A few weeks ago Quince & Co. released an e-book featuring all of the shawls from their 2013 shawl week. The e-book includes my design, Everly. I thought it would be fun to highlight some beautiful finished shawls.
This is madelinebea's Everly, August Always.
Her shawl is gorgeous and her photography is just outstanding. Go ahead and look at her Notebook on Ravelry. It's inspiring.
Here is Dollhouse's Everly.
I just love a good blocking shot.
Everly is one of my favorite designs I've done. I think it's the simplicity of the project that makes it so beautiful. There's nothing fancy or complicated going on in this project, and that simpleness just makes this design work.
The Summer 2014 issue of Pom Pom Quarterly is out so that means it's time for me to show you my latest pattern. First of all, if you've never heard of Pom Pom, you seriously need to go check them out. Listen to their podcast (or Pomcast) while you're at it.
This is Baya. Baya is a crescent shaped shawl worked from the bottom up. The bottom edge of the shawl is a lace pattern that incorporates some simple cables to make a swoopy, leafy edge. The body of the shawl is worked in garter stitch so after all that lace at the bottom, you can just knit away at the top.
Oh, wait a second. It's the COVER!
What makes Baya just a little bit different is the yarn. The lace edge is worked in SweetGeorgia Cashsilk Lace, and the body is worked in SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock. Two different weights of yarn AND two different colors, although you could use one color in both bases for a monochromatic look.
You can order Pom Pom through their website.
Last weekend, was the summer 2014 TNNA show. TNNA (The National Needlearts Association) is a trade show for professionals in the needlearts industry. On the show floor, most major yarn companies have their yarns on display for retailers to look at and hopefully purchase for their shops. Publishers, like Interweave, and designers exhibit as well. TNNA is a great way to see what's new in the knitting (and crochet) world. It's also a great way to meet fellow designers and talk to people who actually understand what it is that you do for a living.
I exhibited for the first time this year. I shared a booth with the super sweet Stephannie Tallent.
This was my half of the booth. Please ignore my red knitting bag stashed under the table and the not so great pictures. I only brought my phone with me for pictures.
I had a really great time. For me, TNNA is much more about talking and networking with others. I was able to meet people I had worked with in the past and was able to set up some new projects for this year. I had a wonderful time, even if I was super exhausted by the end of the weekend, and I'm looking forward to next summer in Columbus.
The winner of the skein of Aslan Trends Royal Alpaca is commenter #15.
Congratulations, Denise!
Denise said, "I would make something that would go against my skin because it looks so soft - a cowl or scarf I think."
I have some lovely, lovely yarn for you. Recently, the fine folks at Aslan Trends contacted me and wanted to know if I was interested in reviewing their Royal Alpaca yarn and hosting a giveaway on my blog. Of course I was! I received two skeins of Royal Alpaca and began swatching one of the skeins; the other is for one of you.
First, the nitty gritty details (from the ball band):
Fiber Composition: 100% Royal Alpaca Wool (19-19.5 microns, for those of you who might want those details)
Put Up: Approx. 220 yards/200 meters; 100 g/3.5 oz
Gauge: 5 sts/in on US 6-8/4-5 mm needles
Care: Hand wash in cold water using mild soap, lay flat to dry.
I started swatching in plain old stockinette stitch. Oh, how I enjoyed knitting with this yarn. The yarn is soft, without being too delicate (You know what I mean. So soft that it pills if you look at it wrong.), and does not have a tendency to split.
Sweet, simple stockinette.
After stockinette, I played around with some lace.
Lace looks really good in this yarn. I would stay away from super small stitch patterns, but larger lace motifs would look great!
Lastly, I swatched a rib and cable pattern.
Ooh, look at those pretty cables!
This was my first time knitting with Royal Alpaca, and I was impressed. It is a yarn that shows off stitches nicely and is a pleasure to knit.
I have a skein for you to try, too. All of my swatches were knit with the color, Sable, but the skein I have for you is Crimson.
There are loads of super patterns that you could knit with one skein of Royal Alpaca. I think all of these are fantastic: Beau Cloche by Natalie Larson, Debaser by Meghan Jackson, Maize by tincanknits, A Loved Thing by Caitlin ffrench, or Ferryboat Mitts by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.
To win this skein of Crimson, leave a comment and let me know what you would knit with one skein of Royal Alpaca. Is it something I mentioned above or some other little pretty item? I will close the comments at 10 am (EST) April 4th and will choose a winner by random then.
Let's talk about my latest pattern, shall we?
This is the Star House Cowl in the latest issue of Interweave Knits.
It's a lace cowl with tiers of picot edges. When the call to submit came out last year, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I had used this particular lace pattern before in a swatch, and I felt the lace and picots were meant to be together. However, that swatch didn't work for a number of reasons. When worked flat, the lace pattern creates a biased fabric and makes the edges of the piece asymmetrical, but when worked in the round, the lace creates a great geometric, but still very feminine, fabric. I combined this lace pattern with a technique found in a German stitch dictionary which alternates lace with picot tiers. Creating a mash up of these two stitch patterns resulted in the cowl seen above.
The project calls for Sweet Georgia Merino Silk Aran, which was the yarn I used for the swatch I sent to Interweave for the submision. It's a worsted weight yarn with great sheen and drape. If you're looking to substitute yarns, I would suggest staying away from a single ply yarn. The technique to create the picot tiers has you pick up stitches from several rounds below, and I think using a single ply yarn would make this more difficult than it needs to be.
I love the technique for the picot tiers, and I can pretty confidently say it won't be the last you see this from me.
Pattern: Star House Cowl
Yarn: 4 skeins Sweet Georgia Merino Silk Aran (740 yards worsted weight yarn)
Needles: US 8 (5 mm) 32" circular needle
Gauge: 14 sts and 20 rnds in lace pattern
Finished Size: 50" circumference and 13" wide
Pattern available in Interweave Knits, Spring 2014.
*All pictures ©Interweave Knits.
We made banana bread today. The kids were out of school (again!) due to the extremely cold temperatures we had today, and we had some bananas that were just this side of bad so we put them to use.
We used the recipe from Smitten Kitchen except we didn't add any bourbon and we added some chocolate chips to the mix. It's pretty obvious what the kids thought.
Yesterday was Liam's first Pinewood Derby. If you're not into the Cub Scout thing, the Pinewood Derby is a car race where the scout builds his own race car from a block of wood. Liam and Doug spent the past few weekends building Liam's car. Liam did some of the sanding and painting of the car. He also made all of the design decisions for his car. It had to be like a tiger; he wanted black with orange stripes.
You can see his black and orange striped car above.
We bundled up and braved the snowy roads for the race. Each car races in 8 heats, and the average speed of the 8 heats determines the winners.
He was into it. He sat and watched each one of the 58 heats.
He won 4 of his 8 heats and finished 10th overall. He enjoyed his first Derby so much. The planning for next year's car has already begun.
I don't have much time to knit patterns by other people anymore. Still, I usually have a small project on the needles that doesn't require much thought from me other than knit or purl. These small projects are usually projects that I work on when I'm working at the LYS. A project I can pick up and put down without getting hopelessly lost and that is knit with a yarn we have in stock at the store.
I snapped this pic on the webcam today. This is my current pick up and go project.
The pattern is Buttermilk Sky by Bonnie Sennott. The yarn I'm using is Cascade Eco Duo in Vanilla. It's so soft and squishy and cozy. I'm finishing up the ribbing on the top edge, and then I'll be searching for another small project to work on in my spare time.
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