It is so hard to believe that after this month, there will be only three squares left to get to the planned sixteen squares. How fast this year has gone!
It is fall here on the West Coast. The temperature has dropped, the leaves are turning and it has started to rain. And thank heavens for the rain! It was way too dry this summer.
Fall almost always has me thinking of the past. The past year and the past years.
Do you save up memories? You know, those moments that you experience that you want to be able to revisit, so you drink in every moment and try to preserve it in your mind’s eye. I have a few of those moments.
One of them is a fall moment:
I am 13. We have just moved back to the Okanagan and were living in a house on Mount Boucherie. My parents were looking for a house across the lake in Kelowna. While they looked, I still had to go to school.
The school wasn’t too far away if you crossed through the orchards. Which I did.
One morning, it was so frosty that the grasses crunched and the leaves and few apples left on the trees were sparkly. The air was thick and moist, foggy. And that orchard was magic. I walked through, taking it all in.
I was in the habit of eating an apple as I crossed through the orchard. The pickers had missed a few and they tasted so good!
This morning, the apple tasted even better. So good. I had never tasted an apple so sweet and so crisp.
I learned later that certain fruit, like some apples and grapes, improve when they get frostbitten.
This was my fall moment, and my inspiration for this month’s square.
So if you like vintage looks — with or without beads — this set might tickle your fancy.
Life here has been busy. I played hooky one weekend. I will tell you all about it in my next blog post.
And I went down to Victoria to see my daughter and went to Gala Fabrics. I, umm, may have bought a few items. A very dangerous store.
Right beside the till, a very dangerous spot, was this innocent looking bowl of buttons. They were all made of stone. And there were enough to actually use on a project – as yet unknown. My button box thanks me!
I am looking forward to a great start to autumn, aren’t you?
I think about colour a great deal. As a designer, colour is a very important part of my design process. As a person, colour is an even more important part of my life, of your life. Colour is embedded in how we describe experience.
1. Colour is already in our language
We experience a lot of things in colour. Have you thought of how many times we use colour to define the moment? Here are a few familiar ones:
seeing red
caught red-handed
red-letter day
paint the town red
in the pink
tickled pink
feeling blue
out of the blue
once in a blue moon
blue blood
green around the gills
the grass is always greener
green thumb
give the green light
golden opportunity
golden years
heart of gold
black sheep
black mood
black-and-white thinking
white lie
white as a sheet
waving the white flag
grey area
silver lining
born with a silver spoon
purple prose
Do we even notice when we’re doing it? We use colour as shorthand for emotion, character, value, danger and even morality. As knitters, whether we are aware of it or not we are always assessing colour. For example, which shade of red is the correct one for your next sweater project? Christmas Red – which can sometimes be confused with Va Va Voom Red, or Vintage Red, something a little quieter and warmer in the Red family?
I picked Christmas red, which may have been a mistake, not because I don’t like the way the sweater is turning out, but because the association is so strong, people seeing the sweater are calling it a Christmas sweater. Not bad, just unexpected.
2. Colour affects how something feels
Think of the emotional associations in things such as golden-hour sunlight, a storm-blackened sky, new spring green, the grey-blue of a rainy day, the brilliant colour after rain, autumn leaves, candlelight, fresh snow, fog, a spectacular sunset, or the almost artificial colours of the northern lights.
And colour can communicate without words: red warning signs and stop lights; green meaning go; fluorescent safety clothing; white bridal clothing in one cultural context; black mourning clothes; school and team colours; national flags.
Have you noticed how the same colour can produce opposite feelings depending on its companions. Red can be romantic, joyful, dangerous, angry, luxurious or cheap. Blue can be peaceful or melancholy. Green can suggest spring and growth—or illness and decay.
We have a personal colour memory. You can walk into a room painted in the same shade of pink as your grandmothers kitchen or see a garment in a faded shade of brown and be reminded of a place or person that your memory has associated with that colour.
Colours that we associate with something, or someone, in memory remain important to us, and the memories can linger for a very long time. Purple was the colour of choice the first time my parents decorated my bedroom for me. Purple curtains, purple drapes, and Oh God! purple flocked wall paper. Purple (click link to check out that bedroom) as a colour was my favourite then and is still my favourite colour now, as one of my very old blog posts can attest.
3. Colour isn’t decoration in knitting
Right now I am working on “The Sunday Series” an intensive class that is examining colour and how it reacts as it is put beside other colours in a garment.
We started with the Sunday Slouch – a gauge swatch hat. That wasn’t its only purpose; it allowed the students to see how well the colours played with each other. It came about because as I was knitting my sweater I realised that my original colours weren’t working. The first 3 inches of colourwork on my sweater were ripped back and I started again with a couple of new colours and some of my original colours, including my main.
So I designed the Sunday Slouch. A gauge swatch hat that would also allow the students to test out the colours they had selected for their own sweaters. And test them they did.
One student was totally satisfied with her colours. Another only changed one colour, but the others? They had to play a little bit harder to get to where they were happy with their colour choices.
Isn’t this a fabulous collection of colour – and you can see in here two different reds (to continue with the red theme) and how different each hat is – my Christmas Red, cheerful and bright, and then the warmer, more subdued red.
I had AI set up a chart for me with the hats and colours analysed.
Colour creates the pattern, but it also establishes hierarchy and rhythm. Change which colour dominates and the same chart can look remarkably different. Increase the contrast and it becomes graphic; reduce it and the pattern becomes quieter and more textural.
My students discovered this all firsthand. Everyone chose their original colours carefully, but they still needed to shift/change some colours before they started their sweater! The swatch hat did its job.
Colour also creates proportion. We are all working with six colours. If we used them all equally, except perhaps for striping, it could look chaotic. Used properly, the same six colours – one dominant, two supporting and three appearing as highlights – the knitting takes on a control and a sophistication.
The patterning I am using is borderline chaotic as I have been trying to use the bulk of the patterning colours fairly evenly, but spread throughout the garment. I have kept the background very defined to keep the colours under control. Cheerful is how I am thinking of the effect.
When we talk about colour and colour in our knitting there is the “unexpected” colour. The colour that doesn’t seem to fit at first glance, but becomes the colour that makes the other colours sing together and move naturally in the mix. For my sweater the unexpected colour is the light blue. It is the one colour that was both different and important. Its job in my sweater was to cut down any similarity to Christmas, and change the emotional “feel” of my background colour. It does it for me – though not for everyone. Many still call this my Christmas sweater.
So, for fun, the next time you pick a colour, think about why you chose it.
I am really missing my garden. And it is not that I am a serious gardener. I just plant and pray that things will grow. But I am a serious lover of gardens and enjoy them wholeheartedly.
It took thirty years to develop the back yard in the old house and the last year of waiting for and then renovating the new place has not allowed time for really thinking about my outdoor space. That is about to change. The landscapers will be coming in about 3 weeks and I am so excited.
So I have been thinking about gardens, in particular, my new garden, a great deal. I won’t be able to get the landscaping done all at once. It will take a few years to get the whole yard finished. But right now I have two things planned.
1.) A small perennial garden for bees and other pollinators, with a small tree as a center focus. A Pink Dogwood – so pretty and delicate looking. Around it will be Coneflowers, Salvia, Russian Sage and Wooly Sunflower and something called Little Bunny, a small grass – which I had to look up. This garden will be in our small front yard, and will add privacy and interest.
2.) I need to create a new herb garden. My old one was built by me, 30 years ago. I laid out the bricks in an old-fashioned square grid and filled each grid with different herbs and flowers. It was my favourite place in the yard. It delighted me and the bees both. I could and did sit out there for hours, knitting or reading.
My new herb garden will be quite different. We live in a bit of a hollow with a long bank down one side of the property. The landscaper is going to build a rock wall along part of the bank and fill it with dirt to level out and create a garden area. I will share the results sometime in September.
So our new garden won’t be like the old but it will have some wonderful things in it as well. It already has a beautiful rhodo and a gorgeous hydrangea on the front side of the bank. That area may get developed more next Spring.
Gardens and garden themes have always been important to me. Quite a few of my patterns have been influenced by gardens. The August Bonus Square is the newest of my garden-inspired knits.
The pattern includes a photo tutorial of how to create the Daisy Chain stitch.
The Daisy Chain stitch is a fun knit. A little fiddly but worth the payback as every 4 rows of the pattern creates almost an inch of fabric. It is also a great pattern for using up the bits of coloured yarn leftover from our other squares.
I also think that interesting textural stitches like this are often overlooked. They can look more difficult than they really are. Or maybe we don’t want to think beyond what we always knit. I believe that sometimes we miss out when we don’t try those new things, those new stitches.
Why Daisies? I have always loved daisies and all daisy-shaped flowers. Coneflowers, Lion Daisies and the lovely little English Daisies that grow wild amongst the grasses. Daisies and pansies (my other favourite flowers) were the flowers in my wedding bouquet. These flowers have faces and can come in so many different colours. And it is August, and I am missing my garden and so I unearthed the Daisy Chain Stitch. It just made sense to play with them in this square.
I have used it a couple of times before. In a little hat for the purple hat campaign, Daisy Chain Cap. It made such a cute child’s cap. The other pattern is a shawl pattern, Peace, Love and Understanding.
I love working with beads in my knitting. I try to add them to lace knitting at every opportunity. These are a few of my favourite pieces. They each have a story.
Some, like the beaded lace hat, Galadriel’s Gift, I have knit multiple times. The painted circular shawl is the Garden Gate Shawl, showing my favourite pictures of one of my painted pieces. The Shetland Fascinator, the little lace shawl, has the prettiest little beaded tassels.
Rhiannon’s Wrap, the purple shawl, is the most beautiful thing that I ever knit, that never won a prize. A story for another day. I never wrote a pattern for this large version. But there is a pattern for a smaller version, the link is attached to the beaded tassel photo in another gallery in this post.
And Covid Be Damned – The Impulsive Shawl – rainbow, bees, butterfly’s and beads – there are so many ways to add beads.
If you want to know more about the pictures below click on the picture. Some of them are linked to patterns.
But when I discovered bead knitting (beads knit into every stitch) I thought that here was a pinnacle of achievement. I have been working towards that pinnacle every since. My inspiration and resolution just got a big boost.
Treasure
I was in Victoria not too long ago, spending some quality granny time looking after my Grandson. As he is in school I had some time to wander around during the day. I visited family, met up with a friend and got myself into trouble of the best kind.
My daughter lives close to a wonderful little second hand store. I have been there a few times but this last time I found something I had never seen in real life, not outside of a museum. I have seen pictures in books or magazine articles – I found a small, exquisite, circular knit, beaded bag!
I did not buy it immediately. I went back to my daughter’s and slept on it, as it was not cheap. It was not useful and I wanted it. So I didn’t do much sleeping! I kept thinking and thinking and in the morning rushed back to the store and looked at it again. Who was I kidding – it was mine!
It is tiny, only 3 inches across and about 2 and 1/2 inches high, maybe three inches high if you include the closure. But it is perfect. A perfect little coin purse.
Kid Leather lined, designed to sit upright on a table, lavender cotton lace top and a beautiful, twisted silk cord… And the BEAD work!
Micro Bead Knit bag with Pink and Yellow and roses, deep green leaves and the bottom is a beautiful spiraling bottom, in a leaf and bud pattern. There is just 1 loose bead, you can see it resting in the center of the bottom of the bag. For its age it is in great shape!
This bag is roughly dated to the 1920’s and 30’s and unlike most beaded bags, which were designed only to hang this bag was designed to sit on the table and hold a few essentials, a bit of “mad” money, a compact perhaps, just the necessities necessary for a evening on the town.
These bags were mostly knit in Europe at this time. I can see a woman in a garret apartment in Paris madly knitting away and creating a bag for her month’s wages. I have knit with beads, a lot. But knitting circularly with such fine thread and micro beads… it boggles the mind.
My other beaded treasure was a gift from a customer, someone who wanted the bag saved and appreciated. I call it the Napier-Hemy bag to reflect the name of the original owners. This bag came to me in pretty rough shape. It is losing beads and had started to fall apart. But it is still beautiful. The work that went into such creations. The beads are smaller in this bag than in my new treasure. That allows for greater detail in the design. The colours are stronger too – less light exposure perhaps.
You might have noticed that I have been creating a few things with a tiny circular cast-on. lately I am playing with a crazy idea – I think I want to try knitting a small bag like this one.
I won’t knit my bag with such tiny beads, I am thinking of size 8/0’s and then of course what kind of pattern do I want to tackle with my beads? It can’t be too complex – I am not totally insane.
So Many Styles of Working with Beads
I am not without some experience in working with beads. I have tried a great many different beading techniques over the years. I have knit quite a few other beaded bags. Or shawls and tassels with beaded details. Beaded bracelets as well. I could incorporate aspects of these into a circular bead knit bag.
Beaded Mesh – Knitting with Beads
The yarn is BC Garn Tussah Tweed Silk
This is the Victorian Beaded Mesh Bag. It is a lot of beads and not quite so much knitting. But is was the start of my fascination with beads and beaded bags in particular.
I also designed a scarf, Victorian Beaded Mesh Scarf to co-ordinate with the bag. It is a little short scarf with beads at both ends. I have just started knitting myself a new version.
Being a small piece, knit in two pieces and grafted – it knits up relatively quickly and gives a great finish! It is also fun to wear!
I am making myself a new version just long enough to tie around my neck. You can see it’s progress in the pictures above.
You can use beads in so many ways in your knits! Below are just a few. Some of these are just pretty pictures of my work (well, I think they are pretty). If you want to know more about the pictures below click on the picture. Some of them are linked to patterns.
Just in case you want to be crazy too! Here is some information on different styles of working with beads in your knitting.
Beading Techniques:
Placed while Knitting – knitting with beads – beads are placed in pattern, but not creating a solid beaded surface
This technique is the most commonly used technique in modern knitting. A bead is carefully placed on a stitch as your knit. It can be placed before or after the stitch has been worked. When you place the bead determines which row it sits on.
The bead is placed with a small crochet hook or beading tool. The size of the hook is determined by the weight of the yarn and the size of the hole in the bead. I have a small collection of hooks from a .60mm to a 1.25mm. I always try to use the biggest hook possible, but some beads, especially the ones with the beautiful finishes have smaller holes.
.60mm hook with 8/0 bead – hook is ready to pick-up the stitchpicking up the stitchbead has been slipped onto the ststitch is ready to be worked
This technique allows you to place beads exactly where you want them as you knit. It requires a very small crochet hook – 0.6mm – 0.75mm most commonly (bead holes can vary, sometimes a bigger hook will work). Pick up a bead with the tip of your crochet hook, use the crochet hook to remove the next stitch from the left hand needle and then slide the bead down the hook and onto the stitch, return the stitch to the left hand needle and then work the stitch.
Beading Techniques: Pre-Strung Beads
Three beading techniques requiring pre-strung beads that I use; beaded long-tail cast-on, beads between purl stitches and knitted in beads. These are all pre-strung beads, easiest in one colour, more complicated with several colours.
Notes on Pre-stringing beads: All three of these techniques require that the beads be strung onto your yarn before you start knitting. The first time that you try knitting a pattern with beads I recommend that you work a pattern with knitted in beads, keep the pattern simple. A small repeat something that mistakes won’t show as much or will be easily fixed. That way as long as you have enough beads there won’t be any problem with beads not being strung in the right order. This is the simplest way of learning.
After the first time you will be able to decide if you want to knit in a coloured pattern. When working a coloured pattern the beads must be strung in the correct order. In order to do this you string the beads in the reverse order that they are being knit. The first bead knit is the last bead strung. Flip your chart upside down and use the reverse chart for the bead stringing order.
Pre-stringing Fixes: If the beads are out of order you will need to cut your yarn and fix the problem. An extra bead can be crushed with pliers. Work very carefully if crushing a bead the sharp edges can cut the yarn.
Beaded long-tail cast-on – beads are pre-strung and I usually bead every stitch or every other stitch, but for special beads, a different shape or size, the beads might be added less frequently. These beads are on the the tail (the length of yarn over your thumb). Start with your slip knot and immediately pull up 1 bead to rest close to the slip knot. *Cast on 1 (2 ) or desired number of stitches and then pull-up another bead.* Repeat from * to * until you have run out of beads and then finish your cast-on – this should give you the right number of stitches for your cast-on, if you had the right number of beads. Always check your count.
Beads between purl stitches – This is the easiest of the pre-strung beading techniques. The beads are pulled up and placed between your purl stitches The purl stitches hold them in place. This technique does not work well between knit stitches as they will fall to the purl side.
Fretwork mitten cuff – beads on the cast-on and beads between stitches in the ribbing.
Bead Knitting – creates a solid beaded surface
Method and rules: Knitted in Beads –
1) When knitting in your bead you will always knit into the back of the stitch on which you wish to place your bead. The twisting of the stitch by knitting through the back of the loop insures that the bead will be locked into place.
2) When the needle is in place in the back of the stitch, pull up the bead up to approx ¼ of an inch away from your knitting. As you knit the stitch, pull the bead through to rest on the front arm of your stitch.
3) The bead will be furthered anchored when the stitch on top of it is also knitted through the back of the loop. This is done when knitting the next row of beads in place. If beading the next row you will automatically twist the stitch with your current bead. If no bead is being knit into place simply knit into the back of the stitch above the bead to finish the anchoring process.
The beads have been knit in and are sitting on twisted stitches. You can see the twist below the beads. The bead have just been pulled through the stitch and the stitch is about to be removed from the LH needle.
If you are looking for more information on Knitting with Beads or Bead Knitting the Mary Thomas Knitting Book is still one of the best. It was originally published in 1936 and most of the modern writing on the topic references back to this book.
A New Project in the Planning Stage
I have collected so many colours of beads over my years of knitting. More than enough to create a completely bead knit bag. I would work it in Handmaiden Lace Silk. I have a good quantity of that to hand. It would certainly be easier to work with than a linen thread – if I could find some of this thread strong and long enough. The yarn for bead work like this has to be strong and long with no knots if I plan on stringing thousands of beads. And I am. Am I crazy?
So am I crazy? Or what? Are you crazy too?
If you are interested in more – I have just been looking at beads for the background. I usually order from Bead F/X in Toronto when I need a larger quantity of beads. They offer design size pkg of beads – approx 9000 beads per 250 grs of 8/0’s. These are the three possible colours that I am considering. Maybe you might want to check our some options for beading your knits.
Crystal AbSparkle PewterLight Steel Blue
I will probably only order two colours, but first I have to decide on my pattern colours and then pick the background! This may require some swatching. I dusted off my swatch instructions for bead knitting. If you are interested in giving it a try, this swatch is a fairly inoffensive way to begin.
It has been very foggy around here for the last few days. It does create a very different world when it surrounds and softens our world. Even as it lifts in the morning it leaves behind traces of singular beauty.
The Frost this morning was amazing! It gives of the sparkle of diamonds in the sunlight and rims each petal and leaf in lace.
Today is Wednesday, the middle of the work week and my day off. To rest, grocery shop and work on my knitting, patterns and blog! Maybe to nap as well. LOL!
Now it is Thursday – yesterday got interrupted by some serious knitting. I am almost ready to place the thumb stitches on my glove onto some waste yarn!
The Qing Fibre is so pretty.
My project/sample knitting is going along swimmingly while my pattern is writing lagging behind my knitting. Which is normal because I would rather knit than write! I am much better at the knitting and struggle with the writing. I blog because it does in improve my writing abilities and it fools me into thinking my pattern will write themselves, so far, this has been proven to be a fallacy. LOL!
As a knitter and as a designer I love texture and colour. Slip stitch knitting offers so many opportunities to combine both! Slip stitch knitting is very similar to Mosaic knitting in that you are never working with more than one colour at a time. The other colour in the round is slipped as you come to it. The Jelly Bean is a good example of slip stitch knitting.
I have been working on the pattern for the Jelly Bean Hat. It is just about ready for release. The charts are done and the pictures. It just needs some fine tuning.
The yarn is Juniper Moon Farm Patagonia Organic Merino in 4 colours. But it could just as easily be worked in 2 colours or every stripe of “jellybeans” could be a different colour. Knitters choice 🙂
My remainder of the samples for the Winter/Spring classes are coming along. I really only have two samples left to knit.
It is getting bigger. I am just a little ways away from dividing off for the underarms.
The Puffy Vest, which will take a while as it basically knitting two vests and then knitting them together. AND…
The Beaded and Twisted Cast-on which won’t take very long even though there are two variations on the same theme.
I am going to use gloves and socks for the samples, Which will keep the sample knitting The beaded and twisted start really could be used on almost any garment or accessory. It’s just that I particularly love it’s effect on smaller items!
The basic gloves for the class will be sampled with one of the versions of the beaded and twisted cast-on. They were started with a long-tail beaded cast-on. The yarn for the glove body is Qing Fibre Sock in the Blackhare colourway, paired with some basic black sock and size 8/0 beads.
Version 1 – gloves started with the beaded long tail cast-on and then twisted.
Version 2 – socks started with the beads randomly spaced on the knitting and then twisted.
The other example will be my Sailors Knots Socks. In this twisted and beaded cast-on the beads are placed randomly as you knit.
Epic Fail
I really struggle with the technological aspects of being a small business person in our modern world of computers. Every improvement in technology requires a new learning curve. Usually it doesn’t involve the blog but…
Yesterday I got a note that one of my posts had an error – there were two different versions, so there was a conflict. I had to pick one version. I picked wrong. SO….
My Granny Blanket post has suffered some kind of calamity and will have to be rewritten. I will work on it this weekend. Apparently it was a “me” problem I jigged when I should have jagged! I mangaged to delete the whole thing. I somehow still have a draft version that was never finished so I will use that as a base.
My Granny Blanket Swatch is building quite quickly though. I will be working less wedges than I thought (originally 16). I am currently thinking that 13 or 14 wedges might make the circle.
I hope that you are having a wonderful week. With lots of knitting and no technological glitches!
There are many reasons’ for why we knit so crazily at this time of year. For me and perhaps to you, It is simply that this season of the year, what ever and how ever you celebrate always seems to involve gifting and sharing what we have and like you I like to create gifts for those I love and for those in need.
I always try to knit a few quick hats for the unhoused. I give them to a charity to distribute or simply place them where I have seen people congregate. This year things seem more dire than usual and I know that while I can’t make any substantive difference to their lives, I can offer some time to create a few hats. Above is my “go” to pattern. It is a very quick to knit and because of the ribbing will fit almost any head. It is free on Ravelry. But I thought I would make it easy and just put it in my post. Take a bulky weight yarn and knit it single, take 2 chunky weight yarns and knit them together on some 8mm needles. I have just finished my first hat.
Have you ever noticed that your to do list is greater than your time available? How many times have you given gifts on the needle or even just a picture and a promise? I am particularly guilty of the gifts on the needles. And while I am not sure if I will do as much personal knitting this year, I am sure that I won’t be able to resist creating a few little things….
One of the things I have been working and thinking on are next years classes at Mad About Ewe. Which techniques I want to teach and how to best present them as good learning opportunities for my students.
Maybe a unique take on a yoked sweater?Or, how about some Cables and Garter St?Though I am fond of simple stitchery on top of our knitting! So many possibilities!
I am also working on getting my patterns on Etsy. This is a bit of a process and takes a little time. I am also working on my Gosadi Site. I think it is looking pretty good. I still have a long way to go. It is in the testing stage for makers so if you are interested you can look at joining yourself and have your say in helping us create a great working space.
My first gift given for Christmas will be for you! For the last 10 or so years I have released a new pattern on Ravelry as a thank-you for the support thoughout the years. Next Monday, Dec 1, my Christmas pattern will be available here and on Ravelry. It will be free for the month of December. Keep your eyes peeled!
Right now I am working on a few different ideas. A cabled hat, a dress and a shawl (both have been hibernation for too long), a headband, a couple of sweaters, and way too many others projects that need assessment!
I think this one exceeds the sum of its parts! What do you think? More pictures below.
Quickie Update
Well it is obvious that Quickie needs a new name. For starters it really wasn’t that quick and really it doesn’t suit the beauty that this project turned into! It is blocking right now – and I am rushing it along with a few blasts of warm air from the blow dryer so that I can share some pictures.
So lets have a little competition. I am looking for a name for this very pretty, textured, and quite happy shawl. It has beautiful stripes highlighted with waves of lace patterning and is finished with cheerful, bouncy bobbles! I think that it has quite the playful vibe. The winner can pick one of my patterns on Ravelry and I will gift it to you! (You would need to be on Ravelry for this as I would need a rav name to send it to!) So put your thinking caps on and come up with something that you think appropriate.
I cannot say enough great things about the Poema Stripes yarn that I used for this. The colours move beautifully and the merino is very soft and bouncy. It made for a very satisfying knit. This yarn is not cheap, but at 150 grs and 450m, there was value for the cost. It is a non superwash which was important to me as well. Some other things on my knitting list (you know the one – it is never ending), were pushed to the side while I played with this yarn. The way this yarn has been spun is amazing. The average yardage in 300grs of worsted weight wool is approx 600m or 660yds. Poema has 900m, which makes for a very light, but cozy shawl.
Basic Stats: 300 grs, or 900M worsted weight yarn, 5.5mm US#9 long circular needle. The bind-off round took almost 35 -40grs (approx 100 – 120 yds) of yarn. I had only 13 grs left after the bind-off. Bobbles do eat up yardage. The pattern will need to be updated, but that might take a while. It was approx 50 inches by 18 inches before blocking. After a relaxed blocking; it was wet blocked but not pinned or stretched, just smoothed out onto the towels. After a relaxed blocking it was 68 inches long and 22 inches wide. Each lace pattern measures 4inches across.
The bobbles as a closures was a complete fluke! But it looks deliberate! Sometimes in design things just happen!I chose bobbles for the border simply because I think of them as happy and fun and a little playful. Which is how I think of this piece.
Next Year at Mad About Ewe
I have been working on the theme for next years classes at Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns and I think I have come up with a bit of theme. I am going to spend the year looking at socks. I haven’t designed any in a while and there seems to be a renewed interest in knitting the more interesting kinds. So are you interested in socks? Did you try them and go “never again”, or did you become hooked?
When I started knitting socks I think I knit over a hundred pairs of heavy socks to give away, sell and wear. Once I move onto 4-ply socks the knitting slowed down, but I still have over 20 pairs in my sock drawer that are worn in rotation. This way very few of them wear out. I also have a few pairs umm, only half done or some just started – It is the way of socks.
There are sooo many options for socks; different heels, classic, dutch, afterthought, short-rowed and toes, box, blossom, grafted; different ways of construction including top-down and toe-up, with double points, long circs, short circs etc. Tube Socks (perfect for kids), Spiral Socks, Work Socks, Dress Socks, Slip-Stitch Socks and even the lowly basic sock, which takes on a new life in all of the fabulous socks yarns we have today.
I love the Fall, the changing of the leaves, the cooling of the temperatures and even the way the skies darken so much earlier. Even in the Fall the lingering flowers have great beauty. I have been watching the hydrangea in my new place slowly fade as the cold progresses and isn’t it beautiful?
Last Wednesday I was out at Rathtrevor with a friend. It was glorious, the wind was howling, the waves had whitecaps and the clouds were racing across the sky. There were a couple of kite surfers on the water and we watched them for a while. The eagles and gulls were gliding on the winds and the small birds were darting around the tangled rose bushes. It was an amazingly exhilarating walk! It started to rain just as we left. What a day.
Are you a soup person? I have noticed that some people don’t like soups. I love soup. I could easily have soup every day for lunch, even in the Summer. Soup with crackers, soup with bread, soup with croutons – just soup!
I baked a ham earlier in the week so I am currently making a stock with the bone and vegetables and herbs. I will most likely make a pot of split pea soup this evening. Something for lunches this week at work. There should be enough broth for me to freeze so that I can make a pot of split pea soup another weekend. Ham, at the end of the day, is a very economical purchase and now-a-days that is important. It does dinner, breakfast and lunches and then offers up a couple of meals of soup!
Happy Knitting! I am hoping for a few good names to show up!
I have been blogging off and on for about fifteen years or thereabouts. My first blog was simply called LeTissier Designs. It was great until I tried to monetize it and destroyed the work a friend had put into it for me. I sort of gave up on the idea for a while. The blog is still out there.
Expanding my world is my retirement project. Yes I am still working, but 1 day less a week. Expanding my digital world was me making sure I was always involved and interested in the world of designing, knitting and yarn. And doing so in a meaningful modern way!
Some of my initial shots of the Victorian Falls Wrap that were the basis of the LeTissier Designs blog site background and my winning pattern for Magic of Mohair in 2011. It was handpainted with dyes in a gorgeous blend of silk and mohair.
So a few years ago I started this blog. It is a little more about me and less about the knitting, though really the two are so intertwined it is hard to pull one from the other.
How do these fit together?
Well about 7 months ago I heard of a new site being developed, something to make being a small independent designer a little easier. So I started to look into it. And was introduced to GoSadi, a centralized site designed to help whomever was registered organize and share their patterns across other selling channels. This site is in the testing stage and I am testing it out.
So far I am very impressed. Just so you know, this is an unsolicited Rave about my new thing.
Next year the site goes live and right now they are looking for makers to join and test out the features. It would be similar to Ravelry in that there would be pages for your faves and your projects but the groups would be smaller and people more connected – sort of like Ravelry in the early days. I am less familiar with this aspect of the site. But if they do it as well as they have for the Designers I am thinking that it may be the next big thing in knitting.
This site does not replace Ravelry or Etsy or a personal website. It simply makes it easier for the designer, me to share my pattern across other websites. And you the knitter to find and keep track of the designers work your love.
For example I now have an Etsy site – it is about 4 weeks old and I am thrilled. I joined Etsy 10 years ago with the intention of learning how to sell on it! Well that never happened. And here I am selling patterns! Well only a couple so far! But this is a new audience, many of whom have never seen me or my patterns before! And it was easy, so much earlier than I expected.
So here I am, a technical luddite – but smart enough to take the help and expand my world. GoSadi isn’t free, but it isn’t expensive either and the help provided has been worth every penny. They have opened up new avenues of opportunity. I have an opportunity to send a couple of samples to a Vogue Knitting Event and another opportunity to participate in a Christmas Event with Marly Bird, all because of the new connections.
Today I added a pattern to Ravelry and 5 minutes later it was up on Etsy! My new pattern is the Abbreviated Vest – a short and sassy vest. A quick and easy knit.
AI version of my initial sketch of the Abbreviated VestAbbreviated Vest on me!
So my digital world is growing and I am finding uses for it I had never every conceived of. I hope that all of this keeps on being fun and keeps me young in mind and heart.
This trip to Knit City was both utterly fabulous – the best ever – and bittersweet – because it will be the last at the forum. I was there at the first one, teaching and talking! At that time I felt totally overwhelmed by the whole event. I really was uncertain of myself and my abilities back then. I regret that I did not seize that moment and walk out of my shell.
Now! I could do better. Now! I could rock the joint. What a difference a few years can make.
This year was fabulous! I met up with customers, exchanged stories and felt connected. I think that when Knit City comes back – I want to teach or organize a group visit or just Wow! myself again!
These were my Knit City investments. I love each and every one and I don’t know when I will have time to knit any of them.
Some links are included with the pictures in case you want to find out more about the farms and yarns.
This was the yarn I went to Knit City to find. If I bought nothing else (who was I kidding) I wanted this!
And I was not disappointed.
Merino lace weight, non superwash 8-plys of heaven. I am not sure what I am doing with it but I know that I bought enough for a big project!
There has been a lot of time taken in talking about not having enough time lately for all of the things in my mind that I want to accomplish. I have spoken to friends and colleagues, online acquaintences, family, and customers. We all tell the same story. Perhaps we all need to slow down and step back…
No. I am not ready yet!
I have been having fun, working hard and sometimes even not having fun! But life is still zooming on by.
Quickie update – because I have decided that my Quickie project needed to become a shawl – this is no longer really a quickie! It will need a new name. But I am beyond thrilled with the yarn and how it has transitioned from the first ball to the next. The transition is perfect. The end of the first ball matched up perfectly with the middle of the next ball! That beautiful bright blue is the transition point! Poema Stripes rocks it!
I hope that you are using up and enjoying every bit of the time you have! Nothing is wasted if we have experienced the time – both good and bad. All of it makes us who we are! Every experience teaches, enriches, and grows us. We learn from both good and bad. What to do better. What to avoid and what to embrace.
2025 is fast approaching and I am looking forward towards a calmer year, with less sadness and more joy, with more opportunities looked for and more chances taken.
1/4 inch tall this small treasure caught my eye as I walked past a trunk with a large opening at the bottom was this flash of white. Turned out it was this tiny mushroom, glowing white in the shadows.
Now sure where this month went. It has flown on by since my last post, which was the first of the month and now it is close to the end of the month.
I turned 65 this month. Not sure what that means to others, but for me it is a reminder that life is getting shorter. (I have been told that it means I am old! LOL!) So, If I want to try something new I should do it sooner, seek it out, rather than waiting for it to show up! It also doesn’t mean quitting working, it does mean changing how I work. I am lucky to have a job I love. The same job I have been working for the last 24 – 25 years. Working at Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns in Nanaimo, helping, teaching other knitters to stretch their skills and take the chance to create what they want. Teaching, sharing my knowledge and experience of working with different yarns, to help others chose the best yarns for their projects. And always playing, there are always new tools, needles and yarn to try.
Perhaps this is my knitting Motto!
Working at Mad About Ewe has brought so much joy and so many opportunities. While working, I was encouraged by my customers to try new things as well. I joined Ravelry thanks to Liz who thought that my teaching patterns would work well on Ravelry! She had to suggest it more than once, and she brought in her friends to add their support of the idea, as I was reluctant.
Liz and company were correct. Through posting my patterns on Ravelry and the feedback garnered there, I gained confidence and continued to expand my designing reach.
I entered competitions and expanded my reach in that way. One competition lead me to designing for Vogue Knitting and another started me designing for the Buffalo Wool Co. Others offered up only experience – sometimes the best of the options.
I want to do more, try more, and work with more yarns. I need to reach out more, take more chances. I started in a small way this year – next year I will try more.
I have been asked if I will retire, not yet, perhaps never! Retirement – who needs retirement – by some standards, doing the job you have always wanted when you retire – I have been retired for the last 25 years! One change to the job is that I only work 4 days a week instead of 5. That was supposed to give me more time to knit! But life this last year had other plans!
I will never stop knitting – so working in a vanguard store – one that brings me new yarn and opportunities is not something to give up.
Next year – I will add more things, more ideas, more plans!
I didn’t walk much this year – that will change. I will make the time. I found I really missed the walking and the grounding it gave me.
Next Year, it is waiting for everyone! Change is waiting! Joy and hope are waiting! What are we waiting for!?
This morning Tom and I went for a walk around parts of Bowen Park, mostly around the Millstream River. We wanted to see how the heavy rains had affected the flow! And had they ever!.
I have wonderful friends, many made through my work. One friend, Angie, did this fabulous sketch of Sophie, from one of my photographs. I had it framed. Thank-you Angie. Such a wonderful gift.
There has been a lot of knitting this month, mostly gifts.
December is the month that I devote to the gift making part of knitting life. Not everyone gets the gift I want to give, sometimes, most times, I have to pick and choose who gets a knitted gift. I make many hats and small accessories, and I love to make Christmas ornaments. This year I am making Shetland Stars.
I wanted to make a garland for my daughter, but I have only made a few. So I will make a few more next year.
Stars before and after blocking.
Have you noticed that there is never enough time to acknowledge to ones you care for in a way that means something to you both?
I think that the best gift is time. It is the hardest to find and the most expensive to give. It is also the gift most treasured by both the recipient and giver! Oh for more time!
I hope that you have had a great year. I wish a wonderful year ahead. I wish you the time you need. I wish you nothing but happiness!
