la la la laaaaaa

7 Small Shawls: T - 212 days and counting down.

Hey! What are you looking at?! No one here but us knitters who have nothing new to show. We (of the royal variety) will attempt to distract you with pretty nature pictures.

This is a honeysuckle. Isn't it lovely?

It doesn't smell as strong as the common variety, but I think it makes up for that with its gorgeous blooms!

And a pretty rose (eta: Lady Banks) we have that drapes across the fence separating us from our neighbors on one side. It's finished blooming at the moment, but still has lovely dark green foliage!

Are you diverted? No? I didn't think so.

I really have nothing new to show, but the edging for Maia is progressing in my brain and I'm about to download it to paper or computer. On my last post, Jeanne commented that she didn't know shawls were designed that way. They aren't. And they are. :) Everyone has a different style, and even within that framework it varies. I need to have a mental image before I begin. Then I usually sketch out a rudimentary chart or two. Sometimes I swatch and sometimes not. Sometimes I sit in front of the computer and adjust the chart as I knit. In this particular case, the very top and very bottom are the tricky bits. I have the top down pat and I had a vacation knitting the middle part. Now it's back to work! And since I changed the middle that I had planned (on the fly - sometimes it just works out that way), the edging needs to change as well.

For the longest time, I avoided posting about my design process because I do a lot of it in my head and it seems fairly disorganized. I Also figured it would be pretty boring (I still kind of do)! I just hope I'm not putting anyone to sleep. :)

Ooh. Sleep. That sounds good.

See you tomorrow. :) Don't forget my sale!

Getting edgy

7 Small Shawls: T - 213 days and counting down.

I've really been enjoying this knit. It's just mindless enough, but with some interest added in the right places. And it's so fun to see the pattern emerge! Look at that texture!

I'm in love with the colors in the yarn and the way they play against the textures.

I'm down to the point where I need to start thinking about how the edging will be accomplished. On some shawls, I have a really clear picture of exactly what I want (Fiori di Sole for instance) but in this case, I have a more vague picture in my mind, and there are several issues to solve first. I am weighing two overall choices: knitting the edging straight down, or knitting it on sideways as a bind-off. Most importantly, I want the edging to work for many different sizes of shawl. (On Merope, for instance, you can upsize the shawl just by doing more repeats of the second chart).

If I knit the edging straight down, it will have to work for assorted stitch counts. Another issue is the way the shawl is increased. I want the edging to flow down from the leaf pattern and look the same all the way around the shawl, so I have to take into consideration the line of yarn-over increases beside that leaf motif. I've put arrows in the picture below to show you what I mean.

I don't want little partial leaves around those while I am increasing. I think that would ruin the look of the shawl. And the stitch count and the increases could be completely thrown off if I'm not careful. I am thinking of ways that I might accomplish an edging of the same pattern as I have along the spines, but it would take some serious tinkering, and I'm not sure that I would even like the look all that much. I think a different pattern would be better. But which one?

A sideways knitted on edging would be a very different look from an edging just continued straight down. I would still need to contend with many stitch counts, but not in the same way. The repeat of the chart would need to correspond to different sizes and numbers of chart repeats. In this case, I would need to take into consideration another feature of the leaf panel: that little triangle of stitches that builds the next leaf. I've circled them below.

I would want to integrate them into the pattern so that the leaf tapered off. I don't want to end the pattern abruptly in mid-leaf. So that means I would a) stop increasing the shawl, which would be ok for a few rows (lace is super stretchy and forgiving), but I'm not sure if it would be appropriate for so many rows; or b) figure out a way to disguise the increases.

Then there's the question of an edging. I haven't so far found a knitted on edging that I like with this particular pattern, so I'm leaning towards knitting straight down if there's any way I can swing it.

It's time to get out the graph paper (or preferably Intwined!) and do some serious calculations until my brain hurts. More tomorrow!

Oh, wait. What about that contest?! Well, there were 63 comments and I went to random.org to use their random number generator. The number generated was 41, and the 41st commenter was...Thérèse! So congratulations to you! And everyone else? Not to worry. a) There will be more contests, and b) I'm naming the shawl Maia. :)

Drip drip drip

7 Small Shawls: T - 221 days and counting down.

Amusement on a rainy day.

I know. For someone who professes not to like knitting with pink yarn, I've certainly had a lot of it on my blog lately, haven't I?! This one is for a secret project due yesterday, or maybe even last week. The yarn is from Scout. I think it's super pretty. :)

As promised, here is my progress so far on the second shawl in my 7 Small Shawls ebook.

I'm really liking the way this looks, which makes me wonder whether I should re-think the overall shawl.

The original concept is somewhat tailored, but I'm really loving the top with its leafy-ness, so I'm leaning toward more leaves. I'm re-thinking this one while dreaming up a chart for #3. There will be more sketching and some swatching going on in the near future.

On a personal note, I purchased a cemetery plot for my aunt, uncle and mother today. They'll be together under oak trees. I think they would have liked that.

Tomorrow I am contemplating building an ark if the rain doesn't stop soon. :glug:

Feeling testy?

Happy Friday everyone!

I've set up a Yahoo group to test knit my patterns before they become available for sale. And now I need members. No group is complete without them! ;) What do you all think? Is anyone game?

This one is probably the next up:

and I have more coming! Lots of small shawls knit from sock yarn in particular.

If you are interested in joining - and I'd love it if you are - please email me at romi (at) designsbyromi (dot) com (replacing the (at) and (dot) appropriately). All levels of expertise would be great. If you're a beginner and can't understand my pattern I definitely need to know. :) (ETA: thank you to everyone who responded! I now have a plethora of test knitters. :) I'm closing the group for now, but I'm sure I'll be opening it again periodically, so if you wanted to test and didn't get here in time, just wait a little bit! Many thanks!!)

Can't wait to hear from you!

Off to a swim meet this weekend - yay for sunny weather. Have a great one!

At Last!

Some actual, real, genuine, bona fide knitting content! My secret projects are put away for now, and I'm working on a new design. When I need a rest, I always head for my favorite: mohair/silk lace weight yarn. Yummmmm. It fixes me right up. :)

This one is being knit from Elann.com's Silken Kydd in Raisin. It's a gorgeous deep brownish plum color and I am enjoying it thoroughly!

It's a triangle knit from the bottom tip up to the top, and when I write up the pattern, I will give measurements for 1, 2, 3 and perhaps 4 balls of yarn. So far I'm loving it! The pattern was fairly simple to memorize and it's proving to be very relaxing knitting, and great for swim practice, tv and other KIPping. It's garter stitch lace, but I think I'll also do a stockinette version.

This past weekend, I had a table at Knit-One-One in Berkeley for a craft show. I always have a great time with Síle. She's terrific! As a bonus, I got to meet Romy and Lisa and see Brooke! It was a great day.

Plus, check out this incredible silk fiber I got from Anzula.

Isn't it gorgeous?

So far, I've only been staring at it. Sooooooo yummy.

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!

Process

A few weeks ago, I set about to write up a pattern for an Ice Queen scarf, largely so that I could teach a summer class to people who weren't sweating while knitting mohair. I promised a series detailing the process, and here I am: finally delivering!

The first decision: how many scallops? I am picky picky picky. I began by taking a look at the Ice Queen that I have in progress. Even though I had an idea in my mind's eye of how a scarf should look, I wanted to see it for real. Here it is with two center scallops.

And here it is with one.

I decided on a scarf the one scallop in the middle. Later on will come a larger scarf/wrap with more scallops, but this first scarf is written for a heavier yarn, dk or fingering weight, and it needed to be minimal. You can also use mohair, of course. But it's summer, and even we mo-hos take a summer break from the fuzzy stuff. ;)

Next up: the picot cast on. I decided to use a picot cast on instead of the provisional cast on and picot bind off used on the Ice Queen cowl. I thought it would make a lot more sense. Tune in next time for a picot cast on tutorial!

Mmmmmmm, silk

How do you teach a class on Ice Queen during summer? You invent a silky Ice Queen scarf, of course! I'll be teaching a class on Ice Queen/lace at Nine Rubies in San Mateo and Knitterly in Petaluma (yep - we put off the Knitterly class until later when I could offer a non-Mohair alternative!) this summer. And since I need to design an Ice Queen scarf, I was thinking that it would be a great way to show an abbreviated version of my design process along with tutorials.

First, the yarn.

It is Hana by Artfibers in color #7 and some kind and generous soul or other gave a ball and a half to me to try. It has been marinating in stash and is now ready to use. The first thing I did was to wind it off and check for knots. There was one in the full ball, and I undid it. So I now have two small balls and one larger ball.

Hana is pure silk, 244 yards/50 grams, and since I don't see it on the Artfibers website, I think it may be no more. Pity. It's a beautiful yarn and the color variations remind me of Hydrangeas. Since Jocelyn at Nine Rubies will be knitting up a sample in some dk weight silk that they carry, this is a fairly good match, I think, to work out any bugs. Knitterly will get a slightly different version tbd.

And now for the tools.

The Ice Queen garter version chart - I have elected to do garter stitch because it lays flat and is reversible - yarn, beads, pencil, needle gauge, needles.... And I'm ready. Tune in next time for the picot cast on!