New things!

Today I am dithering, I have things to prepare for next week at KAN in Napier, some of which is done, some is in progress, and I'm distracting myself with all sorts of other things. I started a new project, for no good reason than it seemed a good idea at the time, and I have new stash, belatedly reported.

Pi shawl

The new project is a pi shawl, in red possum, merino silk lace weight yarn. I've admired the huge variety of pi shawls out there in the knitterverse for a long time, which the grey cardigan done and nothing really next in the queue I was easily distracted by the idea of a centre out shawl. The pattern is a freebie on ravelry, but relies on the knitter having access to an elizabeth Zimmerman pi shawl to start before heading out into a clutch of repeating laces motifs in each pi-band. The pattern modification is by Mwaa knit obsession, and called EZ 100th Anniversary Shawl: Gull wings. So far I am loving it, as like all centre out things the initial stages grow quickly and provide a good return for a little knitting.

Woollen not worsted

I've been spinning, or rather plying, here are two yarns finished this past week. Both are woollen, so spun from rolags, plied, then washed and fulled a little to set them nicely. 100 g each, one thicker spun than the other, one graduated the other more even. Woollen spinning is faster, and considerably lighter, more open, more air in the yarn, and for me produces a thicker yarn. I'll keep practicing to see if I can spin woollen finned than this.

Warm, red, orange and yellow worsted, 160g

Then there is more plying to do, a 160 g bobbin of graduated merino in warm yellows, oranges and reds. I was going to two-ply this, but then decided that the yarn would be nicer if I chain plied and kept the colour runs less mixed up. This is my classic hand dyed, hand spun, the hand knit baby blanket yar .... So once the pi shawl is done I suspect this will be the next centre out knit. Spinning is at my house tomorrow, so this will be my settle in and spin work.

The one in the middle

This is a stash addition from a month ago, the middle yarn in the Vintage Purls sock yarn club, a simply beautiful pale purple pink, destined for a shawl. Little cub loved this, and I suggested we knit it as a KAL, once I had explained she was keen. Little cub has a pale pink fingering silk merino blend that she won at Unwind earlier this year that would be perfect. We both have projects to get off the needles, when that's done ...plan to start knitting Epsom as our own mini KAL, Epsom is the shawl that comes with the club kit.

And the last installment in the winter sock yarn club came late last week. A stunning colour work project, with a lovely mod feel, the geometry and the circles of decreasing size are just lovely. I will provide a link to the pattern page when all the sock yarn clobbers have theirs, otherwise I might be accused of spoiling the surprise for those who live further away.

Take care, knit some, spin if you can, see you at KAN next weekend if you are in the Napier area.

Cheers na Stella

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Are we there yet?

Its Sunday, blog post day, and part of me wants to blog tomorrow. For tomorrow I would be there, there being at the end of the lace edge on Rosebuddie. But I'm not there yet, and in fact as parents we have both banned the question 'Are we there yet'. Any cub who asks 'Are we there yet?'is themselves asked if they would like us to stop and they can get out and walk there. We allow 'how far to' questions within certain limits, after the first question we expect them to notice and make note of the distance on road signs. So no ... I'm not there yet, but I'm very very close. I've also got a new sock on the needles to introduce, and its a long weekend here in New Zealand so with an extra day I felt I had the time to finish  some half made books.

Heading into the last corner of Rosebuddie

So this is where I'm at, less than 10 repeats to work and I'll be done. About now I really should check that the remaining stitch count is neatly divided by the number of stitches I need to complete a whole number of repeats. I checked at the beginning but that was some 600+ stitches ago and sometime little things happen to change the stitch count. Little things like when two stitches cuddle up together and act like one, or two plies separate and make one stitch look like two stitches Best to check now while I still have a few repeats to adjust things in should adjustments be needed.;

First sock of 2012

This is the first sock of of 2012, and I think my 53rd pair of socks since 2006 when I discovered sock knitting. This particular beauty is Teosinte, by Anne Hanson aka Knitspot, and I'm knitting it in a Vintage Purls yarn, Archimedes. The toe on this sock is a provisional cast on toe, and is short rowed to create the shape. I haven't done a toe like that in a long time so it was fun to see the toe shape appear out of the short rows as the wrapped stitches were collected and knit. The lace is lovely, and easy to remember and seems to suit a more stripy yarn like Archimedes. I knit most of this at a Staff-development session Thursday of last week, where the Management gathered up the entire teaching and admin staff into one huge space and greeted us for the new year. The institution in which I work has a tradition of greeting the academic year with a whole day meeting and associated planning sessions. After some 11 years I've worked out that the morning whole institution meeting makes for very good knitting time. 

Four more books

And this sunny yarn arrived durring the week, the first installment of Vintage Purls Summer sock yarn club in light lemon yellow with a shawl pattern - Demelza. There was also fudge - but that is long gone, and look little knitterly sticky notes. This is not a colour I would have ever chosen but it is so bright and yellow that I am wondering why I'd never considered this colour before. Defiantly on my to knit list. 

With the extra day this weekend I was able to spend some time finishing the books I had part made. Here are the last four of the six I have mostly done. One or two of these are earmarked for particular friends, one is for me and one is for the birthday stash. You know the birthday stash?  A small collection of things one has put aside knowing that there are birthdays and similar events going to happen. The birthday stash prevents last minute panic buying of weird gifts. Rosebuddie is headed for the 'so you are having a baby' stash, but I'm going to have to add a non-pink blanket as well as not all babies are girls, and some parents really don't like their wee boys in pink or pinky purple.

Some assembly required

Of course these are not totally finished yet, the book blocks (pages) are assembled, and the covers assembled and covered but the two have not yet been attached to each other. That is the next step, but I've found that letting the books dry out completely after each glue step makes the process neater and easier. I'm also playing with different weights of card for the covers. I have not found book-board available locally, but I've not really looked beyond art supply shops and larger stationery stores.  I do want to try Michael O'Brian in Oamaru,  as I have heard that he does sell some book making materials. Problem is that that most times I've been there, its been after hours or he has been just locking up to to go to lunch. There is a Youtube video explaining more about his work here, where he mentions apprenticeships,  part of me wants to inquire about learning bookbinding from him ... but right now there just isn't the time. 

What I have found out is that thicker card is less likely to curve when glued and dried, but is much more difficult to cut to size, thinner car dries into wave and curl shapes when glued .. unless I press it flat until dry. I can press it flat easily, but do wonder if the curl will return if the book is ever in a high humidity area or subject to some sort of mishap involving liquid. These are made with a ply-card, not the thickest I've used, and not the thinnest. I'm still exploring the materials available here and thought the ply - card, made of layers might be a little like ply wood, stronger and stiffer because of the layers. 

Surprise! - these are for Ngaire

There were two that I made and covered yesterday, with brown paper, and the last of the thicker card that I had on hand. I had a request for 'more' of the brown paper covered journals, so here are two more. One has plain paper and one has a knit grid. What I have found out is that books can be made in hundreds of different ways, and right now I'm liking the quite square spine with the french-groove hinge, and the inner book-block coptic bound so the pages open and lie flat easily.

I think I'll head off and work on the last of the edge, and then see if the book covers are ready to have their inners inserted.

cheers
na Stella

Look Snowflake!

Here in the south of the country we are in the midst of winter, so cold clear days, and 'crisp' mornings. Now 'crisp' is a local term that secretly means bitterly cold, ice and wind straight from the sea that can chill you thru the thickest of hats and gloves. At my house it has been snowing, well not really, as I have just the one snow flake - and a very pretty one. The yarn bombing on my gate has been added to, and I've been updated - this was a birthday gift with lace provided by several people!
As well as the sock today I have a new sock project to introduce and a new sock yarn....together with its pattern.

With a sock off the needles, and nothing in the way of easily portable knitting on the needles I thought it prudent to start something that was portable. Well that was the plan, Bear was next in line for socks so I provided several sock books and left him to choose. Bear choose a plain sock, plain toe, plain foot, plain heel, and 2x2 ribbed leg .... which was perfect, exactly the sort of sock project that I needed. Simple enough to be portable and mindless when I was out or distracted by life.


Except I didn't want to knit that sock. I didn't know that at first, I found a skein of Bears Bunker and converted it from Skein to cake, two cakes each of 50g. made sure it was sock yarn (superwash not vintage sock). About then I was catching up on my blog-roll and I saw the Yarn Harlot post images of exactly the sock I wanted to knit - something with texture and pattern and a challenge and yet something that wouldn't scare a Bear by being too girly or frilly or pretty. The sock is Revival and I'm being very literal in my inspiration, as I'm also working mine in grey. Bear approves - provisionally with a hesitant comment 'its not to much work is it?' Non-knitters just don't get it, sometimes simple and easy isn't enough.

Of course there is a reason I should be working a plain simple sock .... because I'm only a little way into the leg chart and already I'm frogging. The pattern is all twisted traveling stitches and baby cables - easy enough and doubly easy with pointy knitting pins. But ... I managed to mirror the pattern at the wrong point ... so ended up with a bit of a muddle ...... no problem, as I'm frogging down and knitting back up. I have already fixed one section this way .. and this will be done soon. Now that the direction of the chevrons are set the sock should be plain sailing.

This week was the second installment of the Vintage Purls winter sock club 2011 - so surprise yarn. I love this, every month during sock club - a neat wee parcel of yarn and pattern and other wee treats arrives for me to play with and stash. This is Hocken, same name for the pattern and the yarn. Hocken is a traditional name in Dunedin, streets, city fathers and libraries all carrying the name Hocken. The wee extra treat this time is a canvas bag with a sweet bird knitting graphic. This will get lots of use. The sock heel looks particularly interesting, perhaps if I had not already cast on for Revival I might have started this.

Things are quiet and busy, the first week back teaching in a new term so things are never quite where I left them. Friday I'll be teaching kids to knit at the settlers museum ... so if you are in Dunedin Friday from 10-12 - call in and say hi!

na Stella

And now I really need to say Thank-you

because I have many things to thank people for, many, many things. And this is where it gets tricky as I really can't put my thank you's in order, each is as significant as any other, and so I'm just going to introduce things in the order of their arrival. And then after I have a little bit of progress on my knitting to report and the final installment in the Vintage Purls sock-yarn club joined my stash, and lastly a pencil joke - one that has Bear and I giggling but one that the cubs puzzeled by the things that amuse adults. But first thank yous ...


A little over a week ago this wonderful book arrived at my doorstep, Fashioning Fashion - European dress in detail 1700 to 1915. This book goes-with an exhibition that was on at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, finishing only a few weeks ago. A friend had alerted me to the exhibition .. but of course LA is just a tad far to travel at short notice, so I suggested I treat both of us the book if there was one. Turns out there was .. but instead I was the one who was treated the book. I am really lucky .. this is an amazing book, and is a heavy hardback book so it was quite a gift. Sitting on the title page is a wee tiny 90mm long mechanical pencil that Bear found this week and gifted to me. It was amongst his family things, and so could have been his mothers or her mothers. The pencil takes a 1.1mm lead, which is still available, and has the most gorgeous tassel. I have no idea what this was for, I suspected it was a Bridge pencil but it seems they came in sets of four (clubs, hearts, diamonds, and spades), and it seems unlikely to be a golf pencil with a tassel like that although some sources say that small mechanical pencils were for golf. I wonder if it was a dance card pencil? Does any one have any clues? It is beautiful and will probably become my knit kit pencil.

Then my prize from Dave's Mechanical Pencils and Cult pens arrived, or rather I had to collect it from the local Post shop. This is nearly all of it, as my darling youngest cub has adopted her gift as her preferred pen and it now resides at school so was unavailable for the photo. In the spirit of the giver, I really tried to focus on pencils, so this is what I ordered :

1. Worther Slight Mechanical Pencil in Black with spare leads.
2. Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil Gift Set with a box of 12 replacement pencils.
3. Two Caran d-Arche Fixpencils, a 22 and a 77, leads, and a spare button, these are gifts one for Bear and one for S who gifted me the above book. gifts because I already have one and love it so much I want to share.
4. Tombo Mono 100 in B pencil x 3, these are rumored to be one of the best Japanese pencils on the market and I have not found any stocked locally so took the opportunity to try some, Bear gets one, I get one and we will see which of us gets the 3rd one.
5. Staedtler Mars Lumograph Pencil in B, x 2. Again not stocked locally but one Bear asked for one as he remembered Advts from his junior drafting days for these and always considered them the best but had never seen them for sale so had lusted after one as only a pencil trained draftsman can. He does have Mars Lumograph leads for his two vintage 2mm clutch pencils, and so has some expectation of the quality of the lead..
6. Schneider Base Fountain Pen in Boysenberry (as explained missing from photo) for the youngest cub, plus a converter so she can explore bottled ink, and a box of Diamine assorted ink cartridges colour way 'floral'.
7. Lamy Z25 converter so the other cub can take advantage of bottled ink in his Bright Yellow Lamy Safari fountain pen, and not be limited to the ink colours of Lamy cartridges.
8. One bottle of Edelstein Fountain pen ink, in Sapphire Blue, and two Parker Delux converters so I could upgrade the filling unit in one of my and one of Bears Parker fountain pens and play with a colour that is not readily available in New Zealand.

So... I'm happy, ecstatic really to be able to order without worrying about the cost and the shipping, such a lovely assortment of writing things. I treated myself to the Worther Slight, as I love my vintage mechanical pencils and they all take a 1.1mm lead, this seemed the perfect opportunity to invest in a modern production pencil in the same category of lead size. I won't go into to much detail here as I thought Dave might like a full review. Ditto the Faber-Castell Perfect pencil, I have used a junior version of this for ages now, the pencils are amazing, providing a very sharp black line but keeping a good point for ages. The extender doubles as a point protector and houses one of the most efficient pencil sharpeners I have ever used - one or two turns is all it takes to shave a pencil to a fine point. I took this opportunity to buy the 'gift-box' version for myself. I have given away so many of the junior perfect pencils at work to those who borrow and admire mine that I thought it might be prudent to have the grown up one to differentiate mine from theirs. Then the other items were all pretty much pure indulgences, gifts for people, family and friends, and things that I had heard good things about but not found locally, and things that made what we already had more useful.

Now having thanked S, Bear, Dave and Cult Pens .. I can move onto the knitting. The double knit mittens grow, honestly I love this technique but find the chart a learning curve of some steepness. I have frogged at least half a row once or twice. The above book has seriously distracted me most nights, and this week there was the additional iD fashion events that overtook my knitting time. Oh and on that side of things, the shows were amazing, I got to supervise students help Liz Mitchell fit her models and so saw her designs up close and in detail (just like the book!). The iD show was amazing, as always, but I'll leave it to you to browse and decide what ones inspire you, let me know what you think.

When I have not been able to manage the double knitting chart, and have not been distracted by the FF book ... I have managed to start the elder cubs second sock. Progress as shown, I am up to the gusset increases and onto the second colour of contrast yarn, soon the heel with start and then it will really look like a sock.

Then just to make my week even more exciting - the last installment in the Vintage Purls Sock yarn club arrived. The feature of this club is that it includes sock yarn but not necessarily sock patterns, as always this is is a colour and pattern I love. There is a yarn that has depth and warmth, and a pattern for gloves with a clever and decorative and interesting cuff with a real vintage feel, and then there is more. Tucked inside is a chocolate fish (a very New Zealand treat - most often used as small prizes in schools and learning situations), and more, a little pack of the most adorable vintage knitwear themed post cards I have ever seen. I know I have enough yarn .. but when her kits provide surprises like this ... it just have to have one.

Then lastly there is a pencil that youngest cub gave Bear. In truth it was a gift to her from a student teacher who was finishing her post with the class, a shiny new pencil for each student. Youngest Cub knowing how geeky her parents are about pencils and knowing it was Bears Birthday (56!) thoughtfully passed the pencil on to him. But what Bear noticed and what I love it that it is a fake pencil, oh it is a pencil all right, it sharpens and writes just fine so it is not really a fake pencil but a fake version of a famous high quality pencil, the Staedtler Norris Club HB Pencil, Made in Germany. What really makes Bear and I giggle is the name - Stapler, and the cubs just shake their heads sadly at what their parents find funny.

Thank you, for putting up with me and my non-knitting content, again.
Take care, knit some, perhaps even use an old fashioned wooden pencil, real or fake .. and enjoy the week.
na Stella

Knit, frog, knit, tink, knit, frog, knit, frog some more ...

That, my online friends is an accurate report of the weeks knitting. True to the blogs name there has indeed been far more frogging than knitting this week, and yet oddly I felt confident to start a new lace project ... and there was a new Vintage Purls Sock yarn club kit. The important part of that sentence is yarn, as in the club kits are no longer all about sock patterns but have extended excitingly into patterns that can be knit with sock yarn but are not socks. I understand there will be at least one sock pattern .. for the die hard sock knitters in her fan base.

So, today, the frog report, remember when a frog report was a fairly frequent part of every post, and the knit report, the new project introduction, and the planning of the Fair Isle Tam.

Frogging, and sometimes Tinking, was the major knit activity this week. Following last weeks post I did completely frog the blue lace band of the Sheltland yarn blanket, that was the easy task. I frogged straight onto a nostepinne, seemed a sensible move as I planned to knit it straight back up again.

Post frogging, the stitches sat waiting for me to slide them back onto the needle. I do like this shetland yarn, slightly sticky so it behaves it self, no stitches disappearing into themselves and running away.

But it was not so simple, I some how snagged one of the corners and could not drop down a few stitches and repair the damage. This was the garter stitch section where I had knit with two yarns to avoid purling, and the corner was where the two yarns were twisted together. Dropping down and picking up and understanding how the yarns worked up the corner, interlaced with each other and then worked away from the corner, well, that was apparently beyond me.

The ten or twelve rows I tried to drop stitches down and knit back up got increasingly more muddily and less like the other corners, the more times I tried, the more of a mess I made, so I frogged back a few more rows, until the corner was neat and started to finish the grey section again. Some times there is nothing else that will work but work it properly.

All that happened before Thursday, so when Thursday night came around, knit night I was at a loss about what to take to knit. I had no made much progress on a chart for my Fair Isle Tam, and I didn't want to risk mucking up the blanket any more. So I did what any sane knitter would do, 15 minutes before being due at knit night ... I opened Ravelry and hunted down a pattern. I wanted to knit a quick lace cover that smallest bear could use to tidy up her ballet bun. I found a Lace Luncheon Mat and printed it and grabbed pink linen and needles as I ran out the door. Appart from the fact it is going to be twice the size I need ... it is a good choice. Now I just need to frog it and knit it on much smaller needles ......

The tam is a knitters study project, and the second and last class is next weekend. That sort of put a little bit of urgency into sorting a chart. Inspired by Kate Davies and Spilly Jane, I am working towards a cute tam, not really fair isle but pretty and pictorial. I've assembled an assortment of knitting motifs from my knit books, and made a start. For now all I'm sure of is that there will be a couple holding hands .. and possibly a cat, or dog, or fox, or hearts .. or something equally twee. And no, they won't be knit in golden yellow, that is just the colour pencil that came to hand. Once I've planned to layout I will play with colours.

And the recent highlight of the stash was the addition of the first of 3 sock yarn kits from Vintage Purls. As usual a lovely colour and an amazing pattern, I might just use that lace to edge the Shetland yarn shawl. And of course there was chocolate, two kinds, dark my favorite and milk which is a favorite for sharing. Yarn, new pattern and lace, it really doesn't take much to brighten my week.

so .. I hope your week past and ahead has significantly less frogging and tinking than mine, and that some one does something nice for you on Valentines ..... there is already a nice pen here for me (more about that next post), and I've been making heart shaped pita breads for the cubs lunch boxes.

na Stella

Daylight saving

Last Sunday we set the clocks forward for spring daylight saving, you know spring forward, fall back? Now instead of it being light when I wake, it is dark, a small change but a significant one, I know that in less than a month it will be light when I wake again, and that the longer twilight evenings are worth every minute of morning darkness - but for now, my body is out of sync, I'm not hungry at meal times, and I'm not sleepy at bed time, and its dark when I wake up. I have been on leave this week, and I thought I'd have lots to blog today, but as the last post was Monday, and today is Wednesday there is not much knitting progress to show. I have been working on my Peruvian knitting technique, and making changes to the design for the wall hanging so there has been frogging, there is almost no progress on any other knit project, but I do have new and old things to share. The last installment of the Vintage Purls Winter 2010 Sock club arrived and it is pretty, and two vintage fountain pens arrived, and a vintage pencil, and I have ink in colours I never knew that ink came in. Ink can it seems be as exciting as yarn.

So as this is a officially a knitting blog, first I'll write of knitterly things, the current work in progress (WIP) project and then the new sock kit, after that I can let the post wander of into non-knitting territory, and you can stay and read as much as you want.

New project, or nearly new project, the wall hanging. I restarted this, I had based the design on Kaffe Fassett's 'Poppy's' but the 12 stitch floats were way to long to strand easily ... so I frogged and reworked a similar pattern but with a smaller circle. I also took the opportunity to rethink how best to knit a wall hanging, so I've added a 10 ridge garter boarder all around to keep the edges flat. I spent a wee bit of time googling yesterday, it is a word isn't it? Googling? I watched the videos of Andrea Wong knitting and found a few others on you tube that showed me a way to tension the yarn in my right hand, little things that I had not paid much attention to when watching Andrea in person. I also came across a few blog posts that detailed this kind of knitting and was impressed with this one, suggesting that those little cute hangars that come with socks (like socks need hangars!) are useful Portuguese pin substitutes. At the moment the knitting feels 'slow' but that is because I am having to think about where my hands are are what they need to do, when I look at what I knit in an evening I am pleased.

My other knit projects have been ignored, and I really should not do that, start projects and then ignore them. The Vintage purl sock kit arrived Monday, and I want to cast on .. but let me see, one part mitten to knit, one shetland blanket, one wall hanging, and one large blanket ... I really need to tame and finish at least one of those before I add another. Like all her sock designs this one is pretty, with interesting cables, this is part lace part twisty cable,and is in a lovely purple blue, and look another bead and more knitting stickies! The toe is shaped to flow around the cable lace ... oh I really need to make space in the knitting basket for this one, and soon.

With all the fibre and yarn I 'acquired' while away I can still be tempted by local offerings, not local fibre but stocked locally. This is pencil roving, so very very nice quality, Schoppel Wolle InSilk 70% merino and 30% silk. I have never had a wool silk blend this evenly mixed ... it is a joy to spin.

Added also to my spinning basket is a wee extra from Crafty kiwi, way back in May of this year we were both part of a fibre swap, and at the time he said 'opps I forgot to add the last thing'. The swap parcel was so full I couldn't think what he forgot .. but this week M who had been away to a retreat brought back the forgotten fibre. Silk hankies! Oooooo, wonderful, I couldn't resist just teasing one out to see how that worked .....and they really do look like hankies complete with a wee hem!


And now the blog takes a turn for the non-knitterly, the trip to the second hand shops on Monday was not as fruitful as I had hoped. I did score a lovely fine Sabatini Cardigan, no not from winter 08 - probably a spring collection some years before, but nice and it fits, Toby failed to spot any lego treasure. Not finding fountain pens is fine, as two have arrived in the post over the past few weeks. The top one in this photo is an unbranded one, with a 14K nib, from Trademe, refurbished and writing nicely, the second one is a refurbished Burnham #60 from Ebay UK, again with a 14k nib, but this time a stub nib, and so so smooth, and the last one is one of two pencils I bought from Ebay USA. These are Autopoint pencils and they use a 0.9mm refill, Bear has the other one. These pencils have a nice quality feel and weight and seem to be the perfect size and balance. Why vintage fountain pens, well ... Bear found his fathers pen and we identified it as an Wahl Eversharp Skyline, from the 1940's, his dads is just like the burgandy one with the gold striped cap - it is a beauty but needs some repair (a new sac and some nib alignment), then Bear he was generous enough to gift me a 1.1mm Conway Steward pencil that was either his mums or his grandmothers. I dug out my Parker 45, boring old stainless steel but with a 1mm italic nib which I have owned since the mid 1980's, and then found blogs like Daves Mechanical Pencils, and Carpe David. Oh the wonder of discovering vintage pens and writing tools over cheap disposable ball points, and of discovering inks in colours that I only thought fibre came in. I have only tried Damson, Saddle Brown, and Monaco Red so far, all of which are a world away from black, blue-black, and blue, and I can see that I need to try more, and perhaps even some other brands that are available here in New Zealand. I feel like I've discovered a world of networked pen-geeks, a lot like the network of fibre and knitting geeks I count myself as one of .... they have the same sense of generosity and sharing of knowledge that the knitters online have.

next post ... more knitting I promise, its KSG - aka knitters study group saturday, so there will be something to post from that. I'm not sure I'll be at Thursday night knitting, depends on Wee bear and the travel arrangements to collect her ...

take care
na Stella

News, reviews and anwers

Today's post is full, first up I'm guest blogging over at GrannyG's place, a review of the Nightingale sock pattern, so for a full update on that knitting you will have to pop over and read it there. There is also news ... two finished objects, the Mobius and the Rouge Roses socks .. which means I've started new thing(s). Yes plural, as in I have 3 projects lined up ready to go and I want to knit them all, one of them is the newest kit in the Winter 2010 Vintage Purls Sock Club.


so projects, well ever since I saw a pair of these in person, I've coveted them. Nothing for it but to knit my own, can you guess which pattern they are?

Squirrel sampler mittens by Adrian Bizilia. I had a day at home with the eldest cub, he had a chesty cold and really wasn't ready to participate and infect a classroom of kids. Wow .. when one knits from noon until bed, with small breaks for after school pick-ups, and travelers vaccinations, and evening meals .. one gets a lot done. I'm hoping my squirrel will have a head and complete tail by end of today.

This all came about because I finished the Rouge roses socks, and they are thick and warm and cosy. I love the weight of the yarn, its a 'medium' sock yarn, and heavier than that I usually use. I'm not sure of the logistics of fitting thicker socks into my shoes .. and I'm a little wary of wearing them too much and putting holes in them. They are lovely but nylon-less .. and for some reason that worry's me. I want my hand knit socks to last .. but I am just supposing they will wear faster, they may not and in fact the high twist is supposed to prevent that, so I need to relax, trust, and wear them.

I also finished the Mobius, and while it is longer than I expected, I did cast on a lot of stitches, and looks more like crochet than knitting, I'm happy with it. Small bear has already claimed it - which is fine by me, I can see there will be another of these soon, wider and shorter and perhaps with a finer pattern.

the 2nd installment of the sock club arrived this week and I'm smitten. Look Bugs, and aptly named Bug out. I love it, we are a little spoiled in our neck of the woods as the designer delivers kits to us, this time at spin night. She also brings her sample along all knit up for us to fondle and admire ...

and there were gasps of surprise as we turned it over and found a knitted squashed bug under the foot - that just makes it even cooler. I have already queued this one, I've not cast on .. but it might just be the very next thing after squirrels are done.

Now recently I had a comment / question from Moemoe you do such great color work are there any site, books, patterns you can recommend for a beginner?.
Well, I can tell you how colourwork began for me. At first I worked a few items that had stripped cuffs, vertical striping, that let me play without fear and intimidation of taking on a large and complex project. To start with I also worked a few child's, (well toddlers) jerseys with small repeating colour work motifs. One that I can't find a photo of right now as a variation of Wendy Johnsons baby Norgi sweater that was a pattern and steeking tutorial on Knitty. I can't say what book would be best for you as I don't have many that show how to work colour work, but one of my fist purchases on knitting was Knitting in the old way, which has details for shaping sweaters and has quite a few charts one can use to decorate items with. I worked quite a few smaller simpler projects, the FakeIsle hat, a few pair of mittens, even a pair of colour work socks with very simple patterns. I designed and worked a larger cardigan for myself, Fannigan, and knit a Bohus from a kit. Each of these was a step more complicated in the colour work and gave me more practice and experience and confidence. Most of the early colour work was simple, working a 2 blue, one green stitches across a round. And all of it was in the round, that was essential for my sanity, not to have to work the design in reverse as I purled back the other way.
In my early projects I stressed a lot about 'how to best hold the yarn'. I found several video's on line that demonstrated ways to hold and work the yarns, the Fair Isle and Norwegien blog post has a lot of excellent detail of sources in print, dvd and free on line so I wont' repeat it all here. The Philosophers wool videos were a good source when I started, as I was knitting more with my yarn in the right hand. That technique is a good one and works well for many many expert knitters. Youtube is invaluable as well.

Eventually I started to carry my yarn more and more in the left hand, and I asked on the Knitters Review forums (pre-ravelry) about how to work colour work carrying both yarns in the left hand and had several very nice knitters post details of their techniques. Those I tried and adapted and found worked for me. I have a mental block with using both hands, I can never work out which hand is holding the colour I want to use .. even if I'm looking at my hands. When I carry both colours of yarn in my left hand I can just scoop the blue or the white .. whichever I need and I'm much less confused. I have now posted on Youtube and here in the side bar videos of how I knit colour work.


One of the best hints I ever read was by Wendy Johnson, its on this page under color knitting questions. Wendy suggested as one knits to stretch out the stitches on the right hand needle so the floats are as long as they need to be. Magic! that worked wonders for me and I do that all the time now. And don't panic or write it off until its blocked ... every. Blocking solves a multitude of tension problems in colour knitting.

I guess the main point is that one becomes better at anything in stages, start small and simple with a corrugated rib or simple geometric pattern on a hat. Work up confidence and ability in stages .. and use yarn you like, in colours you love.

please .. if there are other sources or information or advice that is important, do leave a comment
na Stella