Marnie, speak! Good girl.

Spring

Mon, 06 May 2013 05:02:30 -0800

It's here, at least in Oregon and it's lovely so far.

This rock has a heart on for spring and I have a juvenile sense of humor

Spring means more trips to the beach.

Did you catch that excited whimper out of Darwin?

And more playing in the yard

I think D is aerating the lawn a little too effectively

And renovations.

New wiring and an end to that pepto pink closet, in the works

And maybe a little something else getting an overhaul, too.

Coming soon, if I ever finish doing all the things

New Twist Collective is up!

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:26:54 -0800

The new Twist Collective is live and it is easily my favorite Spring/Summer edition and an all around beautiful edition by any measure. As always, I'm proud to be a part of it. Check out all the great patterns and articles.

You can find my pattern, Lyssia, here, and on ravelry, here.

Nieve

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:47:34 -0800

My newest cowl pattern, Nieve, is a double knit design, with tutorials for casting on, binding off and double knitting. The instructions include modification notes for making the cowl both longer and wider, and includes yarn estimates for each modification.

If you don't tend to have a lot of success with colorwork, you might really appreciate the benefits of double knitting. Yes, it's thicker and takes longer to work than a single layer, but there are no long floats to wrap or keep loose for proper tension. The end fabric is so much more elastic and reversible as well.

Worked in worsted weight yarn, this is a reasonably fast project, and takes only one skein of each yarn. The pattern is 4 pages long, plus a cover. The motif is charted and the cast on and double knitting instruction include step by step photos.

Want to find out more? Check out my pattern page, or visit the ravelry shop page. Obligatory tortured dogs shot

Coming soon

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:43:39 -0800

The skies have opened up and we're having a perfectly Oregonian kind of day, so I can't get any proper pattern shots, but here's a little sneak preview of something in the works; a double knit cowl in some Berroco Vintage

Thea's on the fence but I think the color suits her.

Happy birth-ish-day to my favorite detstructobot

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 09:31:02 -0800

Thea was born sometime around today-ish, six years ago. She was a challenging puppy, fond of destroying stuff, and indifferent to even the sternest voices. She was cute though.

But now she's all grown up, mellowing out and a real love monkey. She's gentle with her older sister, but rough houses with her little brother and always, ALWAYS snuggles next to me at night. And she's still cute, in a ridiculous sort of way..

Happy birthday to my little monkey butt. Oh and happy birthday to my brother too. I guess he's ok.

Can we grep about Photoshop

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 05:05:15 -0800

This is sort of a strange blog post as it's not really knitting related, has no puppies and addresses an obscure problem that most people will never have, but I'm of the mind that if I know how to fix a problem I've had, there's bound to be someone else out there with the same problem so I might as well share. Our website's online ordering application accesses files stored in a series of folders. Within the folders, all the naming conventions are the same. The folders themselves are all numbered, though not sequentially. We had 1000 folders and within each folder is an image called, "sample.jpg" and each of those images is a preview of the product being sold, so they are all different. We wanted to open all those files and use Photoshop's Save for Web function to optimize them. However, Save For Web doesn't remember the image's source folder. It remembers the last place Save For Web saved to, which means if you were to batch process the images, each would overwrite the last in some common folder. Even if we numbered the images, sequentially, they wouldn't match up with their folder number since the numbers all jump around. Any solution I could think of ended up being pretty labor intensive with plenty of chance for error. I posted on the Adobe Forums and got bupkis. I figured I had nothing to lose and posted on Facebook. A few hours later, a friend in Australia had a solution for me. I decided to do up more detailed instructions, suitable for someone who has never worked with unix, grep, or scripting before. You can download the instructions and sample files from this page. Please note that these are Mac specific instructions. Pretty much everything should translate to some sort of PC equivalent, but I'm not the person to help you sort that out. I could see this being handy for anyone who has a lot of image files on their site that they might want to resize or optimize, quickly. If you think any of this would be useful, feel free to download the files and don't hesitate to let me know if you have any tips, corrections or suggestions.

Blustery and a coupon

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:35:08 -0800

Winters in Oregon are gray and rainy and I love them. They are downright tropical compared to the bitter winters of my childhood in New Hampshire, yet cozier and more knitting friendly than the mild winters of Los Angeles. But I'll admit, I need a little brightness after weeks of dark skies and short days and I find myself drawn to beautifully dyed yarns as an antidote. I picked up a couple of skeins of Madalinetosh sock yarn in a shocking yellow-green that I'd normally pass over during the more colorful months, but which suited my mood so well in the gloom. In no time, I had my newest design, Blustery, a hat and cowl offered together or at a discounted rate as a set.

Find out more here and on Ravelry.

Is it cookie time yet?

If you are interested in this, or any of the other patterns I sell in my ravelry store, I'm offering a coupon code good through the end of the year for 10% off of all your purchases. Use this code as many times as you like both for purchases for yourself and gift purchases for other knitters.

Make sure you use the coupon code option before you check out.

And, of course, if you have any problems with the code or any questions about the patterns, don't hesitate to let me know.

Non-fatal red shirt

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 08:49:28 -0800

We all know that in the first Star Trek series, wearing a red shirt, especially if you were a person of color, was a pretty fatal proposition. Don't leave the ship, unnamed security officer, just don't. But then came The Next Generation. The prime directive stayed the same but the red shirt got a serious upgrade.

Hubba!

Riker was making it work, too. I've never claimed to be a true sci-fi nerd (whatever that means,) but I was a huge fan of TNG, so when I was assigned some rich red yarn for my Winter 2012 Twist Collective project I didn't need a holodeck to picture my favorite starfleet captain. For sure, I wasn't going to mimic the color blocking and shoulder pads, but I loved the angular lines and slim fit. It had to be something wearable and practical and flattering, all at once. And so was born Picard.

Photo Copyright Carrie Bostick Hoge

Picard is a top-down seamless raglan with short row shaping around the neck. This construction makes it really easy to modify the garment as you go, especially if you are a little tight on yarn. Once you get going, the stitch pattern is easy to memorize and flows smoothly into the hem ribbing. A little detailing on each sleeve cuff brings it all together.

I finished the garment with buttons, but this would be a great design for a separating two-way zipper or even hook and eye, if you prefer. If you like this pattern, you can view the magazine page here, the shop page here, and the ravelry page here. And if you want some reading to pair with your TNG themed knitting, be sure to check out this blog.

Happy Halloween

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 05:12:54 -0800

To my friends, family and readers who are dealing with hurricane Sandy, please stay safe, dry and warm. And to everyone, have a happy Halloween. ~~Wildfred~~ Leo and I will be confusing our dogs and neighbors in our toasty warm costumes.

I suspect most trick-or-treaters will be coming via car since we have rain aplenty, but I'm predicting a surplus of candy rations, at the end of the night, despite our ongoing quality control checks of our stockpile.

Arctium KAL

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 08:12:25 -0800

The good folks at Shalimar Yarns are planning to do a knit-along for Arctium, in early November. Sign up for their newsletter and they'll be sending out more details and a special coupon, good through the end of the year, for a dollar off the pattern price. Sign up for the newsletter in the footer of their website. You can see some of their other in-progress KALs and get to know the folks behind the yarn, over in their Ravelry group. I'll be there, answering questions, and encouraging everyone along. I would love to see you all there. If you are interested in buying some of their yarn for the project (or any other project), a full list of their retailers are here including web retailers, at the bottom.

Arctium

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 08:28:42 -0800

I have a new pattern, Arctium, a lacy crescent shawl shown in two different fingering weight sock yarns. The pattern is worked from the top-down, in one continuous piece, using a true lace, pattern that has pattern stitches on both right and wrong side rows. Don't be intimidated, though, there are only a couple of stitches you need to know, and every charted page, has a key on it, so you won't be flipping back and forth to remember which stitch is what.

The pattern is 6 pages, plus a cover, with large charts, a schematic, and a detailed blocking guide to ensure you get great results. I even include some tips for making the shawl larger, if you'd like.

As you can see, even though they are each made with a single skein of fingering weight yarn, these shawls weigh a million pounds, though most of that weight is shame felt only by pets. Actual weight and yardage is supplied on both the ravelry page and in the pattern.

Coming soon

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:10:11 -0800

When I was learning to knit, lace is what hooked me in, and that joy and satisfaction haven't waned. What's not to love about pairing yarn overs and decreases to form beautiful shapes and an airy fabric? Between Tangerine Trees and waiting patiently for my next deadline project yarn, I had just enough time to design something in lace that would use up some of my stash of hand dyed sock yarn. The pattern is in the capable hands of a tech editor, while I put the finishing touches on the layout and photography. I hope to have this bad boy live by the end of the week.

Om nom nom

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:39:34 -0800

Darwin says, make sure to get at least three servings of fruits and veggies every day. And if it's possible, try to get your siblings' servings of fruits and veggies too. Blueberries

Blackberries

Corn

Tangerine Trees

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:42:06 -0800

My increasingly graying hair and I have a new pattern.

I feel like I design fairly regularly, especially now that I publish most seasons with Twist, and I'm always trying to appeal to a wide variety of people, but Tangerine Trees is really a design for me. I love wide ballet style necks, body darts, buttons and cuffs. I don't normally wear prints or complicated textured patterns. I love all types of designs, but this is a design that looks like something I'd have in my personal wardrobe. The garment is worked from the hem-up, with no seams except the underarm bind offs, which could be joined with a 3-needle bind off if you are really averse to grafting. The yoke features raglan shaping as well as an additional series of neck decreases which can easily be added to, to make the neck narrower. Short rows at each shoulder help to hide your underpinnings.

I used fabric covered buttons on the cuffs and hem which gave me an excuse to dive through my stash of quilting remnants.

If you like the photos, I have more details here and on the ravelry page, and the latter offer tons more photos. A big thank you to Laura Chau for tech editing my pattern and of course to my pups for photo-bombing me while I was trying to take serious pattern photos.

Fall 2012 Twist Collective

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 07:40:21 -0800

The new edition of Twist Collective is live. It has been for a few days. I should know, I was there when it happened. To me, this edition is all about timeless, wearable items, and I'm at a loss to pick a favorite. My contribution is Treillage.

It features lots of dense cables and fabric covered buttons made with leftover quilting scraps. Thea doesn't care for it.

See the magazine page here The details page is here And the ravelry page is here And don't forget to check out the whole edition, including all the great articles.