Six Months to GO!

July 2, 2009 – 1:51 pm

June socks are done!

June socks 1

Completing these Monday gave me a chance to procrastinate until Tuesday evening to weave in the ends.  Luckily for me, the skein of yarn ended up being a tad short for knee-highs so I was able to finish the socks sooner.  These are probably the shortest socks I’ve knitted in a very long time, but in any case, June… socks… are… DONE!

June socks 2

This was stash yarn; a merino/tencel blend.  Knitted toe-up and worked in 2×2 rib.

Twirly skirt 1

Is this not one of the most adorable things you’ve ever seen?  A customer knitted this twirly skirt for her granddaughter, and I immediately thought it would be a great piece for beginners to try working in the round, and actually, for anyone interested in knitting a skirt or poncho.

Twirly skirt 2

This was really fun and semi-quick to knit.  I definitely enjoyed selecting the colors.  At each color change, a row of K2, YO increases the circumference.  For a less “twirly” skirt, a row of K3 or K4 between the YOs would work.

This skirt is NOT for me, despite my small size.  In an attempt to knit more children’s clothing for the shop, this skirt works well since it fits 3-4 yr olds.  The initial pattern calls for making eyelets at the waist so that an i-cord or ribbon could be woven through.  I opted for putting in an elastic band because what 3-4 y/o is going to make sure their ribbon is always tied?  Yikes!

Twirly skirt 3

Yarn: Cascade Luna, colors 724 Lemon, 727 Coral, 708 Venetian, & 750 Claret.  I used one skein for the first 3 colors and 2 skeins for the fourth.
Needles: 16″ & 24″ US 6 addi lace

By Knitty Couture | Posted in Designs, June 2009 | Comments (2)

Be in the Shade

June 27, 2009 – 12:59 pm

bee in the shade

The heat of St. Louis summers is just nutty!  I swear, you would think there must be some degree difference between the shade and the direct sun, but there seems to be none.  I especially enjoy the occasional 5-minute downpours with the blazing sun following closely behind to give us that nice jolt of super-humidity. What do you think?

BSJ Blue 1

For the month of June, I’ve been in constant battle with this little thing.  What should have taken a few days to knit took me nearly a month.  After three do-overs (twice from the end back to the start), I can now say it is perfect, and I probably won’t knit another BSJ for at least a year.

The initial plan was to omit the cuff increases, but this resulted in the front riding up higher than the back.  Plan B began with increasing the front at each end section to make up for the cuff non-increases which ended in disaster.  Plan C, which should have been Plan A, had me rip back to the very beginning and just inserting those damn cuff increases.  I think the BSJ was punishing me because at 6 rows to finishing, I discovered I had only increased on one cuff.  So I ripped once again and started over.  Isn’t it beautiful??

Blue BSJ 2

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket
Source: Single pattern available or in The Opinionated Knitter
Yarn: Creatively Dyed fingering
Needles: US 4 addi lace

In addition to the heat, my unexpected battle with the BSJ had also significantly stalled my knitting of the June socks - just turned the heel for these yesterday. These knee-highs will probably not be done by midnight Tuesday to qualify them as June socks but oh, well.  I still like them, anyway!  These will be for my sister who luckily, has the same size feet as I do.  Makes the sizing so much easier.

June socks 1

Merino homespun 1

I also forewent knitting my socks a few times to spin, which I’ve not done in such a long time.  After giving several spinning lessons and demonstrations, I realized I sorely missed it and spent evenings (into the wee hours) while hubby was away and spun.  Given how devoted I had become in those three nights, I was surprised to not have been visited by Rumpelstiltskin.

By Knitty Couture | Posted in Designs, June 2009 | Comments (3)

Even though it’s summer….

June 3, 2009 – 12:06 pm

I’m already preparing for the fall.

At the beginning of this year, I’ve had a crazy urge to knit sweaters.  “This is the year of the sweaters!” I told everyone, “Sweaters!!” And I was serious.  I generally don’t knit a lot of sweaters (e.g., more than 1), but this year I will.  So far, I’ve begun three in the last few weeks.

Eyelet cardi 1

The first is an eyelet cardigan, knitted out of Rowan Wool Cotton.  This eyelet design first appeared in a sweater coat I had begun early last year in a gorgeous, maroon alpaca.  Despite being pretty far along on the coat, the fear of running out of yarn (it was an ebay purchase years ago so I knew the chances of getting the same dyelot were next to nil) forced me to rip and save it for something else.

I’ve been wanting to work with Wool Cotton for a while, but hadn’t figured out what to do with it until I saw this beautiful color.  Hello, yellow!

Baseball raglan 1

The second sweater design is a three-quarter sleeve, baseball raglan, alpaca sweater.  Whew!  The lighter pink will be the body while the darker pink is used as the sleeves, and bottom and neck border.  This is knitted out of stash yarn bought at a fiber fest two summers ago.

Using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s raglan design (found in The Opinionated Knitter) as a guide, this is a rather quick knit since there are technically no designs to fiddle with.  Everything will be worked in the round, with seaming done to attach the sleeves to the body since they will be different colors.  Overall, I’m enjoying the process and can’t wait to see how it’ll fit… though, with the summer heat coming on strong, I might have to go to the freezer section at the grocery store to try it on.

Ansouis 1

The third sweater is a Rowan design.  Found in RM 45, Ansouis is a really nice cardi knitted out of Summer Tweed, a silk/cotton blend.  If you’ve never held a garment out of Summer Tweed, I swear, it’s as light as styrofoam.

This was started just recently and is moving along really fast.  Incredible how quick the knitting goes when someone else does the designing for you!

By Knitty Couture | Posted in Designs, June 2009 | Comments (2)

Spiral Striped Socks

May 30, 2009 – 2:09 pm

May socks are finished!

In an effort to destash some of my personal yarn, I used yarn not offered in the shop (GASP!!!).

At Knitting Camp last summer, I took the opportunity to purchase some of that special yarn Elizabeth Zimmermann spoke of and used in her knitting, e.g., unspun Icelandic, Quebecoise, Rangeley, Canadian Regal, and Guernsey. I’ve not used any of them, partially because I just haven’t, and partially because they’re a little coarse to work with.  Sorry, Elizabeth, they just are.  If you don’t believe me, feel them for yourself.

In The Opinionated Knitters, EZ offers several designs for awesome two-color knee-high socks which Meg, her daughter, also offers in her book, Meg Swansen’s Knitting.

I knew I wanted to knit the socks, but didn’t look at the pattern carefully enough to realize that I didn’t buy the right gauge yarn.  The 5-ply guernsey I had planned to use was much too thick.  Though the colors looked the same, my guernsey was a sportweight instead of fingering.   So, I came up with something else.

Spiral Striped socks 1

As always, I casted on for the toe  and began spiraling a simple stripe up along the foot and leg.  This 2×2 striping was offset by moving the color a stitch over on each new round.  It was simple enough to not have to think but still produced an interesting look.

Spiral Striped socks 2

I stopped the spiral temporarily at the end of the foot to work a short row heel.  To give the heel section a bit more reinforcement, I worked it in the slip1, knit1 pattern typically done for the heel flap when doing cuff-down socks.

Spiral Striped socks 3

Once reaching the bottom of the calf muscle, I had to take a bit of a pause to figure out how to increase up around the calf while maintaining the pattern.  Funny how things come to you at the oddest hour.  Usually, my “oh, duh” moments come when I wake in the middle of the night to toss to the other side.  This “oh, duh” moment came while I was watching mindless tv.  It just came, I grabbed the socks, tested it, and it worked!  It doesn’t look too bad.

Spiral Striped socks 4

Overall, I’m thrilled with them.  The fitting is incredible, and given that the picture was just taken, in the heat of St. Louis May, they are incredibly warm.

By Knitty Couture | Posted in Designs, May 2009 | Comments (3)

Fiber in Motion

May 26, 2009 – 1:01 pm

Workspace counter

A great workspace is important.

Large shelve wall

I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity while the shop was being built to create my space.  I knew I wanted a space that was soothing, inviting, open, and full of color.

Not only did it need to be inspiring for those walking in the door, it had to be so for me who spent upwards of 60 hrs/wk here.  I can definitely say that being enclosed in this small space during the winter season felt like spring.

Workspace TableWorkspace Couch

Though I use the counter and table as working stations, for most of the time, I tend to gravitate toward the sofa.  On a busy knitting day, there may be three or four projects laying around me as well as more in the basket and on the side table.  On most days, I try to keep it tidy, but it’s rare that it should be so empty.

Workspace 1Workspace 2

Most of my knitting supplies are stored on a small side table.  There, I have my needles, bag of notions/dpns, jars of colored pencils, basket of yarn and projects, several notesbooks/journals for keeping knitting notes, and of course, my cup of tea.  There are usually also stacks of pattern books and magazines, but right now, they’re covering the coffee table.

My knitting area at home looks pretty similar.  Rather than a side table, I tend to cover our coffee table with books, paper, knitting, and everything else.  In addition, there are also baskets of yarn nearby holding more things…. and projects on the sofa… and windowsill.

I will admit that the appearance of a very organized, clutter-free environment can be very deceiving.  There are some dis-organizational issues I’m still working on.  For example, despite having those handy notebooks to jot down my knitting activities, I don’t always have them with me and usually write my notes on whatever is at hand (an index card, the back of a receipt, a random blank sheet of paper - even if it is the only sheet in a notebook full of other half-written knitting notes).  My husband says I lose things all the time, but I like to think that they have just been misplaced, not lost.

Also, I tidied up for you.

By Knitty Couture | Posted in May 2009 | Comments (1)
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