Parallels...

Knit’nStyle #183 is out – I haven’t received my copy yet so I’m not sure how my garment faired in the photo shoot – I’ve only seen the snippet on their website. I shipped it off to them in late July, but I did get to re-make it in my size, to check the pattern, and because I liked it so much and I had enough of the same yarn which is luscious, BTW (Rowan felted tweed aran DK). We photo-ed  when I did my mini-shoot for the Fall Pattern of the Month.

The garment is A-line shaped. The fronts are sideways knit from centre front to side and the A-line is accomplished with shortrowing. The back is just a rectangle, knit from top to bottom so the ribbed shawl collar matches with the front edges. It is a bit of a different shape and I thought it was fun to make – looks like lots going on because it is made on the LK150 (as are all my KnS designs) so all the garter ridges, the cabling, and the ribs are all hand transferred. The weather here finally turned cooler (it’s inevitable, believe me) and I did design this as an outdoor weight jacket, so I was able to wear it a couple of times last week and got surprising compliments (all good) from non-knitters, noticing that it looked good and it looked unique!!  See ‘blame it on the weather’ Jul 20, ’12, for a close up swatch and some other fun details! 
I want to give a shout out to Michael Hale of Toronto, who's design in KNITWORDS No 48 was my inspiration for this garment - his was a large rectangle poncho that he had made on his tricked out Ultimate Sweater Machine - he had 2 machines put together along with a 30 needle extension kit, so his poncho was 228 stitches by 220 rows - I had always wanted to make a smaller, more fitted version.

Nipigon nylons...

Ever heard of them? Back in the day,  girls/women/ladies wore nylon stockings with a garter belt to hold them up – what a pain…anyway, pantyhose came out and we put that garter belt stuff behind us. Yeah, I know,  I’m showing my age, but it’s all good… The point is, the ‘nylons’ thing…during my high school days, I lived in a rural area and took the school bus. We were referred to as farmer kids or country bumpkins and as a real insult, on cold days, other kids would say things like, ‘oh, you wearing your Nipigon Nylons today?’ Nipigon is a small community about 100 km north of Thunder Bay and it was like the ultimate hick town and the NN’s were referring to old men’s work socks that were grey, ribbed, with a red stripe on the top and maybe a band of ivory between the stripes. Well, later, someone in Nipigon decided to lay claim to the fame of the socks and you can buy tee shirts with a NN slogan on it and I’m sure they  sell the socks too. It may be just a regional thing, but you can google it and see what they say…

So, back to boot cuffs - I do have this lovely ragg wool (like standard gauge weight, perfect for ribbed socks) on my shelf,  in several colours, red/ivory, black/ivory, plum/ivory and teal/ivory, but no grey…I wanted to make Nipigon Nylon boot cuffs. So, I do have a freebie sock pattern on my website – just use the cuff and put some stripes in it…It’s 2X2 rib in the 2X1 needle arrangement to make it nice and stretchy, you’ll need it bigger that the ankle cuff size, so I tried 50-0-50 n’s at T8/8, 70 rows total – I love ‘em and don’t they just look perfect with my red John Fluevog Operettas?

Boot cuffs

Last week, my daughter-in-law asked me if I could make some legwarmers that weren’t really legwarmers, just the top of legwarmers... She had this idea that her new boots needed some dressing up and, a knitted, cable-y thing might just be what she wanted. I said sure, if you have any more info, send it to me and I’ll see what I can come up with.

Well, who knew? Call ‘em fake legwarmers, boot toppers, boot cuffs, whatever, they are all over the internet! I did a few googles and whatever, to see what they were all about and then sat down with her with some yarns and old swatches to see what she really had in mind. The swatches were mostly from some of my KnS projects because I thought she was looking for the mid gauge weight of yarn and she really liked the look of the ‘Cable Gal’ (#176 Dec 2011), colour, fibre, thickness and stitch.  We determined that she wanted to tuck the bottom portion into her boot and have 2-3 inches above, so I settled on planning it to be 13-14 inches in circumference and at least 6 inches long.
I got the first pair made and she loved them!! She has 2 pairs of boots and this set looked good with boots!

Then, in true MAO fashion, I went on to quickly dash off a few more sets, based on recent KnS designs.
On this pair, I used some of the cables from KnS #183 ( I just checked their website and it’s out – more on that later) 'Parallels' - the various cables are outlined with a tuck rib and the top/bottom is my version of a ‘cheater’ garter stitch for the knitting machine – the yarn is Wagtail 12 ply mohair/wool  from Australia that I had leftover from KW#39 – in true, lazy, machine-knitter manner, I wasn’t into making swatches first, I just used  my original tension and gauge and hoped for the best – after all, legs come in all sizes, they’ll fit someone!!

This combo is using Rowan felted aran tweed and the stitch pattern border from KnS #182, Dec ‘12 (Lace Medley tunic) – I thought they could be worn either way with the top folded down over the boot or just straight up to the knee, depending on how tall the boot is. I did decrease after the purls and eyelet rows (which creates a nice fold) so the inside part (just stockinette with a narrow band of 1X1 rib to stop it from curling) would be narrower than the top cuff part.

How’s that for recycling - the patterns, I mean…

Oh, I have an idea for the standard gauge…

 

It felt good...

Several weeks ago, my friend Cathy asked if I had any old sweaters that would be felt-able, that I would be willing to part with…well, of course, she knows that I’ve always loved natural fibres and if I hadn’t almost always used pure wool, no one would, right? Believe it or not, I had bins of sweaters! Her sister Janice, was into making felted mittens and  wondered if I had anything she could use. She had been making the rounds of local thrift shops, eagerly buying things and then, holding her breath as the washer stopped, hoping for shrunken treasures.
I sorted through stuff and found more than I could believe I still had. She came by today to show me what she’d done and to give me a finished pair. There were several for me to choose  from and the set that immediately caught my eye was one of my most favourite  fairisle designs from my ‘Casual Classics’ booklet back in 1995. Photo at right is Cathy modeling the original sweater.  The khaki and black, short-float geometric, called ‘squares and diamonds’, knit in Forsell’s Pure New 4 ply Wool, felted tightly and beautifully and formed the back and cuff of the mitten.  Janice paired it with pieces of two other solid coloured garments that I recognized as my work also. The inside of the mitts are lined with fleece, cozy and soft. A button on each cuff with a strap of recycled old-skirt-leather hold the pair together.
Nice job, Janice, thanks so much!  

Omega - is that another word for ohmigawd?

Here’s the thing…I’ve got my current KnS project almost completed on the LK150 – ‘almost’ being the operative word – it’s relative - the garment is almost complete (a gansey-style pullover for the April ’13 issue – more about this at another time, I promise), but the pattern writing is another story – 5 sizes and all those stitch charts, what was I thinking?…it’s due next week and I have to factor in postal time...I’ve got to finish up the pattern writing for the October POM (Rectangles, see last post) and add the last details to the techniques article for that one. And I was starting to feel the crunch of what the heck am I doing for the third garment for the Fall ’12 POM???
In the back of my mind, I want a hoodie – a nice one, mind you and I’ve got all sorts of conflicting things to think about and consider – what yarn to use? I want something special – what style? I’ve been favouring a raglan. Are people going to say, what, another hoodie (maybe that was just for kids)? But then I haven’t done one for the standard gauge for a while and not in the ‘Serial Stuff’ stuff…
While I was doing my Jillian workout this morning, it hit me (I had a hard time finishing up and to be honest, I blew through the cool-down--let me say, I’m doing my workout, staring at my shelves of yarn, between the huffing and puffing…)…
I’ve seen virtually everyone in town wearing a ‘Lululemon’ (google it if you have to) hoodie – I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t have one – on girls and women of all ages, and my friends tell me of people they know who have several – I’ve only looked at them on the ‘net – they start at $125 and I can’t justify that
You may know I do have this affinity for WCD (wool crepe deluxe) – a hoodie will take a considerable amount – most WCD  cones currently are in the 18-19 oz/550g range and I feel that is probably not enough (get real, MA, you KNOW it’s not enough!) and that's when it hit me – I have a bunch of part cones that aren’t enough for too much of anything – how many camis can I think I’ll need/knit? One of my pet peeves is a two-colour garment that looks like they ran out of yarn or were trying to use up leftovers, so I don’t want that effect and I’m not totally sold on the ‘new’ colour-blocking thing…
So,  I’m not trying to duplicate the ‘omega’ symbol that is the ‘Lululemon’ motif, but by making the raglan sleeve into a type of saddle-shoulder…well, you’ll just have to check back soon for developments!
I’m going to Germantown, WI  to do a one-day workshop on October 20 – OMG!!

breaking news...

Got finished with the final details of proofing and correcting the pattern for ‘ Two Way’ – if you’ve subscribed to the new POM (Pattern of the Month, if you haven’t been following me) I’ll be emailing the zip file of the pdfs & DAK stitch patterns before the end of the week.

Knit’nStyle has the newest issue, #182 on their website – check it out! My mid gauge pattern, Lace Medley is a tunic (see blog post June ’12) with border lace and motif patterns, hand-transferred, of course, because it’s done on the LK150 and my techniques article for that issue is dealing with seaming on the machine – hope you find it helpful!
Here’s the first preview of the next pattern for POM for October. I call it ‘Rectangles’ because the back and fronts are simply that - rectangles, so no shaping - most of the edges are finished as you go, with longstitch that knits automatically on the front side using a few stitches on the rib bed, while the main bed is knitting One-Row-Tuck. I think this is a really  quick knit, even though it looks like a lot of fabric! The finished garment is totally fun to wear – I made two versions – the ivory was the first one, made with Silk Bourette from Yeoman Yarns and could be called the  ‘budget’ style or the ‘tall-girl’ design and it has a collar. I loved it but wanted another one, a little shorter, a bit more casual-wearing, maybe with jeans or something simple – both of them look great over a dress – anyway, the green is Wool Crepe Deluxe and could be called the ‘upscale’ model – my girlfriends loved both of them! I’m working on the patterns, almost ready for proofing and there will be the usual 5 size range in the two lengths with tips for choosing yarns, combining length size with widths and different finishing techniques.

good news...

I have a new standard gauge pattern-of-the-month.
The subscription means that you pay $25 in advance and then each month for the next 3 months (September, October, November) you will get the new pattern with the techniques article emailed to you in pdf format. The subscription can be purchased now and the first pattern will be emailed on the 15^th of the month or whenever you subscribe. It’s easy to get it from our website, (go to www.knitwords.com - refresh your browser if it doesn’t come up right after the opening page). You can use Paypal OR visa or mastercard through Paypal.
If that doesn’t work for you, you can send a check/cheque or money order, along with the order form (found at the bottom of the bookstore/back issues page - click on the appropriate icon and print out the order form, make sure to provide your correct email address, and write in NEW POM, please).
The pattern for September is called Two Way, a lace, swing cardy (A-line) with single button (actually hiding the snap) front closing. The accompanying article has lots of tips and techniques for completing the project and for future reference on lace carriage knitting. I’ve made mine using Silk City Fibers Mini Dina 1049 - check out www.knititnow.com  - Tamm Diamante or Yeoman’s Panama could be used as a substitute.
Hope you like it and keep checking back here for more updates!

We are also having a big SALE at the KNITWORDS website - see the link above – Buy 3, get 3 – there is a special button to pay $30 for 6 (North American postage included in that price) and then you need to email me and tell me which issues you want – I also have some others that are not listed in the bookstore - #15, 25, 29, 31, 32, 33, and 34.

I have a full set, #1 to 53 – that were on my ‘wall of fame’ in my office that I am willing to part with – email me if you are interested in that!

And, my ‘rainbow’ books, the techniques books with the coloured covers are on special, buy 3, get 1 free for $75 – there is a paypal button for that deal and again you need to email me with your choices.

Thanks to everyone for your support!