Sigh...more errata for Sensual Knits

Another eagle eyed knitter caught more errata in my Lace Panel Cardigan for Sensual Knits.

For the sleeve cap shaping the third paragraph should read:

Dec 1 st at each end of sleeve every other row 4 [4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7] times – 38 [40, 40, 44, 42, 44, 42] sts rem.
Dec 1 st at each end of sleeve EVERY row 4 [4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5] times – 30 [32, 30, 34, 32, 34, 32] sts rem.

In the book, both sets of decreases were misprinted to read every other row.

Thanks to Mariko Hara for calling this to my attention.

Seduction Indeed

I was in Ithaca for the Memorial Day weekend and visited my favorite yarn shop, Knitting Etc. There, I found myself irresistibly drawn to the aptly named new Berroco yarn, Seduce. There was a gorgeous shop sample of Norah Gaughan's Mobius (from Vol 2) worked in the Seduce rather than the called for Linen Jeans. As soon as Hickory suggested that I try it on I was hooked. The yarn feels light and comfortable - and the colors - wow! They're reminiscent of minerals or jewels. I was completely lost. I would have loved to make the Mobius, but the thought of seaming in the collar separately was daunting and so I decided to make the Drawstring Raglan from the current issue of Interweave Knits.

Here are the colors I chose:

The greyish blue on the left will be my main color (to replace the beige) and I'll be using one less color in the striped region. I'm going for a more subdued palette.

An FO, a new UFO, and an almost FO design

I've finished the Lily of the Valley Stole from Lace Style for a while, but forgot to post about it. I used Jaggerspun Zephyr in Suede for this and worked it on a smaller needle than called for in the pattern. I'm not a huge fan of shawls, but I like scarves, so I was aiming for a less lacey, more solid look. Because of the decrease in needle size, I ended up working an extra 4 repeats of the lace pattern to get the scarf long enough - and even so I think it could have used an extra repeat or two more. I love it. It's soft and drapey and lovely. I'm just really careful not to get it snagged on stuff. I even ended up knitting the edging on this. When I do make stoles, I usually don't do the edging because I find them too fussy and precious. But I like the edging on this stole (I make it shorter than called for in the pattern) and the bind-off with two strands held together is brilliant.


I also started the ever popular Embossed Leaves Socks by Mona Schmidt in a wonderful shade of deep brown that has violet undertones. I wish I had sweater quantities of this color. See how well it coordinates with my Schrodinger Original Cube?


And finally, I'm almost done with a design:

This will be a self published design and I hope by posting an oblique picture of it, it'll push me to actually finish and self publish the thing. I've been meaning to try my hand at self publishing for a while now, but never seem to get my act together. Somehow, without the stress of deadlines propelling me forward, all of my self published efforts seem to run out of momentum mid-stream. I have a baby cardigan and a vest that are trapped in various stages of done-ness.

I intend to donate all the proceeds of this pattern to breast cancer research. I'm hoping that this will spur me to finish it too.

Blast from the Past

Many moons ago I worked on a design for JCA and I finally got word from Mona that it's time to share! :)

I had a lot of fun with this design, but if I were to do it for myself, I'd definitely go for a smaller gauge yarn for better drape and fit. While I do like lace done on large gauge yarn (ala BrooklynTweed's Hemlock Ring blanket), I think for garments, the delicacy of a small gauge yarn is more my style. Still, for a faster project, the light worsted/DK weight gauge of the called for yarn makes for a satisfying knit I think.

For this design, I was going for something feminine and at the same time casual and almost sporty - thus the lace cap sleeves paired with the henley placket and raglan shape. I also used eyelets to mark the waist/bust shaping to echo the lace on the sleeves.

Blast from the Past also refers a bit to the styling of the photos. Doesn't it kind of look vintage (in a fun way, I'm not being critical!)? Or is it just me?

Summer IK and contest winner

The summer Interweave Knits is out and I'm so excited to have a design in it - the Apres Surf Hoodie.

At the time I was putting together my submission, I was working on a project for Yahaira's upcoming book, Pureknits, and I had a bunch of leftover Habu fingering weight silk wool left to swatch with:


For this hoodie, I was going for a very delicate, airy piece so I knew I wanted a fingering weight yarn combined with a small repeat lace. The Habu silk wool makes for a extremely light, gorgeous fabric - perfect for a beach coverup. The cashcotton 4 ply loses some of the sheen of the Habu, but has a delightful softness to it and the resulting sweater is more cozy while still retaining the lightness of my original idea. I thought the small repeat lace (dainty chevron) with its vertical structure would be flattering for a variety of body types.

The other main element of this design is the wide stockinette bands at the hem and sleeve cuffs. I love wide lace edgings on an otherwise plain stockinette sweater. For the hoodie, I thought it would be fun to turn that look on its head and have stockinette edgings on a lace sweater. To help the edges lie flat, attached i-cord gives it a clean finish. Finally, because I'm a sweatshirt kind of girl, I added a hood - a casual touch to counteract the potential fussiness of an allover lace garment.

In other news, with the help of a random number generator, I picked the winner of my brother's Threadless T-shirt. Number 6, AKA Mel, please contact me with a size preference and your address. And congratulations!