ha!

About the finished part. Almost. I'm still vacillating about the lower edge. The stitch pattern makes the bottom edge see-saw a little. I can't decide if I'm okay with that, because the piece drapes well, or if I want to slip stitch the edge. A slip stitch will make that edge stiffer and less resilient, which could be a bad thing. If I do it with a crochet hook a size larger I think it will help with drape, but I'm not sure that will do enough to straighten out the edge? Any thoughts? I also think I'm going to do one more round of blocking, perhaps on a hanger, to open up the lace.

A knit with a view

The second (and final!) piece of Mishka lies blocking on the kitchen table. I usually block my knits on the side porch, but today it's chilly and blustery (50's!), so I had to move Mishka inside to dry. I'm spoiled, because in the summer even a wool sweater will dry in a day. Now the situation has changed, and I may be looking at two days. The sooner the better!

This is one spoiled knit, perched in the window enjoying the scenery.

All I have left is a simple neck treatment, side seams and ties for the shoulders. Thank goodness! This is a really pretty knit, I'm happy with my design concept, and I know that I will get a lot of wear out of it, but sheesh have I been dragging my feet on this one. This is the kind of top that I would whip through in a week and a half if the pattern were written, but having to write instructions as I go really breaks my stride for some reason. Happily, that portion of the designing is done. I've finished the whole pattern in my size, so all that remains is re-sizing.

It's almost as good as watching paint dry.

My reward for finishing Mishka is that I get to cast on for a whole bunch of new knits. Many of them are my own designs that I've been swatching for a while, and one is this fun pattern from Knitting Nature, which my best friend and I are knitting together. (Last year we both made the Marseilles Pullover.) We planned cast on day for December first - and so it is.

Some Little Things

You people are going to start to think I'm obsessed with babies - I've been knitting some big people things, but it's the baby knits that seem to make it here. Just a short post for now to show you these cute little things:

Baby Bell Bottoms, Free Pattern designed by Alison Hansel

A shot of me with the cute little thing who is big brother to the cute little thing that will someday wear these bell bottoms. Seems like yesterday I was making baby things for him. And then finally a little sneak peek of my tiny contribution to my friend Kat Coyle's awesome first! book, which will be out next month:

And no, I didn't make the baby - just the footies!

Huh. I think I just blogged. Who knew?

Boho Baby Is On Its Way

Click here for info on pre-ordering.This is the second print publication in which I have been able to play a (small) role, and I am so excited about it that I can barely contain myself. Baby Baby is authored by my good friend Kat Coyle, who wrote the majority of the patterns in the book as well. Kat designed the Daktari Skirt and berets that I made from the Knit Cafe book, as well as many other beautiful pieces, such as the LaLa Scarf (shown off to great effect by MH's handspun), and, more recently, the Show-Off Skirt (this is Elspeth's lovely version) from Lace Style, the Indigo Ripples Skirt from the Spring IK (Eunny's lovely version), and a Chuppah from Summer IK (I watched Kat knit this thing - it is huge! Huge, I tell you!).

My own projects in the book are tiny, but I love how they came out, and the book is filled with amazing pieces by Marnie, MH, and Edna. It won't actually be released until fall of this year, but if you have a child under five years old or if you knit for one, I can tell you now that you will want this book. The patterns are different and exquisite. I am so proud to have been involved.

Create-Along: Back At It!

Several months ago, Marnie and I kicked off the Create-Along, a knitalong where newbies and old hands can design together and discuss their process. If you haven't checked it out - do! - there are some amazing posts over there, and at least two really beautiful FO's so far. We're running through September 15, so if you have a hankering to design and could use some support, please join us. It's a great deal of fun.

Mishka (named after Mames' beautiful GSD), lounging next to the meager notes I have taken.

I kicked off the Create-Along with a bang, swatching up a beautiful Barbara Walker lace pattern that I intended to use for a very simple shell. I was going to do a boatneck sheath style and run a single panel of lace down the left side. At the time I was very enthused about it, but the weeks wore on and it just never got knit.

I finally realized that the reason the shell wasn't happening, was that it wasn't happening in my head - I was truly bored with my own conception. I think the original idea was a good one, very classic, and something that I would get a lot of use from. But it just didn't grab me. I had been flipping through fashion magazines and pouring over runway knits, and I wanted something more current. Not trendy, necessarily, as I like clothing to stand the test of time, but more in the moment that what I had originally conceived. (I will probably design the sheath eventually, as well, when it is more what I am looking for.)

Marnie and I talked about my ideas pretty extensively one night, and discussed how we felt obligated to stick with the designs that we presented to the knitters in the CAL. She had been struggling with her design, Lily, as well, yet felt that for some reason she needed to stick with the conception she had started with. I realized about half-way through the conversation how silly we were. Why would we do this for the CALers, of all people? The whole point of the CAL was to show process, and almost nothing is more part of the process than scrapping design ideas, re-working and ripping! If you are afraid to do that, you are often left with a piece that you don't like, and which does not really represent your full creative process and personal perspective.

That is a long way of saying that I decided to scrap the original idea, and instead work out a new plan. Here it is: I am going to make a loosely-fitting hip-length top that will have hemmed casings at the top which I will run corded ties through to close. The motif will repeat with sections of large "rib" in between on both the front and the back. I would also like to do casings about three inches from the bottom edge with corded ties to create a blousing effect, but that is going to depend on whether I have enough yarn to manage it. I may have to re-work a bit to accommodate the minimal yardage I have going on here.

I was going to sketch it out for you, but I didn't do that yet in my *real* design process, so it's kind of silly to pretend that I did it for the CAL or the blog! I will probably sketch it soon, and I'll include the sketch here when I do. The thing that I have done already is a rough yardage estimation. I find that really useful, so I'll try to share a post on it soon. In the meantime, I will back at it and knitting away on Mishka - yay! It's about time.

Nautical: Pattern Notes

Talk about a stealth knit! I was going through my stash and came upon some Filatura di Crosa Brilla that has been bothering me forever. Sometimes I have something in my stash that I like well enough, but that I have in such weird quantities and color combinations that it really bothers me. Brilla has been a major offender in that way for some time, and I am always trying to come up with creative ways to get rid of it. When I do work with it, I love it. I made my friend Jen a beret from some forest green Brilla for Christmas last year that I just adored. But when it is sitting there, I loathe the stuff, probably because it seems so impossible to utilize fully. I was staring at two skeins of Brilla in platinum and all of a sudden I became hell bent on using it up. I had two skeins of deep navy as well, which seemed like a very good combo, and extremely current, given the nautical turn fashion seems to have taken for the spring. My goal was to use every inch of that Brilla, and for all intents and purposes I did. The result is my favorite summer knit top yet - I love it! Thank goodness I had that Brilla hanging about.

Photos taken in Portland, by the lovely Miss Marnie.

Nautical
MindofWinter Designs
by Yours Truly
Knit with two skeins (120 yards/skein) of Filatura di Crosa Brilla (58% Rayon, 42% Cotton) in Deep Navy (306) and two skeins in Platinum (394), using the Silver Reed LK150, carriage 3, tension 3 for the main body and Susan Bates size US 2 straights for the picot casings. Ties made from Wrights Prestige Ribbon in Organdy Navy, available at JoAnn's.
Gauge: 22.5 sts and 36.5 rows per inch.
Size: 32 bust, 27 waist.

The Pattern:
This is the first Hoolia design of the calendar year to actually make the execution phase. I have done a ton of sketching and swatching and am full of ideas, yet somehow I keep getting distracted by really cute patterns or by the need to use up stash now. I really did find myself driven to remove that silver Brilla from my stash for this piece, so I suppose this falls in that category as well. I went to sleep on a Thursday thinking about my plans for Nautical, and then made the main pieces on the machine on the following Friday evening and Saturday morning. I had swatched Brilla earlier on the little knitter, so I had notes and samples of possible gauges. I didn't even bother sampling the stripes, because I decided that in order to use every ounce of the stuff I had I needed to use a fairly even distribution of the two colors and that I wanted the stripes to be fairly fine - voila! - easy enough.

The part that took the longest was the picot casings, which I did by hand. I could have done them on the machine, but I wanted to leave them until I was finished with the main body just in case, so both edges were done afterward and then hand-seamed, which took some man hours.

Detail of the top with organza ties.The coup de grace is the ribbon. Marnie and I made an impromptu stop at the local JoAnn's in Portland, and I got an entire roll of deep navy organza for $2.99. (Since I scored the Brilla on Elann several years ago for about $4 a skein, the entire project cost me all of $20. Pretty nice, eh?) I am not sure how well the photos convey this, but the ribbon makes the top really different and special. It is sleek as a tube top and I will likely wear it without ribbons when I want a rather sexy evening look out of it with some flowing silk pants, but the ribbons really add a little Je ne sais quoi that gives the top a completely unique nautical flavor.

Tooting My Own Horn:
Although this was a relatively simple pattern to draft up and knit, it incorporates two of my favorite features. The first is the use of the ribbons, which is one of my big things in my wardrobe lately - just an easy way to be a little more fun and feminine in approach.

I wove the ribbons through the piece in such a way that they could be removed easily for washing and for the times when I just want an unadorned tube top. I prefer to have a single bow on the left, but the configuration could be easily changed to incorporate two bows, bows at the top, no bows, or to place the bows on the back, which could be really cute. I adore them.

The second is versatility - also a real favorite for me at the moment. I can wear Nautical with about half of my wardrobe. It looks great as a tube top with a simple silver necklace and some flowing black pants for an evening out, but it would also be cute with the organza ties, a denim mini and some navy espadrille wedges for a picnic. Marnie put together the smart ensemble with the khaki jacket (from her wardrobe) over jeans that I'm wearing in some of the photos, and I'm now pretty certain that I can pair Nautical with a suit (khaki, navy, maybe even white) and wear it in a work setting. As someone who prefers to have fewer pieces of clothing that go together in unique ways, the versatility of this little top is a big bonus for me.

Nautical paired with the white linen skirt I wore with Honeymoon, and some cute khaki capris with buttoned hems.

Techniques:
This would be beginner-easy but for the picot edgings which are sewn down. It incorporates stripes, minimal shaping, and easy yarnover picots.

With a jacket, for the professional look.Modifications:
If I knit this again I would make it just a skoosh longer. I only had four skeins of yarn to work with, so I was being uber-cautious with the yardage in the body. I have a little bit of each yarn left, so I may go crazy and add a half inch or so to the bottom edge, but I doubt it. The effort required to take out those picots doesn't seem worth it when I can simply throw on a jacket or add a sash to make Nautical less tarty in feel.

Finishing:
Once again, the most difficult aspect of making this piece is sewing down the picot casings. Even this isn't rocket science if you understand what you're trying to do. I intended to do a tutorial on this for everyone, but I never ended up seaming at a time when it was convenient to snap photos. I make these kinds of picot casings rather regularly, though, so I'm sure I'll have my chance soon.

Brilla blocks really nicely, but as I write this I realize I didn't even bother to block Nautical. It came off the little knitter in good shape and my picots were even, so it really wasn't necessary. I just seamed and went. I do think it will get even softer and have more drape after a wash, though. It's pretty soft and silky right off the needles.

An open jacket shows off the ties.Impressions of Filatura di Crosa Brilla:
I have a lot of Brilla in my stash in varying colors, so I do get tired of looking at it, but whenever I knit it, I love it. It hand knits nicely, and machine knits fairly well, though it is prone to snags and is slippery. The thing to know about Brilla is that it isn't going to stay in place if you have live stitches hanging around. It is hard to frog and get back on the needles, and if one of your stitches gets loose it will make a run of it. Just be aware and tink accordingly. From what I know of it, Brilla wears very well, has a pretty, shiny look, and feels gentle and silky. It's a very good choice for summer knitting, and for knits that you want to give a dressed up look to. I won't be buying more any time soon, as I still have quite a bit to use up, but I will enjoy using it.

Possible substitute yarns:
Anything shiny and silky with a cotton or silk content should do. GGH Mystik, which I used for my Honeymoon Cami, springs to mind, though beginners will find it a bit splitty.

Griffith Hoodie: Pattern Notes

Modeled on our front porch in the evening.While I'm still waiting for my film from Hawaii to be developed, I've decided to go back and complete the pattern notes for some of the many projects that I haven't been able to catch you up on. Lucky for me, the weather here has finally become so blessedly Californian and cool again that I was able to wear my Lush Hoodie to take some pictures for you. This is my personal version of the hoodie that I designed for the Greetings from Knit Cafe book last summer, and it is a staple of the comfy-yet-chic portion of my wardrobe in the fall and early winter. I like it best with the hood popping out from under a suede jacket, but the weather here is simply too hot for that! Here's the back story:

Griffth or "Lush" Hoodie
MindofWinter Designs
Materials: Knit with eleven skeins (92 yards/skein) of Elsbeth Lavold's Designer's Choice Angora (60% Angora/20% Wool/20% Nylon) in color 01, (a pale grey-blue) on size US7 and US8 Clover Bamboo circulars.
Gauge: 17 sts and 24 rows to 4 inches
Size: x-small, 32" bust

The process of designing the hoodie, which is a very simple sweater, ended up being quite challenging. It was a really good experience for me to have after the ease of Knitty and Magknits submissions, where I had been able to choose the concept and yarn myself, and knit the piece in advance. I designed this hoodie in spring 2005, when I was still living in DC. Moxie had taken me back to LA for my birthday in January, and while I was visiting, Suzan and I had talked about her plans for the book. That visit and another quick visit in May while I was interviewing were the only times that we were able to meet in person. We did everything else over e-mail and phone.

This pose reminds me of Froggy. I miss her.Suzan's vision was to create an understated garment that fit like a slightly sleeker version of a sweatshirt, with clean lines. The "work" of this piece was to be done by the fabric, which had to be something that was absolutely luxurious to the touch, and sumptuous to look at. Other than Moxie's Wedding Sweater this was the only garment I had ever designed to meet someone else's specifications. Given my druthers, I would have probably done the hoodie a little differently, with a few more details to push up the skill level. In fact, I designed the original with pockets (which I still haven't tried out), but Suzan nixed those in order to maintain the vertical line of the front so that the hoodie could be easily worn under a jacket. In the end, I really love the result of the collaboration. I feel that the final design is something we both would make and wear. It is accessible to knitters of all skill levels, and a real "staple" piece that can anchor any any wardrobe. And it is sumptuous and luxurious to boot. I love mine and have worn it more than any other piece that I've designed.

The yarn for the hoodie changed three times during the process, before Suzan hit on Classic Elite Lush, which seemed "just right." For me, designing is almost always about the yarn, so finding a yarn that embodies exactly what I want to convey is important. Her choice of Lush was dead on. Unfortunately, by the time that we found the right yarn in the right color, my work schedule had gotten considerably worse as well, which led to the most challenging aspect of designing the sweater - I wouldn't have time to knit it myself.

This was rather a large milestone for me, as I had previously designed as I knit, working out the kinks along the way. Luckily, Suzan enlisted Denise Boutier, aka "Grandma Hollywood" (who does not, by the way, look like a grandma, although she is one) to knit the prototype. All I can say is thank goodness for Denise. Not only was she able to execute the knitting portion of the job flawlessly, she was also the most perfect, gracious editor one could ever want. She scouted out a number of mistakes and ensured that the pattern was the clean version that you see in the book before a "real" editor ever got to it, much to my relief. Personally, I would have been frustrated if someone had handed me the hoodie pattern that she was given to knit - it was not "tight" by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, Denise kindly and diligently set up extensive e-mail communication with me. While Moxie and I were vacationing in Lake George (where I was knitting the WeHo Bikini, which I call the CafeKini), Denise and I went back and forth in a series of about 20 e-mails, fixing all the nits. She was definitely my co-captain on this one, and she became my friend as well.

From the back.When I finally moved back to LA in late July last year, Denise was finishing the hoodie in anticipation of the photoshoot for Greetings from Knit Cafe in early August. Despite all our communications, I was nervous. What if I had screwed up and the design was a total flop, which no level of knitting skill could hide? With only a week left before shooting, this could be a total disaster. I went to the Knit Cafe only a few hours after driving cross-country to LA with everything I needed in the bed of my truck. That's how nervous I was. I met Denise for the first time, laid a wet one on her, and was relieved to see the most beautiful version of the hoodie that I could have ever imagined sitting on the back work table. It felt nearly miraculous. After that, everything was downhill. The photoshoot was a fun flurry of activity which I caught glimpses of on evenings and weekends, editing occured sporadically throughout the fall (the hoodie had no remaining errors), and then there was the long, long wait for the book to go to press in the spring.

Modifications:
I wanted a version of the hoodie for myself, and I also wanted to "test knit" it personally at least once, so I worked it up in some Elsebeth Lavold Angora which I had stashed. I made a few modifications for the difference in gauge (Elsebeth Lavold's Angora is bulkier than Lush), short-rowed the shoulders, and left out the zipper (I had plans to put one in that never materialized, since it works well without one) but other than that, the pattern is the same as the original. It worked!

Impressions of Elsebeth Lavold's Angora and Classic Elite Lush:
I love both of these yarns, but they are not for the faint of nose. It is the nature of the angora beast to shed, so if you are sensitive to having fluff in your nose, I would recommend substituting a nice merino instead. If you want the halo without the loose fluff, knit the merino with a coordinating strand of lace-weight mohair like Rowan's Kidsilk Haze or K1C2's Douceur et Soie. This is a very friendly way to use mohair lace-weight, which will cause you far less anguish than actually knitting lace with it. You should also nix the angora (and the mohair) if you have itch sensitivities and plan to wear the hoodie next to your skin. Both Lush and Designer's Choice Angora have wool content to keep them from being too delicate. It's soft and luxurious for the most part, but it can itch as well. Angora pills naturally. I considered shaving the pills from my hoodie prior to photographing it, but decided to leave the pills so that you would get an idea of what happens after a season of wear. To me, the result is completely acceptable. This is a nice, natural, gentle pilling, which can easily be taken care of with a quality sweater shaver if it bothers you. It's the same type of pilling that will occur with a fine cashmere. If it bothers you, substitute merino - again, you can use the lace-weight mohair to add halo - neither should pill easily.

As for a comparison of the two yarns, I would say that Lush is slightly more delicate and slightly more drapey and luxurious. I wanted my hoodie to be as durable as possible, so I was happy to go with the Designer's Choice Angora, which is very, very close to Lush in character. I worked with the Designer's choice more extensively, so I can say a little bit more about it. First, don't be put off by its initial hand. This is a yarn that blooms with blocking and takes on a much more refined feel after finishing. Second, do swatch and block your swatch, because the yarn will grow a little (not too much, but a little) with blocking. It's good to know how your yarn will behave if you want a nice fit - take the gauge for the hoodie after blocking. To be safe, I would assume that this is true for the Lush as well. My experience of it was only in swatch form (and I only measured after blocking), but better safe than sorry.

I've worked with two of Elsebeth Lavold's yarns now (the other is Silky Wool), and have found them to be very thoughtfully designed. They definitely earn the name "Designer's Choice". I like the Angora so much that I have a sweater's worth of it stashed in two other colors. It's good stuff. If anyone has used her Cable Cotton let me know - I'd be really interested to hear how it works up as well. My expectation is that its a fine yarn.

Tips:
I don't think there's anything particularly tricky about this hoodie, so I would recommend it to knitters of all skill levels. If your sewing leaves something to be desired, you can have your tailor add the zipper, or go super casual and leave it out.

A Last Look:
Note the camisole underneath, knit by High Energy Jenny:

Southern Snowfall: Pattern Notes

Sometimes I get sick of seeing myself on this blog all the time. I love taking pictures and it is really refreshing to have a chance to share photos of someone else. This particular photo session was a real treat, because my dear friend and knitting compatriot, Hope, is an elusive subject. She said, and I quote, "I trust you to choose the right photos to post."

This choosing of the photographs is a tough job. I did my best and picked shots that I like, but I know that Hope will probably be critical of how she looks regardless. When I choose photos I do my best to capture the nature of the subject. I liked these because they were either happy and engaging or a little contemplative. If you know Hope you will see that hint of nervousness at having her picture taken flitting across her eyes. These aren't perfect, but I think they capture a little of her very special spirit. Just in case she doesn't like them, though, I've tossed in a little bonus to even out the playing field. This is one of my favorite pics of myself, but it is goofy as all hell, and not one that you could call attractive. I'm guessing Hope will appreciate the effort. And now, without further ado, pattern notes for Southern Snowfall:

Southern Snowfall Scarf
MindofWinter QuickKnits
Knit with two skeins (150 yards/137m/skein) of Blue Sky Alpaca's Dyed Cotton (100% Organic Cotton) in color 614 "Drift", on size US8 Addi Turbo Circulars. I didn't take a gauge because this is a scarf, but 22 sts gave me a width of about 5 inches.
Size: 5 inches by about 6.5 feet - this is approximate, b/c I didn't measure the scarf before I gave it to Hope, but it was long.

Detail of the "right" side - I like the wrong side as well.The Pattern
This was the winter, spring, and early summer of the rectangle for me. Prior to this year I had knit two scarves in about 12 years. Between January of 2005 and February of 2006, I knit three. And the only thing I've finished since then is the River Stole - yet another rectangle. All of these scarves are in complicated-looking patterns and luscious yarns, so it makes for a very nice collection. Though rectangles aren't normally that exciting for me, these really allowed me to knit through a time when I simply couldn't concentrate.

Southern Snowfall came about when Hope generously gave me a skein of dyed cotton to swatch with to see if it would work for a design I had in mind. It didn't work for what I was planning, so I decided to play around a bit. When I hit upon this stitch pattern, I knew I had something that I liked. I just kept going, and made Hope a scarf for Valentine's Day.

It's named Southern Snowfall because it looks like a dusting of snow in the south, with the ground peeking through. It's also southern because the scarf is made of cotton, rather than wool. I think it would be gorgeous in a bulky alpaca single like Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande or Misti Alpaca Chunky.

To make it, you simply cast on 22 sts and repeat these two rows:

Row 1: (RS) K3, *YO, sl1, K1, psso, K2; rep from * to last 3 sts, YO, sl1, K1, psso, K1.

Row 2: (WS) P3, *YO, P2tog, P2; rep from * to last 3 sts, YO, P2tog, P1.

I am a little obsessed with using every last bit of the yarn. With scarves, I knit an entire skein to see how much length I can get out of it. Once I've started knitting with the final skein, I cut the fringe from the outside end of the skein, and just knit to the bitter end. I never have more than 4-6 inches of yarn left.

Here's a tip for fringe: my standard fringe is three 12-inch strands of yarn per tassel, which means each tassel takes one yard of fiber. This makes a lush fringe and is an easy way to calculate the yardage needed for the fringe as well. In this case, I had 10 tassels at each end of the scarf, so I used a total of 20 yards of yarn, or a sixth of a skein. Neat trick, eh?

If you try it with alpaca, or a loosely spun wool, you might want to use bigger needles - I think the drape would be just lovely. The pattern has a repeat of 4+2, so you can cast on any multiple of 4 and then add 2 sts to get exactly the width that you want for the fiber you choose to work with. It would be pretty in fine yarn as well. Kidsilk could be yummy.

Still on the needles - you can see the reverse side well here.
Impressions of Blue Sky Dyed Cotton:
Organic cotton always has a slightly odd, papery feel for me on the needles. It is very lovely, and very organic-feeling, but there is an adjustment period. It's a grabby fiber, so I like using Addis to handle it. For a cotton, it behaves like a wool, in the sense that it seems lighter and less drapey than most cottons. It doesn't have memory or resilience like a wool, though. It gives a lovely result, and produces a unique fabric. I use it when I want a very natural, casual look. This particular line comes in really great colors. At the Knit Cafe we use it for baby items a lot - it makes beautiful blankets - but be forewarned that it is not machine washable. It has fabulous yardage, which makes it more of a bargain than the price tag indicates.

Possible substitute yarns:
I know that there are other organic cottons out there, but I can't think of a good substitute with the same fiber content and properties. Pachuko Organic Cotton is less soft, and has greater stitch definition, so although it's lovely in its own right, it is not truly a "substitute". Perhaps my commenters will have ideas. I assume there's probably a smaller regional company that produces organic cotton. If you know of a regional farm that makes something similar, please let me know below.

Just Ducky Pattern Notes

This post is a suprisingly hard one to write. It's a round-up* of the Christmas presents that I made for my estranged parents. I made these gifts for them in an attempt to reach out and do something personal that might be meaningful for them. I thought at the time that it wouldn't matter if they didn't do anything for me in return, and perhaps in the long run, it won't. I have a wonderful husband, in-laws who spoil me rotten, and a "chosen" family of friends who are always there for me. Parents are people, and perhaps they cannot always do the things that we would like them to. Someday I will learn to accept them as they are. Giving is the important part, and I did feel good making these things for them.

The guest bed at my friends' house in Pasadena. Stately, yet it coordinates well with the duck.

Why the Duck?! (or is that 'What the Duck?!')
Long ago and far away, when my younger bother was about eleven, and life was slightly less complicated than it is now, he wanted with his entire little prepubescent heart to have a duckling of his own. I am not entirely sure how this desire originated in my brother (though I suspect that it had something to do with my mother's stories of growing up in the country with baby ducks and chicks), but it reached a point where my mother felt that it could no longer be denied. He had to have a duck. She promised she would get him one.

So we piled into the station wagon (a Chrysler LeBaron with fake wood panelling - you remember the 80's), and headed for Wilson Seed & Feed on Richmond, Virginia's south side, to procure ourselves a duckling. What we did not know when we set out on this quest was that Richmond, booming metropolis that it was, had a bit of a duck problem. Apparently many little boys of my brother's ilk had a need in their hearts to have a duckling of their own. Until, that is, the duckling in question grew up, reaching a height of approximately two and a half feet (much bigger than a cat) and produced sounds not unlike that of a group of third graders practicing for marching band. The grown (and hence outgrown) ducks of new height and impressive noise capacity would then be whisked away under cover of night by the soccer moms of our town, and deposited in the park (ironically "Byrd Park") to fend for themselves, disturbing the neighbors with their trumpeting and harassing park-goers for food.

To protect its citizens from the menace of the abandoned ducklings, the city had enacted an ordinance geared to limiting the purchase of duckings to only the most serious of buyers (restauranteers): it was ordained that ducklings could only be purchased in quantities of six or greater.

Most mothers might find themselves daunted at the prospoect of owning, not just one, but half a dozen ducklings. In fact, I believe that in THE GREAT BIG BOOK OF PARENTING DILEMNAS there is an entire chapter devoted to broken promises, and how to explain that in this life mommy and daddy cannot possibly keep every promise that they have made, because if they did, their house would be over-run with ducks. Needless to say, my mother has never taken a chapter from THE GREAT BIG BOOK OF PARENTING DILEMNAS. She instead, almost without pause, purchased six ducks.

And, for about two months (the time period required for the ducks to reach their full adult height and lung capacity), we owned six ducks. I think I have said before that we lived within the city limits. We did not have an inordinate amount of land, and the land we had was not fenced with anything, let alone the kind of fencing that would be required to contain six ducks.

What we did have was an unfinished basement (cement floors with a drain in the middle - thank god for small favors), and several very deep bathtubs. So for these two months we kept the ducks in their space in the basement the majority of the time, with several daily jaunts up and down the stairs (all in single file, following my brother) to the bathtub for a little swim. It was an idyllic time.

The only one who was not pleased with this state of affairs (I was 13 at the time, so old enough to know that my mother's decision was a little off, but still young enough to think of it as "cool"), was my father, who did not find the copious duck poop that then lined our basement to be the most charming addition to what had previously been his personal wood-working shop and sanctuary.

He blew off steam by occasionally shouting out something vaguely accusatory about all the damn 'duck butter,' which was his euphamism for the duck poop that was rapidly filling our house. Why my father chose this instance to wax poetic and euphamize I will never know. He has never been a man to mince words and he has the mouth of a sailor, so this was certainly a strange time for him to hold back. In his position I am quite sure that I would let fly with the explitives. But while the ducks did not stick (they were finally and tearfully sent to a friend's horse farm equipped with a pond out in Goochland), the Duckbutter did. It was a nickname that my brother christened him with (most likely in retaliation for the departure of the ducks), and that my father grew to love over time and feel was symbolic of their bond.

We have called my father Duckbutter, Duckie or some variation of the two for over twenty years now. It's hard to remember a time when we referred to him as 'dad'. The name became even more precious with the passing of my brother about four years ago. It is one of the small legacies of my brother that continues to live on regardless of the passing of time, or the changes in our lives and relationships with each other. Hence, the duck.

Just Ducky Pillow
MindofWinter Designs
Knit with two skeins (123 yards/skein) of Rowan's Wool Cotton (50% Merino/50%Cotton) in French Navy (909) and one skein in Mellow Yellow (942) on Addi Turbo 24" circulars in size US5 (3.5mm). I honestly can't remember the gauge (it's on a scrap of paper somewhere!), but I think it's about 20-21 sts per 4 inches in Stst.

Size: One. About 7"x10"

The Pattern
I've been inspired by several intarsia charts lately (read this post for links to cool free charts and my quick instructions on how to make your own), so I decided that I would make Christmas my opportunity to brush up on my intarsia and charting skills, which are pretty darn rusty. I did almost all of the tough work for this pattern myself. The only part of it that was created by someone else was the duck outline. I'm not much of an artist, so I scrounged around on the internet to find an image that would work for me. I did a gauge swatch, charted the duck, and knit the resulting pillow.

I got a little off course, and ended up with a duck that has a rather primitive look about the head and bill. One of my knitting buddies at Knit Cafe, Denise Boutier (aka "Grandma Hollywood" - but that's another story), referred to it as a ptera'duck'tyl - which I love! I considered ripping back and revising it, but decided that my parents, who have some primitive art here and there, would probably like it as is. I did a little stitching around the edges to even things out, but I have a feeling that might have made it more, rather than less, dinosaurian.

I loved dong the intarsia on this piece, and I've realized, to my own complete suprise, that there is more intarsia (just a little, tastefully done) in my future. I had a great time!

Finally, one of my favorite details is the border. To make it I simply picked up stitches very close to the edge of the front of the pillow (before sewing it up!), knit a single round through the back loop, and then bound off using the I-cord bind-off method. For a long time, I've wondered why I haven't seen knitted pillows with a piped border, since this is so common in sewing. Mary Heather has wondered this as well, and did a wonderful pillow with piping earlier this year for an upcoming book that we both have projects in, so I got to see a sneak preview of knitted piping in action. Her method was different than mine, and gives a lovely traditional result. (You'll have to wait for the book to see it!) This version creates a small lattice below the piping. It looks really professional, and I'm pleased with it, though I did wonder a bit if it out-classed my pteraducktyl!

Impressions of Rowan's Wool Cotton:
I've used Rowan's Wool Cotton several times this year, and it's definitely a favorite of mine. As I think I've said before, this yarn is a real staple, like Karabella's Aurora 8, though it is worked at a finer gauge than that yarn. Wool cotton is an excellent choice for intarsia. It works up crisp, and yet somehow seems to adjust for all your knitting 'sins'. If only we could bottle such properties. Wool cotton is an especially good choice for this kind of color work because it can be worked on smaller needles - somewhere from US4 to US6 is ideal when you want to preserve a little drape - but it can also make a mighty cushy sock or footlet if you use it on size US2 or US3 needles. I think that a fair isle sock would be just lovely in this stuff. It has great versatility.

*I had plans to write about my mom's gift as well, but after a post of this length, I'm tuckered out. I'll post some pictures later this week.

This Year's Ornament

I really enjoyed making little sweater ornaments last year, but this holiday season, as I've spent the days leading up to the holidays in the great outdoors, I found a different inspiration for some knitted decorations.

Between the beautiful ginko trees in the yard where I'm staying with friends, the lace knitting that I've done recently, and my current interest in knitting with wire, I was inspired to play around and create some lace leaf ornaments.

The concept is simple. You just take a repeat of your favorite traditional lace pattern, and knit it with a strand of mohair. I used a fine kid mohair silk blend for the white leaves and a thicker wool mohair blend for the colored leaves.

The silver leaf with beads is simply the same pattern without the yarn, using a thicker silver wire. Mine was 26 guage sterling.

I'm copyrighting the recipe, since I think it's such a cool concept that I'd like to keep the credit for it, but I think it would be really cool to see what other lace patterns people could come up with to knit this way. I've had snowflakes on the brain as well (check out the really cool links), and I'd love to see a snowflake version if anyone comes up with one.

White Lace Leaf Ornament
Julia Trice, copyright 2005

Materials:

Small amount of lace weight mohair (I used Art Fibers' Tsuki, but Karabella's laceweight mohair and Rowan's kidsilk haze would give the same effect)

Spool of 36 gauge metal wire (available at beading supply shops for about 99 cents)

Size US7-US10 wooden needles

Wire cutters to cut ends

Precaution:

When working with wire it is always advisable to wear safety googles to prevent sharp ends from injuring your eyes. When your leaf is complete, carefully tuck in any sharp ends that might protrude and keep out of reach of children.

Instructions:

With yarn and wire held together, cast on 3 sts using the backward loop method.
Row 1: k3
Row 2: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1
Row 3 and all odd rows through row 11: purl
Row 4: k2, yo, k1, yo, k2
Row 6: k3, yo, k1, yo, k3
Row 8: ssk, k5, k2tog
Row 10: ssk, k3, k2tog
Row 12: ssk, k1, k2tog
Row 13: sl1, p2tog, psso, fasten off.

Charting a course for Christmas

This weekend I finally got my act together and started my Christmas knitting. Normally, I would be a little more conscientious and start earlier, but I had a few things I wanted to finish up first. There was a little Birdie that had to be finished and find her way home, the all-important stealth knit, which I felt needed to make its photographic debut on Roosevelt Island, and then finally the matter of a lovely pair of charity socks that had to be completed and sent off to their new owner (They're coming, Karen! The socks are blocking as we speak and as soon as they dry they are off post haste!)

Like everyone else I know, I often have grandiose Christmas knitting plans which get severely truncated when I realize exactly how long it will take me if I do indeed knit them all. Do I really want to start Christmas knitting in August? Even worse, do I want to be finishing Christmas gifts in May? Not so much.

My revised "short list" of knitted items includes only two main gifts - one for each parent. The old folks have every other item you could imagine giving them, so really handknits are the way to go. They're personal, useful, and what parent doesn't love something that their kid (even if she is 33) made for them herself? Plus, these gifts will beat the pants off of all those macaroni sculptures I made them a few decades ago.

Here's the start of what I'm making for my dad:

Yes, it is a duck. There's a back story on that which I'll share with you soon!

In the past, I haven't had a great deal of interest in intarsia. Recently, though, I've come across a few intarsia pieces that really interested me. There are some awesome free charts over at Chez Dominitrix - I am so making a Rosie the Riveter tank top next summer! - and I really love Jenna Adorno's mudflap girl tank in Stitch & Bitch Nation. These designs really take intarsia out of the realm of hotel-oil-painting-kitschy-crap and into the world of fun, hip, retro and chic. So when I was thinking of what to make my dad for Christmas and came up with the duck idea, I decided I'd use the opportunity to brush up on my intarsia skills as well.

Here's my favorite detail so far:

Is that not the cutest little tail?

Making your own chart for intarsia is not nearly as hard as you might think. Here's what I did:

1. Choose your yarn and make a guage swatch.

2. Get out a calculator and divide the number of rows per inch by the number of stitches per inch in your guage. This is your aspect ratio.

3. Go to Sweaterscapes and print out custom graph paper that exactly matches your guage, using your aspect ratio. (They also have an intarsia primer if you're feeling a little rusty. I especially like their tip on using clothespins rather than bobbins.)

4. Print the chart grid onto tracing paper or some other paper that is easy to see through.

5. Draw or "find" an image outline that suits your purposes. (Note: If you use a found image, remember to respect copyright. It's fine to make a chart for personal use, but you should not distribute the chart pattern if someone else's copyrighted work was used to create the image, nor should you sell items knitted using a copyrighted image. Whether it's okay to distribute a charted image can be hard to determine - the charts I linked to above are most likely of images in the public domain and therefore useable - if in doubt, play nice and chart for personal use only.)

6. If the image is too small or too large, adjust the size by using the enlarge/reduce option on a copying machine to tweak the proportions.

7. Lay the image under the graph paper and trace its outline.

8. After the outline is complete, fill in the squares of the chart that are inside the lines of the outline by 50% or more.

9. Determine how much background space you want on the sides of your image, and add that number of stitches and rows into the equation. (I'm making a pillow, so I adjusted for a background buffer of 1.5 inches in each direction to accomodate the slope that will be created by the stuffing. This was a guess - let's hope it works!)

10. Knit!

P.S. For those of you wanting to know the outcome of my button dilemna, I'm still deciding! I tried one option this weekend and didn't like it, so I'm trying another this week. I'll let you know what I go with - promise!

Freebie: Sprout Hat

You gotta love the pompom! Click here to see the set.

Happy Green Sprout Hat
MindofWinter QuickKnits, designed by Julia Trice
Yarn: Just over 1 skein (98 yards/90 meters/skein) of Karabella Aurora 8(100% Merino) in Parsley (716) If you do a less fluffy pompom you may get away with 1 skein, but no promises!
Needles: Clover Bamboo DPNs in size US6 (4.0mm)
Gauge: 4.5 sts per inch in moss stitch.
Size: About 14 inches in diameter, to fit newborn to 3-6 months, depending on the infant.

Note/Disclaimer: I designed the Sprout Hat to go with Veronik Avery's Gansey Layette, which is in a very different gauge. To make the two as a set, you will either have to re-gauge my pattern or hers. I'd re-gauge mine!

Using DPN's, CO 64 sts, place marker to mark rounds if needed. Work 6 rounds in 2x2 ribbing as follows: *k2, p2* to end every round. Next round, dec as follows: *k14, k2tog* to end. 60 sts remain. Purl two rounds. On next round begin moss stitch pattern:

Round 1: *k1, p1* to end.
Round 2: *k1, p1* to end.
Round 3: *p1, k1* to end.
Round 4: *p1, k1* to end.

Repeat these four rounds until hat measures 5.25 inches from beginning, ending after either round 2 or round 4. Purl two rounds.

Begin decreases as follows:

Round 1: *k10, k2tog* to end.
Round 2: Knit
Round 3: *k9, k2tog* to end.
Round 4: Knit
Round 5: *k8, k2tog* to end.
Round 6: Knit
Round 7: *k7, k2tog* to end.
Round 8: Knit
Round 9: *k6, k2tog* to end.
Round 10: Knit
Round 11: *k5, k2tog* to end.
Round 12: *k4, k2tog* to end.
Round 13: *k3, k2tog* to end.
Round 14: *k2, k2tog* to end.
Round 15: *k1, k2tog* to end.
Round 16: *k2tog* to end.

Leaving an eight-inch tail, cut yarn, and using a darning needle thread through the remaining live stitches. Pull live sts off needle and thread through a second time to strengthen. Weave in ends on the reverse side.

Make a pompom about 2.5-3 inches in diameter and fasten to top of hat. I used this pom pom maker, but for years before I acquired it, I made my own "maker" like this.

For notes on the yarn and accompanying sweater, see this post.

COPYRIGHT 2005, Julia P. Trice This pattern is protected by copyright and available for personal use only. It is not available for sale or distribution without the author's express permission.

And a good time was had by all

When I was contemplating the photoshoot for Clementine, I had the wacky idea that I should try something a little Rebecca-esque and fun. So I recruited Marnie and we set out for the beach:

Wir sind deutsche M�dchen! Wir sind so gl�cklich!* We are German girls! We are so happy!

Passen Sie auf! Ich werde Sie erhalten! Watch out! I'm going to get you!

Nein wirklich! Ich bin!! No really! I am!!!

Das Monstermash!!!

M�dchen mit gro�en Kolben machen die schaukelnde Weltdrehung! Fat bottomed girls they make the rocking world go round!

The wonderful thing about LA is that not only are there a gazillion wonderful places to do such a photoshoot, and superb weather to do it in, but in addition, no one pays any attention when you don a wool sweater in 80 degree weather, roll your hair up in donuts and dance maniacally in front of a camera on self-timer. Everyone assumes that you are just another indie film-maker. Fabulous!

We took full advantage of this bizarre anonymity.

We swapped clothes. And boogied down. (Auf Deutsch: Boogied hinunter)

Took action shots. Das hair toss!

Some of us even managed to look pretty.

I got the shot I wanted for my Clementine release.

And then we skipped off into the sunset.

*Translations by FreeTranslation.com. Brilliant idea to mock Rebecca by using kitschy German subtitles by Mary Heather.

Clementine's Collar: Take 2

Last week I ripped out Clementine's first collar and settled on a second version, which I think is more in keeping with the rest of the sweater:

I know, a lone collar is not very exciting. You'll just have to trust me on this one.

With Marnie's fabulous ribbed neckline solution in mind, I tried out a couple of different treatments for the "corners" where the raglan decreases run. My first attempt looked like this:

We'll call these the "knit base" decreases

My second attempt looked like this:

We'll call these the "purl base" decreases

I thought I would like the purl-based ones better on paper, but in person I like the knit-based ones. Due to poor planning and a refusal to re-do the collar again, my sweater has both kinds. Knit-based on the back raglan corners and purl-based on the front.

I think of it as a sampler. *smile*

The final version will have purl-based decreases all-around. Neither version looks like Marnie's decreases as I remember them (Marnie's were truly elegant), but both are cute, and I like the final result. I also used the sewn bind-off for 2x2 ribbing found in Vogue: The Ulitmate Knitting Guide again, and I can assure you that once you have done it a few times it really does get easier.

Now you may be thinking to yourself: "Self, Julia finished this sweater almost two weeks ago. She also photographed the collar in natural light, which means she could have done a final photoshoot for us. What gives?"

What gives is that like everyone else out there in blogland I have had the not-so-hidden desire to design, publish, and perhaps even occasionally cover my costs in doing so by selling my patterns on my site. Clementine is my maiden voyage.* As such, I have a special photoshoot scheduled for her this weekend, which I hope that you will all enjoy sometime near the start of next week.

As for the sale of the pattern, I will be offering it on my site for $7, with 50% of the proceeds to go to the Dream Center, a local Los Angeles shelter that has taken in numerous refugees from Hurricane Katrina.

Please DO NOT purchase the pattern simply because you want to give to the cause. I think it's really important that all of the money that we have earmarked for charity at this time go directly to the people who need it, and I want to reiterate my support for the cause of curbing our own spending habits and giving to others here. However, if you are in the market for new patterns and find that this one suits you, know that 50% of your purchase will go directly to a great organization that is helping people in need.

That's all on Clementine for now - she'll see you again next week!

*For those of you who dig the freebies - don't worry. I'll continue to offer those and publish in the free mags as well.

Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling...

Clementine....

Long ago and far away, before I started maniacally working on book submissions and the occasional (or maybe frequent?) sock, I picked up some wonderful orange RYC Cashsoft DK at my favorite DC haunt, Stitch DC. There were only three skeins left, but I knew I had to have it, and that I would find a way to work around such an unfortunate shortage. (I am generally a single-color girl, so if I find a good orange like this, I want a dozen skeins - who doesn't?)

Luckily, there was a lovely blue and a wonderful mauve that really bridged the gap between the two colors. I filled my bag and set off for home to start to design. Within a week, I had a general plan and had mapped out the back and front pieces, and knit the back. I was sailing along. And then work struck. And submission deadlines. And moving across country. (Again.) So Clemetine went into a protective ziplock and marinated for about six months.

This shot is true to the actual colors on my monitor.

Until a few weeks ago when Marnie came over to hang out. I had been feeling a little uninspired and was closing in on Happy Green (all it needs now are buttons), and didn't really know what I wanted to work on next. When I pulled Clementine out again, I remembered how much I had enjoyed working on it, and felt a renewed interest in designing something that would not be geared to anyone but me.

I think it's going to be a very special piece when it's all done, and I've decided that rather than publishing it elsewhere, I'm going to chronicle my adventures with it here, and then offer the pattern for sale on my site and perhaps at one or two special LYS's I know. It should be a fun process - I hope you guys enjoy the ride!

Freebie: BMG's Footies

Two posts in a week! Three posts in a month! You people must be ready to fall over. As a reward for your patience I offer these fun, funny-colored footies. Go forth. Make little socks that Bob Marley's Grandma would be proud to call her own.

Want a more descriptive photo?

BOB MARLEY’S GRANDMA’S FOOTIES

To Fit: Shoe size 5-6[7-8,9-10]. Photographed in size 7-8.

Materials:
2 skeins Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino (KPPM) (100% washable Merino Wool), 170 yards/skein. You will have plenty of leftovers.

Size US2 (2.75mm) double-pointed needles, set of 5, or size to make gauge. Pattern knit on 4 needles, with 5th spare needle used to pick up gussets.

Stitch marker to mark round (optional)
Darning needle to weave in ends

Gauge:
14 sts per 2” in stockinette stitch on US2 (2.75mm) needles or size to make gauge.

CUFF
CO 44[48,52]sts, and distribute sts onto three needles as follows:

Needle one (N1) (half of back of sock): 11[12,13]sts,
Needle two (N2) (top of sock ): 22[24,26]sts,
Needle three (N3) (half of back of sock), 11[12,13]sts.

Join work and pm to mark round, if desired. Begin working in k1p1 rib as follows: *k1, p1* to end. Repeat for 8 rounds. Next round begin working in stockinette. Knit 5 rounds total.

HEEL FLAP
On the next round, using N3, knit sts from N1, so that all of the sts are on only two needles, with N3 (back) containing 22[24,26]sts and N2 (front) containing 22[24,26]sts. For the rest of the heel flap, you will work only with the stitches on N3, working back and forth. Begin by flipping the work around and slipping the first st, then purling across the row. On the next row, slip the first st, then *k1, slip one with yarn in back* to last st, k1. Repeat these two rows 11[12,13] times, for a total of 24[26,28] heel rows.

SHORT ROW HEEL
Still working back and forth, on the next row, sl1, k12[13,14], k2tog, k1, turn work, leaving remaining sts on left-hand needle. Sl1, p5, p2tog, p1, turn work leaving remaining sts on left-hand needle. Continue in this manner, knitting and/or purling one more stitch on each row as follows:

Sl1, k6, k2tog, k1, turn work
Sl1, p7, p2tog, p1, turn work
Sl1, k8, k2tog, k1, turn work
Sl1, p9, p2tog, p1, turn work
Sl1, k10, k2tog, k1, turn work
Sl1, p11, p2tog, p1, turn work

GUSSETS
Resume working in the round. Knit sts from N3 onto spare needle, then knit the remaining sts onto N1, so that the sts are once again distributed onto three needles. Using N1 pick up and knit 12[13,14] sts along the heel flap. Knit the 22[24,26]sts from N2. Using N3, pick up and knit 12[13,14]sts from the heel flap and then knit remaining sts from spare needle onto N3.

Work one round even, and then dec on the next round as follows:
N1: k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1.
N2: knit
N3: k1, ssk, knit to end.

Repeat these two rounds (one round without shaping, one dec round) until total stitch count is 44[48,52]sts, with 11[12,13]sts on N1, 22[24,26]sts on N2, and 11[12,13]sts on N3.

Work even until foot measures 6.5[7.0, 7.5] inches.

TOES
On the next round, begin toe decreases as follows:

N1: Knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1.
N2: k1, ssk, knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1.
N3: k1, ssk, knit to end.

Repeat this dec round every other round until 20[22,24] sts total remain. Then work dec round every round until 12 sts remain. Using N3, work sts from N1 even, so that all sts are once again on two needles. Kitchener live toe sts together, and weave in loose ends to finish.

COPYRIGHT 2005, Julia P. Trice This pattern is protected by copyright and available for personal use only. It is not available for sale or distribution without the author's express permission.

More On Asana

A few people have asked me about Asana's construction, and specifically what it's going to look like as you're working on it. I'm no expert with schematic software, but it will look something like this: