Make your own stitch markers

Hi Knitters,


I found out something interesting in a class at The Gourmet Yarn Company last weekend about "lace knitting" and "knitted lace."   That is that they are not the same thing. "Knitted lace" differs from "lace knitting" in one significant way and that is that knitted lace is made using pattern stitches on both sides and the simpler "lace knitting" uses pattern stitches on only the front side and the back is usually all purls.

Last year was my very first venture into lace (see above). I took out every single book the library offered on knitting lace, poured over the patterns and instructions and eventually tried a few swatches. I now have new respect for the ladies I see at my LYS cranking out one lovely shawl after another with no pattern in sight. Neither lace knitting nor knitted lace are for the faint-of-heart knitter or the easily distracted one. A dropped stitch or a miscount throws everything awry and there is no simple ripping out a row or two to start afresh because all your yarnovers have just disappeared into space and left no trace of their previous location. I understand why serious lace knitters would take the time to baste in a "lifeline." A lifeline is running a contrast yarn through every st in a row every few inches or so. Then when the cat jumps on your lap mid-row and your stitches unweave themselves into an irretrievable mess you can frog back just to your lifeline and begin anew without having to scrap the whole darn thing. My real love of knitting is probably for the wonderful relaxation it brings me. I wanted my first foray into knitted lace to be fun and therefore it was a "knitted lace" project for me. I looked forward to those very restful purl rows right after every patterned one. I also chose one of the simplest lace patterns there is -- a six-stitch multiple -- easily memorizable and that could be knit without having to stop every few stitches to read the pattern.

My swatching of several patterns showed me that I definitely needed a st marker in between each and every pattern repeat. I suppose a more experienced or skilled knitter might put a stitch marker in between every five or ten repeats but I needed some firm guidance here. I counted up the repeats and needed 70 small markers in one color and 8 markers in another color to mark for decreases. Hmm, that's a lot of markers.

I dug down into the depths of my knitting basket and various other project bags around the house and came up with a varied assortment. Not enough. It was late at night -- too late for a quick trip to the LYS. And I couldn't wait to get this project underway. I decided to go ahead and make the markers from yarn. Not only could I customize the size to my project but I felt sure they would slip more smoothly than their plastic or metal counterparts. I felt so proud when I finished them and actually started my project--not only did I have a full set of neatly matching perfectly-sized markers but I also hadn't spent a penny.

A few suggestions to save time if you want to make your own markers: I precut the yarn but the first time I didn't leave enough length for tying them easily, so I precut more pieces about 4" long -- plenty tying room -- and then trimmed them. I tied the yarn around a needle one size bigger than my project needle. I tied a single knot in mine but a few of them did work their way lose after a while, so I would add an extra knot or two, and I would use a wool or somewhat textured yarn. Smooth yarns might come untied too easily. Anyway, now I have a whole little pink porcelain box filled with markers in all sorts of sizes and colors. And I discovered that yarn markers are my markers of preference.   And not just because they're free. 

Happy knitting, Josey

Jane Slicer-Smith classes

Hi Knitters,

The past year has been the year for stretching my knitting skills in a major way.  Learning to design a sweater "from scratch" was a challenge and a joy, and then learning to write a pattern and transpose a design into all the different sizes with a ten-day deadline was a major challenge (and maybe not quite so much a joy).  But it certainly gave me a sense of accomplishment and a little more confidence in my design abilities.  Now I am very excited about another opportunity to expand my knitting horizons.



Oklahoma knitters are so fortunate!  The Gourmet Yarn Company is sponsoring Jane Slicer-Smith, major big-whig knitwear designer extraordinaire.  She is traveling all the way from her home in Australia to teach three classes the weekend of April 16-17.  Jane is the author of "Swing, Swagger, Drape: Knit the Colors of Australia."  She will be teaching two sessions of "Miter by Design" and one session of "Fit and Style."  Click here to see class descriptions and reserve a place at GYC.  Students will learn to fit sweaters so that they hang properly and "swing, swagger, and drape" in all the places that they are supposed to swing, swagger, and drape.  Goodness knows, I have knit plenty of sweaters that do one or all of those things in exactly the wrong places and can't wait to hear from an expert who has designed sweaters that fit and flatter all body shapes and sizes.  Proof of her skill in this area is that her sweater desings have been manufactured in the thousands.  She has her own knitwear company called Signatur knits.  Her color sense is vibrant and bold and you can see her inspiration from the beauty of Australia in her designs.  Check out her website to read about her impressive background and see some of her designs.

Jane Slicer-Smith

I might not have bought "Swing Swagger" if I had not been told about Jane and prompted to sign up for her class.  I had walked right past the book at GYC several times without stopping.  I bought the book yesterday mainly in anticipation of the class, but started reading last night and couldn't put it down.  Even if I never knit a single design in the book this volume is worth a great deal more than its very economical price of $25.  In fact, when you see the size, the graphic design work, all the helpful tips about fit and technique, and photographs that rival any high quality publication, not to mention the beautiful sweater patterns throughout, you'll be surprized that such a book could even be sold for that price.  How the publisher--and Jane--can make any money on it is a mystery because they have scrimped nowhere in color, design, and detail.   If you live in Oklahoma City or anywhere nearby I think you should call or run right over to GYC and reserve a copy.  In fact, I think that if I did not have the sheer good fortune of living here I would make a weekend excursion just to take her classes.  But if that's not convenient for you, at least check out Jane's book at her website. 

What a fun way to spend a weekend and, just think, perhaps every sweater that we knit from there on will swing, swagger, and drape exactly where we want it to.  The classes only have seven or eight openings left so don't delay if you want to join in.  It would be very fun to share this experience with friends and fellow-knitters.  Hope to see you at GYC April 16-17.

Happy Knitting, Josey

Headband Finale

Hi Knitters,

I finished my last headband over the weekend.  "Irish Rose" is my grand finale.  Since the designs constitute my first "real" patterns, Margaret, owner at Gourmet Yarn Company and Master Knitter, agreed to look them over for me and give me helpful advice.  Her many years experience in knitting, and her rigorous training in the Knitters Guild of America classes really show when she is helping me.  I want to know everything she knows.  It makes me want to start the KGA classes but I know that they are rigorous and time-consuming so I am not sure it will happen soon.  Anyway, Margaret is generous with her time and gave me some tips to help bring my patterns up to standard.  I still get a little nervous clicking the final button to upload them for sale, hoping and praying that I caught any errors and that some knitter who is nice enough to purchase one of my designs will find it a happy experience and not be confused or inconvenienced.

Flower Power, Belle Rose, Irish Rose

The headbands are all knitted.  The flowers on Flower Power, Belle Rose are knitted.  The flowers on irish Rose are crocheted.  They are all very simple to do and require only a few basic knit and crochet skills.  I picked all spring yarns for this time of years but I look forward to making the same bands in some warm and cosy wools when fall approaches.  They were all fun and fairly quick to knit.  Ecah band could be made in one fairly full day of knitting or two evenings.  By my third headband I was really scooting and I thought that they would be great quick and economical Christmas presents to start making now.  

Irish Rose

   

The patterns will be for sale at Gourmet Yarn Company in Oklahoma City later this week and will be for sale on both Ravelry and Etsy later this week.  I'll post a note as soon as they are good to go.  Now I just need to learn to convert a Word file into a PDF for downloading.  Everyone tells me it's very simple but I have heard that many times before!

Happy Knitting, Josey

Noro Kureyon Squares

Hi Knitters,

Well so much for my "Lizard Ridge Square of the Month Club."  I finished my first square a few days ago. Is it beautiful or what?  I was at Gourmet Yarn the next day buying not one, but two, more skeins of Kureyon. 

So I am now on my third square in the first nine days of my new club.  I guess I'll have to amend it to the "Lizard Ridge Square of the Every Few Days Club".  Speed, however, is a good thing in this case because I am thinking more and more of the bold and beautiful squares as a wall hanging for my living room/dining room.  Our living room is badly in need of sprucing. A pair of lovely cream-colored loveseats, purchased many years ago after first moving into this house, had gradually deteriorated over the years and become scratching posts for our feline family members.  We disposed of the shredded seating a while back and have put off replacing them as we then must also devise a plan by which the cats are made to understand the new sofas are off limits to them.  Anyone ever tried to train cats?  Currently the arms and backs of all the other household seating have clear shipping tape on them.  It is a good deterrent for the clawing.  This time I am definitely going for practicality in our furniture purchases.  No more cream seating for us.  I'm thinking dark neutral in scotchgard suede-ish, thick, indestructible fabric.  We'll see what we find.  Anyway, I can't imagine a prettier way to add color and brightness to a room with brown sofas than generous splashes of Noro color.

Here is square #2:

  

And the beginning of square #3:

 

Thank you Noro for giving us such beautiful color!

Happy knitting,  Josey

P.S.  Speaking of our feline family members who, along with loads of love and laughter, bring us kitty litter scattered to kingdom come, shredded arms on most of the household furniture and the ocaisional fleabites that send us flying to the vet for Advantage, do any of you find your furry buddies clamoring to get into every picture?  Meet our shamefaced not-so-little Rufus, who apparently thinks it's time for his close-up every time I go for my camera.

Cherry Tree Hill package

Hi Knitters,

Is there anything more fun than coming home and finding a bag full of brand new yarn on your front porch? 

Part of the agreement with Cherry Tree Hill for their 2009 Design Contest was that if your garment won they got to keep it.  They would however replace all of the yarn so that you could reknit it if you wished.  That part of the contest was a teensy bit difficult.  Parting with "Sasha" after nearly six months of birthing it was a tad like sending a loved one out into the world.  However the surprise and excitement of finding out that my design had won (as well as the $1000 prize money) far outweighed the momentary parting pangs and I got over it quickly.

My six months work on Sasha included a whole lot of thinking, swatching, frogging, reknitting, rethinking, reswatching, reknitting again, etc.  Now that I have the finished pattern I think I could re-knit Sasha in a few weeks give or take.  But I never have been one to enjoy repetition as far as knitting is concerned.  I'm always ready to move on to something new, to something I haven't done before and I can't imagine knitting the exact same sweater twice.  For this reason it took me days to choose my replacement yarn.  Last week I thought I better put in my yarn request before CTH forgot who I was so -- after staring at all the gorgeous Supersock Select colors and Semi-Solids on their web page for hours -- I finally e-mailed Becky at CTH.  This is what came in my package yesterday:

This is one of my very favorite times in knitting -- after I have chosen the yarn and just before I begin a project. The possibilities are limitless and I feel the excitement and anticipation of wondering exactly what it will become.  I remember shapes and  details of clothing that I have seen on people, in shops, magazines, etc.  I think about which stitch will show off the color and texture of the yarn to its best advantage, and I spend hours in my favorite inspiration books: Vogue Stitchionary Books and Nicky Epstein's "Edge" books are a few of my favorite go-to 's.  Most of my knitting is for others and I picture them in it, moving around, working, shopping, etc. 

I gather the materials in front of me at my desk or on my bed: the yarn, a few different sizes of needles for swatching, my sketch book, colored pencils, and an ink pen. Then I swatch and sketch, sketch and swatch. Sometimes I feel like the garment has already been designed and I am just bringing it in to tangible form.

I knit a few rows of each color in stockinette and garter stitch to see which colors look best next to one another, which one I will choose as a dominant color, and which ones I might not use at all.  Here are the skeins that made the final cut this morning and will eventually be my next sweater. Stay tuned.......

Happy knitting, Josey

Noro Kureyon

Hi Knitters,
Last year while wandering around Ravelry I stumbled on to this gorgeous design by Laura Ayler called Lizard Ridge:  http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTlizardridge.html.    Laura has designed the perfect square to showcase Noro's incredible color palettes.   Not only does her use of short rows make beautiful geometrics with the colors, but she has also designed the square so that you knit alternately from each end of the skein for an even distribution of color changes.  

I checked Lizard Ridge as a favorite that night and have thought about it often.  The large afghan seemed a but ambitious for me to take on at the time (it takes 24 skeins) as well as a bit expensive to jump in without full commitment.  Last week while looking longingly at Gourmet Yarn's massive collection of Kureyon colors a lightbulb went off in my mind and I had my solution.  I could satisfy my longing to knit a version of Lizard Ridge without making either a huge time commitment or breaking the bank.

I am the first member of my very own, one-member club:  "The Knit-a-Lizard Ridge Square a Month Club."  I bought my first skein last week.  There are no colors of Kureyon that I do not love, so I grabbed the first one my fingers landed on which happened to be #220.  Does color get any better than this?

I'll purchase a new color each month (give or take, I'm already itching for my next skein).  I haven't quite decided what form the final project will take but I don't think mine will be an afghan.  At this moment I envision a wall-hanging for my dining room, perhaps.  At $9.00 a pop I am on the installment plan to item of beauty yet to take shape but I'll keep you posted.

Happy Knitting, Josey

More headbands

Hi Knitters,

I have been in full-on headband mode for over two weeks now.  I thought I was through with headbands for the time being but when I spotted Blue Sky Alpaca's 100% organic cotton in the most perfect pale grassy green another one started to take shape in my imagination.  I have something leafy in mind, we'll see what happens as I knit.

My daughter (and favorite design consultant) was home for the day yesterday and agreed to model the three that I have finished. I know when she asks if she can take something home with her that she really likes it so I was a happy camper yesterday.  I had to tell her no this time since they are going to Gourmet Yarn Company for pattern samples, but I agreed to pay her for modeling with a custom headband of her choice. On her way back out of town she stopped at GYC with me and picked out her favorite color for "Flower Power" in Cascade Superwash 220. 

FLOWER POWER:

BELLE ROSE:

VIOLETS:

Stay tuned for my headband finale to be made this weekend. The patterns will be available shortly at GYC and possibly on Ravelry and Etsy. I'm new to all of this but I'm going to try uploading my first pattern shortly and see what happens.

Happy Knitting, Josey

Cherry Tree Hill Yarn Contest

Hi Knitters,

This post is a heartfelt thank you to all the friends, family, and fellow knitters who encouraged me along the way and then voted for my "Sasha" design in the Cherry Tree Hill 2009 Design Contest.  I was so excited to enter the contest and I enjoyed the whole process so much that winning was just major icing on the cake.  For those of you who know me personally I am sure there were times when you got very tired of hearing me talk about Sasha.  If you were burned out I thank you for hiding it so well!  I thank you for your patience in listening to me over the months that I worked on it and I thank you for taking the time to vote after the finalists were announced. 

In case you didn't hear about the contest, CTH announced a design competition in spring of 2009. They were accepting original designs made out of their Supersock Select with an emphasis on their new Semi-Solid colors.  I had never designed a single garment from start to finish and it sounded like a great challenge (little did I know!).  There were very few guidelines other than the project had to use at least six and no more than ten skeins of yarn.  It's no hardship buying CTH yarn so I thought: Worst scenario -- I would end up with a handknit sweater to keep for myself, or I might actually win and end up with $1000 and ten more skeins of replacement yarn.  It was a win-win deal, no worst-case scenario.  

Fortunately Margaret (owner of GYC and my knitting mentor) had already ordered all the new semi-solids in every color.  Here is what I brought home:

Six skeins of the Supersock semi-solids, one each of Black, Mauve, Loden, Aubergine, Wheat, and Rosewood

Then the design process began.  Perhaps twenty sketches and nearly as many knitted swatches later I began the actual knitting later that summer.  In the end I went with some pretty simple stitches and just four colors.

It was a good thing that CTH gave us several months to come up with and finish our projects! It was like being in school again.  I bought books on designing your own sweaters, knitting techniques, etc.  Margaret gave me some very valuable out-of-print materials on determining sizes, how to allow ease, how to transpose a pattern into all the different sizes, etc.  Although I have been knitting most of my life, I learned more in the last six months of 2009 than in all years previous.  And it helped to have a master knitter, the aforementioned Margaret, on hand for technical help here and there.  She was invaluable when I had questions (such as how to make increases in knitted lace without having ugly stitches anywhere and keeping the multiples on track).  But even more than the technical help Margaret's enthusiasm for the project made it even more fun.  I don't know which of us was happier when we found out that "Sasha" had made the final four.  She told so many others in the shop about the contest and my entry that I felt like I had a team of supporters behind me, many of whom I hadn't met yet.  Thank you, thank you family, friends, and fellow knitters for warming my heart with your encouragement and for taking the time to cast your votes. 

A few pics of the progress along the way:

The four colors I finally went with were Black, Mauve, Loden, and Aubergine.  I bought six more skeins of Black to finish the skirt. 

Because the "Sasha" design and sweater now belong to Cherry Tree Hill they have copyright on the finished pattern and project so here is the link to see their professional picture of the final project and another link to see the Cherry Tree Hill yarn selection.  I have only knit with their Supersock yarn so far but I will definitely try other CTH yarns in the future.  It never splits, stitches come out incredible even, the dyes are consistent throughout. 

I am waiting somewhat impatiently for the mailman's arrival Friday because I am getting my shipment of replacement yarn.  It took me three weeks to decide on the new colors I wanted.  I will be knitting "Sasha" again but in a whole new color scheme.  It was just a touch sad to part with my sweater but I will be able to re-knit it much more quickly this time.  Having the pattern to follow, I hope it will only be a two or three week project.  This was my first venture into knitted lace (which just last week I learned is a whole different thing than lace knitting) and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly lace knits up.  I guess it's all the holes that take up space.

My love and gratitude to all of you.

Happy knitting,  Josey

Headbands and more...

At Gourmet Yarn Co. last Saturday a woman brought in a wonderful cottony knit headband that she had purchased. She was looking for a similar pattern to knit for her daughters. She barely had it out of her tote before ladies in the store were gathering to ooh and ahh. My knitterly mind was already picturing headbands in a multitude of colors, weights, and stitch patterns and I knew I would leave with a few new springish-looking skeins for inspiration.

Here’s what I brought home:

One skein of Blue Sky Alpaca’s squooshy soft and fluffy “Dyed Cotton” in a lovely sort of sky color. It’s 100% organically grown which makes me happy for the Blue Sky sheep (maybe that includes their famous Spud and Chloe!) as well as our environment.  I always feel good about buying green when I can.

Two skeins of “Weekend” by Berroco. I think this may be a new yarn for Berroco. It has a feel similar to Rowan’s Handknit Cotton but a little lighter weight. I picked the lovely lavender and green shades and headed for the register.

Now, I am kind of a yarn snob and don’t mind fessing up to it. I usually shy away from any yarn that has more than a smidge of a synthetic in it, if any at all. I understand the added strength and sproing (Linda at Gourmet Yarn introduced me to that word and I think I will use it often.  It's a great desriptive word for those yarns that give your project that extra, well -- " sproing.")  But that's about as far as I like to go with synthetics. Let it be from plant or fleece and hopefully without harsh chemical processing.  At the register the clerk asked “Isn’t this great yarn? And can you believe that it’s machine washable?” Looking at the tag I saw that the fiber content of “Weekend” is 75% acrylic and 25% Peruvian cotton.  So much for thinking I had the ability to discern a synthetic at an armslength. It was too late to make another choice.  I was already mentally creating some sort of French lavender field on a headband. 

Here’s what the “Weekend” skeins became:

I had some friends try them on after they were all finished and we agreed that they were a little too wide so I am currently re-knitting them.  Once again, the importance of swatching has hit home!  Why is it after all these years of knitting, ripiing out, and re-knitting that I do not think I need to swatch? It has been proved to me over and over again that it is a very wise thing to do.  Maybe this lesson will take!
I hope you like them.  The patterns will be at Gourmet Yarn Co. later this week and up on Ravelry and Etsy shortly thereafter.

Happy knitting, Josey.