Yes, I’m obsessed with beads. Whatsit to ya??!! 🙂
My newest pattern is called Snowball and includes three designs in two sizes. Yes, beads are required!! It is usually $4, but through November 29 will be $3. Except for the Candy Cane motif, each ball comes in two sizes. The Holly Berry design can be used on “blank” sides of the ball.
Happy Holidays and Happy Beading to You!!
I truly am not obsessed with this issue, but I do like to “fix” things that bug me! I wrote a while back about the wonderful Rikke Hat and how I eliminated the line created when knitting garter stitch in the round. The line appears when you switch from knitting to purling.
I decided to knit my husband a sweater for Christmas…I do not knit for him very often unless it’s a hat! I saw an old pattern of Jared Flood’s…his first pattern apparently! He designed Cobblestone for Interweave Knits in Fall 2007. It is a classic sweater, very simple, very wearable. Surly made one for her son, and he loved it. The good news is that my husband, unlike me, is a very standard size! The only dimension I changed was the cuffs on the sleeve. Many people noted that they are much too big, so I started with fewer sts. Most of the changes I made were strictly technical!
The problem for me with Cobblestone is THE LINE!! Right in the center back for all to see. BUT, I thought, now I can use my two-ball method and get rid of the line. NOTE: The line is not an issue for everyone…some people like it! So I am not dissing the design at all, believe me!! There are THOUSANDS of projects on Ravelry – this is a very popular sweater!
I went to The Yarnery and bought Shelter in color Pumice. A very rustic, but lightweight yarn, in classic grey. I knit the body to the underarm, and knit both sleeves. When I finished the second sleeve, I went to bed…and started thinking. The yoke has two sections of short rows: right after joining the sleeves to the body and close to the neck. Uh oh. Short rows are knit back and forth…NOT in the round! My idea would not work as planned. So, the gremlin in my brain started spinning.
Step One: I moved the beginning of the round to where the left sleeve starts. This is actually where the round started on the body already. I wanted the short row section and the garter line to be less conspicuous. I worked the short rows as written except for where the rows started. I kept a center back marker in place so the placement of my short rows and decreases matched up to the pattern. At the end of the short rows, I left the yarn to the front after a purl row and then joined ball number 2 (keeping it to the inside) and used it for knitted rounds. Purl with Yarn A, knit with Yarn B.
Step Two: When I got to the second set of short rows (at the neck), I had already established my no-line garter. I figured there would be a few rounds with a line where I did the short rows. However, by doing a bit of a hybrid, I was able to camouflage the transition pretty well. It’s a bit complicated to describe here!
Here’s the back, showing where the original BOR was located (at center back) and where I moved it. The center back arrow shows where the garter line would have been.
No line and I even think the short row sections are pretty good. The pictures make the yarn look like steel wool or worse, but it isn’t at all! It softened up quite nicely. My hope is that this simple, lightweight sweater will be one that John grabs often. If not, there might not be another! 😉 I’ll post some pictures after it dries!
Coming Soon!
My next pattern release will be very shortly. A fun holiday knit called Snowball:
I recently finished my version of Andrea Mowry’s Comfort Fade Cardigan. Am I the last knitter to make something she designed? I may be.
My cardigan is not faded. I fell in love with a beautiful yarn from Biscotte called DK Pure. It’s 90% merino and 10% silk in the color way Fleur de Cerisier. (Click to open their photo which is what seduced me in the first place.) Fleur de Cerisier means cherry blossom. I miss my beautiful DC cherry trees so I loved the name. Knitted up, the fabric reminds me of melted strawberry ice cream — another of my loves.
I didn’t make too many changes to the sweater — just a few modifications to the numbers to create a custom size. This poor cardigan was put in hibernation I don’t know how many times, though. I can’t even remember when I started it! When I ran across it a week or two ago I realized I had last put it down with only about six inches left on the second sleeve. Crazy. I rescued it and finished it off. Loki had helped in the meantime by eating the page with my pattern notes. Bad dog!!!
I’m very happy with how the sweater turned out despite all of my self created delays. It would have made a beautiful summer cardigan if I’d gotten my act together, but now it will have to cheer me up through the long coming winter. Not great photos, but I am having foot surgery tomorrow and am too frantically busy getting organized to take better ones. Wish me luck! (And right now I’m craving some strawberry ice cream!)
When I wrote about my friend Pam, I looked high and low for a picture. Another peep from our knitting group shared this wonderful picture!! That is me sitting to her left! This shows her wonderful smile.
Minnesotans must now vote in person from today forward. Your vote may not be counted unless you drop off your ballot in person NOW or vote in person. Voter suppression is very real. Make sure your voice is heard!!
PS to JennR: We try to stay apolitical on our blog, but I guess I’ll tread into those waters very briefly. I am not alone in saying voter suppression is real. It is rampant.
It is suppression to change rules in midstream. To say that ballots postmarked on election day were to be counted and now may not be counted. It is suppression to throw multiple wrenches into the postal service to slow down mail delivery, on purpose. It is suppression to rail against the validity of our voting process and mail in voting (while doing it yourself) in order to sow doubt in the minds of the electorate about the reliability of the outcome. It is suppression to use the courts to fight against counting votes. It is suppression to limit polling places so people have to wait hours to vote, in a pandemic — talk about a barrier!
But people are voting, that’s for sure. I hope their votes are counted.
Wee and FREE! I just posted a new, free pattern on Ravelry for these lil cuties. Pattern is called Wee Pumpkins.
They are 3 1/2″ wide by 2″ wide. Take very little time to make!
PS – the large pumpkin was purchased at Target.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for the kind words about my friend, Pam. Means a lot!!
I just finished Riverfront, a unique and fun scarf project, designed by my friend Scott Rohr (co-owner of The Yarnery). The scarf was part of the ongoing Progressive East End Project (aka PEEP) hosted by yarn shops on the east side of the Twin Cities. In typical times, people would travel from shop to shop to gather the yarn for the project. This year, they had to do things differently, and did a multi-clue virtual KAL. Each shop put together a kit and made the announcement – BOOM! Kits sold out immediately. But, I snagged a Yarnery kit. Yay! You can knit this without a kit. It takes one large skein (~80 grams)and 6 minis of 20 grams each, in sockweight. The kit used Malabrigo Sock.
I of course used my No End Stripes techniques and only had the bind off tail to weave in. I did full Russian joins when the color transitions were high contrast and simple splicing when the changes were less abrupt.
Riverfront shows the undulating profile of the river that runs through the Twin Cities., the mighty Mississippi. At least I assume that’s the river that inspired Scott!! This blocking picture shows the scarf in its entirety:
Yep, it’s all short rows! Simple garter stitch W&T short rows.
Some people said they ran out of some colors. I was worried about the purple, so I substituted Abril for the Dewberry in the kit. I would have had enough, but I’m a tight knitter. After blocking, the scarf is very soft and drapey — perfect against the skin! Today it is 25 degrees so I think I’ll get some use out of it!!
PS to Amy: I have thought the same thing about kits, but didn’t worry about this one because it would be easy to substitute from stash if need be. With sweaters, I try to order extra yarn because I have to lengthen everything.
A dear peep from my Thursday knitting group has succumbed to a long battle with cancer. She kept up her spirits and her infectious smile through it all. She never focused on her illness or negativity. With the pandemic, we started weekly Zoom calls which she attended until the last few weeks. Our worst fears were realized — her journey ended two weeks ago today. This past year, Pam was knitting up a storm — many beautiful items to leave as a legacy to family and friends. Our group is so much smaller with her passing.
I’ve heard from a lot of friends asking whether we’ve been affected by the fires in northern Colorado, so I thought I’d write a brief update.
There are multiple fires in Colorado right now, but three of them affect us: Cameron Peak, Cal-Wood, and Left Hand Canyon.
The Cameron Peak fire is not particularly close to Boulder. It’s due west of Fort Collins, which is an hour drive. However, it’s a monster — the biggest fire in Colorado history. It’s been burning for about two months and still only 50-60% contained last I heard. The smoke from this fire has often blanketed Boulder as well as much of northern Colorado. On Friday, I took this photo out of my living room window in the middle of the afternoon. The smoke from Cameron Peak was the worst it has ever been. The second photo was taken from the same window today at about the same time. See? I’m supposed to be able to see the foothills from my window. And, no, there was no filter used in that smoke photo. The sky was that color; in fact, it looked worse in real life.
The good news for us is that the Cameron Peak fire is an hour away. Unfortunately, on Saturday a new wildfire started much closer to Boulder. Around 12:30 or 1:00 I saw a few puffs of fresh black smoke out my window as I looked north. I could tell it had to be a new fire — it was too close to be from Cameron Peak.
Within a very short period of time, it looked like this:
This was the Cal-Wood fire, which exploded down the foothills — it burned almost 9000 acres and 25-30 homes in a matter of a few hours. Tanker planes and helicopters flew back and forth over our house all Saturday afternoon and evening. After it grew dark, we could see flames in the distance from our house and from various roads and vantage points in North Boulder.
Just now, another tanker plane flew overhead. Those guys are amazing — they disappear into the smoke and swirling winds. Over and over. Having this fire blow up so close to Boulder city limits was unnerving. I was so touched at how the community pulled together to help: offering to rescue livestock, provide pasturage, trailer horses, and shelter strangers.
Last but not least, on Sunday, another smaller fire started up in Left Hand canyon. Firefighters threw everything they had at it right away and it has stayed under 300 acres. Thank goodness for lighter winds and a bit of drizzle in this terrible drought we’ve been in.
Cal-Wood is now about 15% contained. It’s approximately 4 or 5 miles north of us, but they’ve controlled the southern edge so we feel secure.
Bottom line: We are safe. We are humbled and grateful. We are on guard. And some of us are knitting.
I’ve been working for the last couple of days on Beyul designed by Justyna Lorkowska. I’m not too far along but I’m enjoying knitting with it. The pattern is extremely clear and well thought out. I bought the yarn at my one and only Rhinebeck — Susan and I were planning to go again this year but we all know how that turned out. Bittersweet to pick it up the weekend Rhinebeck was supposed to take place. The yarn is Miss Babs Yowza in the color Tulipa.
The back as I work down to the bottom of the armhole.
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