Archives for : knittery

Knitting/Design Dilemma

Posted by :Annika On : February 1, 2012
16

Category: knittery

I can’t believe you guys haven’t commented on all the posts I wrote in my head. So rude.

So, I’m having a dilemma as a knitwear designer and I need your opinions.

Yesterday I was on a Ravelry forum for another designer, in a thread called “[pattern name] help needed.” The text of the post was basically, “What does KFB mean?” Now, I don’t have that particular pattern (I ended up at that thread by clicking ‘next’) but I know it is an intermediate level pattern, and I was stunned that anyone would buy an intermediate pattern when they don’t recognize the standard abbreviation for one of the most common increases used in knitting.

Now, let me say a couple of things.

  1. I don’t think any less of someone who doesn’t know abbreviations–I just think they are probably a beginner, not intermediate.
  2. I think challenging yourself as a knitter is important, which can mean trying a pattern that is a little more advanced than you think you are (most knitters are more advanced than they give themselves credit for).

So, here’s my dilemma. I don’t put a list of abbreviations on my patterns. I explain unusual or complicated stitches and techniques, such as applied i-cord, but I assume the knitter knows what abbreviations like K, P, K2TOG, and KFB mean. I think I am wrong.

I really don’t want to add a legend to my patterns, but I want to address this so that anyone who buys my patterns can knit them.

Here are my ideas:

  1. Suck it up and add a legend.
  2. Create a document with a list of abbreviations and distribute it for free on my website.
  3. Create said document and distribute it as a secondary PDF with all Ravelry purchases.

I’ve actually been planning to create the document necessary for the second/third options, because I need it for a teaching tool. I am moderately annoyed at the idea of distributing information that anyone can get by googling, but I also really do want to help make knitting accessible.

What do you guys think?

The Design Process: Rough Draft

Posted by :Annika On : December 1, 2011
3

Category: knittery

You guys. Do you know what does not photograph well at all? An unblocked hat. At least, this unblocked hat.

hucklberry-side huckleberry-front

Also it might help if I did not attempt to take self-portraits of the top of my head in the bathroom and then make a half-hearted effort at color-correction. Bygones!

ANYWAY.

Some designs are written out in full before I cast on more than a swatch. This one went straight from the swatch to the needles. I knew that the only way to see if my idea would work was to DO it.

I changed the number of stitches between short rows from the swatch to the hat, to make the curve a bit less severe. I also did something a little different with the decreases, which you totally can’t see in these photos. I am debating adding some sort of embellishment like the floret in the original painting.

Overall, I really like the way this turned out. At least, I think I will like it once I block it. I have an idea for a variation, so I’m going to knit a second one in different yarn (pretty turquoise Manos!).

The Design Process: Swatching

Posted by :Annika On : November 15, 2011
1

Category: knittery, NaNovember

Tags:

See the first post in this series here.

huckleberry-swatch

Isn’t this a funny-looking little bit of fabric? I knitted it up for two purposes: to check my gauge (the number of stitches per inch, used to determine how many stitches are needed to get the correct size) and to test out the short row shaping I intend to use for the hat.

I experimented with a few different ways of picking up my wraps (that’s fancy knitter talk), and determined what I don’t want to do for the hat. Some designers might keep swatching until they’re sure what they do want to do, but I like to fly by the seat of my pants. Besides, I knew that the only way to be sure the shaping would look the way I want it to is to do it–a small square will never look like a full-sized hat no matter how much I squint.

Spoiler alert: I’ve started knitting the hat! In fact, I am past all of the short row shaping! You will get to see it in the next post.

To Knit

Posted by :Annika On : November 13, 2011
4

Category: knittery, NaNovember

Let’s see, how crazy am I? This is a not-entirely complete list of the things I am planning to knit between now and the end of the year-ish.

Korrigan – cardigan for Grace (not started)
Clara – dress for Grace (not started)
Everett – pullover for Sam (my pattern, not yet released) (not started)
Huckleberry – tentative name for my hat pattern (swatched)
Xeriscape – Christmas gift (halfway done)
French Press Slippers – for me (not started)
Let It Be – for me (finished one mitt)
Kitefish – for me (not started)
Catkin – for me (not started, but wound yarn!)
Cobblestone – Will’s anniversary gift (not started, still trying to find a few more balls of discontinued yarn)
Knight’s Set – pattern samples (three of about eight completed)

Plus I want to do a few more gifties.

Obviously I will not be making the shawls for myself until I get the rest under control. I want to release the Knight’s Set in January–I’d originally thought pre-Christmas, but it’s just not going to happen. I will hold off on the slippers for me and Will’s sweater until after Christmas, most likely. Clara is only sized up to Grace’s current size but I think I am going to fudge it a little and make it after Corrigan, so she can have a sweater first.

Can I make both kids sweaters by Christmas, plus additional gifts, and get my pattern samples done, too? I typically knit something for myself between Christmas and New Year’s, so whichever shawl I haven’t sneaked in sooner could go there, or the slippers. Then January for Will’s sweater and all the other projects I’ll most likely start between now and then (like the other patterns I am expecting yarn for any day).

I think I might need to insure my wrists against repetitive stress injuries.

The Design Process: Inspiration

Posted by :Annika On : November 6, 2011
5

Category: knittery, NaNovember

Tags:

A couple of my knitting friends have asked me what the design process looks like for me. The answer is, of course, that it’s different every time. But I’m about to start work on a new design, and so I thought I’d try blogging about it as I go.417752279_rfScxqAc_c

I spotted this beauty on Pinterest and was totally smitten. Among other things, I want that hat. It’s got some similarities to one I just knitted, Regina by Carina Spencer, but although I think Regina would be beautiful in orange and brown (and I might try knitting one that way), I couldn’t shake the idea of a different hat, one shaped with short rows.

I started browsing Etsy for ideas, and came across Huckleberry Knits. She had a plummy purple on BFL (blue-faced leicester, a type of sheep’s wool) that made me swoon, listed as a light worsted; I also saw a beautiful silvery-grey on Merino (another type of sheep), listed as worsted. I sent the dyer a note asking if she thought the two yarn weights would combine well. She wrote back advising against it, and offered to send me photos of some other yarns she hadn’t listed yet in the same color ranges. I decided on two skeins of BFL, the original Huckleberry and a much darker grey than I’d thought I wanted, Charcoal (it looks bluish here, but I think that’s just the lighting). It’s stunning yarn, and such a light worsted that it’s almost DK.

huckleberry

Up next, I’ll swatch and make some design notes. I’m working on other patterns at the same time, so I don’t know how often I’ll update about this one–please let me know if you’re interested!

Knit All The Things!

Posted by :Annika On : November 3, 2011
2

Category: knittery, NaNovember

I am currently experiencing a glut of yarn.

First my friend Lori (a fellow knitting teacher and excellent human being) gave me some AMAZING yarn – some Wollmeise fingering and Numa Numa DK. There wasn’t room for it, so I went through my stash, chucked anything I didn’t love, and photographed most of the rest for my Ravelry stash page. (By the way, when I say I chucked yarn, I mean I literally chucked it in a pile next to my stash bureau. It’s still there.)

Then I went through my Ravelry queue, which I recently got down from something insane like 13 pages to a manageable eight pages. I went through it again and got it down to six pages. MUCH BETTER! Then I added a bunch of stuff I have to knit RIGHT NOW. But! It is still six pages!

Then I started hearing back from yarn companies I’d contacted with enquiries about yarn support for design ideas. And got more than one “yes.” (Luckily for different projects – oh my god, can you imagine if I’d doubled up my requests and…I can’t even think about it. I would never do that.)

THEN I was clicking around on Etsy, as one does, and I saw it. THE plummy-purple yarn OF. MY. DREAMS. And it happened right after I saw a painting on Pinterest of a girl wearing the most divine hat. And…I decided I had to make a hat with that purple and some grey. So I spent two days chatting with the dyer about her different yarn bases and different greys and since I had some money in Paypal from selling my new patterns I just…bought them. Because.

And now I am looking around at my half-finished pattern set (it’s a costume for boys and it’s awesome), my eight million swatches-in-progress (first deadline for submissions is next week and I haven’t even started that one), and the various Christmas presents I’m working on (after a five year break I am knitting for Christmas again), and I realized.

I am INSANE.

Somehow, wanting to Knit All The Things has turned into trying to Knit All The Things.

Review: Time On My Hands (knitting e-book)

Posted by :Annika On : October 20, 2011
9

Category: knittery, reviews

Tags:, , , , , , ,

timeonmyhands
My fellow knitting designer Becky Herrick recently gave me a copy of her e-book, Time On My Hands.

The book is a single PDF containing nine patterns for gloves (some with fingers and some without); eight of the patterns can be purchased as individual PDFs, but the ninth is available only in the collection.

The presentation is amazing. The layout and photography are excellent, and each pattern has a clock motif in the corner of the page (drawn either by hand or computer, I couldn’t tell!), which I found utterly charming. The gloves themselves are lovely, with a nice variety and clear, easy-to-follow instructions.

teatimeI had intended to knit Tea Time (pictured at left) for myself to go with this review, but, um. I kind of got stuck on yarn choice. I love Shelter, the yarn the pattern calls for, but it comes in too many pretty colors and anyway I am not supposed to be buying yarn and so before I knew it I’d waited too long and had no gloves to show.

Please do not allow my inability to plan well to dissuade you from this book. Here, I will get the review back on track.

In short: this is an excellent e-book and you should buy it if you have any interest at all in knitting gloves.

But wait! Before you buy it, comment on this post to enter to win a copy! Just answer this multiple choice question: Do you prefer gloves, mittens, or fingerless gloves?

New Pattern: Dag & Dagmar

Posted by :Annika On : August 24, 2011
3

Category: knitting patterns

Dag04Alternate post title: Look, I actually finished something!

(This is not one of the official pattern pictures, but I love it SO MUCH. Sam is a ham.)

I designed this sweater for Sam, based on this one, his all-time favorite.

It’s knitted bottom-up, in the round, with a round yoke. I used Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton, on size 6 needles.

I’ve been working on this sweater for like a year and a half! Good grief. I mean, I took breaks to do a bunch of other stuff in there, but still. Finally, it is DONE! Now I just need to finish the Dagmar sample for Grace–she keeps growing and I had to rip out the size 1 I’d started to reknit as a size 2.

Dag & Dagmar on Noir Knits
Dag & Dagmar on Ravelry

New Website + Contest!

Posted by :Annika On : June 13, 2011
23

Category: contest!, free patterns, knittery

YOU GUYS! Vicki made me a new website! CHECK IT OUT! I still have a ton of content to add, but it is so shiny and pretty!

To celebrate, I am offering a free pattern and having a contest.

I have two extra skeins of Spud and Chloe Sweater. I bought a whole bag of Moonlight, which is a gorgeous deep teal color, for a project and only ended up needing three skeins. I will choose one commenter at random to receive both skeins and a copy of the Emmett pattern. Two skeins will make up to a size 12-18 months, and I suspect you might be able to squeeze a 2T out of it (but I can’t guarantee it). You could also use the yarn to make typing gloves!

To enter, leave a comment on THIS post by Sunday, June 19th. I’ll choose a winner on Monday morning, the 20th.

New Website + Contest!

Posted by :Annika On : June 13, 2011
23

Category: contest!, free patterns, knittery

YOU GUYS! Vicki made me a new website! CHECK IT OUT! I still have a ton of content to add, but it is so shiny and pretty!

To celebrate, I am offering a free pattern and having a contest.

I have two extra skeins of Spud and Chloe Sweater. I bought a whole bag of Moonlight, which is a gorgeous deep teal color, for a project and only ended up needing three skeins. I will choose one commenter at random to receive both skeins and a copy of the Emmett pattern. Two skeins will make up to a size 12-18 months, and I suspect you might be able to squeeze a 2T out of it (but I can’t guarantee it). You could also use the yarn to make typing gloves!

To enter, leave a comment on THIS post by Sunday, June 19th. I’ll choose a winner on Monday morning, the 20th.