Calamus: Cover Girl Yeaaaaah!

© Knitscene/Harper Point

Exciting news!

I've made my first cover. Woo!

As you may know, I was at TNNA a couple weeks ago. One of the first things I did (after stuffing my face with delicious, delicious Chipotle) was head on over to the fashion show and say hello to friends and colleagues I see so rarely.

Don't ya know, almost immediately I run into Amy Palmer, the editor of Knitscene, and she's toting images of the upcoming mags.

Sweet! I get a preview of that Calamus hat I mailed off lo those many months ago. It's cool to see how the magazine presents your work, with styling and wonderful photography and models and the like.
So Amy holds up the binder and what do I see looking back at me but Calamus! Wowza! Cover pic!
In reality, it took me a few ticks to actually get it. I think the longer it is to take it in the bigger the awesomeness factor.
Or the dopier the designer, you takes your pick.

Anyhow, see Calamus on my non-model head below. It's amazing (though not surprising) how the yarn colour is so misrepresented in my shitty pics!

The theme this design was made for was "Flock", that is, birds. So you know I had to submit to THAT theme.
Calamus is a light and airy hat, with lacy yarn overs tracing down along the length and culminating in mock feathers that sit decoratively, framing your face.
Pick up a copy of Knitscene Accessories 2014 top get your hands on Calamus!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Michael Dworjan
Rav ID: Aptenoknits
Some Great Designs: Aptenoknits' Rav Designer Page

I have to say I'm a bit inspired by the knitting ethos of this week's designer: " I like to pioneer new techniques, especially if they’re thought to be impossible."
Brave! And I can certainly understand the drive, myself.

And you can see that interest in both of his pieces I'll feature here:

The pictured Six Braid Wedding Ring Scarf includes the advanced techniques of double-knitting colourwork (making this a reversible scarf) and cables. Inspired by his wedding ring, this scarf's tracery-like cables intertwine physically through colour and texture. It's beautiful on its own, and fascinating to imagine knitting. But fear not; if you've never attempted these techniques, but need one of these scarves for yourself, he's included a photo tutorial.

Flipping For Pine Cones: This is a double-knitting and lace scarf. Yep, double-knitting AND lace. It creates a really cool effect that I'm quite a fan of.
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Exciting ETA!

Latest news from the designer:

Beetles and Combs is his latest piece, and it's a bulky weight reversible and versatile wrap. I love that texture! And can you believe this: it's designed so that there's lace on one side and cables on the other. How cool is that?!

Look for a new pattern from Aptenoknits in the coming months in Love of Knitting magazine, and one with Cephalopod Yarns! Ooo, I love their stuff. Looking forward to seeing them!

Preview Peek

This is just a super quick pop on post to let you know there's a sneak preview of my upcoming design in the Holla Knits Home Collection. Exciting!

TNNA Recap

I don't know how I made the words come out of my mouth, considering the significant lack of sleep I'm still feeling, but I published a podcast yesterday evening about my TNNA weekend. Have a wee listen here.

And, if you're in to photos, here's some for ya!

In the Polika booth with Jean Chung, Krista of Rain City Knits, Emma Welford and Claire Sandow.

Me and the super talented Allyson!

Holla Knits crew! Mari Chiba, me, Emma, Jean, and Claire.

 

Some of the goodies and sights from this weekend! From top left:
bright yarn in the Rowan booth, beautiful decor in The Yarniad's booth, sweet sweet chocolates from Imperial Yarn, Ahh! It's a dino!, delicious shake from Steak n Shake, Anzula's dreamy display, some freaking adorable kits from Red Gate Stitchery, and some soothingly-scented lotion bars from Milk and Honey.

I'll have more to say about products and fun stuffs from TNNA in future podcast episodes. Care to listen in? Just subscribe through iTunes to Canary Knits, or grab the RSS feed.

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Diana Rozenshteyn
Blog: Sunny with a Chance of Knitting
Rav ID: deenulya
Some Great Designs: deenulya's Rav Designer Page

It's getting warm out! This designer's work is a one-stop-shop for your light, lovely, lacy knits.

The pictured piece is Sweet Nothing.
Isn't that a great photo? I think it really captures the underlying essence of her design style.
It has a delicate, picot and beaded edging, something great as, well, a sweet nothing! I can see a piece like this being of great use in the spring/summer wedding season! Those nights can get chilly, people!

I'd also like to point you to her Once Upon a Leaf wrap and Afterglow. These are, again, great pieces that I think transcend age and will always be a great, reliable, beautiful piece of knitting in your wardrobe. You can equally knit these pieces for your classy, teenaged niece or your dear grandma.

She has very many more wonderful designs on Ravelry!

A Cotton Education

I've proclaimed a bias against cotton yarn loudly and repeatedly on this blog, but as of late I've come to, at the very least, a neutral understanding, and at the very best, and joyful embrace.

See, knitting with cotton was a bad experience for me because
a) I chose the wrong sorts of cotton
and
b) I totally chose the wrong sorts of needles

My wrists are, rather unfortunately, sensitive to the extra strain knitting with cotton can put on them. So when I invested in my wood Knit Picks Options interchangeables, it transformed my relationship with this fibre.

And that's just the knitting story!

 

I've also been getting in to sewing lately (gee, can you tell?)
Woven cotton, in a sturdy quilting weight, makes for easier sewing as it holds its own and can be "sticky" rather than slick. The pieces sort of grip each other, so you can focus instead on learning how to use your machine and the mechanics of sewing tricky dress pieces together, rather than fighting with your fabric and getting all stabby-stabbed with pins.¹


The idea of sewing with knit fabric instills an odd mix of fear and laziness in my soul. I (currently) have no desire to engage in the visions created by my trepidatious mind of misshapen garments and sadface wasted time.

So instead I turn to COTTON, GLORIOUS COTTON!

Some quilting cotton, waiting for a purpose

Quilting cotton, to be exact. Sadly, though, this cotton education isn't particularly thorough: and as my desire for dresses and skirts and blouses in different styles progresses, I'm realizing the quilting cotton just isn't going to cut it.

But for now I've worked on amassing a fantastical stack of fabrics and patterns. The world is opening up to me, people!
I obsessively check Burda for new patterns, and jump around on Modcloth for inspiration, saved up for the day I feel brave enough to modify sewing patterns on my own.

This post is mostly because I am SO excited about all my new fabricsssessss and want to share the pics with you.
It's sewing season! To your machines!

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¹ Incidentally, I have an inordinate fear of getting stabbed with pins. A rather unusual, and definitely not helpful, attribute for the budding sewist!

Indie Designer Revisit

Designer: Tori Gurbisz
Blog: Lachesis and Co
Rav ID: LachesisandCo
Some Great Designs: LachesisandCo's Rav Designer Page
Original Indie Designer Post: July 9, 2010

Four years ago! Wowzers! It was almost four years ago that I first profiled this great designer. I went back and read that post; she had only three patterns published at the time, but the hallmarks of her light, fun, versatile style were already present.

Now that she's added thirty more designs to her portfolio, you can really see how a design aesthetic can develop and produce wearable, interesting work.

Pictured is her Galatea shawl, from Poseidon's Realm Part One. This is a collection of three delicate shawls, each with a soft and organic inspiration and feel. I chose this one as the feature photo because it makes me feel so light and spring-like. Come on, spring!

Helike is a clever hat design; it's reversible, and features a pretty contrast brim that you can choose to show off or keep folded under. Being lace, and having that bright pop of colour, makes this a great transitional winter-to-spring hat.

She's also had her work featured in Cooperative Press' Fresh Designs: Sweaters. Her contribution is the cozy- and comfy-looking Everything Nice Hoodie. It's the pockets, long cuffs, and thumbholes that make this the winningest sort of sweater :)

And I would strongly encourage you to take a peek at all of her other designs. Many of them are items complementary to a spring season.

Finally an FO: Plum Rondo

This was an addictive knit.
Though I set some obstacles in my own way from the get-go, I'm pleased with how my Plum Rondo turned out. And quickly, too!

1. I didn't have the right yarn weight, so had to alter the gauge math. It worked out fine!
2. And using that incorrectly-gauged yarn came with a less-that-ideal pairing of the four colours necessary to create the pullover. Unfortunately, one of the secondary colours wasn't distinctive enough from the others to create the pop needed for some of the lovely, delicate yoke colourwork.
3. Stubbornly using that yarn with the wrong gauge and incorrect colour contrasts also led me to run out of the main colour only inches before finishing! Sad! I had to extend the background yoke colour up a couple inches, sacrificing the look of the colourwork, but allowing me to complete the knit with enough main colour for the neck ribbing.
4. I'm glad I persisted with the yarn because ooooh man. Softness. So deliciously soft. Mmmm....

I'm still scoobied as to why there aren't more of these as FOs on ravelry. As of the publication of this post, there's only thirteen.
What I'm saying is, this is a free, well-written, fantastic-pants pattern! Knit one for yourself!

New Dress; Can I Sew It Quick?

I dream big sometimes, people.

Here's the latest dress I've cut the pattern and fabric for. I'm trying to keep a maximum of only two patterns with cut fabric waiting in the wings, but it's hard, man. Damn hard.

By posting it on the blog I open myself to the pressures of the whole wide internet: don't cut out more fabric! you'll all proclaim. You juuust posted that there's a new pattern waiting, so sad, waiting.

This pattern is New Look 6699. It has many, many possible bodice/skirt combinations. If this first one works out, I can see this pattern becoming a fall-back staple in my collection.

And the dreaming big part? I have high hopes that I can sew this puppy in time for TNNA.
Let's see, shall we?

Thrysos Winner!

This is just a quick post to congratulate entrant #17, Cassiopia! You've won a free digital copy of Thrysos. It's in the mail to you right now.

Thanks to everyone for entering to win. Looks like most of us prefer a seamless design, especially from the top down!

Holla Knits Spring/Summer 2014 Blog Tour

For my contribution to this blog tour, I'd like to show you my own, personal, happy, second sample for me me me of Hawt Sands.

Many modifications happened for this sweater. For a few reasons:
1) This cotton is THE cotton I had in stash. Must knit from stash!
2) And while I already owned this cotton, I didn't own it in the proper amount for the main colour.
3) The seahorse is nowhere to be seen because I altered this puppy to be knit in the round. I feared the running-out-of-yarn, and somehow working it in the round made more sense in this perilous situation.
4) I did end up running out of yarn, right a the tip-top of the hood. So the hood's smaller than it's supposed to be.
and finally
5) I wanted to see it in some different colours, and thought ya'll might like to as well!

I have fantasies that one day it'll be so warm that this cotton pullover will make sense as a wardrobe option. Right now it's the vehicle for my maybe-spring-soon dreams.

Follow the rest of the blog tour! There's some giveaways too; you know you can't say no to giveaways!

April 7: Collection Launch
April 8: The Sweatshop of Love Blog
April 9: ModKnits Yarn Blog
April 10: Skeinny Dipping Yarn
April 11: Kirsten Singer
April 15: Canary Knits
April 16: Baah Yarns
April 17: Knitter’s Pride Blog
April 18: DovieJay Knits
April 22: Mari Knits
April 23: Magical Grammar
April 24: Knit York City
April 25: Under the Red Umbrella

Love Me Some Easy Sewing

This is the second Cynthia Rowley Skirt I've made. The first one was so simple and fun to wear that I couldn't resist a second.

I was motivated to finish it in time for my brother's bridal shower. Well, future sister-in-law's bridal shower, I suppose. A springtime shower calls for a happy springtime skirt, no?

Some stuff I'm learning about sewing:

1) I am not smarter than the directions in some cases. Probably most cases.
2) While sewing is much faster than knitting, you still need to be to be patient with boring and fiddly things like pressing and sewing tricky curves.
3) You should probably buy fabric for a project, and not the other way around.

I think point 3) might be a bit controversial; my entire yarn stash is based on "ooo pretty!" and not "well, I'd like to make the X sweater and it needs X amount of X type of yarn...."
This tendency has led me down a road of lotsa cotton quilting fabric, mostly in too-small amounts (and I never remember how many metres I bought!)

And to make matters worse/better, I've just gone on a fabric buying binge on etsy and got myself an embarrassingly large amount of cotton for future dream dresses and skirts. I'll show it off when it finally arrives in the mail (and I say finally because, even though I just bought it last weekend, now is never soon enough!)

I'm thinking of making up some more rompers, this dress, and these cute skirts.
Sewing season is upon us! Muwhahahaa!

Indie Designer Day

Designer: Irina Bil
Rav ID: SameSong
Some Great Designs: SameSong's Rav Designer Page

It's getting warmer outside: prepare for a transitional wardrobe!
This week's designer has just the thing(s)!

Pictured is the sunny-day shawl of your dreams, Flower Blues. It's a well-balanced combination of colours, simple texture, and ruffle. You can always tell a good design when something as easily overpowering as a ruffle is used and integrated well into the piece!

You may, though, find yourself facing still-chilly temperatures. Ones low enough for you to say "yes! Today is a hat day!"
And for those days, I offer you Snow Leopard and Chocolate Vine. They have, respectively, a fun use of bold colourwork and a happy dance of textural surface.

Thrysos; Or, It's Giveaway Season Over Here!

This spring is hopping along. The sun is actually out today, and just yesterday, I saw some rogue tulip and/of daffodil sprouting in my garden. The mess of a winter appears to (almost?!) be over!

To celebrate, I'm holding a few giveaways.
I posted Tuesday about my new podcast and the two giveaways associated with it.
And now today, I have another giveaway for you all!

Thrysos is one of my new patterns, released the other week in Knit Pick's Spring Collection, titled In Bloom. It's a top-down blouse with a simple lace repeat across the yoke. Worked in the round, it includes a wee ruffle at the front, a relaxed fit, and a cute little dip in the back for an extra bit of coverage.

If you'd like a chance to win a pdf copy of Thrysos, just comment on this blog post and let me know what your favourite sweater construction is. Please don't forget to leave me some contact info so I can let you know if you've won!

FYI: Email list members get TWO chances to win! You can join the mailing list over here.

I'll draw and announce the winner on Wednesday, April 16.

Good luck everyone!

I Have A Podcast; And, Here's a Giveaway!

I've got a podcast, peeps. (RSS feed here, and check out the notes here.)
Yeah, I decided to jump in. It's been fun so far, and something of a learning curve!

I was contacted recently by Family Tree Knits, who generously donated her lovely Family Tree Cowl and a Miss Babs Yummy 3 ply Toes, 82 y mini skein, in the colour Plum to giveaway! Listen to the episode here for details and enter to win here.

Birthstone Cowl, a NEW pattern from Family Knits!

But I also thought it'd be fun to have a little interview with her too.

What are you excited about?
Yarn, new patterns, starting new projects, and planning new designs. And being a part of the knitting community, which is a very cool place.

Most helpful/favourite knitting book?
I have the Complete Encyclopedia of Stitchery by Mildred Graves Ryan that I refer to over and over.

What are your favourite type of items to knit?
Anything wearable or usable, meaning that I want to be able to actually wear it, (or have it out and use it if it’s a blanket) and not just admire it from afar. Some things are beautiful but if I think I won’t wear it (or that my daughter won’t wear it) then I don’t make it. I love cowls, shawls and cardigans and big loose sweaters most of all. I like to have several projects on the go, so I have a choice of what to work on depending on the environment (I do a  lot of knitting while watching kids’ activities), so at any one time I tend to have a simple project and a project that needs closer attention. I also like to challenge myself with a new skill each time I start the next ‘paying attention’ project.

What's your favourite/most used knitting trick?
Spit splicing, or the russian join if it isn’t 100% animal fibre. I’m not a fan of weaving in ends, so if I can prevent it, I do. Although it seems like I’m always in public when I need to spit splice...it’s hard to act casual when I’m spitting on my yarn!

What's the newest trick/technique you've learned?
Icord edging! It is such a neat, clean edge, I love it! I first used it on the Garter Squish Blanket by Stephen West and for the first couple of inches I kept thinking, ‘How is this going to make an edging that looks like the picture? That would be too easy.’ But it’s true, and it works!

Where do you go when you need knitting questions answered?
YouTube videos by Pink Knits, the Purl Bee folks, and Knit Purl Hunter. And the Tin Can Knits website is awesome.

What made you decide to start designing?
I wanted to make a ‘family ring’ type of cowl that signified each of my family members (since I’m not really a jewellery person), so I decided to make it up. I realized that I often modify patterns as I’m knitting anyway, and I have gained confidence as a knitter over time, so I took the plunge.

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Interested in winning more?
If you like the looks of the Birthstone Cowl pictured above, just comment on this post for your chance to win. I'll draw the winner on April 21 and announce the winner shortly thereafter.