Nibbling Along

Knitscene Summer

Yesterday Measure and I stopped by Purlescence, where I needed to pick up some needles (how is it that I have more than half a dozen 5mm Addis, but none of them are smaller than 32"?), and I found out that they'd already sold out of Knitscene Summer! Amazing, considering the magazine is not technically due out until the 19th of this month, but I guess a lot of shops got it in early and it has just flown out the door. I'm really proud to be part of this issue -- Knitscene just seems to go from strength to strength, and I particularly love how this issue was styled and shot. I can't wait until they start offering a subscription!

Here's one of my designs from the issue, the Loon Island Shawl (all images copyright Knitscene Summer 2011):

I actually have three designs in this issue, and I think it's funny to look at them side-by-side; you can see how much of a jack-of-all-trades I am as a designer. You know how some designers have a really coherent line? When you see something new from someone like Cookie A., or Stephen West, or Kim Hargreaves, you recognize it clearly as representing their particular aesthetic. I don't feel like I have that sort of distinctive aesthetic in my own work.

Here's another design, the Mie Pullover:

There are some common threads, I suppose -- I gravitate towards fairly simple stitches, and I try to make all of my designs "knitter-friendly." Since I have a toddler and can't devote a lot of intense focus to a project, at least not for any great length of time, I try to keep stitches easily memorizable, I try to make finishing fairly simple, and the overall design fairly intuitive. But I can do these things with cables, with lace, with texture stitches, with socks, with shawls, with pullovers, with hats...you get the idea. So I do.

Here's the Mayville Cardigan:

I suspect my lack of an obvious point of view makes me less marketable as a designer; it's certainly hard for me to conceive of what theme or element might unite a book-length collection of my designs. But to be honest, I'm not sure I care. Becoming a Super Famous Designer would be pretty sweet, but it's not really my goal. As long as I'm enjoying the process, and putting out work that (at least a few) other people enjoy too, then it's all good.

Spider Stitch Shawl

My Spider Stitch Shawl is now available as an individual pattern PDF!

Originally published in the October 2009 issue of Yarn Forward, the Spider Stitch Shawl features an easy-to-memorize pattern stitch and an elegant but simple border. It's a classic triangular shawl knit from the center back out, and it's easy enough that I think it would be a good pattern for a lace newbie (or a good quick and easy knit for the expert!). I'm glad I paid to have Yarn Forward ship the sample back to me, because it's one of the knits I wear most frequently during the winter. It just looks cool scrunched and wrapped around my neck -- it seems to dress up even the most boring outfit -- and it really does keep me toasty warm.

The pattern is a 4-page PDF file, and I've made it easy for you: all of the charts are on page 2 of the pattern, so if you're the type of knitter who really just needs the charts, that's the only page you'll actually need to print. Clicking the "buy now" button will help you purchase the pattern via Ravelry and PayPal, but you don't need a Ravelry or PayPal account to buy.

The pattern is $5.

To make the shawl, you will need a size 4 (3.5mm) long circular needle and 2 skeins of Malabrigo Lace, or about 750-800 yards of an equivalent yarn. The finished size is about 64" across and 30" deep, although the size is easily adjustable if you, for example, change yarn weights, work more or fewer repeats of the main chart pattern, and/or work more or fewer repeats of the border pattern.

A Surprising Prize

I am very flattered that the lovely and talented Suzanne (of Yarnhog) bequeathed me with an award! If you haven't read her blog before, be sure to check it out -- she is a master when it comes to seeing the potential in beautiful yarns in unfortunate colors. Check out this. And this. Mad overdyeing skills, I tell you.

Now, I get to pass the award on to bloggers I love!

The rules of the award are as follows: 1. The winner can put the logo on their website/blog. 2. Add a link to the person who gave you the award. 3. Nominate at least five other websites/blogs. 4. Provide links to the nominated websites/blogs. 5. Leave a message at each blog/website telling them they've been given the award.

I love way more than five blogs -- my bloglines list is pretty long -- so I decided to highlight a few which I think do a great job of balancing the crafty-blog stuff with the mommy-blog stuff.

So, in no particular order, I would like to spread the bloggy love around to:

• Fickleknitter, who also incidentally has designed some very cute patterns (check out these reversible baby Mary Janes -- adorable!)
• Oiyi, whose recent success with Kool-Aid dyeing inspired me to try my hand at it again after a long hiatus. (She also makes kickass baked goods, including a totally gorgeous wedding cake. How cool is that?)
• Knitting Betty, who has not blogged in a few weeks. (I am selfishly hoping that this award will bribe her into posting again. Is that wrong?)
• The Two Black Sheep, "Ava" and "Lola," who routinely crack me up and have done me the priceless service of introducing me to both the fresh-ground Whole Foods honey-roasted peanut butter, and Blue Moon ale. (Good stuff.)
• Ruth, whose quilting and crafting are awesome, even though her former quilting guild members were decidedly non-awesome. (The new group sounds much better -- go Ruth!)

And now, since I'm always trying to strive for crafty-blog and mommy-blog balance, here is a completely gratuitous picture of Measure playing with one of the Halloween pumpkins we carved. He loves to take their "hats" on and off.

He's kind of obsessed with the pumpkins. He even noticed the little tiny pumpkin icon above the Ravelry logo, and spent a full minute excitedly staring and pointing at the "dundin," making sure that I realized that yes, there was a pumpkin on the computer, and yes, that was the most awesome thing ever. Good times.

Kaino

Yesterday as I drove up 280 and saw the thick, gray fog slouching its chilly way across San Francisco, I smiled. Knitwear weather has arrived! The students I passed on my way to class shivered in flimsy cotton hoodies, useless against the insidious creeping fingers of the cold fog, but I strode along (in flip-flops, no less -- I only give up wearing sandals when it rains) perfectly cozy thanks to my knitterly armor, my new Kaino vest.

I LOVE this vest. I started it about a month ago, but it only took this long to finish because I took several extended breaks. Each piece really only took a couple of days to knit. The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, one of my new favorites. I didn't make any significant modifications to Norah Gaughan's pattern (from the Berroco Volume 1 booklet), and I even used the exact shade of yarn -- 6202, which I think is called "brown rice," if you're interested -- used in the booklet, which I think is a first for me. The only minor changes I made were to lengthen the body very slightly, because I'm tall, and I need to lengthen everything, and to skip the instructions to do a graduated bind-off on the ribbing which wraps around the back neck to form a sort of collar. If you check out other Ravelers' projects pages, you'll see this gives the collar a pointy look in the back, and I preferred it to be more rounded, so I just knit each collar extension to the length called for, then grafted them together.

While this isn't the most exciting knit -- it's not exactly a technical challenge, since it's just knitting, ribbing, and basic shaping -- I love the feel of the final product. The fact that it's sleeveless prevents it from being too warm, and the long length gives it a "boyfriend-sweater" slouchiness that I adore. I wasn't sure about how I'd like the sleeves, which are all stockinette and therefore curl up, but I really don't mind it, and I suspect they will de-curl a little bit after I've given Kaino a wash and block. Overall? This one is such a success, it may demand a repeat performance.

Note to Self...

...Check notes to self.

I don't think I blogged about these mismatched Monkeys when I finished them -- probably out of embarrassment. See how the one on the left is a little shorter? Yup.

When I knit the first sock, I actually remembered to note what needle size I used on my project page on Ravelry. I suffered from a minor case of Second Sock Syndrome, so it took me a while to get around to knitting the second sock...but do you think I bothered to double-check what needle I should be using? Nope.

You'd think I would have noticed that the second sock was a little more snug than the first, but I chalked the difference up to the fact that I had tried the first one on a lot and stretched it out. Riiiiiight.

Also, is this linoleum ugly, or what? I think whoever picked it out must have thought it would be great, because dirt doesn't really show. The flaw in that logic is that it always looks dirty.

It's Hip to Be Square

Much as I love the Noro Silk Garden sock yarn I mentioned in my last post, the yarn does not love me. I think I need to be knitting it on size 2 needles, and since I prefer to do the two circulars thing, I'm setting it aside until I can get a couple of 24" circs in that size from KnitPicks.

At least the sock I'm designing is going well, but since I may want to submit it somewhere, I can't share any photos. I am still loving that Cascade Heritage stuff, though.

Since everything else is in kind of unexciting stages right now, photography-wise, and because apparently the more projects I have going, the more I have the urge to cast on, I started a Babette blanket. I've really enjoyed watching Maryse's come together (isn't hers gorgeous?) and since I had several balls of a few different shades of Rowan Calmer i think work together well, I decided to go ahead and work up a few squares. Crochet is not my strong suit, but this is definitely simple enough to fall within my comfort zone. The little squares work up satisfyingly quickly, too -- perfect for my short attention span and love of instant gratification!

Happy Socktober!

 

It's that time of year again -- Socktober! Socktoberfest is Lolly's brainchild, and I think it's an awesome concept. This year, I'm hoping to raise some money for Heifer International by donating half of the purchase price of every Hidden Path sock pattern I sell this month. That's a donation of $2.50 for every pattern sold, so hopefully by the end of the month I'll at least be able to buy some ducks (they're cute and tasty), or maybe a share of a knitting basket!

Other than that, I'm going to be working on a new sock pattern, and starting myself a pair of socks in this gorgeous Noro Silk Garden sock yarn, as well as working on some of the socks I've already got on the needles. And, you know, maybe doing a little work on the socks I've already got on the needles. That sounds like a lot, but hey, I like to celebrate Socktoberfest all year 'round anyway.

So tell me -- what are you doing for Socktoberfest? Also, don't you think it would be great if there was some sort of big Socktoberfest festival where we could all knit, quaff some beers, and maybe dance around in leiderhosen? That would be awesome. Well, maybe not the leiderhosen so much, but the knitting and quaffing, definitely.