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.

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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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.

Peephole -a long

It is time for a Spring knit-a-long and it seems that The Peephole Stole is ripe for -a longing! I would love it if y’all could join me in my Ravelry group and knit this pattern along with others (click the link for the Ravelry thread)!

While it was designed to work perfectly with a 6 skein gradient set from Miss Babs, it is also supremely easy to customize. There are people in the -a long who have dove into their stash and have found many wonderful color and yarn combinations to make the pattern unique to them.

One of the wonderful things about knitting a long is that if you want to modify the pattern we are all there to help you figure it out. This piece is easy to make wider and in the -a long thread we discuss how to do that. And there is always the motivating factor of seeing what others are doing and showing off what we have done.

If that doesn’t do it for you, there are also prizes!

During the course of the knit-a-long  there are progress mile markers where, if you have posted a picture of your progress, we use a random number generator to choose someone to receive a free pattern of their choice. So there are 6 opportunities for that. At the end of the -a long (which will be mid-June) we will also have a Grand Prize and hopefully a few other prizes. I am working on getting some together, but I already have the Grand Prize and I am super excited about it.

Miss Babs has been generous enough to donate one of the six skein gradient sets in the color of the winners choice! How amazing is that?

Miss Babs Grand Bazaar

If it tickles your fancy you could win the above piece of gorgeousness! All you have to do is finish the shawl and post a finished photo by Mid-June to be entered. I will post about other prizes as I figure them out, so check back. And please, if you are so inclined come and join us.

The Peephole Stole – a study in gradient

Among all of the silly tests that one can take online, have you seen the ones that purport to test how good you are at discerning colors? The “Eye Test” ones? There are many but one day one scrolled by on the Book of Faces and it just kind of shook something loose. It was long and skinny and had thin vertical stripes of varying shades of whatever color it was in. I believe you were supposed to click and drag them until they were in the “correct” order.

But instead I saw it and I saw a stole. The first thing I did was pull up the page of Miss Babs gradient sets and look for color inspiration. Because yarn is the first thing you think of always, correct? Then, as I cannot sketch to save my life, I pulled up a drawing program and started monkeying around.

This was the best I could do to come close to matching the color set Carmen (which I fell in love with) and allowed me to decide if I thought the idea might work or if I was crazy (turns out both). Luckily this brainstorm hit me the week before SAFF and I would be able to speak to the woman herself! At the event I tried to explain my idea about working the colors out of “traditional” order and I showed her the above jpg on my phone. Then I babbled about working on the bias and adding a simple lace motif. In another stroke of luck she was able to see at least part of my vision and we were on our way!

Classic “wingspan” shot is mandatory.

Today is the culmination of that day in October. And I am totally surprised how close to my original vision it has turned out to be. After a ton of swatching I developed a simple Mosaic Lace motif (slipped stitches & lace) so that the pattern would be a relaxing knit. My tester even said it was TV knitting!

We ended up going with Carmen for the sample because I just kept coming back to it. What can I say, I love pink & purple. I am anxiously waiting to see what other knitters choose for their colors and how it comes out. I deliberately went with one where I would end up with really low contrast – almost invisible stripes. But a set with more contrast-y colors is going to look very different (and I anticipate cool).

The photo shoot went wonderfully and if you click through to the pattern’s Ravelry page you will see many more photos. I also shot a video pattern tour where I fiddle with the  shawl; show off its drape and talk a bit about the features and construction of the piece. Please check it out!

Do you have a gradient set in mind for making this? Let me know in the comments what colors speak to you!

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!

Luidia and the Sandpiper Stitch

My first new pattern of the year is a two color slouchy hat that ended up being named Luidia. Luidia is the genus of starfish in which you find the species Luidia ciliaris, the only starfish with seven arms. I thought that the top of this hat evoked thoughts of starfish or urchins, well you can judge for yourself:

Isn’t it cool? This hat was a collaboration between myself and the awesome Lindsay who is the owner/dyer of The Fiber Seed, a small yarn company based out of Tampa, FL. A really cool thing about them, other than the fact that they dye beautiful yarn, is that their yarns are all American. American wool spun in American mills dyed with American dyes with low environmental impact. How cool is that?

But truly, all of that is just icing on the cake because the colors are so fabulous and the yarn is all sproingy … I love sproingy yarn.

See, slouchy

I wanted to keep this piece on the simple side and ended up developing a fun new stitch. I started playing with the classic lifted stitch pattern called the Gull stitch, but of course I had to figure out a way to mash it up with slipped stitches. Poof, a new stitch. I decided to call it the Sandpiper stitch (LOL, Sandpiper = seabird = Gull, I crack myself up) because the slipped stitch looked like a little leg. I always love watching the little sandpipers standing on one leg on the beach. In total the hat used about half of each skein of yarn, so I have leftovers. I am considering designing a short pair of finger-less mitts to complement the hat. Anybody think that is a good idea?

The view from a different angle

The stitch is not hard, but it involves a maneuver that is non-standard (imagine that?) so I was able to use my new found video skillz to make a little tutorial on how to work the two slightly tricky elements of the stitch. I also learned from my last two videos and think we are well on on way to getting it under control. I improved the lighting set up with fancy new bulbs and changed the background from gray to white. Keep watching for a wee bit after the stitch demo is over, there is a little surprise with a swatch of a different color.

The next step in video land will be really nailing down the sound and then I think we will have it. I would love to hear any feedback you have on the videos. What might you like to see? Is there anything I am doing well or not so good? I have many ideas bubbling up and I think it is a really complementary form to help me communicate better about knitting. It really is such a visual thing and since I cannot come to each of y’alls house to show you stuff, I guess this is the next best thing.

Happy New Year

This first week of the new year has been sneaky. Somehow it sidled by without me even realizing it, so I decided I wanted to type up something all quick like just so I don’t let things slide too badly. I am knitting like crazy (as always) and will have something to show you soon. I promise.

I don’t know if y’all know it, but I have an Instagram account – if you are on there you can find me under tumpedduck I post things like this there:

Totally Unplanned

I was knitting steadily along in the passenger side when I realized that my outfit matched my kitting. Out comes the ole iPhone and I snapped this little gem. Of course, this is one of the things I am working on that I should be able to show you soon. I have about 1 1/2 repeats left and then a wee bit of ribbing to go. Blocking and stuff will ensue and of course tech editing, photographs, yadda, yadda, yadda …

It takes time. I wish I could just snap my fingers and it would be instantly available for y’all – but it doesn’t work that way.

Before the above pictured stole comes out I will have a new hat up for sale. It is currently making its debut at TNNA in San Diego this weekend. I had the opportunity to work with a new DK weight yarn coming out from The Fiber Seed and it was lovely. If you would like some hints, the hat is two color with some slipped stitches – but not my normal slipped stitches. Something new.

Other than knitting , December was crazy. Pretty much everything after Thanksgiving was a blur. My son’s birthday is in mid-December and we try to keep all of the holiday stuff to a minimum until after we have celebrated his special day. So I spent the first half of the month planning his birthday and then the second half of the month trying frantically to get everything done for Christmas. Add to the insanity that this year I am the “class parent” and had to plan his 3rd grade holiday party – well, kinda partied out.

But it is a new year and I am raring to go! I would love to hear what exciting things y’all have planned for the New Year in the comments. Any knitting resolutions? Any new patterns you would like to see from me (like specifically you want a headband or some such thing)? Stash enhancement, stash down? Inquiring minds want to know!

Looking forward to spending a great new year knitting with y’all!