Feeling that Knitting and Designing feeling again...

I have to admit, the Shopping with Katie shawl almost did me in.  Love the final piece, but oh my, the journey.  So many little stitches in fingering weight wool left me feeling a little burned out.  But, it's a new season, and I'm a feelin' that knitting and designing itch again!!!

Enter my latest hat design, Idunn.  In Norse mythology, Idunn is a goddess associated with apples and youth.

“Idunn” is a worsted weight beret knit in the round. My inspiration was the lines and textures created by looking through branches still bearing tiny frozen crab apples to an old stone building beyond them. Its pointed arched windows seemed to merge and part with the gently waving branches through the mist of my cold breath last winter.

I had completed this design early spring 2011, but I decided to hold off on releasing it on Ravelry and my website.  Though I really love the design and how the main stitch pattern grows almost organically out of the pointed arches above the band, I wanted to revisit the motif created at the crown closure.  Now, Idunn is ready to be charted!  Here is a sneak peak at a couple of my swatches...

Ahhh, worsted weight feels wonderful after fingering weight! 

Kate's Shopping Shawl

I simply adore this shawl. It is elegant, versatile and pretty. I'm loving it so much that I'm wanting one. So what to do? Yup, you guessed it. I'm reverse designing one. :D

Kate's is made out of cashmere, which is gorgeous but a little out of my budget. Plus, I want a fiber that's a little on the hardy side without sacrificing drape and flow. I chose Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine for my yarn in colorway "Salt & Pepper." This yarn is a sock yarn, so it is hardy. Yay!
Although I cannot find a close up of the Kate shawl on the internet, the general consensus on the Ravelry group "Kate's Shawl & All" is that it is the Woven Transverse Herringbone. I love the look of it. I was a worried that the herringbone would be blurred a little too much by the halo of my yarn choice, but the swatch I did assures me that it won't. Let's hope it's not lying.

So, the swatch. I did a large swatch, approximately 8 inches x 8 inches because I've never worked with this yarn before. I really wanted to see how it draped before I start knitting. I am very pleased with it's performance!

Now, the math. I can hear the groans from here, and I'll admit this step had me pulling my hair and gnashing some teeth. Here is one of the pages from my design book.Originally, I thought to work from one elongated point, increasing my way to the center, then decrease to the other elongated point. After much frustration and frogging, I decided to start from the center and do one half, then knit the second piece. Kate's shawl has a fine row of garter stitch running from center top to center point, so that has me thinking I'm on the right track. I did a temporary cast on with similar weight yarn using the crochet method. Two rows of garter and straight into the pattern. So far I'm liking the results. I'll keep you up to date as I go. Wish me luck!

Update:
Well, I'm at the 40% mark and I really love the pattern. It's elegant and totally satisfies the my Capricorn tendencies. Originally, I was going to decrease once every 8 rows, but my math was WAYYY off. Frogged and started again, but this time, the decrease is once every 4 rows. The angle is much more to my liking. Yay!

Free OpenOffice Knitting/Crocheting Pattern Template

here it is!

FreeKnittingTemplate1.ott

Alyoops!: Design-a-long!

Alyoops!: Design-a-long!


I just joined a new group on Ravelry called Design Along. Sounds like fun! Alyssa, owner of a super cute and informative blog named Alyoops! came up with the idea and is the hostess/moderator for the design along. Thanks Alyssa, because my designer butt is kinda dragging after my first ever (hurray!!!!) submission to a major online knitting magazine. Sucked the designing wind out of my sails. This design along is just the ticket to get me fired up again! Group description or mandate is below:

"Here’s the premise: Four times a year, a theme will be posted up. If you want to participate, you sign up and post a picture that is related to the theme that inspires you. After one week, the pictures are compiled and a mood board will go up - from that mood board, participants each design and knit an original piece.

So join us in expanding our design portfolios, flexing creative muscles, and making cool things!"

Edited for finding an inspirational blog post on designing by Jared Flood!!! You can see it here. And here is a picture of his swatching/designing wall. LOVE IT!!!

Just giving it a whirl... Drop Spindle Spinning

Ah, my latest love. Who would have thought this is so addictive? Should I call it a mental break from designing and knitting, or call it procrastination? Nope! I'll call it just plain ol' fun! I'm trying to fit in at least 1/2 hour every day. It is a great project to do while listening to knitting podcasts.
My goal: to make a pretty shawl of my own design with yarn made by me! :)
Is it possible to have too many hobbies/projects? LOL

Getting ready...

This is the fate of my local grocery flyers. I love reusing/re-purposing found objects. Makes me think of my old Art University days. :) Plus I love free!

So, what am I doing? Building a better bird's nest? Nope! Paper mache, baby, and kick'n it up a notch with glue. Pray tell, what are you making, you say? Why, a dummy of course!

Seriously, I am. Thanks to the loan of one incredibly patient size 6x cutie and my over indulging yarn purchasing, I am attempting to make myself a child dress form on a next to nothing budget. Thanks to the inspiring tutorial in "Custom Knits" by Wendy Bernard, I just might pull this one off. The mission statement: dress form must be accurate in size, sturdy and pretty. I'd like to use it as a display mannequin at some future knitting booth I may do. Tall order? hmmmm. We'll see. If it is a success, I hope to post my construction techniques here. Wish me luck!

Book Review:

How to Use, Adapt, and Design Knitting Patterns: How to knit exactly what you want, every time--with confidence!

This book is amazing.

Sam Elliott and Sidney Bryan gives another view at how to design knitwear and their view is simply fantastic. Clear attractive pictures, concise written instructions and a step by step process that is so easy to follow makes this book a gem.

I LOVE the idea of making a paper pattern to help me to visualize my garment. This step helps to avoid unnecessary mistakes while calculating shaping.

Making and fitting a muslin test garment to try on is brilliant! What knitter wouldn't want the chance to see if a garment is flattering before investing HOURS to knit it? Sam and Sidney show us how to alter the muslin for fit and transcribe that to our paper pattern. They then show us how to use the measurements to calculate the stitches and rows needed to knit the garment and how to finish the knitted garment with a professional eye for detail.

Then the true gold of the book: how to change the character and function of our simple design by working it out first on the paper pattern and the muslin, then showing us how write it into our knit pattern. Change the neckline or sleeves, alter the shape, how to utilized paired increases and decreases, add stitch patterns or embellishments... they are here!

This book is worth every cent if you want to take your knitting to the next level and design.