morphing

I am working on my shawl and decided to have some fun and morph the diamond shaped leaves

into elongated leaves...

by working the second last row of the repeat 2 times more. I don't think I worked it correctly at the edges but I figure that blocking will take care of that. I have to look at some more shawls and figure out how much more to do. I must be close to the end by now.

-Deb

Dilemma

The alpaca is a pet no longer. It is the beginning of this scarf http://www.knitspot.com/knitting_pattern/butternut-scarf-p-124.html from knitspot. I love it because it is reversible with another pattern on the wrong side which makes wearing it, or rather arranging it around your neck, easier.

This one is also quite easy to memorize after a couple of repeats. I'm not especially good at this when knitting lace so was very careful to pick one I thought would work well for me. This is the reverse side. It works doesn't it?So now to my dilemma - what does the working knitter do for a holiday. We take the first 2 weeks of July off every year. And since knitting, designing and editing is my job and I would like to have a break from my job for a bit, what do I do with myself? Is it possible not to knit for 2 weeks? NO. So I have decided to knit patterns not connected with cabinfever. The scarf above is one and this shawl is a second one. It's a combination of the Forest Canopy shawl http://knittingasfastasican.com/forest-canopy-shoulder-shawl/ - really lovely and easy to knit, and the Evelyn Clark's book Knitting Lace Triangles http://www.evelynclarkdesigns.com/portfolio.html .
All this seems like good summer knitting. How is your summer knitting coming along?

-Deb

Commenters:

If you are looking for alpaca from http://www.gatewayfibreworks.com/ you could contact Gail through her website. I don't know if she sells online or not but I'm sure you could work something out. Right now she stocks alpaca from Peru.

I will go up to Gravenhurst and take some pictures of the mill when it is running. I would like to see the alpaca which will be coming out of their operation. They are not using a Mini-mill as far as I know. They have bought equipment and had a millwright rework some of it for alpaca.

And yes, Jed, I do need to pay more attention to getting my camera out. You won't believe it but I actually had it with me in my bag. I was probably distracted by the thought of going for ice cream after the tour. Wool and ice cream in the same building - yum.

I am an extremely bad blogger. Went to the Gateway Fibreworks shop in Gravenhurst, ON http://www.gatewayfibreworks.com/ where they are setting up an alpaca mill and didn't think to take one picture, not one! I will remedy this in the fall when Gail, the mill owner, assures us it will be up and running. She gave our knitting guild a tour and explained the process. Very, very interesting. They will have a gallery where you will be able to watch the mill working when it's all set up. I did buy some alpaca.

This is lace weight and really soft. The top skein in 100% alpaca in a silver colour and the bottom skein is alpaca and silk in a taupe/silver blend. I'm trying to see if I can work with lace weight. I think most of us have a range of yarn weights we prefer or maybe it's needle sizes we like best but for me lace weight knitting is out of my comfort zone. I've worked my way down to fingering for socks and have not finished anything I have tried at a finer weight. But I am determined not to limit myself to the heavier weights and will be making a scarf with this lovely stuff. Although it does feel awfully nice in the skein just like it is, so easy to pet sitting right there beside my chair.

I had a lovely visit from Ann, vacationing from Florida at her friend Stephanie's place in Port Sidney, ON. They both came down for the afternoon. She has made the Texture Time jacket out of the Top Down for Toddler book and it looks gorgeous. I have always liked this one and it was nice to see it knit up.
As you can see there is little knitting going on here. It's been hot and difficult to knit sans air conditioning. But I am busy lining up projects to start in August when it's a little cooler. For now it's small projects and catching up on some pattern writing.
-Deb

More patterns on Patternfish

Yes, we're back from our shows and so happy to be home. To getting caught up before going on holiday I've added all the new patterns to our web site and have added #255 Lyrical Lace, by Karen Lawrence, to the Patternfish site as well.

And the following Neck Cozies (aka "the new scarf") should be posted very shortly. These are quick, fun, projects and make excellent gifts. The cozies are shorter than regular scarves, have a button (or two) closing and fit cozily into the lapels of your jacket or coat.

This one is #087 - Ribbed Neck Cozies:

And #088 - Cabled Neck Cozy:

Another way of wearing the Cabled Neck Cozy:

And this is #089 - Fancy Neck Cozy:

We will be closed for our annual holiday from Monday, June 29th, through to Monday July 13th. Happy Canada Day (July 1) and Happy Independence Day (July 4)!

-Lynda

I'm back

I'm back and there is nothing like being in a small hotel room for 12 days to make me appreciate my small house, which is still bigger than a hotel room! We went to 2 different shows and in the middle I taught a top down class in Columbus Ohio at The Yarn Shop http://www.yarnshoponline.com/khxc/ . An enthusiastic group of knitters with their teddy bear sized sweaters.

We discussed lots of alterations you can work to make to an adult sweater fit properly - waist shaping, A-line, bust darts, how to narrow the sleeves or make them wider, etc. That was lots of fun.

Joyce from The Yarn Shop and one of her staff, Barbara, in front of her store. It's very large with so many goodies it's hard to take it all in. I wish I could have take her book section home with me. It's amazing.

I did do some knitting. This is some new sock wool we are trying to develop with a dyer. It has blips in it. And yes, we put them in on purpose.

What do you think? I thought we might call it 'ice chips'. All this time she has been trying to get the blips out of her wool dyeing and I want to put them back in. I think they add some interest but not too much. I don't want to distract the eye from a lace or textured pattern which would be added on top of the colour. I have 2 more colours to try out.

Tomorrow our Knitting Guild is travelling to a nearby town for a tour of a new alpaca mill which is not in running operation yet but will be by the end of the summer. Should be interesting.

- Deb

Darts

I ripped back and redid the last 18 rows of the yoke to the underarm.
Over the last 18 rows I worked 9 Increase rows and on the Fronts only I doubled the increase by increasing 2 sts in the same stitch. This gives me more bust material. It also causes the raglan line to dive under the arm.
You can see that the increase holes closer to the underarm are larger, that's because I worked a knit and a purl into the same stitch - increase of 2 sts instead of one.

That made each of the Fronts 1 1/2" wider to accommodate the bosom. If I measure across the 2 Fronts they measure 3" wider than the Back. I will decrease stitches at the sides as I knit down. I wouldn't be caught anywhere with an abbreviated top like this! Are you asking why I bothered? It occurred to me that if I could work the equivalent of a bust dart, I could make a top down which could fit closer to the body. And I thought a summer top should fit this way. It seems to have worked. I'll have someone else take a photo when it's longer.

Lynda and I are off to TNNA (The National NeedleArts Association show) in Columbus Ohio (http://www.tnna.org/). I'll be knitting on my top and I have one other project to get started. We are staying to work the Knitters Connection show (http://www.knittersconnection.com/) the following weekend and Shelridge Farm (http://www.shelridge.com/) is bringing me some newly dyed sock wool to try out while I'm there. I think that's enough to keep me occupied even if no one comes by our booth. Always prepared. The Internet is not always reliable but I'll try to post something during the next couple of weeks. It's going to be a long trip this time. Back around June 24.

Catch up with you then,

Deb

Frogging

It's rainy and dark and generally yucky here today so please excuse the photo quality.

I'm pretty happy with how the sleeves have turned out. They are approximately 9" across at the shoulder so I only had to work the increases on the sleeves about 8 times to get the total number of sleeve stitches I needed.

Then I kept the sleeves a constant number of stitches as I continued to increase only on the Fronts and Back. Look at how the raglan line changes, interesting. I'm going to rip it back now so that I can experiment with adding more fabric on the Front for the bust. The more I look at these photos though, the more I think I should flip the shapeline so the it's less of an angle at the top and a steeper angle closer to the underarm. Stop, stop, stop, one thing at a time. Rip, add bust fabric and then think about the raglan line. I have a plan.

-Deb

What if

Jennifer, at the knitting guild meeting on Tuesday evening, had a surprise for me.
She finished the Hurdy Gurdy out of the Baby V booklet in Lime, Electric Blue and Sky Blue. It's for Wendy's new grandbaby, who has not put in an appearance yet. The little sweater looks great! There may be a hat in the making too. This is going to be one loved baby which will be evident by the amount of knitting it will be wearing. And does Jennifer have a beautiful sweater on or what? She's a gorgeous knitter.

Hi Commenters. Welcome back Valerie, I hope your surgery is successful and you can pick up the needles again soon. And everyone else - no more fighting over my one sock! I didn't tell you all the gory details about this sock but I knit and ripped and knit and ripped that whole top section of the cable. I know, swatching sort of solves that but each time I was so sure I had the answer to my cabling question that I just went ahead. That section looks a little tired so I will have to knit 2 new socks for a pair. You realize I am totalling caving to your pressure to knit a second sock.
This is the sock under discussion.

It looks like you're all going to get another look at it in a couple of weeks.

But it's spring and it's time to play, right? So I am trying out a couple of things here. I tell knitters in my classes that when they knit top down they can make sleeves narrower if they need to, by simply stopping to work the increases on the sleeve early. If you would like the sleeve an inch narrower than the pattern calls for then stop increasing on the sleeves about 3 Increase Rounds before the pattern tells you to. Continue to increase on the Fronts and Back as per instructions. Remember if you're making this adjustment and you are figuring out how big you want your sleeve to be, that you are casting on stitches at the underarm which will become part of the sleeve - it's best to go to the Sleeve instructions and figure it out from there. OK, so what would happen if ... we went to the extreme and began with a really wide sleeve at the shoulder, like really wide, like 9" wide??I only worked the increases on the sleeves 8 times. Whoo, I couldn't believe it. I am past that point now and am only working the increases on the Fronts and the Back and working the broken rib pattern on the sleeves. I'll knit some more tonight and we'll see what's what tomorrow. Ha, ha.
-Deb

Ooops

I just uploaded some new patterns to Patternfish and forgot to let you know! Julia usually takes a few days to post new patterns but she was right on it this week. So, my apologies and here's the current status.

I uploaded a new photograph for Deb's Point to Point Shawl:

I posted my Jane Austen Shawls:

Bernice's new preemie to 18 months, 3 in one cardigans called Sam, Sadira & Katie was posted and I expect it to be available in the next day or two:

And I also loaded up Shirl the Purl's "Shirl's Mittlets" so you should be up be up in a day or two as well:

I will be uploading several more (7 more? no, must be 5 as the socks are already on Patternfish) over the coming days and week so I'll keep you posted. My deadline is to have everything posted before we leave for the TNNA show ... will I make it? Now back to updating the catalogue.

-Lynda

Double Cross

It's done. I have tripled the double cross. What does that make it? I don't think this sock is getting a mate either. Too bad. The thing about being in the 'business' is that most of the knitting we do is not for someone, not me, not Lynda, it's for display only. I usually get some things back after they have toured around for a year. I need this one test knit and I'm not the person to do that so this sock is a single. Sigh. I have other things to get on with. But here it is. It was fun.Me taking photos of my own foot. Where are all the other people who live here when I need them? At work! Yeah, right, a fine excuse!
-Deb