ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

I have been so tied up with establishing this new garden here in Miranda, where there was none before, and have not been knitting nearly enough.

We are also in the midst of a drought like no other on record in New Zealand and we use rain water for all of our watering needs. Best Beloved and I did install an additional water tank at the end of 2011, quite soon after we arrived back in New Zealand and that gives us 50,000 litres of water storage. Sounds great but sadly I left the hose on some weeks ago which depleted it somewhat. We save dish washing and hand washing water for the trees and to flush the toilet. Our rain water is used for everything else from drinking, showering, water for the chickens and for the steers when they are in our paddock and obviously to water our extensive vegetable gardens.

The steers belong to next door family but our paddock is used in turn to help feed them and to help maintain the health of our paddock.

Knitting – well not much is happening. I am playing with ideas, trying things – but making little progress – it has been too hot with temperatures about 28 to 30 degrees Celsius (82 to 86 Fahrenheit – doesn’t sound so hot but it is for me) on most days since late December and right now at 11 am on an April autumnal day it is already 23.6. When it is too hot over the mid 5 or 6 hours of the day it is also too hot to be shrouded in knitting.

So my stack of books by my seat grows, my swatch pile grows as do my very bad sketches.

Surely it will soon rain and cool down and I can get on with the knitting.
Hope so!!

We have been chasing our tails for a while here in Miranda. Best Beloveds mother passed away in early August followed soon after by a brother and then a sister. A couple of friends now have serious illnesses; cancer and heart and we are just plodding along.

The good news is our granddaughter was born nearly 5 weeks ago. She has lifted our spirits.

In all of those life changing events I had forgotten all about my orange capelet created using Fibonacci spaced increases. I added photos onto Facebook at the end of July and I didn’t go on and create a post.

In the beginning was this wee wing

Fibonacci You Scare me – blog post

Front view of Fibonacci Sequence Capelet – can’t wait to work further on this and add colour and stitch possibilities.

Another view of my Fibonacci Sequence Capelet. I am ready to start another now writing what I do as I go possibly in variegated yarn rather than using intarsia technique.

Fibonacci Capelet version 1 back view. Just off the needles and shows there is potential for creating a new capelet using the Fibonacci Sequence.

Could be quite a sexy sultry piece – so have to go on, find some suitably sexy yarn that will show this shape and the body well and then write complete notes that could end in a pattern. Trouble is I like knitting, playing with colour and shape and exploring ideas. Sadly I don’t like writing patterns. But I will.

Yes I will.

I guess that might well be the same for other people as well.

But in between the dramas of life as part of a large family, life on a wee bit of land, the water watching, the driftwood and shell gathering, the planting, sewing, and weeding of our large garden, the bonfires on the beach and BBQ there as well, the prevention of possum attacks, the feather pulling (plucking) of 10 Peacocks, Peahens and turkeys after some crazy youngsters went out shooting in the night. The farmers are pleased to reduce the numbers of large birds wandering over their hills, but the plucking – now that was a big job and we have many feathers to work with on projects next year.

As I was saying – in between I have managed a wee bit of knitting as you can see.

The Cot blanket and the Mohini scarf are presents – not Christmas presents though. The Neck Warmer/Cowl is on the needles now and is just because I need to be knitting.

I am hoping grandson will help with the tree if Best Beloved has remembered to purchase it today. Baking of Scandinavian biscuits will be done on Thursday now with my daughter and grandson. That is something we haven’t managed to do together in years. It was a tradition that we baked together and her friends would join in, always a great day. Maybe grandson will bring a friend to bake with us if we are better organised next year.

So we still have presents to buy, a tree and house to decorate, baking to do, and so on. But as always we will make it, somehow.

There is always a tinge of sadness and a bringing back of memories of people and Christmases past at this time of the year. This year is the first Christmas for Best Beloved and I without any parents as sadly Best Beloveds mother passed away aged 89 in August. It is amazing how that changes one.

and it made me rethink my pattern details.

My original multicolour capelet was created using stash yarns and small lengths of yarn. I weighed the completed capelet – and added 10% (if I remember correctly) and gave that weight as the required yarn for the piece.

BUT as I have discovered, and should have realised a long time ago that in the US yarn quantities is given in yards or metres. There is no way I could give the length of the yarn required for this capelet because I used many oddments of yarn to create it.

SO I have just recreated the capelet in response to the question and using only Moda Vera Bouvardia yarn, made in Turkey which is 70% acrylic 30% wool I used nearly 200 grams of this yarn. The length about 360 metres. I used 5.5 mm circular needles. The tension was 16 stitches and 34 rows knitted in garter stitch.

The result is quite lovely but I need to do further testing.

So I have knitted the capelet using Naturally Vero 100% wool from New Zealand. It is not quite finished yet – so photos to come. Sadly the yarn is now discontinued, is a standard 12 ply yarn. The amount used is approx 225 grams and the length will be about 340 metres.

So you live and learn.

When I am done testing – I will rewrite the pattern and send a copy to all those who have already purchased it.

If you are not going to Ally Pally then read on to find out a little about Nicky and to have the opportunity to win a copy of her latest book “Knitting in Circles”.

Questions I asked of Nicky

CJ: Knitting in circles is logical after block by block – but where did you get the ideas for the individual pieces – blossoms are easy to see, but what made you decide to use circles in a pullover for instance? What was the most difficult part of the design process in creating a pullover with circles.

Nicky: I cut circles out of paper, move them around, and tape them together to give me an idea of what the finished project will look like. The idea of using circles in a pullover appealed to me because of its uniqueness. The most difficult process was the sizing of the circles.

CJ: There is a wide range of garment designs in the book – which was the most difficult from concept to the finished piece?

Nicky: I’d love to say that they are all easy, but some are challenging, but worth it — The Crystal Lace Jacket was the toughest to create from scratch, but now with my written instructions (even though they may look intimidating), it’s exciting to make. I like to think I work hard to make knitting easy for others.

CJ: Which is your favourite piece and why?

Nicky: Once again, the Crystal Lace Jacket.. It makes one feel regal wearing it and gives the knitter, a great feeling of accomplishment.

CJ: What will you be working on next? It is hard to guess the direction you might take after blocks, circles, edges, felting, flowers, embellishments etc.

Nicky: At the moment I am finishing two books of fashions for 18 inch dolls (1 knit…1 crochet). But I have bigger plans for my next book that has never been done before.

CJ: I can’t wait to see the creations in that new book Nicky.

Nicky will be on the GMC stand F5 at the Knitting & Stitching Show from tomorrow to the 14th October. Do go and meet her there.

If you cannot make it to Alexandra Palace you can visit Nicky’s website and sign up for her newsletter whilst there.

Knitting in Circles can be purchased from GMC online and for readers in New Zealand and Australia

I am lucky that I am able to give away a copy of Knitting in Circles. All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me if you have created a knit circle and which technique you have used and if you have a photo we would love to see it.

If you have not yet created a knitted circle then please tell me which technique you would love to be able to use to create your knitted circle. There are so many in this lovely book including Fair Isle, Intarsia, Cable, beaded cable, entrelac, bobbles, brioche, domino, short row knitting, lace, star medallions, points and scallops, stripes, motifs, duplicate stitch – so you have many many choices.

The winning comment will be randomly picked.

Closing date for the commenting is Saturday 20th October at midnight GMT.

Knitting in Circles

Nicky has done it again. Another innovative knitting reference. Knitting in Circles explores circular shapes that can be easily joined to create innovative and striking knitted pieces. There are 5 technique chapters, including basic circle shaping, where texture & technique, Lace & points, Colourwork to eclectic. Doesn’t that sound great?

There is something here for every skill level and if these techniques are new to you you can build your skills by working from simple to quite difficult. Each circle pattern comes with full instructions, a full-colour photograph and a chart. Once you have mastered knitting in circles in any one of the 100 examples in this book you can create anything from a bag, scarf or afghan to a dress or jacket or shawl. So from rectangles created with circles to garments created from circles.

What will Nicky do next I wonder.

What am I going to make from this beautiful book. Well in July 20011 I attended a Knit retreat “Knitting in Nature” and there I made my first attempt ever of entrelac under the tutelage of Miriam Tegels – so I have to test my entrelac skills and will post a photo of my circular entrelac at whatever stage it is at on Monday 21st October when I publish the winner of the book.

Miriam is also one of Nicky’s test knitters so that seems rather fitting.

Then for fun I shall knit the TICK TOCK CLOCK. I have a new grandchild on the way and the Tick tock clock could become the face of a real clock. I will have to keep you posted on that.