Summer heat

Yes, there always is a fabulous summer in California. That is nothing unusual.
What is going on in my knitting world is just as hot as the weather though, and pretty unusual. The ever growing engagement with Knit Picks is remarkable. The new 100 % silk yarn line Luminance was introduced end of June and a call for new designs was issued.
I submitted a pattern for a vintage-looking shawl I had made for myself years ago and the pattern was accepted. So guess what:  I have the great pleasure to knit with 100 % silk in Meditation. The yarn feels super soft and the color is strikingly light blue, with hint of mint. I can't wait until it is completed and blocked. As you can see, I am knitting both halves at the same time. The marker is needed when knitting 2 pieces at once. It marks the beginning edge of the first piece right side. It helps you see very easily if you knitted across both pieces before turning and knitting on the wrong side.

I do have another design finished that was made from Knit Picks yarn Palette. It's a striped men's vest. Last Sunday morning we took a trip to the cactus park and took these pictures.

Meet Swellegance and it's features.

 

young hip styling......

sh, don't tell anyone the vest was made for Ruben (on the left)

 

 

Appealing to today's professional, or more to the women who want to make a vests for them.

 

The stripes are patterned as well and make this simple piece, stunning.

 

Can you believe, Ruben is planning on wearing this in the Garage to work on motor cycles?

 

The Pocket was a special trick. All patterns call for a Gauge Swatch. With this pattern the gauge swatch is being turned into a pocket. So you don't have knit that piece twice. The other trick and great feature of this pocket is that it has the stripes going the opposite direction than the vest which allows the pocket to be much larger. The size now can accommodate a larger phone. There also is a button to close the pocket, so the phone does not slip out, when working in the Garage, ha ha

Now I have to finish the pattern. Writing takes a little longer than knitting the sample. Writing this pattern is especially difficult because I want to make sure it can be knitted in all sizes, from small to XXL. It will also need graphics with the garment measurements for each size. All I can say is: I am working on it!

On my last blog I showed the yarn I purchased to make some shirts that can be washed and are also dryer safe. Look, the red shirt is done. It is on its way to Adelle as a present for her second birthday.
I have tried out the claim that this yarn, even though it contains wool, is washable and dryer safe. It is true! The sample I did, looked and measured the same before and after it was washed and dried.

Seriously, knitting is my passion and it is taking over my life. The retiring slowly idea has taken hold. The extra days off, are filled with my passion. I feel happy, over all healthy, relaxed and grateful to be able to experience all of it.

April, April, der macht was er will

We used to say that all the time when we where kids...April, April, der macht was er will (april, april, he does what he wants). It happened very often in April that the weather turned and outdoor plans to play had to be changed. I remember many Easter Sundays with cold fingers, from holding the umbrella without gloves. It was supposed to be April, Springtime!

Now April is synonymous with Springtime Knitting. Preplanned knitting.
My little friend Allison is 2. I can't wait to have her try on the new jacket I am making for her. We are supposed to visit the Etsy Guild Market this coming Saturday together.

I am sure I can get the other arm finished and the collar added today and tomorrow. Being on vacation this week in April is the thing to do for me.
I always enjoy April. It smells different, the wind feels different, everything is NEW.

There is one more really important thing to do and that is the buttons. I think I have found the perfect choice for this April, April jacket (Maentelchen). It is called Smiley Flower from as cute as a button.

As cute as a button

Sometime this week the woman that owns this online store and I will meet. Lucky me get's to rummage through her buttons. There is another project I was working on which needs special Antler buttons. But that project will have to wait until miss Allison has her April, April Jacket.

finishing it

I know finishing work is not only my biggest problem.
Many of my 'knitting' friends tell me the same story: It takes way too long, all the threads to hide, the blocking, the sewing together of all the seams, ....
Well my friends, it is what it is!!!!

With my latest project "little red riding hoody" I shortened the finishing time a little by blocking my work as I finished each piece.

First the back. Then the two front pieces, and then the arms. While the arms dried I closed the shoulder seams and knitted the hood right onto the garment. I did not cast off the middle diamond design stitches on the back piece so I could continue the design into the hood. The button band was knitted on next. I repeated the 8 rows from the jacket and arms edge and added 5 buttonholes in the top half of the hoody. The bottom half remains open.

Once the arms were done blocking I sewed them on. By 'sewing' I mean I crochet them on. I have given-up on using a sewing needle to close any knitting seams. For me the best way is to use a slightly smaller crochet hook and a single crochet stitch to close a seam.

I think you can see in the picture that I did not have the hoodie's side seams closed before sewing on the arms. I also did not have the arm seams closed. I like this method of sewing (crocheting) in the arms open.

It gives me full control over the placement:

-making sure the middle of the arm is placed at the shoulder seam.

-sewing down the back half of the arm and then the front half lets me adjust the arm width to end exactly where I want it to be. It also is much easier to crochet small sections and 'open them again' if it did not quite come out perfectly.

After that I can sit back and take one evening to close the long side and arm seam. All in one. For this little red riding hoody I left a few inches open at the end of the arm's seam and at the other end of the body. That leaves this hoody light any airy. It is not meant to be cuddly warm, rather just a small soft little chill-remover, for evenings near the ocean or cool spring evenings on the porch.

Comparing it to the sketch I made when I first played with the idea of a kimono hoody, this looks a lot like the vision I had. Don't you agree!

I know that the ladies from the Normal Heights knitting group are asking for the pattern. I know, I know. It's time to write it down.

My husband gave me a super Christmas present. It's a Phone and Pad in one, the Galaxy Note II. So guess what! I need to learn how to make the design notes while I am knitting and making the decisions, so I can just push copy - paste and have the pattern already done.

That's the goal for my next project.

But for now I need to get on it. It's time to remember the way I did it, so everyone that wants to make a hoody like this can do it. I am wearing it a few times a week and it goes well with casual and business styles a like.

Oh and Maxy likes me wearing it out on HER walks.

The Pettern is now for sale in German at my ravelry store:
http://www.ravelry.com



one down - one more to go

My husband's hoody is finished and I am really proud about how it turned out.

Now it's on to my hoody.

The plan was layed-out months ago, on my visit to Germany.

Step one, buttons:

The PhildarWolle store near my mother's home always has great buttons and I found the perfect 'red' set.   picture of the 6 red buttons

Step two, shoes:

Yes, please don't laugh. The right shoes did come next. I saw them in the window of our new Adams Ave. shoe store and knew they were 'it'. The perfect pair.

Step three, finish the previous project:

I am glad it is done and extremely excited to be able to do the next step.

Step four, yarn shopping:

My husband agreed to go with me. I am not sure if he actually regretted that decision because it took me 4 yarn stores and almost 100 miles until I found the perfect yarn.

Seta Tweed, raspberry color from Lang Yarns. It is made out of 75% silk and 25% cotton. Super light, 100 meters only weigh 25 grams. Half the normal weight. Super soft, as you can imagine.

Step five, designing the look:

What will the finished hoody look like? I did not know but I was certain that I have not found the right pattern and it was up to my creative side to let loose and create it.

As you can see it will be a "kimono - style" hoody. All the edges will be straight. That will enhance the straight cable pattern. The front diamond design will continue on to build the edge of the hood. I think this will work.

Step six, knit a trial section to determine gauge:

I did try different diamond sizes and settled on the smaller, 8 stitches inside. The gauge with needles size 3,75 (German) size 5 US. turned out to be 19 stitches and 30 rows.

Step seven, size the finished garment:

It was time to measure how wide I wanted (needed) the finished hoody to be to fit me. I pulled out my measuring tape and measured hip ( 46 ) and bust ( 46 ) inches. Remembering that the garment will be straight, so it has to fit both wide areas comfortably. 50 inches all the way around will generate a loose fitting jacket. So that was that.

Step eight, calculate the cast on stitches:

Here, as always, I wrote out the pattern number of stitches to be sure the idea in my mind translated correctly. The first section to knit will be the right front. Considering 50 inches all the way around will require one quarter, or 12.5 inches for one front panel. Because I will also add a small button band later I had to make the cast on number for only 12 inches. from the gauge 19 stitches on 4 inches = 4.75 stitches per inch, which calculates to 57 (4.75 times 12) stitches for 12 inches.

Step nine, write out the pattern

from left to right: 1 edge stitch, 2 knit, 5 snake pattern, 3 knit, 5 snake, 3 knit, 5 snake, 3 knit, 5 snake, 3 knit, 5 snake, 2 knit, 14 diamond, 2 knit, 1 edge stitch = 59  Perfect. Lets GO!

Step ten, knit the right front panel

I think it turned out just like I knew it would, it is light and soft and 'very red'.

Step eleven, knit the left front panel

Here I had to let my creative side interject a little. Even though I knew what to do, my inner voice said: "Wait a minute, think this through"! the other side will have to have the designs go the other way. The diamonds are crossing over opposite and the snake pattern is starting by going into the opposite direction as well. So even the starting ribbon section needed to go the opposite way. Thank you Intuition, I could not do it without you!

I promise that this time I will write down the pattern. I have already approached my husband with the task of designing the Yarn-Stube logo for the page I will need to generate a professional looking pattern. Free or for sale on ravelry - I am not so sure yet.

Finishing the Checkered Past

Yes, I have finally named the hoodie "Checkered Past".
It fits the pattern and the person that will wear it. There are still a lot of finishing tasks left, but the big knitting job is complete.

I had fun using the heel knitting technique to construct the hood.

 

 

 

Select all the stitches around the collar, include the 8 stitches of the button band sections on both right and left sides, knit the hood up in St stitch ( both button band section continue the buyyon band pattern) in brown 10 1/2 to 11 inches.  Then divide the stitches into three sections.

Knit the middle section in green:

At the end of every row knit a green and a brown stitch together until there is only the button band left on both sides.

 

 

So now the next steps:

• Bind off the green hood top stitches
• finish the button band and sew it onto the hood (I have 8 stitches for the button band but left an additional stitch to use for sewing the band onto the green hood top)
• work all the yarn ends into the knitting on the left side (using a crochet hook, as always, is really the easiest method)
• sew on the buttons
• make one more photo with the new owner
• Since the use of this garment is 'in the garage', blocking is not required, ha ha ha
• find the right 'red summery-type yarn for my hoodie' - I CAN HARDLY WAIT TO GET STARTED

 

In between knitting though I do have to remember that there is another creature in my house hold. Maxy keeps waiting, sometimes really patiently, sometimes not.

Either way, going for a walk with her is never boring. She explodes, just like a little terrier. She wants to be friends with every living thing out and about. What she does though is bark, bark, bark, bark ...... bark, and bark, and scare everything away. Poor Maxy!

 

Today is Sunday though and before I can pick-up my knitting project again I have to go to the local swap meet and 'break' Jaquina, my mother-in-law. This usually is Ruben's pleasure, but he is in Florida, so it falls onto me. I like the swap meet. It's bustling, you never know what you might find, or whom you might meet!

 

 

 

Almost there

All I can think of is putting the pieces together, but it is so warm I am extremely hesitant to pick up my knitting. I have so much time to do it too. It's a three day weekend. I am by myself. What better opportunity, right?

OK, I went on Ravelry yesterday and gave myself a deadline. I told everone else that I will be done with the hoody for my husband by the end of the week. That's all I have been doing and thinking about every time I have a few idle moments. Not really!!!!
I am very good at creating distractions:
- Walking Adams Ave.
- Buying a new pair of shoes
- Thriftstore hopping
- Gardening
- Doing Laundry
- Grocery shopping
- Walking the dog
- Walking the dog
- Walking the dog
- Cooking
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
- where did all the time go?

On top of that, I miss Ruben. Hurry up Rozanna and get better soon!

Man's hoodie progress

While I knit when I can some evenings go by without progress. Working sometimes becomes the draining culprit and sometime life just happens without any time for the HOBBIES.

I have made progress though. The back is done, the right front panel is done, the left front panel is about 1/2 done. Before the left front was started I layed out the right front panel and trial positioned the buttons. I needed to know where and at what row distance to make the button holes.

First I tried to lay-out the buttons to match
the lumberjack pattern but gave up the idea.
I wanted more than just 5 buttons and
10 would have been too many.

Laying the buttons out on the pattern
has always worked for me.
I finally decided the distance of
18 rows works out great for 6 buttons.

So now I am working on the left piece
and include a button hole every 18 rows.







For the 'life just happens' comment I do have pictures for you.
A friend of mine had a baby in April and we, my husband and I, spent Saturday afternoon with 'the Baby' Allison. Isn't she adorable!

Who is this strange woman, MOMMIE help I am being cuddled

Never mind, I am being fed now, let's just let her do it.

Perhaps this stranger is not so bad. I could just smile a little.
She did feed me, after all

This guy has my toy?

Fair Isle a different way

I am knitting a hoodie for my husband. The idea came from him:
I wish a had a hoddie, something army green, but not too warm, short sleeves would be OK.

The Fall 2010 edition of

Interweave Knits

had a picture and pattern

for a men's jacket

that gave me an idea.

What if I make this hoodie

using a similar design?

The squares would

be knitted in the Fair Isle

style. I like to knit

designs with colors and

have completed many

Fair Isle knitted garments

and even gloves, shawls,

and socks.

.

"LUMBERJACK" is the name of the squares

For the hoodie I would have to find some summery type yarn. So I did venture to The Black Sheep in Encinitas and came away with Nashua Handknits from Westminster Fibers, 50% Linen/ 50% Cotton.  Like I said, summery yarn, light weight and airy,

The colors are Army Green and Brown. I did look to find a Green/Gray combination, but there was nothing beside merino winter wool available. He said he likes the green/brown combo.

Once I started preparing the work and knitted the Gauge, something dawned on me:

Fair Isle knitting will use double the yarn since the second color is carried in the back all the way from end to the other on every row!

I was shocked when that thought hit me.
There goes the idea of a light and airy hoodie right out the window.

I persisted though and spent a few nights (I do have a day job) figuring out how the gauge that I arrived at would translate. I used 5.5mm needles, larger from the recommended 4.5mm. I wanted a light and airy result, remember.

After gathering my husbands measurements I knew how wide at the hip and breast and how tall from the underarm, shoulders and the middle of the neck the hoodie needed to be.

First, I sketched it out. 26" overall length (he does not like long shirts either), 46" overall width, 2" for a waistband.

Second, I wrote out the design rhythm. Yes, I said that before, rhythm is knitting. 

The Lumberjack pattern in the photo was 6, 12 repeated. For my design that did not work because it would require several more green/brown section then what I had in mind. The design would be too busy and I had to also consider where in the pattern would I have to start to have a good connection to the front.

So I started writing out the rhythm with the front:

button band brown, 7 or 8 stitches, solid green 16, green/brown band 8, solid green 16, green/brown band 8, solid green 4. According to my Gauge that would give me the correct 1/2 of a front.

Ergo, the back would then have to start with the remaining 12 solid green, green/brown band 8, solid green 16, green/brown band 8, solid green 16, green/brown band 8, solid green 16, green/brown band 8, sending with solid green 12.

The left front would then again start with the remaining 4 solid green, green/brown band 8, solid green 16,green/brown band 8, solid green 16, ending with button band brown, 7 or 8 stitches.

I don't know why that always happens, but that is exactly what happened and it resulted in the measurements for my husband's hoodie.

Once I had the pattern and design written down and worked out, I went for it and knitted the waistband.

Row 1: all knit stitches

Row 2: 1 purl, 1 knit, all the way across in that rhythm.

When it became time to start knitting the main body I did remember that my balls were hand wound and I had access to 2 strands from one ball (one from the inside and one form the outside), and a good thing that was.

I still had the problem of double threads on the back to solve.

But, being a long-time knitter I just started thinking. I remembered that most of the Fair Isle designs call for many colors and there was no way to not carry the yarn all the way across. I also remembered that I read somewhere about twisting two strands of yarn around each other once to help carry them across larger sections.
This Lumberjack design was different from regular Fair Isle though. The design just needed two colors in 4 places.
You see, two balls with two ends each, provides brown for 4 places. Just what I needed!

So I decided to use two balls, drawing two strands of yarn out from each ball. I attached each strand at the four places in the pattern that used brown, and not carry the brown all the way across the solid green sections.

I twisted the brown with the green in front of every first brown stitch on every row before knitting the first brown stitch and then un-twist it again after the 8 stitches of the brown/green combo vertical stripe were knitted.

For the horizontal stripe I knitted 8 rows, 1 stitch green/ 1 stitch brown, also using the 4 different brown strands. Every time the knitting would reach the next vertical brown strand, I twisted the current with the next brown and made sure the next brown stitch was knitted with the next brown strand.

This really worked out beautifully!

There are no ends to finish anywhere on the entire back piece except in the beginning row and end row. The balls were 100 grams in size, LUCKY ME.

I have also learned that the best way to make sure the green always gets carried all the way through was to knit (RS) or purl (WS) one stitch on either end of each row using the green main color.



armhole
green is the last stitch all the way around the piece



shoulder
green is the last stitch all the way around the piece



side edge
green is the last stitch all the way around the piece

This was done all throughout the entire hoodie, except the waistband, button band, and hood which are all solid brown.  Actually, the hood is not started yet, and might not be solid brown. You will have to wait and see! So check back if you want to know how this ends.



Finishing Your Work

My mother has found the easiest way to finish her knitting projects. She has a Phildar-Wolle store around the corner, just a few yards away from her front door. So naturally she brings her work to the store and let's the experts finish her work.
For most of us that is not possible and we must finish our own knitting projects. Over the years I have found one easy way: I use a crochet hook
Select a hook that is just one size smaller than the knitting needles and gather-up 8-10 (less with fine yarn, more with bulky yarn) approaching the spot in the knitting were the yarn ends. Then you simply hook the yarn onto the crochet hook and feed it through the gathered stitches.
I also use the same hook to close up the seams, and attach the arms. Using a single crochet stitch I just crochet all the seams together. To make sure the seams do not get too tight or too loose, I first pin the seams together with safety pins or knitting markers. Then check I the work every two inches by laying it flat on a table. You will be able to see right away if you should add a crochet stitch every inch (when the seam too tight and the work does not lay flat) or if you should use a smaller hook and decrease the stitches (when the seam is wavy and wrinkled and the work does not lay flat).
You might think but that means: 'I have to open the seam again'. And luckily you can using the crochet method. If you have used the finishing method of sewing your seam together with a tapestry needle you will be trying to undo stitches that are barely noticeable and that is truly hard and really time consuming.
I think the Crochet method is the easiest and have been using it for many years. Try it!

After all seams are joined it is time to decide what the collar should be like and if it is a sweater with buttons or zipper closure, the front has to be knitted.

With my Baby dress project I decided not to follow the pattern of knitting a ribbed right and left band and then sew that on.

Since the dress had this waistband design I decided to mirror that waistband as the button band.

I gathered up 'enough stitches and then added the right amount of stitches when knitting the first row to have the perfect size band'. How to do that is not hard at all.

From the trial 4" x 4" (or 10cm x 10cm) piece, I know that it takes 22 stitches to over 4" (or 10cm). The overall length of the Baby dress is 24cm.

So the final stitch number has to be 22 x 2.4 = 53

In the case of the Baby dress, the knitting had 43 rows. I was able to gather up 44 stitches from the garment and added 9 stitches evenly during the first row knitting. (every 5 stitches I added one)

Next I had to consider the button holes on the right band. I needed 5 evenly spread out. I started by simply laying the buttons on the dress where I thought they should be. I measured the distance from the middle of one button to the middle of the next button and found that it all works out this way during row 4 of the pattern:

knitting from the bottom up six stitches, cast off three (for the first button hole) knit 8, cast off three (button hole 2) knit 8, cast off three (button hole 3), knit 8, cast off three (button hole 4), knit 8, cast off three (button hole 5) ending with three stitches.

Sometimes the calculator is not the right tool. So don't worry and just lay it out on a table until it looks the way you want it to look then just count out the stitches and GO FOR IT.

As you can see, it turned out great.

If you are not successful, e-mail me.

I can guide you through it.