A Snug Shrug!

Now that I'm back from the NENA (New England Needle Work Trade Show) in Sturbridge, MA, and Deb's back from doing the Knitters Frolic in Toronto, I thought I'd better get caught up on posting Deb's new pattern!
It's called #626 The Snug Shrug and it's a super cute little shrug just perfect for the evening over a summer dress or top or to cover up in cool air conditioning. You can download it from Patternfish and we also have it available on our site as a pattern or kit. There are two versions:

The version on the left is worked with two strands of superwash yarn. One strand is a hand-dyed fingering weight yarn in light and dark blues and the 2nd strand is Sterling (63% superwash, 20% silk, 15% merino & 2% silver) in a solid black (the silver adds a lovely, subtle, sparkle!). Kits are available in blue with black as shown and a lovely, rich, brown with black. 

The version on the right in white is a soft, fluffy merino superwash boucle which is worked on a larger needle than the ball band calls for to make it very soft and light (this kit is available in winter white as shown, grape heather & blue heather).  

-Lyn

Sizing is always on my mind but I'm ready to move on. Thanks to all for your comments. There are some very interesting thoughts there if you haven't read the comments from the last couple of posts.

Today I finished writing out the Shrug pattern and sent it away to the pattern checker. Now I need to finish up the test knit I'm doing with the finished pattern  which will give me another check on it. This is a different size and a different yarn than the blue one I had posted earlier.

This is a boucle by Diamond. It's so soft, you can't imagine. I had to rip back an inch when I decided to make a change and it rips and knits up again wonderfully. I'm very close to finishing the cap sleeves and then 5" of body to do and I'm done. It's a quickie.
-Deb

Again the sizing question comes up. I only want to deal with 6 sizes so what kind of range should I use. Brenda and Liz both think younger women will want to knit this shrug and I agree. But if I go down to a 33" finished size I am chopping off quite a few larger sizes that some young women might need. So I have decided to write up two patterns. One which will go up to the large size and then I'll rework the pattern in a finer yarn which will take me down to a 29" finished size, great for some 12 year olds. The finer yarn also makes all the details of the garment smaller too which is a bonus and will make it look better for some petit women. It means there will be two patterns available for the same garment with some overlap of sizes.

In the Ample Knitters list there was a topic about magazines not catering to the larger sizes. I totally sympathize. How frustrating is it to buy a magazine where your size is not included. I think it's partly because of the limits of size range of a design but it may be the market that the magazine to geared for. Size range is complicated. What do you think?
Deb

Happy New Year. Here we are at the start of another year.

Today is my first working day and it's time to organized my work for the next month or two. I have several projects on the go.

This Little Tumbler sample from the Baby V book needs finishing because it is going to the Stitches West show in February. I think there are a couple more samples which will need knitting up so this one needs to be done quickly to clear the queue.

This shrug cardigan needs to be written up from my little squiggles on the back of an envelope (my normal pattern writing method) and then photographed. I still have to decide on the size range for it. Right now I have it starting with a finished bust of 37" and going up to 52" finished with the overlap of the front bands. There are 6 sizes in total so if I want to go a size smaller I'll have to take off the biggest size. What do you think?

I've also almost got the idea for the next book figured out. I'm still working on how best to present the charts for the multi-gauge baby sweaters. They have to be easy to follow and fairly straight forward in their application. I hope this book will encourage knitters to add in their own stitch patterns to make the sweaters their own design. It's coming along.
And I am still knitting socks. If you are too I hope you'll join us at our Sock KAL and show off your knitting. I'd love to see it. You can blog along with us by emailing me, it's all there on the KAL blog site.

It looks like the winter is going to have lots of busy knitting in it. Have you made any plans?
-Deb

I finished up the shrug with the sparkle. It's easy big needle knitting (6.5mm/US10 1/2 needle). The sparkle is great and unfortunately doesn't photograph so you'll have to imagine it. I held one strand of black and one strand of hand-dyed blue together throughout. I like the tweedy affect it makes. It can easily be worn without closing the front or a stick can be put through the front to close it up. I am going to see if I can get someone to model it soon.

I've also, in lieu of Christmas knitting (and my sympathies go out to those of you who are under pressure to get it all done), been finishing up a couple of projects that have been languishing in my knitting basket.

This was a gift which Lynda gave me about 18 months ago and because it's knitting for me it usually gets put to the back of the knitting queue. I love the shape of it and the colour shading is amazing. It's by Candice Eisner Strick.

And because I'm like the cobbler's children who have no shoes except I guess I'm really the cobbler who is shoeless, I made myself a new pair of mittens in Northern Lights wool.

In this climate it is quite often necessary to wear two pairs of mittens and the inside pair were knit so long ago I can't remember when and every year I say I'm going to make an outer pair and now there they are. My hands are going to be toasty this winter. And a good thing too because I think it's going to be a doozy.

Hope you're not lost in a snowdrift or stalled in your car or stuck in an airport somewhere but snug at home knitting over the holidays. Have a very merry,

Deb

Comments:
Thanks MommaBear, I'm liking the collar too.
Liz, I too am drinking lots of tea as I enjoy some non-work knitting.
Brenda I see you got some of your Christmas knitting in the mail already. Good going, I'm cheering for you.

I'm making progress but not too quickly. I have now turned the corner on getting my shoulder back in shape. But having to cut down on my knitting time is a bit frustrating. AARRGH.
Good new, I can try on the shrug now that I have passed the great divide. (Boy, this is a tricky business taking pictures of oneself!) And unfortunately you can't see the sparkle the silver makes but it's there.

I'm almost done the body, just a couple more rows to go and then I think it's going to get short sleeves.

So how is the Christmas knitting going for everyone? I'm not doing anything specifically for Christmas this year, or at least so far I haven't. There might be a short spell of panic knitting before the day though.
-Deb

I've added in some more stitches on the collar. In fact I added quite a few more as you can see.

And now it's moving along quite well.

I'm loving the colour that the combination of wools is making - one strand of black and one strand of hand-dyed blue. Now it just needs some more knitting time.
-Deb

Comments: Hi Brenda, this would be wonderful for the upcoming season, maybe New Year's?
Hi Deirdre, the EZ pattern I would like to do is her Top Down Epaulet Jacket. I see you are a Zimmermania member, have you by any chance done this one? And next in line would be the Long-Collared Jacket-Sweater in garter stitch. Both are Spun Out patterns.

I still have a couple of Elizabeth Zimmermann patterns I want to knit and learn from. There is so much in every pattern.
Now back to my new pattern. I'm working on a shrug. Although it's become more about the frogging than the knitting lately.

I thought I had this pretty much worked out but wanted to add some more stitches onto the Fronts so that a stick could be used as the front closure for this sweater. But now I don't think the collar is wide enough. So rip, rip and start again with more stitches. Otherwise this is going just fine.

I do like the sparkle. -Deb

What's on your needles? I have a second baby sweater with ribbed borders in sock wool. This is to follow up on the Basic pink baby sweater and the idea of a pattern which will ask you to add in some design work yourself.

I must admit to preferring heavier yarn in general. I have mastered knitting socks with sock wool but this is the first garment I have tried to knit at a sweater-type gauge with sock wool. No, that's not true, now that I think of it I have knit a hat in sock wool and a couple of shawls too. But this is my first sock wool sweater. You might guess that the switch in gauge from a sock gauge of 8 sts = 4" on 2.25mm needles to the sweater gauge of 7 sts = 4" on 3.0mm is for some reason throwing me a bit. I keep wanting to tighten it up. It's going slowly.

I also have a hat on the go for our Christmas charity knitting at the Aurora Knitting Guild. They especially need hats for men and boys so I will have one ready for next week.

And I'm starting a newer project which although it's knit with sock weight wool will be worked with 2 strands held together. And it's going to glitter.

It will be black and blue! -Deb