Twist Collective Closing

Hello friends! You may have heard that Twist Collective will be closing down at the end of the year. What does that mean for all of you who have bought a Twist Collective pattern? Well, it depends on the designer. In my case, I plan on continuing to offer Celestarium through my own store. I've been in contact with Twist Collective and the transition should go smoothly enough that no one will notice any difference.

For those of you who have bought the pattern, I won't have a record of your purchase, but any update made to the pattern will still show up in your ravelry library. Pattern support will move from Twist Collective to me. The fastest way to get help will be by contacting me on my bear-ears ravelry account.

Kelp Forest

As a child, I remember going to the beach in winter after storms had gone through. In California, the kelp grows thick. After a storm, some of the plants would inevitably get uprooted and deposited on the beach. My Mum showed me how the little bladders of air that usually help the kelp aloft in the water could be popped just like bubble wrap. Needless to say, I'd be entertained all the way down the beach. Pop, pop, pop.

The Kelp Forest shawl is inspired by the thick forests kelp that can be found in the waters along the California Coast.The stockinette portion of the shawl is knit side to side with stitches being increased and decrease along one side to stop the "stockinette curl." Once the body of the shawl is knit, stitches along one edge are picked up for the edging. The beginning of the edging has a thin line of stockinette to form the "stem" of the kelp. Then the air bladders are knit in before reaching the thick cabled kelp leaves. The whole shawl ends with a picot bind off which accentuates the mesh background.

Two different, yet similar colors of Mithril from The Verdant Gryphon were used in order to capture the subtle look of light shimmering on the kelp below the water: Forest Clearing and Green Water Snake. Just one color can be used just as easily in this pattern.

Kelp Forest can be found on bear-ears.com, ravelry, and craftsy. 

Being Still

It has been slow going here at the Bear Ears household. After getting better from one illness, another set in. And as I started to recover again, my poor computer developed a crack in its screen. (I was told it was flaw, not something I had done. I knew that. I baby the thing and the crack appeared while sitting quietly watching a video.) All of this occurred right before leaving for a trip we had been planning for a few months. Knowing that there was no way to go on the trip unless I got better, I dropped everything and became still. I'd forgotten how important it is to have times of silence and thoughtfulness. I had run myself down much lower than I had realized. Not just physically, but emotionally and creatively as well. Being sick was a blessing in disguise. 

While being more still, I also was able to finish up a design that has been in the works for the past two years. (Knitting counts as still, right?) It is off with the test knitters at the moment. It is everything I wanted it to be and it only took many months of hair pulling to get it right.

As with everything else that has slowed down, so has the sock knitting. Two months ago I was putting the toe into my Pucker sock (left) and working on the heel of the striped sock (right). I've hardly made it down the leg of either second sock.

I do have a little bit of happy yarn news though... well happy for me. While we were gone on our trip, a new skein of yarn appeared in my mailbox. I purchased it in March and waited to have it dyed. It is the Monopoly Money color way from Desert Vista Dyeworks. It is pretty and I love it. It seems like the kind of future socks that would be great to wear at a game night.

I'm a bit more motivated to get a sock done so that I can play with my new yarn. Mmmm.... new yarn.

We're All Mad In Here Redux

Could it be? I have a FO? After being stalled on all sorts of projects and finding motivation in none, I decided that every day I was going to knit one more stripe in these socks and eventually they would finish themselves. 

The heels match, like usual. I don't care if they laugh at knit night. I'm sure they are just jealous of my self-striping heel matching prowess. 

I've knit these socks before. We're All Mad In Here color way was the first Canon Hand Dyes I ever knit with. Unfortunately they faded. 

The sock on the left is the faded one. It almost looks like it is in shadows compared with the new one on the right.

Here is a close up of the damage. I've since been re-fixing all of my socks to help them resist fading. These were far from the only pair to fade, but because they had been neon, the contrast was much more stark. Luckily the old socks won't go to waste. Mum has found that she not only likes hand knit socks, she likes them even better when they've been worn in. Apparently they are more cozy. That works for me.

The sock on the left is in the Oscar base. The sock on the right is ion the Charles base.

Of course finishing my on-the-go pair of socks meant I could start a new pair. I didn't realized I had been so starved of a new project until I started knitting  this one. I blinked and I'm already at the heel.
The yarn is from Opal's now discontinued Little Prince series, the color is The Geographer, and there is a mildly embarrassing story as to why it needs to be knit now. I bought the skein back in November of 2013. After that I carted it around everywhere I went. I think it even came with me to New Zealand in 2014. Wei Siew saw it and was enchanted, so I found a skein at Stitches 2015 and sent to her. The embarrassing part is that she knit up her socks with her far newer skein before I got around to mine. So I'm knitting them now.

Progress has been steady on my other WIPs. I got more yarn for the shawl I'm designing. I had to unravel a few rows so I could blend the new skein in better. It took some time, but the shawl is now ready to be knit again. The Pucker sock is growing slowly but surely. I am ready to put in the toe on the first sock. (Finally!) I just need some quiet time to figure it out. The toe is a little different than my usual one because the mosaic pattern is 72 stitches around and I need it to be 64 stitches early on. I'm glad I have my Geographer socks to keep me sane while I work on the other two projects that need brain power.
There is one more thing in that photograph that I want to share and it also has a little story. I was reading Alicia's blog and saw a delightful bag. (See the second picture down.) I lusted, but decided I didn't want to buy a kit I wasn't interested in for the bag. The same day while reading Monica's blog that I saw a second bag and lusted over it. (See the third picture down.) After a bit more research I realized that those bags were both made by Jenna Rose. It was going to be a birthday present, but the bag accidentally got sent to our old address. We tried to get it back, but it was long gone. (I hope whoever stole it likes it a whole bunch.) So we ordered a second one. It became more of an anniversary present. It is my new favorite. It sits open really well and, well, I love that Jenna dyes and screen prints the fabric herself.

So that is what is going on in my knitting life. I'm still painting and learning all I can. It is exciting to have a new area in which to be creative.

The Impatient Knitter

It feels like an age since I was able to get something off of the needles. Although after looking at my ravelry page, each of my projects are only 2-3 weeks old.

Pucker: a bit harder than I expected. This is the first sock of the pair.

Logically, if I stick to one project, I will get it done faster. This isn't how "knitting brain" works. Knitting brain says, "You should cast on a new project. All your projects will come off the needles sooner if you do." Knitting brain is dumb and should be ignored.

The first plain vanilla sock in the pair. See those shadowy bars in the image? It's knitting prison. I will be knitting this forever.

Not helping all of this is that the project I've been most diligently knitting on, and was a quarter of the way through, had to be ripped out and redone because my numbers were not coming out right. In this case I added an extra increase in a mysterious location. The pattern is still correct. (Yay!) I still have to be precise when testing my own patterns, so ripping was the only way to go. (Boo!)

This shawl has been in the works for 2 years. If this iteration works out, I will high five myself.

Which White Is Right

Much knitting has been occurring as of late. Drogue is practically knitting itself. I was making the Captain size, but have come to realize that I will run out of the main color a few rows short of the edging, so I will probably do the Boatswain edging instead.

Onopordum is making great strides too. Although like every other sock I have ever knitted, I had a rip a little out. I'm doing the color work portions on US size 1 needles and the plain bits on US size 0 needles. Guess who forgot to switch to the smaller needles when knitting the heel.

I'm looking into what my next project will be and honestly, I still desire color work socks. I've decided on Sheep May Safely Graze with my handspun Enchanted. The question is, which white do I go with? On the left side is plain white Koigu, which has a slightly cooler tone. On the right is a skein of Tosh Sock in the Filtered Light color way that is a warmer cream with speckles. Since I don't have enough handspun, I'm planning to do the cuff, her, and toe out of the white.

Is Filtered Light too busy for the already busy handspun? Or is the plain white too plain for such large areas of knitting. And before someone suggests to use both, I'd rather use one or the other. Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Beyond The Pines and Equatorial Nights

Here we are on the eve of Stitches West 2014, and I'm pleased to announce that I have not one, but two new designs out. First is Beyond The Pines, a shawl inspired by the way light flits along the tops of the trees in the mountains during a sunset.

This top-down shawl is designed in order to use every last bit of yarn. The striped section can be repeated as many times as desired before working the final solid section. It's available on ravelry and bear-ears.com. Also, the sample will be at the Spincycle booth (841).

The second design is a follow up in the star series: Equatorial Nights. This infinity scarf features all the constellations along the celestial equator.

Equatorial Nights can also be found on ravelry and bear-ears.com. This sample will be at Canon Hand Dyes booth (847).

If anyone happens to be going to Stitches West this year, I'll be there every day, so do stop me to say hi. On Friday the 21st, I'll be doing a signing for Lit Knits from 11:30AM-12:30PM at the Purlescence booth. (804,903). Hope to see you all out there.

16 Rows

Just the other day I read an interesting article on Why Procrastinators Procrastinate and the follow up article, How To Beat Procrastination. I really like how the author talks about how each task can be broken down into "bricks." Although I'm not a habitual procrastinator, I do find myself dragging my feet on things when I haven't figured out how to break them down into smaller chunks, or bricks.
I've been working on a new design, but I had a difficult time getting things going, which is why I have the 16 rows rule in place. Before I can do anything fun, I have to knit 16 rows of this shawl. The rule might change to 12 rows since each row is over 200 stitches.

But the design is going well. It uses Spincycle Yarns' Dyed In The Wool in the July, July! color way alongside cascade 220 fingering in mossy rock. But the shawl is designed to look good using handspun or a yarn with long color repeats like mini mochi.

I'm hoping to be done with the knitting in the next week or so. If anyone is interested in testing a shawl out, let me know. The final yardage is to be determined, but I think it will be under 500 yard/ 450 meter range.

Avonlea

Avonlea is the 8th pattern to appear in Lit Knits. The shawl is inspired by L.M. Montgomery's book, Anne of Green Gables which was published in 1908. This was the first pattern I designed for the book, and also ended up being the first one I took pictures of.

Avonlea is meant to be a knitted picture of what Anne saw as she first saw Green Gables. Along the edge of the shawl are ripples of The Lake of Shining Waters. Past the lake is a field of flowers. The flowers go from large to small to create an illusion of distance. After the smallest, and most distant flowers is a picket fence that surrounds the final part of the shawl: Green Gables. There are little windows within each of the gables. The top of the roof is bordered by a stockinette sky.

I was so nervous leading up to the Avonlea shoot. Up until this shoot, I had only used family members or been the model myself for my patterns. I didn't want to seem foolish or inexperienced, despite being friends with the model and lighting assistant. I'd also never done a shoot for a shawl, so I was also pretty worried that all the photos would come out horribly. There were more imagined scenarios of possible failure which I can't remember anymore. But then I took the first picture and all was right in the world.

This is the first picture from the first shoot for Lit Knits

We started out by a tree I had spotted during one of my bike rides. It had a perfect crook for "Anne" to sit and read her book. Thanks to my lighting assistant, there are some behind the scenes photos. First the picture of me taking the picture.

Photo credit to Alina Sayre

Here's one of the resulting photos.

We continued walking along and passed by a nearby lake. At this point we all realized that this could be our "Lake of Shining Waters" since the sun was starting to reflect upon it.

The last photos we got were of the project and the book. Although I knew that this was a shot I wanted to take, I didn't realize how much this shot would influence the rest of the photo shoots. I had thought that some of the "book shots" would also have a model holding the book. This shot proved that I needed to take a picture of just the book and knit (and sometimes prop) all on its own.

Smaug Socks

I finished my Smaug socks! I was hoping to have them completed before The Hobbit movie was released. You know... so I can wear them while seeing The Hobbit.

The yarn is Handmaiden Casbah in what I'm guessing is the Ruby colorway. The pattern is Smaug Socks by my former co-worker, Claire Ellen. (Yes, I'm totally name dropping.) I'm most impressed by Claire's clever integration of the gusset shaping into the tail cabling. If you knit it, you'll see what I'm talking about.

This pattern was really fun to knit. I ended up having to rip back a bit to add an extra inch. No fault of the pattern. It's just a personal preference and I didn't really pay attention to the length the pattern said it would be. The pattern was accurate. I was not. But it didn't matter because these socks were so much fun to knit, it didn't feel like a chore. I did need a bit of quiet when I got to the heel. It might be easier for people who are use to heel flaps, but my default is a short row heel. Regardless, I'm extremely happy with how these turned out.

Unfortunately, when I cast off the Smaug Socks, I found myself without any knitting. That's right. I had nothing on the needles. Not even secret designs. Current secret designs are in the math/swatch/graphing stages.
My November list of knitting is done, so I have started in on my December list. As an aside, anyone who might be curious as to how I stay on track with knitting: I make a monthly list of knitting and assign myself a daily knitting quota. If there isn't a hard deadline, I don't push myself. But I also don't cast on more than 3 projects total.
This looks like a pile of noodles, but it is the beginning of the Rock Island shawl by Jared Flood. All going well, it will be gifted in January.

Rock Island will get easier after I get past the edging. But the edging takes a bit more concentration, so I've also cast on a pair of Skyp socks. The yarn is Socks That Rock lightweight in the colorway Puck's Mischief. 

I think I might be turning into Andi. It seems wrong not to have a sock on the needles. She's also the reason I chose the pattern. Her pair of Sir Isaac Lime Skyps made me want my own. Well, that and if I finished this skein, I won't have any more Socks That Rock. That means I can buy more in February when I go to Stitches West... right? It's totally reasonable.

Green Gables Preview

I've been quite the little worker bee since my last post. I'm happy to say that I finished knitting my very first shawl pattern, which is inspired by Anne of Green Gables. I'm now hard at work writing it all up. I can't wait to show it off (and for those of you who have seen me in person, I haven't waited to show it off) But for the rest of you all, I thought I'd give a tiny sneak peek.

Shawl Setback

For the past few days, I was chugging along on my first shawl design. It was going so well I thought I might even finish knitting the sample by Wednesday. Unfortunately, I've had a bit of a setback.

The effect I wanted (which looked great on paper) has not translated well onto a full size knit. So I will be ripping around 40 rows of knitting. 40 rows. I was supremely pissed at myself for not admitting that the design wasn't working earlier. I kept telling myself, "In a few more rows, it should look better." HA. Not so.

So I've printed more graph paper and will be changing a large part of the design. I'm fairly confident that it will go better this time. In the least, I do have cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.