First magazine to review

Interweave Knits Spring 2009

Ok, so why in the world am I starting with a mag so recent? I am just in love with the Whisper cardigan pattern! I have seen it made from sock yarn and ultra alpaca fine which happen to be two yarns that I already own.

The whole issue has some beautiful patterns. There are very few magazines that I own where I like more than one thing. Usually I purchase a mag for just one pattern, one article or just plain old inspiration.

I like the sweet tee also. Hmm I might just park it on this issue for a while... Now what kind of yarn does that call for?

The petal halter and posy slip are two more that I have been eyeballing. I can't wait to get access to my yarn in order to start "shopping" for my new projects. It's so nice to get excited about what I already have.

Betty's lacy stockings is also a pattern that I would like to try. So that makes it a total of 5 patterns that really catch my eye. Do I have the yarn for these? Do I have the inclination to knit all of them? What kind of order am I putting to this whole knit your way through your mags project? Do I have the time? What's reasonable?

There is plenty of time to answer all those questions later. Today I have decided to work on the Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I am making it in a gorgeous shade of red Ultra Alpaca Fine by Berroco and a perfect deep black sock yarn by Lang called Jawoll. I plan to make the shrug part of the cardigan in red and the ribbing and skirt sections in black. Can't wait to see the results!!! I've already swatched and blocked and washed. I am happy to say I got gauge and I am ready to start full speed ahead! Well, off to cast on. I will post pics of my progress tomorrow. Until tomorrow spidey friends, same bat channel same bat time!!!

Contemporary Baby Blanket......DONE!!!!

This took me almost two months to complete simply because of the new and busy schedule I've been keeping. Whaddaya think?

Excuse the crappy iphone picture. My regular camera isn't working well. So as previously stated I used Berroco Comfort for this. Precisely I used 1 1/4 skeins of white and red and a little less than 3 skeins of the black. The blanket measure about crib size at 33x46 inches. I am very pleased with the results.

What I Would Do Differently:

I would put in an extra panel to make it 4 instead of three in order to make it wider.

When blocking I would only use cold water. The red bled a little making the white slightly pink. I should have know better but it really doesn't take away from the overall look of the blanket.

Work on it more frequently instead of letting the project languish for days. (This really should have been done 3 weeks ago!)

And last but not least I would like to have put more embroidery on it but time is running short since my little niece will be putting in an early appearance. Baby is healthy but the Doctors are saying that the baby needs to come out. Baby wasn't due until Father's day but it's close enough to the due date to avoid many complications.

I am currently working on my first post for my year of knitting through my stash of yarn and magazines. Can't wait to show you what I've got cooking!

Whoop, Whoop

That's the sound of da police. JK it's really the sound of me finally having my yarn all around me. I've decided that no matter how tiny my apartment is I can't run the risk of not having access to my yarn. So, how did I do it? you ask.

I had to fill out a form at the storage place in order to have the lock cut and of course purchase another lock. And wouldn't you know it.....the day AFTER I had the lock cut I found the keys. In a jacket. I left at work.

This just confirms my philosophy that the best way to find something lost is to replace it. Goodness, I hope that doesn't apply to relationships. There are some things that are better left lost, ya know?

Currently I am working on a baby blanket for my little brother's first daughter!!! Yay! I am going to be a Titi again. She is due at the end of June. My SIL told me she liked black and red so I asked her if she would mind if I made a baby blanket and added white to it for a little contrast. I must say that at first I didn't know how I felt about those colors. You know how we knitters are.....especially when we are knitting for a little relative not our own child. I had ideas, I had aspirations and they all included pink and brown.


So, in keeping with her wishes I started out on a yarn quest. Which yarn will hold up to years and years of use? which yarn will be soft on my little niece's skin? At first I was going to go with Berocco Vintage which I have been dying to try out. But when I went to buy it my lovely LYS had just run out of the red that I wanted (that's what I get for trying to buy after a big sale....when will I learn?) Then I remembered my go-to yarn for long wearing projects....Berocco Comfort. I love this yarn. The colors are so vibrant and there are so many to choose from. I went ahead and started the knitting and I am loving the color combo. So much so in fact that my very first project for my year long knitting from magazine project is going to be in red and black. Let's just say I imaging myself looking super hot in this.

You know, H-O-T!

and not the sweaty kind of hot either.

Since October I have lost 30 pounds. I lost it through a combination of weight watchers and extreme stress. Weight Watchers has really helped me to stay on my points when I really didn't feel like eating. Many, many days I would eat way under my points and I started feeling worse so I make it a point that no matter how aweful, stressful, distracting my day is to make sure I eat a minimum of my points. Another way I've been coping with stress is to excersise. Usually I power walk, occasionally I jog. This really tires me out to the point that the issues that I am dealing with don't affect me as much. And I am finally able to sleep at night. Praise the Lord!!!!!

In Psalms 4:7-8 it says:
Thou hast put gladness in my heart, More than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, For thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

These verses are incredibly cool. The first part about putting gladness in my heart..... well, to be honest when things get overwhelming I am anything but glad but I start reading my bible or hanging out with the kids or talking to my mom and friends and the gladness is there. God's word brings me comfort and reminds me of all the blessings that I have now even in this valley that I am going through. And this time of my life is much more meaningful because of the relationships I am able to establish. More than my time of "corn and wine". You know, when things were going well. Or at least I thought they were going well. God has been my fortress and at night I lay down in peace and sleep just like the verse promises.

Being in God's word is not easy because many times there are things that I just do not want to see. But.......I want to be in His will. I want to be what He wants me to be. Because it's nothing but good!

Ch-Ch-Changes

Lots and lots of changes have taken place since I last blogged. Lots of sad changes but God knows what He is doing and all things work for good for those who love the Lord. I might talk about those changes in later posts but for now.....

Drum roll please....

I am pleased to announce a new direction that I am going to take this blog. Cause really if u think about it it really hasn't been going in any direction.....

I have been going through my knitting library and have noticed that although I have a huge stack of magazines that I constantly drool over I haven't really made a thing out of any of them. Ok so maybe I am exaggerating, I probably made one or two projects out of the 53 magazines that I have. Here is my idea.... I will be going through these magazines one by one and knitting a project out of each one and commenting on the patterns in general as I go through them. All the while I plan to blog about my experiences and thoughts. I also plan to use stash yarn for this and comment also on each yarn that I use for each project. Waddaya think?

There's just been one itsy bitsy little snag in this whole plan. I lost the keys to my storage room. I just want to cry my eyes out because I have so much yarn that I haven't even had a chance to put on Ravelry yet. Now I have to either wait for the district manager to come with some lock cutter thing and cut the lock whenever he happens to be in the district or rent one from Home Depot and cut it myself. Sigh.... I'll have it all figured out soon.

Because of the slight difficulties with gaining access to my yarn I have decided that I will be starting June 1st. This is a commitment. I am documenting this and I am setting up my alarm on my iphone to alert me when I should be doing each step of the process. This is so exciting!!! Pics to follow shortly. My next post will be in one week!

This past Thursday the 4th I went out to lunch with a new found knitting friend for my birthday. We were chit chatting and somehow the subject of wedding rings came up.

My husband and I were married in January of 2000. He bought me this beautiful white gold band surrounded by leaves with diamonds set into the leaves. Absolutely beautiful and the apple of my eye. I'm not really into jewelery but this one was very special. About 5 yrs ago I took my ring off to sleep. In the morning I looked for it and couldn't find it. I tore up the house and looked all over but it was no where to be found. I was very sad. My finger always felt naked.

So, I told my friend this story then we parted after lunch and I ran some errands. At dinner that night (which my children prepared with my mom...yum!) My 5 yr old was all figety. My oldest was practically sitting on him to keep him quiet until the presents were given to me.

The dinner alone was wonderful but when I opened up my one singe solitary gift my heart just melted......



They've been squirreling away allowance for this...

yeah, my kids are great!

New Patterns in the Works......

There are new patterns in the works....oh, yeah, that's what the title said...

the first one I am working on and it will be a FREE pattern....yes....I said FREE pattern is the Mamma Wolf Tee Shirt. I am just waiting for a couple of my wonderful test knitters to send in their final notes. The pattern should be ready by June 10th or so...

The next pattern that I am working is a scarf pattern for a wonderful line of handpainted yarn called Abstract Fiber. The yarn is beautiful!!! It has a beautiful sheen and the colors work up so pretty. Go check her out and see for yourself!

I'll be checking in soon with progress and pictures after this weekend. I will be in Wildwood NJ celebrating my birthday with my family. I am looking forward to it. I'm not a big beach goer since I can't stand seeing people in their bathing suits. But I plan to early enough to enjoy the beach and by the time it starts to get crowded the kids will be tired and we'll be on our way to an early lunch and naps. After that we hit the boardwalk and get on some rides. I can't wait. It's very pretty down there and the beaches are clean (I know it's NJ but we do have some clean beaches).

A Design's Journey From Concept to Publish.... Jacob's Ladder

Lots of good things have been happening! (some not-so-good things have happened too but such is the way of life!)

First of all, my Jacob's Ladder Sweater for Yarn Forward Magazine has been published in issue number 14. Take a peek...what do you think?Each design that I work on teaches me something new. I really love this sweater!!!! It's something my son has asked me to knit for him.
Long before I ever dreamed of ever designing for publication we were looking at the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary 2 with all the cables in it on day. Of course I was boring the poor child out of his mind but he really like the name of this stitch pattern...."Jacob's Ladder"
So I started swatching and this is what I started out with:


It's a 3 over 3 cable with a bunch of garter stitches in between. I purchased the wool in my son's favorite color (the bright red you see above) and just when I was starting it he decided he didn't like the color any more. I put the swatch away and pretty much forgot about it.

One day in January (this year) I started going through some old swatches and started sketching out a design idea for this particular swatch. It was just begging to be a boy's/men's sweater! I wrote down my notes and put that to the side to work on some other patterns.



Then in the middle of February I found out about a call for submissions for men's sweaters to be published in Yarn Forward.....
well, well, well! I was ready! It felt really good to have something ready.....especially something I've been wanting to knit!
I sent over this and another idea (which will be revealed at a later date....I promise). I was just so excited and giddy when Shannon Okey(YF's editor) said she liked the Jacob's Ladder!!!!! SQUEEEE!
(Why, yes.......I am that famous international knitwear designer. Thank you for asking....Autograph your pattern....of course my dear) Yes, I have a rich fantasy life....moving on

We decided on a summery yarn and I was quite excited to work with Rowan Denim which is a yarn I've wanted to try. I swatched:Now...I encountered a knitting challenge. (I don't call it a problem...it's depressing)
Knitting challenge number one:
The cables were looking a little skinny and my husband said he would never wear that....it's too "funny looking"
Solution: Changed the cables to 4over4
Knitting challenge number two:
I have a history with making mistakes and miscrossing cables and I was on a tight deadline to have this sweater ready.
Solution:
Keep all the cables crossing the same way.
Knitting challenge number two:
There wasn't enough "crispness" between the cable and ladder
Solution:
Change the knit stitch into a twisted stitch

All that from just one little swatch!!!!

So now it was time to start writing the pattern.

I blocked the swatch. Let it dry and turned the math involved in pattern writing into a homeschool lesson. (I homeschool my 4 children....in case you didn't know;-)

First we took stitch and row gauge. I taught them how to do it then had each of them measure the swatch and give me stitches/rows per pattern repeat. Since they were all extrememly close we took an average.

Then we decided what size we were going to knit the sample and how many repeats were going to fit into the sample size. It was a fun and practicle homeschool lesson. The kids were happy to help as long as I promised them pizza for lunch.

From there I used yarnstandards.com to help me figure out the rest of the measurements.

I went ahead and started writing up the pattern and knitting up the sweater.

Now there is something that I learned the hard way with my knitting...... My Gauge Changes As I Knit!!!!

It really wasn't until I was knitting on the first sleeve that I realized this. Remember the saying "to save time take time to check gauge"? Well, I should have done just that....
By the time I realized the mistake the deadline was looming so close I knew I didn't have time to re-knit it.

Between all the great advice between Shannon and Alexandra (the fabulous tech editor for Yarn Forward) and all the self-discoveries I've made I learned many things that has helped me develop as a designer.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with this magazine and I really liked the photography.

Well, this is my story on the journey of the Jacob's Ladder sweater. I hope you enjoyed it!