30 August 2011 · 35 Comments
So, as promised, I’d like you to meet someone who really knows her way around the bead shop. May I introduce the lovely Laura Nelkin?
I got to know Laura when she was design director for Schaefer Yarn. She got in touch with me when I was very new at this pattern thing and asked if I’d like to do a design for Schaefer. This was an incredibly generous thing to do. I was a complete newbie and was totally making it up as I went along. Her encouragement was a tremendous help.
Laura has recently made the switch to being an independent knitwear designer, and she’s doing some amazing things. Her latest project is a video class on lace shawls that looks like great fun. Even more impressive (at lest to me, as I sit here surrounded by hundreds of beads and a few false starts) is her way with beads.
She’s done lots of individual beaded patterns in the past (Ennoble more or less makes me weak in the knees), but now she’s done something even more fun. She’s put together a whole collection of knitted jewelry and other accessories (most of it with beads). She’s releasing one pattern a month, plus a few surprise patterns here and there. The first pattern came out back in May, and new patterns are being added every month.
The pattern collection is called Adorn, and it is absolutely marvelous. The patterns are lovely, and the instructions are clear enough that even a bead novice like me isn’t intimidated. If you’re already a bead expert or if you’ve only been considering taking up beading (and really, if you like yarn shops, there is a good chance you’ll like bead shops…they hit a lot of the same ‘oooooh, pretty colors’ buttons in my brain), you’ll want to add this to your collection.
I’ve got a copy to give away to one lucky reader. If you’d like it to be you, just leave me a comment below and tell me what you like to do with beads (even if it’s just admire them from a distance). I’ll pick a winner on Friday. Do be sure to use a real email address so I can get in touch if you win (and don’t worry, I won’t do anything with any of the addresses except contact the winner).
10 August 2011 · No Comments
It’s been an awesome day at Chez Violence. As of close of business today, I have sixteen (out of an eventual twenty) of the projects for Book the Second here and blocked and petted and cooed over and tucked away safe out of reach of mischievous kittens. I know it is unbecomingly immodest, but if you got me alone in a quiet corner, I might just confess to being really really pleased with all of these projects.
On the left is Schaefer Yarn Company in Chris in the color Pomegranate. This is a soft, lofty, 80/20 merino nylon yarn. It’s lovely and fat and round and is just perfect for hats or mitts or just about anything else you can imagine. You could even make socks with it if you were feeling the need for something warm and slipper-like.
On the right is Schaefer Yarn Company in Nichole in the color Thistle. It’s also an 80/20 mix, but much thinner than Chris. My love for Nichole is well documented and undying. It is easily one of my top five sock yarns, giving socks that are both soft and sturdy. I knew from the start that I wanted to work with it again for this project.
29 June 2011 · 6 Comments
Perhaps not surprisingly, we somehow managed to slip into a few yarn stores on our trip this past weekend. Imagine that. Shocking I know.
Our first stop was the Cultured Purl in Erie, PA (what, it was on the way…more or less). It was the first time I had seen Sweet Georgia yarns in a store. Luckily, I have quite a bit of SG sitting around here, so I was able to grab something new. I picked up two skeins of Filigran by Zitron in what seems to be collor 1603 (such an evocative name). This is a single ply laceweight. I haven’t the slightest idea what I’m going to do with it, so (just to be safe) I got two. I’m calling it the next step on my quest to explore non-sock options.
Next was Wooly Minded in Corning, NY. Somehow, through great self restraint, I managed not to buy any yarn. Don’t worry, I bought needles instead. I am always on the lookout for new needles. I like my needles light weight, pointy, and stiff. Plastic and wooden needles don’t work for me. I had a bunch of KP needles, but they are a bit heavy and they tarnish badly when I use them. My favorites are my Sig Arts, but they are a bit expensive (totally worth it, just hard to get as many sets as I like to have on hand). Kollage square needles are a good alternative, though I find they sometimes start feeling a bit sharp on my fingers if I’ve been knitting a long time. At Wooly Minded, I saw something new, stainless steel needles by Chiao Goo. So far I know that they are light, fairly pointy, and pleasantly rigid. I haven’t used them yet, but I’m planning on it and will report back when I do.
The final stop was Finger Lakes Fiber in Watkins Glen, NY. I’d actually been here before, but they’ve moved since we were last in town. The new space is lovely and very comfortable. The selection was great. I picked up two old favorites, Casbah by Handmaiden in what I think is the color Nova Scotia, and Nichole by Schaefer in the color Dian Fossey. These are two of my go to sock yarns and I’m always happy to work with them again.
Not a bad little haul for a weekend trip!
10 February 2011 · 1 Comment
So it seems I’ve not completely forgotten how to make socks. I know, it seemed for a while there as though I’d lost my way, but I’m now back on track. See? An actual, fresh off the needles, still damp on the blocker, sock.
And to speak in my own defense, I haven’t really ignored socks for the last two months. I actually have (yet another) super secret sock on the needles. These socks are awesome. Alas, they will have to remain secret for a while yet. You’ll have to content yourself with these guys in the meantime. Now that the first one is done I’m itching to cast on the second.
That may be delayed a day or two though. As I was making dinner last night, I managed to get a nasty little burn on my the fingers of my left hand (also known as my yarn tensioning fingers). Knitting is less fun when it involves dragging yarn over freshly burned skin. I shall have to investigate the shielding powers of bandaids.
3 February 2011 · 5 Comments
Hey, know anybody who might want a sock knitting book and some yarn? The lovely Laura Nelkin from Schaefer Yarn is having a wee giveaway of the book and a skein of Nichole in the color Chamomile. My love of Nichole is well documented. If you’ve not had a chance to use it yet, this might be the perfect excuse!
25 January 2011 · No Comments
The official thread for the February knit along is up on Ravelry. The individual patterns for these two socks are also now available on Ravelry, in case you prefer to get the patterns one by one. Some time between now and the start of February, Shannon and I will come up with official rules and post them in the group. For now, the general idea is: cast on after it gets to be February, finish a pair by the end of March, be entered to win prizes. Use whatever yarn you like, use whatever color you like, make whichever sock you like, make whatever changes you need for fit. Something more official will be coming soon, but we’re not going to go crazy with rules!
Oh, and because I know someone will ask, the sock blockers are from The Loopy Ewe and they are made of awesome!
21 November 2010 · No Comments
The hat thing seems to have stuck. Shortly after finishing my friend’s hat, The Boy cut off all his hair. A day or two later he mentioned that his head was cold and that he could maybe just possibly see the wisdom of a hat. Within minutes yarn was located (we’d picked it out a long time ago when he was thinking of knitting his own hat), balls were wound, and the hat was begun.
That winding part actually proved unexpectedly tricky. This is Nichole by Schaefer Yarn and Hand Paint Sock by Misti Alpaca. I don’t have a lot in the way of thicker yarn, so I decided holding two thinner yarns together was the way to go. I wound each of them into balls, then rewound them into one big ball while holding the two yarns together. I’m not sure it was the best choice. One of the yarns seems to come out of the mega ball just slightly faster than the other one leaving me with an extra loop of yarn that grows ever larger as I get farther and farther along. I’ve tried working with two balls before though, and I don’t care for that either. Perhaps the proper answer is just to find thicker yarn…
Despite the fiddly yarn, the hat was well underway within a few hours. With luck, I’ll finish it tomorrow. With even more luck I might get him to model it for us next week (though my three quart mixing bowl works surprisingly well as a stand in head when needed).
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