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Knitting or Crocheting? Ipponbari!

February 15, 2011 in A new experience!, Events, New designs/ classes, Textiles, Thoughts | 3 comments

Time travel back with me about 17 years ago.  I am teaching at a TKGA conference and I grab a few minutes to go down into the market.  I head for Yo’s Needlework Shop (sadly no longer in business) because she has those fabulous Japanese knitting books.  I can’t read Japanese but the pictures are so great who needs to?  Yo is very persuasive and talks me into a book that uses a new kind of needle, a crochet hook with a shoestring through it.  The book and needle are shipped to me.  I look at it for a moment, put it on the bookshelf, and forget about it.  I am too busy knitting.

Fast forward to VK Live in NYC this past January.  I have just come out of the market and am waiting for an up elevator.  A long time.  Fortunately.  Because there is a lovely young Japanese woman waiting for a down elevator. She is wearing a soft grey mohair dress of indescribable beauty.  It looks knitted, or crocheted, but not really.  In fact I can’t quite figure it out.  She tells me that it is a Japanese technique where you knit up and you knit down.  In other words, in opposite directions.  I am fascinated and my stupid elevator decides to arrive at that moment.  Can you believe I got on it?

Now I am haunted.  I write to a Japanese knitting friend of mine and ask her about it.  She asks about the young woman and asks if the dress she was wearing is grey mohair….

It turns out my friend Mari knows Izumi, the young woman I saw at the elevator, and gave me her web address.  I tried to email her from her blog, not sure if I was clicking on the right button (in Japanese) and she graciously emailed me back and even suggested some Japanese books on the subject:

Japan Amazon- basic books

Japan Amazon- more advanced book

Izumi said, “The stitches you saw on my mohair dress, is not on any of those books because that was created by my Ipponbari teacher pretty recently.  With this needle you can combine stitches of knitting, crochetting (Tunisian as well) and other unique stitches, so we are exploring more and more possiblity of new stitches right now. I’d love that someday Ipponbari books will be published in English though.”

Here is a photo of the fabric of the mohair dress.

Here is Izumi’s blog of her past projects. What a variety of knitting techniques: mitered squares, gloves, lace, you name it!  Here is a blog about it from Rhonda, an American, where this technique is called “Knooking”.  She has a 15 page PDF download on her Etsy shop that will get you started. There is even a Ravelry group devoted to Knooking.  Who knew?

I have started a little project, a cotton bag, from a pattern in some of the papers included with my book I received so long ago.  I will post more photos as I progress so you can check back!

Bag made by Ipponbari

You can see two shoe strings in the “knooked” fabric.  I am about to take out the light pink one, having just finished a round with the dark pink one.  I have worked garter stitch, columns of purls and knits, and cables.  It’s time for the beads.  Don’t look TOO closely, there are mistakes.  Now I am off to Stitches.  More later!

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The Wonderful Invisible (Provisional) Cast-On

January 8, 2011 in Knitting techniques, New designs/ classes, Yarns | 6 comments

I just put up a tutorial on You Tube on the Invisible Provisional Cast-on and it occurred to me that I could show the perfect application of this on my blog.  Too bad I had already sent the hat off to the publisher or I could have incorporated it into the video.

The purpose of a provisional cast-on is to knit in one direction on a piece, and then knit in the other direction.  Making a lined brim of a hat is the perfect example. I made this lining to increase the warmth around the ears and to hide the long floats on the brim.  (I chose to avoid weaving when I knit this hat but that issue is for another day…) I also made linings like these for the mitten cuffs in the set…see prior blog entry.

There are many types of provisional cast-ons.  I happen to like this one although at the cast-on edge, every other stitch is twisted and you have to re-orient them all to sit on the needle in the same way, so you don’t get twisted stitches.  In my case, that means I want the right side of the stitch to be in front of the needle.

In the case of my Sunnhordaland Hat, I cast-on in yellow and red, being the waste yarn, and knitted for a few inches, made a picot edge to turn the fabric, and joined colors to knit the patterning.  Once the patterning of the brim was done, I was ready to join the yellow facing to the brim.  (One could also sew the live stitches of the hem to the live stitches of the brim, but knitting them together is way cooler and more knitterly.)

Putting the stitches on the needle

Most of the stitches are now on needles

 

All the cast-on stitches are on the needles and ready to be knitted together with their corresponding brim stitches

One needle full of joined stitches

 

Here is the wrong side of the completed needle, above: very neat!

All done!

Very satisfying.  I have seen this method worked in designs in different books, but one thing never seems to be taken into account.  That is, the lining will get bunchy inside if it has the same number of stitches as the brim  The two fabrics won’t lay together nicely.  The lining should have a smaller circumference than the outside brim.  So I cast on 10% fewer stitches for my linings than I will need for the outside fabric, increasing that 10% later on.  That means that when knitting the two fabrics together, every so many stitches (around every 10th stitch), an outside stitch will be worked without an accompanying lining stitch.

Here’s a short clip of the Invisible Cast-On from my tutorial:

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Obsession

January 3, 2011 in Knitting techniques, New designs/ classes, Thoughts, Yarns | 12 comments

I finally got the go-ahead to show my hat and mittens I knitted for  Voyageur Press.  The title of this design anthology hasn’t been decided upon yet, but I can say my design will be “published in a book by Voyageur Press in Fall 2012″.  Despite the deadlines imposed on designers and knitters (I had to have it done by 12/1/2010), things seem to move at a glacial rate in the publishing industry.  I know that’s because there is so much behind-the-scenes work I am totally unaware of.  Anyway, here it is, my obsessive project at 54 stitches/ 4 inches (13.5 sts per inch).

Sunnhordaland Hat

Sunnhordaland Mittens

The inspiration of these is a sweater I saw in Suzanne Pagoldh’s book Nordic Knitting.  (Going for $90, but on that link I saw some used ones for $21!)  The sweater that used these motifs (on page 45) was knitted in red, black, white, and green.  The photo shows a garment that is kinda pink, because the red dye ran.  It is still a breathless garment, I think.  If I ever get to Bergen, I will look this sweater up!

In my version, both the hat brim and the mitten cuffs are lined with solid yellow knitting for warmth, stability, and to hide the floats.  I did not weave once in all the knitting, because I knew it would show and create distortion.  Each time I tried the mittens on, there was no problem with snagging.  The wool component of the yarn had already created cohesion.  I used a lace-weight yarn from Redfish Dyeworks that is 50% silk, 50% merino in four colors on #000 dpns and a #000 HiyaHiya circular needle from Lacis.

There were a few rounds in the cuff where there are four colors in a round, and sometimes in the main pattern, there are three colors in the round.  I sure wish my photos could better capture the pieces.  I think the hat and mittens look much more dynamic in real life.  My poor lighting flattens them out, but you get the idea…

I knitted two mittens before I got it right.  The whole process of designing and knitting spanned from August to December 8 when I packed it all off in the mail.  I listened to more than four books on tape just to knit the hat alone.  It was truly a marathon.  I am glad the race is done.  And I won’t see them again until Fall 2012.  Sigh.

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DVDs, Ganseys, and Mittens!

April 17, 2010 in A new experience!, New designs/ classes, Thoughts, Workshops | 2 comments

I am preparing for next month’s filming of my DVD on Ganseys.  In addition to writing the script and keeping my hands looking reasonably nice (going through tons of hand cream!), I am knitting up the samples for the shoot.  This entails knitting about nine versions of the gansey sampler from my book, at various stages of completion.  I did this long ago before the photography session for my book and then tossed all those samples, as I figured I’d never need them again!  Oh well.

The garter stitch welt

Plain Area, Definition Ridge

The Body is done

Those of you who have taken my gansey workshops can attest to the fact that there are MORE ENDS in this little sweater than any other knitted thing.  So you can imagine that much of my time is being spent sewing all those ends in so everything looks nice and neat.  Almost done…

I am also working on a pair of color twined-knitted mittens for Dye Dreams.  They have a mitten club and a sock club.  I got to choose which yarn I wanted to work with and Mona and Stephanie dyed it in yummy colors to my preferences!  The yarn I am using is so soft and alluring that it’s such a pleasure to knit with.  The motif I chose for the mittens is a Swedish motif seen on sweaters in the 19th century.  I have seen it called a “Carnation” but it looks like a Morning Glory to me!

Morning Glory mittens

Note the ball of yarn–the two colors are wound in a ball, first one color then the other, so that I can work with one ball as is the tradition in twined knitting.  I have been having a lot of hand pain and thought it would take me quite awhile to get through them, but in two days I had one mitten done!

Earlier this week, my dear friend Marilyn King of Black Water Abbey Yarns came to visit me and we had a grand time, eating and knitting and talking about knitting and planning knitting stuff…  She was working on a new pattern of a hat and scarf that is SO CUTE (and manly, too)!

Friday she drove off to the Cape to teach a workshop while I hopped a plane to Minneapolis to teach at Yarnover.  Such a fun event!  There were almost 400 students there this year and LOTS of teachers and vendors.

Tomorrow I will teach at the Yarnery in St. Paul.  Then I fly home to do laundry and repack for Stitches South.  It’s a crazy schedule but I am not bored that’s for sure!

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Looking Back On 2009-Part 1

December 14, 2009 in Events, New designs/ classes, Thoughts, Vermont Life, Workshops | No comments

Last time I wrote here, it was actually April!  I think it’s really true that as you get older, time starts flying by faster and faster.  Or maybe I was just REALLY busy this year.  I was so surprised to see that this is only the third post of the year!  Geez!  Well, I’ll bring you all up to date on a year that surpassed MY expectations.

June

To finish up about Squam, that fabulous fiber event in New Hampshire, it was wonderful.  I wanted to share some of my photos.  I can’t tell you how great it was sitting on the porch every night on the lake listening to the loons make their lovely, mournful calls.

Then, up in the morning to walk through the woods to my class room and enthusiastic students! The food was even good! I mean it!  Here is one of my classes in front of the cute building where we worked.

One evening there was a bonfire, a singer, and….

Jess from Ravelry!

The best news yet is that I am going back this coming year (June 2-6) teaching two new workshops:

Latvian Fingerless Mitts:

 

Learn the scalloped edge, Herringbone Braid, and knitting with two, three, and four yarns in a round!

Twined Knitted Fingerless Mitts:

Learn a Twined Knitting Cast-on in two colors, all the basic stitches, reading the charts,  plus a cool (“Crooked”) thumb gusset.

You can go to the Squam website to register for classes.  Full information and details for the 2010 sessions will be posted there on January 4th.  I hope to see some of you in class!

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July

The bad news is that in July, I had to move.  My landlord wanted to move home, and who could blame her for wanting to be back in her charming cabin on the side of a mountain?  But I cried for two months, especially when I had to sell my beloved wood cookstove–no room at the new place for it.

Still, I am blessed that I found a cute little apartment in town with very little maintenance and a whole lot easier to heat.  I am warm this winter!!!  YAY!

Stay tuned for Part 2.

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October

October 20, 2008 in Knitting techniques, New designs/ classes, Thoughts, Vermont Life | 5 comments

Ah, the tinkling sound of a jar of applesauce sealing! I love that sound. Anyone who has never canned can’t appreciate the glow of satisfaction with every “tink” as the cooling jars suck their lids into place. It makes up for all the picking, washing, peeling, cooking, stirring, scalding and filling of jars. Once I am at the water bath stage, though, I enjoy the moist heat rising from my stove which warms up the house on crisp Autumn days. My kids helped out with the peeling this time, so as a reward, I held out some of the apples and made an Apple Cake. I got promises of future help as they heaped their plates. What a deal!

October has indeed been a busy time, as I am getting back into freezing and canning food and baking bread regularly. The neighbors just got chickens and I had to visit to see those lovely happy free-roaming hens, crooning and pecking in the yard. Life in Vermont! It’s the best! The trees have been spectacular this year, probably because of all the rain we had this summer, but the peak is over, at least on my hill. The next best thing is walking down the dirt road swishing the leaves with your feet. Another wonderful sound of the season.  Since I was a little girl, I could swear the sky is a different, richer kind of blue in October, and I still think so!

On the Knitting Front, I have been focusing on my Latvian Mitten workshop, reworking the sampler to include motifs which have three colors in one round. Most knitters gasp in dismay and avoid such an ordeal. But the more I work with three colors, especially in smaller sized motifs, the more I enjoy it. The key is being comfortable working with a yarn in each hand, plus being comfortable working two yarns in either the left or the right hand. Once you have those skills, three or four yarns in a round don’t seem quite as intimidating. Here is my new sampler for my Latvian Mitten class:

I made a discovery when I was working the thumb. It is tricky to get good tension of the two (or more) colors on the thumb. At first I was stranding the yarns, and I found the base of the thumb restrictive. Then I lapsed into twined knitting, which makes 3 color knitting even easier, and the thumb loosened up, and actually is warmer now because of the twining. You can even see how the thumb expands at the point where I switched methods. I plan to work all my thumbs in twined knitting from now on.

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Another pattern done! Another on its way.

August 18, 2008 in Knitting techniques, New designs/ classes, Thoughts | 4 comments

Now don’t faint– I know I just blogged last week and this has never happened before–two blogs in two weeks. But when the mood strikes I gotta go with it!

I am so happy with how my newest design turned out. This is the Classic Gansey Cardigan worked in heavy worsted/ Aran weight yarn. This particular garment was knitted in Blackwater Abbey yarn by Debbie Stephens-Sutton of Denver and my neighbor Adrienne modeled it for me. And of course my dear friend Karen Frisa tech edited it, as she does most of my patterns. (Many thanks to all of you!) The pattern is already up on Patternfish as a PDF and is available in hard copy from Blackwater Abbey Yarns. Shortly it will also be available from Knitters Treat too. Ruth carries all of my patterns too, if you prefer having the hard copy booklet.

Here’s Adrienne next to this awesome stone wall in her yard….

And here is a detail shot

In addition to finishing that, I am still tweaking the Aran Winter Set that I posted about oh, so long ago. I am still not sure if I will include the hat, but I am trying to make it work. This is one of those long-term projects–ripping more than knitting. Finally I got tired of ripping, got the cable I wanted partway through the brim, and decided to cut instead of starting over. I picked up half a stitch all along the row with my stitch holder to stabilize the knitting.

Here is where I started to cut. I only clipped one piece of yarn and gently pulled that row out, stitch by stitch, putting the stitches on my double pointed needle. Note that the cable above is tighter and more compact, being cabled every 10 rows. The cable below, which I had started with, was cabled every 14 rows–too lazy and long for me! The Stockinette stitch area will be a facing that gives weight to the cabled brim. And maybe you can see where I slipped a stitch near the upper cable for awhile, hoping that would help in turning the facing. I decided it didn’t help, actually looking sloppy, and later dropped the stitch down and picked it back up utilizing every row of yarn, instead of the “every other row” that a slipped stitch gets. Mmm…better.

Taa-daa! Now I have live stitches to work the Three Needle Bind-off with the other end, making the circular brim. The rest of the hat will be picked up around the edge of the brim, hopefully sooner rather than later…

Designing for me is hard work. I try a bunch of different things, most of which don’t work. I do A LOT of swatching. I envy the designers that can whip out 5 or 6 designs per month. I spend a minimum of 2 months, and usually way more than that, on one project. I am very slow–but it’s not a race. I have learned that no piece of knitting is a total disaster–it can always be salvaged in some way. Knowing how to cut my knitting freed me up in many ways. And, having some experience in sewing as a teenager has given me some idea as to how garments are put together. Later!

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TNNA—Well that was fun!

July 13, 2008 in Events, Knitting techniques, New designs/ classes, Thoughts, Vermont Life, Workshops | 6 comments

On June 5th I flew into Columbus, Ohio to attend The National Needlearts Association trade show. I hadn’t displayed in a booth since 2002 so I was feeling a little rusty. Since this is strictly a wholesale show, I was there to open new accounts for my knitting patterns. Fortunately, my friend Marilyn King offered to come along from the Denver area to help out. She efficiently got me organized (you’d think I’d never done this before as disorganized as I was!) and we quickly got our display up so we could go out for dinner and relax.

My booth: Left, center, and right

The next night we went to dinner at a nice German restaurant in Columbus with friends and colleagues:

JoLene Treace and Marilyn King, both designers and friends!

Denise, Arnhild Hillesland, and Linda from Ames, Iowa. I taught on a trip hosted by Arnhild to Sweden and Norway several years ago. Too much fun! She carries my favorite Norwegian yarn: Rauma (Strikkegarn and Finullgarn to be specific).

Well, schmoozing is definitely an integral part of TNNA and I did my best! My four new patterns were well received and I am working hard to get them into booklet form to print and distribute by September 1.

I met Julia Grunau, the creative mind behind Patternfish—a new website just for downloading patterns. It is a month old now and already there are over 950 patterns there. I am thrilled that Julia asked me to participate, so I am also working on pattern layout for that venue. It’s a lovely site and very navigable. Check it out!

After TNNA I taught for 3 days at Knitters Connection, also in Columbus, OH. This was the event’s second year and it was wonderful! I met the Ravelry gang and Clara Parkes (and bought her new book, doncha know: The Knitters Book of Yarn).

At the obligatory Knitters Connection teachers’ meeting, Cat Bordhi was so excited to show us all a new technique she worked out for making ssk look nicer. You know how one side of your sock gusset can look zig-zaggy? Well now, with her method, the ssk line is as straight and clean looking as the K2tog side. This photo, below, shows the difference on a sock heel gusset. I can’t wait for her to put up a new video on YouTube to demonstrate it! How lucky we in the knitting community are, for teachers like her who want to share knowledge rather than keep it proprietary.

My sock heel gusset, with normal ssk (inconsistent size and tension of decreases) below and Cat’s neat and tidy ssk above. Is that awesome or what? OK… so it’s subtle in this photo, but I am very psyched about this!

I am looking forward to the remaining workshops I have planned this year. You can always check out my schedule on this blog—I update it monthly, believe it or not! I’ll be in Colorado and Stitches Midwest and Stitches East*, three knitting events in Vermont (YAY!), Pennsylvania, Virginia, Santa Fe, Michigan, Montreal, Chicago, northern California, and Ohio will finish up my year. What a great year it has been so far!

* I am offering the Danish Skrå-trøje again at Stitches East this November and want to share photos I received from Dianna Smith who took the class 2 years ago. After completing the little sweater in class, she designed her own full-sized Skrå-trøje. What a fabulous job she did!

I am feeling more and more like a Vermonter, which is a good thing. It just gets harder and harder to leave to travel.

Mmmm…. future currant jelly! Enjoy your summer, everyone!

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What a winter it was!

March 25, 2008 in Events, New designs/ classes, Thoughts, Vermont Life, Workshops | 8 comments

What a fabulous winter it has been. I TOTALLY loved every bit of snow that came down and I didn’t get stuck once! Having said that, it is now Mud Season here in Vermont and I am keeping my fingers crossed for safe passage across my 5 miles of dirt road. I must have hunkered down for the season because all of a sudden it is spring, even though the photos below don’t look like it!

snowflags.gif

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I am finishing up a new pattern Aran Winter Set–my timing isn’t so hot, but these mittens and scarf are. It was so fun to work the medallion motif! You won’t fall asleep from boredom while knitting these. I worked them in Classic Elite’s alpaca. Yummy! I hope to get the final pattern edit done in the next month.

aranset.gif

Meanwhile, I have been playing around with a different type of Sanquhar Glove. This motif is called Small Shepherd’s Plaid. It has been so fun to knit, but is now presenting me with a real challenge. I want to continue the motif into the fingers without interruption, but the stitch count/ motif counts aren’t cooperating. So far so good on the thumb and first finger, but from there I have to think on it awhile…

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2008 Events
In rearranging my schedule, I was able to open up some more dates for workshops. They are:

May 10-11 The Norwegian Fana Cardigan in Forest Hill, MD. I will be hosting a workshop in Forest Hill, Maryland on May 10 and 11 (Saturday and Sunday) at my mother’s B&B “Be My Guest” (http://www.geocities.com/bemyguestbandb/). If you love a Victorian atmosphere and some great cooking (my Mom’s the best) while taking a knitting class, give me a call to schedule your reservation. 802-387-3025. The class will cost $150 for the two days, which includes lunch. If you would like to stay at the B&B, you can contact Edith Brown for room rates, which include breakfast (410-838-8943). And info can be provided for local restaurants for dinner.

I will be teaching the Norwegian Fana Cardigan over two days, limiting enrollment to a small group. If you have never sewn a steek or cut your knitting, this is the class for you! I love to teach this class–there are so many interesting techniques those clever Norwegians have come up with to create this gorgeous garment. Here’s the class description:

fana-1.gif

The Norwegian Fana Cardigan, 12 hours
Level: Intermediate to advanced (Experience with double pointed needles is helpful.) — The classic details and traditional construction of the Norwegian Fana Cardigan sweaters will be taught in this two-day workshop through the knitting of a small sweater. Techniques to be learned include circularly knitted body and sleeves, square and drop shoulder armholes, cut-and-sew armholes and front, cleverly knitted self -facings, buttonbands, and 2-color star, band, and checkerboard patterns. Designing one’s own Fana cardigan will be discussed.

July 12-13 OPEN

July 19-20, 2008 Summerlude-a Vermont weekend. Hosted by Margaret Klein Wilson of Mostly Merino yarns for an intimate group (around 10 people). I will be teaching Swedish Cast-Ons, the Norwegian Purl, and Latvian Mittens. Contact Margaret through www.mostlymerino.com.

August 2-3 Tentative workshop
August 10-16, 2008 Annual Vermont Retreat–this year in two parts! Hosted by Margaret Klein Wilson of Mostly Merino. There may still be a few spaces left! (Is this really the FIFTH year? WOW!!) I will be teaching Sanquhar Gloves (one part), Norwegian Purl, Twined Mittens, and Swedish Cast-Ons (the other part). Mix and match! Contact Margaret through www.mostlymerino.com.

September 13-14 OPEN

November 10-17 I will be teaching (my fifth time here too) at the Olema Inn in Olema, CA, north of San Francisco. This elegant Inn offers exquisite local, organic cuisine. Hey, it’s good enough for Bonnie Prince Charles, it’s good enough for the rest of us! (See the Olema website for The Royal Visit that was. For my workshop info, check back in another couple weeks–they don’t have all the updated info there yet for this coming November.) I will be teaching Sanquhar gloves on the 12th and 13th and Norwegian Mittens on Nov. 15. Seamless Arans will be offered on Nov. 16. You can pick and choose which classes you’d like or take the Full Monty!

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2009 Events

March 13-15: I am honored to be invited to teach at the Nordic Knitting Conference in Seattle. Stay tuned for classes to be determined!

August 22- September 3, 2009: Plan now for a Baltic cruise with me and Nancy Bush on the Holland America line. We will visit St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, the Oslofjord, Tallin, and Helsinki, to name a few cities, plus three days at sea filled with knitting classes! You can check out Craft Cruises for more information as it develops.

Whew! I think that’s it for now. Oh there’s a backlog of things form the fall I meant to get up on the blog. I’ll try to get to them later! Have a wonderful spring everyone!

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Another Pattern

June 27, 2007 in New designs/ classes, Thoughts | 3 comments

I have been busy this week–I have finished another pattern that’s been lurking around the house. This pattern was in Interweave Knits in 2004 (Fall or Winter) and finally I will have it available very soon. Those mittens were so fun to design and knit!

cover.jpg

AND, I sent a chapter off yesterday to my dear editor, Deb Robson! I am feeling accomplished. : ) I am trying to keep up the momentum. I hope you also are having a productive week.

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