One stitch after another

Something new

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Announcing…Knitfinder news & notes, a new source for short, frequent knitting news and tidbits posted several times a day (usually). You’ll find patterns and tutorials that catch my eye, new books and magazines, a good sale now and then, links to interesting interviews, blog posts, knitting in the news or on the street, and so on. You can subscribe if you like, and your comments and suggestions are welcome. There’s a link in this blog’s sidebar, and a news/notes button on the menu bar over at Knitfinder as well.

If you’re a fan of Knitfinder on Facebook this will look familiar – same content will appear both places. Here’s a screenshot:

Don’t worry - this blog isn’t going anywhere; it will still be the place for longer, more thoughtful posts.

In other Knitfinder news – there’s a new demo of the full subscriber version of our Starmore pattern index. I’ve been adding detail to it, including lists of colors required for Fair Isle designs. Check it out!

Nevada sagebrush

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:51:00 +0000

I’ve written before about my friend Janine, the Feral Knitter and colorwork genius. I took my knitting down to her open house yesterday evening for a visit. Besides a happy hour or two of knitting and conversation, I enjoyed myself by pawing through the yarn playpen, trying to put together colors for a Nevada sagebrush-inspired sweater (or throw? or ???) Here’s the playpen, filled with every color of Jamieson’s Spindrift:

photo from Feral Knitter

And here’s my inspiration, from two road-trip vacations in the last year to Montana and Idaho, via Nevada (mostly). We made the first trip last September, and just got back this week from a second:

photo by slgwv

Most people will tell you that northern Nevada’s high desert scrub makes for the most boring driving on earth. We don’t agree. In September especially, the sagebrush scrub was full of glorious color. There was the soft dry gray of the sagebrush itself; darker green of juniper, and charcoal-brown of juniper bark; bleached straw of dry grass; russet and pale pink seedheads; acid yellow and rhubarb-pink blooms; and shots of brilliant chartreuse here and there. The large photo above gives a glimpse. These were my feeble attempts to capture it on camera:

Pictures taken at 85 mph don’t work so well. The photo above captures some of the colors well, and here’s a gallery of better ones I gathered on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/couleeca/galleries/72157624390876393/

Janine brought out one of her inspiration notebooks – and there was a big magazine photo of the same Nevada landscape pasted in! Here’s what I came up with for a start:

Poor photo, but colors are semi-close on my monitor. Top row: earth, sphagnum, thyme, lichen, and rye. The reds and pinks: rust, chestnut, spice, cinnamon, and coral (I think). Yellows, in the middle: daffodil and lemon, with the darker bronzey-gold bracken at right. Greens: moss, leprechaun, and pistachio. It’s only a start – we couldn’t find just the right acid yellow, sagebrush green, dead-grass-straw, or seedhead-rust. More detective work is in order – perhaps some Elemental Affects colors would fill the bill. (Here’s a full Spindrift color chart at Camilla Valley Farm; you can order the real thing from Janine – info here.)

Janine’s online store, Feralknitter.com, is under construction and should be up and running soon. She sells every single Spindrift color (you don’t have to wait for the finished website) and she’s offering mini 20-yard skeins for sampling – perfect for playing around and developing your own colorwork designs, as she teaches in her classes. She’s aiming to make Feral Knitter a home-on-the-web for knitters who love Fair Isle-style stranded colorwork, and she’s got some great, unusual ideas for the site. Stay tuned at her blog. Me, I’m going to order some miniskeins soon and start swatching.

TNNA Columbus 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Last weekend I attended (for the first time) the summer TNNA Needle Arts Market in Columbus, Ohio. TNNA exhibitors are mainly yarn industry folks, there to show their new lines and colors and take orders from retail (LYS) buyers. Publishers and designers exhibit as well, along with people who make needle arts tools and supplies, buttons, jewelry, and the like.

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed on the show floor, so this post will be short on pictures. And it’ll be long on text – but I’ll give you lots of links.

The Ravelry folks had special photo dispensation, and they acted as roving reporters, posting candid photos and video on the HelloTNNA website. I’ll show you my swag - it was sparse because whenever I entered a booth, I’d tell the exhibitor I wasn’t a retailer, so they shouldn’t waste it on me! I did come away with a few miniskeins of interesting yarns, but my real score was this, given to me by the generous folks at Blue Sky Alpacas:

Rosewood DPNs in their gorgeous trademark tin. They really know packaging.

Yarn orders get written up, but all sorts of other business and networking goes on too. I was there to see what’s new for fall – yarns, books, patterns – but mostly to meet people and make connections that will help me to grow Knitfinder. I got lots of practice introducing myself and Knitfinder in a few words.
The show floor opens on Saturday, so Friday was for pre-show presentations and fashion show. I saw Norah Gaughan & Cirilia Rose introduce the fall Berroco patterns and Trisha Malcolm of Vogue Knitting present fall fashion and color trends (yellow is the new green, you’ll be happy to know).

Fall color trends. Pantone numbers left to right: 13-0632; 15-1050; 16-1546; 19-1764; 18-3027; 19-1526 (wrong on image); 16-5418; 18-0538; 18-4105; 14-1508.
Full 62-page report is here (!)

Ysolda Teague presented the garments & patterns from her upcoming book, Little Red in the City. Here’s a peek at some of them. It’s a great collection, featuring large-sized versions of all the sweaters that have been meticulously redesigned, not just blindly upsized from the small ones. The printed book will include detailed information on customizing the designs for a perfect fit.

Friday evening was the fashion show – 99 items were in it. Many interesting, wearable designs you’d be happy to cast on for tomorrow; a few duds; and some wild high-fashion things that probably won’t be knitted or worn, but I was happy to see on the runway. Project Runway winner Irina Shabayeva’s Feather Coat (knitted by designer Josh Bennett; scroll down to fourth photo) was included and will be in the fall issue of Vogue Knitting. Full video of the show will be online in a couple of weeks. Edited to add: Videos are now available. Here's the opener; find all the segments here.

Spent all day Saturday & Sunday walking the show floor (with occasional jaunts across the street to the wonderful North Market for sustenance). Let’s see. I had a chance to tell some of my favorite designers how much I admire their work, including Ysolda Teague, Véronik Avery, Robin Melanson, Norah Gaughan, Tanis Gray, Bonne Marie Burns, Lucy Neatby, Nancy Marchant, Olga Buraya-Kefelian, Kristen Rengren, Stephen West, and Annie Modesitt. Missed meeting many other design luminaries – I just ran out of time!

Inside Columbus’s North Market

New and new-to-me yarn standouts: Zealana Rimu and Kiwi (possum blends from New Zealand); Silkindian Duke Silk; Fyberspates Scrumptious DK; Madelinetosh yarns; St.-Denis Boreale and Nordique; and Classic Elite Magnolia (merino-silk) and Woodland (wool-nettle). There were new lace yarns from Manos del Uruguay (Manos Lace, alpaca-silk-cashmere) and Brown Sheep (Legacy Lace, wool-nylon). And of course I was irresistibly drawn to the luxury fibers from Buffalo Gold and Jacques Cartier – bison, guanaco, vicuña.

There was a lot of emphasis on sustainability and organics. More on that in another post one of these days, but yarns in the eco vein included Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia wool, Ecobutterfly Organics/Pakucho cotton, the Belle Organic DK and Aran from Rowan, and two nice yarns made from recycled fibers: Rowan Purelife Revive and Berroco Remix. Of course, some companies have been producing eco- and farmer-friendly yarns for years, like Mountain Meadow Wool and Green Mountain Spinnery.

Plenty of inspiring books and patterns. Shannon Okey’s new Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design looks like a must for any wannabe (or working) knit designer. New/upcoming books from designers that look great: Miriam Felton’s Twist & Knit, Donna Druchunas’s Successful Lace Knitting, Kristina McGowan’s Modern Top-Down Knitting, Ysolda Teague’s Little Red in the City, and New England Knits, from Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa LaBarre. I loved the fall patterns from both Classic Elite and Berroco. And (whispering) watch for Crochet So Fine, from Kristin Omdahl. I don’t crochet, but there are wonderful designs in this book.

Most beautiful booths? Hana Silk Ribbon (not sure what they were doing in the middle of the yarn section, but their wares are sure beautiful!), Chic Knits (an oasis of calm neutrals against the barrage of color elsewhere), and Mountain Colors. The Midwest Modern Knits booth was not too shabby either, and Amy Butler herself was in attendance. Most fun, comfy and whimsical booths: Ysolda Teague (shared with Gudrun Johnston and Laura Chau), Be Sweet, and Pick Up Sticks.

Shared meals and conversation with roommate Jessica, Julia Grunau of Patternfish, and Bonne Marie Burns of Chic Knits, among others. Finally met Casey of Ravelry and chatted about search design – and other things - for a few minutes. What a nice guy. At the Ravelry ice cream social on Friday night, I talked with Jeni of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, which are all they’re cracked up to be (goat cheese and roasted cherry -mmmm). In another life, I was in the ice cream business myself at Downtown Bakery & Creamery, so we had plenty to talk about.

Last but not least, two of my favorite print magazines had booths. Neither is strictly knitting, but both are beautiful and interesting and should be in every LYS. Wild Fibers covers fiber production around the world, with an emphasis on small producers and environmental and cultural sustainability. The current issue’s cover article is on the living Inca textile tradition.

Selvedge magazine, based in the UK, covers textiles wherever it finds them – in knitting, fashion, interiors, art, industry, and around the world. Every themed issue is a feast for the eyes, but there’s great writing too. The good news is the magazine will now be printed in the US as well as in the UK, so North American subscription rates have gone down. Go explore the excellent website – you can also subscribe to a digital edition (but that seems like a shame).

And there you have it – just the tip of the iceberg, believe it or not. Wish I’d had a buyer’s budget like Jessica – I would have ordered stuff right and left.

Tips for knitting from PDF patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:47:00 +0000

I started a new project a few days ago – Stephen West’s Daybreak shawl. As usual, I made an electronic copy of my PDF pattern and added some notes to it. This is very handy, especially if you have a tendency to work on lots of patterns at the same time and/or stop working on something and go back to it later when you don’t remember the details. I thought I’d share how I do this.

Daybreak in progress

Most people, including me, have Adobe Reader on their computers for opening and reading PDF files. But I’ve got another free PDF viewer as well, because it has some nifty tools for adding notes and comments to PDFs: Foxit Reader (click on the link to go get the download). Unfortunately, there’s no Mac version.

When you open a PDF document in Foxit Reader, you’ll see a bunch of icons across the top of your window under the drop-down menu categories. We’re interested in the last few icons – a pencil, a T highlighted yellow, and a balloon with text in it. These tools allow you to add a text note, highlight text, or add a hidden popup note or comment. Just click on the tool icon you want to use, then click in the PDF at the point where you want to insert your note, or click and drag to select text for highlighting.

Here’s my routine. First, I open the pattern PDF and save the file with a new name – otherwise you can’t save the changes you make to it. I made a copy of my Daybreak pattern and named the file “Daybreak-notes.pdf.” This way, you always have a pristine original copy of the pattern, plus a marked-up working copy.

I clicked the highlight tool, then highlighted the size I’m making and the needle size specified. Next, I clicked the pencil icon for the comment tool, then clicked in the pattern and added the two blue comments you see, a note about the yarns I’m using and confirmation that I’m using the recommended needle size:

On the next pattern page, I’ve highlighted the stitch counts for the size I’m making, added notes about which color is which and how I’m changing colors, and also added a hidden popup note (the yellow thing next to the word “Stripes”):

When I click on the sticky note icon, I get a popup window that shows me the whole note, which looks like this:

These popups have a scroll bar, so the notes can be as long as you want – handy when you don’t have room to enter all the text right on the pattern as a comment. I haven’t been able to figure out how to make them print, though.

Other free PDF viewers may have similar comment features – experiment with yours. The next one I’m going to try is PDF-XChange Viewer. I believe Adobe Reader’s sticky note feature has some restrictions that make it difficult to use, but if you use it I’d be curious to know how it works for you.

I’m heading off to the TNNA (The National NeedleArts Association) summer trade show in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday. It’s my first time – looking forward to meeting lots of yarn & knitting industry folks and seeing what’s new for fall. I won’t have time to blog, but I will post updates on the Facebook page and Twitter. There are still a couple of Cool Yarns for Hot Days posts coming as well, but they may take awhile.

Cool yarns for hot days: 1

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:42:00 +0000

(ETA: faulty links in the post have been fixed...sorry about that!)

Only the first of June, and much of North America has already had its first heat wave (although our West Coast spring has been cool and damp). Knitting with wool or alpaca isn’t very appealing when the mercury’s over 90, so how about some linen, hemp, or bamboo?

Yarns in these fibers aren’t hard to find these days, but many of us haven’t tried them. I find them cool and pleasant to handle – just the thing for hot-weather knitting.

Elann Canapone (hemp), Euroflax Paris (laceweight linen)

Hemp and linen garments are soft, drapey and cool to the touch – wonderful to wear in hot weather, especially if they have a bit of ease so they don’t cling too tightly. An added bonus is that they may be machine washed and dried – the more you do it, the softer they get. This Lacy Little Top I made for my daughter several years ago took a lot of punishment and always looked and felt great.

Good yarns for projects like this are Louet Euroflax Sport Weight (at left, 100% linen) and Hemp for Knitting Allhemp 3 and Allhemp 6 (100% hemp, fingering or DK weight). Elann has a pure linen sportweight coming on June 8 (Lino Pura). There are also some great blends – Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy (cotton/hemp/modal, DK weight); Knit Picks CotLin (cotton/linen); and several DK cotton/linen blends by Elann (Cotone Lin, Sula, Camila). When you touch these yarns in the skein, they feel a bit crisp and stiff – but the process of winding the yarn, and handling it as you knit, softens it. Keeping your tension on the loose side will make knitting with them a pleasant experience.

Simple shapes and stitches look good in linen and hemp; so do unusual “architectural” details. A few pattern suggestions: Julie Weisenberger of Cocoknits has a talent for sheer, summery designs in linen and cotton yarns – how about the sleeveless Liesl tank top/dress in Euroflax linen? Very chic design – sheer stockinette stitch with an asymmetrical handkerchief hem and pockets. Then there’s the pretty button-back Kathy’s Knot Garden Tank (right) in Allhemp 3 and last summer’s hit Buttercup (free pattern), a top in Hempathy with short puffed sleeves and feather-and-fan lace yoke. Olga Buraya-Kefelian’s Petal Halter is a tank top in a DK cotton/linen blend with curving tiers of stockinette, but it could be knit in any blend containing linen, hemp or bamboo. Here’s a beautiful version by soknitpicky in three colors.

If you’re up for a larger project, skirts and dresses are a possibility. Gudrun Johnston’s Little Black Dress and Hip in Hemp elastic-waist skirt are two good options, both in Hempathy, both free. Hip in Hemp uses rippling stripes in several colors – very exuberant and summery. Sized for girls or women.

Both Knitty and Interweave Knits have published patterns for bamboo, hemp and linen yarns over the years – to find them, check the Knitfinder pattern indexes and type “bamboo” “linen” or “hemp” into the yarn column search box. Hemp for Knitting has great pattern support for their yarns, and you can buy any pattern online over at Patternfish and download it immediately – find all the patterns here.

Linen in particular is great for lace garments or accents, especially in finer weights. Need inspiration? How about wakana’s Butterfly camisole, Khakigirl’s Fancy summer tank, Aniko’s Counterpane Blouse from the current (Summer 2010) issue of Interweave Knits (Ravelry pattern link) and knittwopurltwo’s Wakame Lace tunic?

Designs featuring texture and color techniques work too – just take a look at Aniko’s Linen Eastlake and the Roped Shells by u22grumpy and titianknitter.

I don’t want to sign off without mentioning an unusual cotton yarn I love: cotton gima from Habu Textiles. It’s a narrow, light cotton ribbon that almost looks like paper. Knitted up, it looks crisp, but feels soft. This is color 53, called "oak.”

There are several elegant top and cardigan patterns for this yarn. The Leah Tunic (free over at Purl Bee) is a long tank top with a draped neckline knitted at 7 stitches to the inch. Julie Weisenberger’s Gretel is the same idea, but knitted at a sheer open gauge of 19 stitches/4 inches:

The Gisela cardigan, also from Cocoknits, uses the same yarn at an even more open gauge (17 stitches/4”). Photos do not do this design justice; I tried it on once at a Habu trunk show (along with several other people) – it looked great on everyone. Cotton gima is inexpensive, and at these gauges it goes a long way – the yarn for these designs in average sizes may be had for under $30.

More ideas for these hot-weather yarns in the next couple of posts – non-clothing projects, lace, and more. Stay tuned—and keep cool!

Almost forgot: in case you missed the news flash elsewhere, I did finish my handspun shawl. Ugly duckling that it was, blocking turned it into a swan. Here’s the Ravelry link.

The Perennial Question

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:43:00 +0000

Can she do it?

49 rows to go on Miralda’s Triangular Shawl. It doesn’t look promising, even though they get shorter and shorter. If I run out, here’s my option:

I’m knitting with my handspun for the first time, and that there is the remains (appropriate word) left on the second bobbin after plying all of the first one. I wound it off into a ball thinking I’d ply the rest of it from the two ball ends, but that didn’t go well – you can see why! “Energized” would be a kind word here.

(Furthermore, when I went over to the Ravelry pattern page to get the link for this post, I saw the errata for the first time. I wondered about that bit of asymmetry in the nupp diamond chart, but didn’t wonder hard enough to go looking for corrections.)

Wish me luck.

Tuesday pattern roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:32:00 +0000

The roundup was AWOL last week, but we’re back! First, Julie Nandorfy’s pretty Bell Flower Boogie socks (free Ravelry download). A lacy Japanese stitch pattern that stands out beautifully against a garter-stitch ground. Knitted toe-up with a gusset and heel flap; written in two sizes.

Next, incredibly cute overalls for toddlers from Whit’s Knits (Whitney Van Nes) at the Purl Bee – knitted in 2 skeins of sportweight Euroflax linen. Surprisingly stylish, and think how comfy and cool they would be! Tough enough to stand up to toddler play, too. Simple stockinette stitch with hemmed edges and buttoned straps; legs are knitted in the round. Free pattern on the website has great tutorial photos. They’d be cute with short legs, too, like an old-fashioned sunsuit (remember those?)

Here’s a new shawl from Sivia Harding – Ophidian, a refined triangle that combines undulating textural lace with beads and garter stitch. Knitted neck down; uses 380 yards of either fingering or DK-weight yarn. $7.50 download. Here’s a closeup of the stitch pattern:

photo: Alex Tinsely

Now, a floaty cap-sleeved or 3/4-sleeved cardigan that looks like it came straight from the pages of an Anthropologie catalog – Carol Feller’s Adrift. Knitted in Malabrigo lace – wouldn’t that feel wonderful? - from the neck down in stockinette stitch with raglan shoulders, a bit of waist shaping, and long front panels that hang in graceful points or may be pinned closed. I have a similar long-sleeved cardigan that really did come from Anthropologie that’s one of my favorite things to wear. Irresistible in rich orange. $5.95 download; there’s a knitalong just starting, too. Here’s the Ravelry page.

Closing with another sock pattern. Did you see these knee socks with contrast cables from the Prada fall runway show? Jen Molloy has reverse-engineered a free pattern. Ribbed sock with contrast cuff, toe, heel, and front-center cable. Knitted from the cuff down; the cable is knit at the same time, but with no intarsia-style twisting of yarns. When you get to the cable stitches, the yarn is at the wrong side, but she simply carried it across the back to the right – brilliant. Here are Jen’s socks, in elegant black an gray Regia silk, but how about black with a red cable, or charcoal with mustard, like the others in the show?

Until next time…happy knitting (and queueing).

TGI Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:49:00 +0000

I’m in the home stretch of what’s been a month of difficult, brain-busting book indexing projects – still another week to go, though, and today’s my only day off for the foreseeable future. I started the day with coffee on the porch, listening to the quails talking to each other, and did a little gardening – I can’t stand the idea of spending much time inside, let alone in front of a computer screen, today, so I’m just going to show you the bit of knitting and spinning finished up this week.
First the Brandywine shawl. Rosemary Hill’s design is simple , quick and elegant, and better yet, most of the pattern sales go to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti relief efforts. She’s already sent them $10,500, just from the sales of this one pattern! If you haven’t already done so, go buy it and knit one for yourself or to give away. Our local knit group has finished a dozen or so total – we’re hoping to enter them to be displayed en masse in our county fair.

Mine is knitted in Habu Tsumugi silk – a laceweight tweedy raw silk. I have no other shawls in this kind of texture – love the way it looks and feels. The shawl is knitted from the lower point up and out to the top edge. It’s finished with an interesting purled i-cord bindoff that perfectly matches the weight of the slanting decrease lines and the K2tog that forms the last stitch of the side edgings:

Last night I finished plying the Corriedale wool I’ve been spinning this last couple of weeks – after coffee this morning I wound it off and washed the skein. It’s by far the most evenly spun and plied yarn I’ve managed to produce – I’m thrilled. The colors are gorgeous (the fiber was bought from Royale Hare). And I’ve got about 300 yards/150grams of nice worsted weight for some small project. Because it’s 3 colors, one after the other, I’m thinking I’ll wind it into a center-pull ball and knit stripes, alternating ends as the whim takes me.

What should I knit with it – got a brilliant idea for me? ETA: Ilga Leja's Haiti Scarf might be just the thing. Or how about a BSJ? I haven't knit one yet - is 300 yards enough?
Signing off to head back outdoors – with tea and knitting.

Tuesday pattern roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:17:00 +0000

We begin with a beautiful, original colorwork design - Robin Melanson’s Gothic Snowfall sweater, first published in last fall’s St.-Denis Yarns magazine, now available as a single-pattern download from Patternfish. It’s a seamless modified raglan – worked in the round, but without steeks. It has waist shaping, stylish bracelet-length sleeves (which I love – I’m always pushing my sleeves up), and color patterning with a strong vertical panel effect. And the deep waistband, cuffs, and striking yoke/collar are done in two-color brioche rib (called Shaker rib in the pattern). Written for sportweight wool (St.-Denis Nordique), but I’m thinking about knitting it in fingering=weight yarn for a slightly lighter sweater. $7.00 download, only at Patternfish. (The magazine is still available as well; you can get it here and probably elsewhere too.)

Now, some socks – I’ve been remiss about including sock patterns in these roundups (I knit very few of them myself). I love stripes, and here’s a great striped sock pattern with a couple of twists from Susan Luni – Burning Stripes. Done in two colorways of Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball, or any sock yarn with long color changes, it’s a cuff-down design with a cool boomerang heel (a short-row heel with some refinements, explained here) and a nifty back “seam” stitch that hides the color jog in a creative way. $2.50 Ravelry download until later this week, when a revised pattern with more sizes will be published at $3.99.

OK, now I’m going out on a limb. This next design won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s lovely and original, even if not wearable by just anyone. It’s Bells by Maria Leigh, a graceful cropped, short-sleeved cardigan in ethereal mohair (Rowan Kidsilk Haze, Elann Silken Kydd or the like) patterned all over with bold, textural - well, bells.

It’s worked from bottom to top, seamlessly, with a garter-stitch yoke and a single button to close it at the front neck. I think it would be great on a slim person like my 19-year-old daughter; a girls’ version would be cute too. $8.00 download; here’s the Ravelry link.
This week’s lace: more mohair, a lovely free pattern from Elann.com, the Dancing Crane stole by Shui Kuen Kozinski and Benne Ferrell. Knitted sideways in Japanese Feather lace with 3 balls of Silken Kydd – you can buy a yarn pack for it for $15.00 here.

Another sweater – this one a versatile short-sleeved “layering piece,” as they say – the Lilas Cardigan by Hilary Smith Callis. It’s a top-down, seamless raglan cardigan with short sleeves, handsome texture details, and a big, flattering foldover collar. Knitted in worsted-weight cotton. I’d throw this on all the time. $5.00 download here.

Let’s finish up with a little whimsy – these Felted Flower Bowls from Meg Myers are irresistible and would be really handy around the house. Great way to use up leftover bits, too – they take about 65 yards of worsted-weight feltable wool. Knitted from outer edge to center in the round; free Ravelry download.

Tuesday pattern roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:57:00 +0000

I’m migrating the pattern roundup to Tuesdays, and keeping it on the small side – hopefully that means I’ll have time to write it every weekend!

Since the last roundup, new issues of Twist Collective and Knitty are out. Both have great patterns and you’ve probably been through them already. My favorites are Jennie Pakula’s Celandine, the Twist cover design, and Miriam Felton’s Anthemion wrap.

For this post, an assortment of mostly smallish projects – cozy sweaters that fill my lap aren’t what I feel like knitting in spring. First, an unusual new shawl pattern, the Leaflette shawl by Stormy Autumn Designs:

It’s a delicate tracery of twisted stitchwork on a purled background, plus a leaf lace border. I love lace combined with texture – what a beautiful design! Available as a Ravelry download for $4.00; uses 450-500 yards of fingering weight yarn.

Next, a brilliant little pattern for those one-off skeins of handspun, the Wabi-Sabi Handspun Mitts from Kristen TenDyke. These fingerless mitts with a turned-back cuff are designed to be knitted at the same time from two ends of a center-pull ball so you can use every bit of your yarn. Knitted flat and seamed up one side. Free download; uses about 100 yards at a gauge of 16 stitches to 4”.

Here’s a pretty cardigan for girls aged 2 – 12 years, Melissa LaBarre's Tiny Tea Leaves. It’s a sized-down version of the adult Tea Leaves Cardigan from Madelinetosh. Written for worsted-weight yarn, but I think it would make a beautiful baby sweater in a finer yarn. $4.00 download.

How about a summer hat? I love Roxanne Seabright’s Flower Frog Hat in Artfibers Bistro, a cotton/nylon ribbon yarn with chenille edges (although I might dispense with the embellishments). Uses 150 yards; knit it for $15 (the pattern is free). Worked in the round from brim to crown, stiffened by sewing the brim edge over a hoop of millinery wire.

Linden Heflin’s pretty Fresh Mint is just the thing for summer – a stockinette tank with a bit of lace, in DK cotton. It’s worked top-down, beginning the the lace yoke sections – once they’re knitted, you join and knit the body down to the lower edge in the round. $5.00 download.

Until next time – enjoy!

Retreat, and the lure of spinning

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:28:00 +0000

My knit group retreat last weekend was short, but idyllic. There was a foot of snow on the ground in the Sierras, but the weather was sunny and gorgeous. Most of our Saturday was spent on the deck:

Knitting was the excuse for the expedition, but there was also just lots of good company, great conversation – and delicious food and wine. What a blast!

I didn’t do much knitting (although I did finish binding off my Brandywine shawl), but my trusty wheel rode with me and I did do lots of spinning. First some plying to clear my bobbins:

Softly-spun merino-wool in lavender, silver-gray, and sheep’s black. I spun all of each color before going on to the next, then made a two-ply. Where the colors don’t match exactly, there are marled black-gray and gray-lavender transitions. I think it’ll make a nice color-banded hat or mittens.

Then I spun this Corriedale in three coordinating colors the same way (these flash photos are quite accurate):

The fiber is from Royale Hare - a mixture of dyed and natural gray carded together, for a lovely, complex heathered effect. It has yet to be plied, but should make a nice slightly fuzzy worsted-weight 2-ply.

It’s time for me to tell you my spinning story. When I started knitting, I thought I should give spinning a try, and eventually I had a drop-spindle lesson from a friend a couple of years ago. It was a group lesson, and several folks were instant spinners. Not me – hopeless. With some relief, I decided I didn’t need to spin after all. One less enthusiasm to complicate life.

However. I’ve got a great virtual knitting group – we’re friends who’ve been talking knitting, and other things, for years online. Many of the group are longtime spinning enthusiasts, and enablers par excellence. After that spindling lesson, I told them I’d been there, done that, no thank you very much. But they knew better. Last summer, a great deal on a preowned Matchless cropped up in the discussion. I seem to have expressed some interest, because before I knew it, the wheel was delivered to my door. As a surprise, the whole group got together to make it happen – and over the cliff I went.

Here’s Ms. Matchless on the day she arrived:

I still haven’t figured out what I did to deserve this incredibly generous gift, but it has proven to be the beginning of a love affair.

My day job is serious left-brain work. Indexing is reading, writing, and analyzing; often I’m thinking about abstruse, complicated topics like identity politics in the Caribbean or the emergence of modernity in the Middle East. Knitting is a great complement to the work I do, because it’s about handling real materials and making real objects. But knitting is just a little bit technical. The lure of spinning for me is that it’s so elemental and so different from my paying work.

A long time ago, I baked for a living for a few years. Knitting is like pastry making; spinning is like sourdough bread baking. Oh, I know, I could be a technical spinner – but I prefer to spin intuitively. It’s simple in some ways, but mysterious and complex in others – so there’s always something to learn. And when spinning, I feel connected to a tradition that goes back thousands of years. It’s satisfying in the same way it is to grow food, or make wine. In short, it makes me feel human. So thank you, dear friends, for making this adventure possible.

Resurfacing

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:26:00 +0000

Long time no see! I’ve been mired in book indexing work, and sick, and well…there hasn’t been time to blog.

There hasn’t been much knitting either. The two current shawl projects are both stalled. I started to bind off Brandywine, eager to block and wear it – and discovered an errant yarnover that I can’t live with:

It’s been sitting in time out ever since, but I’ve decided that designer Rosemary Hill is right – don’t ladder back and fix it, just bind off and sew it closed. Actually there’s another mistake you can see in the photo – but that one I’ll just live with.
Then there’s this one:

Miralda’s Triangular shawl, in my own handspun (Targhee from A Verb for Keeping Warm). Love the pattern, but there are some nupps that need repairing, and I don’t have the patience for it right now. Not loving the quality of my yarn – I think it’s overplied – but will stick with it anyway.

There has been a little bit of spinning. I reward myself for finishing work quotas and taxes and the like with spinning time. I recently finished this skein of Lisa Souza BFL (in Aww-tum):

and I’m working on this one:

This is some nameless wool/merino/nylon I was given in small quantities. The colors are related – a bit of the lavender runs through both the gray and the black, so I divided each color in half, and am spinning all of each color in turn. Hoping that they will come close to matching when plied, with some interesting marling at the transitions, and make a nice color-banded hat or something. I’m trying to teach myself to spin (and ply) a bit more softly.

I’ll be belting my wheel into the back seat of the car tomorrow – I’m off for a mini-retreat in the Sierras with a dozen friends from knit group. We’ve never done this before, but it’s going to be a great time! Here’s what the cabin surroundings looked like a couple of days ago:

Looks like perfect knitting-and-spinning-by-the-fire weather to me - I’ll report next week! [ETA: no cell phone or Internet either. A true vacation!] I hope to be bringing back the Pattern Roundup soon, and to have some Knitfinder news for you before long too.

Color knitting links & inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:52:00 +0000

The Knitfinder resource section is coming along slowly – I’m trying to build it into the be-all and end-all of knitting bookmark collections, so you can start there to find ANY kind of knitting info you happen to be looking for. I’m working on a color knitting resource page now and thought I’d share a few tidbits.

Nanette Blanchard’s blog Knitting in Color has been around since 2003, and it’s full of great information and inspiration for stranded color knitting. You’ll find tutorials, patterns, and lovely photos – Nanette lives in photogenic New Mexico. She’s self-published several how-to booklets including Stranded Color Knitting, Glove Knitting, and Mittens in Color. At left, one of her mitten designs – the lovely Tijeras mittens. Find all her booklets and patterns in her Ravelry shop.

Here’s a great resource from Nanette’s blog: a list of the best yarns for stranded color knitting, organized by weight and linked to their Ravelry pages. Yarns were chosen for their quality and wide color range. The list is a year and a half old; there are some new yarns that would be good additions, like St-Denis Nordique and Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light.

If you’re embarking on your first stranded color project, there are plenty of how-tos out there. There’s a list of the best here. TECHknitting has a great tutorial series on stranded knitting: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 as well as one on slip-stitch color knitting. If you’ve never been over to TECHknitting, you’ll be amazed at the wealth of information. If you learn better from video, the KnitPicks tutorial section is a good place to start. There’s a collection of colorwork tutorials, including stripes, intarsia, Fair Isle, and color theory. Here’s one showing different methods of handling yarns for stranded knitting.

My friend Janine Bajus aka Feral Knitter is a brilliant colorwork designer and teacher. Her 3-day “Design Your Own Fair Isle” class is scheduled for March 26-28 in Berkeley, California – I don’t know if there’s still space available. There’s also a one-day class in May at Web-sters in Ashland, Oregon.

Here’s a swatch I knit in her class; she teaches a simple swatching technique for evaluating color combinations. This swatch revealed one I hated (the green and yellow in the middle), and several I loved (red and lavender, red and mint green, olive and coral). And you’ll find great tips, patterns, and color inspiration on her blog. Janine’s Celtic Pillows (free PDF from Two Swans Yarns, a great source for Fair Isle yarns and patterns) are meant as a canvas for playing with your own color choices.

There’s going to be an “Around the World” section in the Knitfinder resources, and color knitting leads us right into that. Scotland, Norway, Estonia, Sweden, Turkey, Peru…all have their own color knitting traditions. You’ll find the whole world of color knitting at unionpearl’s Knitting Letters A to Z. Many photos, great writing on knitting traditions, lots of links.

Some more photo inspiration:

Swedish Bohus Stickning on Flickr (read more about Bohus here)
Annemarie Sundbo’s collection of Norwegian mittens, stockings and sweaters
Latvian mitten galleries – from a project associated with the NATO summit in Riga, 2006
Let’s not forget modern colorwork designers: Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably, Alice and Jade Starmore.

More to come when the color knitting page goes live. I’m behind on other work this week, so there will be no pattern roundup tomorrow – look for it again next week. I may move it to Mondays or Tuesdays so I have time to write the posts over the weekend.

Friday pattern roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:54:00 +0000

Some of this week’s most original and creative patterns are in a new book from STC Craft, Comfort Knitting and Crochet: Afghans. This book has 27 knitted afghan patterns (and 24 crocheted ones) by Norah Gaughan, Margery Winter, and the rest of the Berroco design team. There’s an amazing variety of color, texture, and techniques to choose from. You can see photos of all the designs here on the Berroco website. Here are two of my favorites:

Danish Modern

Floret

All the patterns are written for Berroco’s acrylic/nylon blend Comfort® yarn in various weights. If you prefer to knit with natural-fiber yarns, it shouldn’t be difficult to substitute – or to shrink patterns to baby-blanket size. **Edited to add: Berroco is giving away 50 copies of the book, plus yarn - click here to enter the drawing.

Patternfish added its 5,000th pattern this week. This site is a fantastic source for patterns past and present – 40+ new ones added every week. More info about them here. Number 5000 was the Kathy Zimmerman coat in Classic Elite Waterlily on the left, knitted sideways in strong knit-purl texture. There’s also a new stole by Catherine Devine with handsome stylized flowers on a mesh ground, and a ladylike cropped cabled vest by Michelle Porter for Lana Gatto (check out the cable detail around the armholes).

Waterlily Sideways Cardigan

Andrea Dogwood Blossom Wrap

Cable V-Neck Vest

Prices for these patterns range from $4.95 - $6.00 – all available instantly. By the way, did you know you can order Classic Elite yarns directly from their website? Waterlily info/colors here.

Here’s a brand new design from Fiddlesticks Knitting – Flair, a coat-length vest in feather-and-fan lace with neat, wide seed-stitch bands. Simple, elegant vertical lines, meant to be closed with a pin. A short version would be very nice too. The yarn is DK-weight raw silk; there’s a special kit price until April 11. Or, buy the (printed) pattern only for $12.00

More lace – an unusual shawl design from Tiziana Sammuri called In Spring Shawlette. It’s knitted from the bottom up, shaped as four steep triangles with wide embossed-leaf panels on a lace ground. Available as a Ravelry download for € 4.00 EUR. Requires 600-650 yards of fingering-weight yarn. Tiziana has several other beautiful lace designs in her Ravelry shop.

A small free project: the Honey Cowl from Madelinetosh. Reversible slip-stitch texture pattern shows off the semisolid yarn beautifully. 225-450 yards of DK merino wool, may be made short or long, wide or narrow. This would be lovely in silk or a silk blend, too.

Finally, a couple of months old but new to me, Rachel Russ’s incredibly cute Pixie Poncho, designed for Spud & Chloe Yarns - it’s published in their leaflet no. 9508. A short hooded, fringed poncho with exuberant colorwork in a cotton-wool blend.

I’m working on a color knitting page for the Knitfinder resource section, which is still in its infancy. I’ll post some of the great links I’ve found for you in a few days. Meanwhile, enjoy this week’s patterns!

Friday pattern roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:31:00 +0000

We begin with a pretty new sweater called Manu from Kate Davies. It’s a yoke cardigan in stockinette stitch with a softly gathered neckline and matching gathered patch pockets. Longer length, three-button closure; written for sport or DK weight alpaca or wool/angora/cashmere. You can buy it from Kate’s blog or on Ravelry for £3.50 GBP.

Next, something for men - Janet Szabo’s Cedar Trail Vest from the new issue of Twists and Turns. It’s a handsome button-front vest in worsted-weight cotton/merino blend, with intricate small-scale cable patterning and garter-stitch bands. Would be fine for women too. You can download the issue for $5.00, and there’s a nice women’s pullover in it as well, among other patterns.

More texture: the Hands of Blue fingerless gloves are a free pattern from Lucy Hague – download the PDF file here. Bands of undulating twisted ribbing, a longer length, and pattern options for fingerless mitts, half-fingered or full-fingered gloves. Written for 150 yards of DK-weight yarn; the designer used a bamboo/merino blend.

Now for some color – two patterns from Dutch designers. First, Alyssum from Dutch Knitting Design, a simple triangular shawl designed to show off the color changes of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn. $7.00, available as a Ravelry download (I don’t see it on the Dutch Knitting Design website yet).

These Hiroshige mittens in three colors by Hanneke Sieben are inspired by a Japanese print. A complex chart and some rounds that use all three colors make this project a bit advanced. Lovely – somehow they look wintry and springlike at the same time. Available as a Ravelry download for $3.00. Knitted in Dale Heilo and Cascade 220.

To wrap things up, a spring/summer design, the very pretty Soft Linen Single Gore Skirt by Gudrun Johnston, published in Classic Elite’s Farmer’s Market brochure. Soft Linen is a DK weight wool/linen/alpaca blend. Graceful flared shape, inverted pleat with lacy embossed flowers, and a touch of texture at the yoke and hem. There are several other nice patterns in the brochure.

Enjoy! Until next week.

Vintage Bohus

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:21:00 +0000

I spent last Sunday in Susanna Hansson’s Bohus Stickning class at Stitches West. What a great day! Susanna tells the Bohus story, with plenty of slides, shows off her collection of vintage Bohus garments, and gets you started on a pair of Blue Shimmer cuffs. For me, the highlight was the opportunity to see and handle the vintage garments from Susanna’s collection. Here are some photos – click to see closeups. From the 1940s, two designs by Anna-Lisa Mannheimer Lunn:

Blue Eskimo hat

Red Edge cardigan

See the unexpected touch of pink in the Blue Eskimo hat? That photo also shows the tiny gauge – look at the garter-stitch brim. These 40s designs have less of a modern following than the later ones, but I love the retro look of them. Rumor has it that a kit and pattern for The Red Edge is coming soon from Solveig Gustafsson. I’d wear that sweater often.

From the 1950s, three designs by Annika Malmström-Bladini (all from 1957):

Tobak

Winter Haze (Vinterdis) tam

Lemon cardigan

Tobak (Tobacco) was a cowl-neck pullover with a plain body and color patterning on the neck and cuffs only. And Lemon – that eye-popping chartreuse body color is quite true, on my monitor at least.

From the 1960s, designs of Kerstin Olsson:

The Green Wood (1960)

Myrten Grön tam (1964)

The New Azalea (Red Egg) (1963)

Mosaik jacket (1967)

And one last 1960s design, Karin Ivarsson’s Large Lace Collar tam from 1960:

The Bohus story is told in detail in Wendy Keele’s excellent book Poems of Color. (The book was recently out of print for a short period; it’s likely to go out of print again soon, possibly for good.) Briefly, it goes like this: in 1937, a group of women, wives of unemployed stone cutters in the Bohus province of Sweden, approached the provincial governor’s wife for help devising a home-based industry that would allow them to help support their families. The governor’s wife was Emma Jacobsson, a highly educated Austrian Jew who had grown up in Vienna and immigrated to Sweden when she married. She took on the project, and after a few false starts, settled on the production of handknit garments – sweaters, hats, mittens and gloves.

Bohus Stickning was born in 1939 and lasted until its closure in 1969. Emma Jacobsson herself was the first designer; just five others were hired over the entire 30 years. Hundreds of knitters worked for Bohus Stickning over the years. They were highly trained and well paid, receiving about 30% of the retail price; they were expected to produce perfectly-knitted garments, but were allowed up to 3 months to finish a sweater.

These were couture garments with a conscious fashion aesthetic. They were marketed as luxury goods; the sweaters sold for around $300 US in the 1950s in stores like Neiman Marcus. Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly were among the celebrities who owned Bohus sweaters. Emma Jacobsson fiercely defended the integrity of the brand through strict quality control (of the wool, the spinning, the dyeing, and the knitting) and marketing techniques (high pricing, careful choice of sales outlets).

For more on Bohus Stickning, read Poems of Color. If you ever get a chance, take Susanna’s class – there’s nothing like seeing the garments in person, and being able to examine the construction methods. Here’s a link to an online article based on one of Susanna’s lectures – it appeared in Knitch magazine. Unfortunately Radiant Knits: An Enchanting Obsession, the catalog for the 2009 Bohus exhibit at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, seems to be no longer available. [Edited to add: You can get it from Saga Hill Designs, the website of Wendy J. Johnson, who photographed the Bohus garments for the catalog. Thanks to Ellen for the tip.] That exhibit featured Susanna Hansson’s collection. There’s also a documentary film by Kjell Andersson, made for Swedish Television in 1999. The film is available from Schoolhouse Press – in fact you can order it together with Poems of Color at a 20% discount. There’s also a Flickr pool, with photos of some vintage sweaters I’ve seen nowhere else like this one and this one. Of course, there is a Ravelry group too, moderated by my friend ermabom aka knitsarina.

*Edited to add one more great online article: B is for Bohus, Revisited, an entry in unionpurl's Knitting Abecedarium.

As many of you know, some of the garments are now being reproduced in kit form by master Swedish dyer Solveig Gustafsson. Her yarns and colors are truly beautiful, and the prices are very reasonable. Just go to her website and feast your eyes on the designs she’s made available. Susanna has very generously translated the patterns into English, in return for which she encourages knitters to donate to Doctors Without Borders, in the spirit of Bohus Stickning’s original social support purpose.

I don’t have much to show for my morning of class knitting:
I’m pretty slow with two and three colors at a time on 000 needles. That’s the size I needed to get a gauge of 8.5 stitches to the inch. The yarn is 50/50 merino and angora. I have to rip this and start over to get a nice cuff, but I plan not only to do that, but to go on and knit gloves. I think they’ll be beautiful.

**3/4/2010: Just uploaded the vintage Bohus photos to Flickr so you can see them even bigger. Click here

Friday pattern roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:26:00 +0000

Today I’m inaugurating what I hope will be a weekly feature here on the blog – a roundup of the best new patterns I see each week. Just a few, because I don’t want to overwhelm you!

Let’s start with a free pattern, Mary Rourke’s Lusekofte-sque Mitts. These would be great as a first stranded colorwork project. Sportweight alpaca in two colors, nicely flared cuffs, traditional Norwegian colorwork. Separate charts for the two mitts, so the patterning is symmetrical. Available on Ravelry (free download). This pair was knitted by Liz.

How about a baby sweater? Nikki Van de Car’s free Maile cardigan is simple and incredibly cute. It’s a button-front raglan worked in one piece from the bottom up. Very springy in bright green, with eyelet flowers around the hem and leafy lace along the raglan lines. Tidy garter-stitch edges are just right. Needs just one 100-gram skein of sock weight yarn. Written in one size, 3 months, but wouldn’t be difficult to size up.

We have to have at least one lace shawl. I love Luiza, new from Jane Araujo. Top-down triangular shawl with unusual, very pretty border at bottom. Requires 450-500 yards of fingering or laceweight yarn; $5.00, available as a Ravelry download.
Now, two patterns from new books. First, whimsical stranded colorwork mittens – with kangaroos on them! Wonderful. The roos are full of energy - not one chart repeated three times, but three different poses. Appropriately enough, these were designed by Barbara Giguere for a new book by Gail Callahan aka the Kangaroo Dyer: Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece. Go to the Ravelry pattern page for a peek at the palms. And from Nancy Marchant’s new book on brioche stitch, Knitting Brioche, the Haarlem jacket, an elegant striped cardigan in neutral colors that would look good on almost anyone – or on the runway, for that matter. The subtle color play and asymmetrical collar are very chic.
And to finish up, there’s a great new collection from Churchmouse Yarns & Teas in Washington called Churchmouse Classics. Eleven patterns in the group; my favorites are the simple stockinette infinity scarf in Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze, knitted on the bias (Mohair Bias Loop) and a cashmere beret, but all these patterns by Kit Hutchin are winners – there’s a beaded beret in one skein of Koigu, a Koigu linen stitch scarf, and more. Available either as printed patterns or PDF downloads. You can order directly from Churchmouse.

So there’s some inspiration for the coming week. If you come across something new that you think I should mention, drop me a line – I’ll be glad to hear from you.

I’ll be spending quality time with Bohus sweaters at Stitches West on Sunday – I’m taking Susanna Hansson’s all-day class on them. I’ll report next week – expect beautiful Bohus photos!

Shawl number one

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:43:00 +0000

The first of “10 shawls in 2010” is done: Ysolda Teague’s wildly popular Damson (I think I’m the 759th person to post a finished one on Ravelry). Mine is knitted in Malabrigo Sock in Cordovan.

Lovely design – the two double increase lines on the back give it a horseshoe shape that stays on; the small size is very nice, and the contrast between garter-stitch and stockinette sections is really elegant, especially in a yarn with some sheen.

My next shawl wasn’t on my original list: it’s Rosemary Hill’s Brandywine. This is a Haiti relief pattern – $5 from every sale (more than 75%) goes straight to Doctors without Borders. More than 700 patterns have already sold – that’s $3500 donated so far. Can you help Rosemary get to her goal of 10,000 patterns sold?

I’m using Habu Tsumugi silk – a laceweight raw silk tweed. I was hoping to finish it in time to wear it to Stitches West next weekend, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Here's an in-progress shot:

Review: The Haapsalu Shawl

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:01:00 +0000

The Haapsalu Shawl, by Siiri Reimann and Aime Edasi (translated into English by Maret Tamjärv)
Saara Publishing House, 2009 (184 pages)
ISBN 978-9985-9925-9-3
$60.00 – $65.00 US; 19 € in Europe

If Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia made you fall in love with Estonian shawls, nupps and all, you’ll want this book for your coffee table. Like hers, this book celebrates the history and traditions of the ethereal shawls from the Estonian resort town of Haapsalu on the Baltic. It was published in Estonia with the direct input of master Haapsalu knitters working today and financial support from the Estonian government and various cultural groups. The financial support shows – it is a positively lavish, well-printed book with many color photographs.

The Haapsalu Shawl expands on the same territory covered in Knitted Lace of Estonia (Nancy Bush served as consultant and editor for this English translation) with more historical information and more stitch patterns. Wonderful period photos are scattered through the opening chapter on the history of these shawls, knitted for the tourist trade. One page pairs a photo of today’s master knitters seated in a row with their knitting, decked out in lace hats and aprons; below them, a photo of tomorrow’s masters – half a dozen young women from Haapsalu High School with their knitting – bodes well for the future.

Unlike the Nancy Bush book, which has 14 patterns with start-to-finish instructions, The Haapsalu Shawl has no actual shawl patterns in it. Instead, a short but detailed illustrated overview of traditional construction methods gives you all the information you’ll need to knit a scarf or shawl with the stitch patterns you choose from the stitch dictionary. Briefly, the traditional designs consist of a square or rectangular center section in stockinette-stitch lace with a garter-stitch frame, and a separately knitted edging which is sewn onto the finished center section. Square shawls may have a wide lacy border between center section and edging as well.

The edging technique is interesting. Unlike the sideways-knitted lace edgings of the more familiar Shetland shawls, Haapsalu shawl edgings are cast on along what becomes the outer, scalloped edge, and knitted toward the center. This 90-degree difference in the knitting direction creates a whole different look. Traditionally, the cast-on uses two strands of yarn, which makes a bold outline for the outer edge. Edgings are worked in two halves and joined at two of the four corners (because the tradition predates circular needles, they were not originally worked in the round). There is no mitering of corners; instead, enough stitches are cast on to ease the edging around the corners. Edgings are usually garter-stitch lace, contrasting prettily with the stockinette ground of the center section. Nancy Bush's book suggests alternative, modern ways to knit and attach these edgings.

The technique section of the book is well-written – it tells you how to calculate stitch counts for center section and edging (adding the right number of stitches for corner ease), and specifies the right cast-ons and bind-offs to use, with illustrations. Very detailed instructions are included for sewing the edging to the body of the shawl. There’s also essential information on blocking and on the traditional yarns used. An explanation of the chart symbols used and an illustrated stitch guide round out the technique chapter.

Now for the fun part. Most of the book is devoted to stitch patterns. There are 120 of them; each gets a full page to itself, with a generous, high-quality swatch photo (white wool on medium gray background) and a nice big chart. No written instructions are included. Patterns are grouped into families, interesting because it’s easy to see how small stitch variations alter the look of the swatch. Many of them are nupp-free (nupps apparently are prized as proof that a shawl is hand-knit - knitting machines can't do nupps). There aren’t too many edging patterns – only 9, arranged three to a page to finish the book.

Sprinkled throughout are 22 finished shawls, artfully photographed in full color in varied settings, many in scenic outdoor locations that make me pine for a summer holiday in Haapsalu. Some are modeled by Estonian women of all ages – the acknowledgments charmingly thank “the fair ladies who model the shawls in this book.” The knitter is always credited, welcome evidence of the respect given their work, and thanks to the book’s thoughtful layout, the stitch pattern used always appears on the facing page.

Any lace knitter who’s completed a shawl or two will be able to use this beautiful book to knit a wide variety of square shawls or rectangular stoles, no specific pattern necessary. With a bit of experience, it wouldn’t be too difficult to adapt the techniques to triangular shawls.

The Haapsalu Shawl is available in the U.S. from Schoolhouse Press and Halcyon Yarn, and in Canada from Elann and Needle Arts Book Shop, among others. You can also order it directly from Hobipunkt in Estonia; shipping doubles the cost for a single copy, but it may be worth it if you’re buying more than one. They also sell traditional yarns used by the Haapsalu knitters.

Knitting techniques online - where to start?

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Need to learn a new cast-on method, find tips on inserting a zipper in your cardigan, or cut your first steek? Trying to alter a sweater pattern or fix a cable mistake? Or maybe you're just learning to knit, and need videos of the basics.

It's never been easier to get knitting help from the Internet. From the earliest days of blogging, knit bloggers posted great tips and photo tutorials. Now that Internet video is accessible to most people, there's a how-to video for any knitting technique you can think of.

It can be a little bewildering to sort through these resources. They are scattered all over the Web; sites with lots of tutorials tend to be poorly organized (if they are organized at all), and some of the videos in particular are not very good. On the Knitfinder how-to page I've collected the very best of these links and organized them for you by topic, all on one page. It's easy to find exactly what you're looking for--just click on a keyword in the alphabetical list on the left, or use Ctrl F to search the page.

Here are a few more good collections of general knitting help for all levels, from beginner to geek-expert. These not only offer good content, but are reasonably organized so you can find what you need.

KnittingHelp.com
Launched in 2004, Amy and Sheldon Finlay's site is a collection of short, clear technique videos, all free. A great place to start if you're learning to knit. Advanced techniques such as magic loop, Kitchener stitch, stranded knitting and double knitting are here too. Videos are also collected on a CD available for purchase, and there's a glossary of knitting abbreviations and an online discussion forum.

Knit Picks tutorial collection

Good basic collection covering most techniques beginning to intermediate knitters will need. Includes videos and a glossary of abbreviations. Fairly well arranged; there's an A-Z index of techniques, so it's pretty easy to find what you need. Knit Picks also has a YouTube channel with more than 100 videos.

TECHKnitting
Since 2006, this site has published dozens of in-depth, clear, illustrated explanations of knitting techniques and problems. Everything from basic cast-ons to very detailed analysis of short-row uses and techniques. Invaluable and a bit geeky. Lots of unusual problems and issues are covered. Index of posts by topic is here.

Knitty articles

Knitty has published lots of good technique articles over the years. Archived articles are listed here by topic. Theresa Stenersen's column "Techniques with Theresa" has covered most of the basics; here is a list of subjects. For other Knitty articles on specific techniques, see the Knitfinder how-to page.

Drops Design YouTube channel

90+ technique videos without audio, supplemented with written instructions. If you want to see a technique demonstrated without being distracted by talking, these are for you.

and...great knitting teachers on YouTube

Many knitting luminaries are on YouTube, often in Knitting Daily TV segments. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to find them. Try searching for a favorite teacher's name. Two with channels of their own:

Lucy Neatby has eight great videos on provisional cast-ons, double knitting, bobbles, and "navajo" knitting, among other things.

Cat Bordhi has 24 videos on sock knitting, moebius knitting, and other techniques. Some real gems among her tips.

Check out the Knitfinder how-tos, and drop me a line if there's a technique you can't find, or you've got a favorite tutorial or video you'd like to see added to the list. I tuck in new links whenever I come across a good one. New today - the "bar none" increase popularized by Meg Swansen, and new color knitting videos from Berroco.

Coming soon: new content for the Knitfinder resource section--look for pages on color knitting and online pattern sources in the next couple of weeks. Also, stay tuned for a new weekly blog feature - the best new patterns available online, from all over the world.

Happy knitting!

A cautionary tale

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:04:00 +0000

I'm not very good about swatching (understatement of the year). My last shawl of 2009 was Aestlight from Shetland Trader. Stated pattern gauge is 24 stitches/42 rows to 4" on a 4mm needle - but, and I quote, exact gauge is not crucial. The next time you see that phrase in a pattern, pause and reflect. Did I swatch? No. No fitting issues, why swatch?

I knit Aestlight in Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller. I had one 560-yard skein, bought at Sock Summit last summer, in a beautiful green that reminds me of oxidized copper. No color name or number on the label. Aestlight is written for two sizes, and the larger requires 550 yards of yarn. You can see where this is going, right?

I cast on for the larger size with a 4mm needle and knitted merrily. About the time I began the sideways lace edging, I began to worry a bit about running out of yarn. At the halfway point of the edging, I realized I might be a gram or two short (thanks to my trusty gram scale). But I hoped for the best, and kept knitting anyway. What else was I going to do? Because of the way the shawl is constructed, I would have had to rip 50% of my work in order to switch back to a smaller size.

This is what I get for being cocky:

My finished shawl measures 68" wide instead of 52", and it's also 2" longer than the pattern dimension. My gauge was 16 stitches/4" instead of 24. I ran out of yarn with 11 edging rows to go. No hope of getting more, with no color name or number - so I headed for the yarn cupboard and pulled out half a dozen bits of green yarn in the right weight. Believe it or not, what you see above was the least jarring alternative.

I do love the finished product. Perfect size, nice drape at this gauge, and the color is gorgeous. No one has remarked on that funny-looking tail yet. I figure I'll just wear the shawl to Stitches West in February and wander around trying to find a better match.

10 Shawls in 2010?

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:52:00 +0000

I'm not one for knitting goals or resolutions (or resolutions in general, for that matter), but when I came across the 10 Shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry, I joined right away. Why not? I love shawls. I knit them anyway. One cannot own too many of them, in my opinion. There are already more than 150 shawl patterns in my Ravelry favorites. Last but not least, I wouldn't have to buy a single ball of yarn.

OK, so which 10 shall it be? Usually I decide what to knit on a whim, no long-term planning involved. So thinking about projects I'd like to knit as a group instead of one at a time is interesting. Why not try some different kinds of shawls, and avoid getting stuck in a rut? Minimum two that are all about color, not lace. One stranded colorwork shawl, and one that features texture. I notice I'm not as interested in fancy lacework as I used to be. Minimum one Estonian-style, one Faroese, and one Icelandic-style. A hap shawl would be nice too. I want to knit at least one from my own handspun, and one that's my own design. Oh, and one in hemp or linen.

Then it occurred to me to count up how many projects I actually knitted in 2009. Let's see: 2.9 shawls; 1 sweater; 1 mini-shawl; 1.9 pairs of socks; 1 cowl. Hmmm. Time to revise expectations - the ten shawls are more like a five-year plan.

Oh well, here's my preliminary pattern list anyway. Because lists are fun - imagiknitting galore! (Most of these links take you to Ravelry.) Click away!

Colorful shawls
Stephen West's Daybreak. Stripes, and a great semi-circular shape.

A stranded colorwork shawl like Pinnneguri's steeked Thistle, but with a different chart. Something like Christel Seyfarth's Bird shawl, or Kaffe Fassett poppies? In Shetland wool.

Ulmus from Through the Loops. Slip-stitch stripes plus a lacy border - color, texture, and lace all in one shawl.

Lacy shawls
Two by Ann Hanson: Artichaut from Twist Collective (this would be beautiful in the white hemp I have in stash) and Trevi


Miralda's Triangular shawl from Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia.

Cobweb stole by Michele Rose Orne. Really like the unusual lace patterning in this one.

Myrtle leaf stole and Handsome Triangle from Victorian Lace Today. Myrtle leaf would be nice in hemp or linen; Handsome Triangle in silk.


Clothilde, by Kristen Hanley Cardozo

Echo Flower by Jenny Johnson Johnen, in pretty Estonian motifs

Litla Hyrna Huldu Simple Icelandic shawl with a pretty border. I've got a lot of unspun Icelandic in stash.

That's a lot of laciness after all.

Simple shawls
Ysolda Teague's Damson

Mara and Hannah Breetz's Storm Cloud Shawlette would both be great for my inexpert handspun.


Like hundreds of other knitters, I love Citron from Knitty, by Hilary Smith Callis.

Theory shawlette by Jennifer Lang - nice pattern for DK-weight yarn.

Shawls with texture
Gossamer Square from Elise Duvekot's Knit One Below. Unusual technique, two colors of Kidsilk Haze - interesting texture plus subtle colorplay.

Lily Chin's Reversible cabled rib shawl

That's eighteen right there, and there isn't a hap shawl, a Faroese, or one of my own design on the list. And I can't even cast on for number one yet - first I have to knit an overdue Ice Queen, and I really should finish my Girasole. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Fun with Meg and Elizabeth

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:05:00 +0000

When people hear about my pattern indexes on Knitfinder, they often ask "isn't that an awful lot of work? and isn't it boring indexing all those patterns?" The short answer is, yes and no. Yes, it's an awful lot of work. Boring? Well, you see, I choose which publications and designers I want to index. And I don't choose the publications and designers whose patterns make me gag - because I don't want to spend that much time with those patterns.

Which brings me to our newest index. Just published - ta daah! The (almost) complete list of patterns by Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen. I've been working on this for months; it isn't a huge number of designs (around 300 in all), but it presented several technical problems that had to be solved before I found a workable way to display the index on the site. Many of the patterns have appeared multiple times in different places; also, many are known by more than one name. You'll also find a resource list, including complete information on Schoolhouse Press yarns past and present.

Anyway. This index was pure pleasure to work on. It was a blast to reread every issue of Wool Gathering and every book by Elizabeth and Meg. In order to write the detailed pattern notes, I have to read every pattern carefully so I understand the design and construction details, and then summarize them for you all. Sometimes this wasn't easy, with these designers! Try explaining the Surprise Jacket or Round-the-Bend Jacket to someone else, especially if you haven't knit it (I must be the last EZ fan on earth who has not made a baby surprise jacket yet).

Much has been said about EZ's writing style. I can only add that her droll way with words cracked me up many times as I worked. Her written patterns express endless curiosity, intrepidity, and joie de vivre - qualities I admire greatly. Happily, Meg's writing style and approach to knitting are not so different and equally charming. I'm glad to have spent a few months living with their words, and pleased to make the index available to you.

In honor of its publication, try a free demo of the full subscriber version. Just log in with the username demo and password knit on for access to detailed pattern notes, Ravelry links, and the search by tag feature. The demo is good through January 4, 2010.

Quick gift patterns: final miscellany

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:56:00 +0000

To wrap up our quick gifts series, here are eleven more patterns for you that I couldn't resist, but don't seem to fit anywhere else. Putting this series together has reminded me how much fun it is to knit small projects - playing with different yarns and techniques, and finishing something in a day or two, is just the thing for a short attention span, or a break from a big shawl or sweater project. So, off I go in search of oddballs, beads and other bits and pieces to cast on for one or two of these.

Read the intro to this series here, and don't miss the other lists (links at bottom of this page).

Pence jug from Knitty (free pattern). Franklin Habit's re-creation of Miss Lambert's Victorian design: a tiny pitcher in sock yarn remnants, designed to hold coins. So pretty, I'd just drop a few pennies in it and leave it where I could see it every day.
Exploring Stripes beaded bag by Holly Webb (free pattern). Available on Ravelry; originally published in Interweave Knits Winter 2001/02. Round-bottomed beaded drawstring bag uses one skein of Koigu or other fingering-weight yarn (175 yards). I knitted a green version of this bag with copper beads years ago--it's lovely.
Mrs. Beeton wristwarmers by Brenda Dayne, from Knitty (free pattern). Luxe, feminine wristwarmers in scraps of DK merino/cashmere and Kidsilk Spray or Kidsilk Haze. Simple ribbing with frills and a few beads.
Thrummed fleece muff from Lionhairs (free pattern, available on Ravelry). Live where it's cold? This simple stockinette muff with i-cord strap is just the thing. Uses 120 yards of bulky wool yarn plus an ounce of roving. Here's a beautiful colorful version knitted in two and a half hours.
Dumpling bag by Sharon Dreifuss, from Interweave Knits. One-day knit: round felted bag embellished with needlefelting. Uses 272 yards Aran-weight wool, but worked with the yarn doubled. This would be a great bag to hang by your wheel for spinning accessories. Take a look at this bag trio.
Sea lace necklace by Sarah Punderson (available on Ravelry). Unique, delicate necklace knitted in Habu silk/stainless steel or Lion Brand wool/stainless. Uses 20-30 yards of yarn and a few beads.
Oddment hedghog from Little Cotton Rabbits. The cutest stuffed toy ever. Pattern available on Etsy or Ravelry. Uses 15 yards DK yarn for the body, and scraps for the rest.
Tricornu pincushion by Jody Pirrello from Knotions (free pattern). Pretty stuffed pincushion with a knitted counterpane square for the top and a fabric bottom. Tutorial for the sewn part is here. Uses 50 yards of kitchen cotton.
Emerald beaded bracelet by Heather Murray (free pattern). One ball of no. 8 pearl cotton and 15 grams of seed beads make a lovely vintage-looking bracelet you can knit in an evening or two.
Fairy star chair mat from Tiny Owl Knits (free pattern). What a good idea - uses 100 yards of super-bulky wool (written for Debbie Bliss Como). Knitted like a pair of circular dishcloths, crocheted together for a double-thickness pad.
And one more for good measure - Lacyflakes snowflakes from Heartstrings Fiber Arts. Inventive and truly beautiful - a storm of these silk snowflakes would be fantastic hung in a window or on a tree.

Monday: patterns with color
Tuesday: lacy patterns
Wednesday: patterns with texture
Thursday: plain & simple patterns

Quick gift patterns - plain & simple

noreply@blogger.com (Thérèse) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Today: ~~ten~~ eleven fabulous plain and simple patterns. Check back tomorrow for a few final ideas. Read the intro to the series here.

All these patterns use less than 300 yarns of yarn; most of them much less. That means you should be able to get them knitted in a week without too much trouble. All are easily available, either instantly online or in magazines currently on the newsstands. Many are free; others cost a few dollars. Some are widely known, others are unsung gems or rediscovered from past years. Enjoy!

Quincy hat by Jared Flood. This jaunty hat is garter-stitch with a twist - literally. You knit a flat strip of garter stitch, give it a twist and join the ends, then pick up crown stitches and knit them in the round. 174 yards bulky-weight yarn.
Storm Cloud shawlette by Hanna Breetz (free pattern). Simple but lovely semicircular garter-stitch shoulder shawl with optional ruffle. Worked at an open gauge for sheerness. 150-210 yards fingering weight yarn, but can be worked in any weight. (This would be a great pattern to show off handspun.)
75-yard Malabrigo fingerless mitts for men, from Life in Cleveland (free pattern). Completely plain mitts with ribbed edges - but in a luxurious yarn, what could be better? 75 yards worsted-weight wool.
Tea Mitten by Elizabeth Kleven (free pattern). Ribbed tea cozy fits your pot like - well, a glove. Uses less than 100 yards DK wool (and another great use for handspun.
Magic slippers for babies from SockPixie (free pattern). Cute garter-stitch slippers use a walnut-sized ball of sock yarn leftovers for a newborn size; can easily be made bigger. I like this version, with pompoms.
Robin's Egg Blue hat by Rachel Iufer (free pattern). Chic close-fitting stockinette hat with wide seed-stitch brim and buttoned tab. Less than 120 yards chunky-weight wool.
Snug baby hoodie by Hinke (free pattern, available on Ravelry). Almost-seamless sideways garter-stitch hoodie jacket for newborns - 6 months, in Cascade Ecological Wool. Uses 219-273 yards.
Susie's Reading Mitts from Dancing Ewe Yarns (free pattern). Fingerless mitts for women in stockinette with eyelet and purl-ridge accents, picot edges. 200 yards worsted-weight yarn.
Urchin beret by Ysolda Teague from Knitty (free pattern). Garter-stitch beret worked sideways on two needles with short-row shaping. 77-110 yards bulky wool. This version added a few stitches to make a nice slouchy hat.
Huckleberry Ascot by Kat Coyle, from Interweave Knits. Short garter-stitch scarf worked sideways. Short rows widen the ruffled ends. 220 yards DK yarn (written for alpaca).
And one more for good measure: Ribby Slipper Socks from Interweave Knits (free pattern). Ribbed alpaca slippers with folded cuffs - feet in bulky weight, cuffs in worsted weight. 145-190 yards, sizes for children and adults. Knit them in a day!

Monday: patterns with color
Tuesday: lacy patterns
Wednesday: patterns with texture
Friday: miscellaneous gems