Straight Needle Gloves - Sneak Peek!

This is the swatch for the first pattern of the Gift Knits Kit Club!  The pattern is finished, and I'm knitting the sample today. (Yep, those are some little bitty cables on there!)  It's for GLOVES, and it is written and charted for BOTH straight needles AND for those who knit in the round.

There will be a contrasting, dark brick colored cuff.  The yarn for the body of the glove is called "Embers", 100% Superwash Merino DK Super Sheep, and it's from Holiday Yarns.  I love it!  It's knits up soft and warm and dreamy. The yarn alone retails for $22.00!  The whole kit, mailed to your door, is just $27. 

I'm making each of these items as a Holiday knit ahead for the 2012 holidays, so next year I'll be less frantic about finishing my gift knits list. 

I've just opened a few more spots in the club, so join us!

Gift Knit Kit Club Features: 
New kit each month including original Liz Marino pattern and premium yarns to make the Gift Knit of the Month, shipped on or about the 15th of the month

Exclusive Liz Marino Club patterns will not be made available to non-club members until 3 months after Club release date

Kits will not be made available retroactively or to non-members

Jan = Straight needle gloves for her (s,m,l)
Feb = Snuggly Socks - adult (men, women)
Mar = Woven-look Purse
Apr = Eco-Friendly Washcloth Gift Pack
May = Holiday Knit-Ahead Hat
June = Yoga Stirrup Socks - one size

No substitutions are available.  Color and size is determined by Liz Marino.  Each month's kit is the only kit available for that month.  Kits are not available retroactively. 

Membership will not be automatically renewed for July-Dec.  Membership will be opened to current members in April and non-members in May based on availability.

Membership is open to North American mailing addresses only.  The price is $27 per month, for a total of $162 USD.  Payment must be received in full; no month to month memberships are available.

Thanks for joining this adventure!  I can hardly wait!

After joining, email me at esliney@yahoo.com with your:

Name
Shipping address

Do this even if they are the same as the ones on your PayPal ID, please, just to confirm!  I want to make sure I know how to reach you via email and USPS.  If this info is not emailed, your membership will be rejected and your payment will be returned.  Thanks!

Back From Classic Elite

I'm back from Massachusetts, and had a fabulous visit at Classic Elite Yarns.  As you might think, it's nothing short of knitter's heaven.  Wandering their halls, seeing samples, skeins, sketches, and of course lots of great people made me think I'd walked through the looking glass to the perfect wonderland.

If you haven't been, they're in Lowell, MA in the historic mill district.  Their building is a treasure of a place, and huge!  It's now home to dozens of artist studios, a musicians' studio and music school, a restaurant, their entire company, a yarn shop, and more.  This is several city blocks' worth of interconnected real estate with an 1890's feeling.  Really amazing.  Their "Hub Mills" yarn shop is chock full of their yarns as well as several other very high-end brands making for shopper heaven.  I particularly loved the cashmere display with 6 shelves of cubbies!  I could have died happy just with the shopping.

On to the office of Betsy Perry, the President and sole owner of CEY.  She is a cheerfully dynamic woman, and welcomed me warmly into her office. Her office has huge windows original to the historic building forming one wall, making for a spacious, naturally lit workspace.   Well-placed industrial antiques and turn-of-the-century knitting accessories gave the otherwise efficient room a clear personality and purpose.  We visited about Lowell and her company for a few minutes before getting down to work. 

I showed some sketches of patterns for their recently-added Verde Collection of eco-friendly yarns, and Betsy was very supportive.  We decided to work on a project together with a long ramp-up period. And then it happened.

Judy, an employee charged with trunk show and designer management responsibilities, brought in the fall color cards for Woodland and Chesapeake (limited color cards below).  OMG!  Woodland is a DK wool with nettles, a natural moth and bug retardant.  It's soft with a slight halo, and a faintly marled color absorption.  It comes in cozy, cottage-y colors that are heavenly.  Chesapeake is a worsted 50/50 blend of cotton and merino in richly saturated colors with a distinct marle.  With its high cotton content, it exhibits excellent stitch definition.


Chesapeake -

5903 Mephisto

5904 Scuba Blue

5912 Meyer Lemon

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5920 Oxford

5925 Tokyo Rose

5938 Bracken

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5948 Bronte Blue

5949 Arabian Night

5955 Shanghai Red

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5957 True Blue

5979 Catawba Grape

5981 Tendril Green

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5985 Mandarin Orange

5995 Rosetti Purple

5998 Metro Green

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Woodland -

3101 Ivory

3103 Silver

3138 Bracken

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3148 Prussian Blue

3150 Sunshine

3155 Carnelian Red

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3175 Charcoal

3177 Ash

3185 Orange

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3192 Celestial

3195 Violet

3197 Fern

 

It's an abundance of riches to have so many exciting yarns in wonderful colors at hand.  Where to start?  After some deliberation I realized I can start anywhere.  It's all that good.

Sheep Square Washcloth

Here's a new square based on the Knitter's Mitten pattern I posted awhile back.  It's a Baa Baa Black Sheep theme that would make a nice baby blanket square, maybe with the Hickory Dickory Square and some of the others. 

This square is 38 stitches wide by 50 rows tall , using a worsted weight and size US 7 needles, or a DK weight and size US 5 needles.  As a baby blanket square I would do this in colorwork to emphasize the Black Sheep of it all.

Grey squares represent purling on the RS, knitting on the WS.

White squares represent knitting on the RS, purling on the WS.



Freebie Friday - Annika Mittens

I've been looking for a Nordic looking pattern in multiple colors,with a rounded top, and haven't found what I'm looking for, so of course I had to design one.  I named it for my Swedish friend Cindy's daughter, who is adorable and charming. 

I went back and forth on whether to make a thumb gusset, and saw that most Nordic looking patterns don't have thumb gussets, so I skipped it.  For now.  I'm not sure I won't add one in the future as I knit these up.  If I do, I'll add it to this page for you so you'll have a choice.

Annika Mittens

Materials
Cascade Yarns 220 Sport

 Main Color - White
CC1 - Brown
CC2 - Red
CC3 - Green
CC4 - Blue

Size 5 needles

Size - As written this pattern makes a Women's mitten approximately 8.75 inches around at a 6.0 stitch 7.5 row gauge per inch.  To adjust size, adjust needle size and/or yarn weight.

Cast on 60 stitches.  The dark brown squares on the chart represent slipped stitches in the lower row and knitting the slips in the upper row.  This creates a slightly scalloped edge.

The right and left mitten are knit from the same pattern.  The lavender lines represent the knitting with waste yarn for the afterthought thumb placement.  Remember to use the right chart for the right thumb and the left for the left!

At the decrease for the top of the mitten it is K2, K2 together as indicated, then knit one row even.  The next row is K1, K2 together as indicated.  Then knit one row even.  The last row is K2 together around as indicated. Break CC4, leaving a 6 inch tail for weaving in ends.  Thread MC through remaining stitches, and pull to close top.  Weave in all ends.

The thumbs are worked in a similar fashion. When finished, weave in all ends.

I hope you enjoy these.  Happy Knitting!

Musings on Bones

For two months I've been trying to design a mitten (shocking! I know) with a pattern of the skeleton of the human hand.  If you think that's morbid, stop reading now.  You won't understand. I think bones and most other body parts are really beautiful.  With few exceptions they are spare, efficient, and strong.  I wanted to explore celebrating it with our most complex bone structure, the human hand.

For me, the trick to a mitten is that it has to be functional as well as interesting to look at.  If I were to design this mitten in sock weight yarns, I could probably do it.  The pixelization at worsted and DK is just too large for the bones to look like anything but a cartoon.  But living in Buffalo, I've got to say, I don't think I've ever met a sock yarn up to the challenge of keeping me warm, dry, and shoveling on a ten degree day. 

Is there a significant call for sock weight mittens elsewhere?  Should I keep going down in yarn weight?  No human bones are straight.  Every surface and every length is curved to one degree or another.  The only way to exhibit convincing curves is to spread them out over a LOT of stitches, and the idea was the bones on the mitten would correlate directly to the bones of the hand below.  Let me know what you think.  I just might keep trying.

Great and Cozy Quick Sock Pattern

The pattern for these beautiful socks can be found here.  It's amazing how such a simple (really, really simple) pattern can make such fabulous socks. 

Made in a DK weight (3), these knit up quickly and are a great addition to your gift knitting repetoire.  Somebody needs these as a holiday gift, care package, "because I love you", or charity project.  I've got mine.  I can't wait to see yours!