Westward from Stephen West

I have been distracted away from my UFOs. Work towards finishing some garments deserves a reward.
I've labelled this year, a year of learning. I actually started late last fall. This has included knitting other designer's patterns if I see something really interesting that I would like to try. I am really interested in shawlettes or scarves to wrap around my neck. Not the big ones which would swallow me whole but the smaller ones I can roll up and keep in my purse.

I find it works best to learn by doing so I signed up for the Shawlscapes class by Stephen West which I really enjoyed. This class is based on his older shawls, which are still very popular as they should be, but I see from Ravelry that he has definitely moved on from this material into brioche and other things. I am working on my own rendition of a shawl according to his rules. He begins in a fairly standard manner with a garter stitch tab and increases at the edges and centre.

Then he shifts to, what I am calling a second tier with added increases. He has several ways of proceeding at this point and it's all great fun. It means before you have a chance to get really bored and wondering how long this flippin' shawl is going to take, you get to shift into something else. Fun, fun, fun.

 Since I am really fond of reversible scarves, so much less twiddling when you get dressed, I chose a  1x1 rib based pattern that looks different when it's knit across the side or purled.This side of the shawl is the rib where it's ribbed on one side and purled on the other.

 This side of the shawl is the same 1x1 rib which is knit across on the return row.

I've also worked it out so that the RS and WS rows are exactly the same. I loved working out this little knitting nerdy idea.
Stay tuned I've started a 3rd Tier with two more wings on the sides just to see what would happen.
-Deb
T_a, thanks for the suggestion for a tutorial on Cables from the Top Down. I'm working on it.

Pie Are Square Shawl

I'm trying to work on a new style of knitting for me - armpit knitting. The theory is that holding one needle stationary means you can knit faster. Faster is not my goal although it would be a great by-product. The exercise for me is to find a style of knitting that's as far from continental knitting as I can find. I think this is it. I need to stop the repetitive action of knitting so many hours in one knitting style.

courtesy of mqdefault.jpg

Now to find a pattern that makes it easy to knit in a new style but produce something interesting. I checked everywhere I could to find something that grabbed my attention. I didn't want to have any stitches that would discourage me, that means no decreases allowed since at the beginning they are a little difficult to work with a needle stuck in my armpit.

Elizabeth Zimmermann to the rescue. I'm knitting The Pie Are Square Shawl out of the Knitting Around book which is one of my favs. This shawl is perfect, all garter stitch worked back and forth, except for some Yarn Overs which are easy to work. Yay.

I'm knitting with some Malabrigo lace weight which will probably produce a kerchief size Pie Shawl. Hopefully all this practice will result in some increase in speed. Fingers crossed, not while I'm knitting though.
- Deb

Fingering to Chunky weight Scarf

After finishing the Chevron Mesh Scarf (last post) I had wool left over so decided to put my knitting needles where my mouth is (not literally) and knit a scarf design in chunky weight wool. I mentioned in the Cabin Fever Newsletter that I was fascinated by these garments, chunky weight neck shawls.
So now I've made one.

I found knitting lace in chunky weight wool very, very rewarding. It's fast and big and the stitch patterns are impressive when so large. I would have made it one row of motifs bigger but ran out of wool (I was using up the end of the ball). It was a really interesting experiment to take a fingering weight scarf and knit it in chunky weight wool.

I used  Mary's Scarf/Shawl by Mary K. Hobbs, done originally in fingering weight wool. This pattern lends itself to this experiment because it begins at the bottom point. You can stop knitting it at any point for the finished size you want, perfect.

 

And now here it is in chunky weight Ecological Wool by Cascade on 9mm/U.S.13 needle.

The motifs in the pattern are amazing.

 

This is lace knitting with patterning on both sides. There are those tricky little devils "purl through the back loop" stitches which I must say are much easier to work in chunky weight wool. I think it could also be great in DK or worsted weight on big needles, very wearable indeed as a neck scarf or shawl.

Need a quick and very interesting knit? Have you made any of these chunky neck scarves? What did you think of them.
-Deb

Are there shawl people and scarf people? I must admit, to date, I am not a scarf person. But I do wear shawls. I love to knit scarves and I have several but never think to put them on. I also don't wear jewelry. Is there a connection between jewelry wearing and scarf wearing?

Here's my Judy wearing the crescent scarf.

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What do you think? I'm thinking it's still a little too wide for a scarf, especially at the shoulder when it's flung over. Also went a little overboard on the length. Wanted to add 3 more points for length and realized that 3 wasn't going to work so went to 4 extra points and could have done with only 2 extra points. Am I getting closer?
Deb

 

It's 2013. So let's begin with a new shawl pattern. http://www.patternfish.com/patterns/13368

It's done with 2 shades of the same colour of fingering yarn. Lyn put 2 different yarns in the same dye bath and each yarn took up the dye differently. One is darker than the other.

Which gives it a striped affect.

When using 2 colours you have to twist the yarns somewhere when changing colours. The usual place is at one edge. Since this shawl begins at the centre of the top edge I thought that carrying the yarn down one side might lead to that edge being tighter or looser. So I changed colours down the centre, twisting the yarns on the wrong side. 

This is the wrong side view. It worked really well.

It's beginning, the new book. This year's project will be Accessories. I'm starting with a crescent shawl just because they have such an intriguing construction. This one is done with Saucon Fingering, a cotton/acrylic blend. I'm just blocking it out now.

Can't wait to see if it has worked out.
Deb

I hope today is sunny because I need some good photos of the vests I finished and the 2-colour shawl.
The patterns have gone to my tech editor and should be back by the end of the week and up on patternfish next week. Yay. Time to move on to something new.

Lyn's going off to the Rheinbeck Sheep and Wool show this week. She'll be in the Shelridge Farm booth. Any other lucky people making the trip?
-Deb

We're going to the Fair

It is the season for Fall Fairs. And although going on kiddie rides and eating cotton candy is fun we're passing all that up to go to the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters Fair. Hoorah. It's going to be fun and busy and we'll get to see lots of friends there too.

Right now I am taking a blogging break before I do the final check on 2 new patterns we'll have ready for Saturday at the Fair.

I've done the Morgan's cardigan out of the Teens and Tweens book in adult sizes. The pattern now goes up to a 50" bust. Yay. I was tempted to call this pattern 'Me too' since so many knitters who have the teens book also wanted this for themselves. Now you can.

And Sophy (our cabinfever shipping goddess) designed a beautiful shawl which I am almost finished knitting in blue. I hope to have it done for Saturday but it will be close. The pattern is ready though. This is a combination of triangles and rectangles and really interesting to knit up.

It might look complicated but it's not. You begin at the centre neck and work 2 sets of Chart A just like a regular triangle shawl. Then, this is the interesting part, you begin Chart A again at the beginning, centre and end of the row and work Chart B in between them. This changes the shape altogether. Chart C is easy because it just extends Chart A so the triangle is bigger here. You can see that triangle in the centre of the shawl. And then you work the border (D). I am right at the last bit of Chart C & Chart B sections. Next the Border and I'm home-free.

It sits beautifully on your shoulders because of the shape. Is this cool or what. I need to get back to work on my blue one. Hope to see you at the Fair.

-Deb

Cat Bed?

I've been trying to work on a stole .... but Emmy thinks it's her new cat bed. I can't put it down for a second without her climbing right onto it for a snooze. Something about the combination of Silk & Silver, fine mohair and a merino/angora blend? This cat has good taste!

The blue item in the front is a new lace shawl from Sophy which I'm test knitting in our Silk & Silver which I've dyed in a combination of purple, blue and turquoise. 

- Lynda

What a fun class we had, 3 Saturdays making socks and mittlets, 2 at the same time. These classes are run by the Simcoe County Arts and Crafts Association  http://www.simcoecrafts.ca/quilting-rughooking-stainedglass-knitting-weaving-spinning.html who's mandate it is to support the heritage crafts. The first class was all about the cast on and it's tricky. I put everyone in training (the Olympics are just over afterall) starting with one sock and then graduating to two socks on the two circular needles. Everyone got it and now they have one pair of mittlets finished, 2 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of mittlets well on their way. Next year I think we'll tackle lace knitting with charts.

And I learned something this weekend. Some projects need a certain atmosphere to progress. My shawl was a little stalled or at least progress was slow. But under the right conditions ...

... it took off. Pride and Prejudice viewing did the trick and I'm now on the second last row! Although there was a shocking lack of knitted shawls. This movie gets a '0 knit' rating I'm afraid. I hope that my knitting a shawl while I watched helped.

-Deb

Hello from Santa Clara

Karen and I are having a ball here in California at the Stitches West show. This is one busy, busy show! Our hand-dyed Silk & Silver yarn and the lace shawls have been a big hit (have to take down the display today as there's none left). It's been great fun visiting with our customers who come back year after year and some brought their completed projects:

Sandy Paulson brought in this gorgeous example of the work she is doing from The Buttons Cardigan. She's added a beautiful ruffle to the edges and the colour accents really set it all off. I gather this is one of many, many she's done.

Robin Gordon brought in two of the Side to Side shawls that she's completed with a butter soft alpaca yarn (Misti I think the name was). While she was showing me the shawls, people could not resist coming up and stroking the back of our random model (that's Robin on the right and I don't know the name of the model as she just came to help with the photo and put the shawl on). The pattern really shows off the yarn and Robin says it's "so comfortable to wear".

And check out this handsome guy! He bought one of our T-Shirt's and was proudly wearing it yesterday! In fact we had two men running around the show with them on. They thought they were pretty funny. 

You'll be wondering about this next shot: 

Yes, those are oranges : )    Gwen Bortner, who is a teacher at the show, and a friend of us Canadians, brings us fresh (and I mean picked the day before) oranges from the tree in her back yard. We (Don & Buffy, Lana & Diane, Jill & Ron and Karen & I) devoured them. They are delicious and smell so good. It's our annual treat for sure.

OK, time to get off to the show.

-Lyn

Lace Shawls

Thought I'd drop in a photograph of the shawls I'll be taking to Stitches West in 11 days. (Wow! That show snuck up fast!) I've really enjoyed knitting these shawls and it's so interesting to see the different effects with different yarns and colours.

The shawl on the right is knit in our Cabin Fever Silk & Silver fingering weight (superwash merino/silk/sterling silver) which I dyed in shades of black/blue and hints of purple. You can't see it in the photograph, but the silver gives it a lovely, subtle, glitter. Very pleased with that. The pattern is leaves surrounded with ripples and the border has little clear beads with silver in their centre.

The shawl in the middle was the first one I did and it's in the Fibre Isle bison light sock weight yarn in it's natural colour. Very light and delicate and lovely to work with. The pattern is leaves and medallions and the beads on the border are clear glass.

The shawl on the left, which I just completed, is knit in Shelridge Farm's superwash merino in DK weight. The colour is "celery" but it said leaves to me! I'm taking these to the show as kits as we stock or dye all these yarns.

All of the shawls are knit from the top-down beginning at the garter stitch centre. And all the shawls are done using the "Knitting Lace Triangles" by Evelyn A. Clark. I am a big fan of hers! 

I've been writing up, and test knitting, the accessories for the teen book over the last few days so knitting up the samples, in hopefully their final format, is my plan for the long weekend while watching the Olympics. First off is the scarf to match Deb's Waffle Jacket. The mittlet looks lovely and I think the scarf will be terrific.

- Lyn

Getting Ready for Stitches West

February is creeping ever closer and I'm trying to get ready for the Stitches West show. Karen, from SheepStrings Yarn Art Studio and I are again sharing a booth. We have to ship our goods early in February so time is getting short! I'm madly knitting away on some samples and doing a bit of shopping. I like to have some new items at each show, either our own or some cool things I've seen. So this year I'll have our new patterns (Last Minute Baby and Delicious Diamonds), some kits of the the terrific JJ Jacket and new Beaded Mittlets plus some new yarn I've dyed and am knitting the shawl right now, pictures to come. And I'll also have some new pretties, see below:

Adrianne, who does these, works with pewter and these are shaped like spools of yarn. Very beautiful and have matching earrings as well (I don't have quite the swan neck to wear the earrings myself, but am having trouble picking out only one of the necklaces to wear).

The "dog tags" are very funky.

And these ae sweater sticks/shawl pins. The top ones are coloured, wooden beads, pretty, simple and light. The stick on the right is absolutely stunning on a heavier stole or sweater that needs a closure. Very celtic looking as is the round pin below.

If anyone is going to the show and wants me to bring anything in particular - please let me know soon! 

-Lyn

I'm in LOVE ...

Oh, oh, oh ... I'm so pleased. I've been working away at this shawl, two steps forward and four steps back ... or at least that's what it felt like at times. I could so easily keep the leaf pattern in my head but the medallion pattern, which I really like, not so much. And when I get more than 300 stitches on my needles ... well that's a long rip out when you notice a mistake that you can't fix.

So here it is off the needles:

And here it is, pinned on the spare bed (I had to stand on

the dresser to take this shot) but ... oh, I am SO pleased, it is sooo beautiful : )

Just for fun, I timed the knitting of the last row of the medallion pattern. Turns out it was an HOUR!! Wow. Mind you, that included working it, counting it twice, grumble, grumble, not the same numbers on each side, figuring out what the mistake was, fixing the mistake, counting 3 more times, each in a different way, just to be sure (can you tell I was getting very fixated by this point of the shawl?).

I decided then that it was time to do the transition row for the edging and a good thing I did. I actually skimped on the edge and skipped 2 rows (which I don't think you can really notice) as I was getting really worried about getting it finished with the yarn I had left. The last few rows really used up a lot of yarn. I ended the edging with 3 beads on each scalloped edge and I had a tiny butterfly worth of yarn left. Whew, that was close. I found myself knitting faster and faster as I was coming to the end. Like if I went faster I could get to the end before I ran out? I really wanted to get it done with 100g of the yarn - mainly because that's what I had. That's serious motivation.

Not sure you can actually see the beads in the photograph. I used clear glass beads as I didn't want them to draw too much attention but still have a subtle effect.

The "off the needle" size was 36" x 18" and the "wet, pinned out" size was 64" x 24". I'll be interested to see what the size is, once I take out the pins.

I feel an amazing sense of achievement as this is my first lace weight, lace shawl. I actually feel quite excited and want to immediately cast on for my next one. Mmmmm, I want to make one in a heavier weight yarn ... Buffy gave me some in DK that is a lovely, creamy, soft green ...

Tomorrow, some more dyeing.

- Lyn

PS - Here's the shawl all nicely blocked and done. The size hasn't changed, so I assume that it would be possible to block it a bit larger but I'm pretty pleased (OK, really, really, pleased) with how it looks now.

Stretch

I got it blocked after washing the dishes and vacuuming the floor which was all worth it. It measured 18" long down the centre back and 18" from the centre to the outside point before I soaked it. In it's blocked state it now measures 25" long down the centre back and 26" wide from centre to outside point or 52" across the neck edge in total. Wow. I didn't expect to get that much extra.

I thought that the elongated leaves would show better then they do. Even at an angle they are not as noticeable as I had hoped.
But they do break up the diagonal line of the diamond leaves. It may be more effective when off the blocking wires.
I started a new sweater for myself. It's my party and I'll knit what I want to . . . it's my holidays that is. I'm testing out a new yarn we have been given. Nothing like doing a very large swatch to wash up.
It's a pullover top down and if it turns out I'll write it up. Does the neck look a little big?
It has ribbed sleeves which I think will look good. It's Mariposa Folk Festival weekend here and this is my project to take with me. Nice easy knitting as I listen to live music sitting in my lawn chair under the trees.

Gotta run, I'll do a catch up next week.

-Deb

Slowly

I don't have this lace weight figured out at all. Every time I pick it up it's a struggle for the first several rows, then I seem to settle down for a bit but not for too long before the unease sets in again. I am using metal needles and I wonder if they are too slippery?It is getting a little longer, though slowly. And my shawl is done, yay. I don't have any problem with the fingering weight most of the time and this went fairly quickly for me. And now that it's off the needles I can see where I elongated the leaves. I couldn't see that while I was knitting it. Now I can't wait to block it. Oops there is a counter full of dishes to wash before I can get near the sink to soak it. And then I suppose I should vacuum the living room floor before I have to get down on my hands and knees to block the shawl out. That's a better reason than most for getting it done I guess.

-Deb

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.