Zipper Scarf

The Zipper is a unisex sideways knit scarf with a unique ripple pattern. Inspired by the dots and curves in Aboriginal art, the wave motif provides a great foundation for any color combo. It looks great in dark colors or brights, making it bold or subtle. This pattern inspired a lot of graphics and animations when I was exploring color combos, but I'll stay on topic and post them later.

 

This pattern uses stacked increases and decreases for the colorwork. This means that it is

Field Trip: Lion Brand Retail Store

Last weekend I took a trip to the Albany area. The trip included a stop at the Lion Brand Retail store in Colonie, NY. If you like Lion Brand or live in the area, this store is worth the trip. It's one of the only places to see nearly all of the yarns and colorways that Lion Brand has to offer including clearance and discontinued items, new yarns, and a few small batch products that are only carried in their retail and factory stores. Any knitter, crocheter, or general crafter can find something there.

☠ chromatose ☢

I got this yarn on impulse, thinking that maybe it would make a decent sweater. The idea of entirely unique skeins made from mill ends is really wonderful. I want to make a bunch of these just to group skeins into sweaters. I am looking into getting this yarn direct from the mill in Michigan to make some machine knit sweaters for retail!

Machine Knitting Trip Part 2: Knitting

The 2 day intensive machine knitting course at the Textile Arts Center in Carroll Gardens was incredibly informative.The instructor, Mandy Kordal, Really knew her stuff, using a combination of demos and one on one instruction to make sure everyone was able to grasp the basics.

Machine Knitting Trip Part 1: Shopping

Last weekend, I took a very sudden vacation to New York City to take a machine knitting class at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn.

A while ago a generous person gave me a knitting machine to use, but after a year of improperly installed sponge bars and jammed carriages, I knew that I needed help. I found a knitting machine class on tumblr and found that it was relatively easy to get to. Immediately, I found that my mother wanted to share a hotel room to reduce the commute time and so we made plans.

Solarita

I was thinking of the sun, margaritas, and very warm, autumnal shawls when I designed this crescent wrap. I'm even cold in the summer sometimes. Especially after dark, or in late August when the weather starts to shift. Thinking of the summer sun setting as I sit outside with friends, chatting and watching the sky change color - this is when I start to shiver and look for something warm like the sun.

So I drew up a shawl like the setting sun in my sketchbook. It has a bold border with triangles and finger-like fringe. I found another use for my crazy stripe stitches that did not need color changes to show up. 

Surprisingly, the finished shawl looks almost exactly like the drawing, That rarely works out so well.

The yarn is Brooklyn Tweed Loft, a very springy yarn with bright flecks of orange and green undertones.

The best part is that it matches my favorite (only?) formal dress. No more cheap ugly cardigans or cold arms.

If you are interested in this pattern, you can check it out on Ravelry or buy it here.

Petal cowl pattern

A while ago, I made a post about some swatches that I was developing into patterns. Well, today I am publishing the first of my crazy stripe patterns.

Petal is a cowl designed to highlight the color shifts of a self striping yarn. The stich shapes are inspired by flower petals, fish scales, and vintage crochet afghans. A great summer knit, or a cold weather project when made in heavy yarn. A unique stitch is used to create an extra long chevron motif which set this cowl apart.
 

Finished Size: 10” (26cm) wide and 40” (100cm) around.

Yarn: 1 skein of Noro Taiyo Sock (shown in color 59), Silk Garden Sock or 462 yards of self striping fingering weight yarn. Gauge can be adjusted to work with any weight yarn.

Needles: Size 5 (3.75mm) 32”circular needles, or size needed to obtain gauge.

Gauge: 36 sts and 18 rounds in patt = 5 x 5” (12.5 x 12.5 cm) square.

Other Materials: 1 marker, sewing needle, pins, damp cloth, and iron for blocking.

Instructions are for fingering weight yarn, but are adjustable for any stitch count or gauge. I cannot wait to make this in Kureyon for winter.

Mother's day sweater

Last year, for mother's day, I gave my mom sock yarn gradient dyed in her favorite colors.

Feather Flame Pattern

Feather Flame is a chevron patterned scarf knit on the bias.  It has a scalloped edge and a slight curve that makes it easy to wear. The stitch pattern can be scaled to fit any gauge and yarn weight. Self  striping sock yarn gives definition to the waves of the flame stitch pattern.

Instructions are given in both chart and written form. Difficulty is intermediate, you need to know about increasing and decreasing using a few techniques but all are explained in the pattern. 

Yarn: 1 skein Lion Brand, Sock-Ease Prints, 438 yards (401 meters) shown in Red Hot,
or any fingering or sock weight yarn.

Needles: Size 6 (4mm) straight needles.

Gauge: 24 stitches and 32 rows in a 4 x 4” (10 x 10cm) square in pattern stitch.

Other Materials: Row counter, sewing needle, stitch holder.

Finished size: Approx 60 x 8” (152 x 20 cm)

You could definitely use any wight yarn with this pattern and change the number of repeats to get the  width you desire, striping sock yarn just happens to be a great way to show off the flame stitch pattern without using multiple colors to create stripes. That said, the pattern still looks nice in solids.

I hope you'll give it a try. The pattern is now on sale in my ravelry store or you can buy it here, use coupon code spring14 to get a 50% discount for the rest of March.

Simple Gifts Scarf

It is gift season and if you are a knitter, you are probably looking for some easy , fast last minute ideas.

Consider this simple brioche stitch scarf.

Fingerscarves Finally

Did you ever wonder what would happen if a pair of gloves and a scarf had a child? What would happen if you just reached into your scarf every time your fingers were cold?
Well this is the answer to those questions that you never actually asked.

It took only 2 years to put aside time to actually edit and publish this pattern, does anyone even remember it?

How could you forget a scarf that has fingers.

Carroll for Clotheshorse Magazine

I'm really excited to say that my first pattern made for a magazine is out. Clotheshorse magazine has published this color blocked sweater with set in sleeves and slimming side panels in a contrasting color.

Find it on Clotheshorse Mag

It's a style that is everywhere often seen on dresses, the color blocking creates the illusion of a slimmer waist. You can also see it in my prototype of the sweater, the dark sides definitely create an optical illusion.

I also did the trim in a different color and added a few short rows in the bust because I'm not a standard XS in the bust area. You can see the side stripe on the extra small is thinner, it's proportional to the size.

Double mustard reversible cabled scarf

I found this basic single ply wool at the craft store in bright mustard yellow and could imagine how a long cabled scarf would look - perfect for windy days. Cabled scarves are really nice to have in winter because they are thick and warm and really keep out the cold.

The only problem with my dream of the perfect cabled scarf is that I really dislike things that curl or look bad on one side. The solution is to make the cables reversible, its a little tricky to figure out upon first glance, but they are much easier to knit than they are to imagine.

Knit for work or play: Midnight Blazer

Last year, when working in a freezing office, I went looking around the internet for a  super warm work appropriate blazer. There wasn't a lot that left my forearms free to do computer work and fit my intern budget. I got the idea to knit something that looked work appropriate and chic yet a bit edgy with a bit of extra shoulder padding like a tailored blazer.
This silhouette is designed to flatter “pear shapes” by drawing the eye up and balancing a bottom heavy figure.

Working with Lamb's Pride Bulky (budget appropriate and a quick knit) I came up with this simple fitted cardigan with a modified set in sleeve. In 4 days of commute knitting and about $40 I had a great new piece to wear and established myself as "the intern who could fix your knitting."
 

My mom also made this and added long sleeves which are a great easy mod. she doesn't know I'm using her picture here, but she looks great, so I'm sneaking it up before she can object.

Also, Look at how nice her back neck looks.

Sizes - determined by bust measurement:

Bust Measurement (from body): XS(28-30”), S(32-34”), M(36-38”), L(40-42”), XL(44-46”)

Garment Bust: XS(15.5”), S(17.5”), M(19.5”), L(21.5”), XL(23.5”)
Garment Waist: XS(12.5”), S(13.75”), M(15.5”), L(17.5”), XL(19.5”)
Garment Hips: XS(17”), S(18”), M(20”), L(22”), XL(24”)
Garment Length: XS(22”), S(22.5”), M(22.75”), L(23”), XL(23.25”)

Grading, test knitting, tech editing, and illustrating the unique sleeve seams may have taken a year, but it is finally out and ready to purchase right here or view via ravelry so please take a look . 

paper + cashmere scarf

Yes, paper yarn, and you can knit it.

The story of this scarf starts a year and a half ago when I visited the Habu Textiles showroom in NYC. I had already experienced their stainless steel yarn and wanted another one of their strange but simply beautiful and tactile creations.

Shosenshi Linen Paper

           p a p e r 

The samples in the showroom were amazing, the yarn creates a stiff almost spongy fabric that can be creased but otherwise retains a somewhat self supporting structure. You need to feel it to get it...

 A few months later, when I moved to Boston, Shosenshi was one of the few yarns that I took from my stash (most was in storage) because it needed to be used, but it is a tricky fiber to find an application for. 

 
That's when I came across Shalimar Breathless, a cashmere blend, in a coordinating color. Together they became this scarf, possibly the only thing I've knit that works both as a scarf on a chilly winter walk and a wrap for a black tie event. 

The result is a luxurious wrap that has a great stiff texture along the edges, but uses some of the softest where the shawl touches your skin. 

It is all about the textures, I'm just not a good enough writer to describe it, maybe a poet could. 

 Buy the pattern here or view the details on ravelry.

Spinning Color Dash Yarn

One of my first realizations about spinning was that it gives you total control to make any type of yarn you can think of.

For a really long time, one of my goals has been to find a kind of variegated yarn that only has a few dashes of bright color and will never pool. I also do not like hand painted yarns as much as those with fibers spun after dying.

Superfine

I ordered a pound of 64 count merino top from Paradise Fibers with the intention of spinning the yarn for a sweater. It is extremely soft, white, clean, and easy to spin. The only problem is that I'm not good enough yet to spin it thicker than this.

This is the single ply.

And this is the ribbed swatch knit from the 3 plied yarn on #2 needles.

With about 1.25 oz spun, it isn't looking like the best thing for a sweater. Maybe in the future when I can get it up to a fingering weight.

For now, a scarf seems like a good little project.

Spinning

When something new and exciting happens, I usually share it here, but for the last few months I've been too distracted by that new and exciting thing to actually get some photos up. Back in January, I went to Vogue Knitting Live in NYC. There was a lady there with a really great stall selling funky yarn and these little bags of what looked like fiber geodes. She has an Etsy store called Loop.

The colors were so good, SO GOOD, that I bought one even though I'd never really spun anything before.

In early February I could not wait any longer and went looking around the house for something to turn into a drop spindle. It had to be balanced on its own and able to fit around a 1/4" dowel with a hook.

Some people favor CDs or the tops of Chinese food containers. I ended up disassembling an auto returning yoyo, it's smaller in diameter than a CD, well balanced, and it has cool clear plastic parts. You can see the neon colors and now nonfunctional springs.

I started with the spindle, thick at first and eventually thinner. Because of how the fiber was prepped, there were no lumpy bits. The center pull, pre drafted merino silk sparkle blend was perfect to learn on.

 Now I have about 400 yards of this 3 ply yarn. It took about 2 months to spin and another 2 weeks to ply using the Navajo plying method. If some of these terms are foreign to you, that's good, because I don't really know about this stuff either. In the next few months, I will be posting some videos of these techniques.

Seeing how soft, fine yarn was so easy to make, I started to experiment. All that was in the house was this really rough, course core fiber that is usually only used for needle felting. I dyed it with food coloring, and spun the yarn for these swatches:

This is a 2 ply fingering weight yarn made from one section of roving dyed in a gradient then split down the middle.

It's a good example of "breaking" or splitting the color of Wilton black foodcoloring.

And this is a 3 ply fingering yarn spun from roving dyed in a red orange and blue color.

Close up, you can see that the plies are not all the same color at the same time.

After completing these swatches, I couldn't stop. I went ahead and ordered some superfine merino fiber from Paradise Fibers with the intention of spinning a sweater.

We will see how that goes...


If you are feeling inspired to start spinning your own yarn and have questions for a beginner about beginning, please leave a comment. I hope to go into more depth in the future, possibly in the form of a video tutorial and your feedback will shape the content.

Testing Now: Midnight Blazer

 Midnight Blazer: Super quick cold weather knit with accented shoulders and a fitted silhouette. Like it?

 If you do, Sign up to test this new holiday pattern on Ravelry

you.knit.lamps

Eight months ago, I posted a few pictures of a lamp that I made out of felt. There was a pretty big response from people who wanted to make lamps too, but there were also a lot of questions about fires and electrical wiring.

It took a bit of work, but with motivation from a really ugly bedside lampshade, help from the ravelry free testers group, and photography and some proofreading from my mother, there is now a way for others to knit similar lumpy lampshades.

All of the danger and live wires have been excised and replaced with safety and standardization. It may sound much less exciting, but it allows me to publish a pattern that fits the needs of all sorts of people with all sizes of lamp without an overbearing fear of fires and lawsuits.

The  pattern is for a textured felt lamp shade in multiple sizes and matching pillows in two sizes, the pillows do not light up.The lamp shade can be sewn over a preexisting shade or a handmade frame. DIY instructions for a metal lamp shade frame are included in the pattern as well as a lesson in lamp anatomy and safety.

The pillows are 10" x 16" and 16" x 16".
The shade fits a 6"-18" diameter drum shade with a height of 11". The height is adjustable.
Patons Classic Wool in color Aran is shown in all pictures.

Some of the skills needed for this pattern are non knitting related. It just wouldn't be fair to keep them secret, so I'm posting them here so that everyone can decide whether they want to put in the extra effort to make the lampshade themselves. The following images show the skills and materials needed to make a lampshade from scratch. These images are also included in the pattern PDF.

If you aren't into this sort of crafting , keep in mind that using a store bought lamp shade and making a pillow do not require any of these extra steps.

You've now seen everything but the actual knitting instructions so there are no unwanted surprises (I'm very OK with people using these lampshade frame instructions to come up with their own projects as long as I get credit for creating the files).  It's a fun project for the adventurous crafter and is very rewarding. You have to actually feel the texture to know how rewarding it really is.

The pillow is perfect for petting.

You can find the pattern on ravelry for $8.00 or get it right here.


If you are not a knitter but are interested in this product: I am able to produce a limited number of pillows and lampshades depending on my schedule. Contact me with your needs for pricing info.