Argyle might now be my least favorite fabric. After agonizing over my father’s vest for weeks, I did finally finish it back in January and shipped it off. I first gave it to Veronica to piece together and add the ribbed edging to the neckline and sleeves. She brought it back to me, spread it out on the counter at the shop and asked me to identify exactly what was wrong with the thing. I couldn’t see it…and then I did. I had used a completely different black yarn in two spots on the vest! I had rolled all of the colors into smaller balls so that I could more easily work with them for the intarsia, except that my knitting project bag must have had leftovers from another project in it. So instead of Vintage, I had used Shokay Yak in two places on the vest. A lesson learned – clean out project bags before using them again.

Course, my dad never noticed. I am pretty sure that my stepmom told him, but he still didn’t notice. It does help to knit for people who can’t hardly see. So here is my dad in a very bad phone photo in his vest. My stepmom writes, “He insisted on wearing red!! I will take another with a white shirt.”Well the red doesn’t clash as badly as the two shades of black right next to each other in the argyle. Luckily a bad phone photo means that none of you can see this either.

Hilarious

So about once a week someone asks us for blocking wires. Veronica uses piano wire. Our friends at Uniquities sells a set that we can also get, if we carried the yarn that the company also sells.  We had long ago just decided to send folks to Uniquities or their local hardware store for a little DIY project. But someone was just in this morning and totally blew my mind with the news that Target sells them! yeah, you heard me. TARGET. What?! And the price is pretty fantastic at $23.99. Does Target even sell yarn? Such a random, yet wonderful thing for them to sell…Course, you can’t find them in the store itself, but online is a decent option. While you are there, also pick up those foam floor tile things that we put kids on so they don’t destroy the floors. They make a great blocking surface and the foam is great for poking with blocking pins. AND, since they can be taken apart and reshaped, they are very flexible for various project sizes.

Here is the Hemlock Ring that I knitted Katie for her wedding. It is Cascade 128 and took 8 hanks. The color should fit nicely in her Florida home. (this is also a class.)

The wedding was in a beach house on Anna Maria Island and it was gorgeous. There were even dolphins playing in the water behind the house!

I did manage to get some knitting done while we were gone. I am currently working on another pair of socks. The pattern is sorta my own creation so I will write it up and get it on the blog when I finish the first sock. I also brought a sweater, my March sweater (the third of 12 that I promised to knit this year). Since I really hat photos of half finished projects, I will put pictures up when I have something worthwhile to show!

Jared Flood will be visiting fibre space!

May 15th and 16th, 2010

He is offering three amazing workshops during his visit.  Get full details here. Registration opens March 8th.

About Jared

Jared Flood is a Brooklyn-based knitwear designer and photographer. His designs for hand knitters have been featured in Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits and Knit 1 magazines as well as various other print and online publications. Jared’s first book, Made in Brooklyn – a collection of hand knitting patterns in natural fibers – was published in August 2009. Visit Jared’s blog.

to other socks…

I FINALLY finished my Embossed Leaves socks. (from Interweave Knits Favorite Socks, available at the store). I have no idea how long ago I started them. I do know that between sock one and sock two, I separated the needles from the project. I wrote down “#2″ on the pattern but I am fairly certain (based on the size difference between sock one and sock two) that I actually used a #1.5 on the first pair. So…other than the obvious size difference, they are pretty awesome. The yarn is Claudia’s Handpaints from my stash. The color is pretty odd and I that is why I love it. Kinda brown, kinda red, kinda something else. I made a rule that I wasn’t allowed to wind more sock yarn until the current project was finished – whether it be a scarflette or socks. So now I can move onto the next one! Not sure what it is yet…

My niece Maddie stopped in this weekend sporting the sweater that I made her. The pattern is available at the shop. The yarn is Berroco Pure Merino, which just has the best stitch definition. It is accented with an awesome bone buckle and buttons from One World Button. Maddie is a toy yorkie so it takes a little under an hour to knit her a sweater. Isn’t she amazing?!