I finished the doily this afternoon – it’s nice to have a pretty, finished object so quickly! Here she is blocking:
(Finished just before dinner time, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to have my cup of tea!)
Category Archives: Knitting
Real toes
I’ve finally finished the second of my shaped-toe socks – and even remembered to mirror the toe shaping so I didn’t have to wear both socks on the one foot!
They look fine (at least from a distance) and I love the yarn and the colours. I’m very happy with the toe-shaping – it definitely makes more room for my strong healthy big toe 🙂 However, perhaps due to all the distractions my poor brain has been coping with lately, the socks are far from perfect. Somehow, when knitting the first one, I worked on the wrong needles for the heel, and hence the leg shaping now goes down the inside of my leg, rather than the centre back. That’s oops! number one. Oops! number two is that despite taking some notes as I went, and copying the decreasing for the leg from the first sock, I somehow ended up with 60 stitches at the ankle instead of 64. Figuring it wouldn’t make much difference, I knitted on, working the rest of the sock over 60 stitches instead of 64. The sock does fit – but it is a bit tight around the ankle, the rib pattern pulling in more so than stocking stitch. Oh, well, I’m going to be losing weight soon, aren’t I? And no-one is really going to be looking that closely at my legs to notice the fudges 🙂
Share this:
Holey Toes, Batman!
Q. What do the hand-knitted socks in this pile have in common?
A. One or both of each pair suffers from this:
I have been knitting socks for some years, and have been using s standard wedge toe shape, which feels nice and comfy and is easy to do. But I have a prominent big toe, and lovely healthy strong toe nails. Hence many of my socks ending up with a hole in the toe 🙁 They then sit there in the darning pile, waiting for me to organise myself to find yarn, and needle, and time and patience to fix them. I’m perfectly capable of darning them… but it would be so much better f I didn’t have to, right?
Now that my Christmas Lights Shawls are finished, I’ve picked up again a sock that I started knitting back in May. I need to do some serious writing in the next two months, and socks are great writing knitting – they’re easy, and the rows are short, so it’s a simple matter to drop the sock and type whenever the words come to me. Plus, with all those socks stuck in the darning pile, I need more socks!
As I approached the toe on this sock, I became determined to knit it differently, hoping to avoid the holey toes problem. This morning I flicked through my sock books, but no alternate toe shapes leapt out at me. So off I went (naturally) to Ravelry, and took a look at the Sock Knitters Group – and there was a current discussion about different approaches to toes, and a link to the blog Under Dutch Skies, and a great post about Anatomically correct toes. It was a simple solution to my problem – print some custom graph paper to match your knitting gauge, trace around the top part of your foot, and work out the decreases from that template. Easy!
And here’s the result for my sock – a toe shaped for my feet:
Now I just have to cast on and knit the second sock, with a mirror of that toe, and then I can see how well they wear!
ETA: The yarn is gorgeous, although a little more muted than the photo – it’s Amara sock yarn from Saffron Dyeworks. The rib pattern is from the Charade Socks (Rav link) by Sandra Park.
Share this:
Christmas Lights Shawl Released
This afternoon, after checking over the pattern again, I created a pattern page on Ravelry for the Christmas Lights Shawl and made it available for sale. I’ve also updated my pattern section here, and added the pattern into the Yarnosophy shop, but I’m sure Ravelry will be the place that most people go! (Which is fine by me, as Jess & Casey have created such an amazing community there that I like to support them as much as possible.)
Here’s some of Tara’s photos of the sample shawls, taken at our photoshoot yesterday:
So, after months of knitting and calculating and charting and drafting and checking and rechecking and knitting… it’s finally done and out there!
Share this:
Almost there
I’m getting much closer to releasing the Christmas Lights Shawl pattern. The fantastic group of test-knitters are making great progress, and have provided some valuable feedback on the pattern. I found a tech-editor n Ravelry who is seeking to build up her experience, and she’s done a great job, going through the pattern in detail, and making some thoughtful and sensible suggestions for improving it – and picking up a missed ‘yo’ in the instructions!
On Sunday, after a long day with much knitting, I finished the medium size version of the shawl, and managed to get it all pinned out on the blocking mats before taking the dog to the vet yesterday morning. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and our sunroom where the shawl was pinned out was toasty cosy – great for drying a shawl! So late afternoon I was able to unpin it, and take a few photos – not that any of them are great! I really need a beautiful garden, and/or some attractive garden furniture, to photograph shawls – our straggly wild bushland just doesn’t have anywhere to drape things photogenically. But here it is, hanging on a wall:
Tomorrow my photographer friend and her model friend and I will head out to the pine forest to take the ‘official’ shawl photos for the pattern. Then I just have to rearrange the layout of the pattern to fit the photos in, do a final check… and then it can be released into the wilds of Ravelry!
Oh, and you might want some project details!
Pattern: Christmas Lights (of course!)
Yarn: Saffron Dyeworks Enya Sock yarn in Lt Lockwood; 2 skeins
Beads: 4.5mm silver-lined aquamarine seed beads from Empire Beads
Ravelry Project Page
Now that I’ve finished knitting Christmas Lights (at least for now), I’ve picked up my all-lace Brangian again. It’s nice easy knitting, in a pretty clematis blue-purple silk/merino. I’m also itching to cast on some more socks 🙂
Share this:
A round of updates
I’ve been busy with updating and rearranging things, here and there.
I’ve updated the Brangian pattern. There were no errors in the previous version, but the new version has a better (I hope!) layout, and also includes information about varying the pattern, including instructions for the All-Lace version. Here’s my All-Lace one underway:
The updated pattern has been uploaded to Ravelry and to the Yarnosophy shop, and I’ve let Ravelry buyers know to download the new version. I’ll be emailing those who have bought the pattern through Yarnosophy shortly.
I’ve also been doing some updating and reorganising in the Yarnosophy shop. I’ve set up a number of categories for the stitch markers, so it will be easier for people to find the size and style (rings or loops) that they prefer. I’ve also changed the default currency setting to Australian dollars; I originally had it set as US dollars, as I advertise on Ravelry and I know that some US people find non-US currencies discouraging, but as most of my buying customers are from Australia, (the postage costs tend to be off-putting for overseas buyers) it makes more sense to use $AUD. So that’s all now changed over!
I’m also doing an inventory check, and improving my own behind-the-scenes system. It’s not been pretty good and I’m happy with the way they’re packaged, but I’m going through and adding a label to each set of markers with all the pertinent info including the name they’re listed under, needle size, and price code, and cross-checking that with what’s listed – early on, I underestimated the needle sizes that the tigertail loop ones would fit, so I’m updating all of those. This will make it easier for people who buy offline to look through the box and have the info to hand, and also for me to quickly find the right markers when people buy them through the shop. It all takes time, of course! However, now that I’ve refined the packaging/system/shop catalogue, it will be easier for everyone, including me!
I’ve found a good source of closed rings, so I’ve been making some markers with rings rather than loops – but I still use the tigertail to attach the beads. As there’s no wrapped wire, they’re also snag free. The rings only come in two sizes, so I’m making small markers which fit up to size 3.75mm needles, and medium ones which fit up to 5.5mm needles.
The small ones I’ve made with 6mm pearls are perfect for lace or baby knitting – and I think they’re very sweet!
They’re now in the shop, and I’ll have some more medium ring stitch markers in there in the next few days – I’ve got a few made already, but they have to be photographed and entered, which all takes time.
When I’m not updating patterns, making stitch markers, or playing shop keeper and tidying up the stock, I’m knitting while I stare at the screen and trying to write. I’ve started another sample for the new pattern, Aurora’s Light. I’ve still got a few more hours of work on it before the pattern is ready for testing, but hopefully I’ll squeeze that in in the next week or so. Here’s what I’ve knitted so far – the yarn is some of Knitabulous’ fifty-fifty merino/silk fingering. The yarn colour, Tequila Sunrise, is perfect for Aurora’s Light!
But right now, I’m going to get back to writing the next book!
Share this:
Aurora’s Light?
Thank you to everyone who has made suggestions for the name for the new shawl. I’ve been looking up goddesses and heroines of legend, trying to find one connected with the sun, stars, or dawn – one with an easy to spell, and pretty name!
I think I’ve decided on Aurora. In Roman mythology, she is the Goddess of Dawn, and I think the shawl design can be seen to have dawn spreading over forests and streams… However, as there are multiple shawls and other items called ‘Aurora’ on Ravelry, the name needs something extra – so how does Aurora’s Light sound?
And here she is, in the shawlette size:
I hope to get some better photos soon, but it was a grey, wet day today, so not much photography was happening!
Now I just have to finish writing up the pattern, send it out to testers, and finish knitting a shawl-size one. In all that spare time I have….
Share this:
Beautiful blues
It’s been a busy few weeks! So, what’s been happening?
The weekend before last, Emily (Rav link) and I set up a couple of indigo dye vats, and had a great afternoon gently dunking yarn, fibre and fabric into them, and watching the magic results as we took the dyed items from the vat, and on exposure to the air they gradually changed from green through lovely blue-green shades to blue. I didn’t dye a lot (I didn’t have a lot prepared), but now I know the process, I’m planning to do it again, very soon. Maybe even tomorrow. I want to re-dip a couple of the skeins I dyed, to get a deeper blue. Plus dye some more things!
It’s impossible to photograph things when you have blue-stained rubber gloves on, but fortunately Tara was there, too, and very handy with her camera. She’s put a set of photos from the day on Flickr.
A couple of days after the indigo-dyeing, I headed down to Sydney for the Romance Writers of Australia conference at Coogee. Very little in the way of knitting was achieved while I was away, other than a handful of rows on a present (now late) for my nephews birthday. More on that when it’s finished! But the conference was, as usual, fantastic, and I’m all energised and motivated to get really cracking with the new book. Although textile work is rewarding, it doesn’t pay the bills, so I’m going to have to put my writing work (mostly) first for a while.
However, now that I’m home again, I did finally take some time today to block the shawlette that I finished knitting two weeks ago. It’s the second prototype for my new design. I’m mostly happy with it, but in the final pattern I will make the ends of the spines deeper and more pointy over a few more rows, taking them down towards/into the border pattern.
The charts are all done; I ‘just’ have to finish the general instructions and do the written lace instructions for those who don’t like charts.
Oh, and come up with a name for her!!
Share this:
Sparklies
I’ve had a fun day, surrounded by sparkly beads. I’ve collected some lovely beads in the past few months, including some special sets, and today I made up some stitch markers that I’ve listed in the shop as Limited Editions. Because the beads are more expensive, they’re priced a little higher, but worth it for those who enjoy something extra-special!
I also used some wonderful lampwork and other fancy beads from some bead mixes I’ve bought, and made up a stack of one-off stitch markers. These are destined for the ‘Lucky Dip‘ I’ve now set up in the shop: customers can buy a ‘Lucky Dip’, and receive one large, two medium, or three small stitch markers for a bargain price – and a nice surprise! I’ll also give away a Lucky Dip to anyone who buys two sets of stitch markers. I know there’s some knitters out there who love to collect individual markers, so the Lucky Dip is a way to add a surprise to the collection!
I enjoyed playing with the sparklies during the day – sitting out in the sunroom, with the sunlight pouring in was a lovely way to spend a winter afternoon. I think the stress of all the medical dramas – and The Princess Dog’s medical dramas – has been catching up with me, so it was probably past time I spent some hours doing something purely pleasurable, that didn’t require vast amounts of brain power! The new markers are now all made, photographed, entered into the shop, and packaged up in the new display/posting packs I made. So that’s a fair amount achieved for the day.
However, I haven’t done a stitch of knitting today, so I’m no nearer finishing the new shawl. The revised border chart is now finalised, and it SHOULD work for both small and large sizes, but the proof won’t come until the knitting is done…. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going to knit. And write. Really.
Share this:
Knit one, make one
I’m trying to get a sample shawl finished quickly so that I can send the new pattern out to test knitters – complete with a picture of what the design looks like, knitted up! The aqua one I started and mentioned in my previous post will be the large size, and have 5 gores, and it’s going to take me a bit of time to knit. So, i decided to put it aside for a short while, and cast on for the small size, with 4 gores for the first sample shawl – which is just over half the number of stitches that the aqua shawl will take!
I’m using a wonderful silk/merino fingering from Lush Yarn for this one, in a gorgeous rich blue colourway called Queen’s Robe. I’m loving it! I’m adding in silver-lined sapphire seed beads, and they’re looking gorgeous as well, so I’m thoroughly enjoying knitting this one! I started it on the 11th July, and I’ve knitted a third of it so far – although only one row in the past two days. I hope it will be finished next week, then I can finalise writing up the pattern and add photographs.
This is how she looked a few days ago – but I’ve knitted more since then:
