By lilysunshine, on 12 January 2012, at 9:53 am Yay, it’s time for a Curiouser block! I’m one behind so there will be one today and one tomorrow – I’ll do the linking widget tomorrow for both blocks. They use just about the same base cut of fabric, so I thought it was only fitting to lump them together.
Here is today’s block.
(I’m sure you are all admiring my fantastic carpet!)
This is a simple looking block, but the secret for a successful block is to ensure that your seam allowances are correct. If they aren’t, then it will make matching the long stripy rectangle with the small square really difficult.
This block uses 6 (1.5″ x 6.5″) stripes, or 3 (1.5″ x 13″) stripes, whatever you prefer, plus 2 squares and stripes for the border.
It’s all in this pdf: Stripes And Squares.
The central stripe should be 1″ wide once sewn. Once finished, the centre should be 9.5″ square.
I pressed all the seams to the side, but as usual, it’s all down to preference.
Here are all my blocks so far. I need to catch up on Jen’s blocks as I’m very behind! This is the plan for this weekend!
See you all tomorrow for another block (which will need 9 (1.5″ x 11″) stripes, if you are in the mood for cutting a lot of stripes today!).
By lilysunshine, on 11 January 2012, at 3:10 pm Ooo, it’s been a while since my last blog post. I’m really sorry (and not, at the same time) about it. It happens that I took a total Internet break over the Christmas season. It wasn’t planned, but it was really necessary. It was the first time in years that I felt “on holidays” and I truly needed it! I hope you all had an enchanting Christmas and I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2012.
As the new year starts, I come “laden” with recently published or soon to be published patterns. It is all very exciting!
The first one on the list is a pattern published in the supplement of the last issue of Simply Knitting (issue 89).
It is for a very big cabled tam or beret and matching long fingerless gloves set. It is a simple, yet totally charming pattern. It uses Fyberspates Scrumptious DK in Magenta and I love it. The yarn works so well with the cables and moss stitch. I think it was just what the yarn needed! I’ve added the pattern to the Rav database and you can find it here: Winter Pick-Me-Up. My project page is there (though I haven’t added any details).
As I type this blog post, the new Scrumptious book is being printed. This is rather exciting, because I’ve got a pattern in it. My name is even on the cover, which makes me oh-so-proud! Look who else has contributed patterns! The crême de la crême!
And this is the pattern I’ve contributed.
I’m not sure when the book will be for sale, but it should be pretty soon. I’ll talk more about it when the book is available.
The next pattern to be published is a self-published one. I haven’t got a proper name for it yet, which is a bit annoying, but I’m hoping to have the pattern ready in the next couple of week. It’s for a pair of socks I designed back in July (!!) and that I finally got around to have tech edited. It was also test knitted by some fantastic knitters, so it is ready. Well, just about!
(If you have suggestions for the name, they would be most welcomed!)
I’ve got another 2 patterns which are going to be published soon. The first one will be in issue 42 of The Knitter and the other one will be in issue 45 of the same magazine. I am quite excited about both of those, but the first one might be one of my most favouritestest ever. I can’t wait to tell you more about it!
And over the weekend, I came up with 3 new design ideas which are now in various stage of completion. I’m considering what to do with them. But I’m quite excited about them!! Sorry if it is a bit cryptic! As I’m thinking about submitting those ideas to magazines, I can’t talk about them in detail just yet!
By lilysunshine, on 15 December 2011, at 11:24 am I’m a bit rushed today – it hasn’t been a fantastic week so far at casa del Sunshines, so I’ve just finished my block this morning! It’s a good thing that I had actually written the tutorial a couple of weeks ago!!
Today’s block is a disappearing 9-patch. It is pretty simple and built on the 9-patch blocks we did 2 weeks ago. The base squares are just a tiny bit bigger, but otherwise it’s the same block, up to the point you need to cut what you’ve just sewn! It’s very easy and the result is lovely.
This is the layout I’ve chosen for my block, but play around with yours to come up with something you like! I love the little pinwheel in the middle, but it could be just me!
Here’s the pdf for the disappearing 9-patch tutorial. Let me know if you have any questions!
Now, I’ve got to catch up with Jen’s block from last week! Eeeek!!
By lilysunshine, on 9 December 2011, at 3:21 pm A couple of month ago, I made a plan of things I wanted to work on. It’s been semi-successful.
The cockleshells gloves have been finished and I even made a pair of matching mittens for Lucas.
The skein of Scrumptious DK in magenta has been knitted up – but I can’t show you, it’s one of those super secret projects. Hopefully, I should be able to tell you more before the end of the month!
The rainbow cushion top is finished and I’m about 30% done with the backing. It’s my “going to spend quite some time in transport” project, and we haven’t had much of that since early November…
My Murcott now has a left front. And I’m hoping to cast-on for the right front before the weekend end.
I wasn’t so successful with my fabrics plans. Only the quilt did get done. But I am planning to sit at the sewing machine this weekend so I might get some of the other plans done.
Oh well, it’s not too bad, is it?
So now, it’s time to make a second plan. It is a plan in 2 parts.
First, limit the number of WIPs. I don’t mind WIPs as such, but I keep running out of bags and places to store them, so it tends to look a bit messy around my side of the sofa. It is not fair on the rest of the family! So my goal is to only have 1 project of each sort at anyone time: 1 garment, 1 pair of socks and 1 shawl / stole. (I’m excluding my scrapghan, because to work on it I need scraps from other projects) At the moment I’ve got 2 shawls (3 if you count the crochet one), 2 adult sized garments and 2 pairs of socks. I’m hoping to have one less pair of socks done before the end of the weekend. These socks:
They use the leftovers Colinette Jitterbug from the sample socks I knitted for Jen back in March / April? Somewhere around this time.
My other socks WIP are the Rhombuses from Knit. Sock. Love by Cookie A. that I cast on… ooh, in February? They’re knitted in lovely Buffy yarn by Juno Fiber Arts. But I’m in 2 minds about them.
I think it’s a case of the yarn overpowering the template. I’m thinking that a less involved pattern would work better for this yarn. I’m not that far along (just about done with the lefg of the first sock) so I wouldn’t mind frogging and giving the yarn (and pattern, at another time) another chance. What do you think?
Next project I’m going to work on is my Seascape Stole. I had forgotten how pretty it was.
It’s very fine 100% pure silk. I don’t have a problem with very fine yarns, but I do have a problem with silk. I wasn’t enjoying knitting with it at all. But I’m thinking that if I only work on it in bursts, I might be able to get it done.
Now, the second part of plan is to knit up some of my sock yarn stash.
I *think* that’s all of my sock yarns. It’s not that much, but I’ve just subscribed to the Totie Toe Sock Yarn club from Ripples Crafts, that I’m a bit worried that it would grow out of control. I know some people say that sock yarn is not stash. Well, maybe, but it certainly take some space that could be better used! I’ve just joined the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Rav and I’m hoping to enter a few challenges. I’m hoping to knit 1 pair of socks per month in the coming months, and I’m hoping that at least half of them will be of my own pattern.
Oh and I’m thinking about pursuing my semi-successful stash diet / stash bust in the new year too. But more on that at a later time!
Better get knitting! Anybody else’s got plans?
By lilysunshine, on 5 December 2011, at 11:22 am All weekend, I have been talking about how I was progressing on my newest project and it seems only fair to now blog about it. 140 letters are somewhat limiting!
I’ve had 4 balls of dark blue Rowan Felted Tweed DK and 3 balls of purple in my stash since… December 2010? It was given to me by Jen when she was still working at The Knitter, so it must have been around that time.
I loved the colours and they were calling to be a pullover of some sort. But I didn’t have enough of each colours to make a pullover in any one. So I thought about striping them. But I didn’t like the stripes much, as there was not enough contrast between the 2 colours. So after giving it a couple of tries, I just abandoned the yarn, not really sure what to do with it…
Fast forward to just about December 2011, and I’m in the middle of a semi successful stash diet / stash busting operation. As I was looking into the box (er, more like one of the boxes), I unearthed the bag where I had stored the Felted Tweed.
I am, at the moment, in a big colourwork phase. I LOVE colourwork. It’s such an easy way to personalise your knits. I LOVE designing colourwork. I didn’t think I would, but then, my first ever published design was a colourwork kids jumper! And I LOVE knitting colourwork. For years, I thought that one was supposed to drop colours. Then Ravelry opened my mind to the two-handed stranded knitting. I thought that was a fantastic idea, but that looks difficult. Still, I made the decision to learn this new technique. I’m a dropper by nature, that’s how I knit. My mum knits English style, but I’ve never been able to knit that way (it doesn’t help that I purl in the combined way). But hey, with practice, surely I could learn to knit 2-handed stranded? So I tensioned the yarn over my left hand, continental style, while carrying / dropping another yarn with my right hand. And started knitting. It was the most natural thing I have ever done. It took me about 1 row to get the tension right on the left hand yarn, but that’s about all. Picking yarn with the right needle is very similar to crochet, so if you crochet, it shouldn;t be too hard to learn 2 handed stranded knitting!
But I digress! I’m here to show off my latest colourwork project!
I am very very pleased with how it’s turning out. I bought 2 extra skeins of Felted Tweed DK, one in an oatmeal-y colour, one in green and it is just what this yarn needed.
I designed this colourwork pattern, inspired by traditional fair-isle and other stranded knitting. There’s nothing crazy about it, but I think it works fine for my project. I originally designed a much complex yoke, but the central part wasn’t working so well once translated into knitting. Plus, my numbers were off and the new numbers would have meant redesigning it, so I dropped it altogether.
This is the first version of the yoke, which I frogged yesterday. I am basing my numbers on the percentage method as explained by Elizabeth Zimmerman in Knitting without Tears. But I wanted my neckline much lower and wider. My numbers width wise were fine, but were totally off lengthwise (as was my row gauge, on which I had base my patterns). It was bunching up in a weird way around my neck. So I frogged one day worth of knitting and changed my rate of increases and the second version (as shown higher up in this post) is much MUCH improved!
I just need to finish the colourwork (lovely scallops similar to the neck one) and my yoke will be about done. I’ve got a work project to finish first, but that should be quite fast.
I know people are scared of colourwork, I was for many years (I blame my mum, because she disliked it!). But do give it a go, it is fun and not that difficult! And it looks amazing! Plus, Scandinavian looking knitwear seems to be everywhere on the high street, so you’d be “bang on trend”! HAHA!
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Knitting patterns for sale Beynac Sock pattern
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