Author: Alasdair Post-Quinn

… or to be more precise, I said it couldn’t be done, in any practical way, on page 124 of my book. However, unlike most politicians I could name, I’m not afraid to admit I was wrong. So here you have it — true double-knitted cables with negative-space movement. It can be done without a cable needle easily on 1×1-pair cables; 2×2 or 2×1-pair cables are more challenging but still possible, but once you hit cables involving 3 traveling pairs, you’re going to need a cable needle. This is just an exercise to prove it can be done, but it’s going to require me to work out some new vocabulary to explain how I did it. Click here to see the opposite side.

As I’m sure you can tell, this is a subtly-modified version of Barbara Walker’s well-known twining trees pattern from one of her Treasuries, but done in DK with two colors and using lock-stitches instead of DK garter stitch. The yarn is Regia 4-ply, left over from the 52 Pickup scarf. I think that if I had it to do again, I’d use smaller needles. This is done on #3s. The tension needs work but it’s still a good proof of concept.

In other news:

• Extreme Double-Knitting got in the top 3 Ebooks of Fiber Beat’s best of 2011
• Due to pressure over time, I finally signed up to Pinterest. You can start following me but I haven’t pinned anything yet as of this writing.
• I had a great workshop weekend at Fresh Purls in Providence, and am looking forward to another at WEBS next weekend. This weekend I was supposed to be in Salem at Seed Stitch, but had to cancel due to low turnout. We’ll be rescheduling that weekend to later in the season, so if you’re on the North Shore and want to take one of my workshops, keep an eye on my calendar.
• Parallax v0.5 is officially at least halfway done — I’m adding 2 new skeins now — so those who are waiting for a new simple scarf pattern from me are almost done waiting.

It’s been about 7 months since I started this project. Much of the pattern had already been designed even then, but I couldn’t release the pattern until I had a sample — and the sample was going to take months to make. Consider that I have a day-job, and given my weekly time constraints I was able to get a single card repeat (one of 18) done each week. If I’d been able to work on it non-stop, it would have taken 4.5 months to finish. But also consider that my book came out in October — so I was working on this project at the same time as I was finalizing my book. I also had several other projects going at the same time, some of which have had progress made on them and some of which have not. So it’s taken more than 4.5 months to finish it.

This is made from Regia 4-ply; I was really hoping to get through it with 3 skeins of white and 2 skeins each of red and black. But I ran out of black and white within a few repeats of the end, so that hope was dashed. The red I ran out of less than 10 rows from the end — so in the end it’s 4 skeins of white and 3 skeins each of red and black — but there’s still plenty left of all three (especially the red). It turns out that there’s less red than black in the scarf, and I was at a loss to understand why, since the backs of the cards are almost exactly equal in all 3 colors, and there are the same number of red and black cards. But someone astutely observed that the hearts and diamonds don’t take up as many stitches as the clubs and spades. Of course! It’s so obvious once someone figures it out.

But you’re probably interested in knowing where to get yourself one. I’m willing to take on knitting another one for the right person who can afford a high 4-figure price for it, but until that person comes along you’re just going to have to knit it yourself. I’ve put it up for sale on Ravelry at $14. I know it’s a high price for a pattern, but it’s 115 pages long and I’ve already told you how long it took me to make it. Rest assured, you don’t need all 115 pages in any given project, and you only need to print off 3 at a time. There is no plan to make this available in print form — it’s just too long as a single pattern to be distributed any way other than digitally.

I’ve paused briefly on my scarves to fulfill a promise I made to myself — that when The Birthday Massacre, a favorite band of mine, came through town again, I’d throw a custom-designed TBM-themed hat up on stage for lead singer Chibi (also a knitter). I had the yarn but only recently got the inspiration to design this hat, tentatively called “Down The Rabbit Hole”. According to Ravelry, there are several other patterns with that title but no hats, so I might keep it or I might change it. However, this is only a prototype. I have to work some of the kinks out of the pattern before it’s ready for the prime time. If all goes well, I won’t have the hat anymore after tonight’s concert so I’ll have to rely on my memory and my photos to help me redesign it.

This sort of fanboyism creeps me out a bit, and I dislike doing it intensely, but I have been listening to their music for years and if I didn’t know that their front woman also is a knitter I probably wouldn’t do it. But since I have a good feeling she’ll appreciate it, I’ll do it. Just this once.

For those interested in stats, it’s made from 2 colors of Manos Silk Blend (30% silk, 70%% Merino) on size 4 needles for a DK gauge of 6 sts/in.

More views here and here. For those interested in the pattern, I’m not sure whether I will release it yet in its current state. I may redesign it radically or subtly but rest assured it will be a better pattern if/when I do decide to release it.

I don’t know how it is that I ended up working on 3 scarves at the same time. It’s a nice break from the constant innovation but I find myself itching to get going on something groundbreaking. Still, I’m having a good time and will likely finish and release these patterns before starting anything else major.

So a couple of progress shots are in order. First, I’m about 2/3 done with 52 Pickup. I was hoping to have it done and ready for release by Christmas, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen. Even if I can stay on target (roughly one 3-card repeat per week), I have 6 more card repeats to do and only 5 more weeks until Christmas. It’s possible I may yet finish it before the end of the year, though. I’m happy with the outcome so far, but I don’t know how I could possibly work on anything more eye-popping or conversation-starting than this. Perhaps I’ll do the next revision in laceweight with real face cards, better numbers and letters, and the correct number of pips on each card.

I’ve also done a couple more repeats on Parallax v1.0, and am about to get into the really interesting part where the two colorways of Kauni will start to do this dark shimmery effect together. It was really pretty in the test swatch and I’m happy they seem to be lining up the same way here.

In addition, I’ve kept my promise and designed a lower-resolution Parallax scarf, called Parallax v0.5, for those who don’t want the commitment of a scarf double-knit from fingering weight yarn. The real treat, however, is that Parallax v0.5 is designed in Bijou Basin Ranch‘s Lhasa Wilderness yarn, a luxurious yak and bamboo blend. I spent much of Stitches East with Bijou Basin and fell in love with this yarn. It has great stitch definition and a really soft hand. I’m happy to be able to do something different with it and I hope the folks from Bijou Basin will enjoy it as well.

A further announcement: Last week I did a guest post for Juniper Moon Fiber Farm‘s blog. There was a drawing for a copy of my book there. Out of respect for her own following, I opted not to post about it until the drawing was done, so as not to dilute her own commenters’ chances at winning the book. However, it’s a fun post, and you should check it out. If you’d rather cut to the chase, though, I understand: at the end of the post I announce that I will be designing two new patterns in her luscious fingering weight yarn Findley, for release in Fall of 2012.

I’ve got some unsolicited book reviews up at Amazon and Goodreads — thanks to those who posted them! Here’s hoping there are more to come. Oh, and check out Episode 61 of the Savvy Girls Podcast. I’ve got a little bit in there as they interview the Cooperative Press gang at Rhinebeck.

The book itself is now in its second printing, since presales and event sales went very well. As a result we’re very low on books for a little while. It only takes a couple of weeks for the printer to get the books to Cooperative Press, so I hope we’re in good shape for the holidays.

I recently did a presentation for the Common Cod Fiber Guild — it was well-attended and a good time was had by all, even as, midway through my talk, the projector went off and the screen retracted of its own volition. We weren’t able to get it back on, so I just did an impromptu trunk show and Q&A for the last part of the event. My next non-workshop appearance will be at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC, where I’ll be signing my books at the Knitty City booth from 2-3pm on Saturday, January 14th. I’ve also got workshops coming up at Knitty City, Webs and Fresh Purls in Providence. I’m working on lining workshops up in Salem, MA and Philly as well. Check out my calendar for more info.

Whew … I think that’s it! Lots of info crammed into a single post here. I hope I haven’t missed anything. See you next time!

OK, so there aren’t print copies yet (folks at Rhinebeck will get the first taste of these) but those who preordered are getting their PDF copies and initial impressions are good. In addition, we’ve finally got the patterns listed on Ravelry, so people are starting to see the new content there too. The preorder period is now officially over; the promotional price is done and the book is now selling at list price. If you want it, you can go to Cooperative Press’ order page, Amazon (showing as currently unavailable until the print copies arrive), or request it from your LYS or bookstore. I will also be making appearances at various places around the northeast in mid-October, and will have books available as I go. I will be posting a calendar of my upcoming appearances and workshops soon.

To those who are sad to see that the final cover does not have the firebreathing photo on it, I do apologize. However, that photo and several other fire photos are inside.