Woolercoaster's Wonderful World of Wool: March 17-23

It was another busy week in the knitting world.   Here's a few highlights that caught my attention this week:

Hot Patterns:
Andrea Mowry does it again with this gorgeous cowl called The Shift, knit in Spincycle Yarns Dyed in the Wool, a lovely sport weight yarn.

A stand-out pattern for me this week is Line of Shapes by Suvi Simola, a gorgeous lace sweater knit in 100% merino sport weight.

©Suvi Simola

Free Patterns:
Don't forget to get your free copy of the newly released pattern from Shetland Wool Week called Merrie Dancers Toorie, a pattern by Elizabeth Johnston.  Check out the Instagram feed for this hat at #merriedancerstoorie to see the many colour combinations knit already.

Merrie Dancers Toorie

Knitty Spring + Summer 2018 has just been released with 12 free patterns just in time for your spring knitting.  One beautiful lace shawl from this publication is Arashi by Ema Marinescu.

 ©Ema Marinescu

How about these Thriambus socks by Rich Ensor?

© Rich Ensor

Knit Along:
Helen Stewart has a new mystery knitalong called the  Impressionishts MKAL on sale starting March 23. You will need three colours of fingering weight yarn to create a mystery wrap.

YouTube Videos:
Edinburgh Festival:
I was so envious of all those people that attended the Edinburgh Yarn Festival last weekend.  The next best thing to going is to watch some podcasts of fellow knitters who had the good fortune of going.
Haul videos: Periscoping Sisters, The Corner of Craft, Yarngasm, and Fiber Tales.
Inside the Festival:  Grace O'Neill has one video for each day of the festival,
and Skeindeer Knits also shares some of the sights and sounds of the festival.
Also check out Kristyglassknits YouTube channel for several videos about the Festival.

Tutorial of the Week:
If you go to 25:57 in the Fruity Knitting Podcast Episode 45 you will see an excellent tutorial on Weaving in Ends as you knit.  I found this video very helpful for knitting projects that have a lot of colour changes (e.g. stripes).  I wish I had watched it much sooner!

Travel Ideas:

I absolutely love travelling and I am always on the look-out for new places to visit, especially when knitting can be involved.   A Knitter's Weekend:  Northampton, Massachusetts by Gale Zucker on the Mason-Dixon blog reveals all the knit and fabric worthy places to visit in Northampton (let's not forget the pie shop that's mentioned).

And finally, have you been keeping up with the voting on Mason-Dixon's March Mayhem?  Round 3 opens today with 16 patterns advancing.  Don't miss out on the fun.

Have a great weekend and happy knitting.

Woolercoaster's Wonderful World of Wool: November 18-November 24

This is such a busy time of year for many people, but it is important to take time for yourself to rejuvenate.  When you have a minute here are some knitting related news items that might interest you:

Contest
Yarn Canada is holding a contest to gift yarn to individuals and groups who knit or crochet for good causes.  They’re giving away $2000 worth of yarn and are hoping to get as many applicants as possible, to ensure the prize will have the maximum impact.  Here's the prizes they will be giving away:

1 x $500 of yarn to a Canadian group who knits or crochets for a good cause

1 x $500 of yarn to an American group who knits or crochets for a good cause

10 x $100 of yarn to Canadian or American individuals or groups who knit or crochet for a good cause

 All the information can be located here.

Free Pattern
This is a great time of year to check the Ravelry pattern page daily as many designers will offer free patterns for a short time.  Here are a few that look like fun:

Getting Warmer is a cowl knit from the bottom up in bulky weight Woolfolk Luft yarn.  The pattern is by Espace Tricot and would make a great holiday gift.

Sheepish Little Hat Light  a sweet fingering weight hat by Melissa Kemmerer available in sizes baby to adult.

Diagonal Striped Garter Stitch Loop knit in a chunky weight yarn by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas.

New Publications/Patterns

A Brooklyn Tweed Holiday Lookbook has been published just in time for the holiday season.

The amazing designer Kate Davies has provided a sign up for the West Highland Way Club which is a club and design collection.  The fun starts in January when club members will receive three months of weekly patterns.  At the conclusion the newly published 120 page book is mailed with all the patterns included.

Deep Woods Toque is a rereleased pattern by Kiyomi Burgin using Madelinetosh Light. I have wanted to make this hat since it was first published in Knitscene 2015 and I am finally knitting my own version.  I have combined the beautiful Tanis Fiber Arts Purple Label in the colourway Maize with Sweet Fiber Yarns Super Sweet Sock in Merino in Vintage Lace.  I am loving these two colourways together, but there are so many other possibilities.  Read more about my version here.

Deep Woods Toque by Kiyomi Burgin

The annual Indie Designer Gift-a-long began on November 21st and runs until December 3.  To help knitters out 311 indie designers are offering their patterns at a discount until November 28th.  Very Shannon and Jane Richmond are two of the designers involved, but this is also a great time to check out newer designers, and to knit with a group of people focused on holiday knitting.  See Very Shannon's 25% off discount code.  Offer is only good to November 28th.  Don't delay.

Podcast
I am always on the lookout for new YouTubers or podcasters who are entertaining to listen to while I knit. Knit Collage is a new to me podcast.  Check out the latest episode here.

I hope you found this round up helpful and that you make time for some peaceful and relaxing crafty time over the next few weeks.  Happy knitting!

WIP: Aibrean

Patterns designed by Isabell Kraemer are wonderful to knit. You are guaranteed directions that are easy to follow and an FO that will be comfortable to wear and that will look great.  I was so happy to finally get one of her patterns called Aibrean on my needles as it had been in my queue for some time. I knew that my Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Sport in the colourway Tannenbaum would be a great match for it.

Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Sport

Colourway:  Tannenbaum

What I didn't expect was that after working on the pattern for one week, I would be ripping it out and starting over.  Not because I made any knitting errors.  No, I had no issues following this well written pattern.  As I knit this sweater, mostly in the evenings, I did not notice how different the skeins were from each other.  What I stupidly did was decide not to alternate skeins until I got to the part in the pattern where I put the sleeve stitches on hold.  MISTAKE.  I had reasoned in my head that since I bought all the skeins at the same time that they would be from the same dye lot and would look very similar.  Nope.  Wrong.  What I should have done before I grabbed the first skein was to lay out all the skeins in the daylight, side by side, and look to see if they were the same. When I finally had a closer look I noticed that each skein was slightly different. I don't know if you can see where I started alternating in the picture below but the section in the lower part of the sweater is definitely darker.  If I hadn't started over, the sleeves especially would look weird once I start knitting them because no other skein is as light as the first skein I used.

First attempt.  Notice the darker section when I finally started alternating skeins

So I ripped it out and started over.  Seriously I would think by now I would know better and alternate from the beginning.  Another lesson learned.  They say you will keep repeating lessons until you learn them.  I don't know who 'they' are but 'they' are right!

Well here is my progress a couple weeks after I started over.  I am almost at the ribbing section.

Second attempt alternating three skeins

It is very hard for me to capture the exact colours in this yarn.  It is a beautiful combination of a rich forest green, a lighter green and brown.  I will be very interested to see how this sweater blocks out and how much it grows as I have never knit this patterned stitch before.

While I was on my holiday a few weeks ago I managed to finish the beautiful Pebble Beach Shawl by Helen Stewart.  This is the second one I have knitted. The first Pebble Beach Shawl I knit was gifted so I had wanted to make another one for some time.  It is the perfect size and shape to wear around your neck.  This is a very popular pattern with good reason.  There are no charts.  Instead it is written line by line giving you an indication of how far along you are in the pattern.  So, for example, it will tell you when you are 50% along.  This is extremely helpful if you want to use a whole skein of yarn, or if you want to make sure you do not run out.  

Pebble Beach Shawl

Colourway:  Blue Bell

I knit this shawl in Madelinetosh 80/10/10 fingering in the colourway Blue Bell, a lovely soft combination of merino, cashmere and nylon.  This is a great pattern to showcase a special skein of yarn.  The revised pattern also comes in two other larger sizes.

Now off I go to work on Aibrean.  Enjoy what's left of your weekend and don't make the mistake I made..ripping out is not fun.

January WIP

January is typically one of my busiest months work-wise.  I bring work home at night and there is very little knitting time.  But I would like to show you what I started knitting.

A pattern that has been in my queue for some time is the Joji Locatelli sweater called Japan Sleeves.  I thought I would start the pattern this month, originally thinking that all those rows of striped knitting would be easy for me when my brain is so engaged with work.  But much to my surprise after reading the pattern, I realized that I had to do the sleeve lace inserts first, repeating the lace chart about eight times! Not exactly t.v. watching.  So I decided that every morning when I have my coffee I would knit a few rows.  It is growing very slowly and by this rate I may have the sweater done by December!  Anyway this is the yarn I chose:  Madelinetosh Merino Light in Teddy Bear and Molly Ringwald, a beautiful pale pink.  I thought it would be a pretty sweater for spring.  Now the question is will it be spring of 2015 or 2016?

Japan Sleeves

The other piece I am working on is my second Pebble Beach Shawlette by Helen Stewart in Tosh Merino Light called Coquette.  I don't usually knit with pink and so I looked at many yarn lines to see what they had to offer.  Coquette, was by far, the prettiest pink I came across.  The slight variation in shades of pink made such a lovely skein of yarn.  This is going to be a special gift for someone's birthday.  The pattern is laid out in a unique way and on the side of the pattern the designer has written what percentage you have completed which motivates me in some way.  I think I can get it done in time, as it is an easy pattern to follow.

Tosh Merino Light in Coquette

Look what came in the mail for me from an Etsy sale held by Tanis Fiber Arts. This is her Orange Label Yarn, a soft blend of merino, silk and cashmere.  It is one of those yarns where you spend more time squishing it then knitting with it. The colourway is called Painted Jeans and is hard to capture on camera...a mix of blue, purple brown and grey.  I don't know what I will do with this yet.  Any suggestions?

Tanis Fiber Arts Orange Label

Oh well, back to my work.  I hope everyone has more time for crafting than I do at the moment.