Kitchener Waterloo Knitter's Fair This Weekend; Carrot Socks!

I'm very excited about this weekend - Saturday is the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter's Fair. It's the unofficial kickoff of the 2010/2011 knitting season.

Lots of vendors I know and love will be there.

I'll be there in person at the Canadian Knitters' Guild/A Needle Pulling Thread booth - drop by to say hello!

I've got a few new designs appearing there, too.

There's the Roasted Carrot socks, an exclusive for my friend
Emily's Viola Fibre.







And there's the Rocker Chick sock series at Van Der Rock Yarns.





After my recent stash purge/inventory/shaming exercise, I'm going to try to limit the amount of yarn I buy... and focus instead on books! Looking forward to coming home with lots of books!

New Pattern: The Heirloom Baby Bonnet

A couple of months ago a knitter came to me with a moth-eaten baby bonnet, and a story:

In Linda's own words....

The yellow baby bonnet with ears was given to me by the sister of my lovely neighbour (Miyo Hamasaki). It was one item of MANY baby and toddler things that she had put into a very large box to give away to a mother with girls. She had two school-age daughters herself and she was not planning on having more children.

This give-away box contained clothes, shoes, toys, and books, all in pristine condition. As a young mother with not too much money this treasure-filled box was very welcome. We were able to use all of the things she gave us over time. The yellow bonnet is the one thing that I kept all these years, 28 years to be exact! Both my daughters wore it. A picture of my youngest daughter, Andrea is seen wearing it when she was about 18 months.


When it became too small for my girls to wear, I put it away to keep. Unfortunately, moths got to it (as you can plainly see) and it became unwearable.


My older daughter, Nicole is expecting in November, a mere two months away and I wanted to knit a bonnet with ears to replace the little yellow one that they use to like to wear. I looked and looked for a pattern but could not find one that was anywhere as cute as this one and this is where Kate came in.

A call to Lettuce Knit was all I needed to do. Kate was willing and very able to to decipher the pattern and create one for me so that I could produce one for my grandchild coming in November. I am thrilled as you can imagine and it will be and remain a treasured family pattern.

We recreated the bonnet in Road to China Light, a luscious blend of alpaca, silk, cashmere and camel. A special bonnet deserves a special yarn!

(Modeled very graciously by sleepy Nora.)

The pattern is available for sale for $5 at Lettuce Knit, and through Patternfish and Ravelry.

It uses less than 100m of a sport/DK weight yarn, so even if your yarn budget does not stretch to the Road to China, there's likely something in your stash that works very well. The bonnet fits a range of sizes - 3 to 6 months for an average size baby, and older for a petite little one like Andrea, in the photo above.

De-Stash Part One: Books. Free for the Taking

I've got duplicate copies of two knitting booklets. These are free for the taking. If you're in Toronto, I'll happily leave them for you for pickup at any of my usual haunts; if you're elsewhere in Canada, I'll mail them. If you're outside Canada, I suggest an exchange: I'll mail you the booklet, you mail me a local chocolate treat.

Both of these books are important to my knitting development, in different ways.

Paton's Bazaar booklet, circa 1970-something.


I remember with absolute clarity, this was the earliest pattern book I used. It's full of small things - "ideal for sale at bazaars and fundraisers!" - also ideal for a 12 year old with little patience. Dolls and doll clothes, baby booties, bags, and the inevitable tea cosies.


Also golf club cosies, a nice pair of cabled mittens - and my first successful projects: the finger puppets.


Although the styling seems a bit dated, many of the 50 knit and crochet patterns are classics.



The second book, Early Arrivals, is 12 or so years old. It was in print for a long time, but doesn't look like it is any more. It contains four different baby sets, all sized for preemies up to newborns, two in DK, two in fingering.


This book was important to me because it marks the first time I was forced to knit in public.

A couple close to me was expecting triplets, which were definitely expected to be born very small. The expectant grandmother, W., a knitter and all around lovely woman, had just started into three full sets of bonnets, sweaters and booties, when she broke her shoulder.

I offered to step into the breach and finish them for her. By the time she got the works-in-progress to me, it was pretty close to the shower date. If memory serves, she'd got one of the sweaters done, but I had three sets of booties, three bonnets, and two sweaters to knit, and very little time to do it. It was fiddly and slow work, on small needles, the bodies worked in garter stitch with a lacy edging. I had no choice: if I was going to finish the work for the shower, I needed to find as much time to knit as I could.

At the time, I was working a rather uninteresting corporate job at a rather uninteresting company, and I'd not been there long enough to really get to know anyone there. Knitting was significantly less popular among the younger set then, and I was still very much an "at home" knitter. No choice - I had to knit in public if I was going to make the deadline. So I packed up the project bag, carted it to work, and spent a week knitting through my lunchbreaks in the cafeteria. I got the projects done on time, and they were very well received. I was very happy to be part of a special gift for the triplets on behalf of their grandmother, and just as happy to discover that I could get a lot of knitting done at lunchtime, even if my co-workers did find it somewhat disturbing!


I later used the book to knit a baby gift for my then-boss, using the newborn size. He and his wife are Irish, so of course they got the cabled cardigan!



In particular, I'd like to give the Early Arrivals Booklet to someone who needs it: someone who needs to knit for tiny babies. Do you have a set of twins or triplets in your future? Do you knit for the neonatal ICU at your local hospital? Leave a comment or email me at kate at wisehildaknits dot com and tell me why you need it.

For the Bazaar book, leave me a comment or send me an email telling me you want it. If there's sufficient demand, I may need to draw a number from a hat.

Tidying Up

We have a friend coming to stay for a couple of nights, and our spare bedroom is also the study and yarn storage (dumping?) room. We've been mostly keeping the door shut to keep little dog mouths off the yarn, so the stash management policy of late been very much a case of "throw it in and shut the door".

So I tidied up. I dragged out all of the plastic containers, and went through them all: three big bins, two smaller fileboxes, and then a few bags and smaller boxes.



(That's Dexter in the bottom left of the picture, looking on, incredulous.)

I've been utterly ruthless, and cleared out a lot of ends and bits and pieces and stuff I'll plain never use.

I'm not - and have never really been - a stasher of sweater yarn, so there was only five sweater quantities. (Not judging here, I just happen to not like buying large quantifies of yarn without a specific project in mind.) And of those, only one was something I'd actually bought - and even that was bought with a specific project in mind.

My Must-Have Cardigan. I feel about this sweater the way I feel about the music of the Kaiser Chiefs: I don't care if it's fashionable, I still like it.

You'll see how much progress I've made since I bought the yarn, oh, two years ago.



There's a sweater quantity of leftovers from another project for which I bought far too much yarn, although it's Cascade Eco Wool+, so 1.5 skeins is actually a sweater quantity. And I've got three others that were all gifts/destashes sent in my direction.

The rest, in all those boxes, was leftovers, sock yarn and lace yarn. Gulp. So it's not that I'm extraordinarily self-disciplined when it comes to yarn shopping. God no. I have a serious sock yarn problem.

Post clear-out, I have more than 40 pairs' worth of sock yarn. I won't tell you how many pairs' worth got cleared out.

Post cleanout, I've got one big box full of sock yarn



one big box half full with the sweater quantities



and one big box half full of laceweight.



The first file box is holding what I've classified as "bits and pieces" - some crochet cotton, and any leftovers that are enough to actually make something with - mostly hat quantities of stuff.



In that collection there is the big bag of the leftovers from my Lizard Ridge. Although it's tiny balls, I cannot bring myself to throw this away - I think it needs to be a crocheted lap blanket, or something.



The smallest box will hold scraps that I'll use for teaching and demos, and the other filebox will hold WIPs - to keep them away from the dog. That way, we can safely open the study door again.

In addition to clearing out and sorting, I've written an inventory. It will be useful in the future, if only to remind me that there are certain types of yarn I need never buy again.

I have found a few goodies that looking for homes. I'll put together a post on that in the next day or so.

FO: Oscar's Baby Blanket

Sarah has finished a version of my Colour-Your-Own Baby Blanket in shades of green, for Oscar, the new baby of a very good friend of hers.

Sarah's a newer knitter, and she should be proud of this project - it's gorgeous!

Further Progress

I'm pretty pleased with it. What you can't see is the two needles in it - one in the body, and one in the cowl neck. Both need to be longer, but I'm close.

I worked on this on a train trip today. It was clear that some of my fellow passengers were thinking it was odd that I was knitting, I could tell by their faces. And then I tried the sweater on - even stranger.

And then - horror of horrors - I spit-spliced two ends together. I was worried that someone was going to cite me for a health code violation.

I tried the sweater on again later, at our favourite coffee shop. At this point, it was about 8 inches long from the underarm - still pretty short. A woman at the next table was watching me... I smiled at her, and she asked me "Is that how it's going to look when it's done?"

I'm still not sure what she was getting at...

Walking on Sunshine...

The third in my Rocker Chick Series for Van Der Rock Yarns, Walking on Sunshine will make you want sing lustily, check your mailbox and win the Eurovision song contest.



Using the most sunshiney of yellows, and fun wavy cables, this pattern will have you humming right through from cast-on to the toe.

Four-page full-colour PDF includes pattern for socks in three women's sizes, with tips for personalizing the fit.

Calls for 2 x 50g skeins of Van Der Rock Super Sock in Tartrazine.

Get more details and buy it here.

Check out Hollaback and Material Girl, the first two in the series...

All three will be on display and available at the K/W Fair.

Progress on the Top-Down Cowl Neck Vest

I remember, once upon a time, that I used to be shy about knitting in public.

In fact, I can remember very sheepishly taking some knitting to a baseball game about ten years ago, and trying to keep it hidden as I worked on it.

Ha! How things have changed - not only for me, but for baseball.

But now, not only do I shamelessly knit in public at every opportunity, but I will even go so far as to try on a work-in-progress.



Once the round was joined, I did a couple of increases for shaping at the front. I did consider some short-row shaping, but I realized that it would mess up my carefully aligned cables: There's a single cable running up both the front and the back, and as I had worked it out so that when I joined the body, the cables would be on the same row. If I added some short rows to the front, it would mean that I would work more rows in the front than the back, and the front and back cables wouldn't line up anymore. It's a minor detail, but the sort of thing that would bug me.





I've just decreased the extra stitches, and am now in the home stretch on the body.

I've also just finished a ball of yarn, so I plan to work on the neckline and armhole edgings next.

I'm keeping the original neckline - a big reverse stocking stitch cowl, but I'm going to experiment with the armholes. In the original, I picked up stitches all the way around and then cast off, just to tidy up and stabilize the edge. I'm going to try a crochet edging to see if that does what I want.

Reworking the Cowl Vest, Top-Down; Bonus Pic of Dexter

Ah yes, the old "bathroom mirror" shots. But you know, I rather like the lighting... it's forgiving of the bags under my eyes.

A few days ago I wrote about wanting to recreate an old design of mine...

I've been working away on it, in what few minutes of knitting time I've been able to snatch between games of indoor fetch, and walks, and rope tug.





I've not actually changed the original design all that much up to now, other than to work it upside down. The neckline and armholes have remained the same, and I've even kept the same cable. I'm most amused, so far, that I was able to line up the cable so that I was at the same row when I joined for the body. Math is fun!

Now that I've joined for the body, however, I think I will do some tweaking - because a top-down design allows it. I'm going to add some bust and waist shaping, and I know I want it to be somewhat longer than the original.

And since I don't have tons of yarn to play with, I'm going to work the cowl neck and armhole edgings before I proceed.

I'm thinking I will write a tutorial on how I did this...

And here's the promised bonus picture of Dexter... No, he's not doing yoga, he's just having a good stretch.

James Norbury's The Family Knitting Book/Hardcore/This Could Have Been Me

I was recently given a truly wonderful gift by a student of mine, C.

She mentioned in passing that she had some vintage knitting books. I'll jump at any opportunity to rummage through book collections. I love all vintage knitting books - whether for humor value, design inspiration value, or educational value. I'll happily take and read any knitting book, of any era and quality. (Which is how I ended up with a copy of "Knitting With Dog Hair" in my collection, but that's a story for different day.)

When rummaging through a collection, there are a few key names I'm always looking for; a few key designers and authors whose fabulous books are long out-of-print and very hard to find.

Alice Starmore used to be in this category, but her books are being reprinted one-by-one, thank goodness. But two authors remain sadly unreprinted: June Hiatt (specifically, her encyclopedic "The Principles of Knitting"), and James Norbury.

Used copies of the Hiatt book sells for hundreds of dollars, and is treasured by serious knitters. It's -- apparently -- one of the best reference books out there. I've never actually had my hands on a copy, which saddens me. (If anyone has one they'd be willing to lend/rent to me, let me know!) If it's as good as they say, I'd be up for buying a copy, but I feel like I'm not going to spend that much money without knowing what I'm getting. I have heard from reliable sources that Ms. Hiatt is working on a new edition, but she is very thorough and it's taking longer than anticipated.

James Norbury's works are less sought after, but just as wonderful. He was a prolific designer and author, and even had his own BBC television series. He was an opinionated sort (not that that is a bad thing ;-) ), and insisted that there was a right way and wrong way for everything.

When I mentioned Norbury's name, C. said she thought she might have a book of his. Indeed she did - specifically his 1969 book, The Family Knitting Book. It's an all-in-one book, featuring patterns, instructional material, and a small stitch library.



C. very generously gave it to me.

The patterns are terrific - many of them timeless classics, although the styling and photography is very much of its time.



And I'm loving the educational material at the front: he starts, naturally enough, with casting on. And the first cast on he shows in the Long Tail method. That's before knitters have even worked a single stitch.

The Long-Tail cast on (although he calls it the Thumb Method) is on page 15. How to actually knit a stitch is shown on page 20. I know that in a book you have to show casting off before you get to knitting, but I love that he chooses the Long Tail cast on as the first one you should learn.



(Click to embiggen and read the page.)

I'm on his side on this - I strongly believe that the long-tail is the best all-purpose cast-on - but when teaching beginners I do tend to start with something a little... err... gentler.

I love this book for two other reasons: James Norbury was born and lived around the corner from where I was born, and where my grandmother Hilda lived, and I'm quite certain she would have had some of his books, and likely would have knitted some of his designs. And give nthat this book was published the year I was born, I have the distinct sense that I may well have worn some of the babies' designs.

Yes, this could have been me....

Wheatsheaf Shawl and Double Diamond Stole; Making Lace Accessible

Bit behind on this one... I've had two lace designs published in recent issues of Yarn Forward Magazine.

The Wheatsheaf Shawl was featured in Issue 28, and it's specifically written to be accessible even for a non-lace knitter. I spent a lot of time considering the elements that make lace challenging, and figuring out how to address them in the design and the pattern. It's only a two-row pattern repeat for the basic last stitch, and one of them is a plain purl row! Easy-peasy! And I wrote out how to incorporate the increases into the lace stitch in detail.

And last but not least, I did something a little different in the centre spine... Most top-down lace shawls have an innocent-looking central spine of yo, k1, yo... Seems simple enough, but it's actually very difficult to work for a knitter who's not confident with yarnover increases. You can't reliably place a marker, as the yarnovers can get wrapped around them, and the marker can end up in the wrong place. And if the yarnover travels, the central spine goes horribly awry. I see this a lot in my classes. The knitter can be doing everything right, but a slipped marker can make things go horribly wrong! So I changed up the central spine to be 2 stitches: yo, k2, yo. It looks just as good, but allows you to safely and confidently place a marker. And I think it looks good too - it harmonizes very well with the edgings. I'm not sure why it's not more common, to be honest. It seems like a simple and elegant solution to a vexing problem.

ElectroGirl has posted a finished Wheatsheaf shawl on Ravelry and I love it. Great choice of yarn, and she did a terrific job of both knitting and photographing it.


The writeup has lots of hints and tips to make lace knitting easy and fun - and ideally get knitters hooked so that they will consider other projects - like the Double Diamond Stole, for example!

The Double Diamond Stole in Issue 29 is a great next step. See a picture at this preview.

It's an easy-to-manage but very rewarding and beautiful project. It's worked in cashmere from ColourMart - my god, I loved working with this yarn. It adds a small level of challenge in that there are a few different patterns rows and a decrease that might be new to some knitters, but it's still entirely approachable for all skill levels. Yarn Forward was generous enough to provide me enough space to be able to include a really detailed pattern writeup to guide knitters through the project. There are both written instructions and charts, so that knitters who prefer one over the other are accommodated.

Can't wait to see the projects on Ravelry!

Ready for Sweater Weather

Even when I was a teenager, long before I was the avid knitter I am now, the middle of August would find me longing for "sweater weather".

This year the craving is stronger than it's ever been. Between the insanely hot summer we've had, and my proximity to all these stunning fall yarns, I'm absolutely ready for summer to be over.

Now, I'm not crazy. I'm not yet ready for full-on jackets and sleeves and mitts and boots and all that nonsense, but I'm definitely starting to feel vest-y. I've got some really great (sadly also discontinued) Harris Chunky Rowan yarn in my stash...



and it's screaming out to be made into something for those first few crisp days of fall.

I bought the yarn from the bargain bin at the Sheep a while ago with a specific project in mind; it's just been waiting for a slot to open up in my schedule so I could actually knit with it.

As to what I'm going to do with it... I have a pretty firm idea.

Back when The Naked Sheep first opened, I designed a vest for the shop in the newly released Rowan Plaid. The yarn is now discontinued, and it's a shame. It was a good one: a not too weighty chunky yarn, with nice colour combos, and a great hand. It was a blend of wool, alpaca and acrylic, so it was warm but light.

The vest itself was very simple - worked in reverse stocking stitch, with a single cable running up one side, and with a cowl neck.



The sample is long gone, too... I believe it may have moved to B.C. with the old shop owner, Lorena. I know she used to wear it. (That's the ultimate compliment that can be paid to a sample you've knitted for a shop - finding the owner wearing it!)

In fact, she's wearing it in this picture...



I want to recreate the vest so I get to wear it this time!

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone... this 2010 version will be worked from the top-down so that I can make it a bit longer. I don't have tons of yardage, and this way I'll be able to use up every last bit. The new yarn is a bit more textured than the original, so I think it requires a slightly larger scale cable, too.

I'm desperate to get going, but there is the small matter of the sock project I need to finish first...

Dexter Update

Over on the KnittyBlog... there's a lesson for every pet owner in Dexter's story.

Finishing: Very Helpful Links

It's no secret that I have strong opinions to share on finishing.

Good finishing makes all the difference in a project. Good finishing techniques make a project look,... well... finished.

I know it's not necessarily the most fun part of a knitting project. It's sort of like ironing your cotton clothes, however - a necessary step to make something look its best.

And I know that a lot of knitters don't feel confident about finishing. I can't say I blame them - it's not well explained in the patterns or books in general. The average pattern will say something helpful like "sew up", or "assemble", or - my favourite - "set in sleeves". And it's not necessarily covered in sufficient detail in the books, either.

But as I prove every time I teaching a finishing class, taking time to use proper seaming techniques is absolutely 100% worth it.

A proper seam is smooth, tidy and invisible.

Here, let me show you...

Seamed using the techniques you would normally use to seam fabric:



Seamed using Mattress stitch:



What do you think?

Proper seaming techniques aren't difficult - but I do find they simply aren't well known. Even very skilled and experienced knitters don't necessarily know how to seam a good seam.

I learned many of my techniques from my bible, Vogue Knitting. And I recently discovered that their Knit Simple publication's website has a lot of helpful info - including a page of info about some of the key seaming techniques.

And as usual, Theresa provides an incredibly helpful how-to on Knitty.

Go! Check them out! Key information! Seriously! These won't necessarily make Finishing more fun, but they will certainly help you make it easier and better.

Basic Triangle Shawl FOs; Creativ Festival Classes

A couple of weeks ago I published my Basic Triangle Shawl pattern.

SheepLady75 on Ravelry has created an absolutely stunning one in her rainbow-coloured handspun. I am blown away by how the colours progress and work so well with the shape. And Mom2Bassets has worked one in a very sophisticated and chic colourway of Mushishi.

Wow - they're both great! This is precisely the sort of thing I imagined when I created it - a great use for a coloured or textured yarn, and a great TV or travel knitting project.

On a different note, the schedule for Creativ Festival has just been released, and I'm teaching a number of classes. The event takes place October 23, 24 & 25th at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto.

Update: No-one Looking for the Little Guy

So he's staying here, and he seems to like it.

And we like it very much.

We're calling him Dexter. If a family calls, and can prove he belongs with them, he can go. Failing that, we're his family now.

Two Non-Knitting Things Keeping Me Busy This Week

Am taking a sewing class at The Workroom in Toronto. It's a day camp for grownups for the week - complete with candy and treats.

It's a Amy Butler shirtdress project - if you've seen me around this summer, you know how much I love wearing shirtdresses - and as soon as I saw it advertised I had to sign up.

It's a fun group, and it's great to stretch my sewing skills - I don't do it nearly often enough.

The other thing that's keeping us busy is this little guy:


He was found by a neighbour in her yard on Friday, and we've been busy working with our neighbours taking care of him, and trying to find his family. He's a sweetheart, he really is, and we're sure that somewhere there is a family missing him very much. He has no chip, and no tags on his collar, so there was absolutley no info about who he is or where he came from. We've posted at the Humane Society and with City Animal Services; we've been using Twitter and Facebook and Craigslist. We've searched classified ads in all the local papers. We've emailed all the vets in the area, and we're postering.

We're also making sure he feels safe and taken care of - making sure he's not alone, and he's fed and healthy.

No news, so far. It's a heartbreaker, the idea that there is a family somewhere without their little guy. And if there isn't someone looking for him, it's a heartbreaker in a different way. We will keep looking - we're carrying posters further afield today.

If you know who he might be, or you're willing to put a poster in your neighbourhood in Toronto, please email founddog@wilnervision.com.

Secret Knitting: Not Very Exciting

I've just finished a big Secret Knitting Project. Secret Knitting Projects are those that are meant for publication...

Secret Knitting Projects make for terrible blog fodder. We can't show them off, you see. They are Secret!

You've seen hints of it, in various photos of late.

Secret Knitting has spent hours on the bench in our yard, enjoying the sunshine.


Secret Knitting went to Coney Island.


Secret Knitting has enjoyed with me an iced coffee or twelve.



Secret Knitting has ridden the streetcar, back and forth across Toronto, many times. Secret Knitting got caught in a G20-related TTC stoppage.

Secret Knitting has been around, it's true. It's a big project. By yardage, it's one of the largest projects I've ever worked. It's a fine yarn, so it wasn't too big to carry around until the final stages. But it is a warm yarn - cashmere - so there were days when it was a challenging project to work in public in this hottest of hot summers.

And now, Secret Knitting is in a puffy envelope, making its way to a Secret Location for photography.

I'm proud of this one, and can't wait to show it off when the time comes.

Fly safe, Secret Knitting - I look forward to your eventual return home!