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Mosh Pit Mitts

Filed under: Special Orders — Tags: , — Elly @ 1:48 pm on June 14, 2013

Rachel over at My Life in Knitwear has self-published her Mosh Pit Mitts pattern. This pattern is a lovely summer mitt pattern, for full details read about them here. The pattern uses one skein of Cotton Fleece, which is available by Special Order (closing this Monday, so order soon), or unusually, I do have (at time of posting!) 2 skeins available in the shop!

Mosh Pit Mitts by Rachel Atkinson Photo © Betsy Makes

Mosh Pit Mitts by Rachel Atkinson
Photo © Betsy Makes

No FO from me this Friday, as I’ve been swatching up some new patterns in Lanaloft Sport. Nothing to show except some funny looking tubes – some diagonal shaping is beating me at the moment. It may have won this battle, it won’t win the war ;)

Lanaloft Swatches

Lanaloft Swatches

Nesting – shop update

Filed under: just chatting,News,Special Orders — Elly @ 11:51 am on June 11, 2013

Having safely made back to the UK (and going straight to Knit Night, because my coach was delayed – who needs to see actual family first?), I’ve been rooting around and have found some things that belong in the shop.

I have popped them on there, some Cotton Fleece (only one of each colour), and some Lambs Pride Bulky, which is the big sister to Lamb’s Pride Worsted. They can be found in the side bar, or click on the photos in this post, and that will take you straight to them, while they are in stock.

Cotton Fleece - Sugar Plum and Gold Dust

Cotton Fleece – Sugar Plum and Gold Dust

Lambs Pride Bulky - Aubergine

Lamb’s Pride Bulky – Aubergine

Lamb's Pride Bulky - Jaded Dreams

Lamb’s Pride Bulky – Jaded Dreams

Lamb's Pride Bulky - Spice

Lamb’s Pride Bulky – Spice

In other news – I’m thinking of doing another Solid Sock Club – similar to last years – if you’d be interested, let me know in the comments. That’s no commitment to sign up, I just want to get an idea of how many people are interested.

Finally, the next deadline for Special Orders is on Monday, 17th June, so if you’d like to order some of the Brown Sheep yarns or colours that I don’t keep in stock (Cotton Fleece, Lamb’s Pride Worsted, Bulky, all the weights of Nature Spun, and of course the Wildfoote Sock yarn if you’d like a taster of the yarn for the sock club!) order soon.

Until next time, take care!

Elly x

Migrating: north to south.

Filed under: just chatting,News — Tags: , , — Elly @ 6:00 pm on June 5, 2013

It’s time. I’m returning to the UK for a few weeks. It’s been radio silence around these parts as I recently had a large commission for 6 sweaters (machine knit), which I needed to finish before I left (which I have, phew). Now all that is left to do is pack, and tidy up my work room.

I took some photos showing the view from the house – the weather was gorgeous today, as I sat out on the balcony, grafting some sock toes. This is a very self-indulgent, photo heavy post, you’ll just have to forgive me! More knitting and crochet next time.

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My messy garden, I hope the rhododendron is still flowering when I get back! The daffodils are pretty much over, but the bluebells are just approaching their best.

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My blackcurrent clippings, their first year of flowering, and hopefully fruiting! And lastly, The Fella, making me a dinner of salmon (caught by his grandfather!) and roast veg.

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More link love

Filed under: Link Love,Special Orders — Tags: , , — Elly @ 11:49 am on May 16, 2013

I must think of a better name for this, link love just doesn’t sit right. But I’m drawing a blank, so let’s just get to the links, shall we? (Leave a comment if name that I can use comes to mind!)

First a couple of stories. As I’ve mentioned previously, I listen to a lot of podcasts. Often I get behind on them, as I go through phases in my work – lots of machine knitting (music for this, as the knitting machine is too loud to follow a story well, plus I have to keep on things like row numbers and stitch counts. Grooveshark and 8tracks are my go-to sites for music by the way – if you have a profile there, let me know in the comments, I love discovering new-to-me music by poking around people’s playlists.

Then there are the periods of computer work and wrangling text and numbers into a coherent pattern. This is accompanied by silence, or some Zion-style Dub (I am SO not down with the kids(!) when it comes to music terminology, but I don’t really care) to drown out any distracting background noise.

And then there are those long glorious periods of making by hand – knitting, crocheting, or seaming the machine knit pieces together. And then I get to listen to my stories! I’m often listening to the back catalogue of various casts, and sometimes, like today, themes converge – such as being an outsider, as in A Hole To China, by Catherynne M. Valente via LightSpeed Magazine; and Some Of Them Closer, by Marissa Lingen, via Escape Pod – both links have text and audio.

The first is a fantasy piece about a girl who belatedly starts to dig a hole to China, because she feels that’s what normal children do, and the second a sci-fi piece about a woman returning to Earth after working as a Terra-Former, and finds Earth the different, yet the same – not enough of either to be comfortable. Both stories touch on how we think that others feel we should be (i.e. putting words in others mouths, or rather, opinions in other people’s minds), and acting on those supposed opinions – conforming, or not. As some one living in a ‘foreign’ country, and as an introvert, both are lingering with me.

Nature Spun Sport

Nature Spun Sport

Because I don’t like posting without photos – look at this photo Kat took for me! I know one of the downfalls of my site is the lack of good photos, so slowly I’m rectifying that. I’ll post more in another post, I just wanted to inject some fabulous colour into this post. POW!

As you may know, I sell Nature Spun Sport (and all other Brown Sheep yarns such as Lamb’s Pride) by Special Order, and the next deadline for orders is this Monday, 20th May full info here. (It also comes in Fingering, ‘Worsted’ (which knits as a DK), and Chunky weights.)

But back to more link love.

Jana, over at justblock(gg)ed, has posted a tutorial about making tassel stitch markers from scrap yarn. They look gorgeous. I’d be a bit bothered about knitting them into my work though, so if I attempt making them, I may but the tassel on a split ring, rather than a loop of yarn.

Finally, Tom over at Tom of Holland, has posted about colour dominance in stranded colourwork, and comes to the conclusion (which I agree with), that the ‘rules’ of colour dominance, and yarn wrangling may not be as set in stone as previously believed. I’ll pontificate on this more when I have some swatches to show you ;)

WIP Wednesday: Venus and a Tubey remake

Filed under: Special Orders,WIP Wednesday — Tags: , , — Elly @ 11:00 am on May 15, 2013

(For a full WIP Wednesday link-fest, visit Tami’s Amis)

Rather over-exposed, although it gives a better idea of the colour (a dark teal), I’m at the end of row 11.

Venus

Venus 48/98 fans

In my bid to knit down my stash and finish off old projects and ideas, I’ve picked up this:

Tubey Remake

Tubey Remake

Tubey. Do you remember Tubey, from Knitty, Winter 2005 (yikes!)? I didn’t  quite finish it, but found very binding across the neck opening (in the pattern you knit a the sleeves and across the back, in a shrug shape, then pick up stitches and knit a body down to the bottom hem. I’ve kept the resulting tube of ribbing (because frankly all that ribbing needs to be kept as a monument to my patience, if nothing else), and ripped out the top part.

Then, I bound off the weird edge that you get when you make live stitches at the bottom of ribbing. That’s now the lower hem. It’s a little wobbly looking, but let’s just call that a design feature, shall we? And really, when it’s worn it’s not noticeable. Then, I knit up a front and back (the ribbing looks like it doesn’t line up, but that’s just because it’s unblocked, while the rest is). Winging it quite a bit, but really, this is never going to be the best jumper in the world – I just want something to wear around the house. Then I picked up stitches around the armholes, and knit a short-row sleeve cap as described by Wendy Bernard in her Custom Knits book.

The sleeves look too big (this method always looks a bit wrong to me, but it works out). Now to knit the sleeves down to the cuffs. I’m not sure I’m going to have enough yarn left, I think it’s been eaten by the stash in the spare room of doom, so this project may be put on hold again until I can gird myself to have a poke around in there.

Happy stitching all, until next time…

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(The next Special Order date to buy any Brown Sheep yarn (including Cotton FleeceLamb’s Pride and Wildfoote Sock) is this Monday, 20th May. Full details can be found here.)

WIP Wednesday: Venus continues

Filed under: WIP Wednesday — Elly @ 12:03 pm on May 8, 2013

and continues… and continues…

(For a full WIP Wednesday link-fest, visit Tami’s Amis)

First a close-up:

Cockle Shells close-up

Cockle Shells close-up

Love how this part of the pattern is working up. But the rows are getting rather long now, although completing a motif does give a nice bite-size sense of completion satisfaction.

Venus emerging

Venus emerging

It’s Venus, again. Almost at the end of row 10. 32 fans finished, 66 to go! Gulp…

Share the Link, Love.

Filed under: just chatting,Link Love — Elly @ 10:59 am on May 3, 2013

Before anything else, I feel I need to balance my grumping from the last post, with a photo from yesterday (today is happily the same):

2nd May, Faroes

2nd May, Faroes. Still snowy, but less depressing.

Share the Link Love

Share the Link Love

Share the link, love: I’d done this a little before, but I want to start doing it more regularly – sharing links that have inspired, interested or motivated (in short, loved?), recently. It feels a little old-fashioned(!) but I think it’s a lot more personal and informative than simply tweeting a link and trying to explain why it’s awesome in the 100 or so characters left!

Tammy, over at Daisy Yellow Art has made this a bit more organised, and has made a nice graphic too. As she says: “I believe that linking will inspire community. Let’s go retro and spread the love.” Ok, let’s go…

 Vlad Studio, for fabulous desktop wallpaper and other digital art. Vlad is a Russian artist who has a lovely distinctive style. He is often featured in the monthly Smashing Magazine wallpaper round-up, and I can always spot his submissions.

 Another wallpaper link Geninnes’s Art Blog. I love the way she mixes photos and paper-based illustration with digitial additions. Gorgeous work. And it doesn’t hurt that she also draws inspiration from birds! She has a print shop (if you ever want to buy me a print, this one please! ;) ) and an accessories shop selling brooches and cuffs.

Julie, over at Knitting At Large has posted about an alternative way to widen sleeves. Intriguing! And if you are a designer or simply interested in knitting for larger sizes, bookmark this site and read the archives – Julie writes well and is full of information and experimentation.

Liz, of Northern Lace, has a new pattern out, the St Kilda shawl, available from Blacker Yarns, which she writes about in this post. Great photos and information, I love it when designers write the stories of their designs. This isn’t always possible (some don’t have stories, and just come in flashes of ideas, but others have tales to tell).

Tracy A Franklin is a UK-based “Self employed specialist embroiderer designer artist” (I lifted that from her profile :) ), who shares her work on her blog. Very inspiring – I’m not much of an embroiderer, but this is certainly motivating to practise more!

 

Finally, if you’re reading this in a feed reader, you won’t be able to see the info header, so I’ll add it here - Special Orders are open again, the deadline is 20th May.

WIP Wednesday: Venus

Filed under: Crochet,just chatting,WIP Wednesday — Tags: , — Elly @ 1:06 pm on May 1, 2013

Having charged my camera battery from last week’s failure, I can now show you my Venus WIP. But first, an excuse for the following shoddy lighting. I awoke this morning to – no, not glorious May sunshine, children frolicking around a May pole with flowers in their hair, etc., etc, but to this:

Faroes - May Day 2013

Faroes – May Day 2013

BAH! But I hope it excuses the odd lighting of this:

Venus WIP

Venus WIP

It’s Venus, by Aiobhe Ni. My first a Tunisian crochet project. I’m using a cone of Colourmart Merino-Silk-Cashmere doubled, and a 5mm hook. I’m just about to start the shell rows. I think this is a great project for an adventurous beginner (me!), as Aiobhe has great videos and supporting materials that explain Tunisian crochet, so I felt entirely comfortable diving into a quite ambitious first Tunisian project. Now I’ve ploughed through the plain rows, I’m on to shells and picots and cnupps!

Blogging on the go

Filed under: Design Process,just chatting — Tags: , — Elly @ 12:18 pm on April 30, 2013
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Raindrops beret

This is a bit of a rough and ready post, from my tablet (a Blackberry Playbook, in case you are curious). I’m gearing up to come home to the UK for a few weeks, and am considering on not bringing my computer (a creaking Mac mini). Alternative ways of working must be found however, and this is one of them! If you have any advice for me on the mobile blogging front, do leave me a comment!

The photo is of a design prototype for the Raindrop Slouch, which was originally going to be a beret. At the time I didn’t like how it came out, so changed it to a more slouchy style beanie hat. But, looking at it again, I now quite like it, so think I will add the beret style as a bonus when I self-publish the Raindrop hat. The pictured version is knit in Big Surf Blue Lanaloft Sport.

Until tomorrow, fellow Magpies! x

FO Friday: Selkie

Filed under: FO Friday — Tags: , , — Elly @ 10:46 am on April 19, 2013

I loved knitting this pattern! Selkie by Woolly Wormhead, is available as a standalone pattern or from her book Playful Woolly Toppers. I knit the smallest size in Lanaloft Sport in Manhattan Mist (sadly discontinued now), and the gorgeous Buoyant Blue.

Selkie Side on

Selkie on the side

I haven’t got a model to hand for this size, so some careful balancing of a bowl and some treacle tins are my stand-in.

Selkie from the front

Selkie from the front

I made the pompom using Eskimimi’s Fork Tutorial – which is a great way to do it, no faffing about with cardboard circles etc.

Selkie Awesome Pompom

Selkie Awesome Pompom

I love how it fluffs up. It’s a single ply wool yarn so the fibres unwind a bit once they’ve been cut, and some brisk washing and drying felts them slightly for the result you can see here. I’ve heard putting pompoms in a dryer fluffs them up amazingly, but I did mine by hand and I like the result.

The only modification I did was to add some cords to attach to the fear flaps.

Pattern, yarn and FO: top marks!

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