au Courant

What do you want to hear about? Do you want to have a detailed description of the pattern proposal process and the wonderful experience that was working with Twist Collective? Or do you want to peer into the dusty corners to try and understand the slightly off mind that would even dream of combining these two techniques? Maybe you want to see my relatively pitiful attempt at a “fashion sketch” that is required for pretty much all proposals?

Or do you just want to see the pretty pictures? Because we can totally do that!

Photo by Linus Ouellet courtesy Twist Collective

I was waiting impatiently to see how the photography for this shawl turned out … and I was not disappointed. I hope you love it too. This pattern involved quite a bit of indulging myself. If you hadn’t noticed, I like to push the boundaries a bit, break a rule here and there. One day I was visiting my best friend (who is a knitter of course) and I started paging through her copy of The Haapsalu Shawl and, just like any knitter, was in awe of the beauty of these intricate stitches.

But can I leave well enough alone? Hah! Never. Where I stray from being on the “normal” side of things is that my first thought was “how can I make this two color?” The review I linked to refers to the book as “The Estonian Barbara Walker” which explains a great deal, considering my obsession with Walker’s Mosaic knitting concepts. Long story short (don’t laugh) I spent a great deal of time figuring out how to make this happen.

Photo by Linus Ouellet courtesy Twist Collective

And this was the result. I will be forever grateful to Twist Collective for being willing to publish such a adventurous pattern. The entire issue is absolutely beautiful and if you haven’t taken a look at it yet, you should. I will be here when you get back.

It is a big piece, my biggest to date. I am not going to lie, it is a lot of knitting. But it was nothing that even resembled a chore because of the unbelievable yarn I had to work with. The incomparable Miss Babs supplied the perfect blend of Merino and Silk in her fingering weight Shiruku in the colors Helen of Troy and Cygnus. In my proposal to Twist I was fairly adamant that they yarn needed to contain silk. This was necessary for a couple of reasons.

The slip stitch color-work technique used in the pattern creates a situation where there is a lot of compaction of the stitches. If you have handled any “traditional” mosaic work it can be quite … dense. Much of my development time has been centered around figuring out ways to thwart this tendency. One solution I have arrived at is knitting at a larger gauge than normal. A second component is the lace itself; adding in holes creates a more bendy fabric. The silk is the final component.

Silk has fine drape and allows the fabric to move and flow just as a shawl should. It also has very little memory so it improves the shawl’s ability to retain its shape once it has been blocked. Now, you might ask “Why not just go 100% silk?” which is a good question. Silk tends to be a very well defined yarn and the stitches stand out individually. Which is not precisely what I wanted. My yarn needed some floofiness, some bloom. It needed to fill in a bit so that the color-work had more of a presence.  So the Merino/Silk blend is perfect! And shucks if I didn’t have to knit with it. The sacrifices I make for y’all. 😉

Photo by Linus Ouellet courtesy Twist Collective

Well, I have babbled on haven’t I? Considering that I started out with questions please let me know in the comments if there are any questions you have about this new shawl. If it is complicated enough, or if there is more than one, I can do a whole additional post. If you have an easy one I will answer in the comments.

I want to wrap things up by sending a special Thank You out to the awesome Raveler CathyG. The knitting of this shawl took place during my jaunt around the MidWest and she was kind enough to allow me to take over an entire room in her house to block this big guy. Crawling around on the floor with someone is an excellent bonding experience and I was pleased to have it with you!

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.

In Uffish Thought – a shawl

The time for teasing is over. The new shawl has arrived!

This shows you the whole shape

In Uffish Thought. As I mentioned the name is an Alice in Wonderland reference, I think it is fun and I can guarantee you that if you search for this in the Ravelry database you won’t get many other hits!

I love designing shawls that use and show off a single skein of beautiful hand-dyed fingering/sock weight yarn. It might have something to do with the state of my stash and an overabundance of skeins that meet that description – but I don’t think I am alone in that particular boat.

Wearing the shawl “bandit” style.

I also love garter, but it sometimes gets tedious. The texture in the body of this shawl is not-quite-garter. It has a little surprise in there to break up the monotony and keep you on your toes. Another little surprise is the edge treatment. Wanting to get away from slip stitches or garter edging I went with wee cables. They are so much fun and I never even used a cable needle.

Do y’all know how to cable without a needle or do I need to do a post on that. If so I can totally do a post on that!

I couldn’t resist this shot.

Another feature of this shawl I would like to point out is its awesome drape. The fingering weight yarn is knit on size 6 needles and it produces this lovely, flowing fabric that just falls beautifully. Because the garter like texture naturally contracts the fabric doesn’t look like it is too lacy, just nicely open.

In the teaser post I also mentioned The Copper Corgi yarn that I used. This was the first but will not be the last time I use this dyer – mark my words. It also gives me a little happy moment to know that she is based out of Savannah. Being a resident of the fine state of Georgia myself it is fun to use another local product for my work. Perhaps I should track down some more ATL designers and GA yarn people and make a Peach State Pattern book. Would there be any interest in that?

As always, I have too many pictures. I just cannot resist. The other thing I cannot resist is this shape. I may or may not already be working on another shawl in this shape. 😉 When reviewing this post and looking at the pictures anew I may or may not have just had another different idea for this shape.

I hope y’all like it because it might stick around for awhile.

Do you have a perfect skein of sock/fingering weight yarn for this pattern? Tell me about it in the comments. I love vicarious yarn porn.

A Lion in the Neighborhood

I have been working on something big. I know you probably thought that I was spending time eating bon-bons and lazily not updating my blog – but I really have been working. Well, and this happened:

Couldn’t get him out.

We took our very first family vacation to the beach and my little guy got to see both the ocean (well, the Gulf of Mexico – but that’s splitting hairs) and the beach for the first time. He fell instantly in love and we learned that “We will just go look at it but you don’t have your swim suit on so don’t get wet.” was a spectacularly useless stance to take on things. But, during the six hour drive there and back I was working on something big. Something big that started at Stitches South in April.

During the yarn-fest that is Stitches South I was lucky enough to strike up a conversation with the lovely Karida from Neighborhood Fiber Company and we set to plotting. She had a crazy idea and I was totally on board. You see, she sells her Studio Worsted yarn in 400 yard/8 oz skeins. Do I even have to tell you how much I adore big put-ups of yarn? I absolutely loathe weaving in ends and big put-ups mean fewer ends. And the crazy idea?

Worsted weight = giant shawl

Yeah, we went there. A GIGANTIC version of Golden Lion Throne.

It took a good bit of math and swatching, but I came up with the necessary modifications to make a worsted weight version of Golden Lion Throne. And it was worth every minute. The colorways that Karida selected for this project are Lauraville (the lilac) and Sheridan Circle (the dark green) and they worked together fabulously. The yarn is wonderfully smooshy and superwash too. It blocked beautifully and I think the finished shawl really speaks for itself.

I used the same model so that you can see how it compares to the original.

And I only had to weave in four ends. Dances around in circles. If the original GLT is a delicate and fun accessory, this baby is something this is really going to keep you warm in style. I think I can safely say the collaboration was as much of a success as it was fun. Now, the actual shawl has been packed up and sent off to Neighborhood Fiber to live with Karida. If you are going to a show where she is, you will be able to see it in person.

If you are interested in making a gigantor GLT for yourself I am happy to send you the notes on how to modify the existing pattern. Of course that means you need the original pattern – just want to make that clear. Send me a PM via Ravelry, shoot off an email, leave a note here … or you can get them from Neighborhood Fiber at a yarn event when you get your very own giant skeins of worsted in the colors you fall in love with.

And just to bring everything around full circle:

Small person provided for scale.

I took it for fun – not the best lighting but it gives you a little sense of proportion, eh?

and Curiouser

Stitches South!

Let me explain … no, no, no, there is too much. Let me sum up …

Crazy, and crazy fun. While it is no where near as enormous and overwhelming as Rhinebeck was, it is still a whirlwind of activity. I had a ton of fun and saw a ton of awesome textile based stuff. Unfortunately I left my camera in my hotel room so you will have to take my word for it.

This was my third year at Stitches, but the first one where I wasn’t working the floor, which made for a different experience. I had expected it to be more leisurely, but I was mistaken in that assumption. I still ran around like  chicken with my head cut off. Unlike previous years, I managed to take a class. The talented Candace Eisner Strick taught “Two hands, Two Colors, Two Ways” and packed a huge amount of learning in the 3 hour class.

I learned how to tension the yarn in my opposing hand (right for me, I am a continental knitter) and knit with the yarn held that way. Then we knit with yarn in both hands. Then we knit backwards with the yarn in both hands. Really! Backwards! No flipping over and doing return purl rows. The final, mind bending, trick was to weave in long floats along the way. In both directions. It was b-mazing.

And then, of course, the market floor was a treasure trove of STUFF. I managed to restrain myself with regards to spending, but I got a few – choice – items. All in all I purchased 5 skeins of yarn and 4 books. 3 of the books are in languages that I cannot actually read. But more on all of that later, now I need to tell you about my newest pattern that debuted in the Market. It is a piece that I worked on with a local yarn store for them to sell in a kit.

…and Curiouser

The whole time I was knitting Curiosity it kept whispering to me cables, lace, you know you want to … but I was trying to keep things simple and elegant. So I was hard on myself. But when the idea of doing this kit came up all bets were off. This shawlette is designed to make the most out of a single skein of Malabrigo Finito, which is only 200 yards of fingering weight. But what luxury is packed into those yards! Lofty and soft I chose to knit it at an open gauge to let the yarn achieve it’s full softness potential.

A detail of the lace and cables

The cables are slip stitch cables to help break up the more variegated color ways and the lace is a one-liner. Once you get into the rhythm, it isn’t a particularly hard pattern. And, as with Curiosity, it is amenable to yarn substitution. You can use anything from lace weight up to DK and still have a lovely drape (based on your gauge) and you can knit for as long as you feel like knitting. If you would rather have a full sized shawl then just keep adding yardage. Then there is an added bonus of button holes built into the lace pattern – to help with keeping the wrap all wrapped up.

So many ways to wear this piece!

Ever unable to leave well enough alone, I had a second skein of Finito so I made a matching pair of mitts – which are also now available. But this post has gotten long enough. More on the specifics of these lovelies later, I will probably mix it in with more Stitches South.

So, what do y’all think?

Irulan: elegant, beautiful and fit for a Princess

Quite some time ago I gave you a hint as to which was the next subject of my Dune inspired series. It has been a long time coming, but Irulan is finally here. First off, I was lucky enough to work with the talented Dani at Sunshine Yarns and she supplied the absolutely gorgeous yarn for this shawl. UltraLuxe Light is a single ply, fingering weight, Merino/Cashmere/Silk blend and it is truly a yarn fit for the Empress of the known universe.

I just had to take an arty shot to be dramatic

I seem to be completely smitten with the crescent shaping for a shawl, but they just sit so nicely on the shoulders. Staying on without fuss is something I value in an accessory. But Irulan has a significantly different construction from the crescent shapes in the Atreides series. Those shawls are defined by what I call a “winged crescent” shape – in tribute to to the Atreides eagle. All of them have the garter “wings” that stretch around and hug the shoulders.

I would have never thought of draping it like this. Yay models.

Irulan, on the other hand, maintains the edge shaping on both right and wrong sides and the internal shaping is integrated into the lace work. In this way I have avoided any of the distinctive and visible shaping elements that can be found on many shawls.

Look at the drape of that yarn!

Not to pat myself on the back, but I am really pleased with how the subtle details of this shawl came together as a whole. From the front you have these chevron motifs descending from the edge of the shawl and surmounted by the curved texture of garter. It looks as if it could be your traditionally structured shawl with a large garter top trimmed with a lace edging.( Also, see how the second motif in hangs almost precisely from the point of the shoulder?)

Surprise – not a plain back.

But when you see the back you are presented with these large, ornamental diamond motifs set off in stockinette and garter. The outside edges of these motifs follow the shoulder lines, framing the back and showcasing the yarn and lace. The larger of the trim lace patterns, fall not in the center of the shawl, but framing the center – which provides unexpected visual movement.

I love it when someone can pull off “bandit” style.

All in all I am smitten with this shawl. With regards to nuts and bolts – it is a low yardage shawlette, you can get away with less than 400 yards depending on your gauge. Because of the large chunks of stockinette & garter, it should work well with tonal and variegated yarns. The pattern is both entirely written and extensively charted, so hopefully everyone will be happy.

What do you think? Are you ready to feel like the ruler of the Universe when you wear this?

Shawl enough for a Man

Happy New Year!

OK, glad that is over with. I have never felt any significance of the turn of the year, it has always seemed kind of arbitrary to me. Who decided that January got to go first? Most likely there is a long and historical explanation, but I cannot be bothered to go suss that out. There is knitting to perpetrate! I have had quite a few things percolating and I am stoked to be able to finally get them out into the world!

Luckily I get to decide what comes first here and the first in this new year is Curiosity.

The Sport weight version of Curiosity

It is no secret that I adore Malabrigo yarn. It is quirky and beautiful and I cannot get enough of it. They are also an awesome company who puts their yarn where their mouth is when it comes to supporting independent designers. The Malabrigo Quickies program is a fantastic opportunity for designers to pitch ideas to Malabrigo and receive support if accepted. The designer gets to publish their pattern exactly the way they release their other patterns and Malabrigo gets a new pattern that features their yarn. It is totally Win/Win.

It wears great all tucked in.

Do you remember last fall when NASA actually sent a successful rover mission to Mars? In this day and age of spectacular fiction media it is kinda easy to be underwhelmed by the photos sent back by the rover – but I am totally a space geek and was stunned by the idea that we were LOOKING AT THE SURFACE OF ANOTHER PLANET. I mean really, it is freaking amazing.

When I found out that one of the new color-ways that I got to choose from for this project was named Marte (Mars in Spanish) it was perfect. Add that to my penchant for fiddling with the odder aspects of knitting Marte became Curiosity. This wrap walks the line between shawl and scarf, you get to decide what you want to make. If you use a lot of yarn, you are going to get a shawl. If you use less, you will get something that is more of a scarf.

The shape is … Curious

And you can use any yarn you want. Any yarn, any needle, any size. I had testers & reviewers work in Malabrigo Sock, Malabrigo Lace held double, Malabrigo Rios, & Malabrigo Silky Merino. Some of the projects are not yet done, I cannot wait to see how they turn out. The upshot of all of this wiggle room in this pattern is that it is truly a unisex pattern. Depending on the choices you make you can skew the results to be completely masculine, feminine or something in between.

If you hadn’t noticed, I tend to trend toward a little complicated. But for this I tried really hard to keep things simple. Garter & Stockinette – that is all that is going on here. The shape is the only thing that is a deviation from the norm. Increasing irregularly along the center line, you end up with a long and gentle curve that drapes easily around the neck and shoulders. The longer you make it the wider the trumpet end gets, eventually you end up with something that is distinctly a shawl – but for the sample in Arroyo (sport weight super-wash) I stuck with one skein that yielded something in-betweenish in size.

Wrapped a little more shawl-like.

So – what kind of Curiosity do you think you might make? Inquiring minds want to know.

Knit a long prizes

For the last few months we have been running a knit-a-long in my Ravelry group and it finished up on November 12th. And what is needed for the end of every KAL? Well, prizes of course. This was my very first attempt at running a KAL and I think it went pretty well.

I know that with many of these type activities the designer is able to secure “sponsors” for the game and those sponsors donate prizes. I am not that fancy yet, so I came up with prizes on my own. Initially I had just planned on a Grand Prize for those who finished the shawl, but then I decided to add in a Not So Grand Prize for the entire pool of people who participated. I am including the people who finished in both lists so they get two bites at the proverbial apple, but I think that is fair because they – you know – finished!

The Grand Prize!

For the Grand Prize I commissioned an awesome project bag from the soon to be loaded Rosemary Potter etsy shop. I received the prototype for this bag in the stitch marker swap and loved it, so I purchased one for the KAL. It doesn’t look like your typical project bag but is still supremely functional.

You have no idea how hard it was to take this picture.

The inside has pockets and stuff! But of course I could not sent it out to the recipient all empty and sad …

I love me a Chibi

So I put a few trinkets inside. The Chibi might seem like a small thing, but I wish I had one for every project bag I own. They are the most convenient little things and without that little tube I lose yarn needles like nobody’s business. And, you know, could I send it out without yarn? I thought that a skein of Wollmeise Twin in Petit Poison no. 5 would be a fun bonus. I assume that anyone who is doing this KAL is a shawl knitter, and Wollmeise makes awesome shawls.

And then, the Not So Grand Prize:

Slightly Less Grand – but still fun!

I got this little felted notions bag at a local Art & Craft Fair and thought it would be perfect for this. It is made out of a recycled Faire Isle sweater and makes me smile every time I look at it. Then I thought I could include something fun to celebrate the re-release of Atreides (more on that later). When I decided to add beads to Atreides the wonderful Ellen at Earthfaire.com (purveyor of fine yarn, beads & knitting patterns) helped me narrow down my bead choice to two colors – and then sent me both.

A little sneak peek at a blog post to come.

One of the colors barely edged out the other for the sample, and that left me with a second set of beads. Ellen graciously allowed me to send it on in this prize and now one of my KAL participants will get them. And of course if you have beads you need a way to apply them to your knitting, so I got a wee crochet hook for that purpose. Finally, if the winner doesn’t already have their very own copy of Atreides they will soon.

And that’s it! Lots of pictures to tide you over the holiday and so much fun coming down the pike.

I guess it is time to start plotting a new KAL. Any suggestions as to what we should do next? Maybe the beaded Atreides or the independent release of the Scarab Shawl? Or something new? Because I totally have some new stuff coming! Actually, something really fun is happening in January, here’s a hint.

October ate my life

Holy cow, October was a whirlwind. Between managing the complex schedule of my new Kindergartener, Atlanta’s Shop Hop, Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool, and Halloween – I just lost an entire month. It was plum crazy. Which is not to say that I didn’t do any knitting. I totally did. I have a little surprise that should be coming out soon and I managed a fast and fun new pattern that is currently in testing. Hopefully I will get it out this month also.

But right now I am working on re-knitting a previous shawl. I KNOW, crazy talk!

But I kinda have to. You see, this summer I was lucky enough to have a shawl pattern published in the great UK magazine Knit Now. Because Knit Now is in the UK, I send the sample of – never to be seen again. It isn’t that they wouldn’t give it back, but the amount of rigamarole I would have to invest to get it back is not worth the time and money it would take. Instead I let them auction the piece off for charity, frankly it is a win/win as far as I am concerned.

It’s called the Scarab Shawl – here is a bit of a peek

But I need a sample. I need to take photographs and I just get all nervous if I don’t have a sample. What if I need to do something with the sample? What if, sometime in the nebulous future, I am actually in a position to do a trunk show … waitaminit … gotta quit laughing hysterically … Regardless of the sanity of the desire, I wan/need a new sample. The rights to publish the shawl independently revert to me in December and I need to be ready to hit the ground running.

The original piece was for the Summer and the yarn choice I made was tailored to that idea. Knit in a cotton/wool blend it is a great sundress shawl. For my new sample and for December  I want to see how a different yarn choice will work out. Yarn makes a monumental difference in how a knitted item turns out. You can take the exact same pattern and knit it in different yarns and get wildly different finished pieces.

Even I have to knit swatches. Really, I do.

Instead of an accessory for  picnic in the park I want an elegant drape for a holiday soiree. Something luxurious to wear to a fancy dress up party or to simply class up an outfit. Believe it or not, a different yarn in the same pattern will do this. And I managed to acquire the perfect yarn. Miss. Babs Tierno is a 50/50 Alpaca/Silk blend in the DK weight that I need for this shawl. And it is fabulous to work with. I have been swatching (as you can see above) to make sure my gauge is good before I hit the extra long cast on. It also comes in generous 310 yards skeins, so I am taking the opportunity to add a few repeats to the pattern to make a positively enormous shawl.
With the instructions for the larger size I will have a little “added bonus” for the downloadable pattern that wasn’t in the publication. Yay! Of course you can still make it in the original yarn, or substitute something of your own plotting to make the shawl uniquely yours. Could be fun!

Golden Lion Throne

I have been planning this post for some time, but life has conspired against me. You see, I decided that it was best to not write a blog post while under the influence of serious pain medication. While that might have been terribly amusing for y’all, it also could be terribly embarrassing pour moi. So I had to wait until I was well on the road to recovery. To avoid providing waaaay too much information, lets just say I had major abdominal surgery.

Moving on…

Sometimes it is about beauty, not warmth.

There are some amazingly talented independent dyers out there and for this project I was lucky enough to work with one of them. I had this idea for this shawl, but I couldn’t find the precise colors that I wanted to work with – enter Hermione Jean Creations. Shannon is the brainchild behind the operation and she was able to take my inspiration photo and develop the colors I needed for this crazy project.

Color-work lace.

Yep, completely lost it I have.

Actually, it isn’t that bad. Instead of trying to do stranded work, I chose to use mosaic color-work techniques. With mosaic, you are only working with one strand of yarn at any given time – opposing color patterning is created by strategically slipping stitches. This causes the slipped stitches to pull across the line of color and creates patterns. If you can knit stripes & work lace, you can knit this shawl.

Not that I am claiming that it is “easy”, it just isn’t as hard as it looks.

The pattern is not quite ready yet but I decided to have some fun during the month of August – because it is my one year Anniversary of designing! For the month of August Golden Lion Throne is available to pre-order on Ravelry for 25% off the full price. On September 1st the price will be $6. While you will not be able to download the full pattern right now – you will have access to a gauge swatch pattern.

Why, you might ask? Well, there really isn’t any stockinette in the pattern so a stockinette gauge would be utterly useless. To solve this problem I wrote an “in pattern” swatch for y’all. It is a way to test your gauge and practice the not-as-hard-as-it-looks technique at the same time and test out your color choices. Talk about a win/win situation! To add a little sugar to the pot, if you participate in the August Swatch-a-long in my Ravelry “fan” group then you can also get an additional discount for posting a picture of a finished swatch. I’m going crazy I tell you.

It’s an all fancy shot.

There are a few other fun things going on in August in my group. A stitch marker swatch and a Project Progress Party where you can be entered into weekly drawings for a prize. So if you feel like participating, come on over.

If  anyone has any questions about the shawl or the mosaic lace technique – feel free to ask in the comments. I will be happy to answer. What do you think of the idea?

Can I get away with one more picture?