The Laura Leaves Tank

The "Laura Leaves Tank" is finished and published.  You can find it at:  ravelry.com

I did the test knit, and made the sample for my darling, daughter-in-law, Laura.  Doesn't she show it to perfection?

The sample was knit out of the Fyberspates - Scrumptious, found in my stash.  She is a tiny little thing, so it only took a little over 1 skein.  The yarn is a 4 ply Sport Weight, and is a dream to knit with.  I've gushed about this yarn, over and over again!

Lacy leaves compliment the front, along with a ribbed neckline, bottomband and armholes.  A twisted rib stitch was used to help the garment hold it's shape.

Easy waist shaping was added to the pattern, to keep it close to the body for a flattering fit.  If your waist isn't your best feature, the shaping can easily be omitted.

The neckline can easily be adjusted too.  For a lower cut, just make the straps longer.  To shorten the cut, just make the straps shorter.

The inspiration for this pattern was a tank my Mother owned.  Her's was knit completely in stockinette stitch.  As you can see here, the back of my tank is knit in stockinette stitch too, so if that is the look you prefer, forget about the lace leaf pattern and knit the entire thing in stockinette stitch.

The tank is knit in-the-round on circular needles, up to the armhole shaping, and the front and back are knit flat (separately) to the top of the neck ribbing.  The armhole ribbing is picked up and knit flat, then carefully seamed at the back shoulders.  It is a great pattern for learning lace knitting, easy waist shaping, and to read a knitting chart.

This is the hearth rug my husband made from the roving leftovers from our alpacas last year.  This roving came from Cocoa Bean.  The rug was made with a threaded crochet hook and a preformed grid mat.  The rug makes a great place to sit, when you need to warm by the fire, or when all of the other seats in our family room are taken.  The "home plate" shape allows the rug to wrap over the edge of the brick to protect clothing or stockings from snags.

The mill where we have our fleece processed, Crooked Fence Alpacas & Mill, started producing this really thick rug yarn this past year.  This rug was crocheted with a big hook.  It is really cushiony, and roving from many different colored alpacas gave the yarn this variegated coloring.  It appears that my feet are so big, that I cannot take a picture looking down, without getting them into the shot.

We just received our second shipment of alpaca yarn.  We have 9 animals now, so our shipment was much larger this year.  We had it all processed into worsted weight and the heavy rug yarn this time.  I'll have some pictures to post of the various colors a little later.

I'm off to Palm Springs for a little family girls trip next week.  It will be HOT, HOT, HOT, but I still have a knitting project planned for the ride and to work on poolside.  I am casting on a "Laura Leaves Tank" in a medium purple, this time for me.  My new knitting group will meet for the first time on August 2, so I should have lots to write about when I return.  Happy knitting . . . .

New Knitting Group

I've decided it is time for me to form a knitting group.  I seem to need friends with similar interests, whom I can commiserate with when hours and hours of design and sample knitting must be frogged, or who would be as excited as me over a new yarn shop opening.  Someone who would inspire me about my next design, or help me work through the calculations of getting a perfect fit.  A group of those interested in knitting, or learning how, would really help me to balance my life. 

I've been meeting with a great group of ladies over the past few years, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it!  It is a small group, at all skill levels, and we have all formed a great friendship.  Bound together with knits and purls and the sharing of our life experiences.  This group has been so good for me, that I believe a new group would just be more of a "good thing".  It is my hope that some of these ladies might be interested in joining the new group too.

We'll meet for the first time on Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 7:00 pm (and every first Thursday of the month thereafter).  Everyone is invited (knitter or not).  If you are interested in learning, we'll teach you.  If you are not interested in learning, come anyway, as we would love to chat with you.  Contact me at knitzillaknits@gmail.com, if you need an address and instructions on how to get to my house in West Jordan, Utah.

Last year at shearing time, we only had two alpacas in our herd, if you want to call it that.  We didn't get a lot of yarn, but mixing Licorice Whip's fleece with a little bamboo fiber produced this beautiful heathered, charcoal yarn.  It has taken me a whole year of searching, but I have finally found the perfect pattern to knit it up.

This is "Haruni".  Haruni was designed by Emily Ross and the pattern is a free download at: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/haruni.  There are also many project pages on Ravelry, where you can see all of the beautiful versions from other knitters.  I can't wait to cast on, as I think this shawl will make a beautiful addition to my Mountainman Rendezvous wardrobe.  Crazy that I have such a thing!  I should be the best-dressed crusty old mountainwoman there this year!  We always go to the Mountainman Rendezvous in Ft. Bridger, WY over the Labor Day weekend.

The latest version of "Lori Shrugged" is finished.  Pictured here with the navy maxi dress I purchased in Hawaii.  I think this will do quite nicely to cover "jiggly arm syndrome". 

The yarn is Mirasol Tupa in shade #801.  It is 50% Merino Wool and 50% Silk.  Purchased from a sweet little yarn shop in Logan, Utah:  "Knit Unique".

The raglan sleeves of this pattern give it a nice shoulder line, and the lace stitch design will make it airy enough to wear in the summer, but still provide some warmth in the cool evening air.

Knit on US8 and US9 needles, and US5 for the ruffles, this little shrug was a quick knit.  It generally only takes 5 to 10 days at 1 to 2 hours of knitting per day.  The dress has been waiting, but can now be worn through the rest of the summer.

As indicated in my last post, "Laura" was the next item to jump on my needles.  Knit from the yarn leftover from my "Carmine" sweater (knit last summer), "Laura" is flying off my needles. 

The yarn is Fyberspates Scrumptious.  This too is a combination of merino wool and silk.  Purchased in the UK, it was well worth the shipping time it took to arrive.  I LOVE THIS YARN!

A twisted rib stitch is being used for the bottomband.  It provides a nice smooth finish, with plenty of stretchiness for the hips.  The twisted rib stitch will be used for the neck and armbands as well.

 "Laura" is named for my daughter-in-law, thus she will receive the prototype.  She is really excited, and should be wearing it before my next post.  I'm planning another trip to "Knit Unique" this weekend, on my way to Idaho to visit my little granddaughters, and hope to score some yarn for a "Laura" of my own.  Watch for the publishing of the "Laura" pattern on Ravelry.  Happy Knitting . . . . . .

The Things I Love to Do

We have a WINNER . . .

Brandon is the winner of this little knit baby sweater.  He is newly married, with no little one to wear it, but perhaps there is a baby in his family who will get some use out of it.

The 4th of July holiday gave me some extra time this year for the only thing I love as much as knitting, and that is baking bread.  I've tried many techniques over the years, to produce a loaf with a crusty outside and a soft chewy inside.  Well, I've finally found the perfect method, thanks to Pinterest.  The bread is baked in a scorching hot oven (450 degrees), in a cast iron pan.  I have an enamaled cast iron dutch oven, that seems to weigh 100 lbs.  It works perfect, although I'm afraid of anyone being near, when I am removing the pan from the oven, because it gets so HOT!  So hot, in fact, that it changes the color the of the enamel from green to yellow.  However, it returns to green when it cools.  Here is the recipe and technique for this crusty wonder:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups water

Wisk dry ingredients together.  Add water and mix thoroughly, with the additional ingredients of your choosing.  Dough will be sticky and look shaggy.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 to 18 hours.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Place empty pan with lid in oven for 30 minutes.  While pan is heating, roll dough into a ball and place on a floured board.  Cover dough ball loosely with plastic wrap.  When pan is heated, open lid and drop dough ball in.  Cover and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool.  You will have a nice crusty loaf.

You can add any number of extras to achieve the flavor of your choice.  I have tried: lemon peel-thyme-parmesan; craizen-almond-orange peel; sun dried tomato-basil-parmesan; calamata olive-aziago-rosemary. 

A recent trip to Logan, Utah, led me into the cutest little knitting shop, "Unique Knits".  I found this beautiful merino/silk blend yarn  in a burnished gold.  While in Hawaii I purchased a navy/white patterned maxi dress.  The top is strappy, and I need something to cover my shoulders and upper arms, so I decided to knit another version of "Lori Shrugged". 

This was the first pattern I published, and it has served me well.  I've knit these for my sister and all of my daughters, and I've gotten lots of use out of the one in this picture.  I'm sure the gold one will get a lot of use too, especially since the yarn is so yummy!

This is my latest design, "EMERY".  My Mom bought the same yarn in Logan, in a lighter weight, in a beautiful taupe.  She is test knitting EMERY for me right now, and it is looking beautiful.  In fact, it is looking so pretty, that I couldn't resist casting on another design "LAURA", for a test knit.

This is "LAURA".  I'm test knitting this pullover vest from my leftover Fyberspates-Scrumptious.  This yarn is a dream to knit with, and is producing a soft, leafy pattern.  I was inspired to create this design, by a fellow knitting blogger,  knit purr live.  She was knitting a leafy tank in the prettiest green from a Tahki Stacy Charles-Cotton Classic pattern.  Thus the "LAURA" was born.  This design was named for my daughter-in-law, and so I am knitting it for her.  She seems really excited about it.

I recently knit these little flower dresses for my grand-daughters.  They were knit from 100% acrylic yarn I had in my stash, and since the labels had long-since fallen off, I'm not really even sure what brand yarn it was.  The design belongs to Kate Gilbert, and is called "Anouk - revisited as a dress". 

The pattern for the diaper cover is free, and can be found at:  Knit-Zilla Ravelry Downloads.  I have some pictures of the girls wearing these dresses, but they are in some wierd format, which I cannot get to attach to this post.  Anyway . . . it was a fun pattern to knit, and the dresses look really cute on the girls.

I finally figured it out.  Here are the pix of the girls wearing their flower dresses.

Our garden is starting to produce like gangbusters, so a lot of my knitting time will now be devoted to watering, weeding, picking and cooking.  I've had another allergic reaction, as I was moving squash vines onto a trellis, and the prickly vines have given me a terrible rash on my arm.  I guess I'll never learn that I must wear gloves and a long-sleeved shirt, when working in the garden.  We've had a great crop of peas and strawberries, and cannot keep up with the zucchini (like usual).  Tomatoes, spagetti squash, and radishes are starting to come on too.  Its back to work for me on Thursday, but I hope you all had a great holiday and Happy Knitting . . .

P.S.  Don't feel sorry for working me, as I'm planning on a fun girl's vacation in Palm Springs in early August.

The "JOAN" Sweater

Last Summer, I knit this "Carmine" sweater, designed by Belinda Boaden.  It was a dream to knit, and I have really enjoyed wearing it.  My Mother loved it too, and decided she would like to knit one.  Although she is the one who taught me to knit, she was confused by the pattern, as she has difficulty reading knitting charts.  She asked me to simplify the pattern for her, so she could create one of her own.  Thus the "JOAN" sweater was born.  Many thanks to Belinda for her inspiration and encouragement, as I knit my "Carmine".  I have made significant changes to the pattern, so as not to infringe on Belinda's original design, and beautiful fit directive.

Named for my Mother, she did the first test knit of the pattern for me.  She decided to shorten the sleeves and lengthen the body, for this perfect fit.  Her sample was knit in Fyberspates - Scrumptious, sport weight, in Gold.

Joan knit Pattern Version II, to create this lightweight, airy fabric.  The raglan sleeve shaping was created by knitting in the front and back of two stitches at the shoulder line, along with one increase stitch on every other right side row to create the neckline.

She knit the sweater in the Size Small.  Waist shaping was used and she only added 3 inches to the sleeves.  An additional 6 inches was added to the bottom, to make it tunic length.  Wearing the sweater with a long-sleeved t-shirt or turtleneck, will make this sweater useful in both the Summer and Winter, and the gold color will blend nicely with many accent colors. 

Thanks Mom for all of your hard work, and for all of the suggested changes you made to my original pattern.  These suggestions will really help, as others attempt to knit this sweater for themselves.

Version I of the "Joan" sweater was test knit by my dear friend, Cheryl.  She is a beautiful knitter, and quickly figured out that I had written the lacework pattern in-the-round, making it confusing to work flat, which is wear the sweater begins.  I was surprised that my brain worked this way, as I thought I had written it for flat knitting.

Adding directions for knitting the lacework flat and in-the-round, will definitely make the pattern more understandable.  This close-up shows the variation in the lacework for Version I.

Version I was also knit in Fyberspates-Scrumptious, Natural.  It is a beautiful soft taupe with a slight sheen.  Cheryl loved the yarn, as did the rest of us.  It is so nice to knit with.  The same body and raglan sleeve shaping was used.

Cheryl knit the Size Medium.  The final fabric of the sweater is so stretchy, that her sweater ended up being too big for her.  This is her daughter, Carissa, modeling her sample, and I think it is a bit big for her too.  Be sure to take this into consideration when knitting this pattern.  If you want a close fit, go down a size.

Cheryl knit the 3/4 sleeve version, and wants it to fit closer to the arm than the pattern calls for.  She is planning to rip the sleeves back and add-in more decreases.  Since I have never had stick-type arms, I like a looser fit to the sleeves, especially with a 3/4 length. Something to think about when getting that perfect fit.

She is also planning to use the leftover yarn to add to the length.  The sweater is currently unblocked, which would help to lengthen the sweater, and open up the lace pattern, but I think a few more inches would look nice as well.  Thanks Cheryl for all your help and suggestions.  You really helped me to work the bugs out of the written pattern.  Your sample looks beautiful!  The pattern will be available at Knit-Zilla Ravelry Downloads in the next few days.  You can also read about the "Joan" sweater on Cheryl's and Joan's Ravelry Project Pages.

As a continuation on my post about the "Nola" sweater, I find that I have learned a few things about yarn selection.  The sample pictured above, was knit in a cotton blend yarn, which did not have a lot of stretch and recovery.  Besides the fact that the test knitter is new to the process, and didn't do a test swatch to assess gauge, and that she knits quite loosely, this sweater was almost too big for the person it was knit for.

As you can see, my sample is back on the needles for some corrections too.  It was knit of a merino wool blend, which provided a much stretchier fabric.  However, although I did swatch for gauge, I guessed on sizing.  I should have taken some simple measurements of the person the sweater was meant for, before selecting a size and making adjustments to fit.

The sweater length and arms were both too short, and the hood needed some extra room, to make it more comfortable to wear.  In addition, this little boy is growing FAST, and I thought some extra room would add to the years he could wear it.  So I have been doing some frogging, to make these adjustments.  You'll note from the picture, that although I re-knit the same yarn, the fact that it was kinked from previous knitting makes the additions quite noticeable.  I won't make this mistake again!  Hopefully, some wet blocking will help the newly added stitches blend-in with the original stitches. Too bad that we always have to learn things the hard way, or at least I DO.  You can find the pattern for the "Nola" sweater at  Nola Sweater Pattern.

In addition, to frogging and re-knitting, I've written a new pattern this past weekend.  My daughter will be test knitting this one from these fabulous yarns.  They are Knitpicks Swish Tonal, in Canopy and Summer Blooms.  The pattern is for a Toddler Size cardigan and hat, which look like strawberries.  Thus the pattern will be called, "Strawberries".

 My photography and sketching abilities still need some work, but this will give you the general idea of what the final product will look like.  Carissa will be casting-on for this test knit in the next week or so.

Don't forget . . . . . . a drawing of the "Followers" of this blog will be held on July 1, to win this little back-zipping hooded baby sweater, in a 3-6 month size.  Get signed up, if you are interested in winning.

It is FREE, and you don't have to actually be a knitter to win!   HAPPY KNITTING!

The "NOLA" Sweater

Believe it or not . . . we now have chickens!  Steve is determined to live on a farm, even if it is our small 1/3 acre in the heart of West Jordan.

I wasn't too excited about it, but we are now the proud owners of three hens.  They are pretty good at laying the daily egg, so we have plenty to go around.  Most of the eggs we get are usually too big to allow the egg carton to close properly.

Oreo is growing by leaps and bounds, and the others all received their yearly shearing (pictures to come).  This was Steve's first time to shear them, so they look really funny.  He wasn't able to shear their legs, so they all look like they are wearing fuzzy legwarmers.  Regardless of how they look, I am sure they are all feeling a lot cooler.  Especially Waffles, he was so puffy that he now seems to be 1/3 the size.

Alivia is growing too.  She is finally up 6 oz. above her birth weight.  She is such a sweet little baby, and so healthy.  We are all so grateful.

The test knitting of the "Nola" sweater is finally complete, and the pattern is ready for publishing.  You can find it at:  Ravelry.

"Nola" is knit from the top-down, with a rounded yoke and a pointed hood.  I test knit the above version from Knit Picks - Swish.  The varied color of "Kindling" was a perfect match to Zeek's pretty brown eyes.  He is growing so quickly, that I'm going to have to quickly add to the length and arms, or he won'te be able to wear it very long.

This is Nola herself.  She is the namesake of the pattern.  Her version was test knit by her Mother, Carissa.  So cute in Knit Picks - Shine.  Shine has a lot of cotton in it, thus adding to the loose nature of knit fiber.  Peapod was the perfect spring color. 

Nola has stayed so small, that I'm sure she will get several seasons of wear out of her sweater.   She is the only one in our family who could get away with wearing these lifesaver-striped leggings.  The rest of us, with the exception of Emery and Easton, have "thunder thighs". You'll note the pattern offers two variations on the yoke pattern, with fly-away styling and toggle buttons.

We had such a good time at the park, taking these photos.  My niece, Annie is the photographer.  She does such a great job!

I took some photos of my own, to keep the other kids occupied, so the posted photos are some mine and some Annie's.  I'm sure you'll be able to tell the difference.

It was so fun to have all of my grandchildren in the same place, even though it was a challenge to keep them away from the water, where Nola was enthralled with the baby ducks.

Great shots of the Coats Family . . .

. . . and the only second that Easton wasn't running around like crazy.

. . . and a great tree to climb in . . .

. . . and get stuck in.  "Halp, halp, I stuck!"     Anyway . . . Happy Knitting!