Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: knitting

  • Filigree and More Unexpected Knitting

    Filigree and More Unexpected Knitting

    Well it has been quite a week!

    I just found out that my hat pattern Roamin‘ was included in a podcast! Fleece and Harmony podcast 64

    I am so stoked!

    Also, I finished a hat, Started the first sleeve on my sweater and of course went to work. Work is kind of a hazardous place to be when you are something of a fanatic about yarns. All natural yarns at least! I use man made fibres for some projects of course, they can be very useful. But much less than natural fibres. Man made fibres generally make me itch, they just don’t breathe.

    Wools are my favourite, Blended wools, those that are spun with Bison, Silk, Yak, Cashmere or Alpaca are right up there too. But wools, non-superwash, hand painted or dyed solid, they slay me. I like a slightly textured yarn, one with a bit of bite. I don’t find these yarns itchy at all – they just knit up into a beautiful texture that suits me!

    This week, quite a few boxes arrived from our suppliers. In one was the new Super Bulky Hand Painted Colour Story by Estelle yarn – 150gr, 75m of wooly perfection. It is so new that it isn’t even on Ravelry. Check out the colours of the Colour Story Sock – the bulky is in the darker tones that are also available in the sock! So I dropped the sleeve (isn’t it wonderful how knitting will wait so patiently) and Thursday evening started to knit. This easy distraction is one of the hazards I was speaking about! Perhaps it is also part of my personality – never short of ideas!

    Well this morning I finished a new vest – a shorty version of a jacket vest with a properly notched collar and single button style closure – Classic Lapel Vest. I knit it in the Tapestry colourway. Pattern to follow in a couple of weeks.

    Last post I was starting a hat. I wanted to play with a few of the the colours of BC Garn’s Bio Shetland. I am working up to designing a fair-isle vest. The next step is a new fair-isle hat that will utilize the colours and patterning that I would like to see in my vest.

    Well, I started this first hat with 15 colours, took away 3 that just didn’t work and added another colour that did! So it takes 13 colours to knit as shown, but it could easily be simplified. It will be a great stash buster! the hat is now complete and I am so happy with it that I wrote up a pattern!

    It is called Filigree and I had so much fun knitting it. I hope that you will too! Click on the button below to download.

    FiligreeDownload

    Yesterday we went for a short walk at Bowen Park. I could hear the water roaring but we never went close. I did see an unusual flower – I think that it is a type of Rhododendron, at least it was on the edge of the Rhodo Grove. It is the photo at the top of the post. Does any one know what it is? We were expecting snow today but that hasn’t materialized – but maybe this evening.

    What is your winter like? Full on snow, wind and cold. Or mild like our west coast weather. I have lived in northern climates and in cold prairie climates, even tropical climates, but my favourite is winter here. Some grey mists, cool green foliage and all the rain you can handle – OK – the rain can get a little old, but the rest of it is just my style!

    I love the look of the devolving petals, they start to look so lace like.

    Today I am making what my mother always called Matrimonial Cake. It is really just date squares, but I think that Matrimonial Cake sounds so much more elegant. I don’t use baking soda and I do add lemon juice and a little fresh lemon peel to the dates. I also make it in a 9×9 pan. Yummm, that way the pieces are deeper and moister for more flavour!

    It is almost time to take the Cake out of the oven.

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

  • 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!

  • A New Sweater for Me – Maybe?!

    A New Sweater for Me – Maybe?!

    Ok, it really isn’t new. I started it eight years ago and have picked it up and put it down so many times as I have gotten distracted by other knitting projects – nothing is better than that next project sometimes.

    It was pointed out to me on Friday, as I reviewed my 5 + started sweaters for myself, that if I just gave myself a little push I could have a new sweater in a couple of weeks. A sweater perfect for this weather and something that would actually co-ordinate with my current wardrobe of slacks.

    Well the straight black sweater wasn’t ever going to happen. I need to rip that one back! Why did I ever even start? Well – what goes better with a wardrobe of hand knit colourful shawls than a basic black sweater? I really should knit myself one, just a plain one, one that would be a great backdrop for anything. In DK. Well between boredom and possible blindness I gave that one up. And it is staying that way.

    The cabled and lace Aran Riding Jacket is just a little too complicated for right now and even on the larger needles will take a fair bit of knitting. I am knitting it with some 35 year old Sunbeam Bainin, a traditional lanolin infused Irish wool.

    The fingering weight bohus yoke sweater in Solje is gorgeous and is supposed to be my travelling project as I am on the absolutely plain body. Who knew that travelling was suddenly not an option!

    The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.

    Robbie Burns

    Seems appropriate for our times.

    Well, the 4th sweater option I just can’t find. It would be perfect! A boxy, short, big fat cabled sweater knit in Prairie Wool on 10mm needles. It is currently lost in my stash and I am not willing to do the deep dive it requires. Which just leaves me with one option…. The Cathedral Sweater.

    It was started 8 years ago when this absolutely gorgeous hand-dyed dk weight merino from Madeline Tosh came into the store! I bought it all and started the sweater right away. It was going to be a top-down raglan with easy lace details. I really loved it! And then…. it got put down. I picked it up again a couple of years ago and really got into the body of sweater, it was going to be an A-line shape with a bit of swish, and down it went again….

    I knit for about 4 hours on it yesterday and this morning and added almost 3 inches to the length of the body! Only 5 or 6 inches left. That is motivation enough to keep me knitting. Then the sleeves. They will be fast! Lets see how fast this sweater will finish.

    I seem to be into fast knitting right now. I just finished a cowl and hat combo. Started Thursday evening and finished Saturday morning. Textured Bricks, I love the deep cushy feel of the yarn and slip stitch patterning. The yarn is Slubby Mix by Fleece Artist, in the Boreal and Earth colourways. I added this pattern to the 7 Hats More ebook as well.

    Today is a cooking day. I really do love to cook and some Sundays just seem to lend themselves to the task.

    I made whole grain waffles for breakfast and a Wacky Cake is already cooling on the counter. The recipe that I linked is pretty close to mine I think. I didn’t realize that there were so many versions! It was our family favourite when we were growing up! It was also perfect for my grandson as he was born with egg and dairy allergies, which he is growing out of now. But for a while it was the only cake I could make for him!

    I think that I will make Spanakopita (recipe from Greek with Gusto) to go with supper – finger foods in front of the TV! The Football playoffs have started and my husband is a big fan! And it gives me the excuse to cook something a little different!

    And of course I will be knitting on my sweater and winding yarn for a new project. A fair-isle vest in the Bio Shetland! I have brought home 12 different colours so far to play with – though there is this turquoise that I haven’t brought home yet! LOL!

    The Bio Shetland is the yarn I have been working my new shawl with, it works into lovely stitches, with crisp pattern definition. The first half of the shawl is resting while I contemplate my next move. There are two ways I can work the center, not sure which one I want to use yet.

    I will start with a hat to play with the colours and see what works and what doesn’t. This will be the biggest fair-isle project/pattern that I have attempted to date. I am not much of a garment designer, that requires a lot more patience and sizing expertise than I usually practise. But this year is going to be a year of trying new things I think, expanding on what I already do and just trying new variations.

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

    PS – while looking for my partly finished sweaters I found a another purple sweater, also half done and a great many of my stitch markers!

  • It’s a New Year

    It’s a New Year

    And its a new plan. There is no Retreat this year. It is kind of odd to have that space vacant. I have no planning to do, no sample knitting, my time is free.

    Not that I won’t knit, or plan or even have that much free time. I am bound by my creative nature to keep on creating – a new yarn, a new colour, an idea that blooms as I experience a walk, or a book or a conversation – I never lack for ideas! But I won’t have that event to shape any of those ideas around. Some what freeing from my regular focus at this time of the year!

    So what shall I knit in the next months? I do have a couple of projects that I need to finish.

    Serenity Wave – the pattern is complete except for the cover picture – I need to finish the edging. It will be done before the end of the month.

    7 Hats More – there are a couple of small projects left to finish for that book. They also will be done before the end of the month.

    I need to complete the patterns for two shawls – Roamin… or Lizzie’s Hap and the Georgia West Hap. I am also aiming to have those done by the end of the month.

    Hmmm…. Busy month! Maybe I should add a few extra days to the timeline – anyone know how?

    I did muck my initial plans up a little by adding another shawl. A Shetland styled lace stole in BC Garn Bio Shetland. Scrumptious wooly wool with a great crisp hand that creates well defined stitches. I gave myself this last week to work on it and I am almost halfway. It will be hard to put down as I work on the planned completions!

    I am not sure what happened to the last couple of months of the last year – not really sure what happened to the last year. I have been struggling to cope – keeping busy does help me deal with the stress I feel. Writing usually helps – but I was too busy knitting – I am working on a balance. Funny – when I read my last post I was working on balance then too! Maybe this year I will be more successful.

    My Schiehallion yarn has become Failte – a cozy beanie!

    What are you working on? How do you balance life and stress right now? I would really like to know.

    I haven’t walked every weekend – but more than I was before. I am watching what I eat! Way more than I should this last month! But it is my favourite time of year! And I did do some Christmas baking – I have a little dark cake and shortbread left. Just a little lingering sweetness to extend the Christmas Season. The tree and decorations came down yesterday and the lights today.

    So today I start my planning for the New Year – you are part of my plan! Talk again soon!

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

    PS – I baked a blackberry pie today – my husband picked the berries this last Summer. So we are smelling the sweet smell of summer blackberries as the pie cools on the counter. I hope that you can smell the sweetness of the pie and of life too.

  • Working on Serenity

    Working on Serenity

    The title this week is perfect on a number of levels:

    a.) I am finally able to work on the edging of The Serenity Wave Shawl. I have had a back issue for the last few weeks that required pain killers and muscle relaxants. Apparently drugs, knitting lace edging and adding beads to said edging do not work well together! Who knew!? So the shawl edging had been on hold for a couple of weeks. I got back to it this week and I am at about 40% of the edging done. I can hardly wait to finish the knitting and block the shawl.

    b.) I have been working on my own Serenity. Peace of mind in this crazy time has not been easy for any of us. And I had been having a rough time of it lately.

    So I took this last week off. I napped. I rested. I knit. I visited one of my favourite relatives, my Aunty Evie, and really tried to work on looking after myself. It has been a good week.

    My auntie and I share a love of sewing and fabrics. So I had to show her my new purchases from Gala Fabrics – the best fabric store and another reason to visit Victoria. They have this vintage woolens section…. $10 a metre. It was so much fun!

    My back is starting to feel better, my shawl edging is finally under way and my ebook, 7 Hats More is slowing growing.

    I added a new pattern on Tuesday, Diagonal Spin and will be adding another one tomorrow.

    Usually my knitting keeps me sane, but some weeks are more challenging than others. I have been feeling challenged lately.

    Do you have tasks or activities that you indulge in that helps you look after your sanity?

    For me – I knit – first in line. I bake and/or cook – second in line. And I love to walk on the beach or in the woods – third in line. And lately harder to do, harder to make time for, simply harder.

    Perhaps because it means leaving the house – leaving this very safe place and entering a not so safe environment. I use up all my courage heading out the door every weekday morning to go to work! Don’t get me wrong – I love my job, but in these Covid times everytime we step out our doors we are adding a little risk to our lives. I am newly risk adverse. Well not newly – I am not much of a risk taker in any way, but I have never before considered walking out my door risky business.

    Perhaps I am channeling my inner Bilbo.

    “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

    Lord of the Rings

    So I am determined to add a walk to every weekend. We will see how I do. The payback is worth the risk.

    Earlier this week, between the rains we went for a short walk at Departure Bay Beach, just down the hill. It was the morning after the big windstorm and there was debris, shells and leaves on the beach. The skies and views were still very grey, so that the colours of the leaves and shells popped!

    I also practiced a little yarn therapy. Never heard of it? I thought not. It is also called retail therapy. I bought some new yarn. Technically I ordered new yarn and it arrived this week.

    Kate Davies is one of my favourite knitting writers and she also creates wonderful yarns. Schiehallion is her new yarn and it is a bouncy, wooly, dk weight yarn that comes in all of my favourite colours (I added a little extra purple as well)! How could I resist?!

    I hope that you manage to find some serenity in your life.

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette

  • 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

  • A Busy Weekend

    A Busy Weekend

    It all started with a glorious Saturday morning walk at Piper’s Lagoon Beach. In front of us we saw the sun rise through the low clouds and spill across the Georgia Strait and behind us the moon was bright full above the ridge line. The birds were singing on the branches and the mist was low across the lagoon. It was so calm and quiet that even the waves meeting the shore were only marked by the low sibilance of the pebbles moving against each other beneath the lazy waves. It was a powerfully relaxing time that set the tone for the day.

    …. And the day just kept getting better.

    Some weekends, usually the quiet weekends end up being special nowadays just by being quiet. There were no plans, just what I felt like – which was – you guessed it – knitting, pattern writing or something to do with knitting!

    I worked on patterns. Got some good photo’s of some of the hats on Elise just as the store was opening, knit a little, maybe knit a lot, and basically had an awesome quiet day at home!

    Today, Sunday, is a little different. My morning has been full, I finished the small sample for Textured Toppers, my next release for 7 Hats More. I also finished adding the final small notes to the pattern. I am making split pea soup from a ham bone for my lunches this week. And I am planning on making a roast chicken for dinner – with stuffing etc. – a tune up for next Sundays’ Turkey – I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is almost already here! And Tom requested a Pineapple Upside Down Cake – so I will be baking as well.

    I still need the front page for 7 Hats More and I will need to start a Table of Contents as well. That is this afternoon’s task, in between the other things.

    I released 7 Hats More on Thursday Oct 1 as planned. It was a very quiet release. But I was happy. Tomorrow morning I am going to release the second pattern, Textured Toppers, and suddenly my ebook is no longer a single pattern it is now becoming a small book. A book that will grow every 4 days with a new pattern until there are over 20 patterns! This is so exciting! Which is why I now need a Front Page and Table of Contents!

    Meet the Toppers – a family of chunky knit hats and my next release for the 7 Hats More ebook. Textured Toppers in 4 sizes! I love embellishments so they all have Pom-poms but you could leave them plain or add a furry topper or a tassels or a button or whatever you can think of. They are fun and quick to knit! The baby version took only 2 hours! Not including the pom-pom, that took another hour!

    Soup is done so I have lunches for the week, the cake is out of the oven and the chicken is ready to go in, Time to relax with a little knitting. A full and satisfying day! I hope that you had just the kind of day you wanted as well!

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette

  • New Toy!

    New Toy!

    This weekend my fathers toaster died. It was old and it needed replaced. Well I took that as a sign.

    I had been wanting a convection toaster oven for myself for a while and it really wasn’t high on the “list”. But now – I could take my toaster downstairs to my father (he lives in a suite in my basement) and get that toaster oven for myself. And so I did!

    First thing I decide to make is Yorkshire pudding (something as finicky as Yorkshires should be a good test of the oven) to go with the supper roast beef! I had always make the Yorkshires while the roast sat. That made the timing never quite right. My husband was aghast. He loves Yorkshire pudding – what if it didn’t work!?

    It was a little tricky. The toaster oven doesn’t hold the heat as well as a regular oven and when I turned the heat down the Yorkshires all fell! I wasn’t happy, but I put the temp back up immediately and was relived to see them all slowly rise again and brown! So the oven will really cook just about anything that I want it too! I will need to take a little time to get to know its quirks, but I think that it was a good addition to my kitchen.

    I finished the tenth hat for 7 Hats More. This one is called Every Cloud… . It is a lined lace and beaded slouchy and I am very pleased with it. It has a lovely little bead loop pom-pom that just finishes it beautifully.

    It was my Grandson’s birthday this weekend. We drove up to Campbell River and had a lovely visit. In these Covid times everything seems a little more poignant as every visit seems that much further apart. My grandson and I played a little in the garden and I admired my daughters sunflowers and collected some acorns.

    It was a quiet visit, not rushed, yet I cherish these moments all the more now. He is growing so fast.

    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

  • As Serenity Progresses

    It has been a very busy Summer – covid has changed everything and anything!

    https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/serenity-wave-kal

    I started a new KAL – designed to be a Serene experience, an escape from the stresses of our current life – Serenity Wave KAL. If you want to know more about the shawl please take a look! It is never too late to start. We are a friendly group and there will be lots of conversation and prizes!

    We are are a little over 2 weeks in and I am a little frazzled as the first thing I did was throw out my back! But we are back on track now! So I am working towards Serenity!

    We have just started the second section! And there is lots of knitting left to do. We have lots of time so if you are looking for a little serenity,,,,,

    In the meantime I have published a few patterns and I am working on an e-book of hat patterns and small accessories! More on the e-book later.

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette