Briney Deep Designs

Pattern Parade

2012-02-08T13:09:00.113-06:00

Some exciting pattern collections have found their way into my home in the last month and they're definitely worth posting about on the blog. The first group includes both Whimsical Little Knits 3 (WLK3) and Saturday Treat, which should satisfy all of my readers who I've infected with Ysolda fever.

The two books focus on accessories such as scarves, hats, and mittens, though WLK3 has 9 patterns to Saturday Treat's 6. Each collection has a pattern that I can't wait to knit (Not-so-tiny slippers and Sherbet Lemon, respectively), though I personally prefer more of the Saturday Treat patterns. The two collections are currently available as book/ebook sets and not as individual patterns, so it may be worth waiting to buy if you only want a pattern or two from each collection.

My other new patterns come from indie sewing designer Colette patterns. Their patterns have a slightly vintage feel to them and, based on the photos from the Colette Flickr group, are very flattering to many types of figures. I've also read a bunch of reviews saying that their pattern instructions are very clear. Between these sewing patterns and my new Ysolda books, I am looking forward to a lot of happy crafting!

The Anatomy of a Sewing Machine

2012-01-31T13:59:00.126-06:00

I pulled out my sewing machine manual the other day to read up on its zipper foot and stumbled upon a few pages dedicated to maintenance. Apparently, you're supposed to remove lint and oil the machine on a regular basis, which certainly hasn't been happening since I came into possession of this machine. However, since I've decided to sew more often, I think it's time to learn this important process.

To clean and oil a sewing machine, you need the following items:

- The manual; this very important guide outlines the steps to clean and oil your particular machine
- A lint brush
- A Swiffer cloth if you haven't removed dust and lint in a while
- Sewing machine oil
- Sewing machine lubricant
- Screwdrivers
- Anything else outlined by your manual

The first step in machine maintenance is removing dust and lint, both on the surface and behind different plates. Your manual will tell you which plates to remove for dusting. I used my Swiffer cloth to get rid of the big dust bunnies and the lint brush to eliminate dust in small, delicate spaces. This type of maintenance should be done every week.

After dusting, it's onto routine oiling. For me, this consists of putting a drop of oil in the bobbin housing (above) and in several places on the top of the machine (below); the exact locations are detailed in the manual. Like dusting, oiling my machine needs to be done on a weekly basis.

My machine also requires oil and lubricant on a monthly basis in entirely different locations. Be careful not to mix oil and lubricant, as different parts of the machine should not be oiled. This process required me to tip everything over to expose and oil the underside of the machine (below), which was pretty cool.

The final step of maintenance is running some scrap fabric through the machine in case any oil leaks onto the stitching area. Overall, the dusting, oiling, and lubricating process took me just over 30 minutes; it should go faster in the future, now that I am familiar with the layout in my machine. I can already tell that my machine is running better and I hope that with regular care, my 40-year-old machine will run for another 40 years.

Teaser

2012-01-24T13:02:00.034-06:00

I'm currently working on a new pattern and am deep in the editing process. This involves making the written pattern accurate and readable, as well as knitting up a second sample of the pattern. As I haven't written up a pattern in many months, I'm rather enjoying the process.

While I'm doing a lot of number crunching on on my end, I thought I would share a couple photos of the pattern with you:

Have you figured out what it is yet? Would another photo help?

Okay, so I totally admit to teasing you. I will say that the pattern is written for DK-weight yarn and that the prototype (the first photo) was done in buffalo yarn and the test knit (second photo) is being worked in handspun. These are going to be some very special handknits when all is said and done.

Sew Lovely

2012-01-17T12:49:00.083-06:00

I wasn't joking in last week's blog post when I said I've been bitten hard by the sewing bug. Though I started with a simple bag project, I've quickly moved onto clothing and I don't anticipate putting away my sewing machine anytime soon. Thankfully, I found a cute and easy pattern to help with the transition from a small bag to a wearable object.

I made this dress in the two days following my adventure with the box bag and I'm super pleased that it looks decent and actually fits! I was lucky to have the pattern (Vogue V8184) and the fabric (Betty Dear "Aqua Floral" cotton print by Robert Kaufman) already on hand, so I could easily satisfy my growing desire to sew. Too bad we just got about 5 inches of snow, so I won't actually be wearing this dress for a while.

Perhaps the best part about this project was the process, which refreshed my memory on how to cut pattern pieces, follow an easy-grade pattern, and insert a zipper (thankfully, I finally found my sewing machine's zipper foot but not until after I put this zipper in... oh well). I also learned how to insert boning (to support the bodice) and experimented with detailing on the seams (shown above). I'm now feeling more comfortable with the whole process and I'm ready to tackle a slightly more challenging sewing project.

I've already bought fabric for this next project (another dress) and have plans to do a lot more sewing in the future. Don't worry, I'm also working on an exciting knitting project which I'm looking forward to sharing with you soon. Just don't be surprised if you see more sewing projects along with knitting projects in future blog posts.

Bitten

2012-01-10T12:58:00.058-06:00

I was bitten by the sewing bug this week. Sewing is something I've been thinking about for a good while now but I've never been motivated enough to actually dig out my machine. Two things changed this recently: (1) I cleaned out my crafting area which freed my sewing machine from behind a pile of books; and (2) I received this beautiful little sewing book, Everyday Handmade, from my mother-in-law for Christmas.

This book has a variety of cute projects in it, from a jackalope (on the cover) to a messenger bag to a Kindle cover. Many of the projects caught my eye, but I settled on making a box bag because it seemed very achievable for someone who hasn't done any serious sewing in years. And it turned out to be a very fun back-to-sewing project, even if my corners didn't end up completely square.

Part of the appeal of this project is how little fabric it required--only 2 fat quarters plus a little more for the zipper edging--allowing me to use up some anchor-themed fabric I've been hoarding since college. I even had some nautical fabric on hand for a perfect inner lining. Between the fabric, the red and blue thread, and all of the little details in the pattern, this project is a winner.

I've already followed up on the box bag with a second sewing project, but I will save that for a later post. Until then, I want to thank my mother-in-law for jump-starting my motivation to sew!

The Big Holiday Project Revealed

2012-01-04T13:49:00.031-06:00

I'm finally back from all the holiday travels and have settle in enough to start thinking about knitting in the new year. But before I start blogging about knitting, I want to show off the big holiday gift that my husband, brother-in-law, and I made in December!

Husband found plans for this lamp in his woodworking magazine and somehow I got roped into doing my first attempts at stained glass in the week before Christmas. (Next year, I really need to get my husband to not wait until the last minute to make huge gifts.) Still, for a last-minute venture, I think this lamp and its partner turned out very well and I think my sister-in-law and her husband really like them.

As interesting as doing stained glass was, I'm excited to get back to knitting, especially now that I've cleaned off my craft desk and stored all of my yarn in its new home. I'm also hoping to do some sewing in 2012, so I look forward to blogging about lots of interesting projects in the future!

Let it Snow!

2011-12-20T14:41:00.000-06:00

I woke up on Saturday morning to discover a winter wonderland had sprung up overnight. It's only a of couple inches, but considering it's a week before Christmas, this snow is long overdue. It wouldn't be Wisconsin if it didn't snow from December through March.

Along with the first snow of the season, I put my bicycle away for the year and checked on the status of my heavy winter gear. My hats, gloves, scarves, and long johns passed muster, but my mittens are in a sorry state. As I wear the mittens over the gloves, it is important that I have a hole-less pair to keep my fingers cozy this winter.

I'm looking forward to knitting myself a new pair after I finished the Christmas knitting. And can I say how challenging it is to write blog posts in December because of said holiday knitting? Quite challenging. There is so much going on but so little to talk about! I'm looking forward to showing off those projects after the holidays, along with, hopefully, a new pair of mittens.

Christmas Catalog

2011-12-13T13:14:00.052-06:00

Between the craziness of end of the semester projects and preparation for the holidays, my craft area exploded this week. I'm a little embarrassed to show you all just how bad it is.

To be fair, it's only this bad because my usual craft storage area was displaced by my early Christmas gift, this lovely piece of furniture:

The main library at my university is retiring the last of its card catalogs and they're all going up for sale at the university surplus shop. I'm lucky to own this little piece of university history, especially because I've wanted a card catalog for a long time. Plus, I now have new storage space for my craft supplies and other items.

So in addition to homework and shopping, I now have to find time to reorganize my craft supplies. And I'm hoping to find some time in there to actually craft! Thank goodness I'll have some days off over the holidays.

Meet the New Coraline

2011-11-29T13:38:00.025-06:00

I finished my Coraline sweater over Thanksgiving weekend and I'm extremely pleased with the results. I think it was worth all of the ripping and reknitting, as it's now stylistically akin to some of my very favorite sweaters and much more flattering than the original cardigan version.

The rework wasn't an entirely smooth process; I ended up knitting the hem about 3 times before I got it right. I finally settled on a [K1, P2] rib on needles 2 sizes smaller than what I used for the body. I've never used smaller needles for a hem before, but they made a huge difference in terms of fit and crispness of the rib. I don't think I'll ever go back to knitting sweaters with only one needle size.

Overall, I'm glad I was able to find extra yarn to rework this sweater, especially because the sweater now features my favorite 3/4-length sleeves. Still, I need to be more careful in the future about picking flattering styles to begin with. From here on out, I'd like to avoid the guilt of never wearing a handknit sweater and the hassle of reworking said sweater into a better style.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T12:45:00.022-06:00

I hope all of my American readers had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday! Husband and I are enjoying some time with my family, though I'm not sure what he's enjoying more: the company, the food, or the James Bond marathon on Dad's big TV (I think it's the last one). Personally, I'm happy to have a few days off to catch up on things, such as schoolwork and knitting.

The extra free time has been very beneficial, as my sweater is finished and soaking even as I write this. The state of the sleeves evidences how necessary this soak is; you can clearly tell which stitches were part of the original sweater, which stitches were knit with curly just-frogged yarn, and which stitches were added with smooth yarn. I can't wait to try the sweater on once things smooth out!

Hemming and Hawing

2011-11-17T14:33:00.005-06:00

I'm getting near the bottom hem of my Coraline sweater, but I haven't made enough progress since my last post to to bother with a new photo. Instead, you're getting a silly photo of my husband and I after his sister's wedding last Saturday. As you can tell from the picture, the wedding was a lot of fun!

I'm hoping to have the body of the sweater done by next week, which means I have to quickly decide on a hem. The original sweater had a [K1, P1] hem, but I'm considering a folded hem or a [K1, P2] hem. Either way, I think the hem needs to be deeper than the one inch it was previously. If you have any thoughts on hems, I would love to hear them!

Coraline Progress

2011-11-09T13:53:00.019-06:00

It's a busy week here at the Briney Deep. I've had a couple big assignments due for class and I'm looking forward to being in my sister-in-law's wedding on Saturday. Luckily, I've had something mindless to work on to keep me from getting too stressed.

I've made a lot of progress on the new body of my Coraline sweater, especially because I can knit in stockinette and read for class at the same time. Thank goodness for multitasking or I would never get any knitting done.

Coraline Revisited

2011-11-02T12:42:00.024-05:00

I had a serendipitous moment this weekend while I was waiting for a store to open up: I popped into the nearby yarn shop to kill time and stumbled upon the exact type and color of yarn I've been actively trying to find. This fortuitous event means that I can finally modify my Coraline sweater into something that I'll actually wear.

I mentioned in a recent blog post that I need to lengthen this sweater's sleeves, but I've also decided to convert the sweater from a cardigan into a pullover. This style is more flattering for my body-type, which favors a defined waist and an open neckline. As I constructed the sweater from the top-down, both the body-type and sleeve modifications should be fairly easy to execute.

To begin this process, I ripped the body back to just below the arm divide. I'm leaving the yoke split above this point, partly to keep the modifications simple and partly because the plunging neckline will be flattering. From here, I will reknit the body back downward, but this time in the round.

A secondary part of this process will be 'finishing' my frogged yarn to remove the kinks it accumulated while knit up into the sweater. It's a time-consuming step, but I think it will make a difference in the gauge of the final sweater. All told, these modifications will be some work, but I have high hopes for how everything will turn out.

Baby Play-Book

2011-10-26T12:38:00.067-05:00

A few of my knitting friends recently got together to make a baby gift for a mutual friend who is expecting. Our first thought was to make a blanket, as there were 6 of us contributing, but dealing with gauge issues just to give mom another baby blanket seemed like more of a hassle than a blanket was worth. In the end, we settled on creating a soft play-book.

The play book turned out to be a great idea. Everyone made a roughly 8-inch square out of machine-washable yarn of any color using any stitch pattern. The 'pages' were then sewn to a garter stitch 'binding' (with one ridge of garter binding per page) to create the book. And because my friend M could not resist, she added safety eyes and ties to make it look like the 'Monster Book of Monsters' from Harry Potter.

The best part of this project was that the contributed squares were so different. My friend J added pockets to her square and filled them with sea creatures (above). Another friend did an intarsia square. My square was a boring knit-purl design that turned out too big. But in the end, the jumble of colors, sizes, and designs just made this book a better toy.

The mom-to-be loved it. While the baby won't be playing with this book for a little while, I expect that it will amuse someone in the meantime; you're never to old to enjoy a non-lethal copy of 'The Monster Book of Monsters'.

Finishing Handspun

2011-10-20T12:29:00.006-05:00

As for many knitted objects, 'finishing' is the final step in creating handspun; finishing sets the twist and gives the yarn a finished look and feel. Since I wrote about the blocking process for handknits a while ago, I thought I should follow up with the process for finishing handspun.

This photo shows a recently handspun skein just after it came off of my spindle. You can tell that my yarn is not very smooth and still wants to twist a bit. This most likely results from residual twist in the yarn, which can be unevenly distributed throughout the skein

The first step in finishing handspun is the same as for finishing handknits: soaking. I fill up my bathroom sink with warm water and a generous squirt of Soak. I immerse my yarn in the water, being careful not to agitate it and thus felt it, and let everything sit for half an hour.

The next step is my favorite part of the cleaning process, which is unfortunately not pictured: thwacking. I do this either by holding one end of the skein and throwing the rest against the side of the tub, or by grabbing the skein at both ends and pulling tightly. Thwacking helps redistribute twist and even out the yarn, so I do it several times while holding the yarn in different places. Then I hang the skein over the tub, unweighted, to air dry.

That is the whole process! You can see from the finished result that the yarn is much smoother than it was at the beginning of this process. As long as you've done a fair job of balancing the twist during plying, this finishing process should smooth out any residual twist in your handspun.

Knit One Knit All

2011-10-11T13:24:00.101-05:00

My discussion of short-rows and their execution in garter stitch from last week seems to be a natural segue into a review of the new Elizabeth Zimmerman (EZ) book, Knit One Knit All. If you've never read an EZ book, get thee to a library and pick up a copy; Knitting Around and The Opinionated Knitter are my favorites. The focus of this latest EZ book is patterns that maximize knitting and minimize purling. Needless to say, garter stitch takes center stage here.

Not all of the patterns in this book use short rows, but a lot of the more innovative ones do. Patterns like the Ambidextrous Mittens, Sideways Gloves (below), and Brimmed Hat - Panache [Ravelry links] all make use of this technique. EZ is a master of creative construction and these patterns demonstrate the type of outside-of-the-box design that EZ was renowned for.

Beyond accessories, sweater and vest patterns make up the other large portion of this book. Again, you find uniquely constructed knits such as the Mitered Cardigan (below), Suspender Sweater, and New Zealand Pullover [Ravelry links]. The neat thing about a lot of these sweaters is that different parts of the sweater are oriented in different directions (for example, the front panel is vertical garter stitch while the garter stitch in the back panel is horizontal). The best part is that, since these are EZ designs, there will be minimal seaming.

Overall, I would say that this is another excellent EZ book but isn't quite a stranded-on-a-desert-island-with-only-one-knitting-book book like some of her other titles. Still, given the focus nature of the patterns, there is some pretty innovative stuff within these pages; there was a lot of oohing and aahing the first time I flipped through this book. So even if you don't buy this book, you should definitely borrowing a copy from your local library.

The Short-row Shuffle

2011-10-04T12:42:00.081-05:00

Like a lot of knitters, I was intimidated by the concept of short rows until I did them for the first time and realize that they are not that bad. I've since used them on an Elijah, my Vivian sweater, and my Lightweight Mountains Peaks shawl. They are really not that difficult and are quite helpful in certain situations.

You work short rows by knitting part of a row, anchoring the yarn, then turning the work around and knitting back to the start of the row. This effectively lengthens one side of your knitting more than another, which is useful in a variety of cases. For example, in the case of Elijah, short rows were used to shape the ears; for Vivian, they were used to raise the neckline in the back of the sweater; and in the lace shawl, short rows helped turn the corner of the edging.

The key to short rows in anchoring your working yarn. If you do not anchor, you end up with a little hole where you've basically created a hard edge where there shouldn't be one. You anchor the yarn by doing a wrap and turn (w+t): knit the desired number of stitches, slip the next stitch with yarn in back,bring yarn to front and turn the work (yarn is in back again after turning), slip that stitch again, then knit to the end of the row. Basically, you've wrapped the working yarn around an extra stitch to anchor the yarn to the fabric and avoid creating a hard edge.

The real confusion about short rows comes from what to do with that wrap when you next encounter it. Techknitter gives a nice run down of several options of what to do at this point, so I advise you to head over there for the best explanation. For the purpose of this blog post, I'll highlight what I do with wraps in garter stitch: I simply ignore them. The wraps look like purl bumps and blend seamlessly into the fabric.

If you want to learn short rows for the first time, I advise you to start in garter stitch, so you don't have to worry about hiding the wraps. I recommend making a pair of Garter Stitch Mitts (that's the pair I just finished, above), which is a cute free pattern that uses wrap and turns to do most of the shaping. Once you feel comfortable with the 'wrap and turns', it won't be any problem to tackle other short row methods that hide the wraps in fabrics like stockinette.

Rarely Worn Sweaters

2011-09-27T12:56:00.097-05:00

I cleaned out my closet a few weeks ago and sent a bunch of clothes I don't wear to the local charity shop. I was very thorough with this process, sorting through my shoes, sweaters, and books as well as my clothing. This lead me to the dilemma of what to do with the handknit sweaters that I never wear.

My pile of rarely worn handknit sweaters is embarrassingly large. While I love all of these knits, their main problem is that they're not very flattering styles for my figure. After consulting with some friends on Ravelry, I've decided that these sweaters should be frogged and reknit into things that I will actually wear and enjoy. While my plans for all this yarn are not yet formed, I do think that my February Lady sweater is destined to become a stylish Beatnik sweater.

In addition to sending some sweaters to the frog pond, I've also set my Coraline sweater aside for some much-needed alterations; I will be lengthening the sleeves and moving the closure to a more flattering location. Thank goodness I knit the sleeves from the top down, so this won't be a terribly difficult process.

I hope to avoid this rarely-worn-sweater problem in the future by being more careful about the sweater patterns I choose to knit.

Falling Back in Love

2011-09-20T14:16:00.051-05:00

In June, I wrote a blog post about how my desire to knit diminished after I defended my PhD and started a more regular job. At the time, I was happy enough to have time to read for pleasure and generally enjoy life after grad school to worry about my knitting. The ironic thing is that since I started my new grad program at the beginning of September, my desire to knit has gone back up!

Perhaps it's because my time is now much in demand that I force myself to carve out 20 minutes a day for pleasurable things like knitting. Either way, I'm proud to have knocked out this Snapdragon Tam in under two weeks. Even though it's not as slouchy as I would have liked, it at least proves that the knitting mojo has returned!

Also fueling my returned desire to craft is my recent acquisition of a Bosworth spindle. After hearing so many people rave about these spindles, I was not disappointed when I finally spun on one. I'm looking forward to putting a lot of yardage on this spindle to really get a feel for how it performs. I may be busy, but at least there are plenty of exciting things happening on the crafting-to-keep-me-sane front.

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool 2011

2011-09-13T13:38:00.054-05:00

I made the trip to Wisconsin Sheep & Wool again this year (see last year's post on Sheep & Wool). This festival is such a nice mixture of shopping, catching up with friends, and seeing a variety of sheep, that it always makes for a good time. Additionally, I went to the 'Unwind' afterparty, which boasted over a hundred Ravelry members and their friends. All in all, it was a great trip.

A few of the more interesting things I saw this year included dog whistle trials (above) and sheep judging. The dog trials were very entertaining to watch and I was amazed by how well some of the dog/owner pairs work together to herd a group of sheep. The sheep judging was also interesting, though much more sedate. I particularly enjoyed watching the judging of a 'family' category--a ram, a ewe, and their offspring lamb are judged as a group, with preference given to breeding that shows improvement in the younger sheep as compared to its parents. These are the type of events that I wish were at the Wisconsin State Fair.

I did come home with a very small amount of fiber: 4 oz of Tussah silk. I exercised a lot of restraint because I'm saving my money up to buy a Bosworth spindle. I'm really looking forward to trying this new-to-me fiber type on my brand new spindle.

And finally, I'm leaving you with the requisite silly picture of a sheep. This ram was quite a large gentleman (his head was at the level of my waist) and he had the most wonderful set of horns. We saw a lot of sheep at the festival, but this guy was the most impressive.

Tsumami Kanzashi Follow-Up

2011-09-06T13:32:00.000-05:00

I had such a good response from my post about kanzashi that I wanted to update you on some new projects. First of all, let me say that a friend of mine who is familiar with Japanese culture informed me that the proper term for these flowers is 'tsumami'. Apparently kanzashi only refers to the hair ornaments, though it seems to be the term that most western crafters have adopted for these flowers. I will try to use the term tsumami from here on, so as to be correct as possible.

Since I posted last, I've been making more fabric flowers using the templates. I even took the templates to knitting night with friends, which went over well. I don't expect to get tired of these any time soon.

The other thing I've been working on is paper tsumami. This is particularly a way to deal with the junk mail we get every week, particularly those hated Shopper Stoppers. First of all, let me state that the templates do not work well with paper. Instead, I followed the folding instructions laid out in 'Kanzashi in Bloom' to make paper petals.

The only petals that seem to work well in paper are the rounded petals. The other petals are too flat because the paper creases so easily, though the rounded petals need a little manipulation by hand to get the final effect. Still, I really like how the flowers look, especially the small ones. Who would have guessed that these are made from sales fliers?

A New Project

2011-08-30T13:57:00.044-05:00

I'm happy to announce that I am undertaking a new venture this fall: I will be starting work on a Masters in Library and Information Studies!

I came to the realization after finishing my PhD in chemistry, that I'd rather be working with chemical information and other chemists than be working in the lab myself. I'm particularly interested in the challenges associated with cataloging and saving research data, which has prompted me to enroll in a library science program so that I can learn all of the standard practices in this field.

While this is a great thing for me in the long-term, I'm not sure of how this will affect my blog in the short-term. So for the next few months, my priority will be to post every other week instead of once a week. I hope to still post at my current once-a-week rate, but I'm giving myself some leeway should the blog need to give way to real life. Thanks for understanding and I am really looking forward to having a great autumn!

Baby Knitting, Episode 2

2011-08-23T14:08:00.088-05:00

I'm currently preparing for the next wave of friend's babies. I always like knitting for these new arrivals, in part because I like giving handmade gifts and in part because these knits are usually quick projects. For the last baby-wave, my go-to gift was a hat paired with baby booties but this time I'm having fun with other small baby-friendly patterns.

One of these patterns is Smith by Ysolda Teague. Given how I feel about this designer, it is difficult to part with this toy but I'm sure that the baby (or at least its mother, who is also a knitter) is going to love this little guy. Adding weight to my decision to part with this toy is the fact that it's one of the most baby-friendly toys I've knit; the spikes are knitted securely onto the body and I took care to needle felt on the eyes instead of using buttons, which could be a choking hazard. I suspect that I will be knitting more Smiths for babies in the future.

The other baby pattern I recently knit was the Sourball Bonnet, which is available for free on Ravelry. I made this particular bonnet out of some handspun and I particularly like the way that it looks knit up in feather and fan. The pattern is excellent, but I prefer the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap pattern because I think it is more gender-neutral.

Between the toy and the bonnet, I am done with baby knitting in the short term, though I think I will keep knitting wee patterns in anticipation of baby wave 3.

Fairly Beautiful Beads

2011-08-16T13:08:00.118-05:00

I have a special place in my heart for the state fair, having grown up going to the Ohio State Fair every summer. And while I've lived in Wisconsin for the past 6 years, I just made my very first visit to the Wisconsin State Fair. To be honest, I was hoping for more agriculture and displays of blue-ribbon quilts,etc, but at least I got to try one of the famous cream puffs. I got cream overload about 3 bites in so I'm glad I split it with my friend.

While I did not come home with any Sham-wows or a new kitchen knife from the exhibition hall, I did pick up several strands of gemstone beads. Most of the beads were $8 a strand, but we found some really nice strands in a sale bin at 4 for $10. For someone who loves gemstones and has been looking for a sizeable (but not too large) gemstone necklace for a while, this deal was too good to pass up.

The very evening I got home from the fair, I dusted off my beading supplies and proceeded to make the beads into four necklaces. I strung everything onto tiger tail wire and used a crimp bead to secure toggles to the end of each strand. They are fairly simple necklaces, but I think that beauty of the beads speaks for itself.

These necklaces were just what I was looking for, both in terms of bead diameter and strand length. Plus, I have some leftover beads to play with since each necklace took about 1.5 strands. Between my love of gemstones and my love of a good deal, I couldn't be happier with my new jewelry!

Kanzashi

2011-08-10T12:49:00.077-05:00

Let me introduce you to my latest crafting obesession: kanzashi. Kanzashi is the Japanese art of folding flower petals, an art form which was originally used to create elaborate hairpieces. This technique first came to my attention a few years ago with the publication of Kanzashi in Bloom, but it wasn't until Clover came out with these clever kanzashi-makers (Fabric Depot is running a nice sale on them) that I decided to give the technique a try.

I have only made kanzashi with the Clover templates but they produce nice results and I love that they're dead easy to use. You simply fold the template over a piece of fabric, trim the excess, then run a needle and thread through the template holes in the indicated order (see the templates in action here). You can string together any number of petals on the same thread and when you pull the thread tight and knot the two ends--voila--instant flower! I can easily knock together several of these flowers in one sitting.

I'm looking forward to more experimenting and eventually making kanzashi without the aid of a template. I aspire to someday make kanzashi half as lovely as what is on the 'Gaijin Geisha' page of this website, but in the meantime I'm happy making some simple flowers.

The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook

2011-08-02T13:04:00.001-05:00

I borrowed this gem of a book from my local public library and just had to rave about it to you. It's the type of book that I love the most--a book that is filled with a vast amount of information on a relatively focused topic. In the case of 'The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook', that topic is wool as viewed through the lens of a spinner and knitter/crocheter.

The first thing that struck me about this book is its thoroughness; 'The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook' reviews over 200 types of fiber-producing animals, the vast majority of which are sheep breeds. Not only is there information on common breeds like Merino and Blue-Faced Leicester, but the book is also full of conservation breeds that I've never heard of before, such as Manx Loaghtan and Devon Closewool. A helpful table, below, compares all of these sheep breeds by their fiber softness and even recommends types of projects for each category (ie, scarves for soft wool and carpets for coarse wool).

Beyond the book's breed thoroughness, the written and photographic information about each animal is excellent. The authors describe each breed in terms of geography and what they were bred for, in addition to describing the characteristics and preparation of their fleeces. Sample fibers from every animal described in this book have been hand spun and woven/knit up. The written descriptions are accompanied by a photograph of the animal and photographs of sample fiber. Occasionally, the authors also include an interesting story relating to a particular breed, such as that of Shrek the Sheep (Merino).

What's great about this book is that it's very detailed yet focused for the fiber artist. The authors have struck a nice balance between gaining an understanding of individual breeds and learning about the different properties of their wool. While the authors state that their limited sampling cannot predict the behavior of an entire breed, they provide enough information so that you will generally know what to expect should you encounter fiber from a rare sheep breed.

I can't recommend this book enough to knitters and spinners who want to learn more about the range of animal fibers available to them. It's an interesting read and one that will teach you a lot about wool. I have a feeling that this book will eventually make its way onto my bookshelf as my library's 4-week borrowing period is just not enough time to get to know this wonderful resource.

Tour de Fleece Recap

2011-07-27T13:57:00.060-05:00

If Tour de Fleece was like its cycling equivalent, then I crashed out of the race in the final week. Luckily, there is no permanent injury, just a case of real life concerns getting in the way of finishing. Still, I'm happy with my final four skeins of yarn and that fact that I tackled a new spinning technique this month! Tour de Fleece is definitely something I will be doing again.

In other news, you may have noticed the new look of my blog header. I found this great how-to via CRAFT and was inspired to update my header imagery. It was very simple to put together--in fact, the hardest part of the whole thing was choosing the photos! It feels good to do a little cleaning up on my blog, even if I'm still getting used to the new look.

The End of an Era

2011-07-20T14:13:00.143-05:00

It's been an awesome Harry Potter week for me, mostly because the final Potter movie was released and I thought it was wonderful. Part of my joy in seeing this movie came from dressing up as a Ravenclaw student and having a special Ravenclaw drink at the theater (blueberry italian soda). My first viewing experience was so good that I'm thinking about seeing the movie in the theater again, minus the costume this time.

The other cool Potter thing that made my week was this set of awesome comic recaps. I love them so hard. Because the illustrator can't sell them due to copyright issues, she is offering the images as free downloads with a request for donations. I happily sent her some money and proceeded to make copies of all 8 images to hang on my wall. I'm not sure what my husband's reaction to this plan will be.

It's hard for me to feel sad that the Potter era is over, mostly because I'm still active in the Knit/Crochet House Cup on Ravelry and am looking forward to the launch of Pottermore later this year. Still, it will be interesting to see how much longer Pottermania lasts now that it is not consistently being fueled by new books and movies.

Tour de Fleece

2011-07-12T13:37:00.142-05:00

I'm participating in Tour de Fleece for the first time this year. For those of you who haven't heard of this event, Tour de Fleece is a spinning challenge that corresponds with the annual Tour de France race. The goal is to spin a little yarn (or a lot of yarn) each day of the race. The entire event is run over in the Tour de Fleece Ravelry group, where there are teams, prizes, and lots of opportunities to show off your daily spinning.

I spent the first week of my Tour spindle-spinning a Sheepish Creations roving. I love using this particular spindle because its heavier weight keeps it in motion for longer periods of time. That being said, I feel like I did a fair amount of spinning in the first 7 days and don't have a lot of yardage to show for it.

On Tour days 8 and 9, I got out my Louet S10 to try something more challenging: core spinning a Hobbledehoy batt. I've been wanting to try this technique for ages and it turned out to be just as wonderful as I anticipated, with the small exception that my singles are pretty energized. Next time, I will take a little twist out of the core (KnitPicks Palette in this case) prior to core spinning, which should help keep the spin more balanced.

I promise another Tour de Fleece update later this month, complete with photos of all the skeins I spun during the event.

Mechanics

2011-07-06T12:42:00.087-05:00

You can always tell a serious crafter by looking at their favorite electronic device to see if it is covered in yarn or fabric. I'm not ashamed to admit that I designed a knitted cozy for my iPhone, which has turned out to be quite useful, and I now have a crafty cover for my Kindle. Mark me down as a ~~obsessed~~ serious crafter.

I've been wanting to make a cover for my Kindle for almost a year and a half. My previous storage solution, a yellow mailing envelop, kept off scratches but was definitely not attractive. Enter in a felt sleeve and a pattern for crochet cogs. You may recognize the yellow yarn and overall color scheme from my recent project, Mama and Baby Imp. What can I say? I had to do something with the leftover yarn and I have an inordinate fondness for olive green.

I think the crochet cogs add a nice steampunky touch to this modern device. Their pattern was fairly straightforward, though I had problems coordinating the cog sizes to be within the dimensions of my Kindle. In the end, I had to use the existing pattern structure to invent the wee cog at the top right (my pattern notes for the wee cog are here). I'm kind of amazed that, knitter as I am, I was able to BS a crochet design.

Between crocheting the cogs, handsewing them onto the felt, and blanket-stitching the felt together, I really enjoyed putting this all together. The enjoyment of the process makes my joy in finally have an attractive cover for my Kindle all the sweeter.

A Pair of Beautiful Books

2011-06-28T14:08:00.000-05:00

Two books have recently come into my life that have made me drop everything else in favor of 'ooh'-ing and 'aah'-ing with every page turn. The first book is Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, written by my favorite ice cream maker Jeni Britton Bauer, and the second is Little Red in the City, written by my favorite knitwear designer Ysolda Teague. Both highly-anticipated books have lived up to their hype, making it pretty much seem like Christmas for me this week.

I know you're eager to hear about the knitting book, but I'm going to tell you about this amazing ice cream book while I still have your undivided attention. You may have heard of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream from knitters who attend TNNA, as it is a popular destination while at the convention in Columbus, Ohio. For those of you who have never heard of the brand, Jeni's is known for their bold flavors such as 'Salty Caramel' and 'Goat Cheese with Roasted Red Cherries', as well as their unusual ice cream flavors like 'Olive Oil with Pepita'. Each batch is artisanly crafted and deeply flavorful.

If you love Jeni's ice cream (and you should), you will love this book. She gives away the recipes for her most popular flavors plus many more. There are also recipes for amazing sundaes, colorful push-pops, and delicious ice cream add-ins. Additionally, the book is beautifully laid out and the instructions are clear. I made the 'Baked Rhubarb Frozen Yogurt' and let me tell you that it was incredible. If you've ever thought about making ice cream, you should buy this book.

Now, onto the knitting book! You probably know by now that I have a bad case of Ysolda Fever, so I was just a bit excited to get my hands on a copy of Little Red in the City. The book itself is beautiful and the patterns are classic and lovely. Little Red is a sweater book, both in terms of patterns and techniques, but it stands out in this classification because of its egalitarian view of sizing: the patterns are written for bust sizes from 28" to 60" in 2" increments and each finished sweater is modeled on both a smaller and a larger body. That is quite an accomplishment and one that will benefit every knitter who picks up this book.

Beyond the sweater patterns, there is a great amount of information on swatching, picking the best yarn, and choosing the pattern size and making necessary adjustments based upon the actual measurements of your body. I particularly liked the discussion, complete with photos of a sweater on a resizable dressform, of how bust should not be the sole factor in choosing size. Ysolda furthers this discussion by addressing modifications that make a sweater truly fit. The book gives detailed examples, complete with calculations, of adding short-rows to the bust, increasing ease in the sleeves, and moving a cable motif vertically to flatter the waist. All of this information transforms Little Red from a pattern book into a valuable resource.

I could write at length about either of these books, but perhaps it's best just to say that they've both impressed me with their depth of information, clear instructions, and attractive layouts. I highly recommend both Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home and Little Red in the City.

Potter Party Pals: The Event

2011-06-21T13:38:00.098-05:00

I had some friends over this weekend for my Harry Potter party, which turned out to be a lot of fun. We did trivia, enjoyed some Potter-themed food, and watched Harry Potter 7 part 1. Because I shared my initial party preparations and my awesome invitations in a previous post, I'm now sharing all of the final party details in case you also want to host a Potter party before the release of the final movie.

My friends got a big kick out of the entrance to platform 9 3/4, aka my kitchen. (This photo is also a reminder to 'measure twice, cut once.') I made the curtain out of some spare red fabric and painted on the brick pattern with white fabric paint. I made blue signs to point the way toward platforms 9 and 10 using construction paper and a sharpie. It took a little time to put everything together, but it was inexpensive and totally worth the effort when I saw people's faces light up with recognition.

I served a bunch of Potter-themed candy at the party including: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (Jelly Belly beans), sherbet lemons (lemon drops), and licorice wands (Twizzlers). I found the apothecary jars at Anchor Hocking and labeled everything with little orange tags. Also notice in the background that I used the Potter books as simple and inexpensive decorations around the house.

I invited everyone to come in costume, should they like. I personally threw together a simple Ravenclaw student costume using items from my wardrobe and a tie belonging to my husband. The hat can be seen in all its needle-felted glory in this post.

Most of my planning efforts went into preparation and purchasing of food. I made chocolate frogs on a stick using 2/3 semi-sweet and 1/3 dark chocolate and supplies from Bake It Pretty. I also whipped up some 'cauldron cakes', which were really molasses and ginger cupcakes (recipe from this book) with vanilla icing. I topped the cakes off with spider and black cat picks, again from Bake It Pretty.

And if the sugar overload wasn't enough from the food, I served butterbeer. My version involved cream soda with a shot of butterscotch schnapps (from a bottle labeled 'Felix Felicis'), which was just as delicious and buttery as it sounds. Also in this photo: my Hogwarts bunting (described in a previous post) and the 'Lumos' and 'Nox' labels on the light switch.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable event to plan as well as to host. I could see an event like this working well for children and not just my 20-something friends. In any case, it's made me more excited to see the final movie when it comes out next month. I can't wait!

Impish

2011-06-15T12:54:00.111-05:00

I recently realized that I've been knitting a lot less since I finished grad school last October. My blog posts attest to this: I've only blogged about 5 finished objects in 2011. What's funny is that I now have more free time but I'm filling it with reading, exercise, and all the other things that normal people do. It's been wonderful but I do miss sharing actual knitted objects with you. So let me attempt to fix this problem with a promise to knit more and a photo of an actual finished object:

These are my little imps from the pattern Daphne & Delilah, which is just about the cutest design I've ever knit. I made them smaller than usual, with DK yarn on size 1 needles, but I think that makes them even more adorable. I particularly love their little faces; Rebecca Danger was onto something when she dreamed up these little monster teeth for her designs.

I don't knit many stuffed animals, but I'm starting to get a sense that they're really hard to part with. The imps, in fact, are joining my only other knitted toy in the too-cute-to-give-away pile. I hope this isn't a permanent trend, as that will soon make me the owner of a magical menagerie of creatures. Quick, some one have a baby so I am forced to part with one of these adorable toys!

Confessions of a Knitter

2011-06-08T13:06:00.063-05:00

This has not been the best knitting week for me. Not that it was a bad week (in fact it was quite a good week) but I don't have much good to report on the knitting front. For the first thing, I fell hard for the KnitPicks yarn sale. Like, a-whole-sweater's-worth-of-yarn hard. But since I've been coveting this fair-isle sweater pattern for years and the yarn for it wasn't even $30, I don't feel too bad about my actions (except the part where I told my husband what I had done).

My second admission is that I did not even knit a single stitch this week. My Mama Imp is still arm-less and face-less and no more stuffed than last week. I would feel more guilty about this fact if I hadn't just spent a long weekend looking at this:

'This' being the sun going down over Green Bay as viewed from a cabin in Door County, Wisconsin. DH and I spent 3 nights in Door County with my parents-in-law, siblings-in-law, and all of the significant others. It was a packed cabin, but a wonderful trip.

One of the best parts of the vacation was our day-trip to Washington Island, which is just off the tip of the pennisula and only reachable by ferry. The vistas were beautiful, the weather was fine, and the ferry ride was really fun. I even convinced everyone to make a stop at Sievers so I could ogle the fiber and weaving tools, which I think gains me back a little knitting cred.

So this week, I promise to be diligent in the knitting department and complete my required stitches. If only so I have awesome things to show to you on the blog next week!

Imps in Progress

2011-05-31T13:07:00.061-05:00

I love a good work-in-progress. A project that's formed enough to hint at what it will ultimately become, yet undefined enough to be full of potential. A work-in-progress implies devotion and time; you peel back the curtain to reveal the history behind the final image.

I'm particularly excited about this work-in-progress, my Mama Imp. Knit from Rebecca Danger's Daphne and Delilah pattern, she's going to be one tiny little trouble-maker when she's done. She's extra special because she's made out of a baby alpaca/silk yarn, which would be a dream to work with if it wasn't DK on size 1 needles. Still, I feel confident that at this gauge she won't be loosing her stuffing anytime soon.

I can't wait for her to get some arms and a face, which should go a long way towards giving her some personality. And then she'll get a little kangaroo pocket which I will fill with a Baby Imp. I'm dying from cute just thinking about it.

Fractals and Falling Leaves

2011-05-24T14:39:00.126-05:00

I was talking to some friends on Ravelry this week about fractal spinning and my blog post about this technique, when realized that I should update you on how my fractally spun yarn looks knitted up! I ended up giving the first skein in the aforementioned post to my friend Stephanie, who made it into this beautiful shawlette:

Knitted up, you can really see the effect of fractal spinning: the general color progression from yellow to orange to blue overlaid with shorter versions of this color sequence. I love how the shape of her shawl really highlights the color effects.

While Stephanie's handspun shawl is beautiful, I'm totally in love with her autumnal version of this shawl made out of MadelineTosh Tosh Sock. Not only is the color choice perfect for the pattern but you can really see how all of the beautiful leaves fit together into an interesting design.

I'm going to brag about Stephanie a bit and tell you that she designed this shawl, which is called 'Fall of Leaves', and has shared the pattern for free on Ravelry! For someone who recently started writing patterns, she is very talented. Plus, I think it's very generous of her to post the pattern for free since I know she put a lot of time and effort into this design.

I'm lucky to have a knitting friend like Stephanie. I always enjoy our tea-and-knitting dates with our mutual friend C, and I know I'm going to miss her when she moves away from Madison this summer.

All photos in this post are courtesy of my very talented friend Stephanie (eccentrica on Ravelry).

Potter Party Pals

2011-05-18T12:32:00.093-05:00

I love themed parties. I loved them as a child and I still think they're wonderful as an adult. I love them so much, in fact, that I no longer feel the need to confine them to birthdays nor confine my imagination when given a theme. Especially when said theme is Harry Potter.

This party hasn't happened yet, but I'm already making preparations. The general idea is to have a few friends over to watch Deathly Hallows part 1 in anticipation of the release of the final Harry Potter movie. In addition to movie watching, there will be a little decor, a few themed snacks, and maybe even some trivia.

One of my favorite items that I've prepared so far is this little Hogwarts House bunting. The flags and simplified Hogwarts crest, which is held together with spray adhesive, are made from felt and I hand-stitched each of the flags onto a grosgrain ribbon. I just adore how it turned out!

A few other items on tap for the party include these adorable Owl Post notes from Celestefrittata on Etsy, which I will be using as invitations, and homemade caldron cakes made with supplies from Bake It Pretty. I really need to keep hold of my senses or I will really go overboard on the party supplies.

I have more exciting plans for this party, but that is for a future post!

All Aflutter

2011-05-10T13:28:00.073-05:00

I think I'm falling for crochet. The more I do it, the easier and more enjoyable it becomes. And as much as I will always be primarily a knitter, I'm really coming to believe that certain things just work better in crochet. Butterflies, for example, fall into the crochet-is-better category.

I fell in love with this butterfly pattern the moment I saw it in 'Crochet Adorned'. It was originally designed to be a pocket on an apron, but I thought it would also work well as a larger statement piece. It took me a while to figure out the best place to make that statement, but I'm pretty happy with my final choice.

This gray top is one of my favorite layering shirts, but it has a tendency to slip off of my shoulders. Thankfully, a large butterfly is the perfect thing to provide structure to the shirt as well as subtly highlight the shirt's low scoop back. As the butterfly is made from recycled cotton, I now have the perfect thing to wear in all of this newly-arrived warm weather!

While I'm pondering doing more crochet from 'Crochet Adorned', I also got a copy of Linda Permann's second book, 'Little Crochet', from the library and I think it's another great offering from this author. It might just be time to up my crochet skills by attempting a tiny sweater.

Crawling out from under a Rock

2011-05-06T10:12:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the lack of posting this week. I spent a long weekend traveling and came down with the requisite airplane-induced cold when I returned home. Blah. The one good thing about spending a few days glued to a box of kleenex was that I easily found time to read Rick Riordan's new book, The Throne of Fire, in between all of my naps.

Now that I'm back on my feet, I'm looking forward to sharing lots of exciting crafting projects with you over the next few weeks!

Spread the Love

2011-04-27T11:21:00.090-05:00

Here are some random things that I've fallen in love with recently:

MadelineTosh yarn

After hearing other people rave about this yarn, I had to try it myself and I must admit that it did not disappoint. The colors are simply stunning and the bases for the two yarns I bought, Tosh Merino DK and Tosh Merino Light, are incredibly soft. It's too expensive to add a lot of it to my stash but this yarn is definitely worth purchasing for one or two special projects.

Apothecary Jars

I got these inexpensive little jars from the Anchor Hocking online store, though I've seen larger and more ornate (read: more expensive) versions at Target and Williams Sonoma. I love how candy looks in these jars, though I think that I might end up putting terrariums in them.

Books by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman wrote American Gods, Coraline, Stardust, and the Sandman comics, amongst others, and is one of my favorite authors. I just finished reading Good Omens, which was a collaboration between him and Terry Pratchett, and found it a delightfully witty read. My other current reading obsession (besides Gaiman) is The Hunger Games series.

Owl Mugs

Two adorable owl mugs have come into my life recently. I purchased the one above from a local shop and got another one in a swap package. Owls are super cute and owls on mugs are even cuter.

Planning

2011-04-19T23:42:00.010-05:00

I just concluded my 8th 'term' participating in the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup on Ravelry by celebrating a win for my house, Ravenclaw. As much as I'm looking forward to starting the next term in May (you can sign-up now for the coming term), I always enjoy the month off between House Cup terms because it gives me a chance to recharge my creative energy.

Part of the reason that I like this off-month is that I can dabble in random crafts. These pursuits don't have to be limited to knitting, crochet, or spinning and I'm not under a timeline for finishing. In fact, just the other night I whipped up this little Gryffindor prefect badge for something fun to do. I hope to do several other random projects like this during April.

The other reason I like the off month is that it gives me time to plan my next big project, or OWL (Ordinary Wizarding Level exam). While most of the projects for the House Cup must be done in under a month, OWLs are big 3-month projects. Having the structure and timeline of the House Cup really helps me finish knitting sweaters, spinning pounds of fiber, and in general tackling big projects that I would otherwise probably not complete.

For this term's OWL, I'm planning to make a bunch of magical creatures including: a knarl (pattern: Smith), a pair of imps (pattern: Daphne and Delilah), a de-horned erumpent (pattern: Flo), and a flutterby (pattern: Butterfly Apron). Best of all, I should have enough yarn in my stash to knit everything. You know, sometimes the best part of the whole knitting process is planning everything out!

Tea Bag

2011-04-12T14:11:00.001-05:00

I'm happy to announce the second pattern in my Tea Time pattern series, the Tea Bag.

For how often I drink tea, I was surprised the first time I actually looked at the anatomy of a tea bag. The traditional tea bag is folded at the bottom so it actually has two separate pockets for tea. I thought that this clever construction would be wonderful for a little knit bag with two hidden inner pockets. And then I couldn't resist making the pockets just large enough to store a few tea bags.

The bag is made from KnitPicks City Tweed DK, Snowshoe and Toad colorways, on size 5 needles. Beyond City Tweed's incredible softness, I love how the pattern's seed stitch plays up the texture of the yarn. It's truly wonderful stuff.

As with all my Tea Time patterns, this pattern comes with tea tips and a recipe. The tips focus on brewing a great cup of tea when you are away from home and the recipe is for 'little rascals'--well-loved biscuits from Teddy Roosevelt's time in the White House.

You can purchase the Tea Bag pattern through Ravelry, as well as find more information there, or you can purchase it directly with this link for $3.50.

Questions? Contact me at brineydeepdesigns_at_gmail_dot_com!

Brewing Tea

2011-04-05T13:35:00.001-05:00

I'm doing some final editing on the next offering in my 'Tea Time' pattern series; I hope to release it in the next couple of week. In the meantime, here is a little teaser as to the design inspiration:

Selbuvotter

2011-03-30T13:12:00.016-05:00

Fair-isle gloves and mittens are really some of the most beautiful knitted objects. It doesn't matter if they are modern designs, like those from designer SpillyJane, or the more traditional designs, like those from the lovely book Selbuvotter, I think that they're all stunning. These feeling are only strengthened on the rare occasion that I make a pair myself.

Part of the reason that such mittens are so wonderful is the Shetland wool that they're traditionally made from. Shetland has a reputation for felting if you so much as look at it crossly, but this allows the stranding to hold together and will eventually cause the gloves to felt in the shape of the wearer's hands. The Shetland used for these particular gloves was the wonderful Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift.

Dare I say that my favorite part of working with this yarn is how beautifully it spit splices? Spit splicing my preferred joining technique when the yarn allows it. It leaves no tails to weave in and makes me feel like I'm doing a little magic with only my saliva (or water, if that's the way you roll). Spit splicing is right next to turning a heel on my knitting favorites list, it's just that magical.

While there is something incredible about fair-isle gloves, they really are a lot of work. These gloves for example, which are pattern Annemor #8 from the aforementioned Selbuvotter book, where quite fiddly in the the fingers. All this leads me to the conclusion that I'm not going to become a die-hard fair-isle knitter, but I won't say no to future fair isle projects either--as long as they are mittens and not gloves.

Journals

2011-03-23T13:43:00.001-05:00

I'm currently laid up with a cold, so the knitting I was hoping to show off today is not quite done. Instead, I'm sharing some inspiration with you in the form of journals.

I've recently fallen in love with the idea of collecting random doodles, design ideas, and snippets of poetry in journals. Part of this inspiration comes from reading the beautifully drawn travel journal 'French Milk' and part from my desire to draw decently. As my organized nature wants to have a journal for each separate purpose, I've amassed a small collection of them over the past few months.

One of the first journals in my collection was the butterfly journal which became my 'happiness journal'. This little book is filled with lists of things I love, descriptions of moments that made me happy, and inspiring quotes and poems. For example, I have a page dedicated to reasons why I love Autumn and these two pages (below) record a favorite poem, Litany by Billy Collins. Happiness indeed.

One of the appeals of journals (and the reason I have so many) is that they come in different forms. I'm particularly happy to have found a set of Jill Bliss mini-journals at Target recently which are filled with graph paper. These are probably all destined to become design journals as I've already started filling one with design ides for an upcoming enameling class.

Finally, I can't talk about journals without mentioning the classic Moleskine. I really like unlined Moleskines as their heavy-weight paper is perfect for doodling in pen. My big Moleskine journal is filled with my attempts to create Celtic knots and I think some of the smaller ones will be filled with random sketches.

One or two of these journals will probably end up my purse for sketching and notes on-the-go. Hopefully with a little practice and encouragement, all of this journaling will result in greater creativity!

On Top

2011-03-16T11:49:00.002-05:00

I'm proud to present my very first quilt top:

Not too bad for my first attempt, huh? The design is my own, though I was inspired by a couple modern quilts that I've seen around the internet, and I tried to make everything simple to cut and piece together. This was mostly achieved by having the column widths at 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 the width of a normal bolt of quilting fabric. Simple math always wins, especially for the first project using a new technique.

Now that I'm done with the quilt top, I really have no idea what to do from here. Fortunately, the wonderful folks at my local quilt shop were more than happy to help me calculate how much fabric I need for the backing and give me tips for how to assemble the quilt. And then they sold me a small fortune in fabric (why is is that I always fall in love with the most expensive prints?).

Now that the top is done, I think I'm going to take a break from quilting for a while and get back to knitting. There has been a sad lack of knitted finished object on the blog recently which I hope to remedy next week!

2011-03-08T12:38:00.002-06:00

I'm totally addicted to the internet and it doesn't help when I discover awesome websites like Pinterest. Pinterest lets users to create mood boards and share them with friends. It's not really a crafting website but between the customizable board themes and a lot of crafty friends, I've found Pinterest to be an endless source of artistic inspiration.

Pinterest boards can be populated with photos from blogs, Flickr, Ravelry, or wherever else you like to hang out on the internet. When you find a photo you like, you simply click on the Pinterest-provided button in your browser, choose the board you're pinning to, provide a short description, and the photo goes up. Couldn't be simpler.

Beyond organizing your ideas on a given theme, the real strength of Pinterest is in sharing your pins and seeing all of your contact's pins. It's amazing to see the types of photos that inspire each person, from the quotes they choose to pin to the clothing or hairstyle photos they add to their boards. Some of the most inspiring things I've seen on Pinterest come from my contacts' pins (below).

The other Pinterest feature that I really like is being able to search photo descriptions across all users, like in the search I did below for 'terrarium'. If I have an idea in my head, I always find it helpful to see similar things that others have done. And believe me, all of these great terrarium photos are really fueling my creative inklings.

Finally, I should put in the disclaimer that Pinterest is a relatively new site, so it has a waiting list. You can either sign up for the waiting list (my wait on the list was about a week and a half) or a friend with a Pinterest account can send you an invite. I hope this small barrier to getting onto Pinterest will not keep you from enjoying this wonderful resource.

English Breakfast Tea Socks

2011-03-01T12:37:00.002-06:00

I'm delighted to announce a new pattern, the English Breakfast Tea Socks! This pattern is the first in a 'Tea Time' themed series of patterns. The goal of the series is to explore tea time in all of its forms (afternoon tea, the morning cuppa, how tea-drinking varies by season, etc.). This first pattern represents the warmth and joy that the first few sips of tea bring to my day.

My inspiration for designing these socks was quiet mornings in wintertime, when no one else in the house is up yet. Armed with a sweater, a pair of wool socks, and a cup of strong black tea, I can enjoy a peaceful moment all to myself. In the half-light of a winter morning, this really is bliss.

The socks themselves echo this simple idea of tea time with a simple knit-purl stitch pattern. They are worked in KnitPicks Stroll (formerly Essential) on size 2 needles and are sized woman's medium. I've both written out and charted the stitch pattern, which is mirror-imaged between the right and left sock.

In addition to the pattern, all offerings in the Tea Time series will come with tips on brewing tea and a bonus recipe. This particular pattern offers tips for brewing these socks' namesake tea and a recipe for cherry granola, which is one of my favorite ways to start the day (besides the obvious cuppa).

You can purchase the pattern through Ravelry, as well as find more information there, or you can purchase it directly with this link for $5.

Questions? Contact me at brineydeepdesigns_at_gmail_dot_com!

Woolen

2011-02-23T13:06:00.001-06:00

It has been a very exciting week here in Madison, Wisconsin, between all of the protests and me putting the finishing touches on a soon-to-be-released pattern. Honestly, the last thing I need right now is to write a serious blog post. So today I'm just going to celebrate my recent attempts at learning woolen spinning.

I don't know why I've been stuck spinning worsted for such a long time, especially since I recently waxed poetic about my love of carded batts from the shop Hobbledehoy. It turns out that it really is easier to spin batts woolen than worsted. And oh, I am so in love with the results!

Both of these skeins come from Hobbledehoy batts that were spun woolen and plied. I think I like the two-plies even better than other Hobbledehoy batts that I spun as singles, but that's a little like asking which is your favorite child--I love them all. Happily, I still have one more batt set left that will be used to learn core-spinning!

A Stitch In Time

2011-02-16T13:15:00.008-06:00

I mentioned A Stitch in Time in my recent review of another vintage pattern book, and thought it was worth sharing more information about this beautiful book with you.

A Stitch in Time is a treasure trove of women's sweater patterns from the 1920's to the 1940's. The 50+ original period patterns were updated to be written in modern terminology and worked with modern yarns. Additionally, each updated pattern is beautifully styled and photographed, which is a major strength of this book.

In terms of the sweaters themselves, there are a huge range of styles from short-sleeved to long-sleeved, cardigans to pull-overs, lace to fair-isle. I also find the variety in sleeve styles particularly delightful, with several puffed-sleeved sweaters, liberal use of shoulder pads, and a particularly unique sleeve-construction in this sweater (Ravelry link).

I love this book for its depth of vintage sweater patterns and for being an never-ending source style inspiration. I've yet to find another sweater book with over 50 patterns; most have half that many. I should note that the number of patterns and the fact that the book is self-published are reflected in the price, which is about twice as much as other sweater books. Still, I believe that this book is a good value and that it's important to support independent designers.

If you're interested in this book, I encourage you to look into the second volume of A Stitch in Time that is coming out at the end of March. The new book covers the 30's through the 50's, and I can't wait to see all of the new patterns! Both the first volume and a pre-order of the second volume can be found at Knit on the Net.

Observe and Report

2011-02-08T13:18:00.020-06:00

Being a scientist by training, there is nothing I like better than to observe and quantify. For example, in a previous blog post I chronicled how blocking improved pair of fingerless mitts by defining the lace pattern as well as smoothing out the stockinette portions. It was a interesting study and I thought I should follow up on it by examining how blocking fares with another knitting technique, fair isle.

The photo above compares a fair-isle glove before and after blocking. I can see a slight difference between the two in the cuff area, but I am surprised that blocking did not do more to clean up my uneven pattern stitches. I will have to pay more attention to the evenness of my stitches the next time I'm working in fair isle.

That's not to say that blocking didn't do anything. It actually smoothed out the surface of the knitting so that all of the stitches lay flat and aren't bumpy. If only for this textural reason, I think it's worth blocking my future fair-isle projects. At the very least I will block my next fair-isle item because I want the second glove to match the first!

Motivation

2011-02-02T15:26:00.001-06:00

Motivation is a double-edged sword. I love being enthusiastic about a project to the point that I can't put the needles down, but it usually comes to the detriment of other long-term projects I'm working on. I get especially motivated at the beginning of a project, and as much as I plan and try to pace myself, I still ride these motivational highs and lows. The cycle started all over again this week when I started seriously working on my PhD quilt.

There was lots and lots of cutting this week, and even a little bit of sewing, but absolutely no knitting. (At least this means that my sewing machine is finally working correctly. It turns out that you actually need to change the needle from time to time. Oops.) In addition to experiencing new-project motivation, I can't stop working on the quilt because its happy colors are counteracting the gloom of the snowpiles currently outside my window. Is it Spring yet?

As this is my first quilt project, I'm doing a simple design that requires no complicated piecing. The photo above gives a sample of the effect I'm going for, though there will be many more strips in the final quilt-top. I haven't thought about what I'll do after I finish the quilt top, but from the way things looks so far, I doubt that I will loose my enthusiasm for this project anytime soon.

Phat Fiber

2011-01-26T14:11:00.011-06:00

Have you heard of Phat Fiber? Every month, Phat Fiber offers a box of handmade yarn and fiber samples from a range of online vendors. The contents of each box are a surprise beyond the theme of the box and having the option to buy a fiber-only box, a yarn-only box, or a mixed box. It is an exciting mystery as to what will show up at your door.

Though I heard about them a while ago in the Spring 2009 Knitty, I bought a Phat Fiber box for the first time in January. I was particularly attracted by this month's theme, Chinese New Year, though I'm also at the point in my spinning where I want to experiment with different types of fiber. A fiber-only box was the perfect way to get samples of a range of fibers from a variety of hand-dyers and hand-carders.

The box did not disappoint. It was very interesting to see how the contributors interpreted the box's theme by sending samples of silk, angora (for the year of the rabbit), dragon-inspired colorways, or even just packaging things in red paper sleeves covered in Chinese symbols. While all of the samples are under 1 oz, I am looking forward to trying some new things out--especially the silk hankies and the silk top!

Beyond the fiber, I also received 2 knitting patterns, several stitch markers, a pair of earrings (below), and a number of coupons from vendors who didn't contribute fiber. I recognized some of the shops, but it was nice to be aware that there is such a big community of hand-makers out there.

Overall, I would have to say that I enjoyed getting this box but I won't be making this a regular purchase. At $36 per box (including shipping) it's worth buying once to expand my fiber horizons and awareness of hand-dyers, but in the future I'll be spending my money on larger lots of fiber in colorways I choose.

A Pair of New Knitting Books

2011-01-18T12:56:00.013-06:00

I added two new knitting books to my bookshelf in December; the first, Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting, I bought for myself and the second, The Ohio Knitting Mills, came to me as a Christmas gift from my sister. They are both excellent books and it's worth telling you a little bit about them.

I've raved about the Stitch 'n Bitch crochet book in a recent post and I have to say that this new Stitch 'n Bitch book is even better. Unlike the previous Stitch 'n Bitch books, this book covers advanced knitting techniques, giving pointers on everything from fair isle and lace to cables and designing your own sweaters. Everything is covered so well that even more experienced knitters will learn a new trick or two here.

While this book discusses more advanced techniques than the other Stitch 'n Bitch books, the creative and varied selection of patterns are just what I expect from this series. The patterns themselves build upon the techniques discussed in the first part of the book and include socks, sweaters, blankets, gloves, hats, and even a pair of beautiful skirts. I was also happy to see a few previously published patterns in the pages of this book, including Ysolda's Gretel hat, Elli Stubenrauch's Squirrelly Mittens, and Elena Rosenberg's Rococo Shawl (above).

The new Stitch 'n Bitch book is worth buying for the patterns and the useful information on advanced techniques, but it's the chapter on designing your own sweaters that really makes this book a keeper. This chapter cover a variety of sweater constructions and customizations, as well as how to work out the math for these designs. While this information can be found in other books, such as those by Elizabeth Zimmermann and Barbara Walker, this Stitch 'n Bitch book's lighthearted writing style makes sweater construction accessible to the modern knitter.

Now that I've waxed poetic about the first book, let me move on to the second. The Ohio Knitting Mills chronicles the history of ~~the Rich-Sampliner Knitting Mills Co.~~ the Ohio Knitting Mills in Cleveland, Ohio and focuses on its sweater designs from the 1940's through the 1970's, providing modern patterns for these vintage styles. This selection of 26 sweater patterns for men and women is brightly colored and sometimes kitschy, but really captures the style of these four decades.

I love looking at vintage pattern books to see how styles change over time and sometimes come back into fashion. I'm happy to add this book to my knitting collection alongside my other vintage pattern book, A Stitch in Time, which covers the 1920's through the 1940's. I will have to review that book in a future post because it is also a really lovely book. In the meantime, I will be enjoying lots of vintage inspiration!

Zero Zilch Nada None

2011-01-11T13:11:00.009-06:00

A very rare and curious thing happened over Christmas vacation--for 4 whole days I had absolutely no works in progress. It's been several years since I could last say that I had absolutely nothing on the needles, and I must admit that there is something very special about having no current projects to burden you so that you are free to dream about all of the possibilities of your next project.

The very last project to come off the needles was the Swallowtail shawl that I was working on in November. I'm really happy with the way the shawl came out, but I'm swearing off Mohair for the rest of my life. If I find one more little green fiber in a place it shouldn't belong, I might just go crazy. Still, this shawl is doing an excellent job of keeping me warm at the moment (which makes up for having to take a lint roller to my clothes later).

With the shawl done, I'm on to dreaming up new projects and a few original designs. You saw some of my swatches in the last post and I'm looking forward to knitting these projects up and telling you about them in future posts!

Thoughts on Blogging in the New Year

2011-01-05T13:51:00.002-06:00

I'm not good with New Year's resolutions. We're not even going to talk about how last year's negative-stash-flow resolution turned out, because the results aren't pretty. So instead of new resolutions in 2011, I plan to continue focusing on something that occupied a lot of my thought in 2010: improving this blog.

Since the New Year is a good time for reflection and I'm sure that a number of my readers also have blogs, I thought it would be worthwhile to share my thoughts on blogging and a few blogging resources with you in this post. I hope that you will find something interesting in my musing that can help you also improve your blog in 2011.

I feel that I've made a lot of improvement here at 'Briney Deep Designs' in 2010 by simply focusing on three central goals:

Posting on a regular schedule
Taking better photos
Trying to put up more original content

(If you want evidence of the improvements, just check out the posts from my first year of blogging; they're not pretty.) I think that these three goals are pillars on which to build a good crafting blog, but there are other resources that have helped along the way, of which the following three have been most helpful:

The Craftypod blog - I can't recommend this sight enough as the go-to place on the internet for information on improving your craft blog.
Google Analytics - A site that allows you to track what people view on your blog, where that traffic is coming from, and more. There is lots of interesting stuff to be learned here.
Google Reader - Every member of the blogging community should have a way to easily follow other blogs and Google Reader is great for managing and organizing a lot of RSS feeds.

All of these resources should help you focus on improving your blog by examining the content that draws people to it and understanding how your blog fits into the larger community.

My goal for 2011 is to continue strengthening the three pillars of my blog, specifically working on better photography and more original content. With the help of my new DSLR camera and some good ideas, I'm hoping that 2011 with be the best year yet for 'Briney Deep Designs'!

On Wisconsin!

2010-12-29T13:33:00.013-06:00

We're big University of Wisconsin fans at the Briney household. It's hard not to be when we've been living in Madison for over 5 years and both have degrees from the University. And seeing as we're in the Rose Bowl and it's Christmastime, I thought my husband could use a new piece of clothing to show off his Wisconsin-love to the world.

This hat was constructed as a two-stripe helix from some leftover bulky yarn (for more on helical knitting, see this post). If the colors were not enough to shout 'On Wisconsin!', I cut out our 'motion W' logo from two pieces of felt and used embroidery floss to sew them to the hat. I really love the look of the felt on the knitted fabric.

It's really not that difficult to add a pretty little touch of felt to a knitted item. Here are a few notes on what I did:

I cut the W freehand, though you could easily trace a shape onto the felt before cutting.
Use a pair of sharp embroidery shears to cut with as they make clean cuts in tight spaces.
Use pins to secure the felt to the knitted fabric as you sew.
Work with 3 of the 6 floss threads at a time.
Sew through both pieces of felt and the knit fabric using backstitch, working about 1/8" from the edge of the top piece.

With a little extra effort, I was able to produce something that both the husband and I love. U-Rah-Rah Wisconsin!

Season's Greetings!

2010-12-21T12:40:00.002-06:00

I'm currently on the road, visiting family for the holidays, but I wanted to stop in here and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

My original plan was only to say hello and point out the pattern for this awesome little Christmas light. However, after talking on Twitter about some delicious jam doughnut mini-muffin that I baked, some of my Twitter friends asked me to share the recipe. So here is a Christmas gift for them and for you!

Jam Doughnut Mini-Muffins

Adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess

1/2 cup milk

7 Tbsp canola oil

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line mini-muffin pans with paper liners.

Beat together the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined; lumps are okay.

Spoon batter into muffin liners, filling 1/3 of the way up. Add a dollop of jam (about the size of a bean) to each muffin. Fill remainder of muffin liner with batter to just below the top of the liner.

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

After removing muffins from the oven, warm up the butter and place 1/2 cup sugar into a shallow dish. Dip muffin tops into butter followed by sugar.

Makes 24 mini-muffins.

Sewing and Spinning

2010-12-15T12:53:00.016-06:00

Do you know that throwing a 30-lb sewing machine out of the window is difficult? Not that I really tried, because even imagining it made me tired. Needless to say, my attempts to sew up little globes and start on my PhD quilt are being foiled by tension issues on my old Singer machine. At least I finally located my owner's manual, so hopefully some cleaning and readjusting will fix this problem.

Instead of reminding me of this frustration, let's talk about something that has gone well for me recently: spinning up 8 skeins of sport-weight handspun totaling over 1700 yards of yarn. This yarn is from the 1.5-lb bag of fiber my mother gifted me in May and was one of my big projects this Fall. While the resulting yarn is beautiful with enough yardage to make a sweater, I think it needs to be dyed before any knitting is done with it; a sweater in this natural color will only succeed in reminding everyone how deathly pale I really am.

So now I have to decide what color this yarn will be in addition to planning what pattern to knit. I have half a mind to design something, though we'll see if that ends up happening. In the meantime, I'm searching Ravelry for nice sport-weight sweater patterns. How I love planning sweater projects!

Yogurt 101

2010-12-07T10:29:00.000-06:00

I'm doing a little experiment today, not only in the form of this blog post as a pattern plus recipe but also an experiment in microbiology--culturing milk to make yogurt.

It's worth making your own yogurt for two reasons: (1) it is fairly easy and inexpensive to make yogurt at home and (2) yogurt has a number of health benefits. Milk becomes yogurt by encouraging friendly microbes to multiply and breakdown lactose and other molecules in milk. To do this, you simply combine a small amount of yogurt (from the previous batch or from store-bought yogurt) with milk and heat everything up to encourage the microbes to grow.

So how does this all relate to knitting? Well, the yogurt/milk mixture needs to be kept warm for several hours during the culturing process. Wrapping a towel around the culturing container is one way to keep the liquid warm, but as a knitter I find the idea of using a jar cozy to be much more appealing. Both in terms of the cozy-factor and the cute-factor.

My Yogurt 101 lesson goes through both how to make yogurt in a standard one-quart canning jar as well as how to knit a cozy for that jar to help with the culturing process. Do try this at home!

Making the Yogurt
Using directions from The Curious Cook

Ingredients:
1 quart whole milk
2 Tbsp store-bought or homemade yogurt

Recipe:

Slowly warm milk to just below boiling (180-190 F), being careful not to scorch it. Allow the milk to cool to 115-120 F. Whisk in yogurt and pour mixture into warm one-quart canning jar. Cover jar with cozy and let sit undisturbed for about 4 hours or until the yogurt sets up. If you want your yogurt to be thicker, strain it through a cheesecloth. Store yogurt in the fridge.

Making the Jar Cozy

Requirements:
- 75 yards Cascade Eco Wool (or another bulky wool yarn)
- Set of five US size 10 [6 mm] dpns

Gauge:
15.5 stitches and 22 rows = 4 inches in stockinette

Pattern:
Cast-on 48 stitches. Divide stitches evenly over 4 needles (12 stitches per needle).
Join to work in the round, bring careful not to twist.

Work in [K1, P1] rib for 2 inches.

Work in stockinette (all knit) for 5 inches.

Decrease for bottom as follows;
Work [K to last 2 stitches on needle, K2tog] a total of 4 times.
Repeat this row 9 more times until 8 stitches remain.

Break yarn and pull end through remaining stitches.
Weave in ends, put jar into cozy and make yogurt!

A New Tool

2010-12-01T13:17:00.004-06:00

My husband decided to buy his own Christmas present this week--a lathe. Normally, I don’t pay attention to the tools that my husband brings home, but as a knitter and a spinner the prospect of having access to a lathe is very appealing for the following reasons: drop spindles, nostepins, darning eggs, and even knitting needles.

Not that I'm going to be turning out piles of darning eggs anytime soon; I only have about 8 hours experience using a lathe. But that hasn't stopped me from ogling spindle designs in the Ravelry groups SpindleCrafters and Spindle Candy. I particularly enjoy the lovely hand-turned supported spindles by Gripping Yarn.

So if you had a lathe, what knitting-related item would you make first? I'm leaning towards a drop spindle, though a nostepin might be an easier place to start. That's assuming that I can drag my husband away from his new toy for long enough to let me make something. Maybe I'm try that after the holidays.

Simple Gifts

2010-11-23T12:32:00.000-06:00

It's starting to be that time of the year again, when I think about cheer and gifts and the like. The time of the year when it gets more difficult to talk about my knitting because inevitably it's destined to be given to someone who reads this blog. But today's post is less about all that worry and more about the joy of giving and receiving.

First of all, no post on gifts would be complete without mentioning the beautiful skein of yarn I recently received from my knitting pal DrChopSuey. I'm amazed by her thoughtfulness, especially as she gave me the yarn in the midst of a busy semester and about a week before she eloped! So congrats to her and her now-hubby, and thanks for the lovely skein and introducing me to the Frontier Fiber Mill!

I was able to balance the yarn karma this week by gifting away some of my handspun as part of a swap between the seven-term members of the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. You know, as much as I am ambivalent about swaps, I really liked spindling up this yarn in my partner's favorite color and putting together a little package of goodies for her. Perhaps I'll think about doing another swap after the holidays are over.

Last up is a little item that is actually intended for holiday gifts: this awesome globe fabric from SpoonFlower. I found this project idea through the Craftzine Blog (which is always an amazing source of crafty ideas and inspiration) and I thought that some of the little people in my family would love to get plush globes for Christmas. Between these and my 'PhD quilt', I have a lot of sewing to look forward to!

Cleaning House

2010-11-17T11:27:00.000-06:00

As I start to generate ideas for new and interesting content for my blog, I feel the need to clean house a bit and update you on what is currently on the needles. I'm the kind of person who likes to put a definitive checkmark next to items on my to-do list, so it's been hard for me to organize my new ideas while my current projects are only half-finished. Writing this blog post has really helped me define the big items that need to be finished before I can start new projects.

The first project on the to-finish list is spinning 1.5 pounds of Corriedale/Mohair fleece my mother gifted to me in May. Thus far, I've spun up over a pound of this fiber in to 6 skeins of 2-ply, sport-weight yarn. My current total is about 1350 yards and I'm hoping end up with enough yarn to make a Cria sweater from Ysolda's upcoming pattern book.

The other project that I'd like to get off the needles is a Swallowtail Shawl. Goodness knows why I thought it was a good idea to cast on a lace shawl so soon after finishing the monster-shawl-of-doom, but at least the Swallowtail pattern is easier and I'm not using lace-weight. Still, I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to work on this project, which I strongly suspect is because this yarn sheds worse than anything.

Now that I've put a voice to my shedding concerns, it makes me wonder how badly the finished object will shed after I block the shawl out. If I weren't so afraid of getting Mohair everywhere, coupled with the fact that I'm not sure I would ever use this yarn again, I would frog the whole thing. So yeah, perhaps I should focus on my spinning this week while I figure out what to do with this fuzzy little problem.

Sleep Sleep

2010-11-10T09:32:00.007-06:00

I've been sleeping easier recently. A lot of this is because my PhD thesis defense is done and all of my paperwork is submitted to the grad school. The other reason I'm sleeping better is that I found a way to deal with my neighbor's porchlight being just outside my bedroom window--an eye mask. Crafting to the rescue again!

This particular eye mask was made using a combination of hand-sewing, felt-work, embroidery, and a crochet motif from Crochet Adorned. I really love to do projects that combine multiple crafts as they utilize lots of supplies from the stash (so I can tell my husband that yes, I really do use all that stuff) and always make me feel like a crafty superstar for being proficient at multiple crafting techniques.

The other benefit of using so many different crafting techniques in one project is that it excersizes my creativity. Now that grad school is officially over and I'm working more normal hours, I am so ready to be a more creative and balanced individual. Hopefully my creative exercises will translate into some interesting blog posts in the future!

Knitting Around Town

2010-11-02T10:38:00.004-05:00

My hometown of Madison, WI is a pretty cool place. Located on an isthmus between two lakes, it's a small city with all of the big-city amenities. Nowhere else can you ride your bike to the country's largest farmers' market in the morning, watch a sailboat race in the afternoon, and end the night by enjoying some of the finest locally-made beer and cheese curds. Oh, and I should mention the knitting.

Madison has a HUGE local knitters' guild, but as I've mentioned that in a previous post, I want to show off some really neat knitting that I've seen recently around town. The first is the bus-shelter cozy which was created by the UW School of Human Ecology. It's located on State Street, just a few blocks from the capital, and I know that its bright colors must be turning lots of heads. Personally, I think that such a unique knitting project in a high-traffic area is a great idea!

The other knitting I espied was at the new Madison Children's Museum, which I took my family and in-laws to when they were in town for my PhD defense. The second-story wall of the museum is home to this neat knitted tandem bike. There is obviously a bike frame under there but almost all of its surfaces are covered in wool. It makes me wonder what I could do with the tandem bike hubby and I ride.

Finally, though it's not knitting-related, I want to put in a good word for the local fabric shop Stitcher's Crossing. I'm really excited about my 'PhD quilt' idea and just purchased a bunch of cute fabric from this shop (almost everything in the photo is from this shop except for the fabric at the middle left and in the upper-left corner). I can't wait to start cutting and sewing!

Celebrations

2010-10-27T14:35:00.001-05:00

I had my PhD thesis defense on Monday afternoon. Both the presentation and the closed-door defense went very well, so I'm happy to report that I passed!

It's definitely a big weight off of my shoulders! I think the best thing (besides enjoying a little champagne and a lot of sleep in the last couple days) is the promise of more crafting time in the future. I have a strange desire to break out my sewing machine and make a 'PhD quilt' to mark the occasion.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get used to a new work routine and a new title in front of my name. 'Dr. Briney' still seems weird to me.

I'm definitely looking forward to things being back to normal next week and getting back to blogging about knitting!

Batty for Batts

2010-10-20T09:57:00.006-05:00

This is a good week for putting pretty things up on my blog and pretending that I don't have a looming PhD defense. And while we're in this alternate reality, we're also going to pretend that all of the pretty colors and pretty fibers I'm about to show are not part of an overly large spinning stash. Agreed? Okay, onto the lovelies!

All of these batts come from the Etsy shop Hobbledehoy, which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. This shop was the fiber source for 'Gryffindor' in my recent Hogwarts spinning project. I loved spinning that yarn so much that I've since bought four more batt sets, three of which are shown above (without their partners). The fourth set I spun into fingering-weight singles on my favorite drop spindle.

There is something very special about spinning up these lightly textured batts on a drop spindle; the slower act of spindling gives time for true tactile enjoyment. While I would be happy to spin up the other batts into similar singles, I suspect that this fiber would also be lovely core spun. Still, I am thoroughly enjoying spinning up and, having recently finished a hat from my Gryffindor singles, knitting up singles from these batts.

The hat in question is from a Hobbledehoy batt set in the Sunstone colorway and was knit into the pattern Ripley by Ysolda Teague. Need I tell you that knitting a Ysolda pattern from my own handspun is possibly the best thing ever? It's definitely right up there with curling up with a book and mug of tea on a crisp autumn day. And this particular hat definitely invokes the feeling of autumn and its falling leaves.

So now that I've waxed poetic about colorful batts, the joy of spindling, and the genius of Ysolda, it's probably time to pull my head out of the clouds and get back to reality. Or at least preparing for my PhD defense. I would love if you all could send positive thoughts my way next Monday at 1:30PM CST!

203 Pages

2010-10-15T15:48:00.000-05:00

That's the final page count on my PhD thesis which I will be defending 10 days from now, at 1:30PM CST on October 25th.

I just got my examiner's copies back from the printer today and all that's left to do is make my defense presentation. This month has been a whirlwind, but the end is definitely in sight!

Two Crochet Books For Knitters

2010-10-06T12:41:00.021-05:00

I don't consider myself a crocheter, though I do know how to crochet. It's something that I do when I find a pattern I like, need to reinforce an edge, or want to use up leftover yarn. While I enjoy the act of crocheting, I always approach it from the viewpoint of being a knitter. In this context, I've found it very helpful to have a few crochet reference books on hand and there are two in particular that I cannot do without.

The first is Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker, which offers very clear diagrams on how to crochet in addition to 40 modern crochet patterns. The how-to section at the front of the book is particularly nice, covering everything from crocheting in the round and stitch patterns to making extras like buttonholes and pom-poms. I always reach for this book when I start a crochet project to double check that I'm doing things correctly.

The second book I recommend is Crochet Adorned, which centers around using crochet motifs to embellish everyday items. I like this book because it has a bunch of small projects, meaning that instead of worrying about screwing up, I just try things for the fun of it. The patterns themselves include earrings and pins, dress/coat/shirt trims, and a beautiful starched lace bowl. Plus, the book has a nice stitch dictionary in the back that includes different trim ideas, flower motifs, and granny triangles and hexagons.

Perhaps the flexibility of the motifs is why I like Crochet Adorned so much. For example, I made elbow patches for an old sweater using a motif that was originally intended for a table mat. Overall, the book really encourages me to explore different uses for crochet that, as a knitter, I would not have otherwise realized were possible.

I hope my book recommendations encourage my fellow knitters to take another look at crochet!

Ysolda Fever

2010-09-28T17:11:00.004-05:00

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately and after a recent visit to my doctor, I discovered why: I have Ysolda Fever. I'm afraid to say that it's very contagious and I've probably infected several of you without realizing it. So please, if you experience [lack-of-sweater] chills, visions [of grandeur], sore hands and wrists, and sleepless nights [but finished projects], consult your doctor right away to see if you are infected.

Unfortunately, the only way to deal with this disease once you've contracted it is to knit through Ysolda Teague's entire pattern catalog. I didn't realize just how sick I was until I counted how many things I've knit from this list: Elijah (below), Liesl, Gretel, Coraline, Garter Stitch Mitts, Tiny Shoes, Vivian, Icing Swirl, Veyla, Damson (twice), & Ishbel (thrice).

The strength of my infection comes from the fact that I contracted it directly from the source, so I strongly warn you to not touch anything at a Ysolda trunk show or when meeting the designer in person. Honestly, I don't think I'll be cured anytime soon. Especially because I keep seeing more and more Ysolda patterns in my fever dreams: Ripley, Cria, Rose Red, Emily Capelet, Peaks Island Hood, Snapdragon Tam, & Smith. Pray for me.

A Tale of Two Skeins

2010-09-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

If you've been following this blog for a while, you may have noticed an increase in the number of post on spinning since the beginning of 2010. I swear it wasn't my New Year's resolution to actually use my spinning wheel, I just caught the spinning bug. And as I learn new and interesting things about making my own yarn, I like to share them here in the hope that you learn something as well. We're all about learning at Casa BrineyDeep.

Today's spinning post deals with how I processed the above roving, which was dyed by one of my Ravelry friends, Pacasha (you can find her hand-dyed rovings and skeins here). This is a superwash merino in blue and brown, in a colorway called McGonagall. Seeing as this is a simple two-color roving, I set out to see if I could get some variability in the final yarn based upon how I spun it up.

I spun two skeins out of this roving; the one on the left is a two-ply spun on my wheel and the one on the right is a Navajo-ply spun on a spindle. You can see the difference in their structure in this close-up picture, but I find their color difference to be even more interesting.

The Navajo-plied yarn on the left has more concentrated sections of color, due to the plying method. I also think that spinning slightly thicker singles for the two-ply on the right at makes the colors wash out a bit. The real test, of course, it to actually knit up swatches in each these yarns.

The color intensity observed in the third photo really carries over into the swatch, but now we start to see pooling in the Navajo-ply swatch (lower swatch) that does not occur in the two-ply swatch (upper swatch). While there is some variability in the two ply, it is much more subtle. I really like the fabric created by each of these yarns, but for very different reasons.

Eventually I hope to use both of these skeins in a single project, somehow showing off both their differences and their similarities. I think that that may be easier said than done.

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool 2010

2010-09-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

It's starting to feel like Fall here in Wisconsin. The cooler weather, football games, and students returning to class all make me eager for sweater season. And for the ultimate knitter's transition from Summer to Fall, nothing beats a visit to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.

I went to the festival with my friend Mary Beth, who was my companion at Sheep and Wool two years ago. I tried to get her to bring home a sheep again this year, but she seemed to think that her new roommates were no more amenable to the sheep than her last. Someday, MB, someday.

So no sheep this year, but I did bring home some wool. For some reason I kept picking up bamboo blended roving and ended up bringing two home with me. The one on the left is from Winterhaven Fiber Farm and it's a Merino/Bamboo/Silk blend in the 'Autumn Gold' colorway. The roving on the right is a Merino/Bamboo blend from Creatively Dyed. I also picked up a huge sport-weight skein from Briar Rose Fibers that will probably be knit into a Ysolda design (surprise, surprise).

In addition to wool, I snagged a pair of earrings made out of knitting needles. That's right, those are cut-up knitting needles. I was actually perusing the artist's Etsy store only two weeks ago and fell in love with the above design, so it was fate when I saw them at the festival.

After shopping, I met up with a few members of the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup on Ravelry for dinner (left to right: greenheron, dontpokeme311, jayannell, xamonster, caffeinatedkate, isisonearth, naturallyknitty, me, and bandbabe). Besides a little hiccup with our planned restaurant being closed, it was a lovely evening as House Cup people are always so nice.

And no trip to Sheep & Wool would be complete without seeing a few of sheep. I hope this guy cracks you up as much as he does me!

Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl

2010-09-08T13:54:00.000-05:00

It's done.

I still can't believe that I made something so beautiful. The best part is the moment after you pull out the blocking pins and can fully appreciate the transformation from lumpy knitting into lace. That being said, if I ever decide to knit another large lace shawl on size 2 needles, someone please check my sanity.

Never Quite As Planned

2010-08-31T09:01:00.001-05:00

I wish I could tell you that my research concluded spectacularly and I'm fully refreshed after my brief blogging hiatus. Life, unfortunately, never quite goes as planned. The good news is that I will definitely be out of lab by mid-September and will most likely defend my PhD thesis sometime in October. The bad news is that I will be juggling thesis writing in between lab work and starting my new job in October. Needless to say, blogging may not be of the highest quality over the next two months and might not keep to my usual once-a-week schedule, but I will be here nonetheless.

Part of my disappointment about my hiatus comes from being unable to finish my lace shawl, which is the only project I worked on during August. Honestly, I seriously underestimated the amount of time that the border would require. I have about 6 more hours of work left on the shawl and now I'm facing another challenge--I'm running out of yarn.

I was actually smart and bought two 880-yard skeins for this project, which requires 800-950 yards. Unfortunately, one of those skeins ended up in the dyepot for my dyeing with turmeric tutorial. So I braved the danger that is KnitPicks to order an extra skein and came out unscathed. (Okay, so I did buy two skeins of Comfy Worsted in Whisker so that I can make an Elijah, but an extra $6 doesn't count.) With extra yarn in hand, I hope I can finally finish this shawl!

Brief Hiatus

2010-08-11T13:39:00.002-05:00

I've decided to take a short break from blogging for the rest of August, as I'm currently focused on trying to finish up the research for my PhD. So much of my mental energy is going toward this work at the moment that I feel it is better to not blog at all than to divert some of this precious energy into making low-quality posts. I hope to finish up most of this research and return to a normal posting schedule by the first week of September.

Thanks for understanding and I will see you again in September!

Let's Talk About Lace

2010-08-04T12:30:00.001-05:00

I recently pulled a half-finished lace shawl from the depths of my projects pile and decided that it's time to finally finish it. It's been on the needles for over two years but still needs a good amount of work done on it. It's my very first true lace shawl and, while I'm not certain how much I will wear it, I would like to at least scale the mountain that is lace and come down the other side.

The pattern is Miriam Felton's Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl and I'm knitting it with KnitPicks Bare Merino Laceweight. I'm kind of kicking myself now that I chose the lightweight version instead of the easier standard version (bigger needles and less yardage), but I think that the finer details in the lightweight shawl will be lovely.

One thing that I'm learning during this project is that I prefer 'lace knitting' to 'knitted lace'. The former has pattern on the right-side rows and purls on the wrong side, while the latter has pattern on both sides. The level of required concentration is the main difference between the two, though 'lace knitting' has the distinct benefit of not needing 'purl 2 together through the back loop' stitches. Those are starting to drive me crazy.

Luckily, I just finished the main 'knitted lace' section and have moved on to two whole charts of 'lace knitting'. I'm hoping to make some major progress on the shawl in the next few weeks, but it doesn't help that even the simplest rows take me over 10 minutes to knit at this point.

Coils and Cores

2010-07-27T09:57:00.003-05:00

I recently set out to learn core spinning, which I read about in the book Spin Control. Proper core spinning involves wrapping roving around a core, which is usually a millspun yarn. (You can see an example of true core spinning on this blog.) While I plan to do true core spinning soon, I decided to first tackle a similar technique, core plying, which wraps yarn around the core instead of roving. In my case, I wrapped a thick and thin single around my core, giving me these lovely baubles.

This type of handspun is more commonly referred to as coiled yarn. To make coiled yarn, you need to hold the core firmly and the wrapping yarn loosely at a ~90 degree angle to the core as you ply. Push the wraps together every so often to keep the coils tight and to completely cover the core.

It sounds simple, but I had a huge problem keeping the core from overtwisting during this process. Next time I will be sure to adjust the twist in the core prior to plying. I also had some issues with the baubles getting stuck in the hooks on my flyer, but that was more annoying (or was it comical?) than affecting the stability of the final yarn.

The real question is what to do with this cool yarn once you spin it? I had no desire to knit with it so I decided to put it to a more decorative use:

I believe this necklace idea is from the spinning book Intertwined. The whole thing is held together by a wrapped section in the back, which I spun up out of some excess roving. I Navajo-plied this little bit of yarn and I like how it results a nice color progression across the wrapped section.

I'm continually amazed by the all of the different types of yarn I can spin, from coiled yarn and fractally spun yarn, to textured singles and laceweight. I've been spinning so much in the past 6 months that I'm finally feeling confident enough to try new things and assume that they will work out (and to not feel bad if they don't). I guess my mother was right when she told me 'practice makes perfect'.

The Booties Go Marching Two by Two, Hurrah!

2010-07-21T16:01:00.006-05:00

I'm having one of those shout-from-the-rooftop moments where I want the whole world to know that I finished all of the baby knitting and I'm finally on top of things! Now all I need is for my friends to stop getting pregnant.

My default baby gift was a Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap and a pair of Magic Slippers. This wasn't necessarily my favorite bootie pattern when I did a comparison of baby booties on my blog a little while ago, but it was certainly the simplest to knit and to finish. Considering the fact that I made 10 of these booties, I think it was the right choice. Plus, I just discovered how cute this pattern is when you use a different yarn for the sole and the upper, so when my friends ignore my no-pregnancy request, I won't say no to whipping up a few more of these slippers.

So now things are on their way to their new owners, along with one of my Hogwarts skeins that is going to a not-pregnant friend. This leaves me with free reign to do some fun little projects all for myself. I think I'll learn to core spin and maybe even try to finish the lace shawl that has been languishing on my needles for over two years. I'm excited!

Enchanting Skeins

2010-07-13T17:07:00.008-05:00

As promised last week, I'm showing off the results of my nerdy little spinning project. I therefore present the Hogwarts House founders: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.

It's funny that each of these skeins has some characteristic, besides the color, that correlates it to its House founder. For example, the Gryffindor skein has a lot of character, the Ravenclaw skein taught me a new plying technique, the Hufflepuff skein seems the most homespun to me, and the Slytherin skein can best be described as sleek.

The sleekness of the Slytherin skein comes from it's 50% silk content. This was my first time spinning with a silk blend and I was amazed by how easily it drafted. Too easily in my opinion. I might go for an 80/20 wool/silk blend next time, but there is no denying that the 50/50 blend is wonderful to bury your face in. Not that I would ever do such a thing.

The skeins are each unique and special, but I think that Gryffindor is my favorite. I loved spinning the batts from Hobbledehoy and I adore the final yarn. I couldn't help but order two more batt sets from this seller (one in Willow and the other in Italian Soda). I think my next little spinning project will be to learn core spinning on at least one of these batts. I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

Handspun and Holiday

2010-07-06T22:46:00.003-05:00

Wow! A lot of stuff has happened in the last week, including finishing my Liesl cardigan and my nerdy little spinning project, not to mention that my father was in town for the holiday weekend. But before I talk about any of that, I want to say thank you for all of your nice comments on my Fairy Lights hat pattern, which even got a nice little mention on Whip Up! I am continually amazed that my little pattern scribbles are so well received.

Now, onto the knitting!

As expected, I ran out of handspun and had to crop the cardigan. I tried to make the most of it by changing around the placement of the buttons, finally settling on using two buttons along the bottom edge and overlapping the fronts slightly. I fully admit to using a yarn over as the second button hole, but sometimes you have to choose 'pretty' over 'technically correct'. Anyway, I really like the look of the resultant neckline and the snug fit that accentuates my bustline. Sometimes the little details, like button placement, make all of the difference.

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until next week to see the results of my Hogwarts spinning project. (Girl's got to have something to blog about each week.) In the meantime, I snapped some great photos this weekend during our tour of southern Wisconsin that I thought I'd share.

People Waiting for the Fireworks at Sunset at the UW Terrace

Bottling Beer at the New Glarus Brewery

The Garden at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin

The Grand Carousel (the Largest in the World) at the House On The Rock

It was a great holiday weekend and I had a lot of fun spending time with my father. I hope your weekend was equally enjoyable and you got lots of knitting done!

Free Pattern: Fairy Lights

2010-06-28T10:11:00.001-05:00

I love sudden flashes of inspiration. The type that makes you put down everything else and create this genius thing you've just dreamed up. This hat is one of those ideas. I'm not sure exactly where it came from, but last week a slouchy pixie hat seemed like the best idea in the world. Kind of wacky, yes, but also really cute. And since it wasn't too difficult to make, I'm sharing the pattern notes with you!

I'm calling it the Fairy Lights hat, but secretly I refer to it as 'slouchy in front, pixie in back'.

To make one, you'll need:
- 1 skein of Cascade 220 (220 yards, worsted weight)
- A set of US 7 / 4.5 mm double points
- 3 stitch markers

The finished hat measures 22 inches around with a gauge of 22 st/28 rows = 4 inches in stockinette.

PATTERN:
CO 96 st. Join to knit in the round, being careful not to twist.

Mark the beginning of the round with a stitch marker

Hat Band:
Work in (K1, P1) for 1 inch.

Main Section:
Work (K2, M1) 18 times, then knit to end of round. 114 stitches total.

Knit even for 4 inches, or until the hat measures 5 inches from the brim.

(Knit 38, place marker) twice, knit to end of round.

Crown Decreases:
Row 1: (SSK, K to 2 st before next marker, K2tog) three times.
Row 2: Knit.

Repeat these two rows until there are 6 st left, ending with row 1.

K2tog until 1 stitch remains. Cut yarn and pull through the loop.

Weave in ends and pretend to be a pixie (or even a gnome)!

Isn't That A Little Big For A Baby Sweater?

2010-06-24T10:26:00.005-05:00

Between my nerdy little spinning project and making more baby hats, I have plenty of things to make at the moment. But what am I really working on right now? Spinning and knitting a sweater for myself. So much for maintaining a reasonable number of works in progress.

At this point, I'm done spinning the yarn and have just started the sweater. The yarn is from 8 ounces of a wonderfully tweedy roving that I purchased at the Midwest Alpaca Festival, which I made into a slightly lumpy two-ply bulky-weight. I don't have a lot of this yarn, but it should be enough to make a small version of the Liesl sweater.

Maybe you won't be surprised that I could not wait to cast this sweater on when I tell you it was designed by Ysolda Teague. (All I can say is that there are worse things to obsess about that knitting every pattern in a particular designer's catalog.) But it really is a lovely design and very flexible when it comes to yardage. Which is good, because I don't have a lot of this yarn.

The one thing I'm already starting to regret about knitting this sweater is that, due to the shortage in yarn, I won't be able to make a version that is most flattering to my figure. I'll probably end up with a short-length, short-sleeve sweater, when I would really like a moderate-length, 3/4-sleeve sweater.

This is especially weighing on my mind after reading this wonderful Fit to Flatter series of tutorials. I highly recommend this tutorial and its guidance for choosing the right sweater design (or making the right modifications) for your body type. While I don't think I'll be using her advice for this particular sweater, I will definitely be keeping her extremely helpful tips in mind for the next sweater I make.

She has a Plan

2010-06-16T10:30:00.002-05:00

It's been one of those weeks. The type that is hard on my brain and my body, so all I want to do when I come home is lay on the sofa and stare into space. It's times like these, when I have no creative spark but a huge need to do something, that I am glad I made a plan. And that plan involves lots of baby knitting.

Baby knitting is great because it's instant gratification meets tiny cuteness. Plus, a lot of great baby patterns, like the Baby Surprise Jacket above and the Magic Slippers below, are really quite simple to knit. All of that garter stitch makes for perfect zombie knitting. And did I mention how cute everything is?

So thankfully, I need to crank out several more hat/bootie sets this summer because I have a feeling that trying to finish my PhD may just turn me into a full-time zombie. In the meantime, these little woolies are ready to be shipped off to new homes and tiny new owners! Yay, tiny brains... I mean... tiny babies!

My Nerdy Spinning Project

2010-06-08T12:42:00.000-05:00

I showed you two lovely blue/brown skeins of handspun a few weeks ago, but failed to tell you that they are actually part of a larger spinning project that I am currently working on. Let me take a moment now to fill you in on the entire project.

I have a total of four rovings that I am spinning and each roving represents a different Hogwarts house founder: (clockwise from the top left) Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw. Totally nerdy, I know, but a good excuse to get some spinning done and work with a variety of colors. The blue/brown yarn I showed off is obviously Ravenclaw and today I get to show off Gryffindor's yarn:

I am over the moon about this yarn, which I spun from a carded batt by Hobbledehoy. The silk noil makes the texture in these singles spectacular and crazy-fun to spin! I really need to exercise restraint and not buy more batts until I spin some of the roving I already own. Admittedly, this gives me even more motivation to get spinning!

Since I spun Ravenclaw as a Navajo-ply and Gryffindor as singles, I think that Slytherin needs to be a plain old two-ply. I still have no idea about Hufflepuff's roving. Maybe I'll throw a curveball and try out core spinning or coils. I guess you'll just have to wait and see!

The Beauty of Cables

2010-06-01T13:14:00.002-05:00

Maybe I should have titled this post 'The Beauty of Ysolda' because I just finished my ninth pattern by this designer, the Gretel hat. This pattern has been on my to-knit list for a long time and it lived up to all of my expectations for how great it would be. I love this hat so much that it is going to be hard to give it to the friend I made it for.

Knitting Gretel has done nothing to cure me of my Ysolda Fever. Besides designing such beautiful knitwear, Ysolda's abilities shine in all of the little details. Take the increases and decreases on this hat, for example. The pattern has you increase two stitches over two rows to the left of the each knit ridge of the hat band, making it look as if the cable section starts organically.

The decreases on the crown are just as seamless. You decrease two stitches over two rows so that your stitches miraculously disappear into the cable motif. I'm going to have to remember these two tricks for future cablework.

So now I'm down to only 11 Ysolda patterns on my to-knit list, which does not include knitting a second Gretel for myself. I keep thinking that I should be making more items of my own design, but that's probably too ambitious of a plan until I finish my PhD. So in the meantime, I'll be happy working my way through those 11 patterns.

Knitting Across the Country

2010-05-26T17:38:00.003-05:00

Goodness me, it's been a long few weeks. While I've certainly enjoyed traveling, it wasn't always conducive to getting lots of knitting done. So I'm very happy to be home and definitely looking forward to writing up a blog post about my knitting next week. But this week you get to hear about all of the knitters I met on my travels to Ohio and Seattle!

Most of the people I met up with are members of the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup on Ravelry, who suggested meeting up once they found out I would be in their area of the country. That's how I met akasha111182 in Ohio and pertela and rchrispy in Seattle. Even though I had never met any of them in person before, our common love of knitting and our shared experience of being the House Cup made for lots of fun.

The other knitter I got to see in Seattle is actually the fiance of one of my husband's college fraternity brothers. We see each other about once per year when another brother gets married, but in the meantime I keep up with her on her blog. That's the two of us above, having fun in the photobooth at the wedding we attended this past weekend (photo courtesy of 321foto.com). Hopefully, someone else will get married next summer so I can see her in person again!

Mostly, I just want to say thank you for all of my knitting friends for brightening up my travels. With the addition of my local House Cup ladies, doviejay and isisonearth, I truly appreciate being part of a community of knitters who are willing to act as my Seattle tour guide, inform me of the best Ohio yarn shops, or just gab about yarn. Thanks for your generosity, your warmth, and the fun times!

Spinning My Wheels

2010-05-19T21:10:00.006-05:00

I just got back from spending the past week in Ohio with my folks and have enough time at home to catch my breath before I head out to a wedding in Seattle this weekend. Luckily, I didn't finish either of the two knitting projects I packed for the Ohio trip, so I will have something to work on during the plane rides.

I did, however, finish spinning and plying the fiber I packed. These two skeins are entirely spindle-spun and were even Navajo-plied on my spindle, the first time I've produced skeins using that plying technique. Navajo-plying is also called chain-plying as you basically make a crochet chain with long loops, resulting in a three-ply yarn. The outcome of this technique is short, solid-color sections in the skein, which is different than what you get with your usual two-ply yarn.

And even though I spun up all the fiber I took to Ohio, somehow I managed to come home with a whole trash bag full of roving! The photo above is really just the tip of the iceberg, as I have over 1.5 pounds of this Romney/Mohair blend--enough for an entire sweater. My mother split half of a fleece with a friend, and not being a big spinner, was generous enough to give me half of her lot. I really do have the best mother in the world.

So between all of this fiber and the stuff I got at the Alpaca Festival, I guess I need to get spinning!

Slightly Better Than A Staycation

2010-05-12T16:57:00.000-05:00

I'm currently in Ohio this week, taking a pseudo-vacation while my laboratory is shut down for renovations. It's only a pseudo-vacation because, when I am not spending time with my parents, I'll be writing up a portion of my PhD thesis. Still, it's nice to have a change of pace and a change of scenery.

I also plan to get lots of knitting done when I am at home. Like most knitters, I always find the balance between packing enough and packing too much a difficult one. Though, considering my mother is an all-star weaver (see that best of show ribbon from the Ohio State Fair in the top right of the photo below? yep, all-star) maybe I should not worry about not packing enough yarn. I'm totally jealous of her stash.

My knitting projects that did make the cut include: a bunch of yarn for baby items (I have so many pregnant friends it's not even funny), some fiber for spinning, plus a spare skein for the mandatory Ysolda project. The portability of the spindle was a major reason it got packed, but after using it for a while I remembered how nice it is to spin this way. I expect it will travel with me more in the future.

In the meantime, between the writing and the knitting, I'm hoping to see some of the local sights. I've already been to a great yarn shop, hit up Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, and explored the local bike paths. With plans to attend a minor league baseball game and the weaver's guild meeting this weekend with my mother, it promises to be a very nice visit indeed!

May Flowers

2010-05-04T08:36:00.000-05:00

I'm an avid reader of the crafting (and little-bit-of-everything-else) blog Not Martha, and while it provides a steady stream of inspiring tutorials and links, I don't usually feel compelled to make the crafts the author talks about on her blog. That was, until she posted about her design tutorial for making a felt dahlia brooch. The project immediately shot to the top of my to-make list.

The flower itself is cut out of one sheet of felt with all of the little petals glued onto a felt-and-cardboard base. I decided to needlefelt everything together based upon the supplies I had on hand. The tutorial translated very well to needlefelting, but I do have some pointers:

* Cut the round base (to needlefelt your petals onto) to be 2.5 inches across. I skipped the cardboard altogether.
* Roll up the petals and felt them slightly before attaching them to the base. This helps preserve the integrity of the base by not overworking it.
* I still used glue to attach the center part of the flower to the front.
* A backing really helps hide the residual felting fuzz and make the flower look finished. You can either glue the backing on or hand stitch it.

I opted to affix my dahlia to a headband instead of a brooch so that I could wear it in my hair. Since my headband had small teeth along the inside, I simply sewed on the flower using a little embroidery floss and completely skipped the glue.

I'm very glad that I invested the few hours it took to put everything together because I really love the finished object. It will be the perfect thing to wear to a wedding I am attending later this month!

Sadness and Alpacas

2010-04-26T12:31:00.001-05:00

It has been a long, tiring weekend here in Wisconsin. The roommate of a good friend of me and my husband passed away very suddenly this past week at the age of 25. Husband and I have spent a lot of time at the hospital and with our friend this weekend, culminating in a memorial service for Mike on Sunday at the Chemistry Department where we all work. The whole thing has been a shock, and I'm sure that any thoughts and prayers directed at Mike's family, friends and coworkers would be greatly appreciated.

I was lucky to get out away from everything for a little while and meet up with some Ravelry friends at the Midwest Alpaca Festival. I mean, how can such cute animals not induce a smile?

I think these alpaca thought that I was weird for taking a photo of them, those silly alpacas.

The friends who went to the festival with me are all from the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry. I'm still amazed at how my internet friends are slowly transitioning to be real life friends. One of our group was actually demoing that day and gave lessons to my two friends who have never used a spinning wheel before. We all went home with a piece of handspun to show off--mine coming from a few minutes test driving a very nice Lendrum wheel.

While it was great to see the alpacas and learn to spin, the group really went to see the vendors! Since it was an alpaca festival, I scored some beautiful chocolate brown roving from an alpaca named Mojo. I also bought 2 ounces of camel fiber at a great price to see how it spins up, as well as 8 ounces of this wonderfully tweedy red roving. And since I picked up a new drive band (and a spare) at the festival, I am all set to get spinning!

Bulky Context

2010-04-19T12:02:00.001-05:00

I mentioned previously that there might be a heavy-weight version of my pattern Context in the near future, and here it is! I swear that this is the last time you will see this pattern on my blog because, frankly, I'm a little tired of knitting it. But it was totally worth knitting the pattern one more time to get this squish-able, love-able, cuddle-able version. Is it bad to say that I prefer Context in bulky yarn instead of the fingering weight yarn that I called for in my own pattern?

This particular bulky yarn is a thick-and-thin handspun made from kettled-dyed roving. I only worked rows 1-60, or one repeat of charts A-C, but the finally scarf is still large enough to wrap around my neck twice and knot in front (I hid the knot underneath the front section in the photo above). If it wasn't apparent from my description above, I just love this version of my scarf!

So I'm definitely encouraging people to play around with my pattern. Just be sure to send me a photo of the results (brineydeepdesigns_at_gmail_dot_com)!

In completely unrelated news, I am so proud to say that my fellow Ravenclaws in the Harry Potter Knit Crochet House Cup named me a Mad Scientist! (The periodic table of cupcakes might have had something to do with it.) Considering the 100+ Ravenclaws this term and the fact that the other winner built her own spinning wheel out of PVC pipe(!), I'm just pleased as punch. Sign-ups are going on now for the next term and I'm looking forward to all of the crazy 'experiments' that are sure to come!

Fractal Spinning

2010-04-15T21:03:00.002-05:00

Ever since January when I dusted off my spinning wheel, I've been producing 1 or 2 skeins of yarn per month. As a relatively new spinner, I focused a lot on technique--mainly spinning thin, non-lumpy singles. Spinning almost 800 yards of lace weight alpaca for the Ravelympics really helped me improve in this area.

With my general technique under control, I've been focusing on a new area--color. One way I've challenged myself in this area is to buy rovings with a range or combination of colors aren't in my typical color palette. In addition to all of the beauty inherent in these handdyed rovings, the fiber preparation and the method of plying can have a huge effect on color variations in the final product. For the two skeins shown here, I prepped and spun using a technique called fractal spinning.

Generally, fractal spinning refers to a 2-ply yarn where one of the plies has one long repeat of the color sequence while the other ply has several shorter color repeats. This is achieved by splitting the roving in half along its length and spinning the first ply from one portion. The second half of the roving is then split along its length 4 to 8 more times; these small portions are then spun one after another while maintaining the same color ordering. The two singles are then plied together, giving a balance of slow and fast color variation in the final skein.

It is hard to gauge exactly how my fractal spun yarn will look in the final knitted object by just looking at photos of the skeins. But the long color sections in the first roving will certainly produce more distinct stripes than from the short color sections in the second roving. I'm actually quite curious to see if the fractal spinning with be apparent in the skein below or if the color will just look well varied. Only one way to find out!

And if you are curious to know, the first roving/skein is superwash BFL in the 'Ooh-La-La-Tropi-Cal' colorway (February club fiber) from Spunky Eclectic. The second roving/skein is BFL swirl in the 'Athena' colorway from Sheepish Creations. I can't wait to see how they both look knit up!

Context Scarf

2010-04-05T10:36:00.000-05:00

My latest free pattern is now available!

The Context Scarf is a study on texture, countering the delicate nature of lace with chunky garter stitch, which plays against a smooth feminine ruffle (optional). All of these elements add up to something that you’ll want to wrap around your neck to keep you warm!

The pattern is written in two sizes, but can easily be adjusted by adding more chart repeats or working the pattern in a different weight of yarn. As written for fingering weight yarn, the large (shown in grey) is just big enough to wrap around your neck twice and knot in front—a very stylish way to keep the chill out.

Pattern Requirements:
200-400 yards of fingering weight yarn
(This is a great pattern to try out some handdyed sock yarn from Etsy)
Size US #5/3.75 mm needles

Finished Measurements:
Height: 9 [11.5] inches (plus 1.5 inches with optional ruffle)
Width: 32.5 [41] inches (plus 3 inches with optional ruffle)

Gauge:
22 st x 20 rows = 4 inches in garter stitch

Difficulty:
This pattern is for an intermediate knitter who is comfortable working with charts.

You can download the pattern as a free pdf on Ravelry, as well as find more information there. Or you can download it directly using this link.

Happy knitting!

Almost Ready

2010-03-31T18:02:00.001-05:00

My new scarf pattern is almost ready to go up! I just cast off on the large-size sample and finished all of the edits to the pattern. All it needs is some better photos (ie. one's that show off the correct color of the fabric without blinding you with my paleness).

This gray version above is the large size sample. It's just large enough to go around my neck twice and knot in the front, which I love. The blue/green/purple version below is the one from this post with the addition of a ruffle. Both samples used less than 400 yards of fingering weight yarn, which is perfect for all of the sock yarn that, if you are anything like me, is probably taking over your stash.

(See what I mean about the blinding? I think my face has saturated the camera. And you don't even want to see the rejects from this photo shoot.)

I realized about halfway through knitting the gray version that this pattern would do well in a heavier yarn weight or even some handspun. So there might be another version of this scarf in the future, but I promise to share the pattern before I knit any more samples. Expect to see it sometime in the next week!

Remix

2010-03-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

The second version of my shawlette pattern is progressing much better than the first. Except that it is no longer a shawlette, it's more of a triangular scarf.

The main difference is that I'm only doing one chart repeat instead of two, making a very wide triangular scarf worked from the bottom up instead of a deep V-shaped shawl worked from the top down. I'll admit that there was a certain amount of laziness in not changing the charts, but this stitch pattern honestly charts out more easily with two increases per row instead of two increases every other row.

This particular scarf is the small version of the pattern. I'm going to add a ruffle to the bottom edge to make it just a bit bigger. Plus, I like the juxtaposition of the texture of the garter stitch lace and the softness of a stockinette ruffle.

In the meantime, I've cast on the large sample of this pattern. Expect to see progress on that in another few weeks!

There is Something in the Air

2010-03-16T20:07:00.006-05:00

It hit 60 degrees today in Madison, Wisconsin and it's only March 16th. I'm really trying to take advantage of this weather before it starts snowing again (because in Wisconsin, it inevitably will). For instance, I went on a long ride this weekend on my brand new road bike. It was so wonderful!

I really do think that there is something in the air right now, or at least the water, because these hints of Springtime are also bringing news of many babies-to-come. My friend J had the first announcement and in the last month I've heard of another 5 babies that are due this year to friends of me and my husband. What's amazing is that as of November last year, I had zero friends with children!

So the baby knitting is about to kick into high gear. I have a few pairs of booties on hand, but will definitely need to make more. Luckily, I just finished off a baby surprise jacket that's been sitting around my apartment for over a year. This is the same BSJ that heralded in last Spring and it's finished just in time to hand over to some expecting friends.

As for the jacket itself, I omitted the original button band and opted for some i-cord bows because I ran out of yarn. I think that both sides of this jacket are very cute, so this closure ensures that the jacket is reversible. This modification might be a nice way to add a little variety to the small pile of BSJs I'm planning to knit in the near future.

Going for Gold

2010-03-08T14:43:00.002-06:00

Between the cupcakes and the turmeric, I think it's time I stopped talking about food and got back to knitting. Well, maybe after I show off the two skeins of handspun I spun for Ravelympics:

That is 400 yards of lace-weight alpaca. I'm so proud of how my very first lace-weight skeins turned out and glad that I got over my worries about ruining such lovely fiber. And, despite breaking the drive band on my spinning wheel as I was plying the second skein, I managed to finish in time to win a gold medal!

Speaking of winning gold, here's a little golden something that I recently finished. The design is Coraline by Ysolda Teague, making it my second Ysolda sweater that I've made in the last 12 months (the other was the Vivian Cardigan). Between the happy color and the smocking detail on the yoke, I just adore this sweater! It is bound to become a favorite in my wardrobe.

I must admit that this is not a true Coraline sweater, as I have heavily modified the design. The only part that is actually from the original pattern is the yoke/smocking section, and even that is resized because I used Ultra Alpaca in worsted whereas the pattern calls for DK-weight yarn. The rest of the sweater was worked from the top down (Barbara Walker be praised!) to work around the small amount of yarn I had. I wrote all of my notes up on Ravelry if anyone is interested in the exact details of my modifications.

Periodic Table of Cupcakes

2010-03-02T07:53:00.009-06:00

What do you make to win a baking competition amongst chemists? A periodic table of mini cupcakes!

I had fun making these last weekend for my department's annual bake-off. Having won the competition the previous two years, I knew I had to go all-out this (my last) year. And I'm happy to report that I won this year's competition!

The table is pretty easy to make, provided you have a free afternoon. Here are some tips:

* Batter for 36 regular cupcakes makes at least the necessary 112 mini cupcakes. The minis bake in half of the time of the regular size cupcakes. I made red velvet with cream cheese frosting from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

* You'll also need at least 6 cups of icing, plus food coloring. A color copy of the periodic table really helps to make sure you have enough cupcakes in each of the many colors.

* I used dark chocolate for the lettering. I melted some in the microwave, put it in a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off, and piped the letters on. Again, it's very helpful to have a periodic table on hand.

I had a lot of fun assembling this table on the day of the competition and seeing my fellow chemists' faces light up when they saw it. The funniest part of the whole thing was the selection process, as there was a strong preference to pick the elements they use in their research. But even if they did not get the element of their choice, at least the cupcakes were all very tasty!

Tutorial: Dyeing With Turmeric

2010-02-23T19:10:00.009-06:00

Every time I hear my friends on Ravelry talk about dyeing, I get a little bit jealous. I have visions of myself making beautifully colored skeins and rovings, but perhaps my final year of graduate school is not really the time to take up a new hobby. Plus, dyeing requires an investment in separate equipment if you want to do it safely. So I opted for an easier method for my one-time dyeing experiment: dyeing with food.

The advantage of dyeing with foodstuffs is that, as long as you don't use potentially toxic mordants, you should be able to use equipment you have lying around your kitchen. A disadvantage, at least in the case of turmeric, is that the results are not colorfast. But for a simple, safe, and fun first attempt at dyeing, turmeric produces lovely results.

Here is what you will need:

* Yarn (I used KnitPicks Bare Laceweight)
* Turmeric
* A large bowl
* A large pot

That's it!

First, you need to make your dyebath. Fill the pot 3/4 of the way full with water. Add the turmeric; I used 2 tsp of turmeric on 4 ounces of wool, which gave a nice buttery yellow shade. Bring water to a boil and let simmer for 30 minutes to extract the color.

Take the dyebath off of the heat and let it cool down to room temperature. While the dyebath is cooling, place your clean, undyed yarn in a large bowl filled with lukewarm water. You want it to wet completely through, which will take about an hour.

Once your dyebath is cool and your yarn thoroughly wetted, put the yarn in the bath. Let it soak overnight, turning it every once and a while to ensure that the dye is distributed evenly.

Remove the yarn from the bath and rise several times until the water runs clear. Wash the yarn with a gentle soap or wool wash.

Enjoy the beauty that is yarn hand-dyed BY YOU!

February Is Spinning Away

2010-02-15T18:15:00.003-06:00

I am enjoying to read all of the craft blogs and their cute ideas about how to, or how they did, celebrate Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, I'm not that cute and I'm not that organized. The only person who got a Valentine's gift this year was my mother. My husband didn't even get a card.

We're not usually a V-Day gifting family, but Mom mentioned how cold her hands get while typing and I had just spun up some lovely Valentine's Day-ish yarn. So I whipped up a pair of Ysolda's garter stitch mitts, wrapped a ribbon around them, and sent them off to Mom. I hope that she enjoys wearing them and they keep her warm!

The above fiber is the second 4 oz skein I've spun up in less than a month--all part of training for the Ravelympics. My Ravelympics challenge is to spin up the 8 oz of white alpaca roving that's been sitting around my apartment since the 2008 Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. I'm finally confident enough in my spinning not to worry about ruining such beautiful fiber.

So far, it's going very well. This is the finest yarn I've even spun and, while I'm enjoying working with this fiber, it's certainly taking forever to spun. Luckily there are plenty of Olympic events to watch while I work through all of this roving.

Are you participating in for the Ravelympics? What are you making?