I mentioned yesterday that I was catching up on my knitting podcasts. Here are some of my favorites. All are available through iTunes - Check them out!
Audio
Cast On An American currently living in Wales. Nice stories about Wales and a lot of knitting content.
Electric Sheep A London knitter. Fun snippets of life in London and good knitting content.
Fiber Beat WonderMike talks about all things fiber. He does great interviews with various folks in the fiber industry, interspersed with frequently slightly cheesy music clips.
iMake All things handmade from the Isle of Guernsey. A nice peak into a very different place.
Knit Knit Cafe A mother/son podcast with mainly knitting content.
Savvy Girls Two sisters, one who lives in Bogota, Columbia, the other in Alberta, Canada. They have a lot of fun and are a bit silly at times. As much about their travels and adventures as their knitting.
Yarn On Tap Lots of knitting content from the Knitter's Brewing Co.
2 Knit Lit Chicks A mother and daughter talk about knitting and books.
Video
The Charminglochie Podcast A fairly new podcast from Scotland. I love her accent and the Gaelic introductions to her sections (a change from all the "On the needles" segues).
Knitrundig Another fairly new podcast from Britain, knitting and archaeology - what a great combo!
Stockinette Zombies Another fairly new podcast, two friends from Minnesota talk about their knitting.
90% Knitting Lisa from Fibernymph Dye Works in Pittsburgh talks about her knitting and shows off the gorgeous colorways she dyes for her shop.
TheKnitGirllls Leslie and Laura are a lot of fun to watch. They talk about their knitting, spinning, and fiber events they attend. They also usually have good knitting book/magazine reviews.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Gauge and needle size
Do you always knit gauge swatches? Sometimes? Never? I usually do. Always if I care about the size of my finished object. Sometimes, like with the Xmas tree skirt I'm working on now, it just doesn't matter. The skirt starts in the center as a small circle (well, hexagon, actually) and keeps getting bigger. I'll stop when it's either big enough or I'm out of yarn.
I've been thinking about gauge today because I've been catching up on my knitting podcasts and several mentioned going up or down a needle size to get gauge to match a pattern. It surprises me that people do this. To me, the yarn determines the needle size. I'll often swatch with different needle sizes, but I do it to see what size gives me the drape and density I want for the knitted fabric.
I actually did swatch my tree skirt yarn to pick the right size needle. Mosaic knitting gives a denser fabric than stockinette and I want a fluffy, soft tree skirt, so I'm using a big needle. The Bernat Happy Holiday yarn recommends a US 7 needle on the ball band, but I'm using a US 10.5. I started swatching on a US 9, knowing I'd want a bigger needle for a mosaic pattern. I worked my way up to the US 10.5 before I was happy with the fabric density. If I had a US 11 I might have tried it, but the US 10.5 is giving me a nice fabric.
I just never would have thought to change needle size to get the same gauge as a pattern. I don't often knit from someone else's pattern. When I do, I determine what my gauge is using the needle size that gives me the density and drape of fabric I want the item to have. Then I do the math to adjust the pattern to my gauge. Sometimes you can just make the next size smaller or larger and not have to do much in the way of math. Sometimes I do end up with a lot of numbers handwritten into a pattern, but I'd rather do that than make something with a fabric that's stiff as a board or so loose the wind comes right through.
I've been thinking about gauge today because I've been catching up on my knitting podcasts and several mentioned going up or down a needle size to get gauge to match a pattern. It surprises me that people do this. To me, the yarn determines the needle size. I'll often swatch with different needle sizes, but I do it to see what size gives me the drape and density I want for the knitted fabric.
I actually did swatch my tree skirt yarn to pick the right size needle. Mosaic knitting gives a denser fabric than stockinette and I want a fluffy, soft tree skirt, so I'm using a big needle. The Bernat Happy Holiday yarn recommends a US 7 needle on the ball band, but I'm using a US 10.5. I started swatching on a US 9, knowing I'd want a bigger needle for a mosaic pattern. I worked my way up to the US 10.5 before I was happy with the fabric density. If I had a US 11 I might have tried it, but the US 10.5 is giving me a nice fabric.
I just never would have thought to change needle size to get the same gauge as a pattern. I don't often knit from someone else's pattern. When I do, I determine what my gauge is using the needle size that gives me the density and drape of fabric I want the item to have. Then I do the math to adjust the pattern to my gauge. Sometimes you can just make the next size smaller or larger and not have to do much in the way of math. Sometimes I do end up with a lot of numbers handwritten into a pattern, but I'd rather do that than make something with a fabric that's stiff as a board or so loose the wind comes right through.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Mosaic Snow Flakes
Sometimes when I don't have anything mindless to knit, I like to just swatch different patterns from the Barbara Walker Treasuries or other stitchionaries. I just love seeing how different stitches emerge from my needles. I guess you could say these are bouts of being a process knitter. I'm usually a product knitter, I have a particular image of a finished object in my mind and I obsessively knit, frog and reknit until I get as close to that image as possible. But not always. Sometimes, usually when I'm frustrated cuz I've just frogged another failed attempt at some mental image, I just want to knit and watch something fun emerge from my needles.
During one such bout last summer, I started knitting a bunch of the patterns in Barbara Walker's Mosaic Knitting. It's a fun method of doing colorwork where you don't have to carry two strands, you knit a row with one color, slipping stitches you don't want in that color, then knit back, giving you a garter ridge of that color. Then you knit a garter ridge using your other color, slipping the stitches you want to be in the first color. It's fun and gives you a nice thick garter stitch fabric. Use big needles and you get a fluffy thick fabric. I loved the fabric and the patterns, but hadn't moved beyond swatching various designs from the book.
Last month I decided to try designing some mosaic snowflakes and felting them down into a trivet (26 inches across before felting, 14 inches after felting)
a hot pad
and an oven mitt
During one such bout last summer, I started knitting a bunch of the patterns in Barbara Walker's Mosaic Knitting. It's a fun method of doing colorwork where you don't have to carry two strands, you knit a row with one color, slipping stitches you don't want in that color, then knit back, giving you a garter ridge of that color. Then you knit a garter ridge using your other color, slipping the stitches you want to be in the first color. It's fun and gives you a nice thick garter stitch fabric. Use big needles and you get a fluffy thick fabric. I loved the fabric and the patterns, but hadn't moved beyond swatching various designs from the book.
Last month I decided to try designing some mosaic snowflakes and felting them down into a trivet (26 inches across before felting, 14 inches after felting)
a hot pad
and an oven mitt
These were made using Brown Sheep Naturespun worsted weight blue and Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool natural. I kind of like them and will write up a pattern for them. But you can see that the thumb on the mitt didn't felt right. When I felt things I put them in a drawstring bag that's actually the storage bag for my REI sleeping bag (not the stuff bag, the big pillowcase size one for storing the sleeping bag at home). The first washing cycle the thumb of the mitt got twisted in the excess part of the bag and didn't felt hardly at all. I put it through again and it felted some, but it's still underfelted. So the thumb is sticking out too big. I'm debating trying to handfelt the thumb or just being lazy, putting the whole thing through another cycle and risking overfelting the mitt part.
I really like my snowflake mosaic pattern that I used for the trivet, and prefelting it was such a nice big fluffy thing. I was tempted not to felt it, but realized that as much as I liked it, I wouldn't have any use for it unfelted. It's been in the back of my mind though, and last night I thought of a reason to make another. I have some sparkly red and white yarn I got on the after-Xmas sale last year (Bernat Happy Holidays). And I don't have a skirt for my Xmas tree - I used to have one but it got shredded by the beasts and I threw it out a few years ago. So I'm going to knit myself a sparkly red and white snowflake tree skirt.
In a few days when I've finished the skirt, it'll be time to go get a tree.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Etsy Shop Open
A couple weeks ago I opened an Etsy shop, Sheila O'Keefe Designs.
I only have a few items listed. A couple of knitting patterns (the same ones I sell on Ravelry) and some cute knitted candy canes, either finished objects or a kit to make your own. So far I haven't sold anything and haven't gotten a lot of views.
I hear that you have to promote your Etsy shop, but I'm not sure how to do that. I linked to it from my website, and my Ravelry and G+ profiles. How do those of you that have Etsy shops go about promoting them? I'd appreciate any suggestions and any critiques anyone can offer. Maybe I just need to have more items listed? I do have a few more things I'll be adding this week, as soon as I get some good photos of them.
Any input would be gratefully received (plus I want to see if comments work on this blog - I haven't gotten any yet, tho I don't think any of my posts to date have really been of the type to elicit comments).
I only have a few items listed. A couple of knitting patterns (the same ones I sell on Ravelry) and some cute knitted candy canes, either finished objects or a kit to make your own. So far I haven't sold anything and haven't gotten a lot of views.
I hear that you have to promote your Etsy shop, but I'm not sure how to do that. I linked to it from my website, and my Ravelry and G+ profiles. How do those of you that have Etsy shops go about promoting them? I'd appreciate any suggestions and any critiques anyone can offer. Maybe I just need to have more items listed? I do have a few more things I'll be adding this week, as soon as I get some good photos of them.
Any input would be gratefully received (plus I want to see if comments work on this blog - I haven't gotten any yet, tho I don't think any of my posts to date have really been of the type to elicit comments).
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Yuletide Teddy
Teddy's Christmas sweater is available for free on Ravelry now. Download pdf here. It'll be available until January 15, 2012.
I think this is my favorite of Teddy’s sweaters. I love Christmas and
Christmas trees. There’s nothing like the scent of a freshly cut
Christmas tree, and the lights of the tree make up for the short, dark
days. And Teddy just looks so cute in his tree sweater. I’ve even
considered making myself a similar sweater for myself.
Don't forget, Teddy's November sweater will only be available until December 15th, so download it now if you want it.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Contemporary Irish Knits Review
After seeing several people try to blog every day for NaNoBloMo, I've decided to attempt to post every day in the month of December. I need to get in the habit of blogging more often, and I'm hoping the holidays will make it a little easier to come up with topics. I expect to kill a few days later in the month by posting Xmas tree photos and the like. I'm gonna try to keep it mainly knitting related tho.
Today is a review of Contemporary Irish Knits by Carol Feller. I have this book checked out from my library. Of course it's a new book on 2-week check out and there's a hold list so I can't renew it.
I like the physical format of the book. It's a nice size and softback - personally I can live without hardcover knitting books. They're just heavier when you're trying to balance your knitting, a knitting book and a cat in your lap :^) The front and back covers have handy fold-in flaps that you can use to bookmark spots in the book. Silly of me, I guess, but these little touches can make a knitting book much more user-friendly. Mind you, my knitting books often have multiple bookmarks and sticky notes protruding from them as I swatch stitch patterns or plot out a design, maybe consulting multiple patterns for something like sleeve-shaping techniques.
The book consists of a little history of Irish knitting, profiles of three Irish wool mills and two indie Irish dyers, and 18 knitting patterns. The history part was fairly brief and nothing new to me, though the new knitter may find it interesting.
I really enjoyed the profiles of the Irish wool mills, tho I find it disappointing that they import a lot of their fleeces from New Zealand. Most Irish sheep are bred for meat not fiber, so their wool is coarse and not particularly suitable for spinning into knitting yarn. Too bad. The history of the mills going back hundreds of years fascinated me.
The patterns are well-presented. The photos are both attractive and in most cases give a good view of the knitted item. The instructions look clear and easy to follow, tho, of course, until you actually knit something, you can't be sure. I really like the clear schematics with measurements presented with each pattern. These should make it easy to check if your item is coming out the right size. Carol includes a section in the front of the book suggesting how to adapt the pattern to your size. Combined with the schematics, it should be relatively easy to adapt these patterns to fit well. There's also a basic techniques section at the back that covers the techniques you'd need to make the patterns in the book.
There are easy-to-read charts for the cable stitch patterns. Each chart has a nice legend for the different cable stitch combinations, but there are no written row by row instructions for the cables, so this book isn't for you if you can't or won't read charts. Personally I always prefer to knit from a chart, but I know some knitters hate them.
As for the designs themselves, they're attractive, but not quite my style. I love cables, but I prefer more traditional sweater shapes, rather than the tight-fitting silhouettes with hour-glass waists that the women's designs have. It's probably just aimed at a younger, thinner demographic than me :^)
I rarely knit other people's designs, so I doubt I'll actually knit anything out of this book, but there are three patterns that I could see knitting. I love the Kilmanagh Felted Tweed handbag. I think the gorgeous green of the sample is influencing me there. The Killybegs Cardigan is a nice basic cardigan with honeycomb accents. I've always had a soft spot for honeycomb and have been playing with a design that includes honeycomb, tho not at all in the way Carol has included it here. The last pattern I really like is the Straboy hooded pullover. I've been wanting a cabled hoodie for a while. I'll probably do a cardigan rather than pullover, but I do like this design.
Should you buy this book? I recommend checking it out from your library and having a look. The photographs of the Irish countryside are enough to justify a couple hours perusing it. And the wool mill profiles are well worth reading. I'd only buy the book if you think you'll actually knit one or more of the patterns.
Details:
Contemporary Irish Knits by Carol Feller
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 23, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470889241
ISBN-13: 978-0470889244
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
Buy at Amazon
I like the physical format of the book. It's a nice size and softback - personally I can live without hardcover knitting books. They're just heavier when you're trying to balance your knitting, a knitting book and a cat in your lap :^) The front and back covers have handy fold-in flaps that you can use to bookmark spots in the book. Silly of me, I guess, but these little touches can make a knitting book much more user-friendly. Mind you, my knitting books often have multiple bookmarks and sticky notes protruding from them as I swatch stitch patterns or plot out a design, maybe consulting multiple patterns for something like sleeve-shaping techniques.
The book consists of a little history of Irish knitting, profiles of three Irish wool mills and two indie Irish dyers, and 18 knitting patterns. The history part was fairly brief and nothing new to me, though the new knitter may find it interesting.
I really enjoyed the profiles of the Irish wool mills, tho I find it disappointing that they import a lot of their fleeces from New Zealand. Most Irish sheep are bred for meat not fiber, so their wool is coarse and not particularly suitable for spinning into knitting yarn. Too bad. The history of the mills going back hundreds of years fascinated me.
The patterns are well-presented. The photos are both attractive and in most cases give a good view of the knitted item. The instructions look clear and easy to follow, tho, of course, until you actually knit something, you can't be sure. I really like the clear schematics with measurements presented with each pattern. These should make it easy to check if your item is coming out the right size. Carol includes a section in the front of the book suggesting how to adapt the pattern to your size. Combined with the schematics, it should be relatively easy to adapt these patterns to fit well. There's also a basic techniques section at the back that covers the techniques you'd need to make the patterns in the book.
There are easy-to-read charts for the cable stitch patterns. Each chart has a nice legend for the different cable stitch combinations, but there are no written row by row instructions for the cables, so this book isn't for you if you can't or won't read charts. Personally I always prefer to knit from a chart, but I know some knitters hate them.
As for the designs themselves, they're attractive, but not quite my style. I love cables, but I prefer more traditional sweater shapes, rather than the tight-fitting silhouettes with hour-glass waists that the women's designs have. It's probably just aimed at a younger, thinner demographic than me :^)
I rarely knit other people's designs, so I doubt I'll actually knit anything out of this book, but there are three patterns that I could see knitting. I love the Kilmanagh Felted Tweed handbag. I think the gorgeous green of the sample is influencing me there. The Killybegs Cardigan is a nice basic cardigan with honeycomb accents. I've always had a soft spot for honeycomb and have been playing with a design that includes honeycomb, tho not at all in the way Carol has included it here. The last pattern I really like is the Straboy hooded pullover. I've been wanting a cabled hoodie for a while. I'll probably do a cardigan rather than pullover, but I do like this design.
Should you buy this book? I recommend checking it out from your library and having a look. The photographs of the Irish countryside are enough to justify a couple hours perusing it. And the wool mill profiles are well worth reading. I'd only buy the book if you think you'll actually knit one or more of the patterns.
Details:
Contemporary Irish Knits by Carol Feller
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 23, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0470889241
ISBN-13: 978-0470889244
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
Buy at Amazon
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Octarine Cowl
Last week I released my second for sale pattern on Ravelry, the Octarine Cowl. This pattern is for the intermediate knitter with some experience knitting lace.The pattern uses almost all of the 195yds in a ball of Mini Mochi yarn (I had 12yds left over). If you knit loosely you may wish to have a second ball available.
I received the ball of Mini Mochi from twosandalz in an August 2011 swap in the knitting-at-campfires group on Ravelry. Such pretty colors, and oh so soft! I needed a one-skein design to show off the yarn and came up with this cowl.
I’m on Team UU in Nerd Wars, a competition among knitters representing various fandoms. I designed this cowl for one of the challenges in Round One of Tournament Three of Nerd Wars.
Team UU is named after Unseen University, the wizard’s college in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. I love these novels. They’re a great mixture of fantasy, science fiction, and social satire. Plus they’re just plain laugh-out-loud funny. If you haven’t read them, get ye to your library today. While some characters do appear in multiple books, this isn’t a series in the traditional sense. There’s no need to read them in order from the beginning. Start wherever you like.
Octarine is the color of magic in the Discworld and is invisible to most. Wizards describe it as greenish-purple, just like this cowl.
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