designs | Page 5

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Improving Your Skillset 3KCBWDAY6

Today’s topic: Improving Your Skillset. How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base?

I would consider myself an advanced intermediate knitter. I can (obviously) design patterns, but there are still many skills I don’t know, or don’t know well.

There are a few skills I’m pretty confident about. Like complex cables:

Morgandy Mittens

Shedir

And colorwork:

an ill-fated Autumn Rose sweater

Socks (including stockings and slippers, which I prefer because they’re so much quicker!):

Cable footies from One Skein book (love!)

Stocking with short-row heel

Basic lace:

an in-progress Jordan

Kari Baby Blanket (my own pattern)

And obviously, I’m pretty good with basic sweater construction, both raglan (see my Chandail and Hipster Stripe patterns) and set-in sleeve (my Bevin pattern).

Which wraps up the list of skills I’m confident in… and brings me to the skills I’m not!

Here are a few that could be better:

1. Short rows. I’m okay at these, but they never turn out quite as I’d like them to–always a little messy or misplaced. I’ve been bookmarking alternative short-row methods for a while (shadow wraps, German short rows, Japanese short rows), and sometime when I’ve got a lot of knitting dead time (ha!) I’m going to do some mega-swatches and try them out.

2. Intarsia. I’ve done it, but it was fiddly and awful and I hated it. Here, for posterity, are the only two intarsia projects I’ve ever done:

Purple Totoro, a gift for my sister and brother-in-law

Doggie argyle

And here’s a list of things I haven’t tried at all (but want to!):

1. Steeking. Scares the crap out of me. I don’t have a sewing machine (or access to one), so I know I’ll have to figure out how to REALLY reinforce those center stitches before I dive in.

2. Complex lace. I’ve never done nupps or bobbles, never knit with beads, and never done lace patterning on both right and wrong side rows. This is more a case of not finding a pattern I’d like to knit than anything else, honestly…. I don’t wear or knit shawls (although I’m working on a design for one right now, oddly enough!), and I’m not a big fan of how most of the froofy lace stuff looks. But I’d still like to try it!

3. Crochet. I know how to single-crochet around the edges of things, but that’s about it. I would love to actually make a whole crochet project someday.

That was a fun list to create. Makes me want to go work on my shawl design, actually :-)

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Seasons 3KCBWDAY4

The prompt for today asks whether local seasonal weather affects my crafting.

Well, let’s look at an average temperature graph for my Los Angeles-adjacent town:

And let’s compare that to, say, Rhinebeck, New York:

Le sigh.

Do I wish I lived somewhere that got a little colder? Yes. Do I let it affect my crafting? Definitely not. I love woolly sweaters, jackets, hats, scarves, and mittens. I will continue knitting any and all of those no matter what the temperature is. I have family in the Midwest, for one thing–they can always use warm handknits.

There’s also an odd phenomenon that I’ve observed in Southern California. As I’m sure we all know, handknits can be very fashionable accessories. SoCal may not do cold, but it does do fashion. So anytime the temperatures dip below 60F, out come the wool hats, gloves, scarves, puffy parkas, and UGG boots.

Megan Fox's outfit here is not an exaggeration. I see people like this all the time.

I’ve fallen victim to it too, but for a different reason. Since I started designing, I have a closet stuffed with cute knit accessories. If it’s anywhere near a cold temperature outside, I seize the opportunity to wear one or more. I know it’s ridiculous and that my Midwestern friends would laugh, but there you go.

As far as knitting goes, I don’t let the seasons affect what I work on at all. When you’re submitting designs for possible publication, the timeframe is usually at least 6 months in advance anyway–so I’m knitting with light cotton in the dead of winter and heavy wool in summer anyway.

Here’s what I knit last summer, from June to September:

That’s a whole lotta wool.

And last December I was working on Bevin and Hipster Stripe:

Which are both about as summery as I ever get.

So I think I can safely conclude seasons have no effect on my knitting whatsoever :-)

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Color Lovers

Today’s topic asks bloggers to talk about their love or confusion of color. It’s funny–only a few years ago, I would have said that I always, always gravitated toward rich jewel tones, especially blue, purple, and green, and rarely knit with anything else. A quick look through my Ravelry projects proves it:

I figured this trend would continue when I started designing last year. After all, I’m the one who gets to pick the colors I want to knit with, right? Oddly enough, though, I’ve found myself using more neutrals and dark, muted tones than before. Having to think about the styling and wearability of the piece changes things.

Here’s a snapshot of some of my designs that proves it:

Of course, I also have these, so maybe I haven’t gone as far from blue and green jewel tones as I could have, heh:

A look through my yarn cabinet also shows a weakness for impulse yarn purchases in blue, green, and purple:

My WIP basket

The current swatch pile

I’m going to continue attempting to branch out, color-wise, but I’m not sure how much luck I’ll have with all this yumminess calling to me. I think if I could only knit from Madelinetosh jewel-tones for the rest of my life, I’d be perfectly happy.

Happy Easter!

I’m having a very good day :-)

FO Friday: Secrets

I’ve been knitting my brains out for the past few weeks… but unfortunately I can’t show you any of it. Three commissioned designs, three patterns to submit to Knitty, more swatches than I can keep track of.

Pile 'o indeterminate knits

Swatch city

The green sweater (which I’m planning to self-publish) is finished, but it needs blocking and buttons. I have a strict don’t-show-before-it’s-blocked policy, so that one’s gonna have to wait too.

I’ve also been rediscovering my addiction to 90’s sci-fi TV shows. Am I the only one who thinks shows used to be much more fun 15-20 years ago?

New Pattern: Hipster Stripe!

Here’s the “official” announcement of my newest sweater pattern, Hipster Stripe!

The pattern went live on Knit Picks’ website a few days ago, and now it’s up on this website and on Ravelry.

All the specs can be found here: Hipster Stripe Cardigan.

Really excited about this one!

Luck ‘o the Irish

I bought some new yarn for a design yesterday.

That’s Madelinetosh Prairie in Thyme–my first purchase of Tosh laceweight. I am, of course, in love.

I’m also cranking away on my WIP sweater design:

Green just happens to be my favorite color. I’m one very happy (half) Irish girl :-)

New Pattern: Bevin Pullover!

My first Knit Picks Independent Designer Program pattern went live this morning!

Bevin Pullover can be purchased through Knit Picks’ website here. Tons more info (and the link to purchase via my site/Ravelry) on the pattern page here.

And my other Knit Picks IDP sweater, Hipster Stripe, went live today too (a total surprise to me–I thought it was going to take a while!). You can see it here on their website. Look for the official release post here soon :-)

WIP Wednesday

I’m working on a new sweater design! Top-down raglan with fun cable details:

The yarn is Araucania Toconao (totally had to look up that spelling, yeesh), which I purchased at Little Knits for an astonishing 78% off. I couldn’t NOT buy it. And guess what? They still have some: http://www.littleknits.com/products.php?cat=1123. You’re welcome. :-)

The yarn reminds me most of Madelinetosh Vintage (my fave). It’s light and very elastic, so cables show up fantastically well. I’m really having a blast knitting this sweater. More to come about it later!

Cables always inspire me to take artsy pictures….

Star Wars Baby Shower

Warning: picture-heavy post ahead! (It has a little to do with knitting, I promise. Hang in there.)

I threw a baby shower for my best friend yesterday. She’s a Star Wars mega-fan from way back, so we came up with the idea of having a Star Wars theme! I couldn’t resist the opportunity to put my new camera of awesomeness to good use.

I made Yoda Soda by mixing lemon-lime soda with lime sherbet:

The favors were lightsabers (pretzel rods dipped in melted candy coating and sprinkles):

The gorgeous mama-to-be:

We played games, decorated onesies, and watched her open presents:

Recognize this? It went over really well with everyone! All of the non-knitters were impressed that both sides looked good, which I thought was pretty awesome :-)