Air Nomad

Yes, I'm an Avatar fan.  Not the blue creature kind, the bending kind.  What can I say, I have teenagers and we enjoyed the antics of Aang and his conglomeration of benders.  Katara was my favorite then so I'm a huge fan the new series lead by Korra. Still don't know what I'm talking about?  It's a cartoon, on Nickelodeon.  And this?  This slouchy hat just turned out to be the right color and have the right elements for an airbending nomad.  I hadn't planned it that way, in fact, the arrows are kinda going the wrong way.

Pattern: available at Stitches West then downloadable from Ravelry starting March 1st.
Yarn: Handwerks Merino dk, also available at Stitches West

It's FiberArts Friday and I hope to see you next week!  I'll be in the Handwerks booth #1235.

Here's one more view for the folks at FO Friday!


ETA: link to Korra on Nickelodeon.

Color at Stitches West

While I'm working at the Handwerks booth I'm knitting up this sock. 

Canyon River was originally designed from a bargello stitch in 2 colors of yarn we no longer have.  I wanted to reknit it in a yarn we have for sale in the booth, and decided to use a single multi-colored yarn.  The stitch is a slip stitch and just a little textured.  The yarn is Super Twist in Haypress Meadow and mostly purple with a bit of yellow, orange and green.  It's completely different from the original pattern design, right?  But it works!  It follows principals outlined in a book called The Knitter's Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn: Techniques and Projects for Handpainted and Multicolored Yarn by Lorna Miser, and guess what?  We have the book for sale in our booth and Lorna will be there to sign it!  It's a great book from a very knowledgable knitter.  Who but the founder of Lorna's Laces would know what works with hand-dyed yarns best?  I was so surprised that a two color (striping stitch) could be so interesting in hand-dyed yarn.  It makes you look at stitch patterns in a different way.  I used to avoid textured stitches for variegated yarn, but I won't anymore.  Come by booth #1336 at Stitches West from 12-2 both Friday and Saturday.  Talk to Lorna in person, get your books signed and check out the yarn!

 Happy Fiber Arts Friday and I hope you have a colorful weekend!

Stitches West Countdown Cont

Less than a week to go for Stitches West and I have a few FOs!
First up is a version of my Giant Kelp Scarf, originally designed in a Handwerks Club Yarn exclusive, I've reworked it in Cabled 8.  It turned out great in this springy merino.
Next is a Drunken Path scarf in Handwerks So Soft Sock combined with Cascade's Kid Seta Noir.  It's knit up on 9's and goes fast!  You actually only need half a skein of the Handwerks.

Both of these and many other samples will be displayed at Stitches West in the Handwerks booth #1336
along with these cozy samples so you can see how the colors work up -- there'll be 25 different colorways on display available in 5 yarn bases, So Soft a cashmere blend, Silky Sock a silk blend, Cabled 8 a sport weight superwash merino, Lace  a laceweight superwash merino  and Super Twist a fingering superwash merino.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday and FO Friday.  Leave a comment and I hope to see you at Stitches West.

Cozy Cranking

What do we have here?

Lovely colors going round and round.

Coming out like little yarn sausages.

It's a circular sock machine!

This is how I'm making samples for the Handwerks booth at Stitches West.  I'm about 1/2 way done.  We'll have them displayed at booth #1336 so you can get an idea of how each color knits up!  But that's not all this machine can do.  Come by the booth Saturday, Feb 23 from 2-4 and watch me make a sock on it!

This is a Work In Progress, check out other WiPs at Tami's Amis.  Happy Wednesday!

WiPs

I'm feverishly getting ready for Stitches West.  Handwerks, the yarn I design for has a booth and I've got tons of samples going.  This is mainly why I'm not casting on anything new.  We'll have samples of all the 2012 club patterns plus those from previous years. We'll also have samples of other patterns. Laura,  chief yarn dyer will bring all her current stock. I hope to have the following done, I'm including my Ravelry links so you can check my progress. Not on Ravelry?  Not to worry all projects are public.  Check back and leave a comment.

Giant Kelp Scarf in Handwerks Cabled 8

Drunken Path in Handwerks So Soft Sock

Yarn Cozy samples in So Soft Sock

If you're coming to Stitches stop by booth #1336 and see the yarn, patterns and say hi. We're both participating in the stitch marker swap, so bring your markers.  You can even sign up for our 2013 yarn club.

Happy WiP Wednesday, join the party at Tami's Amis.

Stitches West Countdown

It's been a long time since I've blogged or even participated in Fiber Arts Friday.  But here I am, with an FO and lots of stuff in progress.  First, I'd like to present the FO, my Color Affection in Handwerks Luxury Sock (sadly no longer available).  It's laceweight, 100% cashmere and luscious, if only you could feel it!

 
If you're on Ravelry you can find details here.

I'm madly knitting in preparation for Stitches West which is February 21-24 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Northern California.  So, second (third, and possibly fourth),  I've got sample knitting to do.  A Giant Kelp Scarf in Handwerks Cabled 8, pattern by me.

 

 

A Drunken Path scarf in Handwerks So Soft Sock paired with Cascade Kid Seta Noir, pattern by K1C2.

 

And two lovely skeins of Handwerks Super Twist that will be something reminiscent of Mesquite Flat, originally done in Sock Plus 8, but no longer available, and Canyon River revisted, both patterns by me.

Why all the sample knitting? For the past several years I've been designing almost exclusively for Handwerks.  So this time instead of in the classroom, I'll be in the market! Come see owner and chief yarn painter Laura and all her yarns in booth 1336, and me, fledgling designer and all my patterns!  We'll have beautiful handpainted yarn, patterns, lots of samples, chocolate, stitch markers (for the swap!) and a sock machine!  We'll even have designer Lorna Miser, founder of Lorna's Laces (yes, THAT Lorna) signing books!  And to kick it all off, I'm having a 20% off sale on all my patterns available on Ravelry, just enter FNFSALE for the code in your shopping cart, now through February 15th.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday and FO Friday!  Leave me a comment and stop by again to check my progress!

Stitches West: The Classes

I took two classes at Stitches this year.  First up Latvian Wristlets from Beth Brown-Reinsel.  This was a 3-hour class that explores techniques in Latvian Mittens.  Lots of single colors in a round.  I was hoping to experiment with colors in the class so I can plan out my Latvian Mitts, a pattern featured on the cover of the last Knitting Traditions put out by Piecework Magazine. I think the colors worked out and it looks like I can mix them up pretty freely.  The braids really encourage contrast.
The herringbone braid in the middle is especially nice.

Here are all the colors I used.  You were suppose to have 4, but like I said, I wanted to experiment.  Judging from my Latvian Mittens book, there doesn't seem to be a rule about how many colors to use, as long as it's more than 2.  Yarn is Handwerk's Sock Plus 8, sadly now discontinued.  It's stretchy so I have to remember to go up a size when I switch to the stranding bit, then back to smaller needles for the picot finish.  I had issues during the class and after so here are some notes I'll be refering to when I actually start the mitts.

Zooming into the above picture, I'd like to point out the lovely half braids near the cast-on edge.  There's a two-color braid followed by a single-color braid sandwiched between purl rows.  The problem?  This is the wrong side.  Somehow things got flipped when I went to start the lace portion of the cuff.  The picot edge needs to be whipped stitched to a lower set of stitches than I chose, probably would keep it from curling (besides the needle adjustment noted in the last paragraph) and would probably hide the ends tucked in a little better (I can't see them from the inside.

Another class I took was Even More Challenging Japanese Stitches a 6-hour class.  I've been collecting Japanese stitch pattern books for awhile now but haven't been able to get into a class with Gayle Roehm (the Queen of Japanese Stitches).  She also had a 3-hour class, Challenging Japanese Stitches.  Here's a swatch and the start of a tam all showing the stitches she presented (I started the tam in class, but I've frogged it and will restart it in a better yarn).  Also pictured are the books I picked up at the market.

I also got a copy of Stitch-n-Bitch Superstar Knitting Go Beyond the Basics.  It covers a lot of material and has some pretty cool patterns.

That's it for Stitches West.  Now that it's March I get to buy even more yarn using my birthday discount at various LYS's.

Stitches West Stash Enhancement

Rather than bore you with the endless parade of pink yarn here some highlights from Stitches West 2012.  It's a big market and if you don't focus it could be very dangerous.  With the stash as big as it is I really didn't need anything so I only bought what I couldn't pass up.

Like the bag of 10 Ella Rae Classic Heathers -- $4.50 a ball! Gotta love diving in that Woolstock bin.  And the 1.22lbs of handpainted dk superwash?  Always a good deal to be had at Newton's.  Best buy of the show, the Fabel sock yarn at Nordic Mart, normally $4.25 for a 50g ball (insane!), it was on sale all weekend at $3.55 a ball!  I actually got other colors (12 balls total) but I haven't taken pictures of it yet.

I did branch out a little on the fiber though.

Here we have some Knitted Wit wool/silk and WSK merino s/w -- sooo soft and fluffy.

And I could NOT pass up this wild thing:

I mean seriously it's bright! BFL from Blue Moon. Very, very, very neon.

And then I always get a kit from the lovely ladies at Continental Stitch:

I know it's pink.  I swear they must think of me when they put this stuff together!

And of course I added this to my spindle collection:

It's a turkish spindle and a support bowl from KCL Woods.  The bowl unscrews from the base so you can screw it onto the handle and make it a lap bowl.

That's all for me on Fiber Arts Friday!  Party On!

edited later to add linkies and labels

Stitches West 2011

I found my other Stitches West posts from previous years and tagged them all "stitches" so they're easier to find. Stitches coincides with my Winter Longaberger order so as a tradition I've set my class samples with new baskets. This years Stitches experience for me was very different from previous years. It's my 15th convention. The first one I attended I had been knitting all of 3 months. I haven't missed one since and I've taken classes every year. I try to review the classes before registration opens and usually signup the first day. This year I missed the first day of registration which meant alot of the "good" classes were filled. Knitting and Stitches have been gaining popularity over the years so you snooze, you lose. There were still too many choices and with 14 Stitches under my belt not much that interested me. All my favorite teachers were booked or not coming (Madrona, another knitting convention was being held the same weekend up in Seattle), and most classes covered things I'd already done. Frustrated I gave up. About a month before I checked to see if there were any classes still open and found there were, plus they added some. So, reluctantly I signed up. I really wasn't expecting that much. My first class "Morphing Cables" was taught by Fiona Ellis -- love her stuff, have both her books. I came in sat down, got all my things out, knit the 4x3 purl/knit rib and waited. She talked about cables crossing and cables travelling then she said, "using the 4 right and left crossing/travelling stitches knit something from your swatch". I froze. I was utterly paralyzed. Um, where's the chart? She kept talking, "think about where your paths are and where you want them to go". She also put a graph up depicting the angle of acceleration of travelling/crossing stitches. I'm not good at this -- I can follow directions, charts, I know how to fix a missed crossed cable. But I couldn't just go. I wasn't the only one. Lots of us were just plain stuck. So she gave us permission to screw around, just play, see what happens and well, it was slow at first, but this is what happened: 

Cable swatch with Sweethearts basket. Not bad, eh? I first went in, then out with a few twists here and there and something emerged! Not perfect, but it made me think. So many possibilities. I was inspired, hey, I was getting excited. The last couple years I was busy with conventions, Stitches 2010 and CNCH 2010 were back to back and I managed booths at both of them, plus a spinning contest. For Stitches I coordinate the "Learn to Spin" booth where we teach spinning on drop spindles made with repurposed CD's, a grommet and a wooden dowl. Have I taught you to spin? Add to that coordinating the "Spinning Wheel Corral" at CNCH and their "Return to Sender" spinning contest. Plus my first year at pattern writing (with deadlines!) Well, let's just say I didn't knit much. So by the time Stitches came round again, I was altogether unenthused. My second class was with Myra Wood, "More Creative Lace Knitting". I'd never heard of her, didn't know about her book and how it sold out w/in 4 months of it's first printing and was now out of print. She talked about lace basics, pairing yo's and decreases, that when designing place your yarn-overs first then figure out which decrease will work better, and what happens when you separate the yo from it's decrease (think feather and fan). She talked about shawls, and the shapes that make them up and how to fill in spaces so you get a continuous field of lace. Here's what I knit: 

Lace swatch with mini rose basket. I know, boring. Then she brought out her samples. Wow. And I'm not talking intricate gossamer lace wow. Or complicated lace doilies turned shawl size wow. All of her stuff was knitted in simple lace patterns but in variegated yarn. It was beautifully unexpected. One of the pieces was Citron (from Knitty) where she filled the stockinette with random lace patterns she got from a chart generator. Unbelievable. I left the class thinking, 1) I gotta get that book and 2) I have to knit citron in rainbow. 

Check it out, I found the book at Newtons and look at what was already in my stash? Serendipity. I'll have to tell you the story of how I found that book and my last class in my next post.

SSE: Stitches Stash Enhancement

This weekend was Stitches West 2011. For the uninitiated it's a convention for knitters. We take up nearly the entire convention center in Santa Clara. Just to let you know how big this is here's last year's numbers: 2250+ registrants, 150+ vendors and just over 11,000 shoppers. And you can bet it was bigger this year -- definitely more vendors.

I took 3 classes this year which will be the subject of my next post. For now, you'll have to be content with my yarn parade, or stuff I couldn't pass up in the market.

First up:

My kit from Continental Stitch. It's going to be a Cardi...someday.

This is a bargain bag of 50/50 Louisa Harding grace multi merino silk.

Here we have a gradient set of laceweight superwash merino from Tess Designer Yarns.

Alpaca laceweight from Ellen's 1/2 pint -- part of a scarf kit.

And last but by no means least, I got 2 things from Sincere Sheep. Above is some yummy 80/20 merino silk laceweight. And below is 4 sample skeins of merino/bamboo/nylon. All handpainted with plant dyes.

And that's it!

My Very First Steek!

I took 1 12-hour class at Stitches West that ran over 2 days. The class was taught by Beth Brown-Reinsel and on Saturday, 2/23/08 at approximately 10:30am I cut my first steek, that afternoon I cut my 2nd steek and I still have one left to go:



Here it is the remnants of my first steek. Beth let me pick up for the sleeve first and I knit through the first motif postponing the inevitable.






She showed us various finishing techniques but I liked this one, using a hemstitch I tacked the steek down with the ends tucked under to the purl bumps on the wrong side.




We had to cut the front steek BEFORE picking up the band. I made a mistake reversing the colors of the rib, so I ripped back to the pick up and with all the fiddling and doing the buttonholes twice, it still didn't unravel!

Note: I added links to yesterday's post and a purchase I missed (Yarn Country Cashmere). Enjoy!

Bi-Annual Stitches West Haul and Longaberger Basket Parade

This being the 2nd year of the yarn haul/basket parade, it's now a tradition (the first was in Feb 2006). Longaberger retires certain baskets the same time Stitches West comes along, splitting my re$ource$ between baskets and yarn.

Yarn: Jade Sapphire Cashmere Silk 4-ply in Tahitian Garden

Vendor: Artical Pract

Baskets: American Work Baskets in now discontinued colors sage (8") and merlot (10") and a 12" in warm brown.

 

Yarn: Cashmere 4-ply in natural and periwinkle.
Vendor: Newton's Yarn Country

Basket: Large Recipe

Fiber: (l-r) merino/tencel in atlantis by Chameleon Colorworks, merino/bamboo naturally dyed from Tactile and Sea Wool from Creatively Dyed Yarn.

Basket: 11" American Craft Traditions Round Keeping

Tools: Lady Anne and Flower spindles from Asciano

Basket: 2008 Sweetheart Basket w/ locket tie-on

Yarn: Fine Kid Mohair 4-ply

Vendor: Wagtail Yarns

Basket: 2008 Hostess Appreciation

Yarn: Malabrigo Superwash Merino *Test Sample*, you had to know the secret passphrase to get this not-yet-available yarn for FREE!

Basket: May Series Mini Sweet Pea

I'll have more to report later, but tonight's the Oscars and I gotta get take-out...

WWW: What in the World did I buy at stitches West

Right, I'm on a stash diet -- however, these items are exempt because they were purchased at a knitting convention convention (excl 2e). I actually didn't do too bad. I kept to my budget (if you only count the first group).
Clockwise from top:
1. Rib wrap from Continental Stitches
2. 2 sks Geisha from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Bleeding Hearts and Scaponia.
3. Lace wt tencel from Just Our Yarn
4. Claudia Handpainted 20/2 silk in Pink Posey from Commuknity
5. Linie 194 from Yarndogs
6. Merging Colors Adagio Shawl from The Mannings
center: Annie kit from Swallow Hill Creations

These items would have been okay anyways under exclusions 2a and 5.
Clockwise from top:
1. Seacoast superwash in Cherry Fizz from Full Thread Ahead
2. Paisley silk wrap from Shobha Imports (it's not even yarn)
3. Angora Valley Fly Dyed Supersport purchased from Sheila Ernst -- also purchased but not pictured -- cobalt blue Don't Drop spindle. More about this little guy later...
4. Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Seashore from Full Thread Ahead
5. Merino Tencel roving from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Red Rooster
6. Merino Kid roving from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Red Rooster
center: tote bag from Commuknity -- it's just canvas but it's big and it says "Knitting is my Yoga"

Me here at the Student Banquet with the esteemed Jane Sowerby -- I'm wearing my Shoulder Shawl in Cherry Leaf Pattern from her book Victorian Lace Today.

Up next -- the 12 hour sweater class...

addendum -- check out the sidebar for a new book coming out soon from a dear friend, knitter and blogger at Spin Dye Knit

It's that time again...

Just links today...first and foremost, since I can't express it any better than my blog buddy Cris read her take on Stitches West

Then, on the recommendation of another friend (knitting vulture, who could resist?) I went and ordered my own copy of Little Dee

Gotta go hide the ends on the RoundTrip and block the Victorian Lace shawl (I'll have a picture w/ the edging, later -- maybe while it's blocking -- watch this space)...Stitches awaits...just one more day and I can shop!

Stitches Part 2: The Classes

Here's a continuation of the Longaberger basket parade and my Stitches West report .

Clip Keeper basket (used here as a pin dispenser). Bag purchased with winnings from Open Road. This bag can be worn as a conventional shoulder bag or around your waist as a hip pack. It has one main compartment with a pocket in the back, a zipped pocket in the flap, and a pocket inside the main compartment. Large Serving Tray with Norwegian Mitten topside, class Norwegian Mittens taught by Beth Brown-Reinsel. This is the 5th class I've taken with Beth. She is a great teacher and gives out thorough instructions pictured here with the mitten. Bagel basket with Norwegian Mitten palmside, the thumb has a gusset that was knitted in with the thumb added later. Along with the various patterns for top and palm, we learned about side seam patterning and deacreasing. This mitten was knitted in the round.
Letter Tray with Bohus swatch and postcard "Blue Shimmer". Bohus was a sweater industry in Southern Sweden during WWII. The class was taught by Susanna Hansson. We learned the history of Bohus sweater industry, designers and knitters. In class we knit a swatch for an original mitten pattern. Mine's knitted with shetland wool and size 0 needles!
Morning Glory basket with cards made in Cards and Scrapping, taught by Lorna Miser. This was a fun class, we got to knit little swatches and play with yarn and rubber stamps. Lorna had some neat ideas for cards, tags and journal pages.
Lucky Twist basket containg rubber stamps purchase from Carolina Homespun. Inspired by Lorna's class above I decided to add to my rubberstamp stash. These are stamps by Kaspareks.

I also took a wonderful class by the famed sock knitter, Nancy Bush on her book Knitting Vintage Socks. We knit a sample sock and discussed vintage sock patterns and techniques. Her book is full of terrific re-translated designs from Weldon's Practical Needlework.

That's it for stitches west. I did finish Mavis in time for Stitches which I wore to the student banquet.