Errata for both patterns has been posted here.
The new updated version of the Braided Cable Scarf (which is a free pattern) can be downloaded here.
Since all purchases of Aspen Grove to this point have been hard copy sales and not downloads, please make sure that you have the changes noted in your copy before you begin.
M
I fell down on Friday.
I “accidentally” clicked over to Amy’s blog and saw that she’s got a new kit. The sweater is so beautiful that I bought it with only a tiny moment of hesitation that it is knit at 4 spi. 4. I am the girl who knits her socks at 10 spi, who has multiple lengths of every sized circular needle under a US 6, but above that… maybe 3 circular needles TOTAL. I just have a vision of kicking around my house bundled up in this sweater with a cup of tea, or tossed over a t-shirt with a pair of jeans to go to Sunday Brunch with my friends. It just looks like it would be such a wearable sweater and so warm and cozy for the cold cold winters here. The fact that it would probably only take me a few days to knit made me even happier, so I bought it. I did agonize over the color. Silver Beet… or Cranberry…. I took a quick mental stock of the sweaters worth of fiber I have in my stash, realized that 4 or 5 of them are some shade of gray, felt ashamed for contemplating the easy way out of the choice of color and went for the Cranberry.
However… I also bought 2 pounds of BFL fiber. In 2 natural shades of Oatmeal. One light and one dark. To spin into the 2-ply marl-y yarn to knit a sweater. Yes, another handspun sweater when I haven’t even finished sampling for one of the two I just got my fleece back for. I do realize that this is a good indication I may be loosing my marbles. I have no idea if I am even capable of spinning enough yarn to the same grist and weight to make a whole sweater, let alone the 2 that Isabo’s fleece will provide me. But now I’ve got another sweater’s worth of fleece coming to me. If you don’t hear from me in a few days, I might have drowned in fiber and be unable to reach the laptop.
M
Then go check out Wooly Wonka’s year-long lace club offering,
I’ll be designing the offering for Spring! There are only 100 spots in this club, so hurry over there if you’re interested and read the full description.
Also, a Ravelry group is up.
M
So when I’m really busy I tend to look for ways to organize, so I buy a label maker, or a new bookshelf, or some closet organization stuff.
This time it was a new bag. I got the Bamboo Green Haiku bag from Scout! I love it!
It’s small (which keeps me from hauling around more than I need to), and it’s got all sorts of hidden places. The pockets on the sides are prefect for my glasses case, my earbuds case and my deodorant (I always forget to put it on in the morning, so I just carry it with me). My metal wallet, brookstone calculator/clock and my ID badge with buss pass and swipey key card go in one of the front pockets. The other front pocket holds pens, hairsticks, spare dpns and my keys…
… which are now adorned with the awesome yarn ball boogie keychain (also from Scout).
When combined with my new GoKnit pouch, the bag is functional, cute and carries everything I really need for a day at work without letting me carry around all the stuff I’m compelled to haul that I don’t really need.
On Grumperina‘s review I took a look at Knitting New Scarves, and immediately had to buy it. There are so many interesting construction techniques and great use of yarn properties.
Oh… and remember Isabo? She’s back! All glorious 4 pounds of her washed and processed fleece! If I can get some seriously cleaning and organizing done this weekend, then she’s my reward.
M
What is an older sister to do when faced with looming Christmas and little brothers who love handknit socks?!
Why, knit socks quickly with large yarn, is what.
These are for David, the youngest. The yarn is STR Heavyweight in Beryl and I’m knitting them up on 3.0 mm doublepoints (US 2.5). These are going SO FAST! I cast on the first one and was happily knitting, then realized I was probably really close to the heel, so I stopped and started the other one instead. The pair should be done quickly (maybe even by the end of this weekend), and then I can get started on the pair for Daniel, which is STR Heavyweight in “In The Navy”.
I’ve also been working slowly on a top that’s going to be awesome, I think, but I’m up against a problem. In order to properly measure this piece as I go to make sure it will fit, I need to try it on Mimiquin, my dress form. But the piece is designed with a long piece of knitted fabric that makes a yoke by being placed around the shoulders in a wide picture collar arrangement, but the yoke also creates the cap sleeves. The problem is that my dress form doesn’t have shoulders per-se. Her shoulders end abruptly with a very un-upper-arm-like angle. So what I really need to do is pad the dress form so that it has shoulders and upper arms enough for me to pin this yoke piece out on it and see how it looks. Since my brain has been checking out as soon as I hang up my coat at home, it’s been difficult to make the time to get around to thinking about it. So any good ideas from you, readers, would be really helpful. I need something stiff enough that I can get enough negative ease to hold the top up without distorting the shape, as well as getting the right angle of shoulder and upper arm.
The other thing I’ve been knitting is sort of the bane of my existence.
I should have known that black socks in cotton-y yarn for large feet would be more than a little crazy making.
The yarn is Panda Cotton, which, apart from the fact that it has cotton content and I am prejudiced against it based on that fact, is very nice for socks. It’s 55% bamboo (so maybe it should really be called a bamboo yarn), 24% cotton and 21% elastic nylon. But this would be a really good choice for someone who is allergic to wool, but still wants socks. It makes a really comfortable, stretchy fabric. But fair warning, it splits like crazy!
So tomorrow I’ll show you the cool stuff I’ve acquired recently.
Lest you think I have not been knitting, let me parade some FO’s for you.
First there’s the Cleite Shawl, which I finished the spinning for as well as the knitting of. The yarn is alpaca laceweight handspun by me to about 30 wpi. That stuff was TINY! And I over plied it, which was really a pity as the alpaca was fabulously soft.
Second there’s the Latvian Socks:
Pattern: Latvian Socks by Nancy Bush from Folk Socks.
Yarn: Trekking XXL in color 147, which is much browner than that picture.
Needles: 2.0 mm (US 0) 6″ Crystal Palace Bamboo dpns.
Modifications: I did 5 repeats on the upper cuff and then 5 repeats on the lower cuff (after the decreases). And then I changed the star toe decreases to be worked with a p2tog at the end of every needle, which made for a lovely and comfortable toe.
Verdict: This is the second time I have knit this pattern with this yarn and I love it just as much now as I did the first time. There may be a third time somewhere in the future.
Third there are the Christmas Mittens:
Pattern: NHM #13 from Selbuvotter.
Yarn: Jamieson Shetland Spindrift in natural and a heathery dark red, one ball each. I had a couple yards left of the natural after the second thumb, but plenty left of the red. You’d probably want to have an extra ball of the main color on hand, just in case.
Needles: 3.0 mm (US 2.5) 6″ Crystal Palace Bamboo dpns.
Modifications: None. I knit them as is, and they should fit the recipient perfectly.
Verdict: They were fast and fun to knit and made me wish I was knitting mittens for everyone on my list. Although it was hard to knit them and watch enthralling movies at the same time since I had to keep referring to the chart, but on a Saturday night, with P&P as my companion, I whipped out more than one whole mitten.
And here’s some other people’s FO’s since it’s been a LONG while since I did those.
Abby finished a beautiful Seraphim in a natural creamy white, very reminiscent of the wings the shawl was named for. Good job Abby!
Alison finished a Seraphim Shawl AND a pair of Boudica socks! The Seraphim makes me drool as it’s knit from LL Shepherd Sock, one of my favorite yarns!
Katya, who lives in Turkey (!) finished a beautiful green Icarus shawl! It’s lovely! And sorry it took me so long to respond to you!
Weebug finished a pair of Serpentine Mitts for her daughter’s birthday! I LOVE how the variegated yarn looks!
Laura finished a Seraphim Shawl in STR lightweight that makes me want to sneak into her house and steal it! I love the color so much! It’s really beautiful!
Tomorrow you get the WIPs and then the next post I’ll show you some cool stuff I’ve recently acquired.
M
Hi,
I need a volunteer model knitter. I’ve designed the new shawl above called Cleite for Wooly Wonka Fibers Spinning Club, but I want to offer a full sized version in the shop. However, I do not have time to knit the full sized version, so I’m taking a volunteer knitter.
Please only volunteer if you:
1. Can read charts very well.
2. Can knit the shawl to specifications and follow the directions.
3. Can knit it quickly, I need this done within at least 4 weeks from the time you receive yarn.
4. Are willing to give progress reports via e-mail.
If you would still like to volunteer and can meet the above specifications, please e-mail me with your name and a link to your blog or your flickr album or something so that I can see the kind of work you can do and your experience with lace. If you are chosen, then I will get your address and mail you the yarn.
I’ll definitely be giving a thank you to the knitter who does this, and we can work it out between us when the time comes, but it could include some of my homemade jam, gift certificates to the store, yarn, tea…. it’s all negotiable.
*ETA* OK, I’ve got plenty of people to consider at this point, so I’m closing this call now.
Thanks,
Miriam
The Knitty Surprise is up and you may see something you remember.
May I present the Juno Regina Stole! I LOVE this piece. The yarn, the shape, the diamond motif… every bit of it. And I hope you love it as well.
If you’re new here, please feel free to leave a comment, and check out my website and the online shop. In the shop you’ll find patterns for sale and also some free ones. I’ve got a recently released shawl design that’s only available as a kit through Wooly Wonka Fibers too.
I love that all the pieces that I’ve had to keep under wraps are finally coming out. It’s like Christmas! 🙂 Between this one, the Logan River Wrap and the two pieces in Sensual Knits, I think that puts me up to date except for the things I’m working on now.
And thanks so much to Kim for taking the photos when she was visiting.
Mim
p.s. Holy Mother of God! What an overwhelming response! Thank you all so much! There’s always this thread of doubt that maybe what you designed is really crap and that no one will like it and no one will knit it… and to have the reaction swing so far in the other direction is really overwhelming. I’m truly verklempt! I feel like a ROCKSTAR!
p.p.s. there’s already a ravelry group for a KAL up.
So those of you who have been reading daily know that my shop went down on Wednesday morning. Little did I know that in trying to reinstall it, my backup would be corrupted, then I would run out of room, have to revert to an automatic system backup from October 28th and then have to manually go in and change all the permissions for ALL of the pieces within my site (not just the shop) so that it can be viewed properly again.
So I’ve effectively lost 5 days worth of stuff from blog and shop and site. But, that’s a whole lot better than having lost all of it, which is what I was facing yesterday. A big huge thanks to my Uncle David (who owns the webhosting company I use) for helping me get it fixed up. Where else do you get web hosting AND love?!
I’m still working on getting the shop looking right and I still haven’t solved the payment issue. Right now I can’t get into the admin area of the shop though, so I can’t put it down for maintenance. PLEASE don’t order anything from the shop until I get it up and running, which I will let you know when that is. I’ll know what kind of damage I’m dealing with on the shop end when I get it all figured out.
*ETA*
The Bad News: My SSL certificate needs to be reset in order to give the shop a secure connection. This will take a couple of days to sort out, but Uncle Dave is working on it.
The Good News: You can still download all of the free patterns since they are outside the secure certificate’s realm.
The Extra Good News: Because you need to be logged in (and using the secure site) to checkout or to access your account, etc… no one can log in and therefore no one can order. While this may not seem like good news to those of you trying to order, it’s good news to me because it means that I don’t have to deal with fixing all the errors and refunding payments for people trying to order before the shop is fixed.
Miriam
Hey all, remember the secret tweedy project?
It’s up in the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits Preview. It’s the Logan River Wrap knit in Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran.
The design features cables, twisted stitches and a winding drop stitch pattern. As well as a self-scalloping cabled edge with short-row mitered corners that make the edging one continuous cable around the wrap.
It’s named for the Logan River, which cuts through Logan Canyon, where I used to live. The mountains are magnificent and the river carves out a space through the bottom of the canyon.
Mine and C’s first date was hiking in that canyon. I spent many happy weekends drenched in campfire smoke, eating half-cooked potatoes from tin foil, and sleeping with a rock in my hip.
