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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Each to Each – a beaded lace shawl in gradient

Have you heard of a sock blank? It is this really cool concept where the yarn supplier takes an entire skein of sock yarn and pre-knits a long strip of stockinette yarn. This provides a palette where the dyer can then work their magic. From the knitter’s point of view you buy this beautiful strip of art which slowly unravel as you knit directly from the blank. Or you can go ahead and ball the whole thing up and knit from that.

The amazing thing is that, when knit, the colors completely rearrange themselves and you get this beautiful variegated yarn that doesn’t really pool. For this new shawl I worked with the sock blank Sea Garden from Gale’s Art to create a top down crescent shaped shawl. Gale requested lace and beads and I think I fulfilled those requests. I might have gone a bit bonkers with the beads.

But I don’t regret a single bead. It is so sparkly. I may not be a big fan of myself when I am putting them on (who thought this was a good idea is something I mumble to myself), but the end result is so worth it. It isn’t a spectacularly large shawl, I designed it to make the most out of a single skein – more of a shawlette really.

It works as a kerchief!

But it is easily adjustable. There is the main lace motif and then the edging. You can adjust either to suit your desires. Because the color was named Sea Garden I decided to try and evoke a watery feel. The central lace pattern is wavy, which also does double duty in moving the gradient around a bit, and the bottom is meant to look like a fisherman’s net awash with the sparkling drops of the sea. This desire also led to the naming of the shawl. I took a line from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T S Elliott:

Each to Each

Shall I part my hair behind?   Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

Unboxing video blog – Gradient yarn and Beads

I have always wanted to be a better blogger, but somehow I have a difficult time thinking of things that I feel are worthy to be committed to writing. Imagine my surprise to learn that I have no such mental block about talking (this will come as a surprise to precisely no one who knows me). With the new video format I have been playing with I am having a much easier time keeping up consistent communication. And there are so many advantages of being able to show you things as opposed to trying to describe them.

Take this new video. I am working on another collaboration with The Unique Sheep and Earthfaire (the same team that helped me cooked up BitterBlue) and I just received the box brimming with lovely yarn and beads. With my webcam I was able to do what is called an “Unboxing” video, so you can watch me pull the goodies out of the box and get the same awesome surprises that I do.

I mention in the video that the inspiration for these color ways came from my Pinterest board (I think I mentioned it) if you are interested in seeing said board you can check out Color Combos for Color Work. Two of the three combos came from my inspiration stash one is here and the other (which is actually from a different board) is here. I am linking them instead of embedding the photos because I do not want in infringe on the artists copyrights. So click away!

This talking-to-the-camera format is kind of unsettling for me, I have always been camera shy. But I am gonna try and keep it up. Please let me know if you like this approach and if you have any requests for something you would like to see/hear from me I am all ears!

BitterBlue – the reveal

It started innocently enough. One of my fabulous testers for In Uffish Thought sent me a note with her progress. She mentioned, off-hand, that she had to resist the urge to put a bead at the tip of each point.

I could have named this shawl Cascade Effect, I might keep that name for the future. But its name is BitterBlue.

One last tease

The process of knitting my sample for Uffish was quite enjoyable, I really like the shape and the knit was pretty simple. In the past I have explored different designs with the same shaping – why not with this shape? Of course, Uffish features the teeniest of cables, so the logical next step was lace (for me at least).

Beads and lace play so nicely together.

An alternate color scheme “Magic Carpet”

And if a few beads are good then more are better, right? Then the gradient yarn idea hit me and I thought to myself “Would it be possible to do a gradient in beads? What if the gradient in the beads went in opposition to the gradient in the yarn?” Yes, this is how my brain works.

This is in the namesake color BitterBlue

There had to be enough beads to make the gradient visible as a “thing” but I didn’t want to overkill. The final product is the result of a delicate balance of my personal desire for the sparkle and my desire to not be beading anymore. Because beading is time consuming – but oh so worth it.

This is the full size and shape

As I mentioned in my teaser post, this project represents the creative efforts of not just myself, but a couple of other very talented ladies. Kelly from The Unique Sheep and Ellen from Earthfaire contributed their amazing abilities in their respective fields to create this end result – which I think is the perfect meeting of yarn, beads & knitting. They have put together kits of these two color schemes and there are a few that will be available here if you missed out on the pre-order.

The pattern itself is fairly straightforward knitting. Knits, purls, yarn overs and basic decreases with some slipped stitches thrown in for good measure. I am not gonna lie, the beading slows you down – but it isn’t difficult. Just bust out your wee crochet hook and you are on your way. As with In Uffish Thought, the pattern is worked from one pointy end towards a long bind off (which naturally I beaded) and is therefore fairly flexible in sizing & yardage.

So many ways to wear this shawl!

Earthfaire is hosting a KAL for the shawl in September in their Ravelry group and I will definitely be there to answer questions and provide cheer-leading. But mostly to ooh & ahhh at the pretties. 😉 I could post about a dozen more pictures, but I think it better to go ahead and release the post into the wild. Hope you love it!

To wrap things up I wanted to send out an enormous Thank You to Lois. Lois is the reason why there is a sample in both of the colors, while I knit the original in the BitterBlue, I did not have the time to do the Magic Carpet version. Lois applied her experience with both beading and The Unique Sheep gradiances and produced the beauty that you see up there!

 

Sneak Preview – BitterBlue

There has been scheming going on. Scheming and plotting with a bit of nefarious activities on the side. All of it started around February of this year and I have been plugging away at it with my co-conspirators ever since.

A little peek at the shawls.

Have you heard of EarthFaire? It is a lovely online store that has a very tight focus on beaded knitting. The proprietor of EarthFaire is Ellen and I was lucky enough to get to know her when she contacted me regarding Caladan and I was pleased as punch that she wanted to carry the shawl as a kit. Kits are what she specializes in, being a private shopper for you and your knitting. She matches the perfect yarn and the perfect beads with a pattern so that you don’t have to guess what is going to work.

I could take “arty” pictures all day.

After working with her for several years I felt that she might not think I was completely crazy when I approached her with a slightly crazy idea and I was right. She was game and she brought the amazing Kelly from The Unique Sheep in on the plan and we were off like a shot! Using two images that I had earmarked as inspirational for their color palates, Kelly crafted two new and beautiful Gradiance Color-ways to be used in an new shawl pattern.

A slightly different angle gives slightly different hints.

Ellen worked with me to pick the perfect beads and then it was up to me to get the patterning and knitting done. With the help of a wonderful sample knitter to handle one of the shawls I am now at the point where I need to shoot the final photos and put the finishing touches on the pattern. But the reason I am posting this today is that if this idea excites you – you don’t have to wait. EarthFaire has put the kit up for pre-order on her site here! She has tons of info on there that I won’t be all redundant about, but it is worth looking at for details about club exclusives, pre-order discount, and a knit-a-long.

The most revealing shot.

As she mentions, the pattern will be available on Ravelry – but if you want the custom colors you can only get them from EarthFaire. I will be releasing the pattern in September to coincide with the yarn and kits being ready. This gives me a wee bit of time to get all of my ducks in a row. In the meantime, you can be sure that there will be some blog posts about how to put beads on your knitting.

Captive attention

Often times, the photography is my favorite part of producing a pattern.

This image I owe to a good, helpful friend.

This was not one of those times.

A rare moment in the past month where it wasn’t raining.

Nothing wanted to cooperate, the timing, the weather, the scarf … nothing.

Why do I love beads so?

I ended up getting the shots – but they were painfully acquired.

Detail of the blurple version

But the scarf? The scarf is easy peasy. A simple stitch repeated over the length of the scarf. Unusual for me, I know, but summer knitting should be fast and fun. The stitch is something new. I call it a Captive Double YO and it gives you a big hole that doesn’t get all crazy.

Wrong side is not so wrong

And in the DK weight version I think I like the wrong side as much as the right side. It has a very interesting depth and dimension. I had considered doing a mobius cowl so you could see both sides. Who knows, maybe I still might?

The nitty gritty on the scarf is that I knit the blurple version in DK weight cotton and the ivory one in a fingering weight cotton/silk blend. And I added beads. Because, why not? The pattern is easily adapted to be wider or narrower. You can use pretty much any yarn you want between fingering & DK weight;  heck it would probably make a nice winter scarf in worsted wool. This is not a piece that you will make only once. I have the attention span of a gnat and I made it twice.

An interesting aside to this, I thought I was going to need more than one skein of yarn for the fingering weight version but in the end I did not. The upshot is I have an extra skein of that yarn. And I bought way more beads than I needed. I was thinking about kitting the yarn & beads up and doing a give away. Possibly using it as a prize in a knit-a-long for this scarf. Would anyone be interested?