Back in January, Carol emailed me to ask if I'd be interested in submitting a design proposal for her upcoming book -- Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns. At the time I had already started working on Knotions so I wasn't sure I'd have the time to come up with an idea, never mind the time to knit the socks and write the pattern.

Most of the technical details were finalized during a long car ride to my uncle's 85th birthday party, and then I knit the socks and wrote the pattern over a span of 9 days (just a few weeks after I announced Knotions). It was a busy month but it was all worth it when I opened up my email today and found out that my socks are on the cover!

What an awesome way to start the weekend!

BTW, IK has also posted a preview of the book and you can take a peek at over 10 more pairs. I see some colorwork, unique stitch patterns and unusual construction methods. Last I heard the book will be out in December.

Unwrapped is totally done! The ends are woven in, the pattern is written, the schematic is drawn, the pics are up. It feels so good to have this one done. Now that I've got the basics of the raglan shaping down I think it will be easier to do more with it in the other designs -- this is the first of a series of 4 raglans.

The shaping definitely took some fine-tuning, and I ended up knitting the entire yoke twice (something I don't think I would have done had I only been knitting it for myself). But since it's out there for other knitters I wanted to make sure it was right.

This is definitely the best-fitting raglan I've made for myself. The armholes are nice and short and the sleeve width is the right size (they fold like that because they have a slit at the top, not because they're too wide).

The yarn was also lovely, although a tad splitty and more than a tad full of joins. It washes up beautifully though, and I even dried it fully in the dryer without any shrinkage (maybe it was trying to redeem itself?).

I can't wait to see other knitters' Unwrapped sweaters out there! I'm so excited to see how it adapts to a variety of shapes and sizes.

After 5 years Christy and I have it down pat. We hit The Fold first and while she was in line I wandered a bit (I'm one of three people in the world who don't seem to love STR), then we hit Tess and Brooks Farm and then we just go through each barn. After we hit all the barns it was time for lunch, and then went back to whichever places we wanted to return to after waiting a bit for the impulse of purchasing to wear off.

After that, it was time for some on the grass knitting (next year we will be bringing portable chairs though) and that's where we usually see the bulk of our friends. We sadly missed the Ravelry meetup (I thought it went until 2). It was great to meet some new Knotions readers and it was so much fun to give out Knotions buttons (people even recognized me by my bag!). If I missed you (or if you didn't go to MDSW) and you want a Knotions button just leave me a comment and I'll mail one to you.

Alright, let's see if I can name everyone we saw (or, let's see how many people I can forget): Jessica, Ann, Jody, Jess, Casey, Mary-Heather, Kelly, Liz K, Aileen, Sally, Lolly, Isel, Stacey and Jenna. I think people know to look for us there because we always seem to end up sitting with a big group of women -- that's my favorite part of the day.

OK, buying yarn ain't so bad either.

I pretty much stuck to my list this year:

Upper Left is Tess Supersock in green, turquoise and yellow.
Upper Right is Brooks Farm Mas Acero in black with grey flecks for a sweater. It's a drapey yarn so I have to think about what pattern will suit it.
Lower Left is Kureyon Sock. I know I could buy this close to home too, but I never do and I really want to make some kind of modular sock with it. Plus it's pink and there's no denying myself some pink yarn.
Lower Right is Carodan Farms Worsted for the Le Smoking jacket from Lisa Lloyd's A Fine Fleece. This was exactly the type of yarn I had in mind for this cardi. The jacket in the book is made from a very different yarn -- a soft, cashmere blend -- but I really saw this cardi in something heartier.

Even though I had 2 sweaters' worth of yarn on my list I didn't expect to come home with it. I'm really hoping to use up at least one of the sweater yarns in time for Rhinebeck. I've already started sketching for Rhinebeck sweaters, and the Mas Acero might work for one of them. Of course, if it's anything like last year I should be thinking cotton short sleeve (I think Rhinebeck was as warm as MDSW this year).

With all the deadlines for Knotions (I go from deadline to deadline nowadays) it was great to spend a casual day with one of my closest friends. Spending time with Christy always puts me in a good place, and the wonderful weather and all that yarn reinvigorated my knitting spirit.

If you're new to sheep and wool festivals, I wrote a post with some suggestions a couple years back and it's still good advice.

I've been planning what I want to see and buy this year. The list isn't too long:

• Yarn from a small supplier to make a sweater from Lisa Lloyd's A Fine Fleece (view my review). I'm especially obsessed with Le Smoking right now.
• Multicolor hand dyed sock yarn. I want something with a big variety of colors to knit up a special pair of socks this summer.
• Sweater yarn from Tess', Brooks Farm or Ellen's Half Pint Farm. I'm jealous of all of you and your gorgeous post-fest sweaters!
• Something new - a new dyer or a new yarn. Something different that I can't get locally.

I'll also be there getting the word out about Knotions, and I've got some shiny new buttons to give out.

Four days, people!

I decided it was high time I did a little sewing. Much knitting has been happening (nothing I can blog about just yet) so a morning with the sewing machine was a nice break.

Every time I sew I'm reminded why I love it so much -- it's SO FAST!! I made a whole bag in just a Sunday morning. I prewashed, dried, cut, sewed, pressed, and even did the clean up (if I don't clean up right away it's likely that you'd find the sewing machine on my dining room table a week from now too).

I wanted to carry around something unique and this fits the bill. It's the Amy Butler In Town Bag and I got the pattern and fabric at Spool -- the new fabric store co-owned by Craig (of Loop) and Laura. It's right next door to Loop so if you're in the Philly area make sure you check them out. They have one of the nicest selections of fabrics in the area, and have a big, brightly sunlit room in the back for classes.

I followed the pattern except for a couple small changes. I added an interior pocket to hold a pen, notepad and flat wallet, and instead of making the bag flat I gave the bottom some depth to help it sit up better.

To make the bottom I added 1" to the length of the bottom piece, and 2" in width to all the bag pieces. The pocket is just a remnant of the bottom fabric. I made it about 9.5" x 10.5" and sewed a bunch of topstitching along the top of the pocket to give it some firmness. Then I sewed a channel in the pocket about 1.5" in to make a small area to hold a pen. The bag is meant to be cinched shut but I don't like the look so I plan to sew in a magnetic closure instead.

I love this little bag, but the best part of this post has to be MDSW is in 6 days!! Will I see you there?

This year was different birthday-wise. Since it's on a Tuesday I knew I wouldn't be doing too much today, so instead I did a "Birthday Weekend Extravaganza" (BWE for short) and it was great! Dinner at the Melting Pot, shopping at Rosie's Yarn Cellar (first yarn I bought all year...I think), lunch and drinks at Maggiano's, and a steak dinner on the grill on Sunday. It was one of the best weekends I've had in months. I highly recommend the BWE...it totally makes up for having a birthday on a random Tuesday.

Last year I decided that I would make a decision to change something or do something new in my life with the passing of each new year and each birthday -- as a way to try and make permanent, positive changes in my life. They're things that are really focused on me. For new year 2008 I decided I would eat oatmeal at least 5 days a week (eating a good breakfast is so important) and I've mostly kept to that (sometimes it's a whole grain cereal or farina but that's still better than a buttered bagel or a fried egg sandwich, or nothing at all so I'm starving by the time lunch rolls around).

For my birthday I've decided to get back to wearing makeup every day. I love how I look when I wear makeup, but often I skip it because I feel like I'm in a hurry and it's the one thing I can cut out of my routine. I started it on Saturday and can I just say -- those magazines that say you just need 5 minutes? They're crazy. I can't get it down to less than 10 and that's just a light foundation, powder, blush, eyeliner, lip liner and lipstick. I just don't see how I can do that in 5 minutes. If you have any tips let me know...maybe I'm just out of practice.

This year has already been about so much big change -- Knotions has taken up much of my free time, but I absolutely love it. The thing I really miss though is this blog and my Flickr friends. I'm going to have to find a way to get more blogging and photography back into my life because I really miss the camaraderie and friendships that I've made with so many people. I suspect it will be a few months before I'll be able to blog regularly (and by that I'm hoping for once a week here) but I do want to get back to it. I miss you guys! So, even if my posts continue to be infrequent and sporadic for a while, don't for a moment think I've forgotten about you all and this little blog. (and I do have a post brewing about the goodies I got at Rosie's this weekend...new yarn after over 100 days of no buying...is there anything more exciting?)

I'm so relieved to have this yoke done. After much experimentation, I have a top down raglan knit in one piece with sleeves and body increasing at different rates -- and it works! The neck doesn't have the flashdance effect, and the armholes are shallow enough to completely cover my bra at the sides. I'm really excited to see the math work!

After I finished knitting my size, I went back and tweaked the other sizes and I think I have it (or am really, really close). The test knitters will tell me for sure in a few weeks. I've written out sizes for busts up to size 54, and at that size the neck is just shy of 9 inches wide, and the armhole just 9.5 inches (in fact, right now I'm more concerned that it's not deep enough, but that will be an easy problem to fix).

I don't have any test knitters above 48 so I may have to wait until I release the pattern to get feedback. In the meantime, If you're in the upper sizes (50, 52 or 54 inch bust) and would care to share your preferred armhole depth, please let me know. Leave a comment on this entry, or follow the contact link over at the Knotions blog entry.

It really feels great to have knitting needles in my hands again. My keyboard had taken their place for the past 6 weeks while I worked on the announcement site for Knotions.

I'm busy working on the design for the April article, and those swatches above are just a portion of the ones I've knitted. It's funny -- knowing that you all will be relying on me to get it just right has made me look at the swatching process differently. Once I settled on a yarn, I swatched it with several needle sizes and took careful notes of the pre- and post-washing properties.

I also have to say that all your comments and feedback have been so wonderful to read! You've motivated me even more, and have given me some great ideas for future articles. Several of you also commented that you had trouble subscribing to Knoted -- the Knotions Blog. I've cleaned up the RSS confusion now, but here's a direct link to the feed. You'll get notified when new articles and patterns are released, and many of my more in-depth technique posts will be over at Knotions now, so I encourage you to add the feed to your subscriptions.

I'm so excited to finally be able to share this with you all! As many of you have commented or emailed me about, I've been a bit quiet for the past 6 weeks or so. That's because I've been busy developing knotionsmag.com, a new online knitting magazine.

This has been a real labor of love and I couldn't have done it without the input and support of so many friends: Christy, Jessica, Kathy, Kelly, Kristy, Liz and Michelle. Thank you ladies for your smart, thorough feedback and encouraging words -- Knotions is better because of each of you.

I have so many plans for knotions, and I'd love your input as well. Stop by the site and fill out the reader survey. This is also the first official call for submissions, so if you're a designer (newbie or established), take a look at the submissions guidelines. The first issue publishes in August, and the first article series comes out in April.

Looking forward to hearing what you all think!

On My Needles

I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of projects that meet my goals and both of these cover several.

The socks are out of Tess Supersock & Baby that I bought at MDSW 2006. Every time I start a project with this yarn I wonder why all my socks aren't Tess socks. Nice, tight spin, gorgeous saturated colors, subtle variation, and probably the hardest-wearing socks I've made. I have two pairs of Tess socks already. They're in constant rotation (read: I wear them *every* week) and they look great. A little bit of pilling on the heel (the kind that pulls right off) and that's it. The color is true and the stitches still look great.

So this pair of socks is the Fancy Silk Sock for a Child of 5 or 6 Years from Knitting Vintage Socks, with my typical mods -- toe-up, Judy's Magic Cast On and short row heel. When I started these I thought they'd be my pub knitting project, but it turns out the yarn is too dark to knit it well in a dimly lit bar. So, these socks are growing slower than I expected.

The second WIP is Phiaro from Knitscene Winter 2007 / Spring 2008. I'm using the yarn I dyed a couple weeks ago and I'm on the last hank. The yarn didn't pool at all and the color variation seems to behave more like a Koigu than any one of those pooling hand dyeds.

Lest you think it's all roses and kitty cats here, I'm not thrilled with the overall color of the bamboo. A lot of the original pink dye washed out, so much of the area that was undyed by me is now a bumblegum pink. I'm withholding final judgment until all the sts are dropped, but I may put the whole scarf into a dye bath of a deeper red to tone down some of the light pink.

On My Mind

The next two projects in the queue are also smaller.

On the left is the Zippered Vest from Veronik Avery's Knitting Classic Style. I'm subbing the Patons Classic Merino for Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Wool Cotton. I swatched and washed the yarn and the gauge is spot-on. The yarn isn't really living up to its Soft Touch name yet though. It will be fine for an outerwear vest, but this isn't non-knitter next-to-skin soft. Chawne suggested dropping it in the washer to simulate some more wear (and maybe soften it) and I think that's a great idea.

On the right is Norah Gaughan's Quicksilver Bag. Can you believe this will be my first knitted bag? I'm not a fan of felted bags, so when I saw this one I knew this would be my first. It uses leather handles and dowels from Homestead Heirlooms, and now that they arrived last night I can't wait to cast on.

Go check out their handle options for use with knitted items. I love these handles and I don't think this will be my last non-felted bag that I make with something from them.

I'm a little concerned about the color I picked though (color seems to be my problem today, huh?). I deliberately didn't choose black (because everything I own is black) but I'm feeling a bit like I missed out by not going with my initial choice of Tuscany Yellow or Orange (view their color chart). I think they both would have been fun color combos but I was afraid it would limit the usability of the bag. In the end I went with safe-brown, so I think a fun fabric lining will be in need to balance things out.

This was a hard-earned one, but one that I'm very pleased with in the end.

pattern Marlande from Bouton d'Or Layette & Junior no. 13
yarn Patons Grace in Rose, Viola and White (3 balls of Rose, 1.2 balls of Viola, .8 balls of White).
needles Knitpicks Options 4.0 mm / US # 6
mods I didn't intend to make any mods, but one became necessary. I washed and dried my swatch, and was suprised that it didn't shrink in length.

you see where this is going, right?

Once I washed the dress, it shrank quite a bit so I needed to lengthen it. I added a white lacy edging below the ruffles, and I love it. I think it looks like a little petticoat peaking out from underneath.

Thoughts on the Pattern

Johanna warned me about Bouton d'Or patterns and she was so right. They have such cute designs but the patterns are odd. In my case, I found the pattern to be both highly-specific and vague. For example, they made sure to tell you to do your increases 2 sts inside the selvedge to make it smoother for picking up the edgings (nice!). It worked out beautifully. Then, they did things like instruct me to make a tr buttonhole for the button closure. I've never heard of a tr buttonhole, and neither had the writers of the abbreviations or general directions. I couldn't find a single mention of how to make a tr buttonhole. In the end I made a little loop and blanket stitched inside it to make a nice, firm outline. Worked fine.

I really enjoyed the embroidery bits, and plan to do more of it this year. And that button? Cute as a...hmm. Well, damn cute. The colors were chosen based on the parents preferences (pink, pink, and some more pink. The baby's bedroom is all pink, replete with satin and tulle. The viola was my addition because as much as I like pink, I needed some contrast.

The end result is really sweet, but all the little finishing work took quite a bit of time and was...less fun. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here are a few numbers for you:

• total number sts CO: 400
• total number sts BO: 1,033
• total number sts picked up: 595

Crazy, right? If I had thought through all the steps before I started the finishing work, I could have reduced some of my effort. But really, all those edgings are going to be extra work, and there's just no way around that. I knit the body in 2 days. I finished the rest over the next 2 weeks.

But, it was worth it. I'm enamored with this little dress, and I think (hope) the parents will be too.

I did some research online and I couldn't find a resource that talked about handpainting bamboo yarn Handpainting (wool) yarn, sure. Dyeing bamboo yarn, sure. But nothing that talked about how to do it in a non-submersive way. Now that I've dyed my yarn, and I'm happy with the results, I thought I'd share with you all what I did.

ETA - the instructions I found for immersion dyeing bamboo yarn can be found here on Halcyon's site

Step 1: Scour the Yarn

I soaked the yarn in hot water (140° F / 60&def; C) with Synthrapol and Soda Ash for about 15 minutes. I used 1/2 tsp Synthrapol and 1/2 tsp Soda Ash per pound.

To get the water warm enough, I started out with hot tap water in a stove-proof container, dissolved the Synthrapol and Soda Ash, added the yarn and cooked it on low for 15 minutes once it hit the right temperature. To check the temp, I used a candy thermometer locked in a Ziploc bag so it didn't get any chemicals on it (I wasn't sure if the Ziploc would hold, but it was fine!

Note: My yarn was already in hanks that were tied off in figure 8s in three places along the hank. If your yarn isn't tied off this way, make sure you do so before getting it wet -- wet fiber sticks to itself and makes it much harder to work with. You'll have a big mess if you don't.

While the yarn was getting cleansed, I mixed up the dyes.

Step 2: Prepare the Dye

I used Procion Dye in #78 Navy. I wanted a nice variation of color, so I mixed three strengths -- 2 grams, 4 grams and 6 grams of dye for 1 cup of water. In the end, this step was completely unnecessary, as I found I could easily control the saturation of dye just based on how light or heavy I was with the paint brush, and how much dye I picked up with my brush. So, save yourself a considerable amount of dye and just mix up 2 grams for 1 cup of water.

Step 3: Finish Preparing the Yarn

After the 15 minutes were up, I rinsed the yarn. I was shocked at how much red dye came out in the rinse.

After that, I prepared a Soda Ash bath for the yarn by mixing 3/4 cup of Soda Ash with a 3/4 gallon of water. Note - I started with cold water this time and the Soda Ash hardened as soon as it hit the water. So, use hot water so it dissolves easier. Once the Soda Ash is dissolved, add the yarn and let it soak for about 5 minutes.

Remove the yarn from the Soda Ash bath, wring gently by hand, and place it on a protected surface (I used a double layer of kitchen garbage bags.

Step 3: Painting the Yarn

Put on some waterproof gloves, and using your paintbrush, paint the yarn. Use a heavy hand for very saturated areas, and a dry brush and lighter hand for a more mottled effect. Be sure to get the dye into the areas where the hanks are tied together, and once you've painted one side, flip them over to paint the other side.

You shouldn't have any dye liquid pooling around your yarn -- natural fiber has a wicking property, so if it finds any liquid it will soak it right up and you'll be left with an uneven dye job.

Step 4: Curing the Dye

Wrap up the yarn in plastic (I used the garbage bags that I painted on as the wrapping). I folded it up into a nice package and let it sit for a few hours.

From what I read it only needed to sit for 90 minutes or so, but I ended up letting it sit for 8 hours or so. This didn't seem to have any impact on how the dye set, although I've read that the dye needs to stay wet.

Step 5: Washing out the Dye

I unwrapped my yarn and dumped it in the sink (I have a black cast iron sink so I wasn't worried about it getting dyed), and ran cold water on it to wash out any loose dye. Very little dye came off.

Next, I put the yarn in a stove-proof container with 1/2 tsp on Synthrapol and brought the temp to 140° for about 10 minutes. The water turned very blue. I rinsed the yarn and returned it to another Synthrapol bath. This second time the water stayed clear.

I rinsed the yarn, gently wrung them out by hand, and hung them on a hanger to dry. I was afraid of dye dripping from them so I placed a couple of old towels underneath them, but they didn't drip at all.

Step 6: Admire Your Handiwork!

Step back and admire your beautiful work!

if anyone uses this tutorial and has an issue, question or suggestion, feel free to leave a comment!

You may also be interested in this thread on Ravelry Knitting Blogging: steam running out?, where opinions run the gamut from blogs are a dying breed to fewer people are commenting to I'll never stop blogging.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the state of knit blogging. Should you stop writing WIP posts in favor of FO-only posts? Has Ravelry killed blogging? Has Flickr killed blogging?

For me, the answers are No, No, and No.

The whole discussion of WIP posts versus FO-only posts just seems silly to me. I like to share my FOs, but that's not the only reason I blog.

I blog because I like to record the evolution of a project. I enjoy going back and seeing how it progressed, and being reminded about the challenges I encountered, or the decisions I had to make, or the frogging that was necessary to make it "just so".

I blog because I like to share with my readers. I like to let everyone know if I've found something useful (or not) and like to share my thoughts. I enjoy writing up tutorials and I love it when someone comments with a different (but well-thought out) perspective as well. And judging by the number of referrers I get from Google I think that you all appreciate it too.

I also blog to help me think through something. Sometimes I'll post a WIP shot and ask for opinions. Or sometimes, the activity of writing the post helps clarify.

And finally, I blog because I enjoy the writing. I spent most of my school years avoiding writing at all costs. I consider one of my best "mistakes" in life was my decision to attend a liberal arts college for my Math and Computer Science degrees. I despised those classes then, but I look back on them fondly and know how helpful they really were in preparing me to be an effective, persuasive communicator -- both very necessary skills in just about any profession you choose.

What this means is that I love the format of a blog, and all that it brings together for me. I can't imagine *not* blogging.

This Ravelry and Flickr Business

Ravelry and Flickr are great, and both meet needs that the knitting community has had -- needs that blogs alone couldn't meet.

I've read that some bloggers are considering closing (or have closed) their blogs, moving to Ravelry or Flickr instead. In my opinion, this doesn't speak to the fact that blogging is being replaced by these services, but rather that blogging wasn't the right fit for them to begin with.

Ravelry is an information aggregator. Want to knit a pattern? Check on Ravelry to see who's knit it and what they thought. Have 10 balls of yarn in your stash and no ideas what to make from it? Check on Ravelry to see what people have made with the yarn. Looking to make a scarf out of fingering weight yarn but don't have a pattern in mind? Ravelry's your answer.

The forums are a nice tidy way to get at a lot of information. I'm a member of several designers' fan groups, specific knitting techniques groups, and local groups in NJ and Philly. The groups are a great way to have discussions with knitters who share a common interest.

And finally, my most-favorite part of Ravelry, the friends activity page and the queue. Oh my, if they don't just make me want to quit my job and knit all day! and I still wouldn't have enough time to make everything. I've discovered patterns I never would have considered otherwise, and blogs I never knew about before. It's greatly enhanced my knitting experience, but it hasn't replaced my blog reading.

Same goes for Flickr. Flickr is another great resource to augment my online knitting experience. The groups are great. Looking for some really beautiful FOs? Try Knitting Art. Want to see handknits modeled on people? Flip through Handknit Street Style. I love how interactive the comments are. Blogging isn't as conducive to comment threads, but it works really well in Flickr.

I also like the speed at which I can post to Flickr. Take a pic, do a little post-processing, upload, write a small caption, and done! I'm participating in Crafting 365 and Flickr is the perfect medium for it. I get to see a lot of creativity, meet some new people, and look at my own crafting in a different light. I'm really enjoying the commitment to take a picture a day of my crafting, and the creativity it inspires. Look for a longer blog post on Crafting 365 periodically as the year progresses (see? more cross-medium uses...)

As I've said before, this is a really interesting time for the internet. It's saturated enough to make niche sites viable, make the wiki model feasible, and make internet communities successful. It's not often in our lives that we'll be able to witness something grow and evolve at this kind of pace.

I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

My first FO of the year!

yarn lana grossa mega boots stretch, color 715 (bought at MDSW 2006 -- yay for more fest yarn!)
pattern basic toe-up on 60 stitches, increased to 68 about 2 inches before the top
needles knit picks 2.75 mm / US # 2

What can I say about these socks? They're really simple -- toe-up, Judy's magic cast-on, stockinette foot and leg, short row heel, a couple inches of 2x1 rib, and a decrease bind-off.

Even though they're so simple, these socks are really special to me.

They meet several of my 2008 goals:

• Stash yarn - I bought this at MDSW 2006!
• They're socks - I really want more hand knit socks this year.
• Finishing what I started. Being able to wear what I knit - priceless.

  Up next is finishing up Gigi's dress. The birthday party is in a few weeks and let me tell you, that innocent little dress has hours of finishing in it.

  ]]> http://www.savannahchik.com/2008/01/fo-mega-boots-socks.htm http://www.savannahchik.com/2008/01/fo-mega-boots-socks.htm socks! Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:57:13 -0500