watch stephen knit

New Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:01:00 +0000

The Westknits blog has moved to my brand new website www.westknits.com!

I will keep this blog open in case you want to read back to the beginnings though.

This year has been full of new projects and experiences and I'm very excited for all the new projects and events ahead! Thank you for following my adventures and I'll see you over on the new site!

First Days in Amsterdam

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:29:00 +0000

I'm starting to get my bearings in this new city and I bought a bike today, which will help a great deal. I've discovered a big and beautiful park, Vondelpark, which has hosted two consecutive mornings of knitting. I cast on for another Daybreak yesterday morning and today I'm halfway through the stripes.

I chose The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! as it's one of my new favorite yarns. This Daybreak (my 8th I think?) is a gift for someone, but it has me thinking about another version for myself. I have sweaters on the mind though so I'll try to whip up a couple sweater patterns for this Fall and Winter. We'll see how I persevere with those larger design projects. There will plenty of new and exciting accessories in the mean time.

I've been taking advantage of the much appreciated chilly weather! I was surprised by the gray morning clouds, coming from the sweltering midwest heat, but it's been perfect for breaking out the handknits!

I even had to retreat indoors from knitting outside this morning because my hands got too cold!

Today, I had a couple little photo shoots. You'll see the results for a new pattern called Clockwork next month, but I snapped some touristy photos I can show you of another version of the Boneyard Shawl.

I wear bandanas a lot during the summer, so this wool Boneyard bandit made with Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light will be a great little transitional piece into the cooler months ahead.

The flat I'm staying at for the moment has a cat, which I found sniffing at my suitcase full of knits and yarn, so I'm keeping my eye on him.

I'm not used to having pets around, but I plan not to underestimate Figaro the Cat.

There are also many dogs in my new knitting park, but the one that caught my eye was a puppy in a shop window. I wish he was for sale.

I still have some settling in to do, but Amsterdam is great so far!

Farewell Urbana

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:07:00 +0000

Today, I spent one last day in Urbana, visiting friends and saying goodbye. Living in Urbana has been such a wonderful experience and I've developed many valuable friendships there, which make it hard to leave. Tomorrow, I head to Amsterdam with a lot of anticipation and nervous excitement. I'm ready for the change and it's comforting to have some great friends waiting for me across the pond.

Speaking of new adventures, I went through a final proof of Westknits Book One today with my friend and project manager, Sarah. Just some polishing left to do before it goes to print! I am so eager to share this collection of patterns with everyone, especially in the new book format thanks to my amazing graphic designer, Lori Herber. In addition to this first book, there will be a new website and blog coming soon as well! Lots to look forward to this Fall!

I'll leave you all with a photo of my friends, Nick and Nibia, at the train terminal to Chicago where there was a giant American flag conveniently hanging in the lobby.

You'll be seeing a lot more of Nick and Nibia in Westknits Book One! Friends/dancers make the best models for knitwear. :)

Pogona & Flamboyan

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:05:00 +0000

Apologies for the lack of blog posts, but that just means I was knitting too much to type! I think I'm channeling all the nervous excitement about my move to Amsterdam into knitting, knitting, and more knitting. This Fall and Winter will be full of new Westknits designs. Until Fall arrives, you can catch some updates/teasers for Westknits Book One on my ravelry group here.

Earlier this month I released 1 of the 8 patterns in Westknits Book One, Pogona, on Ravelry. It's a new shawl that has an arched shape, which is excellent for draping across your shoulders.

The fabric gathers beautifully when worn like a scarf, my preferred style.

The other 7 patterns will all come out at the same time in a couple months. You can wait until September/October to get Pogona in the booklet or if you can't wait, here is a link to purchase the individual pdf file.

$6.00

A couple days ago, I released another shawl pattern, Flamboyan.

I had the pleasure of knitting with The Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga!, a gorgeous merino/cashmere/nylon blend. The Sanguine Gryphon's colorways are out of this world and you will definitely be seeing some more designs featuring their yarns in the future!

I used Oak Timberworm (dark brown) with The Herald (rusty orange-brown). Oak Timberworm is one of my favorite colorways ever and if you haven't experienced The Sanguine Gryphon yet, you are missing out! I literally could not put my knitting down, which resulted in a 2-day shawl. Over 800 yds in 2 days. I was shocked. It was all a blur, but I was in heaven the whole time and now I get to wear my Flamboyan in the cool air conditioning.

$6.00

If you haven't found me on twitter yet, I am there as westknits. I've been a good regular tweeter, but there will be more blog posts this year as well!

East Coast Tour Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:23:00 +0000

I wanted to take the time to share photos from my East Coast Trip from the end of May to beginning of June.

I started out in Philadelphia to hang out at Craig's shop, Loop. It was beautiful and inspiring to say the least and my first time in Philly. They were even nice enough to roll out the red carpet for me.

I told Philly it was really unnecessary, but apparently they insist on treating all visiting knitters like royalty. :)

I taught a couple classes over the weekend and got to chat with knitters and some friends from Ravelry. I'm always inspired by the people and yarns I encounter on shop visits and this trip was no exception. I started swatching for a new design on the train ride up to Chicago from Urbana with my friend Sarah. I knit with Imperial Stock Ranch's bulky lopi yarn and ended up with a big wrap after one day.

That's the finished Lopi wrap soaking in my hotel bathtub. It's just a sketch/prototype, but it led to another idea when I found the perfect yarn in Craig's shop. You'll be seeing the final result (much different than the bath photo) later this Fall!

I made my way over to New York on the train and stayed with a couple friends in Brooklyn during the week. I enjoyed a couple free days to knit in Central Park, visit the Museum of Natural History, and experience the city with good friends. One highlight was digging through the order of Madelinetosh that arrived at Knitty City the day I taught my class. You just can't beat seeing all of Amy's gorgeous colorways in person!

I stayed with my friend Sean the following weekend in Boston where I met a nice Herbivore accompanied by a knitter at Stitch House Dorchester.

The next day was filled with more inspiration at Seed Stitch Fine Yarn in Salem, MA..

Here's a shot from Sean Riley of all the shawls laid out for my top down shawl workshop. I'm glad I still get to see and pet them all, even in summertime.

Courtney's shop is fantastic and there was a beautiful sample of the Boneyard Shawl knit up in Rowan Denim. I had to get 6 skeins from her to make my own. I started a Boneyard Shawl Summer KAL over on Ravelry too. I love my new cotton version, which will be perfect for cooler summer evenings.

I especially love how the Rowan Denim shrinks a bit and fades when you wash/dry it. It's surprisingly soft and light as well!

I finished the shawl at the tail end of my Boston adventure and snapped the photos at my last stop in Brunswick, ME.

Brunswick is one of the cutest towns I've been to and I was shocked by how generous and friendly everyone in the town was, definitely a much slower pace than New York. So, it was a perfect last stop before heading home.

I arrived early Wednesday morning on the bus and spent the day at Ellen's shop, Purl Diva. Purl Diva reminded me of home because the shop is in a beautifully converted house just like my LYS at home. I enjoyed meeting a whole bunch of knitters for the afternoon workshop

and an order of Madelinetosh came in just in time for all of us to admire the new Pashmina in addition to the sock and dk weights.

I walked away with a few skeins of Madtosh dk in the Stovepipe colorway, which became the prototype for another new design. Madelinetosh seemed to follow me around everywhere along the East Coast. If you ever need someone to sing the praises of Madelinetosh yarns, I would be more than happy to!

I had a fantastic trip, but was certainly thankful to be back home for a week before TNNA. I just flew back from TNNA in Columbus, OH and will share my experience along with several photos soon! In the meantime, here are a couple previews of my marvelous TNNA adventure!

Admiring Bijou Basin with Sarah and Gudrun

Tea Party in Ysolda's booth!

Ravelry Ice Cream Social

Westknits Photoshoot

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 17 May 2010 07:33:00 +0000

The first Westknits collection is well underway. With almost all the samples completed, I was happy to have a photoshoot today with some friends. I photographed about 5 or 6 of the new designs and figured I'd share what we were up to. You won't get a full reveal until late summer/early fall, but here are some sneak peak photos from the shoot.

My East Coast tour starts this weekend in Philadelphia. All the details are in my last blog post here. I can't wait to chat and knit with tons of new knitters!

East Coast Tour and NEW design previews!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:00:00 +0000

I'm excited to share my upcoming travel dates to the East Coast during May/June!

Philadelphia Loop May 21-23
I will be at Craig's shop all weekend with my trunk show and classes on Saturday and Sunday.
More details here.

New York City Knitty City May 25-26
Evening class 6-8pm on May 25, trunk show all day with designer talk/sit 'n knit on May 26, 6-8pm.
More details here.

New York City Purl Soho May 27
Trunk show all day, class from 7:15-9:15pm. More details to come.

Salem, MA Seed Stitch Fine Yarn
May 29
Trunk Show all day and class from 2-4pm.
More details here.

Dorchester, MA Stitch House Dorchester May 28
Trunk Show all day and class. More details to come.

Brunswick, ME Purl Diva June 2
Class from 12-2pm and trunk show from 5-8pm
More details here.

I am looking forward to this trip and would appreciate meeting you if you're in any of these areas! Also, I have a few free days
between Boston and Brunswick and will be looking for things to do. I was thinking about taking a little break from the tour to visit the area around Portland, ME. Any other suggestions whether it's in the Boston area, Brunswick or anywhere in between?

Now, I would be happy to finally share with you some sneak peaks at new design prototypes!

And that's just a little taste.

StevenBe, new hat

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:12:00 +0000

My most recent knitting expedition was at the Yarn Over event in Minneapolis, MN. Steven Berg from the StevenBe: A Yarn Garage Workshop was kind enough to host me for the weekend and boy does he know how host a fiber-filled weekend! If you haven't been to his shop and are ever remotely close to the twin cities area, you must stop into his new location, which is a converted fire station. It is an eclectic collection of Steven's unique style and really sparked my creativity.

I got to hang out and chat with other knitters for the weekend to live music, wine tasting, and delicious food.

There was so much visual stimulation throughout the weekend with an enormous amount of fiber and creative knitters. I felt like I was petting something every 10 seconds. I also got to sit in on Cookie A. and Lucy Neatby's classes, which were very educational to say the least.

In design news, I finally finished editing a reversible beanie called Skid.

Skid features traveling slipped stitches on a reverse stockinette background, but when turned inside out, it offers a simple striped stockinette option for wear.

I knit the first version about a year ago, but the pattern is now available as a $6 pdf download.

I'm working on another hat pattern at the moment that I hope to release soon as well!

Seattle Recap Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:34:00 +0000

I thought I'd share more about the rest of my Seattle trip.

The main reason for the trip was Cat Bordhi's Visionary Retreat on San Juan Island, which was inspiring to say the least. The location and company couldn't have been any better.

I met a couple of the other men going to the retreat and caught the ferry to San Juan Island.

I could go on that scenic ferry ride every day (lots of good knitting time)! Also, it was the perfect weather for my knits to get some practical use before summer.

We got to stay in cozy cabins while knitting all day and talking about everyone's project ideas. How exhausting, right?

I was thankful for the time to escape for the week amongst other knitters.

I also managed to finish some new design prototypes and snap new photos of the Boneyard Shawl and my new Herbivore.

The week on San Juan Island provided much needed clarity and support for this upcoming pattern collection and I'm excited to continue working on it and seeing the other visionaries' projects develop.

At the tail end of my trip I managed to visit and teach a class at Wild Fibers in Mount Vernon, WA

and spent some quality time with one of the only male knitters in Mount Vernon, Sam. He finally wasn't the only guy knitting in Sarah's shop!

I was lucky to pass by the tulip fields in full bloom near Mount Vernon too!

It was hard to leave the Pacific Northwest, but I'm hoping to go back in the future to see much more of the Seattle area.

Seattle Recap Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0000

I am back home from my wonderful trip to the Pacific Northwest. My flight to Chicago was a couple hours delayed, resulting in more knitting time and a finished new design. In some blog posts and tweets, I may refer to new projects and designs flying off the needles, but you all will have to wait until this fall/winter to see what I'm talking about. With all this secret knitting, I'll try to still have some projects and photos to share and perhaps some sneak peaks in the meantime so keep a look out.

Anway, back to the trip. My first stop was at Village Yarn and Tea in Lake Forest Park, WA.

Victoria's shop was cozy and inviting with all those tables for knitting and drinking some of the best tea I've ever had. I was kindly greeted by a display of my designs accompanied by some beautiful photography books. One of the books was a collection of photos by Karl Blossfeldt, whose work I love! If you're not familiar with him, I recommend looking at many of his photos. I'm sure you will be intrigued.

I always enjoy seeing other knitters' versions of my designs and sharing my own samples in person. I managed to bring along all my shawls, hats, and neckwarmers, which surprisingly fit in a large backpack.

I want to thank Victoria and Elsa again for hosting and entertaining me for my first few days in Seattle. Victoria showed me around Seattle where we visited Pike's Place Market, ran around Green Lake, enjoyed salted carmel ice cream at Molly Moon's, and encountered a giant troll under a bridge.

That's me helping him knit my new Daybreak shawl. Yes, another Daybreak. I keep giving them away, but this new one is Cashmere so fortunately it should be awfully hard to part with. I'll get some photos of it to share soon.

I love meeting new people, especially knitters, and this trip was no exception. Now, I have time to settle back into my home again, but another little trip is coming up soon. I'll be in Minneapolis April 16-18 for the Minnesota Knitter's Guild's 24th annual Yarnover Event Saturday, April 17. I'll be hanging out at Yarn Garage with my trunk show and patterns on Friday and Sunday. I'll also be at the Yarn Garage booth for Saturday's Yarnover event.

I have a lot more to share about Seattle, but I'll save it for later posts.

One last photo though. This one is Elsa, a regular at Village Yarn & Tea, with me wearing her Herbivore. She was lucky I didn't take the scarf home with me, it matching perfectly with my jacket and all.

sundara windschief

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:15:00 +0000

I haven't been sharing much of my knitting recently, but I can share the latest Windschief hat I made for a friend's birthday.

I used Sundara Merino Worsted, which I love to work with. Sundara's colorways are some of the best because they have so much depth and layering within the colors. I particularly love this glowing yellow-green colorway.

My red Sundara Windschief is the hat I wear most, especially after it relaxed from so much wear. So, today I started a matching red Windschief cowl in Sundara's Trumpeter's Lullaby colorway.

I don't know if it's the twisted ribbing or something else, but Windschief and Herbivore are probably my two most worn knit items these days. I'm sure that will change soon with all the new projects I have on the needles. How about you all? Do you have favorite knits that you tend to wear all the time?

march happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:45:00 +0000

March is quite the busy month this year. I've been spending a lot of time away from home, but I can't complain because I'm getting to travel to some exciting new places!

The first week of March was spent in Amsterdam, dancing, seeing some performances, and meeting several wonderful people and new friends.

I can even relate the trip to knitting! I found a cute yarn shop called de Afstap filled with Rowan yarn. They had a couple other brands, but primarily Rowan. So, I got some fuzzy alpaca/wool and their new recycled Rowan PureLife Revive to try out some new designs.

I also started another Herbivore to serve as my travel project. I finished surprisingly fast, resulting in my yarn purchases at de Afstap. The yarn is uncharacteristically bright compared to my usual color palette and it's 100% BFL fingering weight from an indie dyer on etsy. I'll share more photos on ravelry when it's blocked.

I also managed to find a local knitting group that meets at a gorgeous cafe by one of Amsterdam's canals. It was a wonderfully diverse and interesting group of knitters and I hope I get to knit with them again soon!

After my week in Europe, I had to come back for rehearsals gearing up towards a dance performance in Chicago this weekend. The performances were held at Links Hall, which is a great space for independent artists to present work. I'm headed home to Urbana tomorrow, but only for a few days before my Seattle trip!

I'll be in the Seattle area for about 10 days. My first stop will be at Village Yarn and Tea Shop in Lake Forest Park, WA this Saturday, March 20. I"ll be at the shop all day with a trunk show of my designs. I'll also be teaching a little workshop all about shawls!

The next week I will be taking a week of workshops with Cat Bordhi on San Juan Island, focusing on book design and publishing because I'm working on a pattern booklet to be released later this year! I will share more bits of information and perhaps some sneak peaks as this project progresses. In the meantime, I'll be sure to share photos of my knitting adventures in the Pacific Northwest.

Wrapping up my trip will be another event at Wild Fibers in Mt. Vernon, WA Sunday, March 28. I'll have a trunk show of my designs as well as another shawl workshop Sunday afternoon. If you're in the Seattle area, I would love to meet you soon at one of these events!

purge

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:35:00 +0000

Since coming back to Urbana from a month in Chicago and South America I have to say that I've been a bit overwhelmed with all of the wooly things in my apartment. Yarn, unfinished objects, and even finished pieces have been taking over a lot of my space. I have made quite a few hats, scarves, and shawls in my relatively short time as a knitter and many of them I keep for myself. However, I don't wear all of them because I have favorites that get more use than others. I have a couple favorite hats and quite a few favorite scarves and shawls, but I had a whole bag of beautiful and functional accessories hidden under my bed. So, I decided to have a few of my good friends over for dinner and I put out a big pile of knitwear for them to pick from. They were very excited and it felt so good to let go of all those pieces, especially to really appreciative friends, and now the things I made are actually being used everyday. Since then, I have made a couple new projects for friends. One of them was the Purl Ridge Scarf in my last post, a cowl that I'm currently working on, and this quick and fun bulky neckwarmer for my friend Nibia.

I used Malabrigo Aquarella for most of it with a thick stripe using Malabrigo Gruesa on US 13 needles.

Anyway, it felt good to purge all those knitted items I wasn't using and also make some new ones for friends. If you have some knits lying around that you don't use anymore, I would encourage you to let go of them too because handmade knits should be used and worn.

Now that I don't have all those unused hats and scarves lying around I feel better about making something new for myself. After making the Purl Ridge Scarf for a friend I decided I would like to have one to wear and also bring with me as a sample when I visit and teach at yarn shops. I have been pretty good about knitting from my stash recently and not acquiring too much new yarn. So, I went through my stash and found some Rowan Lima in a beautiful shade of green that I got in Chicago last year. I had a wonderful evening of knitting and baking instead of watching the superbowl. Plus, I had some good company...

Purl Ridge Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:38:00 +0000

I just finished a dance performance this weekend in Urbana so I had some time these past few weeks to knit while waiting in the theater and during long evenings of tech/dress rehearsals. One of the projects I worked on was an infinity scarf requested by a friend and I have to say he picked the best yarn for this project from my stash (Hedgehog Fibres silk/merino singles). It was a pleasure coming up with a simple design because the yarn was amazing to work with and I hardly had to think about what I was doing. Long rows of easy knit or purl stitches are a favorite of mine.

I'll have to make one of these for myself soon because it's so easy to wear several different ways.

Best of all, this new pattern is free so here's the download link!
download now

I'm back!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:19:00 +0000

Here we go again. I've been putting off updating for quite a long time. I really want to have an updated blog, but I just have so much to share that I've been letting things pile up gradually. SO, instead of filling you all in on everything between the last post and this post (which is A LOT of news) I'll just pick up with what's going on right now with my knitting.

I've been enjoying answering some questions for interviews and one of those can be found at A Yarn Tale blog. Perhaps this interview can make up for my lack of updates on this blog. I have been twittering quite regularly. I'm westknits over on Twitter so I usually post current news there.

I recently got back from visiting a friend in Ecuador earlier this month and dancing in Chile with my friends who have a dance company in Chicago. It was beautiful and summery down there and I still got some knitting done.

The Santiago landscape was beautiful...

The food (especially the seafood) and wine was the best...

And I could not have been with better friends.

While I was in South America for three weeks I was able to get in contact with Deep South Fibers in time for TNNA in Long Beach. They are now representing my westknits pattern line and doing all of the distributing to yarn shops. If you'd like to see my patterns in your LYS, they can contact Deep South Fibers for wholesale information. This company also represents a handful of some really talented knitting designers like Ysolda Teague and Julie Weisenberger (cocoknits) and many many more.

I have a new pattern called Bentgrass that I just put up on Ravelry last week. My most recent finished object is another Bentgrass Neckwarmer.

It's an insanely quick knit with super bulky yarn and US 13 needles.

I used Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky Natural for this one and added some Black Walnut buttons from thehickorytree.etsy.com.

Hopefully, I'll start working on a website soon that will serve as an online location to gather everything westknits like my travel/event schedule, news, patterns, etc... For now, I'll try to share news, events, and happenings more often on this blog. Coming soon, I will be at Loopy Yarns in Chicago teaching a project class on my Daybreak shawl. The 2 part class will take place on February 20 and March 6. You can find more information on their website here.

More exciting news! I'm currently planning a trip to the Seattle area next month! The dates are March 18-29 and I will be having events at a few knitting shops in the area so I'll let you know more details soon. I am looking forward to this trip because I have never been to the Pacific Northwest before. I have the feeling I'm going to fall in love.

Sorry this post is a bit blunt and choppy, but I had to put something on here to get this blog going again. I barely even talked about the projects I'm working on right now! I suppose I will save the rest for other posts. It would be great to hear from anyone who reads this. Knowing that other people read these posts is encouraging and will hopefully boost me into sharing more.

Herbivore

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:43:00 +0000

I just released a new shawl pattern today called Herbivore!

$5.00

There are some other beautiful versions already knit up and ready to see on Ravelry

Herbivore is a shawl named after the plant-like structures within the fabric. Increases at each edge and at three other locations create the unique shape, while twisted stitches branch out from those increases.
This pattern uses about 430 yds of a fingering weight yarn and would look great in solid as well as variegated and semi-solid yarns.

The three sets of increases in the fabric allow the piece to be worn several different ways.

I have a couple other patterns to share in the next few days as well!

blog posts about daybreak

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:46:00 +0000

There has been great reception to the new Daybreak shawl pattern. I really appreciate receiving all the comments and seeing the gorgeous versions on Ravelry.

Stefanie Japel wrote a wonderful post on her blog about knitting Daybreak. She noted some wonderful tips and tricks. There's also an amazing Barry Manilow video on that post with his song appropriately called Daybreak as well.

A couple nice people over at KnitPicks started working on Daybreak as well so there's some more Daybreak talk on Nina's Blog.

I got a little westknits "fan club" started with my friend Patricia (questionable) on Ravelry to serve as a place to talk and ask questions about current patterns. There will be some new patterns, that I'm very excited about, coming this Fall.

I also started an etsy shop called westknits woolies at http://westknits.etsy.com. The shop has several accessories that I designed, some of them are projects that I'm not going to work on anymore and other items are prototypes for designs or actual samples from my designs.

I am looking forward to my move back down to Urbana on Tuesday. I'm going down there for the day tomorrow so I can try to find a job. I am not knitting at full force as Fall approaches with rehearsals and a couple classes starting. So, I have to pick and choose what I really want to work on. I was commissioned to knit a cabled hat for a small clothing company and I devoted yesterday to that project. I got to work with Karabella's Donegal Cashmere Tweed and think it made a beautifully rustic hat.

daybreak pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:47:00 +0000

The Daybreak shawl pattern is now available!

The link below can be used to purchase this pattern for $6.00.

Daybreak is a semicircular shawl, featuring clear graphic stripes that echo a rising sun. The generous wingspan allows the fabric to drape comfortably around your shoulders and neck. There is plenty of room to play with color in the three sections of this arched shawl.

The shawl is written up in three sizes from a small kerchief version to a larger shawl to wrap around your shoulders or neck. I used US size 4 needles with fingering weight yarn.

The pattern has been test knit by wonderful knitters. Their versions along with mine can all be seen over on Ravelry

I had a great time working on this pattern and knitting with Schoppel Wolle Zauberball on the large shawl

and Malabrigo Sock on the small and medium shawl.

to urbana again

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:31:00 +0000

I just got back to the Chicago area from Minnesota, but now I'm off again. It's time to go back to Urbana for five days. I am starting dance rehearsals for the Aquifer Project with Jennifer Monson. I also get to spend some quality time with Chris and enlist him to help me with Daybreak photography. Speaking of, Terhi (mustaavillaa on ravelry) just finished test knitting a drop dead gorgeous shawl.

Yesterday, on my trip back to Chicago, I had the whole back seat to myself. I filled it with a knitting workshop of course.

That's two little bags full of new yarn (and the new Interweave!) from The Yarnery in St. Paul along with a backpack full of the yarn and projects I brought for the long weekend (I am always more than well equipped). The knitting in my lap is the beginning of a new design that I am very excited about and will hopefully get to share more within the next few months or so.

That, my friends, is some felted tweed waiting to become yet another westknits design.

Tonight, I cast on for Connie Chang Chinchio's new Farmer's Market Cardigan from Interweave Fall '09. I decided to use my Marr Haven Mule Spun Worsted in Medium Gray for a modified version of this cardigan. It's going to be the perfect comfort knitting project. I will work on it as one of my projects while in Urbana.

The last time I was in Urbana, about a month ago, I bought a couple pieces of pottery the serve as homes for lucky balls of yarn.

I got them from Kelli who lives in the area with her husband. Her husband is the one who made them, but she makes awesome stitch markers as well. She is lumlumtree on etsy.

Today, I rode my bike for a few hours, venturing through the forest preserve on my way to Three Bags Full in Northbrook, IL. I love going there 1) because it's an amazing shop with tons of gorgeous yarn and helpful friendly people and 2) because I get my exercise for the day at more than 20 miles for a round trip through the woods.

I went there today to drop off a Botanic Hat I made for the shop along with several patterns for them to sell.

I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca (gray) combined with Noro Yuzen.

After my ride through the woods to Three Bags Full, I hit the streets with my bike for an 8 mile round trip to Montoya Fiber Studio in Evanston to drop off another hat.

This one I did in Berroco Ultra Alpaca as well (brown) paired with Wisdom Yarns Poems. I wasn't a huge fan of knitting with the Wisdom yarn, but it's an inexpensive self-striping yarn option and it resulted in a beautiful finished object, I think.

I much prefer biking to these yarn shop destinations because I knit a lot and that means sitting down for extended periods of time. Why spend more time sitting in a car when you can get good exercise? That is unless you live 30 miles aways from a shop. Also, riding through the forest preserve makes it a lot easier.

If you know of any shops like your local yarn store that would like to carry my patterns, then let me know. I'm excited about the Botanic Hat because it's simple, fun to play with color combinations, for both men and women, and it makes a good gift. I can't believe how many of them I've made (at least 10). Plus, I have 2 more planned, one for Loopy Yarns and another for myself, to serve as my winter hat with a folded brim.

I have a lot of knitting related business on my plate with getting patterns into a few shops, putting the final touches on Daybreak, designing/writing new patterns, and throwing in some personal comfort knitting as well. Not to say that my design work isn't personal and comforting, but I am more particular and timely with my design projects.

I made a strong effort to pack a light yarn supply for the next five days.

Believe me, that's a light load. I had to neglect several skeins that wanted to come too.

paddleboat knitting

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:52:00 +0000

I'll start off by sharing a couple recent events. I went to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Festival in Crystal Lake, IL to help with the Klose Knit booth a few Saturdays ago.

I am glad that the Midwest Fiber Festival was my first because it is small compared to other large festivals I've read and heard about. I was still overwhelmed by the amount of yarn in one place. I ended up with a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Pond Scum colorway. That skein of yarn is destined for something wonderful. I don't what yet, but something wonderful still. I also got a few different skeins from Briar Rose Fibers and a sweater's worth of rusty orange/red yarn from the Brooks Farm booth. Overall, it was a successful day for Klose Knit and my yarn stash.

I went to a festival (sadly not a fiber festival though) in Chinatown (Chicago) a couple weeks ago with my friend Lauren and if you've ever thought about knitting with a goat, it doesn't work.

Yes, there was a petting zoo in the streets of Chinatown and yes, goats really do like to eat everything in sight.

I spent a long weekend with my Aunt and Uncle in at their vacation home in Minnesota and I'm getting tons of knitting done. I caught a ride with my friend, Patricia (questionable on ravelry) who was conveniently staying in the same town as my relatives this weekend. I hung out with some of Patricia's family for dinner where there was a new kitty to play/knit with.

That's another Daybreak shawl (rav link) in Malabrigo Sock, colorways Primavera and Eggplant.

At my Aunt and Uncle's place, I golfed for the first time. Well, I did five holes before our cart started to get a little sluggish, but it was fun. I swung some impressive lucky shots interspersed with complete misses and lost balls in the woods. My score for the five holes was 50 points or shots or whatever you say.

I loved taking the paddle boat out on the small lake/big pond. Paddleboats are perfect because I can cruise on top of the water, paddling with my feet while my hands knit in the sun's excellent source of light.

That's me working on a Botanic Hat for Three Bags Full. I cranked out two of those hats in a night and a day.

While out on the water knitting, there were tons of sunfish so I fashioned a "fishing pole" out of a pop can tab attached to a long strand of Berroco Ultra Alpaca. I used bits of colorful wool for bait and the fish were biting at it a lot, but I couldn't get a hold of one. The next day, I attached that Ultra Alpaca to the handle of a plastic bucket and submerged it in the water. Then, I threw some bread crumbs out and pulled up on the bucket as the fish went for the bait. I caught four fish thanks to my crafty contraption.

I visited The Yarnery in St. Paul, MN. It's my favorite shop in the twin cities area. The shop is in a cozy house like Klose Knit, with yarn organized by weight in different rooms. They have an amazing selection of yarn with lots of books, magazines, and knit samples. I ended up with a little bag full of yarn for more new shawl designs.

Speaking of shawls, Daybreak is almost ready.

I just have to block the one I finished this weekend and take better photos of all three sizes for the pattern. I'm aiming to release the pattern later this week. In the meantime, you can admire gussie's and sketchbook's gorgeous shawls that they test knit for me. I have a few more equally amazing test knitters working on this shawl which means there will be more to admire soon.

malabrigo sock and new rowan booklet

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:24:00 +0000

I got a couple new colorways (Primavera and Aguas) of Malabrigo Sock yesterday at Nina.

I'm making progress on Carmen from Malabrigo Book 1. It's their chunky yarn in the Charrua colorway. The pullover knit up quickly as it is chunky on size US 15s and the shaping/construction is very minimal. I'm making it as a sample for Malabrigo.

In exchange for knitting this pullover, I received 6 skeins of a new test yarn, Malabrigo Superwash worsted in the Archangel colorway.

I absolutely love this yarn and I think it's even softer than Malabrigo's regular worsted! The colors are a little vibrant and pink/purpley for me so I'm trying to find someone else who wants to trade their Malbrigo Superwash Worsted in more subdued colors.

I also got Rowan's new booklet, The Lima Collection.

There are four men's patterns in it. I also like one of the women's patterns that I could modify to work for me. However, my favorite is the brown cardigan.

I think I might modify the collar and just make it a V neck. Anyway, I won't use Lima because that would cost too many hundreds of dollars, but I'll be looking for a yarn substitute. I definitely love the Lima yarn and plan to use it for a smaller project, just not a men's cabled cardigan.

I also like the blue cabled sweater in the booklet.

I wrote up a new pattern called Daybreak and it is currently being test knit by several wonderful knitters.

The pattern should be available in a couple weeks or so.

botanic hat pattern now available

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:31:00 +0000

I finally have my Botanic Hat pattern available for purchase!

Yarn Suggested: Merino Worsted by Malabrigo Yarn
-1 skein MC (less than half a skein is used)
-1 skein CC (less than half a skein is used)
Needles: US 6 & 7 (circular or DPNs depending on personal preference for knitting in the round)

The Botanic Hat pattern can be purchased for $6.00 through paypal.

It's been a long time since I first started working on this hat design and after knitting several versions, I'm really proud of the finished pattern.

Thanks to Todd Gocken (chiknitterguy on ravelry) for tech editing and formatting this pattern!

Also, thanks Peter aka yarndude for test knitting an awesome hat!

The hat is a reversible ribbed beanie with an added option to make a folded brim for extra warmth. I knit it up in a variety of worsted weight yarns and I can't wait to see what other color combinations and textures you all play with.

Make sure to post your finished hats for everyone to see over on ravelry!

milkweed shawl

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Before I left for Urbana over the weekend I purchased and printed Laura Chau's newest pattern, Milkweed Shawl. I started knitting it in a cotton yarn, but only had 4 of the 5 balls with me so I couldn't finish it this past weekend. I'll finish it soon, but in the meantime I picked up a skein of Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere 2-ply to knit the same kerchief.

I enjoyed knitting this small shawl because of all the garter stitch and simple columns evolving into little diamond shapes at the end. I also really like the edging. It is not too pointy, but has some shape to it and the two far end points look like little wing tips.

I knit on US sz 4 bamboo circulars at Chris' apartment and during the whole train ride back to Chicago. The train was an hour late leaving Urbana, but that didn't bother me because I got that much more uninterrupted knitting time. I arrived at 1pm with a lot of time until my 6pm rehearsal in Chicago so I walked the short distance from Union Station to Loopy yarns to "waste" some of that time. I got a couple awesome skeins of sock yarn, Nova Sock in a rusty orangey red and Casbah Sock in shades of blue. Then I did EZ's sewn bind off on the Milkweed Shawl and worked on some fingerless mitts at the shop. There were a couple of really nice employees to hang out and knit with too.

Anyway, I am working on a lot of projects and several of my own designs as well. Getting some of my patterns out will be slow going as I am new to that process, but I am really excited about how my designs are knitting up!

Here is another picture of Laura Chau's Milkweed. I have more pictures on my ravelry project page.

wwkip 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:09:00 +0000

This year was my second time participating in World Wide Knit in Public Day. Last year I was at Daniela Johannsenova's event at her shop, Maschenkunst, in Cologne, Germany.
This year I took the train down to Urbana for the weekend and had a wonderful time knitting at the farmer's market for WWKIP day. We'll see where I end up next year.

Brigitte, the shop owner at Klose Knit, did a great job putting together this little event and there was a nice group of knitters that showed and several people at the farmer's market stopped to admire and ask questions which is great!

I started working on Laura Chau's (blog link) newest pattern, Milkweed (rav link), on the train this weekend and at the farmer's market. I love all the garter stitch in this shawl and the fun simple lace detail. It's fairly easy and the pattern is written out and charted clearly.

I'm knitting my version with Fiddlesticks Ecoknit Organic Cotton on US sz 8 needles. It's a worsted weight soft cotton so, it will be larger than the shawl in the pattern. I will most likely knit Milkweed again in fingering weight yarn though.

Anyway, how was everyone else's knit in public day. What did you do? Where did you knit?

chicago with ysolda

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:49:00 +0000

I had a great time on Wednesday meeting Ysolda. I got to relax and knit with her and several other awesome knitters at Nina in Chicago.

I admired her sample suitcase that she brought and shared some of my knitting.

This is Ysolda's Hap Blanket pattern (rav link) that I knit up in Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran and Plymouth Homestead.

I also just finished her Cairn hat and mitts earlier this week. Here's a picture of the mitts meeting the designer. : )

Ysolda didn't have any mitts with her sample suitcase so mine get to join her during the remainder of her US trip. The Cairn fingerless mitts (rav link) were knit with Lorna's Laces Green Line dk and Colinette Cadenza in the Large size with US 5 needles.

I made the 22" size of the Cairn hat (rav link) with Queensland Kathmandu dk and Noro Cashmere Island. Those two yarns made a wonderfully squishy pair. I especially like the garter stitch at the top of the this hat.

I started working on a garter stitch foot stool with a simple pattern found on this site.

While at the shop I recognized Eliza who is ifandany (rav profile link) and met her friend Jill who is Juneberrystar on ravelry. It was so cool meeting all these people in person.

After visiting at the shop the four of us had a delicious dinner at the Earwax Cafe in Wicker Park and there were cupcakes involved. mmm.

Anyway, I'm excited to see the people I met at Nina more this summer.

I'm aiming to get out the pattern for the botanic hat (rav link) later this month. It keeps getting pushed back because I was working on a couple other designs and I still need to work out a couple more sizes for the hat, but I did just finish knitting a version with a folded ribbed brim (rav link) with Malabrigo and Plymouth Boku.

I really love the way it hugs comfortably around my head and covers the ears.

This summer is sure to be a heavy knitting season. I seem to be working with just as much wool despite these warm days.