Killer Poppies

The socks are turning out to be a bit of a nightmare. Not a full blown one, mind you. Just the kind where you knit half a sock, run into an issue and spend the next 5 days redesigning it. You may already have guessed it, but the Poppy/Sunflower socks are turning out to be Killer Poppy Socks.

I hit the first snag on Wednesday night. I’d forgotten to take into account the increasing that needs to happen between the heel of the sock and the calf. Now you might not realize it, but there is a significant increase in leg circumference over the length of a typical sock cuff. Since stranded color work has so much less stretch than regular knitting, you can no longer rely on the intrinsic stretch of the fabric to bail you out.  You must design them in.

The second snag I should have anticipated, since I ran into something really similar on my Grecian Goddess socks, but I didn’t. Anticipate the problem, that is. I certainly ran head long into it. This problem being that I am anal, and I want my pattern to reach a certain place on the colorwork chart at a certain place on the foot. Which isn’t a big deal, right? I mean seriously, you just start at the toe and stop knitting when the sock is long enough. Well, that works very well with a minor amount of wrangling when the designer is knitting for their own foot. Considering that not the entire world has the exact same foot size as I do means that the pattern would essentially be usuable (in it’s best form) by only me. So all of you reading this would be out of luck pattern wise. I am a nice person, and I want you to enjoy the pattern, too. So back to the drawing board.

Once I discovered these issues all knitting came to a screeching halt. I didn’t even have an auxiliary project on the needles to help me out. Sure, I was 50% of the way through another pair of socks, but one sock was fully done and the other wasn’t even cast on. Casting on was just way too much work. So I sat around restlessly for two hours that night trying to figure out what to do. So I thought….and thought…….and thought………….for 5 days before I worked it out.

The good news is that the pattern should work. I’ve completely redone the charts – so now the stitch count is correct and it should fit me at the calf area. The bad news is that I’ve changed the starting point of the sock. It originally was a toe up and now we’re going cuff down. That means the 50% of a sock that I have done right now is going to be ripped out. Completely.

So I just ripped out 2 weeks of design/knitting work in favor of the last 5 days worth of brain wrangling.  And just in case you think that I have magic fingers, and knitting charts just flow out of them without effort I’ll leave you with this. It’s essentially an unedited chart “doodle” which was created during several design brainstorm sessions. Doesn’t it make you truly appreciate the clarity and cleanliness of a finished pattern? (And these are just the most recent changes/charts/doodles….several iterations were already erased/doodled over.)

Just so those of you who are waiting for the pattern don’t lose hope – here’s a picture of all the component yarns for the new redeisign: (Colors are: Marigold, Violet Vale, Ancient Forest)

Pretty Poppies or Sunflowers?

Forward progress has been slow, but it is happening on the Pretty Poppies Socks. But they are now no longer poppies. Why? Mostly because the word Sunflower just looked so much better charted out as opposed to poppy or poppies. So here are what the socks look like currently:

More progress would have been made if I hadn’t ripped out the original heel. The first go ’round continued the Salt & Pepper pattern from the foot. But it was too tight and thick. The shaping was dumpy and I was unhappy. Heels are a pressure/rub point for nearly everyone and you have to get that part right or the socks stink to wear. So I switched to a two color garter. You can see it in this shot:

I’m still not happy with the heel, though. Not because the shaping is wonky this time around (Although the ssk row isn’t as straight as I’d like it to be due to the color changes. But that should block out.) This time I think the combination of the instep pattern, the gusset stripes and the striped heel are too overwhelming. There’s no where for the eye to rest. Luckily, you can work the entire heel in one color and end up in the same place you started from (Beginning of round, where the other working yarn strand is waiting.). So the next sock is going to have a plain green heel. That should clear things up substantially.

I will try to get more knitting done this evening….right after grocery shopping, present shopping, dinner and applying the first clear coat to my kitchen table legs. It’s going to be a busy night!

Pretty Poppies Socks

I’m back from Sock Summit and sort of almost recovered from the insanity that is planning, working and cleaning up after a retail yarn show. It was great to meet lots of you at the Summit, and you know I always enjoy the yarn show – even if I don’t sleep for a month!

So I’m in just a bit of a holding pattern after the show, while I wait for a large order of base yarn to come in. After being in such a wonderfully chaotic, creative environment, it’s hard not to design something new. So currently on my needles I have my Pretty Poppies socks.

1/2 way up the foot on the first sock

The idea is that the flower grows out of the toe, up the foot and finally blooms on the leg. Yarn is: Yarn Love’s Diana in Violet Vale (Background color: non repeating, medium saturated purple, semi solid) and Scarlett O’Hara in Ancient Forest (Accent color: non repeating, moderately saturated green, semi solid). The flower will of course be another color, but I haven’t quite decided what color I’ll choose. I’m leaning towards a new tri color that I dyed up for Sock Summit called Marigold. Notice the entire floral motif thing we’ve got going here?

Socks….lots and lots of socks.

I’ve been meaning to blog more, but not doing a good job of it for the past several (read 6-9) months. I’m attempting to fix that now, and get back on my Monday blogging schedule again. I have been busy in my off time. If by off time you allow that I’m running a hand dyeing business, branching into designing, teaching dyeing, and prepping to vend at Sock Summit.

I do have pretties to show you. Maybe I won’t post them all now, but snippets….to entice you to come back. (Some of these links will direct you to Ravelry.com. If you’re not a member there yet, you need to be. Don’t fuss, just sign up. You’ll be glad you did!)

I’m going to start with the most recent pattern added to the Katie Franceschi collection. It’s available for purchase (Immediate download, no less! Yay, instant gratification!)

Winding Path Socks

Yarn Love's Elizabeth Bennet yarn in Awakening Earth

Designed especially to accentuate the particular beauty of hand-dyed yarns. No more knitting with the most gorgeous skein ever only to discover that it does wicked, wicked things when you actually knit it. The pattern contains specific guidance for choosing an appropriate yarn. Both examples are knit with high contrast, multi-color yarns. Generally speaking highly saturated colors with high contrast to each other present the largest challenge when knitting with hand dyed/ painted yarns. Ironically, the multi-color skeins are often the ones that catch your eye and draw you in!

The socks are worked toe up, with a generous gusset for a great fit. (The gusset is that triangle along the side of the foot.) The stitch pattern does a great job of breaking up and re-distributing the bold colors – which gives the sock an over all even sprinkling of color. Notice how there aren’t large blotches of any single color anywhere. Those blotches are referred to as pooling or flashing and are usually very distracting. Then I finished off the sock with a simple cable. It’s eye catching and keeps you interested as the knitting progresses. Yes, the pair is asymmetrical. The cable travels up the outside of each sock. You could place the cable on same side for each sock, but it looks….very odd when you wear them!

As a bonus, there are four widths included in the pattern. And instructions for using both fingering weight and sport weight yarns. You can knit these up for practically any adult foot size! The sport weight option makes these a good choice for a fast gift!

Extras

When I’m designing, I usually knit up more than one version of the sock. The first pair is the design template, and the second pair is polished and pristine (Well, mostly pristine.) for photography. You can see the prototype pair for this pattern in my Ravelry Projects. If you keep tabs on my projects at Ravlery, you’ll most likely see my design projects in progress.

Yarn Love's Elizabeth Bennet yarn in Nostalgia

Twinkle Mitts, Mitten & Cowl – new pattern release, Jan 2009

Twinkle Mitts, Mittens, and Cowl – January 2009 from Yarn Love

New Pattern release from Yarn Love!

Our newest pattern: the Twinkle Set will be released January 2009. The pattern includes instruction for average adult sizing of fingerless mitts (pictured), full mittens, and a cowl (also pictured. Shown at left in Malabrigo Chunky Merino colors Roanoke & Lettuce.  Only available at Eat.Sleep.Knit. – please check them out! They are one of our retailers and have an amazing customer rewards program. (I happily shop with Erin & Dad, too!)

The given gauge is perfect with our Charlotte Bronte Aran merino, as well.

 

 

 

Twinkle Set shown in Brisa - Malabrigo Merino Chunky

 

Product development & Christmas

E & G’s Christmas Tunics – michael miller’s Yule Christmas & Dots

Snow

It’s really early here. Hubby got up before 6 am to go into work before we get a monster snow storm. The idea is that he go in early and then come home later this morning, safely, before the snow really starts to fly. We’ll see how it goes. The commute is the downside to living in a quaint, small town 30 miles away from downtown… This will be our 7th snow since the beginning of November & in case your child burned your calendar and you’ve been  living under a rock, it’s mid December.

 

Yarn that stripes like Noro

Besides the usual Christmas busyness and familial obligations, I’ve decided that *now* is the best time to pursue new product development. Nothing beats holiday stress like a huge amount of work that may or may not pan out. In my defense, I started working on this project 2 months ago. I need to contract out some very specific, custom fiber work in order to make this venture successful. I found one contractor on the West coast and proceeded to ship yarn with them so they could get a sample worked up and firm pricing. It took 3 weeks for them to acknowledge receipt of the yarn. Then 2 1/2 more to work up a sample. We are currently sitting at 4+ weeks that they’ve had the sample but won’t ship it.

On second thought, I’ll think I’ll skip hiring you.

So the search has continued. I’ve found others who will work, but of course, they are booked up solidly through Christmas. My poor retailer will have been waiting three months before the product is even in production. In the meantime, I’ve been making not-quite-perfect samples for myself and limping through the new dyeing technique. Hopefully, this will come together in a big  ball of beautiful symmetry after Christmas.

Home Improvement

The office is finally usable! We moved the computer desk back down here the weekend before last…so we could put the Christmas tree up in the living room. Since we have been working every available weekend since the end of June, it feels like a *huge* accomplishment. And it’s pretty. Seriously pretty. We have a deep chocolate accent wall, and the other three are painted a warm, harvest gold. The ceiling is finally “real”, instead of an ugly & way too low suspended number. The best part about it, is we have two additional full sized closets in here – completely fitted out with shelves, organizers and crates. Yes!

Things I want

Now onto a random list of things I want & you probably do, too.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Club - it’s taking all my restraint not to sign up.

Mystic Monk Coffee - amazing & fresh roasted. I have the two big, two small pack coming my way.

Twisted Fiber Arts - I love her work & collect it. It’s so beautiful!

My house smells like spiced pumpkin scones!

Wow. It’s been a while since I blogged, eh? I’ve always had this problem with journaling. If I get out of the habit, it’s months before I get back to it. I must not be very committed to writing down my thoughts.

It was a busy summer. It was an even busier fall. Let’s not even get into what the Thanksgiving and Christmas season are shaping up to be.

Most recently, I returned from Stitches East in Baltimore. Sharon and I were both there with Yarn Love and Three Irish Girls. Our  booth looked beautiful….but I don’t have photos. The camera unfortunately, suffered an injury on the plane which caused LCD screen to die. Technically, you can still take photographs via the viewfinder, but you can’t make adjustments to any settings because those options are always displayed on the screen. It makes for Zen Photography (i.e. Crappy Photos!). Oh well. We are getting a new camera next week. One that’s well rated….and actually inexpensive for the sheer number of favorable reviews about it.

Now, I’m working on getting the above sweater pattern ready for public consumption…including technical editing, photography, and layout. This is all new to me, since my only other published pattern was very simple and edited by the kind people over at Knitty.

Here are few pictures of things I knit over the summer to keep you going until the next time I actually blog:

Boo Socks in Twinkling Pink & Fresh Celery:

NeverMore Socks in Bump in The Night:

Netherfield Hand Knit Socks in Netherfield (Dutchess Dk yarn):

Sensational Colorwork Socks in Cove and Fresh Celery:

(These were by far the most popular sample I took to Stitches!)

Revenge of the Mummies Socks in Robin Hood and Delicate Aquamarine:

That’s not everything, but it’s all I’m going to post right now. Enjoy until another bout of motivation takes hold and I post more!

Embroidered Owl Lacing Card Tutorial

My four year old lacing

My twins (according to the Montessori method of education) are in a sensitive period for learning hand crafts – sewing, knitting, etc. I’ve noticed this, too. If I happen to knit during the day, which doesn’t happen often, I will have at least one of the girls sitting in my lap with their hands under mine on the needles. They also love the lacing cards my mom has at her house. However, I was disappointed that all the lacing cards I found available online were made from cardboard. Yes, I understand that cardboard is stiff and sturdy but generally speaking, people don’t sew cardboard. So I made my own lacing cards. Constructed from inexpensive craft felt, they have the feel of actual fabric, but are stiff enough for small hands to use. Plus, I think they’re darn cute.

Materials:

• Three colors of craft felt. I picked up a variety of colors 5 for $1 at JoAnns. It’s the recycled poly felt.
• Heat in Bond – heavy weight to fuse your pieces together
• Embroidery thread – your choice of colors – for the embroidered accents
• Eyelet tool – for cutting and setting eyelets
• Fray Check
• Metal eyelets to insert (optional)
• Heavyweight fusible interfacing (optional)

 

Step One – make your pattern pieces

Cut your pieces. I use the pictured template from the book Doodle Stitching. I’m not going to give away that exact pattern, but I’ll help you draw your own. It’s a simple shape. Feel free to freestyle it. Below, I’ll give you more specific instructions.

If you have a printer, simply save this scanned image and print it at the appropriate size (The owl body should be about 5 1/2″ tall and the chest accent should be about 3 1/8″ tall.) These are patterns that I designed myself and I don’t mind if you print them for your own use. Skip all the foofarah for the pattern drafting below and proceed to cutting and sewing!

Owl Outline

Using a straight edge (I used my grocery list note pad!) draw a central line – at least 4 1/2″ long.

At the bottom, draw a straight line at a 90 degree angle to the first, at least 3 1/2″ long.

Step One

Measure the central line where it intersects the bottom line and make a hash mark at 4 1/2″. Measure the bottom line 1 3/4″ out from the central line and make hash marks to the right and left.

 

Step Two

Using your notepad, draw a straight line across the top, at the top hash marks. (Also 90 degrees from the central line – it should be parallel to the bottom line.) Measure 1 1/4″ from the central line and make hash marks to the right and left.

Step Three

Measure 1/2″ from these hash marks and make another. These two hash marks indicate the width of the ears.

Centered between the two outer hash marks on the top line, measure up 1 ” and make a hash mark on each side. (This will be the top of the ears.)

Step Four

Now that you have your guidelines, its time to freestyle your curves. Draw a curved line between the two inner marks along the top line. Draw a similar curved line between the two hash marks on the bottom line.

Step Five

Starting from the upper curve, draw the ears on either side.

Step Six

 

 

Join the ears to the bottom of the body by drawing a gentle curve. Don’t worry about matching things exactly.

Step Seven

Fold along the center line & cut along the side that you like best.

 

Step Eight

Step Nine

Chest Accent

Draw a straight line, mark the top and bottom at 3 1/8″ tall.

Step One

Draw a straight line across the bottom hash mark. (I used a note pad to get a 90 degree angle and straight line.) Mark hash marks so that the line is 1 1/2″, centered on the first line. There should be 3/4″ on either side of the tall line.

Step Two

In the top 1/3 of the central line, measure out 1 1/8″ and make a hash line. In the bottom 1/3 of the central line, measure out 1 1/4″ and make a hash line. These are simply a guide for the outside curves of the eyes and chest.

Step Three

Starting from the bottom line hash mark (see pink star) measure up 2″ and make a hash mark. This is a guide to indicate the bottom curve of the eye.

Step Four

You want the inside of this hash mark to end 3/4″ from the central line. See pink stars.

Step Five

Now, following the guide markings, draw your upper curve and lower curve. Use the hash marks as a guide, and feel free to make adjustments to suit your personal taste.

Step Six

Fold along central line. Cut the pattern out.

Step Seven

 

 

Cut Your Pieces

Cut a square of Heat N Bond approximately 5 1/2″ by 4 1/2″ – make sure it covers your owl outline piece.

Layer the black, Heat N Bond and gold craft felt. Either pin on the Own Outline pattern, or trace it onto your felt. Cut all three layers using sharp scissors simultaneously. This way your pieces will be identical. You can opt to cut them individually, but this can allow the Heat N Bond to peek out and smudge your iron and you will need to trim the edges when you’re done.

Cut one accent from aqua.

* If you’re using fusible interfacing for an extra stiff card, cut two Owl Outlines now.

Felt Pieces, labelled

 

Embroider Your Chest Accent

Using the colors of your choice, back stitch the (gold) branches at the base of your Chest Accent. I free styled this, and it’s not really worth tracing a pattern.

Add the (purple) french knots.

Satin stitch the diamond shaped nose (purple).

Position the Chest Accent piece on the gold Owl Outline. Be sure to leave at least 1/2″ of gold showing on all sides of the accent. Using the color of your choice (light pink) outline stitch the chest accent to the gold owl outline piece.

Embroidery Inspiration

My actual embroidery

Fuse Your Pieces

Warm up your iron to the Medium setting.

* If you’re using fusible interfacing, fuse one piece to the wrong side of each Owl Outline now.

Layer the gold Outline piece and your Heat N Bond together. Make sure the Heat N Bond is on the wrong side of your Gold Owl (The side with your embroidery knots.) and that the paper side of the Heat N Bond is to the outside. The rough side, which is the glue, should be against the gold outline. Using a pressing cloth (old t-shirt or kitchen towel over your work.) Press the iron down and hold for about 30 seconds. Check to see if the Heat N Bond has fused, repeat as necessary. Allow the piece to cool.

Starting from a corner, peel off the paper backing of the Heat N Bond.

Position the black Owl Outline, sparkles out on top. Fuse together using your pressing cloth.

Allow to cool and stiffen.

Eyelets

Using the largest eyelet cutter (Mine was 4 mm), a cutting board and a hammer, pound eyelets evenly around the outside of the shape. Allow at least 1/4″ of felt between the eyelet and the edge to make a sturdy lacing card. My owl has 28 holes.

Use fray check to stiffen the inside of each eyelet and allow to dry.

Install metal eyelets according to the manufacturer’s directions if you like.

My eyelet tool

Teach a little one to sew!

Thread a plastic yarn needle with a smooth, thin yarn and teach a little one to sew. (Feel free to use a shoelace with sturdy ends for smaller children.)  With a little patience and some assistance my four year old twins are enjoying their lacing card.

Remodelling on my mind

I just remodelled the blog. Yet again. I can’t find something I’m really in love with. I liked the last theme, but the single column was just too narrow. It made embedding pictures all weird and funky looking. The problem is I am not tech savvy and really don’t want to invest much time into redoing the blog. I do seem to be installing new design templates weekly, though, so I guess I am investing time in it.

Yesterday was full of new colorway creation. Above is the latest. More to follow. I have some lovely Nanner yarn to show you…right after I take pictures of it. You can’t really tell from the photos, but there’s a bit of bright aqua/teal in this colorway to give it some pop. I can’t show you that particular shade immediately as the ugly ties are still on the skein. I’ll post more pictures once things are re-skeined and spiffied up for their close up.

New room, new style

Since work is moving right along in our old office space – soon to be the NewGuestBedroom/Office, I’m starting to get busy planning the decor. Now strictly speaking, I am not terribly good at interior decorating. Our house is pretty much cobbled together over the 6 years of our marriage. An odd assemblage of new furniture, mixed in with thrift store finds and hand me downs. We do have quite a nice art collection on the walls, and a stylish paint job throughout the house, but really we lack a firm hold on style. Plus, we’re kind of a cluttery family. Every spare surface is always covered with clutter. For instance, my very clean desk from a few posts below is now covered with the detritus of everyday life and the yarn business. I wish I could claim it was that well plotted, beautifully executed magazine photo type of clutter, but it’s not. On my desk right now are:

• Two needle felted hedgehogs
• My KnitPicks Options binder
• Random assortment of ball bands and double sided tape
• A few envelopes of random mail
• A basket of pens, plus one or two across the desk surface
• Three decorating magazines and my husband’s book
• Two cups
• A skein of Gaslight Dyeworks yarn
• And an Xbox game box

Maybe someday I will start being a clutter free, organized person. But I don’t think it’s happening while my kiddos are little. Between the daily mess of yarn dyeing (Which I do clean up everyday so our kitchen isn’t simply a messy work area) and the childrens’ ability to tornado a room in .62557891 seconds there just aren’t enough hours in the day for creative pursuits and detailed cleaning/organizing. I guess the clutter is here to stay.

For now, the picture up above is my idea of a decorator accent. 1 lbs of superfine, sport weight merino, twisted into a ball. Clean, curvaceous, organic lines add a minimalist accent to my otherwise functionality dominated workspace. And it feels good. Just what you need to make your office/family room a little prettier.

Anyway, while looking through one of the three magazines on my desk, I found a photo shoot of a room that I absolutely fell in love with back in February when the magazine appeared. I think we’ll go with this theme, if I can get Nick to approve. We may have to make the walls cream, with an accent wall of blue. That will keep our space nice and airy and bright – there is only one window and the room is half under the ground. I love the use of light pink, light blue and chocolate brown in the photo. There’s also lots of texture via the floor and the pillows. Plus, the bird theme is just plain cool. Sigh. I wonder if I’ll be able to pull it off. I found the company that did the rug – it’s high quality carpet tiles, but they no longer have the bird carpet tiles. And a 4 x 4 rug runs between $200-250. Ouch. Maybe some other substitute would be good.

The yarn on top of the magazine is freshly arrived Superfly from Gaslight Dyeworks. I love this stuff. This is my second order this month from Gaslight and I’m hooked. Super fast shipping and amazing quality. You need some. Go now. Go quickly. You won’t be disappointed.

I’m off. I have yet another try at a new colorway. This will be attempt #3 and this colorway is kicking my butt. I can see it in my head, but it’s just not coming out right. Sigh. It had better make the fall line up or I’ll have invested a lot of time and effort on…well three skeins of not-quite-right dyed yarn. Such is the life of a dyer. At least I have my coffee and dreams of a spectacular room to keep me going.