cashmere cowl combinations

Our Kim has completed the 3 colour cashmere cowl by Joji Locatelli using Zealana Kiwi, a blend of merino, cotton and possum and Zealana Air Special Edition by Koigu, cashmere, possum and silk. Woo and wow!

We chose these Zealana Kiwi colours to harmonize in both weight and shades with the hand-painted yarn.

I blocked it and brought it back to the table for tea and a long breath of appreciation.

We weighed each yarn remainder and discovered that there is more than enough Air to make another one, 32 grams in fact!

To keep things interesting we chose the gold Kiwi and like it very much. I think it enhances the suede feel of this colour. Too me, as an accessory, it is more in the nature of a fine piece of jewellery. Thanks, Joji and Kim, for giving us this pleasure to share.

yarn over and over and over

I have been steadily working away at the free  Warmth Stole shawl pattern from Universal Yarns over the summer. 

Although Verdi is not currently active in the Drops line up, we still have many beautiful colours in stock. FYI it has 1225 meters or 1139 yards, enough to make 2 generously sized projects.

The stitch pattern itself is an organic type, it reminds me of branching leaves. I confess however, in all my years of knitting, this is the first time I have worked a pattern with yarnovers on both sides, knit and purl, every row. Plus the usual yarnover, preceded or followed by a decrease is not the way this pattern flows. Good exercise for the little grey cells!

Both Verdi and Revolutions are beautiful soft, mohair type yarns, so the pattern repeat (pre-blocking) nested within the softness, takes a bit of determined gazing to discern. I also added lovely bright green Clover stitch markers between the 10 stitch repeats. There was a small error in my downloaded copy of the pattern on Row 4. The last k2 of the repeat part of the text should be eliminated. I did let the knit guild and company know and hope it has been fixed.

Keeping track of the pattern rows has been challenging, mixed with summer time. I vowed to knit one full repeat per (week)day in order to complete the project. It helped the required discipline to listen to a thrilling podcast series called "You Must Remember This" about old (my) Hollywood history.

However, as the poet Burns says "the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley", so as life happens, I get called away during the repeat, somehow the magnetic line keeper shifts, and it takes time to get back on track.

The fluffiness of the yarn, mixed with the yarnovers, needs increased focus.

I am so pleased that I have finally found a better and simple way to figure it out.

Start a row, then work the first repeat after the border, then, a distinctive part of on of the next repeats, for example in row 9

Row 9: K2, *k3, yo, k4, ssk, k1; rep from * to last 2 sts, k2.

In this case I stopped at the second repeat after the *k3, yo, k4, and since every row of this pattern is unique, I can more easily tell where to pick up after I left off.

For your info, maybe you have already guessed, we are fans of Clover tools and accessories and keep them in stock.

lovely linen

Our beautiful Punta handpainted linen in on sale and Kim knit this scarf from the summer issue of Vogue Knitting magazine. From the look of this pile, one could never guess much of the fabric structure of the piece, though I find that to be the case with all unblocked knitting.

The thing about linen, more so that any other fiber, is how well it holds a yarn over. The soft green and blue colours look so sophisticated to me.

I set it up the scarf with my blocking wires, though of course you can go the low tech way by basting the work right sides together and using a pin every inch or so. I would use a stiff thread for the basting too, because linen has a much stonger character than soft wool.

Bonus, you can merrily apply a generous amount of steam because linen is not shy about heat. Look at this! an cool butterfly shaped lace pattern emerges and stays open to enjoy!

The work could also be lined with a sheerish sage coloured silk to enhance the patten even more.

Enjoy the summer!

getting my ducks in order

Well the yarn tasting is very soon.

I have really enjoyed getting acquainted with all of the beautiful samples provided by Estelle yarns.

It was great fun making the fabric bags for the collection.

Sharion and Marion were in the studio this Thursday, lucky me. We decided modular knitting would be fun to offer to the guild members as a sampling strategy.

I have a scarf on the go in printed sock yarn. Modular knitting allows me the freedom to pick and choose where I will place each segment of the painted yarn, I don't need to work in a stritcly linear fashion.

Edgar is a cute narrow scarf on Knitty and The Modern Quilt Wrap by Mags Candace. I also like the book Domino Knitting by Vivian Hoxbro and Swing Swagger Drape by Jane Slicer Smith. In fact Sharion is making the cover cardigan in Oslo double knitting at this time. You could also find out "How to Build a Log Cabin"

Then of course the chevron effect found in stitch patterns like the one we use for our new shell scarf works great for adding movement and texture. Missoni knitwear is often worked in this fashion.

Other cool sampling patterns I like include the linen stitch bracelet "Pretty Twisted", Belle Flower scarf, the Daisy Chain Kit (Frankie's knitted Stuff)

lumio in cotton as a scarf

Lumio, the super chunky reflective yarn is new of for spring in cotton.

I started a hat, then changed my mind once I looked at the patterns freely available on the SMC website. I think the scarf will be more useful. The name of the design is Yukon

This cowl/scarf is a super vehicle for the robust stitches. One of the pattern rows is what I call a river stitch, where you *knit 1, yarn over* for one round then drop the yarn overs on the next knit round so the work grows even faster.

Before starting,  I noticed this yarn is like a bundle of combined small strings.  Apparently cotton is not as receptive to dye as wool, so to facilitate the penetration of the colour into the yarn, it is made as a bundle of threads rather than a tighly spun cable. I tied a knot at the beginning of the yarn to keep the end together ( and will untie it before I tuck it away when I finish)

Knitting the yarn added a twist to it. So every so often I suspended the knitting to let it unwind, than carried on knitting. The pattern called for 2 colours, but I used one ball, was able to knit extra rows and had leftover yarn.

Quick to knit, big, gorgeous stitches that will reflect light in the evening when I go for a walk along the busy road out here.

and of course the supreme satisfaction of another fine FINISHED project!

Hap-iness at last

We began to stock lovely, fine Einband Lopi a couple of years ago, so I began an Evelyn Clark triangular shawl. To me, this yarn is similar to shetland wool, just sticky enough to hold it's own with lace and fairisle, washing and blocking beautifully.

The project went on holiday with me, because I am not the most practised lace knitter and the peace and quiet on the beach in the morning is perfect for yarn overs. Somehow though, it was not the project for me. So, with regret I put it aside. Has that ever happened to you? I do have a stunning Lehe shawl made for me in shetland wool by Geri of Not Just About Knitting

Now I have found a wonderful Jared Flood pattern for a Hap shawl at the Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph called Quill. It is just what I like... a full garter stitch square with an easy lace border. Time for another holiday on the beach, including yarn overs!

Mr. Flood's blog is very interesting, but I must say the Brooklyn Tweed online magazine is stunning. It helped me remember how much I love tweed yarns and cables under my fingers.

Handpainted sock yarns and left afters

Invicta was a lovely coloured yarn we carried a few years ago and I had made a pair of socks for my good friend Mayah. She being a woman with average sized feet, meant I had a part ball left over. What to do... I liked the yarn a lot and wanted to remember my friend as well as the time and place I had made the socks, so I used a traditional lace pattern from the Shetland Islands.

It is a simple and very enjoyable chevron lace. I admire the economy of the Shetland Knitter practice of knitting 3 together for the decrease rather than slip 1, knit 2 together, pass the slipped stitch over. I find the practice elegant, as well as efficient. To make the coloured yarn last longer, I knit 2 rows with a plain and 2 rows Invicta, then 4 rows plain and 2 rows Invicta. The exercise served as an impromptu colour study with the bonus of making use of every last inch of the fancy material. I just relaxedly carried the yarn up the side of the work, which added a yarnover effect to the edges.  

This year, we decided to try the stunning Alegria by Manos Del Uruguay. In the spring we acquired the bright pink mix you see on the top right, just to try. Last week, a long awaited portion of the other colours arrived. The different shades came in long grouped skeins so it was fun to get acquainted with each one by opening the bundles up, releasing them from the small ties holding each version together and twisting them into soft squidgy skeins.

When fellow knitter and coworker Kim arrived on Saturday, we decided to make up one of the colours in the same pattern as I had used with the vintage Invicta. Swift and ball winder to work, then the rest of the afternoon knitting.

This is the result of just a couple of hours. I look forward to blocking and putting it on display.

Chevron Scarf 

100g (maybe) sock weight yarn

3.75mm needles

Cast on 61 stitches.

Row 1: Knit 1, (yarn forward, knit 3, knit 3 together, knit 3, yarn forward, knit 1) to end.

Row 2: Knit.

Repeat until scarf is desired length or until yarn is finished.

Compliments of: Myrtle Station Wool & Ferguson's Knitting

Crescent Shawl

You might remember this pattern book from last winter. Quite popular, especially after our friend Geri knit the sample. The book is back in stock now and we have lots of lovely fine yarns for shawl making, including of course Regia Lace.

The shawl sits on our hanger (or one's shoulders) beautifully, gravity alone, without a pin. Geri used Punta handpainted lace weight. Just enough weight and warmth for indoors.

I laid out the shawl so you can see how the crescent shape is made with yarnovers and decreasing. This time I used my flash so the hole pattern shows. My other favorite crescent shawl is Annis, available free from a past issue of Knitty, the online magazine. Annis has small bobble like stitches around the lace called nupps, though I have seen variations with beads in place of the nupps, very pretty either way.