Collaboration with Schibot Garne

Hello everyone,

it’s been a while since I wrote an entry. Somehow I just didn’t find the time to properly sit down and write something! It shouldn’t be so hard, I know but there were a few projects that really kept me busy.

One of those was my collaboration with Nadine who is the dyer behind Schibot Garne. We both worked very hard to bring you Kyudo. This whole design was a long time coming. Actually, I knit my prototype back in June 2015 as part of Stash Dash. I wanted to do something with these exciting, new-to-me yarns that I got in Hamburg around Christmas the year before.

So I made something that had garter stitch (still a favourite!), short rows and a touch of lace. When I tried to think of a title for my project, all I could think about was archery (who knows why, I’ve never done it), because it takes a little concentration at first, but you get lost in stitches pretty soon. That is the point when you let go, to have that arrow hit its goal…

Kyudo close-up

…and have a beautiful shawl in the end!
Now it is almost ready to release! Kits for this will go live on Thursday, July 7 at 6pm (UTC+2) in the Schibot Garne shop. Nadine has created four great colour combinations for this! You can choose from the following:
soft socks colours
Pictured are top to bottom, left to right: Midnight Hour & Samba, Blueberry & Fruit Salad, Magical & Deep deep down, Nightlife & Out of Control

For the sample I chose the combination of Magical and Deep deep down because they spoke to me somehow. Normally I would have gone with Midnight Hour in combination with Samba but I don’t have many blue shawls so this will make an unusual and welcome addition to the shawl drawer. Personally, I think the design will look awesome in any of her colour kits!

Additionally, I also have a Ravelry group now! Come join me over there as well! I will try to post a bit more over there, keep you up-to-date with current designs and possibly more collaborations to come in the future.

Until then, happy knitting!

Behind the scenes: Serene shawl

This is old news already but I just realised that I never published this post! Say hello to the Serene shawl, which was published in April in Knit Now Issue 59.

My original Serene, back then it was called Touhen.

This is probably the first thing I ever thought up, with special help of a friend and my trusted Japanese stitch dictionary. Originally, the whole shawl was just a recipe. The owner of my favourite LYS, B. proposed that this shawl shape was, “Really easy, you just need to do X, Y and Z!” I tried it using a sport weight yarn and thick needles and it resulted in a wonderfully lightweight and all-season shawl. It still is one of my favourites and I wear it often (although I have many shawls to chose from!).
There is just something about a shawl that you can scrunch up when you are cold but also drape across the shoulders when you just need a little coverage.

My original sketch

The sample shawl is knit up in a thicker weight, Ravelry’s yarn database lists it as DK but for me it knit up as more of a worsted weight. That is why I had to chose pretty large needles to get the drape I wanted. The pattern is ideal if you have a highly variegated yarn and a coordinating or even contrasting skein of yarn. I think in the summer you could even knit it up in chainette or linen yarns. Now that I think about it, I might have to try that!

Thanks to Kate and the Knit Now team for putting faith in newbie designers like me and publishing me again!

#TTTKAL 2016

Seriously, what is wrong with me? Ever since last week, when the sun first came out in this corner of the earth and the temperatures reached the 12° mark (roughly 53°F), there has been nothing but summer on my mind. I even went in sandals to work today, and nobody even flinched. These are the same sandals I wear when it is scorching hot and most people only go in shorts and no sleeve-tops out the door. As soon as it is warmer than 15°C (or 59°F) outside, I make a point of wearing warm weather shoes. Not only do I look like a madwoman when I go outside but I think it contributes to a healthy immune system.

So what’s a girl to do? Today of all days, Shannon over at Very Shannon (she is an ingenious designer of knitwear and sewing patterns!) announced her timeline for the TTTKAL 2016, which if you spell it out means “Tops, Tanks & Tees knit along”. Last year I adored all the WIPs and FOs everybody posted and the glorious roundup of course and I wanted to participate so badly! For me, the biggest advantage of participating would be that I have a handmade summer top to wear when the warm weather is actually here.

Still, I do not know whether I will find the time to do so but instead of wallowing in self-pity I went on Pinterest and looked at a few Spring Ready To Wear (RTW) collections. (If you are interested, this was my search.) Some glorious collections popped up!

One thing I was particularly fascinated by is the top underneath this jumpsuit:

tse-012-2000
(Click to enlarge)

It is part of the TSE Spring 2016 RTW collection and totally up my alley. There is a long sleeved sweater similar to this in one of the other shots, where you can see all the details. It has a lot more lace and interesting faux shaping in the form of eyelets stacked upon each other.

The other thing I noticed was the overwhelming amount of glitter and sequins and general sparkliness. I can’t escape it lately, sparkles are just my thing. Perhaps that is my form of 90s nostalgia. The Gucci Collection showed interesting use of glitter fabric. They created not-so-faux frills like these:

_GUC0381
(Click to enlarge)

Some of them printed on and other sewn on elements, a brilliant mix (haha). I’m sure some of you have seen similar things before but to me this was a totally new idea.

What I take from all this visual input will turn into a sketch that has to wait until tomorrow. I know exactly what I want my new summer top to look like, now if I have the time to realize it is to be seen. The KAL starts next Monday already and I probably won’t have even time to swatch.

But this dress? I would totally buy it if it was my size.

Fabulous FOs: Yubinashi

While there are more projects added weekly to the Perpendicular pattern page (I love seeing every single one of them), I published a new pattern, the Yubinashi mitts. You can also find it in the sidebar to the right. →

This time around, I had it thoroughly tested before releasing the pattern. Not only did I get 12 fabulous test knitters but one of them is a tech editor as well, so I had a perfect pattern in no time.

What I didn’t expect was that my testers (sometimes) chose diverse and different yarns and weights from what I did. But that surprise made these beautiful photos happen. See for yourself! Read more

Catching Up

It’s been a while, I know. But there was quite a bit going on here at the Moley headquarters (or hatquarters, as my husband likes to say). And I didn’t really feel like posting a new post, to be honest. My holiday season was quite stressful because I kept on finishing Christmas presents for the whole family. I gifted five pairs of socks (one stranded knitting pair and one pair in size EU 48/US 14!) and a hat. Perhaps I should try the gift-buying thing next year, it might bring some peace to the pre-holiday season.

Ever since 2016 started (and my mind still hasn’t caught up with that fact!) I have been having regrets about 2015. About not finishing enough things. About not doing enough stuff. About life in general I suppose. But this is a knitting blog, so I try to keep it on topic.
I guess up until now I measured my “knitting progress” in amount of finished garments per year. The reason must be that my initiative for knitting in the first place was custom fit sweaters. In 2014 I knitted 6 garments for myself, 3 of which were so successful that I wore them every time it was cold enough to do so (or even if it wasn’t).

So thinking about 2015, I felt like I hadn’t accomplished a single thing. I hadn’t finished six garments, not even four. I knit two sweaters, a semi-successful cardigan and a vest, and I fixed up one from the “reject pile” of 2014, so I could wear it. So not very much to wear in my wardrobe. Imagine my surprise when I rounded up my handknits of 2015 for the photo below and realized that I had started 22 projects of which I finished 18, frogged two and the other are still WIPs.

IMG_9905

And there are 11 shawls in that pile, of the 13 I knit last year (more like shawl-like neck-thingies but most of them actually shawls). That means I knit more than one shawl a month, which is quite a feat where I’m concerned. Apparently, when I mentioned to my friend M. sometime last summer that I was “on a shawl-kick” I didn’t realize how right I was.

What makes me most happy about this pile, however, is that there are four of my own designs in there. I know, none of them have actually been released yet. And M. keeps reminding me of that, too. I need to change that ASAP but I am too much of a perfectionist to release just some written up pages. I want a proper style sheet with good pictures of my designs, so it will look like an actual pattern to me. I will get to it, it just takes a bit for me. It is more of a process than I realized when I started out and I am teaching it all to myself.
One more hiccup is that back in 2014 I changed to a unix-based system, away from the Windows PC I had been using since my childhood and finding decent software for layouting and, finally, being able to use it are two different shoes.
Anyway, I am not here to whine about computer problems. I am actually quite happy with my progress in 2015 and very much look forward to what 2016 has in store for me.

It already brought me two finished pairs of socks (yes, really!) and I started knitting with this beautiful yarn:
Shibori Islington
It is Kettle Yarn Co. Islington Fingering, a delicious BFL/silk blend that was dyed in the shibori technique using real indigo. It was a one-off colourway and I was able to snatch up two skeins when I saw her post on Instagram. Unfortunately it makes the tips of my fingers very blue while knitting but I really like its smell somehow. It is a really special experience to knit with it and I am trying to do it justice with a new design.

Hopefully, your 2016 was off to a wonderful start as well and you enjoyed your holiday season! I leave you on the ominous note that there are some great news coming up next week that I have been waiting to share for aaaages.

Sashiko

Have you girls heard of sashiko (pronounced saʃi’ko) before? It’s a special kind of embroidery, having been used in Japan for almost two centuries already to enforce tears and holes in clothing.
It is actually just a running stitch, executed very neatly and with equal tension and stitch length. Traditionally, it was done with undyed cotton thread on indigo-dyed fabric. Nowadays, it is used more decoratively on linen and cotton fabrics alike. The patterns are still mostly the same and are just so beautiful that I couldn’t resist this book we got in store last week.

Also pictured is the one sock I just finished!

Read more

1,2,3,4,5,6,7 – It’s big news!

Yeah, nobody gets the reference in the title but I don’t care. A lot of things have happened around here but instead of telling you all the bad stuff here’s a short summary of the good things:

Back in October I read a call for submissions and against my better judgement a good friend convinced me to submit an idea. Only a few days later I heard back from the editor of the magazine that they accepted my submission!
Then stuff happened, my submission was delayed but after some tho and fro, here’s Knit Now Issue 49, with my design in it!

Knit Now Issue 49 (June 2015)

And it’s on the cover, too! I was happily surprised to see that my hat was deemed “Luxury knit for under £5”. And it was high time that I got my hand on the printed copy. It’s not everyday that you can see your name in print, right?

At the moment I plan to publish the single pattern some time soon but meanwhile you can still get a digital or print copy at More Mags. The print edition comes with two cute gifts as well: one booklet full of baby knits and a (k)notions tin saying “Eat. Sleep. Knit.”

Anyhow, my imagination was so fired on that I have several other patterns in the works already. Let’s see how this will turn out.