Knits in Action- Cascade

After the much heated button debate back in May, I finally decided on the proper finishing touch for Elise's Cascade.   Now that the air has brought back the beloved fall chill, handknits have been back in season for the Bernardi clan.

This past weekend, at our town's Heritage Day, it seemed like the perfect outing for Elise to don her newly fitting handknit cardi.


Our little animal lover couldn't get enough of the goats, bunnies, and horses that we met along the way.












I just couldn't get enough of    Elise in her sweater!


And to top it all off, I got to share with Elise my (very limited) knowledge on weaving- not a bad day at all.


(for all you yellow button fans- did I win you over with the brown?  Or are you still hoping I switch them out?)

Raveled: here



Gettin' Swatchy

I know many of you are wondering what my beautiful skeins of Madelintosh Pashmina turned in to.


Although you have to wait a couple more days for the reveal of my new pattern, I can show you my funny looking swatch:

Yup, the honest truth- I am a lazy knitter.  When I am trying out multiple stitch patterns I often just throw them onto one long swtch instead of casting on and binding off multiple times.  Plus, after I frog and wash the swatch I can re-use the yarn.

Many of you guessed that the skeins above were the Baltic colorway. It is actually the Cousteau, which is a newer Madelinetosh colorway.  Stay tuned later this week to see the pattern that will debut with Knit Culture at Vogue Knitting Live!


A Little Punch of Red

You saw a preview a while back- here's the finished product:


 I fell in love with this color combo back in the spring and was itching to knit something with my Amethyst Heather and Garnet yarns.   The lace weight yarn was doubled in both the warp and weft.  Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn and the scarf was a little shorter than I originally planned.  There must be some secret weaver's formula I don't know about yet for this sort of thing.   Anyone out there know the proper way to figure out yardage for weaving?

What this meant is I had a ton of extra yarn on the loom that was going to go to waste (fortunately I whipped up some braids to create a headband- we'll see if it actually gets use or not).

Loom: Schacht Cricket Loom
Warp and Weft: Cascade Alpaca Lace in Amethyst Heather with a touch of Garnet (held double)

A Cleansing Knit

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but somewhere in between selling hand knits and creating designs for knitting patterns, my favorite hobby started to feel a little like work at times.  Don't get me wrong, I don't love knitting any less than I did two years ago, but sometimes with baby and career taking most of my time, knitting for fun seems to be at the bottom of my priority list.


I guess sometimes the things we 'must' do get in the way of the things we'd like to do.

Enter Gramps Slouch.  I first fell in love with this hat pattern a few months ago when I added it to my Ravelry Roundup.   



Perfect pattern + perfect yarn + a week of vacation =  refreshing knitting


Details:
Pattern:  Gramps Slouch
Yarn: Plucky Primo Worsted (Icey Audrey colorway?)
Raveled: here

ps... I've been trying to figure out photoshop a bit (I've had it for a couple years and done nothing with it- it's so intimidating).  I think I'm starting to get it because in this last picture, I actually made wrinkles disappear from my face- (hey, at least I'm honest about it)!

What about you- anything you can put off until tomorrow?  It may be time for a well-deserved cleansing knit. 

Pitter Patters

As I mentioned last week,   I have a few tips to share on sizing down the French Press Felted Slipper pattern for little girl's feet.

My sister Amanda (baluethy on Ravelry), recently made slippers for both of her daughters by modifying the original pattern ever-so-slightly.




















Here are the main things that change:

1.  Use one less strand of yarn on each part (two strands for the bottoms, only one for the sides and straps)
2.  Take out one stitch of width on bottoms (Cast on 4 stitches instead of 5)
3.  Take out ten rows of length for the bottoms
4.  Take out eight rows of length for the tops



My nieces are ages four and five, and although they are two sizes apart in shoe size, my sister followed the same exact formula for both feet.  She just made sure the child was with her as she felted, so they could try them on during the felting process.

I have had someone else tell me they made the slippers for their 10 and 12 year old daughters by simply taking one strand of yarn out and following the pattern as written.

I realize that the above are very general adjustments and some of you would like a little more detail.   In order to provide a little support, and to help each other out along the way, I have started a thread over in the French Press Knits group on Ravelry.  Hop on over to share your hints and tips here.