Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: lace knitting

  • Knit a Dress with Me – Part 3

    Knit a Dress with Me – Part 3

    Why a Dress?

    Why not?

    Is the glib answer. But for me it is a statement about what I am starting to discover about myself and my relationship with the world right now. Now that was the weighty answer. Reality is always somewhere in the middle.

    Over the years I have seen several dresses knit by customers, often with my help interpreting instructions and working out gauge issues. These dresses often looked and felt heavy to me. On-line I have seen the most stunning knitted wedding dresses. Made with love from lace stitches and many hours of knitting.

    Many knitted dresses are simply a long sweater worn as a dress with leggings. The concept of knitting a dress like this for myself was kind of ludicrous. I am short, quite rounded and I have always thought that a knitted dress, especially a sweater styled dress usually clings, making it look its best on on tall willowy types. I believed that I could never put a sweater dress on and not look foolish.

    I am usually an optimist at heart, but not on this topic! I needed to rethink how I looked at my clothing choices.

    I had already started to rethink my wardrobe in light of todays challenges with sustainability, examining the concept of slow clothes and the making and mending movements. Then I looked at my wardrobe for what I really wore the most often and what I had been putting my money into. I saw a huge difference between my Summer and Winter wardrobes.

    In the summer I wear dresses. Longer, fuller dresses with cotton slips and lots of movement, quite often with vintage details. Several of which I had recently made for myself. I used to sew, in the past, and i am now refreshing my skills.

    My winter wardrobe suffered by comparison. Most of my work pants were old except for the two pairs I had made myself. They don’t fit as well as I would like, but they are easy to wear and are made of wool or wool blend fabrics. My sweater and shawl collection really was what my winter wardrobe was all about. I didn’t wear dresses because they were never warm enough. I hate to be cold.

    So why not knit a wool dress?

    Boredom! The thought of all that plain knitting would drive me crazy. There is a reason why most of the things I knit are colourful, or textured with cables and patterns, or covered in lace patterns, or all three! I am often defeated by large swathes of stockinette fabric.

    It only dawned on me recently that my dress didn’t need to be plain and it didn’t need to be heavy and I could wear it everyday in different ways. Sort of like the 100 day merino dress. Though I don’t think I could wear it 100 days in a row.

    So I took some time to examine my summer dresses . What was working and why it was working. Every dress was shaped to the waist or an A-line shape. I wanted a shaped dress, not tight at the waist, but shaped and comfortable. I may look at A-line for my next dress.

    How to create the shape? I thought about reversing a pi style shawl shaping for the skirt, but I think that might have been too full. I most definitely didn’t want to make a tube and then gather it to the waist, even with a lace weight yarn that is too much fabric sitting at the waistline.

    I have knit myself a couple of sweaters that employed shaping around panels and thought that should also work for a skirt. Once decided, it was the matter of researching patterns and panel patterns in particular to create the way I wanted to go.

    I am making a couple of adjustments. After 1 more 10-round repeat I moving my needle size down to 3.75mm from the 4.0mm. I have decided to combine physical shaping of the skirt with decreasing panels and the tightening of the gauge. This will make a smoother shape – I think. Everything is a bit of an adventure through this. I am lucky to have knit as much as I have and tried as many types of knitting as I have, it does allow me to make decisions based on experiences in the past. They may not all translate to this project, but they do help form a starting point.

    Progress Report

    I have knit up to the end of the chart and started my next 10-round repeat. After this repeat I will be changing my needle size. It is looking like each 10 round repeat adds approx 1.5 inches to the skirt when dry blocked. It may add a little more when wet blocked.

    I am going to start designing the chart for the shaping panels this week (I have this week off from work and so have extra time). I am thinking that I will start by shaping out 1 panel out of every 3. And shape each of those panels over 40 rounds. I am hoping that this will be a slow enough to keep the shape from “belling out” and just be a smooth progressive line.

    Belling out – the decreases are too quick and the dress suddenly looks like it has a line across the skirt where it has been gathered up. If it does bell – the knitting will need to be ripped back and the decreasing will have to be slowed down.

    I have had a couple of people ask me why I choose Einband for my dress. They think of it as itchy. I chose it because I have used Einband before, for the Spring into Summer KAL, The Garden Gate Shawl. I was very pleased with the results from that project.

    I had knit a shawl and then hand painted it with dyes. Once blocked the I found that the yarn holds the shape well. Something that I felt was important for this project. It also takes dyes beautifully and since I couldn’t decide on a colour before hand I am hoping to be able to decide after the knitting is complete! Maybe I will even paint the fabric with dyes and not immerse dye it. We shall see.

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Knit a Dress with Me – Part Two

    Knit a Dress with Me – Part Two

    What is in a hem?

    Thank-you to everyone who has expressed interest in my journey to knit myself a dress. And for those of you who wish to join me – here is a discussion of your first consideration – I have already worked out these questions for myself!

    In the pattern that you downloaded I offered up three different hem widths. These were just arbitrary numbers based on what I thought my ideal hem would be. It can and should be changed to create the hem that you want. Every other aspect of the dress is created from your hem.

    My only caveat is to not make too narrow a hem, unless your skirt is quite short. Remember a comfortable stride is part of a comfortable garment.

    How do you decide what might be best for you?

    Start out with your favourite dress. The one you love to wear, the one that fits just right. Lay the dress out and take some measurements.

    • How wide/long is the hem?
    • How long is the skirt to the waist?
    • What are the measurements of waist, bust, shoulders, length of arm?
    • How wide or deep is the neckline?

    With this basic information we ask ourselves some questions? Do you want to keep to the dimensions of the original? Is there something about it you would like to change?

    For the moment your hem is only decision. My hem of choice is fairly full. Basically about 8 feet, 240 cm around. I like a full skirt. You may not. So look at your dresses and judge from there. I have started a forum thread on Ravelry. Feel free to ask me questions at any point in your journey.

    To figure your cast-on for your hem you will need to employ some pithy math.

    Pithy Math – My pattern panel repeat is approx 5 inches wide x I have 18 repeats. 5 x 18 = 90 inches. Since I know that this number will be a little wider/longer once properly blocked I feel pretty confident that my hem will be around 96 to 100 inches long 8 to 8.5 feet. Each panel is 21 sts wide, so my math for my cast-on was 18 x 21 = 378 sts. It will create a hem close to what I am expecting. 

    I do not and you should not expect exact measurements. We are creating a fabric and garment from a string. So many things will affect our final results. What the string is made from. The weight of your string versus the weight of my string. Your tension/gauge as different from my tension/gauge as different from every other knitters tension/gauge!

    My Dress

    My dress will be an amalgamation of my current dresses and a favourite dress from memory. So it will be all its own. The colour will be whatever my favourite colour is once the dress is complete. Right now it would be a very bright pink. Probably not by the time this dress is finished. It will most likely be a jewel tone though, probably not a subdued colour. I do love the deep jewel tones.

    Here is the hem on Francine. Wouldn’t a variation of this make a great collar. And it would need beads of course!

    I am hoping that my dress will be fairly close to the sketch. I will be adding a collar. It will be a gathered collar and it will be beaded. 

    That is the only known fact about my bodice. And I am thinking that there may be beads on the bodice and sleeves, that could change. I am also thinking that I may sew a simple slip to wear under my dress, maybe with a knitted lace edging, that could change.

    A big part of process, once your hem is decided and you have started knitting is dreaming about all the parts that will come next. Knitting the skirt will be the longest part of the process. There will be lots of time to think. I am already thinking ahead and keeping and discarding my ideas. You can too!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Knit a Dress with Me

    Knit a Dress with Me

    A little over a year ago I decided to knit a dress for myself. I bought the yarn, did some swatching and started to knit.

    My father’s illness and subsequent passing sort of put everything on hold.

    Yesterday I pulled out my knitting and decided it was time to start it again.

    Would you like to knit a dress for yourself? Come and knit one with me. It is free. It is “pithy”, to quote Elizabeth Zimmerman and it (the pattern) will be very flexible. This will be a creative recipe, a guideline, not a hard and fast pattern that you can only knit one way!

    This pattern is designed for intermediate knitters with some experience with lace knitting. The lace patterning will not be difficult, in fact knitting the skirt could be a little repetitive and boring. Shaping, and fitting the top of the dress could be a little challenging. But by then you may be a professional lace knitter.

    Dress pattern will be written and charted. You can find the link to the pattern in my Ravelry Store and on a post in my forum, also on Ravelry.

    knit a dress with me

    The dress is knit in panels. The dress starts at the hem and will be shaped to fit loosely at the waist and darted to fit a bust line. There will be sleeves, but as they will be fitted they could be omitted to turn the dress into a sleeveless dress or jumper. I am sort of putting in three sizes. Right now those sizes refer to the hem. How wide do you want your hem? These sizes were created from my gauge.

    There are two panels to choose from. One (titled Skirt) will give you a lace panel at the hem and a solid skirt (the shaping will still work in the panels, these panels will also be solid knit)(no picture available). This was my first idea. Then I decided I wanted more lace and less plain knitting. I suffer from boredom without patterning.

    The other panel (titled Dress Panel), the one I will be working, will create linear lines of lace up the skirt, through the shaping and into the bodice. Work the first 29 rounds as written and then repeat rounds 30 – 39 for the rest of the skirt.

    Please note – the shaping panels have not been written as yet. They will be added when I get there, maybe in about 4 months. So don’t hurry your knitting along. I will not be.

    My gauge is roughly 5 inches per panel (dry stretched, and pinned) I am expecting that the actual hem may be a bit larger.

    Why Panels?
    Panels will allow the knitter to easily add or take away panels to the cast-on (how full do you want your hem to be?) and then remove them when I start adding the reducing panels. I recommend adding repeats in either, twos or threes – to make the later shaping easier. So you can take away the stitches evenly around your skirt.

    Each Panel is 21 sts – 5 inches.

    I am working with Lopi Einband – a heavy laceweight (or light fingering). I have approx. 2500m in my stash. I am working with undyed yarn so that I can dye it later. For a longer or fuller skirt up to 3000m of yarn might be required.

    You can work with any yarn from light fingering to sport/light DK. The needle size is 4.0mm US #6 circular.

    You will need to work a circular swatch to check your gauge. Or not, a swatch is just for your information.

    By the way – my size is 50 inch hips, 42 inch waist and 43 inch bust. I am planning my skirt to come to just below my knees, so approx. 22 or 23 inches long. I will start the skirt shaping at about 15 inches in length. I have just over 2 inches (16 rounds) knit so far. This will not be fast. I am thinking the dress will be a year or two in the making.

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • A Shetland Lace Project

    A Shetland Lace Project

    It is no secret that I love to knit lace, the more complex the better. I love to design the lace first and then dive in and explore what I think the design should do.

    I have knitterly friends who love to aid me in my process. Anne is one of those friends. We really got to know one another about 10 years ago at one of Mad About Ewe’s Retreats and have talked a few times over the years. She came in recently and asked If I was interested in working with some Gossamer Cashmere yarn from Heirloom knitting. She came back a few days later with the yarn and some vintage knitting books! Such a wonderful gift.

    And of course, I am interested!

    I received the yarn on Monday. This beautiful yarn, a 2-ply cashmere that weighs in at 25 grs with 1230 yds in the ball is going to be a challenge!

    Monday evening I was swatching. I felt a little like Goldilocks, it took three tries before I decided on the correct needle size to get the look and feel I wanted. I am going with a 1.75mm and I am using the beautiful lace needles from Heirloom Knitting. They have such smooth joins and a great cord.

    Right now I am pouring over my Shetland Lace Books. Looking at the patterns and thinking about the shape – I am pretty sure that I am looking at a half or three quarters circle – but I might also need more yardage. So I have things to consider.

    Another knitterly friend gave me her copy of the Sarah Don’s The Art of Shetland Lace. It has a lovely inscription from Jeanie and I treasure the book. 

    The Art of Shetland Lace was published in 1980 and includes photographs of some of the amazing lace work from the the (Lerwick) Shetland Museum and Archives. It was an amazing book for its time. It is notorious for all of the pattern mistakes. But it was for a long time the only source of Shetland Lace Patterns. It was last reprinted by Lacis in 1991.

    At the same time as I was contemplating this new project I was also getting messages on instagram that a new Shetland Lace book was coming and will be available at the beginning of April –Shetland Fine Lace Knitting. This is book is written by Carol Christianson. It was written to assess and chronicle the Shetland Museums Lace Collection and will have pictures, swatches, charts and some of the history of lace knitting, most from the Museum. I am so excited!

    Shetland Museum and Archives

    Just a note on the price of knitting books. This new book is just under $50 and is over 200 pages. The Sarah Don book still has the original price ticket. It was $26.95 and has 100 pages. The current buying power of $26.95 from 1980 today is $100.00. Sobering thought. Books are not really that expensive today if you look at it in this manner.

    So I have started the set-up for the shawl, but is going on hold until the new book is here. I might knit just a little bit more, because I can always add to the design! 

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • A Knitterly Start to the Year – part 2

    A Knitterly Start to the Year – part 2

    So the Three Skein Project is almost complete – just patterns to complete for it.

    So where to next? 

    Well, I have lots of samples that need patterns – it could be that my computer and I will become best buddies. That is very real. I completed one pattern and started two more this weekend!

    Well the classes are coming up;

    I am thinking and doing a Double Knitting Class – lovely little cozy cuffs or wristers. They are totally reversible and quite easy to knit. There is no shaping so the only technique to learn is basic double knitting.

    And the other class will be some kind of specialized colourwork – entrelac maybe or intarsia in the round.

    Do you want see a beading class? A finishing class? A cable class? Our options are so wide and varied – sometimes it is hard to choose.

    Now is the time to make a suggestion!

    I have started to plan a Spring KAL for the store and I am looking for ideas. It would start in the Spring – after Easter. A shawl, a vest, some kind of relaxed garment I think.

    I am starting another sweater style garment for myself – have I finished the last one – well no – but you know – this yarn is calling. I blame it all on Darlene. She just finished a lovely scarf in the same yarn! And another shawl. I really like the way the shape is building up. There is never an end to inspiration!

    So how is your knitting year starting? Are you happy with your choices or looking to scrap it all and start anew? Are finishing one before you start another? Darlene has to finish two items before she starts a new project! We both wonder how long that will last! LOL!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • A New Year – New Resolve!? Maybe!

    A New Year – New Resolve!? Maybe!

    I Resolve that: 

    This is going to be the year of flowers. Floral motifs in my knitting – you bet! Flowers on my walls – always – courtesy of my mum! Flowers in the garden – we will see how green my thumb gets! 

    And flowers on my shelves!

    Pansies and Florals – Oh My!

    I am a collector – yarn (of course) – vintage knitting books – knitting books – yarn (did I mention yarn) and antiques.

    The antiques are mostly the small stuff. Silver things, porcelain posies, china and other small things.

    Many know about my small obsessions and every now and then I am asked if I would like some more items for my collection. Mostly my flower collection. It was their mothers or their grandmothers and really they have no use for, need of, or interest in them. And I get it, we all have our hobbies. And I on the other hand love all the things that mothers and grandmothers loved in their day. Especially the floral posies, in all my years of collecting I have not a single double, or repeat of a flower not even ones that are close. 

    Each pot is different, each flower is different. Certainly they are all the common flowers, roses, peonies, pansies, anemones, tulips or trilliums. But each one is hand made, hand coloured, and just like nature, each flower is totally unique from every other flower. Some flowers come with birds on stems, perching on a nest, or about to take flight. Some flowers come in silver vases – those are perhaps my favourites!

    I think that the fact that human hands formed each flower, placed each flower in the pot and a human mind chose the colours of glaze to finish each bloom, is what fascinates me about these china posies. Some of the older posies are true works of art, holding a moment in time as the breeze moves the flowers about.

    Posies are delicate, easily chipped along the edges of petal and leaf. Petals and leaves also break in half and are often poorly glued back together, again human hands trying to preserve something that they loved and valued. I find the love of flowers such a human thing, something that many of us share in so many ways.

    The posies I collect also go well with the many petit point bouquets that I have on my walls and shelves. All lovingly created by my Mother. She spent hours working on each piece. Somehow many of her floral pieces came my way.

    My Mothers work – she even refinished the frame to complement the work.

    I will most likely have to divest myself of some of the “things” I collect. We all usually have to “downsize” at some point in our lives. Until that time arrives, I will enjoy them, celebrate them and share that love!

    So do you collect? Have you got a stash of something special that means a lot to you? I would love to hear about it.

    Happy New Year, Happy Collecting, Happy Knitting

    Be well,

    Lynette

  • A Fashion Show

    A Fashion Show

    A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to try something different. So I did.

    I sent six of my samples off to a fashion show in Edmonton Alberta. To the Gathering Threads Fibre Festival Fashion show. Here are some of the runway pictures. This was an inclusive event – so every body type, every ethnicity was included in the modeling group. I got to pick the models for my pieces and think about and help choose what they would wear and how they should appear. It was a lot of fun.

    North Sea Hap
    Meandering Meadows
    Seed and Leaf Hat and Poncho with Jester Gloves
    Tidal Pools – hand painted after knitting
    Sundail or High Summer Shawl
    Covid be Damned – one of my personal favourites!

    I was pleased with the results – the photographs are excellent. It is very different to see your knitting efforts put forward this way. I am hoping to go next year and see everything in person.

    I felt for the organizers of the show though – the center where the show was being held became the gathering place for the fire evacuees – it would have been so stressful for all involved!

    Happy Knitting
    Lynette

  • The Grande Pavilion KAL

    The Grande Pavilion KAL

    Now this is a Grand Pavilion – Brighton Pavilion on a glorious Summers’ Day.

    It’s Been a while since my last KAL, two years in fact. Life in all its glory has been making it self felt and there just hasn’t seemed to be time. But it is going to happen this year! And I am so excited!

    I am planning a Summer Knit-A-Long. Would you like to join me?

    There will be knitting and knitting with beads if you like.

    Think of a Garden Party in a fancy Gazebo or Pavilion with your best dress and tiers and tiers of your favourite goodies.

    Think knitting out in the park or your back yarn on a sunny day, there is a light breeze and there is champagne or a mint julip on the table beside you.

    Think perhaps of a gaily stripped tent, complete with ribbons and party favours! Perfect for afternoon knitting.

    Think of your favourite Summer Knitting Spot!

    Could you imagine knitting this garden! ? How clever is this!?

    A Zoom tea (read beverage of choice here LOL!) cause I know we all live all over the place and can’t get together except by Zoom! And Prizes, who doesn’t love a good prize. And did I mention some knitting? I will be starting a new thread in my Ravelry Forum for the KAL! Looking forward to seeing you there!

    Sign up will be on Ravelry. Forum Thread on Ravelry – LeTissier Designs Group – Grand Pavilion KAL.

    • Sign up – starts tomorrow, 7:00 am pacific time, May 14, Mother’s Day. For that day only sign-up is 75% off – code MUM
    • Sign-up May 15 to June 1 – sign-up for 50% off – code EARLY
    • Sign-up June 1 to June 30 – sign-up for 25% off – code Pavilion
    • Sign-up July 1 to close – full price – $8.00
    • Start date – Saturday July 15th
    • End date – Saturday September 2nd

    Skills used in the construction of the shawl include short rows, picking up stitches, basic and not so basic lace knitting skills. The shawl is a half circle shape, plus a little extra to sit nicely around the shoulders. The edging with be quite “frothy”. I will leave that up to your imagination.

    The shawl requires 800 yds of laceweight mohair and 800 yds of fingering weight wool (or favourite fibre), 4.0mm US #6circs 24 and 40 inches long and a spare dpn or 2, markers and the regular notions. If beading you will also need a .60 or .75mm crochet hook. If you are thinking of adding beads I still am not quite sure of how many I will be using and in what way. I have approx 3000 delica 8/0’s to play with. I most likely won’t use them all but I will be adding quite a few. Beads are always optional as I know that not everyone likes them.

    I went back to Ancient Arts for my yarn choice. I had used their Lascaux Fine for the High Summer KAL and loved the results. This Spring I fell in love with a colour of their Delicacy Lace, a mohair silk blend, the Mineral (varigated) colourway and the plan developed from there. My fingering weight yarn is the Lascaux Fine in the Wild Rose (a sophisticated pink) Colourway.

    Auditioning Beads
    Teaser Swatch

    Sign-up starts tomorrow! See you in the Forum.

    There will be more teasers as the next couple of months progresses!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Due Process

    Due Process

    Designing is a process. Designing with a new yarn has a few extra steps. Designing for another person has a few more steps. So, process.

    I am doing some designing for Gathering Yarns. They are a yarn distributor out of Alberta and they are expanding a little and are wanting to add some patterns to their inventory.

    Recently Cindy sent me some recycled cashmere. I started to play with it. I wanted to know how it felt to the hand. How it reacted to different techniques, what needle size I wanted to work it on, etc.

    So I knit a pair of beaded fingerless mitts – Bee’s Knees’ Mitts. This was a pleasure to work with with great results. So maybe something bigger was in order…

    Swatch

    A shell or halter, something not to big to keep it affordable. So I ran the idea past The Powers that Be. Idea was approved – more cashmere came my way. So I swatched my idea. Swatch was approved.

    There were still a couple of questions to be answered. So I made a beanie, a bigger swatch that can tell me more. What’s the best gauge? How much give? How much stretch over the larger area? Ribbons Beanie – it will be an accessory to the Shell/Vest pattern I am going to design.

    Sketching is next. Or maybe I will work on the red and white cashmere gloves I can see in my head! Isn’t this a luscious red?!

    That Red!

    I have a love/hate relationship with Spring! I start so many things as I cannot seem to decide on just one!

    So Due Process – perhaps with a touch of Spring startitus!

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

  • Juniper Moon Spring 2023

    Juniper Moon Spring 2023

    *Juniper Moon Yarns released 8 shawls onto Ravelry that I had designed for them over the last few months.  Each one is a different.  Knit with different fibres, different weights of yarn and different shapes.  Below are the covers of each pattern.

    My personal favourites – the ones I would have in my wardrobe and wear over and over are Tradition.  I may have to reknit that one for myself.  Dewey – just so pretty with the beaded edge and Grand Pennant – simple and elegant!

    So yesterday was an exciting day – to see the patterns professionally done and available to all!

    I hope that you have a fabulous day today!

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette

    PS – header is a detail from Tradition. It is fully reversible with flowers on one side and stripes on the other! Definitely my favourite!