Archive for the 'Patterns' Category
Insomnia sock pattern is available.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
For the two people who asked for it…here is the sock pattern from a few days ago.
…and here is one for the worsted weight slipper socks from my dye experiment.
Posted in Uncategorized, Patterns | 1 Comment »
New pattern coming SOON!
Monday, April 14th, 2008
(Photo by Jonelle of SWTC)
Cleo
©Stefanie Japel for SouthWest Trading Co.
Cleo is cast on at the neckline and worked flat for 16 rows, and then joined and worked in the round to the hemline. Ribbed trim and a two-button closure frame the garment. Dropped yarnovers add texture and visual interest to the stockinette stitch body. A moderate A-line shape makes this a great choice for any body type.
I’ve chosen bright summery colors of Vickie Howell’s Rock (40% SOYSILK®, 30% Fine Wool 30% Hemp) for this version, but Cleo would look equally great worked up in Rock shades: Joan [black], Trent [gray], and Jack [white].
INFO:
Yarn:
[MC] 4[4, 5, 5, 5] balls SWTC Vickie Howell Collection Rock (40% SOYSILK®, 30% Fine Wool,30% Hemp) 100m/50g, color: Kim & Kelley
[CC1] 1[1, 2, 2, 2] balls Rock, color: Shirley
[CC2] 1[1, 1, 1, 1] ball Rock, color: Billy Joe
Needle: US8 24” circular needle
Gauge: Body stitch pattern: 4 sts and 4 rows per inch. (This is knit more loosely than recommended on the yarn label.)
Notions: Two ¾” round buttons
SIZING: This pattern is written for the HIGH BUST measurement. This measurement is taken around the body, just under the arms, and is generally 2 to 4 inches smaller than the ACTUAL BUST measurement. PLEASE be sure to take a proper measurement before choosing your size.
Sizes: HIGH BUST MEASUREMENT: 30[34, 38, 42, 45]
I really loved working with Rock (and with Vickie, Jonelle, and Kat, too!) 
It has a smooth hand and drapes really nicely. I love the texture of this yarn. The cotton, wool, and hemp really play off each other well so that it doesn’t have the stiffness that an all-hemp yarn can have, or the tightness that an all-cotton has.
Love it!
Between the books and having a baby, this pattern has been a long time in coming. We previewed it at TNNA *last* year, and hopefully the pattern will be available for wholesale order *this* year! Thanks to everyone involved for your patience! I’m finally getting my steam back (as you can tell from all of my recent posting!)
Posted in Patterns | 2 Comments »
Sanpoku
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Hey-HEY-hey!
It’s a Finished Object!
Sanpoku is the reverse-mullet of sweaters!
Shrug in the back, sweater in the front!
Pattern: Sanpoku by Norah Gaughan for Berroco
Yarn: Berroco Comfort
Needle: US 9
Note: I knit the largest size, substituted Comfort for the recommended yarn, and went up a needle size.
Posted in Patterns | 1 Comment »
Mazie’s 3 months old today!
Friday, April 11th, 2008
And so serious!
She knows how to smile now, but something has to be reeeeeEEEEeeeally good to get one.
I’m wearing my Sunset Cardigan Experiment, made from the yarn I dyed back on October. I’m really really happy with how it came out. It looks awesome with my new empire-waist summer dresses. I made it that length and with that lower body flare-out so that I could wear it while I was still pregnant. It’s great in that I *did* wear it back then, but I don’t feel like it’s “Maternity” now.
…aside…I’ve got to go through my closet and put all my maternity stuff in a Rubbermaid to go in the garage. I’d put it on eBay, except that I’m *hoping* to have another baby before TOO long and that stuff is expen$ive. If there’s one demographic that pays a LOT for EVERYTHING it’s pregnant people. Anyway…I’m leaving this sweater out, because I still love it and wear it quite a lot.
So the YARN. I bought a 1 kg cone of Blue Faced Leicester to make baby soakers out of but liked it too much to use it to soak up urine. It works out to about $37 / lb if you buy it that way. BFL is so soft and really has a great sheen. It’s a long staple yarn, so won’t pill as easily as Merino, say. It takes dye really nicely, too.
ANYWAY…
I dyed it myself in the crock pot using cake dye. All 4 little skeins that I did are slightly different, so I designed the sweater in sections so that the color diffs wouldn’t be so obvious. If I re-did it, the only thing I’d change would be to do the button bands on a smaller needle. They’re a little wavy, but good enough for “just me.”
I started a sweater out of the green/purple stuff, but it’s not done yet. Just knitting it in my “spare” (ha ha) time.
Posted in yarn reviews, Patterns, baby | 4 Comments »
I never promised you a (knit-and-felted) rose garden
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
So, ok. I’m realizing that it’s probably better if I just go ahead and blog than “not blog because I’ll just blog about the baby.”
If I don’t write about what’s happening here day to day, I’ll not end up blogging at all. And that’s just Boring!
Here’s what’s going on:
Knitting:
I’m writing up the patterns for two garments for SWTC. This is my main project at the moment, and I snatch time for it when my mom can come over and hold Mazie. She’s not sleeping all day any more, so she needs to be entertained, and Grandma is happy to do that! My vision is to have these done by Monday.
I’ve also picked up my Sanpoku again.
I have a few minutes every night at like 10 to work on it. It’s great for zoning out and getting ready for the night time wake-ups. I’m not sure when I’ll finish this. My LYS isn’t carrying my colorway (Olive 9781), and I ran out of yarn! (Not because of the yardage listed in the pattern.) I’m subbing Comfort, and it’s hanked up differently. The pattern calls for 11 or 12 hanks, and the called-for yarn (Touche) is in small hanks, while the Comfort is in big balls (I’ll get some interesting spam for using that phrase)…and I lazily guessed at how many yards I’d need total.
Should have taken the .5 seconds to do the math and bought what I needed at the time. I ordered more yarn, so whenever that gets here I can finish it. I’ve finished two sleeves, and may have enough for the back, which is on the needles now.
I also finished this sweater:
It’s a size 2T and is a trade, going to a woman on the diaper-sewing board that I read. She’s making me a few diapers in exchange. Knit from Malabrigo worsted in “Midnight Blue.”
Do you like it? We made the buttons, too.
Here’s the back:
**See the lighter stripe at the bottom? Be a better knitter than me and alternate your hanks!**
In other news, we just had a stay-at-home day. I was going to campus, but we just weren’t able to get everyone ready (me, mom, Mazie) so we didn’t make it. Tomorrow.
My Mom and Mazie:
Posted in just chit chat, Patterns, baby, gift knitting | 2 Comments »
2008 Best of Interweave Knits: vote!
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
What an amazing honor!!
My cabeldown raglan pattern from the Spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits is up for the 2008 Readers’ Choice award!
To quote the site:
“Last winter, to celebrate the publication of our editor’s choice collection, The Best of Interweave Knits, we asked you, our readers, to nominate YOUR favorite Knits patterns. We received thousands of nominations, and we are now proud to announce Your Top Ten Readers’ Choice Award Finalists:”
Click the screenshot to vote for YOUR favorite!
Thank you so much to all of you who nominated my design for this award! It’s an amazing honor, and I’m so touched.
Posted in Patterns, press | No Comments »
U-neck vest errata
Monday, October 29th, 2007
OK, first, let me apologize for how long it is taking me to compile all of the errata.
Things have been hectic over here…I’ve transitioned from full-time scientist / part time knitter to part-time University instructor / part time knitter. For a while there, I was doing both a full-time job AND teaching, AND writing 2 books, AND getting ready for the baby.
I’m trying to compile all of the errata myself, with the help of the book’s technical editor, and get them all submitted to the publisher for inclusion in future editions of the book. It’s taking a while to go through all of the posts on all of the message boards, all of the comments on the blog, and all of the emails and figure out what’s really errata, etc., and get those pages updated. It’s an arduous process, but we’re working on it!
I’m finally getting caught up…
Here are the errata for the U-neck / back to school vest:
Upper front
Dec 1 st at beg of next 12 (12, 12, 12, 14, 14, 16, 16) rows–68 (72, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 88) sts.
Front neck
Row 2: Bind off 24 (28, 28, 30, 28, 30, 32, 32) sts, work to end.
Upper back
Dec 1 st at each end of next 6 (7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9) rows–44 (46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 58, 62) sts.
If that doesn’t solve the problem, please let me know!
Posted in Book Talk, Patterns | No Comments »
Petal pattern is now available.
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
“Petal”
Stefanie Japel
Glampyre Knits
Sizes: 32-34(36-38, 40-42, 44-46, 48-50, 52-54)
Yarn: 675(750, 850, 950, 1050) yards Berroco Touche (50% cotton, 50% rayon) 89 yds (82 m) / 1.75 oz / 50 g (or other worsted weight cotton, wool, linen, silk, or blend yarn.)
Gauge: 5 sts, 6 rows / inch in st. st,
(Trim Gauge: 6 sts / inch)
Needle:
US 8 (5 mm) 24″ or longer circular needle
US 4 (2mm) 24″ or longer circular needle
$6
NOW AVAILABLE!
**This pattern has been tested by the Glampyre Knits TestLab. This time a whole Community College knitting class tested the pattern for us! The knitters were of varying ages, sizes, and skill levels and we took their input SERIOUSLY. We also included knitters from several different countries with different native languages and access to unique substitution yarns. Knitters found the pattern to be clear, and the worsted weight of the yarn easy to substitute.**
Posted in Patterns | 1 Comment »
To Do list update…what I actually accomplished last night.
Friday, October 19th, 2007
I don’t know what happened yesterday, but Mazey and I went to TOWN on the “to do” list..the only things on the list I didn’t do are 5 and 8…and I did a bunch of extra stuff instead.
Remember this?:
I got the “Petal” pattern corrections done and it’s sent off to the graphic designer. As soon as it’s formatted, I’ll release it for sale here on the site.
And Sanpoku has a sleeve. I’m going to have to do something to close it other than use a stick. If I use a stick, I’ll put out an eye. Maybe not even my OWN. Just looking at that stick makes me shake my head…all the places that could get caught. For now, the plan is to just put buttonholes on that one edge. But maybe it’ll be frogs or who knows. Weeeeeee’ll see.
REVISED TO DO LIST:
1) cami top and finish pattern
2) “Press” page update
3) one more freelance pattern
4) 4 more book patts
——-
So I’ve had this 2-lb cone of undyed Blue-Faced-Leichester** yarn sitting in the living room for about a month. Last night, I decided that I could multi-task if I skeined up the yarn and put it in the dyepot WHILE I was knitting/doing patterns. So I got out my niddy noddy and wound it all into 4oz / 205 yard hanks (after skeining over 1600 yards of yarn by hand, my arm’s tired!) soaked it in cool water for 30 minutes, mixed up my dyes, and put half of it in the crock pot.
I decided to do half in ‘warms’ and half in ‘cools’, the ‘warm’ batch is called, “IT’S FINALLY FALL!” The cool batch turned out to actually be warmer than I intended. There was a little mishap in which my black went purple, and the whole thing was a muddy mess of washed out green, grey, and hot purple. SO…to tone everything down, I added a big squirt of brown. Now it’s sort of peacock-colored and sort of brownish…I’m not too sure about that batch.
IT’S FINALLY FALL! is a mix of yellow, orange, pink, copper, red, and a tough of dark green acid dyes.
Are you tired of me saying IT’S FINALLY FALL!?
Too bad. It’s finally fall here in the L.C.. It only got up to 79F yesterday!! It’s supposed to only be in the high 60s next week!!! It’s not going to freeze for a WHILE which is too bad, because the mosquitoes seem to have had another round of babies. I’m so sick of mosquitoes. We need a FREEZE. (Hmm…possible “cool” BFL yarn name?) My flowers are still blooming! We got another round of zinnias and the hibiscus is still going strong. Amazing.
Dyeing yarn is FUN. I did a TON of dyeing back in Baltimore, when I first started this blog (so like 2002-2003), and I’ve done a little here and there since then, so it was really nice to get back to it.
SO…after I got everything in the pot and sat down to watch the Daily Show, I ended up finishing patterns for: a skirt, half a cami, a lace tunic sweater, and a babydoll top. SO, only 3.5, not my quota of 4. So I have a total of 3 new knits (that Cathi actually knit and knit WELL, let me say) with patterns for my editor, one freelance pattern, and one pattern for the site DONE. WHEW.
**This BFL yarn is famous for being good for baby knits. Water-resistant, pill-proof (extra-long staple length), takes dye wonderfully, soft, etc.
Posted in just chit chat, Book Talk, Patterns | 4 Comments »
Sanpoku
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
A few weeks ago I borrowed this pattern booklet from my friend Cindy. She knit a Sanpoku and it came out so cute that they asked her to teach a class on it at the yarn store. I decided that it’d be perfect for me in my current bodily incarnation. Because it’s actually kind of a shrug, I decided to knit mine on 9s, instead of 8s, to try for a roomier fit. I’m also using Berroco Comfort instead of either Touche or Ultra Alpaca. Comfort is 50% nylon, 50% acrylic, so I’m really interested to see how it washes and wears. So far, I really like the feel of the yarn, it’s soft and squishy. Doesn’t feel “fake” like some acrylics can.
Here in waaaaay Southern NM, we don’t have but 3 or 4 months of sweater-wearing, and even then it’s not wool. Unless that’s what you wear as your coat. It’s still in the 80s this week! It’s been getting down to the mid-40s at night, which has been so awesome for sleeping! Even though it’s still 80, it’s 20-30 degrees cooler than it was this summer, and is starting to feel like fall! It’s so exciting to actually have the energy to get around during the day. Something about not sweating a gallon of water on the way to the car is just invigorating!!
Here’s the zoom-out of the photo above. Harvey likes to watch me take pictures.
I really like having something stockinette to knit while I’m in the middle of doing other stuff. I find that if I take a total break, it’s hard to get back to making knitting time, but if I just switch to the easier project I keep going.