Archives for May 2014

First things first, the winner of one of Gusler Design’s awesome knitting posters is Lolly, who has been emailed. Big thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway and big, big thanks to all who have backed Beck and her husband’s Kickstarter project!

Meanwhile, I am knitting merrily along n my Array cowl. I knit and knit and knit and progress is SLOW because this stitch pattern has an incredibly compressed row gauge. Still, I have hit the 4″ mark!

I want my cowl to be 12″ deep, so I a one-third the way through. I am making mine 60″ around, which at my stitch gauge is 420 stitches. So each round takes a fair amount of time. But it is a very satisfying project to knit. The madelinetosh Pashmina is a lovely lovely yarn and I keep thinking about how wonderful this cowl will feel wrapped around my neck next winter.

I am also working quite a bit on some secret knitting, so that cuts into my time with this project. and I am going to set the cowl aside in a week to start work on my first Camp Loopy project.

Still, I won’t need this cowl until next winter, so there is no hurry!

I also take a lot of breaks from my knitting to do this:

One of our knitting buddies, Beck, known on Ravelry as Lemonhalf, has with her husband launched a Kickstarter project: Knitprints! by Gusler Designs.

I am a long-time fan of Beck’s work — she has crearted the graphic for my summer mystery KALs for the past couple of years (and she agreed to create a graphic for it again this year!) and is a talented graphic artist. The Kickstarter project, in her own words:

We’re doing the Kickstarter as a way to meet minimums for printing and purchase some much needed equipment (like a 2nd computer) to get setup for a more full-time business. It gives us an opportunity to set up a shop to sell some of our designs at shows and online but also to work more easily with LYSes. A lot of them can’t pay to print 100 exclusive bags for their own shops, but if we partner them with a shop in a different region we can make it work. There’s no reason for knitters to not have awesome printed items like so many other hobbies.

Take a look at their Kickstarter page — there are a lot of clever, cute items displayed there. If you are so inclined you can back the project and get something awesome.

And because Beck is awesome, she has offered up one of her posters for a giveaway here on WendyKnits. Leave a comment to this post by 11:00am Eastern time next Sunday, May 25, 2014 to be entered in a drawing to win one of the following three posters (the winner gets to choose which one he/she would like):

The classic Knit! poster:

The Knit! Big Softee poster:

Or the Blockout poster:

So please take a look at the Knitprints! by Gusler Designs Kickstarter page and add your support — be it monetary or simply the sending of good vibes! Gotta love a small American company, particularly when the people involved are awesome (and have taken in several rescue animals, I might add).

Current WIP

I have some top secret knitting I am working on but also wanted something fun and mindless to knit when I’m not working on that, to decompress. I took a look through the cowl patterns on Ravelry since I am currently obsessed with cowls. I found Array, a free pattern from Shibui Knits. Cowl? Check! Two-color? Check! Pretty? Check! Check! It met all my requirements so off I went to the stash room to find the perfect yarn. I decided on this:

This is Madelinetosh Pashmina in the Water Lily and Malachite colorways. I had two skeins of each, so this seemed perfect.

The original is knit from worsted weight yarn and my yarn is sportweight, so I quickly winkled together a swatch and adjusted the number of stitches I needed to make a nice big cowl — approximately 60″ around. I cast on 420 stitches (!!!) and got to work.

The pattern is simple and fun to knit. It involves slipping every other stitch so you are only ever knitting with one color at a time. The downside is that all those slipped stitches makes for a very compressed row gauge. After a lot of knitting, this is what I have:

Just over 1.25″ inch! But the fabric it is creating is gorgeous:

I can tell that this is going to be one of my favorite cowls next winter. And right now, it makes a great “fill-in” project. Definitely a long-term project, but I am in no hurry. Because it is such a simple pattern I can pick it up and put it down in between other projects. And I’ll just knit until it is wide enough. I have plenty of yarn so I’m thinking I can knit to 12″ wide.

Loki sez:

“Whazzup?”

I finished my second Foolproof Cowl the other day.

I sent it through the washer and dryer and it came out beautifully soft and perfectly blocked.

This was knit from 2 skeins of Wollmeise Pure, in the Wasabi and Pfefferminz Prinz colorways, using a U.S. size 3 needle. I did the “Free Spirit” option and devised my own striping pattern, reversing the colors on the opposite side.

I am, for now, trying to resist the temptation to cast on another one. I have some secret knitting I need to catch up on so I’ll distract myself with that for a while.

Loki Sez:

“Relax!”

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! I’ve been having a nice quiet day with my furry baby.

Knits That Breathe

Judgng from the number of comments on my last post, a lot of you are interested in a book of summer knits worked in non-wool yarns! The Rnadom Number Generator chose Pauline S, who has been emailed, to win a copy of Knits That Breathe: 12 Breezy Projects To Keep You Cool by Julie Turjoman. Thanks to everyone who left a comment.

Current Knitting

I am coming along on my second Foolproof Cowl.

Just a few more rounds left until I join it into a circle. I reversed the colors in my striping sequence on the secon half, just for grins.

Loki Sez

“Look at the crinkle tunnel my Momma got for me!”

A couple of weeks ago I was sent an advance copy of Knits That Breathe: 12 Breezy Projects To Keep You Cool by Julie Turjoman.

While the hard copy is not due out until next month, the electronic version (which is what I received) is available now.

I think this book is a great idea. The author had me with the first paragraph in her introduction:

The light bulb clicked on for me at one of the many fiber industry events I attend each year. The event convention center seemed to echo with knitters bemoaning the fact that, for a variety of reasons, they could no longer wear their warm and woolly sweaters. Frustration dripped from their voices as perspiration beaded their foreheads, because they suffered from Itchy Wool Syndrome, Acute Tropical Climatitis, or that midlife condition for which time is the only sure antidote, Variable Personal Thermostatosis (known to the rest of the world as ‘hot flashes’).

So Julie came up with 12 patterns for garments that will be cool and comfortable for those of us who suffer from any of those conditions mentioned above.  There are tunics, tees, cardigans, shrugs, and tanks knit from cotton, linen, and bamboo, as well as from some of the modern fibers derived from soy, milk, Tencel™, Outlast®, and SeaCell®.

There is a great chart in the front of the book that lists 9 different “cool” fibers along with descriptions of their elasticity and hand, how well they take dye, how good they are at wicking away moisture, how well they breathe,  how strong they are ,and more.

The patterns all come in a nice size range., going down to a 31″ chest measurement for one pattern and up to 71.25″ in one case, with lots of options in-between. you can view photos of all the patterns on Ravelry, here.

My favorites:

This is “Iced Frappuccino” and it is knit from a DK weight unknown-to-me yarn: Kollage Milky Whey, a blend of milk and soy.

This is Sirena, knit from Handmaiden Flaxen, another DW weightyarn I’ve not yet had the pleasure to knit, this one a silk/linen blend.

And Haven, knit from Berroco Linsey, a worsted weight cotton/linen blend.

I have been authorized to give away a copy of the electronic version of this book. Who’d like it?

To enter the drawing to receive an electronic copy of Knits That Breathe, please leave a comment on this post by 11:00am Eastern time, Sunday,  May 11, 2014. The Random Number Generator will at that time select a winner.

Summer Mystery Shawl

A number of you have asked me here and on Ravelry if I plan to do another mystery shawl knit-along this summer.  I’ve given it some thought and decided that, yes, I’m up for it. 🙂

I will be starting it later than I usually do because I have a knitting deadline coming up soon (cue mysterious music here) so will not be able to start work on the mystery design until after that is completed. so watch this space (and the WendyKnits Ravelry group) for the KAL announcement. I’m thinking we’ll start in July, but that date has not yet been nailed down.

Current WIP

Despite many distractions (and unfortunately most of them not pleasant) I am making progress on my second Foolproof cowl:

I am close to done with one side. I will reverse the colors in the striping on the other side.

Loki

Loki can’t come to the blog right now. He says he is busy.