Lake Louise Headband/Happy Halloween!

Lulu is having a sitewide sale through November 2, 2009 - 20% off everything including the knitting booklets or patterns at my store in print or as .PDF downloads. The coupon code is FALLBACK.

Dale of Norway's Lake Louise Headband

I've  had success previously substituting Nature Spun Sport for Heilo in Dale of Norway  patterns by going up one needle size. Unfortunately this equation does not work with Elann's Peruvian Highland Sport. Previously I tried it with the Dale Whistler sweater and my row gauge was way off. I tried it again with this Lake Louise headband (in the same pattern booklet as the Whistler pattern). (Remember that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again but expecting different results!)

The headband turned out quite wide but it is for DH so it will work. It is also pretty stiff with two layers so it can be used as neck protection as well worn like a neck gaiter. He couldn't come up with a Halloween costume for his office party so he decided to wear all his Dale of Norway stuff and be an Olympic skiier. I'd given away all the Dale hats I'd made previously so I made this one in a jiffy. I'll try to get a photo of him wearing everything at once.

Bubbles doesn't get any Halloween candy so she's celebrating by eating lettuce instead. I had to rush to take this photo before she started in on the pumpkins.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

New Source for Glove Needles

In yesterday's link list I forgot one of my favorite new discoveries, 4" long glove needles for sale from Spin Blessing. They are the KA Classic Bamboo and they come in sizes 0 to size 5 which should take care of most glove knitting needs.

This is the view from my front door today. I plan to knit non-stop and watch chick flicks. The only way this day can get any better is if Colin Firth or George Clooney shows up to make a fire in the wood stove and bring me a mug of hot chocolate.

Links, Charity Hats & O-Wool

Today's Color Links:

Paton's blog is just starting a stranded tam KAL. The free pattern uses 5 colors of Paton's Classic Wool and size 7 dpns. I'd join if I hadn't just finished a tam.

In my continuing quest for more worsted weight stranded patterns I queued the free pattern for the Vineland Mittens which uses 2 colors of worsted weight yarn.

I just found out Lucy Neatby has a blog, Happy Stitches.

The lovely and prolific Spillyjane has several new stranded mitten and sock patterns for sale as well as the free Quo Vadis mittens that use 6 colors of worsted weight yarn from your stash.

I've seen the incredible stranded Mirror, Mirror socks before from Janel Laidman's most recent sock book but now you can buy her patterns separately.



Denise sent me these beautiful hats to be sold in our next pet rabbit rescue garage sale. She even went to the trouble of including labels on how to care for the hats. Aren't they lovely? Her workmanship is impeccable and I know these will be popular at the sale. Thanks so much Denise!




Check out the four new colors of O~Wool Classic 2-ply yarn from Vermont Organic Fiber Company. I especially love the lilac at the bottom. Marin from O~Wool sent me these and I'm going to design a Latvian-style mitten with a pointy tip, peasant thumb, and braids by the end of November.

House Tours

Yesterday we went to a few subdivisions near our house to look at some beautiful homes. The parade of homes showcases local builders and designers and it is always quite popular. I thought this fireplace was quite spectacular - I believe the builder said it was onyx? It appeared to be floating in space.




One of the cool things about the area where I live is that from some vantage points you can see 6 mountain ranges (Sandia, Manzano, Jemez, Sangre de Cristo and the smaller Ortiz and San Pedro Mountains). From this house I could see 5 of the 6 and I kept fantasizing about sitting outside in this covered patio and knitting.



This was the sparkliest powder room I'd ever seen with all the glass tiles and glass sink and mirrors on the wall, the counter, and even the faucet.




I wonder if wallpaper is coming back in style? All the homes I saw had spectacular views. I could see myself sitting here as well knitting away for hours.

If you want to see some of the kitchens from these houses, go to my other blog Cooking in Color.

Genesis of a Colorway Part III

This is the final part of Genesis of a colorway. After I left you last, I went ahead an played with dyes, and as always, as I was playing, changed my direction slightly. Each colored circle became it own colorway, and the results are amazingly rich with subtle variegations.I name each skein after a verse from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's famous poem, the Blessed Damozel.

Here is the Blessed Damozel Collection


I hope you will enjoy the Blessed Damozel Collection.

Selbu Modern KAL

This fall I'm extremely busy with many freelance food articles, some knitwear designing projects, and I'm even considering doing another cookbook proposal for a local publisher. I finally decided I would rather have the money than the time so I'm pushing myself as much as possible to be productive. Because of that, I made a decision to only work on worsted weight colorwork projects for my personal knitting so I could finish things quickly enough to show here.

So what do I do? I start yet another fine-gauge project. This is the Selbu Modern hat (free pattern HERE) knit on size 0 and 2 dpns with Elann's Alpaca Peruvian Pura Fina. (Their web site says it is a sport weight but I consider it a light fingering weight.) I'm using kind of a periwinkle and a navy heather.



There is a Selbu Modern KAL currently in progress on Ravelry's Stranded Forum. It isn't too late to join either as it runs through the end of October. It is fascinating seeing all the different yarn weights and needle sizes being used for this hat - mine looks pretty tiny so far but I trust it will stretch out nicely.



The Sandia Mountains received a dusting of snow this week. Even on dark days here the New Mexico skies are pretty spectacular.

Genesis of a Colorway Part II

I left you yesterday as I was about to grab my sketchbook, and my colored pencils.

I like to have all my pencils available, and after some serious sharpening, I draw about 18 circles on page.

I love working with the colored pencils as they can be layered to create subtle color variations.

Before I continue, let's look at the Blessed Damozel again.



The first color I saw was the one in her robe. I saw a deep green with a navy undertone. So I started to decline ( a word I use referring to the process of Latin and Greek declensions in which a root word is modified) the greens making them gradually more green, and leading them towards the gentle greeninsh greys.

Next I saw the browns, rusts and oranges. I started with the deepest brown and added rust as an overtone, again as for the greens I declined the browns to their simplest orange.

Next, it was the turn of the pinks and corals. I started with a red with a coral undertone, and went gradually towards the lighter pinks, adding a coral cast to all of them. Finally came a touch of yellow, and a pinch of pinkinsh beige.

This process left me with 18 colors, way too many for a skein of yarn. That is the hard part, to simplify the color range while at the same time keeping the colors true to their inspiration.



I narrowed the colors to 5 main colors with 4 in-betweens. The five main colors will become my main colors on the skein, and the in-betweens will be the areas where 2 colors touch and in the process create a variation.



Next stage, selecting the dyes, and mixing them precisely to obtain the desired colors. I love that stage, this is when my colors come to life.

This will be Part III!

Knitty Tam

A girlfriend from Colorado I'm seeing this weekend asked me to knit her a beret in "her colors." I'm not exactly sure what she meant by that but her favorite color is purple and she wears a lot of black. Her winter coat is bright red so I doubt this hat will work with the coat but obviously the solution is to buy a new coat to go with the hat.




This is Tam C in the Three Tams pattern from Knitty by Angela Sixian Wu. I think this is a terrific pattern for those new to colorwork and because you use worsted weight yarn, it is really fast to knit as well. I used 8 colors of blues and purples with the black background - mostly Cascade 220 but I believe there is some Lana D'Oro in there as well.




I blocked it over a dinner plate as per instructions.



It is a little darker than this photo.



I used my German twisted cast on variation which helps keep 2-color ribbing from curling. The K2P2 corrugated ribbing I did in lieu of the K1P1 corrugated ribbing called for in the pattern was just a mistake, pure and simple.

Genesis of a Colorway Part I

People often ask me how I come up with my colorways, so I thought it would be so much fun for you to follow my color creations this week, from the start to the moment I update them on the website.
So back to the question. How do I come up with my colorways? Like everything else I do in life, impulsively.
Every Monday morning, I literally let my mind wander. I let myself feel the world around me. Like this morning for example. The idea actually came to me on my early morning walk. The air was crisp, and the sun gave a rich glow to everything, the landscapes looked like paintings, I looked at my emerald green coat, I felt my hair gently pushed by the breeze, and then my favorite painter's name filled my mind. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I almost felt hunger for Rossetti's colors.

So as soon as I returned home, I started working... The blessed Damozel will be my first colorway.



So I have my inpiration, and I have chosen my first colorway. It is time to grab my pencils and my sketchbook, and play with colors... I will write about my colorplay in the next post.

Natural Beauty

I have been really fascinated by my work with natural dyes. This week I pushed my work even further, and worked on variegated colorways using natural dyes. I was scared that I would not succeed, but at the same I was excited. I set up the pots and pans, brewed my dye stocks, mixed, and played...
I chose colors inspired by the movie the Last Emperor, and in each skein worked to capture the boldness of the colors, and at times their subtlety.
To create my Last Emperor colorways, I chose brazilwood, cochineal, osage orangs, walnut, and sumac.
I hope you will enjoy the Last Emperor Collection .

Sandnesgarn Tema 12 Booklet

If there ever was an award for best customer service in the knitting world, Bea Ellis would really have to be a finalist. I swear it felt like this Sandnesgarn pattern book arrived the day after I ordered it.

The booklet is Tema 12 Tilbehor and it is priced at $11.50. I counted almost 80 patterns including a few sweaters. (BTW, I also have the #0115 Christmas book on that page and it has a lot of cute stuff for kids.)



I love that hat and mitten set - what a brilliant idea about reversing the color design on the front and the back of the mittens. I'd have to remember to switch which yarns are in which hand for each side to get the best look though. And look there are gloves! This booklet has lots and lots of glove patterns for men, women, and children.



Lots of the usual fun Nordic patterns.




Truth be told I bought this booklet just for the pop-up mittens. I've never seen a pair of pop-up mittens that were stranded and DH even said he'd like me to knit these for him. I SERIOUSLY doubt he'll ever wear them but they look like such a fun knit. As soon as I figure out what to do about the Whistler sweater I'll start the mittens. (If I decide to just go ahead and order the recommended Dale of Norway Heilo yarn to knit Whistler then I can use the yarn I originally bought for Whistler that was way off in my row gauge for the mittens.)

Next time I will have a tam using 9 colors of Cascade 220 to show you.

What's in a Leaf?

Have you ever stared at a beautiful fall leaf? Well, that is what I spent my week doing. It is just marvelous to see the beautiful colors that nature offers us. I know that when we think of natural, or when natural products are marketed, browns, beiges and creams are portrayed. But there is so much more in nature. There are flamboyant reds, vibrant corals, plums, golds, greys, and greens of all kinds. I saw all these colors in these simple leaves, and set out to recreate them using natural dyes. My natural companions this week were brazilwood, sumac, goldenrod and osage orange. Some of the colors took my breath away. Who knew that such vibrant reds could be created with brazilwood, and such opiniated greens with osage!
I hope you will enjoy my Feuille d'Automne Collection.

Dare to live in color

I just love color to the point that even my home has become the stage for my "colorplay". Lately, maybe because of fall, I have been in the mood for reds, pinks and oranges, so once again the house has morphed! The funny thing is that each time the house goes through a color metamorphosis, my family doesn't even seem surprised. The family leaves a blue house in the morning, to come back to a passionate red one at night. One day I asked my husband and children, how come you are never surprised or even upset that I changed everything again. My oldest daughter said:" Mom, you make us so happy, we love that you bring so much color and joy in our life!"



Don't tell the family, but I see great new colors for the kitchen!

Knitting for Mom

Both my mother and I have our birthdays in September. This year, I wanted to do something that would combine knitting and natural dyes, so instead of dyeing the yarn first, and then knitting it, I reversed the process.
I started with this, 100% BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) in an Aran weight, 200g of it to be exact.



I chose size 9 needles, a simple lace pattern with clean edges, that would be easy to memorize, perfect for knitting while homeschooling the children.
After a few hours of relaxed knitting, I had a lovely scarf.



My mother's favorite color is blue, so I decided to play with indigo. I did not want to do just a blue scarf, but rather decided to create a gradation of blues by immersing the scarf once all over, and then repeating the immersion process over gradually smaller sections of the scarf. I chose to make the center the darkest, with the blue getting gradually lighter toward the edges.



I always find it amazing that out of this odd scented mixture can come the most beautiful blue!

After washing, drying and blocking, the scarf was ready.



And here it is worn by Miss SockPixie. I had a really hard time getting it back from her in order to wrap it and give it to my Mom!



P.S.: My Mom loved the scarf, and is already enjoying it as the weather is cooling down fast out here in Boston.

Bandelier Fingerless Mitts

Here are my fingerless mitts which are a version of the Bandelier socks from the current issue of IK. I used Knitpicks' Palette in the following colors listed in order of their appearance in the mitts: Blue, Purple, Mint, Marine Heather, Mist, Sky, and Eggplant. I did two repeats of the chart and on row 26 of the second repeat I did a peasant thumb across 15 sts.

You can't actually see the thumbs in this photo but it shows the colors the best. The mint green color fades out in most of the photos. This is probably the happiest I've ever been with my color choices for a colorwork pattern that has color changes in both the foreground and the background.

I fixed the link from yesterday - sorry about that! Here are a few more:

Dale of Norway is re-releasing some of their popular baby sweater patterns in a new booklet including my personal fave the bunnies and carrots and garden tools cardigan with about 20 colors.

How did I miss Nancy Bush's Norwegian Wedding Gloves in Piecework from last year? I don't have the pattern yet but it looks like from the cover photo that they're for men???

Now there is an inexpensive software program for creating your own gloves and mittens with all types of yarn.

Some Colorwork Pattern Links

(Edited to Fix Link)

Socknitster left a good comment in yesterday's post about being disappointed in the Norwegian Handknits book because there were too many easy knits and projects knit in really thick yarn. I have to admit I will buy an entire book just for two potential projects in my never-ending search for enough patterns to feed my addiction.

I had the same situation with the new version of Homespun Handknit that recently arrived from Knitpicks - shown here are the only two projects I will probably make from the book. Comparing the two versions of the book you can really see the difference in the world of knitting in the last 20 years. Patterns today are much more detailed - the new Homespun Handknit has 25 patterns and the previous one has more than 50 if I'm counting correctly. The new book also includes much more information on how the yarn for the projects was spun. There are more projects with more multi-colored yarns and fewer stranded projects and unfortunately no glove patterns at all in the new book. (The previous Homespun Handknit had something like 6 glove patterns including a pair that were truly spectacular technique-wise - the double knit top-down colorwork gloves.)

The pretty spider hat uses a multi-colored yarn for the background but I will just stripe the background to get a similar effect.



Here are the Moth Mittens in worsted weight yarn on size 3 needles.

I also think I'm going to get this Sandnes Tema 12 booklet of knitted accessory patterns. I really like the hat and mitten set with the embroidered cuffs, #15. DH also expressed an interest in the pop-up mittens.

Also, while you're at the Bea Ellis web site, check out the new FREE Dale of Norway patterns.

Nordic Fiber Arts also has some new hat kits I'm pondering.

October Sale

It is October Sale time for SockPixie. I have put all my creative study skeins up on the website at a 30% discount. Each skein is unique, and the skein in each picture is the skein you will get. I have so many wonderful things in store for SockPixie that I needed to make room, and these colorful babies were in need of good homes!
I hope you will enjoy my October Sale!

Norwegian Handknits: Heirloom Designs from Vesterheim Museum

I just received an Amazon order containing Norwegian Handknits: Heirloom Designs from Vesterheim Museum by Sue Flanders and Janine Kosel. It really is an incredibly beautiful book full of color and vintage black and white photos. It contains 30 patterns for accessories and a few sweaters inspired by objects in the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa. Each pattern is accompanied by a photo of the knit or tapestry or painting that inspired it. The book even includes a few recipes for traditional Scandinavian sweets. There are some good photos and diagrams of some interesting techniques like twisted cord and applied twisted I-cord. Also, there is a pretty good section of felted items and felting info as well.




I'm being greedy of course but I would have liked a few more complex stranded designs in the book. OTOH, in the advanced project section the Foolish Virgin Pillow includes some 4 and 5 color rows! And the entrelac sheep are possibly the most adorable knitted items I've ever seen.

If you're like me and seriously interested in Nordic knitting history and technique, this book belongs on your bookshelf. I think my first project will be the Flower Hat with Earflaps and the matching Flower Mittens. Does anyone else have the book yet? What do you think?



Bubbles was hoping to review a few of her favorite phone books but they're just too delicious to stay around for long.