What would you do...

If you had a yarn store all to yourself for the day?

a. Blog and listen to Journey way too loud, hoping customers don't come in and catch you playing air guitar
b. Plan a new sweater (or three) and pull all the yarn out and then feel guilt and put it back, well, except for the thing you are now swatching.
c. Play with Ravelry.
d. All of the above.

Don't worry Lisa, I did some real work too.
But yes, I am in. Ravelry and I are trying to be friends but I don't understand all of it's intricacies yet. I thought it would be more like myspace, but i can't figure out how to find people except by accident or how to save their info so I can keep checking back but I'm not a total moron so I'll figure it out eventually. Come find me if you are in too!

Blogger ADD

I realize that this will be the third post in 24 hours but I am on a roll. I found this amazing ad in an old knitting magazine and am obsessed with knitting the plaid version of these argyle socks in Gems Fingering that Rosie's just got in. I am even thinking of kitting them like these were in cute little Rosie's boxes to sell in different colorways. I would totally do them in the round though, because knitting socks back and forth is stupid and intarsia in the round is totally easy once you have someone show you. Aren't they amazing? Now to pick colors...


But then I am totally distracted by this Terra, which is one of the lovliest yarns I have seen in a long time. I really want to make this Kimono thing cuz I think it will be amazing in the fall when I'm really pregnant. I just can't decide whether to do it in the colors they show, the Mint and Black Walnut or in my faves Acorn and Butternut (below). The colors as shown really do look great in person, I saw the sample at TNNA. My plan was to work on it tonight at the movies (we're going to see Harry Potter) but the way they have you do the mitering is silly and I kinda want to do the mint part first, using a provisional cast on and then pick up with the Black Walnut all the way around and miter it. They have you casting on the Black Walnut and putting the last st of each row on a holder, then knitting the body, then picking up for the neck and working it together with the live sts you began with. That just seems like too many steps when it could be so many fewer. So, I won't be casting on on the trolley tonight. I need to think on it. What do you think about the colors?

Everybody loves dogs

especially in clothes.

Yea Interweave Crochet, Boo Interweave Knits!

So my submission for Interweave Crochet was accepted by the lovely Kim Werker, editor and blogger extraordinaire! I have been staying silent about it until the package was actually in the mail, but the vest is finished and is in the hands of someone at Interweave as I type unless UPS has disappointed me horribly. I have photos of the finished thing but kinda don't know if I can post them or if I have to make you all wait. Interweave Knits didn't accept anything, but alas, there is always next time. But now it's back to finishing the pile of UFO's, and I am so happy to not be crocheting that vest anymore! (although it was lovely to make and you should all make it when it comes out this winter!)

Getting Sh%t Done

I have done it! I have finished something, finally. My post the other day pushed me to just get something done already. No buttons yet, but it's all sewn together with ends won=ven in and everything. Now I'm off to get sock yarn.

I've been busy.

Well, I done gone and got myself knocked up. The big boobs are really the best part of the above scenario. The swollen feet have to be the worst. I have decided that the whole cliche of "barefoot and pregnant" is really because the gal couldn't fit into any of her shoes, not because her man won't let her have any, which is always how I interpreted it. I wear these hideous 1990's era flip flops from Target every day. Even when it rains. My feet are like one big blister scab of doom from attempted efforts to wear real shoes. So, I have been busy...vomiting, sleeping and crying mostly, and that is why I have not blogged in so long. I did manage to pull together the Gertrude post, which I hope you will all appreciate much more now that you know I did it when I was 6 weeks pregnant. Ugh. But now things seem to have taken a turn for the better that I'm in the glorious and coveted second trimester so I'm back in buisness until October or so when I'll start getting tired and cranky again. But I have been knitting tons of stuff, if not getting anything done. Proof pathetic:This is the first thing I started, back in March, so thankfully I am nearly done. I just haven't touched it in over 6 weeks even though I only need to finish the shoulders on the fronts and sew the damned thing together. It's awfully freakin' cute. It's Penny Straker's baby owl sweater thing done in Rowan 4 ply soft, which I didn't know until I was pregnant is MACHINE WASHABLE! Crazy. So nice.

These are just awaiting their destiny which is to be ripped out and begun again. The gauge is so hideously off that they are really for a toddler which defeats the name of the pattern entirely, Baby Bottoms. It's a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern and it's so godawful cute I really want to knit them, or I guess I really want them to magically be done. They are being knit in Owool Balance, which is an organic cotton and wool blend, not machine washable but I'm not sure I care so much, most of my stuff I throw in the sink so why not baby's too? I know, those of you with children are laughing at me and my poor poor disillusionment right now but let me have my dreams of being knitter/mother extraordinaire for a little while longer.

Okay, these are just pathetic. No one tells you that when you get pregnant you get real stupid. No one ever told me that! It's for real, like I can't remember anything or pay attention or retain information. And people who have had kids are like, "oh, yeah. That happens," and they say it real nonchalant-like, as if it's NO BIG DEAL! Hey, I don't know about you, but I NEED my brain. And I want it back. I think it is back, a little bit, but maybe I'm just getting used to it. But the point of this is that these cute cute baby pants thingies have two feet, right? and 2 legs and a body and shoulder straps. Okay, fine. So you knit the two legs and then join them and work the body in the round and so on. But! Here's the stupid part! I knit two identical legs and joined them the way you are supposed to, with the increase seam on the inner leg and...get this...the feet are facing opposite directions. One foot faces forwards and one backwards. For a very short moment I thought, "Well, maybe the baby will be born with..." But I think I will have to reknit one of the legs. I thought for a moment about cutting one of the feet off and turning it around and grafting it on the right way but I haven't decided if that's more trouble then just reknitting. Stay tuned. Oh and it uses Nature's Palette from Hand Jive, which I absolutely love. It's naturally dyed in gorgeous colors and it's machine washable, how's that for contradiction?

These are my two favorite colors of Dale Baby Ull. It is supposed to be a simple fair isle pullover. One day.

This is another Smith Island Pattern Factory Pattern, coming soon-ish. I started it a year ago and then got bogged down when it came to doing the edging. I can't really decide how to do it. The picture is horrible, but it's a little a-line coat and it's crocheted in Koigu. It's really cool in person, but I am a knitter not a photographer. But hey, look how clean the floors are! See, there's something you can appreciate.

And this is a quilt of a topographic map of Smith Island. I started this last summer and went totally wild and then moved to Philly and in a fit of wishful thinking I brought it with me but haven't touched it. It's appliqued and then I was going to embroider all of the marshy stuff and other markers. It'll be great one day, but I don't think I'll be bringing the baby home in it or anything.

This is the pathetic beginnings of an edging for the Baby Shawl in Sarah Don's Art of Shetland Lace. An amazing book that has just been rereleased, everyone should have it. The yarn is Jade Sapphire's 2 ply Cashmere which is an amazing experience unto itself but in this heat, it'll stay on the shelf. What's the point of knitting an expensive cashmere shawl to sweat all over it like a disgusting pig person?

This is also Dale Baby Ull, one of the greatest yarns ever made. And the pattern is Pastel, which is also on the baby ull page at Rosie's. I have loved that pattern for years and remember picking colors for it forever ago with Grace. I have stuck to my color scheme (although for a minute the chocolate brown almost won out over the red) and Grace is knitting the pants / jumper thing and I am making the bonnet and sweater. I think this will be what the baby comes home in. I'll be november, so maybe it will be cold, unless like last year it's 20 degrees (68 farenheit, I am still on my kick that the u.s. standard system is whack. I pretend it doesn't exist).

These are some Anne socks that are also doomed for ripping, but the color is great.

Drops Alpaca shawl from Spring Issue of Spin off Magazine. It's pretty and easy and was a good project when my brain left the building.

So that's about it, except that I finished (mostly) my website!

Gertrude

From a Fleisher's Knitting and Crochet Manual from 1918 comes this lovely sweater pattern, just in time for summer! Ha ha.
But it really is a great pattern, easy and quickly knit in any worsted weight wool. I knit this in about one week, but I did abandon all other projects during that time and I was at my mom's house. She has cable and I don't. When I get access to it I can't stop. I used, big surprise, Cascade 220. The pattern is $6.00, it uses 6-10 skeins of Cascade 220 for finished bust sizes of 40-56". I think this is a great and flattering sweater for all shapes and sizes. For more pictures look at the post entitled "a new sweater." Enjoy!

It's been so long...

...but a lot has been going on. I submitted three designs to Interweave Knits last month, and one to Interweave Crochet, which was immensly pleasurable. I like knitting on a deadline sometimes, only when the things actually get done, not so much when they linger on and not so much if I f*&k them up over and over and over again. I also took the oppurtunity to get all creative with the layout, it made me feel like I was in fact a creative person

Sorry for the glare, I don't have a tripod (Oh! I want one so bad!) so I had to use the flash. However, it is a crocheted vest from a Columbia Yarns pattern book circa 1920. I changed the gauge to use Reynold's Whisky, which is my new favorite yarn. I am also changing some of the proportions, though I am NOT making an updated version a la the horrible Lion Brand Vintage book. That book is a vile, vile thing. It really shouldn't be discussed in polite company.

In a recent conversation with Carol (really recent. like today) I was listing all the qualities that my "dream yarn" would have. Sport weight--a totally underrepresented gauge, heathered, two ply, loosely plied, and soft. Carol's response? "Your dream yarn is Whisky." My response? "Oh. yeah."

This is just a swatch of the top left of the vest, it really will go all the way to the waist.

And this is the pretty pretty layout, even if it is a horrible horrible photo (but look at my cool tights in the lower left of the frame!).

And in the knitting corner we have:

the beautiful box with all the goods

A little swatch of a sweater out of Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool with pompons, I love pompons.
and again with the Cascade 220! This is a super nifty thing that is knit like a scarf and then wrapped around and buttoned to be a little vest...sweater...wrap...thing. How's that for marketing? It's cool, I promise, and so ridiculously easy I was embarassed to work on it at the shop.

This is a tiny version of what will one day become a bigger shawl. It's from a book of patterns from the rare book collection of the Winterthur Museum and the pattern is ridiculous and hilarious in it's vagueness. I love deciphering the mysteries of the old patterns, I like to pretend I am a heroine in some sort of bizarre knitting Masterpeice Theatre.

On a different note:

What are the ethical questions involved when you have to decide whether to spend your time knitting things that may or may not further your knitting career or for your best friend who is pregnant. Can we do both? Which knitting takes precedence? Would one pose this question to a blog just to buy time before casting on a tiny sweater? Discuss.

Laced With History

So the show Laced With History has opened at the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan and Parthenope and Stella are there. Any of you in the area should go and check it out.
Here's the blurb:
http://www.jmkac.org/exhibitions/

LACED WITH HISTORYJanuary 21—May 20Many contemporary artists use lace as a formal or theoretical starting point in order to address issues related to personal history and cultural memory,class and gender, the processes of making, and the relationship between form and content. Laced with History begins with lace made by historical andcontemporary lace makers. It then moves to the sculptures, drawings, paintings, and jewelry of 30 contemporary artists who use or reference lace.Together, these artists offer a new context for understanding lace—namely, its role within contemporary art and, by extension, contemporary culture and society.

I love it when my art degree pays off.

A New Sweater

I felt like I needed a new post. It's a new year and maybe time to spend more time on the interweb (the internet, aka the "interweb," so called by my friend Matt's grandma--I love it).
I sifted around the house for some finished projects, or nearly so, to see if I could find something inspiring. I think I succeded. I found this great sweater that I had totally forgotten about.

It's a vintage Columbia pattern from 1916 or so knit out of Cascade 220 (why is that such a good yarn?). I followed the pattern pretty exactly except that the stripes of the darker green were some sort of fuzzy angora blend thing originally but I thought that looked silly. The buttons are these cool brass knots that were in my grandmother's button box for my entire childhood and then I got the button boxes (wheeee!) to do with what I will, and so this is what I did. They are great buttons, I'm sorry I didn't think to take a good picture of them. I am going to eventually format this one for sale but the pattern notes and the original pattern are on the island and I am in philly, at least for the duration of the cold. The boats to get across get pretty unreliable when the weather is crappy. The boat captains don't like to go out when it's not likely for anyone to be coming or going. There aren't enough sweaters in the world. Okay, now stop laughing. But there are an awful lot of accessories out there and shawls and scarves and hats and stuff but if you really want to make a sweater you're back looking at a Rowan book (not that there is anything wrong with that, my favorite sweater is from Vintage Knits [just re-released btw] and it also has pretty f-ing excellent buttons) or thumbing through the myriad books and magazines which is like finding a needle in a haystack. Maybe it's that people don't knit sweaters as much as they used to. When I started working in yarn shops (first knitting job was at the Weaving Workshop [now the Knitting Workshop] in Chicago in 1997) everyone just knit sweaters. You would come in with your copy of Knitter's or your Alice Starmore book and pick out yarn and go off and knit yourself a thing. You'd make a hat if you had leftover yarn. I want that again. Lets all knit sweaters. They are great.

Geyl

Happy New Year!
I hope you all enjoy this new pattern as a new year's treat!
Geyl is named for a friend of mine who took a shine to this shawl last winter right after I had knit.



Again, this shawl uses Koigu. About 9 skeins total. I used mill ends and scraps and just randomly changed colors every few rows or so. It's really pretty simple, and is shaped like a square with a slit so it stays on really nicely. I hope you like it, but if you don't bear in mind I will be out of town until the 8th!

Damn Errata.

We all make mistakes, including me.
On Geyl and Parthenope BOTH the increases are incorrectly charted. I know, I know...I said to think of the little black square as your stitch marker, which would be fine except you have to swap it with the yo increase. They should read:
slip marker, yarn over, work across row in pattern, yarn over, slip marker, knit one (this is the ONE stitch that the increases will fall on either side of). The markers mark the ONE stitch (stop me from finding a way to make a "one ring" joke, please, stop me!) and nothing else. There will only ever be the ONE stitch between the markers. The yarn overs feed into the main pattern section. Otherwise you'd have to be moving markers arond every time you added a new pattern repeat in and no one wants to do that. Yuck.

Parthenope

Parthenope (Parth-ehn-oh-pee) is the name of Florence Nightingale's sister. Little known random facts are one of my specialties. Florence and Parthenope were both unusual names for their day. There parents were like the sort of people who today we would equate with the kind of parents who would name their children Boxcar and Moonshadow. Parthenope was born while they were on their honeymoon in Naples (Parthenope being the ancient Greek name for that city). Florence was born a year later and they kept on the Italian city naming kick. While Florence was an academic child, Parthenope was artistic and, as the painting depicts, she was into the needlework. And I think it's a neat name. So here, finally are some pictures of Parthenope the shawl:

And now you can have one for your very own!

Parthenope uses 2 skeins of Shaefer Yarns "Anne" or 1120 yds of any laceweight yarn. Check out the back posts on http://knitandthecity.blogspot.com for the saga of the test knitting!

Basil

I love basil. I grow a lot of it on the island and eat pesto all summer long. I also love my cuisinart, which is actually my neighbor's cuisinart which I am more or less permanently borrowing. Here is my pesto recipe:
A bunch of basil, so that it fits comfortably in the food processor
A lot of garlic, less than a whole head but more than 5 cloves
some salt
a 2" or so cube of parmesan cheese
a couple handfuls of walnuts (yes, walnuts)
Pulse all together and drizzle olive oil into the hole thingy until it looks like pesto.
It's different every time.
There is essentially a basil shrubbery growing around our screen porch, which is where we spend a lot of time. It is also said to repel mosquitos, which are a problem on the island (which is essentially made up of warm shallow pools of water) and I am horribly allergic to mosquito bites. I get giant welts. Did you know that 20% of the people in the world get 80% of the mosquito bites? So they do love some people more than others. NPR told me so it must be true.
Basil is also a baby blanket. A really lovely one knit out of Dale Baby Ull on not tiny needles! It's done on #5 US/3.75 mm. Nice. It is done from the center out, like a square shawl might be done. It's knit in a really simple lace pattern that is mostly k3, p1 with one yo pattern row. It is bound off with a hemmed picot edge which kinda mimics those satin blanket bindings I liked as a child.
I knit this in the early summer, hence the name. And, on a crappy night like this I thought it would be nice to remember what a lovely summer we had.

Hmmm... I had more pics but it won't load them. One was really cute with my cat basking in the sun on the blanket. But, here's a pic of one I just started.

STITCHES

So here I am at Stitches East Convention and I am truly grateful to everyone who has sought out my patterns! I am almost completely sold out of Maude, Beatrix, Parthenope and Geyl. I think I underestimated the demand a bit. It really seemed like I had enough patterns but I am starting to doubt that entirely. I am trying to reserve enough for when Knitty D and the City are in our booth on Sunday (at 11:00 by the way!). I know I owe them both mad patterns!

And by the by, my love to Keith from DC who came to the booth (310-312, by the way) to buy a copy of each of my patterns! Kisses to you, my friend!

PS--I think they put drugs in the Socks that Rock, I now have a problem and was so convinced that it was somehow overrated. How wrong I was. I don't think I'm getting anything at Stitches except for a ridiculous amount of Black Bunny Fibers and Socks that Rock. The baby hoodie that Ed knit out of the Black Bunny Bulky makes me need to have even more yarn, and I really thought that when the yarn had it's own bedroom that I maybe had enough. I was horribly mistaken.

Stitches

Stitches is coming to the Baltimore Convention Center this weekend and The Pattern Factory will be there. I will have hard copies (nice pretty shiny ones) exclusively at Rosie's Yarn Cellar. Maude and Beatrix, who we know and love will be there accompanied by:

Basil, a little lacy baby blanket done in Baby Ull. It's really easy and a good first lace project if you've been contemplating something you are a little intimidated by. The chart is very simple, it's a 4 row repeat and 3 out of 4 of the rows are knit/purl rows. It also has a nice little hemmed edge reminiscent of that satiny blanket binding I liked to rub on my face as a child.


Graydon, a sport weight sock shown here in Dale's Tiur, but that would look just as smashing in Claudia Handpaint or Drops Alpaca, anything soft and smushy. Again, an easy knit/purl pattern with a 4 row repeat. I made these last year for a family member who has somewhat ineffective heating in their home in Massachusetts. I think they were an instant hit.












Also, finally out of the vault is the long awaited Parthenope. She will, perhaps after Stitches, get a post all her own. I love her. Sorry the picture is so small, I don't know why it is like that.




And the shawl that started it all, Geyl. This was the first pattern I did with the intention to publish myself. She's waited patiently for a while but it was worth the wait.
Ahh, curses, and she has to wait more. The picture won't load.

Pictures! Good ones!

Laura took beautiful pictures this weekend of Maude, Parthenope and Geyl (which no one has seen yet, unless you were at Rosies last week). They are absolutely lovely! Soon, oh yes soon, I will have copies and will show you all!

My very first errata!

We all make mistakes.
On the Maude pattern after you do the first 15 rows as written you are to continue as established doing bias stitch pattern 1 (increasing). It reads:

1. *ssk, yo*, rep from * to * to last stitch, k1
2. inc 1, k to end.
3. *ssk, yo*, rep from * to * to last 2 sts, k2
4. inc 1, k to end.

Well, that works fine for swatching but it seems that it ought to read:

1. *ssk, yo*, rep from * to * to last 2 sts, k2
2. inc 1, k to end.
3. *ssk, yo*, rep from * to * to last st, k1
4. inc 1, k to end.

Hope that helps!

Yea!

Today I received a lovely email from the first person to purchase one of my patterns. Jenny has completed Beatrix and I must say, it is awfully lovely. Way to go!
If anyone else has pics feel free to send them my way, I love to see what people are doing with my patterns!

Maude

So we are home on the island again after a hot and sweaty week in Philadelphia. I had a lovely time moving into our new house after we spent 10 hours cleaning up after the disgusting art school boys who lived there before us. But, I got to see Wendy, Christina and the gang at knitting circle and that made up for the weekend of moving hell in 110 degree heat. It is supposed to feel like 113 tonight on the Eastern Shore--and I thought that it was supposed to be cooler in the country! My house feels like a sauna and Max and I are holed up in my studio (the only room with air conditioning because of course it's more important to keep the wool and textiles at a constant temperature than to keep me at one) with a very hot dog watching Simpsons on the fold out sofa bed mattress which we have dragged in onto the floor. Pathetic. I'm not leaving this room until Fall.
Alas, it is time to add another pattern. I am trying to add a new one each week, but I am sure that I'm bound to loose a few days here and there. I started this in September of last year right after our lovely beastie dog, Quentin, had died of gastric lymphoma. I needed a pattern that was pure comfort and happy. I also needed to use my brain and stop dwelling on the sad. I love this pattern. It has a homey feeling. It is my all time favorite shawl, and I have a LOT of shawls! The pattern is a good mix of mindless knitting and concentration at the end of the row. It is knit from side to side and the edging is knit at the same time. The pattern is simple and the shape is suprising. There is not any shaping except for increasing on one side to the point of the triangle and then decreasing again to the other side, but when laid out it does a Farosese style bat-wing or seagull in flight kinda thing. Totally not on purpose! I love when that happens. It is really really great and not just 'cause I made it but 'cause it just is.