Really? It’s summertime! It’s going to be in the 90’s today. If you are going to wear socks, then put on wool socks. Why? Because they wick moisture away from your skin. They absorb lots of water and they still remain cool on your feet. I have lots of cool colorways in sock weight yarn. Grab some in my online store to make a pair of your own!
Do you struggle to pick yarns and colors that will make that shawl really shine? I put together shawl triads just for you. I combined fingering weight yarn skeins in colors that work together for a really great shawl. There are some with only sparkly yarn, some with a little bit of sparkle and some without sparkle at all. You can find the triads here.
Have you started your Rhinebeck sweater yet? If not, think about using this wonderful yarn for your next sweater. It is our Alto. The yarn is DK weight and is a blend of superwash BFL wool and silk. It is very shiny and it has a wonderful drape. You can find it in our webstore.
This sweater was knit with Alto in the Lightning colorway. It was designed by Corrine Walcher of Gingyknits. It is great to wear. It is so soft and has a great drape-y hand. There is a cabled lace on the side seams and down the sleeves. The pattern is available here on Ravelry. It is called The Land of Silver Birch.
I consider myself the slowest knitter in the world. When I say this, others say I can’t possibly be the slowest because they are.
I do “throw” my yarn in the English way and that is slower than “picking” your yarn in the Continental way.
But I also have a pair of socks that’s been on the needles for over 2 years and another that I cast on maybe 6-8 months ago and I have about 2 inches of the cuff knit so far. I have a tank top that I started a year ago. That tank is nearly complete. I am at the neck on the front. I have so little left. But I haven’t picked it up for several weeks.
My knitting mentor, Ellen, is perhaps the fastest and most prolific fiber artist I know. Several years ago, when I was marveling at her production, she gave me this advice: Knit (substitute spin, crochet, draw, paint, etc) 10 minutes every day. You can find 10 minutes and each day that work of art will come into being. 10 minutes a day. I can do that.
Her second piece of advice was that you can knit anywhere. You can knit in line at the DMV. You can knit while you are in the bleachers of your child’s sports game or practice. You can knit on vacation. You can knit in the car….but not while driving! You can knit in the dental or medical office while waiting for the doctor to see you. Do you think that would work for you? I do. That will be my goal for the week. I hope you’ll let me know how it works for you.
I hear all the time from people who can’t think about knitting in the summer time. Have you heard this too? Maybe it’s just me and maybe it’s just my job, but I knit when it’s cold and I knit when it’s hot. But I don’t knit outside, in fact I don’t do much outside in the summers of Maryland. It’s been really hot and muggy here during summertime. It is hard to breathe when you’re outside. And there are gnats and mosquitoes. Sounds great right?
Instead I stay inside and I will watch a movie or binge watch a TV series. And I find other places out in the “wild” where I can knit. The local coffee bar, my library branch, at the doctor’s or vet’s offices, at a restaurant. So even if you don’t have air conditioning, there are places you can go to get a little knitting done.
Why? Because my good friend Ellen once told me her secret to high knitting production and this is it: Knit a little bit every day. Knit for 10 minutes. Knit while you’re in line at the MVA. Knit during a staff meeting. If you knit a little every day, you will be finished with your sock, hat or sweater rather soon. If your project just sits in your knitting bag or your yarn bowl, it isn’t getting finished.
So in the past few weeks, I’ve been out knitting in public, mostly at the vet office because Chester is having chemotherapy. I have had some great conversations with people because I had my knitting out. People are curious and people have questions or reminiscences about their grammy or aunty. I know that sometimes this can be annoying….I just want to knit in peace. It also brings up a feeling of community. That has been a bright ray in the midst of an otherwise dreadful day.
So my advice to you is to go out and knit in public, even if it isn’t the official knit in public day. You will get make more progress on your projects and maybe you’ll have a good conversation with someone new. Let me know where you are knitting and how it’s going!
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again,
this time more intelligently.
It was brought to my attention that one of our patterns had a couple of flaws in it. Thanks Anja! That pattern has been out in the world for a couple of years. I wonder why I’m only hearing about it now. I hope people have it in the knitting queue, rather than in their trash heap. I’m so glad that I was able to find out about the error and fix it.
I left out a stitch in 2 rows. An incorrect number of stitches is a fatal error. The cowl would get smaller and smaller. Not a great design for a cowl, right? Now it has been fixed. And it is ready to be released out into the world.
Click here for revised pattern for Rivulet Cowl. Yes, even if you don’t already own that pattern, you can click too and get a fun cowl pattern to knit. Think of it as a great Valentine’s gift!
Click here to buy Zephyrette, our exclusive luscious blend of alpaca, silk and cashmere, for this pattern.
I am a cowl girl. Yes, I spelled it right. I prefer cowls over scarves.
Where does that preference come from? As a weaver, I made a TON of scarves. They are linear. They are finite. They are fun. They can show off your dyeing, your yarn choice and your skill at a weave structure. But they fall off. They are always slipping to one side or the other. They are like snakes in the way that they can just slide off your neck and the next thing you know they are on the floor, under your seat, around the corner you just turned.
Cowls are like close friends. They envelop you. They warm you. They comfort you. Some may say that they can strangle you or be too cloying. But I think they are the best.
And I like to knit in the round. I prefer it actually to the monotonous back and forth, back and forth that knitting flat requires. Even when knitting flat, I use circular needles. They are comforting. They seem more secure to me. Not once have I lost stitches off the end of a circular needle. So for all those reasons I’m a cowl girl.
What about you? Cowl or scarf? What is your preference?
Do you do it? Or do you just dive right into a project?
I’ve been having yarn spun for me for several years now. And one thing I know for sure is that a small mill spun yarn is very hard to get spun in those classic sizes of DK or worsted or sport. I can get a yarn that is on the line between DK and worsted. I can get a yarn that is between sport and fingering. So how are you supposed to use these yarns to make a published pattern?
You need to swatch! And you need to swatch any particular stitches that are in your pattern. If your sweater has a cable, swatch it. If your sweater is in a basket stitch or a double moss stitch, swatch it. What I hear people saying is, it takes time!! It takes extra yarn!! And you may be perfectly lucky and your garment may turn out the right size and shape without it. But what if it doesn’t? Then how much time have your wasted? How much material have your wasted? Will you rip it out or will you just set it aside in disgust?
Here is my current long term project. I want to make my first handspun sweater. I have a pattern in mind. It is a cardigan. It has double moss stitch as the body and the sleeves are cabled. I am using 2 lamb fleeces from my Blue Faced Leicester/Cormo crossed ewes. And I need to figure out if I want a 2 or 3 ply yarn. So I need to sample the yarn AND the sweater. And I need to determine the best way to process this fleece, whther to card or comb. This past Crafternoon, I knit my swatch out of 3 ply. I was also able to really get a grip on how to spin these fleeces to minimize the noils and bits of chaff. I am combing the wool and then spinning off the combs.
It’s a proven fact. There is research. Yes, knitting and crochet does in fact enhance your health and well being. I know that when I am feeling low and tired, but still feel the need to “do” something, I take out my project bag and knit a few stitches or rows or repeats. I also take my knitting to meetings. Keeping my hands busy with knitting does keep my mind focused on during this meeting. Thankfully my boss is not bothered by this, in fact she does put out crafts and fiddles to keep hands busy and minds available for learning. I do have to say that I usually take “brainless” knitting that I can do without following a chart or thinking too much about what is being made.
I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of women, children and men who are knitting and crocheting, especially in the age range from 25-35. We even had a young man (13?) search us out at 3 fiber festivals this fall to buy yarn and roving. I can’t wait to see what he makes with his collection. So you can imagin how really happy I am to see a great article and a new book on the subject.
Here is what I’ve learned so far:
