Stephen West knitting

This great yarn shop here, Loop, is constantly having great knit designers in for events. They are often book signings, classes, trunk shows, casual knit-and-greets or even all of the above. I really look forward to seeing what classes the guests are offering particularly since they tend to be more specialized or advanced. The problem is that I can never make it to them! I was out of town for Jared Flood's (aka Brooklyn Tweed) classes, had my son's 4th birthday parties during Anne Hanson's (of Knitspot) advanced lace knitting class (I nearly cried over this one!) and on and on. So I was happily surprised when I saw that Stephen West was coming to Loop and I actually can make his advanced shawl workshop!

I've been working on two of his shawl pattern now and just finished one this week.

Herbivore

I knit this one with Malabrigo sock in the Impressionist Sky colorway. I had such a hard time picking which yarn to use for this pattern. It looks great in really varied colors too, but in the end I wanted to highlight the texture of the twist rib stitches and went with a semi-solid.

Raveled here

The Malabrigo is so light and soft, it drapes so well. I'm with my son here enjoying an outdoor lunch in the city.

Daybreak

Another one that is incredibly hard to pick yarn for! It seems to look great in just about every yarn combination - colors that are similar, light/dark, contrasting solids, semi-solids, one solid and one high variegated.... Options overload! The combination I finally decided on is made to match my raincoat.

I'm a bit further in now than when I took this picture, but still about half way to go.

I actually did my first of Stephen West's patterns back in February -- the Colonnade shawl, another fun design.

I'm looking forward to the class!

One more WIP - but this time it's a quilting project

I know my last post was about the way too many works in progress I have on my knitting needles, but here's one that's on my sewing table. I actually did a good bit of work on it this week for the most arbitrary reason: the weather suddenly turned steamy but the basement is nice and cool!

This is a kit from Connecting Threads. It's for a table runner and 2 place mats, all fabric and the pattern included. I'm just working on the place mats to start though I also want to make the runner. I also ordered a charm pack (5" squares) and will have leftovers from the kit to make a few more (simpler!) place mats to match.

I should have gotten a bit worried when I started cutting - this is a lot of pieces and some are teeny tiny! Here are my stacks of triangles (plus the pieced center squares ready to go):

It's not a hard pattern, but there's not much room for error. sew two triangles, press, trim, sew two triangles, press, square up, repeat, repeat, repeat. I do like the finished square though:

There a nice sense of accomplishment finishing one of these squares. The down side is that it's only 6.5" square and it takes four of them for each place mat. Then add the border pieces but after all this another 8 pieces feels like nothing.

I currently have both place mats fully pieced and pinned and ready to be quilted. Wish me luck there!

Oh and this kit is on super sale right now. Only $13 and it includes 4.5 yards of fabric!

Too Many WIPs

I have 5 knitting projects I'm currently working on. Not just 5 projects that have been started and put aside, I'm actually working on all of them somewhat equally. I usually work on 2 or 3 of these in a night. I just pull one out of my knitting bag and do a few rows, or a pattern repeat, or just until I get bored. And then I move on to another project. It may sound crazy, but it's actually pretty fun. None of the projects are very challenging -- for 3 of them I don't need to look at the pattern anymore and the other two just need an occasional glance -- so perhaps this is my way of injecting some complexity!

I'm sure I'll post more about these as they finish so for now just a few little pics....

Spring Shawls - Calais Tinkering & Miss Woodhouse

Yes I've been making a lot of lace shawls and No I'm not even close to done! No no no no no!

My latest two are also my current favorite shape - triangle/crescent. With a "classic" triangle shawl you knit from the center top and increase equally along the center spine and edges, working outwards. This gives you a straight top edge with a length that is double the height of the spine. My Swallowtail shawl is a good example.

With these triangle/crescent shapes the increases on the edges are twice as rapid as along the spine. The end result is longer and more shallow. The top edge is often blocked as a curve making it look like a crescent, but the construction is just like a classic triangle. One great advantage is that you can make great sized shawl with relatively little yarn. Another is that extra length makes it so easy to wear.

I had previously made the Traveling Woman shawl and loved it so I set out to find more patterns with this shape. There aren't too many out there (yet?) but I selected Wendy Johnson's Miss Woodhouse pattern as my next project.

Blocked out nice an big and only used about 315 yards! I used Madeline Tosh sock yarn for this one in the "William Morris" colorway. A beautiful, warm brown with speckles of robin-egg blue.

Raveled here

Next up I fell for a new free pattern Calais. I thought it would make a perfect spring shawl but it was that classic triangle and I really wanted that triangle/crescent again. So I set about to alter it to fit that new shape.

First I started with the original pattern chart and widened it along the edge. Then I basically filled in the extra spaces with the pattern. It took a bit of fiddling with until it looked right, but here is what I came up with (sorry for the weird spacing around this):

Next I continued the extra increases through the eyelet portion and finally I was ready for the edging. Here is where it gets complicated again. I wanted to do the edging as is but I needed to get a correct stitch count to start it. You need a multiple of 20 plus 7 for it. When I made mine I knew I'd have 2 extra stitches but those garter rows of the eyelet section are perfect for camouflaging a couple decreases or increases if you need.

I didn't do all the edging rows as written, but it's pretty flexible on doing more or less rows here. With my handy kitchen scale I was able to use just about all of my yarn, around 350yards for this one in HandMaiden Casbah, the "Rose Garden" colorway.

Raveled here

It's definitely a bit trickier to block these shapes but worthwhile!

Look! Something Shiny!

On my last trip to my local knitting shop I was happily browsing away in my favorite section -- the beautiful handpainted sock yarns. There was a new batch of Malabrigo and fun new fruit-striped Lorna's Laces and much more. Ahhhhh.... so lovely.

But meanwhile my mother was canvassing the entire store and finding all kinds of different yarns. Finally I met up with her hovering over a silky, luscious scarf. Oooooohhh..... it's soooo pretty.

The yarn was 100% silk and had sequins in it too. The sample scarf was in a gorgeous navy blue like a shimmery river that sucked us both in. We looked at the price tag and said yikes! But we were too far gone and a skein of navy went home with mum while I chose a moss green.

The name of the yarn is "Disco Lights" by Tili Tomas.

Other projects got swept aside and I set out to find the perfect pattern for it. I did take the simple pattern that the sample had been knit with, but simple knitting and I don't always mesh. Even though I was pretty sure that as a scarf you'd never see much pattern (100% silk is so drapey), I wanted it to keep me interested as I knit. I ended up choosing the Ariel Scarf (free pattern) and think it worked out great.

The yarn was a little bit tricky to work with. The sequins are on a thread that is just carried along with the silk. So you always have to make sure that you're catching both strands as you knit. Also I had to adjust how I held the yarn since at the beginning the sequins were getting pushed back and bunched as I was feeding the yarn out. I had to hold it with very little tension.

But in the end I have a luscious, sparkly, silky stream of scarf of my own.

It's such a difference from the merino sock yarns and heavier cottons I've been using lately, but I am glad we got swept away by it.

Raveled here

Happy Birthday Crowns

My little boy turned 4 this past weekend - where is the time flying?
March had been taken over by toy knitting so I didn't knit or sew any additional gifts for him except for one that was for me a must-do.



The pattern is called "Loved" and you can buy it ($1.99) on Ravelry.com or on Knitpicks.com. I ran across this pattern back in December and instantly knew it would be something I'd be making a lot of. I've decided it's my gift for all the four-year-olds. We go to a lot of kids' birthday parties through the year so any project I commit to making so many of needs to be:
1) relatively quick
2) interesting enough so that I don't burn out, and
3) something I think will really be enjoyed.

I couldn't get him to model his own properly, but here is one for a friend:




I've now made 3 of these and don't think I'll mind knitting up the many more I have planned. I'm having fun planning out the colors. The pattern doesn't call for different colors for the bobbles but I really think it's worth the extra bit of awkwardness it adds. I loved the "jewels" for the top of my son's crown.


Here's a peak at the work in progress. Really crazy looking I know, but I love the interesting construction this has.


I've been making these in the Knitpick's Comfy Bulky yarns. This is the same as I've been knitting my itty bitty toys, but in a heavier weight.

The Easter Bunny is here!

Sometimes a project just sneaks in and you just have to go with it. Fortunately this one was pretty quick, about 3 nights. With an Easter egg hunt last weekend, more Easter plans this weekend, a sudden rise in temperatures and cherry blossoms blooming, I needed a fun spring project. A bunny must be made!

I chose Rabbit (free!) by Susan B. Anderson, author of Itty Bitty Toys and other fun things. Rabbit is a cousin of Ribbit and shares his fun unique twist -- the body is stuffed with a tennis ball!

Overall it was an easy project, and I pretty much followed the pattern as is. I love the ear shaping and the pom pom tail.

Raveled here

For yarn I used KnitPicks Comfy Worsted. Again, I can't believe how much I like this cotton/acrylic blend when I previously hated the cotton and acrylics I had tried. It's cheap and comes in lots of fun colors. Of course I made this bunny pink since it's Nate's favorite color. :)

I've been gathering up the Comfy yarn for a while now. Anytime I make an order with Knitpicks I seem to toss a few balls of Comfy in with it. It's become quite a collection!