A square is a pretty simple shape, but it hold so many possibilities. For a knitter a square is often a nuisance, an “I told you so!” and “…really, do I have too!”
And yes “Really you do! Or should!”
I swatch a lot. As a designer it is really important to understand the yarn chosen, what it can and cannot do and make sure before you start that the results will be as expected. So I swatch. And I make a lot of squares to find the perfect yarn for the project in my head.
Sometimes my swatches are not square – they are round! They are hats! Loads and loads of hats! Elizabeth Zimmermann often swatched a hat to test out a circular gauge. Someone always needs a hat! But most of my swatches are square.
This morning I finished another swatch. This one isn’t just square. This one has dimensions, this one has “POUF!” It is a Poufy swatch for a Poufy Vest. A new Spring Class that I am developing! While knitting this swatch and thinking about the class I came up with a couple of ideas for using this particular swatch. So I have created a little pattern to go with my list of uses!
The Gallery below might help with your process as you try one of these squares out!
In this last week I have been very busy. Thanks in part or whole to GoSadi and the designers I am in contact with there! I have spent the week setting myself up for the three following events/activities! Lots of computer work and learning curves.
First up – the Indie Designer Gift-A-Long – which runs from Nov 20th until Dec 31 on Ravelry. This looks like a lot of fun for all – KALs and CALs, prizes and patterns at a reduced price. I am one of the participating designers and I would love to see you participate.
Second up – Something special with Marly Bird – stay tuned for more!
Third up – The Malabrigo Quickies – I sent off 4 different ideas – lets see what comes back! I most likely won’t hear back from them until early next year. So patience is indicated.
I am also working on next years Classes for Mad About Ewe. I am thinking socks might be a bit too limiting, maybe I will add gloves and mittens. It has been a long time since I taught a basic glove class. Would you like to learn how to knit gloves? I love knitting them. They always fit my hands so much better than anything I can buy from the store.
Maybe something with a beaded cuff? Or are you looking for something more basic?
I love fancy gloves – they are always noticed and they still keep your hands warm.
This morning I went for a walk at Pipers Lagoon and it was a suitably moody West Coast Morning! But there was no wind and no rain so it was a very pleasant walk.
Even the ferry was moody this morning! This little bit of Old Man’s Beard caught my eye, it was so bright against the drab of the bare branches and dried up Rose Hips.
The only knitting I have accomplished this week was to add to my Legend Sweater. I am about to separate the sides for a split hem, one of my favourite finishes.
I don’t think that this version will end up fitting me. I may have made it too small and I have already started another one the next size up. Blocking will really tell the tale, but I am suspicious, it is too close, but maybe not close enough. I am rushing along now just so that I can block it.
I hope that you are having a great weekend! Just as productive as you want it to be and just as lazy as you need it to be!
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.
It is time to start thinking about Christmas Knitting. I made a few of these Shetland Stars last year. I think that I will knit some more this year.
Well I am at that point where a decision needs to be made! I have enough yarn to cast-off nicely or I need another ball to make a bigger shawl.
I am really leaning towards another ball. Right now I am at about 12 inches wide and about 5 feet long, without minor blocking. I really do not want to block it at all! I will lose all of that glorious texture – so make it bigger so I do not have to block at all!
While I have been considering my options – I was also knitting the November Hat for the Year of Hats. Meet Bobbity, especially created for Angie who really wanted to learn how to knit bobbles! I think this will fit the bill!
Bobbity was knit with Estelle Yarns Highland Alpaca Tweed Chunky. A lovely alpaca/wool blend chunky, new this year.
This morning we went for a walk around Neck Point Park. It was the perfect morning, perfectly clear skies and a gleaming sun reflecting off the water. Neck Point has long been one of my favourite walks. We lived close to it when we first moved to to town, 35 years ago. It wasn’t even an official park then. I used to take the kids there when they were little and we would have picnics. Such a beautiful place.
I hope that you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving Day as well1
The painted Fan is my first attempt at hand painting with dyes. It has become the basis of my header for the patterns I create and inspiration to keep on trying new things. Pattern was Nightfall Fan by Deborah Robinson.
Ok – everything is set up and I am at the knit until I am done stage. The only decision left is do I make a scarf or a shawl – I am thinking a shawl! So I will need another ball!
I already have a plan for the finishing. But I won’t need that for a while.
Isn’t technical stuff fascinating? My phone has an app. It is AI based of course. But it will take my rough sketch and turn it into art. If only I could really illustrate my knitting pattern ideas so well! It has been really fun to play with so I will be trying this out more!
Use the slider to see my sketch of “Quickie” and compare to the AI finish!
I have written up Quickie as a PDF. Click HERE to download the pattern for free.
The Hydrangeas are from my new garden – they are aging spectacularly!
Note – I made a couple of changes the original blog post – stitch count is 370 at the end of the last row. I also suggested a different style of needle to make the first rounds work a little more easily.
Here are the next two rounds. The body pattern should be ready by Wednesday.
Transition Rounds
Round 1 – * K3, YO, K1, YO, K1, (YO, K2tog) 3 times, YO, K1, YO, K3, slm, K2tog (YO, Ktog) 84 times, slm, repeat from * once more – 380 st. stitch count moves like this 19, 169, 19, 169. The long sides each lost a stitch.
From this point he stitch count will increase by 4 sts on each end, every other round, 8 sts total and the side stitch count will remain the same.
Round 2 – purl.
My pattern Metro was knit using the same techniques as we are working with the Quickie pattern.
A few months ago I was interviewed by Stitchmastery. Stitchmastery makes the knitting program that I use to create my charts! I was really stoked when this came out!
Look at all those pretty lace patterns, all charts created by Stitchmastery.
I love working with striping yarns. Moving the stripes around in different ways is aways challenging. This technique is a little challenging, but great for the adventurous knitter.
This striping yarn is Poema Stripes by Laine du Nord
I have started a new scarf, one with a different style of cast-on. For the knitting nerds outs there – have you every knit a rectangular scarf or shawl in the round? Do you know the magic loop method? Why not give this a try?
Basic instructions for a worsted start:
Using a 5.0mm US#8 80cm 32in circ, and using a knitted cast-on (you know, the one with the loopy edge) 170 st. Knit 1 row. With a 150cm 60in needle of the same size, turn work so that the RS is facing with the cast-on edge on the top.
Pro Tip – one that I forgot until I didn’t need to remember – DUH! – if you have them use a 60 in cord with the short tips – you will be knitting in the round without the rabbit ears a lot sooner (magic loop).
Pull working yarn up and using the new, longer needle, pick-up and knit 170 sts from the cast-on edge. Pull up enough loop so that the needle can turn the corner, YO, knit 170 sts, YO, place BORM marker – 342 sts.
I love the way the stitches make “turkey tails” as you move them along the cord.
You will need to pull out the extra cord at each end to turn the corner for the first 10 rounds or so.
I’ve been busy. Selling my home of 30 years, downsizing, and downsizing some more. There is still a storage locker so there will be more downsizing to come. But I am still knitting.
Borealis Mitts for a November Class.
It has been a tumultuous couple of years, both personally and in the world at large. Not sure where it is all going. How about you? How has your life been progressing? Life never stops. But I am still knitting.
Did you know that I am officially retired. Not from working – though I do work less – I am retired by the definition that being retired means I get to do what I love! As I am doing what I love I am retired and still getting paid – how great is that. So I am still knitting, creating, teaching and hopefully bringing other knitters along with me.
Ocean Legend – a fall class and a new sweater for me. I am still knitting. I hope that you are too!
