Bella Knitting

Channeling Creativity: Pumpkin Decorating

While knitting is still out of the picture for now, I am pleased to say that some small bits of creativity are sneaking their way back in to my brain.

I love this sophisticated version of pumpkin decorating. A bit of soldering wire, a pair of needle nose pliers and a twist of the wrist and you're all set to go.

A few tips:
- There are a few weights of wire. I like the thinner better.
- The tail of the spiral shape only needs to be about an inch long.
- Don't try to make the holes with the wire, it will bend. A very thin screw driver works well.
- Add some beads for fun. I went for the all silver look here.

And the best part ... do not throw them away. You can use these decorations year after year.

Design in Progress: Heritage Sock Yarn

Sarah

I was really excited when Laura said she was going to start carrying the Cascade Heritage sock yarns a while back. I mean, who doesn't love sock yarn? It sent my mind reeling with design ideas, although for me, nothing really firms up until I have the yarn on the needles. You can buy the yarn a la carte from Bella Knitting here; the color card is here.

I've been working on a sock pattern in the yarn using the "Forest" colorway (#5619) and I figured that since I now have some experience with the yarn, I should share some of my thoughts on working with it.

First off, the yarn has four plies, so it has a nice roundness to it, creating tidy, even stitches. I'm using a multicolor, and I was pleased with the way the colors stack up -- the colors don't pool in big blobs, but I've got a zippy little almost-stripe thing going on. Of course, these variegations are all pretty much in the same color family, so you'll get a different result with a shade like Londonberry, which combines green and purple hues for greater contrast. Overall, I think that the way the colors shift as you knit suggests that this yarn will work great in a pattern which makes the stitches move. That's what I'm doing, anyway, but the design isn't ready for the big reveal just yet. To give you an idea of what I mean, look at Cookie A's Monkey sock pattern -- the increases and decreases create a pleasing movement in the fabric which shows off yarns like these quite nicely.

I know that I haven't seen this yarn in any of my LYS yet, so you may not have had a chance to see it in person. If I were to compare it with other yarns in my stash which you may be familiar with, I'd say it is most like Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and the Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett yarn by Schachenmayer Nomotta. Both of those are constructed of 4 plies as well. Based on what's in my stash, it looks like the Regia yarn may have the most loosely-spun plies and the Lorna's Laces the most tightly spun, but I think I'd need a microscope to be certain. The Heritage sock yarn certainly seems to be of comparable quality, will stand up to a machine wash and tumble dry, and is definitely a good deal at $16.50 for a 100 gram, 437 yard skein -- enough to make a pair.

Garter Stitch for Sewers?

Sarah

When I first began using my sewing machine, I wondered whether there might be a typical "cut your teeth" project for sewers; an equivalent to the garter stitch scarf for a beginning knitter. I'm not sure if there is such a thing, but a batch of coasters is probably a pretty close equivalent. Of course, small as they are, I wasn't as susceptible to the boredom which can overwhelm a beginning knitter tasked with producing five or six feet of knit stitches!

These took very little time to make, and although they certainly aren't perfect, they provided me with a chance to cut my teeth on my sewing machine. They were the first project I made with it, a few weeks back, and simple as they are, working on them taught me -- or rather, reminded me of -- some of the basic principles. Such as: it's a good idea to wash fabric before working with it, if you don't want it to pucker at the seams later on! What can I say, I was impatient to get going once I finally had the machine set up. They're still perfectly serviceable coasters, despite that failing, and a perfect project for using up very small quantities of pretty fabric.

Knitting Virtues

Laura

When reading about Sarah’s sewing machine, I was struck by the comparison between sewing and knitting. I am a sometimes sewer, a so-so sewer, a sewer of squares anyway and the occasional Halloween costume. It’s really a practical thing; I love nice fabrics and refuse, absolutely refuse to spend a fortune on curtains made by someone else. I guess it’s kind of the way I’ll spend a bit of my yarn budget on cashmere but would never buy a $300 cashmere sweater.

The thing about sewing is that it’s not really all about the sewing machine. If I had to estimate the percent of time actually spent pushing the petal compared to time in preparation and finishing I would say it’s about 25%. There are yardage calculations, finding necessary fusing, ribbon or matching thread colors, reading the pattern, ironing the pattern paper, cutting the pattern out, ironing the fabric, clearing the kitchen table so you have room to work, laying out the pattern, pinning the pattern to the fabric, cutting the fabric, more pinning,  winding the bobbin, ironing the seams, sewing the seams flat, trimming seams, fitting, hemming and button sewing.  I use the iron at least twice as long as I use the sewing machine.

As knitters we seem to have endless patience when it comes to knitting but give us a bit of finishing and it’s all over. How we suffer through those few hours of steaming or blocking, sewing in ends and seaming all the time bemoaning the time spent not knitting our next project. What percent of time do you think is spent in knitting vs. prep and finishing … 90%? More? Although we all know better, many of us resent knitting even the stingiest of swatches firm in our belief that swatching is really important for other knitters.

Non-knitters assume knitters must be extremely patient, but surprisingly, that may not be the case. When knitting in public just this week, a woman commented to me that she would love to knit but lacked the patience. My response back was that I thought it might just be the opposite. I lacked the patience to sit with nothing to do in many of life’s waiting moments. That knitting filled a void in time and gave me an outlet for physical and mental energy. The comparison to sewing only strengthens this theory. While we're willing to spend both time and energy on our creations we quickly lose interest in the non-knitting aspects of our craft. Do sewers make better knitters because they approach the project timeline differently?

What if we were willing to spend as much time off the needles, in pre- and post-knitting, as we were on the needle? How might the quality of our finished projects improve? Would we, however, get less joy out of creating them resulting in a higher number of UFOs?

So what do you think? Are you patient or does your knitting mask a restless spirit?

Branching Out

Sarah

A few weeks ago, when my parents were up for a visit, I got my mom to help me finally set up my sewing machine. (Let us not speak of how long I owned said sewing machine before actually using it.)

Believe me when I say that I'm not abandoning knitting in favor of sewing -- the majority of my crafting time is still devoted to pursuing the art of sticks and string. However, since I have only a handful of truly free minutes in each day, I sometimes like to spend those minutes on the craft that provides something a little closer to instant gratification. Also, I think that by experiencing a different craft -- with a different methodology and different structure -- I appreciate the flexibility of knitting even more.

For the curious, I got these charming fat quarter packs from Bee Square Fabrics on Etsy (here's a link to the shop).

The Hybrid

Sarah

A while back, I fell in love with the Elizabeth Zimmermann hybrid sweater as knit by Brooklyntweed -- but then again, who didn't? I planned on knitting one for Jason, so I chose my yarn (Plymouth Encore worsted) in a tweedy dark brown, plus a ball of tweedy camel for the contrast-color hems. Then, like a good knitter, I took Jason's chest measurement, swatched, and did the math.

Math isn't always all it's cracked up to be. I measured Jason's chest, thinking (I thought logically) that I would want to knit the sweater body to fit his body. What's the problem there? Well, Jason has a very V-shaped torso, so his waist is quite a bit smaller than his chest. Also, I aimed for a tiny bit of ease. Can you guess where this is headed? The fact that it's not Jason wearing the sweater in the photo, but my dad, has probably clued you in.

The sweater didn't end up being ridiculously large on Jason, but it was large enough on him that it looked sloppy. To be worn well, I think this sweater should be pretty fitted. Jason suggested that I "knit it smaller" and I must say that I laughed at him mockingly. Reknit the entire sweater at a finer gauge, or with a smaller number of stitches? No way. Not when I could tell that I could solve the entire problem by changing the designated recipient!

The sweater fits my dad perfectly, and he loves it! Of the four sweaters I've given my dad, this one definitely turned out the best -- so really, my miscalculations were a stroke of luck. I've got some ideas for a new Jason sweater, so he's not hurting. (Not to mention the fact that the weather has turned considerably warmer here -- it's not like Jason would have gotten much use out of it anyway.) I'm also quite pleased to have tried out this hybrid construction: I used the instructions in Knitting Workshop, but you can also find them in Knitting Without Tears. I think this version is called the shirt-yoke version -- the saddles are knit across the back and grafted together in the middle. For the neckline, I did a contrast-color folded hem as for the sleeve cuffs and hem.

Though overall I'm quite happy with how things turned out, I have to say that I am not planning to work with this yarn again. It's a blend of 75% acrylic and 25% wool, and it just was not that pleasant to work with. Supposedly it's easy-care, but I felt like it did not hold up as well in my gentle washing process as pure wool does -- it definitely lacked wool's resiliency. Oh well, my dad is such a great knitting recipient that I will happily knit him a replacement if it wears out!

Double Dutch, Chunky Style!

Sarah

I knit one of Arlette's Double Dutch hats a while back, and it was so fun I knew I'd be making more. That's saying a lot, coming from me, since I tend not to repeat the same patterns very often -- but the knitting of this is clever and different, and it's a hat, so it doesn't technically count as a new WIP. (Yes, I made that rule up. It's kind of like the rule that sock yarn doesn't count as stash. It works.) So I worked on other things, and waited for the right combination of yarns to occur to me.

The other day, I was high off of the rush that comes with completing a UFO that's been in the pile for a long time (this one, if you're wondering) and contemplating new projects (despite the number of UFOs in hibernation) when I walked past a basketful of yarn and noticed these two colors of Cascade Venezia, sitting side-by-side. Perfect! So, I cast on (making up my two-color cast-on as I went along, which explains the wonkiness) and began a new Double Dutch. I want it to be big and slouchy, so I'm using size 10 needles and only subtracted about 8 stitches from what the pattern suggests (all patterns are suggestions, right?) and it looks okay so far. It may end up being a little too big and slouchy, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. For Science.

I don't think it's up in the store yet, but Laura has some of this yarn in three or four different colors (including the two I'm using), if you're interested in trying out your own super-chunky Double Dutch. If I get lazy, I'm going to cast off after knitting a few more inches and call it a cowl, which should be really cute and cozy. Or I might still do a hat, but change it up by doing a gathered top instead of the swirly decreases. I do loves me some swirly decreases, though...decisions, decisions. I'll let you know how it goes!

The Provisional Crochet Increase

Laura
Winter Hat (Part 5) yikes!

It's been awhile since we checked in on my winter hat idea so let's review the progress to date... It all started with a vacuum cleaner. Strange but true. Its innovative features started me on a kick to rethink designs from the ground up - taking nothing for granted.  Developing a hat wish list seemed like the next logical step and then it was time to play.  Brilliant or bizarre? You decide which category the  Winter Super Hero ear flap falls into (the kids are still rolling their eyes over that one but they want it!); followed by  my personal favorite the 3-needle i-cord join to put it all together. But after all this I realized I forget to tell you how it all started. So back to the beginning we go.

One of the core elements of my new hat was a curved edge. Something that would follow the contour of the head, flow gracefully over the eyes then swoop down to cover the ears. It lead to my first design dilemma -->  how to knit the hat from the bottom up, shape the bottom edge and still come back for the i-cord bind off and join (for the ear flaps). The answer, of course, is the provisional cast on. I used Sarah’s nicely illustrated crochet cast on with a twist – I also used the provisional cast on method for my increases.

The first step is to create a crochet chain the long enough to accommodate your total number of stitches. Pick up in the middle of the chain instead of the end, making sure to leave enough “bumps” on each end for your increases.  I learned, after a few attempts, to add about ten extra for each end since I never seemed to have enough stitches on one of the two ends. 

The result was just what I was looking for, it’s super easy, flexible (you can add any number of stitches) and results in a nice smooth edge (no cast on jogs in to ruin the line of the curve). There are two, three, then four increases in the photo above.

Here are the stitches that will be above the ear flap. I picked up the stitches at the end of every row so they are ready to be worked on the next row.

Here is a view of a purl side pickup. If you want to try this on your own just be a bit careful pulling out the yarn at the increase points.

This time I'm pulling out the red provisional cast on to replace it with a matching navy edge but it would be nice as a contrasting color edge with a non-rolling stitch. I think it is easier to start with a quick crochet chain than to crochet an edge on later and you don't really even need to know how to crochet to make a chain. mmmm... how about at the edge of a nicely curved sleeve cuff? What do you think?

Project Spectrum

Sarah

Today marks the beginning of Project Spectrum, brainchild of the fabulous Lolly. The project is a fun way to push yourself to explore different colors and textures, and I think the way Lolly has organized it this year is going to be exceptionally inspiring: each two-month period has an "element" theme, with colors related to that element. February and March are "Fire" (orange, red, and pink), April and May are "Earth" (green, brown, and metallics), June and July are "Air" (gray, white, and yellow), and August and September are "Water" (blue, black, and purple).

Some people choose to knit with the PS colors, or seek them out with their cameras, or sew with these shades of fabrics. Last year, my friend Liz changed her blog's theme to reflect the changing PS colors, while others tried incorporating PS-colored foods into their diet.

This year, in the lead-up to Project Spectrum, I had an interesting idea as I was reading Michael Pollan's book "In Defense of Food": why not go on a Project Spectrum "diet"? I care about my health, and I care about eating well and sustainably. Happily, these goals all mesh together well -- the healthiest, most delicious foods tend also to be the most sustainable. These are goals I've had for a while and am always working towards, but I think that by really focusing on them mindfully during Project Spectrum, I can do a better job of incorporating these changes into my lifestyle.

These are just goals I've set for myself, and if you'd like to join me, feel free to set your own -- there's already a little group of us on Ravelry in the Project Spectrum forums, and we'd be happy to have you join our conversation!

February/March: Fire
In this two-month period, I will bake my own bread from scratch instead of buying it from the supermarket. (This goes for desserts, crackers, etc. as well.) Also, I will eat every bite of every meal, snack, or nibble at the table, to help myself to eat more mindfully and savor my food.

                                       

April/May: Earth
In this two-month period, I will go to the farmer’s market at least once a week to buy my fruits and vegetables. I will eat less meat, especially red meat, and avoid processed foods and fast foods.

                                       

June/July: Air
In this two-month period, I will get more fresh air. I will go outside every single day for a walk, a hike, a bike ride, or a trip to the park.

                                       

August/September: Water
In this two-month period, I will drink water. OK, so I’ll also still drink my (one) morning cup of coffee, and my one small glass of wine a few times a week with dinner, but no sodas, no juice, no Starbucks, no smoothies.

Go Ahead, Make My Day...

Sarah

Obligatory reminder: enter the Bella Blogiversary contest! We only have a couple of entries so far, so your chances of winning a prize are excellent!

  Meanwhile, we've got a little award ourselves -- Suzanne of Yarnhog dubbed us "You Make My Day Award"-worthy. Thanks, Suzanne! According to the rules, it is now our duty to do the following: "Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

Narrowing it down to just 10 is the hard part! I've got more than ten times that in my bloglines, making my day on a routine basis. But rules are rules, so here you go, in no particular order:

Lola and Ava of Two Black Sheep -- go congratulate Lola on her new arrival! He's a cutie.
Karen of Yarn is My Metier -- always a great read and a source of project inspiration!
Felicia of Fluffy Flowers -- you can't see her creatures and not smile.
Dave of Criminy Jickets -- among other excellent bloggerly qualities, dude cranks out socks like...well, like something you crank out pretty fast.
Maryese of Monster Yarn -- oy, the gorgeousness of the photos...
Teyani, the Intrepid Fiber Wizard -- a most talented fiberista and knitter!
Cindy of SnidKnits -- Cindy recently moved to Bangalore. Reading about her experiences there is a great vicarious travel experience!
Splatgirl at Splatgirl Creates -- Like food, interior design, craftiness in general, or an adorable gigantic greyhound? Splatgirl has it all.
Kim of Yarn Abuse -- aside from being an all-around pleasure to read, Kim has made me fall in love with Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns all over again, many times.
Oiyi of Oiyi's Crafts -- Hmm, I guess I'm bookending my list with bloggers who just had babies. Go congratulate Oiyi, too! I hope that even though she's had her baby, she'll still continue to use her cute little pooches as occasional knitwear models.