Photo credit: Valeriano Della Longo, used with Creative Commons Attribution license.

So much better than a souvenir t-shirt….

I’m hopping on a plane bound for sunny Aruba for a real live vacation!* And I would love to bring back seashells and carved coconuts for everyone, but my suitcase is only so big, right?

So to share some fun while I’m away,  I’m stocking up the KSD shop full of cheap, lovely yarn for you!

What’s on SALE?
I am overstocked on some beautiful yarns that are lonely one-skeiners, Odd Ducks (one-of-a-kind microbatches), discontinued colors and fibers, and a few random things just for the heck of it.  I’m cleaning out these little gems by marking them down to make room for new items coming this fall, and to build up the KSD travel fund for upcoming shows. (note- I just found a hidden, unmarked box of amazing odd duck merino fine skeins, so y’all totally scored on that!)

Stock up while they last!

All orders will ship when I return to the studio, Friday and Saturday next week.

Cheers and I’ll see you when I get back (probably slightly sunburnt)!

Mercedes

*I will be incommunicado (no internet! no email! no phone! yikes!) for about a week. If there are any snags on your order, I will clean it up and make it all better once I’m back in Alabama.

Our booth at the Townsend Fiber Fest.  For Stitches, take this and imagine it HUGE.  *grin*

See us at Stitches South

Visit KSD this weekend, April 22nd -25th, at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, GA, for Stitches South, in booth 232.

Mercedes will be there with heaps of yarn in your favorite KSD colorways, and lots of bright new colors, too!  The booth will be stocked with beautiful projects to fire up your imagination and set your needles in motion.

Win $50 Gift Certificate!

Stop by our booth (232) this weekend to enter to win a $50 Gift Certificate to the KSD online shop!

See you in Atlanta!

I’ve been dyeing up yarn all day to be sure we have plenty of goodies to bring to Atlanta for Stitches South next week. I’m so excited!  I kept piling up fresh yarns until I ran out of room on the cooling racks, and dyed up plenty of skeins of new colorways.

Now on to washing, drying, and reskeining. Whew!  I think for now, it’s beer o’ clock.

Quick note, the KSD website is down temporarily (I hope!). I’m
researching the bug and will try to sort it out tonight.

Fixed it! (Obviously, because you can read this now, instead of seeing a pesky error message. Yeah! *fist pump*)

The new issue of  Twist Collective is out, and it is chock full of amazing patterns.  My want-to-knit list has grown by several projects.   I was especially anticipating the release of this new issue because my new Lena pattern is in it!  A nice, easy lace infinity scarf, Lena is cast on in the round (on surprisingly short needles, I used a 32″ circular, so no needle wrestling.), and knit in alternating bands of singled and doubled strands of Seacell Merino Fine.

Once you get the lace pattern started, it’s easy conversation-friendly knitting.  While I like a good challenge, sometimes it nice to just relax and enjoy the yarn, so this pattern fits the bill, and it helps make it an especially beginner-friendly into to lace stitches.

After it’s bound-off and blocked, Lena grows to a generous 72″ loop, and can be worn all sorts of ways, as seen in the shot above.  The model shown has an optional crocheted picot edging, which I admit scared me a bit when I thought about the fact that I would be crocheting 12 feet of edging.  But I sat on the couch and went to it, and after one episode of Doctor Who it was complete, no sweat!  I think that with the cool Seacell blend yarn and easy-to-follow texture pattern, this will make a perfect vacation-knitting project (or backyard knitting, poolside knitting, you get the idea!), which is exactly what I was aiming for when I started imagining the project.

I’ve listed some Lena kits in the KSD shop, with some suggested pairings to help ease color indecision, or choose your own two colorways for personalized Lena.  The PDF pattern is available for purchase through Twist Collective for $5.00.

Now I just need to decide on which colors to pick for my own Lena, probably in blues and greens.  Hmm…

Valencia semi-solid, shown on Seacell Merino Fine

I’ve just posted our bright new colorways for spring,  and the shop has been updated with new arrivals.

This week, get FREE shipping on all orders to the US and Canada, use coupon code 0J2A1AMRO0PJ at checkout.  Code expired 4/9/10.

Ruthie semi-solid, shown on Merino Fine

I couldn’t wait to begin knitting with some of these beauties, so I just cast on for a re-vamp of one of my old scarf patterns, the Petal Edge Scarf (it will be available at the KSD booth at Stitches South later this month) in Mai, an over-the-top super-saturated red-orange that I am completely besotted with.

Mai semi-solid, shown on Merino Fine

First, these sweet, tiny crocheted hearts from Kristen TenDyke; these puffy little hearts made me smile.  Pattern Here.

Julie Kundhi has these flat crocheted hearts, which would make excellent gift embellishment, or glue a pin back on for a quick brooch.

And for a non-knitting, non-crochet, but all yarn-love option, try these wrapped yarn hearts from Woolywotnots.  Wouldn’t they be great on a small scale glued to cardstock for a sweet crafty valentine?

While it may have been an unrealistic project goal with all the freelance deadlines creeping up on me, I cast on for a personal project, Snowden Becker’s adorable, wearable, classic Myrtle cardigan.  Lace, sock yarn, cardigan, SOLD.

So I dyed up 4 skeins of Merino Fine in a slightly lighter shade of Edgar (less black, more charcoal to show of the texture of the lace, because I’m the dyer and I can totally do that), and cast on.  Skipped the gauge swatch, which I would scold a student for doing, so naturally, it bit me on the butt, I ripped, and cast on again with smaller needles. Then I got to the lace charts.  Very clearly laid out, worked my way through row-by-row and realized: I am NEVER going to memorize this chart*.  Well, then.  Time to break out cheat sheets.

Lace cheat sheets (or flip cards, or reference cards) are one of my favorite tricks for making lace enjoyable when it could easily turn into “shut the %&$* up, I’m counting!!”.  While a lot of knitters may be capable of memorizing lace and texture charts, myself included, you don’t always HAVE to.  As Einstein once said, “Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?”  Or some handy pocket-sized cards, for we knitters.  By putting it down into easily scannable chunks of the pattern, you can free up your brain from the stress of memorization and do other things while you knit, like say, think, daydream, converse with friends and family, or watch tv.

So first, grab some index cards, or cut some card stock into smallish-sized cards, say 4″x5″ or so.  Punch a hole in the upper corner (I go upper left, but do what works for you) of as many cards as you have “real” pattern rows.  As in, if it’s just a “purl all stitches” row, don’t bother.

I like to paste a copy of the chart onto an extra card, which I use for the “cover”, but this isn’t crucial.

On each card, write the row number, and then the written-out version of the stitch pattern for that row.  If you’re using multiple charts in a row, write the instructions for each.  If you like, write a reminder for your wrong-side row instructions for plain rows.  If you have varying stitch counts or special instructions, jot those down, too.

Use a binder ring to assemble, and use a paper clip or binder clip to keep the pages from flapping around in transit.

To use, simply flip to the page that correspond with your row.  When you’ve completed the row, flip to the next row card.  Clip the pages in place (every time, trust me!) so that if your little book of cards gets knocked over, the pages won’t flip on their own.

So now you’ll be free to watch tv, chat with friends, take your project to Stitch and Bitch, and enjoy your lace project, rather than have it languish in your knitting basket because it’s too fussy for public knitting.  And if I can get my other knitting work done, now I’ll be able to finish up this little cardi, too!

*This realization really hit home when I botched several rows while attempting to simultaneously knit this while watching the LOST premiere.  Bad move.  It took longer to pick out those rows than it did to knit them!

Wake up woodchuck chuckers, it’s GROUNDHOG DAY!!  Reports are in that the official groundhog meteorologists have seen their shadows, but not so much here in Alabama.  Desmond is recommending Keens and t-shirts in coming weeks.

I wrapped up this amigurumi project or the Groundhogalong in the nick of time, sewing up the last of the pieces and giving him a little embroidered schnoz just after lunch.  This project was a blast!

The details:

Remnants of two colors of KSD Merino Fine, dye-test skeins (available current colors-Dram and Mycroft).
Yarn was held doubled, two of the light brown for body, one of each for ears, tail, and limbs.
Size E hook
button eyes, embroidered nose, stuffed with wool roving

Desmond will be hanging out with me tonight on the sofa as we watch Groundhog Day on Blue-ray.  You can also see his cousins Phil over at Sister Diane’s, and Ned Ryerson over at Kim Werker’s, and if you want a cute little groundhog of your very own, head over to Planet June for patterns for the groundhog and a menagerie of amigurumi crochet critters.

And one more thing…BING!

Bow Headband pattern from Sweatshop of Love

It seems everywhere I look right now, I find another sweet, clever headband (Or maybe I have them on the brain because I’m growing my hair out.).  These are easy accessories to make with a bit of scrap yarn and a small amount of knit or crochet time, and they’re lovely and flattering with almost all hairstyles, from buzz-cuts to Rapunzel locks.

Allyson Dykhuizen of Sweatshop of Love has just released a sweet, beginner-friendly bow headband that uses scrap sock yarn and would whip up quickly on size 5 needles as gifts or a last minute finishing touch for your wardrobe.  The one above was knit in Luxe Merino Fine in Trafford.

Feather headband from Mimi Boutique (want!)

These gorgeous feather headbands are also an inspiration.  Maybe try a simple knit or crocheted rosette with a few strategically hot-glued feathers?

Travel Headwear has a fun selection, some for free, of crocheted headband patterns, both skinny and wide, with a fun bohemian style.

And, if you love the look and want to treat yourself to some handcrafted love, check out Broken Hallelujah’s etsy shop for some lovely flower headbands (and cute mary jane slippers, too!).

So last week when I posted about traditional knitting gone modern, I had no idea where it would end up. I swatched a bit and played around, and had a really unexpected, funny, and useful idea!

You may look at the swatch above and think, “sock”.  So did I.  But then I thought about this-

That would be a pint glass from my regular Friday afternoon hangout, The Bottletree.  It’s one of those deals where you buy the glass for $10 and get happy hour prices on beer forever and ever.  Which is, in my opinion, totally awesome.  But I have to make sure I can get the glass from point A to point B without breaking it.  And I’m clumsy.  And I like to knit odd cozies.  And sooooo….

This is going to be fun!  I’m probably going to rip back and start over with doubled yarn, and probably switch up the color selection a bit (those two browns are melding).  I think I’ll do a reversible “cuff” for the top to tuck in to protect the rim of the glass (stealing this idea from my friend Kristin, who crocheted a cozy for her pint glass a couple weeks back) , that way I can fold it over and out of the way for drinking.

This video shows a variation of the two-yarns-in-the-left-hand I use when I do stranded knitting, using the adjacent fingers to tuck the unused color back and out of the way while working.  I don’t tension my yarn much, so I just lay both yarns over my index finger, separated my my 2nd knuckle.

Another great resource for fair isle knitting are the great folks at Philosopher’s Wool, when I was first learning this video helped a lot (you can tell it’s been up for a while, because they warn it’s “not for dial-up connections”).  Ann Bourgeois uses a two-handed method that really clicks with a lot of knitters.  If you get a chance, check out the companion book, Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified, for more great tips and techniques.