Cloudbreak Gloves

 I have a new pattern out in Issue 96 of Knit Now Magazine!

Photo courtesy of Knit Now Magazine (Practical Publishing)

The Cloudbreak Gloves are worked in Yarn Stories Fine Merino 4-ply, which can be found here via the Yarn Stories webpage. This buttery-soft yarn is cozy, warm, and comes in a lovely array of colours, which I took full advantage of with these gloves. The glow in the centre of the motif reminds me of that moment when the sun breaks free of the clouds after a storm, and that seemed to fit the theme of the collection "Island Life" quite well. I might live in a land-locked province, but I've seen that light during my travels and I hope I captured it well!

Photo courtesy of Knit Now Magazine (Practical Publishing)

I love looking through the Knit Now moodboards whenever there is a call for design submissions, as they're always guaranteed to inspire. I particularly could not resist coming up with a submission for this call, as I adore stranded colourwork, and, well, could you resist it? Take a look; here's a link to the Moodboard that inspired these gloves: Island Life Moodboard.

Kate Heppell, the Editor of Knit Now Magazine, has filmed a delightful sneak peek at the new issue that you can watch here: Sneak Peek Issue 96. So many amazing knits in this issue! I want the gorgeous pullover designed by Claire Neicho, which you can also see over on the Knit Now Instagram feed. Isn't it stunning?

To order your copy of this Magazine issue, head over here to MoreMags via this link.

Photo courtesy of Knit Now Magazine (Practical Publishing)

Quick Shave

Sweater shavers are not just for sweaters.

My Irish Cowboy neckwarmer was worn constantly this winter. It's cozy, warm, fits in my pocket when I'm inside, and so very handy. The Merino and Cashmere blend is extremely soft, but it does rather pill.

Thankfully, a couple of years ago, I picked up a sweater shaver, so I brought it out today and:

Good as new.

Sure, the surface will get a few more pills again in future, but I tend to find that they're never as bad as the first batch. I do recommend giving some of your knits a go-over, particularly if they've gotten pilly enough for you to avoid wearing them!

Presenting the Starlet Stole

I'm pleased to say that Knit Picks has just added the Starlet Stole that I designed to their Independent Designers Program!

It has been a lot of work getting this one ready, but it has been well worth it, and the pattern can be purchased for $2.99 USD here at Knit Picks.


This knitted stole features both cables and lace, with lace eyelets forming both the borders between cable panels and the background behind the main cable panel. The interplay between dense cables and airy eyelets is highlighted by the lovely drape and shine of the yarn.

Knit in Knit Picks Galileo, which is a bamboo/merino blend, it feels great both to knit with and to wear.

I used up every bit of the six balls of yarn. The Galileo responds well to blocking. In all seriousness, I had "Whip it Good" stuck in my head as I stretched and pinned this one out to full size!

I had been interested in exploring what would happen if I used eyelets not just between cable patterns, but also instead of purl stitches in the background of a trellised cable pattern, which is something I haven't seen done very often. The Starlet Stole is the result, and I am well-pleased.

Getting used to moving the eyelets around while simultaneously moving the cables across them was a bit tricky for the first repeat. However, it did become an established skill as I worked on the sample, becoming easier to keep track of the pattern as I gradually memorized it. I say this to point out that it's a wee bit tricky to get this one started, but to reassure you that it does get easier once you've gotten into it.

I would like to thank Stacey at Knit Picks for her work with the IDP program. I am very thankful to all the ladies who took the time to give me feedback, cast on the stole, or look over the pattern for me: Steph, Rachel, Kahlie, Shannon, Cailín, and especially Sigrun.

Thank-you also to my family for their patience with me while I worked obsessively on the sample, and to my youngest for her umm, "assistance" during the photo shoot (but especially her patience in waiting for her turn to be in the photos). I must say, she is a darling!

In Which I do not Actually Start a New Year's Project

 Ever since my first New Year's as a knitter, I have started a new project just for myself as the first thing I knit (even if just a few rows) in the New Year.

Apparently, not this year. I tried. Really, I did. I even swatched, then stopped when I realized I did not own the correct size of needles to try the next size down. I gave up, at least for the moment.

I also inventoried my knitting needles, which was well overdue (particularly after both my grandmother and my husband's grandmother had given me a few sets of needles from their collections sometime last year). I still can't believe I was missing 3.5 mm DPNs, but there you have it. I thought I was also missing 3.5 mm circulars, but I found them during the inventory, and went shopping for the DPNs, so all is now well with the needle collection.

It turns out that the idea of starting another project was actually way too stressful for the joy of starting another project to win me over. I stopped then and there, and went back to finishing up samples for designs that I have been preparing for publication.

One was just finished the other day, and the other should be finished in pretty short order as well. I thought I'd tease you with a couple of photos while you're waiting.

Lacy Sparkly Manta Ray

Looking, as much as anything, like a lacy, sparkly manta ray, is the finished shawl. I think it's quite lovely, and I hope it manages to raise a good price for the charity auction for the Wellspring centre in Calgary.

Just to recap, I knit the Percy Shawl, by Sanne Kalkman, with Fantastic Knitting Zephyr Laceweight,in lilac. I used two different types of glass beads, one of which was to replace the nupps. I wasn't sure I had quite enough yarn to do the nupps anyhow, and I had seen a few versions of this shawl on Ravelry that had been done with beads instead. The only other change was to repeat Chart A one extra time.

It's a very busy day heading into a very busy weekend, but I wanted to be sure to share the shawl photos beforehand, so here are a few!

Vacation Knitting

I was having a hard time deciding which project to bring with me on vacation last week, but then I decided I'd much rather start a new project. So, I purchased a copy of Eagles Rest by Stephanie Rodger, had my husband add the pdf to his e-reader, wound the yarn, found the needles, and grabbed my ongoing sock project (in case I needed a backup project, as you never know what could go wrong). The sock sat around being ignored as I enjoyed Eagles Rest.

I had been looking for a pattern to use the Malabrigo lace that I had picked up last year in Vancouver. When I bought it, I had been thinking that the two skeins would be just right to knit up another Whisper Cardigan, but I hadn't realized that I had picked up two different dye-lots. They were definitely a bit too different from each other for my original plan. The yarn sat there waiting, and every so often I would look for other patterns that might suit.

Now I quite liked the look of Stephanie's Eagles Rest, and since I'd recently tried out shawl knitting (and decided I quite liked it), it had made it into my queue. Of course, it wants sock yarn (not that you couldn't knit it with lace-weight if you wanted to), but when it occurred to me that I could hold two strands of the lace-weight together, I realized that that would solve the problem entirely: I would be able to use up both skeins (without ending up with two olive-green shawls) while knitting a shawl that I quite liked, and I felt that it would be an excellent pairing of yarn and pattern as well.

It was definitely an excellent pairing; I could tell once I'd knit a few rows that it would be even better than I had thought. Since the pattern has a mesh lace rather than a figured lace pattern, the slight fuzzyness of the incredibly soft yarn would not be a drawback so much as it would add to the cozyness of the shawl. While on vacation, I made many people pet the shawl-in-progress to feel just how soft this wool is. I think I may just have to buy a new strappy-sort of dress to coordinate with the shawl just so I can enjoy wearing it on bare shoulders. I'm very pleased, and found it an enjoyable and straight-forward sort of knit that was just right for vacation knitting (I could read a propped-open book at the same time for most stretches), and enjoy knitting it while visiting and while riding in the car. Also, I think it's just plain lovely.

Shiny New Finished Project

Hi, I haven't vanished or anything, aside from a long weekend away, but since I've been back I was struck down with a cold. I'm still recovering from the cold, so I will catch up on things later, but in the meantime, let me distract you with a finished project (finished beside a lake on the last lovely day we have since had):

One set of Fallberry Mitts by Anne Hanson for my daughter's dance teacher.

 

 

These were knit in Lana Grossa Cool Wool Merino 2000 (a very nice wool indeed, even if someone did get a bit carried away in naming it), which I picked it up at River City Yarns (where I hadn't been in awhile as I'd been knitting mainly from the stash of late). I modified the pattern a bit to make up for the fact that I didn't have quite enough yarn, at least not for the larger size that I was making. I used up every scrap of the yarn, and just managing to squeak by through leaving out one pattern repeat at the cuff, and leaving out another section at the end.

I'll be back to blog a bit more sometime next week!

Myshka Tuque

One of the things I have been busy with lately was writing up a new pattern. I have more tulip photos too, but those will have to wait until another day, as I would like to now present to you the Myshka Tuque:

Myshka, being Ukrainian for 'little mouse' seemed to suit this sweet little tuque just right. Myshka is knit from the bottom up, starting in back-and-forth rows with a half-linen stitch, then joined in the round and knit in stockinette for the remainder. A button finishes it off quite nicely. Myshka is sized from baby through to older children, and the largest size may even fit some adults.

Sizing: Baby (Toddler)(2 yr) (5yr+). Shown in baby and 2-year-old sizes.

Circumference of Hat: 13”/33cm (15”/38cm)(16.5”/42cm)(18”/46.5cm). Worn with approximately 2 inches of negative ease; hat stretches to fit snugly.

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK (100% Superwash Merino Wool; 123 yards/50 gram ball), Squirrel Heather: 1(1)(1)(2) ball(s). Or, Knit Picks Bare Swish Merino DK (100% Superwash Merino Wool; 246 yards/100 gram hank), 1(1)(1)(1) hank. Dye if desired; I used Strawberry Kool-Aid for the 2-year-old sized hat.

Needles: 3.75mm in either DPNs or Circular needles.

Notions: A button, and a tapestry needle to weave-in ends.

Gauge: 24 sts and 36 rows/4 inches in stockinette stitch

Click here to buy the Myshka Tuque, available for 4$ Canadian.

Mittens!

Yay!  I finished the mittens in time for an outdoorsy but chilly sort of weekend.  I have to keep this quick so I can get back to that weekend, so here are the details: 

These are NHM #5 by Terri Shea, and are knit in Knit Picks Swish DK and Knit Picks Bare Sport (dyed with 2 pkg Grape and 1 pkg Cherry Kool-Aid).  They came out just a little large, but not ridiculously so, so they should last through next year too.

That's it for now; we're just back from the library, so it's time to read to the kids, and after that I have gardening to do, (hopefully I can get a gardening post done too sometime this week).
 

Back from a Busy Weekend

I needed an extra day to recover from the holiday weekend (we just had Thanksgiving in Canada), so I'm just posting now.  It was a very busy weekend indeed, as we had a lovely wedding to attend, and our youngest had her second birthday, which we celebrated combined with Thanksgiving.  This meant we had a lot of dessert, as there was pumpkin pie, apple pie, (both from Great Grandma) and an Ice Cream cake that I put together for the birthday girl (who even wore her new sweater for quite awhile).



We had a great time visiting, spoiling the birthday girl, and eating lots of great food that our family and friends brought to share.  I do feel so lucky to have such a great family and such lovely friends.

I did manage to find a bit of time to knit (after all, it was a fair drive to get to the wedding), so I re-knit the Tulip hat.  I decided to stick with the sport-weight yarn undoubled, so after adding six stitches to enlarge it by an inch and following the adult-size directions, it worked out just fine.

It's getting decidedly chilly out at night (with the low ranging from 0 to 7 degrees Celsius), meaning cold days will be here soon enough, so I also started yesterday on some mittens (NHM #5 by Terri Shea) with the leftover yarn.  The fit looks good, so I'll start the thumb and the next mitten, and will hopefully have these done in case it's chilly this weekend.

Rainy Day with Kool-Aid

Monday was a rainy day, so we dyed our own yarn with Kool-Aid.  We followed the directions from Knitty, and a good time was had by all.  It helped that the younger daughter wanted to play by herself until it was pretty much her turn anyway, so that made it much easier to coordinate things.  We also used Superwash (Knit Picks Bare Superwash), so the kids could stir the yarn without felting it.
 

My oldest wanted to mix colours, so one of her batches was 2 packages Orange with 3 of Strawberry-Kiwi (I think one Orange would have been plenty, as you can hardly tell there was anything but Orange involved), and the other batch was 3 Lemon-Lime with 3 Blue Raspberry Lemonade.

My younger daughter was left with a batch of Strawberry (3 pkg), and a mix of 2 Grape and 1 Cherry.  She enjoyed stirring the first batch, but by the second batch, my oldest had found the stash of stickers, so they went off to decorate the calendar.

Strawberry

Lemon-Lime-Blue-Raspberry

Orange-Strawberry-Kiwi

Grape-Cherry

With the last batch, I decided the colour was going to be too dark, so I twisted the skein before putting it in the dye to leave some paler patches, and it worked quite well; some spots stayed white, and then absorbed enough dye in the wash to have a tint instead, which I quite liked.

When I washed them after, I simply followed the usual superwash instructions and let the machine agitate, however gently.  While the yarn came out just fine in most ways, it is now a tangled mess, so next time, I'll just let it soak instead.  Now I have some brightly-coloured fruity-smelling yarn to untangle, so between that and 2nd birthday preparations, I should be rather busy for the next while.