Archive for August, 2009
Mirth pattern is almost ready!
Monday, August 31st, 2009
Mirth, aka “Fitted Raglan Shawl” is so close to being ready! I’m almost finished with the sock weight sample. Once that’s done and blocked…we’re all set to go!
I’m really enjoying watching my Online Classes site grow! We’ve already got 106 members, and 11 people have signed up for the shawl class that starts on September 7.
EXCITING!
Posted in Patterns | 1 Comment »
Some background, more info, and Props to my Advocate (video blog post)
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
In this video post, I want to give you guys some background as to where all this new stuff is coming from…and to tell you more about my online knitting classes.
Props to Possibility Advocate!
PS: Virgil taught me how to use ning.com, and Mimish taught me about the amazing invention that is the “Flip” video recorder.
Posted in video post | 1 Comment »
Fitted Raglan Shawl Hits the Road! (Video blog post!)
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Hi All!
Nathan laughed out loud while I was editing today’s video post. I’m not sure what was so funny. Maybe it’s the fact that Mazie is laughing in the background of my moody pan across the lace fabric of the shawl…or that Mazie starts her jukebox on “Happy and You Know It” during my intro…or that I sound like a teen-beat reporter when I introduce my mom in the second segment.
Also: I SWEAR that I didn’t coach my mom at ALL during her interview…she just supports what I’m doing so much that she can’t help but shill.
I know these videos are totally silly, but I’m having so much fun talking “live” to you guys!
Mom’s version of the shawl will be knit in 2 hanks of Lorna’s Laces Green Line Worsted (210 yds per hank.) One color is Chagrin, the other is Courage.
I found a great tech editor for the pattern (The FAMOUS Jenn Jarvis, of Nipperknits, and formerly of Vogue Knitting!!) and we should be set to pop on that by the middle of next week. (WOO-HOO!) Since this is my first true lace shawl pattern, (I’m not counting the Reclamation pattern, Back and Forth Booklet, or the City Shawl, though they are technically lace…) I want to be sure that this pattern has everything that a lace knitter expects.
Are my charts industry standard? Do my repeats make sense? Does the schematic show everything you need? I want to do this RIGHT!
I also want to tell you that I’ve started an online knitting workshop site! Visit http://stefaniejapel.ning.com to learn more!
I’ll do a video post about that, it’s neat!
Posted in Patterns, events | No Comments »
Spotlight on Choo Choo Knits!
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
It’s been a while since I’ve done a “Spotlight” post, and it’s about time!
In today’s spotlight is Karen of ChooChooKnits (and 365 / Knitterly and Crafty Folks, and Ravelry, and every cool knitting place on the internet.)
I first met Karen at the Knit-a-GoGo knitting workshop that I taught in Alexandria, VA last fall. Karen drove down to the DC area from New jersey to attend the workshop. I could tell right away that we’d get along well. Karen is one of those students that I love to have in class. She was already modifying patterns to the extent that she was really re-designing them, she was happy to be there, understood the concepts, and was helpful to the other students. I don’t mean to sound like a 3rd grade teacher, so I’ll just say this, Karen is a facilitator.
Karen is also one of those knitters who makes designers look good.
When I click on my linkbacks and see that Karen’s knit one of my designs, I go, “YAY!” because I know there will be a beautiful FO pic on Ravelry, and helpful advice for anyone in the JapelKnits group who’s struggling.
Here are some of my favorite of Karen’s interpretations of my patterns:
1. cathode october 2008 011, 2. Cable Down Raglan (finished), 3. therapi sweater for nana december 2008 015, 4. Mommy and Ramona at Alexa’s party
AND…HERE is the sweater that Karen designed at the workshop that I taught in VA!
It’s so awesome!!
Karen is also knitting TWO sample sweaters for new fall patterns!!
I’m so excited. She sent preview photos yesterday and they look SO GOOD.
THANK YOU KAREN, FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!
Posted in just chit chat | 5 Comments »
When is a shawl a Fitted Knit? (Video blog!)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
I’m so excited about my new shawl that I made a little video blog post for today!
We’re working on knitting the shawl in more yarn weights and sizes, so look for the pattern in a few days!
Posted in Patterns | 5 Comments »
Designing lace is not for dummies!
Monday, August 24th, 2009
I’m just now binding off my own little lace shawl design. I decided to work the entire shawl in lace, rather than leaving a large stockinette area. This proved to be just challenging enough, and kept the knitting interesting!
(Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK. The next version will be knit in bright red - orange (Bergamota) Malabrigo Lace)
I love how the lace pattern “grows” out of the raglan-style seams. Similar to the effect I’ve created in cabled sweaters, like this one I designed for Mission Falls:
And this one for Knit.1 (Habanero):
Because of my mathematical background, it was a really fun experiment to determine which stitch patterns would and wouldn’t stack nicely and then to chart the edges of the shawl sections as new stitches are added. My degree is in crystallography and mineral physics, so working with symmetry and placement of motifs is kind of “my thing.”
I really enjoy this kind of mental exercise, and I think that the result is really nice! It was also good practice for garment design. The way that I grew my lace motifs would also work at raglan seams. I have yet to design an all-over lace raglan sweater, and now I can see exactly how to do it!
And I have Miriam Felton to thank, she held my hand through my first experience with the charting software! Thanks, Mim!
I’m blocking it now, and have already written the pattern! 
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Shawls shawls shawls!
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
I finished Daybreak!
(Updated with a new FO photo in which I am channeling the Stitch Diva.)
I do like this, but I had several serious debates with myself as to how long I could keep at it. I decided to only do 15 colored stripes (rather than the 20 for the XL.) And then, in order to make everything work out in a manner that is mathematically agreeable to my Virgo nature, I had to do 5 border repeats. Because 15 is a multiple of 5, and there are 3 sun rays on each side…this seemed to make the most appealing shortcut to me.
I enjoyed the pattern, but have other things to get to!
Anyway, the effect is gorgeous.
I still think that my colors are too close in intensity. When I look at it, it reads “beige.” One color should pop and one recede.
I’m working on something new today.
This is Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK, being knit up into what I hope will be a shawl with shaping. I’m marrying my new shawl / scarf interest with the fundamentals of Top Down sweater design, raglan shaping, and adding in some pretty stitchwork.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
OH! Remember that raw silk yarn from the other day? You haven’t seen it again because I’m allergic to it. I’m allergic to lots of silk yarns. Any that have teeny fibers that can fly off. BOO. I’m still planning to do *something* for it…I’ll probably finish this design, and then see if someone would like to try to knit it in the raw silk and see how that does.
Posted in Patterns | 4 Comments »
It’s a process.
Friday, August 21st, 2009
This has been a really strange week. We had house guests on Sunday - Tuesday, then we all went up to the Black Range Lodge for a night. It’s weird to have a break in the middle of a week!
We stopped and took a few pictures at the Lake Valley Ghost Town (which is where we took the picture I posted of our “new house”).
Then, we went up to the Lodge and did outdoorsey stuff with the babies.
Taking a midweek break is nice, but didn’t relieve too much of the stress. If anything, it was two days that I wasn’t running around like a crazy person sending faxes and making photocopies. It put me behind.
I’m still working on Daybreak. I just spent this morning on google chat, and twitter, while trying to wind more of this pink yarn into a ball. Why am I too lazy to get out the swift and ballwinder, but I’ll spend HOURS untangling the mess that I’ve made winding by hand? It’s theraputic. Winding, winding, winding, slowly making progress.
Kind of like the infitessimal daily progress we make on the faxing, copying, form-signing during this mortgage process. Just keep winding, and one day it’ll be done.
Posted in Trips | 1 Comment »
It’s a fixer - upper… but it’s OURS!
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
It’s a little bit of a fixer-upper, but you know, with a little elbow grease it’ll be great!
Posted in just chit chat | 3 Comments »
Daybreak…13 striped rows done!
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
So…I just realized that I called my wonderful readers jerks last week!
I must really be stressed! You’re not jerks. (…most of you, anyway…) ;)
I’ve made some progress on the Daybreak shawl. I decided to make the large one, since I’ve got two full hanks of sock yarn to get through. I may just keep on going until I’m out of yarn. Which would make it an Extra Large? Each hank is close to 500 yards!
So far, I do like this pattern. It’s a lot of stockinette, which has been a really nice break. I’m not sure if I’ll finish the whole thing in one stretch, or if it will become my “go to” stockinette project in the middle of other things. It’s taking me a while to get this far…and I’m feeling a little Clapotis-y about it today. (When I knit that, I had to say, “Ok. I can knit 12 rows. I can get to that next dropped stitch. I can DO this.”) The end result of Clapotis is gorgeous, but it took some motivation to finish up. I guess we’ll see how next week goes, and that’ll determine the fate of Daybreak!
Yesterday, while waiting to hear about the “**Waivers and Objections” results on the house, I totally messed up the stripe pattern. You’re supposed to alternate two rows of each color, but I only did one row of pink. So I thought that I could make up for it by only working one row of green, but then the rows on which I had to do the increases were on the WS…so. I did 3 rows of green, one row of pink, and was back on track.
I’m not a ripper. Especially on a project like this, which is *supposed* to resemble something organic (the sun rising over a green field.) SO…my anxiety will be permanently recorded in this little piece of stockinette.
One concern I have is that my green is really similar in tone / intensity to the hot pink in my “sun”…so the slipped stitches don’t stand out as much as they might if I’d chosen a light pink and a dark green. The green is also loftier than the pink, so it has more body and kind of overpowers the slipped stitches in that way.
I like the ones that other people have made using black as one of the colors. BUT…I used what I had on hand in the studio. I didn’t even want to go out to the garage and look in my storage bins. SO…it is what it is. And it’ll be nice.
**Nathan asked me not to blog about the house any more until negotiations are done. I think it’s unlikely that the sellers have googled us and somehow found this blog…but…for the sake of his sanity and my marriage, I’ll concede. It’s hard, though!!