Category Archives: Knitting

1. belonging or pertaining to the origin or beginning of something. 2. new; fresh; inventive; novel

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I’ve been working on designing a line of original dog sweaters and coats for a year or so now. I just came across the notes I took from a teleconference with a friend who has been in the garment industry (for people) for her entire career and whose wisdom and experience I truly value. We had talked about having twelve (TWELVE!?) designs and changing out the fabrics for the seasons. Well, the seasons may be do-able but no (freaking) way I’ll have twelve designs any time soon! A girl’s got to make a living and without taking my little business all the way to an Andean village where women can knit for me, I need to get these patterns written, tested and knit up a few samples.

I have four designs at this point in time that I can use as my base.

The Señorita Lolita, a sassy dress with a ruffled skirt and a big colorful flower on the shoulder. Fingering weight yarn makes it more time-consuming to knit but makes the little dress flow-y and light. I just sent my first iteration of this sweater off to the Central Florida Fair as my submission to the “Other” category. Submitted with this photograph of my little Lola (“Whatever Lola Wants…”) who is my inspiration for the design.

The Boyfriend is a classic turtleneck sweater knit in bulky yarn which makes it pretty quick to knit up unlike it’s sibling above. The design is based on the women’s sweaters with the same name that are bulky and loose and snuggly … hoping that the feeling of wearing a boyfriend’s sweater will translate to the feeling of caring for your fur baby.

The MacTire. Irish knit-style cabled sweater with a turtle neck collar. Right out of the pages of GQ! (Is that still in print?) I love this sweater with the “hugs and kisses” cable down the back. Also a relatively quick knit as it’s in a bulky wool, it’s simply classic and appeals to my Irish roots.

MacTire (mock teerah)

Last but certainly not least is the Nor’Easter Coat. Seed stitch is one of my favorite textural stitches and with this bulky or super-bulky wool, it is a visual thrill. The stitches are tightly knit and make a really warm coat for chilly days. I’m working on the finishing touches to the pattern. This may be my current favorite!

Patterns to come!

Gone knitting!

Annie says … On slipping and decreasing

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I “promised” way back when (I took the weekend courses with the wonderful, beautiful, talented, Annie Modesitt) to post some tips that I gleaned from the classes. There were so many wonderful bits that she offered and, today, I’d like to share a couple of those with you!

Tip 1

When asked to slip a stitch, the default is always to slip the stitch purl-wise by inserting the right needle into the stitch to be slipped from the right to the left in front of the left needle.

Insert right needle as if to purl (from right to left in front of left needle) ... OMG, my thumb has dry skin!

Tip 1.1

Annie attributes the following tip to her friend Sally Melville (I have all of her books. Now, it’s time to actually read them rather than looking at the pretty pictures and reading snippets!)

When slipping stitches: if you’re going to use the stitch again in the same row, slip the stitch knit-wise. If not, slip the stitch purl-wise (the default, see tip 1).

Tip 2

Annie has her way of decreasing down to a science. When you want to decrease with stitches leaning to the left, you would “typically” be told to “SSK” or “slip, slip, knit”. To do this you slip one stitch from the left to right needle knit-wise as if you were going to knit it (see tip 1.1), slip another stitch from the left to right needle knit-wise and then knit the two together (bring the left needle through the front of both stitches on the right needle, wrap the yarn as if you were knitting, slide the new stitch on the right needle and slip the two old stitches off the left needle.)

Slip - Insert right needle into stitch from left to right as if to knit

Knit - Insert left needle left to right into the front of the 2 slipped stitches

An easier way …

SSK is very manipulative (to the stitches, anyway!) The more you manipulate the stitches, the more likely they are to get stretched out. So, you end up with the same thing if you K2togTBL (knit two together through the back loop) or as Annie writes it K2togL (knit two together left). To K2togTBL, insert the right needle through the back loop of two stitches, wrap the yarn as if to knit, slip new stitch onto the right needle and the two old stitches off the left needle. One stitch decreased. The decreased stitch leans to the left.

Insert right needle through the back loop of two stitches

Another way to think about this (decreasing to lean either left or right) is to watch your needles.

A K2tog (Annie would write this K2togR) will lean to the right (in the direction of the direction of your left hand needle) …

K2tog - right needle points to right ... decrease will lean right

SSK or K2togTBL or T2togL will lean to the left … again, watch your needles!

K2togTBL - Right hand needle is pointing to the left, decrease will lean left

The final result … whichever way you choose to make a decreased stitch … is the same. Look at the first two (on left side of needle) stitches. One is a SSK and one is a T2togTBL.

After ... two left leaning decreases (one on l. is K2togTBL, on r. SSK)

Tip 3 and Tip 4

Totally unrelated to knitting except for the fact that it’s about a knitter.

Annie uses Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals make up. I’m going to look into it because I love the idea of sunblock being in the makeup!

She also loves to knit on Signature needles. I’m coveting my first pair and will report on their beauty when the gift fairy brings me some.

But for now, I’ve gone knitting!

Fun and Games – Random Stripe Generator

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I found this wonderful knitting tool on a blog. (Does anyone else get lost following from one blog to another around the Internet?) Anyway, I digress …

I found this wonderful knitting tool on Caitlin’s blog (biscuitsandjam dot com) and it helps you create a random stripe pattern for your knits. If, for example you’re knitting a striped scarf, you can click on the colors of yarn you want to use and the number/numbers of rows in each stripe that you want to have in your scarf and the random generator shows you what your scarf will look like.

Better yet, if you don’t like the first pattern, refresh your screen and it will show you another and another and another until you love one. Scroll down and there’s your pattern! Marvelous!

Here’s the link to take you (magically) to biscuitsandjam dot com’s random stripe generator … have fun playing with stripes! And a big thank you to Caitlin (in Portland, OR) for the tool. And the fun blog!

Work and Risk and the Central Florida Fair

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Entered in the Central Florida Fair

So, I had an interview today with Michael’s … I’ve applied to teach knitting in their store in Sanford, FL. It’s very interesting to bring my knitted samples and listen to the feedback. Talk about confirmation! I’m excited about the opportunity to teach there.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished knitting a pair of felted slippers for my former colleague at the Health Improvement Collaborative (the best little non-profit in Cincinnati), Erika. She chose the yarn and I think she’s going to be very pleased. I’m eager to see how they look felted! I’m not sure I’d have chosen the yarn but I’m glad Erika did because I really like it! Goes to show you what happens when you try something new and different … something that you might not have tried.

I’m not really a risk taker. It’s (normally) frightening to try new things in life. That being said, it’s such a good way to stretch myself. I found the same satisfaction in my Ohio book club where it was sometimes challenging to even think about reading some of the book choices. But I liked most of the books.

SO, on that note, I’ve entered two pieces of my knitting in the Central Florida Fair. I’m a bit weirded out about it because I’ve never done anything like this before but I’m also energized by the idea. And, frankly, am thinking about what I can knit to submit next year, too! I hope to have the opportunity to join my knitting group for demonstrations so that I can also go and see (and photograph) the knitting entries … and see what’s there.

Off I go into my day. I’m hoping to take before and after photos of Erika’s slippers later today and will post them here!

Gone knitting!

 

Felted Bag with Annie Modesitt

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Bee-fore (LOL!)

This is the bag that I made in one of my knitting classes with Annie Modesitt a couple of weekends ago. I finally got around to felting it and getting it photographed. (Because we all know how busy the Queen Bee is these days?!) Anyway … you can see the stitches and the lovely orange diamond knit by Annie herself!

Orange diamond by Annie

And now, the final, finished, felted piece.

Finished and Felted

The stitch definition is all but gone! The natural wool (aka ivory yarn) was from California, straight from the farm and felted a bit differently than the other yarns, but that’s OK! I am very pleased with the way it turned out and would like to make the larger version. This one is too small to fold over and add handles to … not sure it’ll be particularly useful, but it sure it cute!

Gone knitting.

Design – 2012 Trends

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I’m already laughing because the original title to this post was written “Design – 2010 Trends” … and it’s true that I am not a fashion plate, what the heck gives me the chops to design? And my response to myself is, “it’s for dogs!”

I do believe that fashion trends are created by the industry solely to give designers and fabricators job security. Those of you who are fashion-driven (I do not belong to this group) will be drooling over the new colors and styles paraded across magazines and runways and city streets. I just happen to be missing that gene. But, dressing my dogs … that’s a whole other situation!

Bright colors seem to be the trend and lots of pattern. The Señorita Lolita is still in vogue (no, not the magazine) and I still believe that neutrals and traditional cables like the MacTire are timeless. This little coat is really cute – celery green and with the fabulous seed stitch texture. I have to find the right buttons to go along with it … perhaps one that is feminine and one that is masculine (for obvious reasons.)

I knit this coat with a super bulky merino wool by Rowan called “rowan big wool”. It’s 100 gram ball (at approximately 87 yards) was just enough to make a coat for a or 11 pound dog … with a little bit of wiggle room depending on button placement. The shade that I used (29) is a light celery green … one of my favorites! I love knitting with this wool. It’s soft and not at all splitty and knit up it’s light weight but really warm. Care for this wool by washing in cold water by hand and dry flat. Never wring hand knits – simply roll them up in a big towel and press the water out of the garment, unroll and dry flat.

Rowan has a bunch of beautiful patterns FREE on their website! You’ll need to register but, trust me, it’s worth it! Their patterns are beautiful and plentiful!

I think the second draft will have to be in a tangerine orange color as the Pantone color of the year is “tangerine tango” a vivid red-orange that would look so wonderful on my boy, Boogie! I never liked “orange” but find myself wearing it today! Go figure! I’m so stylin’!

So, off to the yarn store in the world wide web I go.

Photos to follow soon of all my finished projects!

Gone knitting!

Knitted Name Tag – On the Way to Naples (FL)

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My Four-legged Boy!

This was the view from my front seat – my little fur-boy in his car seat. They seem to like it because they can see out the window (if they’re to asleep). We’re on the way to see N’s mother in a nursing home in Naples, FL.  As usual, I am knitting as N drives.

A couple of weekends ago, I had the privilege of knitting with a whole gang of new faces (and Annie Modesitt!) Well, it turns out that these women are all a part of Orlando’s Knit or Knot Guild (the Central Florida Chapter of the Knitting Guild Association).

Wednesday evening I’ll be knitting for the first time, post-Annie, with these ladies whose company I have really enjoyed. Well, the long and the short of it is that they’ve apparently been talking about making name tags for quite some tome … and Wednesday is the day! So, I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to do for my name tag. And I decided that the only thing I could do is knit one!

And when I really started to think about what I would knit … square, rectangle … I had to do a bee skep and bees (of course!) So, off I went into my stash and found some perfect-colored (honey-yellow) Cotton Ease yarn and in my “scraps” basket some black. And off I went!

Materials? Check.

I’m quite pleased with the way it’s turning out. I used one of the techniques that Annie demonstrated and, with a couple of spacing challenges, got my name “written” on it. The most challenging, however, has been the single crochet edge that I’m trying to put around it. I’ve pulled it out a couple of times and will likely do it (at least) once more.

Almost there ... got to get it home for the finishing touches!

Gone knitting (well, truthfully, single crocheting).

Annie-isms … The Rules

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So, having paid for the weekend with Annie Modesitt (reasonable though it was!) I thought I’d milk it for all it’s worth! Get it? … Milk it? … Cow? (Supposed to be a joke … my kids always told me I’m not funny but I know that I can be. LOL!)

Love!

There were several knitting tips and life tips that Annie imparted to our group along the way and I wanted to share some of them with you. Because you deserve it. And because I think so often that things that apply to knitting also apply to living.

Ponder this:

Annie’s Three Rules

#1 – I’ll tell you later (Yes, this is what she said … not kidding!)

#2 – During class, I (this is Annie speaking, not me … although the rule is so appropriate for a classroom setting, I may just steal the rule!) should be the only one talking.

#3 – Don’t rip out the knitting that you’ve done in class. It’s hard to do a post-mortem without a body in the room.

And her number one rule … are you ready for it? Drum roll, please …

Don’t say anything about yourself that you wouldn’t want your daughter to say about herself (that you wouldn’t want to hear your daughter say about herself).

Saying negative things about ourselves only brings us more of the same.

Conversely, saying positive things about ourselves only brings us more of the same.

Interestingly, I found this on one of my Facebook favorites this morning.

Acting As If (with credit to happiness in your life dot com)

It’s a relatively new favorite page, but a favorite all the same. Primarily because it’s all about being positive – and I believe that you have to act as if … we believe what we tell ourselves … and if we tell ourselves positive things, we’ll attract more positive to our lives and we’ll be happier. Sounds easy, right?

One of my college friends reminded me that this was similar to the way that Abileen (think the book/movie ‘The Help’) talked to the little girl that she cared for because she never heard it from her mother. So true! That little girl (or boy, let’s not discriminate) needs to hear our mother tell us we’re special. That first intimate relationship with another human being is so important for our emotional and personal development and it’s crucial to becoming who we really are. And because so many of us didn’t hear that from our mothers, we can heal that inner little child by telling ourselves things we need to know.

So, for today, I’m practicing telling myself positive things. Anything practiced can become a   habit – and I really believe that this will bring even more happiness into my life.

Gone knitting!

A Weekend with Annie Modesitt

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Knit or Knot Group

OMG! She is fabulous!

Day 1 – Friday

Classes on Friday were Embellishments and Heel! Learn Toe UP Socks with Mutt-Luks!

Embellishments Swatch

You can see we did several different embellishments. I, personally, love love love the little dreadlocks! Anyway, you’ll see that there are several rows of garter stitch (just to warm up our fingers!) and then the first embellishment was the “dreadlocks”. Next, bobbles. These are nice perky bobbles with no droop or hole underneath. I love the idea of using these as buttons. Next we did a few rows of cables … without a cable needle. A great technique because, Annie says, using the cable needles stretches the yarn and sometimes makes for a gap or hole in the fabric. This technique will not! Last, but certainly not least, we did a couple of different bind offs … a picot bind off (on the right) and an i-cord bind off (on the left). The picot bind off could be used as closure for a cardigan sweater, for example, with some lovely bobbles as buttons. The i-cord band could include i-cord loops or frogs. I’ll be playing with a few of these ideas. I’ve played with adding i-cord to a flat garment but never edging a garment with i-cord!

(PS) My swatch is sitting on one of the books that I bought at the classes which Annie has written, Confessions of a Knitting Heretic. The second book I bought was this one:

Cheaper than Therapy is a collection of stories that were gathered by Annie. Since I’m a one book at a time kind of girl, I’ve not really dug into either one yet. But I am looking forward to them both!

The second half of our technique classes on Friday was a toe-up sock with a different (and better) toe and a different heel … an after thought heel of sorts, made with short rows. We didn’t really make a sock but we started (duh!) with making the toe and then knitted several rounds of the “sock” before adding some scrap yarn to mark where the heel will go. I still need to go back and finish the “sock” and I’ll show you pictures at a later date … or I’ll add them to this posting.

Day 2- Entrelac Lace

Saturday we did entrelac. Lots of entrelac. Mind-boggling entrelac!

Entrelac Swatch

We started out with our work flat, working back and forth in entrelac. I really like the look of  the entrelac (especially in two colors). It’s such a harlequin look. With the idea that entrelac can also be worked in the round, we then joined our work and then made the squares bigger and worked the top ones in lace. It was fascinating to think about taking a somewhat complicated technique and making it more complicated but the lace skirt pattern that Annie used as her example is really lovely and I would love to make something similar!

Day 3- The Universal Mitered Bag/ Modular Knitting

Sunday we made a small Mitered Bag. Using three colors, we learned how to form the interlocking triangles in different sizes and how to construct a bag (to be felted) using the technique. I found this technique really easy to follow and really enjoyed it. Annie even knitted on my bag to show how to do some of the steps … thus, I have a bright orange and a couple of tiny gray “diamonds” (on the left) which she gave me permission to pull out – but who in their right mind would pull out Annie Modesitt’s knitting? I think it makes my bag all the more special!

My Mitered Bag

This is the bag before felting. Notice the really cool “edge” at the top where the purple and cream yarn are twisted.

Two Rounds of Twisted Edging - Looks like Herringbone!

I originally had gone around again (because this round was done by Annie. Yay!) but it was too wide and I went back, after making sure I could actually DO the technique, and tore it out and bound off. I do think I’ll buy some good wool for felting and make the next size bag because it was really lovely and a good size.

Annie also gave us some tips for felting (and told us about her online classes that she offers … I would encourage anyone wanting to learn more about our craft to check out her classes  … click here to be magically transported to her site! She’s a wonderful and thorough teacher and I learned a lot!)

So, add in a potluck lunch that lasted into the next day, some great knitting women in the Orlando Knit or Knot group – which, by the way, is the local Knitting Guild Association group – and a lot of laughs, and you get the general gist of the weekend.

I had a blast – and I’m still recovering from the mind-bending concentration. I took some notes and will share some of them with you “down the road”. But for now …

Gone knitting (maybe my heel)!

Second Iteration?

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So, you’ve seen the Malabrigo Rasta cowl that I knitted (in a simple seed stitch and in a lousy photograph) a few posts ago.

Poor color (not accurate) and not a great look!

Well, I decided to redesign it … which meant frogging it and then re-knitting.

I totally love the yarn and want to work with it but it’s just not working with me … or for me! I’ve knitted three really long 5-stitch I-cords and braided them together and this is what it looks like now!

(photo coming soon!)

I’m still not sure I’m in love with this and probably will frog it, too! I really want to use this yarn for something that I love love love … something that I will wear or carry or otherwise use on a regular basis! For now, it’s going to sit on the needles and we’ll see where it takes me!

Knitting is a lot like life – you never know where you’re going to end up. One day you may be very productive and other days, never get out of your own way. It’s learning to recognize each day for the value that it adds  and accepting every one as it is. Judge me not, I don’t get a ton accomplished every day but over the course of time, it all balances out and I’m proud of where I am today.

Gone knitting!