Month: February 2012

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.