Husky Hat
My Catherine Lowe Headgear IV kit arrived!
The yarn is gorgeous…I am a little intimidated by the 23 page pattern instuction book.
At the opposite extreme, DH asked if I could knit a hat for him this week – I used leftover yarn from a pair of socks and no pattern.
I finished the hat as the UW Huskies clinched the Conference Championship, much better than the season the socks had.
quick hat, Blue Moon STR lightweight in colorway Husky
Madrona 2009: Sally Melville, Catherine Lowe, Sally Melville
My classes at Madrona 2009:
Sally Melville‘s Making the Most of Your Yarn Collection
Catherine Lowe‘s Foundations of Couture Knitting
Sally Melville‘s Knit to Flatter and Fit
I looove Sally Melville. She is The Best Knitting Teacher I’ve ever had.
I have taken other stash busting classes that didn’t inspire me, lots of ideas for things I would never knit or be caught dead in. Five minutes into Sally’s class I knew it was going to be different.
She taught us how to look at our stash, how to organize our stash, how to arrange the yarn so we can look for the potential projects, how to find inspiration in things we see to create garments that DON’T look like “I made this out of leftover yarn while I was on meds recovering from surgery”.
I left class excited with ideas and things to do.
Later I met people from adjacent classrooms on both sides of us who said they could hear us laughing and knew we were having a good time. Sally is a great teacher, charming, and makes us laugh.
Catherine Lowe. I didn’t know quite what I was getting into.
Wow.
Catherine’s class was GREAT. She is very generous with her knowledge. I took the class out of curiousity about the ‘Couture’ and to maybe pick up some useful tips.
There were several times during class when I thought she must not sleep, or she must be an alien, or she is actually 150 years old, she operates on a different level.
She teaches techniques and shares information, then leaves it up to us to choose how far to go with it.
I definitely got some ideas that I will use and information about yarn that will inform my choices. I believe I will produce better knitting with what I learned.
Catherine is also super nice and encouraged everyone to come to her booth in the Market with any questions. I went the next day and she spent quite a bit of time analyzing my knitting technique and we figured out why I twist the yarn as I knit and how to stop it without sacrificing speed. I have been trying to figure this out for years!
Catherine Lowe designs are not like anything I have ever seen before. I guess that must be the ‘Couture’ thing. Her patterns are designed to the finest detail, the finishing is extraordinary. I am going to start saving my nickels and dimes…and fives and tens so I can treat myself to one of her sweater kits. For now, I bought a hat kit and I am super excited about it!
Back to Sally Melville for Knit to Flatter and Fit. Fantastic class. I kept thinking, “OOOh, I get it!”.
The Market.
A dangerous place for a body on a budget.
I have gotten better at ‘using my self-control’.
A couple of hanks of Blue Moon STR Mill Ends (di$counted) in colorway
Space Dust.
Sally Melville’s Style, so I don’t have to rely entirely on my notes. And yeah, I will be buying her new book as soon as it comes out in March.
Catherine Lowe’s The Ravell’d Sleeve journal and Headgear IV hat kit.
Every time I looked in the Blue Moon booth my eyes would zoom in on the STR in Bella Coola and my pal knit1frog2 would say, “yeah, those are your colors” or “you have to get that”, but I held off, I’m on a budget.
When I wasn’t looking, knit1frog2 went back to the Market and dug through the entire booth to find The Last Hank of lightweight STR in Bella Coola and she gave it to me. Happy!
Madrona 2009 Homework
Homework is more fun when the materials arrive in a cool package in the mail:
Catherine Lowe Merino 5 and Homework Swatch Instruction Booklet
custom packaged for Madrona 2009
Swatches knit for
Catherine Lowe’s “Foundations Of Couture Knitting”
I hope they behave better after blocking
AND
I had my Unpleasant Photo Session over the weekend for
Sally Melville’s “Knit To Flatter And Fit”:
1. Dress in close-fit lingerie.
2. Standing straight, with arms slightly away from your side, have someone take a straight-on photo of you.
ye-NO. I won’t be posting those pictures
Fortunately, we are using an outline traced from the photo, NOT the actual photo!
TREKKING (XXL) Color 100 Socks and New Shoes
When I first saw TREKKING (XXL) Color 100, I was smitten.
I started knitting and loved the socks
So much.
You know.
In that way that makes you go temporarily insane and back to the store to buy the rest of it that they have in stock.
Yes, those are all Color 100 and all the same dye lot!
…and then I had to buy shoes to show them off!
I don’t know what I am going to do with all that yarn,
I don’t need eight pair of the same socks
…not that any two socks will be the same, much less any two or eight pair!
Judy’s Colors St. Nick completed due to snow
Snowbound.
(has not moved since last Wednesday)
Going a little stir crazy.
Thank goodness for knitting!
Done in time for xmas:
Judy’s Colors stocking St. Nick (kit)
I replaced the (pattern) loop with a round spiral braid and tassels.
Blue Moon STR Husky and Midsummers Night socks
Finally! I started these last summer as a back-up easy travel knitting project while on vacation in Canada.
Knitting these socks got off to a slow start, didn’t have much enthusiasm, it kinda sucked to be a Husky this year.
Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight in colorway Husky
(specially dyed for us sad University of Washington Huskies)
150g (1.2 hanks) for men’s shoe size 10-11, 8 stitches/inch on size 0
DH was glad these socks were not done in time to be cursed as The Unlucky Socks.
Knit at the low end of the recommended 8-10 stitches per inch and they are hard (stiff), I canNOT imagine knitting this yarn at 10 stitches per inch. DH says the socks feel hard, as do the STR heavyweight socks I knit for for hiking.
For the hiking socks, he says they feel hard but thinks that might provide more protection for his feet.
Blue Moon STR Heavyweight, colorway Midsummer’s Night
146 g (1 hank was plenty) for men’s shoe size 10-11,
5.6 st/in on size 3 and 6 st/in on size 2 (for heels, toes, soles)
Misti Alpaca Worsted + Barbara Walker “ Arch and Leaf”
By Special Request: “a texture patterned, soft, cream-colored scarf”
Misti Alpaca Worsted
colorway SFN 10, 2X 100g hanks
dimensions: 52” x 8.25
“Arch and Leaf” stitch from Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
Not the best scarf stitch pattern, it curls (wrong side out) pretty insistently even after a good blocking.
If I did it over, I would knit it two arches wide (instead of three) and use a wider flat border such as K1P1, or seed stitch.
ERRATA for “Arch and Leaf” from Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury:
row 5: stitch 36 (counting from left edge of chart)
should be [RS: P1/WS: K1]
row 5: stitches 19 and 33 (counting from the left edge of chart)
and
row 7: stitches 18 and 36 (counting from the left edge of chart)
should be [RS: K1-b/WS: P1-b]
(These are the stitches above the YO and will create holes if not closed with a twisted stitch, see swatch below)
DD requested this scarf, we picked up the yarn at Beehive WoolShop in Victoria, B.C. last summer.
She wanted a textured pattern, so I handed her a pile of Barbara Walker Treasuries to choose from.
Never having been one to shy away from a swatch, I swatched up her favorites to choose from.
Details from top to bottom
Soft Cable (right), Barbara Walker Third Treasury
Ribbed Spindle, Barbara Walker Third Treasury
Exploded Ribbing, Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
Arch and Leaf, Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
(my favorite) Cable-Framed Leaf, Barbara Walker Second Treasury
DD loves the scarf , mostly the softness.
xmas cards vs. mushrooms
I don’t know what possessed me to make xmas cards.
Like, addressing and writing cards doesn’t take long enough,
AND
it turns out making cards takes a lot longer than I expected.
The Plan today was to finish the cards (the making part, not the addressing and writing part), but it was a beautiful day and DH suggested a quick trip to the mountains to look for mushrooms.
1) Measure and tear paper
- or-
2) Tromp around in the woods looking for mushrooms…
Mushrooms: 1
Cards: 0
The cards didn’t stand a chance on a day like today.
Knitted Skirt Design Class with Carol Lansinger
My pal knit1frog2 and I took Carol’s great skirt class yesterday at
So Much Yarn
Carol Lansinger and her hand knit skirts
I have wanted to knit a skirt for quite a while, then I heard about this skirt class with words like:
“you should take this class before you knit a skirt”,
“now I *know* how to knit a skirt”,
“I love my skirt”.
See janetcharb’s skirts on Ravelry here and here, she brought them to a Seattle Knitters Guild meeting. They were gorgeous. I was smitten. She recommended Carol Lansinger’s class…
It’s a great class.
Carol talked about style. Style in fashion, personal style, designing and knitting style for yourself or others.
She talked about skirts. Knitting skirts, designing skirts, shaping skirts, FITTING skirts.
Knitting ‘butt sprung’*-free skirts.
She had many many samples, it was EXCITING.
*Carol’s term for that unflattering pouf you get in the back of your skirt after sitting.
Now I want to knit several skirts:
(CLICK on PICS to enlarge -
in the new window, you might have to click the ‘expand’ button)
Carol Lansinger’s Rowan Denim Pleated hem Skirt
detail of above skirt
Carol Lansinger’s Lace-edge A-line Skirt
in Euroflax Linen Worsted yarn
Sally Melville’s Nancy’s Skirt (the knitting experience, BOOK 3, COLOR)
in Manos del Uruguay yarn
(lengthened to 22” is very wearable by many)
knit1frog2 being shy
(behind Ruth Sørensen’s Claudia Evilla Skirt
in Kauni yarn)
I think I’ll start here:
Classic Elite Yarns Summer Book 2 Lace Border Skirt
Butterfly Super 10 Cotton in color 3829
Two-sided Reversible Intarsia
I got a request for a “ladybug” scarf.
Ladybug
Design: a reversible spotted scarf
I knew immediately which yarn I wanted to use. I had been suffering from Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino envy and just needed an excuse. I knew it came in black and a perfect red.
It’s light enough for an all-over k1 p1 ribbing scarf, it will be nice and flat. Since it will be hanging with all the tension in the lengthwise direction, it will always be un-expanded.
Wider and shorter would be a great Baby Blanket , lots of great colors of DBBC!
I knit a large swatch in k1 p1 ribbing to get the pattern gauge.
DBBC k1p1 ribbing swatch
I measured the gauge (un-expanded) and made a graph to match the size of the scarf I wanted.
Each square represents two stitches, one knit, one purl. Only the knit stitch will show, the purl stitches will recede and be visible as knit stitches on the other side.
I added circles to represent the spots and then tried different combinations of filled squares to get the best approximation of a circle.
Next, the worst part, okay maybe the second worst part, figuring out how to make a two-sided intarsia scarf that doesn’t look crappy on one side.
Floats = looks crappy
How to make the wrong side (WS) look as good as the right side (RS)…
RS to the left, WS to the right
Here’s what I came up with:
right side (RS), expanded
wrong side (WS), expanded, much improved
Here’s how I do it:
To hide the floats, I lift the float over a (same color) stitch that appears as a purl stitch on the right side (RS) (knit stitch on the wrong side (WS)). The float zig zags between the front and back laying on top of the purl bumps.
unattractive float (WS)
WS, lift float over stitch so float hides on purl bump
(knit stitch on WS) of same color stitch
WS, float dropped onto purl bump
WS, float woven between stitches (hidden),
float highlighted with white dots
One more time, going back the other way.
WS, ugly float
(flipped over to) RS, float lifted over from behind
RS, float dropped onto purl bump of same color,
float highlighted with white dots
RS, float woven between stitches (hidden),
float highlighted with white dots
right side (RS)
right side (RS) expanded,
floats highlighted with white dots
wrong side (WS)
wrong side (WS) expanded
floats highlighted with white dots
NOTE: Be sure to weave the float over stitches of the same color.
The Actual Worst Part:
Weaving In The Ends
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
(thank goodness for Project Runway Season 3 on dvd!!!)
Each spot creates 4 ends. 21 spots = 84 ends
(in addition to the usual beginning and end of every ball)
NOTE: Weave in the ends mostly vertically, so they won’t work themselves out when the ribbing is stretched and springs back.
Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, it is super soft. Lots of great colors for other spotted scarf combinations or baby blankets. It PILLS though. The beginning of the scarf was pilling by the time I finished it. DD is very happy with the scarf, we’ll see how it wears.
