I had forgotten how much fun it is to knit cables, especially with bulky yarn.
When Harry Met Lucy
It’s mesmerizing to watch the cables develop. I just finished Row 50 of the back. Yes, there are two row counters because the center cable has a 32 row repeat, and the side cables have a 24 row repeat.
I put the charts inside a page protector to give it some body, and I’m using my ribbon covered magnets from a Slipped Stitch Studios pattern keeper to keep track of which row(s) I’m on. Why not just use the pattern keeper? Because the magnets only work if the chart is printed in portrait mode, and I can read them better printed in landscape mode!
The next step in the sweater process is deciding if I want to modify the drop shoulder for a better fit for DH. I modified this favorite sweater for him (Sky Lights from North Island Designs, not on Ravelry because it’s THAT old), so I put it on the floor to measure it.
Helpful Knitting Cat Bisquee
I’ve measured all the important bits: Length to armhole, cut in at armhole, armhole depth, neck width, overall length of sweater and sleeve. Now to translate it to the current knit…
We’ve had an ice storm on top of a snowstorm, so we’ve been cooped up inside. Perfect weather for knitting, and for baking.
Calvin helped me make blueberry muffins. He can smell melted butter from the other room.
The birds are puffed up against the cold, and hungry, so I put out bird seed.
I’m ready for the ice to melt. And I need to start getting ready to go to VKLive NYC next week. Must. Stop. Knitting. Sweater. For now at least! How are things where you are?
I finally have enough projects off my plate that I can begin to contemplate this KAL. It has a lot going on, and it’s definitely not for knitting on the go!
Bisquee and I worked 3 stockinette gauge swatches. I couldn’t get gauge, even going down two needle sizes. Did I wash and block my swatch? Nah, that would just make it relax, and make that desired gauge even more unattainable. So I just cast on with the smaller needles to see what would really happen. Sometimes you just have to jump in.
This bulky-ish yarn on US 8 needles wasn’t going to make my hands happy over the long run. And the width of the piece was much smaller than it should have been! I did some math, and the actual measurement over the cabled body is the same as I’d get with that stockinette gauge, and that can’t be true. Cables pull in, and stockinette doesn’t.
I went back to the original US 10 that was recommended and cast on for the 42” sweater. Even though my stockinette gauge is way too big, the actual knitted piece was very different. The 42” size was coming out at 39”, too small.
I cast on again for the 46” sweater and it is measuring 44”. (Well, really 22”, because it’s just the back.) That’s a good amount of ease on DH, but not ridiculous. And it’s better than being too small. The fabric has a nice hand, so far. If I were using a larger needle, the fabric would be too loose. So I’m ignoring the stockinette gauge, because there really isn’t any stockinette in this pattern.
I’m planning on using this cabled body as a jumping off point, and then adapting a few things. I don’t want a plain drop shoulder sweater, so I’ll bind off some stitches at the armhole for a better shoulder fit for DH. Then I’ll finagle the slightly set in sleeve, which I’ve done before on a sweater that fits him well.
We’ll see if I can get past my two skein attention span and actually do all those things I’m planning!
The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Mineral Heather. It’s kind of a heathered gray with violet undertones.
Oh, about that cable hook: I usually do my cables without a cable needle, but for the 3 over 3 crosses, it’s not comfortable, so I’m back to using a hook. The 3/1 and 1/3 cables don’t need it. Do whatever makes you happy!
Tools: I printed just the charts on one page. Perfect for my knitting bag! The 12 page pattern can sit at my desk. This is definitely home knitting!
I finished the Dotty socks yesterday afternoon, and immediately drove them over to my friend Doreen’s house. They’re for her birthday tomorrow, and it’s snowing and icing this weekend. I wanted to beat the weather, and I did!
Dotty Bed Socks for Doreen
I didn’t take an FO picture, but she did! Our planned dinner out tonight is OFF, but at least she’s cozy.
Camellia Wrap and Slip Stripe Socks
This photo popped up in my Facebook memories today. It was blocking day for my Camellia Wrap, and for the unpublished striped bed socks. That Camellia Wrap is one of my favorite things to wear, fantastic drape and swing. And apparently there were two of those striped socks…I wonder where they went? They weren’t in the drawer with the orange/purple prototypes that I frogged. Maybe I already gave them away as a gift? I don’t recall.
One tomato
Remember the Ann Norling Fruit Cap pattern from eons ago? I knit a whole bunch about 20 years ago; they were my go to baby gift for a while. I can’t find the pattern in my house, so I winged it. Pretty close, I think. This is for a baby shower on Monday that may be iced out. Oh, weather.
Two tomatoes
I actually knit two of them because there’s a baby due at church, too. I bought a skein of Malabrigo Rios in Ravelry Red, what a great color. I paired it with Ivy that was leftover in my stash from designing for my Brioche Knit Love book. Rios is one of my favorite yarns. Lovely colors, not expensive.
I knit these on a US7; I started with a US6 but it was firmer than I wanted. I use a 6 for all my Rios brioche, but not for stockinette, I guess!
Inclement weather is great for knitting productivity. Now I only have one project on my needles again (having four was definitely outside my monogamous knitter comfort zone). What are the other two projects? One is done, and I’ll let you know about both of them in a bit.
But I think it’s also time to swatch for the When Harry Met Lucy sweater KAL, finally!
It’s chilly here! I decided to sew in the ends on the mismatched (design prototypes) orange/purple bed socks so they can be of use. But when I pulled them out of the drawer, I noticed the stripe pattern and the dotty pattern resulted in two very differently sized socks. Not okay!
Sock dreams in Malabrigo Rios
I never published the striped socks; the slip stitch stripes were too variable gauge-wise, and the pattern was too fussy to write, too. So the striped sock needed to be frogged back to the cuff, and the dotted sock needed to be frogged back to the instep to get rid of the striped sole. But I like the dotted instep better than the striped instep. (They are both options on the Dotty Bed Sock pattern, see below.) It wouldn’t add much knitting if I ripped out the gusset, too.
Dotty Bed Socks, dot or stripe instep
If you’re wondering why the bottom of the gusset is striped, here’s the designer’s secret: The gusset decreases would complicate working the dotty stitch pattern on the bottom of the foot. I wanted the pattern to be easy knitting! So those are just 2 row stripes where the decreases occur, no thinking.
Dotty Bed Socks, my favorite version!
I’m almost done…
Halfway down the second foot. You can see I’m using magic loop here, which I like, mostly. I think I prefer my Flexi-Flips, but I didn’t think of them until working the toe of the first sock, and I don’t want to change needles mid-project for fear of changing my gauge and having 2 different sized socks again. Next time!
Dotty Bed Socks are worked cuff down with a slip stitch pattern, so there’s only one color used per round. And they’re worsted weight, so they’re pretty quick! My socks are 44 stitches around in Malabrigo Rios.
Do you sock? How do you sock? Cuff down? Toe up? DPNs? Magic Loop? Two circulars? Flexi-Flips? Do tell!
I bought this kit from NW Yarns & Mercantile for DIY dryer balls. It came with 8 ounces of fluffy white fiber that made me want to spin (I resisted), and some yarn to wrap around the balls. I made the two on the left with the included yarn.
Then I went rogue. I used Noro Kureyon on the third one, and embroidered the flower with Lopi. I wanted the fourth one to look like the earth, kind of, so I used Lopi for the water and embroiderd with green Lopi for the three land masses. That one’s my favorite!
The Lopi was the best felting yarn, and it was all leftovers from my Stopover sweaters. The Noro still looks a bit stringy, but it may felt more with repeated trips through the dryer. And I wish I had more green on that second one. I didn’t love the black on the first one. But they’re all going around in the dryer with my laundry right now, so that’s a win!
This was a quick project, and fun. I highly recommend it!
I thought a lot about whales last summer, while on the Zodiac Schooner trip, and on the Vogue Knitting Alaska cruise. I didn’t see a single whale, but they were definitely on my mind!
The Whale Conga Line cowl is the result of those whale-centered expeditions. It’s knit flat from the bottom up and seamed, using 2 skeins of DK weight yarn in contrasting colors. I used Anzula Luxury Fibers Lucero, which is a sparkly blend of superwash merino, cashmere, and stellina. So pretty!
detail
If you’re not into whales, choose a different color and you’ll have migrating birds on the wing, or Jack’s beanstalk reaching for the sky.
The pattern is available through Ravelry, link here, and Payhip, link here. Use coupon code FLUKE for 15% off through January 10, 2024.
Thanks to tech editor Jen Lucas, test knitters Ann Berg, Debbie Braden, and Erica Erignac, and model Sharon Hsu. And thank you to newsletter subscriber Shauna, who came up with the winning name for this pattern! I’ll be sending her a copy of the pattern.
Happy New Year! I hope you began as you mean to go on. For us, New Year’s Day was spent with the (grown) kids. They came for brunch (cinnamon rolls, cheesy scrambled eggs, mimosas, fake bacon) and then we headed out for a visit with a troll.
Ole Bolle, and a human scale door
This is Ole Bolle, one of a series of oversized trolls by Thomas Dambo. This is the only one in the Portland area; the rest of this series are around the Puget Sound in Washington. But there are over 100 around the world!
He’s made of recycled wooden pallets, and he’s BIG.
I love how he’s peering into the house, looking for snacks.
Don’t look now!
We extended our outing with a 3 mile walk along the Rock Creek Greenway, a wetlands area. Lots of ducks and evidence of beavers (gnawed tree trunks and limbs).
Wouldn’t this plumage pattern make a great sweater yoke?
A little bit of knitting, and the day was complete. How did you start 2024?
I forgot to add the biggest knit thing I did in 2023, which was also a second chance: I re-published my sold out, out of print book, Brioche Knit Love: 21 Skill Building Projects from Simple to Sublime! It’s for sale through Amazon.com and through select yarn shops including For Yarn’s Sake and Northwest Yarns and Mercantile. Get a copy and enjoy brioche knitting!
To ring out the old year and ring in the new, I’m having a sale on my 2023 individual self-published patterns on Ravelry. These are the eight designs you see above (not the book, which is not on Ravelry). Here’s a link to the Ravelry bundle so you can find them easily. Get 20% off any of my 2023 patterns from now through January 5, 2024. Explore assigned pooling, play with brioche, or just have a simple knit and let a gradient yarn walk you through Ebb and Flow! (If Ravelry is not accessible for you, message me and we’ll work it out.)
Happy new year…are you doing something fun for New Year’s Eve? We’re staying home with the cats. That’s enough excitement for us!
These are my finished designs of 2023; there are still 3 in the hopper that will be published in 2024. Assigned pooling was definitely a big part of my year! Pooling is a Cinch, Firefly Trails, Fanfare, Starfall, and the Star Flower Shawl were my pooling pieces.
I started the year with the Aspen Leaf Coasters, which were a brainstorm off my re-worked Aspen Leaf brioche scarf for Knit Picks. Because what if you only had to knit one leaf instead of a whole scarf?That was a fun idea, and I designed them so I could use them for a class on brioche increases and decreases. (I’m teaching it at Red Alder on February 16.) I finished the year with the Aspen Leaf Brioche Cowl (center bottom) because I love that leaf motif. I’m back to my beloved brioche and leaves after my assigned pooling detour.
27 finished projects in 2023
I counted up all my projects for the year, and there were 25 FOs. Two were from other designers, the Sink Mates mini washcloths by Lorilee Beltman, and the Buggiflooer cowl adapted from the Buggiflooer Beanie by Alison Rendall (for Shetland Wool Week). The other 23 were from my own designs.
I knit several of these pieces more than once while developing or revising the designs. I love second (and third) chances, don’t you?
Ebb and Flow in variegated, long gradient (pink), mini skeins (blues/greens)
I designed Ebb and Flow to use a souvenir skein of Moss Fibers yarn from Knit Maine 2022. Then I knit it again with the long pink gradient. I loved the color, but I think the yak/silk blend doesn’t have enough bounce to help it hold its shape (it didn’t help that I made the neckline wider, but that was a good thing to learn for the design). And then I knit it with mini skeins, and that was awesome.
I knit two more Starfall cowls for the upcoming knit along with Knits All Done/Yarn Snob, and found that a bigger, fuller star was ideal based on Keith’s dyeing patterns, along with an extended lace edging due to his generous yardage. (I had to knit through an entire skein to make sure there would be enough.)
Second chances can add a lot to an experience, whether it’s knitting or something else. While we were on vacation this month in Hawaii, we took advantage of two second chances. I had gone rock hopping with the kids at Wawaloli Beach in 2018, but we never came to the wave crashing tide pools that were pictured in our guide book.
Wawaloli Beach tide pools…found ‘em!
These are great for wading, if you’ve got kids. The calm pools that we saw before were full of interesting sea life, including shingle urchins.
It was definitely worth going back and doing it again for the short Coastal Trail; the tide pools were full of interesting fauna. Why do sea urchins put things on themselves? Camouflage, maybe?
Looking back from 1871 Trail at lava shelf/tide poolsLooking north, 1871 TrailGoats!
I was a little sorry to learn that we were going to be on vacation during the new moon, which meant no moonsets. But after several days of waking at 5 AM by accident, I decided to have my coffee in the dark on the lanai.
Orion, December 15 (amazing to capture with iPhone)
The sky was perfectly clear, and I saw Orion setting over the ocean. A green shooting star dropped from his shoulder. I saw six more meteors in the next half hour as Orion sank to the sea. Apparently the Geminid meteor shower happens at this time of year, who knew? Gemini is near Orion in the night sky. There is also an Orionid meteor shower, but that one peaks in October.
Do you knit/do things more than once? I do! And learn a little more each time.
Knitted Wit Summer Slubbing, Sakura and Unicorn Dreams
As I said in a previous post, I took this yarn with me on vacation. I was originally planning a 2 color top down crescent shawl.
Sunset slubbing, color not true
Well, I did the math and swatched the stitch patterns I wanted to use, and tried a couple needle sizes. Then I cast on. And I decided…that my design required too much counting and thinking. I was on vacation! Also, I had swatched with the pink yarn, and the stitch patterns didn’t show as much as I wanted them to in the variegated yarn. I love the variegated version (Unicorn Dreams). Summer Slubbing wants to be an easy-going knit. Nothing complicated.
So I frogged it and started over. The knitting is now plain enough that this nubbly, bubbly yarn is the star of the show. This will be a single skein asymmetric triangle, knit on the bias. Shawl? Scarf? We’ll see how big it is when we get to the end of the skein!
Do over!
I like how it’s going so far. My yarn scale tells me I am close to finished; I just have to decide what I want the end to look like. Sometimes that’s the hardest part.
You’ll learn to create simple shawl shapes in class. From there you’ll get pointers on how to apply stitch patterns and design your own shawls. Registration for Red Alder is here. This is a good time to let you know that pre-registration for Red Alder (and other events) is important! Classes get canceled if registrations are low. Next week is the cut week for Red Alder. My shawl shapes class could use a few more knitters, so if you’re interested please register. I blogged the list of my classes here.
Find my patterns on Ravelry: Michele Bernstein Designs
Here are some of my favorites, and the newest. Many of my designs are also available through my Payhip store.
PDXKnitterati 