Bella Knitting

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.

Connections

Laura

We're in a book! A real book, on Amazon, and in your book store today . . .  but no it's not a knitting book. Huh? The book is titled "The Million Dollar Idea in Everyone" and much to the chagrin of my husband it's not about companies that have made a million dollars (sorry honey) but about people having an idea and going for it.

Why, you might ask, is Bella Knitting in a book and how did we get there? It's all about connections and a bit of luck. A friend of my husbands whose wife knows an author who was writing a business book ... you get it. They were looking for small companies who were trying something in a new way. They liked that I 'walked away from an eighteen year career at IBM" to start a knitting company. I guess most people (non-knitters obviously) don't think of computers when they think knitting - they must not know about Knitty, Ravelry or all you fabulous bloggers out there. They're still thinking rocking chairs, that's all right, we know better.

They wanted to hear about how Bella Knitting was different, what it is we offer our customers. So I talked about the convenience of the total project, offering more than just yarn but also the purse feet, magnets, some fabric and the leather straps too as an example. The interview took place over a year ago so I didn't even get to tell them about winding all that color coordinated thread winding for the Buddy Bags!  I explained the virtual but real friendships bloggers form and their influence on popular patterns like our rampaging baby Vikings who are now crawling around on six continents! 

And it gets better! We're in the very first story of the book - we're on page two of the first chapter and you know the saying ... location, location, location!

But wait there's more . . .  Harvard Business Online reviewed the book on their web site referring to just two stories  -  guess who?!!!  Yup, us! With a direct link to the Bella web site too (do you think Harvard Business people knit?). If your a small business owner it doesn't really get more exciting than this. With all this luck I think I should go out an buy a lottery ticket.

Twins

Sarah

First, a quick reminder: enter the Bella Blogiversary Contest! Details are here, and you can check out the cute entry from Carol of Knitting Knot here. (That cat looks so stoked, it cracks me up.)

So, last time I posted, I had just finished knitting one of my Death by Socks socks. It was hard on my fingers (and hands, and shoulders) but I completed the pair and got them sent off to my victim on Thursday, so I'm quite happy about that. For all I know, I'll receive the socks of my doom on Tuesday (in case you forgot, Monday is M.L.K. Day, a postal holiday) but I'm just happy I managed to complete a pair before being knocked out of the game. Any accomplishments beyond that will be icing on the cake, really.

After finishing those socks, my knitting suddenly felt so...free. All of my other needles seemed ridiculously large after handling size 1's exclusively for so many hours over the course of two-and-a-half days. I even finished my Minimalist Cardigan, and am working on the seaming! Bet you thought I'd forgotten that one, huh? I've been pretty good with my yarn diet (buying a new skein for the Death by Socks competition doesn't count, right?) of only buying one new skein after knitting three from my stash. In anticipation of a visit to one of my favorite LYS next Friday (yeah, avoiding the LYSes definitely has helped the diet), I've been happily knitting away at hats for Jason and Measure. I love how hats provide such near-instant knitterly gratification.

Since the Death by Socks socks were my first "real" (fine-gauge) socks in a while, I've been feeling the urge to cast on for another pair. Maybe do a little sock designing. Who knows? So of course I was excited to see my Seasons Yarn Club shipment from Sundara on my porch this afternoon. I opened it up, wondering what fabulous color the little box contained. Funnily enough, "Burnt Cranberry" was almost an exact match for another Sundara sock yarn in my stash, "Heirloom Tomato." The former is in the foreground of the photo, the latter is the one wound into a cake. In person, there's slightly more difference; the "Burnt Cranberry" has an ever-so-slightly orange-ish cast to it, but still, really close. They're definitely fraternal twins.

Speaking of which, I found out recently that a friend of mine is pregnant with fraternal twins. Any suggestions on what I should knit for them? She doesn't know the gender(s?) yet, but I can at least have some pattern ideas queued up and ready for when she finds out.

We're One!

Sarah & Laura

Wow, can you believe it? (You probably can.) The Bella Knitting blog is a year old today! During the past year, we've written something like 285 posts, and met all kinds of new blog-friends. It's been fun, and we're looking forward to next year!

We'll be celebrating our blogiversary for the next week or so with a little contest, a look back at the past year, and by introducing our new web site! Laura is working around the clock to finish it up, and it's quite close. But first things first: today we'd like to invite you to enter our Bella Blogiversary Contest!

Inspired by Bittersweet's recent contest, we're asking you to tell a story with your knitting (or crochet, or fiber, needles, hooks, etc -- you get the idea) in just three or four photos. Be creative! To enter, post your photo-story on your blog and email us a link to the post, or, if you don't have us a blog, send it to us in an email. Try to get your entries to us within 10 days -- that's January 20th -- and we'll announce the winners shortly after.

Oh, yeah, there will be prizes! The first-place winner will receive a $50 Bella Knitting gift certificate, the second-place winner will receive a purse hook, and the third-place winner will receive a knitting care kit. We're looking forward to your entries!

Diversionary Tactics

Sarah

I really, really need to work on that important project for school. It's due Thursday. So what have I been doing? Housework. Knitting. Searching the closets for a bunch of old FO's, photographing them, and entering them into Ravelry. I even busted out the tripod and camera remote (you can see it in my hand there) so I could take pictures of myself actually wearing this stuff. Good time management skills, huh?

To be honest, I have been working on the project in increments...just not as much as I should have been. Like right now, I'm blogging instead of homework-ing, so sorry for the quickie post, but I've really got to get back to it! (Aside from the occasional quick break to check email, log into Ravelry, or read a few blogs. Because everyone needs a little break now and then, right?)

Entropy

Sarah

Do you ever get to the point at which you have so many projects on the needles and in your head that you are completely stymied, and just have to go and do something else for a few days? That's where I'm at right now. I haven't knit much this week, and I think it would be fair to say that I've actually done a negative amount of knitting, since I finally frogged the long-abandoned Dollar and a Half Cardigan. (It just wasn't working out.)

At the same time, it's a little past the middle of the semester, so I've got a big project looming closer and closer on the horizon, which I think I will do well on, but is a heavy weight on my mind nonetheless. Also, Measure just got his first tooth (which is awesome) but the second one is not here yet and is obviously causing him some discomfort (which is not awesome). It's not that life's bad, it's just that there's a lot going on, and there really just aren't enough hours in the day. (Daylight hours, anyway.) I woke up around 3:30 last night (well, this morning, but you know what I mean), unable to sleep because I kept thinking about this, that, and the other thing on my "to do" list, so I went out to the kitchen and washed dishes and cleaned up for half an hour, just because it was such a readily available mindless activity.

Entropy may be kicking my butt, but at least I have clean spoons.

Stash Addition

Sarah

So, um, I may have done a little shopping while I was visiting my in-laws in the North Bay. Some of the shopping may have occured in yarn stores. I suspect you are not shocked.

One of the yarn stores my MIL and I visited, Marin Fiber Arts, was having an anniversary sale. Could I resist? No. I picked up three skeins of this gorgeous Cashmere Silk by Jade Sapphire. It's a beautiful colorway called "Oceana." Despite the challenges inherent to the process of knitting lace charts while simultaneously holding a squiggly baby, I've had lace on the brain. I do plan on finishing my Mystery Stole, and I'd like to try my hand (well, hands...it would be kind of hard to knit with just one) at designing a triangular lace shawl. To that end, I also picked up a copy of Victorian Lace Today...it's got an interesting-looking section on lace design.

The other lace purchase I made was at the Knitterie in Novato: two balls of Lacey Lamb, also from Jade Sapphire. It's a really pretty deep marooney color. Each ball has over 800 yards, so I should have plenty no matter what I do with it, whenever I get around to it -- in the meantime, I'm just having fun petting the pretty yarn.

Oh yeah, and I did get some actual knitting done in the past week -- I finished the back of my Minimalist Cardigan, and started on the first sleeve! I don't understand why so many knitting patterns for cardigans (or sweaters) start with the back. I always start with the sleeves or cardigan fronts, which I treat as a large gauge swatch (regular swatches are lying little weasels, in my experience) and which gives me some momentum going into the project. Makes sense to me!

A New F.O.

Sarah

I finished the blankie for my neighbor! I'm almost done with the cashmere socks, too -- maybe I'll get those done today.

Measure was nice enough to serve as a model for me -- I think the blankie ended up being a nice size, and it will be especially snuggly on a newborn.

Since the blanket is so simple, here are the instructions:

4 balls Muench Touch Me
1 ball cotton in a coordinating color, for edging
US 9 needles
crochet hook appropriate for your cotton

Cast on 65 stitches and work in basketweave pattern as follows:

Row 1: knit 5, *purl 5, knit 5, repeat from * to end.
Row 2: purl 5, *knit 5, purl 5, repeat from * to end.
Rows 3 and 5: repeat row 1
Rows 4 and 6: repeat row 2
Rows 7, 9, and 11: repeat row 2
Rows 8, 10, and 12: repeat row 1

Repeat these 12 rows of pattern to desired length. Bind off loosely. Weave in ends.

Wash the blanket in the machine in warm water on a normal cycle. It should shrink about 10% or so. Stretch it out to disperse any chenielle that is "worming" and throw it in the dryer until it is about 75% dry -- lay it out on a towel, smoosh it into a tidy rectangle, and allow it to finish drying. Trim any protruding ends.

To edge the blanket, take your crochet hook and cotton and work a round of single crochet, not too loose, not too tight, around the entire blanket. (To turn your corners more neatly, work two or three single crochet stitches into the same corner hole.) Then, work as follows to create the scalloped edge: Double crochet three times into the same stitch, work one single crochet in each of the next three stitches, repeat around the entire edge of the blanket. Weave in ends.

Weekend Pretty

Sarah

Some weekend eye candy for you -- my budding fabric stash. I wonder how much bigger it will be a year from now?

By the way, I finished the knitting on the silver blankie for my neighbor's baby; I washed and dried it, so all I have left to do is crochet the edging. On the Sockapalooza front, I still have not recieved socks, which is a little sad. But my Sockpal (the one I sent socks to) has some more yarn in her Etsy store, MacKintosh Yarns -- check it out! I'm hoping she'll have some of her Nagini colorway when she updates on the 24th.

SSS Averted!

Sarah

I have sucessfully averted second sock syndrome! As soon as the first cashmere sock was finished, I cast on for the second. While I was at my mom and dad's house in Ventura over the weekend, I got to the heel of the second sock. Yesterday, I turned the (short-row) heel and started on the leg. I should have these finished in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, I started on another project -- a neighbor of mine is due to have a baby boy at the beginning of September, so I'm knitting a grey chenielle blanket similar to this one. I've also got the new sewing machine sitting here, staring at me, imploring me to use it -- but I'm going to hold off until I get a seweing desk and get my gear organized. My hands do get a little itchy (a sure sign of startitis) every time I get within a few feet of my fabrics, though.