Sooza's Knitting Stuff

Back in 2005 I published a knitting pattern on my blog that was inspired by a pattern called 'Birch' designed by Sharon Miller. But instead of being worked from the top down with 300 and some stitches to be cast on my shawl was worked bottom up. No more miscounting while trying to get slippery Mohair yarn to behave. No more running out of yarn. Just knitting until the shawl is as large as you want it to be. Since then the pattern became known as 'Bottom-up Birch'.

The instructions were very basic though and the charts not very pretty. Since people are still asking for clarifications and according to the Ravelry database the pattern is still quite popular it was high time for a revision of the pattern. I managed to make up the pattern in a prettier form with nicer charts and hopefully better explanations. On top of that the pattern now contains also an asymmetrical version that's knitted sideways. The new format also called for a new name - Birch Leaf Shawl.



If you're on Ravelry you can download the file for free and add it to your Ravelry library. As an alternative you can also download the pattern directly from this server.

• Download 'Birch Leaf Shawl' pattern from Ravelry


• Direct download of 'Birch Leaf Shawl' pattern

 
Temperatures dropped again under 10°C and with the wind it feels plain cold, cold, cold. Just the right weather for sitting inside, central heating turned all the way up and knitting and spinning up a storm. Which also means I got to finish my latest shawl project in only 10 days. It's a variation on the Shetland Triangle pattern, which can be found in the book "Wrap Style" by Pam Allen and Ann Budd.


 
For a shallower appearance and longer tails I started out with a stockinette body section and 6 increases per 2 rows. After I got 91 stitches in each half of the triangle I started the Shetland lace pattern and continued with the traditional 4 increases per 2 rows. The plan worked out really well. Even if you can't see it in the pics the shawl has got a nice crescent shape with long tails.


 
Details
Pattern: Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark
Needles: 4.5 mm
Yarn: 125 grams of DROPS Alpaca (100% Aplaca, 180 m/50 grams), color: dark teal heather/dunkelpetrol mix
Size: 180 cm wide, 65 cm deep
Modifications: see above

Well, it's snowing up a little storm out there and the wind keeps heaping up snowbanks in the most inconvenient places. Like our door for example. But I won't complain. It's weekend, all the snow looks real pretty and we don't really need to go outside if we don't want to. Gives me the chance to get in some knitting and spinning and blogging and of course some quality time with Little Girl and the best husband of all. So, on to the blogging part.

When KnitPro started to make clear acrylic needle tips (KnitPro Spectra = KnitPicks Zephyr Acrylic) for their interchangeable needle system I was instantly hooked. They looked so stylish and the idea of lightweight, flexible and warm needles appealed to me. I bought a couple of tips to give them a try. Even though some people complained about icky noises and about the needles being too sticky I got along very well with mine. So when KnitPro offered a special needle set in fuchsia I couldn't help but buying the whole set. I'm a sucker for everything pink/fuchsia/purple. The set contains 8 needle tips from size 3.5 to 8 mm and 4 different cables. It's not as if I really needed more knitting needles but who can refuse something that looks like this?
 

 
The Spectras feature the same sharp tips as all the other KnitPro needles. I like the fact that they are less slippery than the metal and wooden needles and that they are more flexible and kinda feel nicer to the touch. Not sure how long the smallest size needle will survive though because it really BENDS quite a bit. But maybe that's the trick. I like the little case the set came in. My other needle tips and cables fit in too so now I finally have a place where to keep them all in one place. Since it's a KnitPro product it has the same quality issues as all their other needles. On one pair of needles the acrylic part of the needle is glued to the metal casing off center so their is this place where the yarn catches. I contacted the seller about a replacement and will see what happens. Personally, I think these needles are great value for your money and a good investment for a beginner or if you want to complete your needle collection. It might not be ideal choice of needle for if you're knitting really tight or if you like to work with acrylic yarns. I shudder at thought of the electrostatic buzz you'd be creating.

The first thing that came from this needles was an airy piece of nothing I dubbed Ice Leaf Scarf. The construction and lace pattern are inspired by a commercially available pattern Cedar Leaf Shawlette.
 


Details
Pattern: Cedar Leaf Shawlette by Alana Dakos
Needles: 4 mm
Yarn: 25 grams of Cascade Baby Alpaca Lace (100% Aplaca, 400 m/50 grams), color: Carribean
Size: 12 cm wide, 190 cm long

This little shawl is obviously the most knitted project from the newest Knitty issue. As of today Ravelry lists 379 projects and counting. When I first browsed this issue it was this pattern that instantly caught my eyes. And I was totally set to knit it in the original yarn - Malabrigo Lace Merino. Alas, I kinda got side-tracked by one of my older hand-spun yarns though. “Bewitch” is something about a lace to light fingering yarn which I spun back in April 2009. Somehow I thought stripes or color transitions would suit this little scarf/shawl well. As it turned out, pattern and yarn fit each other remarkably well.



And here's how the yarn came to be.






 
Details
 
Pattern: Citron by Hilary Smith Callis, Knitty.com Winter 2009
Yarn: hand-spun yarn, 100 grams/400-500 meters, Slushie's Special Blend from FatCatKnits in colorway "Bewitch"
Needles: 4.00 and 4.5 mm
Size: 120 cm wide

 

This set of three little Bosworth spindles arrived back in October. All three are absolutely perfect spinners, which was no big surprise. They are Bosworths after all.



Whorl: Walnut, 2" in diameter
Shaft: Birch, 9" long
Weight: 18 g



Whorl: Morado, 2" in diameter, narrow
Shaft: Morado, 9" long
Weight: 20 g



Whorl: Pau Amarillo, 2" in diameter, narrow
Shaft: Birch, standard 7.5" long
Weight: 15 g



 
Maker: Jonathan and Sheila Bosworth from Journeywheel.com

I finished the hand-spun socks last week pretty much in record time. The turned really nice and I've already worn them twice. The yarn got me a pair of mid-calf high socks (when worn they are 34 cm from floor to cast-off edge) that work especially well in boots. They tend to slouch down a bit with wear but I don't mind that. The soft merino yarn might not be ideal for hard wear and the heel and underside of the toes are already a bit fulled (felted would be too strong a word here) after two days of wear. But it looks like this might actually help with durability. I take this as an experiment and see how it turns out. The spinning and knitting process was tremendous fun and both socks getting finished at the same time was just great.



On the spinning front I got a wonderful delivery from Amazon.de today. After months and months of waiting it's finally here. Abby Franquemont's book "Respect the Spindle". The books deals with knowledge and techniques about hand spindles exclusively. It's fun reading and has lots of interesting information about this most ancient and simplest of fiber tools and shows contemporary spinners what great stuff can be achieved if you're open and willing to practice.

It’s been a while since I’ve tried knitting two socks at the same time on circular needles. All I remember is a whole lot of fiddling. I wanted to give this thing another try because ending up with two socks at the same time sure sounds like a cool thing. And besides there's lots of people out there who swear by this method so there's got to be something to it.

So far it’s fun and I’m speeding along. There’s been a bit of fiddling and trial and error involved when I tried to find the right circular needle/s for this job. I went through 3 or 4 different needles from really long wooden circulars to two short circs but in the end the 2.5 mm/80 cm Addi Turbo lace made it. The join is fabulous and makes sliding stitches around effortless.

I'm using a hand-spun 3-ply yarn that actually ended up in the right weight range for socks. It's neither too thin nor too thick. Which was a surprise. It's the first time I did a real 3-ply yarn (as opposed to chain-/Navajo-ply) and I am totally in LOVE with this yarn. Couldn't resist its charms hand had to cast on something right away.


 

 

 

 

 
Fiber: Blue Moon Fiberarts Sheep to Shoe Kit, color "Fire on the Mountain"
Yarn: hand-spun 3-ply, about 420 meters per 120 grams (4 oz)
Spindles: Bosworth Minis in Karelian Birch and Walnut

This was one of those patterns that I instantly liked when first seeing it in Knitty. I like knitting with skinny yarn and skinny needles. And I like plain sweaters that can be dressed up or down according to occasion and mood. But somehow I never quite worked up the nerve to cast-on. The pattern was in my Ravelry Queue for a while and I checked other people's finished Thermals from time to time. In the end seeing all these nice sweaters on Ravelry and following the posts in a very inspiring Knit-Along on the German Knitters forum made my fingers itch to finally cast on. In the end it took me not quite three weeks from start to finish. I sewed in ends on Halloween eve while the door bell kept ringing incessantly and kids kept demanding treats.


 
Details
 
Pattern: Thermal by Laura Chau, Knitty.com Winter 2006
Yarn:Rowan Felted Tweed, color Whisper (SH141), 7.5 skeins (375 grams)
Needles: 3.75 mm
Modifications:

• Pattern is originally written for sock yarn with a gauge of 28 stitches per 4''. I chickened out on the skinny yarn and chose some Felted Tweed from my stash instead. It's still fingering weight yarn but is much more fluffy and lofty than sock yarn. The Felted Tweed gave me a gauge of 20 stitches per 4''. I had originally planned to knit the smallest size but with my gauge that would still have meant I'd end up with a HUGE sweater. I compensated by casting on only 200 instead of 224 stitches.


• Worked body much longer than pattern suggested.


• Didn't like how the button band looked on most Thermal sweaters on Ravelry. Worked it sideways and added two more buttons.


• Knitted the set-in sleeves from the top down according to directions in Wendy Bernard's book 'Custom Knits'. Worked like a charm. Did I ever mention how much I dislike sewing in set-in sleeves?

Comments:
This is a lovely, very simple sweater that wears very well. The waffle stitch was interesting enough to keep me interested but easy enough for TV knitting at same time. And even though I pretty much improvised this whole thing it turned out fitting really well. To top this awesome knitting experience off I found THE PERFECT buttons in your run of the mill department store. No fancy button store. Nope. Just Kaufhof at Alexanderplatz. They match the strange blueish/greyish/greenish (un-)color that Rowan called 'whisper' exactly. Wouldn't have thought this was possible.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The little hat was inspired by the Binary scarf that had been featured in Kitty.com, issue Winter 2006. It's knitted from 4-ply sock yarn and the binary code actually contains a message. I used the converter provided here to convert ASCII text into ones and zeros. It's a really fun knit. Currently working on another one for best husband of all.

That's what the world in my little corner of the world looked like this morning. Pics were taken on the way back from play school in the little park/playground right behind our street.


 

 

 

It's been a while since I've posted a picture of a spindle from my collection. Here comes a particularly fancy exemplar of the drop spindle species.


 
Whorl: Mesquite Whorl with Russian Laquered Brooch, 7.5 cm in diameter
Shaft: Purpleheart, 27 cm
Weight: 33 g
Maker: Ken Ledbetter from KCL Woods
Fiber: hand-dyed BFL batt by Fibermonster
Comment: The key feature of Ken's spindle seems to be an inlay of some kind. So far I've seen stone inlays, antique buttons, Russian brooches and beads in his works. Each one of his spindles is unique and a true work of art. But they don't just look neat. My spindle also spins very well. I've got to admit it has a bit of a capricious personality. The whorl is fairly large for the weight and is not as rim-weighted as I'm used to. On top of that I hadn't ever before encountered a pig tail hook. But with a hearty thigh roll it just flies and you can spin very fine yarn on it. And the hook is kinda neat, too.

It's not as if I wouldn't own a sizable stash of yarn and fiber to choose from. How does one choose fiber for the next project anyway? Well, this nice and soft Merino/Nylon top in the tempting colorway 'Magnolia' was calling to be spun as soon I had opened the parcel it came in from Zauberwiese. I divided the combed top in two halves and spun up each half on one of my two latest Kevin Rhodes spindles. Since I had 130 grams of this fiber in total I didn't dare using my wheel for plying because I was afraid the bobbin might be too small for the whole finished yarn and I was really not keen on breaking this lovely yarn. Alas, what's all those lovely spindles for? I knew I could easily fit 130 grams of a fingering weight 2-ply yarn on one of the larger spindles in my collection. The Quad from Tom Forrester did its job beautifully and my appreciation for spindles as a powerful fiber tool even grew, if that's at all possible.

The finished yarn was very beautiful but I wasn't really sure about the color distribution and the barber-pole effect in lots of places. Yet somehow my mind kept coming up with possible projects for this hand-spun. One pattern came up again and again. I took it for a sign and just went with it. Ishbel is a cute little shawl pattern by Ysolda Teague that everyone and their aunt has already knitted if Ravelry is anything to go by. Currently it has 3553 projects and counting. But you know, what can I say, it's what the yarn wanted to become. The kitting was done in about a week and was a delightful and addicting process. I used my new KnitPro Spectra needles in the 4 mm size. The more I knitted with my own hand-spun yarn the more beautiful it became. What a heady feeling to know that you've made this item nearly from scratch. Can only be beaten by knowing the name of the sheep the wool came from

Here's the story of my Magnolia Ishbel in pictures:


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Details
Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: 2.65 skeins of Malabrigo Baby Merino Lace (100% Merino, 400m/50g), Color Pearl Ten 69
Needles: 4 mm
Size: Something between M and L.
Modifications:

• Knitted body much longer than specified in the pattern.


• For the collar I picked up 3 stitches for 4 rows. Don't know how the ratio in the pattern could have been achieved. Worked out fine.


• Added a feather and fan pattern to cuffs, hem and collar for some decoration and to keep edges from rolling.

Comment: This is a lovely and very easy pattern. Since it's knitted from the top-down you can incorporate modifications to your personal shape/taste/size as you go. Very cool. The Malabrigo lace yarn was a joy to work with and this won't be the last garment I've knitted from it. With only 150 grams of yarn you end up with a very nice wearable garment. Which means this is actually a fairly inexpensive knit.

Vor einiger Zeit erreichte mich auf Ravelry eine nette Anfrage von 'Canarysanctuary', ob Sie mich in ihrem Blog in der Serie über unabhängige Strickdesigner verlinken könnte. Da habe ich natürlich nicht nein gesagt. Im September was es dann so weit. Ich bin auf Canary Knits als Indie Designer gefeatured. *freu*

A while ago I got a nice request from 'Canarysanctuary' on Ravelry whether she might be allowed to feature me in her Indie Knitting Designer Series. I said yes, of course. And now it's actually done. This September I've been featured as an indie designer on Canary Knits. Yay. *happydance*