It's here!

First: I am teaching Ice Queen and the Delta Queen scarf at Knitterly in Petaluma this Saturday. There are still a couple of spots left, so if you are local, come on down!

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Well...I didn't get to go to Rhinebeck this year. :( But the FedEx man did bring a pretty cool package. :)

It came from Colorado.

Since FedEx has officially declared my little town "The Stix," priority overnight can mosey on over any time before 4:00 instead of the usual 10:30. So by afternoon, I was anxiously awaiting my package, and went running downstairs when I saw the truck from the window. I think the FedEx guy may have been a little taken aback.

I stared at for a long time. And then I went back to work. Somehow, I didn't want to open it.

I started to open it. I put it down.

But then the guys gathered around and the opening began in earnest.

It was wrapped in cool paper.

Taped neatly.

The advance copy of my book!

There was a lovely note inside.

I stared at it for a long time.

And then I opened it!

I thumbed through it and checked out a few of my photos that had been included (very exciting!).

It was surreal.

It seems so long since I worked on it: a very strange feeling!

The verdict? I love it!!!

A Day in Yarn Heaven

Here is Shelli, the Queen of Yarn Heaven owner of Knitterly.

See that giant smile? It's because she gets to pet yarn all day. There are serious endorphins involved.

This is Sandi. See how happy she looks? Same deal there. :)

There is fiber hanging in the windows. I think it makes terrific curtains, don't you?

And a bag display that, in my opinion, far surpasses the look of a chandelier.

My favorite little project bags. I always have a lace project in one of these.

I taught a class at Knitterly on Saturday, on the Ice Queen cowl and my new Delta Queen scarf, which is basically a scarf version of Ice Queen (and will available soon). We had a little bit over a full class at 11 people. I'm really loving teaching these days, which is odd (but good) because it used not to be my cup of tea. But really, all of my students who are reading this? Y'all are wonderful! (Can you tell I've been talking to my Southern cousins again?) :g:

Here we have a few of the students working on their projects at break. Others were petting yarn, of course. :)

Fae came all the way from Redwood City to take the class! See? She's smiling too. I'm telling you, there's just something fibery about the air in Knitterly. :)

I took a picture of Lynn taking a picture of Carol in her newly finished sweater. It looked great on her!

And there was fiber. It came home with me.

And the amazing fall issue of Vogue, chock full of wonderful cables. Yummy.

It was a wonderful day! And since there was a waiting list for the class, I'm going to be teaching it again soon. Thank you, everyone!

SOS (Save Our Stitches)

Look what my friend Ruth sent me!

It's one of her adorable little stitch savers. And she personalized it for me! How cute is that? :) Thank you, Ruth!

And just look at these lovelies. Habu bamboo laceweight (from Knitterly).

And another.

I transformed the red into a lovely scarf for my class at Knitterly on Ice Queen, in case someone didn't want to knit mohair at this time of year. I know, it's almost inconceivable that someone might not want to knit mohair! ;) Here's a sneak peek at the Delta Queen scarf.

I have a few tutorials on this one, though, so all you get right now is a sneak peek (unless you take my class - heehee). :)

I am in mad passionate love with the bamboo laceweight. It has the hand, sheen and drape of silk, but it doesn't fuzz up like silk. I cannot wait to knit the second hank. It's just waiting on a pattern worthy of it. Yummy yummy stuff!

ETA: Oh! I almost forgot! The silver yarn ball jewelry is finally back in stock! Woooo! You can get yours here.

Tutorial: Beaded Picot Cast on

The second part of my design process series.

After I decided on the one scallop in the middle of the scarf, I set about to find a good picot cast on that could be beaded. Since I am designing the scarf to be grafted in the middle, I didn't want to do a provisional cast on and picot bind off. (btw, the scarf will be grafted in the middle because the feather and fan lace stitch used in this scarf is not symmetrical.) I tried the cast on that I had seen some people use on Ravelry when knitting my Ice Queen cowl. I decided the picots were a little too close together:

so I ripped it out. And then I started again, casting on one more stitch between each picot. And here is my version of the beaded picot cast on!

With a knitted cast on, cast on 6 stitches.

An excellent video of the knitted cast on can be seen here.

Knit one stitch. You won't need to turn your work at all, btw, because you have been casting onto the left hand needle, off of which you will be knitting.

Place a bead on the second stitch and replace the stitch on the needle to knit. Alternatively, you can use this method to place beads with small holes.

Knit the second stitch.

Bind off one stitch.

Knit another stitch.

Bind off that stitch and then slip the stitch on your right hand needle back onto the left needle. Repeat!

It's just that simple! But as you can see, quite lovely. In the case of my scarf, I cast on 14 picots.

I have the safety pin marking the right side because this is a garter stitch scarf and I don't want to have any doubts in my mind which side is which!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Great class; terrible pictures

Yesterday, I had the honor of teaching a class at the lovely Nine Rubies Knitting in San Mateo. There is a definite zen quality to the store: very relaxing and calming, with beautiful displays of color and texture. Saloni, Sudha, Jocelyn and staff were wonderful, as were my students! I did a six hour workshop on techniques used in the Ice Queen cowl and Delta Queen scarf, the new flat version of Ice Queen that is coming soon! At 16 students, we took up half of the floor of the shop. I hope I sent my students back home armed with enough information to start knitting their mohair without too much frogging. Everyone was very patient while we worked on swatches!

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but in the scheme of things, it wasn't a bad thing to forget. I did get a couple of terrible cell phone pictures.


And I think Jocelyn got a couple of pictures before she took off. :)

Thank you everyone, for making me feel so welcome and for being such great students! I had a fabulous time.

Yarn paradise

I am lucky enough to live fairly close to yarn paradise, aka Knitterly. I know others who are not so fortunate, and believe me, once they see Knitterly in person, they are forever jealous! Nonetheless, it's still about a 40-45 minute drive, depending on traffic, so with other commitments (read: lots of kid stuff!), I don't often get there. But I did go down to meet Trish from Tanglewood Fibers!

(And look! She's holding one of Sheila's gorgeous orifice hooks!) I'm sure we actually knew each other in another life. Really. It was uncanny! She was down from Oregon teaching a spinning class, and I hung out awhile with Shelli, the owner of Knitterly, and Sandi, who does the Knitterly blog, and spun on my lowly drop spindle in the back, even though Trish tried to enable me into wheel spinning. She's tricky, that one. :)

We tried for a Yarn Harlot moment, but were unable to Kinnear each other properly, so we resorted to taking each other's picture:

Meanwhile, the kind Shelli was working on one of her usual soft and sumptuous creations. Honestly, she always has the absolute softest and prettiest yarns on her needles.

And Sandi (whose husband was taking the spinning class) was working with a gorgeous one of a kind skein from Trish and some Swarovski crystals.

It looks pretty in the picture, but it was amazing up close! Just look at the expression of pure bliss on her face!

And last but not least, the big news is that I will be teaching a class on Ice Queen at Knitterly on Saturday May 24th! I am quite excited about it, and I hope that some of you locals will be able to make it! We'll have fun, and, after all, it is in yarn paradise. What could be better?! :)

The Other Woman

Got your attention, didn't I?! But first, Galaneia asked this question about the Ice Queen pattern (sorry, I don't know how to contact you!):

"The instructions say to cast on 156, but also says that the pattern repeats 6 times per round. The chart is 24 stitches across at the base. 156 doesn't divide evenly by 24, 156/6=26. Is there something I'm missing about the pattern? I'm feeling very confused."

The first row of the chart is a decrease row, but it is difficult to tell unless you count the number of decreases and the number of yarn overs. For each repeat, there are eight decreases, but 6 yarn overs, hence a decrease of two stitches per repeat. So you start with 156 stitches, but end with 144 stitches (which is what the chart shows for that first row). Hope that helps!

And now...on to the Other Woman.

After being decidedly in the minority around here, I've recently acquired a confidant. Or so I thought. Really, she has completely stolen my husband's heart away. Here she is:

He named her Felicity, and then her other side came out:

So now her name is Felicity Diva, or FeliciDiva for short. She is a Rhinelander, but is brindled rather than having the markings to be a show rabbit. In fact, only one or two of each Rhinelander litter does have the proper markings. She's what our local breeder calls a harlequin Rhinelander. Did I mention that she's totally adorable? And that she's stolen my husband's heart? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she grooms his eyebrows when he holds her. That's hard to resist, you know.

The Ice Queen Cometh

Well! Purple Ice is finished and sent off to her new home.

I love the way she turned out. The black currant flavor color of ksh is one of my very very favorites and I found the perfect beads at my local bead shop.

Pattern: Ice Queen (by me) from Knitty, version A stockinette with version B chart
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Black Currant, one ball plus 2 yards (arg!)
Needles: Addi turbos size 5 and 7 (I used the smaller needle size from the garter stitch version, even though I knitted stockinette, to tighten up the gauge a little bit because my friend has very short hair and I wanted it to be a little more snug)
Measurements before blocking: length measured to bottom of scallop: 18", circumference at top: 23"
Measurements after blocking: length measured to bottom of scallop: 22.5", circumference at top: 20"

Hopefully, my friend will enjoy wearing this one!

I've noticed that in threads and on blogs, several people have talked about their Ice Queens being too short and/or running out of yarn. We'll tackle the length issue first!

My guess is that the problems with length are most likely due to one of two things: blocking, or lack thereof and/or using a different fiber for the project. Above all else, it is absolutely imperative to block your finished Ice Queen. Those of you who may not have knit lace before will be used to being able to wear sweaters and hats and scarves without blocking. Sure, they look a little bit rough, but they still look good! Well, lace is an entirely different creature. When you take it off the needles, it is not ready to wear. The looser the gauge, the more it will need to be blocked to achieve its finished measurements. Ice Queen will seem much too short. But a nice wet block will fix you right up!

To block, fill your sink with cold water and add a touch of wool wash (doesn't need to be rinsed). Submerge the lace and swish gently to get it thoroughly wet. Remove from water and gently squeeze to remove excess water. Lay lace as flat as possible on a large dry towel and roll towel. Squeeze. Here is the part where I confess that I always walk on the towel to get all of the water out. Works like a charm! Lay out gently and pull length. It will also become narrower. This is good. You want it to be narrower so it will be a bit more snug. Ice Queen does not need to be pinned, only patted into shape. This is what it looks like laid out to dry:

It will dry fairly quickly. The whole process takes about an hour, perhaps a bit more when the air is damp. Not much time for a great result!

The other possible problem in regards to length is in using a different fiber. For instance, merino is very springy and will not hold a block the same way the mohair/silk blend does. If you use a different fiber, please be sure to swatch and block your swatch! There is a good chance you will need to knit more chart repeats, and therefore need more yardage.

Second: running out of yarn. Heh. I ran out of yarn on this one with ten stitches left to bind off!

But this is how much yarn I had left over from the blue Ice Queen shown in the Knitty pictures.

Huge difference, eh? I thought running out of yarn was due to differing gauge among knitters, but I think it may have more to do with different dyes and/or the amount of moisture in the air when the yarn is being skeined. It is measured by weight and not yardage, so it really wouldn't take much added moisture to throw a 25 gram ball of yarn off by several yards. I am in the process of measuring the amount needed to do a picot bind off on both top and bottom, at the request of a sadistic helpful Ravelry member. And then I'll post it all over the place. :)

Purple Ice

Breaking news on the pendants and earrings front: 2 pendants and 5 pairs of earrings left (order here - scroll down to the bottom)! Thanks to everyone who has ordered! :)

And yes, I think the Black Currant kidsilk haze Ice Queen was the winner! Although my friend was quite drawn to the Candy Girl. I may end up knitting her both...just because she would look amazing in them!

Here's my start (the color is off!):

I am using my provisional cast-on (which I love with a burning passion) although others have been using a beaded picot cast on with great success. There's a thread on Ravelry about it, if you are interested! I am knitting the stockinette version, but with the bead chart for the garter stitch version.

One thing I wanted to note about Ice Queen: it is very very important to block it; completely submerge it in water and stretch it out. When you finish it, it will look too short. But lace blocks out quite a bit. You needn't use pins or wires, but make sure to stretch it lengthwise and don't worry about the width, as it will snug to your face a bit if you block it long and narrow. Ok, maybe two things to note; you will get different blocking results with different yarns, so be sure to swatch!

And some answers:

Lorraine and Rachel asked where I get my beads. A better question would be where *don't* I get my beads?! ;) The ones shown in my last post were from a couple of local bead stores: Legendary Beads and Ubeadquitous, neither of which have online ordering. But I've ordered seed beads from Out on a Whim, Fire Mountain Gems and Earthfaire. They all have a nice selection. A word of caution about beads: not all of them are color fast in water! In particular, red beads have issues, and I have used beads (thankfully only for swatches!) that lost all of their color during felting. I don't have a problem using them in Ice Queen because I probably won't be washing it a lot, but it's definitely something to remember: test your beads first!

And Rhonda asked when you use the US 5 needles. It is only for the top edging after you have finished the charts, and the picot bind off on both top and bottom.

I am so excited to see all of your Ice Queens! You all make my day. :)

And thank you all for playing along with my meme!