freeform child sweater

I'm hoping to complete a little sweater for Emma for Christmas. The yarns have been sitting around, I chose them a while ago. Here are a few bits that I've started. So far, I haven't made a garment with the freeform style because it's just kind of intimidating. But a child's sweater seems like a good way to start. After I get a few more pieces done, I'll cut out a paper pattern to fit Emma, then start arranging the pieces.

monkeys invade Wilmington

These little monkeys were ready for a day of shopping in Wilmington, NC on Friday. The purple Jitterbugs are mine, and the blue Discos are my mom's. I think the monkeys made our feet happy during all that walking!

freeform workshop at Cozy

Last night I taught a freeform workshop at Cozy, and the 5 ladies in the class really did a great job. In the 3 hour workshop, we made scrumbles following my instruction sheet. That doesn't sound very freeform, I know, but all it takes is a little guidance to get started freeforming, then people just take off. Even though everyone had the same instructions, you can see that each piece shows the personality of the artist.

It may be hard to differentiate between all of the scrumbles because I shoved them close together for the picture, but starting at the lower right corner and working clockwise we have Diane's lovely mix of browns and blues, Martha's expert blend of fall colors, Carol's highly textured greens and purples, Jane's delicate garden colors with pastels and purples, and Dare's fabulous monochromatic collection of greens.

In these workshops I don't usually spend any time talking about combining colors because there's just so much other information to get through, but this group seemed to have a excellent sense of using colors together already. The photos really don't do the pieces justice, but I think they made very artistic choices with their yarns.

I look forward to seeing what these ladies do with freeform in the future!

more hats

The hats, they just keep coming! These are for Ben (the red) and Baylee (the orange), and hopefully sized appropriately. I used the Yarn Harlot's general sizing information from her book "Knitting Rules." I think they'll work.....

another hat

Love, love, love this yarn. It's the chunky weight Malabrigo merino wool. I wanted to make one more hat for Judy--a girl needs a little variety, after all. Last night I cast on, and this morning I finished it up. The pattern is Margaret Urban's, written especially for Chunky Malabrigo (one hank only!) and is available at Cozy free when you purchase the yarn.
Both hats (this one and the navy one from the last post) will be mailed to Aunt Judy today.

couple of small things

So in the past few days I've finished this navy blue hat for Aunt Judy,



these half-finger gloves for Randy,


and started this unusual scarf for a shop model at Cozy. Gift knitting continues!







Edit: Tracy points out, and rightly so, that I didn't give any details about these projects, so here goes. The hat is just a basic "make-it-up-as-you-go-along" sort of thing. The gloves are from Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick. The scarf is from Norah Gaughan's Berocco booklet from this season called something like Urban Stories. Lots of cool things in there. The scarf is called Luce, and it calls for Pure Merino Nuance, but I'm using Malabrigo Merino Worsted because it's so yummy. Nothing against PM Nuance.

instant gratification

Today I was organizing some knitting stuff, and I came across an old project: some log cabin freeform squares that I had sewn up into a reversible bag with knitted handles. It was cute, but not functional. Besides being a little bulky, it didn't have any structural support. Just a bunch of layers of knitting.

I took it apart, separated the layers to make 2 bags instead of 1, and was going to put in some lining when I realized that the denim bags that I had stashed away were the perfect size to become liners!

I haven't actually stitched the knitting to the denim, but that will just take a few minutes. Instant gratification!

More workshop pics and some more finished socks

Finished Sockinas! Hooray! It's about time....








Here are Brandon's sample swatches from Saturday's workshop. Notice that I did not put them in the same post as my own swatch to avoid comparisons! I really like both of these swatches.






I fell in love with this scarf Saturday. It's made with the magic ball method. He told us about the project even though it's technically a different workshop, so we got a bonus. Basically, you tie odd lengths of yarn together to make your own variegated yarn, then you knit from it in the fair isle pattern and let the colors fall where they may. I'm going to try the method and make a bag at some point.
He also brought samples of sweaters from his newer book. Here's the cover sweater, and below, Brandon models one of the vests himself.

celebrity sighting

The knitting workshop wasn't my only big activity this past weekend. On Sunday I had an orchestra job in Raleigh playing for the Regis Philbin/Susan Lucci concert. I didn't know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. They both sang, which was enjoyable, but the best part was the talking and chatting in between numbers. Talk about being at ease in front of a crowd! No beta-blockers for these two. After the concert, Krista and I got our friend Alan to take our picture with Regis, who was nice enough to pose with us. Yes, I do find it a bit discouraging that I have lots more gray hair than Regis.

color workshop

This weekend I went to a knitting color workshop taught by Brandon Mably of the Kaffe Fassett design studio. I've been to this same workshop 6 years ago with Brandon, but I didn't do so well. When I saw he'd be back again, I decided to sign up.

Our homework was to knit a 10" swatch of stockinette stitch in random fair isle patterns using our favorite colors. At the beginning of the class, Brandon looked at each swatch and talked about how the colors might look different, depending on what colors were beside them. He tried not to criticize, but we could tell which ones he liked and which ones he didn't! I was pleased that he liked my variety of purple yarns in this swatch of little squares.


Our assignment during class was to choose a postcard of a painting from his collection, then to choose yarns in the colors represented in the painting. From there we were to knit a swatch using those colors in the tumbling blocks pattern and work on making the colors work together. Within each section, colors were to graduate from one to the next. Between sections, we were to group colors by dark, medium and light to get sufficient contrast. This was harder than it sounds. Here's the blurry picture of my finished swatch from class, and below it is the postcard I used. Since I've been doing freeform, I've been able to blend colors together so freely, since the pieces aren't joined until you're ready. In this style of knitting, there was a bit more planning involved. I found it to be more restrictive, but that wasn't necessarily bad, just different. I really like the smooth nature of stockinette stitch knitting, and I want to do a project with the ideas I had during the class. More about that later.








Before lunch, he pinned all of the swatches in progress to the wall with their postcards so we could do an early analysis of the color work. He instructed us to step away often from the knitting to see it from a distance. All the better to see how the colors interact.


You can see in the picture that he spoke briefly about each one, praising what was going well, and At the end of the day, he pinned up the finished swatches and did an overview of each one. The last time I did this workshop, my swatch was rather pathetic (and no, I don't think I still have it) and his comments were encouraging, but I didn't feel very good about the project. This time, Success! Maybe I'm a student of repetition?


Lastly, the Sockina socks are almost ready to wear. Soon! Soon!