Sunday, February 9, 2020

Now it’s really been a while

So, the Blogger app gave me trouble so I put baby in a corner for, um three years
Sorry about that.  
In the meantime I’ve joined Instagram so there are are pictures of lots of things there.  I’ll post some some catch up snaps here and next post will be able my latest attempt to get organized in my knitting and design life.  Please note this are in no particular order:











Friday, February 3, 2017

Islamic tiles and a fair isle

I really want to work on something with a lot of color and I've always loved tile work.  I was thinking of designing a fair isle with these for inspiration .....  Some of these would keep the colors all blue - the first and last picture for example.  Or, if you worked from the Dome of the Rock,  you could a gold body (maybe alternate rows or do 1x1 rows of different golds to keep the body from looking flat) with an intricate yoke and edges?
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Here's some initial color picks from Knitpicks in Palette ...
TurmericSemolinaCanaryMarinaJayAutumn HeatherWhirlpoolCreamCelestialDeltaGrassCalypso Heather

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Blame it on the out of date app

Hi!
Yes, I'm not dead.  I kept trying to blog but the blogger app kept crapping out and taking my posts with it.  So, like a 3 year old I took my dollies and went home.
It's been almost a year since I moved up to Boston ahead of my family.  Wow. I can't believe it.  I miss my knitting people and great work friends in Atlanta but I have admit I love it here.  It's stressful, just insanely so, to uproot the whole family, dump your financial security, risk having your teen hate you forever.   But it's starting to come together.
Let me catch you up with some knitting.
First, I got a gift certificate to Quince and co for my coworker who was nice enough to take the Kaffe Fassett sweater I made, so once we got settled I went ahead and bought some Owl in togian and Nora Gaughan's Cable Sourcebook and designed this - please excuse the middle aged yoga pant thing:
That central cable was tough - I never got it memorized and had to follow the chart the whole sweater.  One nice thing though, since I had the book online, I just grabbed a screenshot of the cable and stuffed it into Evernote on my phone.  Here's the front...I might have gone a little too big on the cable collar?
I also did a couple linen stitch cowls for Christmas presents - those are a fun way to play with color and use up odds and end of sock yarn.  I probably have decades worth of yarn for such projects.  

And, I love Thea Coleman's work - it always fits beautifully and I always learn new things doing her patterns, so I'm trying out Plum Wine using Green Mountain Spinnery Mewesic in Atlantis.  I had a birthday gift certificate from last year so when their January sale went up, that was where it went.  I have to admit it's extremely green and that's not a color I wear a lot of these days, but it always makes such nice fabric and I really love my Dark and Stormy which was also in Mewesic.
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But I think I need to do a color project again, like, another Fassett.  My train knitting has been a pair of black socks so I'm getting a little monochromed out.  Maybe I'll make some insane socks with my odds and ends.  It's funny, I feel so attached to these bags and bags of small balls of color, but why?  I have no real plans for them, they just seem to represent unfettered future creativity .... which is how people end up on Hoarders.
I've also done a couple pairs of Owlie mitts, and some socks and mittens.  Again, fun!  Again, not taking much of a bite out of my stash.
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Oooh, and I almost forgot, I got a large undyed skein of Luminance from Knitpicks and I was thinking I'd dye it and make some kind of a scarf or shawl.  I think if I do dye it, the simpler the pattern the better.

I need to update this more regularly because it's hard to keep straight what I've posted about already.  :)
TTFN

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Mods for Ommagang

So, since I have knit this sweater twice, I may as well commit to memory what I did the second time.  

Basically, I followed the pattern directions backwards. I started with the neck and worked down.  After one row to set the cable pattern (see below for cable arrangement) and mark seams, I followed the short row directions for the back in reverse. Once that was done I worked in pattern increasing 1 st each side of the seams in purl every other row. I like using purl increases because using a knit seam line would sort of fight with the cable pattern. Working top down allowed me to adjust the body shaping as I went which I find much harder with bottom up patterns.  Basically from there I knit out the sleeves and body per directions to desires lengths and omitted ribbings. 

Cable arrangement front and back - for final body width, to arrange them at the neck to work down you'll use the center x number of sts called for by your size and work increased sts in pattern as you go:
Reverse stockinette st - twisted knit - 16 st cable - twisted knit - 4 st cable - twisted knit - 28 st cable - twisted knit - 4 st cable - twisted knit -16 st cable - twisted knit - reverse stockinette st

Cable arrangement for sleeves (both alike):
Reverse stockinette st - twisted knit - 4 st cable - twisted knit -16 st cable - twisted knit - 4 st cable - twisted knit - reverse stockinette st

You could also chart this out and mark all the increases beforehand if you less freewheeling than I am.  

Don't get me wrong, Thea's design is lovely and I adore this combination of cables but the original version just didn't work for me.  

The twice done sweater

Here are some pictures of my WIPx2, I'll post my mods later:

Friday, June 3, 2016

Armadillo launch!

Well, not really but I handed him off today - here are some pictures 

He's made out of left over Knitpicks comfy bulky and worsted/dk weight.  He's lovely and soft and snuggly and I over engineered his seams.  

Thursday, June 2, 2016

My little friend

I was working on this guy on the train this morning
Another armidillo but in very soft cotton blends. I like him. 
I'm also wearing my blue sweater I just finished. I'll try to get a picture of it on today.  

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Happy Memorial Day

We have spent our weekend so far biking along the NH sea coast and hiking Mount Monadnock.  I also finished he blue sweater and will post a picture soon but I need to block it. I've also started on an armidllio toy to use up some old knit picks cotton but those picture will have to wait too (so far it's just ears a back and half a head). So here are some pictures of hiking (we also played mini golf but that's not nearly as interesting).