My spellcheck just auto corrected "yarn over" to "yarn over-emotional".
If I ever start a band again, that will be it's name.
Shawl sampler
I just used simple openwork lace in patches with the sunlight shawl as the base. it's really lovely out of this mystery yarn (something lace by handmaiden). I might dye it though because this yarn has a slightly dirty look/grey mixed in with the white. The lace reminds me a bit of Shetland lace. But that really might just be because I am completely obsessed with Scotland right now.
I have too much time on my hands.
Monday, 30 January 2012
And too many low-resolution cameras attached to my phones, laptops 'n' such.
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Me, watching Castle. Taking a break from knitting the Juneberry Triangle that I just started. (photos to come) |
The shawl that can fit through a wedding ring.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
I'm reading Elizabeth Zimmerman's "knitting workshop" and she speaks of a wedding shawl knit out of such fine yarn that it can fit, in it's entirety, through a wedding ring. I have to say I am fascinated!
So I started knitting a "sampler" shawl (random lace patterns picked out from my lace stitchionary) out of some super fine handmaiden lace. Party time!
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| Now I just need a wedding ring to try it out on... |
More evidence gauge matters
Want to knit a sweater? Want it to fit? KNIT A GAUGE SWATCH! It's what all the cool kids do.
"From Twisted, in Portland: 8 knitters knit the same swatch with the same yarn & needles. 8 different results, none matching the ballband gauge."
I found this on pinterest: here
And don't forget to block them!
Knitted things!
Saturday, 28 January 2012
The colours are a bit wonky, I'm still getting the hang of taking photos again.
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| A Damask shawl and a Juneberry Triangle! (Nicola knit the Juneberry, that's her arm on the right) |
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| Nicola! |
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| Black and white, to show the texture on the two of them. |
A photo of Caitlin's newest creation!
Thursday, 26 January 2012
I did a photo shoot with Caitlin yesterday for a few of her newest patterns.
This one is such a lovely sweater pattern, I love the military-style front piece.
Her blog can be found here!
A quick question...
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Snowflakes or Raindrops?
They look so similar when they are represented by yarn overs.
Sittin', knittin'.
I am plotting! I have some pattern ideas...
(also, that's my finished Damask shawl that I am so stupidly proud of)
What? Another pair of toe-up Noro socks?
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Why would I even do such a thing? ANOTHER pair of Noro socks?
The store has settled and I'm taking my knit-break! I started these things last night and they're knitting up quickly. I am using Noro kureyon and 5.5mm double pointed needles. I am planning on felting these suckers.
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| That's right I use my boobs to hold my yarn sometimes. That's not weird right? I look like I'm giving some sort of secret yarn victory hand-signal. Wut wut! |
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| Noro is like crack. The colour changes are addictive! Instead of "just one more row" it's "just one more colour change!" Long striping wool is dangerous. |
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| These ones were knit out of Noro's silk garden and I knit them over a weekend several months ago. |
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| Damn straight. I don't have time to knit socks out of sock weight wool. |
It's finished and blocking!
Monday, 23 January 2012
This is a horrible photograph! But I'm so glad it's done!
Now what should I knit?
It's almost done!
Sunday, 22 January 2012
I have been sitting and watching Bones for... an embarrassingly large amount of time. I'm on season 5... and I'm almost done this shawl! Slightly less crappy iPhone photos (because I have slightly less crappy iPhone now) Hope you enjoy!
Here's the pattern! Damask!
The colours are waaay wrong, but the photos are nice still :)
Crazy bottom-up shawl
Friday, 20 January 2012
I started knitting Damask, a really beautiful bottom-up shawl, here I stole a picture off the internet of it for you. Here's a link to the pattern on ravelry.
I have never knit a bottom-up shawl. The premise of this shawl is that you cast on a huge number of stitches, something between two hundred and three hundred depending on which size you decide to knit... You're casting on the frilly bottom of the shawl instead of starting with a small amount of stitches and working downwards.
Mine looks like this...
I'm knitting it out of madelinetosh DK in Toasted Pecan. It's lovely yarn. Let's hope I don' fuck this shawl up!
My Sunlight Shawl is featured on Malabrigo's website
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
I am literally beside myself with happiness right now.
Malabrigo picked one of my patterns to have on their "free pattern" part of their website.
link can be found here!
It snowed in Vancouver last night...
I took some photographs in it! This isn't knitting related - but I'm including it anyway!
About a hundred bags of Rasta at Gina Brown's Yarn in Vancouver
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
We just got in a huge shipment of Malabrigo Rasta! We had a ton of this before Christmas but we completely sold out... that is until this week! Now we have a hundred bags of the stuff. Come check it out!
Gina Brown's yarn is located at 3424 West Broadway in Vancouver B.C.
I finished that damn Goodale sweater
My 2012 new years resolution is to never knit sweaters out of anything smaller than a worsted-weight yarn ever again. I knit something like 1300 meters of DK weight yarn in 7 days. Granted. I didn't do anything else. Other than watch Bones on Netflix.
I made the sleeves longer and I extended the body. If I knit this again I will for sure drop down a size or two as this one got much bigger with blocking. I did swatching for this project, and I even blocked the swatches to see how much the sweater would grow... but I didn't stretch them. I just lied them down flat to dry. My logic was that I wouldn't stretch-block my sweater so why would I stretch-block my swatch? Well, let me tell you, you need to stretch-block your swatches because when you're done knitting your sweater and you get it wet - the weight of the wet fabric will automatically weigh it down enough so that it stretches... A lot. It all makes sense now. Too bad it took me two sock-weight sweaters knit to figure that out.
I'm planning on keeping this one though. No frogging for this sweater - even if it is bigger than I wanted it to be.
I didn't have anyone to help me take photos so here are some myspace-styled photographs to show the lovely yarn and fabric.
I used Madeline Tosh DK in the colourway called Cousteau
The pattern is Goodale by Cecily Glowik MacDonald
The colour in this photo is way off. It's darker and is more blue-y green.
Awkward timer shot. You can see the drape a bit better in this shot though.
Once Upon A Time There Was A Blanket
Monday, 9 January 2012
My lovely friend Caitlin Ffrench was asked last year to knit a couple of blankets for a television show that was in production. She said yes and designed and knit the hell out of a couple of blankets. The show is called Once Upon A Time and it's awesome. You should check it out.
A youtube clip of the show and her lovely blanket can be found here!
The blanket's recently published pattern can be found here!
And her knitting/personal website can be found here!
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| Caitlin's lovely blanket! (the baby looks a bit demonic though.) |
Caitlin helped me out by modelling for my Triangle Cowl patterns (she's the one with the tattoos), She's also a great person to know if you love yarn, as she has her own line of naturally dyed yarns which are just so beautiful. She also works at Baaad Anna's Yarn store, a must-see yarn store if you're in Vancouver. She's also just awesome. So there.
I had a dream...
Sunday, 8 January 2012
The other night I had a dream I was knitting thrummed mittens! I wish I had a reason to knit them, but it's just too warm in Vancouver to warrant any thrumming of any kind.
Here's a lovely pattern though. I love the way the thrummed bits look like hearts.
For the original photo follow the link
I may have knitted one for my cat...
Friday, 6 January 2012
All Babe really wants out of life is to become internet famous. I know it won't happen, she's just not lol-cat funny enough yah know? But let's not tell her that... she's just so cute when she tries.
She's so kindly let me take photos of her in my newest knitted Triangle-shaped neck-piece!
I used a slightly-larger than a golf-ball-sized ball of left-over Malabrigo rasta to knit this. I used 15mm needles and cast on something like 9 stitches (about 3 1/4 inches worth of stitches) and I just knit in seed stitch until it fit Babe's neck. This could me modified to fit any number of fluffy animals. I sewed on some buttons and there you have it! Something my cat tolerates!
I put the pattern up on Ravelry! It can be found here
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Oh my god it's growing!
Monday, 2 January 2012
What knitting this sweater has made me realize is that I am totally traumatized by the last sweater I tried to knit myself. I am having flashbacks, night sweats, trying it on obsessively to test if it's too big. It's so hard to tell because there are these little flap things that need to be sewn down and they take up fabric and they make it look huge but I'm pretty sure it's not but I'm also pretty sure it. Oh god, why do I decide to do things out of sock weight/dk weight anyway - they always take forever and they, apparently, scar me for life.
If this thing doesn't turn out I might have to quit knitting for good.
The front is supposed to look like this (photo stolen from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/goodale)
I can't tell... is it too big? I think I'm going to put it on some scrap yarn and tack down the "pockets" and then try it on. I'll post non-crappy iphone photos then... unless I lose my mind and throw this project in the freezer (with all the other projects I'm never going to finish)
