Murielle Knitwear - Creative projects, nature, humor...

A DIY Happy Valentine Romantic Hoodie Cowl Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:40:00 +0000

As January rolled in, I was thinking of Valentine’s Day coming up next month, and wondering what I might design for it.

I had a beautiful woolen lace in cream, and last year I had a huge cowl/hood/wrap that was a very successful item.

I thought maybe I’d re-invent it using that gorgeous lacy fabric -- yet by itself, it did not seem romantic enough. I wanted to go a little over the top with it, a little French Lieutenant’s Woman, a little carried off to Loveland.

So off to my shed I went and I started digging until I came upon a scrumptious velvet - not sure at this point whether it was a silk velvet or a rayon velvet (I had owned it a long time), but either way, it had this beautiful sage green seafoam emerald kind of color that is so soft and flattering and calls to mind the spray of waves, deserted winter beaches, and mossy lichens. Ooooh, where’s that French Lieutenant?

So I grabbed it and put it next to the woolen lace: they looked like they’d been waiting all this time to be matched and paired.

Here is the result:

You can inspire yourself from it and make your own from your choice of beloved fabrics, or you can purchase mine on my Etsy store.

To make your own, just cut two large rectangles (I’d cut at least 20” high by 30”- 40” or so wide, but pick your preferred size; you can experiment by draping fabric around your head or shoulders until you get your preferred look) and lay them on top of each other, good sides facing each other. Sew the two long seams.

Now match the short sides together and sew all around, matching fabric A to fabric A, and fabric B to fabric B, good sides still facing each other. Leave about 3” open so you can turn it inside out. (see diagram below)

After you’ve turned it inside out, hand-sew the 3” opening - et voilà: you have a gorgeous reversible Valentine’s cowl/hood/wrap!

Prints, prints and more prints!!

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:48:00 +0000

I have this powerful attraction to prints. Every time I hit a fabric store, I am drawn to the silk chiffons with vintage-looking prints - anything art deco, Japanese, woodblock, even polka dots.

Now that the weather is finally hot, I have been on a rampage trying to put a dent in my fabric stash, and I am thrilled to say that one of my favorite fabrics, a black and cream printed chiffon with a motif that looks like fossilized, woodcut leaves, has found a fine ending. I just finished this adorable little top/blouse, which is convertible into a skirt and even an open-shoulder poncho.

Here are some pics. First the fabric. I was immediately attracted to the abstract-y look of it. So I draped and I sewed and I trimmed and draped some more, ran over to my friend Sandy to see what it looked like on a real human being (and get a second opinion, of course!), and here's the result.

This is a one-of-a-kind item, as I had very little of this fabric, and it's for sale at my Etsy store, should you be interested. In any case, now that I have a pattern I'm happy with, I'll probably remake it in a bunch of different prints.

Until then, I am on to my next crazy project: an asymmetric short-sleeve tunic of habotai silk splashed with silk dyes :)

Have a lovely evening, and let me know what you think of the item above, yay or nay. Always interested!

Murielle

Murielle Knitwear Giveaway! Facebook Fan Page!

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:29:00 +0000

Hello friends,

I just created my Facebook Fan page and in honor of it, I am doing my first giveaway!

To enter, go to my Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Murielle-Knitwear/200912729947271) and click on the LIKE icon at the top. Then leave me a comment that includes the word "blog" in it somewhere so I'll know that's where you found my page. That's it!

As soon as I get to 100 likes (and I'm already at 75, so it shouldn't take too long), I will get in touch with the winner of the draw to get an address and ship you your giveaway.

And if you want to hear about future giveaways first, be sure to follow this blog:)

But wait, you say - what am I getting???

My best-selling Mobius jersey fleece twist wrap, yes, this one:

If you live in a hot climate, you can have the spring-summer version instead, made from a lighter and supersoft jersey:

How hot is it really? Well, this is what my buyers have said:

"Fantastic! It just arrived today, and I'm already wearing it. Very comfortable and versatile wrap scarf. "

"elegant...wonderful....thanks"

"Love it, thanks! I will be a repeat buyer, I can already tell. Been looking for something just like this for ages."

"I was pleased with the dark grey jersey fleece twist. It was exactly as I expected. The fabric drapes beautifully. A happy 20 minutes was spent trying out all the ways I can wear it. I expect that I will be wearing this versatile piece a lot"

"Beautiful!!! Color is perfect and matches my Bridesmaids dress! Also looked super cute with the jeans and tank I was wearing when I first tried it on! LOVE the versatility of this wrap/scarf :). "

So yes, it's good and you're worth it:)

That's all for today, folks - get clicking:))

Love

Murielle

Krazy Glue: The Things That Make Me Happy:)

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:35:00 +0000

Check out my new Etsy Treasury, where I found some of the most delicious and funny items. It makes me happy just looking at them.

Krazy Glue: Things That Make Me Happy

I post a screengrab of it below so you get the idea.

The prompt was from Etsy itself: they asked on Twitter to show in a Treasury what you would buy with your tax refund (assuming presumably that you didn't have to spend it on a new wooden leg or a deeper hole in the sand). I thought I'd do my best to amuse myself and strive to elicit any sounds resembling oohs, aaahs and guffaws from my throat.

Funnily enough, my friend Claudia just posted a blog featuring a little blue felted bird that is exactly in the same spirit - look it up below, is it not irresistible? I for one am in love.

That's all for today, folks - hope I added some whimsy to your day.

Murielle

My Jersey Hemp Wedding Dress ft. in Handmade Gift Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 01:37:00 +0000

My jersey hemp wedding dress was featured in this Handmade Gift Guide :))

Handmade Gifts: Spring is in the Air

Mobius Twists aka Infinity Wraps

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:11:00 +0000

2011

I've always been fascinated by the Moebius band. By taking a strip of paper, twisting it once and then scotch-taping the narrow ends together, you can make one yourself.

It has always seemed impossible to me, even though life seems to prove it can be done over and over again: how can you start on top and end up on the bottom, and vice-versa? (If you don't know what I mean, try "walking" your fingers starting on one side of the Moebius strip, and you will see that by the time you get back to the point where you started, you will be on the other side - incredibly confusing, I know - hence my endless fascination).

The Möbius tape was like having one of my own Escher drawings - those were something else I was perpetually fascinated by. My brain is spatially impaired I fear, and I have an always fresh sense of wonder about how any of it can look so possible and yet be so not :)

2003

So a few years ago, bored with "regular" scarves, shawls and stoles, I made one out of knitwear, long enough to drape across your shoulders, and broad enough to dip to your elbow. They did not sell at the time.

Last fall, I dug the idea back up and made some from jersey as well as handloomed knits, and surprise surprise, the dark grey flannelly jersey one became a sleeper hit (see picture at the top). Well, a hit is perhaps an overstatement, but let's just say it sold better than anything else I had, possibly because making a cut-and-sewn wrap from jersey results in a much more reasonable price than handlooming and handdyeing yarn.

2010

Now with spring firmly here (at least in Southern California, where today is a balmy 80 degrees), I went fabric shopping downtown to see if I could secure a lighter weight jersey -- and I did. In fact, I found some lovely eco-friendly hemp French terry fabrics, which I will handdye in yummy spring colors, and the softest imaginable dark grey jersey again - but this time in a delicious spring weight, and last but not least, a jet black cotton summer thermal. I will be posting these to my Etsy store shortly.

Post away if you feel as weird as I do about the Møebius phenomenon and I wish you the same weather we're having (assuming that's what you like, of course -- some incomprehensible people I know (in my own family, even!) prefer gray and rainy days. I'm giving away all of mine in advance for the coming year.

California FLASH FLOOD | 3/21/11

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 21:05:00 +0000

That was my Topanga neighborhood on Sunday... Topanga Canyon Blvd., the next destination for whitewater rafting :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0MGB7RtfCU

I actually went to play cards somewhere and this was happening right above me at Highvale & Topanga - hadn't a clue... Too busy swerving around the rocks and slides.

Oh, and don't forget my all-day sale on Etsy -- celebrating 500+ shop hearts:)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70560515/special-sale-20-today-only-to-celebrate

CELEBRATION SALE 20% on all my Knitwear :))

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:39:00 +0000

Sometime last night, my little Etsy handmade knitwear shop passed the 500 mark for Shop Hearts, so to celebrate, I'm giving everyone 20% off on everything all day today :)) That NEVER happens (except today, of course ;)

All you have to do is enter the Coupon Code:
500SPECIAL
in the coupon field at checkout and it will automatically take 20% off.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70560515/special-sale-20-today-only-to-celebrate
http://murielleknitwear.etsy.com

Of whale-watching trips, Catalina Island and lacy knit wedding dresses :)

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 06:26:00 +0000

Hello hello,

In my last blog I mentioned my art deco flapper wedding dress had been featured in the California Crafters Club of Etsy blog, and I promised to reveal more as soon as I was back from my whale-watching trip, so here goes :)

First, the trip. If you want to skip to the dress, click your heels and scroll down past the island and fishies pictures.

I've lived in California for many years and never been to Catalina Island, which is pretty ironic since I can see it from my house. So I was excited when I found a deal on LivingSocial that gave me an all-day whale-watching trip to Catalina for a modest $39.

It did require that I be in Newport Beach (an hour and a half or more from my home) by 8am, so I fell out of bed around 5am and by 6.20am I was on the road. Not a stitch of traffic (it was a Saturday) and with my stickered Prius, I flew down the carpool lane all the way, only to get stuck at the end in a molassy line of cars trying to get into the valet parking lot. Half-an-hour later, I finally delivered my keys to the one and only attendant and ran to find myself in another molassy line of people waiting to convert their vouchers into boarding passes. I had just about made it to the front of the line when I was told to go to another place altogether for the Catalina trip. OK, whatever. I'm a good hiker, and I covered the half-mile of fun zone boardwalk in no time flat, only to find myself waiting again in another molassy line. It was past 9am by then.

I put up with all this with great grace, unlike my usual self, and I was rewarded when all the twists, turns and snafus placed me on an open deck fishing boat called "The Freelance" (I felt right at home) instead of the two-story tour-boats that usually transport human cattle around the waters for purposes of viewing other mammals.

An onshore flow was forecast for the day, and gave us some swells to plunge into. Pretty soon, my deserted back-of-the-boat was invaded by a number of green-looking people holding on to the railing. Luckily, I rarely get sea-sick so I closed my eyes and slept in the sun, woken up occasionally by a gull floating overhead.

Pretty soon a pirate perched on the upper mast announced dolphins ahead.

I did my best to get some shots with my sluggish little camera, and got luckier later when we came upon bottlenose dolphins.
After about 3.5 hrs (mind you, on the fast boat it's a 75 minute trip), and more and more people bending over the back rail, we arrived in Catalina. This was a nice surprise, another snafu in fact, but it worked out for me: I thought we'd be putting in at Avalon, the touristy little town that is the destination for most trips to Catalina, and I was not overly thrilled about that, but we landed at Two Harbors, a tiny cluster of cabins situated on the East side of the isthmus, so I was in piggy heaven.

First of all, it looks like the northwest coast of Kauai on approach: very very green, slightly misty, and with plenty of palm trees and little clapboard houses.

Catalina is very narrow in its middle and you can easily walk from one side of the island to the other at that point, called the Isthmus (hence the name Two Harbors).

By then I was so hungry I could have eaten a horse, so I bee-lined for the Galley, the only food joint in the place, and had a super-greasy (and delicious) BLT on Sourdough, accompanied by the best French fries I'd had in ages, while a cheeky local bird stayed on the lookout for falling crumbs.

That and a Coke, and I was ready to discover the island. I only had 45 minutes left, so I followed the advice of the Island Guide, who suggested I hike across the isthmus and along the left side of Catalina Bay to the end benches, and come back. It was stupendously gorgeous and looking more and more like Kauai. I was ready to move into one of the little cabins and stay there a while.

I was told I'd see some evidence of the tsunami (which had just happened the day before), but all I saw was a lot of boats with no dinghies - perhaps they'd been ripped away and tossed, though I couldn't see where.

The bay looked emerald against the green cliffs and by the time I got to the west-facing side of the island, I had worked up a nice sweat. Still, I had to crank up the pace to get back and made it dead last onto the boat.

The return was much smoother, plus most of the sick people had gone to the General Store and cleaned it out of Dramamine and Ginger Ale.

First we ran across a big school of dolphins who were swimming under the boat. From my vantage point at the prow, I could almost touch them. Someone said you could hear them whistling. The engine was so loud, I'll have to take their word for it. I leant so well over the prow to take my shots that plety of salt got into my camera, which gave up the ghost a few days later. But that's another story.

All of a sudden, we came upon a pod of five grey whales, including a young one.

It was spectacular, and of course I ran out of both camera battery and memory on my card by the time they gave us a nice display of flukes. I did get shots of spouting and breaching, but as you can see, nothing that will get me into National Geographic.

Back in Newport Beach, I was first off the boat and practically ran to the valet parking place (I wasn't about to repeat my half hour wait from the morning) and got home in time for a steak. Nothing like sea air to open the appetite, as they say.

But enough of that, let's talk about the dress.

Years ago, I saw an exquisite shot of a cocktail dress, probably something from Ralph Lauren Collection, in tones of rosy beige/champagne, made from tiers of chiffon and lace with some bugle beading, very Art Deco-y. I was literally drooling at the picture and wondering: how can I translate this idea into something knit, since that is mostly what I do? I had recently morphed a sumptuous Jean-Paul Gaultier evening gown into a fabulous sweater coat, and I was hungry for more transmogrifications.

So I began obsessing over this dress. I had to find a very lightweight yarn, and if I was going to do a lacy pattern, the yarn would have to have some texture or nubs and slubs to hold the stitch structure together, not snag easily, and not drip like a sad rag. I ended up programming a bunch of different stitches onto punchcards, and using a bulky knitting machine, knit this teensy-weensy skinny yarn into a fabric I liked.

Now, the shape. I couldn't do tiers: the weight would have dragged it down, plus in such a loose knit, the horizontal seams would never look right, again because of the weight.

I settled for three small pin-tucks sewn directly into the knit fabric. Then I used yet another stitch, even more see-through, to make up the last tier in the form of a skirt, which I sewed on. I opted for a curvy v-neck and floppy cap sleeves and made the back same as the front.

Now I had to deal with the lining, as that dress was as good as bare. At first I used jersey linings. However, while those looked fantastic on my models, they scared my customers - jersey has a way of showing every hump and bump. So I tried silk habotai for a while. Habotai is OK, but a little stiff, and always ended up pleating itself under the knit. I had a bolt of silk charmeuse in a corner, and scared to death, I approached it. Charmeuse is like a slithery snake, and comes with other annoyances: showing pin marks, requiring great precision in the cutting, and so on.
It took me about four linings to finally get it right, and by keeping the shiny side of the charmeuse against the body, I ensured a smooth and pleasant fit - plus the matte side on the outside shows a lot less of those humps and bumps than the shiny would.

Next I had to dye it. One of my customers wanted a black one. Easy enough, right? Ahem. I managed to invert the order of operations the first time out, and ended up with a sensational (if utterly accidental) pattern that looked like a combination of tie-dye and hand-splashing - not solid black, however. Back to the hotpot.

My next one was to be dyed in my Gooseberry color, and that one went off without a hitch. By the time I made the fourth dress with the charmeuse lining, I almost liked charmeuse. :)

photograph courtesy of Mark Oberlin @ markoberlin.com

Over the years I have made that dress in many colors and lengths and sometimes mixed with a run-along yarn of lurex or some other metallic. My favorite is still the one I made for my friend Annette's ten-year wedding re-vows: in my Barbados Sand color with a Champagne color metallic yarn knit along, it looked almost like the original dress I had inspired myself from. In spirit anyway. :)

Voilà, that's all folks. Till next time,

Yours in stitches,

Murielle

My White Art Deco Flapper Wedding Spring Airy Dreamy Dress...

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 14:30:00 +0000

... is featured in The California Crafters Club of Etsy blog today! And I am very excited about it.
http://www.californiacraftersclubofetsy.blogspot.com/

go see more pics by clicking here and there

I have been making several of these dresses for the wedding season and though they are difficult to make, I derive such a pleasure from making them every time :)

So thank you Carrie so much for featuring me! You made my day :)) (By the way, Carrie makes very beautiful jewelry which you can see right here.)

Now I'm off for a whole day of whale- and dolphin-watching with a two-hour stop in Catalina Island. I am excited because even though I have lived in California for ever, I have never been to Catalina!! And I love the ocean, boating and the fishies. I'll take lots of picture and share in my next blog, as well as explain how this dress came about and more or less how I make it.

Thanks everyone for your support and come visit my Etsy store, I have lots of pretty new spring things.

With love,

Murielle

Snowy Cloche Hat in White and Purple Silk Mohair

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:55:00 +0000

When it rains, it snows. I was silent for six months, and now I have Blogorrhea. Oh dear. Well, onward and upward, here we go.

Every one of my stories seem to start this way: I fall in love with a yarn and I try to figure out what to do with it. :) I’m part of a large club, I imagine. Well, I love this yarn. It's a splendid Silk Mohair blend from Classic Elite justly called Bravo!. The mohair stays white while the silk changes from greige to steel blue and lavender to grey.

First I thought I’d make a headband with it. But that was not enough. So I added a hat to the headband, but I cast the hat part on a tad tight, and I did not want to redo it. So my planned longish slouchy beanie hat became... a cloche.

The hat itself was easy: a rectangle, through the top of which I slipped the tail yarn back and pulled until it was fully gathered.

Then I did a kind of ornamental mattress stitch to close the hat seam. I call it ornamental because I was hoping originally to make it invisible, but I failed miserably. So I took my lemons and made them into an “ornamental seam”.

I knit this on a bulky knitting machine, I can’t even remember how, probably using every other needle on the loosest tension. If you want to handknit it, I suggest this: pick needles size 15-17 US (the size of your index finger, give or take), make a swatch, count the stitches in a four-inch width. Let’s say it’s 8 stitches, so divided by 4 inches, that’s 2 per inch.

Now measure your head, like this:

Multiply the number of inches around your head by the number of stitches per inch you obtained above, and cast on that number of stitches, very, very loosely.
Knit in stockinette for 9 inches or so, pull a needle threaded with the tail of the yarn through all the stitches on the needle, remove the needle and pull the yarn tight until the whole width is gathered tightly. Stitch in place.

Now knit the headband part. Cast on 5 inches worth of stitches and knit in stockinette until your have reached a length matching your head size, usually between 20-23”. Bind off.

Sew the band to the hat, right sizes facing. Close the seam using the stitch of your choice (mattress, kitchener, crossstitch, whatever).

Crochet a long and loose single chain (use a crochet size J or bigger); stop at about 30” length. Thread the chain into a blunt-point tapestry needle and leaving a 4” tail at the beginning, stitch diagonally, using loose stitches, over the edge of the headband. You should end up with another 4” tail at the end. Tie it in a bow with the beginning tail.

Fold the edge part back over the hat and you’re done!

Voilà for today. I wish you all a pretty little week, have fun, love well and stay warm :)

Murielle

As always, email me via my website if you have any questions :)

A Thanksgiving Beanie Hat in Paprika, Butternut and Truffle Browns

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 22:39:00 +0000

I was going through my stash when I fell upon a ball of this yarn I really like: Crystal Palace's Brushed Merino in the Painted version. Beautiful shades of tender brown, cognac, nutmeg, butternut, and brick red followed one another on the space-dyed yarn, which has a lovely quasi-felted appearance.

I had a lot of catching up to do on my television watching, what with episodes of everything from Mad Men to Project Runway piling up on my Tivo, so I plonked myself in front of the box, grabbed my sz 13 (US) Brittany birch needles and cast on, quite loosely, 43 stitches.

My gauge, by the way, - I did not knit a swatch, bad girl -, amounted in retrospect to about 8.5 stitches for 4 inches. The idea was that it would fit a head 20-22” in diameter. If you have a fathead like mine (22 3/4"), add 4 stitches (I would add 2 knit stitches at the beginning and end of each row, so when you close the seam it looks right).

I then knit 6 rows of garter stitch, and started a cable pattern. I get bored easily so I varied my cables: I had some 3-stitch cables, one 4-stitch cable, and one knit stitch “column” rising between 2 purl stitches on each side.

You might want something a tad more predictable, however, so I amended the recipe with all 4-stitch cables.24” long. My gauge, by the way (I did not knit a swatch, bad girl), amounted in retrospect to about 8.5 stitches for 4 inches. The idea was that it would fit a head 20-22” in diameter. If your head, like mine, is bigger, add 4 stitches (I would add 2 knit stitches at the beginning and end of each row, so when you close the seam it looks right).

So... back to our sheep:

Knit the first row after the 6 rows of garter stitch edging as follows:

*Row 1: P2, K4, P3, K4, P3, K4, P3, K4, P3, K4, P3, K4, P2

Row 2: knit the stitches as they present themselves, i.e.:

K2, P4, K3, P4, K3, P4, K3, P4, K3, P4, K3, P4, K2*>

Repeat these two rows once.

On the 5th Row, cross all the knit sections into 2-by-2 cables, i.e.:

P2, hold 2, knit 2, cross and knit the 2 held stitches, P3, cross the next 4 knit stitches, etc...

Keep going until you reach 12 inches in length. Cut the yarn tail about 12 inches long. Grab a tapestry needle with a blunt tip, thread it with the tail of the yarn and slide it through all the stitches on the knitting needle. Remove the knitting needle, and pull the yarn tail tight until the whole top is gathered. Stitch in place firmly.

To sew the seam of the hat, thread your tapestry needle with a 20” length of yarn and stitch the seam shut (I use a mattress stitch or a Kitchener stitch, they both work well; if you prefer, you can just sew it by machine with a matching color thread. Use a narrow zigzag stitch for elasticity.)

Next, the “flower”. Take a size J or so crochet, and knit a chain about 24” long. Make a series of 2 1/2” loops like a daisy, and stitch it together at the center. Stitch it to the tip of the hat, et voilà!

Any questions, feel free to email me via my website:

murielleknitwear.com

Stay warm and fuzzy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Pattern ©Murielle Hamilton 2010

Cowl Mania

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 03:25:00 +0000

Guilty as charged. I have become a veritable cowl factory. Yesterday, I went to the storage space and came back with boxes and boxes of yarn I had forgotten I owned - and now I can't stop. I have been knitting one thing after the other, and somehow, they all turn out to be cowls.

It all started with the cashmere hot pink hoodie cowl from one of my previous blogs (see picture at left). I sold it on Etsy, and since it was a one-of-a-kind, I thought I better make another one similar to it.

I had on hand some lovely lace-weight yarns like Cherry Tree Hill's suri alpaca and possum lace, and Rowan's Kid Silk Haze, so I adapted the pattern, mixed up the yarns, and made this double-sided cowl:

That got me so excited, I decided to try something completely different: a bulky thick and thin merino called Montana, that I had from Silk City Fibers in a gorgeous cream color. No double-sided needed here: the yarn was so bulky, one layer was enough. I knit a bunch of cables into it, but you can barely discern them (your best bet is the picture on the right below).

Next I tackled a magnificent boucle silk yarn, handdyed in tones of fuschia, plum, rose, olive and teal. I wish I knew who made it - it is truly a stunner. It just might be another Cherry Tree Hill - not sure. I did nothing fancy to it, just straight stockinette, and it turned out quite small, which was fine - you don't always need a huge statement around your neck.

I was on a roll - I got bold. I grabbed a ball here and a skein there of the softest, most luscious yarns I had in my possession, half of which I could not identify, and went k-k-k-kray-zee. It started with an innocent enough winter white mohair for a bang. I quickly switched to some yarn from Venus that is so insanely soft, I don't know what it could possibly be. It makes cashmere and angora feel like sandpaper. It's the brown yarn facing you in the first picture, interrupted by a few rows of dark plum silk merino from Italy (Classic Elite's Silk Tweed, sadly discontinued), and then resumed with the oh-so-soft-unkown-yarn. I broke it up with a couple of rows of the above-mentioned Silk City Montana, then moved to a custom spun silk merino yarn that I had handdyed in a beautiful faded rose. Then back to a couple of rows of something white, and a five-ply unfinished cashmere in a taupe color. Sounds luxurious, until you realize that unfinished means you have to wash it, condition it, dry it, press it, brush it, and brush it some more for it to feel like... cashmere. Oh well.

The yarns all having different weights, I kept having to adjust stitch size, number of stitches, etc..., which turned out to be a good thing: it unintentionally created a lovely openwork, which lightened the appearance of the whole thing. Once more, the thing was a cowl, but I got so carried away that I made it too long. What to do? Why, twist it, of course, which I did, once, before joining the cast-on row to the cast-off row. A Moebius (or Mobius, as some people spell it) Cowl it became, AND - oh-I-who-am-so-blissfully-honored! - my first-born (modeling all of them) declared it her favorite. What do you know.

Should you want to make your own, the basic idea is this:
1) for the simple cowls, cast on about 22" worth of stitches, knit 18" or so, cast off. Stitch the sides together wrong side out, turn inside out and press.
2) for the double-sided cowls, knit a rectangle about 22" wide and 36" long, then follow the sewing and folding instructions from my earlier blog. Oops. Just realized I never put up the diagrams. The explanations still stand (see the aforementioned blog), and I prefer them, but a picture speaks a thousand words, so here are the diagrams.

3) For the free-form Moebius Cowl, anything goes. Cast on about 18" worth of stitches, knit for about 28". Cast off. Grab the cast-on row, twist once, and sew it to the cast off row.

Good luck and feel free to email me at murielleknitwear@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.

Anna Karenina's Handwarmer, Miner's Lettuce and Cowboy Cologne

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:59:00 +0000

I cannot think of hand muffs without thinking of Anna Karenina, the protagonist of Tolstoy's famous novel. If you haven't read it, get yourself a copy quick - it is one of my absolute favorite books.

Hand muffs -- which from now on I shall call "handwarmers", due to the unfortunate slang bent the word muff has acquired since the days of Tolstoy and Anna Karenina -- have been on my mind ever since the other day.

I was hiking in the Santa Monicas with my friend and neighbor Patti.

The weather was so cold in spite of the sun that, poor little fragile California poppies that we are, we each wore one of my wristlets with both hands stuffed in it (see my next-to-last blog). Patti suggested I make a longer and wider one, one that would give comfortable space for both hands.

As soon as she said that, I began plotting. Nature interrupted me a lot, not in the way it usually does, but by offering so many wonderful sights that I had to stop every five seconds to take a picture. I am sharing a few of them below.

First there were the deer (remember Marisa Tomei ooh-ing and aah-ing about the deer in "My Cousin Vinny"? I still laugh my head off just thinking about it), and the attendant gorgeous meadows.

Then came the rocky outcroppings and the striking old oaks.Then came the rocky outcroppings and the striking old oaks.

Soon we fell upon some evil-looking fungi, straight out of Snape's potions bag: (if anyone knows what they are, please tell us. Not that we really want to eat them, but still. We like mushroom trivia).

Dear Professor Lupin greeted us;

we lunched on delicious Miner's Lettuce and Patti taught me all about "Cowboy Cologne", otherwise known as wild sage.

Between shots, I cogitated about handwarmers, Anna Karenina's tragic fate, St. Petersburg train platforms and icy (duh) skating rinks. As soon as I got home, I charged towards Knitting Central, i.e. the couch our dog lets us sit at the end of, sometime.

A Noro yarn was glaring at me from the coffee table and my favored walnut sz 13 US (9 mm) needles hung about nearby. The die was cast.

All I needed now was some black lycra, as I wanted the wrists to stay nice and fitted in spite of being repeatedly stretched over the hands. I bravely plowed through the canyons of boxes in my shed in search of a lone cone of the stuff and got lucky, quickly. Pheww.

I cast on 16 stitches nice and loose, although if your hands are bigger, I suggest you add a couple of stitches to that; to give you a frame of reference and an idea of how easy it would be to break them, my wrists' circumference is a pitiful 5 1/2". I will include directions to make it your size in the pattern, should you be built differently.

After a couple of rows of garter stitch, I did a few inches of stockinette stitch, broken up here and there by more garter stitch.
At the end of the straight part, I began to increase mightily, so that pretty soon I had twice as many stitches (32) as before.
I wrapped the piece around my fist to make sure that was enough, and decided that I was done with stockinette and garter. Everything gets boring after a while.

I therefore plotted a little relief in the form of a bas-relief for the center part, keeping columns of 8 stitches on each side in stockinette, and carving a stockinette cross in a field of reverse stockinette in the center. The full pattern with graph, diagram, dimensions is available on Ravelry and on my website.

As I knit, I noticed the yarn going down fast: anxiety pangs. Was I going to have enough? Pondering fixes and alternative solutions kept me so busy that I completely messed up the second part of the bas-relief and had to unravel at least 12 rows. Sniff. Hate that.

All ended well, however, and here is the finished piece before I pressed it and sewed it:

Here it is again, pressed, sewn and worn by my snotty French mannequin, Cocotte:

Cocotte, who is a contrarian, uses it as an arm warmer (if you love that look, knit yourself a pair).

Of course, in the spirit of Anna Karenina, you may want to wear it as a hand warmer, as shown at the top by my lovely Emily. By the way, the dog in the picture is the same dog that was just on the couch a minute ago.

If you wish, you can knit or crochet a 24" chain to attach to the handwarmer, so you can wear it around your neck if you get sick of it, or when your hands get warm enough.

Personally, I like to bunch it up on one of my wrists. I like the insolent attitude it confers upon the wearer.

To make it your size, measure around your bunched fist and figure out how many stitches that makes. Then apply that measurement to your width, minus a couple of stitches, since knit stretches.

The pattern, which has sizes, diagrams and gauges, will be on my Ravelry pattern store any second now (ahem), as well as on my website and in my Etsy store.

Enjoy and have fun till next time! Murielle.

P.S.: I like the look of the armwarmer so much that I think I may make a sweater with sleeves like that. Next fall. Next year. Someday.

Hong-Kong, the FBI and the Hooded Cowl.

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:55:00 +0000

But first, fresh news: "Fluur" selected the Cauliflower Headband you saw me make on Blogs 1 & 2 for her Treasury on Etsy!

Thank you Fluur, and here's the link:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=115233

Now onto my tale of international non-events: a few years ago, the FBI asked me to go to Hong-Kong.

Do fashion designers make good spies, you wonder? Or did they want to investigate me on foreign soil, for some bizarre reason? Had I been up to dark deeds of intercontinental smuggling?

No, no, none of that. "My" FBI was (and is) a wonderful non-profit resource for fashion designers, Fashion Business Inc, led by the indefatigable and ever cheery Frances Harder. The occasion was Hong-Kong Fashion Week, and I was part of a small group of American designers exhibiting at the fair for the first time, under the aegis of the FBI and the Hong-Kong Trade Council.

Discovering Hong-Kong was part of the attraction, of course: I had never been farther than Tokyo in that direction, and I still have fond memories of my night on the town with Frances and one of her local friends, who took us into a charming and unexpected part of old HK, Lan Kwai Fong I believe; imagine twisting, sloping, narrow cobblestoned streets lined by quaint buildings and warmly lit by old lampposts and streetside cafes; now imagine going to a restaurant situated on the fourth floor of one of these buildings; there are other restaurants on the 2nd and 3rd floor, and on the 5th and 6th and 7th; you get into a bite-size elevator, which hiccups upwards to your floor and dumps you right in the midst of people eating and drinking! Quite an odd feeling for someone used to street-level, store-front establishments with a host greeting you at the entrance. The food and ambiance were memorable and the company lovely, and it stands out as my favorite part of the trip - that, and the daily ferry rides between our hotel and the Convention Center where the fair was held.

I had another interest as well: cashmere vendors. I had wanted for so long to add this delicious fiber to my line, but the price made it impractical. I curbed my hankerings by scouring the men's department store sales for V-neck cashmere sweaters: not much of a choice of colors, but half the price of women's. So imagine my excitement when after covering acres of yarn vendors, I found a terrific manufacturer willing to sell me a relatively small quantity of a gorgeous undyed blend of 70% cashmere and 30% mohair. I thought I'd just plumb died and gone to heaven.

Fast forward to January 2010: I am foraging in my yarn stash and come across a knit and dyed piece of that very yarn (R), a reject, an unfinished project, evidently stashed away for “later”. It was so lovely, so soft, the color so exquisite (OK, I'm done patting myself on the back for at least one sentence), so I played with it for a while, twisting and turning it, trying a hat and a scarf and who knows what else - and finally sewing it together in the manner of my double-sided tube tops (below L), which are sometimes used also as miniskirts (below R).

What turned out was a perfect, luxurious cowl that could double as a hood, or, if you were so bold, as a tube top -- or, if you were really pushing it, as a miniskirt... Me, I stuck to the head and neck. Enough excitement for one day.

The original piece measures more or less 22" wide by 36" long.

The trick lies in the assembly, which is so counter-intuitive to me, I can never remember how I did it the last time and I have to make myself all sorts of notes. I was born, alas, without at least two genes: spatial intelligence and housekeeping. Visualizing how to fold this thing makes my head spin - all the folds are the exact opposite of what I would instinctively do, and I remember sweating bullets to come up with the original tube top. It seemed so wrong in the doing, and so right in the being.

In any case, I wasn't about to reinvent the wheel, but since I also lack the organizing gene -- three strikes --, I could not find my blow-by-blow set of directions. I resigned myself, and took one of my old tube tops apart and back. So here's the key - and if you're a spatial imbecile like me, follow closely. If on the other hand you find this logical, natural and/or easy, please don't let me know. I feel dense enough as it is.

First fold it cross-wise, right sides facing each other, and sew the two ends together (you are sewing the cast-on row to the cast-off row, in other words). Note: That hideous shiny putty nubby yarny thing you see here is what I used as basting "thread". I have excuses: I had to make sure it was going to work before I stitched it permanently, the yucky beigy silly yarn happened to be within reach, and I don't get up off the couch if I can help it. If you can't see the basting yarn, good for you: you've lost your glasses again. Click on the picture to see the giant version if you must.

You now have a tube. Fold it lengthwise and match the open ends of the tube together, still with the wrong side out, as if you were trying to make a doughnut. I should have taken a picture of that, because I get totally confused just re-reading myself. Stitch the edges together, leaving a hole of 3 to 4” at the end, so you can turn the piece inside out through it.
Push the piece though the hole, so the good side is now outside, and slip stitch the hole shut .

Now turn the tube inside out so that the seams cross roughly in the center back of the inside. Hope I didn't lose you. Some things are just better on YouTube: how to milk a cow comes to mind, and possibly this.

This twisted idea originated when I tried to come up with a tube top I could live with. I'm a 36C, and I can't get away with just a flimsy little thing, so I made it from a dense stretch jersey (90% rayon 10% lycra), which I doubled. I also had an obsession with seams, or rather the absence thereof. Sure, I could have cut one piece of fabric, sewn it in the back, hemmed it top and bottom and voila. But no. It had to be so and so, and several nightmares (and a lot of fabric) later, I had the perfect tube top. Goes without saying perfection is over-rated, and nobody noticed my heavenly bit of crafting, except a couple of lost and misguided esthetes, to whom I am still grateful. I live for such moments.

Should you be one of these and want to make one in your size, measure your bust and figure out how long you want it. As in: measure from above your chest -- assuming you wish to cover it of course -- to wherever above or below your waist you want it, and since it's doubled, you guessed it: double that measurement. That's your length, cut in the direction of the grain. Your width is the size of your bust line, minus an inch or two since you're using stretch fabric. Apply those measurements as if you were making this cowl, and stitch together as explained above. For added grip, sew a length of clear elastic tape on the top inside of the tube - et voilà!

If you want the pattern, which has diagrams and gauges, you will be able to get it shortly through my Ravelry pattern store or through my website. In the meantime, have fun! Next blog: the transmogrification of the wristlet into something twice as big -- not saying what.

One more thing: if you want to see a lovely handknit cowl, also in pink, go to my friend Claudia's blog. She has a beautiful one!

Anklets and Wristlets In Every Pot

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:29:00 +0000

I was idly knitting in the company of my stitch-bound acolytes, Jane, Claudia and Margot, who said: 'What are you making?' 'Who knows', I replied, and had another sip of wine. 'Just trying to keep up with you girls'. A breeze had picked up on Jane's deck as I decided that maybe it was a potholder, a trivet, a wristlet, a rugged washcloth. Shortly thereafter, I got sidetracked, but not before I had proudly posted the beginnings of my first contribution to Ravelry.

All fine and good, right? Except every time I went to my Ravelry page, there it was, the unmade thing, the 'yet-to-be-completed-some-day' blob, nagging me, scorning me even: "You half-baked couldabeena knitter, what am I? Kitty vomit? Knit me up already!" Nothing like the wrath of an abandoned inanimate object. I'd have been knocked in the teeth if I had talked to my creator that way. Oh well - I moved on.

About twenty months later (I don't respond well to abuse), I finally caved to the insults and picked up where I'd left off. What follows is the tale of my travails. :|(

I began with a tantalizing skein of yarn from Mountain Colors, dyed by two Montana girls who choose beautiful names for their colors, names that make me want to go there. "Bitterroot Rainbow" for example. To a Swiss girl like me, it is a name both exotic and familiar. I know my rainbows, but Bitterroot? Sounded like a place I wanted to see.

My curiosity was only made worse by the fact that I'd read, years before, a number of books about Lewis and Clark's famed cross-country expedition, in which they spent harrowing, desolate times in the Bitterroot Mountains. From Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" -- a recommended read -- to Lewis and Clark's own journals (not so exciting), the Bitterroots episodes sounded like their version of the Donner Party, except they didn't all die and I don't think they had to eat each other either. The journals were somewhat tedious, but also fascinating, and hey-- straight from the mouth of the fellas that done it. Just like the Watergate transcripts.

But back to our knitting: the yarn I worked with was actually not dyed in anything Bitterrooty at all, but in "Northern Lights", another exciting prospect for the explorer in me. It was a thick, two-ply woolen yarn called "Mountain Goat" (my childhood nickname, I kid you not), handdyed in shades of Blackberry, Cranberry, Fir Green, and Deep Cognac. (Color scheme top left, actual yarn in a different colorway bottom left, pictures courtesy of http://www.carylldesigns.com/mountain_colors.htm, who stocks the yarn) . The online specs are 5 stitches per inch (I got 4) , 6 to 8 needle size (I used 7), and 230 yds per 100 gr skein (or 115 yds per 50gr ball).

I cast on 40 stitches and knitting six rows of garter stitch, followed by six rows of stockinette stitch, after which I got bored. I have the attention span of a gnat.

I decided to speed things up a bit, and happily remembered the existence of dropped stitches. That would fly me through a few inches. So drop stitches I did, a dozen rows' worth, wrapping stitches one row, dropping them the next, and then I repeated my beginning backwards: six rows of stockinette stitch, six rows of garter stitch, and I bound off. Whew.

I was now the proud owner of two little rectangles, each about 5 inches tall by 10 inches wide, which I promptly wrapped around my wrists, as planned. Hhmmm. A bit whale-ish for my small bones. Fine, I thought, let's try the ankles. That was it. Perfect! They felt good, they looked good, and they didn't talk back. I kept them on all day and forgot about them - but my ankles thanked me: they liked this nested and warm feeling. Don't we all.

I felt a tad guilty in retrospective - I mean, how often did I ever take my ankles' well-being into consideration? Only when I suffered sprains, fissures or fractures. I was amazed this easy and lovely treat had escaped me all along. From now on, I declared, anklets in every color, a chicken in every pot, and wristlets for one and all.

And a quick and easy (and free) pattern, which you can download from my website:
www.MurielleKnitwear.com/patterns.html
You can either print the page or download the PDF file. The whole thing weighs less than 4 ounces (the anklets, not the .pdf), so I estimate you'll need no more than one and a half 50 g balls of a thick sports yarn, possibly just one ball only. Any yarn that yields 95 to 115 yards per 50 g ball should do. If you're not sure, weigh your yarn before you start, knit the first piece, weigh the leftover yarn: if you have more than half the starting amount left, you're good to go. If not, perhaps you can use the lone piece as a trivet. Or a potholder.

PS: if you just want to skip the knitting and buy them, they'll be in my Etsy store.

Enjoy and feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions, or want to share your interpretations of this pattern:
murielleknitwear@gmail.com.

Next blog: how to make a super stylish and easy "cowl-cum-neckgaiter-cum-hood" thingy from a very thin Cashmere and Mohair yarn. Until then, as my daughters say, Peace Out.

©2010 Murielle Hamilton - All Rights Reserved

Random ball of yarn becomes headband!

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:42:00 +0000

Dear knitting and yarn addict,

I last left you with half a project (well, more like a fourth of one: see my last blog). I had it all planned, but as soon as I picked up the needles, my intentions morphed. I was going to do cables all the way, but I got bored. So I thought: why not a relief diamond sandwiched between the cables? I did it, and it doesn't really work, because it's too flat to be seen, and really, on such a small object, I should have stuck to just two stitches (moss stitch or whatever it's called, and cables) instead of three. Too much of a good thing...

It wasn't all that offensive, though, and since the motif would be somewhere near the back of the head, I figured I'd never see it, so why bother redo it? However, I advise anyone trying this to just stick to cables, and make them like the green side of the headband (crossings closer together) rather than like the purple end, where the cable takes forever to cross again.

So, my final pattern will reflect the hard lessons I learned above... teehee. Another thing was that size 13 needles were just a hair too big. 12 would have yielded a better, firmer texture. With 13, the fabric feels a tad limp and stretched out. I'll dive into my deep, dark craft closet and find a pair of 12's for the next headband. One last thing: I made it a little too long (just cutting out those extra rows between the first two cable crossings would have sufficed to fix it, methinks).

When it came time to stitch it together, I tried a couple of different ways and finally settled on this one, pictured left.

I twisted the two ends around each other, draped the ends like cauliflower sort of, and stitched through with the same yarn. I liked the result. I made it wide enough to cover the ears comfortably, and you can wear it on one side of your head with the green end featured, or on the other side with the purple in the front seat. You can also wear it saucy-French-maid style (sometimes referred to as Carmen-Miranda-wannabe style) with the fluffed up ends right on top of your head, or hippie-style (straight across your forehead, Om.....)

Well, that's all, folks - I have three enticing balls of yarn winking at me; next time we meet, I'll share what transpired when I tackled them.

Tata for now - have yourselves a lovely weekend!

Murielle

For your free pattern go to

my website,www.murielleknitwear.com.
or go to my
Ravelry page:www.ravelry.com/people/MurielleKnits
If you want to buy it, of course, go to my

Etsy store: www.murielleknitwear.etsy.com

Creative knitting: you have this ball of yarn, and...

noreply@blogger.com (Murielle Creative Knitting) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:35:00 +0000

Dear knitting and yarn addict,

I know I speak to the choir when I say: "I don't know what I'm going to do with all this yarn!!!" -- yet I can't part with any of it. Yes, most of us have a ginormous yarn stash. It's not unlike a chronic disease: one just has to learn to live with it.:)

As I sifted through box after box the other day, desperately trying to find stuff I no longer liked and could give away, I found three balls of yarn that spoke to me (you know how that goes). Soon they were sitting on my coffee table, where, for the next three days, they monopolized my attention. Finally, this morning, out of ideas for Christmas presents that wouldn't break the bank, I thought - hey! I'll make a cute slouchy beanie for one of my kids with this one! (I had picked up a Noro yarn I've had for ever in tones of purple, gray, rust and olive - I believe it's called "Garden" something, but of course I have long lost the tag.)

I grabbed the wooden needles that happened to sit there from my last project (no. 13 US, 9mm Euro) and started knitting. Maybe a hair big for the yarn, but hey, I like loose, open-weave stitches. Plus, it goes faster. Hmmm... Should I just go for it and ballpark how many stitches I needed to go around the head (we all have big heads in the family, 23" or so - but we try to remain humble about it;) -- or should I, Heaven forfend, make a swatch?

Sudden Fear and Loathing in Topanga, which, by the way, is not a Southern Pacific island near Tonga, but the name of the place where I live, a semi-rural mountainous area of Los Angeles County. Swatching is NOT my favorite thing, especially not on Christmas' Eve's morning. However, I bit the bullet and cast on 20 stitches. After the first row, I decided to go with a rice stitch (I bet it's called something else in this country, but I hail from Heidi's Alps, where we all have funny names for things). In brief, it's K1 P1 one row, and P1 K1 the next.

After about eight rows, I thought - hmmmm. Maybe what I'm really making is a very cool headband, of the sort my kids wear all the time. Reminds me of the old headbands we used to wear for skiing, to keep our ears from falling off in frozen chunks. However, a) this is not a good stitch for swatching. I should have done it in jersey (called "stockinette" in the U.S.); b) but I like it and I'm not undoing it. Besides I only have one ball of this yarn and I'll probably be lucky to get a headband out of it. c) Now what? Rice stitch is pretty, but I get bored knitting the same thing all the time. I know!! I'll do a cable!

Luckily I had 20 stitches, so I subdivided them into 5 segments: 8 knit stitches in the middle, 4 of which would cross over the other for the cable, and 2 purl stitches on either side for relief, and the last 4 knit stitches on either side, so: 4K, 2P, 8K, 2P, 4K, and reverse on the return row.

After about 10 rows, I crossed the cables the first time. I didn't have an auxiliary needle handy, but one of my mechanical pencils happened to be within reach, so I put it to work. The cross looked ridiculously big and puffy and just too much at first, but as I knitted away from it, it began to look a little more normal. It will probably flatten even more when I press it. I'll do my next crossing at 16 or so rows from the first - I'll keep you posted and put up more photos on my next blog, which I'll write who knows when. If you'd like an email notification, let me know: murielle.knitwear@gmail.com

My plan at this time is to do three crossings or so, then end with 8 more rows of rice stitch and the cast off. If it looks like I need more length, I may add a cable, or add a double rice stitch section at the end of the regular rice stitch. Double rice stitch looks like you're knitting in 2/2 rib, but every 2 rows, you reverse the stitches. (i.e. 2 rows in 2K 2P, next 2 rows in 2P 2K, repeat)

Once I'm done with this mini chef-d'oeuvre (ahem), I will share what happened when I tried to emulate the very open-weave kid mohair shawl I used to make on a hand-loom. Everybody should have one. Kid mohair shawl, I mean. Knitting machines make too much noise. Have you noticed how hard it is to meditate when assailed by metal-on-metal ruckus? Besides, they take too much space; you can forget about curling up by the fireside to knit for an hour. I still use them every once in a blue moon, because no, I do not have the patience to knit a lace dress on needles size 2, unlike my friend Claudia, whom I have witnessed doing it. She has a very fun blog by the way: http://theknittingblogbymrpuffythedog.blogspot.com/, where she features both her projects and her best seasonal recipes.

Tata for now, go scrounge through your stash and tell me what you found and did!:)

Murielle PS: To see some of my "oeuvre" (haha), go to http://www.murielleknitwear.etsy.com; to get a free pattern for a crazy multi-yarn scarf, go to http://www.murielleknitwear.com, and click on the "free pattern" link at the bottom of the page.