Bella Knitting

Playing with Colors

Laura

After my foray in to the many gardens in the San Francisco area I had colors on my mind. The amazing potential in the variety of colors that can be combined by Mother Nature and by designers - be they working with yarn, fabric, paints or computers. One of my favorite little tools on my Mac is a Widget by Color Schemers.

The site has a Color Scheme Gallery with hundreds and hundreds of color schemes with amazing names like:

- Cold Shoulder,
- Grab that Dog,
- Mermaid on the Rocks
- Sunny Spot in Dark Forest,
- Mean Girls,
- Pepperoni Pizza and
- Sad but True.

I enjoy looking at the names as much as I do the color combinations! These designers are very imaginative, makes me want to rename some of our projects!

Under their products tab you'll find two free downloads. One for Mac Users and one for Windows.  The Widget shown above is for the Mac Dashboard. It has thousands of inspirational color ideas - many of which I would never have thought of but really like.  I would love to design a sweater using all the colors in some of my favorite palettes. The hex color values are included above.

Windows users aren't left out either. ColorPix is little app that let's you grab the color values and screen coordinates at any pixel on your screen. Then it  translates any screen color into RGB, HEX, HSB and CMYK color values.

I have not tried this one but it certainly looks fun.

And there is one more free tool to tell you about.  Their online color selector allows you to enter the RGB or Hex number for any color you want. The selector will lay out a series of coordinating colors then you can lighten or darken the entire palette. Great for selecting yarns, web colors or even paints like it did for my new living and dining rooms that are adjacent to each other.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

Sarah

I have a problem. I do not have enough storage space. Some would say I have "too much yarn" but that kind of comment only comes from people who don't knit, and therefore do not understand the Urge To Stash. I also have too many books, but for some reason, when people find out you own a ton of books they think it makes you intellectual, and when people find out you own a ton of yarn they usually think you are a little off your rocker.

Anyway, I decided that I should be displaying some of my sock yarn where I can see it (and admire it and pet it and maybe hug it a little, when no one is looking), so I took down a bunch of books from the bookshelf in the bedroom, boxed them up, and put a bunch of pretty skeins of sock yarn up instead. The books went into hibernation in the garage, where several other boxfuls await the day when we finally buy some more bookshelves. Which, to be honest, probably won't happen until we move to a bigger place. We have a lot of books.

This didn't solve the storage problem, of course, but periodically shuffling everything around at least makes me feel a little better. My long-term plan is to win the lottery (I didn't say it was a good plan) and invest in yarn and yarn storage. A dry olympic-sized swimming pool would do nicely, don't you think? I mean, what knitter doesn't occasionally fantasize about swimming through an enormous stash, like Scrooge McDuck swimming through his gigantic pile of coins?

Natures Colors

Laura

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. It's the time of year when the days are noticeably longer, the kids start a count down for the number of school days left (we have twelve and a half to be very precise), and even gardeners in northern states (and most of our friends in Canada) can plant their annuals with out worry of frost.

We spent quite a bit of time outside touring San Francisco with visiting family. I was drawn again and again to the color of the gardens. The riot of colors is in full bloom in this part of the world but I was charmed mostly this weekend by the soft and subtle colors of nature. The gorgeous grasses swaying gently in the breeze, the variety of texture and shades of similar colors.



In a coincidence similar to Sarah and Ingrid's I opened these photos from Leslie when I came back from a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge. Love the subtle colors. I've added the three photos Leslie sent to our Log Cabin Flickr page. Good job Leslie! Thanks for sharing.

Crafty Minds Think Alike

Sarah

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing through the crafty section of the bookstore after picking up a new Dr. Seuss book for Measure (he has quite the library) and came across this little gem: Cute Dolls by Aranzi Aronzo. The book is filled with patterns for cute little stuffed animals, and I couldn't resist -- they all look like they'll be pretty simple, quick sewing projects. I set the book aside until I could plan a trip to the fabric shop (because although I have a small fabric stash, nothing was just right for any of these projects. You know how it is.)

Apparently, crafty minds think alike, because the other day, Measure and I came home to find a package addressed to him waiting on our front porch. What was inside? An adorable monkey, made by our good friend Ingrid from a Cute Dolls pattern! Measure loves his new friend Mr. Munky, so we're working on a cute softie from the book to send to Ingrid's daughter. I won't say which one -- I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Book Review: lace & eyelets

Laura

Never in the 320 blog entries Sarah and I have written have we ever written a negative post. I’m afraid I have to break that streak in the interest of preventing anyone else from buying this book and wasting your money like I did.  I should have trusted the other knitter’s reviews on Amazon, but no, I a lover of all knitting books and collector of all Stitchionaries thought I just couldn’t go wrong with a book based on the Harmony Guides and with such a pretty cover. So  wrong. Let’s see, where to start….

Most complaints had to do with the lack of charts, a draw back but not a crime. The authors seemed confused, who was the target audience for this lace book. They must have decided that first time, “I’ve never held a knitting needle in my hand” knitters-to-be were a target market since they included instructions on how cast on and ‘the knit stitch’ in the beginning. Really? They also included inane knitting “tips” like “stitch markers are your friends”.  I guess they needed to fill up the tons of white space on the page. All of these, while annoying, are still not that criminal. But I’m not done yet.

Let us now move on to the total lack of consistency. Want to yarn over? You will have to read through instructions that say yf, yb, yfon, yfrn, yo, yon, yrn with a glossary hidden in the back after the graph paper (huh?).  They must have used multiple photographers as well. Some photos are so close you can not tell what the pattern will look like and there are shadows under the eyelets that make some of the patterns extremely difficult to see.

But wait there’s more! There are instructions to wrap the yarn (why with seven different yarn over instructions do I now need to wrap yarn too?! Then there's knit and purl "twisted" as opposed to "KB1" which means knit into back of next stitch, as opposed to tbl. And don't forget to "draw sl st over".  Confusing but I do understand this is an update of a classic, and so there is more.

Imagine my surprise when I started to look at the pattern for Lacy Diagonals on page 145 and the pattern is for the WRONG stitch altogether.  That's right the photo and the directions do NOT match. I decided to look online to see if it was listed in their errata. This was the final shocker (and the thing that made me decide to post) there are two compact pages of errors! egad!! They list almost 200 pages of incorrect use of yarn over vs. yarn forward (quell surprise) and 16 patterns will multiple errors  - not including the one I found where the entire pattern is mismatched.

I could go on (OK, I will I just have to vent!)

•    the difficulty seeing some of the dark colors and the washed out look of the lighter flesh colors
•    the total lack of organization so that similar stitches are spread through out the book,
•    missing instructions (Vertical Slit Cables; rows 6 to 13 have no stitch instructions at all and certainly could use a how to with such an unusual method to work. Is this the same book that thought we needed instructions on how to cast on?)
•    Similar stitch patterns (Mesh and Staggered Eyelets, and a few of the zig zags) that just fill space

While I like Erika Knight she let this one get by her and so did Interweave. I really think they owe us an apology.

OK, I feel better now. Thanks. I think I'll go look at some Barbara Walker then I will be at peace with the knitting universe. But I must leave you with this last bit of wisdom from page 166:

"As a beginner, avoid working with novelty and fuzzy yarns as they can make stitches difficult to see." What, do experienced knitters some how suddenly decide to use fuzzy yarn when knitting lace?  I may need a glass of wine after that one.

Follow up below ...

Combined Knitting: A Tutorial

Sarah

In my last post, I demonstrated how to knit backwards. Today, I'm sharing a tutorial on how to knit in the "combined" knitting method. The most well-known combination knitter is probably Annie Modesitt; according to her web site, this method is a combination of Western and Eastern knitting methods -- hence the name.

I'm not usually a combination knitter, but I find it useful to knit this way when I am knitting large pieces of stockinette flat, because this method gives me a more even tension and prevents me from "rowing out." My tension in combined knitting is much more similar to the tension I get when knitting in the round, so if a project asks me to knit stockinette both in the round and flat, I switch to the combined knitting method for the flat portions. Other times I switch up my knitting methods just to avoid the tedium of lots of plain stockinette. I also think that switching now and then -- provided it doesn't create obvious tension changes -- can be helpful in avoiding injuries to the hands and wrists, since you're then not using the same muscles in the same way over and over.

To knit combined, begin on the purl side of the work. To purl, insert the right-hand needle into the next loop on the left-hand needle as shown.

Now, bring the yarn under and around the right-hand needle, as shown.

Bring the yarn through the loop, creating the new stitch on the right-hand needle.

Let the old loop slide off the left-hand needle. You have now created a new purl stitch. It doesn't really look any different from your usual purl stitch on this side, but if you look at the right side...

...you can see that the stitches are sitting on the needle in a different way.

You can probably see it better in this photo. If you knit this stitch the "regular" way (inserting the needle from the left to right), it would end up twisted. We don't want that, so...

...Insert the needle straight through as shown.

Wrap the yarn around the right-hand needle and bring the new loop through.

See? New knit stitch.

Below is the finished knit row. In a loosely spun cotton yarn like this (Blue Sky Alpacas worsted weight cotton) I find it much easier to get even tension knitting using the continental method than my usual style. Even if you don't have tension problems, it's fun to try out different knitting methods -- you never know when you'll come across something that will help you to enjoy your knitting even more!

Store Bought Sweaters

Laura

This is my friend Susan (sans head as promised). We met when we both lived in the Chicagoland area. I moved west to the San Francisco Bay area while she headed south to Austin. All in all three fabulous places to live. We met for a brief time last week at the San Francisco airport. A bit odd, yes, but she had a three-hour layover on the way to Hawaii. So while I didn't get to go on the vacation I  ran up to have a bit of lunch in the plush surrounding of SFO.

Look at the cute sweater she has on! My knitter's eye immediately started dissecting it. The varying lace patterns, the solid band, cute hood. It would be fabulous in a nice light bamboo yarn. She told me it's a sweater by Cabi. They sell clothes via home parties, they're nice I have bought some Cabi things myself.  The thing is if I were to buy this sweater, I would forever be asked if I knit it. I stopped to think and realized that the sweaters I do buy are the ones that won't be confused with the ones I knit. I was especially careful of this when I worked in a LYS - no sense confusing customers. Am I the only one that thinks this way? Do you buy hand-knit looking sweaters or like me are you busy making sketches of what you see in the store to add to your project list?

Shhh, here's Susan. She's just too cute to have her head chopped off! Thank you iPhone camera.

Knit Backwards: A Tutorial

Sarah

Do you ever find yourself "rowing out" when knitting stockinette? Or have you ever knit a narrow piece of stockinette, and grown irritated at having to turn, turn, turn your work every few seconds? I was doing both on the sleeve of a little jacket I'm knitting to give to my friend who is expecting twins. You can see in the lower portion that my tension is pretty uneven.

Here is a view of the reverse side where I'm rowing out the worst: I've highlighted those areas so you can really see what I mean.

There are a few ways to fix this problem. One is to use two different needle sizes, one for each side of the knitting, to mitigate the tension differences created by the knitter when knitting vs. purling. I prefer to alter my knitting itself, and today I'm going to show you one way to do that: by knitting backwards. You see, when I purl across the back of stockinette fabric, my tension is different from when I knit across the front. But when I knit backwards, my tension is much more similar to my knit rows. Technically, you are still purling when you knit backwards, but you're doing it with the right side facing you -- meaning you never have to turn your work! This is a great technique to use when you are working on a very narrow piece of stockinette, such as a sleeve, one of those short-row ruffle scarves, or an entrelac project. And trust me, it's not hard to do!

After you have knit a row in the usual fashion, DO NOT TURN the work, but leave the right side facing you. You will be working from left to right across the row. To make a stitch, begin by inserting the left hand needle into the loop as shown, so that the left needle crosses behind the right one.

Now bring the yarn over the top of the left hand needle and hold it in place.

Using the right-hand needle, lift the stitch over and off the needle, leaving the new loop in place on the left-hand needle.

You have now created a new stitch. Repeat this procedure across the row. It will seem awkward at first, and even with experience you may not be as fast as with your normal knit and purl methods, but when you are knitting something fairly narrow in stockinette, it is often more efficient to knit this way, since you don't have to turn the work -- and I know that for me personally, it makes a huge difference in the evenness of my tension. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes!

Sports Fan Knitting

Laura

As those of you reading the blog for awhile may have noticed, I am a sports fan. I love watching football in particular but like many of you spend hours upon hours at my kids sporting events as well. When we went to Stitches West this year half the booth was dedicated to baby projects and half to sports projects. It was fun to see the wide variety of team that knitters (and their guys) attending this California convention supported. For the second year in a row the Midwest was well represented and we sold out of Green Bay Packers colors (last year it was the Minnesota VIkings fan in attendance).

With all this fun, we've spun off the sporting collections to a new sister web site --> SportsFanKnitting.com. We've have our favorite Karabella Aurora 8 in colors for all the teams pro, college and high school. We are working with out local high school for ideas for their dance team too.

Project Spectrum: Earth

Sarah

Wow, I can't believe I haven't done a post about Project Spectrum yet, and the "Earth" theme is almost over! I've been pretty good about sticking with the goals I set for myself way back in February (in this post) but these were goals I'd been working on in a more general way for a while anyway. So, I decided to work on another, very earth-themed project during this two-month period as well. As you may know, Laura and I live in California, near both San Francisco and Silicon Valley. This part of the country is pretty sweet, weather-wise -- we don't get the insane storms or frost that hit other areas, and we certainly don't have to worry about hurricanes or tornadoes -- but we do get earthquakes.

I've lived in California my whole life, and vividly remember the Northridge earthquake, as I grew up not too far from that fault. It was startling to wake up in the dark wee hours of the morning to the sound of the house violently shaking, to suddenly have to scramble out of bed over ground which shifted underfoot to grab my little sister and help her get under the doorway of the room. We were all fine, and luckily nothing was broken in our home, but I remember driving through one of the towns closer to the epicenter not long after, and staring at rows of houses with crumpled front porches, like a row of faces with their teeth kicked in. California's building codes ensure that we don't experience loss of life on the scale suffered in the great San Francisco quake on April 18, 1906, or in modern quakes in third-world countries, but they are still a dangerous and unpredictable force of nature.

With that in mind, I've decided to finally put together a proper earthquake and general first aid kit. Even if we're never troubled by another major quake in our lifetimes, I figure we're bound to get some use out of the first aid stuff, since Jason and I each manage to give ourselves a minor flesh wound or two per year (one of the hazards of being home chefs). I hope I never have to use so much as a band-aid on Measure, but since most kids end up needing stitches or breaking a bone at least once in their lives, I've tried to prepare for the hopefully-not-inevitable. Aside from the first aid kits (I'm going to put together a mini-version for each of our cars, as well) I always try to maintain a stash of bottled water and canned foods, because a large earthquake can cause power and water problems even in neighborhoods which escape major structural damage. We've got a few good flashlights in the house, but I'm going to stash extra flashlights and batteries in the house and car kits as well.

Though I think the likelihood that I'll have to use my disaster kit to its full extent is very low, I don't think it requires a lot of time, effort, or money to put together a basic first aid/disaster preparedness kit, and most of the the things included are useful for the more common setbacks life throws at us -- scrapes and stings, temporary power outages, and so on. There's no real reason not to have one, and hey, if the worst happens and a horde of zombies attack your town, you'll be pretty smug about not having to venture out for food and water.