Knitting – The Crochet Architect

January 16, 2015

Knit Mosaic Blanket Insights and Free Stitch Markers!

This is the story of my first published knitting design. It’s the beginning of September when I’m writing this blog post. But I’m posting it now because the pattern has just been published in the Winter 2014/2015 issue of Vogue Knitting magazine. My design is #9 Mosaic Blanket on pages 48 and 49 in the magazine. Here it is for you to see:

Mosaic Blanket (knit) from Vogue Knitting magazine Winter 2014/2015 issue

Now here’s my story about this blanket…

Back on August 15^th, 2014, I got a phone call and an e-mail from an editor at Vogue Knitting. She explained that they were doing a special interview with Barbara Walker, a “guru” in the knitting field, especially in mosaic knitting. Since I learned to knit in July, 2013, I’ve been devouring knitting books and continually learning new knitting techniques. I’ve always loved mosaic crochet, so mosaic knitting was one of the first techniques I learned, along with lace knitting, which I also love! I checked out one of Barbara Walker’s Mosaic Knitting books from my local library in the Fall of 2013 and quickly learned this fascinating knitting technique. So I said “yes” to taking on this mosaic blanket project and waited somewhat “impatiently” for the yarn to arrive. It took a whole week to get here, which was a lot longer than I had hoped it would!

I began this challenging blanket right away when the yarn arrived on August 25^th. The yarn came in hanks, so I quickly wound a few hanks into cakes with my trusty umbrella swift and ball winder. Then I sat down and knit a gauge swatch so I could calculate how many stitches and rows would make the targeted 50” x 60” blanket.

I calculated that I’d need to knit approx. 340 rows to make the blanket 60″ high. Since the deadline to get the finished blanket needed to be at the publisher’s office no later than Sept. 19^th, that meant I should aim for finishing it by Sept. 12^th, to allow time for shipping it from Arizona to New York. I wanted to aim for a few days earlier than that to finish it, so I decided I should knit between 20 and 24 rows per day. At first, my knitting speed was 6 rows per hour, but later on, it slowed down to 4-5 rows per hour (I’m not sure why, but it did!). I calculated it would take me approx. 17 days to knit this blanket at 20 rows per day, which was within the deadline of Sept. 12th. Each hank of yarn had 70 yards in it and was enough to knit 10 rows in the blanket. So that meant 2 hanks of yarn would yield 20 rows total, which was one day’s work. The yarn (Debbie Bliss Paloma) was a real pleasure to knit with, being 60% alpaca and 40% wool. It is a chainette yarn, which means that it’s like a knitted I-cord already. This yarn is as light as a feather and knits up to make a fabulous blanket that isn’t too heavy, but has lots of “bounce” to it. Here’s a few photos of the yarn:

I learned some things while knitting this blanket. The first thing I learned is the necessity to use stitch markers between pattern repeats, especially in mosaic knitting with lots of pattern repeats across the rows. Without those markers, I would have messed up royally across the rows. The markers helped me see the different “sections” of the row and keep my stitches worked properly, which is essential in mosaic knitting. As you can see in this photo, I used scraps of yarn for makeshift markers, since my largest markers were not quite big enough to go on these large needles (I used size 15 circular needles for this blanket). The yarn markers worked great and didn’t cost a thing, either! So the next time you need some stitch markers, why not make your own out of contrasting scraps of yarn?

I also learned that once the blanket got big (like around halfway through when it was around 30” long), putting it on a clean table and knitting it there was easier than having the weight and thickness of the blanket on my lap (especially in the hot summer months!). I folded the blanket in half widthwise and sat on one side of the table to knit the first half of the rows. Then I simply moved to the other side of the table and folded the blanket in half lengthwise (so the top of the blanket was on the other side of the table, as well) to knit the second half of the rows.

In mosaic knitting, you have to pay attention to what you’re doing all the time. It doesn’t help when your mind wanders and you knit more stitches than you need in that particular part of the row! How do I know this? Because I’ve done it myself, of course! And you have to pay attention to whether you’re working a right side or wrong side row because you slip your stitches with the yarn held in back on RS rows and with the yarn held in front on WS rows. While I was working on the blanket, I noticed a slipped stitch I had worked with the yarn held on the right side instead of on the wrong side while I was working the next row. So I fixed that mistake by simply moving the yarn to the wrong side on the next row before slipping that stitch again. If you don’t notice the mistake on the following row, though, it’s another matter!

Most mosaic patterns are written with charts, which I love, since I’m a visual person. I use a magnetic board with magnetic strips so I can place one of the strips ABOVE the row I’m currently working. This allows me to see what stitches are supposed to be BELOW the stitches I’m currently working. This also helps to find and fix any mistakes quickly before they’re too far back to fix!

Every now and then, I laid out the blanket to check for any mistakes so I could quickly fix them. In mosaic knitting, most mistakes are VERY OBVIOUS!!! While I was working the WS rows, I would check the RS to make sure I didn’t have the yarn held on the back (the RS) instead of on the front (the WS), like it should be.

Sometimes it’s hard to concentrate on a mosaic knitting project. It was much easier to work on this blanket with music playing than while watching a TV show because I could concentrate easier with the music.

Here are a few photos of a mistake I made and that section after fixing the mistake. I’ve added an arrow to where the mistake is located to help you see it better. Basically the gray horizontal line should have been a white vertical line! So I had to ladder down and fix that mistake before continuing. If I had looked at the blanket sooner, I wouldn’t have had to ladder down as many rows (approx. 18-20 rows)! It’s sure better to be able to fix a mistake by laddering down rather than having to rip out several hours of work, especially when you’re on a deadline to get it finished!

Okay, so can you answer a question for me? Am I a “glutton for punishment” for knitting a project this big or am I simply a knitter in search of a “challenge”? What do you think?

I hope you’ll give mosaic knitting a try. If you’ve never done mosaic knitting before, it might be best not to attempt a project this big for your first mosaic knitting project. Make something smaller, like a mosaic coaster or dishcloth first, to help you learn this technique. Then you’ll be ready to attempt something larger! And if you’d like to see a preview of all the fabulous projects in the Winter 2014/2015 issue of Vogue Knitting, check out this link.

Happy knitting (and crocheting),

Susan

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014

2014 CGOA Conference Afterglow

Have you ever attended a conference that was so inspirational and fun that you wanted to go back every year? Well, I have. Let me tell you about the CGOA Conference that was held in Manchester, NH last month, from July 23 through July 27.

First of all, I taught 3 classes there (Shuttle Tatting, Symbol Crochet and my Faux Tatted Necklace). All 3 classes went great and my students were very eager to learn! A few of my students actually finished their projects in class or during the conference! And two of my shuttle tatting students really took off with their shuttle tatting! Here are photos of some students and/or their projects:

Jennifer Ryan with her Faux Tatted Necklace

Juanita's tatted necklace — Juanita’s tatted necklace

Jennifer Ryan is modeling her Faux Tatted Necklace that she finished during that 3 hour class. Isn’t her necklace beautiful? This necklace is actually crocheted to look like it’s tatted. Check out Jennifer’s website if you’d like to see some of her fabulous designs and photos of the yarn bombing at the conference! Jennifer headed up the yarn bombing and it was amazing! If you don’t know what a yarn bombing is, it’s a special display of crocheted pieces that are wrapped around stationary items, such as benches, poles, etc. The yarn bombing was wonderful, thanks to Jennifer’s hard work!

The light blue necklace was made by Juanita. This is a real tatted necklace, not a faux tatted crochet necklace. Juanita had it almost done on Sunday after taking my shuttle tatting class on Thursday. She really took to tatting like a duck takes to water! Juanita took my Faux Tatted Necklace class, too, and finished that necklace shortly after the class.

One of my tatting students wrote a short blog post about learning to tat. You can read Lindsey’s blog post and see pictures of her finished and/or in-progress tatting projects here.

I’m very proud of all my students. They all learned the subject of the class, whether it was shuttle tatting, faux tatting or symbol crochet. They each worked at their own pace and understood what I was teaching them. I had a blast teaching and enjoyed meeting all of my students! They were fabulous!!!

When I wasn’t teaching classes, I was taking classes. Since I learned to knit last summer, I decided to take 2 knitting classes this time. Both teachers were excellent. The first knitting class I took was “Russian-Style Continental Knitting” by Galina Khmeleva. Obviously, Galina is Russian! She had some fantastic stories and her laid back style of teaching was refreshing! I learned a few things in that class that will help me with my knitting, including an easier and faster way to cast on stitches with the long tail method (I was doing it the hard way before, but not anymore!). Here’s a picture of Galina:

The 2^nd knitting class I took was by Michelle Hunter. It was called “Spice Up Your Stitches”. Michelle is/was an elementary school teacher and it showed in her fabulous teaching method, which left no one behind and kept the whole class on task! She did a lot of demonstrating and encouraging, which was wonderful! I learned many different stitches and stitch patterns in that class. I’m even using one of them already to design a knit cowl with some gorgeous yarn! Here’s a photo of the swatch I made in Michelle’s class:

I haven’t blocked it and I don’t intend to block it, since it’s just a swatch for learning purposes. As you can see, I learned many new knitting stitches and techniques in Michelle’s class, including bobbles.

Now, lest you think that’s all I did at the conference, I’ll tell you about the other things I did. I took the Wednesday morning event called “Get Your Geek On”. There were a bunch of us there discussing various “geeky” things about crochet, such as how we hold our hook, yarn, etc. It was fun!

On Wednesday afternoon, I was one of 3 presenters at the first CGOA Masters Day (it was half a day, but you get the idea). We talked about the CGOA Masters program in general, reviewed some swatches, talked about gauge, reviewing your own work, organizing Masters portfolios, as well as joining smoothly, finishing off and weaving in ends neatly. We had a great turnout with around 30 attendees. They were all eager to learn more and get their questions answered. I think it was a big hit!

On Wednesday night, I was one of 3 judges in the CGOA Design Competition. The other 2 judges were Karen Manthey and Jenny King. There were 82 original, inspirational entries and it was sometimes hard for the 3 of us to agree on the first, second and third place winners in each of the 5 categories. To see a list of the winners and photos of their winning entries, check out this blog post on Doris Chan’s website. Doris Chan heads up the design competition. She works tirelessly and does an amazing job of organizing everything before, during and after the conference. Thank you so much, Doris, for all of your hard work! The grand prize winner was by Dot Drake again this year. Here’s a photo of her gorgeous top:

2014 Design Competition grand prize winning entry by Dot Drake

There were tons of fish, a mermaid, seashells, an octopus, a seahorse and lots more in this fabulous crocheted top. The photo doesn’t look quite as good as the actual piece up close and personal!

On Saturday morning, I attended the CGOA Board meeting, since I’m the secretary on the CGOA Board of Directors. It’s always nice when we can have our board meeting face-to-face instead of through conference calls! The CGOA Board members make decisions on how to improve CGOA and where we should be heading each year. It’s an honor to be on the Board and to help steer CGOA in positive directions! This past year, we’ve updated the CGOA website to add crochet videos and to update the look of the website with a new banner, which I had the privilege of creating for CGOA.

On Saturday night, we had our banquet and fashion show. I enjoy modeling in the fashion show and being part of the “behind-the-scenes” of the models backstage!

I met 2 wonderful ladies at the conference: Samantha and Kristin. I also met a lot of new people to me in my classes (both the classes I taught and the classes I took). I love meeting new people. That’s one of the nicest things about the conference. And we all speak the same language of crochet!!! Here’s a photo of Samantha wearing an amazing vintage crochet dress at the CGOA Banquet/Fashion Show and a close up photo of some of the stitching in this amazing dress:

close up of Samantha's vintage dress — close up of Samantha’s vintage dress

All in all, it was a fantastic conference. No, not everything went perfectly. When does it? But we all enjoyed ourselves and learned more about crochet by attending.

I would be remiss if I didn’t show you the beautiful tiered cake that one of my mentees, Carlotta Craig, crocheted for CGOA’s 20^th Anniversary this year! Isn’t this fabulous? Here’s a photo of Carlotta and me, too. She is one very talented and humble lady!

Carlotta's fabulous CGOA cake — Carlotta’s fabulous CGOA cake

Next year’s CGOA Conference (aka: Knit & Crochet Show) will be held in San Diego! I can hardly wait!!! My husband and I used to live there back in the 80’s, in our “BC” days (before children). We had a little sailboat and sailed around Mission Bay on some weekends. My brother and sister-in-law still live in the area and my mother-in-law lives just 2 hours north of San Diego. It’ll be great to see all of them again (who can resist staying longer to get together with relatives?)!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into my week at the 2014 CGOA Conference. I hope you’ll be able to attend the conference soon. You won’t regret it!!! For more information about the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA), check out the CGOA website here.

Happy crocheting,

Susan

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014

Book Reviews: One Crochet Book and One Knitting Book

I recently got 2 new crochet/knitting books from Annie’s. I love getting new patterns for crochet and knitting projects! There’s nothing like a new project! If you called me a “pattern junkie”, I think you’d hit the nail right on the head!!!

Colorful Tunisian Afghans to Crochet book

The first book is “Colorful Tunisian Afghans to Crochet” by Glenda Winkleman. This book includes 6 patterns for Tunisian crochet afghans with cross-stitches worked on the surface to create the designs. These are really nice afghans! I love the construction of them. Five out of the six afghans are done in either strips or squares of Tunisian crochet. Each strip or square is edged before joining them together. The sixth afghan is done in a large center section that appears to be 2 separate sections, but it’s one big piece with bobbles separating the solid center from the edges where the cross-stitches are worked. Here’s that afghan:

Isn’t it pretty? And here are a few of the other afghans in this book:

The patterns in this book are rated as an “easy” skill level, but they may be closer to “intermediate”, in my opinion! Some of the special stitches used in various afghans in the book are: bobbles, popcorns, crossed sc and picots). Each pattern comes with written instructions and charts for the cross-stitch placement. If you’ve never done cross-stitch on Tunisan crochet before, it’s really easy! The Tunisian crochet makes a “grid” of squares that serve as the background for the cross-stitches. The book even includes a diagram in each pattern showing how to work cross-stitches.

Each of the afghan squares or panels is crocheted with one color of yarn, making the pieces work up quickly. Then you cross-stitch the design onto the squares or panels per the charts. If you’ve ever done stamped or counted cross-stitch on fabric, you already know how to do the cross-stitch portion of these afghans. And if you’ve done Tunisian crochet before, you already know how to do the background of the afghans! If you don’t know how to do Tunisian crochet and you want to learn, Annie’s has a lot of books, videos and materials for doing Tunisian crochet. You can see their assortment of Tunisian items here. Kim Guzman has designed a lot of projects in Tunisian crochet. She has several online classes with Annie’s, too. To read about her class called “Learn to Tunisian Crochet”, click here.

You can see all of the afghans in this book at the Annie’s website here. The book retails for $9.95 in the US and $11.95 in Canada. So with 6 patterns in this book, that comes out to be $1.67 for each pattern in the US ($2.00 each in Canada)!

If you enjoy doing Tunisian crochet (or want to learn), why not add this book to your crochet library?

A Playful Palette of 10 Knitted Accessories book

The second book I got is “A Playful Palette of 10 Knitted Accessories” by Tabetha Hedrick. As the name implies, this is a knitting book. For those of you who are bi-stitchual (you can crochet AND knit), this is a great book. There are 10 projects, ranging from small, quick projects to larger, longer projects. There’s a headband, bracelet, scarf, cowl, hat (in 2 versions), fingerless mitts, scarflette, cape and socks in 2 lengths in this book. All of the projects are made with 1-4 skeins of Koigu Yarn: either Koigu Premium Merino (KPM) or Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM). These are both fingering/sock-weight yarns in 100% merino wool. I’ve never tried this yarn, but it looks really pretty in the book, so I’ll have to give it a try sometime very soon!

Here are a few photos from this book:

You can see all of the projects in this knitting book here.

The skill levels for the projects in this book range from beginner to intermediate. I like having this range of skill levels, since I’m a fairly new knitter with lots to learn! I really like the looks of the lacy socks in this book. I never thought I’d knit or crochet socks before, but I might have to take the plunge sometime soon!!!

This knitting book has 48 pages and retails for $14.95 in the US ($17.95 in Canada). With 10 patterns in the book, each pattern costs just $1.50 in the US ($1.80 each in Canada)!

If you enjoy knitting accessories, you may want to add this book to your knitting library!

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan

November 15, 2013December 5, 2013

Book and Yarn Review: “Baby Washcloths & Afghan Squares” book and Omega Sinfonia yarn

Last month, I got the book, “Baby Washcloths & Afghan Squares” by Lisa Carnahan, published by Annie’s. This is a knitting book, not a crochet book. But since I now know how to knit, as well as crochet, I wanted to give some knit washcloths a try. Here is a photo of the front cover of this book:

Baby Washcloths & Afghan Squares book (front cover)

This is a very nice book with some nice washcloth patterns. I especially like it because I’m a relatively new knitter and my knitting skills are still a work-in-progress (I’m not ready for the TKGA Masters program by any means, yet!).

It was hard to pick which washcloth designs I wanted to make from this book because I like them all! But I finally chose the Zigzags and the Triangles washcloths to make. Here are photos of these 2 washcloths in the book:

The washcloths in this book were made with Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic, which is a DK weight yarn. Since I didn’t have any of that yarn, I used some Omega Sinfonia that I had left over from the “Wiggly Crochet Dishcloths” book I did for Annie’s. I LOVE this yarn! It’s a sport weight 100% cotton yarn that comes in many gorgeous colors. It is 3.52oz (100g) and has 218 yards (200m) for $4-5, so the value is good (and you can buy it for even less than this with a coupon!). I started knitting a pretty pink sweater this month from 5 balls of Sinfonia that I bought on sale for $3 each to learn more about knitting and shaping sweaters! It should be really nice!

But back to the baby washcloths! These washcloths don’t use that much yarn, so using left overs is perfect for these projects. In my opinion, these washcloth patterns aren’t just for babies. Since pretty much all of them are geometric designs, they can be used for much more than babies. At 8” (20cm) square, I think they’re a great size for facial washcloths and smaller dishcloths, too. I LOVE the drape of them and the stitch pattern keeps my interest instead of knitting rows of all knit or all purl! I also LOVE how quick they are to make. I can make a washcloth in just 1 or 2 evenings while watching TV (I’m not that fast of a knitter, yet, either!). Okay, here are photos of my washcloths for you to see:

What do you think? I think I did pretty well for being a new knitter (since July of this year).

There are 10 solid washcloths and 1 striped washcloth (done with slipped stitches) in this book. There’s even an afghan made with all 10 of the solid squares and 10 of the striped squares in the book (the afghan can be seen on the cover of the book and there is a full-size photo of the afghan inside the book). Here’s the striped washcloth for you to see:

You can see larger photos of all the washcloth blocks in this book and purchase it online on the Annie’s website here. If you love to knit washcloths and dishcloths, you’ll really enjoy this book!

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan

August 7, 2013

I’m Knitting (with 2 needles)!!!

Okay, this is really part of my CGOA Conference information, but I think it’s important enough to deserve a separate blog post. If you know me well, you know that I don’t consider myself to be a knitter. You may be wondering why I say that. Well, let me tell you why. When I was a girl, my mom taught me to knit, but I wasn’t very good at it. I remember asking my mom which row I was on as I was knitting some slippers: the knit row or the purl row. So, apparently, I couldn’t tell the stitches apart at that time.

When I was a teenager, my best friend taught me to crochet. I later married her brother, making us sisters-in-law! I quickly took to the crochet hook like you wouldn’t believe! It was so much easier to use one hook than 2 needles (I used to stick one needle between my legs to knit, which looks pretty silly in my opinion)!

So fast forward almost 40 years to the week before the CGOA Conference last month. I saw the video listings on the Leisure Arts website for the Knook and decided to watch them. If you’re not familiar with the Knook, it’s a wooden crochet hook with a hole at the opposite end from the hook. You can watch the Knook videos here. To use the Knook, you insert a cable (which I think can be just a scrap piece of yarn) into the hole and you can knit with a crochet hook! So I decided to try it, but my local craft store was out of the Knook. I asked my friend, Jane Rimmer, about the Knook and she thought I could do the same thing with a double-ended crochet hook. So I tried it and I was able to knit with a crochet hook! Yahoo! I think using the Knook would be a little easier than using the double-ended crochet hook, but it works for now. I was as happy as a clam with my new knitting skill, since I didn’t have to try to hold 2 knitting needles anymore!!! And the knit stitches are identical, whether they’re made with the Knook (or double-ended crochet hook) or with 2 knitting needles. Can you tell the difference? All of these green swatches were knit with my double-ended crochet hook, not knitting needles. I haven’t blocked them or woven in the ends, so they don’t look too good, but you get the idea!

Knit Check Pattern made with a crochet hook

Knit Basketweave Pattern made with a crochet hook

Knit Pennants Pattern made with a crochet hook

But my story doesn’t end there. On the way to the CGOA Conference last month, my good friend, Kathy White (she’s known as Kathryn White for her published crochet designs in books and magazines, as well as on her website), tried to teach me to knit with 2 knitting needles (the long style of needles, which are awkward for me to use). I was still having trouble with the 2 long needles and the slippery yarn. So fast forward 5 days to the last day of the conference, on the way home. Nancy Nehring, another crochet designer in CGOA, was flying home on the same plane as Kathy and me (she was continuing on to San Jose, I believe, while Kathy and I got off in Phoenix). I got to sit between Kathy and Nancy on the plane. They’re both left-handed and I’m right-handed, but they were very patient with me. Kathy bought a set of 5 short, wooden knitting needles at the conference and gave me 2 of them to use. So I kept trying to knit, with their wonderful guidance, until I was successful! I didn’t get a picture of myself knitting on the plane, but here I am in the airport before boarding the plane, thrilled with my new skill (and the shorter needles, which are much easier for me to use):

Here I am in the airport, excited about learning to knit!

I was having trouble with my stitches being twisted, so Nancy explained about inserting the needle in the other direction to keep the stitches from twisting (unless I was supposed to twist them, as patterns sometimes want them to be).

For the last 2 1/2 weeks, I’ve been practicing my knitting. I plan to keep improving and learning more all the time. Here are the first 2 projects I’ve knitted since returning home from the conference and learning to knit again:

I love the stitch pattern in this scarf, which is my adaptation of a child’s vest pattern from the latest issue of Knit 1-2-3 magazine. And I wanted to try my hand at a lacy knit stitch pattern, so I made a small blanket for a doll. The instructions for this knit stitch pattern are also in the latest issue of Knit 1-2-3 magazine, but it’s a full-size afghan in the magazine.

I’m having a blast with my knitting! I’m currently designing a knitted man’s scarf and I’d like to become a knitting tech editor when I know more about knitting (and can read the patterns comfortably, too). I love the look of knitting and now I can truly call myself “bi-stitchual” or “bi-textural” (that’s someone who can crochet and knit!).

I love knowing how to knit with 2 needles now. I know that it will open up a lot of extra possibilities for me in what I can create. I can add knitted ribbing to my crochet garments or a crocheted edging to my knitting projects! I look forward to the knitting journey ahead and all of the fun of learning something new!!!

If you know how to crochet and knit, in what ways do you enjoy using knitting and crocheting together?

Happy crocheting (and knitting),

Susan