Preparing for Retreats

I'm getting ready for a couple of retreats coming up. Two in September and another in October. Nice to get ahead with samples and class notes.

First up is two days of knitting at Lauzon Lodge in Algoma Mills, Northern Ontario on September 23 & 24. We're going to knit Gauge Free mittens. No swatches, no checking gauge, use any yarn and any needle to knit any size. It's magic! Knitting from 9:30am to 4:30pm for two days should result in at least one pair of fully finished mittens. Lunch, and it will be delicious, is included for the $90. Accommodation is extra if you're not local. Sharon has 3 B&B rooms open and there is a motel in Blind River. September isn't too early to think about getting some winter knitting done and maybe a couple pairs of mittens for Christmas presents.

Here is one happy student with her mittens from the Eastern Needlers Retreat made.

Next is a retreat the weekend after in Sudbury, Ontario (yes it's the northern ontario tour). I'm teaching Two Triangles Make A Hat. Another Gauge Free workshop. Again no swatches, no gauge to check, use any yarn with any needles for any size. Yup, it definitely works. It's a great group of women and we are going to have fun!

Fall Knitting Retreat

September 29 to October 1, 2017

ssands.sudbury@gmail.com

Prices include meals, workshops, snacks, door prizes etc.

from Friday night till Sunday afternoon

Single Room $270 Shared double Room $240 per person

Here is one sample I've finished and another in progress.

Now for a striped version, almost done but not quite.

Perfect for all the odd bits of yarn you have around. It's done with 2 50g balls of yarn.

Next, still time to get samples done, is our Cabin Fever Retreat at the end of October 27-29. Our design theme is Small Changes. Three classes where you will knit one wrister using the same 3 colours. You can go home with a set of 3 fraternal wristers which gives you 3 different looking pairs. Cool, eh? Here are a couple of samples for my class which is based on 2x2 rib pattern with small changes which result in a different pattern every time you change colours.

Lyn and Elizabeth Fallone are working on their samples so I can show you the fraternal wristers. I like to set up classes where at the end of the weekend you go home with something you can actually wear and 3 wristers is a pretty good bit of knitting over the weekend.

So far a little ahead of the game. I did finish my 4 directions of the compass sweater but the photos are on my phone and I'm at Tim's using their internet and forgot my cable to transfer the pics. Next time.

How is your knitting going? I'm knitting outside between rain showers, it's one soggy summer.
Deb

Spiral Hat

Our knitting guild is involved in the 25,000 Tuques initiative. One hat for every refugee coming to our cold country. I can't imagine having to endure a first winter here when you come from a hot country. Let alone all the other problems they are facing. So I'm taking up Jed's suggestion and applying spiral stripes to my hats. I am diving into my stash for all those little odd balls of yarn that are left over from previous projects.

Here it is:  get 4 colours of yarn, small odd balls, 5.0mm/US8 circular needle (40cm/16" long).
Small Child sized Hat. It works for any size of hat.

With Colour 1, Cast On 72 sts with Worsted weight or Heavy Worsted weight yarn. Place Marker and join in the round.

Work a Brim in 1x1, 2x2 rib or whatever you like. I knit 4 rounds and then purled 1 round.

Body
In next round place 2 more Markers. You need to divide your work into 1 less section than you have colours. I have 4 colours so divide my hat into 3 equal sized sections with the Markers.
Next Round: K24, Place Marker, K24, Place Marker, knit to end of round.

Stripes:
Here we go. DO NOT TWIST stitches as you change colours. I finished here with light gray, now I'm picking up the Dark Gray which was waiting there for me.

I'm going to knit with the Dark Gray. The colours are not twisted around each other.
Here's my latest hat:

And at the change of colour:

Here we go:
Round 1:  With Colour 2, knit to first Marker, slip Marker, with Colour 3 knit to next Marker, slip Marker, with Colour 4 knit to end of round.

Round 2:  With Colour 1 knit to first Marker, with Colour 2 knit to next Marker, with Colour 3 knit to end of round.

Round 3:  With Colour 4 knit to first Marker, with Colour 1 knit to next Marker, with Colour 2 knit to end of round.

Round 4:  With Colour 3 knit to first Marker, with Colour 4 knit to next Marker, with Colour 1 knit to end of round.

Every time you come to a Marker the colour you need to knit next is right there waiting for you. You will not be able to see where the colour changes are made. It's a fun knitting trick!

Work the Crown in your normal way. If you don't have one, here's one:
Divide your knitting into 8 sections and place markers. For this hat, 72 sts divided by 8 is 9 sts.
Marker Round:  *K9, Place Marker; repeat from * to end of round.
Decrease Round:  *Knit to 2 sts before Marker, K2tog; repeat from * to end of round.
Next Round:  Knit.
Repeat last 2 rounds until 8 sts remain. Cut yarn and thread through 8 sts, cinch up and secure. You're done.

Enjoy,
Deb

No Swatch Needed - Any Gauge

I know, and in your heart you know, that we should all be swatching for every project but sometimes it's great to jump into a project without this first step. Choosing the right project will ensure a good outcome.

Several years ago I gave a talk at a local spinning guild and the comment was made several times that spinners are not always able to make yarn in commercial gauges. So knitting up their homespun becomes a challenge. To respond to this, I went home and wrote up The Gaugeless Hat. (Check out these patterns on our Cabin Fever site if it's easier than the links I've included.)

It starts by casting on for the I-Cord tail at the top. As you work the stripes, the hat gets bigger and bigger. When it's long enough you then check your gauge, measure the head of the wearer, do a simple multiplication to find the number of stitches needed for the body of the hat and work the number of increases needed to get the correct number of stitches for the size of hat you want. It works with any yarn. It's fun and easy and we've been sent some wild looking hats made from this pattern. Fun yarns definitely figure largely in these spectacular hats.

So a hat, knit from the top down works great.

Also bags work. They don't have to fit anyone! They are large hats with handles, aren't they? They're fun and fast to knit. You can felt them, use any weight of wool you like, put patterns in or knit them plain. I use the Felted Satchel every week. It holds my bank deposit books very nicely.

Our favourite two bags are the Sheepstring Big Bag

 and the Fairisle Tote which is fantastic size for knitting projects.

Our newest bags are in the Need An Accessory book. I'm really happy with the straps on these bags. They don't stretch, yay. This is the latest one I've knit. I have several more in my future. I think they make great gifts.

You can knit swatchless without feeling guilty!
Happy Swatchless knitting,
Deb
For printed copies of any of these patterns email us: info@cabinfever.ca

It's Here!

Yes! Teens & Tweens has arrived! Here are a couple of images from the book. I'll post all the colour pages on the gallery on the web site.

The Cabled Hoodie above, Kendra's Tunic below:

The Waffle Scarf & Mittlets, below left, Mirror Stripes Pullover, below right & bottom left, and the Tam & Zigag Scarf bottom right:

Now to update the web site!

-Lynda

photos??

I am not a photographer. In fact it takes some effort to remember to take pictures at all. And I failed again to take pictures for the blog of the Kawartha Needles and Hooks Knitting Guild on Thursday. There is no photographic evidence so you'll just have to believe me that it was fun and, I hope, interesting for them. We looked at starting hats from the top (crown) and tried 2 different ways of beginning, one knitting and one with a crochet hook. This is a great way to knit a hat if you are in a swatch-free zone. And sometimes you just need to spend some time there, at least I do.


I have discovered, on reflection, that if I am speaking or doing a workshop I do not think of pulling out my camera. Other things on my mind, obviously. If I am participating I can think of the blog and photographs.

Friday I went to Sudbury to be a participant in the Sticks, String and Stewardship knitting retreat. It's based on spirituality and charity knitting. Guest speaker Gailand MacQueen spoke on how needlework reflects your life. He has written a book on labyrinths and mazes so later we walked the labyrinth in Sudbury at sunset with candles, a cool thing to do. They collected quite a bit of yarn to be knit up for various charities and several blankets, in the middle of the table, for the Blanket Linus project.
And we did some knitting.I picked the Moebius Scarf class and knit a small neck warmer for myself. I understand that winter is coming, again!Here it is on a vase, since I couldn't take a photo of it on my neck. It is so dark inside, raining like crazy today.Terry-Lynne brought a sock knitting machine, circa 194..., which she was given and has working really well, it's amazing.(It's painted red inside.) She can churn out tube socks with ribbed tops. The heel seems to be the sticking point. It's the same for hand knitters and the sock knitting machine - that blasted heel! And speaking of amazing things you can learn about, we started the weekend with the cutting of Sharon's knitting cake.AMAZING and delicious too!

-Deb

Wow!! Vogue Knitting ....

Yes! Our new hat booklet, "Need A Hat?" has been reviewed in the Fall 2009 issue just out. WooHooo! See page 20 "Made in Canada" by Lee Ann Balazuc. Pretty exciting stuff.

- Lynda

I'm Back

Sort of. Physically I'm here and glad to be back home, but mentally I am still trying to catch up to myself. It actually helped today that there were 4 questions about patterns which I could easily answer. Kinda gets me back in there. I was also a bad blogger because I didn't think to take my camera out once, not once. But I have put photos of the shows on here before and they all mostly look the same: 10' booth, samples up on the walls, books piled up on a table, binder of all our patterns in the centre for store owners to flip through. That part doesn't change much, except they should be newer samples of course.

The good news is that the store owners thought our new Need A Hat? booklet was great. Hoorah! One store owner thought she would start a hat club at her store in September and get those Christmas gift hats going, along with the cold weather hats, we were in New England after all.

I did get some knitting done

but not as much as I would have liked because this is not car knitting for the motion-sick prone person. And I was given some fine fingering to try so of course I wound up the skein immediately and started the only shawl pattern I have memorized.

I think it will bloom slightly when washed so I will be working on this for a bit. I have knit 3 of these already and have no idea where it came from but it's likely it's an Evelyn Clark design because I really like her stuff and find them really easy to store in my brain.

Short and sweet today but awfully glad to be home.

-Deb

Need A Hat?

Yes, it's here! Hot Off the Press!!

After a fair bit of technical hair-pulling the booklets arrived Thursday afternoon and Sophy and I immediately packed them up and shipped them to Sturbridge, MA, for me to sell at the trade show next week (and hopefully for Deb to show and sell when she does her classes at Reba's store The Fiber Loft in Harvard, MA). On Friday we sent off our first store shipment to Diane of Georgetown Knitting & Crafts. Karen, of SheepStrings in Dwight ON, stopped to pick up copies to take to the Knitters Frolic Show in Toronto and for Miko and Jennifer at The Purple Purl.

As an interesting aside, Karen stopped by my house on the way home from doing the show (mainly to get fed I think) and told me that people had trouble believing that they could use ANY yarn for ANY hat in the booklet as much as Karen assured them they could (Karen is one of the designers in the book, see page 45, hat #10 so she knew this was true, lol). They bought the booklet on faith ... and hope. I think they'll be pleased.

I've put more detail and bigger pictures on the Cabin Fever web site if you want to go have a look!

-Lynda

Just wanted to update with an email comment from Diane:

Hi Lynda and Debbie,
Seeing I am the first store to receive your new hat book - I will be the first to comment - What a great book!!! I think there is a hat there for everyone!! Good job!! I bet you do not ever want to knit another hat for a long time!!
Diane
Diane & Bob CrawfordGeorgetown Yarn & Crafts

170 Guelph St.Georgetown,

ON L7G 4A7Phone: 905-877-1521

Fax: 905-877-3614

knitting@cogeco.ca

http://www.canknit.com/members/dcrawford.html

Last Hat

It's starting to come together. I have finished all the hats. This is the last one.We are going to photograph the hats on their own so you can see the hats clearly. Our thinking is that the sizes go from Newborn to Large Adult so putting a person in them might lead someone to think a particular hat is only for a child or only for an adult. Then we are going to show families with hats on so you can see the range possible.

I went to a friend's house yesterday to try to ease some of my overused muscles in her hot tub. It was dark and the stars were out, it was beautiful. Still rather sore today though. Did I mention I knit 7 hats over the weekend? No photos, too busy stitchin'. Now the fun begins because it actually starts to look like a booklet. Yes!

-Deb

Here they come

I finished 2 more hats over the weekend. I haven't counted them but that makes quite a few now.Just counted - 21 hats. One large pile ready to hand over to Lynda. This is what I have been waiting for, the pass off in this relay we do to publish a booklet. I get to give all these hats to Lynda and she works with the photographer and sets up the layout of the booklet. Then it all comes back to me for editing but I get a couple of weeks rest. It's best to come back to it with new eyes. I still have about 5 hats to finish up but I feel like the back is broken on this project. One more week I think. I was a little off on my scheduling as usual (I never actually counted how many hats I had to finish, too daunting). But I can knit about one and a half hats a day if I really go for it. Where are those video tapes and audio books I borrowed from the library? Time to settle in.
-Deb
P.S. The shawl from the last post was for my mom and she was very pleased with it. Did I tell you that I made it as a Christmas present (ah, last year)? A little late for the party as usual. I have to admit I was a little scared of the blocking but it went magnificently and it made the shawl hang beautifully.

structure

It is totally me who needs the structure to get some idea of this booklet. I could throw all the hats up in the air and set up the order as they randomly fall and it would work as a book. But I need some sort of order, it makes me happy to see progress through the book. I looked at starting from the easiest to the more complicated but it didn't make as much sense to me as grouping them in sections did.

Starting on the far right, from bottom to top is the traditional section made up of a pillbox, a toque and a ribbed watch cap. Next are the 5 hats in the textured section, progressing on to the 5 multi-coloured hats and the final 2 are the flap caps. There will be changes but this definitely gives me something to get started with. I can also emphasize that the patterns are interchangeable. The fairisle hat could be knit with the coloured dots pattern and the cabled hat could be worked in the basketweave pattern (they have different brims and crowns).

We are not even close to being finished. I no longer wonder why books take 2 years for big publishers to release. This 40 page booklet is going to take a full 6 months from the initial idea to publication. We started in November and have to be finished by the end of April. But now I have a plan!

-Deb

squiggle

It's up on Patternfish.com, the Squiggle Sock pattern.

http://www.patternfish.com/patterns/2401

I know, I know, it takes us a while but there it is, finally. Do my toes look blue because it was really cold that day standing outside on the porch steps. Maybe models have a tougher life than it looks.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I have been, you guessed it, still knitting hats. I'm up to the Flap Caps now - there will be two of them. These are more complicated patterns because of the need to situate the flaps but they knit up very well and fit great. Ya gotta love the warm flaps.I found that the green didn't work so well here. Not enough definition between the green and the blue. So I substituted white instead. Which lifts the whole colourway and gives the hat a lighter look somehow. This is the very biggest size - 25" around, yikes it's big. But my son could wear this with his winter (big) hair.

Now I am into the colourwork hats. There are 3 more to do and they will be coming up next week because I have set myself a deadline of the end of the month to have everything edited and test knit. We'll see if I make it.

-Deb

Commenters:

Hey, Jed, I don't think you were sitting by me at the back of the class in Relations and Functions math class. That's where all the action was.

Samm, the orange sweater is going nowhere at present. Probably headed for frogging. I don't think you want that one. I'm starting over in blue this time with lots of changes and we'll see how far I get this time.

Rain, rain go away.

It has been raining for the last 2 days. I keep checking the calendar, it's still February right? Unfortunately it's been raining outside and inside too. One part of the roof has apparently become a sieve so many buckets are in use. The pitter patter does give one an uneasy feeling even though I know it's just water. But I knit through it and I have one more hat done.Test knit in Shelridge Farm's W4 (http://www.shelridge.com/) and knit in a boy' style. The crown is cool.And here is the original hat knit for Mary's brand new grandchild. Aah. This one has a rolled brim which will be optional but lovely for babies and girls.

-Deb

No snowballs here but more in the forecast.

Check

Made some progress on the Hat booklet. Mary, my pattern checker and I have now worked out a system which I am very happy with. I mail her hardcopies of the patterns I want her to look at. She marks them all up with her corrections and then we arrange for a phone call and go over them. This gives me the opportunity to ask her opinion on certain aspects of the work and it also gives me a chance to talk out loud about anything I'm not sure of. I can usually decide then on what I'm going to do.

We discussed whether the brims of the hats should be done with a size smaller needle. Quite often this is done on hats so that the brim hugs the head tightly which is good. But ... it involves another circular needle or set of double points which is another investment for a newish knitter. And hats are quite often a project that a new knitter will tackle. So I decided to go without the smaller needle.

In some of the patterns there is a spot where it might say "work 3 garter stitch ridges". All the hats in this booklet are written so that any yarn can be used. So we looked at these patterns and thought about what it would look like if you knit 6 rounds in sock yarn or 6 rounds in chunky yarn. What if you knit 6 rounds on a Newborn hat or a Large Adult hat? How would this affect the look of the hat? Sometimes it did and we changed it to x number of inches measurement, and sometimes it didn't and we left it alone.
We will have an abbreviation section at the front of the booklet but we discussed which abbreviations should go with each of the patterns so that anything unusual is there when you need it. We decided that any pattern with an I-Cord needs the explanation there at hand.

The question I'm still pondering is whether to put the M1 increase abbreviation on the patterns which use it. I have had several calls lately where knitters have used the Kf/b increase (knit into front and back of the same stitch) in the place of the M1 and this throws your stitch count out if it's set up for the M1. Maybe it's not as well known as I had thought.

Quite a good conversation and I will have another list of questions to discuss after the next set of patterns go off to Mary. That's half of the patterns checked. Hooray. I have some more editing to do next week and more test knitting of hats. No more progress on the sock yet but I'll be knitting on it tomorrow.
-Deb

P.S. Commenters: And yes Samm, I am really glad it's not the other way around (see comments on last post).

I think that Valerie, from the comments, is hooked folks. Unless she runs into a real roadblock we have another sock knitter. Yes! It's all part of our plan for knitters to take over the world. Hee, hee.

MommaBear, I am trying to decide which of these samples (with the weird increases) to make into a garment. Or which to do first maybe because I would love to try all of them. Time, where does it go?