Category: Knitting

Once more unto the breach, dear friends

It’s beginning to feel like Autumn, which means fresh apples, more comfortable knitting weather, and for me, my Fall workshops begin again. Historically, I’ve noticed that most people aren’t interested in learning new techniques in the Fall when they’re working toward holiday projects, so workshops that would sell out in the Spring struggle to fill in the Fall. This year I’m taking a new tack — I’m running bigger workshops at bigger events, cramming a whole season’s worth of teaching into a few weekends. We’ll see how it goes! I’ve also got some other cool news. I’ll try to keep it brief though, since I know attention spans aren’t what they used to be (squirrel!)

Interweave Knitting Labs: I’m teaching my entire repertoire of workshops at both Labs, one in Manchester, NH next weekend, and the other in San Mateo, CA a month later. While in Manchester, fellow Guild member Stephanie from Dirty Water Dyeworks has graciously agreed to field sales of my books in her booth there! In San Mateo, Bijou Basin Ranch will sell them as usual. Thanks to both of you!

Rhinebeck: I’ll be doing a day-trip on Saturday, Oct 20 from Boston with the Eliot School in JP — so I’ll be there at the Cooperative Press booth to sign books and generally shmooze. More definite schedule TBA.

A Guild-tastic weekend: On Friday, November 9th, I’ll be presenting Gale Zucker at the Common Cod Fiber Guild here in Cambridge, then leaving town to present at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitters’ Guild in Ontario. On the way, I’ll be teaching at All Strung Out in Guelph, Ontario. I thought I might be able to make a meaningful layover in Chicago but it appears I’ll just be hanging out at the airport.

Finally, on the weekend after Thanksgiving, I’ll be heading out to Denver to do a shoot at the Craftsy HQ, so I’ll finally be able to teach double-knitting to people in all corners of the world I wouldn’t normally be able to reach. I’m working on a couple of new patterns for this, and I guess it’d be OK if I showed a photo of one in progress here.

I’ve got some other kind of awesome news but I’m going to keep it under my hat until it solidifies a little bit. More to come soon! Thanks for putting up with my very sporadic updates!

Parallax 2.0 first look — and back on my feet again

Unbeknownst to most of you, I was on a cruise ship last weekend, going up the coast to St John and Halifax and back. I had a great time, won a little at craps, got some knitting done, but primarily just had a nice vacation with my wife. The cruise was ostensibly knitting-related — although there were only 58 knitters on a ship holding over 3000 people — and while I partook in some of the knitting activities, taught a short workshop, sold some of my books and visited knitting shops in our ports of call, I really meant the cruise to be a pleasant time away for myself and my wife.

So as not to make this post altogether too long, I’ll highlight only one exceptional experience which was completely unexpected.

As we approached Halifax, there was a rumor circulating that, in addition to the yarn shop we already knew about, there was a fiber festival going on at the Marriott. We resolved to check that out once we got some more info at the yarn shop. However, we found out that the “festival” was more of a private retreat — but that there was a vendor room that was open to the public.

I had already been witness to large amounts of Kauni in the yarn shops we had visited, which made for an obvious conversation starter when talking with folks in those shops. They were already familiar with the designs of Lucy Neatby, who has also been using Kauni heavily in her recent design work. So it was no surprise to find, when we entered the vendor room, a large basket of Kauni in addition to most of the line of Hand Maiden/Fleece Artist yarns. I browsed for a while and eventually struck up a conversation with the woman running the vendor room — a designer named Ilga Leja. It turned out that she had heard of me and my book, and was overjoyed that I had randomly shown up. After talking to her co-organizer Jane Thornley, it turned out that they were coming to the end of their retreat, and they asked me to do an impromptu presentation of my work to the assembled attendees. Needless to say, I opened a few more eyes there, even if my heavily-engineered work was a radical departure from the freeform openwork they had come to learn.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Yarns on York, our LYS host at Fredericton, a bus-tour away from our port of call at St John, NB. They organized a knit-in (or knit-out) in our honor and we got to meet up with a whole bunch of knitters from that area. Thanks to that experience it’s entirely possible I’ll be extending my workshops to a new country in the not-too-far future!

Now, the part you’re probably itching to see. A couple of months ago I finished knitting Parallax v2.0 — the Parallax scarf I’ve been knitting in Kauni on the bias. I was hoping to get around to blocking it before taking photos but my studio is a little too chaotic right now to deal with that. So here it is, unblocked but still glorious. You can probably tell why I couldn’t stop working on it. One really neat side-effect of working this in the bias is that the really clean selvedge runs around all four edges, not just the sides. So I have only 3 more Parallaxes to finish before the eBook has enough content to be published. However, given my other design contracts for this year, I don’t think that’s likely to happen in 2012.

Anyway, I’ve regained my landlegs just in time for a classic New England August heat/humiditywave, and while my condo is cool enough, the general unpleasantness of the environment is not particularly conducive to knitting. Still, I have my to-do list to look at and there will be some knitting in the near future. But for now, I’m reminiscing about the cool night breeze on the cruise ship. Good night, all.

TNNA 2012 – a view from inside the mask

Well, I’m back from TNNA and still a little low on sleep, but I’ve got stories to tell and swag to show off, people to thank and pounds to lose. I’ll start with the stories, although some of the ones you might most want to hear I probably shouldn’t relate without the consent of all involved. Still, this is going to be a long post, without nearly enough photos (because we’re not supposed to take any on the show floor, and my wife needed my camera that weekend).

The first thing I did after arriving in Columbus was to head to the Designer Dinner. No, I tell a lie. The first thing I did was to head to Jeni’s for some ice cream — an event that would be repeated several times over the weekend. After a nice cup of the White House Cherry ice cream, I changed and headed to the designer dinner, where it turned out I was one of the few designers to actually handmake my own mask. After Marly’s ingenious voting system had generated the results, I was the only winner with a fully handmade mask. Still, I couldn’t beat Ann Kingstone, who was wearing a pair of underwear on her head. I did tie with Lily Chin, who had a scrap-yarn waterfall emanating from the wings of a plastic butterfly mask.

The dinner was lovely and the company was good — I was at the Cooperative Press annex table (there were just too many CP authors there!) with Anna Dalvi and Stephannie Tallent, and my old friends from Green Mountain Spinnery who were sponsors of the event. I won a Hadaki bag full of goodies, in addition to the even larger bag of goodies everyone got after the event. I’ll show this stuff off later in the post, and thank everyone involved as best I can.

On Saturday, I had a shift at the CP booth in the afternoon so I got to spend much of my day cruising the show floor and managed to make most of the networking connections I had planned to try for, leaving much of the rest of my weekend open. It’s all kind of a blur, and the order of events is a little fuzzy, so I’ll just hit some highlights:

  • I was heading to visit Ron from The Buffalo Wool Co, and encountered Ron and Theresa being interviewed by Melanie and Deborah from the Savvy Girls Podcast. I’d met them at Rhinebeck last year, so I waited and listened to the interview. They finished and we all struck up conversation which led to the Savvy Girls following me back to the CP booth where they interviewed me about the 52 Pickup scarf. I even got in a plug for CP’s new Knit Edge magazine, where I have an article about that project.
  • I was chatting with Jeane from Elemental Affects, who I had met last year, lamenting the difficulty in finding good long color fades (similar to Kauni) in weights other than Kauni’s fingering weight. She kindly introduced me to her friend Tina at Freia Handpaints. I had seen her yarn online but seeing it in person I decided it was worth a shot — so after showing her what I was working on, she was more than willing to let me take a few skeins after the show was over.
  • I was privileged to room with designer Daniel Yuhas, who has some really interesting and cute patterns that are well worth checking out. He was a good roommate and fine conversationalist, and while we didn’t see each other much during the day, I feel like we hit it off fairly well. It’s also nice to have another guy knitter to room with so we can save each other some money — and who knows, it could happen again!
  • Andi came back to the CP booth with a baggie of random bamboo needles and notions from Tulip, a vendor in line of sight from our booth. She said they were “just handing them out” so I tagged along with Heather. As has happened before, Heather plugged me to them after scoring her own baggie, and I pulled out my Parallax 2.0 to show them. They were stunned (apparently a common reaction) and gladly handed over another baggie for me. Tulip is a long-standing Japanese needles-and-notions maker that’s only just getting a foothold in the US thanks to Caron. Their interchangeable needle set is really unique and well designed, and I’d consider it for myself except that I just bought 3 HiyaHiya sets, which go down to size 2, and Tulips end at size 3 in any case. One really neat thing about them is that they come with endcaps and can also take Tunisian crochet hooks instead of needles. I haven’t tried the ones they gave me yet, but I’m happy to recommend that anyone in the market for bamboo interchangeables check them out.
  • Speaking of which, I did have to stop by the HiyaHiya booth to thank them for making the set I currently use. They’re known for being very free with the needles for any designer, and while I have all the needles I need, they did give me a new product — a pair of cord joiners, so I can construct larger cords. This is a fairly standard item but theirs are unique in how small they are. They challenged me to find the join between the two cords. I cheated and used my fingernail to find the slight texture difference, but otherwise it’s almost unnoticeable. They also put out an adaptor for the larger needles to the smaller cords — not useful for me, but cool nonetheless. I really enjoy the sets I use — they’re well priced and good quality.
  • I was excited to see that Charles Gandy had his book finished and was having fun at the Visionary booth with Cat Bordhi and Unicorn. It was mildly unfortunate that he had his book signing in the very last slot on the slowest day — Monday — of the show, but perhaps because of that I was able to convince the Unicorn folks to give me a ticket for his book (since I’m not a buyer, it’s usually “not done”). Since I had my ticket, I finished the trade by signing my book and giving it to him. He’s a great advocate for me and I’d like to return the favor, but he has no website I can find so I’ll just send folks to the Amazon page for his book.
  • I got to spend a lunch at the Indian place in North Market with Audrey Knight, who, despite the heat, was advertising for her new book with a double-knit scarf.
  • I got to spend a bunch of time with Sarah and Sam from Cephalopod Yarns, who didn’t have a booth but were hanging out at the CP booth much of the time, and Elizabeth who is Shannon’s second-in-command these days over at CP. The CP crew had rented a house for the week with a pool and hot tub, so needless to say there was much hanging out there after hours while most other people were at the Hyatt bar. We also got to wade for 10 blocks through the insane detritus of humanity that populates Columbus’ High St, at least during Com Fest weekend but probably all the time.
  • I was surprised that I was able to hear over the roar of what seemed like hundreds of knitters packed into a small upscale bar at the Craftsy birthday party, but I got to speak a little bit to Linda (I think) about my upcoming Craftsy workshop.

Now I’m ready to show my swag, and talk a bit about it and the exciting things that will happen to some of it. Some of this stuff is from the Designer Dinner goodie bags, some of it is stuff that I got from vendors. All of it is worth profuse thanks to those who supplied it (thanks already supplied above won’t be mentioned again down here)

  • Thanks to XRX for Victorian Lace Today and Knit One Below, both of which I got in goodie bags from the Designer Dinner. Thanks to the authors of Bead Crochet Jewelry for impressing me with probably the only technique that might actually encourage me to learn crochet, and for the copy of the book they provided.
  • Thanks to Dawn at RYN Yarn, US distributors of my favorite yarn, Kauni Effektgarn, who supplied 6 balls of yarn for my next two Parallax projects and promised me wholesale prices on any more Kauni I need in the future.
  • Thanks to Iris at Artyarns, who provided yarn — two skeins of Silk Pearl,  a skein of Ensemble Light and a skein of Ultrabulky, for me to design two new projects for the next One+One book coming out in late 2013 sometime.
  • Thanks to Alisha from Alisha Goes Around, who had no booth this year but instead brought a suitcase of lovely yarn which made its first stop at the CP booth. I got a pair of skeins of Tracks, which is her dyed version of a Buffalo Wool Co yarn.
  • Thanks to The Crochet Dude, Knitters Pride, and Indian Lake Artisans for some fantastic looking needles and crochet hooks, and to Namaste for a bag to keep them in.
  • Thanks to Rowan, HiKoo, Zealana, WEBS, The Alpaca Yarn Co, and Kollage for some beautiful yarn.
  • Thanks to Briggs & Little, who passed me a sample of their yarn at their booth again — these folks are a mainstay in Canada but don’t have much in the way of US presence. I wish I could help, but I’m not a store — the best I can do is to design something awesome using their yarn. I hope to do so as soon as I have a free moment.

Whew! There’s more, and if I forgot to relate your story or forgot to thank you for something you did for me or something you gave me, I apologize. It was an amazing time and I can’t wait for another opportunity to have this kind of experience again. Now — back to knitting!

USOC, USUC

OK, so I’m jumping on the bandwagon with the knitters and other fiber artists righteously indignant over the treatment we’re getting from the US Olympic Committee. You’ve probably heard about it already, but if not, check out the downward spiral over at Gawker and NPR. Of course, you can also find the whole text of the original outrage at Ravelry (if you’re a member). Full disclosure: I don’t have a TV, I don’t tend to watch sports in general, and I don’t make a point of watching the Olympics. I’m not partaking in the Ravelympics, or whatever they’re going to have to change the name to, because I have enough on my plate working on new patterns and juggling the rest of my life. But I feel the pain — it’s always disheartening to hear that someone you enjoy spending time with thinks your hobbies are a childish waste of time. So, I whipped up this handy Facebook thingy which you should share. You can get a more-easily-shareable link on my Facebook Page. When you share it, the arrow points at your FB avatar (as you’ll see), so it makes more sense there than it does here. And whether you choose to boycott the Olympics this year or not, just remember when anyone disrespects you for your chosen pastime, you’re the one with the pointy sticks.

Bal Masqué at TNNA

Next weekend I’ll be in Columbus, Ohio eating Jeni’s Ice Cream all day, every day. Well, perhaps not quite. Actually, I’m going to TNNA! This will be the first time I’ve gotten to go as a published designer. OK, last year I had a couple of patterns out, but the book was not to be done until August (and later got pushed to October). We had some preview pages to drum up interest but this time, we actually have a book, and I’ll be at the Cooperative Press booth (#554) with a bunch of other awesome authors, all helping drive each others’ sales.

An odd thing about TNNA is that it’s an industry event for vendors to network with retailers — the people attending are yarn store owners and the like; they’re people who the vendors can market to. Therefore, everyone attending is either a vendor rep or a shop rep, for the most part. Designers, historically, have never had a set role at TNNA. They have to attend piggybacked onto a vendor or a shop, but can’t usually come on their own — even though it’s a huge networking opportunity for them. So instead, there’s an event thrown each year by the illustrious designer and podcaster Marly Bird in honor of the designers attending. Last year I wasn’t aware of it beforehand but this year, with a book and some new patterns under my belt, it’s time for me to show up and strut my stuff, or something.

Not having been to the Designer Dinner before, I don’t know if there’s often a theme, but this year they decided to make it a sort of masquerade ball. About a week ago, it occurred to me what that meant — I would be expected to design a masquerade mask.

I didn’t want this to take too much of my time. I decided to use worsted-weight wool that I already had on hand. I borrowed some double-knit cable techniques from Mounqaliba and the warped-checkerboard concept from Parallax, added some shaping and banged out a prototype in a weekend. The prototype had some issues, but I fixed them in the final version. If I were to publish this, I could make it even cleaner, but I think it’s fine as it is. And of course, it’s reversible so there are nominally 2 different way to wear it (but it’s just as good upside down so technically there are 4 different ways). It’s entirely plausible that there will be photos of me wearing it, along with others in similar regalia, in the not-too-distant future.

In other news, Franklin posted a book review over on the Panopticon, and there are still a couple of spaces left in my three-color double-knitting workshop at WEBS if you’re nearby and interested on Sunday, July 15th. Also, I’ve created a mailing list specifically for shop owners to sign up to, so they can get the first word when I’m starting to schedule for upcoming workshop seasons.

Keep an eye on this space in the next couple of weeks for a report on TNNA!

Mounqaliba and beyond

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, perhaps you remember back in February when I posted about a chart I appropriated (with permission) from the sweater of a passing acquaintance. For a time, I obsessed about finding the source of the pattern, and I infected at least a couple of people with the same obsession. I helped one friend with an immense knitting library go through her magazines dating back to the 1980s (to try to catch patterns that Ravelry might not have due to age). I went through every single Dale of Norway pattern. I inquired in the Stranded group and the Xtreme Fair Isle group on Ravelry. I asked everyone at all of my knitting groups. Nobody ever found a chart that was the same or even similar.

So I decided it was time to assume that the pattern was not published, and knit up a swatch of it. Perhaps in its knitted form, the pattern would jog someone’s memory. I decided to dig back into my stash and retrieve that large amount of Artyarns Ultramerino 4 that Iris so graciously bestowed upon me nearly a year ago. I laid them all out and started to match them up into two-skein color combinations that resonated with me on some plane. The one I liked the least I decided to swatch with. I chose a repeat and started working. About halfway through, I decided to change the pattern a bit. In stranded knitting, the single-pixel “blips” of color are often used to keep long strands anchored. However, in double-knitting, these aren’t necessary. So I removed them and finished the swatch. You can check out the back here.

While working on this pattern, I was struck by this curvy colorwork’s resemblance to cables, and sat down to convert the entire pattern to cables. In fact, because the pattern centers on a single column, cables weren’t the only answer — it’s a combination of increasing/decreasing colorwork and cables, all done in double-knitting. There are some utterly ridiculous techniques in this swatch, such as a 5-to-3 double-decrease and its inverse, a 3-to-5 double-increase. There’s also a place where a double-decrease is immediately followed by a double-increase in the next row, which creates the illusion that two individual chains are passing through each other. There are a couple of glitches in the chart resulting in some odd positioning, but I’ve fixed those and the next swatch will be better. It’s a gorgeous rendering of the original pattern, but I have no clue what I’m going to do with it. Perhaps I’ll need to swatch it again a little larger and something will come to me.

The original pattern, however, I do know what I’m going to do with. Of course, I’ll remove the “blips” for a cleaner look (and to protect me from the original author who will no doubt surface as soon as I’ve published it). Because I’ve got a limited amount of each color and because I want to give the community something a little smaller and more manageable than my last couple of patterns, I decided on a fitting application. I feel a little conflicted about using this pattern on something as mundane as a gadget sleeve, but that’s what I’m planning on doing — a customizable gadget sleeve for any gadget. I’ve been taking gadget measurements and I think I’ve got enough to start with. I need to do a little more swatching, then I can work out the pattern. This will also probably require that I finally work out double-knit kitchener stitch.

I did finally settle on a name. I was hoping to identify the actual culture the pattern comes from, but in the end I decided it looks Arabic or North African, and gave it an Arabic name. The name “Mounqaliba” sprang unbidden into my head — it’s the name of Natacha Atlas‘ recent album — and when I looked it up, it translates to “in a state of reversal”. Could it get more perfect? Here’s hoping I don’t get sued by Natacha Atlas — although I don’t think she owns the word itself.

In other news, I’ve been tapped by a friend of mine who’s a yarn-company rep to design 6 patterns over the next year for a colorwork club for a new line of their yarns. I can’t go into details because I’m not under contract yet (and I don’t know the level of disclosure allowed), but it’s nice to spend some time — for the first time in a very long while — designing something that’s not in double-knitting. I knit a really nice stranded colorwork hat in 3 days and now I’m going to knit another one to refine the pattern! I’ve got some neat ideas for the upcoming patterns …

My Spring workshop season is over now, and while I have one workshop weekend at WEBS in July, I’m basically on workshop hiatus for the summer. If your shop wants to get me in for the Fall workshop season, I’m starting to think about scheduling. Email me — or tell your shop to seek me out at TNNA in Columbus.

New pattern: Parallax v0.5

 

She looked a little cold. Frozen solid, actually.

This pattern has been an abnormally long time coming, considering how little time it takes me to knit. As we went into the winter, I was expecting a long, cold season with plenty of time to release a scarf pattern while it was still cold. With the spring and even summer-like temperatures we got in February, I started to worry that we wouldn’t have a proper winter, so I dropped some of the other stuff I was working on and finished cranking this out. It’s now out, fittingly, on April 1st. But this is no joke, just a bit of irony. Still, if you start now, it’ll be ready well in time for next Winter.

The yarn I worked with is Lhasa Wilderness, a gorgeous yak and bamboo blend yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. These folks have been so helpful to me at the various shows I’ve been to that I decided I should really return the favor by designing something to promote their yarns. Little did I know this would be one of the most enjoyable knits I’ve done in recent memory, and the hand of the yarn definitely had something to do with that.

It’s out now, available on Ravelry for purchase — and much cheaper, I should say, than the last pattern I released.

In other news, my publisher Cooperative Press is putting out the inaugural issue of their new magazine later this year — and I have an article on the creation of my 52 Pickup pattern. Also, I’m now allowed to tell you that I’m going to be teaching ALL of my double-knitting workshops at BOTH Interweave Knitting Labs in Fall 2012 — one in Manchester, NH and one in San Mateo, CA (my first west-coast appearance)!

Also in other news, I’m planning to release an ebook of more Parallax patterns later this year — v0.5 was so much fun to do, and v1.0 and v2.0 are already on the needles. v3.0 and v4.0 are in the works, design-wise, and crazy things are afoot. If you like Parallax v0.5, you’ll love what’s next.

Fibercamp in the past. Interweave in the future. But now? Entrelac.

Last weekend was FiberCamp Boston, the third incarnation of that illustrious event. Actually, we really need to figure out how to get it to grow larger. But much fun was had by all. Last year I learned a bit about how to knit and purl backwards, but never put it into practice. It got me thinking — how about double-knit entrelac? If all the techniques are already possible, why not put them together? But I got sidetracked by the Parallax scarves and eventually the 52 Pickup scarf — and the backwards knitting skill was lost.

Now I know there’s always Youtube, but I decided it could wait. This year I took a class on knitting and purling backwards, then a class on entrelac. I’ve done entrelac before but only a little bit, so I just refreshed my memory on the technique, then ripped it out and cast on to try it in double-knitting. This weekend, it’s done. Just a little swatch, nothing more than a test to see if the various techniques translate well. It’s not perfect — I was testing open and closed edge pickups, and of course my tension is not perfect since this is the first time I’ve tackled double-knitting backwards, but it’s a good proof of concept.

When I finish the hat this technique is going toward, I think I am going to be lynched. It requires so many new techniques it might as well be the last pattern in my next book. But I’m sure I’ll release it before then. Anyway, without further ado, here’s a photo of my test swatch, just to prove it can be done. Click for facing and opposite side photos as well.

In workshop news, I’m going to be running one last set of workshops here in Cambridge, then traveling in April and May to Acton and the Village Knitter on Long Island. Check my calendar for those dates. Over the summer I’m sure I’ll be at TNNA, and in the fall I’ll be at Rhinebeck and Stitches East — but I’m not teaching at any of them this year, largely because I am instead teaching at Interweave Knitting Labs — both the east coast one in Manchester, NH as well as the west coast one in San Mateo, CA. I’m psyched to teach and honored that Interweave is hosting the first big event to truly reach out to me as a teacher. I hope this will be the catalyst for bigger things in the future.

Next on the chopping block — asymmetric double-knit lace (lace on one side, plain on the other).

Back home for a spell

Well, the first leg of my workshop tour is over. I’ve taught in Providence, Northampton and NYC, and got to take a well-timed break today before heading back to my day job tomorrow. Next weekend is free of workshops, but then the whole rest of the month of March is just packed with them. I’ll be teaching two intro-level workshops at Mind’s Eye on March 3rd and 17th, an advanced two-color workshop at Mind’s Eye on the 4th and an advanced three-color on the 18th. On the 24th and 25th I’ll be teaching intro and advanced workshops at Gather Here. Mind’s Eye is now taking registrations; Gather Here doesn’t have it up on the website yet but will probably take registrations in the shop. Go sign up if you’re in the Boston area and want to learn some double-knitting, or hone your existing knowledge with an advanced workshop.

What about the other weekend? Well, I’ll be at FiberCamp Boston, of course. March 9-11, we’ll be getting together and un-conferencing at MIT. I’ll be working the registration table and teaching whenever I can get a slot. It’ll be great fun, so come and check it out. We’ve had a good time the past couple of years and if you missed it, don’t miss it this time. Tickets are still on sale and we’ve now got a single-day ticket for those who can only make it for one day.

Now that I’ve got the self-promotion out of the way, I’ve got a favor to ask of you. When I was in Northampton teaching at WEBS, I went out for dinner at the fantastic India House restaurant. The wait for a table was long, but while I was standing in line I noticed a woman a few groups back wearing this amazing sweater with colorwork unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I finally got up the courage to ask if I could take a picture of her sleeve. It was an awkward moment and while she did graciously let me take a photo, I didn’t get more info out of her about the sweater. It looks handknit, but I could tell from overheard snippets of conversation that it was not she who had knit it. The photo was bad because some kind of filter got turned on by mistake, but I got enough out of it to chart the pattern when I got back to my hotel.

Now I’m aware I’m obsessing, but I’ve asked dozens of people and nobody has seen a color chart quite like it. It’s an all-over pattern — the whole sweater was covered — in white on black. I intend to do some double-knitting based on a similar design but I’d really like to know where on earth (literally) this comes from, and whether there’s anything else like it. People seem to think it looks North African, Middle Eastern, or possibly Lithuanian or Latvian. But nowhere in my copious number of chart books have I found anything even similar. So I wonder whether you’ve seen it before? Do you know the pattern it came from? Do you know the nationality of this type of design? Let me know in the comments, and if you’re the one who can give me a definite answer with proof, I’ve got a special gift for you.

They said it couldn’t be done …

A tribute to Edward Gorey

… 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.