Dear Daughter (I know that you have been knitting lately),

And then you sent this photo of your little dog sleeping in a cowl that I made (for you). "For your blog", you messaged. Thanks, my blog could always use a good pet photo!

I know that you have been knitting lately.

You gave me that Honey Cowl project of yours (no project photos) when I saw you about a month ago, and you had me do a little repair work. (It really was not all that bad.)

Did you know that the yarn I gave you for the cowl was the Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn leftover from the Feldspar pullover that I knit for your dad?

He wore it on Saturday when we went out to dinner while you were home for the weekend.

I cleaned up this pile of abandoned knitting from your bedroom floor where we left it after our abandoned knitting discussion. I ripped out the skinny scarf that you were teaching someone how to knit (and you don't remember who)... and the hat that you started that was coming out way too big.

I know how tough it is for newer knitters to rip out old knitting, but sometimes it puts you where you need to be to move forward.

I have a new hat pattern (I custom wrote) and yarn ready for you when you finish your Honey Cowl. I am looking forward to seeing the finished project. I love it when you knit, but I love you whether you knit or do not knit. Love, Mom.

(PS: Its been almost a year since I have had a new pattern in a magazine, but it looks like I am getting a sock pattern published next year! Yeah!)

Design Release: Seabreeze

  Design: Seabreeze 

Sample Yarn:  Stonehedge Fiber Mills Shepherd's Wool Fine

Yarn Required:  Light fingering weight yarn, 220 yards color A, 150 yards color B

My latest design release, Seabreeze, is a completely reversible, two-color, garter stitch infinity cowl with a knit-as-you-go garter stitch edging. The edging is actually the same one that I used for my Paper Lanterns shawlette design. Both patterns are available on Ravelry and they will be linked indefinitely in a Ravelry 'Pattern Set' promotion...

The patterns are available individually for $5 each. The total price for for both (the set) is $8. If you would like to buy both (right now!) this is a handy link to place them both in your shopping cart (and you will see the discount automatically). For this promotion past purchases will count toward the $8 total... so if you already bought one of the patterns, just by placing the second pattern in your cart, you will see the -$2 discount.

    
(Sorry about all of the promotional stuff. I love Ravelry! If not for Ravelry and paypal, I would not have this opportunity to sell my patterns.)

But now I would really like to let you know a bit more about Seabreeze....

I fell in love with this edging I found in Barbara G Walker's A SECOND TREASURY OF KNITTING PATTERNS. I love the round shapes that I think look like a strand of beads... resulting in a cowl much like a long strand of pearls that can be worn either long-and-loose or doubled-up. Seabreeze embraces my belief that anything is easier to wear around your neck when it is reversible.

Seabreeze is also a great skill-building pattern for an intermediate knitter. The skills that will be new to many are (provisional cast-on), garter stitch grafting, and a thing I call "reversible garter stitch intarsia". I believe that the pattern provides enough detailed instructions for these skills, but look for a tutorial on the reversible intarsia here on my blog in the not to distant future.

Thanks for reading!

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.

NEW Knitting & Unicorn Tails

Over the summer, I spent a good deal of time designing (fun) (yet, challenging) and just knitting (always relaxing).

One day last week, I finished binding off the second of Mr K's 2015 socks, and I finally blocked that little shawl that I named Atmosphere, as well as my latest Paper Lanterns.  And then I realized that I really did need something NEW to knit!

Within 24 hours, I cast on two new projects (using other designer's patterns) (I still do that) (I learn from everything that I knit) (and, sometimes I like to just relax and knit with less of that "thinking" thing having to happen).

First, I cast on a project that I named Shirttail Pullover.  This will be a mostly mindless knit for me.

 

 Pattern: Tongshan Sweater by Kiyomi Burgin

Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns MountainTop Crestone

Then, I cast on a "Silkie Selkie" (a Selkie Sock made with Silkie Socks That Rock) but I was not happy with it.

In the photo above the cuff of the top-down Silkie Selkie sock is OK, but there is not enough contrast between the 'obsidian' and that 'dusk' blue, in Knitpicks Fingering Stroll.  Every sock that I made in the last few years has been a toe-up sock from my own Fingering Weight TATU Sock Pattern.  In this instance, I did eventually decide that I did not want to use this cuff-down pattern by another designer.  (I would have had to modify it by reducing the stitch count.  I found it a bit wide even on size 0 needles, and I refuse to knit with anything smaller than size 0.)  I am going to design a toe-up sock with a gansey type all-knits-and-purls stitch pattern and a band of Fair Isle at the top.

I will use my first skein of Unicorn Tails in 'antique lace' for the Fair Isle.

My purchase of a bundle of Unicorn Tails at Gosh Yarn It! was a bit of a splurge, but I know I will be using them here and there on many projects with great joy!  Hope all of your knitting is happy!  I'll be back soon.
  

Knit Tip: Two Halves -- and a Scale

Last week I took this photo to document the halfway point of my newest Paper Lanterns shawlette.

Paper Lanterns WIP in Frabjous Fibers Mad Hatter

Paper Lanterns is a rather simple, sideways knit, shawlette.  For the first half of the project you have increase rows.  For the second half, decrease rows take their place.

If you think that you might not have enough yarn to knit a two-halves type of pattern as written, but you know that you probably have enough...

Or, if you are using a treasured skein of yarn, and you desire to use as much of the yarn as possible... by making the first half as long and as wide as you can with a minimal amount of wasted yarn...

You will need a scale.

A small kitchen scale like the one that I bought from Amazon in 2010 (still available here) will work quite well.

You should weigh your yarn before you start (as I mentioned in this post).  My yarn weighed 113g.  When I got to the halfway point of the shawlette last week, I weighed the remaining yarn and shot the photo above.  The remaining yarn weighed 58g.  Half of 113 would be 56.5.  This showed me that I did have enough yarn to finish because what remained was more than what was used.  It also showed me that for this particular project, there could be no extra pattern repeats to make a larger shawlette.

Your scale will come in handy whenever you knit a project that has two halves.

I use mine every time I make toe up socks.  Before I start, I take my initial ball of yarn and wind a ball off of it, weighing both, until I get two equal balls.  Mr K likes tall socks.  My scale allows me make them as tall as I like but no taller than the yarn allows.

Fingering Weight TATU Socks FO in Cascade Yarns Heritage Paints

This FO photo of a pair that I knit for him last spring, shows what remains of the two balls that I started out with.  These are the tallest socks that I ever knit.

I currently am knitting Mr K a new pair of TATU socks and I was also at the halfway point with these earlier this month.  Now I am quite far beyond that.

Fingering Weight TATU Socks WIP in Austermann Step 6

I use my scale to check how much yarn I have used (or how much yarn I have remaining) in many of my projects especially when I design new patterns.  It has been a very worthwhile tool in my knitting tool box.

Midweek Meditation

"There are flowers everywhere for those who want to see them."  ~ Henri Matisse

Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908

Still Life with Geraniums, 1910

Annelies, White Tulips and Anemones, 1944

The Plum Blossoms, 1948

(Please, see some flowers today!)

An Invitation (Up Close & Personal)

Paper Lanterns Detail, © Gosh Yarn It!

Ann at Gosh Yarn It! does take the best knitting photos!  This detail shot is my absolute favorite of the photos she took of my Paper Lanterns shawlette while it is (temporarily) a GYI! resident sample.

As part of GYI's Summer Camp 2015, for the month of August, I will be hosting a KAL at the shop & in this Ravelry thread.  I will be in the shop this Saturday, August 1, at 1:00 PM to cast on my newest Paper Lanterns.  The pattern begins "CO 14"...  How easy is that?

My chosen yarn is the lovely Wonderland Yarns "Mad Hatter" sport weight - 344 yds - 4 oz - 100% superwash merino in the 'Crimson Fury' colorway.  [The actual weight of this balled skein is 3.95 oz or 113 g.  This might be helpful to know when I get near the halfway mark.]  It will be interesting to see Paper Lanterns knit up in a semi-solid kettle-dyed yarn.

Paper Lanterns is a great summer knit!  You may use any sock yarn -- sport weight or fingering -- wildly variegated or semi-solid.  My sample (there are many photos on the pattern page) was made with 360 yds of sport weight sock yarn.  The pattern is fairly easy to memorize and the garter stitch body of the shawl moves along quickly.

Please join me in this KAL!  You can start at anytime after the 1st, but the goal is to finish by the end of the month.  Follow the thread and visit with me at GYI! this Saturday.  I look forward to knitting with you!  Happy almost August!

Midweek Meditation -- Churchill Style

Churchill Painting at the Easel, Simon Brushfield

"At one side of the palette there is white, at the other black; and neither is ever used neat."  ~ Winston Churchill

My last "Colorwork Meditation" (#13) focused on black.  I planned (and I still do plan) that my next "Colorwork Meditation" (#14) will focus on white.  

Funny thing is...  I have started that "colorwork"-post-to-be twice, and it still is not happening...  Truthfully, now that I have spent all that time searching for quotes on "white", I have found that a lot of them are actually quotes on "white and black" or "black and white".  And, many are not so much about art as about racial relations (which is understandable) but I do not remember this (at all) when searching for "black" quotes. 

(Maybe it's me and my searching?)

At this point, I would suggest that it does make a difference if you search for "white quotes" or "quotes on the color white" or even "artist's quotes on the color white". 

Funny thing is... when I last went searching... I came upon the above quote by Winston Churchill.  I never knew that Churchill painted.

That finding lead to this:  "Although he is best known for his service as prime minister of Great Britain during World War II, Churchill was also a painter and produced many works of art over his lifetime."

A Room at Breccles, Winston Churchill

Daybreak at Cassis, Winston Churchill

And then, I saw this: 

When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied,

"Then what are we fighting for?"

(Top) Image credit:  http://simonbrushfield.com/paintings-by-adolf-hitler-and-winston-churchill-the-art-of-war/churchill-painting-at-the-easel/ 

Churchill's paintings:  https://www.google.com/?trackid=sp-006#q=winston+churchill+artwork

Design Release: Paper Lanterns

Design: Paper Lanterns

Sample Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts®, Socks That Rock®, mediumweight

Yarn Required: 350-400 yd of any sport or fingering weight sock yarn

On its one year anniversary, the rights to my Paper Lanterns design reverted back to me.  This evening, I released a newly formatted version on Ravelry.

The regular price for the pattern will be $5.00.  In order to (belatedly) celebrate its first anniversary, and to jointly celebrate the upcoming fourth anniversary of my blog, you can purchase it now through June 12, 2105, for 25% off using the coupon code, "happyanniversary".

Paper Lanterns is a great pattern to use with any high-contrast, seriously variegated skein of sock yarn, as well as a solid or lightly variegated one.  The edging of the Paper Lanterns shawlette incorporates eyelet holes and wrapped-and-dropped stitches to create a string of circular lanterns.

This is a really FUN to knit pattern!  And you don't have to take my word for it...  Some of the 2014 Rockin' Sock Club members have given me permission to quote their comments from their Ravelry project pages.

"LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the shawl, amazing yarn! The pattern is very well written, easy to follow and the little lanterns are so pretty. Can’t wait to block it and wear it."  ~ mamayaga"

Enjoyed it much more once Nine Maidens was finished, then did 3/4 of this shawlette in a couple of days. Interesting pattern with a fun edging."  ~ catmama

"I loved making this - the pattern knit up quickly and the stitch sequence was easy to remember."  ~ Amelie31
 
In a personal message Amielie31 wrote, "That scarf is one of my Blue Moon favorites. In fact, just this week I was looking through my stash for yarn to make it again. I gave the original one to my mom and now I want one to keep! Version #2 is in my queue for later this summer…" 

"I loved this project! I was finally able to memorize it when I was on the last half of the decreases. I think it looks good even un-blocked. It drapes nicely like a scarf."  ~ spaznurse