Join Mary on her adventures in playing with string.
75 stranded colorwork swatches for my Eeek! Steeks! class at Madrona next week: Check.
A stack of swatches 12 1/2" tall.
33,000 stitches.
1050 square inches of knitting.
Expressions on my students' faces when they cut them all in half: Priceless.
Love. My. Job.
What could be more fun than working with brilliant artists? Nothing, that's what.
Once Upon A Time, Lisa Millman of Dicentra Designs and Sheila Ernst of Glasspens hatched a cunning plan whereby they would combine their dreamy yarn and gorgeous buttons into a knitting kit, with a pattern for a hat.
Excellent notion that it was, neither Sheila nor Lisa ever managed to find the time to design a hat. Turns out they were both pretty busy making glass and yarn, respectively. But then they proposed that I join in the fun by creating the hat pattern for them. Well, if you insist, you fabulous geniuses, you. Ow, Ow; stop twisting my arm.
And that's how our project added up to more than the sum of its parts. We proudly present: "Embers".
Kits Include
The Yarn: Dicentra Designs "Moonbeam"; a blend of 85% Polwarth wool and 15% Tussah silk. Delicious much? You will love it. And by "love", I mean "roll around on the floor with" it.
The Button: Handmade flameworked glass by the incomparable Sheila Ernst. It's a whole miniature world inside a perfect glass bubble. Hold it up to the light and get lost in its depths.
The Pattern: "Embers", by Yours Truly. One size, to fit adults. My idea of the perfectly balanced beret: soft, without being slouchy, tailored, without being severe. Texture galore, and fun to knit.
Kits will be available on or about February 14th (Romantic!) from both Dicentra and Glasspens, for only $48. Find both booths at a fiber gathering near you, and visit their websites, too. This project is so new you may not see it on their websites yet, but you can send an e-mail to either artist to order.
I love it when a plan comes together.
I'm still, miraculously, not sick. Campbell is greatly improved, but Lindsay and Phillip are still on their lips. While I await the inevitable, I'm knitting swatches for my Madrona steeks students.
I've learned that knitters have a much easier time cutting up knitting that they didn't make themselves, and have no emotional attachment to. And since their homework is to complete a 6-ft stole in time for class, I figure the least I can do is make some dumb swatches for them. Sure, they're thrill-seekers, but asking them to complete three more little swatches on top of that stole knitting might be just enough to put somebody over the edge. So I'm making 75 swatches.
Today I thought I'd use one of them to demonstrate something that comes up all the time when I teach stranded colorwork knitting: Strand Dominance. Why does it matter which strand is above and which is below? The answer is that it doesn't. Unless you change their positions. A picture tells the whole sordid tale. Notice anything different between the lower half of this swatch and the upper half?
How about Now?
No? Don't worry if the whole thing looks the same to you. The difference is extremely subtle. Except when it isn't. How about now?:
Now imagine if the strands were changing position willy-nilly, rather than precisely halfway up the swatch? That would make for some very uneven knitted fabric, and some pretty wonky colorwork. Have a piece of stranded knitting hanging around that you don't love? Take a look at its strand orientation, and see if a light bulb doesn't come on for you.
Moral? Make a command decision as to which strand is above, and which strand is below, and stick with it. Easy as can be, and so simple, once we understand it! Knowledge is power, Gentle Readers. Now go forth, and knit like the Rock Stars you are.