Category Archives: pattern design

knitting a blue streak

Posted on July 27, 2010 | 14 comments

It feels like it’s all blue here, all the time.

blue beginning

I started my Breezy Market Tote. Although Twisted’s Single Skein Club offering with my design was AllHemp6 yarn in pumpkin, I was able to swap my yarn for deep sea (blue), since I’d already made the original design in sand (nearly pumpkin). I wound the yarn by hand, twice. The first time, I wound it in my usual way, over my fingers to keep the ball loose to avoid stretching the yarn. It works with wool. With hemp? Not so much. The ball was sloppy and prone to tangling and falling apart. So I rewound it more tightly, and away we went. And yes, that’s a provisional cast on at the bottom. Never fear, the bag will be only…blue.

ball

I also resurrected my ruffle tank from the time-out basket. I lost my annotated instructions last year at Sock Summit time, and was just too peeved to go on. But looking at it now, I’m pretty sure I can get the rest of it done. The back was already done, and the front was up past the armhole shaping. It won’t take long (famous last words) to finish. And I get to learn applied i-cord to finish the edges.

front

I’ve been working on the instructions for my Pacific Shawl (yes, mine is blue); it’s almost ready to go to test knit. I need to make a video tutorial for placing the beads, and check the math one more time, but the charts are done.

blueberrylime

Last night I made blueberry lime jam. (More blue, even though the jam is deep purple.) I don’t like plain blueberry jam, where the berries have been through the food processor. The texture is…grainy. So I gently squashed the berries with a potato masher, and I think I’ll like the result a lot better. Along with lime juice, there are bits of lime zest in there to give it some zing and keep it from being cloyingly sweet. Because these berries are really, really sweet already. There are still more out there on the bushes, too…

Oh, I did finish something that wasn’t blue…a helmet liner for the Knit for the Troops project. Lichen green, and I forgot to take a picture before dropping it off at Twisted! Sorry. I used the pattern here. If I were to do it again, I would change the decreases at the crown; there are only 5 decreases around the crown of the hat, and it meant that the top of the hat was tall and a bit pointy. I’d make more decrease points (maybe 8?) so the crown would be shorter and rounder. (If 8 decreases, then I’d start with 88 stitches instead of 90) But that’s just me; I can’t seem to ever knit something as written!

Back to the blues…

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, recipe

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Blogging, and more

Posted on July 20, 2010 | 16 comments

I’m so pleased to announce that I’m going to be blogging for Lantern Moon! I’ve been in a knitting group (the knit nite group) with Sharon Woodcock, one of the owners of Lantern Moon, for about three years. Our group grew out of an intarsia class that we had with Leigh Radford. I was thrilled when Sharon & Joel (her husband, and co-owner of Lantern Moon) asked me to blog for them. Please come check out the new blog here.

We went to the Tigard Knitting Guild meeting last Thursday; Sharon was the guest speaker. It’s a great group of knitters, and I even participated in the show and tell time, with my Pacific Shawl.

pacific

I still have to finish writing up the pattern; it’s been on the back burner for a bit. But I hope to have it out to test knit in the next few weeks.

So, not much knitting around here, but I’ve been cooking. This is our new favorite pasta salad. It’s just right for summer. You can put any of your favorite things in it, but here’s what I did:

orzo salad

Lemon Orzo Pasta Salad

Dressing: in a jar, combine and shake well:
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced or run through garlic press
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

(2025 update note: I also add the zest from the lemon, and maybe a sprinkle of lemon pepper. I like citrus zing!)

For the salad:
1 pound orzo pasta, cooked, rinsed, and cooled (this makes a LOT. Note: I’ve made this more recently, and I’ve used 12 oz of orzo with reasonable results, or 1/2 lb (8 oz) for a high goodies to pasta ratio. Anything goes.)
2/3 lb asparagus, cut in 1.5 inch pieces (add these to the pasta for the last 1.5 minutes of cooking)
1 14 ounce can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and halved
1/2 cup kalamata olives, sliced in half
1 pint grape tomatoes (whole)
3 ounces crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts

(2025 update: I’m now using 8 oz of pasta for a high goodies to pasta ratio. I no longer have teenaged boys in the house, so the salad doesn’t have to stretch as far. And I like the higher goodies to pasta ratio. I also halve the artichoke heart pieces, so there’s more chance of artichoke heart in every bite.)

Combine salad ingredients and toss with 1/2 the dressing. Store the salad, refrigerated, to let the flavors meld. Before serving, add more of the dressing to refresh. (You can use all, or part, of the remaining dressing, as you desire) We served it with grilled chicken, and really enjoyed it!

What’s cooking/knitting with you?

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Posted in Blogging, Knit, pattern design, recipe

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Single Skein Club: June edition

Posted on June 4, 2010 | 18 comments

It’s June, and that means it’s time for the next installment of Twisted’s Single Skein Club.

me

I was really looking forward to this month’s offering, because it’s my design! I was delighted when Shannon and Emily asked me to design June’s project. They wanted a market bag out of a single skein of Hemp for Knitting’s AllHemp6 (100g, 165 yards, DK weight).

ssc 06.10

I knew that the bag couldn’t be huge, so my usual bag construction with a rectangle bottom wasn’t going to cut it. I took this project on Crafty Mom Weekend in March, and this was the result. It’s big enough to hold goodies from the farmers’ market, or lots of yarn.

breezy

The kit comes with a skein of AllHemp6 in Pumpkin. Since I already have a bag in nearly that color, I swapped for a skein of Deep Sea. I get special treatment, just this month! The package also includes this little container of solid hand lotion. It smells fresh and feels great.

goodie

The pattern is available only through the Single Skein Club for now; it will be available to the public on September 1.

Knit on!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design

Pacific Shawl, redux

Posted on May 30, 2010 | 21 comments

The second incarnation of my Pacific Shawl is blocked and ready to wear.

I love it! Here’s how much bigger it is than the first one.

It feels great on my shoulders; it’s a lightweight wisp of a thing. Just warm enough. I think I blocked it to be a little more open than the first one; you can see the difference here.

It’s funny how the smaller one is darker than the larger one; they’re two skeins of the same yarn.

I like them both. They’re same same, but different!

Details:
Pacific Shawl, pattern coming soon
One skein of Malabrigo Sock yarn, 100g/440 yards: larger shawl used nearly an entire skein
Size 6 Lantern Moon ebony needles (26 inch circular)
Size 6/0 Toho beads for edging

Time to write the pattern…

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Just enough…

Posted on May 27, 2010 | 8 comments

Barely. I finished knitting my amended Pacific shawl this morning, binding off a bazillion stitches. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Here’s the yarn I had left.

remnant

I don’t think there’s enough for even one more complete row. Glad that worked out! Now I need to block it, and then I can show it to you. I’ll be writing the pattern for several sizes, too, now that I know the outer limits of the skein…

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Pacific, round 1

Posted on May 17, 2010 | 22 comments

I love this so much more than the first try, it’s ridiculous. Lemons to lemonade…

It’s not rain; it’s the Pacific Ocean.

pacific shawl

The waves are rolling. The sun is shining on the waves. It reminds me of Crafty Mom Weekend, watching the endlessly undulating ocean. (I wrote lyrics for a song that weekend, and the waves were in the lyrics, too. I sense a theme.)

I love working with beads. They’re so small, but they add such nice sparkle.

This is definitely a shawlette rather than a shawl. I had a fair amount of yarn left. I’m knitting this again with another skein of the same yarn, making it a bit bigger but still trying to keep it as a one skein project. I’m also fine-tuning a few things on it. I’ll eventually write up the pattern, and I’ll also do a video tutorial on adding beads. I like this “add as you go” method rather than pre-stringing all my beads at the beginning. Have you used beads in your knitting?

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Posted in beading, Knit, pattern design

pdxfroggerati

Posted on April 25, 2010 | 14 comments

I had a lot of practice with tinking and frogging on this last project. I figured I should live true to the class that I teach at Twisted, ” Tink, Drop, Frog.” Yes, all those fixes really work, even on things more complicated than stockinette!

I frogged (rip-it, rip-it) 12 rows of lacy knitting when I realized that I didn’t have enough yarn to do an extra 16 row repeat *and* a border. And then I had to frog again when I messed up the border. While I was frogging that, I decided to take it back even further so I could have a deeper border. Here it is unblocked.

unblocked

I love blocking. It’s like magic…

blocked

But I don’t love this shawl.

blocked piano

:sigh:

It’s pretty, but I think the pattern in the body is too bold for the more delicate border. And I love the undulating border, with its little sparkly beads.

beads

This was my first experience with adding beads to my knitting, other than a one hour wonder class with Sivia Harding at Sock Summit last summer. I really like it! These are a little subtle with this yarn, but the blue on the inside of the beads was such a perfect match, I had to use them.

beads 2

When I first envisioned this shawl, it was all about the pattern in the body. I was inspired by raindrops running down a window. So maybe that part of it needs a different border, but for now, I’m going to knit another shawl and play with this border some more.

Raindrop Shawl (my own exploration)
Knitted Wit Superwash Merino fingering weight, 100 grams
US size 6 needle
Size 6/0 Toho beads

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Posted in beading, Knit, pattern design

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Overheard, in my head…

Posted on April 18, 2010 | 24 comments

The conversation this week:

froggy

Wow, I have a lot of yarn left. Look at the size of that ball. I’m sure I can get one more 16 row repeat done before I start the edging.

Are you sure? Right now you have 256 stitches, and 16 rows is at least 4096 stitches.

Yeah, but look at the size of that ball of yarn. No problem.

OK, this lace pattern is so much fun to knit; go for it.

Hey, I’m on row 11, and this yarn seems to be disappearing at a prodigious rate.

Um, maybe you should weigh the yarn before this next row, and see how much yarn you’re using per row.

OK, 21 grams; OK, now 18 grams. That’s 3 grams per row…

Um, that means you have enough for 6 rows, maybe. Which means the last 4 rows of the lace repeat, and, um, TWO rows of edging.

Carp.

And so, gentle reader, I took the whole thing off the needle, ripped out 12 rows, which is at least 3072 stitches, and got it all back on the needle.

froggy

This is the same picture, because I’m back at the same place. I took it after the big rip; I didn’t take one before because I didn’t really listen to that little voice, until it was too late. Sorry about the lighting; it was 1 a.m. But I had to do it then because I couldn’t go to bed knowing that it would be waiting for me in the morning.

Look at all those markers!

Onward.

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April Foolishness

Posted on April 9, 2010 | 13 comments

We were spoiled by a spectacular early March; warm and sunny. I could get used to that. Alas, March went out like a lion, with lots of wind and rain. It’s still cold in April. But even the cold doesn’t make me want to finish my Heather Hoodie right now. I don’t want to knit with bulky yarn; it makes my hands tired. What’s a girl to do?

blues

Ummm, cast on a new project? Sure! This is a shawl using Knitted Wit‘s fingering weight merino wool. Lorajean calls this color Blue Sky. It’s a cheery color, and knits like a dream. I love it! I started this project with an idea that’s been percolating in my mind for quite a while. I had several false starts, but it’s finally working out the way I want it to. I’ll show you what it really looks like, later.

The other bit of April fun comes from Star Athena. It’s her Socks for All Seasons Pattern Club. The club runs for 12 months, and you can choose to buy each month separately, or sign on for 3, 6, 9, or 12 months. I’m in for three months of fun. I used to say that I’m not a sock knitter, but apparently that’s not true since I have a lot of hand knit socks. Not as many as Shannon at Twisted (50 pairs, oh my!), but enough that I don’t wear store bought socks very often. I just don’t knit socks with fingering weight yarn; I’m too impatient!

april fool

This month’s pattern is written for four different gauges, so it’s perfect for me. I happen to have a ball of Fly Designs Monarch sport weight in Sailing (see how I love these blues?). The pattern is called April Fool, and it’s simple yet crazy. The socks are knit in one piece, the first one toe up, with a bit of waste yarn in between at the edge of the cuffs, and then the second one top down. No second sock syndrome here! This will be my simple project when I’m not knitting the shawl, which requires some counting.

Happy spring!

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Simple Pleasures

Posted on March 25, 2010 | 10 comments

In February, Amanda from NH Knitting Mama Yarns contacted me to ask if I’d consider having my ZigZag Lace Pedi Sock pattern in her new yarn club offering. Oh, yes! Knitting is a simple pleasure, and Amanda knows it. Her new yarn club is a little different from most, in that there’s no advance commitment. There will be five offerings this year, and you decide if you want to order one of the club packages. You don’t know what’s in it, but you know it will be good! I love the thrill of a yarn club surprise. A Simple Pleasures package includes an exclusive yarn colorway (never listed before) and goodies centering on a theme.

pedi crop

This month, the theme is pedicures. Amanda knit up a sample in her sport weight yarn line (see below), and I added pictures of her socks to the pattern, and also added a toe option to my existing sock pattern. (If you bought the ZigZag Lace Pedi Sock pattern online, an update is coming through Ravelry.) Besides the pattern, there’s a really pretty sport weight yarn, colorway “Winter Buster” which is red, black and white, a project bag, red nail polish, emery boards, and a chocolate. Perfect for beating the winter blahs. If you’re on Ravelry, you can see the colorway here.

with polish

It was a pleasure working with Amanda. If you want to order a Simple Pleasures package, they’ll be on sale on the first of the months of May, July, September, and November.

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, ravelry

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