18 and counting: Not Over Yet!

 

I am still alive and kicking and having fun and making things and traveling...and working A LOT!

 This was from a Berroco photo shoot on a farm. The horizon is never where I want it so I stand on my trusty step ladder.

 

Here's the Honeycomb Scarf I have been knitting off and on most of winter. It's a gem of a process knit. When I started, I figured I'd whip right through it.........I'm about 75% done now and a couple of weeks ago I took a good hard look and realized it doesn't look exactly like the samples in the pattern. Whatever I am doing wrong, I'm consistent so at this point, that's how it is!

 

I've been traveling a lot! Some  trips for fun and some for work. Above was all FUN: we went to the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver. This was at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, which is what it sounds like plus walkways in the tree canopy, just on the edge of the city in North Vancouver. 10/10 recommend.   I am normally not a fan of heights and walkways over sheer drops but it was so astoundingly beautiful I couldn't be bothered to freak out. 

Some of that trip became a Knitters Weekend: Olympic Peninsula on Modern Daily Knitting.

This was a photo shoot for Madeline Tosh yarn, I love the styling on this. If you wonder whether I am constantly ohhing and ahhhing and saying "oh oh I want to knit this" while I am working for this client , the answer is YES. 

I am glad to be back for this rare post, let me know if you saw this! This blog celebrated its 18th birthday in February, the least I can do is say hi.

This week: teaching Chicago in person!

As much as I enjoyed teaching virtually these past two years, I am thrilled I'll be in front of a room of living breathing people teaching iPhonography in just a few days  in Chicago!

 

If you'll be at H+H Americas, the trade show for handmade business  please join me !

THURSDAY JUNE 23,  9:45-11:15 am     Smartphone/IPhone Photo Confidence 

FRIDAY  JUNE 24,  9:45-11:15 am  10 +  Tips for Product Photography

These will be fun, helpful, talks filled with actionable tips and time for Q&A.  Not to mention so many images to look at!

And then if you're in the area, visiting or a local,  I am so excited to be teaching hands-on Fabulous Phone Photography for Knitters and Makers                                      SATURDAY JUNE 25, at STRING THEORY YARN COMPANY                            Chicago (Glen Ellyn)    9:30-Noon

If you're thinking about this one , don't wait too long, there were just a couple seats left when I checked in on Friday! I have wanted to visit this shop for ages, having met Janet Avila, the owner at past events and long admired her mission, attitude, events and style.  Oh, and yarn selections! Going to be some new projects cast on here, I can pretty much promise that.

 

3 things: Talking About Knitting

1) Martinique Shawl in Liana from Berroco Yarn.
This from a photo shoot last September, when we soldiered through dozens of spring yarn designs in autumn, and tried to give a summery feel. At the time, with fall winds whipping, I wasn't sure we hit the mark fully. 
Months later I go online and see the release, and I fool even myself!  Summmmerrrrrrr. I am so ready for summer beach life, even 6 feet away from my friends. We did a trial last weekend and it worked .
 This yarn is a water-color-y linen in  dk weight, this is exactly how I'd want to use it.
Also, I adore the model, Frances.

2) I've left this MDK Field Guide coin project as my Zoom knitting. That's a category I never thought I'd need!  I don't do a tremendous amount of Zooms, thankfully, maybe 1-4 a week.  And when I do, this is  my happy-inducing companion.  I look forward to the end of quarantine-based Zoom calls but I do not look forward to ending this addictive tubular scarf......it may be really really long by next winter. That's all I'm saying. 

 3) That ShannaJean Cowlette is fini!   In the home stretch I surprised myself with two realizations. First, I was not tired of making bobbles*. Not even in the very long bobbled bindoff.  Something about the stabbiness of creating them matches my mood during Covid stay-at-home in a lovely stitch-to-moment ratio. Enough said on that topic, eh? 

The second realization? It's so not my style! I don't know when/where/if  I'll wear this.**  Somewhere along the last third of it, still enjoying the process, I had the cold clear light of day realization that it isn't me, at all. I love the colors and the yarn.  I have no regrets about the making.  Maybe for teaching at a knitting event?  I'll let you know....

* bobbles: I knit backward to make them, if I had to turn the work around, that'd be the dealbreaker.
** Above, I tried styling it in the only way I can imagine wearing it, with  a denim or chambray top. I didn't notice that I flipped the edging in every shot. I am never too professional to make rookie mistakes!

3 things on my thumbs up list

1. New sweater, done!

The Little Sock Arms Sweater is done and went to school shortly after this image was grabbed early this morning. Everyone, meaning Zoe and me, is very happy with it.

What? Were you expecting a professional looking photo shoot of the FO  from me? I laugh!  30 seconds with the phone before a quick run to the bus stop. Cobblers children all the way here!

Love this pattern and loved knitting it in Julia Vesper's Knitterly Things yarns. Super soft and great
colors. I knit it a little big on purpose to try to get two winters out of it. I mean, fingering weight sweaters do not grow on trees, right?  The pattern is also available as Sock Arms in adult sizes and, even more temptingly, in worsted weight. I love how the designer uses a picked up from the shoulder short row construction on the sleeves so you get stripes alllll the way down. 

2. More colors !

This scarf tube from the Mason Dixon Knitting Field Guide 13 Kaffe Fassett-palooza continues to get me through this season --along with nightly watching of The Spy.   Sometimes I get caught up inthe espionage and forget to keep knitting. 

No overarching plan for the colors- I am using up leftovers and scraps in Starcroft Fog. I accidentally hit the gray tone button filter in my phone and was amused to see that having strong contrast is not all that important to the success of the stripes--I like these color values. Sometimes it just works.   

I don't have enough knitting time to satisfy my addiction to this exercise- I am thinking  45 stripes of 1.5" will do it, I am on the number twelve.  If I do a stripe a night I'll have a new scarf in the beginning of March.  When we usually get slammed with a couple of snowstorms and ice so maybe that's my plan.

3. International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day is this Saturday Feb 1

 Three rules. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Before noon. On the first Saturday in February.
More info here.

I've been traveling for work for the last two years on this holiday but in 2020 we're setting out the ice cream topping buffet and honoring the day with friends the way we should be--I covered it some earlier years on this blog--like here and here. 

Don't say I didn't give you an advanced warning this year ==go  grab a pint.

FO: Solbein sweater

When my friends at Berroco Yarns, who distribute Lopi yarn from Iceland, mentioned a Lopi Knit Along , I was all in. At the time we were shooting  Lopi samples  (psst! that link is to five free patterns) in New Hampshire. Not, sob! in Iceland.  My Stopover, knit in Lett Lopi a couple of years back,  is in such constant wear that my neighbors  are ready to do an intervention and I'd been eyeing the Solbein Cardigan by Mary Jane Mucklestone.

Amy Christoffers, (aka Savory Knitting and the Creative Director at Berroco)  and I played Sweater Switch last month--she's in my Solbein and I am in her utterly fabulous modified Birkin. That's an Instagram link where she explains it all.

I like that the Solbein yoke is traditional in proportion yet modern and abstract. I love how Mary Jane's pattern samples had two subtle colors and one higher contrast. Oh did I mention I also love a sweater knit on size 10US needles? That is the charm of both Solbein and Stopover knitting up quickly.  LettLopi- which is technically light worsted weight,  airy and fluffy--on larger needles creates a light warm fabric*. The halo from the yarn--which gets fluffier with wear and washing, filling in the stitches so is is not saggy or loose. 

Cautionary Tales of the Color Confusion Variety:  at the time I cast on, the pattern was only available in the hefty print magazine version. I took the yarn with me to cast on while traveling, and quickly copied the pattern into my phone via a scan in B&W. Ooops! Turns out the grayscale version of the colorwork chart translated into not being able to tell the difference between CC1 and No Stitch spaces.  So, strictly speaking, there may be some minor differences in my yoke and the pattern.

Along the same lines-- if you choose to go with subtle color difference for the colorwork, don't spend so much time knitting in low light!  The Oatmeal Heather of the body and the Frostbite  of the yoke background look exactly the same while you are watching TV in my house, or knitting in a car at dusk ...or on a plane.... or seemingly everywhere I knit ..

With partial crew at a recent chilly photo shoot. That's Amy Christoffers again, Emily O'Neil, artist/styist and my assistant, Yliana.  I wear this sweater ALL THE TIME!
You can see my color discerning problems didn't stop me much, it's a lovely knit.

 Modifications: 
•  I converted it to a pullover by omitting the center front steek stitches and adding a stitch so the ribbing etc would work out.
•  I added a few short rows  just behind the neck- you can see them in the top photo.  
•  I omitted the hem colorwork because my hip line needs not extra decor  ;-)
•  I added length to the body. I didn't start out with that plan but it is knit top down. As I got near the lower edge, I was thinking about how my Stopover is just exactly perfect in length for my life.   I measured my Solbein against it, above,  and knit to the same hem.  This meant I ran low on my main color. Since the sleeves are knit down I saw it coming . I added an extra repeat of colorwork motif at the cuffs, as there was more than enough of the contrast color yarns. You can see that in the top photo, as well.

If you feel like a Lopi knit might be fun but the whole Lopapeysa yoke thing isn't your jam, check out Saltwater Bay Cardigan by Amy Christoffers from Knitty. It is one of the pieces we were shooting when the whole Lopi KAL conversation started :-).

* if you wear your sweaters with nothing underneath them, then you may find Lopi a little woolier than you like next to your skin- I've worn mine over a sleeves tank and been just fine. They  get soft and fuzzy and are weightless-- still lovely and warm-after washing.