Earthbound Misfit

I love collaborating with other independent business people in this wonderful industry and I am always amazed how much more I can achieve when I work with other brilliant creatives. This new shawl is a prime example of my point. I decided to call it Earthbound Misfit (after my favorite Pink Floyd song Learning to Fly) and it features beautiful custom gradient sets from The Unique Sheep and perfectly matched beads from earthfaire.com.

The first step is that I drew up an idea I had and took my sketch to SAFF because I knew that Kelly (from The Unique Sheep) was going to be there. My drawing skills aren’t the greatest, but I thought y’all might like to see where things started:

We start with images and art that have caught our eyes for their color combinations. Once we have narrowed down the candidates Kelly from The Unique Sheep works her magic developing custom colors. Occasionally the colors need to be tweaked until we are all happy – but they are always stunning from the get go. Then the yarn travels to Ellen at earthfaire to be matched up with the perfect beads.

For this shawl I asked her to put together a “bead soup” of multiple different colors that matched the colors that the yarn gradients pass through. By placing these colorful beads on the contrasting color stripe the beads have a big impact with a relatively small number of beads (compared to the size of the shawl). I also wanted to challenge myself to place the beads randomly. I’m not much of a “random” person – but sometimes you just need to loosen up!

Speaking of size, the pattern is designed to have some wiggle room in the amount of yardage you need. We worked with three different fingering weight bases and they each have slightly different yardage. I planned the color changes to occur in the large textured bands and you can fudge the transitions by a couple of rows here and there to match your yarn. The end result is a shawl that takes between 900 and 1000 yards. The resulting shawl measures 24″ X 55″ (61 X 140 cm) but due to the curving shape it wraps around as if it were much larger.

If you are in love with one of these specific color combinations you can get them in kits exclusively from earthfaire.com. You can also pick out your own gradient set from The Unique Sheep in their Luxe, Verve, and Tinsel Toes bases. Just let them know you are making an Earthbound Misfit and I am sure that they can make sure you have the right amount of yarn and a great contrast color. I cannot wait to see all of the different versions of this that might come about. Seeing the three that we created amazed me in how changed the pattern appeared in the different color combinations!

Come learn to fly.

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Unwind Getaway April 2017

Every year a group of knitters get together in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina for a weekend of knitting, learning, and fun! This event is called the Unwind Getaway and I am beyond excited to be able to announce that I will be one of the instructors for 2017. The event will be from April 28 through May 1 and registration opens today.

I am one of four awesome instructors that will be teaching classes over the weekend, you can see all of our bios here. If you are interested in the full list of class options you can find them here. I will be teaching three classes over the weekend and the rest of the time will be for hanging out, knitting, and making friends. I cannot wait!

The classes I will be teaching are Elongated, Lifted, and Cinched, Mosaic & Lace, and Tips & Tricks for Knitting with Variegated Yarn. While the last one is pretty self explanatory the first two might require a little elaboration. Elongated, Lifted and Cinched will be a technique class where we will explore the world of weird stitches that are found in Japanese stitch dictionaries. There are a variety of unusual techniques that crop up that really have to be seen (and knitted) to be believed.

Golden Lion Throne

Mosiac & Lace will be focused on teaching the technique I have been developing combining mosaic style slipped-stitch color work with lace. More of a project based class, we will be learning all of the techniques you will need to successfully go home and cast on for Golden Lion Throne. Golden Lion Throne is the shawl that started me down the path that has lead to my book Mosaic and Lace, which will be coming out on March 1st, 2017.

Oh, have I not mentioned that? 😉 Yes indeed. Beginning in February of 2015 I have had a secret project that I have been working on, a book! It is now available for pre-order through Amazon and the official title is Mosaic and Lace Knits: 20 Innovative Patterns Combining Slip-Stitch Colorwork and Lace Techniques. As I said, the publication date is March 1st and if you would like your Local Yarn Store to carry it you should give them a heads up. My publisher is Stackpole Books and most distributors of knitting books should be carrying it! You know that there will be much, much more showing up on this here blog about this – you might even get sick of it. But for now I can share with you what the cover will look like!

I hope y’all are as excited about this as I am, but I’m not sure it’s possible. But, if you are the kind of person who learns better in person and you want to hone your skills to be able to take on all of the patterns in this book – well you can come join me in North Carolina at the Unwind Getaway.

An Interview with … Me!

As with (I am guessing) many knitters, I have read a lot of knitting blogs. I meant a lot. My feedly feed is full of them. And I have been reading many of them for years. Ever since I had the inkling that I might want to pursue knitting design as a calling I have been following one called “How to Become a Professional Knitter” by Robin Hunter. She posts weekly interviews with professionals in the knitting industry and I have probably read a couple hundred by now.

Imagine my surprise when I received a request to do one of these interviews?! You could have knocked me over with a feather. But interview I did and it was posted today. If you would like to know more about my design process and maybe peep into how my brain works please click over and check it out.

Secondly, I am super behind in blog posting. I have found that I am much better at talking to a camera than getting my thoughts out with the keyboard. The best way to keep up with me is to check out my YouTube channel Watch Barbara Knit. But that is not to say I am giving up on blogging. I just need to get better. Mostly it’s the fact that the Fall festival season is upon us and time has just flown!

I went to Wisconsin Sheep and Wool and had a grand time!

And I went to New York Sheep and Wool and had even more fibery fun.

I have released some new patterns along the way and will be writing up posts about them soon!

Blocking Yarn with Acrylic Content

Can it be done? My answer is yes. Should it be done? Also yes!

I teach a 3 hour blocking class and I am pretty evangelical about blocking. Blocking is the closest thing to magic I’ve found in the world of knitting (unless you count actual spinning – because fluff into yarn is pretty amazing). It is a very rare project that I would say “eh, you don’t need to block that”. I mean, it happens but not often.

Which brings us to acrylic content yarn. Acrylic is plastic. You can get it as wet as you want and there will be no penetration of the fibers. Wet blocking can clean acrylic projects but it doesn’t really do any actual blocking. And when you have blends with acrylic it really fights with you about the blocking. It inhibits the process. But I have read a bit about heat blocking acrylic and it fascinates me.

I received a fun blend of cotton and acrylic from Kraemer Yarns called Tatamy Tweed DK and I decided to go a wee bit mad scientist on it. It is 45% Cotton and 55% Acrylic, which makes it machine washable and that is a major plus for many projects. I knit four swatches and messed about with them a bit.

The first swatch is the “control” (proper sciencing here). I knit it and took it off the needles. Bing, bang, boom.

Kraemer Tatamy Tweed DK Unblocked

The second swatch I blocked using a hot steam iron (no actual physical contact – that would be melty) to see if it would work and it did. But could I leave well enough alone? Nooooooo. I had my husband throw it in the washing machine and then into the dryer. I was not nice to this swatch. It received no special treatment. I think the dryer was on permanent press.

Kraemer Tatamy Tweed DK, Heat/Steam blocked & Washed

It shrank a bit but overall it did hold out some of the lace and looks pretty good. As long as you take into account the shrinkage I think this is a viable care technique. You would probably get less shrinkage if you were more careful with the temp of the drying.

Kraemer Tatamy Tweed DK, Wet Blocked

For the third swatch I used wet blocking. The yarn bloomed a good bit and drew back some after unpinning. I speculate that this is the acrylic content having a bit of an argument with the cotton about where it wants to be. But it looks nice. I am guessing it will have to be reblocked after each hand washing.

Kraemer Tatamy Tweed, Heat/Steam Blocked

And finally I steam blocked the fourth swatch on camera so that y’all could see how heat/steam blocking works! In short, you pin the knitting out to the final size you want and then use a steam iron to heat set the stitches. You hold the iron about a half of an inch above the surface of the yarn and allow the heat and steam to permeate the fibers. Move slowly and make sure the yarn heats up. When I unpinned it there was no movement and the lace stayed crisp and clear.

So there you have it. You can indeed block yarn with acrylic content. In fact there are several options. To see the heat/steam blocking in action and hear further analysis of my experiment check out the video on Watch Barbara Knit.

I called this Swatch Lab and hopefully it will be the first of many of this style of video. Please let me know in the comments if you like this idea and if you have any suggestions for future yarn experiments.

Road Trip – Wisconsin Sheep and Wool style

It’s true! I’m going on a road trip. Early tomorrow Gale from Gale’s Art will be coming by with her vehicle packed to the gills. We will wedge me in and head off into the wilds of the MidWest to attend Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. I am going to be helping in her booth and she has given me a little space to display my samples and patterns. So very excited about it!

If you are in the area or traveling to this fiber event please stop by and say Hi! I have heard wonderful things about this festival and cannot wait to take pictures and video and everything. If you are interested in my trip you should watch my Instagram for the pictorial story. I am sure there will be yarn, sheep, and silliness. I also talked about the trip on my most recent video blog if you want to check that out.

But before I hit the road I have a few things I have to share here!

First – the Fix-a-Stitch Give away has come to a close and I posted the video announcing the winner this morning!

In the video I ask for a little feedback about give-aways. Specifically, do you want more? If so, what should I give away? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Going to the Post Office this morning and mailing off the package left me with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. Which is a feeling I would like to have more, so I am on the side of more give-aways.

When I get back from Wisconsin I have sooooo much going on. I cannot wait to share all of the awesome with you. I have no fewer than SIX patterns slated for release in September. Can you believe that? Hopefully it will make up for the slow summer. At least it is proof that I was knitting all summer.

Finally, I need to make plans for the winter. Do y’all have any thoughts on what kind of new patterns you might like to see? We started up a great chat in my Ravelry forum about what kind of shawl shapes people like and if you want a little peek into what might be coming down the pike you might want to mosey on over there. And the conversation can continue, please feel free to jump in!

 

 

Win a Fix-a-stitch (and bonus yarn)

I am hovering somewhere between excited and nervous. I am doing an official give-away! But of course me being me I had to do research into how to do it. And then I ended up reading pages and pages of legal mumbo-jumbo and getting a wee bit scared about the whole prospect. But then I talked to some individuals more experienced in this process and managed to deescalate  from scared down to nervous. But mostly I am excited!

A couple of weeks ago I made a video on how to use the awesome Fix-a-stitch tool. I just realized I never put it on this here blog so here it is!

As you can see, you need one of these in every knitting bag and I am perfectly happy to enable you in this regard. The lovely people at Fix-a-Stitch gave me one to give away to y’all! Additionally, what is a knitting blog give away without yarn? Not really a knitting blog give away, eh?

Recently I was pawing through my stash and came across an unfortunate circumstance. You see, I have a tendency to fall in love with yarn in color combinations when I am in yarn stores. So I purchase said pairs of yarn and frankly they are married in my eyes. Those two yarns simply go together. And I have every intention of designing something with them. You know, after they have had the appropriate aging time in my stash (stash is like wine, none shall be used before it’s time). The unfortunate thing is that often that aging time allows the yarn manufacturer the opportunity to discontinue the yarn.

*pout*

I can’t design with discontinued yarn. I mean, I could but y’all wouldn’t like it very much. If a knitter likes my pattern and yarn selection so much that they want to knit the exact same thing, well I want them to be able to. Starting with a discontinued yarn really isn’t meeting that need. But my stashes loss is your gain! So to keep the awesome Fix-a-stitch company on it’s journey to the winner’s home I have selected a married pair of discontinued yarn to go along for the ride.

Click the picture to get to entry form!

This is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool XL in two fabulous colors. I adore the green and charcoal together and in my mind it was going to become a cowl, or maybe a hat, or possibly finger less mitts. It’s bulky so there is plenty to make a nice accessory. Or you know, live in your stash, it has experience. 😉
I am running this as a Rafflecopter giveaway so there is more than one way to enter. When you click on the link it will take you to Rafflecopter and you will be prompted to either sign in with FaceBook or your email. If you win I will be using your email to contact you, so you might want to consider what email address is associated with your FB account. I recommend using your email.

You can get one entry by subscribing to my YouTube channel Watch Barbara Knit. You can get a second entry by subscribing to my e-Newsletter. And then you can get a third entry by using Social Media to share one of my Ravelry patterns. This third option is a repeatable option in that you can do it once a day for the entirety of the give-away. If you want more specific information you can check out my YouTube announcement by clicking here.

And of course – there are official rules. They are in the description of the YouTube video but I will put them here also. I apologize in advance for their boring-ness. If you have any questions please ask in the comments and good luck!

Contest Rules:

This contest is being run through Rafflecopter, a full list of Terms and Conditions are available on entry. To enter click on link provided and select one (or more) of the three options provided. If you are already a newsletter and/or YouTube channel subscriber go ahead and select those options. These two entries can only be used once. The Social Media option can be used once per day for the duration of the contest.

Entries will be accepted starting on or about August 17, 2016 and ending September 1, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST. This give-away is free to enter, no purchase is required. Open to US residents 18 and older. Void where prohibited by law.

The prize includes: (1) Fix-a-stitch set, approximate retail value of $14.99 and (2) balls of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool XL, approximate retail value of $20.

Winner will be selected through Rafflecopter on September 2^nd and announced within 5 days following winner selection. Winner will be announced via YouTube and contacted via email to the email address they entered with.

Any personal data collected through entry in this give-away is only for use in running the give-away. No information will ever be shared or sold to any third party.

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Book Look – Unexpected Cables by Heather Zoppetti

When I decided to do books for YouTube I was definite in my desire to not be putting a lot of negativity out there. I want to share with other knitters books that I think are awesome and the things in the book that I thought were on point. If I get a book and don’t care for it, why would I put in all of the effort that it takes to make a video saying such a thing? I had fun with the two book videos that I did, but I really wanted to do, as they say, kick it up a notch. I am a firm believer that all dials should go to 11.

Cue brainstorming on how I could change up the book “reviews”. And it occured to me, if I am definitely not going to be all Anton Ego on screen why not see if I could get the actual author/designer of the book to chat with me? Sort of a hybrid interview/book review. What could be better than sitting with the book and having the ultimate authority for that book on tap to answer any questions that might come up.

And Heather Zoppetti did not disappoint. She shed light on all of my questions and provided fun and interesting insights into many of the choices she made in the book. And at the end she was kind enough to share what she is working on now and even give us a sneak peek into what is coming down the road. So make sure you watch to the end of the video.

FYI, she has “serious” glasses and these awesome kitty glasses. I put in a request ahead of time for the kitty glasses and she totally went the extra mile with the amazing headband. Seriously, if you don’t feel like watching the video I totally understand. But you should at least check out her Ravelry page because her sense of the fun and unexpected really comes through in her design.

Vacation with me?

Two weeks! I was in Florida for two whole weeks and while it was awesome, I am really glad to be home. Home with my yarn and my work and this glowing box that allows me to communicate with the entire world!

We went to the beach and played putt-putt. We went to pools galore and ate all of the shrimp we could get our hands on. And it was awesome! But you know what? I was still knitting. Of course I took knitting. And I took my video camera so I would have stuff to show y’all when I came back.

I made a vlog while I was down there.

And of course I visited a yarn store

or two

Stash – A Place for Yarn

Actually three

Roxy’s Yarn

In order top to bottom I visited A Good Yarn in Sarasota, Stash – A Place For Yarn in St. Petersburg, and Roxy’s Yarn in Tampa. Each one was a completely different feel but each one was fabulous in it’s own way. A Good Yarn carries an almost overwhelming array of yarns (almost, I can totally take it). Stash is a meticulously curated selection of lovely yarns in a funky, arty part of town. And Roxy’s impressed me with their diverse range of yarns and impressive list of classes classes chalked up behind the register. I would be wonderfully happy if I lived in any of these cities and was able to call the store “my” LYS.

Local Yarn Stores are the heart and soul of the knitting community. There is no denying that I frolic in the knitting cybersphere but there really isn’t anything that can replace the importance of the brick & mortar store. Do you have a local yarn store that you love? I hope you do.

I really want to make more store/shopping videos like the one above at A Good Yarn. Hopefully I will be able to travel more and see stores everywhere. If you have a great yarn store near you that I need to check out please let me know in the comments. Maybe I can convince my family to plan our vacations around yarn stores? 😉

 

Scarab Shawl Revisited Again

It is an unfortunate fact of life that yarns get discontinued. I don’t blame the yarnies, they have to do what their customers want. But it can create some issues. When I re-knit the Scarab Shawl for independent publication (it was originally published in Knit Now) I was lucky enough to receive yarn from one of my favorite dyers Miss Babs.  The alpaca/silk blend that we decided to pair with the pattern brought a whole new look to the shawl and I adore it. I sometimes take it out and pet it. But alas, all good things must pass

But let us not look upon it as a loss, but as an opportunity! An opportunity to see Scarab knit in an entirely different yarn! This time the crack team at Anzula just happened to be introducing a brand new Sport weight MCN called Ava. And you know, the difference between DK & Sport weight is in the “close enough” category considering the non-fitted nature of this shawl. It was a bit of a gamble, but one that paid off.

I still love this delicate lace.

Look how beautifully the yarn paired with the pattern. This color is called Misfit and I am totally in love with it. I kinda don’t want to mail the sample back to California but it needs to be reunited with its owner. It was such a pleasure to do a photo shoot with this shawl and my model Fatimah is just the picture of beauty isn’t she?

We do have about as much fun as it looks.

Really, I don’t need to say much, the pictures speak for themselves.

But of course, before it departs on its journey I decided to make a pattern tour video.

In the video you will see the two shawls side by side. There are subtle differences in how the yarn behaved but both are beautiful. I think that you should knit two!

TNNA 2016 – it happened!

I know y’all have been waiting in anticipation to find out if I said anything ridiculous. OF COURSE I DID! We’ll let it be a mystery what that might have been specifically – but it wasn’t a fatal blow.

It seems like forever ago and just yesterday that I got back. Things have been complicated by the fact that I brought back a combo sinus infection/bronchitis which pretty much knocked me out last week.  I would have blogged last week but OMG was I wiped out. And there was the yarn hangover.

What’s a yarn hangover you might ask? It’s when I have seen so many beautiful yarns in so many beautiful colors … and when I have been talking with other talented designers about their amazing ideas … my brain gets so very full of ideas zipping about that I get a little yarn drunk. I cannot focus on one thing because of ALL OF THE THINGS clamoring for my attention. And after the drunk comes the hangover, as usual.

But it was totally worth it. Worth it to get the opportunity to chat with the many, many yarn store owners who came by my booth and allowed me to explain what all of my craziness is about. Worth it to hear of the exciting things that are going on in their shops and how I might be a part of them. Worth it to spend 4 glorious days surrounded by people who love knitting and yarn as much as I do. If you were one of the awesome people who stopped by and chatted with me – thank you.

Deeply and sincerely, thank you. It is why I do this thing called designing.

Of course I took my trusty video making apparatus! I made video at TNNA to share with y’all, so that you can see a small fraction of what I saw.

And I also made a vlog showing some of the fun items I brought home with me.

If you are not of the video inclined I have a whole passel of links that you can check out!

I received a cool doo-hickey called a Fix-a-Stitch that you can keep in your knitting tool arsenal to help you fix boo-boos in your knitting. Beroco Yarn has several really cool new yarns including a cotton/wool blend that I think might just have to become my first baby blanket pattern (what do y’all think of baby blankets?)  And I have a beautiful color combo from Baah! Yarn that will be becoming a shawl in the not to distant future.
And in the screen shot above you can see a new version of  my Scarab Shawl that was knit up in a beautiful new sport weight yarn from Anzula Luxury Fibers. Expect to hear more about this in the very near future after I get my camera out and shooting!

Do y’all have any questions about TNNA? I would be happy to babble more if there is more you’d like to hear! Let me know in the comments.