Pattern roundup: fingerless mitts – Part I

It feels like fall here all of a sudden, and I’m in the mood for warm-hands projects. Fingerless mitts are the perfect thing for people with (1) attention spans too short to finish sweaters or even a second sock (knitting a pair of mitts is like knitting one sock) and (2) an addiction to picking up “just one ball” of whatever yarn looks irresistible at the moment. They’re a great way to try a new-to-you knitting technique or an expensive luxury yarn, and easy to carry with you wherever you like to knit. They’re perfect for cold morning walks or typing in a chilly office – and they make great gifts for anyone and everyone.

It all started with Fetching, published in Knitty in 2006. More than 15,000 pairs have been knitted and uploaded as Ravelry projects. Now there are thousands of fingerless mitt patterns on Ravelry. More than 1400 of them are free (click here to see them all and do your own browsing – not all my picks are free, though). I’m breaking up this roundup of my favorites into four posts. Today, my picks for mitts with texture. (Photos are Ravelry screen shots – live links below each picture.)
First row: Seeta, Zephyr, and Goya. Second row: River Road, Get a Grip, and Mm-m-malabrigo Mitts.
First row: Green Thumb, Very Terhi, Smockies. Second row: Glorious Cabled Mitts, Zigzag Mitts, Hands of Blue.

Left column: Aegean Mitts, Kyla, Twist Mitts. Right column: Sideways Gansey Style Mitts (worked flat), Larus + Ardea (featuring twined knitting), Peridot.

And for good measure, Entwined, Half Mitts with Viking-inspired Cables, and Dual Cable Fingerless Gloves.
Hooked? For fellowship and inspiration, go join the Fingerless Glove Fanatics on Ravelry. Coming Tuesday: mitts in color.

Review: Twist & Knit

Twist & Knit, by Miriam Felton
Cooperative Press, 2010 (96 pages)
ISBN 978-0-979-20173-8
$20.00 US
Buy from mimknits.com    Ravelry link

Miriam Felton is a pioneer of independent knit design. She was one of the first to self-publish her patterns and sell them direct to knitters, way back in the days B.R. (Before Ravelry). Her lace shawls have been knitted by thousands; the Icarus shawl appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits, and she’s published designs in Knitty, Twist Collective, and several books as well. Her new printed pattern collection, Twist & Knit, is self-published in the same pioneering spirit.

Somewhere between a pattern brochure and a full-scale book, Twist & Knit presents 12 accessory patterns. There are seven of the shawls and stoles Miriam is most known for, plus two lace scarves, one sock design, a cowl and a pair of fingerless mitts. Just one design has been published previously (the Cleite shawl, in Twist Collective’s debut issue). There’s an emphasis on the elegant lacework Miriam is so good at, but there’s also some intricate texture patterning.

Here’s the twist that makes this collection unusual: all the patterns are designed specifically so you can use exactly as much yarn as you happen to have. This book is great for hand spinners and collectors of luxury and/or hand-dyed yarns - small pattern repeats, simple shapes, and flexible gauge possibilities mean you can easily upsize or downsize, shorten or lengthen to make the most of your yarn. Tips are included for figuring out as you go how much yarn you’re using and how much you have left. Most of these adaptable designs are shown in two versions, at different gauges and with different yarns (one commercial, one handspun).

If you were to knit all the shawls in the book, you’d get a good education in the variety of possible ways to shape a shawl. Four are triangular, but shaped in three different ways. Cleite and the Comfy shawl are worked from the center neck outward and downward. Motte is knitted sideways, and Vinca begins with a center-out square and adds wings knitted out from two sides. Lune (at left) is a graceful crescent shape with four swirling increase lines.

The lace stoles and scarves are straightforward oblongs worked from end to end. The Transverse scarf is ultra-simple; Tudor Stole and Dropleaf Wrap have intricate but not difficult lace patterning. The Colonnade scarf begins and ends with a deep sideways border.

The remaining patterns all feature texture more than lace. The Windward cowl, with pretty cable and eyelet patterning, is just the thing for a skein of Bugga! I have in stash; I could get two of them from it. Mmm, cashmere around the neck. Some angora/merino fiber that needs to be spun up would also be lovely for this design. The toe-up Porifera socks are mostly 2 x 2 ribbing, with a band of lozenge lacework around the cuff and, for a bit of whimsy, on the toe. The pattern is written for four different stitch counts – from 32 to 96 – so you can make any size you want at almost any gauge. Last but not least, the Gable mitts feature delicate twisted-stitch patterning and an unusual fingers-to-cuff construction.

Twist & Knit will keep experienced knitters happy, but I think it’s a great collection for newer knitters as well because of the focus on relatively small projects with simple construction, but  interesting stitch patterns and details. About 30 pages of useful information at the front of the book cover chart reading and blocking, and give in-depth photo tutorials for all special techniques used in the patterns. There’s also a handy wraps-per-inch chart that you can compare your yarn to; the patterns give wpi for each yarn used. Sources are listed for all the yarns and fibers as well.

The patterns themselves are well written and well laid out. Each begins with a short description of the construction – a wonderful feature – and notes on how to adapt the pattern for different gauges or yarn amounts. Materials, gauge, and finished size are listed in a sidebar so it’s easy to spot them at a glance. Most knitting books and magazines don’t allow enough space for this kind of layout, but it’s much easier on the reader.

Production values are quite professional.  Miriam  did the book design and all the photography herself – this must have been a huge, complicated project. Text and charts are clear and easy to read; photos are attractive and show the designs well, for the most part. There are no written instructions for the lace stitch patterns; you will need to work from the charts. There are also no schematics, but they’re not needed for these patterns.

You can order the book from mimknits.com for $20; with shipping, you will have paid just over $2.00 per pattern, all told – a good value. For an extra $2.00, you’ll get PDFs of all the patterns except Cleite. If you don’t want all the patterns and won’t miss the supplementary technique material, all designs (except Cleite) are available on Ravelry as individual PDF downloads or in three PDF collections. Collection #1 has the Lune, Vinca, Comfy, and Motte shawls. #2 has the four rectangular lace stoles and scarves. #3 gets you the socks, cowl, and mitts. You can buy the book at your LYS too (or have them order it for you).

Final note: there are minor errata for printed books shipped before August 4 – details here and printable PDF here. If you order the book directly from Miriam after reading this, errata will not be an issue.

Happy 100th, EZ

Today would have been Elizabeth Zimmermann’s 100th birthday. I think she’d be pleased at the many thoughtful expressions of thanks directed her way. She’d be glad that her endlessly inventive designs continue to provide challenges and inspiration to new generations of knitters. As for being a trending topic on Twitter – well, that might be a little hard to explain to her!

A few months ago when I launched our EZ & Meg pattern index, I wrote here about what a pleasure it was to work on. I read through every EZ book and pattern. Writing pattern summaries for some of her brain-teaser designs (surprise jacket, for instance) was challenging indeed. Her wry comments made me laugh, her wise ones made me nod in agreement. It would be entertaining to give you a selection of funny quotes here, but she wasn’t just funny. Her Digressions contain much beautiful and thought-provoking writing about the world she lived in. This, for instance, from Knitting Around:

“And finally, what about our new country America? America is not better, but different…Damn these people, whose parents went through untold agonies to come to the New World away from the prejudice and self-importance of the old. They are now just as self-important themselves…Of course it’s a splendid country; of course I love it dearly, but there are other countries no less splendid, or shall we say no less faulty, and their inhabitants love them dearly too. And that is to the credit of all concerned, until it comes to the point of thinking that there can only be one splendid country, namely one's own…”

Thanks, Elizabeth! May we all knit on with your curiosity, intrepidity, and joie de vivre as a model.

I leave you with a peek at some of the 31,000+ EZ-designed projects you’ll find on Ravelry. Click here to browse them in all their glory!

Something new

Announcing…Knitfinder news & notes, a new source for short, frequent knitting news and tidbits posted several times a day (usually). You’ll find patterns and tutorials that catch my eye, new books and magazines, a good sale now and then, links to interesting interviews, blog posts, knitting in the news or on the street, and so on. You can subscribe if you like, and your comments and suggestions are welcome. There’s a link in this blog’s sidebar, and a news/notes button on the menu bar over at Knitfinder as well.

If you’re a fan of Knitfinder on Facebook this will look familiar – same content will appear both places. Here’s a screenshot:

Don’t worry - this blog isn’t going anywhere; it will still be the place for longer, more thoughtful posts.

In other Knitfinder news – there’s a new demo of the full subscriber version of our Starmore pattern index. I’ve been adding detail to it, including lists of colors required for Fair Isle designs. Check it out!

Nevada sagebrush

I’ve written before about my friend Janine, the Feral Knitter and colorwork genius. I took my knitting down to her open house yesterday evening for a visit. Besides a happy hour or two of knitting and conversation, I enjoyed myself by pawing through the yarn playpen, trying to put together colors for a Nevada sagebrush-inspired sweater (or throw? or ???)  Here’s the playpen, filled with every color of Jamieson’s Spindrift:

photo from Feral Knitter

And here’s my inspiration, from two road-trip vacations in the last year to Montana and Idaho, via Nevada (mostly). We made the first trip last September, and just got back this week from a second:

photo by slgwv

Most people will tell you that northern Nevada’s high desert scrub makes for the most boring driving on earth. We don’t agree. In September especially, the sagebrush scrub was full of glorious color. There was the soft dry gray of the sagebrush itself; darker green of juniper, and charcoal-brown of juniper bark; bleached straw of dry grass; russet and pale pink seedheads; acid yellow and rhubarb-pink blooms; and shots of brilliant chartreuse here and there.  The large photo above gives a glimpse. These were my feeble attempts to capture it on camera:
Pictures taken at 85 mph don’t work so well. The photo above captures some of the colors well, and here’s a gallery of better ones I gathered on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/couleeca/galleries/72157624390876393/

Janine brought out one of her inspiration notebooks – and there was a big magazine photo of the same Nevada landscape pasted in! Here’s what I came up with for a start:

Poor photo, but colors are semi-close on my monitor. Top row: earth, sphagnum, thyme, lichen, and rye. The reds and pinks: rust, chestnut, spice, cinnamon, and coral (I think). Yellows, in the middle: daffodil and lemon, with the darker bronzey-gold bracken at right. Greens: moss, leprechaun, and pistachio. It’s only a start – we couldn’t find just the right acid yellow, sagebrush green, dead-grass-straw, or seedhead-rust. More detective work is in order – perhaps some Elemental Affects colors would fill the bill. (Here’s a full Spindrift color chart at Camilla Valley Farm; you can order the real thing from Janine – info here.)

Janine’s online store, Feralknitter.com, is under construction and should be up and running soon. She sells every single Spindrift color (you don’t have to wait for the finished website) and she’s offering mini 20-yard skeins for sampling – perfect for playing around and developing your own colorwork designs, as she teaches in her classes. She’s aiming to make Feral Knitter a home-on-the-web for knitters who love Fair Isle-style stranded colorwork, and she’s got some great, unusual ideas for the site. Stay tuned at her blog. Me, I’m going to order some miniskeins soon and start swatching.

TNNA Columbus 2010

Last weekend I attended (for the first time) the summer TNNA Needle Arts Market in Columbus, Ohio. TNNA  exhibitors are mainly yarn industry folks, there to show their new lines and colors and take orders from retail (LYS) buyers. Publishers and designers exhibit as well, along with people who make needle arts tools and supplies, buttons, jewelry, and the like.

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed on the show floor, so this post will be short on pictures. And it’ll be long on text – but I’ll give you lots of links.

The Ravelry folks had special photo dispensation, and they acted as roving reporters, posting candid photos and video on the HelloTNNA website. I’ll show you my swag - it was sparse because whenever I entered a booth, I’d tell the exhibitor I wasn’t a retailer, so they shouldn’t waste it on me! I did come away with a few miniskeins of interesting yarns, but my real score was this, given to me by the generous folks at Blue Sky Alpacas:

Rosewood DPNs in their gorgeous trademark tin. They really know packaging.

Yarn orders get written up, but all sorts of other business and networking goes on too. I was there to see what’s new for fall – yarns, books, patterns – but mostly to meet people and make connections that will help me to grow Knitfinder. I got lots of practice introducing myself and Knitfinder in a few words.
The show floor opens on Saturday, so Friday was for pre-show presentations and fashion show. I saw Norah Gaughan & Cirilia Rose introduce the fall Berroco patterns and Trisha Malcolm of Vogue Knitting present fall fashion and color trends (yellow is the new green, you’ll be happy to know).

Fall color trends. Pantone numbers left to right: 13-0632; 15-1050; 16-1546; 19-1764; 18-3027; 19-1526 (wrong on image); 16-5418; 18-0538; 18-4105; 14-1508.
Full 62-page report is here (!)

Ysolda Teague presented the garments & patterns from her upcoming book, Little Red in the City. Here’s a peek at some of them. It’s a great collection, featuring large-sized versions of all the sweaters that have been meticulously redesigned, not just blindly upsized from the small ones. The printed book will include detailed information on customizing the designs for a perfect fit.

Friday evening was the fashion show – 99 items were in it. Many interesting, wearable designs you’d be happy to cast on for tomorrow; a few duds; and some wild high-fashion things that probably won’t be knitted or worn, but I was happy to see on the runway. Project Runway winner Irina Shabayeva’s Feather Coat (knitted by designer Josh Bennett; scroll down to fourth photo) was included and will be in the fall issue of Vogue Knitting. Full video of the show will be online in a couple of weeks. Edited to add: Videos are now available. Here's the opener; find all the segments here.

Spent all day Saturday & Sunday walking the show floor (with occasional jaunts across the street to the wonderful North Market for sustenance). Let’s see. I had a chance to tell some of my favorite designers how much I admire their work, including Ysolda Teague, Véronik Avery, Robin Melanson, Norah Gaughan, Tanis Gray, Bonne Marie Burns, Lucy Neatby, Nancy Marchant, Olga Buraya-Kefelian, Kristen Rengren, Stephen West, and Annie Modesitt. Missed meeting many other design luminaries – I just ran out of time!

 Inside Columbus’s North Market

New and new-to-me yarn standouts: Zealana Rimu and Kiwi (possum blends from New Zealand); Silkindian Duke Silk; Fyberspates Scrumptious DK; Madelinetosh yarns; St.-Denis Boreale and Nordique; and Classic Elite Magnolia (merino-silk) and Woodland (wool-nettle). There were new lace yarns from Manos del Uruguay (Manos Lace, alpaca-silk-cashmere) and Brown Sheep (Legacy Lace, wool-nylon). And of course I was irresistibly drawn to the luxury fibers from Buffalo Gold and Jacques Cartier – bison, guanaco, vicuña.

There was a lot of emphasis on sustainability and organics. More on that in another post one of these days, but yarns in the eco vein included Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia wool, Ecobutterfly Organics/Pakucho cotton, the Belle Organic DK and Aran from Rowan, and two nice yarns made from recycled fibers: Rowan Purelife Revive and Berroco Remix. Of course, some companies have been producing eco- and farmer-friendly yarns for years, like Mountain Meadow Wool and Green Mountain Spinnery.

Plenty of inspiring books and patterns. Shannon Okey’s new Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design looks like a must for any wannabe (or working) knit designer. New/upcoming books from designers that look great: Miriam Felton’s Twist & Knit, Donna Druchunas’s Successful Lace Knitting, Kristina McGowan’s Modern Top-Down Knitting, Ysolda Teague’s Little Red in the City, and New England Knits, from Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa LaBarre. I loved the fall patterns from both Classic Elite and Berroco. And (whispering) watch for Crochet So Fine, from Kristin Omdahl. I don’t crochet, but there are wonderful designs in this book.

 

Most beautiful booths? Hana Silk Ribbon (not sure what they were doing in the middle of the yarn section, but their wares are sure beautiful!), Chic Knits (an oasis of calm neutrals against the barrage of color elsewhere), and Mountain Colors. The Midwest Modern Knits booth was not too shabby either, and Amy Butler herself was in attendance. Most fun, comfy and whimsical booths: Ysolda Teague (shared with Gudrun Johnston and Laura Chau), Be Sweet, and Pick Up Sticks.

Shared meals and conversation with roommate Jessica, Julia Grunau of Patternfish, and Bonne Marie Burns of Chic Knits, among others. Finally met Casey of Ravelry and chatted about search design – and other things - for a few minutes. What a nice guy. At the Ravelry ice cream social on Friday night, I talked with Jeni of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, which are all they’re cracked up to be (goat cheese and roasted cherry -mmmm). In another life, I was in the ice cream business myself at Downtown Bakery & Creamery, so we had plenty to talk about.

Last but not least, two of my favorite print magazines had booths. Neither is strictly knitting, but both are beautiful and interesting and should be in every LYS. Wild Fibers covers fiber production around the world, with an emphasis on small producers and environmental and cultural sustainability. The current issue’s cover article is on the living Inca textile tradition.
Selvedge magazine, based in the UK, covers textiles wherever it finds them – in knitting, fashion, interiors, art, industry, and around the world. Every themed issue is a feast for the eyes, but there’s great writing too. The good news is the magazine will now be printed in the US as well as in the UK, so North American subscription rates have gone down. Go explore the excellent website – you can also subscribe to a digital edition (but that seems like a shame).

And there you have it – just the tip of the iceberg, believe it or not. Wish I’d had a buyer’s budget like Jessica – I would have ordered stuff right and left.

Tips for knitting from PDF patterns

I started a new project a few days ago – Stephen West’s Daybreak shawl. As usual, I made an electronic copy of my PDF pattern and added some notes to it. This is very handy, especially if you have a tendency to work on lots of patterns at the same time and/or stop working on something and go back to it later when you don’t remember the details. I thought I’d share how I do this.

Daybreak in progress

 

Most people, including me,  have Adobe Reader on their computers for opening and reading PDF files. But I’ve got another free PDF viewer as well, because it has some nifty tools for adding notes and comments to PDFs: Foxit Reader (click on the link to go get the download). Unfortunately, there’s no Mac version.

When you open a PDF document in Foxit Reader, you’ll see a bunch of icons across the top of your window under the drop-down menu categories. We’re interested in the last few icons – a pencil, a T highlighted yellow, and a balloon with text in it. These tools allow you to add a text note, highlight text, or add a hidden popup note or comment. Just click on the tool icon you want to use, then click in the PDF at the point where you want to insert your note, or click and drag to select text for highlighting.

Here’s my routine. First, I open the pattern PDF and save the file with a new name – otherwise you can’t save the changes you make to it. I made a copy of my Daybreak pattern and named the file “Daybreak-notes.pdf.” This way, you always have a pristine original copy of the pattern, plus a marked-up working copy.

I clicked the highlight tool, then highlighted the size I’m making and the needle size specified. Next, I clicked the pencil icon for the comment tool, then clicked in the pattern and added the two blue comments you see, a note about the yarns I’m using and confirmation that I’m using the recommended needle size:


 On the next pattern page, I’ve highlighted the stitch counts for the size I’m making, added notes about which color is which and how I’m changing colors, and also added a hidden popup note (the yellow thing next to the word “Stripes”):


 When I click on the sticky note icon, I get a popup window that shows me the whole note, which looks like this:


 These popups have a scroll bar, so the notes can be as long as you want – handy when you don’t have room to enter all the text right on the pattern as a comment. I haven’t been able to figure out how to make them print, though.

Other free PDF viewers may have similar comment features – experiment with yours. The next one I’m going to try is PDF-XChange Viewer. I believe Adobe Reader’s sticky note feature has some restrictions that make it difficult to use, but if you use it I’d be curious to know how it works for you.

I’m heading off to the TNNA (The National NeedleArts Association) summer trade show in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday. It’s my first time – looking forward to meeting lots of yarn & knitting industry folks and seeing what’s new for fall. I won’t have time to blog, but I will post updates on the Facebook page and Twitter. There are still a couple of Cool Yarns for Hot Days posts coming as well, but they may take awhile.

Cool yarns for hot days: 1

(ETA: faulty links in the post have been fixed...sorry about that!)

Only the first of June, and much of North America has already had its first heat wave (although our West Coast spring has been cool and damp). Knitting with wool or alpaca isn’t very appealing when the mercury’s over 90, so how about some linen, hemp, or bamboo?

Yarns in these fibers aren’t hard to find these days, but many of us haven’t tried them. I find them cool and pleasant to handle – just the thing for hot-weather knitting.

Elann Canapone (hemp), Euroflax Paris (laceweight linen)

Hemp and linen garments are soft, drapey and cool to the touch – wonderful to wear in hot weather, especially if they have a bit of ease so they don’t cling too tightly. An added bonus is that they may be machine washed and dried – the more you do it, the softer they get. This Lacy Little Top I made for my daughter several years ago took a lot of punishment and always looked and felt great.



Good yarns for projects like this are Louet Euroflax Sport Weight (at left, 100% linen) and Hemp for Knitting Allhemp 3 and Allhemp 6 (100% hemp, fingering or DK weight). Elann has a pure linen sportweight coming on June 8 (Lino Pura). There are also some great blends – Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy (cotton/hemp/modal, DK weight); Knit Picks CotLin (cotton/linen); and several DK cotton/linen blends by Elann (Cotone Lin, Sula, Camila). When you touch these yarns in the skein, they feel a bit crisp and stiff – but the process of winding the yarn, and handling it as you knit, softens it. Keeping your tension on the loose side will make knitting with them a pleasant experience.


Simple shapes and stitches look good in linen and hemp; so do unusual “architectural” details. A few pattern suggestions: Julie Weisenberger of Cocoknits has a talent for sheer, summery designs in linen and cotton yarns – how about the sleeveless Liesl tank top/dress in Euroflax linen? Very chic design – sheer stockinette stitch with an asymmetrical handkerchief hem and pockets. Then there’s the pretty button-back Kathy’s Knot Garden Tank (right) in Allhemp 3 and last summer’s hit Buttercup (free pattern), a top in Hempathy with short puffed sleeves and feather-and-fan lace yoke. Olga Buraya-Kefelian’s Petal Halter is a tank top in a DK cotton/linen blend with curving tiers of stockinette, but it could be knit in any blend containing linen, hemp or bamboo. Here’s a beautiful version by soknitpicky in three colors.

If you’re up for a larger project, skirts and dresses are a possibility. Gudrun Johnston’s Little Black Dress  and Hip in Hemp elastic-waist skirt are two good options, both in Hempathy, both free. Hip in Hemp uses rippling stripes in several colors – very exuberant and summery. Sized for girls or women.

Both Knitty and Interweave Knits have published patterns for bamboo, hemp and linen yarns over the years – to find them, check the Knitfinder pattern indexes and type “bamboo” “linen” or “hemp” into the yarn column search box. Hemp for Knitting has great pattern support for their yarns, and you can buy any pattern online over at Patternfish and download it immediately – find all the patterns here.

Linen in particular is great for lace garments or accents, especially in finer weights.  Need inspiration? How about wakana’s Butterfly camisole, Khakigirl’s Fancy summer tank, Aniko’s Counterpane Blouse from the current (Summer 2010) issue of Interweave Knits (Ravelry pattern link) and knittwopurltwo’s Wakame Lace tunic?

Designs featuring texture and color techniques work too – just take a look at Aniko’s Linen Eastlake and the Roped Shells by u22grumpy and titianknitter.

I don’t want to sign off without mentioning an unusual cotton yarn I love: cotton gima from Habu Textiles.  It’s a narrow, light cotton ribbon that almost looks like paper. Knitted up, it looks crisp, but feels soft. This is color 53, called "oak.”

There are several elegant top and cardigan patterns for this yarn. The Leah Tunic (free over at Purl Bee) is a long tank top with a draped neckline knitted at 7 stitches to the inch. Julie Weisenberger’s Gretel is the same idea, but knitted at a sheer open gauge of 19 stitches/4 inches:


The Gisela cardigan, also from Cocoknits, uses the same yarn at an even more open gauge (17 stitches/4”). Photos do not do this design justice; I tried it on once at a Habu trunk show (along with several other people) – it looked great on everyone. Cotton gima is inexpensive, and at these gauges it goes a long way – the yarn for these designs in average sizes may be had for under $30.

More ideas for these hot-weather yarns in the next couple of posts – non-clothing projects, lace, and more. Stay tuned—and keep cool!



Almost forgot: in case you missed the news flash elsewhere, I did finish my handspun shawl. Ugly duckling that it was, blocking turned it into a swan. Here’s the Ravelry link.

The Perennial Question

Can she do it?

49 rows to go on Miralda’s Triangular Shawl. It doesn’t look promising, even though they get shorter and shorter. If I run out, here’s my option:

I’m knitting with my handspun for the first time, and that there is the remains (appropriate word) left on the second bobbin after plying all of the first one. I wound it off into a ball thinking I’d ply the rest of it from the two ball ends, but that didn’t go well – you can see why! “Energized” would be a kind word here.

(Furthermore, when I went over to the Ravelry pattern page to get the link for this post, I saw the errata for the first time. I wondered about that bit of asymmetry in the nupp diamond chart, but didn’t wonder hard enough to go looking for corrections.)

Wish me luck.

Tuesday pattern roundup

The roundup was AWOL last week, but we’re back! First, Julie Nandorfy’s pretty Bell Flower Boogie socks (free Ravelry download).  A lacy Japanese stitch pattern that stands out beautifully against a garter-stitch ground. Knitted toe-up with a gusset and heel flap; written in two sizes.


Next, incredibly cute overalls for toddlers from Whit’s Knits (Whitney Van Nes) at the Purl Bee – knitted in 2 skeins of sportweight Euroflax linen. Surprisingly stylish, and think how comfy and cool they would be! Tough enough to stand up to toddler play, too. Simple stockinette stitch with hemmed edges and buttoned straps; legs are knitted in the round. Free pattern on the website has great tutorial photos. They’d be cute with short legs, too, like an old-fashioned sunsuit (remember those?)


Here’s a new shawl from Sivia Harding – Ophidian, a refined triangle that combines undulating textural lace with beads and garter stitch. Knitted neck down; uses 380 yards of either fingering or DK-weight yarn. $7.50 download. Here’s a closeup of the stitch pattern:

photo: Alex Tinsely

Now, a floaty cap-sleeved or 3/4-sleeved cardigan that looks like it came straight from the pages of an Anthropologie catalog – Carol Feller’s Adrift. Knitted in Malabrigo lace – wouldn’t that feel wonderful? - from the neck down in stockinette stitch with raglan shoulders, a bit of waist shaping, and long front panels that hang in graceful points or may be pinned closed. I have a similar long-sleeved cardigan that really did come from Anthropologie that’s one of my favorite things to wear. Irresistible in rich orange. $5.95 download; there’s a knitalong just starting, too. Here’s the Ravelry page.

Closing with another sock pattern. Did you see these knee socks with contrast cables from the Prada fall runway show? Jen Molloy has reverse-engineered a free pattern. Ribbed sock with contrast cuff, toe, heel, and front-center cable. Knitted from the cuff down; the cable is knit at the same time, but with no intarsia-style twisting of yarns. When you get to the cable stitches, the yarn is at the wrong side, but she simply carried it across the back to the right – brilliant. Here are Jen’s socks, in elegant black an gray Regia silk, but how about black with a red cable, or charcoal with mustard, like the others in the show?


Until next time…happy knitting (and queueing).

TGI Sunday

I’m in the home stretch of what’s been a month of difficult, brain-busting book indexing projects – still another week to go, though, and today’s my only day off for the foreseeable future. I started the day with coffee on the porch, listening to the quails talking to each other, and did a little gardening – I can’t stand the idea of spending much time inside, let alone in front of a computer screen, today, so I’m just going to show you the bit of knitting and spinning finished up this week.
First the Brandywine shawl. Rosemary Hill’s design is simple , quick and elegant, and better yet, most of the pattern sales go to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti relief efforts. She’s already sent them $10,500, just from the sales of this one pattern! If you haven’t already done so, go buy it and knit one for yourself or to give away. Our local knit group has finished a dozen or so total – we’re hoping to enter them to be displayed en masse in our county fair.

Mine is knitted in Habu Tsumugi silk – a laceweight tweedy raw silk. I have no other shawls in this kind of texture – love the way it looks and feels. The shawl is knitted from the lower point up and out to the top edge. It’s finished with an interesting purled i-cord bindoff that perfectly matches the weight of the slanting decrease lines and the K2tog that forms the last stitch of the side edgings:

Last night I finished plying the Corriedale wool I’ve been spinning this last couple of weeks – after coffee this morning I wound it off and washed the skein. It’s by far the most evenly spun and plied yarn I’ve managed to produce – I’m thrilled. The colors are gorgeous (the fiber was bought from Royale Hare). And I’ve got about 300 yards/150grams of nice worsted weight for some small project. Because it’s 3 colors, one after the other, I’m thinking I’ll wind it into a center-pull ball and knit stripes, alternating ends as the whim takes me.
What should I knit with it – got a brilliant idea for me? ETA: Ilga Leja's Haiti Scarf might be just the thing. Or how about a BSJ? I haven't knit one yet - is 300 yards enough?
Signing off to head back outdoors – with tea and knitting.

Tuesday pattern roundup

We begin with a beautiful, original colorwork design - Robin Melanson’s Gothic Snowfall sweater, first published in last fall’s St.-Denis Yarns magazine, now available as a single-pattern  download from Patternfish. It’s a seamless modified raglan – worked in the round, but without steeks. It has waist shaping, stylish bracelet-length sleeves (which I love – I’m always pushing my sleeves up), and color patterning with a strong vertical panel effect. And the deep waistband, cuffs, and striking yoke/collar are done in two-color brioche rib (called Shaker rib in the pattern). Written for sportweight wool (St.-Denis Nordique), but I’m thinking about knitting it in fingering=weight yarn for a slightly lighter sweater. $7.00 download, only at Patternfish. (The magazine is still available as well; you can get it here and probably elsewhere too.)


Now, some socks – I’ve been remiss about including sock patterns in these roundups (I knit very few of them myself). I love stripes, and here’s a great striped sock pattern with a couple of twists from Susan Luni – Burning Stripes. Done in two colorways of Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball, or any sock yarn with long color changes, it’s a cuff-down design with a cool boomerang heel (a short-row heel with some refinements, explained here) and a nifty back “seam” stitch that hides the color jog in a creative way. $2.50 Ravelry download until later this week, when a revised pattern with more sizes will be published at $3.99.


OK, now I’m going out on a limb. This next design won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s lovely and original, even if not wearable by just anyone. It’s Bells by Maria Leigh, a graceful cropped, short-sleeved cardigan in ethereal mohair (Rowan Kidsilk Haze, Elann Silken Kydd or the like) patterned all over with bold, textural  - well, bells.

It’s worked from bottom to top, seamlessly, with a garter-stitch yoke and a single button to close it at the front neck. I think it would be great on a slim person like my 19-year-old daughter; a girls’ version would be cute too. $8.00 download; here’s the Ravelry link.
This week’s lace: more mohair, a lovely free pattern from Elann.com, the Dancing Crane stole by Shui Kuen Kozinski and Benne Ferrell. Knitted sideways in Japanese Feather lace with 3 balls of Silken Kydd – you can buy a yarn pack for it for $15.00 here.


Another sweater – this one a versatile short-sleeved “layering piece,” as they say – the Lilas Cardigan by Hilary Smith Callis. It’s a top-down, seamless raglan cardigan with short sleeves, handsome texture details, and a big, flattering foldover collar. Knitted in worsted-weight cotton. I’d throw this on all the time. $5.00 download here.


Let’s finish up with a little whimsy – these Felted Flower Bowls from Meg Myers are irresistible and would be really handy around the house. Great way to use up leftover bits, too – they take about 65 yards of worsted-weight feltable wool. Knitted from outer edge to center in the round; free Ravelry download.