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 It was blocking day for my Camellia Wrap, and for the unpublished striped bed socks.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!
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.
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!
Well, I didn’t get my swatching done for the When Harry Met Lucy KAL, but I have a good excuse. I went on vacation and couldn’t fit bulky yarn into my luggage!
Knitting on the go with qiviut and POG mimosa
But one ounce of laceweight qiviut, 200 yards, doesn’t take up much space at all. And yes, that’s a tiny yarn scale because I didn’t want to have a yarn chicken issue when coming to the end. I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible.
No yarn chicken here!
I ended up with just over half a gram left, which was less than one round’s worth of yarn. Perfect.
Souvenir qiviut cowl
I gave it a light steam blocking. The top edge doesn’t wave as much as the bottom; that’s the nature of this stitch pattern (Old Shale). It doesn’t matter; the whole thing will collapse around my neck. I began and ended with a garter stitch edge to give it some heft, and to avoid curling.
Old Shale stitch pattern detail
I’m glad I chose this stitch pattern; it has just enough going on to make it interesting, but I was never fighting with not being able to see the stitches with this dark and fuzzy yarn.
Qiviut cowl
I’m really happy with how this souvenir qiviut cowl turned out. I didn’t have much use for this cowl on vacation in Hawaii, but I put it on right after we landed back in Portland. I was so glad that I had it with me in my carry-on bag! 36 degrees F which was quite a shock to the system. This cowl is so lightweight, soft, and warm. I love it.
Is it worth writing up a pattern, or should it just be one and done? It’s great for any precious souvenir yarn. This particular yarn began in Alaska and ended in Hawaii, the 49th and 50th states. It’s been a good knitting year.
I did bring some fingering weight yarn with me for a design project, too. It didn’t take up too much room!
Remember these two beauties? I last posted about them, wondering which color I’d use to knit a Starfall sample. I have now knit three cowls with these two skeins. (You’ll see why/how in a bit.)
Wine Mom, first swatch
At first glance, I didn’t think there was enough going on with Wine Mom. And the color run was longer than in my previous Starfall cowl, so there was a lot of color on each side of the star. This swatch was knit on a US5.
Keith’s Irresistible Orchid
This colorway called my name. I was knitting on a US4.
Starfall Cowl, unblocked
I knit this over the Thanksgiving holiday, but I wasn’t really happy with it. The stars are pretty small, and the fabric is a bit firmer than I like. There’s a lot of color at the sides of the stars, too. I wondered if it would be better on a US5, even though I thought that looked a little puny with this yarn. What if I made 6 stitch stars instead of 5 stitch stars? Would there be enough yarn to finish the cowl? I didn’t want to frog the whole thing and reknit it, if it could mean losing at yarn chicken.
Of course that meant that I should knit an entire cowl with Wine Mom, just to make sure the yardage would work out. Behold, 6 stitch stars on a US5 needle.
Starfall cowl in Wine Mom
I love it. Which meant I had to frog and re-knit the first cowl. And that’s how I’ve knit three cowls with these two skeins of yarn. I re-knit the Irresistible Orchid cowl in 3 days. Don’t try this at home; my arms are definitely feeling some tendinitis. Oops. But I did binge watch the current season of Virgin River on Netflix, so that was fun.
Bisquee is ready to help with blockingStarfall encore
The stars are bigger and there’s less color leakage at the sides of the stars. And the fabric feels right, too. Winner! I also added one more 4 row repeat of the old shale lace at the bottom edge, because there was enough yarn left to do that. I would have added that to the end of the Wine Mom version too, if I had thought of it. It all depends on how much yarn you have left.
Blocked photos coming soon. And I’ll figure out if kits are happening with Keith, the dyer of these gorgeous yarns.
Oh! While I was knitting, I realized it would be easier for me (and you, the knitter), if I gave row numbers throughout the triangular increase section, instead of just telling you to repeats rows 2 and 3, 39 times. So I edited the pattern. If you purchased it through Ravelry, the updated pattern is available to you. I’ll get the Payhip version updated today, too.
Now I need to finish my qiviut cowl, and think about a sweater I want to knit for DH, and design something with some fun new yarn from Knitted Wit. Never a dull moment, right?
Every time I picked up my knitting, the cast on edge bugged me. It was a little too tight, and it was curling badly. I didn’t know if it was going to block out, and that made me hesitant to continue.
So I ripped it out. And while I was ripping it out, I started thinking…of course I did. I liked the fabric I was getting with the US 6 needles. I knew about how many stitches I needed for a cowl. And wouldn’t it be nice if it had fewer patterning rounds, and more plain knit since it’s so hard to see the dark stitches?
Do-over!
I cast on loosely, and then knit two garter ridges (4 rounds) before beginning the Old Shale lace patterning. I wanted a substantial edge that wouldn’t curl. I also wanted to put the first lace patterning row further away from the edge, hoping that would also help prevent the curl.
The Bubble Net pattern had patterning on Rounds 1 and 3, and plain knitting on rounds 2 and 4. I’m working Old Shale (with no garter ridges), which has easily memorized patterning on Round 1, then 3 plain rounds. Less paying attention, perfect. I’m very happy with the new start.
I guess I’m designing my own cowl after all.
I’m knitting on Knit Picks Rainbow Options (birch) interchangeable needles. I picked these up at their Knit in Public Day in June. They have just enough grip with this skinny yarn.
Oh, I want to give a shout out to this ebook, Old Shale Variations edited by Mary Spanos from the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild. It’s a free download on Ravelry, and chronicles the guild’s group project of varying ways to knit Old Shale lace: wider, narrower, garter, stockinette, etc. Very fun to see how you can change the appearance.
I chose to use stockinette (no purling, in the round), and a short number of rounds. Fewer rounds means more complete repeats before heading into an ending garter stitch edge and bind off. (Example: If you only have enough yarn for 10 rounds, you can knit two 4 round repeats, or *zero* 12 round repeats which would waste a lot of this precious yarn. Shorter is better.)
Do you listen to that little voice that tells you to DO OVER? Sometimes I wait a lot longer, and the ripping is brutal! Glad I listened early.
(I don’t have the photoshop skills to make it look like this orca is leaping from the water behind DH, so I’ll just let you imagine that it’s happening, while he obliviously checks his social media accounts. It’s a running joke.)
Icy Strait Point is at the lower end of Glacier Bay; you pass by going in and out. There used to be a cannery there dating from 1912, run by the Hoonah tribe. The town of Hoonah is about a mile away. Icy Strait Point as a cruise port was built specifically for the cruise trade, and is only open when a cruise ship is in port. There are three restaurants and a gondola ride to a higher gondola for a zip line tour. And a cannery museum and gift shop (of course). I was particularly interested in seeing the cannery museum, so I could show DH just what it was I was doing way back when.
This photo felt nostalgically like cannery home…
Our cannery on Kodiak Island canned mostly red (sockeye) and pink (humpies!) salmon. I never knew what the fish looked like; I worked up in the egghouse processing and packing salmon roe to send to Japan. I could identify which kind of salmon the eggs came from, though! The chum/keta eggs were the biggest, and you could sample the brined eggs right off the conveyor belt.
There was no reference to salmon eggs in the cannery museum, so I had to be satisfied with the fish cannery displays.
After the salmon heads were removed by machine, pullers removed the egg/milt sacs, and then the slimers cleaned the inside of the fish (oh, the sliming knife…). The butchering machines were known as Iron Chinks, because they replaced Chinese workers at the beginning of the 20th century and made the canning work much faster. Yes, it’s an offensive term. That’s history. I heard it when I worked in the cannery, and we heard it referred to in a cannery documentary that we watched at a museum in Ketchikan.
18 year old me, in the egghouse
We (my friends and family) always called them lines: How many lines are we running today? We could process anywhere from 40,000 to 120,000 fish per day, given enough overtime. We made our money on overtime, and there was nowhere to spend it. The cannery was the only thing on Alitak Bay at the end of Kodiak Island; we arrived for the summer by seaplane from Kodiak, and lived in bunkhouses and were fed in mess halls. We made friends and had dance parties! I worked in the egghouse for five summers, and that’s how I paid for college.
Cleaning the fish (not real fish here!)Canning lineRetorts, or pressure cookersLabels display
It’s a very far leap from egghouse girl to knitting designer/teacher!
On to Sitka!
St Michael Cathedral
Sitka was the capital of the Russia’s Alaska colony from the 1700’s until 1867; it was called New Archangel. This building is a reconstruction of the original 1848 building which burned in 1966. Sitka is still the Seat of the Diocese of Alaska for the Russian Orthodox Church. This building is part of the Sitka National Historical Park, as is the Totem Trail we visited.
Bicentennial Pole
The Bicentennial Pole stands in front of the Visitors Center. It was carved by Duane Pasco, who won a contest to depict 200 years of Pacific Coast Indian cultural history. Read from the bottom up: The Native people before the arrival of Europeans, Raven and Eagle (the Tlingit moieties or clans), the arrival of Europeans (see the firearms?), and the top figure representing the Northwest Coast Indians of today.
History Pole depicting the first people to occupy the Sitka area.Cormorant Memorial-Mortuary Column
I thought this was a raven, but further research indicates that it’s most likely a cormorant. It’s a recarving by Tommy Joseph; the original pole was obtained in 1903 from a Tlingit village (that sounds ominously colonial, and it probably was).
We actually went the wrong way on the Totem Trail loop, so we didn’t see as many totem poles as we had planned to. But it took us to a footbridge over the Indian River, which was full of salmon headed upriver to spawn. Or perhaps they were spawning right there.
Helpful interpretive sign!
Walking to and from the Totem Trail, we saw salmon jumping in the water.
Back to the boat!
The VK knitters joined the Holland America knitters meet up in the art studio. This is on the 11th floor, off the Crow’s Nest lounge which looks out front.
The next day we visited Ketchikan, which was my favorite town. (Glacier Bay was my favorite stop overall.)
Creek Street, on Ketchikan Creek
I liked that you could see how the town had grown up on the creek, and that they have tried to preserve it. The green house is a preserved bordello, Dolly’s.
We saw salmon heading upstream, and a hungry seal planning its dinner.
I had a great visit at the yarn shop, Fabulous Fiber Arts and More. We also visited the Tongass Historical Museum, which showed Alaska’s history as a Native fish camp, mining hub, salmon canning capital, and timber town.
Can you tell that I like science, history, and museums? The National Parks app was a great help on my phone. Cruise ports are full of souvenir and jewelry shops, which don’t interest me. But I can figure out how to have a good time anyway!
We spent the rest of that day cruising to Victoria, British Columbia. We were in port from 8 to 11:30 pm, so we opted to stay on board and pack. The next day we spent at sea headed back to Seattle, so it was time for another knitting class. Ana and I swapped students, and we now have more brioche knitters, and Portuguese-style knitters too.
Knitting and looking for orcasDutch 75 (French 75 with Dutch gin and a sexy ORANGE twist)
This bit of brioche was my social knitting for the cruise. It’s not hard, basically brioche rib with just a little bit of thinking at the edge. It turns out this is just a swatch; I’m playing with a design idea and the rib needs shaping, and a different needle overall. But it was great to have on this cruise.
I really enjoyed this trip! I hope you enjoyed the travelogue. Onward!
Still on the assigned pooling bandwagon! I just blocked this, and I love it. It’s a fingering weight bandana cowl with a cascade of assigned pooling stars, and an Old Shale lace edging. This is one of my favorite looks to wear; it looks like a shawl but it stays on without a fuss.
I just finished writing the pattern and video tutorial, and it will be tech edited this week. I’m looking for a few test knitters; you’d need one skein of fingering weight yarn that’s dyed for assigned pooling, with a color pop of about 8” long. I used Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere.
I’m making a paper chain with the yarn labels from this year’s projects; it’s a tidy and visual way to remember what I’ve done. Ten projects by the first week of April feels pretty good.
So far, from the top: Fierce Fibers and Moss Fibers (for Ebb and Flow), Knit Picks Chroma (Aspen Leaf scarf and Athena Cowl), Yarn Snob (Pooling is a Cinch and Firefly Trails), Anzula Luxury Yarn (Aspen Leaf Coasters), Dream in Color Classy (Fanfare Cowl/Hat (2 of them) and the current project which isn’t named yet).
Also pictured: Yarn chicken mug by JaMPDX, and our ancient Darth Vader bank, which still works when you put coins in. Some heavy breathing, light saber waving, and a message: “Impressive. Most impressive. But you are not a Jedi yet!”
Do you save your yarn labels? If yes, how? I used to just throw them in a basket, but the chain is much more fun.
I finished my assigned pooling hat with the sunbursts/flowers. It’s cute! I tried it on, and it’s a little snug on me. It measures 17” around; those sunbursts do pull in the fabric a bit. The hat in the above picture isn’t blocked; blocking will make the sunbursts prettier.
Calvin’s already good-looking enough!
I haven’t blocked the hat yet because I also want to knit a hat using this criss cross stitch I used in my Criss Cross accessories and Tilt Shift Wrap. I needed to know if I have enough yarn to do that.
Now that I’ve started, I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough yarn to knit both, and I think I’m more likely to wear the criss cross stitch, so I’m frogging the sunburst hat while I knit the criss cross version.
I don’t mind re-knitting; the yarn is ridiculously entertaining. I’ll knit a sunburst headband with the yarn that’s left from the skein. It’s been fun figuring out how big (how many wraps, how many stitches) I need to make the sunbursts and criss crosses look their best. This will vary depending on your yarn! I’m teaching this very fun class at Knit Maine in September. We’ll be using this exact same yarn in class; it’s Wonderful Worsted from Yarn Snob yarns in Cabana Boy.
The winner of 3 months of Knit Camp from Olive Knits is…Quite a Yarn Blog! I’ll contact you for info to connect you with Knit Camp. Congratulations!
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 