Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: hats

  • On to Sleeve Island…

    On to Sleeve Island…

    For my 8 year sweater.

    I am not sure why sleeves are called sleeve island – I know they remind some people of socks and why “knit another one just like the other one” becomes an issue for some – mostly because both items usually come as pairs – and boredom becomes a factor when working on the second one of anything!!

    The term has been around for a while, long enough that most knitters will know what I am talking about! And there is even a sweater by Kate Davies called Sleeve Island! It is a pretty cool piece of knitting.

    But sleeves are just fine in my estimation! In a top down sweater like Cathedral it means you are almost done. Sleeves are short – well for me they are short! I have short arms and I like my sleeves no longer than my wrist – usually just a shade shorter for layering or to enable me to wear one (or more) of my silver bracelets. I love bracelets! Many of mine are made by Joan Hoye, a local silversmith and lace knitter. Joan also makes my markers. Sorry no website.

    Do you collect things? I do! I have been collecting yarn for about 40 years and bracelets for almost as long, around 35 years I think. These are my current favourites.

    I collect antiques and porcelain flowers as well. What do you collect?

    It has been a busy week. The first of my Salish Sea Sweaters – Wolf Song, came back from the Test Knitter. And it is gorgeous! Well I think it is gorgeous! I hope that you will too!

    I received a couple of yarn parcels from Kate Davies

    • 4 balls of the new colour of Milarrochy Tweed – Backen‘. Backen’ is a deep burgundy red.
    • But what is really cool is the arrival of the rest of the Schiehallion that I need to knit myself another top-down sweater. This one with a fair-isle patterned yoke. I have already worked a hat to help pick out the colours I liked. I am basing my colours for my sweater on the hat Failte. Deep purple body with the rich deep yoke colours.
    • My 10 Years in the making book is still on its way as is the other new Milarrochy Tweed colour! Foxglove is a vibrant pink that I am really looking forward to working with. Picture from the web as my yarn hasn’t arrived yet – isn’t the most glorious of colours.

    I have started another hat – this one is to test out the colours for the fair-isle vest that I am thinking of knitting in the BC Garn Bio Shetland. I am using Navy for the background and the colours will sing with that to pop against, except of course for those that won’t! I have already taken one colour out of the line up – the mid blue just won’t do the job!

    Not much to see as yet – but I am determined to play around a lot in the next couple of days and weed out even more colours! Then I will knit my Sleeves!

    Be well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

    PS. Today I baked a carrot cake! i have used this recipe before and it always turns out well. I bake it as a sheet cake. It is now cool enough to ice! Yummy!

  • Every Cloud…

    Every Cloud…

    … Has a Silver Lining!

    Right now, as we are looking for the light at the end of this Covid tunnel and only finding deeper gloom, we need to hold on to the good things that we know are there! We need to hold on to our own Silver Lining!

    I think that the silver lining for most of us might be time. The extra time we have at home while we are not doing the busy things that we usually do.

    Time to reconnect to our families from work and home. Our extended families as well. Many of us are getting in touch with those that we have lost contact with.

    Time to rediscover our hobbies – those that we maintain or those that we have revisited (my bread baking skills are much improved!) now that home is our remaining haven. And the things that we do in our homes.

    My haven is knitting! Always has been! It got me through a bad marriage and a worse divorce, it was my sanity as a single mom going back to university, it helped me deal with the death of my mum and myriad other life experiences. So I knit!

    Knitting is helping me deal with Covid – in the most positive way I can. Making things helps occupy my mind so I do not dwell on the things that I cannot change!

    Covid Be Damned was my first response. The happiest colours, a rainbow of course, and 10,000 of the most sparkly beads.

    And right now the Serenity Wave KAL. Calming colours and a few less beads, and wavy repeating patterns.

    And in progress as well are many hats and accessories in 7 Hats More. Lots of quick gift knits, Lots of finishing, lots of satisfaction – again keeping mind and hands busy.

    So, on Thursday, I released,

    Every Cloud… the third hat in the 7 Hats More collection. It is knit with Milano, a light as air Merino/Cashmere blend fingering weight yarn.

    Every Cloud… is a lace patterned hat embellished with silver lined beads and topped with a little bead pom-pom. It is lined with a bright white to make the patterning pop!

    Right now I am knitting a pair of gloves for 7 Hats More. I haven’t knit gloves in a couple of years – it is time.

    These are the Mendenhall Gloves, very much still under construction. Lace, beads, a slouchy long cuff, they are going to be so elegant. They will have a hat and small shawl to co-ordinate with them, and even though this is a hat book – I feel that these glove are the feature item of the Mendenhall collection, not the hat! Sometimes the accessories are the most fun to knit. They are already my personal favourite item from the collection to date – and I haven’t even finished them!

    I love gloves. Yes – they are a little fiddly to knit – but they fit! I have broad hands and short fingers and no commercial glove has ever fit me. I make all gloves to fit my hand. They simply make me feel well dressed.

    There is something so elegant about gloves, even the most basic. They look great, keep your fingers warm and in me evoke thoughts of the classic fashion photography of years gone by… When no elegant dresser was seen without a pair of gloves – women or men!

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

  • …7 Hats More

    …7 Hats More

    One hat, two hat, three hat, four. Five hat, six hat, seven hat more.

    So about a month ago I designed this hat. And then I designed another hat and all of a sudden I had designed 7 hats and had more in my brain that were begging for release…. So why not create an e-book to hold all of these ideas and here we are! Above are the first 9 completed hats – two more are already under construction and the third is still to be started.

    It is not just going to be a hat pattern book. There are going to be some coordinating accessories. Some of the hats will be stand alone projects, single size and no accessories. Some hats will be sized to fit the whole family. Some hats will come with a slew of accessories and some will come with only one accessory! There will be 12 hats in 7 Hats More and currently an unknown number (eight and counting) of accessories.

    There are hats in almost all yarn weight catagories:

    • 2 hats in fingering weight
    • 1 hat in heavy fingering weight
    • 1 hat in sport weight
    • 1 hat in double knitting weight
    • 2 hats in worsted weight
    • 1 hat in aran weight
    • 2 hats hat in chunky (bulky) weight
    • 2 hats in super bulky weight

    There are all all kinds of techniques to choose from, slip stitches, mosaic stitches, lace stitches, cable stitches, stockinette stitches, fair-isle stitches and one hat with beads. Two of the hats are lined, one hat is knit with fingering weight yarn plus a laceweight mohair – there will be something for every interest!

    The accessories planned include a cowl, a small shoulder shawl in worsted weight, fingerless mittens, full mittens, and a few other, yet to be decided options!

    I am so excited! 7 Hats More initial release date on Ravelry is only 5 days away, Oct 1. I am going for a gradual release of the hats over a nine week period, a hat or accessory every 4 days or so.

    These patterns will be available on their own or in the book. So why a book if I am going to sell the patterns separately? Because a book gives you the opportunity to have the all the patterns for a much lower price than the separate cost of each pattern. I know how frustrating it can be to want only one pattern from a book so I am planning on alleviating that particular stress.

    The patterns themselves will range from $4.00 to $6.00 US and the book will be $24.00 US. For the first two weeks of the 9 weeks of releases the e-book will be available at $18.00, a 25% discount 😀

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette