Kväll

Last month, one of my patterns appeared in Interweave Knits Fall 2019!

Photo courtesy of Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits

The theme for the collection in which my cardigan was included was Fredagsmys, (Swedish for Friday night), and was filled with patterns made for having a cozy Friday night snuggled up in knitwear. Kväll, as I understand it, means evening, which is well-suited to the deep blue wool that was used for the main colour. I knit this cardigan in Ancient Arts Lascaux Worsted, which is now my favourite worsted weight yarn, and if you're looking to knit Kväll but are not sure which colours to pick, there are a number of options bundled for you right here: https://ancientartsfibre.com/collections/kits-2/products/kvall-cardigan-bundle

For the pattern itself, if you don't have a copy yet, head here: https://www.interweave.com/store/interweave-knits-fall-2019-digital-edition

While this sweater certainly can be worn by anyone who wants to wear it, it should nonetheless be noted that the upper five sizes in Kväll are sized for standard men's sizes S (M, L, XL, 2X) as worn with 3 to 3 3/4 inches of ease, so it's important to check the fit in the shoulders by comparing your measurements to the schematic of the finished sweater to ensure that the set-in sleeves will fit you properly.

Kväll features a shawl collar and generous pockets for both practicality and coziness. It's meant to be that feels-like-home cardigan that you put on every evening and wear about the house, but there's nothing stopping you from wearing it out wherever you go as well!

Fennel Cardigan

My subscriber copy of Interweave Knits Spring 2019 arrived back on Thursday, and it reminded me that I had not yet written a blog post about my contribution to the issue, the Fennel Cardigan.

Photo Courtesy of Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits

It's very nearly a year since I set up a proposal for this sweater to send in to Interweave, and I was very pleased that they decided to include my work in the issue. I enjoyed every minute of knitting this sweater, which uses Blue Sky Fibers Woolstok, a delightful worsted weight 100% wool yarn.

Photo Courtesy of Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits

The Fennel Cardigan features a simple yet striking cable pattern that is mirrored at the back and to either side of the buttonband, a V-neck, set-in sleeves, and pockets. Nice, large pockets. The theme for this magazine issue is Impressionist Art, and I felt this is the sort of cardigan one could wear while painting or sketching outside on a mild day, with plenty of room in the pockets for a small notebook, some pencils or brushes, or perhaps small treasures found while on a walk. It's also the sort of cardigan one could wear in a chilly office year-round, around the house, or well, pretty much anywhere. While sized for men, the sample for this cardigan fits me nicely (well, if I fold the cuffs back for my shorter arms anyhow), and I am looking forward to wearing it when the sample comes back to me.

You can purchase the magazine issue here for the digital edition, and here for the print edition. If you like the Fennel Cardigan, why not head on over to Ravelry to add it to your favourites (and/or your queue if you're planning on making the sweater).

Photo Courtesy of Harper Point Photography for Interweave Knits

Errata happen (as much as we wish otherwise)

Hi! Just stopping by to let you know that an error got past us while preparing for the publication of the Smoky Lake Cardigan a couple of years ago. A question from a customer brought it to our attention, and we have adjusted the pattern so that it is now correct. Despite our best efforts, these things do turn up in patterns from time to time.
The best way to check if a pattern you are working on has any documented errors is to do a quick search with the name of the pattern and the word 'errata'. Often, you will get pointed to either a publisher's webpage that keeps track of these for crafters, or you may end up on the Ravelry page for the pattern, which often lists errata or links to errata.
Please note that the version in Ravelry is up to date, so if you have purchased the pattern via Ravelry, just double-check that you have the most current version. If you had purchased the pattern via Twist Collective, then check that the instructions are corrected to read as follows for the Left Front, on page 2, right column:

"Size 50 ¾" / 129 cm size ONLY: During the following section, begin the first Cable A of each RS row with on st 2 of the chart.

All sizes
Next row (RS): P1 (0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 2), * work Cable A (B, B, B, B, A, B), work Cable B (A, A, A, A, B, A); rep from * 0 (1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2) more time(s), work Cable A 1 (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0) time(s), work Cable B 0 (0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0) times, p3 (2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3)."

Apologies for the mistake; I do wish I had caught it prior to publication, but I am grateful that a knitter brought it to my attention so that the next knitters to work on Smoky Lake don't have to puzzle over that part of the pattern.

Happy knitting,

Jessie

What I Knit on My Summer Vacation

Next week will be my first full work week since June. It's not that I haven't worked during the summer, but things have slowed down quite a lot for while the kids were off school. Before we went camping, I shared what I was bringing with me to work on.

Here's what happened with that:

So, left to right:

-Socks knit with my handspun that I couldn't finish because I ran out of yarn too soon. Also, found it's not suitable for socks for a variety of reasons (which I suspected but ignored, since hey, they're just for me and I want to make them anyway). Any ideas what I should make with pink striped yarn? I could use a few suggestions!
No pattern for these, mostly just wishful thinking. I did swatch, but I didn't weigh the swatch or do any calculating, so I guess that's how it goes.

-Thrummed mittens. Still just one mitten. I prepared enough thrums for the second mitten, but brought the wrong needles with me, and still haven't gotten around to casting the next one on.
Pattern: Thrummed Mittens by Jennifer L. Appleby

-Chihuahua mittens: Cast-on second mitten, finished the braid (I changed the cuff slightly by adding this), stopped there.
Pattern: Tiny Dogs mittens by Therese Sharp

-Nephew's sweater: Finished! I wove-in the ends, and sewed on two buttons. I brought it with me to last week's knitting group session, and when I jokingly suggested one of the other members could sew on my buttons if she was between projects, she surprisingly enough said that she loves sewing on buttons, and did so. I am very grateful!
Pattern: Calaway by Jenny Wiebe

-Other Socks for me: Finished! I've even worn these a few times since. I'm running low on socks, so it's nice to have made some for myself. I even finished these on time for Carolyn's Summer Socks Kal, which made this even more fun.
Pattern: GG by Carolyn Macpherson 

What's up next? There's a whoooole lotta swatching going on:

Also, in the meantime, for September, I'm doing a drawing challenge in which I draw a sheep a day and then post them on Instagram using #sheepsketchaday. You can find my Instagram feed under @jessiemckitrick

Smoky Lake

My Grandpa grew up near Smoky Lake here in Alberta, and I love when he tells the story of the time he and his brother came home with what they thought was a big fluffy dog that was only too happy to follow them. My Great-Grandmother was less than enthusiastic about any intent to keep the creature, and my Great-Grandfather brought the bear cub back to where the boys had found it.

The last time I was in Smoky Lake (the town, not the lake), it was rather an icy day in February, and I could have used a warm, sturdy, cozy cardigan to wrap myself up in. Smoky Lake, my design for Twist Collective Fall 2016, is a cabled and double-breasted cardigan with a shawl collar that totally fits the bill for warm, sturdy and cozy.

©Twist Collective. Used with permission

This cardigan is worked in Briggs & Little Atlantic, which is a bulky 3-ply wool that shows off cables nicely, even in a relatively darker shade like Grape, which Smoky Lake features. Of course, Briggs & Little Atlantic also comes in an excellent range of colours, both in heathered (like Grape) and solid. I think if I was knitting Smoky Lake again, I'd be tempted to also try Grey Heather, Fern, or Rust.

©Twist Collective. Used with permission

For warmth, I can tell you I tried this one on one warm summer day, and would have melted if I had kept it on any longer than it took to snap a few photos. I feel Smoky Lake would be perfect for a fall (and spring for that matter) coat. If I had been able to wear it while camping with my family this summer, it would have also been just the thing for chilly mornings in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

©Twist Collective. Used with permission

The wool is not only warm, but hard-wearing, and will keep your knitting in good form for a very long time. Briggs & Little Atlantic relaxes slightly with a wash, and plumps up a wee bit too; it keeps its shape and definition while making the drape and handle come out just right.

When designing Smoky Lake, I wanted to use cables that would be sculptural enough to stand out even on a darker wool, but that would work well with a bulky wool without distorting the overall fabric. I settled on two cables that would play nicely with each other in columns. I wanted a Pea Coat feel to the sweater, a sense of being wrapped in wool against all weather and ready for outdoor exploration over lake, sea, woodland or field. A double-breasted coat with a voluminous shawl collar had the right sort of feel too it, and so I sketched this up:

Of course, with bulky wool and a good sized button-band in the front meant that there would be less density of cables than in my sketch (I also don't think I got the eyes quite right, but that has very little to do with the sweater, right?); but the sketch conveyed the feel I was looking for, and once calculations and adjustments to assure a good fit for all the sizes in question for men and women were worked over and approved, I set about crunching numbers and making sure that the sweater worked up into a cozy and beautiful garment. I really enjoyed working up the shawl collar; no matter how often I use short-rows, they feel like magic, and the bands worked up particularly quickly in the bulky yarn.

©Twist Collective. Used with permission

I am so pleased to see my idea fully transformed into reality, even better than I had imagined it. I really enjoyed working with Twist Collective on this project; much thanks to all of the Twist staff! Twist Collective, as always, has beautiful photography, and I recommend even to the non-knitters who read this blog to go take a look through this issue (and back issues as well)!

Thanks and love to my Grandpa, who, by the way, always looks great in a double-breasted jacket.

The Smoky Lake pattern is now available for purchase here through Twist Collective.

©Twist Collective. Used with permission

Woodland Cardigan Re-Release

I'm so pleased to be able to say that the Woodland Cardigan that I had designed for Knit Now Magazine issue #39 is now available for purchase in my Ravelry store! Now, you don't have to be a Ravelry member to shop on Ravelry... just head to my patterns page and click the "buy now" button.

I first announced the Woodland Cardigan in this post, but I'll also remind you here that it's knit in J C Rennie's Supersoft Lambswool 4ply, which can be bought at knitrennie.com. It's lovely stuff, and washes up super-soft, just like the name.

I'm still tickled-pink by the hedgehogs (and bunnies and acorns), and hope you will enjoy them too!

About a Year, and About a Week

It's been a long week, but it ended with a lovely package in the mail:

It's sample return time! It was delightful to open the package from Knit Now and find three samples that I had knit up to present my patterns that Knit Now have published in the past year. The Woodland Cardigan represents an important beginning for me, as it was my first third-party publication. It also marks a year since I have started working full-time (or, as full-time as I can during the kids' school hours and the occasional round of household errands and tasks) at knitwear design.

This week has featured an interruption to work; that of having a sick kid at home all week. She's well on the mend now though, and for that I am very thankful. I am also glad that I have been able to easily take that time with her due to my work being fairly flexible, and that if it was going to happen (and this kid is rarely ill), it happened during a slow week. Sure, there was a lot that I would have been working on, but none of it needed to be done this week exactly.

While spending time with my daughter, I did also make a bit of progress on a few non-work projects, such as on her socks that I've been meaning to make for awhile:

and, on a hat for a friend's baby (just need to weave-in those ends!), the pattern being garter and hearts by Amanda Keeys and it is knit in Et après by Plassard, colour 89. If it looks a bit big, it's meant for the 6 month and up size, as it's rather lovely out, so the baby shouldn't need it for awhile yet.

Also, I'm still spinning the blue silk. I'm getting rather close to the end of the singles, but it's still going. 25g has been taking longer than I thought, but it is a rather fine single (maybe not consistently fine, but I'm still happy), so it may be a few more days yet before I can start getting this organized for plying. No idea what I will make with this just yet, but it's certainly no rush to decide. I'm enjoying the spinning process and the feel and shine of that silk!

Sneaky Peek

I've had a busy couple of weeks, mostly involving grading math and technical writing, and though that's for a project I can't share with you just yet, I do have a wee something that I can share.

Last May, I got to spend some time working with J C Rennie Supersoft Lambswool 4 ply for my Woodland Cardigan design for Knit Now Magazine. I've had a few ideas here and there for working with it again, and have had one of them stick well enough that I've started a swatch:

I'm pleased so far, but will have to knit a few more rows and give it a bath before deciding if I'm on the right track for my project!

I've just heard (quite literally as I am typing this entry) that tomorrow's long weekend guests are coming tonight, so I'm just going to dash off now and put away all that yarn and fabric that is sitting around on the spare bed. Hope you all have a lovely Easter!

Oranje Cardigan

Last week Thursday, I had nearly finished Oranje (designed by Ann Weaver) but for the cuff seams and buttons. I reeaaaaallly wanted to wear it to the Friday night River City Yarns Comedy Night event featuring the Yarn Harlot.

Here's where I brag about my husband, who is an extremely sweet guy. How sweet? Well, so sweet that while I packed my things for our trip to Calgary and wound yarn for my work knitting, he sewed on every last button. All 15 buttons. All so I could keep working on my work knitting and still get to wear the sweater. The next day, it only took me a few minutes to finish the cuffs, and he dropped me off at River City Yarns so I could get my ticket, meet Fiona Ellis and Stephanie Pearl McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot), and spend the day knitting between one place and another while waiting for the event to begin.

I wish I could have been able to attend some of the workshop sessions--I heard they were brilliant--but I had to settle for just the evening talk, which was funny, touching, wonderful, and everything you would expect. The best bits of the day though were meeting so many other knitters and talking shop with them. It can get rather lonely sitting at the computer grading patterns, sitting at home knitting samples, and well, procrastinating alone too. Much more fun to head for coffee with your colleagues when you hit a point where you need a break, right?




All the people I met were absolutely lovely. I'm a bit shy about going up to talk to people that I don't know, but Oranje did the work for me, and brought people by for a chat. I'm just as pleased with that as I am with the sweater itself, which I think turned out lovely.

I only made the one slight change, which was to move the waist shaping very slightly upward (adding a few rounds before starting anyhow) and one set less of decreases/increases to make it fit a little bit better. It fits nicely, so yay! It worked.

I might still tack down the steeks with a bit more of my orange yarn (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport, overdyed back in this post with both Kool-Aid Orange and Wilton's Golden Yellow to make a much more orange orange than the Pumpkin yarn I started with).

Now that it's done? Other than wearing it all the time (like in the snow yesterday), I'm busy sewing a lion costume. Should have more on that in a day or two (hopefully)!

Checking In

Last week, I finished off a submission, took on some more work, and scrambled to get a few things going that I should get done before I can get properly going on the Next Thing. In fact, I just took a look, and there are five things that I'd love to finish this weekend. I don't think that's actually possible.

Happily, I did also find a bit of time to spend on knitting button-bands for my Oranje:

I now have only to weave in a few more ends, secure the facings, and sew on some buttons.

I took a bit of time to work some single crochet over the steeks to make the raw edges a bit more uniform as well as encased. I used a fingering weight yarn for that job, and am pretty pleased with the results. I'm not sure yet if I will use the same yarn to sew down the facings as well, or just stick with the orange as per the instructions. I'm thinking I'll see what both things look like first before deciding.

Either way, I have to summon up some enthusiasm for sewing up little bits in order to get going, but will try to give it a go this weekend. I'm eager to wear the sweater, so you'd think that would help get me going on the sewing. I think it would be enough if I didn't feel so much like I had to keep working on little bits of all my other projects, but I tend to easily fall into the trap of thinking that if I do a little bit of everything that I'm treating them all the same priority-wise. In truth, it is more satisfying to stop for a minute, prioritize, then pick them off one by one in either the order they need to be finished in, or in the order of least time involved to most time involved.

We'll see where the Works-in-Progress are at after the weekend...

Snip!

My yarn arrived, but not until Monday afternoon, which gave me plenty of time to reinforce and cut the steek in the Oranje.

I was mostly just worried about the sewing part, and deservedly so, as I can't seem to sew in a straight line with the machine, particularly with bumpy, stretchy fabric like this.

In fact, when I did cut it, I did cut through some of the reinforcing threads (by cutting perfectly straight through crooked sewing), so I ended up going over that part with an overcast stitch afterwards. I was hoping the wool would be grippy enough that I wouldn't have to worry about it, but it isn't quite (two ends tried to come loose while I was picking up button-band stitches, though it was easy to catch them and set them back in), so I feel a lot better about it having gone over them again with the machine.













Other than that, the cutting itself is easy-peasy. Reasoning that the worst thing I could do is somehow cut through both layers, I grabbed a small bit of cork board I had laying around, and put it between the layers to prevent that. I don't know how likely it ever was that I'd actually cut through both, but once it occurred to me, it seemed foolish not to take precautions!

It seems to me that cutting armhole steeks would be about the same level of nerve-wracking as cutting open button-holes; you wouldn't want them too big by mistake, so just take precautions like you would for button-holes. In this case, I only had to cut open the front, which is more about keeping straight with your sewing and cutting.

Delighted with the button-band so far, and with how neat the pressing made the edges!

Of course, once I reached this point, the mail arrived. Now I'll have to put the Oranje down for a little while so I can get my work done, but being so close to done, it should be easy to get myself to pick it up again soon.

Woodland Cardigan

Way back in March, which seems like ages ago now, Kate Heppell, Knit Now Editor, put out a call for submissions for the Fall issues with, as usual, extremely gorgeous mood boards.

I liked a lot of things in the mood boards, particularly the Down to the Woods board here. (I'm also on Pinterest, over here). Now, there are no hedgehogs or rabbits in my neighbourhood here in the Alberta prairies (though a porcupine and many jackrabbits/hares have been spotted), but I've spent so much time in my childhood reading novels set in England that I feel a displaced nostalgia. I loved this board, especially the hedgehog in a woolly blanket, and the animal garlands, that to me suggested rows of stranded knitting.

I had about three ideas going that gradually got narrowed down to a baby pullover. Of course, then I re-read the header on the board, which asked for Adult garments and accessories. After a brief moment of disappointment that I'd got it wrong, I wondered whether the hedghog, bunny and acorn motif I'd been working on in my head was way too cute for an adult sweater. Deciding there's no such thing as too cute in this case, I came up with the following sketch and swatch, and sent in my proposal.

The hedgehog and acorns were easy to get just so, but it took a few tries to get a bunny motif that looked just bunnyish enough without making it much bigger than the hedgehog.

Kate e-mailed to say it was great and that she'd like to commission it, but there's another woodland pullover sent in that she loves just as much, so could I make it a cardigan instead so that both patterns would be different enough to be in the same issue? (Check out the lovely Parliament of Owls pullover here on Ravelry!) I said sure thing, and starting plotting to make it work.

There were a few changes that need to be made, I found, as I started a new, flat swatch (we had worked out that it was best to have this one worked flat rather than round and steeked, as the pullover has steeks in that pattern), that a few changes needed to be made, such as changing single stripe rows to two rows. 

I also realized that while I could knit stranded knitting with both hands on the knit side, I'd never worked purls with my right hand. I set about learning how (after all, millions manage it every day), but eventually realized that my tension being very different while purling with my right, I'd have to resort to knitting with both hands, and purling all stitches with my left, being careful how I dropped and picked up the yarn again to ensure correct yarn dominance while stranding yarn in front of the wrong side.

I think I managed quite well in the end, though I will say it was a challenge to get the sample knit up in three weeks, some of that time having been spent re-calculating for the new gauge with the actual yarn, J.C. Rennie Supersoft Lambswool 4 ply. It's a really light fingering weight, and I ended up going down a needle and therefore re-calculating all 7 sizes. The results made this extremely worthwhile, and by the way, the yarn washes up just lovely.

Thanks to a friend of the family, I have a few modeled shots from a few minutes before I took the completed sample to the post office!

I would like to thank Kate and her staff for all their hard work on Issue 39, which looks great! You can buy it here at Knit Now.

Huge thanks to the amazing Sigrun, who did a pre-tech-edit tech-edit for me, helping me double-check everything before sending things off, and to Steph who encouraged me and advised as I sorted out a few problems in the early stages (also for lending me a long 2.75 mm circ)! 

Big thanks to my whole family for their encouragement, and particularly to my husband and kids for their love, patience, support, and willingness to let me ignore them completely for large stretches of time while working on the Woodland Cardigan!

In Which I Sneak in a Bit of Extra Knitting Time

Sometimes, everyday life gets away on me, and I both run out of time for blogging and can't think what to blog about. Sometimes, I am too busy crafting to write about crafting, which is not a good enough excuse at all.
Sometimes, I have projects that I can't share yet as they are awaiting publication first.

I'm working on a few of the latter, but luckily enough, also took some time for knitting for myself over Easter.

I started these socks last March, and worked another inch this past weekend. I think they'll be set aside for awhile again, but hopefully not for quite as long this time! The pattern is Liab, and I'm working with Stroll Tonal in Gypsy. This time before putting them down, I've circled the next stitch on the chart. It took me nearly half-an-hour to figure out for sure where I left off last time. It should not have taken that long, but it really, really did. For one thing, I was holding the chart upside down and not paying enough attention to where the beginning of the round was. I also was in dire need of coffee at the time.

The Orange yarn-dyeing that I was on about awhile ago was not just for my soccer-themed hat. It was also for the amazing Oranje cardigan by Ann Weaver. The minute I saw this cardigan come out as the Knitty Surprise for that issue, I had a crush on it. Also, a bit of a crush on Ann Weaver. She's brilliant!

I've been waiting for ages to start it, and it is chugging along merrily at the moment despite my misreading of the braid instructions on the first try. It's been awhile since I've worked one of these braid stitches, and I'd completely forgotten how. I was holding the yarn to the back instead of front, and just ending up with normal purl stitches. I can't believe how long it took me to catch on that they would not magically become braids this way. The next time through, I have just a few minor errors in the braid that I am not going back to fix as almost no-one will notice them if I do not point them out (two twists in the wrong direction, and one white stitch that should be black that I can fix with a duplicate stitch if I remember to get around to it).

I love this so far, and, since I'm on the straight orange part, will probably have it as my uncomplicated carry-along-with-me knitting off and on for the next while, even if I will likely have to ignore it for a few months now and again in favour of other commitments.

In Which I Run Out of Yarn and Adjust Accordingly

Introducing my rendition of the Dahlia Cardigan by Heather Zoppetti.
 

I almost had enough yarn to finish this cardigan. I couldn't get more, but I finished it anyway.

I had accidentally made one of the front parts too short, but was waiting until I finished the sleeves to fix it. I was sure I had enough yarn. Very sure. Very wrong, as it turned out.

Not only did I not have enough to fix the front (good job it looks fine anyhow), but I didn't have enough for the second sleeve either.

I wish I had taken a picture of one sleeve being knit out of the yarn from the other sleeve once I'd spliced the yarn together so that one came right from the other, but you'll just have to picture it yourself. It would have been rather funny (robbing one sleeve to knit the other) if I hadn't been right in the middle of it.

I ended up with enough to finish both cuff lace-details, but not enough to knit the seed stitch cuffs, so I ended up knitting a few rounds of plain stockinette, then binding off in reverse stockinette.

Despite all that, I'm rather pleased with my new sweater, and, as it's an alpaca/wool blend, it's soft, cozy, and warm as well as stylish.

I'm sure I'll find an excuse soon to wear it more or less everywhere.