As soon as green pops from the ground and the air gets warm, I will admit that I am usually deeply immersed in wool heavy knitting. This year is no different. As much as I want to put aside to wool and jump into, well lighter wool, I must carry on.

But I can still think about spring knitting right?  But I don't see anything that leaps out at me in the new Spring knitting world. However, there are some great trends this Spring int the "regular world". So here is my Spring 2010 Trend Report (it omits all of the weird stuff like feathers and things that only look good on waify people)

TREND #1: Nautical Stripes
They lie, the fashion people, they are calling it "bright stripes" or "sporty stripes" but really it is the nautical stripe that we see every other year. This it is good for a knitter becasue we want to wear out items more than once. This is the Faux Pocket Pullover by Anthropologie. I put in this sweater becasue a faux pocket is a good idea for an area where you want to minimize bulk, it has a great neckline and is good length for the warmer weather.

Trend #2: Yellow
This color has been around for w few seasons and it still pops up for spring. Now I am a pale as white redhead.
Redhead + Pale = Looks Sick and Anemic in Yellow.
But I really like it, so I will gaze longingly from afar. This is a great cardigan from ModCloth called  Child-Hoodie in Mac-n-Chesse (that is the best name for a sweater. This one also has great detail in the pockets.

Spring Trend #3: Vintage
This is another title I made up. You see no vintage mention in the Spring Fashion Reports, however, that would make them admit that they are "copying" older stuff. They are innovators! So they made some stuff that looks to me (lay fashionable) as Vintage. Here is another example from Anthropologie, the Mermaid Lore Cardigan. This is a great Spring sweater, short sleeved, made at a gauge size that is not micro, and uses a great slip stitch pattern for the black detailing at the top.

Trend #4: Chunky Sweaters:
OKay, according to In-Style Magazine chunky sweaters are in for Spring. I am not sure If I believe that what I want to wear on a sunny spring day is a big fat chunky sweater but hey? Do I really need to find a way to justify another black cardigan, I don't thing so. This sweater is the Chunky knit Cardigan by Chloe (I know, what a clever name). By knitting this sweater youself, you save alot of money. The original is $1295. Now I know what you are thinking, "I would never pay that much for a sweater!!!". But wait, if you got paid minimum wage for the last sweater you made how much would it cost at a retail store?
Mathmatical analysis of Vivian:
Knitting time: Approximately 150 hours
Labor Cost at Minimum Wage ($8.00 x 150): $1200.00
Yarn + Materials: $90.00
Cost to Make: $1290.00
The wholesale company (x2): $2580.00
Then retail is (x2), as well so the cost at a store would be: $5,160.00

The other thing about these sweater is they would all go so well with this great necklace. Which, I do now own, and probably will not ever own, but it would cost less then if I sold my Vivian at retail.

This would probably even work in the summer, maybe even the fall. Just saying.

Happy Spring!

Currently I am making a sweater for someone who spends his days frolicking in the woods of snowy Vermont with my of two favorite brown beasts. He said a plain rough and tumble sweater would be fine. Fine, except I would never finish one.... way to boring. So what is a knitter to do when the knittee would like a sweater from the GAP? Here's how I figured it out.

I listed my criteria, and his and came up with a general set of parameters for design:

Requirements of the Knitter(me):
- I wanted to develop a new pattern, Norwegian style.
- I wanted to do some color work.
- I wanted the "belly" to be some plain stockinette, since my schedule for that part is busy and I needed a little mindless knitting.

Requirements of the Knittee:
- Preferably it should fit.
- It should be durable, and easy to care for.
- It cannot make him look like a Hallmark Christmas Card.
- It cannot make him feel guilty for getting mud, snow, motor oil, or grease on it.
- It should match the colors of a hat I made him several years ago.
- It should be done before August.

Design:
I wanted something sporty and macho, I immediatly thought of Osterdalen by Dale of Norway. But then I realized it is to frilly and fussy, the Norwegian Ski team can just pull that sort of thing off.

I started roaming around and created a Design Board of elements and starting pulling together the start of a pattern.

Yarn:
I moved onto yarn choice. My default purchasing option is always “on sale” and in February the yarn of the Month at Bea Ellis Knitwear was Dale of Norway Falk, which is wool, machine washable and sport weight. All perfect for Vermont. Yarn Check.

Pattern:
I started playing with several of the patterns and anded up producing several border patterns to start. For this sweater I settled on some subtle stripes with the center stripe being a little pattern work. I have added a border pattern chart file to the pattern section of the site with all of the options I started with. Feel free to use them.

Casting On:
So then I cast on 250 sts, knit 1" of hem, did a purl row for turning, and started on my border chart.

Stockenette Heaven:
Now I am mindless going around and around with the charcoal color. I have not yet determined the rest of the pattern but I promise I will before it becomes a dress.

Ta ta for now, enjoy frolicking with puppies if you can, and happy spring!

It has been a bit of a gap for me. Cold, house guests, more house guests and then a few more house guests.
I have had a bunch of knitting progress....
1) Finished the February Lady.
2) Finished my samples for the Gaggle of Owls pattern.
3) Started Sweater for my Andy, the best brother-in law I have that lives in the state of Vermont.
4) Finished Vivian sweater, sans zipper which I will install soon.
5) Made some potholders and a hat.
6) Swatched, measured and decided on colors for the Katherine Howard sweater and waiting on some Moss to arrive. 

Nope!
I won the Dale of Norway 2009 Design Contest in the Baby Category!
More details will come as I hear about them, and I will be posting pattern information soon.

I spent this weekend in Vermont and was thinking of warm and fuzzy winter hats. I wanted to make a great hat pattern inspired by all things winter, but the first thing I think of is snow, and a white hat is boring.

Nothing says winter like skiing here in the Northeast. Here is a ski map of the Killington mountain resort, where I learned to fall down the mountain. Although I only like the green hills (the easy ones) I love the colors in the ski maps. Also, you get a really good long look at the map as a knitter sitting in the lodge all day.

There is white and bright red along with some great  blues and greens. These are cheery colors that go with almost anything. Here I have made a chart Norwegian hat pattern using Dale of Norway Falk. Just cast on 128 sts and begin the chart.

Enjoy the snow, the knitting in the ski lodge and the hot cocoa.
Happy wintering!

Color theory, in practice can get a little fuzzy, epically when it involves yarn (ha, ha yarn joke…. just for me).Complementary colors, defined as opposites on the color wheel, should by definition complement each other. However, when you combine full strength hues (really bright colors) of color complements you can get what is called a vibrating color. These are two colors that, when placed next to each other create the impression of a vibrating line between the two colors. When designing websites, these types of color combinations can cause difficulty reading text and seeing patterns.

The softness of fiber can minimize this effect, but patterns in this combination can be hard to read. In most knitting patterns one element stands out more then another, for example, in this Argyle  pattern. The Navy stands out against the white background and is the dominant color.

When the same pattern is colored with pure hues of complementary colors cause both colors to be the foreground or background. These complementary patterns cause a confusion in the eye as to which is more prominent and make the pattern hard to read. In this argyle pattern on the left there is not foreground or background color they just jump back and forth. Using these combination minimizes the impact of the overall pattern.  Just try it, look at one color in the patterns and then switch, which is the background? It is impossible to tell.

So how do you successful harness the great properties of complementary colors without causing this weird vibration? There are a few options, but primary you can do one of the following:
   1)Lighten or darken the background
   2) Lighten or darken the foreground.

Some examples of these are included in the chart on the left. In order to make sure that a pattern translates, make sure to use either a darker or lighter complement. With the recolor examples it is easy to tell the dominant color, even though it is exactly help of the stitches.

So for now, happy complements to your pattern designs!

As a knitter who enjoys colors, I have accumulated many, many balls of Jamieson's Shetland 2-ply Spindrift and Jamieson & Smith Jumper weight wool. Having this collection has become a great reference for swatching future projects. But with 100’s of colors, I need to make sure that I keep track of which ball is which so I can order more if I need too.  

  The online printed color sheets cannot possible show the heathers in the yarn and so many look very similar unless you see them in person (in the daylight, on a sunny day).  And since the two Shetland brands are interchangeable you would need to compare to two different lists to ensure you were getting the correct color.

  In order to keep track and keep my sanity I use what I call the “good enough” organizational method. This is a simple, easy and pretty full proof method for organizing. It also takes as little time as possible in order to increase my time for actual knitting.

SUPER COMPLICATED STEPS TO ORGANIZING:
1) Remove ball from band
2) Tie approx. 1 foot of yarn to the label
3) Put label in Ziploc bag with other labels.

  The downfall to this method is if you get so many labels that your bag gets to full. The advanced method for this technique involves a quart or gallon size Ziploc bag. The bag then goes into the bin of yarn that has the yarn in it so they are always together.

I have upwards of 50 labels for my Shetland yarn and it has never taken me more than a couple of minutes to find the label and attached sample of a particular color.

I know that Martha Stewart would not approve, and it would be nice to have and organized binder with handmade color cards, carful penned by me. However, I would rather have the sweater I could make in the time it took me to organize the yarn.

Happy Good enough” organizing!

I am a knitting technique junkie. However,  I like to wear black cardigans bought at the Gap. Sometimes when I want to get really crazy with myself I will wear a grey cardigan from the Gap. These habits do not mesh well with my love for stranded color work, crazy intarsia and all things Norwegian.

So when my sister in law came to visit I vented. She is an amazing quilter and sewer ….she would understand. So in my rant on the topic of wanting to knit the rainbow and wear black, I pulled out Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore and pointed at Katherine Howard “Like this sweater, I would love to knit this, it is challenging, has a great design and is innovative in so many ways. And it is super complicated; I just don’t think anyone would wear it.” Now my lovely sil, she loved it! And a future sweater was born.

  The colors in the original were not quite my sister in law so I set to swatching. I have a great bin of Jamieson & Smith Shetland and I love to dig into it. I have a wide mix of lights, darks, warms and cools so I did some experimental swatches to see how the heathers would blend.

After many swatches I determined that the best way to soften the lines was to keep all of the colors in the same range of hue.

In the end we chose a chocolate, a mustard, a dark brick read and a blue with yellow and red. Each of the colors have a heather of one of the other colors to soften it.

I am currently contemplating trying to complete this during the Olympics. Even if I had nothing else to do and had a cortisone shot in my hands I am not sure that that is possible.  Until then I will do a large final swatch and think about starting the project.
Until then. Happy knitting!

I love hand painted yarns, don't get me wrong. I just tend to like them on the skein better than the sweater. Why? POOLING. 

When you knit with a multicolored yarn, and he colors do funny things it is called pooling. Meaning, what was beautiful in a ball becomes a muddy mess in the knitting. Sometimes (by chance)  you will get an even color, but it is mainly by accident. Take the sweater at the left that I knit this summer. The colors were so nice in the ball, oranges and blues evenly spaced and intermixed nicely. The problem is in the sweater length between repeats changes and this can leave you with a “blotch” of unwanted color.

There are four pooling preventers that have employed to varying degrees over the course of my knitting career.

1)      Pool on purpose. If you carefully swatch to determine the repeat of your pool you can create a vertical stripe effect. There are several limitations to this method. This only works with yarns that have been machine printed epically for this – or – in hand painted yarns dyed in a hank. Also, the piece you are knitting must be a rectangle, the width cannot change during the process, limiting you to a scarf (or potholder). I must admit I have not done this, the start of the process takes a lot of time and I have no patience. A great example of this is the Rainbow Arches Pooling Stole by Gladys We Published on her blog Yarn Floozies  she gives a great explanation of how to do this technique, and the pattern is free.

2) Use Two Yarns or color ways every other row. This is a good method over longer items like shawls. By having many colors and having the repeat stretch out, it can prevent pools by not allowing more than two rows to have the same set of colors. 

I used this technique in a shawl using Blue Heron Yarns beaded Cotton (orange, deep purple, dark teal) and Interlacements Yarn Cotton Rayon (orange, peach, lavender, pink).  The resulting fabric did not pool because the repeats in the yarn were short, there were many colors and every other row was a different yarn.  Plan ahead and swatch first.

3) When you see a pool, make a loop. When you have a yarn that is primarily one color with spot of another, you can remove color if you see pooling by making a large loop on the wrong side and omitting the color. This can even out a yolk, like in my February lady sweater, were I “pulled out the pink” in several locations to try and make a more even yoke.

This is good because you can make determinations as you go. However, you can end up with a lot of ends.  The bad parts is that there are many, many ends. This technique is also not very good for lace where it is problematic to weave ends in during a row.

4) Just do fair isle. I know, I know that is not a technique for multicolored hand paint yarn, but it does prevent pooling. There is no guesswork on where the colors will be, because you put them there.

So when in doubt, knit something that won't make you pull your hair out. Test, swatch, and feel free to give up and just pool. Worse comes to worse and you can make socks to hide under pants and in shoes.
I am going to keep the hand painted yarn in a ball, and look at it like art on the wall like art while doing some fair isle knitting.
Happy pooling and/or stranding, it is up to you!

Today I need a knitting recharge. Both mentally and in terms of yardage. I am testing all of my owlets and I have run a little short on purple and teal, so having a good excuse I ran along to my favorite local yarn store A Good Yarn in Brookline, MA. They always have an great selection of the old standby yarns that I like so much, as well as the fun and fuzzy. Most importantly, they have always had enough of the yarn you want to make a sweater.

Paula, Amy and Beverly recharged my knitting batteries and have got me pushing through to the end (and thinking of new projects). I also got some Rowan Cotton for a secret new project and the latest Vogue and Interweave Knits.
Amy is also a great pattern writer (check out her ravelry pattern shop here.) and gave me some great advice about. Just be consistent and it will be OKay. As soon as I am finished with all of these owls I am going to  knit her trellis lace collar pattern.
Tonight I am off to knit and sing some Karoke with my DH and fellow crafty friend Liz from Crafty Lizzie. If you remember those awful analogy questions from school ours would be:
Diane is to Knitting as Liz is to Paper Crafts
Maybe there is paper stamped yarn in the future :)

For now happy shopping at your LYS!

I have been doing very little actual knitting because i feel pangs of guilt when I do and it is to cold to sneak some in on the way to the office. I started the February Lady Sweater on Christmas Day and have done a few rows here and there, but the total I did this week is less then what i did in the car, in the dar, on the way home from Christams in Vermont. at 5:00 am.

I have been plugging away finalizing the  gaggle of Owls pattern. Every turn it seems like i ask a new question. Is it better to write a line like this:
R5: K1, M1, k5, M1, k1   - or -  R5: K1, M1 knit until 1 st rem, M1, K1
Barbara Waker says the 1st option, so that is what I did....

but then do you say:
R5:   - or -   Row 5:

And then there is italics, bold, spacing between commas AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have it all figured out now. But I kept changing my mind while typing so I have to make sure there is consistency. I hope that my darling husband wants to talk to me this weekend. Below, just to add a photo of proof is 2 of the pattern pages (very small, in case of errors).

Happy knitting for those who are, and happy wishing you were knitting for those who are writing!