Tag Archives: A Year of Techniques

Little Tern

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Sunday, May 25, 2025

We are at the beginning of what is technically (here in Maine) tourist season which also means summer. Those of us who know Maine are laughing because this is the least summer-like weather we’ve had in forever at the end of May. It’s been gray and rainy for days … weeks! It’s leaving me a bit fatigued, maybe a bit depressed (although with the way things are in this country and around the world it makes total sense) and all I really want to do is sit and knit. I’ve been doing plenty of that.

Little Tern by Tin Can Knits

I have finished the Little Tern blanket by Tin Can Knits in Fyberspates Vivacious DK. This photo looks more turquoise and the real color is more green but I love it and the blanket is an heirloom-quality knit. As I was knitting this blanket, the second one I’ve made, I was thinking about how much I loved making the first one and how grateful I am that I had the presence of mind to buy extra yarn so that I could make this one! I think I’ve written about this before – this pattern and yarn were one of the “kits” in A Year of Techniques, a class that I took several years ago with Jen Arnall-Culliford. It was a series of tutorials that then became a book and you could take the class with or without buying the yarn kits. I did. Mostly because I didn’t know any of the yarns that they were using for the tutorial projects and, boy, am I glad I did. This is one of my favorite yarns but there were many.

Little Tern is designed by Tin Can Knits. It uses a provisional cast on and then the body of the blanket is knit in a textured pattern that is easy enough to (almost) remember. Once the body is done, a lace edge is knitted onto the body on both ends. It’s rather ingenious, frankly. AND it’s absolutely engaging and gorgeous. I seldom knit the same pattern twice and I am actually looking forward to knitting this one again (I have a set of purple Fyberspates Vivacious DK for another blanket in my stash.)

I also finished the quilt that I made for my granddaughter’s sleeping nook at Yaya and Poppy’s house. This fabric was in my fabric collection and I only bought the one piece of flannel that is the backing. I even made the binding out of left-over bits and scraps of the fabric I used for the quilt. This week I hand-stitched the back of the binding and it’s now ready to be put to use. I think she’ll like the bright colors and the soft warm flannel on the back.

We finished painting her little nook. It’s the same width as a crib mattress and it’s really purple. Way more than I am comfortable with but I am thinking that once the wallpaper birds on a wire is up and the giraffe picture is hung, I think it will be a bit less “purple”. But it’s what she asked for … I simple neglected to think about paint colors being darker once they’re on the wall. It’s all good. We backed my IKEA Kallax storage cube unit with a “bead board” panelling, trimmed the bottom of the nook after the panelling was installed and the shelf unit was attached to the wall so it can’t tip over and then the room was painted. We need to cut some slats that will sit up a bit so the mattress is off the floor and then put up the decorations. I still have to make two pillowcases and if I have time, I’ll knit a little blanket like one she has at home. All things to make her stay here at Yaya and Poppy’s feel like home. I’m crazy like that.

I’ve been working on finishing up little projects and have done well doing that. I’ve knitted and blocked two more tams for my client. She loves these hats and they’re not a bother to make up for her. It’s nice that she appreciates them so much. I also made a little “blueberry” hat for our soon-to-be Denver nugget. I used a pattern by Ann Norling and Malabrigo Rios yarn. It’s pretty cute. Now, of course, I’m knitting a bigger one for Sylvie. She loves blueberries. I’ve been working my way down the second socks’s foot (the first one fits perfectly), and I have been picking up my Jelly Roll blanket. A customer brought in bits and bobs of leftovers and I brought home a few fingering weight yarns that she left to add to my blanket (as if I was going to run out any time soon.) I also made some strawberry jam this week and a batch of blueberry muffins for my hubby. We brought the strawberries at a very good price at Costco on Monday specifically for jam making. Yum!

I pulled another unfinished project out of my cupboard. Ages ago I bought a kit from Jimmy Beans Wool that was to make Franklin Habit’s Dolores (a sheep) and some of her outfits. I got the body finished and then the project went into time out … not because of anything other than my little cast-on-itis and there Dolores’ body has been resting waiting for me to turn my attention back to her. The other day I pulled out the bound off stitches and will be more firmly stuffing her body and then closing her up again. I will be committing time to getting her finished because she’ll be a fun addition to Sylvie’s nook. I think. AND she’ll be finished. I really am trying to get projects finished … I have a few. (Ahem.) I haven’t forgotten the pink mittens either … the first one is mostly finished and the embroidery looks pretty good, actually. Think I can get a second one done?

I have a couple of deadline projects … both are Love and Light by Laura Nelkin. When a couple gets married in our family or has a baby, they get one for their home. I haven’t made one yet for Amy and Jake (they were married a year ago-ish) so I’ll make one now for their baby’s nursery. I’m calling this baby the Denver nugget and he or she is due end of August/early September. Sylvie has one in her room in NYC and it’s used as a nightlight. I’ll make one for her nook here so it’s just like home … and not at all since she won’t be sleeping in a crib for the first time ever. We are all crossing our fingers that she stays in bed like she does at home. That reminds me that I need a bookshelf for her wall.

Gone knitting.

Monday, Monday

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Monday, April 14, 2025

And here we are at Monday again. It was a short weekend after a very busy week and I’m not sure that one day is enough time for me to recover from busy weeks any longer. I need more down time! Luckily, I have today and then I’m working extra days again this week because the boss is out of town (and will be for almost a month).

On Saturday I taught my first workshop in a couple of years. I think the last one that Glenda and I co-taught was in 2021? The last one was all about Intarsia and this one was all about Stranded Colorwork. I had a large group but it went well and, as usual, there were some who were better prepared skill-wise than others but that is to be expected. It’s good to stretch ourselves and learn new skills – and we have to always remind ourselves that perfection is not the goal. In essence, the workshop has you knit a swatch … there is a charted pattern which was new for some, and there are five colors to use. It was a great class in that they all worked so hard that at 11:55am, I was shocked to see that the class was almost over … and so were they! They were in the zone! I consider that a success. We meet again next week to learn a steek – reinforce the knitted swatch with crochet stitches and then cut the knitting and add button bands (to make a coffee cozy.)

There was one woman in the class who shared the same name (as I recalled) with a woman I went to high school with. She was a grade ahead of me. Turns out they were one and the same. What fun to meet again after all these years. I hope that we can get a group photo next week and I’ll try to take photos of their progress, too.

I thought long and hard about what I would knit next and I’ve cast on a little pair of green socks for my granddaughter. She loves putting on her own socks and she even likes them mismatched. These, I hope will work for her mom who likes to wash and dry … the idea I have may not be conducive to a dryer but we’ll give it a try and see how it goes. I’m not going to share (yet) what my plan is to make these uniquely Sylvie. If it works, I’ll share. For now they’re just little green socks in King Cole Footsie yarn. I use my good old Knittter’s Pride (KnitPro) DPNs in US 1.5 and the Yankee Knitter Sock pattern vanilla sock.

Yankee Knitter Socks, Child size

I have also cast on a baby blanket that I hope will be an heirloom for my bonus daughter. I was reminded when I was in NY that I had two more sets of yarn to make the same Little Tern blanket that I made for my first grandchild before Sylvie was even a twinkle. I loved knitting the pattern and I loved the yarn so much that I ordered extra yarn to make two more. (I was taking a series of classes called A Year of Techniques and they came with yarn collections from the UK. Two of the projects called for the same brand of yarn and I chose not to make them but got more yarn for the blankets instead.) Anyway, I cast on a green blanket for the Nugget on Friday and have been happily knitting along … enjoying it just as much as the first one and I’m pretty sure I used the written instructions last time and am using the chart this time!

Little Tern Blanket in Fyberspates Vivacious DK

I have swatched for a Patty tank in Berroco Chai. The swatch gauge is a bit off so I will knit one size up and hope for the best. I think it will be a good summer top and the red color I chose is really pretty – it’ll go so well with my white jeans! I have quite a bit of the Lang Bebe 200 yarn that I made the Newborn Vertebrae with and I think I need to make a pair of infant thumbless mittens and a hat to match for the Nugget and use it up. I have no end to the potential projects that I can cast on and several sewing projects as well. I have to finish the quilt for Sylvie’s bedroom at Yaya and Poppy’s house before they come for a visit this summer (and I have to find or piece the backing). I have a hole in my favorite jeans so I have promised myself that I would patch them up. I found the patch and I think I’ll try sashiko stitching the patch. AND I have a pair of my husband’s boot socks that are wearing thin. I think I’ll repair them before they have holes. I just need to get all of this done!

Fortunately this is not a busy meetings week but I am working Tuesday and Saturday after my second workshop ends in addition to my regular days on Thursday and Friday so my free time is even more precious … and with that, I’m signing off.

Gone knitting.

French Macaroon by Caroline Hewger for the Noble Thread

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Sunday, June 23, 2024

It was gray and hazy when we woke up this morning and we’ve since had a really good rain storm. Think rain boots and full-length yellow raincoats with a hood pulled up rain storm. The plants will thank us for it, I’m sure. I had intended to start the day with a trip to Target to return some stuff I bought last week that didn’t fit as intended but I went up to my atelier instead.

AND I’m happy to report that I’ve finished the first French Macaroon sweater. This was a simple/boring knit until the finishing part. The garter stitch body starts with the main color and then you cast on the stitches for the sleeves on each side of the body in a contrasting color resulting in a little “T” shaped boxy form. The second side is pretty much the same except for a button hole at the middle of the back. Then it’s a three needle bind off at the shoulders/sleeves and seam the sides and underarms are you’re good to go. BUT I realized a little too late this time that the sleeves are meant to be folded back so the next time I make this sweater I’ll weave in well past the normal distance.

I left the cast on tail extra long at the very beginning so I could use it to seam the body in the main color and I cut off a length of the left-over contrast color to seam the underarms. Seaming Garter Stitch is pretty simple if you look at what you’re doing and know how to read your knitting. On the sides, you grab the bars behind the smiles or frowns (look at your knitting and you’ll see what I mean!) on one side and then go to the other side and do the same. On little garments I tend to use every stitch rather than two at a time which I sometimes do for adult garments.

Under the sleeves it’s a bit different but still simple enough if you read your knitting. I took a few in-process photos to show you what I mean.

I marked my stitches on the top of the underarm with grellow “loops” and I use the bottoms of the loops where the “v” is to insert my needle. Can you see the lower “v” that’s in front of my needle? (There’s another loop with a “v” stacked on top of where my needle is. I am careful to catch the two legs of the bottom “v” (the stitch) when I am seaming.

This is half of the seaming … seaming requires two sides. In this case I’m holding my sleeve horizontally so I have a top and a bottom that I am sewing together. Here’s the bottom.

The photo on the left shows the little smiles and frowns that are on the bottom row of the sleeve seam. I am going to go under the smile in this case and grab both legs of the stitch and in this case, they’re an upside down “v” (an “A”?). You’ll notice that the smiles are above and between two frowns.

Now you’re going to loosely sew between the top and the bottom of the sleeve leaving the stitches loose for about an inch or two and it will look like the first photo below. I’ll take hold of the tail of the yarn and pull the working end/ where the needle is … gently! until all of the stitches are zipped up tightly. I pull once more from each end of the working yarn to ensure that the seam is taught and will lie straight. Continue across the underarm a couple of inches at a time until all the stitches are used up.

Ta! Da! You’re done! I find seaming really satisfying when you (finally) learn how to handle the different types of seaming that you’re asked to do in knitting. After 40-ish years, I am finally settling in to being comfortable with seaming and don’t dread it like I used to. I knitted seamless garments for years because I was so intimidated by seams but as I started to learn more techniques for finishing and seaming, I got more comfortable. Kind of like everything in life, right? Thus the statement, “The more you know” (remember the PSAs on NBC?)

I knitted this little Macaroon sweater in Berroco Vintage DK rather than the intended cotton yarn. I don’t love knitting with cotton and Vintage has a bit more stretch and it’s soft and washable. This one is going to live with a friend’s baby who is bi-coastal and he should be able to wear it in the fall. The fact that the sleeves can be rolled back is a good thing because it’ll give him a few months more wear because they grow almost fast enough that you can see them grow out of clothes from day to day.

I have two more of these sweet sweaters to knit for other babies in my life. I think I’ll take one of them with me on my next travel excursion and in the mean time, I’m working on a pair of Hermione’s Everyday socks for my sister and I cast on a tank top for me last night.

Hermione’s Everyday Socks is a free pattern on Ravelry by the Crazy Sock Lady. I have written about it before and I love this pattern. These are knitted with Coop Yarn’s Socks Yeah! fingering weight superwash wool with nylon. I love this yarn! I had gotten several hanks of it when I joined A Year of Techniques with Jen Arnall-Culliford back in the day and chose not to make the projects in the class. Years later, I made a pair of orangey-pink socks for myself and I want to send a great pair like this to my sweet sister. I like this pattern with variegated and solid yarns and it’s easy to memorize. I’ve started the second sock and they’re almost always with me just in case I have a few minutes to knit.

Last night I cast on the Staple Linen Top by Joji Locatelli in Muse, a merino/linen blend yarn that I bought when I attended Knit City Montreal. I’m eager to see how the yarn knits up. This pattern was one of the shop models at Sonder Yarn Company’s booth and I thought it would be a good summer garment and I hope it will fit well and look a little dressier than a t-shirt. I loved the pale pink Grand Ballet colorway. Crossing my fingers. Ha! Ha!

I’ve gone on too long. The rain has stopped and I can go get dressed and head to Target for my returns. Gone knitting.

Making and Baking

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February 7, 2024

Today I’m changing up my first photograph. This is the second loaf of bread that I’ve baked since the New Year. The bread store that we’ve been enjoying for as long as we’ve lived here full time has closed. The city is building an affordable housing complex and will demolish the Universal Bread Bakers building. We have missed Adrian’s bread and had to figure something out to replace it and I decided to try the NY Times “No-Knead Bread” recipe. It’s simple ingredients and quick to mix but it takes a lot of time to let it do its thing until you can bake it: 12-18 hours of rising time, 2 hours and 15 minutes of resting and rising time after that and then you can bake it in 45 minutes. BUT it’s really good!

I also baked Hermits today (while I was waiting for the bread to complete its second rise. The recipe is a really old one and I love having it and using it. It came from my paternal grandmother’s recipe box which I have since passed on to my cousin. Granny Rockwell was a Cordon Bleu- trained cook. I’m not sure how she did that but her family was privileged even way back when. Granny was born in the late 1800s and was a student at Smith College in 1911 when her father took her on a “world tour”. I assume that’s when she took classes in France, but I’m not sure. A side note: when she died and we were cleaning out her house, we found a mint green satin cape from Paris in the attic. What I would give to have that today. I also found a drawer full of glass eyes. I never knew she had one and still don’t know how she lost her eye.

I’ve had a couple of FOs in knitting and sewing, too. Last week I sewed four linen dish towels. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s a start digging into the fabric and projects that I’ve accumulated over the years. I also washed, dried and ironed some fabric for a baby quilt and a tunic for me.

I loved (loved!) knitting the Double Thick Hat pattern. A customer told me about it and I really enjoyed it and the yarn, Juniper Moon Farm’s Herriot Fine, is sooooo wonderful to work with. I have the equivalent of another hat left over and will cast on another one soon.

I also finished my second pair of socks for 2024. I used deeply stashed yarn from the Maine Fiber Frolic that I have to have been carrying around with me for 10 or more years. It feels so good to be knocking down the stash. I default to the Yankee Knitter sock pattern and love it so much and I did that again for these socks. They’re simple, plain socks so the busy colorful yarn can take center stage. The yarn is from Maine Woods Yarn in superwash sock colorway is Maine Lobstah. I think it looks like a cooked lobstah!

I’m still working my way down the sleeve of my traditional Norwegian sweater. I’ve put the one sleeve on hold and am working down the second one. I hope that I can then do both sleeves’ colorwork and cuff. I’m not sure why this is such a challenge to knit but I am going to believe that the old pattern from another country where knitting is a part of the fabric of the culture assumes that the knitter knows certain traditional techniques. I will master this bit but it sure does intimidate me. I don’t want to get it wrong after all this knitting … and I sure hope I’m not allergic to this wool yarn! (I put on my “Patsy’s Traveling Sweater” the other day and had to take it off because it made me cough and my eyes were running. It’s made in Plymouth’s Gina, now discontinued. I’ll try to wear it once more and will give it away if I can’t wear it.)

My friend and co-worker, Glenda, and I were twins at work last Friday. We both wore our Nancy’s Vest that we knitted together in a self-proclaimed KAL. We both loved the pattern because it taught us a few new techniques without being too difficult and we love the Manos of Uruguay Milo yarn.

On my needles: a new pair of socks using another deeply stashed sock yarn by Socks Yeah! by CoopKnits In a peachy colorway. I am using Hermione’s Everyday Socks pattern by Erica Lueder which is a free pattern on Ravelry. It’s a simple 4-round repeat pattern and I find it seriously potato-chippy. I can’t seem to stop knitting them. I love the yarn. LOVE it! I originally got this yarn with a collection from the UK from Arnall-Culliford Knitwear for a series of lessons called A Year of Techniques (which went on for three years with three different books, all different yarns and patterns. It was wonderful!) If my memory serves, the peachy colorway was to have been one of three colors for a knitted animal. I didn’t want to knit the animal and so here we are.

And as I mentioned earlier, I’m working down the second sleeve of my Norwegian pullover. Progress is being made. I’ll be casting on a new project with Glenda soon for our new spring KAL project. It’s fun knitting with a friend! We will be knitting Susan B. Anderson’s Christopher Bunny. Something fun and a little bit different for heading into spring. I have to finish my sweater soon so I can start knitting another new project. AND I will be pulling my pink mittens out again – the first one needs to be embroidered and finished and the second mitten, too. So many projects, so little time. Ha! Ha!

This is my weekend to work again so I won’t be knitting on Saturday but Sunday I will give myself the day to relax and knit. I’ll need it after three days at work. For now I’m signing off and heading over to my knitting chair. It was a beautiful day on the lake.

Gone knitting.

WIP – Moorland Socks

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Years ago, I was intrigued by A Year of Techniques “club” that came from the Arnall-Culliford Knitwear company out of the UK. I often seek to increase my knowledge of knitting so that I can pass what I learn on to my students and this seemed to fit right into that column. AND it was a year of improving knitting by a monthly technique project. There was a book and twelve projects so it seemed to be something that I could manage with everything else in my life.

That first year, I managed to complete a bunch of the patterns in the book. I also made the decision to buy the yarn collection for all of the projects because, being a company based in the UK, they were using yarns that I had not seen nor worked with. It would be an additional bit of knowledge that I could gather about yarn and how to match yarns and patterns and maybe, too, a little bit about color.

That first year I finished seven of the twelve projects. I ended up frogging one and not completing another because I didn’t like the fit, so we’ll count it as five projects completed and enjoyed. The next year they did Boost Your Knitting: A Second Year of Techniques followed the third year by Confident Knitting. Each year I went along and bought the yarns and have really, really enjoyed knitting with yarns that I may not have otherwise been exposed to in rural Maine. (Until I get to Paris and Shetland, anyway.)

But I digress because where I wanted to go with this post was to tell you about my Moorland Socks WIP. Moorland Socks were in the third group of technique projects. The yarn is from Fab Funky Fibers and contains two mini skeins as the main color of the socks, a wonderful self-striping multi-colored yarn with another mini for a contrasting heel. The technique for this project is a Garter stitch short row heel.

Today I finally finished the first short row heel and what fun it was to knit. (I can’t wait to try it on and see how it fits and how it feels to wear!) Because the heel and short rows are garter stitch, there is no need to pick up and knit the wraps for the short rows and that makes it much simpler and more straight forward to knit. I found that I did need to keep count of the stitches between the wraps, however; at least until I figured out how to read my knitting. It was more difficult on the increases (after the decreases on the first half of the heel) but I managed it, I think, quite well and it’s a super cute heel if I do say so myself.

Such a pretty heel, such a pretty sock! Since I wrote this I’ve finished sock number 1 and have cast on sock number 2. The mini skeins made it pretty easy to “match” the socks (so they look alike … or as alike as I care to make them look.) The fit’s pretty good, too. I’ll be curious to see how this heel wears compared to my favorite heel flap and gusset. I’ll let you know.

Gone knitting.

A Year of Techniques

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IMG_8391I joined a knitting challenge this year. It is called “A Year of Techniques” with Arnall-Culliford Knitwear and Mason-Dixon Knitting. Twelve months of technique-improving knitting projects. As a knitting teacher, it’s always fun to try something new. If I can master a new technique, I can share it with my students, too!

I am already way behind on these projects. (Too many projects and not enough time.) I told my husband, with tongue-in-cheek, that I will need to quit working to keep up with my knitting!

I knitted the first project (at least half of it) a pair of fingerless mitts called “Hyacinthus Armwarmers” and a technique for striping without a jog called “helical stripes”! I loved the technique but I didn’t love the yarn I pulled out of my stash for the mitts. I knit one mitt and put the rest aside!

I “skipped” (for the time being) a shawl project featuring color-blocking and intarsia. The pattern is designed my Maine’s own Bristol Ivy. I have five skeins of cumulus yarn for this project and I will probably get to it eventually.  I also “skipped” a little stuffed toy, a mouse, using a pinhole cast on. But you can see that the projects are diverse and fun. I am enjoying the process!

IMG_8391This month’s project is a hat, a cloche, actually, that also begins with the pinhole cast on and also works on knitting on an edging. The cloche was designed by Romi Hill. The Talmadge Cloche is a lovely piece and it’s been fun to knit. Although it’s not anything to knit while drinking an adult beverage or while at a knitting group as each stitch needs to be counted.

I’ve enjoyed seeing this piece come together and I love the Year of Techniques series, too. Each month there is a tutorial (click here to go to the knitted-on edging tutorial) that accompanies the project. You can purchase a yarn “kit” or not. I did and have enjoyed working with yarns that I may not have otherwise held in my hands.

Stay tuned … pictures coming soon!

Gone knitting.