malabrigo sock and new rowan booklet

I got a couple new colorways (Primavera and Aguas) of Malabrigo Sock yesterday at Nina.


I'm making progress on Carmen from Malabrigo Book 1. It's their chunky yarn in the Charrua colorway. The pullover knit up quickly as it is chunky on size US 15s and the shaping/construction is very minimal. I'm making it as a sample for Malabrigo.


In exchange for knitting this pullover, I received 6 skeins of a new test yarn, Malabrigo Superwash worsted in the Archangel colorway.


I absolutely love this yarn and I think it's even softer than Malabrigo's regular worsted! The colors are a little vibrant and pink/purpley for me so I'm trying to find someone else who wants to trade their Malbrigo Superwash Worsted in more subdued colors.

I also got Rowan's new booklet, The Lima Collection.

There are four men's patterns in it. I also like one of the women's patterns that I could modify to work for me. However, my favorite is the brown cardigan.


I think I might modify the collar and just make it a V neck. Anyway, I won't use Lima because that would cost too many hundreds of dollars, but I'll be looking for a yarn substitute. I definitely love the Lima yarn and plan to use it for a smaller project, just not a men's cabled cardigan.

I also like the blue cabled sweater in the booklet.


I wrote up a new pattern called Daybreak and it is currently being test knit by several wonderful knitters.




The pattern should be available in a couple weeks or so.

botanic hat pattern now available

I finally have my Botanic Hat pattern available for purchase!




Yarn Suggested: Merino Worsted by Malabrigo Yarn
-1 skein MC (less than half a skein is used)
-1 skein CC (less than half a skein is used)
Needles: US 6 & 7 (circular or DPNs depending on personal preference for knitting in the round)

The Botanic Hat pattern can be purchased for $6.00 through paypal.


It's been a long time since I first started working on this hat design and after knitting several versions, I'm really proud of the finished pattern.

Thanks to Todd Gocken (chiknitterguy on ravelry) for tech editing and formatting this pattern!

Also, thanks Peter aka yarndude for test knitting an awesome hat!

The hat is a reversible ribbed beanie with an added option to make a folded brim for extra warmth. I knit it up in a variety of worsted weight yarns and I can't wait to see what other color combinations and textures you all play with.



Make sure to post your finished hats for everyone to see over on ravelry!

milkweed shawl

Before I left for Urbana over the weekend I purchased and printed Laura Chau's newest pattern, Milkweed Shawl. I started knitting it in a cotton yarn, but only had 4 of the 5 balls with me so I couldn't finish it this past weekend. I'll finish it soon, but in the meantime I picked up a skein of Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere 2-ply to knit the same kerchief.


I enjoyed knitting this small shawl because of all the garter stitch and simple columns evolving into little diamond shapes at the end. I also really like the edging. It is not too pointy, but has some shape to it and the two far end points look like little wing tips.


I knit on US sz 4 bamboo circulars at Chris' apartment and during the whole train ride back to Chicago. The train was an hour late leaving Urbana, but that didn't bother me because I got that much more uninterrupted knitting time. I arrived at 1pm with a lot of time until my 6pm rehearsal in Chicago so I walked the short distance from Union Station to Loopy yarns to "waste" some of that time. I got a couple awesome skeins of sock yarn, Nova Sock in a rusty orangey red and Casbah Sock in shades of blue. Then I did EZ's sewn bind off on the Milkweed Shawl and worked on some fingerless mitts at the shop. There were a couple of really nice employees to hang out and knit with too.

Anyway, I am working on a lot of projects and several of my own designs as well. Getting some of my patterns out will be slow going as I am new to that process, but I am really excited about how my designs are knitting up!

Here is another picture of Laura Chau's Milkweed. I have more pictures on my ravelry project page.

wwkip 2009

This year was my second time participating in World Wide Knit in Public Day. Last year I was at Daniela Johannsenova's event at her shop, Maschenkunst, in Cologne, Germany.
This year I took the train down to Urbana for the weekend and had a wonderful time knitting at the farmer's market for WWKIP day. We'll see where I end up next year.


Brigitte, the shop owner at Klose Knit, did a great job putting together this little event and there was a nice group of knitters that showed and several people at the farmer's market stopped to admire and ask questions which is great!



I started working on Laura Chau's (blog link) newest pattern, Milkweed (rav link), on the train this weekend and at the farmer's market. I love all the garter stitch in this shawl and the fun simple lace detail. It's fairly easy and the pattern is written out and charted clearly.


I'm knitting my version with Fiddlesticks Ecoknit Organic Cotton on US sz 8 needles. It's a worsted weight soft cotton so, it will be larger than the shawl in the pattern. I will most likely knit Milkweed again in fingering weight yarn though.

Anyway, how was everyone else's knit in public day. What did you do? Where did you knit?

chicago with ysolda

I had a great time on Wednesday meeting Ysolda. I got to relax and knit with her and several other awesome knitters at Nina in Chicago.

I admired her sample suitcase that she brought and shared some of my knitting.


This is Ysolda's Hap Blanket pattern (rav link) that I knit up in Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran and Plymouth Homestead.

I also just finished her Cairn hat and mitts earlier this week. Here's a picture of the mitts meeting the designer. : )

Ysolda didn't have any mitts with her sample suitcase so mine get to join her during the remainder of her US trip. The Cairn fingerless mitts (rav link) were knit with Lorna's Laces Green Line dk and Colinette Cadenza in the Large size with US 5 needles.


I made the 22" size of the Cairn hat (rav link) with Queensland Kathmandu dk and Noro Cashmere Island. Those two yarns made a wonderfully squishy pair. I especially like the garter stitch at the top of the this hat.


I started working on a garter stitch foot stool with a simple pattern found on this site.


While at the shop I recognized Eliza who is ifandany (rav profile link) and met her friend Jill who is Juneberrystar on ravelry. It was so cool meeting all these people in person.


After visiting at the shop the four of us had a delicious dinner at the Earwax Cafe in Wicker Park and there were cupcakes involved. mmm.

Anyway, I'm excited to see the people I met at Nina more this summer.

I'm aiming to get out the pattern for the botanic hat (rav link) later this month. It keeps getting pushed back because I was working on a couple other designs and I still need to work out a couple more sizes for the hat, but I did just finish knitting a version with a folded ribbed brim (rav link) with Malabrigo and Plymouth Boku.


I really love the way it hugs comfortably around my head and covers the ears.


This summer is sure to be a heavy knitting season. I seem to be working with just as much wool despite these warm days.

slipped rib scarf

Slipped Rib Scarf

Knit this Scarf bigger for a cozy wrap or small (as pictured) to wear wrapped around your neck.

Yarn: You can use any weight you prefer. I used two skeins of an aran weight cotton yarn, Araucania Pomaire, colorways 4 & 7. I had more than half a skein leftover of the green/yellow/purple colorway.

Needle: With an aran weight yarn, I used US 10 circular needles for a loose drapey fabric. I recommend using larger needles for any given yarn to get the most out of a yarn's yardage and to create a fabric with nice drape.

Slipped Rib Stitch:
Row 1 (WS): Purl all sts
Row 2 (RS): K1, *wyif Sl1, wyib K1, repeat from * for slipped rib stitch


Abbreviations:
K: Knit
P: Purl
yo: yarn over
Sl: slip (stitches in slipped rib stitch are always slipped purlwise)
wyif: with yarn in front
wyib: with yarn in back
RS: Right Side
WS: Wrong Side
CO: Cast On
St: Stitch

Instructions:
CO with your favorite triangular shawl cast on.
I usually CO 5 sts and do the following 2 set up rows...
Row 1 (WS): K2, yo, P1, yo, K2
Row 2 (RS): K2, yo, K1, yo, K1(this is the center st), yo, K1, yo, K2

Row 3 (WS): K2, purl to last 2 sts, K2
Row 4 (RS): K2, yo, work the RS row of slipped rib stitch until you get get to center stitch, yo, K1, yo, work in the slipped rib stitch again to last 2 sts, yo, K2

Repeat rows 3 & 4 being careful that all the Knit sts are stacked on top of each other and all the slipped sts are stacked on top of each other on the RS of the shawl. This will mean that on one right side row you start the slipped stitch pattern with a knit stitch and on the next right side row the slipped stitch pattern begins with a slipped stitch.

Work shawl until desired length leaving a couple inches free for a garter stitch border.
I knit 8 rows while maintaining the 4 yo sts every other row.
Cast off, weave in ends, and enjoy!

(My cotton shawl ended up being about 20 inches in length from the cast on edge to the pointy tip, and the width or wingspan of my shawl is roughly 48 inches across)

chicago trip

I came up to Chicago with Chris on Monday so he could talk with a professor about grad school research opportunities at UIC. We stayed at my mom's in Skokie and took the train into Chicago Tuesday morning. After we went to UIC we got to check out Loopy Yarns in Chicago.


They had a really great selection of all kinds of yarn organized by weight. So, their worsted weight yarn was what you saw first, then they had their chunky yarn and sport/dk weight had its own room as well as lace/sock weight yarn. Their Lorna's Laces selection was excellent. I may have to get some of that at their shop this summer. However, their prices were all $2-3 more per ball of yarn than I've seen anywhere else. Perhaps that's because of their Chicago location, but they had some really nice yarns 25-50% off downstairs. They also had some roving downstairs. I want to explore spinning more, so I got my favorite colorway of merino top roving that they carry from Frabjous Fibers.


I even got a 10% discount for being a student and an awesome free tote bag for signing up on their email list. The bag has sheep knitting on the train.

Also on Tuesday, we went to Close Knit in Evanston, Illinois. It's a nice cozy one room shop with nice yarns stacked on all the walls. I found some awesome Fiddlesticks organic cotton yarn on sale for less than $5 a skein. I grabbed all five skeins because it was a soft neutral tweedy cotton.



I worked on a little shawl Monday and Tuesday with some Araucania Pomaire yarn. It's a wonderful cotton with amazing variegated colors. I loved working with it.



I cast on during the car ride from Urbana to Chicago, knit at home that night, on the train in the morning and throughout the day, and finished it at the beach in Evanston that afternoon.



I used a simple slipped stitch pattern with yarn overs on the edges and on either side of the center stitch. Then I just switched to garter stitch for eight rows with another colorway and cast off.



I think I'll definitely use this yarn again. It's a really nice soft cotton. There are several gorgeous colorways and they are all a little different. I like the purpley blue based one I got because it just had hints of the the yellow/orange bits.


I used one skein of the blue and less than a half skein of the green. So, I might have enough leftover for some fingerless mitts. I may try to add a crocheted border? Or some tassels maybe? I don't know. I may save that edging idea for another shawl sometime.



Let me know if you want me to write up a little recipe for this pattern. It's basically the same as the Boneyard Shawl that I wrote up, but you use less yarn and there's a different easy stitch pattern for the body of the shawl/neckwarmer.