New Designs: Charlotte St. Mitts and Cowl

All anyone can talk about around here is the weather. I include myself in that ‘anyone’, because man, Mother Nature got us good this weekend. We had a couple of sunny days of +10C, just in time for Easter, and we all thought, “ahhh, how nice, spring might actually be on its way now.” We started thinking, “hey, maybe the down coats don’t need to come out of the closet any more, we can go dig up the light jackets now. Maybe the cold times will be done now.” Hah. This week around Southern Ontario we are back down to freezing or just below, and for the last couple of days the weather has been rotating back and forth between sunshine and snow squalls. Even the sky can’t seem to make up its mind.

I figure the best way to deal with this (as with so many other things), is just to keep knitting, and I’ve got 2 more accessory patterns to add to my Urban Collection Vol 2. They pair nicely with the Jackson Creek cardigan I released last week, or with any outfit really, for just a little hit of coziness and warmth. Presenting the Charlotte St. Mitts and matching Cowl (currently available on Ravelry – individually and as part of the whole collection. Will also be available later in May on Patternfish once the collection is complete.)

Each pattern uses a single skein of Tanis Fiber Arts Purple Label cashmere sock (70% superwash wool/20% cashmere/10% nylon) or your preferred equivalent. They are shown here in the brick colourway, which I think I can pretty much count on using again, it is delicious.

The mitts are written for 2 sizes (6.5″ and 7.5″ circumference), use a nice little lace pattern down the back of the hand, and are meant for a slightly slouchy fit. The nicest feature for me, though, is the long ribbed cuff that folds over at the top of the mitt. It gives the mitt a nice comfortable finish while still being a bit fitted around the knuckles, and makes for such a cozy feel – without having to knit little mitt fingers. Full disclosure: I generally like the things I design, but it’s not all the time that I cast off a design and immediately wish I had more yarn to start it again. I want these in twelve colours. And I don’t know why I haven’t got twelve more colours of this yarn in my stash. I plan to rectify this soonest.

The accompanying cowl pattern is a nice quick little accessory, and features the same lace motif as the mitts. It’s written for one size, about 26 inches in circumference, but I suggest a few modified larger sizes that will still use only 1 skein of the TFA cashmere sock. Overall, I like this set for a friendly little hit of colour! The time commitment for either of these projects is fairly quick, just right if you need a colourful distraction from other projects on your needles (or just from the weather outside).

Enjoy, dear knitters! And whatever the weather where you are, I hope you’ve got some fun projects to work on! I’ll be back to report on other ongoing knitterly activities later this week.

New Design: Jackson Creek Cardigan

Dear knitters, it’s been about a month since I introduced you to the first Urban Collection, Volume 2 patterns, which means it’s about time to add more to the mix! I’ve got a new cardigan pattern to show off to you today (never fear, it will shortly be followed by some accessory-sized companions as well). Presenting the Jackson Creek cardigan! (Ravelry link – pattern is currently available on Ravelry only while the collection builds to completion, then all patterns and collection will be available on Patternfish as well, in May.)

The collection patterns are getting gradually lighter as we move towards spring, and nothing is quite as satisfying as a new spring cardi. 3/4 sleeves! Scoop neck! DK-weight yarn instead of worsted or chunky! All signs point to spring comfort. And I am told that spring will indeed arrive eventually around these parts, despite the grey clouds and lingering patches of snow that seem to persist around here.
No matter, for we have yarn and can knit our way into a new season!

This cardigan takes its name from a public trail in Peterborough, one of my favourite knitterly towns in Ontario. It’s the place to be when the weather gets warmer, and can take you from a park in the downtown right on out towards the marshes and rural routes. All in all a nice spring image to knit by, no?

I’m keeping the cabled love going and showing off some nice fluid, vertical, flattering vertical cable panels on the cardigan front, and keeping the rest simple with stockinette sleeves and back. It’s worked in pieces (always an ideal option when making sweaters with superwash wool) from the bottom up and then seamed together before working the button-band. Although I’ve used 3/4 sleeves here for a spring/transitional season style, this could easily be modified for full sleeves for an even warmer look.

The Jackson Creek cardigan is written for eight sizes, between 32 and 53 ins at bust circumference (when worn closed), and I recommend this for zero ease or slight negative ease, or to preferred comfort. It’s a comfortable but flattering option for your wardrobe, perhaps for workdays or cafe visits, or whenever you feel like a cardigan-and-jeans kind of day. (I have already road-tested mine as a cafe cardigan. It works.)

Thank you once again to Tanis for the beautiful yarn (shown here in Yellow Label DK in sand), to Austen for modelling (in unfortunately less-than-spring-like temperatures, even), and Maureen Hannon for technical editing.

Enjoy, dear knitters! And have a great weekend. You’ll be hearing from me again soon. Happy knitting!

Other kinds of work in progress

For the last year and a half or so I’ve been expanding my digital photography skills through courses at the local college, and it’s been a useful exercise to say the least. My photography has certainly improved and it’s been good to get out and be forced to practice new techniques in order to complete assignments. (Some days this is also a frustration. Often this frustration overlaps with days that also involve poor weather or fatigue, interestingly enough.) It’s also been a useful exercise in learning that is both very applicable to knitting (creative processes are always mutually beneficial no matter what they are, also I get to take better knitting photos than I used to), while still being potentially not related to knitting at all. Some times a knitter just needs something altogether different to infiltrate her time, even if it takes time away from the knitting.

This week I finished up a course on Urban Landscape/Documentary photography, and my chosen subject was Bay St. in downtown Toronto. The final project had 25 photos in total as a photo essay, and I thought I’d share a few of my favourites with you here.

What other creative pursuits compete for your time alongside knitting? I definitely hope it’s something fun. Until next time, knitter friends!

*

*

The cure for March

Last Friday some Toronto knitter friends took a day off and came and picked me up and we drove off in search of yarn and wineries. As you might imagine, it was a very long, hard day. (Note: it was not actually a very hard day.) It occurred to me that it was almost exactly a year ago that I did virtually the same thing with Elspeth when she visited here for a week – our trip included Niagara Falls instead of wineries, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I think everyone has just generally been suffering from “March.” We’re all tired of our winter coats, tired of cloudy chilly days (days that, were they to arrive in November we would totally think of as harsh and foreboding, but in March we are seriously considering how much we still need the winter coat because dear God don’t make me put that same coat on again), and overall wanting something different to snap out of it. So when a gal gets a message saying “hey, we’re going to look at wineries and yarn on Friday, you in?” well, there really is only one answer to that question.

We tasted some wine…

…had delicious lunch (and pie)…

…and tasted more wine.

(We were really very discerning about the wine).

Through sheer luck and awesomeness on the part of a local alpaca farm, we ended up getting to see a tiny little baby alpaca. (Admittedly, the mama was less interested in us).

And then to finish the day, we bought some yarn. (At Stitch, in Jordan Station, and also a visit to The Fibre Garden across the street).

And to top it all off, I got to finish my Chilly Podster mitts, which I haven’t managed to photograph for good yet because they’ve taken up swift residence in my handbag to be worn while it’s still winter.

I hope you’re having a good weekend, knitterly friends! Until next time.

I was told there would be spring

You know, I really thought I was okay with the fact that winter seems to not want to leave us yet. Last year winter was so mild, after all, and isn’t the Canadian cultural consciousness shaped by our shared experience of a long cold winter? And by knitter standards, isn’t it sort of a good thing to have a long winter, since we get to wear our handknits for that much more of the year?

Then it occurred to me that for the last week or two I’ve had to just about physically restrain myself from starting three new projects (despite having no shortage of things to work on), or haunting the WEBS website for wool I’d like to knit more sweaters with (despite the fact that any sweaters I would start now would not likely be done in time to wear in the current season – or the fact that I also have no shortage of sweater quantities of yarn in my stash). I realized then that maybe, just maybe, this is what spring fever looks like when you’re a knitter. It’s right up there with spring cleaning or longingly reading swimsuit catalogues and buying tickets to sunny climes – that clawing need for something different, whether it’s the immediate surroundings or the knitting project in hand.

Rather than give in to those longings, I decided to put on my resolve face and head back to my current projects with new determination. The most satisfying route to new projects is through finishing old ones, and finish something I shall. I started these podster mitts back in February and dangit, at least one advantage of the apparently never-ending winter is that if I finish them this week, I really do stand a chance of getting to wear them this season. (Plus, I lost one of my current gloves when I was in DC back in February, and the ones I’ve been using since then just don’t feel quite as awesome as my well-loved ones. New gloves it is.)

I did at least manage to get a second mitt started, and both are at the same point of needing the thumb and the flip-over mitten top. At this stage of the game, with all the ends from each finger and all the waste yarn holding the thumb stitches and the marked-out mitten top stitches, each sort of looks like a tangled mess.

But I want to finish something, and I want these mitts, so I shall persevere. I am resolved!

What are you most looking forward to finishing right now? Is it something you’ll be able to wear soon? I hope so! Until next time, knitter friends.

Pattern: Chilly Podster mittens
Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca, in beetroot

*

*

The truths no one sees

I’ve been having the sort of week (well, 10 days, really), where I’ve got several different projects on the go and have been trying to make steady progress on them all at the same time. What that usually means, of course, is that you do make progress but in small and gradually incremental amounts, and it’s hard to see it when it’s scattered across so many projects.

But progress is being made, and on Monday I moved on to the first sleeve of the Uji cardigan, having finished the back the week before. By this point I honestly meant to be well into the second sleeve already. It was the knitting I was baiting myself with to make progress on some of the other knitting and, well, it just didn’t quite make it in there for most of the week.

I did do something else with it though, which was to go back to fix a niggling mistake so that it wouldn’t be waiting for me at the very final end of the sweater finishing. See that little orange thingie just above the ribbing, at the side?

That, my friends, is a dropped stitch.

Back when I cast on for the ribbing, I had the right number of stitches, then after I did the increase row before beginning the cabled pattern, I also had the right number of stitches. Then at some point when I got almost to the very end of a row while doing the pattern, I was missing a stitch. All of the cabled pattern section looked fine (minimal though it was at that point), nothing seemed amiss, so I just increased another stitch and went on my way. A few inches later I did notice it – a cheerful little dropped stitch, sitting there with its loop greeting me right there on the right side of the work.

I could have done a couple of things at that point – including some things much more proper than what I did do. I could have ripped back the 3-4 inches of work that I’d accumulated at that point, and re-knitted with the rescued dropped stitch. I could have used a crochet hook to scoop down through 3-4 inches worth of rows (many including cables) to bring the dropped stitch back up to the row I was working on, then worked a decrease to bring me back to the right number for my row.

I did none of these things. I stuck a closeable stitch marker in it and kept knitting.

So then it got to this week and I decided to deal with it in the manner I knew I was going to deal with it. First I massaged it around so that the stitch was now sticking out towards the wrong side of the work.

Then I got out a bit of yarn and my tapestry needle…

…ran the yarn through the dropped stitch, and through some loops on the wrong side of the work…

…and tied that sucker down. (My knots were pretty firm, too.)

Now, if I wanted to save a bit of propriety here, I would have woven in those long ends from the safety yarn back through the wrong side of the work, and then trimmed them afterwards. Did I do that?

No, I did not.

I snipped the long ends so that two little short ones of about an inch long are now happily sitting there sticking out from the makeshift knot, and I couldn’t care in the slightest that it’s a bit messy. This little knot will be sitting almost directly next to a side seam in the cardigan, where no one will ever notice it anyway. At least, if they haven’t read my blog. But just between you and me, knitter friends, that’s what I did, and I’ll sleep well tonight.

And that is the true story of how I didn’t let a dropped stitch ruin my life. The end.

Have a fabulous weekend, and knit something awesome – it’ll still be awesome even if you drop a stitch. Until next time!

Pattern: Uji, by Ann-Marie Jackson
Yarn: Knit Picks Cadena, in cranberry

*

*

*

*

Volume 2, Part 1

Last winter (yea verily, just slightly more than a year ago now), I launched the first patterns in my Urban Collection set (on Ravelry, on Patternfish), and lo and behold, I’ve decided to come back for another round. This week I’m kicking off the Urban Collection, Volume 2, with two patterns just right for the final months of winter. All patterns are once again featuring beautiful yarns from Tanis Fiber Arts, and are intended as a versatile collection of pieces for the contemporary knitter. All of the patterns will be available for sale individually at any time, but if you’d like to take the plunge and pre-order the entire collection for $5 less than the final collection price, you can do so now on Ravelry any time between now and April 15th. You’ll then receive all the new patterns as they are released, automatically. Updates to the collection will happen about a month apart, so the next patterns will arrive towards the end of March. (The collection will be available in full and individually once it is complete, some time in May.)

This time around the collection will include 3 sweaters and 4 accessory patterns, with an emphasis on pairing sweaters with lacy accessories (scarves/shawls and cowls). I’ll be starting with the warmest yarns in February and then as we get closer to spring will start to bring in the DK and fingering weight yarns, for variety and versatility. The first two pieces both feature worsted weight yarns, for relatively quick knitting as compared to lighter yarns, and also for comfort and coziness.

First up is the Northside Pullover, in TFA Green Label Aran. This year I’ve been wanting to try out more darker shades for the dressy visual effect they have, and so I wanted this pullover to be something that would work equally well with both pale and darker colours. It’s shown here in Olive, which is not a colour of Tanis’ that I’ve worked with before, but I think it’s safe to say I’ll be doing so again!

This pullover uses a combination of cables and garter rib for a nice vertical pattern that’s a little rustic but also classic, and I’ve no doubt it would work well with tonal semi-solids as well as solid colours or heathers. The same garter rib combination is shown on the long cuffs to complete the effect, against a field of stockinette on the sleeves and at the side. The sweater has long sleeves and is full-length to the hips, is worked from the bottom up in pieces (seams are helpful when using superwash wools – they like some additional structure!), and then sewn before working the collar to finish. I’ve come to enjoy pullovers because they are so warm so instantly, and the finishing takes up much less time than cardigans. (Rest assured, though, a cardigan will make its appearance in the rest of the collection). This uses a stockinette gauge of 20 sts/4 ins on 4.0mm needles, or your preferred needle size to obtain gauge.

As a warm layer accompaniment to the pullover, I offer the Duke Street Shawl (Ravelry link), a quick and warm triangular shawl. It might be worn around the house as an extra layer (such as I often find myself doing in the afternoons when I’m at home), or more snugly around your neck when you leave the house. It features Orange Label worsted, which is a luxury blend including some silk and cashmere, and I would happily knit with it any day of the week – but other wool-based worsteds would work just fine in its place.

This is a top-down triangle with a lace pattern around the edge, measuring about 50″ across at pattern gauge, for a slightly loose and drapey fit. Whether draped around the shoulders or bundled around your neck, it’s warm and fairly quick to knit, which is exactly the kind of thing I like for this time of year! I also really like being able to bring some lace knitting in to the cooler parts of the year, rather than just leaving it for the summer.

In another month’s time I’ll update the collection with the next couple of patterns, and in the mean time these ones are good for keeping cozy with. Many thanks to Tanis for the yarn support on this collection, and for these patterns I am grateful to Kate for technical editing support and Austen for modelling. Thank you all, ladies!

I hope you’re all having a good Wednesday – catch you next time with more knitting adventures.

*

*