Painting Bricks

I love Stephen West's work.  His colors are so bright, happy and sometimes unexpected.  During quarantine I bought two of his recent patterns, Fantastitch and Painting Bricks.  I came home, as I still didn't have internet and had driven to the mailbox to check on IG and email, and printed out my new patterns.  Painting Bricks only printed 2 pages.  On the bottom of the second page it said that a Slip Stitch along would be starting April 3 and the pattern would be released just before that.  The 2 pages contained the yardage, needle and gauge info.

Another KAL?  Sure why not, what else is there to do?

So I got to work finding yarn.  My stash of DK weight wool is very small.  I gave away all of my acrylic and that is no longer an option with my allergy any way.  I didn't have enough for a main color in fingering but I had these balls of Classic Elite Water Spun in white that had been given to me.  I had time to dye them, but will it be enough?  The pattern calls for a size 7 needle and I had just finished another project with this yarn and that needle size so I knew they would go well together.

I decided to just go for it.  I dyed one ball of each of 6 contrasting colors.  That left me 6 balls for the main color, black.

Though it was a bit early in the year, I solar dyed these yarns in the back yard.

I put the black yarn in a large pot and put it out to set as well.

 
The sun proved to not be hot enough yet to fully set the dye and I had to finish the colors in the microwave and the black on the stove.

 
The yarn is discontinued, but it is a single ply yarn that is slightly felted.  It didn't take the dye the way Merino wool usually does that there was a lot of dye left in the jars when the was done.

I used M and Ms to figure out how I wanted to order my colors.

Then I cast on.  At first it went quickly.  It didn't take long though for the rows to become long and I was only able to finish 4 of them in an evening.

As I approached then end it became apparent that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish the entire piece.  I had already had to substitute some orange for the red I ran short of.  I wanted to be able to work the I-cord bind off and the black was getting low.  I made the decision to finish short of all the repeats and ended with this much pink remaining.

I did the next 4 rows in black and then worked the I-cord bind off.  The piece came out plenty big enough.  I did not finish in time to be included in the KAL that was on Ravelry but I am so very happy with the finished piece.

I often have about a dozen projects going at one time.   I understand that for most people that is very overwhelming.  I look at my knitting projects as T.V. shows.  With the capability to binge watch almost anything I understand spending the whole day on one show, however I don't think most people do.  I watch very little T.V.  We have a T.V. that is hooked up to a DVD player and that is all.  No antenna or cable here.  Even with the internet now we haven't subscribed to anything like Netflix and have no plans to.  There is little time for T.V. for my hubby and I.  Most of my time is spent knitting, crocheting, spinning or prepping for one of those.  What do I do while I sit and...  I listen to audio books and podcasts mostly.  In the evening, after dark and my hubby can't see well enough to work outside or it has gotten too cold we will watch a couple of episodes of shows we have on DVD.

For me to sit and make all day in front of the T.V. would be tedious, as I would often be pushing the pause button to that I can count.  I do that with my audio too.

I don't work that same project for more than about an hour each day.  Not every project is worked everyday or even every week.  I have a project that I work on during a certain book club book each month, another during my morning Bible study podcast, one for loading screens when working on the computer, another one, idiot work while making dinner and then whatever I choose for the evening.  Still other projects for the car and during church or in person Bible study.  Varying my projects is part of the reason I am able to make for so many hours a day.



I have decided not to become a creator on Patreon at this point.  I feel the Lord is leading me in a different direction at the moment.


I did get the third installment of my Can't Stop, Won't Stop up on YouTube today.

In the next week or so I will be looking for test knitters for a sock pattern I've been working on.  Watch here and on IG if you would like to take part.

I have finished updating all of my patterns available in my Ravelry store, my projects on my page and the Ravelry group that host.

I hope that your summer is off to a decent start.  I know so much looks very different now, and it will for a while.  Be flexible and you shall not be broken.

Until next time...

Happy making!

Another Quarantine KAL

During quarantine I worked on 5 different KALs.  Last week I told you about finding and dyeing the yarn for the GG Orange Love KAL.  This week I'm going to share with you a cowl KAL.

The KAL was hosted by Leading Men Fiber Arts from Clinton, IL.  The pattern used for the KAL was Cohenside Cowl from Shanalines Designs.  I had already bought this pattern to make a cowl for each member of my family.  I love her  designs, fun and practical.  The patterns are well written and fun to knit as well.  My husband Carl and my oldest Uriah had already picked out their yarn, which was coming from Leading Men Fiber arts!  Yea!  I get to participate in KAL using yarn and a pattern I already had and still qualify for the prize.  I cast on Uriah's first.  I chose the yarn base for them, Soliloquy, 100% BFL.  Uriah chose the color black walnut.  I worked his exactly as the pattern stated without any changes.  He likes it and I think it turned out nicely too.

Carl chose Man of Mystery and wanted his to be taller, so I added enough stitches to do another repeat of the pattern.  He wanted it to be the same distance around as Uriah's though so I worked the same number of repeats for his.

I started and finished both of these pieces in April and entered them for the prize in the KAL.  I won!  The prize was a gift card to Leading Men Fiber Arts.  I used it to buy Nijah, my daughter, who is also a fiber artist, and I Yarn Pouches.  She wears hers everywhere with a sock kept in it.

Bind off in the middle of a row or round.
I recently uploaded a video to YouTube on how to bind off in the middle of a row or round.  This is something that to me could benefit from having it explained here in words and pictures as well.

Binding off in the middle of a row or round is done for many different reasons, most often for placement of sleeves.  It can also be done for shaping of a bag or stuffed animal.

These pictures, just like the video show binding off in a row.

Work across the number of stitches indicated by the pattern.  Here is an example.

Your piece has 21 stitches across.  The directions now read as follows.  K 3, BO 5, K 5, BO 5, K 3.  Here's what that would look like in pictures.

I have knit the first 3 stitches as directed.

Next is to bind off  the next 5 stitches.  Before I learned what I was doing wrong I would knit the next stitch and then bind off a stitch.  My stitch count was always wrong and I would just fudge it.  Here is what I should have been doing.  Knit the next stitch, yes...

And the next one too.  I now have 5 knit stitches on the needle.

Now take stitch number 4 over stitch number 5 for binding off.  That leaves you with your first 3 stitches and one bound off.

I continued binding off the 5 stitches, counting each one that was slipped over and off the needle.  When I reached 5, the next step is to K 5.  This stitch hanging out where I finished the 5 bind off stitches, is stitch number 5 of my K 5.

Then I knit the next 4 stitches.

Then bind off the next 5 stitches as before.
 

 Remember that last bound off stitch is the first stitch of the next section.

Then finish with the last 2 knit stitches.

That is how to bind off in the middle of a row or round.  If you have questions please let me know.  Here is a link to my YouTube channel, look for Bind off in Row to see this in action.  The video is shot using my left hand because I am a mirror knitter.

I am still working on recording classes.  Not sure where they will go from there.  I'm having second thoughts about Patreon, I'll let you know next week.

Tomorrow I will release a new YouTube on short rows.  I learned a few tricks recently that I'd like to share with you.

Black Lives Matter

Until next time...

Happy Making!

Real Life Knitter

This one has a lot of pictures into.  Even though the date is late April on the entry below, I started dyeing yarn for GG KAL early March.

April 27, 2020

I started the GG Loves Orange KAL on March 15, 2020 with everyone else. I chose to work the KAL pattern, Orange Love Poncho and used orange yarn.

I didn't have any orange yarn and my yarn budget was to be spent on up coming festivals. I dug and found a skein of Lion Brand's Fisherman. I ordered 2 more, just to be sure.

 

I rewound them into hanks and dyed them with some pumpkin orange dye from Jacquard, I had mixed up years ago.

 

I was pleased with the way it turned out after drying.

I wound the skeins into cakes using my ball winder and swift. This is the largest cake I have ever wound. 8 ounces!

 

Cast on day came and I got started.

 

I worked the foundation rows before the cables begin. I looked at the chart for the cables, in which I have recently, slowly gained more and more experience with. This project however was not in the round or symmetrical so was going to take some thinking.

I am a mirror knitter as you may know and if I just followed the chart in the opposite direction as I usually do, my baubles will be in the right place, going the wrong direction.  I wanted them to be both in the correct place and going the correct direction.  The baubles in this pattern go sort of diagonally.

 

I opened the pattern's PDF and took a screen shot of the chart. I was then able to put that into my word processor and then make a mirror of it. This fixed everything! This will not work in every situation, but it did in this one.

When this rectangle is finished, the edge opposite the cables is sewn to form the neck opening. I got out a piece of paper and made some markings and did a bit of folding to see if it was going to truly work all the way through and it was.

 

I moved forward with the piece using my mirrored chart.

I worked a total of 13 repeats and the then finished off the bauble section with a few more rows into repeat number 14.

I blocked the piece before sewing the neck.

I sewed the neck closed as directed in the pattern. The only thing that I changed was the size of the crochet hook I used. I went up to an "I". I did this because working the seam with the smaller hook was pulling the piece too tightly. This crocheted seam doesn't have the give that the knitting it is joining does; so you need to make sure that the crocheted seam is loose enough to not pull on the piece.

I had plenty of yarn left over, which I wanted to any way. Some will actually be going into my Painting Bricks shawl from West Knits because I ran out of yellow. Then I will also have enough to make Dolores a version of this poncho.

I also just finished up a test knit for Shana Cohen of Shanalines designs. It is her Air Hugs design and I will share on IG when it becomes available for purchase on Ravelry.

I have been hard at work on my first sweater design. I have updated the sweater page here.

I finally, finally warped my 4 harness floor loom!

I am so excited about this. I used the video "Beginning Four Harness Weaving" by Deborah Chandler, produced by Yarnbarn and her book as well. Both of which I bought from Eugene Textiles Company at the Interweave Yarn Fest in 2019.

 

Yes the DVD was dubbed over from the VHS of the 1980's but it is so good. I am a very novice weaver and the nearest experienced weaver to me in about 70ish miles away in Brighton, Colorado. Using the book and DVD I was able to tame my no brand beast and get it warped.

I did mess up at the warping board and ended up with 240 cut ends in my hand, instead of 120 and had a huge threading mess that took a week to get under control.

I took the time to do it, a little at a time each day. After I got that mess sorted, I got the book back out and very carefully went over how to use the warping board again. One key thing that is either not clear in the video or that I missed is where it says "count here and multiply by two." That's what I missed, next time.

Now I am all set up and ready to weave. The next part is learning to read a draft.

I have updated the knitting patterns in my Ravelry store.  The crochet ones are next.

 

Patreon sign ups will be opening June 17 at $3 a month. I will have a link to that when it goes live. Here is a list of benefits.

Weekly behind the scenes design blog

10% pattern discount

Twice monthly tip videos, early release

I am excited about this and to how it goes.  If you have any thoughts or ideas for what you would like to see please leave a comment or email me.

The last thing I want to mention this week is about being a Real Life Knitter and what that means to me and for my content.

I knit, crochet or spin almost every waking moment.  Exceptions are during most meals, most of my time behind the wheel and tending to the plants.

I love to teach about things that I know about.  I know a lot about fiber arts and want to share, hence the blog and YouTube channel.

All that said my photos and videos will be done during my real life knitting moments.  So my nails won't always be great, they will NEVER be painted, there might be back ground noise or something odd in a photo.  One example is the photo in this blog of me casting on the GG KAL.  My hubby took it with the light streaming in the window behind me.  I didn't know until he text me the picture the next day that he had even taken it so there was no chance for a redo.

When I am recording or shooting for detail teaching I do my best to make sure there is little back ground noise, that the light is good and details are clear.  I do have 3 children and a few farm animals so stuff always happens.  Occassionally I will just ignore the situation and finish the shoot, other things are edited out.  I am the editor and producer as well.  I've been working on computers for over 20 years and learning more each day about the software I use.  Please bear with me.

If you made it this far, thank you!

Next time I will talk about another KAL and my newest video release on short rows.

Until then...

Happy making!

Rural Designer and Blogger issues

Below are a couple of notes that I kept during quarantine. I will detail projects finished during quarantine one at a time in future posts as I would have normally done. I'm not teaching much, more on that later and I have a new design that will be released today. I hope this finds you well and moving on to a new normal as we move forward in life.

April 14, 2020

Day 20 Of CoViD-19 quarantine in Colorado.

I have been using this time to tech edit designs that have been sitting and waiting for a long time. The most recent one I am working on, actually became a completed piece back in early 2017. It is my Tiger Lily shawl. As I have been going through and correcting the charts and counts I discovered that I have a few other designs, already in the wild, that need some correcting. All these shawls have the same type of construction in common, Orenburg construction. I can see what I have learned about the charting software that I use over the years and the mistakes in past designs. I will be making some changes and updating those.

Seeing these boo boos has made me realize the need for test knitters. I have tried to get test knitters in the past using several different ways, asking at a yarn shop, on IG and through Ravelry. No luck. Mostly because many of my designs are crazy lace and I haven't met any one else that crazy. I do all my own tech editing and so far that has turned out okay. I do think that after I finalize a pattern for publishing that I should leave it to sit for a week and then look over it again. I think this will help me find more mistakes that have been overlooked just from being too familiar with the work and I hopefully will make less mistakes because the "deadline" I have put on myself can be looser.

I am struggling not having computer internet access at home. I will not be able to upload pictures to Ravelry, add to my sweater page on the blog or even post this post until I can have computer internet access again. Thankfully from my phone I can upload new pdf files for my designs. The only reason I won't add new designs is because my phone service isn't always reliable enough to add pictures. I will try to add a few pictures here and there but they or may not stay.

I don't like not being readily available for pattern support and getting to interact with everyone on nearly a daily basis.

This situation has made me wonder what I would do if I didn't have children in school and an easy opportunity to go to the library, would I still make the effort? I am thankful that going to the library on a weekly basis was part of my routine for just over a year and that I know the difference it has made in my fiber life. I know that even when the children are gone I will continue to make the effort to go to the library, until the internet is available at my home.

This too shall pass, it is only a season. This season came for me when I had just started my YouTube channel and was really getting into my blog and sharing what I learn with you guys. I feel disconnected again.

I am still recording different tricks that I learn and will share those with you when the pandemic allows again.

April 15, 2020

So I don't know that I am going to do this every day but I did do something today that is even though it is small I want to share it.

Lately I have been putting patterns into my Ravelry cart and just letting them sit until I make a decision about them. I had a few in there until this morning when I purchased the last one from Joji. I whittled them away by deciding I didn't really want it or if a designer was having a sale I would go see what I had in my cart of theirs that qualified and buy it. If there is ever a pattern in there that I am unsure of I will leave it until I am reasonably sure that I want to make it. I won't delete a pattern from my cart if even a little bit of me wants to make it. Having it in my cart is not a commitment, but keeps it near enough that if I have an idea for a yarn I may not have to search Ravelry further than my cart.

May 27, 2020

Much has happened. The library still isn't open, but is reopening next Monday. However patrons will only be able to stay for 30 minutes. That is not nearly enough time for me to upload blog posts and videos. When I learned that info about 2 weeks ago I asked my husband to look at internet one more time. This time he found a company, Viasat, with unlimited internet. This blog post will be coming to you from my basement studio outside of Deer Trail, Colorado. I'm so very excite about this!

Now that I have internet in my home I have some more doors open to me if you will. Instagram T.V. And Live for instance. I can also participate in Zoom meetings with other makers and Patreon.

Since I won't be teaching in person until at least 2021 I think, all the events I was scheduled for have been cancelled, I am looking at a couple of ideas to teach remotely. I'm not sure if I could teach in a Zoom class. 

I'm going to follow a couple of Makers on Patreon to see if this is a viable option for me to share my knowledge and generate some income as well.  I'm also starting to record classes to put together for sell to individuals and to pass on to yarn shops and such to make available for their customers.

I have uploaded two new videos on YouTube, one is a technique video and the other is part two of my Can't Stop, Won't Stop wrap.   The technique is how to bind off in the middle of a row or round.

I also released a new design on Ravelry today as well.  Quarantine was a busy time for me.  I went through my already released designs and did some tech editing and updates.  This design is a large knit shawl.  I finished it a while ago and finally finished the tech editing.  It is called Tiger Lily.  Here is the link to my project.

I'm very happy to be back here again and share with you guys.  I will be posting weekly and will start sharing my projects starting with the GG KAL I participated in in March.

Until then please be kind and loving to each other, no matter who they are.  Think before you speak and keep your mouth shut if what is going to come out isn't going to help.  My heart is breaking for the destruction of lives that I see in the world around me.  Lord Jesus, Your will be done.

Happy making!