My newest knitted design: Turtlenect Batwing

My favorite place for inspiration is my own closet.  So I used my most beloved sweater as the model for my latest knitted sweater design.  I figure that if it's a style that has a proven success record in my own wardrobe, chances are that other women will like it too.  Here's the story of what inspired my latest knitting design and what I was doing while I designed it.

For years, my cheap-acrylic-yarn-Forever-21 sweater has been my absolute favorite. I actually bought it on a whim - I think it might have been on sale.  At the time I bought it, I hadn't yet tried one of the voluminous sweater fits, and thought it would be fun to experiment.

Hanging with family in my favorite sweater.

I found that the sweater was fun to wear with just about everything as a layering peice - especially with more fitted tights or a slim maxi-skirt.  There were only two things I really didn't like about it: 1) the gross yarn it was made of and 2) the cropped length.  The cropped length worked with some outfits I had, but a lot of time I wanted the warm layer and a little extra coverage down below.  I didn't feel like I always had a good first-layer garment to provide the length I wanted below so that I could wear the sweater with leggings or a pair of pants with a clashing waist line.

So when I designed the sweater for myself, I copied the shaping and the fit of the sweater, but I changed up a few things to address the short-comings of the original sweater I loved.  First, I used Pearl, a warm wool yarn with a little bit of bling that is bulky so it will work up a voluminous sweater quickly. Next, I decided the sweater had to be relatively hassle-free to work up, so I designed it as a 1-piece, top-down garment that you can try on as you go.  I added cabling details that I thought would make it an interesting hand-knit that was beautiful to wear, and I lengthened the body of the sweater so that it could be just a little more versatile than my already track-proven favorite.

I knit this whole sweater on my recent trip to India. I think that travel and knit/crochet are excellent companions once you learn a few travel tricks.  For example, getting a data sim card for an internet dongle is a lengthy bureaucratic process in India requiring all sorts of paperwork, passport photographs, and multiple trips to the wireless provider.  And you really do need a dongle if you are staying for any length of time and want reliable internet.  I was able to cheerfully cope with the red tape because I had my Batwing project.

We travelled by all means imaginable for a month through the states of Tami Nadu and Kerala.  When the scenery became monotonous AND there was enough room to move my needles on public transport, my trusty Batwing project made me feel that my time was not wasted, and I struck up countless conversations with locals who were curious about what I was doing.  Women and children came up to me and wanted to touch my project, and on many rides I had people who just wanted to sit near me and watch.  It is really remarkable how approachable you become by those of different cultures when you display a skill that they (or their mother or grandmother) may have, and how easy it is to forge bonds. We got "adopted" by many people along the way who shared their food with us and showed us the ropes, partly because they were drawn in by the curious sight of a foreign woman knitting on their bus or train.

A hat collection will be released in the near future with the Star Beanie that will look great with the Batwing.  Watch for it in the coming weeks.

I did a little research recently on working garter stitch in the round while I was considering the design of this super simple cowl.

I started to work my project in the traditional way, working alternating knit and purl rounds and ran into that annoying jog at the end/beginning of the round at the transition point between knit and purl.  This started me on my quest to see if there was a way to do garter in the round without the jog and in this post I'll share some of what I found.

First off, I was able to find three ways of working garter stitch in the round.  Here's the roundup: 

• The Traditional Approach: Working alternating knit/purl rounds. It's the way we all first learn to do it.

• No-Purl Method #1 - Wrap & Turn: In this method you wrap the first stitch of the next round, much like short-rowing and just flip your tube of knitting inside-out on the needles.  KnitFreedom has a great video tutorial on this technique that I've included above. Don't make the same mistake I did and feel you have to pick up your wrap like you would if you were short-rowing. It just doesn't look as good as leaving the wrap alone.

• No Purl Method #2 - Two Strand: This method requires two strands of yarn. Start your work by casting on, joining in the round and knitting the first round.  At the start of round 2, you will flip the work on your right hand needle so that the purl bumps of the round just completed are facing you. Then you will attach the second strand of yarn and start knitting, leaving the first strand of yarn to remain hanging on the side you left it.  Once you knit the second round, flip the work again so that the stitches on the right hand needle (round you just completed) are now facing you with the purl bumps showing, and use the first strand of yarn to knit the round.  In this way, you alternate, knitting each round with the strand of yarn that was unused the previous round, leaving the strands of yarn to hang on the sides you left them and making sure to pull snuggly when picking up each new strand when beginning the round.  Here is the best video I found that illustrates this technique.

One of the first things I discovered was that depending on your yarn-to-needle gauge ratio, your results with each technique will vary in providing the most seamless result.  Take a look at each of the techniques in the photo at the top of this post, and compare the results in a lacier garter vs. a chunkier, denser garter.  In the photo above, the seam is placed precisely in the middle of the image.  For a lacier garter, the traditional knit/purl route is actually the most seamless.  When the work gets chunkier, the two-strand approach yields the most seamless result.

But looks aren't the only consideration when choosing which technique you might want to follow.  Each technique presents pros, cons and varying degrees of fiddly.  Like anything else in this hobby, one of these garter stitch methods may be more fun for you, and another might be pure torture. Here's my thinking on the pros and cons of each technique:

Traditional Knit / Purl

Pros

-  Doesn't really show a jog with lacy stitches
-  Great if you like to purl

Cons

-  Shows a definite jog with chunky stitches
-  Not great if you don't like to purl.  Especially if you are considering a shawl with 1000s of stitches in a round.

No Purl #1 - Wrap & Turn

Pros

-  No purling required - just knit.
-  Only one strand of yarn required

Cons

-  Shows a jog with lacy and chunky stitches, at least in my experiments.  (Maybe I'm still not getting the subtleties of this technique?)
-  A bit fiddly, you need to really work on your tension at the wrap point and I was never able to really get results that pleased me.

No Purl #2 - Two Strand

Pros

-  No purling required - just knit.
-  Doesn't really show a jog with chunkier knitting projects

Cons

-  Shows a jog with lacy stitches
-  You need 2 strands of yarn.  This can get very fiddly, especially if you are working both strands from each end of a center pull ball.

The results above are for plain garter stitch:  A 4th way to eliminate the jog with garter stitch in the round is to deviate slightly from a plain garter stitch pattern. Had I had chosen my EOR stitch carefully and modified the plain garter stitch pattern slightly, I could eliminate the jogs entirely when working the traditional method and possibly the other 2 methods as well.   The free No-Stress Ripple Stitch Cowl pattern I designed has segments of garter-based ripple stitch and there is no jogging in those rounds.

The photo above shows the simple cowl pattern I designed that started this whole investigation in the first place. For the featured yarn, which is chunky, I suggest the Two Strand Approach because it does the best job at minimizing the jog.  And as an added bonus, you don't have to purl.

I'm really interested to hear from others on no-purl garter in the round. Do you have a technique you use to eliminate the jog that I didn't cover here? Let me know in comments - or please just share any other tip you've got for working garter in the round.

Shows are a ton of work when you are exhibiting, but I absolutely love them.  It is so cool to meet up with knitters and crocheters who have worked the patterns, talk with people who are excited about the tools they bought at a prior year show and to just talk with knitters in crocheters in real life to see what they are making, what they like and what kinds of things we are doing that is most inspiring to them.

I hate to play favorites, but this lady I am posing with in the photo above is one of my all-time favorite show customers.  Take a look at a video I made of her about 2 years ago and you will immediately understand why.  She visits every year, and this year my son was helping in the booth, so she invited our family to come see the horses on her ranch after the show.

She is talking about our best-selling Stashbuster Blanket pattern and our Extended Tunisian S Hook.  I have demonstrated the technique at the show for several years, and it is a customer favorite.

Another favorite this year was the Rebel Cardi that I teach students to make in my online Craftsy Class Beyond Basic Broomstick Lace.  Aida came by to show me the progress she'd made working the upper bodice of the class project - she's using the DK Cotton Tape that is featured in my class design.

Caren stopped by to show off the cardi she was able to finish in just 2 1/2 weeks using the stash yarns she already owned!  I caught her on video below - she took the class not even intending on working the class project - she just wanted to watch the video of all the techniques. 

As she says in the video, she became so enthralled that she couldn't resist whipping one up herself! We also had visits from all sorts of knitters and crocheters who were proudly wearing our designs and wanted to show them off:

		Modest Cloche sighting!
		Art Nouveau poncho looking good!  Who says ponchos aren't cool?   Send them to our booth and we'll change their minds!
		Excellent Tunisian crochet project for beginners: the Asymmetric Poncho!
		Jen looking ravishing in her Crystalline Snood.
	....	Jinx!  Both Lori and I are wearing our Asymmetric Ponchos worked in the same yarn!  Each of us wearing ours in a different way.

Take a look at all our photos from the show on Flickr.

If you visited us at the show, thanks for stopping by! If you missed it, please visit us at Stitches West 2014 - it will be in Santa Clara from February 20 - 23 in 2014.  You've got enough time to put it on your calendar and make plans!

Imagine an antiquated, intricately hand-carved hall that serves not as a museum, but as a living, breathing market. Instead of the sculptures and carvings being preserved behind glass, small birds roost in the crevices, and shopkeepers hang their wares in any opportune crack. Such a place exists just outside the ancient temple in the heart of Madurai, India, deep within the state of Tamil Nadu.

That's my husband and son with their backpacks on in the photo above, walking through a colonnade of 400 year old sculptures that now serve as a backdrop for rows of tailors and shops.  This place is called Pudhu Mandapam, and until about 200 years ago it was a place where parties and festivals were held. Little by little, shopkeepers began to sell their wares here, and today it is this amazing space where you can buy notions and fabrics and have a garment tailored for you while you wait.

We arrived in Madurai with only a few hours to explore the temple area before grabbing an overnight bus to Pondicherry. I wish I'd had more light for my camera to capture this place, but we were rushing through at night. I also wish I'd had more time to browse the ribbons, trims and other notions on display here. Imagine only having a few minutes to browse this market. And no space in your backpack or time to buy one of these tantalizing trims....  

In doing my research on this place after-the-fact, I discovered that many locals believe it is lucky to shop here. Some of these vendor stalls have been continuously operated by the same family for over 80 years!  The shopkeepers inherit their shops from grandparents, parents or close relatives, and each shop represents a family tradition that goes back generations.

I spent time watching different tailors work. None of them work with a paper pattern or a muslin or pin their pieces together. They just directly cut the fabric and hold it together, clearly working off of a very familiar pattern in their own heads.  A pattern probably steeped in as much tradition as this space in which they work.

We didn't read about this wondrous place in our guidebook, we just stumbled on it, took in as much as we could of it, and moved on to our next adventure.  

A weaver at her loom.

We were staying in Kannur which is a town in Kerala on the Malabar Coast. As we were exploring the town from the back of an auto-rickshaw, I spied what looked to be wet skeins, just drying by the side of the road. I asked the rickshaw driver to stop, and found that we were at the Kanhirode Weaver's Co-operative. And just like that, we just walked in to their offices off the street and were treated to a one hour tour of their facility.  

View from the road.

The Coop has been around since the 1950s. They weave mostly cotton (with some linen) for the home textile market - towels, table cloths, placemats, etc.  They buy their fiber already spun from the mill - but all other aspects of turning that yarn into a usable home object is done by hand on the premises.

Inside the washing and dying facility.

The first step of the process is washing the yarn and then dying it. In the photo above, one of the managers, Jithinraj, is walking us through the process. It was at about this point that he let me know,  "The soul is in everything we make, at every step of the process our products are touched by human hands."

Dye recipes.

A collection of bamboo poles in the corner of this work area caught my eye - they act as a color recipe book.  Each has been dipped into a dye solution and carefully labeled with instructions to reproduce a color.

We were then led into a nearby building where the fibers are woven into fabric. I loved the sound of that room (take a look in my video above!), and the way these skilled weavers were able to create patterns from memory. They weren't referring to any references, just totally at one with the rythm of their shuttles flying back and forth on the loom.  Jithinraj said that it takes them 6 - 8 hours to warp a loom and that each weaver can produce about 6 yards of fabric per day.

Not being a weaver myself and this being the first time I was so thoroughly exposed to it, I was so impressed with how weaving engages the entire body. Not just the hands like knit and crochet, but the arms and the feet and the legs as well. Take a look at the footwork of this man creating a multi-colored checkerboard pattern. Looks absolutely effortless, I'm sure it is the result of years of practice.

Winding shuttle spools.

In the center of the room, stations were set up where workers loaded the shuttle spools with yarn from the skeins.

Just imagine walking off the street in the USA into an industrial business and asking for a tour of their facility. 9 times out of 10 you would get the brush-off. But in India, we were welcomed and we enjoyed a fascinating glimpse into a worker-owned textile business. 

I just got back from a month-long trip to India.  It was my second trip.  I am fascinated by this country with its hundreds of languages and cultures, its crazy dichotomies of wealth and poverty, and its over-powering smells, tastes and sounds.  Other travellers have described India as "a feast for the senses", and I think almost any traveller who has visited India would agree.  

Beyond this feast for the senses, India is a treasure chest for any fan of fiber.  (And really not just textile lovers: it is a fascinating place for any crafter or DIYer - since just about everything there is hand made or cobbled together with what's available.) Whether you knit, crochet or sew (especially if you sew), there are amazing things to see and buy at excellent prices.  

The most obvious textile purchase is a sari: 9 yards of sumptuous fabric.  I bought a few saris in India with the intention of wearing them there, then using the fabric for sewing projects when I returned.  

Shopping for a sari isn't as straightforward as running to the mall and picking one up. It's a 2 step process of purchasing the sari fabric, purchasing the blouse fabric, then going to a tailor or seamstress who can whip up a blouse for you without a pattern - typically in the same day!

Here are some photos of this western girl's first sari-shopping experience:

The most traditional place to purchase a sari is in a small, privately-owned sari shop. The saris are sorted by regional style and fiber content. These were my salesmen at the front of the store where the finest saris were kept.  Many saris are hand-loomed, and one of the most interesting things for a westerner like me is seeing that almost no two saris are exactly alike!  Sari shopping is a very service-oriented process - you don't just browse through the stock alone, you rely on the salesman to fetch the saris he thinks you will like and he unfurls them for you to inspect.

A more recent development are these large stores where you can browse the racks of saris yourself.  These types of stores are not very common - I only saw one on my most recent trip there and I saw 100s of the little stores. This photo shows the less expensive saris in the store. Notice how many salespeople are available to assist you!

Upstairs in the sari emporium are the finer party saris.

Some saris come with an additional yard of fabric so that you have enough to make a sari blouse. In case the sari does not come with blouse fabric, then you need to shop for blouse fabric in a color that coordinates with the sari fabric. Many blouse fabrics have an edging design that can be used at the sleeves and lower hem of the blouse.  Most of the mid-range fabrics I was looking at cost less than $1/yard!

The array of fabrics is mind-boggling and I had to practice a lot of self-control to stop myself from shopping for saris for more than one afternoon.  One day I will schedule a textile shopping trip to India and give myself a week, an appropriate budget, and the right luggage allowance for carrying it all back. But not this time.

Here I am getting fitted for my sari blouse.  She took about 10 different measurements and without a pattern she whipped up four sari blouses for me within four hours!  It cost about $1 for her to make each blouse.

The travel season is upon us. Many of us travel in December to visit family, or to take a winter vacation to far-off places. And as knitters and crocheters, many of us would like to take our projects along because the airplane really is one of the best places imaginable for knitting and crocheting.

But here's the thing: You can't take your needles and hooks on every aircraft if you are flying internationally. While flying with hooks and needles in the USA is no problem, keep in mind that TSA rules don't extend past the USA. As many knitters and crocheters who travel internationally have learned - not every country thinks it's okay to bring hooks and needles on the aircraft. I've had my share of hooks and needles confiscations (Mexico in recent years has been terrible for me...) and it's an incredibly frustrating and nonsensical experience. It can be expensive too!

What's most frustrating for me are the international layovers: many times you have to go through security AGAIN when you transfer planes. I was on a flight once from SFO to Singapore with a transfer in Tokyo and I had all my knitting needles confiscated during that Japanese transit.  While you might be able to research all the regulations of your destination countries and the countries you are transiting through, that research is far from easy and many times the regulations just aren't published online. What's more, if you are rerouted due to delays, weather or mechanical problems, you may find yourself routed through a country you didn't even anticipate.

So what is a poor knitter or crocheter to do? There's no way that I'm leaving my knit or crochet work at home - especially for an extended trip. I'm a light traveller and typically bring carry-on luggage only, which leaves me no option to check in my hooks and needles. Plus, being able to knit or crochet on a long flight is an absolute must for me - what else is there to do?! That's some quality stitching time!

So I unapologetically smuggle my needles and hooks on board. And not only do I have no qualms about it, I have no problems sharing my tips so that you can be an effective knit or crochet outlaw too.  Here is what I do:

1.  I only bring the tools I absolutely need and I separate them out in my bag so that even if some are found, chances are high that I can get other ones on board.  I also bring redundant tools if I am mid-project. So for example, if I am working a project with #8 needles, I will bring 2 sets of needles and I will stash them in different spots.

2.  If I am bringing knitting, I bring interchangeable needles like those from a Denise set.  Plastic, bamboo or wood needles are preferable to metal, but I have had success with my metal needles too.  I bring them disassembled with the cords packed separately from the needles.  If I am mid-project, I will detach the needles from the cord and put stoppers on the cord to secure my work.  I never leave the needles attached so that the Xray technician can clearly read "knitting project".

3.  I camoflauge my needle tips among pens and pencils.  I've packed a pencil case and thrown the needles in with them.  Although now my preferred approach is to make a few rubber-banded bundles containing pens, pencils, and needles and I stash these little bundles in separate locations in my bag.

4.  I throw my crochet hooks in with my toothbrush and toothpaste. Somehow the hooks seem dental to me. 

5.  I use an old dental floss container to hold stitch markers, and more importantly, act as a yarn cutter.

Do you have any international travel tips?  Do you have some confiscation horror stories or tips on which countries are the strictest about confiscating hooks and needles?  Let me know in the comments!

Knitted Lace with Inline Broomstick Lace using Lucci Hemp Lace

I've been having fun playing around with ways to mix knitting with Broomstick Lace. Since Broomstick Lace is a crochet technique that is done with a knitting needle anyways, it seems completely natural to knit a few rows, then use the crochet hook and the knitting needle for a few rows - the effects are gorgeous and it is fun to watch what happens as the two different kinds of laces merge into one another.

Knitted Lace with Inline Broomstick Lace using Lucci Bamboo Lace

The photos above show some of my experimentations working rows of knitting with a smaller needle, then switching to knit a row with a bigger needle. I've then worked the loops off the larger needle using a crochet hook and the Broomstick Lace technique.  Once the crochet row is complete, I've switched back to the smaller needles and continued in a knitting pattern.  I call this way of working "Inline" because there is no binding off the knitting before switching to Broomstick. In my experiments, I've found this way of combining the techniques is lovely for lacey fabrics.

Knitting with bordered Broomstick Lace as show in my new Velutinous Cap & Wristlets (Knit) design

I found that when I desired the transition between the knitting and the Broomstick Lace pattern to be more defined, binding off before a Broomstick Lace insertion provided a much more effective result.  But not just any bind off will work if you need to preserve the stretchiness and quality of the fabric.  I call this kind of transition between the two techniques a "Bordered" transition, and since no cutting of the yarn is required for the bind off, the bind off stitches really should just be considered a set of special stitches that create an attractive transition - it is not necessary to completely tie of and restart.

If you are a knitter and intersted in exploring mixing crochet into your work - do consider Broomstick Lace as it will feel like a very natural progression for you.  Even if you have only picked up a crochet hook to edge before - as long as you know the basics of how to single crochet and chain - you've got all the pre-requisites you need to tackle my new Craftsy class Beyond Basic Broomstick Lace or follow along in my new tutorial pattern Velutinous Cap & Wristlets.  And of course, there are my free, online tutorials on this website for Broomstick Lace.

If you are inspired enough to experiment with mixing techniques yourself, please do share. I'd love to see what you come up with.

A: Brown
B: Creme Tan
C: Light Tan
D: Grey

Last month I wrote a post describing how I use photos for color inspiration in my projects and I described the easy technique I use to convert photos to yarn color selections. So many people are afraid of color - and using photos to select color in this way really is a bit like "training wheels" for one's color confidence.

We are offering a new yarn on the website (Lucci Cotton Tape) that I am enamoured with right now - one of the great things about it is that it comes in so many colors.

I teach how to make this really versatile Multi-Garment in my Craftsy Tunisian Crochet class - and this yarn is perfect for it. When I was exploring how this yarn worked up in Tunisian, I got the idea to show my students examples of all kinds of palettes using this new yarn using the color selection techniques that I introduce in the class.

So a month has gone by, and the swatches for each palette are done! Here they are, presented next to their original photo inspiration.

If you use my technique to translate photos to yarn colorway selections, here are a couple things to keep in mind:

• It's hard to select 3 or 4 colors out of the millions that exist in a photo!  Choose the colors that represent why the photo works for YOU.  If 10 people were to make palettes from the same photo, chances are they would create 10 very different palettes. There is no wrong or right here as long as you are able to effectively able to use this technique to choose color combinations you like!
• Take a look at the "base colors" in the photo as well as the "highlight colors" that really make the photo pop for you.  If you are choosing a contrast yarn that will be used sparingly in the project, you would choose one of those highlight colors for that yarn, and select base colors for the main colors in the garment.

I've posted each of the completed palettes here with a listing of the colors used in each  swatch.  Now that you see the colors realized into a fabric - are you surprised by the results?  Did you like some palettes better before they were worked into a fabric? Conversely, are you surprised by how much you like some fabrics because you really didn't like the photo or the palette when you first saw it last month?

A: Chocolate
B: Tawny Olive
C: Tan
D: creme de menthe

A: Black
B: Rust
C: Bright Fuschia
 D:Gold

A: Chocolate 
B: Bright Fuschia
C: Fuschia Red
D: Orange

A: Navy
B: Bright Fuschia
C: Beet Red
D: Iced Pink

A: Black
B: French Blue
C: Gallant Red
D: Sand Daffodil

A: Brown
B: Emerald
C: Gold
D: Creme de Menthe

A: Cobalt
B: Wedgewood
C: Orange
D: Sand Daffodil

A: Chocolate
B: Lilac
C: Orange
D: Sand Daffodil

A: Chocolate
B: French Blue
C: Fuschia Red
D: Purple

You know how patterns direct you to make a swatch before you begin your project?  Do you actually do it?  If you said "yes", here's another question for you: do you wash and block your swatch before you validate your gauge?

I'm not a purist, and if you are doing something like a blanket, a scarf, or even some unstructured wearable like a poncho - then close-enough is good-enough when it comes to gauge.  But if you are making a fitted wearable, then gauge is CRITICAL and it will make or break your project.  Think about it for a minute:  At some point you will need to wash whatever you make and washing the fabric and drying it is going to change your gauge.  Also: Please just block your projects when you finish them.  It takes them from looking all crumply and "home-made" to something spectacular that others will assume you purchased in an expensive store.  And blocking also changes your gauge.  Thus: wash and block your swatches for a fitted wearable.

For those who know me or have taken my classes, then you know I'm a big believer in cheats and shortcuts and I love to share them.  So here's my cheat for washing and blocking your swatch:  fill up a mason jar (or any jar) with water and laundry soap, shake it up, massage your swatch slightly and let it soak for a while. (Take my new Craftsy class for an entire lesson on tips & tricks for swatching for a fitted wearable.)  I LOVE Eucalan for my projects because you don't have to rinse it out and it smells good.  That's right: you let it soak for 15 minutes or more and rinsing is optional. Rinsing is always the most tedious part of handwashing and using Eucalan helps you avoid the hassle.

Did I say that Eucalan smells good?  It comes in a number of really lovely fragrances, including Eucalyptus and Lavender.  And now it comes in a very heady sensual jasmine scent called Wrapture from designer Kristin Omdahl. I'm designing a set of free washcloths to be available very soon from the Stitch Diva site, and I have washed and blocked them in Wrapture using my Mason Jar trick.  Imagine what a wonderfully-scented Christmas gift they will make:  Fast, beautifully-scented hand-knitted gifts with minimal effort.

If this blog post didn't inspire you to start washing your swatches, maybe a free vial of Wrapture deliciousness will inspire you. I'm giving away a free 100mL bottle of Wrapture. For a chance to win, just comment on this blog post or the Facebook post for this giveaway. Bonus points for commentors who talk about their take on swatching and washing.

Winner selected on Tuesday 11/13.  Good luck!  If you don't win, don't despair, you can buy Eucalan online.