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.

I’m headed to DC

On Thursday I will be getting up very early in the morning and heading out to TNNA which is located in our nation’s capital this year. It has been a while since I’ve been to DC, but I will be spending 95% of my time in a convention center, so it isn’t like I will get to see the city.

I am pretty excited and nervous about the trip. Well, not the trip itself but the convention. I adore meeting all the wonderful knitters but I am always worried that I am going to say something ridiculous. Actually I am pretty much guaranteed that I am going to say something ridiculous. Hopefully most people will think it is part of my “charm”. And if you want to increase your chances of me saying something ridiculous come later in the day. The more I have been talking the more I am likely to say.

If you have ever wanted to see any of my pieces in person, now’s your chance! I have plans and chains and sticks and tables and all kinds of stuff to set up my booth, which I am sharing with the awesome Andrea Rangel so be sure to stop by if you are there.

On the YouTube front I finally worked out the tech aspect of doing a Skype interview and had a lovely chat with Stephannie Tallent who has a new Craftsy class on designing your own color work fingerless mitts.

I split the interview up into two parts to keep the videos relatively short. First, an interview that is mostly about the Craftsy class ( I say mostly because staying on topic is not my strong suit):

And then we have what I call the “outtakes” which is where we went more in-depth into some Craftsy stuff and then seriously derailed into talking about knitting while binge watching TV.

I had a ton of fun making this video and I hope that y’all enjoy watching it. If you do please let me know in the comments so I can do more. If you have any suggestions on who I could talk to, please let me know!

Finally a little reminder. I now have a monthly e-newsletter that I would love for you to sign up for if you haven’t already. The first Thursday of each month I will be sending out a recap of what happened in the previous month, what’s on my needles, and a sneak peek of things to come. For at least the first few months I will also include a one time use coupon code for 25% off any of my independently published patterns on Ravelry. Click Here to sign up.

Book Look – Everyday Lace by Heather Zoppetti

I don’t know if you caught it, but a couple of weeks ago I posted a look at a book (Warm Days, Cool Knits) on my YouTube channel. I really enjoyed sharing a fun book with y’all and have decided I am going to make this a regular thing, as long as I can scare up enough books. As I mentioned in the original post, this is not really a review or a critique … this is a book that I have decided I like enough to share. I don’t feel much like tearing down anyone’s hard work, I’ll leave that to true critics. Think of me as an enthusiast!

And I am quite enthusiastic about this next book: Everyday Lace by Heather Zoppetti.

I pretty much said it all in the video, but if you are looking for a way to incorporate lace into your everyday wear then this is the book for you. And something really quite different about this? There aren’t any shawls in this book. Not a one.

Heather was kind enough to send me this book to look at, and when I got the package there were two copies! So I am going to use the extra copy (with permission) as a prize in the Knit-a-long for The Peephole Stole! If you would like a chance to win this book please come and join us in my Ravelry group where we will be -a longing until mid-June!

An Interview with Aimee Alexander

Participating in the Indie Gift a Long is a really fun experience for me. I always love chatting with knitters about projects & yarn and the threads offer the perfect venue for that. But there are parts of it that push me outside of my comfort zone and that is always a good thing.

One thing that we were asked is if we would want to interview another participating designer and blog about it. Well, that had never occurred to me as a thing to do – but why not? And by saying yes I also became an interviewee (who me?) I was interview on the awesome blog (that I happened to already follow) StringGeekery – if you want to take a peek at my babbling check it out here.

I, in turn, had the pleasure of interviewing Aimee Alexander (getknitty on Ravelry). If you would like to check out her designs click here. She is a double threat in that she is a designer extraordinaire and the owner of a yarn shop in Montana called Knit ‘n Needle Yarn Shoppe – a little fact that drove some of my nosy questions. 😉

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Q. I think it is possible that to many knitters out there you seem to be “Living the dream” being the owner of a yarn store. Having worked at an LYS, I know it isn’t all sitting around sipping lattes and knitting. How do you end up being a Store owner and designer?

A. Well, while it isn’t all as you say “sitting around knitting and sipping lattes”, I do feel like I am living the dream. I love most aspects of my job, from working with customers, to going to trade shows, and designing knitting patterns. Throughout the 11 years we’ve been open, we’ve reinvented ourselves a couple of times to keep things exciting. Our most recent endeavor, of course, was launching our own hand-dyed yarn line: Polka Dot Sheep Yarns.

Q. You are surrounded by yarn all day, which must make you itch to get your pattern ideas worked out and into the world. How do you balance your design work with your store responsibilities?

A. I work full time, for sure. Many of the day to day tasks of running the LYS are taken over by my wonderful staff. I have a social media specialist who runs our blog, Twitter, Facebook, and the back end of our webpage. I have a great team of moderators that keep our Ravelry groups (we have three: Knit ‘n Needle Yarn Shoppe, Polka Dot Sheep Publications, and Polka Dot Sheep Yarns) fun and active. And, I have excellent sales clerks at the shoppe, some of whom have been with me over 5 years. All this help frees up some time that I use to focus on design, which I can do from home while spending time with my children.

Q. Looking at your patterns, you seem to have a soft spot for cables. Do you have any favorite stitches/techniques that you find yourself revisiting or using as a “go to” in your designs?

Snow Ghost Hat (c) Polka Dot Sheep

A. If I create a stitch pattern or motif that I’m particularly fond of, I will often write it up in more than one design. The Snow Ghost Collection is an example. I have used the motif in mittens, two hats, and I’m now working it into a cowl. I do like the idea of matching sets.

Snow Ghost Mittens (c) Polka Dot Sheep

 

I can’t say for sure what type of knitting I like best: lace, cables, or color work. My passion for each tends to ebb and flow. But one thing I do like and you will see in many of my designs is the knit-in-hem. I like the firmness and stability it creates for brims of hats, cuffs of mittens, and you will even find it on the edging of my Sea of Dreams baby blanket.

Q. As a corollary to question 3, do you have a preferred weight of yarn that you consistently reach for?

A. No. I like all weights equally. For me, it’s about choosing the correct weight for the stitch pattern. For example, when I was first toying with ideas with the Sea of Dreams stitch pattern, I was working with DK yarn. It didn’t take long to discover that the larger stitch repeat required a lighter weight yarn. Likewise, a bulkier weigh yarn needs a motif with less repeats. Sugar Pine Hat, for example, is a multiple of 4, and it really works with a heavy yarn.

Q. As an LYS owner and a designer, you are in a great position to keep really good tabs on what knitters are actually knitting and want to knit. Do you see any new trends coming down the pike as far as what kind of accessories or garments you will be designing to keep knitters happy and coming back for more?

A. Initially I dabbled in designing simply because I couldn’t find the patterns my customers were asking for. (This, of course, was long before the Ravelry In-Store sales program which has been a tremendous resource for our yarn shoppe). My first few successes were simple patterns that a beginner could easily create. Bobbles for the Whole Family (written in 2006) was big local hit for me. To this day, I can still walk downtown certain to see a Bobbles on the head of a happy toddler.

I still enjoy creating simple patterns, like my Tenderfoot Socks. While the sock design is not ingenious, it serves a purpose and sells well in shops. I have found as a LYS owner that customers need and want basic patterns that they can return to time and again. But, thanks to Ravelry, I’ve found a larger market for more complex designs.

Tenderfoot Socks (c) Polka Dot Sheep

 

All in all, trends do come and go. Remember felted bags and purses? Ruffle scarfs? But mittens, hats, cowls, scarves, baby blankets, toys, and garments are always popular. And, with Ravelry, in-store sales it’s so very easy for us to find in vogue patterns for our customers and be inspired.

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Thus ends my very first blog interview! Who knew being nosy could be so rewarding? Which brings up another question – one for y’all … Are interviews something you would like to see more of on this blog? It was kinda fun and as I said, a bit of a leap for me. If indeed you would like more interviews – who would you (reasonably) like me to interview?

Remember Fatimah?

My lovely model, Fatimah? Well, I have been shooting some of her new patterns  for a collection she is creating for The Verdant Gryphon.

She released her new cowl set Afreet today and I wanted to show off the photographs. I am really pleased with how they came out and you know how I love looking at the pretties and sharing them with y’all.

This one is my favorite.

Starting things off with a bang is my favorite shot of the day. I was able to indulge my more arty side with some forced depth of field and creative composition. This kind of artyness is my instinct in photography, but in the past I have always wanted to shoot things so that they are abstracted out and simply become color and form. My challenge has been trying to find a happy place where I can indulge my arty tendencies and still effectively communicate to the viewer important information about the knitted item. I feel that this shot brings both elements in a successful way.

Could he be more handsome?

Menswear is particularly challenging. Maintaining a strong masculine look while still showing off the pattern can be another hard thing to balance. Of course it helps when you have a wonderful model to work with. Another big plus is having the designer right there who knows precisely what element of the piece they want highlighted.

Shooting actual couples is great for chemistry.

One final shot that shows off both of the cowls equally. Here the challenge was the contrast in color of the yarns. Having the gray not be too dark while at the same time not blowing out all of the details in the cream yarn … yeah, that was fun. Luckily the weather was very cooperative and remained overcast for the entire shoot. If it had started getting sunny then we would have had some major problems.

I hope that y’all like hearing about my photography adventures as well as my knitting stuff. If you could let me know in the comments yeah or nay that would be great! And don’t forget to check out Fatimah’s new pattern on Ravelry.

In Photography News

This past Spring I worked on a big photography project. I had to keep it secret, such is the nature of working on a book.

Yes, you heard me right. A book.

Not my book, but a book that I am beyond honored to be a part of. The very talented knitter Betty Salpekar has developed a completely new method of constructing socks … from the ground up.

Holding it in my hands was surreal.

These socks are completely amazing. You begin with the sole and then work your way up. This has the benefit of being able to reinforce the entire sole and therefore lengthen the life of your sock.

Canyon Walls, see how the sole is different?

And the way the construction comes together creates socks that look radically different than your typical sock. Stitches go directions you don’t expect creating effects you would have never thought you can get.

Look at how the pattern moves!

It was a challenge to do these socks justice, but also fun to try and come up with new and creative ways of shooting 18 pairs of socks. Working to try and help fulfill someone else’s vision was a fascinating experience and pushed me to approach things in different ways.

There is something about this one I adore.

But I wanted to keep the feel of my photographic style in there also, assuming that is why Betty chose me in the first place. There are so many pictures from this book that I want to share with you, but it would be overwhelming. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon. And if you want to keep up to date with what is going on there is a Solefull Socks website.

If you will forgive me one more photo; frankly, I have a hard time believing it is real.

Humbled to be in such company.

Color Love, Chevzam

You may have noticed that I tend to favor accessories. It is what I like to knit so it is what I tend to design. I like projects where I can use and enjoy some beautiful yarn but have a chance of actually getting finished within a couple of months (weeks preferably). It is the way I avoid cast-on-itis. The new is always alluring and if a project takes too long I find myself pining for something different and exciting.

Which means that I have a lot of accessory projects favorite-ed. Consequently my “Pattern Highlights” section of Ravelry – you know, the part where they suggest things you might like based on the stuff you have made and favorite-ed – is chock full of tempting accessories.

And boy did a doozy pop up yesterday.

Look at that Cowl!

Chevzam is from the always fun Alexandra Tinsley. If you want to know what I mean by fun you should check out her blog Dull Roar and if you walk a little on the wild side you might want to check out her slightly less safe for work blog. These pictures are obviously hers, but I got permission to use them here.

Why?

Because as soon as I saw this piece my brain went into color overdrive. Her color palate for this cowl is flawless and I adore the use of colors that are so close in both hue and shade that the overlapping areas are boldly subtle. The clean lines of the pattern allow this subtly to work in an awesome way. To me, this presented a challenge. Could I pick out a color palate that would work this well. Now, I am not going to bust out a couple of new cowls to test it out. But I have the technology to fake it.

I started with Apricot.

First thing I did was pull up the Malabrigo page for their worsted weight yarn and start perusing. I admit, I initially thought I might have to look at another yarn manufacturer to come up with variants; but I obviously had no idea the sheer depth of their color offerings. (As an aside, I got this page from googling Malabrigo Worsted, this morning when I went to make a second palate I went to their site and found that I was working from an outdated page – here is the current one).

For this first try I was drawn to orange/apricot colors. I adore the yellows in Alex’s original but those colors make me look like the undead. I need more warmth to balance out my skin tone. For the contrast color the spring water seemed to be a scaled back teal that balanced well with the peach/apricots. The final color was the toughest and I ended up choosing one of Malabrigo’s subtle variegated colors. Apple has tones of peach and green in it and I think it could bring something really interesting to the party. note: Alex who is know-er of all things Malabrigo pointed out to me that this is Apple Cinnamon, oops.

Lets go crazy

This morning I got up and decided that to make this subject blog post worthy I would need a second set of choices. This is when I discovered, as mentioned above, that I was looking at an older list of Malabrigo colors. After going to the Malabrigo site and pulling up the Worsted page I was all “Where is the Apricot I was looking at?” Gone. But luckily, should I really want to do the first cowl, if you google for Malabrigo Apricot you can totally get your hands on it.

Back to the second set of colors. Purple. If you know me you had to see it coming. I love purple. Initially I had Periwinkle and Orchid, but they were too close in color, so I went with the darker Curazo. Honestly, either might work; this is a situation where I would need to have the skeins of yarn in my hands to compare. For the lightest color I thought that the Pink Frost would be fun, but the final color stumped me.

I considered another in the purple or pink range to keep it monochromatic but in the end the barely yellow won out as a nod towards the original color combo. I think the pop of the yellow running down the middle would be awesome.

I cannot decide which of these I would like better. Possibly the purple, but I am loving apricot right now. Who knows? Regardless it is a fun mental exercise with the end result of me wanting to buy lots of Malabrigo. Not that that is anything new.

So, what do you think of my choices? What colors would you use?

Ah, Vincent

Whenever I read an interview with a designer I dread hitting the point where they are asked how long they have been knitting. I dread it because I know that I have a 75% chance of getting jealous, because 75% of the time they say that they learned to knit at their grandma/auntie/mother’s knee and they been knitting a bazillion years.

Then the green eyed monster starts poking me with his stick.

I am jealous that I have come to knitting so late in life. Think of all of the knitting I could have been doing all of those wasted years. But then I remember that Julia Child entered Le Cordon Bleu at 37, coincidentally the same age I started knitting, and everything is OK. And I remember that I have my own heritage art. At a very young age my father put a camera in my hands and I have been passionately committed to photography ever since. Luckily it is a love that I can fold into my knitting seamlessly. And it is the reason that I am almost as excited today as when I release one of my own patterns.

You see, a fellow designer was kind enough to trust me with shooting her work and she published it yesterday! It is my very first time seeing my own photographic art on another designer’s pattern. I could explode with happiness.

Vincent and the Doctor – by Fatimah Hinds

And it doesn’t hurt that it (and she) is gorgeous. The colorway is called Starry Night and it is in Dragonfly Fibers Pixie. I am amazed how she managed to get the pattern to so closely evoke the painting without being too terribly literal in her interpretation. It is a beautiful piece.

Serious face is Serious

Of course, you might recognize this lovely woman. She was my model for Irulan & …and Curiouser. You should probably get used to seeing her because I am going to use her as my model whenever I can!

A close up of the detail – a really interesting stitch, no?

I could not be more pleased with how the photos came out, I only hope that they effectively convey the beauty of the piece. There are many more shots on the Ravelry pattern page so I will not inflict more on you. I am curious tho, do y’all readers have a heritage art? Is it knitting for you or something else? I would love to hear about it!