November Classes... Thompson River Socks

I am really looking forward to teaching a couple of classes at Gosh Yarn It! in Kingston, Pennsylvania during the knit-crazy month of November.

My Thompson River Sock pattern was published in the fairly recent 20th Anniversary Issue of Interweave Magazine: Interweave Knits, Fall 2016. I was beyond proud to have my worsted weight sock design, with all of my own "favorite toe-up sock things", appear in this anniversary issue of the magazine.

Thompson River Socks will be the class project for the two session Saturday afternoon class, November 12 and 19, 1:00-3:00PM. Session One will begin with Judy’s Magic Cast-On, and include working the lower stripe and beginning the stitch pattern chart. The focus of session Two will be the heel (short rows) and the cuff (more chart reading and colorwork). The class will conclude with a demonstration of the recommended tubular bind-off. 

Ann has ordered yarn to make "kits" with the small yardage of "Cherry Red" yarn you will need. The kit yarn, as was used in my sample (which is now at the shop) is HiKoo-by-Skacel Sueño Worsted. The kits will include two skeins of #1310 Gray and a partial skein of #1322 Cherry Pie. This is enough yarn to make a pair of the 7” circumference (woman’s) or the 8-3/4” (man’s) socks.

Kits will be available (even to those not taking the class) any day now.

My next post will be on swatching for Thompson River (and other) socks. It will appear here very soon. Thanks for reading!    
  

October Class Swatching... The Baable Hat

I will be teaching a couple of classes at Gosh Yarn It! in Kingston, Pennsylvania this fall. The first will be this Saturday, October 22. (I know it is short notice, but there are still a couple of seats left.) The official title of this class is: "THE BAA-BLE HAT: Tips & Techniques for Stranded Knitting with Carolyn Kern".

The project for the class is the Baable Hat which was designed by Donna Smith for Shetland Wool Week 2015. It became the #1 queued pattern on Ravelry last year, with over 5600 projects posted. The pattern is written using an unusually tight gauge for a worsted/aran weight yarn, though; and many knitters ended up with hats that were larger than they expected.

The bad news is that I learned all of this after I agreed to make a GYI shop sample and teach a class. For my sample, I had to go down from the suggested US size 7 needle to a US size 3. The good news is that this gave me a brand new direction from which to teach a stranded colorwork class.

In the class we will be making a colorwork gauge swatch that simulates working in the round. We will review two-handed stranded colorwork technique, and I will demonstrate making a two color pompom with a Clover pompom maker. I plan to suggest a number of choices the students have to modify the pattern (such as those used by Susan B Anderson). There is no doubt that we will also talk about the newly released Baable cowl and mitten pattern by Donna Smith.

My sample colorwork swatch:

For this kind of a swatch (known as a speed swatch*) you knit all rows from right to left like you are working in the round. The yarn has to be carried behind the work for each row. This is what it looks like from the back.

*There is a reason for the name "speed swatch". Please join me in class this Saturday to learn more.
☺️

Something is coming...& Something is here!

WHAT IS COMING:

I am just about ready to release a new design. It is an infinity cowl that I have named "Seabreeze".

It has been over two years since I knit my "Seabreeze" sample (one of my personal favorites).  I have submitted Seabreeze three different times for consideration to third-party publishers with no success.  I have decided that, now, it is finally time to let it see the light-of-day!

Seabreeze is a completely reversible, two-color, garter stitch infinity cowl with a knit-as-you-go garter stitch edging.  You might notice that the edging is the same one that I used in my Paper Lanterns design.

Seabreeze and Paper Lanterns will always be linked in a buy-one-get-the-other-for-a-discount on Ravelry.  Stay tuned for more details.

WHAT IS HERE:

MY VERY FIRST TRUNK SHOW!  Now through next Saturday October 17, seventeen of my knit design samples will be on display at my LYS Gosh Yarn It! in Kingston, Pennsylvania.

I have to thank my good friend Catherine who works at GYI!  The Carolyn Kern Designs Trunk Show was her idea and she proposed it to the shop manager, Ann, without even telling me.  What an honor it was when Ann asked me if I would like to do this!

During the Carolyn Kern Designs Trunk Show at GYI! an advance copy of my next newest design called Floribunda Cap will be free with a yarn purchase.

BTW, this pattern will also be free to all students taking my Floribunda Class on two-handed stranded knitting at Gosh Yarn It! Saturday November 7, 1:30-4:00.  Last I checked there were still three open seats.  See Ann's September GYI! Blog Post for details on this and all of the upcoming classes at the shop.

Small Stuff

I have not posted about any of my FO's (finished objects) since right around Christmas.  All of the FO's in this post were the "small stuff" that I made as samples for teaching in February and March.

In January, I made my first Colormatic (from the free pattern designed by Michelle Hunter) as a shop sample in less than two weeks.  Ann at Gosh Yarn It! takes the best photos.

© Gosh Yarn It!

I taught the one-session class on February 1, and I made my Colormatic 2 for my lovely daughter as a teaching-project-in-the-works.  I have a difficult time with indoor photos after dark, but this one is actually better than others that I have attempted.

Each cowl was made with four different colored skeins of "Kenzie" (50% New Zealand merino, 25% nylon, 10% angora, 10% alpaca, 5% silk) from the HiKoo by Skacel Collection, Inc.  A lovely, beautifully balanced yarn, and very easy to work with.  The class was well attended and great fun!

And then there were socks!  I do love teaching from my own patterns.  In March, I taught a three-session class in making a basic toe-up sock from my TATU Try A Toe Up) patterns:  TATU Sock and Fingeringweight TATU Sock.  The class created a perfect opportunity for me to both start and finish a pair of socks for Mr K (whose 'Sad Socks' are still quite that).

The yarn that I used was Cascade Yarns Heritage 150 Paints (75% merino, 25% nylon).  The fantastic 492-yards allowed me to make the tallest socks ever(!)  I rolled the skein into two equal-weight balls, and I knit the sock cuffs until I thought that they should not be any taller.  You can see that there was a decent amount of unused yarn in the remaining two balls (How opposite is that from those sad socks?)

I also made a second child's sock.  This photo shows a blocked and unblocked sock.  The blocked one was a part of the pattern photography.  The unblocked one a class sample.

 
I had a total of three in-the-works socks as I taught the three classes which focused on (1) the toe cast-on, foot and gusset, (2) short rows, and completing the reinforced heel, (3) my favorite toe-up sock bind-off (the Kitchener Stitch Bind-Off) along with alternate bind-off possibilities.

The sock knitters were a smaller but very enthusiastic group!  I hope to offer a couple more classes before summer.

      

About Those Sleeves

I think that it is about time that I posted some details about the added sleeves on my Taiga #2.  I shared other modifications last spring as I taught a class at GYI! on colorwork and steeking.

[Warning to most readers: This post will be number heavy, project specific, and of no real interest, unless you wish to add sleeves to a similar non-sleeved sweater.]

[Reference to any non-knitters who read past the warning: st(s) is the standard knitting abbreviation for stitch(es).]

Pattern:  Taiga by Svetlana Volkova

Size:  Large

Yarn:  Berroco Blackstone Tweed Chunky

#6646 Salt Water, 8 skeins (480 yd) 
#6614 Cranberry Bog, 6 skeins (360 yd)

Unfortunately, it would be more than I wish to take on, to write pattern-like directions for all of the sizes.  What I can do is to describe (using my notes) what I did for my own size L project, with the hope that it might help other knitters.

1) Keeping in mind that I found the short ribbed cuffs on my size M shop sample Taiga #1 rather narrow, I picked up 3 extra stitches at the underarm (Ref: 35 sts were picked up from waste yarn, and 9 sts from underarm, for a total of 47 sts). I went with an odd number so that I could center the center stitch of the chart at the center of sleeve.

2) The size L uses the lower, 33 st wide, chart. To center the 33 st repeat (with 14 extra sts, Ref: 47-33=14) I drew a heavy pencil line on my chart after the 7th and 26th st. So for each of the initial colorwork rounds, after the underarm, I began: Slip marker, work sts 27 to 33 of chart, then sts 1 to 33, then sts 1 to 7.

3) I worked 17 rounds even. I decreased a stitch at beginning and end of charted rounds 18, 22, and 28. (I moved my pencil lines out accordingly.)  I did not come up with these rounds in any regular way. Truthfully, I had to knit the first sleeve twice (it came out too short and a bit narrow the first time), and I did not want to rip out more of the colorwork than I had to, so these decreases were not evenly spaced.

4) After round 28, I calculated (using desired length, row gauge, and what I learned by trial and error) that I should decrease every 6th round six more times. I had a total of 9 decreases, going from 47 to 29 sts. 

5) Finally, I worked two more rows, decreasing (k2tog) five times on the last row for 24 sts. I changed to my smaller size needle and worked 12 rows in 1 x 1 rib. I switched color for the bind-off.

6) Important advice:  Try the sweater on as you go, work one sleeve at a time, and write down enough notes on what you actually do on the first sleeve in order to make the second sleeve the same.

All that remains to finish this sweater is to sew in the zipper.

It is pinned in now, but I have very recently come across two interesting and very different (from each other) blog posts about sewing zippers into hand knits.  I plan to review them to decide if they could improve my zipper insertion, and will post here once I am done. 

A Crocheted Steek & Other Taiga Mods

As I was saying in my last post "Taiga #1 and Taiga #2", I made several modifications to a sample Taiga Cowichan vest/cardigan that I knit for
Gosh Yarn It!  I then wrote up the modifications and taught a three session class at GYI which ended in early May.

Class 1 -- Why?  and how to start and how to steek.

Why?  Creating a steek for the colorwork, allows you to knit the stranded Fair Isle in the round, which is so much easier than knitting it back and forth.  (If you followed the Taiga pattern without this steek modification, you would be purling every other colorwork row with your floats in front.)

You might ask, why not knit the entire body in the round?  I would answer that while that is not a bad idea, I did not want to lead (five) students through so very many changes (in a few different sizes).  I would pretty much have to re-write the entire pattern.  My greater goal was to provide a kind of quick-and-easy steeking experience, and to share the whys and hows of the knitting modifications that I made.

I considered that the steek stitches would be like a front facing after the garment was finished, and I decided to extend this facing from top to bottom.  We added stitches (3 on each side) for the front facings beginning with the neck cast on.  In the photo these facing stitches are on each end beyond the red stitch markers.
 

Until we got to the colorwork, the facing stitches were the only modification.  At the start of the colorwork, one additional stitch was cast on to become the middle of the (7 stitch) steek.  Then the work was joined to knit in the round.  Steek stitches are more secure if you alternate colors in vertical stripes or in a checkerboard pattern.

After the last colorwork row, the center stitch was bound off.  After one row, we turned the work and returned to knitting back and forth for the waist shaping rows.

Class 2 -- About the pockets... and be ready for steek cutting next time.

The "pocket facings" were knit next with the 3 extra stitches at each front edge.  After they were finished and placed on a waste yarn, the back began with casting on 17 (20 less 3) stitches for "pocket linings" on each side.  Before we began our lower ribbing, we knit the bottoms of the pockets closed (much like you would when working a 3 needle bind off).  This knitting together begins with the 7th stitch from the edge of front facing and the first stitch of the pocket lining.

The bottom ribbing also had 3 extra front facing stitches on each end of row.  The students worked to finish the ribbing before Class 3.  For the sleeves, they were on their own, and could work on them before or after Class 3.

Class 3 -- Crocheted steek, and cutting the steek!

When I made Taiga #1, I first worked my crocheted steek with red yarn (for some instructional photos) and later replaced it with purple.  My first instruction to my students was... Find the center stitch of steek.  You may mark it with a pin.  We will be crocheting half of this stitch to half of the adjacent stitch on each side.  We will work from right to left.

With hook in position shown above, notice that it is inserted through half of a purple stitch and half of the green center stitch, you will first pull through a loop with your crochet yarn.  Insert hook in next two half-stitches. Pull a loop of crochet yarn through them and the crochet yarn (all yarns on hook).

When we reach the end, we will rotate the piece and work back.

It is fairly easy to pull the crochet to each side for cutting.

Four students cut their steeks in class that day!  I am very proud of all of my students.

To end the class we went over the basic finishing including the front bands.  I told the students to carefully determine a correct number of stitches to pick up for bands.  I like to pick up 3 stitches for every 4 rows.  (I would not pick up one stitch in each row as the pattern suggests.)  You could also measure how many stitches are in one inch of your previous ribbing, and then calculate  a total number of band stitches using a length-in-inches measurement of the front.

We discussed the sleeves in a general way.  Some students had seen long sleeves on some Ravelry projects and at least one Raveler wrote about how she had made hers.  Ravelry is such an endless source of information.   

I am very glad to end this post, because I really must put my Taiga #2 away.  It is 90 degrees outside!  When I resume work on it this fall, I can post about my long sleeves (I knit them after the last class) and the zipper that I plan to sew into the front.

[ETA:  I eventually posted in February 2014 about the sleeves, and in April 2014 about the zipper.]