What's this?

 What could it be?  Hmmm.

Let's open it.

That looks like fun.  Oh, look!  Something delicious is next to it!

Well, look at that!  A stunning new yarn from my favorite yarn dyer, Earth and Empress!  And it's called Pumpkin Patch!

And if you think this is pretty, take a look at this one.  I didn't buy it yet because I have enough yarn to stock a shop, but my resistance is weakening. Lavender Earl Grey!

How I design and knit a fisherman's sweater.

I've had a few folks interested in my ganseys and how I do them, so I'm going to blog about the process from the beginning to the end.  I'll post ideas for you if you want to do this yourself in italics.

First of all, I'm not knitting a genuine gansey.  I just like the way Eriskey ganseys are designed, so I've been making fake ones for years.  They are easy, interesting and lots of fun to do.  I hope you will try this out, or if not, at least get some idea of the process.

Pick my yarn and needles

I don't buy a pattern and then buy yarn accordingly; instead I pick out yarn, and work with that. For Emily's gansey, I bought Rowan Pure Wool DK ( 50 gm, approx 137 yards (125 m)  I had to special order this, so I have a bag of 10 skeins, but I think I'll only need 8, but we'll see. I usually rely on the shop owner to give me an idea of how many skeins a sweater needs.  I work a 36" sweater, so I use that as my source for size.  That is Emily's size also, although she wants the back to be a tad narrower.  I'll start of with 36" and then make adjustments in the back.

Then I decide on the size needles.  I know that I knit loosely, so I never pay attention to the suggested needle size or gauge on a yarn label.  This yarn calls for a size 6 needle with a gauge of 22 sts/inch.  Nope.  That would feel like a board rather than a fluid sweater.  So, I made my gauge with a size 4 needle.

For first time sweater designers, I would play around with needles.  If you knit tightly, you just might want that #6 needle or even a #7.  Since I'm such a loose knitter, I debated on using either a 4 or 5, and I decided that whichever swatch looked the nicest, that would be my needle.  I ended up using a 4 with a gauge of 5 sts/inch.

I cast on enough stitches for about 6", and work enough rows in stockinette to get an accurate gauge.  My gauge is 4" = 20 sts.  Hence 1" = 5 sts.  Yes, I know, that is a very small swatch.  I've been doing this for so many years that I can get an accurate picture of stockinette with about 10-14 rows.

Why stockinette?  Many ganseys have knit/purl patterns, and stockinette is pretty close to the gauge I would get.  I know that my purl rows are a tiny bit looser than my knit rows.  When I knit in the round, I have to take that into consideration since there are no purl rows in stockinette in the round.  However, I use knit/purl patterns in the body of my ganseys, and my gauge is accurate in the round without me having to compensate for no purl rows because of those purl sts.  (If I were doing cables and/or lace, this wouldn't work because those sts really affect gauge.)  Does this make any sense?  If not, comment, and I'll write back.

For you, I would do a stockinette swatch in the round.  If you don't like how it drapes or feels, change needle size.  Yes, it is a pain to do this, but you need to make swatches for a commercial sweater, too.  Anyhow, it'll give you a chance to get to know the yarn.  Make it a good 4 inches long, and measure over 4 inches to get an accurate gauge.  Write it down someplace so that you have a record of it.  Why?  Suppose you want to knit the sleeves just in stockinette, this way you have a gauge already done.  When you are finished, take a picture of it, and then rip it out.  Yep, frogging is part of knitting. 
 
Here's how I keep write things down.  Graph paper because I chart on graph paper, and this way the entire design is on a couple of sheets.

 

You can use your computer, a charting program, or plain old graph paper.  A very good program is  Intwined Pattern Studio  You can google this on the web.  I use graph paper because it is so user friendly.  You make a mistake, you erase, but I've also used Intwined, and it's very good. 

OK, that's enough for today.  Next post will be pattern choosing and swatches.  

What's on my needles Friday

I started a new sweater.  This one is going to be a lacy jobbie.  I have about 3" done on the body.

I know; it doesn't look like much of anything. But it will get better, I promise you.

See how I've stretched it out?  That's going to be the lace for the body up until a couple of inches before the armholes.  Then I'll switch to a band pattern, take off my armhole sts, and then do a different lace on the bodice.

Knit shoulders off together, pick up and knit sleeve sts with yet another lace pattern or maybe using the bodice pattern.  I'm so far away from that that I don't know what I'll do, but it'll all work out.

Then, to finish that edge that wants to turn up, I'll pick up and knit a small lacy border on the bottom of the sweater.  There, I'm done.

The yarn is Filatura di Crosa Sportwool which I bought from The Stitching Bee in Chatham, NJ.  It comes in tons of colors, each one prettier than the next.  100% wool.  50 g.  approx 136 yards.  It's so soft and woolly.  I'm going to use it again and again.

I'm using a #5 needle.  Ordinarily I'd use a 4 because I knit loosely, but I want drape on this; so that's why the 5 needle.

And speaking of wool, here's what's newly listed in my Etsy shop:

New Lili Lace yarn.  I cannot tell you just how gorgeous this yarn is.  It's a superwash lace yarn, which means that it just soaks up the dye.  No, I'd never wash in the machin when I'm making lace shawls, so the superwash is what I want for the dyeing.

In order:  Abigail,  Bella, and Elegant!  875 yards of a slightly heavier lace weight yarn.  Very easy to work with, soft and with gorgeous drape. 

 

Plus, there are lots of sale sock yarns, and more Lili Lace Yarn.  I have a festival of yarn going on!

Heigh Ho, heigh ho, it's off to dye I go.

OK, it's off to dye I went.  Yesterday.  I had a yen to dye up some pretty colorways.

Top row, the first two and the second from the right are all Heather Yarn, a lovely yarn that dyes 2 values at the same time.  How?  A couple of the plies are in non-superwash wool, and the other ply is superwash.  Superwash takes up dye immediately, the regular wool take a lot longer to take the color, so you get a barber-pole effect.  However, it knits up as a marled yarn.  Very interesting and complex.  Fingering weight, no nylon, and perfect for scarves and such.  You can make socks, but you'll have to hand wash them in cold water.

420 yards of fingering weight yarn that's lofty and lovely to knit or crochet with.

Here they are:  Orangeade, Jenny, and Candy. 

This next batch are Rachel yarns.  100% SW (superwash) merino with a neat little twist that really shows off your stitches.  400 yards of delicious woolliness.

Clown, Grete, Lemon, Parrot, Tropical Fish., Vermillion, and Wood Grain

  

Where?

http://fritzl.etsy.com

What's on my design floor, needles, hooks, etc.

 
Crazy busy week last week.  Between yarn dyeing for Sock Madness 7, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and feeling generally lousy with the acid reflux from hell,  I went nonstop.  I was so happy when Saturday rolled around and we had a lovely field trip to Warwick, NY. 

Sewing news:  I've fallen in love with the Scrappy Trip Around the World that's sweeping the blogosphere.  As you know, I'm not the greatest machine sewer in the world (or for that matter, the greatest hand sewer, either), but I kept looking at this neat quilt, and decided to go for it.  Mine is not scrappy; I'm using a Marmalade jelly roll from Moda.  It's such fun to do it.  First I get to pick out the strips, put them in order (all color work that I love), and then the machine work is easy.  I'm in love!

No EPP went on.  Just no time for hand sewing.  It really was a crazy busy week.

Knitting news:  So, here are my current knitting projects.  Yep, I have a bunch more, but these are now on the frontline.

1. Baby sweater and hat for Benjamin Bunny.  My own hand-dyed SW merino DK yarn.  Softer than you can imagine.  Cushy, cuddly, and perfect for a Frozen Northland Baby.  It needs the buttons sewn on, and a good blocking.  (And that's why the front edges looks so odd.  It's the nature of knitting, but wool sorts everything out.  You'll see.)

2.  Garland Shawl revisited.  I made this about 3 years ago, and it never photographed well.  I wanted a shawlette in soft avocado, rust, etc, etc.  In real life, it's very pretty, but the photographs made it look very dull. 

I am playing with this incredible singles yarn, and so I decided to reknit the shawl.  WOW!  That's all I can say.  If you follow me on Ravelry (ruth), you'll see that I'm over the moon with this yarn.  I don't like commercial singles, but this yarn is beyond gorgeous.  Yep, it's a singles, which means that it wants to get this little kink in it, but the yarn is of such quality, that the kinks just disappear as you knit.  The yarn glides through your fingers. 

Here's the original followed by the singles version.  Non-knitters:  it will block out into lacy wonder.  This is just what knitted lace looks like in progress (an old tatty bag).

I should finish this today. I hope.

Dyeing:  3 different colorways for the Sock Madness group on Ravelry.  Lots of work, but very satisfying. 

AND, take a look at this singles yarn.  This is the same yarn I'm using for the new Garland Shawl, but in a different colorway.  See that bit of sheen?  That kink?  Yep, this is a singles yarn.  And you don't feel the kinks as you work with it.  Now, that's a singles!

Next time I order yarn, I'm buying 3 kilos of this. 

Crochet news:  This is another version of the singles above, only this one is a bit softer, and with virtually no kink.  They are both beautiful yarns.  This one is not yet available for me to order; this is a trial skein.

And that's that.  Now if i could get this acid reflux thing solved.......  Going to the gastroenterologist tomorrow.  I'm pretty nervous about it, but I feel so awful, and this simply has to get taken care of.

Ya think I had a busy week? 

Another sweater for Mister and a New Yarn

I think I have a way to go.  Good thing Mister incubates for another 7 weeks.  Grow, Little Mister, grow!  Kick your mommie!  Yay, Little Mister!

A new yarn!  Rachel Sparkle

75/20/5 SW merino/nylon/stellina

430+ yards 100 gm 

This is my Rachel yarn with sparkle.

This is a yarn that I bought a couple of years ago.  Dyed up one skein for me, and fell in love with it, but then I never dyed any more.  It's a beautiful yarn, and why I didn't dye and sell is beyond me, but I didn't.  The other day, I was going through my yarn tubs, and found it.  Here are 2 skeins:  Magenta and Plums.

The sparkle comes from the stellina.  It's not outrageously glitzy, rather very elegant.  Knits up beautifully; you will not feel the stellina as you knit.  Lovely for fancy socks and pretty shawlettes.  I feel a shawl design coming on, but not until I'm done with Mister knitting.  Grandsons come first.

In case you can't tell, I'm quite in love with Mister.  Can't wait to see him.  He's the last of the grands, so that gives him some sort of specialness.  Between the 2 of us, we have 5 grands, 2 boys, and 3 girls.  Mister will make the 6th. 

New Bambi Yarn!

I love dyeing and knitting and wearing wool/bamboo yarn. It's so soft and yet very sturdy.  Great stuff.  I keep trying different combinations of this yarn, and have found the ultimate Bambi yarn!  80/20 superwash Blue Faced Leicester/bamboo.  BFL has this long fiber which gives the yarn a subtle sheen.  Wears like iron, and yet it is so comfy next to your skin.  The bamboo doesn't take the dye, so the yarn has a heathered appearance.  Really really lovely yarn!  Each skein has 430+ yards, 100 grams, and costs $23.00.

Here's what I just listed in my Etsy shop:  Bramble, Dreams, and Remember.

And I also added one very pretty skein of Carrie Lace yarn (80/20 merino/silk.  100 grams.  1300 yards) Aruba

Yippee!

The dyeing mojo is back!  There was a long spell of me not dyeing much except for specific groups and projects, but all of a sudden, I just want to dye up neat colorways for the fun of it.  All are individually dyed and one of a kind.  This latest bunch is not pastel!  Shocking, I know!  But vivid and colorful, and delightful to look at and knit with.

Cool Jazz! 

Hey, There!

Promise!

Are they not pretty?  You can find them in my Etsy shop:  http://fritzl.etsy.com

Pattern recommendations (all available on Ravelry):
Escalator
Slip-Zig
Diamonds Modular Scarf
Taos Scarf

Books and Hooks

 Books

 The Hubbo and I have to clean up this house before the super-neat kids arrive.  Not that our form of cleaning will impress them, but hey, at least I can say that we did OK for the two of us.  Besides, they know how messy we are.  But this is our chance to toss and straighten, and we have to do it.  And then we'll feel so virtuous that we'll keep it neat forever.  If you believe that, I know a bridge I can sell you.

So one of my problems is that I cannot stop buying crafty books.  I am pretty picky these days, but if it looks interesting, I buy it.  The result is a huge pile of books next to the coffee table, and on the coffee table, and on the couch and in the TV room.  Books everywhere, and all precious.  Well, I'm not going to toss the existing books in their book cases.  So, what's a girl to do?  Tubs!  Life's answer to everything.  When in doubt,  tubify it.  So, down into the basement I went, 2 tubs in tow, and schlepped 2 shelves of very heavy books downstairs and tubified them.  Away, gorgeous embroidery books.  Knitting and Crochet rule at the moment.  And the end result is no more piles of books everywhere.  Here are some very blurry pics.  The tripod refused to leave the living room.

And that, boys and girls, is just the tip of the iceberg.  What you can't see is that in the last 2 pics, there are shelves below with doors on them.  We are not going to talk about the books and magazines in them, either.  In my dream house, I would have a beautiful, sun-lit library with couches, tables and chairs, and all my books and projects.

Hooks

I had a lovely hooky day on Saturday.  We did our usual field trip, this time to Wycoff, had a lovely lunch, wandered about for a bit and I happily crocheted along the way.  And came home, and hooked some more.

I'm really loving this.  I keep finding long lost skeins of acrylic DK, and adding them to the mixture.  At the moment, the plan is to make a blankie, lap cover, whatever, 5 squares by 8.  I have to pick out a color to edge them and then put on a border, but I'm a long way from that.  Maybe white?  Who knows, but I have lots of time to decide.

Did a bunch of knitting, too.  I'm working on a mystery project, and I'm at the point of 382 sts.  I worked about an inch of the border, and don't like it, so frog I go.  Lately I design right on the needles, and I'm quite used to tinking and frogging.  It's just part of the design process for me.

And now here's my problem yarn.  I dyed this maybe last summer, and totally fell in love with the colorway and decided to keep it.  But here's the thing:  I don't like it worked up in anything other than socks.  And I don't feel like knitting socks at all or wristers or mitts.  Growl.   Any ideas?

And on that note I'm off to continue the never-ending process of putting my house in order.  Gah!

Kitten With a Whiplash - What a great idea.  Imagine the size of the thing, and how many project bags I'd have to use and how much yarn and all those orts.  Boggles the mind.  My giggle for the day!

PandaBearofDoom - DD and SIL are super neat.  Miss P understands our general slovenliness.  It's pretty funny. 

Henya - Pain in the neck, isn't it?  I have 5 more tubs to fill, too.  All those project bags will be tubified! 

Scrabblequeen - The answer is to use clear plastic tubs. You are totally doooooomed if you use boxes or solid color tubs.  Totally.  I'm still not happy about that yarn and motif. 

Mwahahahahaha! Oooooooooo! Creepy, Scary!

  BOO!

Guess what I dyed yesterday?  Creepy, disgusting yarn.  Not the colors; the names.  Well, the annual craziness is coming up, and what better way to anticipate ghosties and ghoolies and goblins than with tasty, delicious yarn.

He he he!  Ya ready?  Here we go:

Great Green Globs:

Gopher Guts: 

Mutilated Monkey Meat:

Concentrated Turkey Feet:

Creeping Crud:

Malted Blood:

Fried Innards:

Ectoplasm: 

Scream:

Ghost:

Nice yarns, strange names, and lots of fun.  Gradually appearing in my Etsy shop:  http://fritzl.etsy.com

You know the drill:  if you want before I list, email me at fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com.

Today's yarn is Great Green Globs.

Mwahahahahaha!  Whoooooooooooo.   Nasty cackle.  Moans, groans.  Antacid.

Fried Innards is spoken for.  He he he! 
Scream is grabbed.  S c r e a m........


Henya - All that delightful disgustingness is now reserved for you in your Henya pile.