I collected the Fyberspates shawl from Sue this afternoon.  It was soaked and now it is pinned out on my ‘blocking board’ and stretched out as far as those fibers will go.  Please don’t take too much notice of my rather colourful blocking board.  I have a table in my office that I use for my blocking, it is covered in childrens bright foam number blocks.  They work great for blocking but don’t make for very attractive photos!

This larger version of the Centrique shawl is knit with Scrumptious DK Gold yarn and it takes less than 2 x 1oog hanks and after my very generous blocking is about 54 inches wide and 25 inches long down the spine.  That should retract a little in size once it is off the blocking board.

I should have the patterns taken and the shawl up for sale in a week or so.

I’ve also got another suprise.  I am planning on putting some of my existing lace patterns (and some new ones) together in an ebooklet at a reduced price.  Just waiting for Ravelry to get the ebook in their system and I should be able to share more details.  Very exciting!

I love knitting for my boys but rarely get a chance these days.  At Ravelry day this summer I got sock yarn in a wonderful bright Spring Green colorway from Baby Long Legs stand.

Now my 3 year old saw this yarn, and completely fell in love with it.  I haven’t knit anything for him all year because he won’t wear anything warm.  Even in the coldest of weather he takes jackets/cardigans/sweaters off as soon as is physically possible.  The sock yarn looked as though it might actually work for him.  I got a second skein from Sarah and knit him this sweater.

I think I’m going to call it Ziggy Zag.  I just love the colors in this yarn, however as I got the second hank a few weeks after the first and couldn’t see them together the colors were different.  The first ranged from yellow to a blue/green but there were no blue tones in the second.  I worked the two together every second row and ended up with some lovely color blends.

The sock yarn is knit on larger needles (3.75mm/US size 5) which give a very lightweight pullover.  But best of all as it is sock yarn I can put it in the washing machine!

I should have the pattern up for sale in a week or two.  Even though this is knit for my son I think that this is a very uni-sex pattern.  With a little pastels thrown in it would be perfect for little girls as well (although poor little boys are in need of some fun patterns out there, it all seems to be for girls!)

Ok, so I think that I’ll have that pdf finished in the next few days. The cardigan will be called ‘Ripley’…see if you can figure out why! Here are a few photos until you can get the final pdf.
This cardigan started out as an idea that I test out on a mini-cardigan to see if you could make the front for a cardigan and collar all one piece.

Mini-Trilo

I really liked the end effect so went on to try it in an adult size with Elann Incense in Navy and this was the result.

Trilo in Navy Elann Incense

Now I love this cardigan so much that I wanted to see what it would look like in different yarns, Sue worked a pink version in Manos del Uraguay, very pretty don’t you think?

Trilo, Pink Manos del Uraguay

Finally a few weeks ago I finished an Olive version with Fyberspates Scrumptious kindly donated by Jen. This yarn creates a super lightweight cardigan that just floats.
I enjoyed knitting the second version as much as the first (very unusual for me!), it has a good mixture between fast easy knitting with some interest thrown in so you don’t get bored. I think the Olive version was knit in less than two weeks!

Trilo, Fyberspates Olive Scrumptious

I’ll leave you with a detail of the shoulder decreases from Sue’s pink version.

Trilo shoulder detail

Ok, so I’ve caved and have gone and opened a twitter account.  I’ve even managed to write a few updates in the last few days!  I can see how writing just a few words can be much less intimidating than an entire post.  When I post on my blog I usually wait until I also have some photos to add as well as words, which means that it only happens every few weeks.

Now hopefully I won’t find myself frozen with indecision when I have to keep my twitter updates short!

If you want to keep up with me you can find me on twitter as StolenStitches.  I am planning on adding a sidebar to the website, but it may be a few weeks…should be some major website reinvention this summer!

Here is a little teaser from a lace design I’ve been working on for the last few months.  The piece is finished but I’ve still got a bit of work to do with the pattern.  I haven’t worked with laceweight much before, and while it really is hard work with small children the results is like wearing air!

Is there anyone out there going to the Ravelry UK day on the 6th of June?  I’ll be going over with Sue from Cork and we’ll be there from Friday until Sunday and would love to meet up with (you don’t have to be from Cork!).  I’m looking forward to having an indulgent, yarn filled weekend.

Jen from Fyberspates will be there with a stall.  I just love her yarn – in fact my next design to be published is made from her Chunky Squisy Red and plums.  I’ve talked about this yarn before and really loved working with it.

Here is a photo of the finished piece, it’s great for in between weather (which we get a lot of here). 

I must get some modelled photos this weekend and finish the pdf and I’ll be able to get it up for sale.

I’ve called it Raspberry Layers.  It somehow seems quite fitting to me, with all of the variations of pinks and purples in the colors.  It’s knit starting at the center of the back with a provisional cast on.  You work across the back (with short rows to create the bottom flare), cast on stitches for the front and finish with some tidy short row sleeve caps.  I’ve used an interesting variation on garter st for the edging and decorative rows that uses slipped stitches, almost as easy as garter st but adds a lot of color variations in a variegated yarn.

I was trying to wait until I had this pattern ready to sell before I posted it on my blog.  However I was never very good about waiting to unwrap presents so I just couldn’t stop myself putting it up!  Torya has just finished test knitting it for me and I just love how it turned out for her.  She will have some photos of it modelled later which I’ll post as well.

I knit this is Cascade ‘Sierra’ which is 80% Pima Cotton and 20% wool.  It feels like knitting in cotton but has more memory.

I have dreamed about this pattern for many months (may even be a year!).  I was trying to figure out how to combine a cabled leaf motif in lace.  By working the borders in wide ribbing I think that the cardigan becomes more wearable than if it was entirely of lace.

Let me know what you think!

I hope to have this tech edited at the end of the month so should have it for sale by May.  For anyone that likes top down, this is knit from the top with raglan shoulder seams, so easy to construct once you get the lace pattern set -up.

cabled leaf back

For anyone out there who hasn’t seen the latest issue of Twist Collective go take a look now.  There are so many patterns that I just adore I’m not really sure how I’ll ever find enough knitting time!  I especially love Gytha, the colour combinations are just so beautiful.  Heroine is such an unusual but very functional jacket.  It looks like it could withstand a cold winter!

I have actually managed to finish some knitting over the last few weeks.  I got the second of my Monkey socks finished (I have serious sock syndrome!!) and my green cabled jumper is finished.  I didn’t add in the hood as it just seemed like too much weight with Kilcarra (it weighs several pounds as it is!)…  I hope to take a few photos over the weekend and will get them up to show off the finished pieces.

For anyone looking for some top down hat patterns I will be publishing a pattern with several variations in the next few weeks.  Watch this spot..

I have been very busy on the knitting front for the past few weeks.  However my modem was broken so I have been running up and down to my parent’s house with a laptop to get my email.  As you can imagine this is not very conducive- to writing a relaxing blog post!

The test knitting for Eleanor is moving along well – anyone who is on Ravelry can take a look at the finished cardigan.  It turned out really nicely.

A few weeks ago I got the Fall Vogue magazine and I completely fell for the Hooded Pullover.  Now the last thing I need right now is another project but I just couldn’t resist!  I have tons of Kilcarra Donegal tweed aran weight in my stash here that I have been meaning to use for ages so I tried it out holding the yarn double.  I get exact gauge although the sweater is going to be so warm that I will need a Siberian winter to wear it!  I think I’ll replace the hood with a high collar, I’m not a very big hoodie person usually and the Donegal tweed is probably a bit scratchy around the head.

My designing has been going well for the last few weeks.  It still amazes me how much pleasure I get from designing knitwear.  I really does bring together both the creative and mathematical side of my brain.  And best of all it is something I can actually do in short bursts with children running around (ok, so this doesn’t always work but sometimes!).  I keep knitting and/or paper on the high counter in the kitchen away from little fingers and whenever they are happily occupied I get to work on a few rows.  Having it up high means that if I’m needed I can just put it down where it is and know that it’s safe.  As a added bonus as most of my knitting ends up being done standing up I get to exercise my stomach muscles if I remember to stand straight.  Now if only it didn’t mean that I ended up with an aching lower back I’d really be sorted!

I’ve been so worried about messing up my knitting sample for the book that I am only knitting it at home where I can concentrate when I’m working on it.  With the result that I have actually ended up with a different project on the go for my knitting group.  I have changed the main cable pattern for the Robin Hood Jacket from the Zoe Mellor book and adjusted the sizes slightly but I have finished the back and half one front.  I really love this cable pattern.  – once all this summer knitting is done looking forward to getting back into a little cable work with some cozy yarns.

Yes – those are my lovely harmony needles.  Truly magical for slippy yarns (not quite so critical for this project, but still nice!)