Goodies from Knitcircus :)

I got back from my USA trip to find a few packages waiting for me. One was from Knitcircus Magazine -- I made third place in their Health and Love Scarf Design contest with my 'Hugs & Stitches' design concept.

My package came sweetly wrapped in tissue paper.

What did I get? A set of stitch markers from Lima Pop Shoppe, and a signed copy of The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design. I actually already have the ebook, but it is nice to have a hard copy! And I know I'll get use out of the stitch markers.

Big thanks to the team at Knitcircus! I was thrilled to be selected.

~Joyuna

USA Haul: The Cupcake Fiber Co

The Cupcake Fiber Co is a fiber shop I've had my eye on for quite some time. And since they offer free shipping in the USA, my trip abroad was the perfect opportunity for a splurge. I ordered two sets of Cupcake Fiber batts.

They shipped separately, which puzzled me until I opened the boxes -- each box fits the inner container like a glove, securing the batts in place in their 'cupcake cups'. In fact, for one of them, I actually had to cut the box to get the thing out! Anyway, this is the perfect way to ship batts so they don't get compacted in transit.

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USA Haul: Knit Picks books & notions

I got a few other things with my Knit Picks order, too:

I got a set of T-pins for blocking, since all my old ones were rusted (even though they were nominally rustproof...).

I got a view sizer, which is a combination of a needle gauge and a gauge measure -- it's got all the needle sizes, including the in-between sock sizes 1.5 and 2.5 (2.5mm and 3mm, respectively). It also has an inch and centimeter ruler with a see-through window marked with lines at 4" and 10cm, for easy tension measuring.

And, I got two books - one stitch dictionary and one lace pattern book.

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USA Haul: Knit Picks yarn

Since I was coming to the US, I had to place an order at Knit Picks. They only ship within North America, and have a single European supplier that only stocks a small number of lines. Their Options needles go by the name of Knit Pro in Europe, and are stocked by a number of retailers, so thankfully I can still get my needle tips and cables.

But, Knit Picks yarn at Knit Picks prices? USA & Canada only. So, I got two sweaters' worth of yarn.

I got a bunch of skeins of Swish Worsted in Dublin, a nice dark green. I've worked with Swish before, and it's a really nice soft superwash merino. I'm thinking about knitting this into Ysolda's Snow White pullover.

I also got some Shine Worsted, their cotton/modal blend, in the colorway Citrine. This color was borderline on the website, but I really dislike it in real life. So, I think I'm going to overdye it to make it a little less sickly-looking.

After I have altered the color a little, I'm planning on using it for the Primrose Path pullover from Twist Collective -- that pattern is written as a long-sleeved pullover with a vest variation, and I'm planning on altering it for a short-sleeved T-shirt variation.

~Joyuna

USA Haul: CCSmile Fiber

So I got a new spindle while I was over in the US, but I also needed some fiber. That's where my good friend Kathryn, or CCSmile2006, comes in.

I ordered two items from her - a merino/tencel braid and a drumcarded batt.

The braid is called 'Happy, Oh So Happy' and I first fell in love with it actually when it was in her Ravelry stash. I messaged her about it, and she agreed to sell it to me. I love these colors, and I've spun her merino/tencel roving before - it's very smooth, and fairly even-blended. Plus, the dye saturation is great.


The batt is part of her Peter Pan-themed spinalong, and this batt is Tinkerbell. It's a brighter green than in my photos, and contains a dizzying number of fibers! I've done a Disney-themed spinalong with Kathryn before, Beauty and the Beast - I knit my Belle Bow from that yarn. This, I'm thinking of spinning into coils.




~Joyuna

USA Haul: Golding Spindle

I'm visiting my family in the USA, so while I'm here I've made a few orders to US-based sites -- either to save on shipping, or because the site in question doesn't ship outside of the US (cough, Knitpicks, cough.

The first thing I've ordered is a spindle that I've wanted for a very long time - a .8oz Golding Tsunami in Purpleheart. These spindles have a reputation for being beautiful and long spinners.

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200th Blog Post - Pattern Giveaway!

The giveaway has now ended. Thanks for your interest!
This is my 200th post! In honor of that, I will be giving away some patterns to my readers!

This giveaway will run until June 30, 2011. It is open to anyone in the world who has an email address. (Though, obviously, it helps if you're a knitter! ;)

First prize is a copy of every one of my pay patterns available to date - The Grateful Crane, Russell Square Mitts, Russell Square Tam, Alessandrite Socks, and Three Sachets, plus one more pattern of the winner's choice, by any designer, so long as it is available as a Ravelry download and at a maximum cost of $10.

Second prize is a choice of any two of my pay patterns (listed above).

Third prize is a choice of any one of my pay patterns (listed above).

The prizes will be delivered, via Ravelry gift, to the recipient's email account -- if you have a Ravelry account, then the patterns will also appear in your Ravelry library, entitling you to all future updates of the pattern(s).


To enter, there are two steps:

1. Sign up for my brand-new newsletter. When you leave a comment, I will check that you're on the list! :) There are two lists, sign up for either or both - The Weekly Blog Roundup is a weekly compilation of blog posts, while the Design Updates is a more occasional email with news about my patterns (free and pay).

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2. Leave a comment on this post, telling me you've signed up. For an extra entry, tell me who your favorite knitwear designer is and why. I'll start:

My favorite designer is Cat Bordhi. She is so endlessly creative, and I love how she can think outside the box with knitwear. She has perfected the knitted mobius and fantastic sock constructions. I take a lot of inspiration from her, and I aspire to be even a quarter as creative as she is.

~Joyuna

My love-hate relationship with cables

I have a confession to make: I don't enjoy cables.

I keep designing things with cables, I keep knitting them, I keep adding them to my queue... but I honestly do not really enjoy knitting them. I don't like fiddling with a cable needle, I don't like having to remember which way the twists go, when I tried cabling without a cable needle, I didn't like letting the stitches drop off the needle. I don't like reordering stitches and I don't like how cables make it hard to count rows. I'm a tight knitter, and cables are darn fiddly. Working a cable also interrupts the flow of knitting.

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Resources on Grading

I've mostly designed accessories up til now, so sizing hasn't been a huge issue for me. When my patterns are available multiple sizes, it's only two or three - you don't need seven different sizes for a sock or gloves. And while I really love accessories, both designing them and knitting them, I do have a few garment designs in my head. And that's where the big G Word comes in: grading.

Grading is the method of sizing your garment into the correct range of sizes you need. It's not as simple as you think, because every size has different proportions - you can't just multiply all the stitch counts of a 24" sweater by two to get a 48" sweater! That would be much easier, but people just don't work that way. As the size of a sweater goes up, the measurements change in different ways.

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Twisty Wristband - Free pattern and tutorial!

Twisty wristband

This wristband is a small, quick project designed to teach you a few techniques to spice up your knitting. The provisional caston and three-needle bindoff are fantastic tools for knitting seamlessly. Throw in a few cool cables, and you've got a fun afternoon project.

This pattern is written with the instructions of each section first, and the explanation immediately afterward. If you don't understand the instructions, then keep reading, but if you already know the technique, you can move on to the next section.

Yarn: About 20yds of DK-weight yarn (shown: Debbie Bliss Rialto)
Needles: US6 (4mm) needles
Supplies: Waste yarn, crochet hook (optional), yarn needle, third needle for three-needle BO

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Closed loop cables

To work some particularly awesome cable designs (like this one for instance), you need to learn a technique known as closed loop cabling.

This isn't something I've heard of til recently (I haven't done many complex cable patterns), but it makes sense if you think about it: the basic cable resembles a rope or braid, which can go up or to the side, but not merge with another strand. Closed loop cabling allows your strands to meet.

In order to do this from the bottom (making a cable that starts from a U shape), you have to increase multiple stitches at the point where the strands meet. Likewise to do so at the top, you need to decrease.

There are a number of techniques to do these increases or decreases, which involve a number of stitches. Here are a few tutorials I've found:

Ariadne Knits: Mirrored double increase
Ariadne Knits: Slipped decrease

Another tutorial on the Alice Starmore increase

Our Curious Home: Christmas tree increases
Our Curious Home: Cable Capping decrease

~Joyuna