Knitting inspiration

Knitting,

Another gray rainy day yesterday. Good for knitting inside but not so good for knitting outside. I often knit small projects while on my daily walk with Molly Brown at the dog park but yesterday was just a bit too wet and my stitches were sticking to the wet needles. So I read the latest Patternworks magazine. It led me to daydreaming about all of the projects I’d love to knit. There is a “ruffled collar pullover pattern” (p58) that is gorgeous. Some one from the Yarn Garage knit this and it was modeled at the Knit Out a few weeks ago. It really is gorgeous and doesn’t look too complicated.

Another project I have always wanted to tackle is knit rugs. . . don’t ask me why. The time investment would be outrageous but I keep coming back to wanting to knit rugs. There is a book by Donna Druchunas, “The Knitted Rug” advertised on pg 13 which started my fingers itching.

The item I’m actually going to purchase from this issue of the catalog is the Knitter’s Row Keeper Bracelet. Anyone ever use one? I’ve used lots of techniques to keep track of rows while knitting but nothing has ever truly satisfied me. (I know, I can’t always get what I want). The scrap paper with chicken scratches always disappear before I get to the other mitten, or the other sleeve. I think I’ll give this row keeper a try.

Off to count some knitting rows,
Shawn

Felted hats ready for needlefelt decorations!

Knitting, Needle Felting, , , ,

Hi everyone,

I finally did it! I set up a store on Etsy to sell my felted hats.

For the past 3 years I have been holding needlefelting workshops, well I call them parties, to which I bring felted hats and scarves plus all the supplies needed for needlefelting. When I first started doing these parties very few people knew what needlefelting was, but it is becoming more and more popular. To see some of the hats I have decorated with needlefelting see my other post under needlefelting.

Now, my felted hats are available to you on line. So far I have only put up one color. (My goal is to get a different color felted hat that is in stock on line every day. A bit of an ambitious goal me thinks.) They fit young adults through adult size heads. I am experimenting with child sizes but it may be a while before I get those up there. And child sizes aren’t all THAT different from our adult heads. Who knows how old one is before their head is the size it will be for the rest of their life?

It’s a perfect day for knitting. . . too bad I won’t get to it until later this evening. (and then I’ll be taking pictures of felted hats to get on Etsy)

Tomorrow night at the 331 Club some friends of mine are playing at 7pm; the Ditch Lilies – an all girl honky tonk band. I have tap class from 7:30 to 9pm but will be at the club after that. See you there?

Happy Knitting!
Shawn

Knitting weather

Knitting

Finally it is the right temperature for knitting!

Last Sunday is was 86 degrees. Whew. So, I took my knitting to the mall for the afternoon. It was Knit Out day at Brookdale Mall. A handful of vendors set their tables up in the middle of the mall, encircling a mangle of metal chairs. While sitting and knitting I felt like I was in the middle of a wagon train that had set up for the night. I was safe and sound from all those other crazy shoppers who weren’t there to knit. I spent three hours knitting and chatting a bit, and being entertained.

Every half hour something happened on the stage; a fashion show, drawings (for very nice door prizes!!), and speed knitting contests.

The fashion show was truly amazing. There are some great knitters in this town! Every thing from elaborate jackets, sweaters and hats to beautiful lace. However, I couldn’t take my eyes off of what Steven, from the Yarn Garage, was wearing. It was a very cool pullover. It was knit vertically from side to side. Striped by different fibers and audio cassette tape rows too! The combination of fibers, tape and leather made for a really swell sweater. I felt inspired by Steven’s sweater and all of the fashion show items. In my opinion the items boasted better knitting and more interesting techniques than the items in the fashion show at the Mall of America sponsored by Lion Brand yarn last year.

After the first drawing, I hurried to add my name to the basket! They were giving away YARN, mind you 10 balls of scrumptious yarn. It was 4 days ago and my memory is getting worse and worse, so I don’t remember what kind of yarn. But I do remember that I wanted it! They were also giving away pattern books. Darn, I didn’t win a thing. Of course the longer the day went on the more people added their names.

As to the speed contests. . . very impressive. The winner of the stockinette speed contest knit 94 stitches in 3 minutes. Zowza! The winner of the garter stitch contest knit a number of stitches somewhere in the 80s. It was fun to watch and I had the urge to stand up and cheer them on, but didn’t want to seem undignified so I stayed in my seat.

All and all it was a fun afternoon. I got 3 inches of knitting done on the sleeve of my new sweater, you know, the one I’m actually knitting for myself. And I was in a place cool enough to actually knit.

I’ve got company for the weekend so its off to the vacuuming and dusting for me.

Happy Knitting!

Shawn

Cherry Tree Hill swing coat

Knitting, , ,

Hello again. Yes, it’s actually me! I haven’t written since May! Wow, where did the summer go!?!

Finally, here are those promised photos of my swing coat that I sent to Cherry Tree Hill for their design contest. It looks great on my friend Ellen!

I am still in the process of writing the pattern. . . I want to make one that fits me! I really love working with this sock yarn. The colors are so nice and vibrant and the feel of the fabric is luscious!

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I’ve been busy knitting lace scarves for the MN Textile Center Artwear Show boutique. For the last 2 years I have had pieces in the runway show, but not this year. However, I will have my hand knit sweaters and many lace items for sale at the boutique that coincides with the Runway show.

This is the perfect time of year to knit! I love, love, love, it. I started a new sweater for myself from a wool/silk blend yarn from Blackberry Hills. Though it is hard to find time to knit for myself, I deserve this one. I’m knitting it from the neck down and it will have cable pattern repeated around the body. The sleeves will be reverse stockinette with the cable design down the center of the sleeve and cables for the cuffs. I love the tweedy look of this dark green yarn. Mmm, mmm, good!

Well, I’m going back to my knitting and I promise to write again soon. (before 5 months have passed anyway:))

Knitting with beads again!

Knitting, Knitting with beads

I had some fun yesterday! I was meeting friends for dinner to celerate two birthdays. I woke up in the morning wondering what I could knit that they would like….hmmm…I’ve really been having fun knitting with beads lately so I wanted to do something with beads. Not socks because I had to come up with a project I could finish in a day…no wait…I had to be able to finish two in a day. AHAH! They both work at computers, how about coasters for their coffee/tea/soda? That’s it!

Here’s one

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and here’s the other

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The color of beads wouldn’t have been my first choice for the two friends I had in mind but these were what I had on hand. (Who has time to run to the bead store when there is knitting to be done?) The top one measures 4 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches, the bottom is 6 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches. The top one seems to be a better size. Putting the beads on the yarn took about 1 1/2 hours for each one and the knit time was only 1 hour each! That’s nothing! Can’t wait to get more beads and make some more….watch out family, I know what I’m knitting for christmas.

They were SUPER FUN to knit. As I was doing it I daydreamed about all the different graphic designs I could knit. I bet I could design colorful patterns that would be hell to knit but really fun to bead!

I have a fun coloring book of optical illusions that I’ve often tried to graph for knitting but because of the angle of the lines, it never transferred to knitting. But NOW, I can do it in beads, maybe. Happy Friday everyone!

Lacey Leg warmers

Knitting, On My Needles

I guess I’m on the right track. I’ve started a pair of lacy leg warmers using a hand dyed dk weight yarn. It is a lovely lime green, if I had to name it I’d call it celery. Sorry, I can’t tell you where to get your own lovely celery yarn just like this because I bought it from the dyer ages ago and can’t even remember who it was. Where has my brain gone? Out the window with this heat!

Anyway, I had a partially finished leg warmer on my fake leg…(see below)… and a friend of a friend saw it and oogled and awed. “LEG WARMERS! I LOVE leg warmers. I wish I could wear them all the time!” Guess I’m on the right track for my fall fashion line. At least according to my market survey of one. 🙂


The lace pattern is a simple 4 row repeat and it is fairly simple to increase up the leg and stay in the pattern. As soon as I’m done with these, I plan on making it my first free pattern on this blog.

While knitting these I also realized how much I love knitting in the round on two circular needles. When I used to knit in the round on 4 or 5 double pointeds I always got ladders. No matter what I did to try to correct this, the ladders persisted. However, when I knit on two circulars, I get NO ladders. Woo Hoo. I highly recomend this for circular knitting. Once I got used to the ends of the circulars bobbing around my work it became a piece of cake. Better than those double pointeds always poking me in my palm.

You may have noticed that the only thing I write about is knitting, knitting, knitting. Well, what can I say? I do have a life outside of knitting but the needles are always with me. I’ve even bumped into a few tree branches lately while knitting a pair of socks and walking the dog at the dog park. Shoot, I think it may be too hot between now and who knows when to keep knitting outside. Oh well, if it is too hot too knit outside it must be too hot to walk the dog for her usual hour afternoon session…guess I’ll have to cut the walk short and go back to the air conditioning and knittng. Sorry Molly Brown. (see sad dog below)

Okay, she’s not really sad, just sleeping.

Knitting with beads

Knitting, Knitting with beads, My original hand knitting patterns

Read All About It!
I finally did it. I have a pattern for sale on line at Lulu
It is a pattern of beaded fingerless gloves I knit using yarn from Liisu Yarn
I knit these Glam Gloves in Cherries Jubilee, Leili yarn. This yarn was so nice to knit with I can’t wait to order more.

The “ring” is a mother-of-pearl button that a friend made for me about 12 years ago. I so happy to finally be able to use it!
The beads for the bracelets are from EarthFaire This sight has tons of different beads for sale (among other things) and lots of great inspirational projects!
Here is a close up of the bracelets. (sorry about the blurry photos)


I just love these brass hands! I got those at Storm Cloud Beads in St. Paul.

Now I’m working on a pair of socks with a beaded anklet. What fun!

It’s in the mail

Knitting, On My Needles

Well, I made it! It’s in the mail! Cheryl, thanx for your confidence in how it will look. I’m not sure how Cherry Treey Hill feels about photos of contest proposals on blogs so I’m going to wait until I hear news from them before publishing any photos here. The sweater turned out okay. It fits Ellen better than it fits me. If I make one for myself I will make it longer.

I swear I have a love affair with everything I knit. I am totally infatuated at the beginning and want nothing more than to spend time with my new sweater on its needles. Until I’ve knit about 6 inches of the body; when I find out it is just like every other sweater, it burps and farts. When I’m about 1/2 done I start to loose interest and wonder if there isn’t something better out there for me. But I’m stubborn and will stick around to the bitter end. By the time I get to the collar and finishing I’m less than thrilled and can’t wait for a break from it. But like all great loves, the more time I spend with it and all its burps and farts, the more I come to love it. Now I wouldn’t want to live without the sweaters I’ve knit for myself.

It’s time to get back to all of the duties I neglected while falling in love and knitting this sweater. I realized that in 10 days I designed and hand knit a sweater. Whew, no wonder my brain feels empty, my shoulders are a bit tight and my emotions have run amok.

Hmm, what’s on my needles now?

  • Socks with a beaded anklet knit in (1/2 of one sock is complete)
  • a black ribbon sweater with accents of recycled silk (1/2 done)
  • an aran sweater for my accupunturist (I’ve been working on this since June of 2006)
  • a sweater knit in the round, sort of, in some great fiber that I bought from Rovings, at Yarn Over in April

    • Here’s a picture of the colors. I really wanted to knit a sweater in the Brick color, but there wasn’t enough to do a full sweater so I am also using the Aurora Borealis too.
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    I love this company and their yarn! If they had a web site I would include it here, but alas they don’t have one. The fiber content of this yarn 30% polwarth wool and 70% kid moahir. This is gonna be sooo soft and I’m totally at the stage of complete infatuation with this project! Dang, now all I want to do is knit!

    Cherry Tree Hill Contest

    On My Needles

    As soon as I heard about the Cherry Tree Hill Yarn contest I started imagining all kinds of beautiul multidirectional sweaters. I drew, I sketched, I swatched, but nothing came to me. Until 2 weeks ago. I don’t know where it came from, oh yeah, I was cleaning up the front clothes closet and as I was rehanging a 1960s swing coat…I thought this is it. So I started knitting, and knitting and knitting.

    I thought June 10th is the deadline….the jokes on me…I double checked the date on the Cherry Tree Hill web site and it is June FIRST! Yikes!! I better get knitting. If I overnight it tomorrow, it should arrive on Friday. I feel really excited about this “swing coat” sweater. It is turning out even better than I imagined. I have most of the front and back done…it is going to be raglan sleeves…and I have one sleeve done. I had to put the other sleeve down last night at 2am…just couldn’t do it any more…my stitches were getting bigger and bigger. (so much for “perfect” gauge)

    This yarn is growing on me. I’m glad I’m knitting something other than socks with it. It feels soft and strong and the garter stitch fabric I’m using hangs well and has a “rich” feel to it. Can’t wait to see it done!! I still need to figure out how to do the collar. I don’t know if I ‘m going to keep close to the the 1960s coat or change the collar a bit. I’ve already made the sweater smaller than the coat. (It would cost an arm and a leg to buy enough yarn to knit a sweater the same size as the coat)

    Last fall I won third place in their sock contest. What a shock when I got the call! My mom was here with me and I couldn’t stop jumping up and down. Wow was I excited! You can see my sock here cherry tree hill sock design contest

    Here’s hoping my head doesn’t fall off from looking down at my knitting all day. I also have some other knitting that has to be in the mail tomorrow. I think I’ll spend the day alternating hours on projects. Ooooh it’s gonna be a long one.

    Joan’s Sweater

    Knitting

    Here is a lovely sweater that I designed and knit in a Plymouth yarn, which of course is no longer available. Fiber content is 70% merino wool and 30% silk. It has a beautiful drape and I love the way it turned out. (The pattern is just about finished being written.)
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    The cable was inspired by one called “little framed lattice” in Elsbeth Lavold’s book, Viking Patterns for Knitting, shown on on page 54. I separated the longer cable pattern with a shortened one.
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    For a background stitch I used a 1/1 seed with a plain row inbetween. The silk in this fiber really gives the piece a nice glimmer.

    I’ve spent many hours pouring over the cable charts and patterns in this book. Every time I look at it I am inspired to design another sweater.

    I was fortunate to take a workshop with Elsbeth Lavold and learn her techniques for Viking Cable work. Never one to follow a pattern, I perused her book of patterns for a few days, swatched a while, and came up with this sweater. The wool is Donegal tweed, Aran weight that I bought while on a family vacation in Ireland. The buttons are from a local fabric store and the maroon beads add that special touch. This piece was in an Artwear Runway show in 2005, sponsored by the Minnesota Textile Center.
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    I learned a lot of things from this sweater! Like how much fun it is to knit in beads and how to design better fitting armholes and sleeves:).