Monthly Archives: February 2020

Trunk Show at Rose City Yarn Crawl next week!

Posted on February 28, 2020 | 3 comments

This picture popped up in my Facebook memories: 2014 was the year of the first Rose City Yarn Crawl MKAL, and it was my Rosaria. The Yarn Ball was the perfect place to show off a lot of them, all at once!

Rose City Yarn Crawl 2020 is Thursday through Sunday next week, March 5-8. I’m having a trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake all day on Thursday, come see me! I’ll have my latest designs for you to see in person. Also at trunk showing with me: Knitted Wit, Shannon Squire, and Debbi Stone. It’s our tradition to kick off the crawl together at For Yarn’s Sake. Hope to see you there!

You can see all the details for the Yarn Crawl here. I’m trying to decide which trunk shows and shops I need to see, and put them into some kind of order. What’s your plan?

3 Comments

Posted in events

Tagged RCYC, rose city yarn crawl

Love Note playdate

Posted on February 27, 2020 | 12 comments

I stopped in to see Bonne Marie Burns, and we happen to be knitting the same sweater: Love Note by Tin Can Knits. It’s a super speedy knit on US 10 needles, but the most interesting thing is that you carry two yarns together as you knit. If your colors are very similar (my wheelhouse), you know what to expect, but when your colors are wildly different, the results can be surprising!

You know mine will be purple, because purple + purple = purple. But notice how the cool purple fingering weight yarn is warmed up by that warmer purple mohair.

Bonne Marie’s screaming yellow is toned down to a rather gorgeous ochre by the gray mohair. I never would have thought to combine gray and yellow into a single yarn, but it works. Grellow for the win! That’s the power of having stash to play with, too. I only had purple and purple for my adventure.

Bonne Marie pulled open her buffet drawer and I had to laugh. Of course it’s full of yarn. What’s in your buffet? Mine has china, table linens, and flatware. But I did empty out one cupboard to use as a pie safe so Calvin can’t eat our baked goods!

I’ve split for the sleeves on my Love Note, and now I’m knitting a few rounds so I can try it on. I’ll frog it if I need to change the size. I noticed that Bonne Marie had an orange version in her buffet drawer, and she had frogged it back after swatching. She just wound the two yarns up together around the ball because she was going to re-knit them together anyway. Brilliant.

That solves my frogging problem. I was afraid to swatch too far because I have a limited amount of the purple mohair, and I was having a hard time separating the two yarns after frogging. But I’m committed to this color combination, so there’s no reason to try to separate the yarns if I’m just going to re-knit them together anyway. Perfect!

What color is your knitting this week?

12 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged Love Note sweater

Aspen Leaf backstory

Posted on February 24, 2020 | 6 comments

I think it’s fun to document how I get from an initial idea to the finished product when I design. Here are some pictures along the way to my Aspen Leaf scarf.

I knew I wanted a series of leaves, so I started out playing with some Hazel Knits DK Lively that I had purchased on a whim. It was a bit lightweight for a scarf. I also decided it needed to not be 2 semi-solid colors together; that would be a lot of knitting the same thing over and over again. (I do love the yarn, just not for this particular project. Back to the waiting bin it goes.)

I picked these two colors of Malabrigo Worsted. At first, I used the variegated for the MC, but the color speckles made it so that I couldn’t “read” the leaf. So I flipped it and made the orange the MC. I decided this leaf was going to be too long and skinny.

Also, the skinniest point between the leaves was going to be too narrow compared to the rest of the scarf, so I started planning for a background of syncopated color reversal on each side of the leaf.

I tried making the leaf shorter and more compact overall, but all those decreases stacking so closely together meant that the top of the leaf pooched out, like a bra cup. THIS IS NOT A BRA.

The syncopated color reversal wasn’t a bad idea, but it had too much visual weight and was taking attention from the leaf, which should be the star of the show. I’d have to make it narrower.

Short bottom, tall top. Halfway to success! I like the leaf, but the syncopated background was now too narrow. I knew what I needed to do.

This sample is in Malabrigo Rios, a superwash plied worsted weight yarn. I liked it! Happy leaf, happy background, which serendipitously looked like butterflies. I would have knit it up, but I thought it would be more fun if the main color for the leaves could be a gradient.

I went to Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival looking for the perfect worsted weight gradient. No luck, but this DK weight gradient from Huckleberry Knits was too pretty to pass up. Scarlet was happy to find a coordinating color for my background.

Since I already had it planned out, this was perfect vacation knitting for me last December. The pattern is pretty easy to memorize.

And I love how it turned out! You can see this one in person at my Rose City Yarn Crawl trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake in Beaverton, Thursday March 5. Scarlet (Huckleberry Knits) will be there with it on Friday, March 6, too.

I did knit a worsted weight version, eventually. This is Knit Picks Chroma Worsted in Pegasus and Natural. I seem to be having a thing for rainbows. Again, fairly mindless travel knitting for me in January and February. (Still not blocked yet; I’ll get there eventually! Then the lines of the last blue leaf will straighten out a bit.)

And the Malabrigo Worsted? I didn’t want to frog that a fourth time, so I used the rest of it for a Dotty Cake hat sample. And after photographing it, I gave it to my Mom-in-law for Christmas, because she admired it at Thanksgiving. Perfect.

And that’s the story!

6 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged Aspen Leaf scarf

On the needles: Love Note

Posted on February 21, 2020 | 6 comments

The week before Red Alder, I went to St. Louis to visit DH’s mom. She moved to assisted living in January, and we wanted to do a check-in. I’m pleased that it’s been a fairly smooth transition, and that things are going well.

I finished my Chroma Worsted Aspen Leaf scarf on the plane home (FO pix soon). I’ve been working on sample knitting in the new year because I needed mindless knitting during a lot of travel: St. Louis, VKLive NYC, New Orleans, St. Louis again.

When I finished Aspen Leaf, I had a bit of a dilemma. I’m a fairly monogamous knitter, and I had nothing else on the needles.

I couldn’t go to Red Alder without knitting. And I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to design something to work on at that very moment.

I’ve been inspired by Instagram pictures of Love Note sweaters. It’s always fun to knit someone else’s design; it’s like a knitting vacation when I don’t have to dream up every detail. The pattern calls for two yarns held together, so I poked around in my limited stash, and came up with two purple yarns. One is this Lion Brand Silk Mohair that I won as a door prize at the one and only History Unwound Retreat in Colonial Williamsburg in 2015.

The other is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in the Rogue colorway; I think that means that it’s a one off. I have 2 skeins from my gift basket from the Lantern Moon Retreat that I taught at in 2018. (Click the links for blog posts about these two retreats; they were stellar.)

Would these two yarns play well for a Love Note sweater? The pattern requests a single ply fingering weight paired with a laceweight mohair. The Artisan Sock is a plied yarn, but it’s what I have. I looked at projects in Ravelry, and others have used plied yarns, so why not? And I’m kind of tickled that both these yarns are retreat souvenirs. It would be great to use stash yarn for this project!

I did a half, um, hearted gauge swatch, figured it was close enough, and cast on so I’d have something to knit at Red Alder. I didn’t want to use too much mohair in my swatching, because it’s really hard to frog, especially when held with another yarn! And my yardage is *just* enough to make this sweater.

So we’ll see if I like the fabric; the jury is still out. So fuzzy! And we’ll see if the gauge I’m knitting results in a reasonable sweater. Did I wash and block my swatch? No; do as I say, not as I do! But the pattern recommends anywhere from 4 to 12 inches of positive ease, and I’m pretty sure my knitting will result in ease somewhere in that very wide range. It’s modeled with 7 inches of ease in my size.

I’ve finished another lace repeat since the picture above, and I’m almost to the sleeve division. But I’m not going to work on it for a few days.

I cut my thumb on broken glass, and it was deep! No stitches needed, though. We added a splint on top of all of this to keep me from bumping/using it. I’m hoping I can unsplint to teach classes all weekend. I’m trying to write instructions and knit a swatch for a new class for my Syncopation shawl/scarf. Wish me luck!

6 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged Hazel Knits, Lion Brand Silk Mohair, Love Note sweater

Red Alder 1.0

Posted on February 20, 2020 | 13 comments

The first ever Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat is in the books, and it was fabulous. It followed in the footsteps of Madrona, but it was its own thing, created from scratch, and ever so wonderful.

I arrived to see Red Alder’s Becky with her finished Petite Brioche (note how she has diagnosed and fixed the WS of her brioche rib by watching the video for continental knitters) and her Clematis hat work-in-progress. This all came about due to an Instagram conversation last week! (In case you’re new here, my Petite Brioche is a free beginner brioche pattern with video tutorials, link here.)

I taught 4 classes: Herringbone Braids and Beyond, Athena Entrelac Cowl, Brioche Pastiche, and Fixing Lace Mistakes.

This is always my favorite moment in the Tink Lace class, if just for the shock value. The students always get over it…eventually. And then they fix it!

Krista brought her finished Brioche Pastiche to show me. It looks great!

And Joan brought her finished Dotty Cake hat to show me, too. I just happened to have mine with me because I used it for a sample in my Herringbone Braids class. Serendipity!

The market had lots of familiar faces, and some new ones, too.

I’m seeing Lorajean (Knitted Wit) and Shannon more on the road than at home! Last month at VKLive NYC, this month at Red Alder, next month at VKLive Seattle/Bellevue. This is their first Madrona/Red Alder show. And we’ll have our annual Rose City Yarn Crawl mega-trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake with them and Debbi Stone on Thursday, March 5. See you there!

Rebecca from A Hundred Ravens yarn showed me some beautiful colors on a yak base, and others on merino.

Greenwood Fiberworks had some gorgeous mini-skein kits.

Foxy Stacey and Cindy were flaunting all the colors at Fierce Fibers. I re-acquainted myself with a few gradient colorways that have me daydreaming again. This was the first Madrona/Red Alder show for Fierce Fibers, too.

There was a lot more in the market; this was just a tiny taste.

Besides teaching, I took a class on Knit 1 Below with Harry Welles. It looks like brioche; it just uses another way to get that result. It was interesting, but I’ll just keep knitting brioche…you know I’m smitten!

Evenings were fun, too. Here’s Red Alder’s John in fine disco gear from the Friday night Fiber-In. I’ll leave you to search the web for Harry’s crochet pants.

Clara Parkes gave the keynote at the Saturday banquet, about wool, of course!

There were some yarn winding shenanigans before the banquet; Mary Scott Huff needed a swift so I stepped in. I still say this beautiful color from Fierce Fibers is NOT pink. Terra cotta? It has a lovely brown undertone.

The hotel Murano features a different glass artist on each floor; I finally got up close and personal with this piece, which I’ve admired on their key cards for years. I didn’t realize how subversive it is! Susan Taylor Glasgow’s statement says, “My life and art are the result of homemaking gone awry. I have the luxury of exploring the complexities of domestic life from the safe distance of my studio.”

Happily ever after, cooking, ironing and vacuuming…ha!

I’m so glad the inaugural Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat was a success. Lots of smiles! I look forward to this event again next year.

Moonrise over Tacoma, first night.

Moonset over Tacoma, last morning. And that’s as much Mt. Rainier view I had all weekend!

Did you go to Red Alder? What did you love?

13 Comments

Posted in classes, events, Knit

Tagged Red Alder 2020, Red Alder Fiber Arts

A Tale of Two Decreases

Posted on February 9, 2020 | 4 comments

I just made a video tutorial for an alternate version of a left leaning brioche decrease.

The center decrease shown is a right leaning decrease. The one on the right is a left leaning decrease, and it’s fine for most purposes. But it shows a lot of the dark colored wrap of the stitch that is passed over. Most of the time, this doesn’t bother me.

But sometimes, like in my Aspen Leaf scarf, I want the left and right leaning decreases to mirror each other more closely.

The Brioche Unwrapped Decrease moves that wrap out of the way before passing the slipped stitch over. Very tidy! Thanks to Xandy Peters for dreaming this up. I’ve made my own video tutorial, because I want to make sure it will always be available when I link to it in a pattern.

Brioche Unwrapped Decrease tutorial link

Here you go! If you don’t like the unwrapped decrease, you can always use the other left leaning decrease. You’re the boss of your knitting!

4 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, tutorial

Tagged Brioche knitting, brioche knitting tutorials, brioche unwrapped decrease

Introducing: Aspen Leaf

Posted on February 3, 2020 | 3 comments

Aspen Leaf is ready to rock and roll!

Aspen Leaf is a leafy brioche scarf. Butterfly wing-shaped wedges are introduced in syncopated brioche as the leaves narrow and widen. The leaves are especially glorious in a gradient main color, and a speckle or semi-solid makes a nice background. The leaf pattern repeats 10 times using two 4 oz skeins of DK weight yarn. You could easily substitute two 4 oz skeins of worsted weight yarn for a slightly wider scarf with fewer repeats.

Sample shown in Huckleberry Knits DK Gradient (Practical Tactical Brilliance) and Huckleberry Knits American Dream DK (When You Said Hi, I Forgot My Dang Name). Gauge is not critical in this stretchy fabric, but it can affect size and yardage requirements. Work for a gauge that gives you a pleasant fabric, not floppy nor tight. Knit as many leaves as you like, depending on how much yarn you have.

This was my relaxing vacation knit in December. Brioche, relaxing? Yes; once you’ve knit a leaf or two, the shaping is easy to remember. You should have experience knitting brioche before knitting Aspen Leaf.

I took it to VKLive NYC last month.

We had a good time!

I’m knitting one more for myself in Knit Picks Chroma Worsted; it’s a little wider and will have 8 leaves, according to my yarn scale. No yarn chicken here!

This pattern is available through Ravelry. It’s 10% off through February 14, 2020 as a valentine to you. Happy knitting!

3 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged Aspen Leaf scarf, VKLive NYC

Syncopation encore, and VKLive NYC

Posted on February 2, 2020 | 9 comments

I finished a third version of my Syncopation shawl just before VKLive NYC. I wanted to wear it there, and I did!

This version is a size/shape between the original shawl and scarf, so a bit wider/less deep than the original shawl, and not as long and skinny as the scarf. I scrunch it a bit at the neck so the point will fall at center front; rolling the scrunch means that some of the reverse color from the other side shows at the neck, which I love.

I’ve added instructions for this size/shape to the pattern, which is available on Ravelry. If you purchased the pattern, you should have received an email letting you know about the update so you can download the latest version. Or if you’re one of my new brioche students, you can just buy it now…

I wore it a lot! I was wearing it when I met up with Ann and Kay from Mason Dixon Knitting in the Knitty City booth, and when I saw Lorajean and Shannon in the Knitted Wit booth, and when I was teaching on a slightly snowy Saturday. It’s a good travel companion, easy to put on and wear.

Bright lights, big city! The NYC show was BIG, with a very different feel than the Columbus show. We were at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, with classes all over and a market on TWO floors.

Here’s a view from the balcony; take this and multiply by two. It was packed with product, and with shoppers.

I taught 5 classes to great students. And I gave my lecture, Blocking: It’s Magic. Once I figured out that the computer wasn’t touch screen, my PowerPoint presentation went very smoothly! (So used to my iPad; I forget…)

This sign was going up during the day, and I decided the question needed to be: Who’s Afraid of PDXKnitterati!

This is my new Aspen Leaf Scarf (pattern coming soon). The colors from Huckleberry Knits have Hamilton-themed names: Practical Tactical Brilliance and When You Said Hi I Forgot My Dang Name.

This picture is as close to Hamilton as my scarf was going to get.

On a whim, I tried to get a ticket to Hamilton in the cancellation line. I got THISCLOSE; they ran out 2 people ahead of me. But it was fun hanging out for a bit, chatting with people from Atlanta and Honolulu who were hoping to get in.

I wasn’t on the hunt for yarn this weekend, which made my limited time in the marketplace a little more manageable, but I really wanted a knitty souvenir. I bought this swatch necklace from Porterness Studio; it’s perfect! I’m wearing it all the time.