More love

I don't do this very often, actually it's very rare that I do this, but today I have to.

Because we had an earthquake yesterday and Germany advanced to the next round in the Soccer World Cup, it's St Jean Baptiste and because, well, my ego is pleased:

Turns out I love them even more when you follow the pattern. (Who knew?)

Anyways. I just thought you should know and if you want to knit the Embossed Leaves Socks, too - the pattern is available in my sidebar or in my Ravelry shop.

But wait, there's more!

The "Lili & Leo" blog with information about the designs for the first booklet can be found here!

A touch of class

Wouldn't you believe it, I'm going to teach a class! About Finishing!

See here. Am I excited? You betcha!

If there's anything you wanted to know about how to professionally finish your project, then you are at the correct address. I'll try my very best and teach it to you. Hurry though, since there are only 6 spaces available...

(I might be convinced to do it again. If there's cake. Just kidding. About the cake, of course.)

A little admin

I had to switch my prices from USD to CAD - has to do with Paypal and bank issues...

Well, just to let you know.

Embossed Leaves Redux

I have had a couple of inquiries why the pattern of the Embossed Leaves socks is not available online. That would be because I had not made it available - until now!

If you feel so inclined you can buy the pattern via the ravelry link on the sidebar (even when you're not a member) and get knittin'. For 5 USD CAD you receive a brand new version of the pattern with a couple of updates.




I added links to the tutorial of the tubular cast-on on my blog (since I did not use the twisted cast-on described in the other versions of the pattern) as well as a link to the sizing information.

Cutting the yarn after knitting the heel has been questioned numerous times, I eliminated that also.

Yes, I will be back to blogging without peddling my wares, I promise!

Yarny Yumminess

This arrived today. I want to start knitting right away. The Great American Yarns Merino is so soft and wonderful to knit with. Also, this is going to be not one but two samples for one of my new patterns soon to come!

We're still knitting

This is "Evangeline", a cardi knit in bulky yarn with a leaf pattern edge. It knits up real quick, I did it in two days.



Egg likes it, too.


Find the download link for the free pattern in the sidebar. Or click here.

There's a new book in town

The Joy of Sox. I have a pattern in it. It's called Royal Flush and there are twisted stitches involved. Hope you like!

Hey you!

Stop taking pictures! Yes, I mean you, Mommy!!

Egg has learned to point with her finger. She does it all the time now. She also waves bye bye - when she feels like it.

In the meantime I'm working on the re-release of my patterns previously published in Interweave Knits. Hooray, I get to knit all of the samples again...

I am also excited about my first knit night tonight in a loong while! Egg is staying home with her daddy and I get to go out and knit, I mean, really knit! And talk. Without the distraction of constantly having to rescue wares in the shop and other babies. Me time. Yay!

Kamouraska

I am very pleased to announce that I have a pattern for sale!

“Where the rushes grow on the edge of the water” - that’s how the Natives named the place in Québec, famous for the novel of the same name by Anne Hébert and even now called one of the most beautiful villages in the province.

Left and right of the small pattern rivulet in the middle of this shawl, the leafy pattern – while not exactly rushes - ‘grows’ row by row into the triangles that will envelop your shoulders and keep them warm. I deliberately did without a scalloped edge and finished with a picot bind-off since I do like to wear my shawls as scarves – they get scrunched up and worn in damp weather, and there is nothing more futile than a lovingly blocked scalloped edge that gets rained or snowed upon.

The pattern includes instructions for the lace weight version as well as the fingering weight version. I used my hand spun lace weight but any lace weight yarn with 640 yds or more is enough to knit the smaller version. For the larger version I used two balls of Silk Garden Sock yarn, about 600 yds.


Measurements, approximately:
smaller version 58” (from tip to tip)x22”
larger version 70” (from tip to tip)x26”


You can buy the pattern as direct download in my ravelry store if you feel so inclined, or click on the 'add to cart' button on the sidebar and pay by Paypal. I'll send you an email with the pfd of the pattern after payment is received.

Many thanks to Mary and Jessie for playing model and allowing me to take pictures!

It's Spring, it's Spring!

I've been wearing sandals for two days now - and it's funny to look at the leftover snow in the front yards at the same time.

In the "business of yarn" we worked on Spring last Fall. When the designs finally come out it's so old news to me that I forget that it's brand-spanking new to you! Here's what I came up with, I hope you like.


This is a slightly A-line Cardi in one of our new Artful Yarns, called "Cliché".



A top in "Marine" - a slinky, variegated yarn. It's knit in the round up to the armholes, then split for front and back.



This is - next to the "Cliché" cardi in Artful Yarns - my favourite of the Reynolds designs: A tunic in "Soft Linen".



A raglan knit in a new yarn that's called "Rise and Shine" - it's a play on the fact that it's made of 50% cotton and 50% mercerized cotton, which definitely lends some shine to it. (I can't help it, but the lady doesn't look 100% thrilled to be wearing it....or is it just me?)



A tee in "Top Seed Cotton", which is mercerized and hard wearing. Meaning that it can be thrown in the wash lots and lots of times and it only gets softer. The neckline on this one was a real puzzler, it took me a while to figure it out to my satisfaction.

Hello there!

I'm back from my trip to Outer Space. I yet have to get used to Earth's gravity, the whole zero gravity thing out there is fun but a bit hard on the muscles. I said "hello" to Major Tom, walked on the Moon, but somehow I was really glad when the space ship landed on familiar ground. There's one thing I am absolutely sure of now: Knitting in space is NOT faster than on Earth.

Some of my exploits (well, tidbits of it) you can see here:





There's more. That's for another day.

Shop Talk

One thing I never felt compelled to knit is baby clothes. I can't really say why, it just did not appeal to me. Now that I come to think about it, I rarely knitted small things but socks. I say "knitted" since when my job required to design some baby/kids garments, it wasn't as difficult as I'd thought and now that I have to think of some more I find myself enjoying the process.

One reason - or rather: four reasons - is the yarn I get to work with. Reynolds came out with a Kids line this fall, and there are four different yarns that really give you every excuse you want to knit small things.

- Wash Day Wool (psst, my favourite!) is a superwash 100%, very soft wool yarn in a fingering weight

- Sunday Best is a 51% cotton/49% viscose mix in a fingering weight, soft and shiny

- Cottontail is a worsted weight, 60% cotton and 40% microfiber - which gives the good ol' cotton a new, soft twist

- Play Time is a very reliable and soft worsted weight mix of 80% acrylic and 20% wool

There are 12 colors of all four of them, you'll find the pastels (cream, light pink, light blue, yellow), brights (red, orange, pink, green) and, of course, neutrals (indigo, charcoal, chocolate brown, camel), to mix and match as desired. All the colors go well together, there's almost no end to the variety of combinations.

To celebrate the newly created kids' yarns we have a whole book with 42 designs - accessories, toys and garments, ranging in sizes from 0-3 months to 4 years.

The coolest thing I haven't even told you yet: when choosing the yarns we made sure that they can be substituted with each other. Any design in Cotton Tail can be knit in Play Time and the other way around, or, and I've tried it, in Wash Day Wool doubled up - and I get gauge with two strands of Sunday Best, too. Any Wash Day Wool design can be knit in Sunday Best and vice versa. (No, we couldn't think of a method to substitute the fingering weight with the worsted weight yarns, but you didn't really expect that, did you?)

The Kids line is dear to me,  and I do hope you will enjoy looking into it, too.

BTW, the yarn works also well with "adult knitting". Wait, that doesn't sound right...Well, you know what I mean!!