I have finished two of the class samples. Still at least three more to go! I am happy with the results so far! They include a thrummed headband and a cabled pillbox style hat. I took the pictures in different lighting conditions, just to see how the colours would change.
I have no name for the headband pattern, but the pillbox is going to be called Candy Cables – just something about the colour. The white base with the glowing peach mohair looks like candy to me. Check out the mohair halo – so pretty!
An i-cord bind-off creates a very defined edge with almost no give. It is perfect for adding stability any edge that needs a little extra something to keep everything together. It is also a very strong edge and was often used in traditional sweaters, such as Fishermen Ganseys, at shoulder joins to help those seams keep their shape.
In the Beach Bucket pattern I am using the I-cord bind-off in a contrasting colour to both highlight the edge and define its shape.
The video will give you an understanding of how to create the I-cord to start the bind-off and the basic steps of the bind-off.
I have cleaned and organized everything. OK – everything might be a bit over the top but I have accomplished a few very necessary jobs!
I have unearthed my computer desk and my yarn winding station. My stash has been realigned and in some cases reassigned to different locations. I have filed away multiple stacks of papers ie. trashed or recycled them. There is still one stack of papers left to organize into different files. That will wait until next weekend.
You can see that it is a bit of mess.
As I dug in, I got a little distracted along the way…. knit a thing…. wound some yarn.
The little cowl is a test knit of a new yarn that is coming to Mad About Ewe. And I love it! 70% Superfine Merino (non superwash) and 30% Yak, this DK weight yarn is supersoft, bouncy and easy to work with. I think I may need a new sweater. The Funnel Cowl and Mitts are complete. Click here to link to the pattern on Ravelry.
The yarn being wound is Chantal, a special hand dyed silk from Fleece Artist, Iceberg colourway. It was one of the yarns from their 25th Anniversary celebration in 2013. This huge hank weighs in at 350 grams, 700 yds and should knit to about 18 sts in 4 inches. I am close to half way now and it has no knots so far. Because it is silk and is stretchy it has to be hand-wound and it is a bit of a mess from being in the cupboard for so long. So it may take a couple of days.
I hung a few pictures that have been gracing the cupboard floors. That felt good. Everyday I have been trying to do one more thing that would get me closer to my goal.
There have been a few distractions through the week but after each one, I got back on track and kept on working. I started this project last Wednesday and it is still not quite done. It most likely will never be “done”. I really don’t work too well in a tidy space, but now the chaos is a little more tamed and much closer to “done” than it has been in a while.
My White Lavender it in full bloom.
I started this post over a month ago. So much has happened creatively in that month. Was it tied in to the cleaning? Maybe, so lets see….
I have submitted ideas for patterns to three companies – Laine, Birlinn Yarns and Ancient Arts. Laine and Birlinn were not interested in my ideas and I won’t hear from Ancient Arts for a couple of weeks. My “secret” project is complete and gone! As soon as I can I will share – I was very pleased with the results!
On the up side of submitting ideas to magazines and being rejected, I now have lots of ideas to pull from if and when I am looking for something to knit! I know we can’t like all the things and if my ideas don’t fit their vision they usually work well for mine!
Fall KAL – The Greenman KAL
I am working on a new shawl pattern. You may have noticed the two “swirl” centers I have started. They are the center of the Greenman Shawl. I hope to have the idea all pulled together in the next month, so please keep it in mind.
I am working one in Schoppel Zauber Lace Ball 100 (currently purple, but it is a striping yarn so that will change). It is a lace weight.
I am teaching a new technique at work right now. Dip Stitches, as in stitches that are created by dipping down into your knitting and pulling up loops of contrast colour to create almost an embroidery look! Meet Beach Bucket, soon to be released on Ravelry – most likely next weekend! The turquoise version is knit with Noro Kashirukuru and Silk Garden for the detail yarn. The grey version is knit with West Yorkshire Spinners The Croft Shetland Tweed in pink tweed with grey. It is not complete yet. I am using it for demonstrating techniques in the class.
I have started a couple of sweaters for myself – we will see how those go – they almost never get done as I get too distracted by other knits!
I am planning on picking up the dress again in September. Right now it is too hot to knit with double layer Lopi Einband on my lap! I have been thinking and planning how to proceed. I noticed that a few others look like they are interested! Looking forward to picking it up again.
I lived in Malaysia when I was much younger and I have many fond memories of the people and the country. One of my favourite memories is the hedges of Hibiscus flowers, such beautiful blooms. So every now and then I try to keep a plant alive with varying levels of success. This is this years attempt!
I hope that your Summer is going well. Mine is certainly going by very quickly! Lots of ideas and never enough time to knit them all!
Today is the first day of the Beach Bucket class. The focus of the class is the Dip Stitch. A very cool technique of adding extra depth of texture and colour. So yesterday Ray took a little video of how do work the stitch.
The original sample was knit with Noro yarns. Those bright colours remind me of a tropical beach bucket. This new sample is knit with West Yorkshire Spinners The Croft Shetland Tweed. More a north coast beach bucket! LOL!
There are a few other interesting techniques used in this pattern; provisional cast-on, knitted in fold, and I-cord bind-off.
The Beach Bucket pattern will be available around the 20th.
It can be said with some authority that I am more than a little obsessed with beads and the many possibilities they offer for embellishment on our knits. It is more than a pity that our society really isn’t so much into the glittering styles of the past! I would so rock those days!
Rhiannon – knit with Buffalo Wool Co Sexy yarn and 20,000 + 24 k gold dipped delicas and crystals.
Knitting with beads – There are several methods for placing a bead onto knitted fabric: between the stitches, on one arm of the stitch or on both arms of the stitch. Some methods require that the beads be strung on the knitting yarn before knitting. Some are placed on the stitch as it is knit and others are added after the work is finished. The size of bead will determine whether it can be placed on the stitch or whether it needs a separate strand. If you are planning to use thousands of beads on a project, do work a sampler first to determine the most efficient method of working the beads. When stringing beads make sure that there are no knots in the yarn.
Pre-strung beads used for loops and beads placed between stitches in a garter stitch background.
Traditional bead knitting -The bead is placed on one arm of the stitch. All beads need to be pre-strung and if using multiple colours they need to be pre-strung in reverse order.
Bead knit gloves, mitts, gauntlets and jewelery!
A bead is placed on an arm of each stitch, as you are knitting through the back of the loop. This style of knitting will have a tendency to bias. This is not a problem if the fabric is knit circularly. (Which is the only way I will tackle it!) Most Victorian purses were worked circularly and the biasing was not readily noticeable. The other advantage of working circularly is that you do not need to work a purl stitch through the back (try purling through the back of a loop and placing a bead at the same time!) Bead knitting used to be worked with small (think micro) seed beads and silk or cotton thread and very fine steel needles. There are still knitters who work in this way.
I work bead knitting with small beads (not micro) and fine yarns – lace or fingering weight yarns (not threads) and small needles, anything from 2.0mm US#0 to 2.75mm US 2. I haven’t done any bead knitting for quite a while. I have taught both styles of bead knitting but always had a hard time convincing others that working traditional bead knitting was worth the effort!
I still use a lot of beads in my knitting but they are mostly placed with a small crochet hook, and not always pre-strung as in traditional bead knitting.
So, when I decided to knit a pair of gloves with some beautiful new yarn I also decided to knit myself a beautiful bead knit edge for those new gloves.
I am seeing a short beaded gauntlet with either short finger gloves or mitts! But maybe I won’t be able to resist the lure of a proper pair of gloves! These gloves are my “swatch” for the yarn. From this I can learn about the yarns strength, how or if it has a “halo”. How much will it stretch (alpaca has no memory – so if it stretches it won’t go back). And I have something useful at the end of the knit. Many of my hats are gauge swatches. A trick that Elizabeth Zimmermann suggests as a means to learn your yarn and create something useful at the same time!
The yarn is a breeze to knit with. And yes, there is a lovely halo. The yarn is also handling the weight of the beads without too much obvious stretch. So I will continue on, and isn’t it a beautiful colour?
I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a workshop this summer to learn how to bead knit…. I would love to lead you down the garden path and introduce you to another side of working with beads and knitting!?
Check out the Orchid! It is still kicking and has opened some new blossoms!
I am now at the point where the skirt is growing, at what seems like an agonizingly slow rate. I must focus on the fact that the skirt is growing and the pattern is repeating and that is what is supposed to happen.
I switched to a 3.75mm needle about 12 rounds ago to start the slow shaping of the skirt. I will most likely drop the needle size to 3.5mm in about 40 more rounds. So between the changing the size of the needles and shaping the panels I am hoping for a lovely, gradual shaping the skirt to the waist. At that point the needle size will be 3.25mm for the bodice of the dress.
Dry blocked the skirt is 10 inches deep from the top of the 4th pattern repeat to the curve of the hem. The points are not included as length. I think that three more repeats will get me to the start of shaping panels (approx 15 inches) which will reduce the stitch count of the skirt. The reducing section will take about 45 rounds.
I work at Mad About Ewe and I get to play with the yarn. We are now carrying Brooklyn TweedShelter and Tones Light. I have been playing.
Wait there’s more! More hats, cables and hearts; double knit fingerless mittens and just so much more to do and create!
Below is “Smitten” A cabled hat with the “hugs and kisses” cable and the tree of life pattern. Classic in Grey and no bobbles, knit Juniper Moon Santa Cruz in the Palladium colourway! And Wild in with everything – cables, bobbles and hearts, knit with Malabrigo Worsted in the natural and Very Berry colourways.
Straight forward and cozy these double knit wristers are super cozy and super easy! These Cozy Wristers can be knit in any dk or sport weight wool that you might have to hand.
Because they are double knit they are also totally reversible.
I hope that your knitting adventures have been moving along with lots of colour and texture to keep your mind occupied and your hands busy!
A little over a year ago I decided to knit a dress for myself. I bought the yarn, did some swatching and started to knit.
My father’s illness and subsequent passing sort of put everything on hold.
Yesterday I pulled out my knitting and decided it was time to start it again.
Would you like to knit a dress for yourself? Come and knit one with me. It is free. It is “pithy”, to quote Elizabeth Zimmerman and it (the pattern) will be very flexible. This will be a creative recipe, a guideline, not a hard and fast pattern that you can only knit one way!
This pattern is designed for intermediate knitters with some experience with lace knitting. The lace patterning will not be difficult, in fact knitting the skirt could be a little repetitive and boring. Shaping, and fitting the top of the dress could be a little challenging. But by then you may be a professional lace knitter.
Dress pattern will be written and charted. You can find the link to the pattern in my Ravelry Store and on a post in my forum, also on Ravelry.
The dress is knit in panels. The dress starts at the hem and will be shaped to fit loosely at the waist and darted to fit a bust line. There will be sleeves, but as they will be fitted they could be omitted to turn the dress into a sleeveless dress or jumper. I am sort of putting in three sizes. Right now those sizes refer to the hem. How wide do you want your hem? These sizes were created from my gauge.
There are two panels to choose from. One (titled Skirt) will give you a lace panel at the hem and a solid skirt (the shaping will still work in the panels, these panels will also be solid knit)(no picture available). This was my first idea. Then I decided I wanted more lace and less plain knitting. I suffer from boredom without patterning.
The other panel (titled Dress Panel), the one I will be working, will create linear lines of lace up the skirt, through the shaping and into the bodice. Work the first 29 rounds as written and then repeat rounds 30 – 39 for the rest of the skirt.
Please note – the shaping panels have not been written as yet. They will be added when I get there, maybe in about 4 months. So don’t hurry your knitting along. I will not be.
My gauge is roughly 5 inches per panel (dry stretched, and pinned) I am expecting that the actual hem may be a bit larger.
Why Panels? Panels will allow the knitter to easily add or take away panels to the cast-on (how full do you want your hem to be?) and then remove them when I start adding the reducing panels. I recommend adding repeats in either, twos or threes – to make the later shaping easier. So you can take away the stitches evenly around your skirt.
Each Panel is 21 sts – 5 inches.
I am working with Lopi Einband – a heavy laceweight (or light fingering). I have approx. 2500m in my stash. I am working with undyed yarn so that I can dye it later. For a longer or fuller skirt up to 3000m of yarn might be required.
You can work with any yarn from light fingering to sport/light DK. The needle size is 4.0mm US #6 circular.
You will need to work a circular swatch to check your gauge. Or not, a swatch is just for your information.
By the way – my size is 50 inch hips, 42 inch waist and 43 inch bust. I am planning my skirt to come to just below my knees, so approx. 22 or 23 inches long. I will start the skirt shaping at about 15 inches in length. I have just over 2 inches (16 rounds) knit so far. This will not be fast. I am thinking the dress will be a year or two in the making.
It is no secret that I love to knit lace, the more complex the better. I love to design the lace first and then dive in and explore what I think the design should do.
I have knitterly friends who love to aid me in my process. Anne is one of those friends. We really got to know one another about 10 years ago at one of Mad About Ewe’s Retreats and have talked a few times over the years. She came in recently and asked If I was interested in working with some Gossamer Cashmere yarn from Heirloom knitting. She came back a few days later with the yarn and some vintage knitting books! Such a wonderful gift.
And of course, I am interested!
I received the yarn on Monday. This beautiful yarn, a 2-ply cashmere that weighs in at 25 grs with 1230 yds in the ball is going to be a challenge!
Monday evening I was swatching. I felt a little like Goldilocks, it took three tries before I decided on the correct needle size to get the look and feel I wanted. I am going with a 1.75mm and I am using the beautiful lace needles from Heirloom Knitting. They have such smooth joins and a great cord.
Right now I am pouring over my Shetland Lace Books. Looking at the patterns and thinking about the shape – I am pretty sure that I am looking at a half or three quarters circle – but I might also need more yardage. So I have things to consider.
Another knitterly friend gave me her copy of the Sarah Don’s The Art of Shetland Lace. It has a lovely inscription from Jeanie and I treasure the book.
The Art of Shetland Lace was published in 1980 and includes photographs of some of the amazing lace work from the the (Lerwick) Shetland Museum and Archives. It was an amazing book for its time. It is notorious for all of the pattern mistakes. But it was for a long time the only source of Shetland Lace Patterns. It was last reprinted by Lacis in 1991.
At the same time as I was contemplating this new project I was also getting messages on instagram that a new Shetland Lace book was coming and will be available at the beginning of April –Shetland Fine Lace Knitting. This is book is written by Carol Christianson. It was written to assess and chronicle the Shetland Museums Lace Collection and will have pictures, swatches, charts and some of the history of lace knitting, most from the Museum. I am so excited!
Shetland Museum and Archives
Just a note on the price of knitting books. This new book is just under $50 and is over 200 pages. The Sarah Don book still has the original price ticket. It was $26.95 and has 100 pages. The current buying power of $26.95 from 1980 today is $100.00. Sobering thought. Books are not really that expensive today if you look at it in this manner.
So I have started the set-up for the shawl, but is going on hold until the new book is here. I might knit just a little bit more, because I can always add to the design!
Where to go next? My life has pretty much been on hold or in chaos for the last few months. I haven’t had the energy or time to do more than touch at the edges of any of my projects. But I think that is changing…
I still need to tidy my workroom – the chaos there really does mirror my mind. So today I am going to work around the edges and make a start. I am trying to convince myself that it not really as bad as it looks.
My main desk – computer and printer and lots of little bits!
So…. what does your workroom look like? Do you have a workroom? Or a corner on the couch? Do you work best in Chaos? Or are you a neat and tidy person, everything needs to be in place or your mind is distracted?
I know I work best in chaos! But not this much! Here I don’t know where anything or everything is! So time to fix it all!
Desk area beforeDesk area – getting there
So yesterday I made the start. I was wrong, it really is as bad as it looks. Today I worked a little more. In the pictures it really doesn’t look like a lot of improvement. But I can see and feel the difference. Books are on the shelves, samples are separated from stash and I can see what needs to be shifted and maybe even where it may be shifted to!
By next weekend it will be a new room! I must admit I am cheating a little, some of the stash has found a new location, but most of it is just going back to where it belongs.
Cupboard area – beforeCupboard area – getting there.
I am working on a new stitch pattern. Something a little different, a drawn stitch pattern, one that pulls yarn through stitches already knit to create a new pattern on top of the stockinette stitches. I am calling this stitch “Feathers”. I have seen something like this or maybe even this stitch online. The technique is familiar to me as I have worked drawn stitches before. My patterns Big Leaf Maple and Jacobean are both worked with drawn stitches.
Drawn stitches are a fabulous way to embellish your knitting. They can be worked on any weight of yarn and use up those bits of left over yarn that we collect as we finish bigger projects. The basic pattern will be written for Fingering weight, Worsted weight and Chunky weight yarns. I am going to create a great basic pattern that will create hats for the whole family!
Did I mention that beads might be a possibility!?
I umm, also fell in love with a baby bonnet idea I had and it has sort of high jacked the basic knitting until it is done – but it is going to be OH so cute!
Happy New Year! It is so hard to believe that it is February already!
Life has been busy, chaotic, and generally a little off kilter of late. So what is new you might ask? That is sort of how life has been generally for most of us right now. That is the feedback I get from many!
So I have been creating, working on patterns and waiting for the last bits of the kitchen to be finished. One cupboard is holding us up!
The kitchen redo is done – except for the one cupboard and the tiling. Tiling won’t be done until the cupboard is in. The missing cupboard is my fault – I decided I needed it after the other other cupboards went in. So the one cupboard went into the queue and we wait. I will share before and after pictures when the kitchen is complete.
I finally finished writing the pattern for Lizzies’ Hap or the Roamin’ Hap. It is now up on Ravelry. And I hope that you love it!
This shawl was a long time coming.
Lizzies’ Hap was an idea that I had been toying with ever since I knit the Roamin’ Hat for Kate Davies in 2018. It came into being in 2019/2020 as a result of Kate Davies’ design competition on “Place” and what it means to you. And then Covid hit and it languished as I struggled with the changes that Covid imposed and the emotions brought about by the concept of place and what it meant to me.
Place for me meant family. My Grandmother Elizabeth, Lizzie to her friends, was part of my place.
When I first started knitting, I would ask Granny what she would like me to knit for her. She asked me for a shawl, a shawl like the ones from home, Scotland. She loosely described it as a big square with a striped edge that was knitted. At this point I had no idea of where to begin. Instead, I knit her a sweater with thistles in pink and grey, her favorite flower and in her favourite colours.
I wasn’t a skilled enough knitter at that time and didn’t know quite what she meant. She passed away before I had learned. Since then, I have learned both about the type of shawl she had wanted and how to make one.
This is my second shawl for her, the first one was a very basic hap that I knit in 2010. Only the center square with the simple lace pattern was kept from that hap. This shawl has a “thistles and heather” fair-isle insert, a striped border and a fancy edging – just for her – because she was just that important.
This shawl features a totally reversible fair-isle insert that acts as almost a collar detail when wearing the shawl.
In most ways this is simply a traditional hap shawl, in the stitches chosen and the construction techniques used. How this is not a traditional hap shawl is in the insertion of an additional border between the center square and the lace border. This fair-isle border is what sets this shawl apart from a more traditional shawl. The fair-isle border basically gets knit twice to keep the backside neat and the shawl reversible.
Lizzies’ Hap is the second pattern in the ebook Shetland Fusion. The third pattern, Shetland Fascinator should be out by the end of the month. Lots of knitting has been finished and coming together in the last couple of months.
Shetland Fascinator, knit with Juniper Moon Farms Findley Lace
And I am working on new things – like this cool stitch pattern that I found in a Japanese Stitch library! I am knitting a cowl first – an easy way to learn and practice a new stitch and then I will make a hat to co-ordinate with it! It is a variation on the bee or butterfly pattern, which I have used in a couple of other pieces – I really love the look. But I have never seen it quite like this, as part of an all over pattern.
Below is a video how-to bridge the gap that is created while knitting. The rows before are a set-up for this row.
Of bees and butterflies 🦋
And I just had to buy this new set of interchangeable needles from Lykke – the Cypra copper needles. They are beautiful! I love copper things. I have several of my grandmother’s pieces. And when these needles became available I, ahem, felt the need to own them. I was not disappointed.
Copper and VerdigrisSwans island organic merino in the verdigris colourwayCovid be Damned – beaded randomly placed butterfliesShimmering Spring – butterflies in a columnBees and Butterflies!
So life keeps on giving gifts, always new ideas and new opportunities, I am so lucky to be able to work with what I love and be able to create with my hands!
I hope that you have a wonderful day! Be well and knit happy!
