more progress on Applewood

On Friday I joined the underarms with 2" worth of stitches on each side. Ever since then this sweater has been knitting up very quickly! I love how it is turning out.

Notice something funny about the color?  One thing to consider with hand-dyed yarns such as Malabrigo is that no two skeins are exactly alike.  If this is a problem for you then you can knit each row from a different ball and have them blend together, but I prefer to play up this feature and ensure that my sweater is one-of-a-kind.  It's helpful to have a plan for how the colors will be distributed.  In my case, one of the three balls I have is much lighter than the other two.  I thought it would be pretty if there was a wide band of the lightest yarn (containing the most pink color) in the top-middle area, and having the darker (more brown) parts on the very top and on the bottom half.  I saved part of the light ball to pick up the sleeves and knit a few inches with it there too.

On The Needles

After the snowflake sweater I knit on size 15's, I was itching to knit something with teeny tiny stitches. And I don't care how long it takes me!  I had three 470-yard skeins of Malabrigo Lace (100% merino single ply) in the beautiful colorway Applewood purchased a few months ago and I am finally free to work with it as my #1 priority project.  I experimented with needle sizes and settled on a size 4, which gives a light airy look to the fabric while keeping the stitches small enough to not feel like I'm cheating satisfy my lace craving.  At my relatively tight gauge, I get 7.5 stitches to the inch.

Terry, the owner of the LYS where I work, let me borrow a very helpful book called Hand-Knitting Techniques, which was put out by Threads magazine in the early 90s.  It's a collection of focused articles written by various knitting experts.  The article I'm using is about knitting "designer raglans" from the top down.  Basically it talks about breaking from the traditional raglan shape by deciding on your desired ratio between the measurement across the back and the measurement of the sleeve width along the shoulder.  Beginning at the neck of a top-down raglan, you always increase at four points every second row to give the traditional sleeve shape. At any point there is a constant relationship between the two, explained by the formula

Back = Sleeve + D

so you can create a wide sleeve (where D is a smaller value), or a very tight small sleeve (where D is a larger value), and still use the simple top-down raglan technique to knit your sweater.

If I haven't lost you yet, I would like to show my progress on the sweater so far!  I wanted a very wide neck that is as low in the back as it is in the front, so I started by casting on 53 stitches  for each of two sleeves and increasing at the neck edges as well as the regular sleeve points.  Finally I cast on extra stitches at the end of each piece and began to knit in the round to join the two pieces and form the neck opening.  Of course to show the maximum potential of this gorgeous yarn I had to add in some lace.   I chose a sweet rose leaf panel that I believe works well in this colorway.  I guess I am really into sweaters where the front and back are identical - that's what's happening here! (Not unlike this)

One of the four sleeve increase points

Rose Leaf Lace panel.  I got the idea
for this and lots of other lace samples
here. I modified the first repeat
so that there didn't appear to be
the bottom half of two leaves at the neckline.

This is the best view of the whole thing
right now.  It's not easy to look at on the
needles but once I get to the underarm
it should start to look more like
a sweater!

Been Thinking...

The infrequency of my posting lately is definitely not due to any lack of knitting or other creative projects - I will get to those soon enough!  After my last update on the snowflake motif sweater I forced myself to bear down and work on that thing nonstop until it was finished.  But that really got me thinking about the direction I want to take with my work.  Commission projects mean a guaranteed sale, but they are not nearly as satisfying to work as something of my own choosing.  So at this point I am ready to put all of my focus on following my own instincts, creating things I love and then trying to sell those - rather than taking the safe route of the guaranteed sale.  Luckily with my two paying jobs, I don't have to rely on income from my sales yet.  So it will probably take some time to build a viable line, but I'm very excited about it.


Naturally, my antennae are out for a new name. Something beautiful, memorable, radiating an inexplicable, effortless wisdom?

Finishing a Sweater

I've noticed a sad but interesting thing about myself and, in my very rough calculation, this seems to apply to about 50% of knitters I meet everyday. Some projects, like hats, are very easy to finish, but those that require "making up" can sit, completely knitted, in a closet for years just waiting to be finished and shown off. Let us not fear success! Just think of all the compliments you will receive on your sweater, of the baby that is now six months old and in need of a hand knit blanket, or whatever the incentive that works for you.


If you haven't noticed, I'm trying to motivate myself here.  I have been working on a coat-style sweater on commission since October now.  In my defense, I had to take a break from it for my Christmas knitting, at which time I was able to finish several different projects, though mostly small ones.  But I finished almost all of the main knitting on this sweater about two weeks ago and I've just been avoiding the assembly of the pieces, the next necessary step.  So today I forced myself to sew the side seams and the sleeve seam of the one trial sleeve.  Note that it took no more than an hour.  Oh, and it didn't hurt at all!

Goin International

In the words of my sister, "business is booming" for my PennyMae shop this week.  I've made four sales to four different countries (Japan, Australia, the US and Spain)!


Three of my items were immediately relisted, but the last one (my Southwestern top) I couldn't, due to a hard-to-find yarn I picked up in Sequim, Washington.  However, I do have the same yarn in a different colorway, which is light pink and orange.  Keep an eye out for this one coming soon...

Southwest Fantasy

As you can probably tell I have many many projects going all at once.  It gives me lots of variety and little chance of boredom.  As much fun as it is to start new projects, of course nothing compares to the satisfaction of actually finishing something!



Coinciding with the miracle of a computer returned from the dead, what a great time to finish a bright and (I think) stylish new top to photograph and edit with the latest version of iphoto!

This Southwestern top is knitted in one piece with an identical front and back.
The bias cut drape was created using a combination of yarn-over increases (at front and back) and decreases (at both sides).

The Next Level: Knitwear Design!

     Last year at this time I was working my trail crew internship at Baxter State Park and, in my spare time, knitting my first sweater (The Sublime Organic Cotton dk Pullover).  At that point if I so much as dropped a stitch off the needle, it would be a week before I would even look at the project again for fear of accidentally twisting the stitches trying to pick them back up!

It's encouraging to think how far I've come in the past year. When I opened my PennyMae shop on Etsy, I was just beginning to push beyond the basics of knitting.  In the next several months I filled my shop with many small projects using all of the new skills I was learning.  Now I have reached a skill level where I am comfortable enough to really move into the exciting world of knitwear design!  Despite my lack of recent posts, there are actually several things I have been working on that I can't wait to share.  Here are two of them:



Purple sweater vest using 100% local handspun wool from Chittendon, Vermont.
Since this picture was taken, I actually finished the main knitting (all except the edging along neck and sleeve openings).  However, I'm not satisfied with my decrease method on the sides of the sleeves, where you can see big stitches on each side, so I am going to redo it.  More on that later...





My favorite - I will go into much more detail about this item later.
Just a little teaser for now :)



the dip dye-ing process

Yesterday I began the dip dye-ing process for my knitted boho bag.Well, the beets did not exactly produce the color I was looking for - less deep red and more of a stomach acid yellow-grey, I would say. Luckily I did some small test pieces before throwing my final product into the pot.

I was about to give up on the whole "nature" route and spring for some powdered Kool-Aid when I decided to try using a bottle of cranberry juice berry dye.  Actually I will probably try Kool-Aid too another time, but for now I am keeping things natural.  Here are some photos of the process so far!

Step 1: almost all in, except the top of the handle.
I let it simmer for about an hour.

Step 2: lifted out the handle and simmer some more.
I left it in approximately this position overnight
then simmered for another hour this morning.

Step 3: after rinsing the cranberry juice off the bag,
I placed only the bottom portion in some tea,
where it is currently simmering.
I'll probably let it go about an hour.



UPDATE:

Here it is all done.  The cranberry juice barely stained the cotton at all!  I may add some store-bought dye to it later but for now it is a very light pink on top - although I do like the way the tea stain worked on the bottom.  On further research I learned that Kool-Aid works great on wool but does not work on cotton.



Color From Nature

I absolutely love color and while there are so many colorful products out there, I am excited to try dying things myself!  Rather than buying from the store, I'm gonna start experimenting with natural plant dyes.


I knitted another one of these "boho bags" but this one is bigger and made with a natural off-white cotton.

Everything about this screams "blank canvas" to me.  So I've done a little research and I'm planning to use some of the beautiful beets Ned brought home from his co-worker's farm the other day, along with some strong tea, to dip-dye this handbag and hopefully turn it into something much more exciting!

Red Fox Progress

Here is a sneak peak of the nearly finished RED fox!

Debbie Bliss
Donegal Luxury Tweed Chunky
in Sienna and Ecru

It's amazing how fast I was able to make this now that I figured it out the first time.  I did have to do a few extra stitches everywhere because this yarn is not quite as bulky, but I'm pretty happy with it overall, and without any re-doing!

Lux Knit Fox Stole

I'm happy to report that I have finally finished the fox!

Now that I've developed the pattern, I got some rusty red-orange and matching off-white chunky tweed to begin the next one...

Golden Snake Charmer

I designed this tiny handbag (my first one) using oversized needles for an interesting snakeskin effect.

I have been experimenting a lot with putting simple knots in i-cords.  This may become a theme in my projects...

Winter Hats

I am always looking at color combinations that I see around me - in nature, on houses, interior design, you name it.  I know it's a little early for winter hats, but there are a couple of color combos I had to try out and a hat is the perfect sized project to do it!

Fat...Fluffy...Fabulous

Since my last update about the fox stole, I have made several changes.  I figured since I was redoing the tail, I might as well try something different with the feet too, which were looking a bit unnatural to me.

It was getting much closer but
the tail and feet
were still a little too stubby...

Longer feet and tail but
somehow the tail looks WORSE...

After the second redo, I was happy with the feet and pelvis, but the tail was still not right.  I decided to try something different this time, and I'm really glad it worked.  Rather than take out the entire thing, I detached the tail from the body, fixed it (by decreasing at a less rapid rate so that it looks more elongated) and "surgically" reattached it to the body!

Fat...Fluffy...Fabulous
Finally!

Fox Stole Progress

Here is a quick image to show where I am going with the fox stole.

The slant is formed by
decreasing on the right every rs row
and increasing on the left every ws row

I've done and redone this much over and over, but reassuringly it gets better each time.  I am pretty happy with the top portion now, but a proper fox tail should be fat, fluffy and fabulous.  I'm not seeing that yet.  So I had to take a break from it this past weekend. I now prepare to start all over again, looking forward to the results...

Copyfox

Oh, the life of a struggling artist.

It is always a good feeling when you receive a request from someone who wants to commission a project!  Recently Like a month ago, a girl from Tucson messaged me on Etsy about trying to recreate this chunky knit fox stole.

Eugenia Kim for Anthropologie:
nearly 300 big ones!

One thing I've had on the back burner of my to-do list is learning amigurumi (the art of crocheted or knitted dolls).  Most use crochet over knitting, as it makes a sturdier fabric.  However, I will always prefer the look of knitting over crochet.  The fox stole has given me just the push I needed to perfect this new skill!

Jet-Set

     Good morning from Portland International Airport! Soon I'll be on my way to Philadelphia where I will enjoy a late birthday lunch with my BFF Kara (her birthday was yesterday) before boarding my plane to sunny home Arizona! 


     My project for the plane:  Italian Ice Tank Top

re-check your gauge!

     When you are working on something that really needs to be a certain size, just doing a 4x4" tension square before you start is not enough!


     Here is what I did last night to start my Italian Ice tank top:

When checking gauge transfer work
to a tiny needle so it will lie flat.

remember: stitches are v's

     I measured by gauge earlier at about 4.2 stitches per inch.  When I sped up and got going, I tightened up to exactly 5 stitches per inch.  It may not sound like a lot, but that's enough to make my garment several inches too small when you consider the front and back, which would really ruin an already close-fitting design.


     Now call me fearful of wasting six inches of colorwork, but I decided that instead of ripping back I am going to add one inch side panels.  Already you can kind of see that I kept two stiches on each side in garter stitch, but it isn't standing out as much as I'd hoped anyway, so a side panel would be just the ticket.

inspired by the yarn

     You notice on Etsy that a lot of knit designers say they are "inspired by the yarn" to make a certain item. I stumbled upon this huge stash of a precious yarn called Italian Ice that is for sale right now at Salvation Army for $3 a pack of 10. According to the label it is made in Windham, which is the next town over where I do most of my shopping.  I guess the company that makes it, Knit One Crochet Too must have had some overstock.

Italian Ice is
61% Cotton
26% Linen
13% Viscose

It is flat and takes a size 10 needle.
I love the look of flat yarns!

     

     I think this will look good for a lot of things, but the one I want to focus on first is a simple tank top showing semi-linear horizontal patches of the pastel pink and purple.