Christmas Knitting!!!!!!

Around this time of year, I get an itch to start knitting gifts for my family for Christmas.  Last year I resisted this impulse until the last moment and only succumbed to do a hat for my son-in-law.  This year, I have not resisted and am now busily planning projects that will probably either make me stay up all night knitting or knit well into the new year.  But hey!  It's Christmas!  And I have grandchildren to show my love to.  Never mind that they'd rather have a gift card for the mall.  I might give them a bit of both hahahaha.  Gotta spoil them as much as I can!

My daughter never misses an opportunity to give me ideas about what she'd like.  Facebook apparently has all kinds of influence to reach non-knitting folks with knitting ideas.  First there was this Poncho type thing called Azel pullover

My question was, for herself or for her 6 year old daughter?  The answer?  Meeeeeee!  LOL

OK.  Fine.  I got some wool/acrylic yarn (shudder) from Knit Picks in a dark grey which she picked out and made it.  I'm waiting for buttons from the UK to arrive.  I think I'll do one for her daughter as well, but this time, I'M picking the yarn and will get something natural and cozy and not slick and nasty.  I am surprised that Knit Picks yarn is not so nice.  Usually I like their stuff.  But I don't like the feel of acrylic.  However, it is more washable.  (sigh)

Then she sends me another Facebook post.  Really?  And this time it's my nemisis, STRANDED colorwork.  (Danger music)   I have done one stranded project, or rather, I have started one colorwork project, a pair of socks that were so cute I just had to try them.  They are still in time out from two years ago.

My tension is HORRIBLE with stranded knitting.  If I pull snug like I should for socks, then there is no give in the fabric, so no way to get the things on your foot.  If I loosen up my tension, then the things get HUGE.  I've never seen a pair of socks so big.  How does one deal with that?  I just gave up...

So now I'm thinking of doing a pair of fingerless arm warmers for my oldest granddaughter.  I even have the yarn dyed up and ready to go.  But I am worried about doing this kind of knitting on the bus to work.  So we will have to see.  They are cute and it would be fun and funky knitting.  I guess I will have another go at it.  I'll post pictures as I get going.  I have to decide the color sequence or maybe just wing it.  We'll see.

Wish me luck!

25% off Sale on my Etsy shop

I am having a 25% off sale for everything in my shop, with a minimum purchase of $20 through 11/30

Use coupon code FALL2016

New things are of course, hand dyed yarns and patterns.  My latest pattern is actually a quilt pattern.  If you like my Tree of Plenty quilt, you can use the pattern to make one of your own.  Complete instructions in how to design, assemble and quilt your own Tree of Plenty.  Includes a color chart and details of everything you need to make it.   I will be doing more quilt patterns in the future, but now I'm working on a sweater pattern and completely obsessed with it.

I finished a new cowl pattern and have it posted on my etsy shop and in my Ravelry shop.  It's knitted in an Estonian Starflower lace pattern and 85% angora rabbit fingering weight yarn.  I love working with the IAGARB Blizzard yarn because it is so light and soft and warm.  I've done quite a few of my designs in this yarn and it always inspires me.

My mom sent me an inspirational picture of a store bought cowl and this is what I came up with.  I hope she likes it.  It is written for an intermediate knitter or an adventuresome beginner and is a pretty fast knit because I used a larger needle which makes the pattern more lacy and allows the gorgeous angora yarn room to bloom.  

My new pattern on Etsy

Dyeing a little

I did some low immersion dyeing last weekend and it was fabulous!  So pretty!  I had a great time and dyed 12 skeins of sparkle yarn.  It is very soft and lovely and I put the results up on my shop.

This one is my favorite of the 6 colorways so far.  Called Arizona Sunset.  I used acid dyes and low immersion dyeing.  I will do it again soon!  It was awesome.  Check it out at www.FiberaddictDesigns.etsy.com 

Rainbow Gamayun Bird Shawl

I have started knitting more shawls to get a feel for the type of patterns there are out there and how they are written/laid out/etc.  I enjoyed knitting this shawl because I enjoyed the combination of the pattern and the yarn.  I used the yarn that the author used because I loved the rainbow around the edge of the shawl.  it turned out nicely and I realized that I needed more blocking squares if I'm going to block more shawls.

I also just love all things rainbow!

A new obsession

So I have been obsessing over making my own stitch markers lately.  I use them a lot for lace and sometimes for sock knitting and love bright colors.  I saw some rainbow ones and HAD to have some.  So I found a supplier for colored jump rings.  I have a ton of beads of all kinds, so no problems there.  Then I spent the weekend gluing beads onto aluminum rings and sorting out rubber rings into pretty color combinations.  It was fun and I posted a number of them in my Fiberaddict Designs Etsy shop.  Here are a few pictures:

So pretty!  Now I can get back to my knitting!  Maybe.

All About LIfelines

I've learned a tough lesson recently about lifelines, specifically I mean life lines in your knitting.  I have been working on the LeStrange Cloak from the Unofficial Harry Potter knits book, using my own hand-spun dark brown llama lace weight yarn.  The body of the sweater is knitted bottom up with 4 repeats of a 42 row lace chart with lots of knit two and knit three togethers, single and double yarn overs.  It's beautiful lace, or it will be when I block it.   I was on the 1st repeat after the armhole separation, knitting all three sections at once, halfway through the 5th total repeat of that endless lace chart.

Then the unthinkable happened.  The cable on my 3.25mm fixed circular needle from KnitPicks pulled loose and came out and I didn't notice until I was through one side of the front and most of the back of the sweater.  Horrors!  I surveyed the damage and it was extensive.  I sent off a panicked note to KnitPicks who warrants their needles for life.  But getting another needle was the easy part.  I had a spare and although it had a slight imperfection that made it catch my stitches, I got it out and got to work.

Anyone who knits lace can tell you how hard it is to pick up stitches on a lace piece.  And I've done it many times before, but usually on socks or something smaller.  Problem 1:  the yarn is SO DARK.  It's hard to see.  Problem 2: It's only a two ply and very thin.  It also is fuzzy and tends to stick together a little bit.  ARGHHH!  Problem 3:  Oh the lace, all the stitches that twist and turn and are pulled into each other in a lovely lace design just go crazy when you release them from their bonds.  The yarn overs disappear, the knit togethers pull apart and then the piece opens up and loses it's shape.  Oh man...

I wish I had put in a life line....

Life lines in knitting are a fail safe measure, kind of like a safety belt when you drive.  If you have an accident, jump up suddenly, have a needle break or the cat decides to rearrange your knitting, the life line will get you up and going in less time than if you don't have one.  My interchangeable KnitPicks needles have a little hole to allow you to effortlessly string a life line while you are knitting, but I was using a fixed cable needle and I do admit I RARELY thread a life line even with the nice hole for it.  Or I never used to.  If there is no nice hole, you have to take a needle and some slick cotton thread, preferably a contrasting color, and thread it through each stitch on the needle.  Then you have to knit around it which is a bit of a pain unless it's fairly thin.  And don't put it through your stitch markers or you'll have bigger issues.  But it's worth it, oh yes.  And this is why:

I spent probably 8 hours, actual knitting hours, unknitting my piece, one stitch at a time until I found all the dropped stitches and backed out enough knitting that I was getting the consistent count on my lace repeats and then knitted it all back the way I had come.  I got back to my original place where the disaster occurred, 3 days later and then I ran a life line through it to save my place.  8 hours that I could have used toward knitting!  I could have been ready to knit the sleeves by now!

If you run a lifeline, you can just rip back taking minimal time to return to a state of having all stitches accounted for.  This saves at least half the time it takes to recover from a mistake.  Of course, the more lifelines you put in, the safer you are.  We'll see how many I use, but I am determined to turn over a new leaf and use lifelines in my knitting.  My knitting time is too precious to be used on ripping back, one stitch at a time.

I am now moving forward, hopefully wiser, again with lessons learned and I thought I'd share them with you all.  A picture of my knitting with it's lifeline inserted.  Happy Knitting!

Another Free Sock Pattern

I have been called a technical knitter by someone who is not at all.  A talented friend of mine says this about me and compared to her, I am a very technical knitter as she is very free-form and never rips out or redoes anything.   She just turns a mistake into a design element.

In some respects, she is right, I do like technical knitting and find it challenging.  I do have a tendency to rip out and re-knit until I get it right.  This can be hard on hand-spun yarn and also on the nerves.  Knitting is supposed to be relaxing, right???!!!  But I have taken this to a new level with my latest project.  I got a skein of hand dyed yarn on etsy from Wildethyme Art who had done a lovely rainbow yarn.  Here is the skein, on the left.

 My friend Cindy from work had gotten a skein and made Peds with it and I loved the way the colors arranged themselves on her footies.   Here is her version.

SO Coool!  She is a one at a time knitter and I am not, EVER.  I tend to have a weak spot for rainbow colored anything, especially yarn.  So I had to have it even though there was only 180 yards in it.   I bought some Koigu that matched it well enough to do toes and heels (above on left), and am keeping my fingers crossed.  So I started off making a pattern off Ravelry, can't remember the name of it now, but it was lace.  The picture is below.

  But the yarn didn't look right with it, or I didn't like it as well.  So I ripped it out and found a nice pattern that was just a simple knit and purl pattern called Hermione's Everyday Socks which looked kind of cool in the yarn and different than Cindy's.

But they seemed a little big around and I decided to make them a few stitches smaller.  So I ripped out yet again back down to the toes, and then some.  Then after I knitted the first row of rainbow yarn again I decided that I wanted to make my OWN pattern for socks, that I was tired of knitting other people's patterns all the time and I should make my own.  Plus I liked ribbed socks.  So I came up with a diagonal pattern that I thought might be cool.  Test knit?  Bah!  That's for sissies!  So I charted it up and off I went.

Well, it is looking OK so far.  However, the diagonal effect I wanted is totally eclipsed by the strong coloring of the yarn.  Doh!  But hey, it's OK, is ribbed and looks fine.  Just has a little surprise of lace in the purl valleys, and a left twist on the knit hills which sort of draws diagonal lines that you can't see.  I'll have to do it in a plain yarn to see what the effect is.  But I totally think I could write a pattern with it and will put it up on Ravelry when I get it done.  I'll offer it for free because my other free pattern was very popular and this is another not too tricky pattern and I like sharing.

Here is the new version so far.  At about the same place....

Better right?  Of course!  I am knitting from both ends of the ball of yarn and it makes them look a little different, but close enough for me.  When I get them on, the lace pattern might be more apparent, but then again, maybe not.  But it's been fun and I'm going to continue this version because I always have to have a sock pattern on the needles for travel knitting.  Plus it's easy to remember.  

I am on a mission to find a pattern that is fun to knit and also looks good in a strongly patterned yarn.  I get so bored with knit or plain ribbing.  I like a challenge!

New Sock Pattern Almost Ready

I'm designing a new pair of women's socks.  I love lace and cables, so I am using a pretty easy 4 row lace pattern that I added a cable to the rib.  I made one pair for a friend and am now making a pair for myself to validate the problem.  Here is Gloria in her new socks.

She loves them and I am sort of envious.  I might have to get another skein of Manos del Uruguay Alegria for myself.  I used a Sweet Tomato Heel designed by Cat Borhdi for this pair but will include a regular gusset and slip stitch heel with the pattern.  I made my first YouTube video for Judy Becker's Magic cast on that I use for all my socks.  I love her method and am grateful to Judy, Cat and all the other knitting pioneers that help me get better and more creative with my knitting and designing.  I will be offering this sock on Ravelry.   My sock pattern for my husband has 160 downloads which I thought was way cool.  He loves his socks.

Writing patterns is addictive and I will need to step away after this because it is so time consuming that I don't have time for regular knitting.  I have a sweater to finish and presents to knit for Christmas.  Not too soon to be thinking about presents.  I always start too late!

Free Men's Sock Pattern

I put up a new pattern today on Ravelry.  It's a free pattern for men's socks in a DK weight because my husband has very slender long feet and slender calves, and also needs very cushy socks.  So I designed this to fit his feet and slim calves.  Plus I wanted a pattern in a sport or DK yarn that would be a faster knit because his feet are so LONG!  Check it out for Free!  Download Now

My husband has long slender feet and slender ankles and calves.  He loves and wears the socks I make him and I finally decided I had to find a way to get the best fit for him.  He also needs cushy socks and so I determined I needed a DK weight or sport weight yarn pattern to get that extra cushiness and to make them go faster.  I didn’t find much out there in the way of patterns and as I have made many socks, I decided to design a pattern myself.

I am a fan of Cat Bordhi’s socks and have her wonderful e-book “Cat’s Sweet Tomato Heel Socks” which I highly recommend.  She has wonderful videos to compliment her e-book and I have made several of her patterns already.  I decided that I would use her sweet tomato heel for my husband’s socks.  But I am writing this pattern with a heel flap because I don’t want to step on her work or mislead anyone on how to do that wonderful adaptation.

I also use toe up construction almost exclusively now and knit two at a time magic loop.   Very Pink Knits has a nice tutorial about Magic Loop.   I find this the easiest way to get two socks the same and also get them done in a timely fashion.  You can of course knit them singly and from the top down but I recommend you try it my way.  I love having both socks be finished at once and look exactly the same.  I will give hints and links to videos with help and I am always available for questions. 

Feel free to try on the socks as you go to get the best fit.  I made my husband try them a lot before I decided how and where to put the increases and decreases.  If they don’t fit right, then they slip and aren’t as nice to wear.  I did put the ribbing in the instep but sometimes he gets confused about which one is right and which one is left so I might leave that out of the next pair.  

A Sweater Odyssey

I have this wonderful long black sweater that I bought somewhere and decided I\'d like to make one like it. I have not written a sweater pattern before but why not! It looked simple enough.

I had some brown lace yarn spun from a beautiful soft dark brown cloud llama and a big bag of the fiber so I decided to use that.

I knit the back flat out of stockinette with a new provisional cast on. Then I started on the sleeves. I decided to use a lace pattern as stockinette was too boring. I ripped the sleeves back 4 or 5 times to get the right size shape and pattern desired. Then I ran out of that ball of yarn around the elbows.

Next I ripped back the back piece to redo it in pattern. Hopefully I kept good notes on how I shaped it. More later as I knit an I\'ll add pictures.

Dragon's Paws Fingerless Gloves

I finally have a new pattern to share.  I call it Dragon's Paws because the stitch reminded me of a dragon.  I did the first pass in an alpaca sock yarn and they were soft and warm but a bit loose, so I took a stitch repeat off and did a second one in "scorched lime" sock yarn a bit smaller.  So the pattern has two sizes S/M and L, XL.  This pattern is ribbed so it is forgiving in it's fit and hugs the hand nicely.  I love ribbed designs for my fingerless gloves. 

The edges are picot at the wrist and at the top so the pattern includes a picot cast on and picot cast off.  I include links to YouTube for any techniques that I use.  That way even less experienced knitters might see how it's done.  I would consider this an intermediate pattern but if you like a challenge, even a beginner should have success.  You can always ask me for help and I will be glad to give you any hints you might need.

I am also working on a cable and lace version.  Then I must start designing new items.  But I do enjoy the fingerless gloves as they are fun and don't take too long to make.

Latest Doings, Fiber necklace

 This is a new item in my etsy shop.  It is core spun yarn that is spun around a cotton center with beads strung on it.  Then I twisted it up and added a clasp after wire wrapping the ends to hold it.  The fiber is periwinkle blue and the beads are brown with blue and tan. 

This is some felted soap that a friend made from roving I sold her .  She makes the soap and then uses roving to felt it.  So pretty and you don't need a washcloth.  If you want to buy some, go to her etsy shop Treefort Naturals and check it out!

New Scarf From Yarn

I ended up knitting up the yarn I posted last time as a thin scarf.  Picture above.  It turned out pretty nice.  I needed more color in the yarn though.  Not a bad example of what the combo yarn I learned to spin from Kathy does when knitted up.  Her's is still prettier as she has more practice and is so good at combining colors and things.  I'm learning though!  She is still such an inspiration to me and sounds like she is doing well out in Maryland.

I am crocheting again as I found some cute patterns for baby shoes.  They will be great for summer and can be seen on my Etsy Shop  or my Facebook page.

Spinning different yarn

I have been working on spinning some art yarns inspired by my friend Kathy Withers.  Sadly, she is moving to the east coast and I shall miss her a lot.  She is always an inspiration and co-conspirator for me in my fiber addiction as well as an enabler.  I am so happy for her good fortune but I will miss hanging out with her and creating stuff.  Here is my new yarn.  It seems dark to me, so I am knitting a scarf with it myself to test it's knit-ability.  We shall see how it turns out.  I should have added more color.  That's for the next one I guess.  I'm learning as I go.  And now that I have a new camera, I need to get my light box made.  One thing at a time.

Social networking

So I have joined the ranks of the hard core social networkers. I have a fan page on Facebook and am actively promoting it now. There are others on Facebook who will work for you to broaden your readership and as we all know, readership and exposure equates to sales. I am doing a lot of cool things to get people to come to my webpage and comment on my stuff. Now all I need to do is get more stuff out there for them to comment on and buy!

I would love to be a full time artist as some of my friends and family are. I doubt that will happen any time soon so for now, I will keep my day job. But as I learn about new ways to advertise, and new things to make and experience I will grow as an artist and a web personality. My wonderful daughter is teaching me a lot about this as she has a method and is really getting as much work as she can handle doing this type of thing. She then gets to stay home with my dear granddaughter which is wonderful for them both. I never had that opportunity but I am glad that she is enjoying her role as mother to the hilt. I did too, but while working. Both ways can work if you want them to.

In any case, I hope to bring my blog into the ring of my pages and start to network with my readers here. If you go to my fan page and like my page as well as comment on stuff I have up there, you can win a 25% gift certificate for my Etsy store. Not a bad prize. I will give away one certificate a week according to the fan page app that is running the show. If you want something that I have in a different color/size or whatever, just ask me and I will be happy to make it up for you.

I will also be working to make patterns for my quilts as I post them for sale on Etsy. And yes, you could get 25% off a quilt as well. Why not? I have to transition to more web based sales of my yarn too as my dear friend Kathy is leaving Tucson for greener pastures, literally. She's moving her flock to Maryland and we will sorely miss her here in the desert. Plus I'll have to go to the east coast now to be in shows with her. On a bright note, I'll finally get to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival which is the very biggest one of all. Too cool.

If you are interested in my daughter helping out your pages, send me a note and I can hook you up. She really rocks and although just starting out, is doing really well with her craft sales. She has a natural instict for what to offer to sell also which I don't have. I make what I like and she knows what people want. So I lean on her for some of my ideas, but mostly I design from my heart.

A new camera!

Finally, I got a new camera for Valentine's Day from my sweetheart! He tends to buy me jewelry but I told him that I really wanted a camera more than anything else. If you have been looking at my blog lately, you can see that my iPhone just does not take good pictures of knitting stuff. The pictures are dark, even in full sun! So now I have a beautiful new Canon. It's small and cute and perfect for my needs. I will put up new pictures soon and be happily knitting away, knowing I can take good pictures of all my new stuff.

More baby wear

I made this out of acrylic baby yarn. It's a seamless baby kimono from The Complete Fabrication blog. I keep thinking that somehow new mothers will want to have easy care and washable stuff. But I don't like working with the acrylic nearly as much as my own wool or even my ever favorite, sock yarn. Acrylic just doesn't feel nice to the touch like merino wool and angora. I suppose I'll have to get past the easy care dilemma as I am a spinner at heart and love to work with real luxury fibers. It does take more time though and will cost more for a finished item. But it is way more organic and everything I do is hand processed and pretty hypoallergenic. I am sensitive myself and am careful what I use to wash my wool with.

This is a pretty color though. It reminds me of cotton candy. It took a long time to knit the sweater, and it's such a tiny thing, only 19" at the chest. I was thinking baby clothes would take less time. Well, OK they do. But it seemed a long time, maybe just because it was acrylic???

Obsessed with booties

I have been knitting baby booties for weeks now. I seem to be looking for the perfect baby bootie. I want to use up some of my own yarn but ended up buying acrylic for some because I think that mom's want washable stuff. This may or may not be true. I did spin some blue mohair and merino and knit some cute socks that I think my granddaughter could wear. They turned out cute. I knitted them like regular socks toe up magic loop which is my favorite method to do two of anything. My pictures all seem dark though and I took them outside. Guess I need a new camera.

I have not decided whether to send these to my adorable granddaughter or put them on Etsy. But I have more yarn to try more socks with. Could be fun!

Bunny Hat

My daughter thought that a bunny hat would be cute. So I found a great pattern on Etsy and made my granddaughter one. It is adorable and was fun to knit. I also have a bear pattern and I even though this one is crochet, I could probably do one knitted. I'd like to try double knitting. Could be fun...