Goodies, Animals and Craftiness

Typical morning during Cal's visit!

I’m currently writing from Haliburton, ON where I am taking level one of a six-year hand-spinning programme through the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Guild. I’m having a fantastic time and meeting lots of people. I’m learning a lot too - much of which I will share over the next few weeks.

I want to get back to Ms. Cal Patch of Hodge Podge Farm’s visit… The title of this post pretty much sums up what occupied much of Cal and my time (and pretty much in that order too). One of our many identical interests is goodies, mostly in the form of pastries, only from Indy bakers/bakeries. Also, if one has acquired said goodies, one also needs some sort of delicious tea – preferably black and scented.



Animals – I have cats, Cal has Gertie (a dog that doesn’t really seem all that dog like). My cats were not sure what Gertie was, they knew they didn’t really like her but were not too sure. Gertie, who was raised by cats, totally ignored the cats. We also met Maisy the Workroom dog!

Even Tamaralda loved Gertie!

Best for last! Craftiness! I was able to very happily sit in on several of Cal’s classes. The first was a pattern making class to make a pattern for a dress (the lovely blogstress/my friend Claire was in attendance)! I was so excited to learn how to make a pattern based on MY body!

Gertie is Cal's helper during class.

La Blogstress Claire.

Dress pattern making at Lettuce Knit!

Cal is a wonderful teacher and I was lucky enough to also take a t-shirt pattern making class at Workroom. Workroom is an amazing space full of fabrics and classes and books…. My head was spinning with excitement! Again! A perfect pattern for a perfect t-shirt for ME!


Lettuce Knit was Cal and my home for three evenings in a row! Their Stitch n’ Bitch night was so much fun! I had a great time meeting the Lettuce team! I also got to sit in on Cal’s embroidery for knitter’s class – which re-ignited my love for embroidery in a whole new way.

Lettuce Knit Stitch n' Bitch.

Embroidery class at Lettuce Knit.

Cal and I had the perfect week – well, I guess I can’t speak for her….

As an addendum to my last post, the cardinal nest was empty as of the other day. No eggs/babies/Momma bird. I believe it was some nasty badsy raccoon out for a quick snack....

K5 Tog!!!

My colleague Tamara (Tamaralda) had the good fortune to attend an Orenburg Lace Knitting workshop at the Textile Museum taught by THE expert on the subject, Galina Khmeleva. Lucky for me, Tamara decided to hold a group follow-up with a few of the other participants in the class. We had a lovely evening talking about lace knitting and working on an Orenburg sampler that is in the current issue of Piecework Magazine. (As an aside, the current issue of Piecework is all about samplers – one of my other obsessions).

Galina wearing one of her shawls:


Orenburg lace shawls originated in the Orenburg area of Russia about 250 years ago. The fine lace work is knitted from finely spun goat fibre similar to mohair and sometimes blended with silk. They are always knit in garter stitch and each pattern has a traditional name like: Mouse Print, Strawberry or Cat’s Paw. The shawls are also know as wedding ring shawls because even though the shawls are quite large, they are so fine, you can pass them through a ring.

Tamara and I have been working on our sampler for the past few weeks and the group is meeting again at the end of the month. I’ll post pictures of everyone’s progress!

My sampler is on the left and is made out of Diamond Luxury Alpaca Lace, Tamara's is on the right and is made of Arucania Trauco Cashmere:


In other news, Tamara and Jan (Jaqual) have both finished their Lanesplitter skirts. I have to complete the waistband on mine. I’ll get pictures of us wearing them up just as soon as I’m done. The original post was mentioned on the knitty blog! Thanks Kate!

Lanesplitter pour trois!

My co-workers at Passionknit and I all get along very well – we share a similar sense of humour, like the same TV shows and all love to knit (of course!), but we certainly all have very different styles.

A few weeks ago, Tamara came running in with a pattern from the brand new issue of Knitty, she’s obsessed with skirts and the pattern was for a skirt called the Lanesplitter by Tina from knitwhits. It’s made out of Kureyon by Noro. Within about 30 seconds we had all chosen our colours and were sitting down to cast on.

We began to joke about this skirt becoming our official uniform and a friendly race began to see who would be first to get it finished. Tamara and I decided Jan the knitting whizz would have it whipped up by the next day. Then I sided with Jan thinking Tamara would have it done first because she’s such a skinny-mini.

It’s been a really fun exercise first seeing the colours of the Kureyon unfold then seeing that the colours we each chose really fit our own unique styles and actually made each skirt different. What colour can do!

We’ve decided to each finish the skirt in different ways. I’m going to go by the pattern to finish the waistband, Tamara is going to try to do a crocheted waistband and Jan is going to enclose the elastic by a waistband formed by a double-knitting technique.

There was also discussion on how much negative ease to put into the garment. Tamara gave 3” and, we’ll just say, that it’s going to be a very slinky skirt! So, I changed my mind about 3” of negative ease and am going to just leave 1” so my skirt will actually fit over my bum.

We are all always so amazed with the wealth of amazing designers out there in internet-land who offer their patterns for free or for such great prices. Sites like Knitty and Ravelry have really changed the craft!

Here’s Tamara with her 3” of negative ease:



Jan has finished hers already!!!:


Here I am still knitting away:

The Wrapping and the Turning...

For my classes, I try and find small projects that are technique based. Something that would be fun and easy to complete and drive a technique into your brain. Then, the student can go on and know these techniques when the come across them in other patterns or when they make up their own! Easy gauntlets to learn 4-needle techniques, a picot edge or different cast on method for an easy cowl and, the feature of this post, The Ameila Earhart Aviator Cap which is all about wrapping and turning. These techniques together are all you need to make socks, for example. They are also projects that are easy to complete and easy to get a great head start on in a 2 hour class.

In my random internet searching for fun knitting patterns, I came across a website called Head Huggers. It is a site full of free hat patterns all suitable for people undergoing chemo or that have lost their hair due to surgery or other health problems. A very cool site! I found the Aviator Hat pattern on it and just thought it was so amazing. I made one using Louisa Harding Grace in this beautiful silver/blue/indigo colour way. The construction of the hat, the shaping and the head-hugging qualities were so amazing. It's all about W&T - it helps you master the W&T and shows you how to seamlessly shape this head hugging creation.

I contacted the operator of the site to ask if I could use the pattern for a class and she sent back a very nice email saying she'd be delighted. I asked about the designer and was told that all she knew was that she had been living in South America.

Because of the vintage style, it wasn't a very popular class. I was bummed because it's such a fun knit and you learn so much from it. I though later that I should have advertised the class maybe a little better. It could be used as a cap for under your bike or ski helmet, as a fashion statement (which I use it for), or, for the intention on the Head Huggers site, for someone who has lost their hair.

As an aside, I was wearing it one day and someone mentioned it looked like a Pilgrim hat. Now every time I wear it, all I can think of is the Crucible and Winona Ryder screaming, "I saw Goody Good communing with the devil!!!"

Sparkle Fresh Beret Pattern

This is a beret of my design. It was a really fun one and the process was a good one for me too.

I originally made it out of Louisa Harding Mulberry which is 100% silk. The fabric had amazing drape and it looked really good but I should have thought back to my fibre training and known that 100% silk doesn't have memory. It's a long fibre that's slippery and stretches and stretches and stretches with no "snap back" like wool. I thought that adding the Katia Pailettes (which is a thread of nylon with sequins threaded on it) would give it the body it needed but I was still very unhappy with my baggy, streatched out hat.

So, I remade the beret with a silk wool blend. I stuck with Louisa Harding because I'm a fan (hee). This time, I made it with her Grace which is a hand-painted silk/wool blend. It has a beautiful sheen, it's warm, springy and the colours are amazing. I, of course, still used the Katia Pailettes because it wouldn't be "Sparkle Fresh" otherwise.

If you make the beret please feel free to substitute yarns, any DK weight should work (check your guage though!!!). And please add sparkle - beads, Katia Pailettes, sequins - anything to make it sparkle FRESH!

Sparkle Fresh Beret
by Alisa McRonald
http://fibreperson.blogspot.com/

This beret was inspired by glamour, texture and luxury. Pop it on your head and you are ready to go out for a night on the town! So simple you can start it with your morning coffee and have it done for your evening cocktail!

One size fits most, approximately 10” in diameter once blocked.

Gauge: 18 sts and 24 rows = 4” (10 cm in Stockinette Stitch
(k every row). Please always check your gauge!

Materials: Two balls Louisa Harding Grace yarn, one ball Katia Paillettes, 3.5mm, 16” circular needle (for brim), 4.5mm, 24” circular needle for hat,
4.5mm set double pointed needles for finishing, darning needle to weave in ends.

Stitches used:
kfb = knit into the front and back of st (increases by 1 st)
ssk = Slip, slip, knit. Slip next two sts as if to knit, one at a time, to right needle; insert left needle into fronts of these 2 sts and k them together.

Brim:
Using Grace and with 3.5mm circular needles, cast on 80 sts. Mark beginning of round and join. Work circularly in k1, p1 rib for 1 1/2”.

Increase Round:
Switch to 4.5mm circular needles. *K1, KFB repeat from * around – 120 sts.
Continue to knit all sts until piece measures 4 1/2” from beginning. Place 5 more markers evenly spaced around (place marker every 20 sts. Make sure marker at the beg. of round is a different colour or easily identified from the rest.)

Crown:
Rnd 1(decrease rnd): *Ssk, work to marker, slip marker repeat from * 6 times.
Rnd 2: Work 1 rnd even. Repeat last 2 rounds until 48 sts remain (carefully switch to double pointed needles).

Repeat Rnd 1 only, until 6 sts remain (note: decreasing every round).

Finishing:
Gently remove/cut paillettes from 6” of yarn. Using darning needle thread both ends through 6 remaining sts. Pull extra to inside and secure. Weave in all ends remembering to remove paillettes from any Paillettes yarn that needs to be woven in. Lay hat flat and pin to blocking area in desired shape, mist lightly with water and allow to dry.