Yarn on Tap

Episode 27: Managing SABLE

2012-02-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

Meet Loueze!

SABLE: Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. We all have it so we might as well make an effort to manage it so we can get more!!!

You can find the podcast on iTunes as Yarn On Tap, listen via the direct link below, or use our RSS feed http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml.

Episode 27: Managing SABLE

What's on our sticks:

Wendy is almost through the charted pattern for the Ethereal Triangle Shawl, and will be adding 6 to 8 rows to the length to use up the rest of the handspun it's made from. She also finished the first of the new stripey socks to be named later, and is working on finalizing that new pattern. AND! she even worked on her Dreaded Knit Twinset for a little bit.

Kelie is on the second sock of her second pair of Social Network socks. She is also working on her pretty Opposite Pole sweater which will be so warm and snuggly! Kelie is also working on Clue 2 of her Mystery Socks.

Mystery Sock IV: We're well underway and having lots of fun with this KAL! Clue 3 was released last week, and Clue 4 is due for release on Friday 2/3. If you would like to join us, you can find the clues as a free Ravelry download by Clicking Here!

Travelling Sock KAL: Our travelling socks are looking so cool! Both the East and West Coast teams are working very efficiently on the socks, and several pairs are already up to the gusset stage!

2012 Gift Knitting Boot Camp: The February Boot Camp thread is up on our Ravelry board, and lots of knitters have started making beautiful gifts! The variety of projects really makes for great browsing, so feel free to check out the threads! Boot Camp is open to anyone who would like to get a start on their gift knitting for the year so that they aren't suffering the pain of last minute knitting later. Join us!

Yarn Organization: We compiled these tips from fellow Sock-aholics :-)

Step 1: Sorting. This can be done by many methods - so choose the one that fits your knitting needs the best. Sort by factors such as color, fiber content, or yarn weight. Many knitters seem to like to segregate sock yarn in it's own area, and spinners like to separate their fiber from their yarn, and organize it by fiber type or color.

Step 2: Storage
- Baskets/Tote Bags: Great for WIP project, but not the best for long-term storage due to the high exposure of the contents to factors like pets, sunlight, spills, etc.
- Tubs: Plastic storage tubs seem to be very popular with knitters. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and clear tubs allow the knitter to see what's in them. Tubs stack well, which adds to their efficient space usage.
- Drawers: Many knitters seem to like to store yarn in drawers of all types. IKEA sells a lot of clever and inexpensive storage units, and we got feedback that their clear plastic drawers are great for yarn. Other knitters found that wooden chests of drawers work great, too.
- Closets: Lucky knitters out there have closet space to devote to their stash storage! The plastic tubs mentioned above stack very well in closets and can also be stored on those high closet shelves that aren't good for items that are accessed frequently. Another great suggestion was the hanging organizers that can be found at IKEA. These are made from fabric, attach to the closet pole, and feature a number of vertical cubes to store yarn or fiber in. These would be great for sweater storage, too! Another Sock-aholic shared that she has Amish-made armoirs in her livingroom that work great for storage of yarn, patterns, books, and notions. They hold a lot, and when the doors are closed, nobody realizes that her stash is in the livingroom. And to make it even better, her stash is in the same room that she does most of her knitting in.
- Under bed: There's a lot of room under beds, and plastic totes are available that are flat for under-bed storage.

Step 3: Putting Yarn in a Queue for Projects. Some knitters have taken their organization a step farther and have matched yarn with patterns and stored them together in "kits". Knitting Daily today showed an example of how a hanging shoe holder can also be used to segregate yarn and patterns together by project.

Step 4: Integration with Ravelry: Many knitters enjoy the Ravelry's stash functionality, which allows users to enter their stash information into the system. This feature makes it really easy for users to see what yarn they have, what color it is, and how much of it there is. There is also a field on each yarn's screen where you can enter the yarn's location, and we heard that some knitters were using that field to record bin numbers - so clever!

Step 5: Excess Elimination: Once you go through your stash, you may find that you need to let some yarn go to another home. Knitters suggested that yarn can be donated to senior centers, womens' shelters, nursing homes, projects that are doing charity knitting, or, of course, friends :-)

Podcast Giveaway: Our January Podcast Winner is knitrsue! Sue has won a cute red Knit Happy Tote Bag. To enter our giveaway for February, just leave a comment below! We'll be giving away another cute tote bag.

Where to Find Us:
Our store: Knitters Brewing Company www.knittersbrewing.com
Our Online Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co. Sock-aholics
Twitter: @knittersbrewing
Facebook: Knitters Brewing Co - Like us!

Fiber Dyed, But No Wheel Yet!

2012-01-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

My new spinning wheel will be arriving next Tuesday - I can hardly wait! And, its lengthy delivery time from Canada has allowed me to be super prepared for it to get here.

First, my WooLeeWinder and bobbin set have arrived. Now I can spin pretty, even bobbins full of singles and plied yarn without having to stop and adjust the feed loop. I have to admit, my Midwest value system has been whispering to me that this was a bit of a luxury purchase ($359 for the spindle and four bobbins). Fortunately, the "you work hard so you deserve a treat" and the "it's a one-time purchase so you should start out with the best equipment" voices in my head (and heart) have been speaking much more loudly!

Second, I took a shot at dying some fiber to spin. I ordered some bare 70% merino/30% silk from KnitPicks. It's quite a deal at $6.19 for 3.5 oz. They have a couple of other wool blends, too, but the shiny silk sold me. It's the equivalent of their Gloss yarn, which I used to make some gloves several years ago and liked.

Eggplant and Vermillion - forgot to soak first!

My inspiration for this dye job is the poster at the top of this post. I bought this several years ago when Mr Wendy and I went to Italy. We were staying in a Tuscan farmhouse just a few miles from this city, and it always has comforting memories for me. I caught a bad case of sinusitis/bronchitis on this trip, and of course hadn't studied the Italian words for "exhausted", "head drainage", or "hacking up nasty goo." This was making it difficult for me to purchase medicine, in a country where they tend to sell fewer multi-symptom cold products - and you have to buy them from a pharmacist. In San Gimignano, I found a kind pharmacist who was able to translate my hand waving into a product called Solvi-Flu which was a miracle drug. The box he sold me should have lasted for two weeks, but I was back again 4 days later for more. If we ever go to Italy again, I'm going to buy a case of the stuff!

Now some green...

My concept for this project was to split the fiber in half. One piece will be dyed eggplant. The other piece will be dyed in four colors from the poster - first the vermillion, then the smoky pink, then a smoky green, and then eggplant. My idea is to spin the two pieces separately, and then ply them together so that I get a gradient through the entire skein that goes from vermillion/eggplant through to eggplant/eggplant.

I probably should have done some reading online about how people go about dying fiber, but instead I just pretended like I was dying yarn and jumped right in. I mixed up bowls of dye, and then, being so excited to see what happens, I put the fiber in without soaking it first! What a blonde! How many thousand skeins have I dyed without making this error? It wasn't a fatal error, but I did have to do some squeezy squeezy action on the fiber to get it to absorb the liquid quickly and stop floating on top the dye.

Because I was using acid dye, the silk did not take the color as vibrantly as silk can be dyed. It's OK for this project though. Since I was making smoky colors, I like the fact that the overall affect is muted.

Test nukage

The dye requires steam to set the colors. The fastest way to get steam is to microwave the fiber in a plastic container. I've never nuked silk before, however, so I did a little test to make sure it didn't melt down first. This was Kelie's idea. She's such a voice of logic during these times of creative frenzy. The test came out fine, and even put a little curl back into the wool. Had it not worked, I could have steamed the yarn over boiling water on the stove, but fortunately, I didn't have to resort to that. (My mind is wondering what would happen if I used the pressure cooker... future experiment!) I nuked my two halves of dyed fiber, and let them cool - trying not to handle them hot to avoid felting. Then after a little rinsing I hung them to dry. Done!

The finished photo shows the two pieces twisted together to give a hint of what this will look like when it is plied. Is it Tuesday yet?!!!

In other news:
- We launched Mystery Sock Clue 3 this week and the resulting feet are looking great!
- I have 10 rows left to knit on my Ethereal Shawl, but will have extra yarn, so I'm going to do more rows.
- I worked on another pair of travelling socks for AMoschel. I used a textured stitch pattern on these, but the dark yarn doesn't show it off very well. Actually got to start the gusset on these! This pair, along with the previous pair I posted, are now winging their way to Pennala in Canada.

Cheers -

Another Toe!

2012-01-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

This Travelling Sock KAL just continues to be so fun! I've just received my 3rd and 4th pair of socks and they are just too cool! Each pair truly has a unique personality stitched into its patterns and colorways.

This pair belongs to GmaX4. It has a nice warm color theme going, and looks great. I put the teal cable rib part on, and Khalila did the variegated Hourglass pattern before me. We've gotten to the point in this exercise where we need to assess the status of each sock before we start knitting, so here's what I assessed on this pair:

1. The wearer has a 10" foot and wants a 6" leg. That's 16 inches of sock (plus the heel turn) divided by 11 knitters, which means each knitter should do about 1-1/2" on each sock.
2. After three knitters, the sock is already about 6" long, so we're ahead of the game on length. Consequently, I'll do less than 1-1/2".
3. Based on our formula in the pattern, we need to start the gusset rounds when this pair is 7" long.
4. Therefore, I decided to knit 1" on each sock, and that means the next knitter, Pennala, will start the heel gusset.

I still have to do Sock 2, so these aren't ready to fly to Canada just yet!

I also wanted to share an update on my Ethereal Triangular Shawl. So beautiful!!! I just love knitting with my handspun. I don't think I mentioned in the blog that I ordered a wheel last week - YAY! Got a Louet Victoria with a carrying bag AND a WooLee Winder and set of bobbins. I am going to be stylin' while I spin. But... back to my shawl. I have about 20 rows left, and I've gotten to the point where they take me 30 to 45 minutes to do (depending on how many yarn overs I've screwed up in the previous right side row). I'm sure I'll have extra yarn, so toward the end I'll start weighing my ball after each round to help me assess how many additional rows I can put on this shawl to consume all the yarn. It's so pretty, I must use every drop!

Until I have more to show off :-) - Cheers!

Episode 26: Organizing the Paper

2012-01-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

Kelie's Social Network Pair #2

With the new year upon us, many of us knitters get the urge to organize knitting supplies and stashes. We're going to spend the next couple of episodes discussing how to get organized!

You can find the podcast on iTunes as Yarn On Tap, listen via the direct link below, or use our RSS feed http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml.

Episode 26: Organizing the Paper

What's On Our Sticks:

Kelie's Opposite Pole

Kelie is halfway through her second pair of Social Network Socks by Lucy Neatby. They are looking great! She's also finally getting to work on her Opposite Pole Sweater by Loji Locatelli. This is an awesome looking project, and the construction for this pattern is SO clever. Can't wait to see this sweater grow!

Ethereal Shawl in handspun - yay!

Wendy is continuing work on her new striped sock pattern (yet to be named) made from our new yarn which is also yet to be named! I also learned to spin using Kelie's wheel over the last week - finishing the fiber I've been spinning since last July - yay!!! I cast on the Ethereal Triangular Shawl by Lakshmi Junega, and it's looking beautiful! This pattern is a fun knit - seems to be going pretty quickly :-)

Travelling Sock KAL Update: East and West Coast teams are now getting competitive about which knitting circle is going to finish their socks first - ha! Both of our sets of toes are in Canada now - how exciting! I'll keep updating the blog with new socks that arrive.

Mystery Sock IV is underway! We launched Clue 1 last week and our KAL participants are producing toes like crazy :-) It's not too late to join at all... just Click Here to find the Clue 1 thread where the link to the pattern is posted. You only have to finish one sock to be eligible for the random prize drawing at the end of the KAL. Join us!

Paper Organization: We identified four categories of knitting paperwork that tends to pile up: books, magazines, patterns, and class handouts. The bottom line of our discussion is that when we want a pattern, we tend to browse Ravelry and purchase/download patterns from there rather than looking through our books or magazines. We also like the Ravelry download storage functionality. Consequently, neither of us are too keen on keeping pattern books and magazines anymore. Our thoughts on how to move forward include:

Kelie: Find a place to donate her magazines. She has spinning mags that feature techniques she would rather learn by taking a class, so those can go. And she doesn't feel she'll use the patterns in the knitting magazines, so those can go. Many of the knitting mags she has (or the patterns in them) are available electronically should she ever really need one of the patterns. Kelie would also like to thin out her book library, but isn't quite sure how to tackle that yet. She has her pattern printouts in a binder which she likes, and is thinking about scanning her class handouts to store as pdf files. In the future, she'll focus on buying patterns as downloads, and will purchase e-books rather than paper books.

Wendy: Wendy is happy with her books as most of them are technique or stitch library reference books rather than pattern books. She will be dropping her knitting magazines off at the local library for them to sell or give away. This will free up shelf space for her binders of pattern printouts that she can't seem to part with after making a project. She also decided to make scans of class handout materials rather than keep them in binders since she doesn't reference them very often. In the future, Wendy will likely buy patterns through Ravelry as pdfs to store in her Ravelry library.

Next week we'll talk about yarn organization, and hope to interview some of our Sock-aholic group members about different methods people use to store and organize their yarn.

Podcast Giveaway: For January, we'll be giving away another tote bag, so if you would like to be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment below :-)

Where to Find Us:
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Our Online Store: Knitters Brewing Company
Facebook: Knitters Brewing Co
Twitter ID: @knittersbrewing

Spinning for Joy! (And More Toes)

2012-01-13T16:59:00.000-08:00

My beautiful handspun

I certainly had some fibery excitement this week! Kelie brought her spinning wheel, a Louet Victoria, over for me to try. I'll admit I was quite intimidated by it at first, and watched her set it up with cautious optimism. She gave me a brief tutorial, and told me to have fun - knowing full well that spinning is the kind of thing that each person just has to get a feel for.

Because it was early on a workday, I told myself I had to be somewhat disciplined, so I allowed myself an alternating schedule of 15 minutes of wheel time and 30 minutes of work. After the first 15 minutes, I was a little frustrated and ready to walk away from the wheel. After the second 15 minutes, it was going better, and I told Kelie that I was now motivated to finish my drop spindle project so that I could start the next braid on a wheel. She asked me why I didn't just finish my current drop spindle project on the wheel, and I replied that I couldn't possibly get the fiber to look as good on the unpracticed wheel as it did from my spindle. Yeah, right.

After the next 15 minutes of practice, I transferred the section of spun fiber off my spindle onto a wooly winder bobbin, and said goodbye to the spindle. I recommenced work on the fiber spinning project I started last summer during Tour de Fleece, which had stalled out due to my waning interest in the drop spindle. Between July 2011 and the magical day I tried the wheel, I had completed 2.5 oz of the 4 oz of fiber I purchased. By 10pm that night, I finished the remaining 1.5 oz, and it looked every bit as good as my spindle-spun singles - and had a tighter spin to it.

The next day Kelie gave me a tutorial on plying, and I took to it with great resolve! By 10pm that night, I had finished plying all my singles. Final yardage tally: 484 yards!!! I was hoping to get 400, so I was really please to have as much as I did.

Ethereal Triangular Shawl (Rav: sarahboirin)

Yesterday I perused patterns, and decided to use the handspun yarn to make an Ethereal Triangular Shawl by Lakshmi Junega. I think it's so pretty - and it requires around 430 yards, so it's perfect for my yarn. To prep for cast on, I soaked my yarn, blotted out the excess water, and hung it to dry overnight to set the twist. Today I cast it on, and I'm absolutely mesmerized by the way the colors are knitting together - it's going to be be-U-tiful! I wasn't going to cast on until we go on vacation next month, but who was I kidding?

Needles' Travelling Socks

Also today, Kelie delivered more toes for me to work on! This Travelling Sock KAL is just so much fun! This round of socks belong to Needles, and they are looking really cool! I've finished one of them - couldn't wait to start (I sure don't seem to have much willpower today, do I?) I used the Gingerbread Rib pattern from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book with Sweet Teal yarn, and I think this pair is looking super cute! Kelie is the one who put the sparkly second section on, and really did a great job coordinating color with the original toe color. I'll finish sock 2 this weekend and have them ready to ship to Penny in Canada on Tuesday. As of today, she hasn't yet received the two pair I sent her previously. Hopefully soon!

So it's Friday - almost 5 o'clock, and that means happy hour knitting in my book! I'm trying some sugar free margarita mix...

Cheers!

Resolving Woeful Neglect

2012-01-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

I couldn't have picked a better New Year's Resolution for 2012. It came to me as naturally as yarn wraps around my right pinky, and I've faithfully executed it all week. Resolved: spend at least 30 minutes outside every day, preferably doing yardwork.

When I drafted this resolution, my purpose was three-fold. First, I need to take a break from the computer during the day. I tend to start work before 7am and stay at my desk until 6 or so - working, writing, playing on Ravelry, knitting, whatever I need to do to ensure the day's business is conducted properly. Second, I need to move more. My hobbies (knitting, and.... uh... knitting) and my vocation (knitting) tend to be pretty dormant on the activity scale, so my body gets a bit stiff over time, and really does show appreciation when I move more than just my fingers. Third, the yard really needs some help.

I didn't realize how many positive benefits there would be from this resolution! In just a week, I've grown to look forward to this daily "time out" of mine, instead of viewing it as the chore that it is. I've declared outdoor time to be electronic-device-free-time, so instead of listening to a book while I pull weeds, I'm forced to listen to my thoughts for a change. Darned if I don't have a couple of good ones left in there! My jeans are actually a tad bit more comfortable today than they were a week ago, and I attribute that to the daily stretching and squatting that comes with yardwork. I've felt muscles, especially in my legs and rump, that I haven't felt in a long time. It's good to know they are still there!

The best benefit has been the daily sense of putting a little part of my world back into order. Because I tend to be a fairly structured person, my head goes to a really happy place any time I get to make order from chaos: whether it's creating a new system to manage data or inventory, cleaning a room, organizing a drawer, or pulling weeds from a flower bed. The success of my daily outdoor work has actually spread to the interior of my home, where I'm also trying to knock something off my indoor Woefully Neglected list each day, too! I won't go into details about that list, but let's just say that yardwork and housework really took a back seat to workwork over the last couple of months. Although the number of tasks on my WN list is truly overwhelming, I find that most of them really don't take too long to resolve, and thus provide some fairly quick gratification.

Bottom line: I'm starting 2012 off in a productive way, and am feeling super happy about my daily accomplishments. And yes, writing in the blog has been neglected, too! I'll see what I can do about that :-)

I also wanted to share the first pictures I have from the Travelling Sock KAL that started this week! In this KAL, there are two circles, East and West Coast, each with 10 or 11 people in them. Each knitter started a pair of sock toes for herself, and then mailed them to the next person in the circle. As we receive each partial pair of socks, we work on it for an inch or two, and then mail it on to the next knitter in the circle. Eventually, each person will find their beautiful, colorful, and unique pair of socks in their mailbox, and it will have been touched by 10 other knitters. How cool is this concept?!

My toes are made from Sock-aholic Sweet Teal. Nothing fancy, just the standard increases up to a 64 stitch circumference. This KAL is a great way to use up stash, as you only need a few yards for each sock you work on.

Kelie's Toes

Kelie is in the circle position prior to me, so I've already received her toes, and added knitting to her pair. She made toes from sparkly Kraemer yarn with silver flecks in it. She dyed this yarn a really dark blue, and it looks like the nighttime sky. I added a slipstitch pattern to each sock using some Pace Step in light blue along with some variegated yarn from Jolly Jumbuck called Helios. A little more stash gone - whee!

Both pairs are winging their way to Penny in Canada now who is next in our circle. Hopefully the border crossing will be swift, and Penny can start to add her creative touches to the WIP!

I have nine more pair to work on, and I'll be sure to report on each one as they arrive!

Episode 25: Happy Knitting New Year!

2012-01-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

Kelie's Snowflower Hat

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and are off to a great start for 2012. In this episode, we recap our knitting related gift giving (and receiving) successes, and spill the beans on an exciting new product launch for Spring 2012 :-)

You can find the podcast on iTunes as Yarn On Tap, listen via the direct link below, or use our RSS feed http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml.

Episode 25: Happy Knitting New Year

First, we'll show and tell some gifties!

Helios Handwarmers

Kelie made two Snowflower Hats at the last minute! One is grey and one is navy. Very cute!

And here is the link to the Helios Handwarmers that she put with the cool hats.

Kelie's Bowl

Kelie received a pretty yarn bowl made by a local ceramic artist :-) She also got new yarn from Santa to make her Opposite Pole sweater. It is beautiful Blue Moon Fiber Arts Gaea Organic Merino in the Twilight colorway.

Magnet Pattern Helpers

Wendy received magnet strips from Slipped Stitch Studios to help with chart following. And a magnifying ruler, too!

What's On Our Sticks:

Wendy and Kelie both finished the Toes for their Travelling Socks. Now it's on Wendy to put the next section on Kelie's socks and send them on to Penny in Canada. Wendy has also been working on a new two-color sock design with a slip stitch pattern. This sock is my first use of our new base yarn, and I like it!!!

Kelie finished her Labyrinth sweater, and it is gorgeous! She used a beautiful Malabrigo purple and accented it with deep teal beaded Tilly Thomas contrast yarn. She also started a pair of Social Networking socks using two colors of MBFA yarn that she got at Sock Summit. Her needles are poised and ready for Mystery Sock 4!

New Sock Design in process!

Our Travelling Toes!

Labyrinth Finished!!!

Mystery Sock 4 KAL! This popular knit-along starts 1/13 - join us! We'll be revealing a toe-up sock design called Lucky Charms in a series of 7 clues. No purchase is necessary, but we do have kits available in our online store for anyone that is interested. Click here to find more information in our Ravely Group!

Dozen Shawls in 20Dozen: We're a happy sponsor of this Ravelry group that is working on the Seaside Shawlette in January. Consequently, if you Click Here, you can find the free download link for the Seaside Shawl on Ravelry. Good luck to the Dozen Shawl knitters!

Knit.Sock.Love: We are also honored to be sponsoring an upcoming knit-along for the Knit.Sock.Love group that is working through the most recent collection of cool Cookie A sock patterns. We'll be sponsoring a prize for the Stalagmite pattern to be knit in Feb/March, and I plan to knit along with them! Now to pick a color... doh!

Adorable drawstring bag

Awarness Ribbon Drawstring Bag: This adorable pattern has been published by Ravelry group member Pat (Rav ID: agypsyknits), and we just had to share! The bag has a clever, round flat base, and the sides feature the awareness ribbon motif from our 2010 SGK fundraiser sock pattern. She finished it with eyelet edging, through which she has threaded a twisted cord. It's so cute, and would make a great giftie! You can find the pattern on Pat's blog, by Clicking Here.

2012: We mentioned a few goals for the upcoming year -

1. Sponsor more Ravelry events, including Ravelympic activities

2. Do more tradeshow exhibits, including the big Convergence Conference

3. Continue Boot Camp for another year. Thanks so much to Rav group members whimsytaylor and knitrsue for volunteering to be this year's Drill Sergeants!

4. And last but not least - new yarn! We have a new 4-ply fingering weight blend of 50% FS alpaca, 30% Fine Merino, and 20% tencel on the way, and it is as soft as cashmere! We are so excited to get the shipment and start dying. We should be releasing this yarn in the March/April timeframe :-)

Podcast Giveaway: The December winner of a Knit Happy Take Along Tote Bag is TracyC611! For January, we'll be giving away another tote bag, so if you would like to be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment below :-)

Where to Find Us:
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Our Online Store: Knitters Brewing Company
Facebook: Knitters Brewing Co
Twitter ID: @knittersbrewing

Episode 24: 2011 Wrap Up

2011-12-14T19:32:00.000-08:00

Eve by Julia Mueller

Today's podcast features one of our favorite things to do - we look back over the year to pat ourselves on the back for all our knitting achievements for the year!

Episode 24: 2011 Wrap Up

What's on Kelie's Sticks: She's cruising along on her Labyrinth sweater by Wendy Bernard.

Fuzzy Socks!

What's on Wendy's Sticks: On glove number two of Eve by Julia Mueller. Love this pattern! I also finished the Fuzzy Socks I made for my niece. They are really silly. I'll have modeled photos next podcast :-)

Mystery Sock 4: Our super fun Mystery Sock KAL starts 1/13/12! This year, the theme is Lucky Charms, and our design will feature lots of techniques to try. No purchase is necessary, but we do have kits available that include our cute commemmorative stitch marker for this KAL. Click here for more information on how to sign up!

Travelling Sock KAL: Registration is underway for our Travelling Sock Knit-along. We're going to launch the pattern on 12/23, and the KAL starts at the beginning of January. For this event, knitters will be divided into circles of 8 or so people. Each knitter will start a pair of socks, and then after a couple of inches of knitting, will mail the socks to the next person in the circle. Each knitter will eventually work on each pair of socks in the circle, and can be as creative as they like! If you would like to join in (and aren't shy about going to the post office), Click Here for more information! Registration ends 12/23.

Podcast Giveaway: The November winner of a Knit Happy Take Along Tote Bag is LizzieJohns! For December, we'll be giving away another tote bag, so if you would like to be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment below :-)

Where to Find Us:
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Our Online Store: Knitters Brewing Company
Facebook: Knitters Brewing Co
Twitter ID: @knittersbrewing

Episode 23: Everyone Should Have a Beard

2011-11-30T13:26:00.000-08:00

Kelie made the most adorable beards for her boyz recently - we think everyone should have one!

Episode 23: Everyone Should Have a Beard

What's on Kelie's Sticks:
- Instant Beard by Christine Grant shown here- these are the best!
- Seaside Shawl - done! and done beautifully. This is still a free pattern on Ravelry :-)
- Cleopatra's Stockings by Yarnissima are coming along well.
- Labyrinth by Wendy Bernard using her beautiful purple Mmmmmmalabrigo.

Kelie's Seaside Shawl!

Eve by Julia Mueller

What's on Wendy's Sticks:
- Finished my right Eve by Julia Mueller. Most beautiful pattern ever!
- Fuzzy Socks for my niece - these are the goofiest socks I've ever made.
- Still spinning my 50/50 alpaca/silk from Artistic Fibers. It's going to be a Semi-Precious one day.
- My Dreaded Twinset is making progress! Not fast progress, but progress :-)

Mystery Sock 4 has Launched!!! Our fourth annual Mystery Sock starts on 1/13/11! This year's theme is Lucky Charms, and the secret toe-up design features a variety of techniques that will keep you entertained throughout the duration of the 7 week KAL. Clues will be posted as free downloads on Ravelry each Friday. There is no purchase required to participate, but kits are available by Clicking Here. We hope you'll join us for all the fun!

Gift Knitting Boot Camp Wrap Up! Congratulations go out to everyone who participated in Boot Camp and reduced their stress levels by getting some gift knitting finished early. We awarded several Medals of Honor to the most dedicated members who completely finished their holiday knitting, and are now free to enjoy their recreational knitting at a relaxed pace throughout December. Good job everyone!

Our Favorite Hand-Made Gifts We've Received

Wendy treasures her 40 year old Red Heart afghan from Grandma Hazel, her yarn trunk that her dad built and her mom lined with quilted fabric, and her Baseball Socks that Kelie made.

Best Friend Fireside Socks

Kelie has been lucky enough to receive the following hand-knit gifts from her BFF Rebecca:
- The Scribbling Scarf from Kay Gardiner and Anne Shayne of Mason-Dixon Knitting
- Best Friend's Fireside Socks by Rebecca Zelt - free Ravelry download!
- Bayerische Socks by Eunny Jang - free Ravelry download!

Podcast Giveaway:

For November, our giveaway is the Red Knit Happy Take-along Tote! To be entered in our random drawing, just leave a comment below! Let us know if you have any ideas for topics you would like us to cover :-)

Where to Find Us:
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Our Store: Knitters Brewing Company
Facebook: Knitters Brewing Co
Twitter: @KnittersBrewing

Episode 22: Postcard From Fiber Camp

2011-11-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

Fiber Friend Shelly

Kelie and I are have a wonderful friend Shelly who, like us, enjoys her fibery hobbies. Shelly was one of the 45 lucky enthusiasts who got to attend this year's Knot Hysteria Retreat in Port Ludlow, WA, on November 4-8. The teachers for the event were Judith MacKenzie (spinning), Tina Newton (dying), and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (colorwork knitting). Shelly joined us for this episode to tell us all about her trip!

Episode 22: Postcard from Fiber Camp

What's on Our Sticks:
Kelie finished her Transition Point Socks, and they are really cool! She also made her hat for a hat exchange we are attending in a couple of days - details next time! Her only current project on the sticks is her Seaside Shawlette. She's ready to swatch for her Opposite Pole.

My right Eve

Wendy finished her exchange hat, and the first prototype sock for Mystery Sock IV. I also started Eve gloves by Julia Mueller and they are gorgeous! I'm tryng to stay focused on my spinning, and am making steady progress :-) I think I might make the Semi Precious shawl from knitty.com with it if I have enough yardage.

Shelly is currently working on a lace wrap from her handspun, and has a hat to make for the exchange!

Seaside Shawlette KAL: We've completed another fun KAL! Congrats to everyone who particiated and completed their beautiful shawls. We know there are still knitters who are working on their projects, so please post photos to share them when you are done :-) You know we like us some show and tell.

Fiber Queen Kelie

Southern CA Handweavers' Guild Weaving and Fiber Festival: We had a great time at this show again this year! It's always fun to meet LA area Sock-aholics and podcast listeners. Kelie was successful in her quest for Crosspatch Creations fiber, and brought home lots of pretty new colors!

Future Big Bertha Twinset

Dreaded Knits: Since Kelie finished her Swirl Shawl (YAY!!!) several folks are now motivated to work on a dreaded knit, including me. I'm going to start working on my Big Bertha Twinset, and it will be awesome to have this two-year old project out of my WIP bag.

Prize Giveaway: Our prize for November is a Knit Happy Take-Along Tote! To be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment below :-)

Where to Find Us:
Our Ravelry Group: Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Twitter: @KnittersBrewing
Facebook: Knitters Brewing Co
Our online store: http://www.knittersbrewing.com

Episode 21: Trying a New Technique

2011-11-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

We don't have any good photos for the notes for this episode, so our apologies for the plain-ness! Next time we'll have some finished projects to show off :-)

Episode 21: Trying a New Technique

Southern California Handweavers' Guild Weaving and Fiber Festival: This Sunday 11/6 from 10-4 at the Torrance CA Civic Complex. Click Here to find more details on their website.

What's On Wendy's Sticks:
- Finished my Butterfly Phone Purse - yay! I'll have the pattern as a free download on Ravelry later today. There are more details about this project in this previous post.
- Finished the Pencil Roving Clown Colored Glory Purse for my neice which I described in my previous post.
- Finished the Travelling Sock Pattern for our upcoming Travelling Sock Knit-Along. Thanks to abitknottie for getting the idea for this KAL going, working out the details of the even, and helping to edit the pattern. On the next podcast, we'll have dates to share for registration and the KAL!
- Still spinning my 4oz of alpaca/silk :-)
- Mystery Sock IV is coming along well! My plan is to start this KAL mid-January, with kits being available in December.
- I downloaded Eve by Julia Mueller because my hands are cold in the morning now. I'm going to cast this on soon, from the Buffalo yarn I bought at Vogue.

What's On Kelie's Sticks:
- Transition Point Socks from the STR club - going well!
- Swirl Shawl Swirls are done, and the shawl is ready for blocking!!! Kelie thanks everyone for their messages of support after the last podcast - it really helped her to get her swirls done by Halloween!
- She's about to cast on her Opposite Pole sweater now that those swirls are done :-)

Gift Knitting Boot Camp: October was another success for our Boot Camp Gift Knitters, and now we are down to the last month! Kelie is done with her gift knitting (as far as she knows today...) and I have a few mini-socks left to make. Photos next time :-)

Seaside Shawlette KAL: Ongoing through 11/11/11! The pattern is a free download on Ravelry - join us! If you can't join us for this KAL, the Dozen Shawls in 20dozen group will be knitting this shawl in January, and I'm sure they would like to have more knitters.

Our Fundraiser Was a Huge Success! We raised $840 for Susan G Komen through our Bridge of Roses Kit sales - congratulations to everyone who participated! Judy sends her thanks to everyone who helped her exceed her fundraising goal for the upcoming 3-Day Walk. She walks Nov 18-20 - wish her luck!

Kelie has been trying Lever Knitting lately and let us know how it's going. Here's a link to the Yarn Harlot's video on this technique if you are curious. The demonstration goes fast for this production style of hand-knitting.

Podcast Prize Giveaway! Our October winner is Diane (aka dialua on Ravelry). Congrats! She won a cute Knit Happy Take-along Tote. We'll be giving away another tote bag in November. To be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment below!

Where to find us:
Our Ravelry group: The Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Our Store: Knitters Brewing Company
We Tweet now! @knittersbrewing
Facebook: Knitters Brewing Co

From Pause to Present

2011-10-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

Super Bulky Clown Colored Glory

I was really hoping that my first project from handspun would be some delicate gorgeous something-or-other, but instead, here it is in it's Super Bulky Clown Colored Glory.

I started learning to spin using a drop spindle in March of this year after purchasing a Trindle. I watched some YouTube videos to help me learn what to do, and that's probably why Kelie has asked me why I spin left-handed - ha! Hey - at this point it feels right to me, and it seems to be working, so left-handed it will be.

Day 1 from pencil roving

Day 3: Looking Better

The first fiber I had to practice with was some 100% wool Schoppel Wolle Roving Ombre in colorway 906 Multi that I won at Stitches. The pack contained a 50g braid, and a 50g skein of pencil roving. At first, I thought you could draft off the pencil roving skein without having to break off sections of fiber. That obviously was way wrong. So I put the pencil roving away and started working from sections of the braided fiber and started to get better. I remember when I finally drafted AND had the spindle spinning at the same time - woohoo!!! So I kept at it for a few days, and then admit that I lost interest and put it on Pause. It wasn't looking that great.

Practice and good roving makes a lot of difference!

Then in June, I heard about the Tour de Fleece event on Ravelry. In this spin-along, participants were supposed to spin each day of the Tour de France competition. I thought this would be a great way to get some consistent practice in. I went to the LYS and purchased some Artistic Fibers roving in 50/50 Alpaca/Silk that was wonderfully soft. I kept up with the Tour for 9 days, and then ironically tripped over my husband's bike in our garage and hurt my left wrist (elbow, hip, knee...) That ended the Tour de Fleece for me as I needed to let my wrist heal for a while.

This month, I've been posessed by the need to finish up some projects (love it when that feeling hits!) and I started working on this roving again, and now have half of the 4oz braid spun. I'm slow, but happy with the results.

On Monday, I was cleaning up some project bags, and found my first spinning efforts. I decided it was good practice, but unusable, and threw it all away - braid, pencil roving, and the fiber I had spun. Then as an afterthought I pulled the pencil roving back out of the trash, thinking it would be fun to spin it without any drafting to make a thick 2-ply yarn.

2-Ply Super Bulky from Pencil Roving

That night, after emptying my spindle, I spun the 42g of remaining clown colored pencil roving, and then plied it. It only took 45 minutes from start to finish, and I ended up with about 19 yards of decent looking super bulky yarn (wpi = 4).

Penguin and Alpaca House

Yesterday, I knit it into a small purse for my neice using size 13 needles, and used pretty much every inch of the 19 yards. I figure she can appreciate the bright colors. I had purchased two cute finger puppets at the Vista Fiber Fiesta for her, and this purse makes a perfect home for them. I'm going to send them off to her today :-)

Now I'll go back to spinning my pretty alpaca/silk roving, and when I make something out of it, it will be a delicate gorgeous something-or-other.

Cheers-

Sometimes I Am So Freaking Smart

2011-10-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

I finished my iPhone purse today - yay!!! What I had left to do was the twisted cable purse strap. Since it was something I haven't talked about before, thought I'd take some photos along the way.

I read somewhere that you should start with a length of yarn about 4 times as long as the final twisted cord you want to end up with. Now I wasn't sure if that included the initial fold or not so I decided to err on the make-it-too-long side. I wanted my strap to be about 40" long, so I measured out 160" of yarn, folded the yarn on itself at that point, and then pulled off enough yarn to get back to the other end. At this point, I have a double thickness of yarn, 160" long. It seems really too long, but better that than the alternative.

Next, as I wanted to bling it up at bit, I strung 06/0 beads onto one of the strands of yarn, and spread them out so that they were spaced every 1-1/2 to 2" as shown above.

Now it's time to start twisting. I slipped the folded end over the leg of an inverted table so I would have something to twist against. Then I tied a knot in the opposite end to hold the two ends together. Stuck my finger in there, started twisting, and then had a total brainstorm.

Why not let the skeiner do the twisting???!!! So I skootched the whole setup over toward my electric vertical skeiner and clipped the knotted end onto one of the arms. Then I pulled the table back away from the skeiner until the yarn was not dragging on the floor. Turned on the skeiner, et voila!

I can't even begin to guess how much arm fatigue this saved me! I let the skeiner run for a while, checking the results periodically until I decided it was tightly twisted enough.

Now it is time to let the cord twist back on itself, much like plying handspun yarn. Because it was still longer than my armspan, I had Mr. Wendy help me hold the twisted cord tight while we folded it in half and let it twist together.

At this point, the cord was twice as long as I needed it to be. I guess that original estimation of starting out with 4 times the length includes the intial fold. So I thought what the heck - lets try twisting and folding it again. By gosh - it worked!

To finish the cord, I tied a knot in the unfolded end to keep it from coming untwisted, and trimmed the uneven ends. Then, using thread and needle, I sewed the cord into my purse. I'm pretty darned happy with the results!

Episode 20: I Want An Alpaca

2011-10-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

Finished Siesta! Ignore the shoes...

It's been four weeks since we sat at the microphones, and we had a lot to chat about!

Episode 20: I Want An Alpaca

What's On Our Sticks:
Wendy finished her extra-long Siesta by Carol Feller - yay!!! It fits great and I'm super happy about it! I've also been working on the design for Mystery Sock IV, and have been working on my drop spindling.

Kelie is half-way through her Transition Point Socks from STR and they are looking cool! She's also making great progress on projects related to the next few topics...

Kelie's Leftober Booties

Seaside Shawlette KAL: The pattern for this KAL, the Seaside Shawlette, has been at #1 on the Ravelry most active pattern list for 10 days now - woohoo! The KAL goes through November 11, and everyone who completes a shawl is eligible for our random prize drawing. See the Ravelry board for more info on this KAL by Clicking Here. Kelie is making hers from Dreamsicle, and is on Chart C. It's looking great!

Wendy's iPhone Purse

The Socktober Leftober KAL: Join us in October as we find ways to use up leftover sock yarn. Anybody who finishes a project from leftober yarn in October will be eligible for a random prize! Find more information on our Ravelry board by Clicking Here! Kelie has made a super cute baby hat and moccasin set, and I'm almost done with my iPhone purse.

Dreaded Knits: Kelie has 13 Swirls to go and is struggling to find the motivation to finish. Send her some encouragement in the comment section below so that she can finish this shawl and move on to the Opposite Pole sweater that she wants to start!

Pioneer Kelie at the Harvest Festival

Pioneer Kelie and her Pioneer Spinning Friend

Mobile Knitting: Kelie donned a Pioneer costume and demonstrated spinning using an old-style wheel at her sons' school's Harvest Festival. She looks adorable in these pictures! Wendy finished knitting her Siesta while attending the October TKGA meeting, and got to hear a great presentation by Barry Klein of Trendsetter Yarns. Kelie and I both got to do some knitting at the Vista Handweavers Guild Fiber Fiesta earlier this month. What a great fiber festival - especially since it was the first year for the event. The organizers were super friendly and did a wonderful job planning the event. I highly recommend this event next October for Southern Cal knitters to attend.

Hubby, Can I Have It?

Gift Knitting Boot Camp: We're down to the last 5 weeks! This month's theme is all about costumes, and people have been sharing some great photos of themselves. Our Boot Campers are in the home stretch of their gifts, and are doing a great job on their projects.

Sports Knitting: We're halfway through the NASCAR tournament, and are tracking through the NFL season, too! Kelie and I have both been winners so far, and are cherishing our new dishcloths!

Update on our Susan G Komen Fundraiser: Thanks to everyone who has supported our fundraiser this year by purchasing the Bridge of Roses Sock Kit. We have donated over $800 to the foundation so far - yay!!! Summer Production Babe Judy has raised her required $2300 in donations (plus some!) and is working hard on her training in preparation for the November 3-Day Walk here in San Diego. Go Judy!

Lavishea Lotion Bars: We tested out the new "Yarn" scented Lotion Bars that I received for the store and we give them Four Hands Up! The bars have a nice almond scent, and provide deep non-greasy moisturizing for our dry knitter hands. I'll get these posted in the online store in the next couple of days!

Southern California Handweaver's Guild Fiber Festival: Once again, we'll be exhibiting at this awesome fiber festival in Torrance, CA. This year it is Sunday, November 6 from 10-4. Click here for more information! Lots of great vendors, free parking, $5 admission, fashion show, and raffles! (and a bake sale with rice krispie cookies :-)

October's Giveaway

Podcast Prize Giveaway: Our September Winner is Sheila from Oregon, who has the Following The Sun blog. Congrats! Our October Giveaway will be a red Knit Happy Take-Along Tote bag. To be eligible for the drawing, just leave a comment below, encouraging Kelie to finish her Swirls!!!

Where to find us:
Our Ravelry Group: Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Our Store: Knitters Brewing Company

Cheers!

Houston We Have Pocket!

2011-10-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

So I got really tired of knitting the plain Stockinette lining of my Leftober iPhone Purse, and decided to take a shot at the pocket! It's sort of the same ailment that causes us to start multiple projects at once, only I work on multiple parts of the same project at once. I'm well known in my own mind for multi-tasking to the point of complete non-productivity.

I did this pocket completely ass backwards. Normally when you make an inset pocket, you first knit the flap that becomes the lining of the pocket, and you leave the stitches at the top of the flap live. Then you work the outside of the piece, and you pass over each edge of the lining flap, you grab a purl bump on the flap selvage and knit it into the outside piece. It's very neat and tidy looking. Then when you reach the top of the flap, you bind off the stitches on the outside piece as you work your way across, and the live flap stitches are substituted into the main piece. OK - that was probably confusing...

Since I had already knit the outside of the purse, I had to knit the pocket onto the outside of it. So, I picked up stitches going through the fabric to form the "seam" where the bottom of the pocket connects to the purse. This was fiddly, but successful - it really looks invisible. Then I knit the pocket back and forth, and on the RS rows I knit the pocket stitch together with an outside stitch from the purse. This looks OK, but isn't as neat as it would have looked if I had done it correctly. I added some ribbing rows at the top of the pocket to help it stay closed, and to prevent it from rolling. As you can see, the size is perfect for me to coil my earbuds into - yay!

I've been asked to write this pattern, and when I do, I'll write the pocket part as if I did it correctly :-)

Now back to the boring Stockinette. Happy Friday Everyone!

My Left-Ober Project

2011-10-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Our Ravelry group tries every year to pay respectful hommage to the cherished month of Socktober by doing something fun and out of the ordinary. In 2009, we had a mini-sock exchange, in which 72 knitters from the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia sent itty bitty socks to their swap partners.

In 2010, we truly showed loved to our WIP sock projects by having a Second Sock KAL. In this event, over 40 pairs of unfinished socks were finished, and single socks around the world rejoiced at finding their perfect mate.

This year, we've decided to try to reduce our sock yarn stash by declaring this month to be Left-ober. We've started a KAL thread in the Ravely discussion group, and all you have to do to play along is make something out of leftober sock yarn. We all have some!

So far, we've seen our knitters create a beautiful and original beaded/knitted necklace, an adorable mini-sweater ornament, and a pair of cute baby socks. Many other leftober projects are on the sticks, including mine which I'll tell you about.

Since I got my iPhone in February, I've been wanting a little purse to carry it in. Sometimes, when I want to listen to music or an audiobook, I don't have on garments with a pocket to put the phone in and that annoys me. So my thought was to knit a little iPhone purse, that is big enough for the phone, the earbuds, and maybe a few other little purse items. It would need to have a long handle to wear over my neck so that the purse hangs against my chest or on my side in messenger-bag style. I thought it should be double knit or two-layered for strength. Ideally it could have an external pocket that the earbuds could go in when they aren't in use so that they don't get all wrapped around everything else inside the purse. For a secure closure, I thought a flex-frame would be perfect. You know - the metal thingies you squeeze from the sides to open the purse. Then when you let go, it snaps back shut.

This has become my Left-ober project. The yarn I'm using is some Pace Step, leftober from a Think Outside the Sox contest entry from 2008. The purse is a rectangle - I cast the bottom edge on using Judy's Magic Cast On. Basically, the purse is knitted as a tube - and to make it pretty, I stole the beaded Social Butterfly motif from my Mystery Sock I pattern. I knit the tube to be long enough to hold the phone plus extra length to cover the flex-frame and a little extra margin - just cuz. Then, I did a picot turn row, and am now working the inside half of the tube. Not only will the second half of the tube turn inside to create strength, but it will also create the casing for the flex frame.

The photos show my progress to date - I'm about an inch into the inside part of the tube. It's super monotonous stockinette stitch at this point. I've also shown a photo of what the picot edge will look like when turned to the inside - love those cute little girlie edges!

When I reach the desired length of my tube, I'll insert the flex frame and then kitchener the end closed. I probably ought to put the external pocket on before I sew it shut in case I need to stick my hands inside the tube. Then I'll sew or perhaps crochet a seam just below the flex frame that joins the two layers to create the casing. I-cord handle? Hmmmm? Sounds like I'll be hashing out those details as I go... future posts!

Episode 19: Voices from Vogue

2011-10-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

We had a ball at Vogue Live, and this podcast episode is our attempt to share the fun with you!

You can listen to our podcast directly from the link below, or on iTunes where we can be found as Yarn On Tap. Our RSS feed is http:///www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml

Episode 19: Voices from Vogue

Here are links to some of the things we mentioned:

Awesome Chic-a Bag Set Kelie Bought

Chic-a Bags: Owner Joanna is a really nice lady! www.Chic-a.com

Wolf Farms Video Podcast: Dawn, Nicole, and Lois are super cute and friendly knitters. They have a great shop filled with herbal soaps, lotions and other fabulous smelling goodies!

Windy Valley Muskox: Qiviut!!!! We bought fabulous little precious balls of a blend of 45% quiviut, 45% merino, and 10% mulberry silk. 218 yards - laceweight.

Kelie'e leather closure from JUL Designs

JUL Designs: Really clever button-like closures that allow you to add buttons to garments without having to actually put in button holes. The stem of the buttons have a threaded end that a back screws onto. You just pop the stem through the garment and then screw the back on. Very cool!

The Buffalo Wool Company: They have the most adorable baby buffalo on the home page of their website! I bought Buffalo Gold 45% American bison down, 20% cashmere, 20% silk, and 15% Tencel. 330 yards laceweight.

The Green Sheep Shop: Booth Babe Beckey bought a ball of Pakucho Qoperfina Sport 97% Fair Trade Pakucho Color Grown Organic Cotton with a therapeutic infusion of 3% Soft Virgin Copper. 150 yards. Qoperfina combines the finest combed organic cotton with pure and natural Angelina copper staple fiber, an intimate blend yielding an incredibly soft, durable and healthy yarn with both fashion and therapeutic values. The copper adds a beautiful subtle effects a hint of glimmer to the cotton, although it is not flashy. Beckey got a really cute butterfly washcloth pattern with this yarn, too (which I can't seem to find on their website.)

Cheers-

A Great Knitting Day!

2011-10-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

Today I had three excellent knitting experiences, so I thought I'd share :-)

First, I attended a meeting of the local TKGA Chapter today for the first time. Why did I wait so long? Well - back when I first knew about the chapter, I couldn't attend the weekday meetings because I had one of those pesky corporate jobs. Then, three or so years ago when I stepped away from the corporate world - I just plain forgot about the chapter. Last weekend when we were at Vogue Live, a couple of the members introduced themselves to us at our booth, and asked me why I'm not a member. I had no good answer for that at all, so Voila! Today I am a new member.

Second, I picked a great meeting to attend for a first timer. This is a very large chapter with over 200 members, and they have monthly meetings that are well planned and include great program speakers. Today's speaker was Barry Klein, owner of Trendsetter Yarns. Mr. Klein and his mother started Trendsetter 24 years ago, and their products feature many, many interesting yarns in all sorts of textures, weights, materials, and colors. He gave a very interesting talk on how different types of yarns are milled, dyed, and plied, and had slides showing production equipment from the mills they use in Italy. I was particularly interested to see the methods the mills use to dye variegated yarns at commercial scale - one method uses lots of syringes to inject dye right into cones of undyed yarn! Crazy stuff :-) I got up the nerve to introduce myself to Mr. Klein after his talk - after all, we did hang out across the aisle from him at the booth featuring his yarns at Vogue Live.

The third awesomeness of my day is that I finished knitting my Siesta sweater while I was attending the TKGA meeting - YAY!!!!! As you may have heard me mention on the podcast, I decided to make it long and use up all the yarn I bought. So... I did a calculation to estimate how much yarn I would need for the icord bindoff, and wound that off the outside of my last ball of yarn to hold in reserve while I knit the sweater as far as it would go from the inside end of my ball of yarn. The result is that the only yarn I have leftover is the teeny tiny ball shown above - love that!!! The sweater fits great and is flattering - the photo here doesn't show it off very well. It's somewhere between long-tunic and short-dress in length, and I look forward to wearing it with leggings. After I block it (just a bit to help the icord edgings lay flat) I'll post a modelled photo :-)

So that's my great knitting day so far!

Cheers-

Episode 18: Vogue Live Pre-Game Show

2011-09-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Lamb Dishcloth Cutie-pie!

Only two days until Vogue Live starts in LA!!! Today we share our pre-game plan for the show. We'll just have to wait and see if we get to meet our goals!

Episode 18: Vogue Knitting Live Pre-Game Show!

You can also find our Podcast on iTunes as Yarn On Tap, and our RSS feed is http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml

Wendy's Siesta WIP

What's On Our Sticks:

Kelie: Transition Point Socks from the STR Club by Star Athena

Kelie: Lamb Dishcloth by Katie Schu SUPER CUTE!!! free Rav download

Kelie: About to start the Opposite Pole sweater by Joji Locatelli

Wendy: Siesta by Carol Feller

Seaside Shawlette

New KAL! Seaside Shawlette KAL starts 10/4. No purchase necessary - we'll be posting the pattern pdf on the Ravelry board on the day the KAL starts. Kits are available by Clicking Here in a whole bunch of colors if you are interested - kits include the yarn, pattern, and a cute stitch marker. To sign up for the KAL, visit our Ravelry Board by Clicking Here!

Dreaded Knits!

Kelie will be making major progress on her Swirl Shawl by Lijuan Jing, thanks to dashiemouse! Dashie has set up a swirl-a-day challenge on our board to help them both finish their projects. Good luck to both of you!

Wendy will be frogging her The Prettiest Hot Pad Ever. It's hopelessly made out of inappropriate yarn. I will be promoting my Big Bertha Twinset to be my new distinguished Dreaded Knit.

Vogue Live will be this weekend, September 23 - 25 in LA at the Century City Hyatt Regency. We are super excited to be exhibiting! Find us in Booth 69 where we'll be stalking celebrities that we want to tattoo :-) We're looking forward to meeting our customers, and hanging out with folks to chat and knit.

This Month's Giveaway

Podcast Giveaway: This month we are giving away a Knit Happy Take-along Tote to a lucky listener! To be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment below!

Where To Find Us:

Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co. Sock-aholics

Our Store: http://www.knittersbrewing.com/

Episode 17: Little Gifties

2011-09-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Olympic Reindeer Hat

We've been participating in a swap recently that required us to knit little gifties. Kelie did some good research on the topic and we discuss different types of projects that you can make when you need a little giftie. Little Gifties Rock!

Episode 17: Little Gifties

Our RSS feed is http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml

What's On Our Sticks: Patterns mentioned:
Transition Point Socks from Socks that Rock

Doily Style Dishcloth

   Prairie Boots from Coco Knits
   Olympic Reindeer Hat from Helena Bristow
   Knitted Nebraska Dishcloth (free download) by Rhonda K White
   Doily Style Dishcloth from Sugar n' Cream (free online)
   Siesta by Carol Feller

The Seaside Shawlette

New KAL! The Seaside Shawlette KAL will be starting 10/4/11! This versatile accessory can be worn a number of ways, and looks great in any color. You can find the kits by Clicking Here, and the KAL thread on our Ravelry Discussion Board by Clicking Here.

Other Activities Happening in our Ravelry Group:
- September Gift Knitting Boot Camp: Join us here if you would like some encouragement to get your gift knitting done!
- Dreaded Knits: Join us here if you would like some encouragement to get any other knitting done!
- NFL Knitting Contest: For the mere cost of One Dishcloth, you can join this contest and try to win weekly prizes based on your ability to pick football winners each week of the season. Sign up ends 15 minutes before the first game starts on 9/8, so hurry if you want to be involved!
- NASCAR Knitting Contest: Also for the mere cost of One Dishcloth you can try your hand at picking a winning NASCAR team. Sign up ends on 9/18 before the first race of our 10-race challenge. Too much fun!
- Tour De Sock: This 6-stage competition is a fundraiser for Doctors without Borders and promises to be lots of fun! You'll get 6 sock patterns by joining, and get to contribute to a good cause. KBC has several Sock-aholics on board. You can sign up through September for the games that start on October 1.
- Vogue Live LA!!! This conference and market will be happening September 23-25 and we'll be there! Find us in Booth 69 and get tattooed :-) Looking forward to seeing the area Sock-aholics!

Little Gifties: These are some ideas Kelie researched for little knitted items you might enjoy making for swaps or stocking stuffers.

Sweater Pins

- Anything designed by Frankie Brown (Frankie's Knitted Stuff on Ravelry)
- Dishcloths
- Bookmarks
- Ornaments
- Headbands
- Sweater Pins (Wendy has the instructions on her pattern page)
- Little purses for cell phones, iPods, etc.
- Sachets, perhaps stuffed with smell goodies like lavender
- Mini-socks stuffed with chapstick. I have a pattern for this that I'll
find and post.
- Little stuffed toys or animals
- Can cozys or mug cozys

August Giveaway Prize Winner: Congrats Austin! (aka ComradeYarnman on Ravelry). Austin won a skein of either Forest Gulp or IndiGoGo Sock-aholic yarn.

September Giveaway Prize: This month we are giving away a Knit Happy Take Along Tote. This is a cute little single-skein sized project bag with a happy looking sheep embroidered on the side. To be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment below! We love to hear your ideas on what topics you would like to hear more about.

Where to find us:
The Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics
Our online store: Knitters Brewing Company

Episode 16: How We Value Yarn

2011-08-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

When we recorded this morning, it seemed like we hadn't sat down together at the mikes forever! Fortunately, our chatterboxes are set on auto-pilot, so it's like we never had a break :-) You can listen using the link below, by subscribing to Yarn On Tap on iTunes, or via the RSS feed which is http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml

Episode 16: How We Value Yarn

What's On Our Sticks:

Kelie:

Kelie and roocmc modeling their After Hours Shawls

   -Finished her Bridge of Roses Socks
   -Finished her second After Hours Shawl
   -Finished her Lavaliere by Cecily Glowik MacDonald- and it's lovely :-)
   -Finished her Fences by JC Briar
   -Finished one pair of Prairie Boots by Coco Knits, and has a second pair on the sticks.
   -Is working on Transition Point by Star Athena
   -Is working Treat Bag by Frankie Brown

Judy:

Crocheted Socks!

   -Is crocheting her first pair of Socks and they are really cool! The pattern is Round and Round Toe Up Socks by Nadine Borovicka
   -Is having fun making a variety of Dishcloths.
   -Is working on a baby blanket, and may be starting a new one soon if she finds out whether it should be pink or blue :-)

Wendy:
   -Has finished the new Seaside Shawlette! (See previous post for photo). I'll be finishing the pattern, and hope to be launching this new kit next week!
   -Has started the Olympic Reindeer Hat in Berroco Ultra Alpaca. This is a free download on Ravelry. I'm doing the two color version, and so far so good :-)

What's Happening in the Ravelry Group:

Gift Knitting Boot Camp: Boot Camp is our organized effort to help one another avoid last minute gift knitting this year! We started in January with monthly check-ins, and it's been awesome to see all the gifts that have been made this year so far! Each month our knitters earn virtual badges to show off for their efforts. Click Here to join us if you would like some encouragement to work on your gift projects, or to just see the cool projects that people are making.

Dreaded Knits: Got any projects that have been pushed to the back burner? We have a group of folks who sympathize with you. If you are ready to finish that Dreaded Knit, join us by Clicking Here. We've vowed to work on our languishing projects for 30 minutes per week until they are finished - and we're all trying to support each other through this painful process :-)   Neither Kelie nor I had any progress to report over the last few weeks, although Kelie did move her project closer to her knitting chair. It's a start!

Bridge of Roses KAL and Fundraiser: The Bridge of Roses Sock Pattern is our Summer KAL and fundraiser for Susan G. Komen. The KAL will be winding down this week with the prize drawing on Friday. Congrats to everyone who has finished at least one sock and is eligible for the prize drawing! Our Fundraiser will continue through October. $2 from the sale of every kit is being donated to the Susan G Komen foundation, and they can be found by Clicking Here. Production Babe Judy will be walking in the San Diego 3-Day Walk for the Cure in November. Wish Judy good luck with her training!

Fantasy NASCAR Chase for the Cup: Join us for this fun Fall sports knitting event! Pick your fantasy racing team, and you might win a weekly prize! The entry fee is One Dishcloth, and you can find all the details by Clicking Here. Sign up is required by Sept 18 before the green flag is waved. Thanks to Sock-aholic margiborck for planning this event for us!

NFL Upickem Contest: Another great sports excuse to sit and knit! Click Here to find the details about our NFL game picking contest. Again the entry fee is One Dishcloth, and there will be weekly winners. Sign up by Sept 9. Good luck to everyone's teams - we have quite a lot of fan areas represented in the contest!

Tour de Sock and Sock Sniper: KBC is proud to be a prize sponsor for these two fun competitive events which are being hosted on Ravelry by sarahbess, and are fundraisers for Doctors without Borders. Sarah has done a great job organizing these events, and the participants will be treated to new original sock patterns to knit! Click on these links for more information! Tour de Sock   Sock Sniper

Vogue Live LA: Our next road trip will be to Vogue Live, and we are getting really excited about it! This conference promises to bring out all the Knit-erati for great classes, fun events, and a huge market! We will be exhibiting in Booth 69 - so stop by to say hello and get tattooed! We are actually looking for a few people to help with our booth, so if you are interested, please Click Here for more info!

Our Podcast Giveaway for August is one skein of either of our new Sock-aholic colors - IndiGoGo or Forest Gulp! To enter the random drawing, simply post a comment below! Suggestions for podcast topics are always appreciated :-)

Where to Find Us:
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co. Sock-aholics
Our store: Knitters Brewing Company

Blocked!!!

2011-08-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

Ta Da!!!! The shawlette is finished and blocked! I'm very pleased with the results - the shawlette is in the cresent shape I was shooting for, and the scalloped edge looks really pretty :-)

The shawlette is about 14" wide at the center, and has a 56" wingspan. Perfect for wrapping around necks, shoulders, or heads. I used all but about 32 yards of the yarn in my Sock-aholic skein, so I'm pleased with my efficient yarn planning, too!

Here's what it looked like before blocking - reminds me of the Potato Chip Scarf - ha!

I'll get the kits released as soon as possible. Now that I know it all works, I need to finalize the pattern, and have Mr. Wendy help take photos and make some videos. Stay tuned for the Seaside Shawl coming soon!

Cheers-

A Thorny Situation

2011-08-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I probably could have finished the new shawl. I've completed the body rows and am working on the border. The problem is I decided to do some yardwork - perhaps you've heard me whine about pruning the dwarf palm trees before.

The palms are quite pretty and border the back fence of our yard. When we moved in, they were young and each of them had one main trunk. In the 9 (wow - can it be 9?) years that we have lived here, the darned things have only gotten to be about 6 feet tall, but have expanded in circumference significantly by splitting off to have multiple trunks. More trunks means more pruning. As the fronds age, they turn yellow, then brown just like leaves on any other tree. Pruining is required to clean off the old fronds periodically, and I always put it off as long as I can. Why? Nasty Thorns. In the picture above, you can see an example of the thorns that grow at the base of these otherwise peaceful looking fronds that innocently wave in the ocean breeze. They are long, they are strong, and they are surgically sharp. They regularly pierce through my rubber coated gardening gloves as I prune, forcing me to use language that makes even the neighbor's dog blush. And, as if frequent stabbing wasn't enough punishment for trying to do a good deed, these thorns also seem to contain some sort of toxin or irritant that causes the knuckle joints in my hands to swell and ache. This happens every time I prune these trees, and I never seem to learn. Next weekend when I finish pruning the half that are left to be sheared, I'm going to try Mr. Wendy's leather gloves. If that doesn't work, I'll have to see if I can find a suit of armor on Ebay.

This morning I am still picking bits of thorn tips out of my hands. The worst injury was a thorn that stabbed under the fingernail on my right index finger, and then left a quarter-inch thorn tip under there. Had yesterday been a weekday I probably would have had the doctor dig it out under local anesthesia, but instead I took matters into my own hands, literally, and extracted it myself using a needle and strategically gritted teeth. Needless to say, my hands were too achy to knit or type much yesterday, and I spent the rest of the day watching TV and playing Words With Friends.

So here's what the shawlette looks like now - too funny looking, huh?! I completed the body rows that are worked flat and lengthwise. The number of stitches had increased toward the end to the point where I couldn't see what the thing was going to look like since it was all bunched up on the needle cable. Then to start the border, I picked up stitches on the sides and cast on edge, and am knitting the the border in the round. It's mostly a garter stitch border to keep the edge from rolling, but there is eyelet detail along the scalloped lower edge of the border which should be cute. I have either two or four more rounds to do before I bind off - depending on how the yarn supply holds out. I've been monitoring it by weight as I've worked, and at this point, it appears I'll have enough yarn to complete the four rows I would like to do before BO, but that could be cutting the yardage really short. I'll work two rows, and then make the executive decision as to whether I can squeeze in two more at that point. I like to use up as much of the yarn as I can, but I don't want to make it so close that some people might run out before they finish due to personal gauge differences.

Wish me luck - my next post should show the blocking in process!

Cheers-

Episode 15: Sounds from Sock Summit

2011-08-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

The Classic Voodoo Doughnut

This episode is our first attempt at putting together an episode from remote recordings. I think it went very well, except for the part where I lost some of the recordings! Enjoy :-)

Episode 15: Sounds from Sock Summit

Podcast RSS feed: http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml

Links mentioned in the podcast:

Sassafras Creations - Very cool jewelry made from knitting needles!

Voodoo Doughnuts - Sinfully awesome doughnuts!

Here's the cute picture Judy took of a very smart mom who knows how to keep her son occupied while she shops for yarn :-)

Here is the YouTube video from Sock Summit that shows Judy, Lori and Kelie dancing!

Podcast Giveaway: Congrats to last month's winner, Kitten with a Whiplash, who named our new colorway IndiGoGo! Love the new name :-)

Our August giveaway will be a skein of one of our new colors, IndiGoGo or Forest Gulp. To enter, just leave a comment in the show notes below, and you'll be entered in the random drawing!

Vogue Live LA: We'll be exhibiting at this big new event, and are excited about it! Find us in Booth 69 on September 23-25!

Where to find us:
The Ravelry Group: Knitters Brewing Sock-aholics
The Online Store: Knitters Brewing Company

Cheers!

Shawl Updation

2011-08-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

I've been making some serious progress on the new shawlette so I though I'd give you a peek!

After doing some yardage estimations, I decided to repeat the motif seven times across the shawl. The central repeat is the full length shown in the previous post. The two on either side of the center are a bit shorter, and the four end repeats are shorter yet. This will give the shawlette the cresent shape that I'm shooting for.

I'm not at full width yet, and the shawl is currently at 52". The motif widens as it progresses, so I expect to see that factor increase the width somewhat more. Plus, there will be a border around the whole thing which will add another couple of inches.

In the photos, I have the WIP shawl (done in colorway Canteen) pinned on top of the test motif so that you can get a sense of what the finished piece will look like. The curved edge of the motif will repeat seven times, side-by-side. The eyelet border will be worked all the way around the shawlette to finish the opposite edge and ends.

I still have 33 rows to work before starting the border. The rows have 320+ stitches in them at this point, so they take me a while to do. I'd better get back to work!

I'm still paranoid about running out of yarn before I'm finished, so I've been weighing my ball as I go and doing calculations to project whether or not I'll make it through. So far it looks promising - fingers crossed!

New Motivation

2011-08-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe, but I've actually just come off a 10 day no knitting streak. It's not that I didn't want to knit, it's just that I was really busy in the days leading to Sock Summit. And then while I was in the midst of all the knitting activity at SS, I didn't have a break to knit when I wasn't needing to get some sleep instead! Now we're back, and I'm craving the feel of fiber between my fingers.

While we were on the road, I decided I need to schedule a "Design Meeting" with myself everyday. I find that when we get busy, I'm prone to letting the design work slip. So I'm hoping to bring a little discipline to my daily activities by scheduling a couple of designing hours into my day. This is most important during the beginning stages of new project where I am working off charts that I have on my computer, and editting them as I work. Once a pattern gets underway, the project tends to get more mobile, and then I'm more likely to work on it in the evening while I watch TV, and I make progress at a faster clip.

During my Design Meeting today, I finished the motif I've been working on. I like the curved edge on it - it will be pretty and wavy when it is repeated side-by-side. I also decided that the 5-leaved motif is a Starfish! That also goes well with the wavy border, so it looks like we're going to have a seashore theme for this project.

Now I'm noodling how to connect these motifs together to form the shawlette. I weighed the motif to help me gauge yarn usage so I can keep this pattern to a one-skein project. I copied the outline of the motif and laid it out side by side so that I can see how much space I need to fill between the repeats. I believe I'm going to shoot for seven repeats - with the center three being longer than the two on each end. This should yield a cresent shaped shawlette.

Now to figure out how to get it started!

Cheers-

A New Yarn is Born!

2011-07-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

IndiGoGo!

Our Name the New Yarn contest closed at 10am this morning, and we have a winner to announce! Kitten With a Whiplash is our big winner - he submitted Indi-GoGo Juice which we're going to shorten to IndiGoGo. Awesome! I felt this name captured the indigo color, as well as the "indie" yarn dying concept, and the GoGo part provides the perfect fun kick to tie into our "adult beverage and venue" theme. Congrats, Kitten!

I don't have a Ravelry ID for Kitten, so I've contacted him via Blog :-)

Now I'm off to label all the new yarn for Sock Summit!

Cheers-

Episode 14: Off The Schneid

2011-07-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

The most important part of this episode is that we've all learned a new term this week! "Off The Schneid" means to turn a negative streak into a positive. It's roots are in the German word "Schneide" which means edge, and it's frequently used in sports and gaming, but certainly has applications in the fiber world. We'll be trying to stay off our schneids as much as possible.

Episode 14: Off The Schneid

Bridge of Roses KAL

KAL: The Bridge of Roses Knit-Along Fundraiser is very successful so far! After this week, our Sock-aholic knitters will have donated over $500 to the Susan G Komen foundation - woohoo! Bridge of Roses is a Portland-themed design, in honor of Sock Summit, which features a lacy bridge pattern that is adorned with embroidered roses. $2 from every kit we sell is going to SGK to help them continue their great efforts toward Breast Cancer Research and Education. To find more information about our KAL, you can find it on our website by Clicking Here. Judy is training to walk in the SGK 3-Day Walk this Fall - you can see her progress and donate to her efforts by Clicking Here.

What's On Our Sticks:

Judy's Market Bag

Kelie is working her way up the legs of her Bridge of Roses socks, and is looking forward to embroidering her BOO-yon roses :-). She is also getting close to finishing her Lavaliere sweater, all that is left is the front band - yay!!! She needs some new projects now :-)

Judy is continuing work on her baby afghan which will be a gift for a November baby. She was also inspired by Intern Lori's Market Bag and found a crochet pattern that is similar to the one Lori was making.
It's the Lily Sugar n' Cream Market Bag, and you can find the pattern free online by Clicking Here. Judy also announced on the show that she wants to learn to knit!!!! We've recruited another one! :-) Now to figure out a good first project for her.

Poison Oak Shawl?

Wendy's Siesta has been creeping along, because I've been focusing more on the new shawl design. Here's a WIP photo of what the main motif of the shawl will look like - or at least close to it...

Also mentioned: The Lacey Cabled Sweater Washcloth. This is a free download on Ravelry, and would be a great "learn to cable" project.

Dreaded Knits: I've finished my River Run Shawl!!!! Here it is pre-blocking :-) I'm so happy to be done with it, and it's so pretty! Kelie loaned me her blocking wires, so it will be ready to wear in a couple of days!

Gift Knitting Boot Camp! My humble apologies for forgetting to start the July Boot Camp thread! It will be up today :-) This month our knitters will be earning their Cultured Knitters Badges by sharing what they like about the country they live in, and what they like about another country!

Tour de Fleece: Both Kelie and Wendy, along with several other Sock-aholics, are participating in this year's event - Kelie by wheel, and Wendy by spindle. You can find the Tour de Fleece event group on Ravelry by Clicking Here! This picture shows Wendy's most recent work which was pre-bike injury :-)

Tour de Sock: Is a fun new knitting competition event which will be starting this Fall. Doctors without Borders will be benefitting from this fundraiser, and you can find the Ravelry group for the event by Clicking Here. Each participant will be treated to 6 new sock patterns! Good luck to everyone - we'll be keeping tabs on how it goes.

Sock Summit: Coming up soon!!!! We are so psyched for our road trip and for the convention - what fun it's going to be! You can find us there in Booth 813, and be sure to stop by to get tatooed as an official Sock-aholic!

Giveaway: Our winner for June is Heather from California (Ravelry ID: TopHat). She won The Knitters Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarns by Lorna Miser.

Name Me!

For July, our Giveaway prize will be a skein of our new and yet-to-be named colorway. To enter the drawing, please leave your suggestion for a name for the new yarn below in the comments. Please keep in mind the overriding theme of our yarn naming... have fun, and good luck! Entries will close at 10:00 am Pacific Time on Thursday July, 21.

Where to find us:
Ravelry: Our group is the Knitters Brewing Company Sock-aholics - join us! You can also find us as socalknitgirl (Wendy), Khalila (Kelie), and crochet67 (Judy).
Our store is knittersbrewing.com.

Thanks for listening!

Episode 13: Stealing Time To Knit

2011-06-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

During this episode we sadly say goodbye to Intern Lori, who has truly been a valued contributor over the last two weeks. We'll see her again soon, though, as she will be helping us at Sock Summit in July! We get more excited every day :-)

Episode 13: Stealing Time To Knit

Flash Mob at Sock Summit! This is just too much fun. The Sock Summit organizers have choreographed a yarn flash mob dance to the song What a Feeling, and it's so cute! The flash mob will occur at 5:15pm on Saturday 6/30 in the main entryway of the Oregon Convention center. You can find the information and training videos by Clicking Here. Look for Kelie, Lori and Disco Queen Judy out there dancing!

Bridge of Roses KAL: Our Summer KAL fundraiser is going great! Knitters are already starting to finish socks and they are beautiful :-) Our KAL is using the Bridge of Roses pattern, which comes in a kit that you can find by Clicking Here. We're donating $2 from the sale of each kit to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to help them continue their breast cancer research and education efforts. You can find our KAL thread on Ravelry by Clicking Here. You might even win a goodie in our random prize drawing!

What's On Our Sticks:
Kelie has finished her Parallel Twist Socks and her son has already claimed them! Her Bridge of Roses socks in Dizzy Blonde with Pink Flowers are looking great, and she's ready to put the front band on her Lavaliere.
Wendy continues to work on her Siesta - it's well over half-done! I'm also making incremental progress on the new shawl pattern.
Lori finished the It's So Easy Being Green Market Bag she was working on and it's super cute! She's also working on a Siesta, and hers is made out of cool corn yarn.
Judy is crocheting a baby afghan of her own design for a lucky baby that is due in November :-)

Dreaded Knits: Confession time... neither Kelie nor I did squat on our Dreaded Knits. That's why we call them dreaded. If you have a project that's been in WIP timeout for a while and you would like some encouragement to finish it, join our Dreaded Knits thread by Clicking Here. We vow to spend 30 minutes per week on our languishing projects - and clearly I didn't meet my vow this week!

Boot Camp: June Gift Knitting Boot Camp is drawing to a close! Our knitters continue to do a great job working on gifts and meeting the goals that they've set for themselves to avoid stress toward the end of the year. If you would like some encouragement to work on gift projects now, please join our Boot Camp thread on Ravelry by Clicking Here.

Tour de Fleece is an annual event on Ravelry where spinners challenge themselves to spin every day that the bikers ride during the Tour de France (July 2 - July 24). Kelie and I have both signed up, along with other members of the Knitters Brewing Ravelry Group. Should be a fun way to get some practice in! Kelie spins by wheel, and I spin with a Trindle. You can sign up on the TDF Ravelry Group board - there are over 4000 people involved, so it should be really fun!

Stealing Time To Knit or Crochet: We all shared our tips for sneaking in time for fiber fun, and I've listed them below. How do you steal knitting time?
- Taking the kids to places where they can play while you knit
- Taking the kids to the library where they can be occupied for a while while you knit
- Be retired :-)
- Knit at stop lights.
- Knit while your car is going through the Car Wash - ha!!!
- Knit during classes.
- Knit on breaks at work or during lunch.
- Knit while waiting in lines, or for appointments, etc.
- Take meetings as conference calls or WebEx meetings so you can secretly knit during the meeting.

June Giveaway! Our giveaway prize for June is the Knitters Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarns by Lorna Miser. To be entered in our drawing, just leave a comment below. If you would like to share a way you steal knitting time, we'd love to hear more ideas!

Where to Find Us:
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Company Sock-aholics
Our Store: Knitters Brewing Company

Cheers!

Tweeted! and The Birth of a New Shawl Pattern

2011-06-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

This is what I saw at 7:24 Saturday morning... it's not often that the first words out of my mouth on a Saturday morning are "uh oh..."

The Yarn Harlot saw the new Bridge of Roses pattern and graciously shared it with her Twitter audience - how exciting! This sort of advertising tends to be pretty effective, so that was only the first of many "tweet-driven" orders. We've been spending the last few days manging the extra volume, and are doing pretty well with it. I don't think Intern Lori knew what she was in for when she arrived! Thanks to the Yarn Harlot for helping to make our Susan G Komen fundraiser an even bigger success!

This is what it looks like inside my head

Prior to the Tweet Event, I started working on the new shawl design which I promised I would blog about as I go. There's not much to share yet, but I can say that the shawl will be semi-circular or cresent shaped, and will have lace motifs in it, and I'd like it to have a wavy lower edge. I have in mind a pie-shaped motif that is comprised of leaves that will look something like my sketch on the right. These will be lined up side-by-side to form the lower edge of the shawl. There will need to be some other filler above them and between them, but I'm not quite sure what that needs to be yet.

Individual Leaf Motif

My process to figure it out is this: first I came up with the individual leaf pattern that is the size I want (shown left). I wanted a smallish leaf that is knit from tip to stem, and is surrounded by yarn overs. Now I'm in the process of plugging that pattern into a chart to come up with a rough draft of the larger motif. Then, I'll test knit the larger motif and make necessary adjustments to it. Finally, once I see how the larger motif looks, I'll decide how to duplicate it across the bottom of the shawl and hook them all together. It's really like assembling a puzzle, and is quite a challenge. We're planning to take a long weekend trip, so I hope to have my chart roughed together so that I can work on it on the plane :-) Hopefully my next update will feature a finished larger motif!

Cheers -

Episode 12: New Voices

2011-06-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

Today's podcast is fun because we get to introduce you to the new members of our staff! Please join us in welcoming Production Babe Judy and Intern Lori! We also answer a couple of listener questions about sock knitting :-)

Episode 12: New Voices

Our New Staff:

Summer Babe Judy

Summer Production Babe Judy is happy to be here helping to produce yarn! Judy enjoys crocheting - particularly projects for charity. She will be walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk this Fall for the second time, and is grateful for the support she gets from the KBC fundraising KALs. Judy's SGK fundraising page can be found by Clicking Here.

Intern Lori

Intern Lori is visiting us from Washington where she attends Evergreen State University and is working on her Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in Business and a minor in Needle Arts. She is a long-time textile fan of many techniques, and particularly enjoys knitting and sewing. When she's not busy being a student, she teaches both knitting and sewing in her area, sharing her expertise and passion for handwork. She blogs at The Greener Needle.

What's On Our Sticks:
Kelie's making great progress on her Lavaliere by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, out of Road to China yarn. She's also started a Granny Square Crochet Blanket project that she's doing with her son :-)

Wendy has just split off the top-down raglan sleeves on her Siesta by Carol Feller, and it's going well! I love the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool! I've also started working on a new shawl design, and plan to do some blogging about the design process as I go - stay tuned!

It's So Easy Being Green

Lori is working on her It's So Easy Being Green market bag by Jennifer Lacey, and she'll be teaching this project later this summer in Washington. She is also about to start a Siesta - we realized last night when she arrived that we're both making the same sweater - ha! She's making hers from Elann Maize Organica which contains corn fiber and is really soft.

Gift Knitting Boot Camp - If you would like some encouragement to get going on your gift knitting, join us on the Ravelry Group for Boot Camp and we'll cheer you onward! Our goal is to finish all our year's gift knitting by Thanksgiving. I confess I haven't done any gift knitting since I finished my Mother's Day knitting in early May, so I need to get back on it :-)

Dreaded Knits - Have you got a project (or two, or three...) that have been languishing in the WIP bag? We've created a Dreaded Knits Ravelry thread to help each other finish those old projects by committing to working on them for at least 30 minutes each week. It's working! We're seeing those old projects turn into finished objects, freeing up valuable needle space for new cast ons :-) This week I continued to work on my River Run Shawl while I was celebrating Knit in Public Day!

Bridge of Roses KAL Fundraiser! Our sock knit-along fundraiser is underway and is going to be super successful! Lots of participants have joined us to make the Bridge of Roses socks. This is a new toe-up design that features rose vines and lacy bridge motifs. We are proud to be donating $2 from the sale of each kit to the Susan G Komen foundation so that they can continue their good works toward breast cancer research and education. Click Here to find out more about this KAL that runs through the end of August - it's big fun, and you might even win a prize!

Listener Questions: We're happy to discuss any questions or topics that are submitted by listeners! Today we cover two questions about sock modifications.

1. If your sock is too short, can you take out the toe and make the sock longer? Absolutely! If the sock is a top-down sock, you could pick out/unravel the toe back to where the decreases begin, then put the stitches on the needles, and reknit the toe with additional rows as needed prior to starting the decreases. If the sock is toe-up, you can't unravel the toe since the sock is knit in the opposite direction. In this case, it's easiest to just cut the toe off where the decreases begin, then pick up the stitches and reknit. Kelie and I both think it's probably easiest to use the cut method with the top-down socks, too, because it's way faster than picking out/unraveling a knit toe. Cutting off a toe can be scary, but it really isn't very difficult. The stitches won't run as long as you are relatively careful while you are slipping them back onto the needles. Here's a video to help you have the courage to cut that toe off!

2. How do you know what size to knit socks that you are giving as gifts? Great question! I have a super handy dandy table of foot measurements to share - it's called the Sock Size Research Project. This table has four pages of great data for women, men, children and infant feet. The best way to make your gift socks fit is to see if you can get the person's shoe size - perhaps you can sneakily get the information through a friend or family member. Once you have that shoe size, you can refer to the table and find out what the average foot length and circumference is for a person with that size shoe. If you can't get their shoe size, then you are going to have to guess, but be comforted in knowing that foot length measurements only change by 1/8" as you go between shoe half sizes. This International Shoe Size Conversion Chart gives you this data. Therefore, if you can estimate that your giftee wears an 8 or 8.5, you now know that those two sizes only differ by 1/8" which is less than two rounds of knitting. Given how socks stretch, and how we tend to knit negative ease into socks, you could just split the difference between the two and use that as your target length to knit to. There are cases when you should probably just ask the giftee about their foot measurements - particularly if they have sizing or sensitivity issues due to medical conditions.

Giveaway!!!

Our June Giveaway is the Knitters Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn by Lorna Miser. Please leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing, and if you have questions or topics for future podcasts, we would love to hear them!

Where to Find Us
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Company Sock-aholics
Our Online Store: Knitters Brewing Company

Cheers!

Episode 11: Double Knitting - Twice the Fun!

2011-06-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Bridge of Roses Socks

My apologies for the delay in releasing Episode 11! We recorded this on June 1st, the morning after launching the new Bridge of Roses Kit, and found ourselves immediately needing to focus our efforts on keeping the orders flowing through the plant and out the door! Since today is Sunday and the PO is closed, it's finally podcast upload day. :-)

Episode 11: Double Knitting - Twice the Fun!

What's on our sticks:

Siesta by Carol Feller

Lavaliere by Cecily Glowik MacDonald

Wendy has cast on Siesta by Carol Feller using Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool in cool lime green :-)

Kelie has cast on Lavaliere by Cecily Glowik MacDonald in Road to China yarn, and has also just received her new STR Parallel Twist Kit. I imagine her needles will start clicking on that, soon!

Bridge of Roses

New Bridge of Roses KAL: This KAL will be running all Summer - June 6 through August 26 - and is our annual Susan G Komen fundraising kit! $2 from the sale of each kit will be donated to SGK to help them continue their great efforts toward Breast Cancer research and education. This new pattern is a toe-up design that features a rose-vine covered column pattern which runs up the front and back of the sock. Toward the top of the leg, the columns arch towards each other, forming bridges - hence the name :-) The heel is our friend the Fleegle Heel - tricked out a little in the back, and the cuff is a lace pattern worked perpendicular to the rest of the sock. Kits for this KAL are available in our online store by Clicking Here , and you can join the KAL on our Ravelry Board by Clicking Here! Enjoy :-)

Hang Ten KAL: Because I'm late in posting this podcast, by the time you hear it this KAL will be over, and the prizes will be awarded! The pattern, Hang Ten Socks, will still be available as a free download on Ravelry for another month or so, so if you haven't snagged it yet, you still can! Kelie just finished her pair in Sweet Turquoise :-)

Gift Knitting Boot Camp: Kelly finished her third Man's Rasta Hat, and now all three of her boyz have dreadlock hats to wear! Boot Camp is our way to help encourage knitters to work on their gift knitting early in the year, instead of having a stressful knitting splurge toward the end of the year. Click Here if you would like to join our Boot Camp and get some encouragement to be proactive with your gift knitting. In June, our theme will be public knitting in honor of...

Worldwide Knit in Public Day: This year KIP Day is KIP Week, running from June 11 to June 19th. Locally our little gang is going to be meeting in our usual spot at the Encinitas Lumberyard next to the yummy bakery. We'll be meeting June 11 starting at 10am. Come whenever, and stay as long as you like!

Dreaded Knits: Wendy has completed another 10% of the border on her River Run Shawl, so now that border is about 73% complete! Still going slowly, but progress is steady :-) If you have a project that has been pushed to the back burner because it just isn't your fave, but you would like to resurrect and finish it, join our Dreaded Knits thread. We've vowed to work on our lagging projects for at least 30 minutes per week, and are there to help motivate you!

Charity Opportunity: Ravelry group member mrsbrooks, is looking for charity knitters to make 9" X 9" squares (either knit or crochet) to help her complete an afghan for a gentleman who has been diagnosed with cancer. She needs 13 more squares to complete the blanket. You can contact her through Ravelry, or email us at info@knittersbrewing.com and we can provide you with her address where you can send the squares. This is a great opportunity to use up some leftover stash!

Colorwork Techniques Part 4: Double Knitting

In Double Knitting, two sets of stitches from two balls of yarn are on the same needles at the same time. The result is a fabric that has a double thickness, and typically both sides of the fabric show as Stockinette Stitch. Here are the basics of the technique:

Because you are working with two balls of yarn, the designs are generally two-color designs.
Any kind of colorwork pattern will work with double knitting. There will be no floats to worry about with this technique.
Colorwise, one side will be reverse of the other.
Designs for double knitting are presented as charts. Each color block represents two stitches: one front side stitch that is knit, and one back side stitch in the opposite color that is purled.
The knitting goes faster if you can do two-handed knitting, holding one color in each hand.
As you work across each row, you will be alternating knit and purl stitches and colors. It feels a bit like working two-color ribbing.
When you move your yarn from the back to the front, or vice-versa, be sure to move both yarns together. This will ensure that your yarn tails never show on either of the "public" sides of your project.

To get started, you cast on the number of stitches shown on the chart holding both color yarns together. Consequently, you will have twice the number of loops on your needle than there are stitches on your chart.
Next, rearrange the stitches so that for each pair of stitches, color A is on the right of color B. To do this, use another needle or your fingernail to push the stitches where you need them.
To work a plain row where color A is facing you, knit each color A stitch and purl each color B stitch. Again, be sure to move both yarns together between your knit and purl stitches.
At the end of the row, flip your work and now color side B will be facing you. To work a plain row now, you need to knit all the color B stitches and purl all the color A stitches.
To work rows that have color changes within the row, follow your chart to know what the colors on the side facing you should look like. Then, work the back side stitches in the opposite color sequence.

As a practice project, we recommend free Ravelry project TPHPE (The Prettiest Hot Pad Ever) by Heather Zopetti. I also recommend checking YouTube for how-to videos to help this make more sense if you are going to give it a try!

Podcast Giveaway!

Our May podcast prize winner is Diane (Ravelry ID dialua). Congratulations! Since the podcast is a bit delayed, I can report that Diane selected Sweet Lavender as her prize yarn, and it's already on the way to her! For June, our prize will be the book The Knitter's Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn by Lorna Miser. To be entered in the drawing, simply leave a comment below! We always enjoy hearing your suggestions for podcast topics :-)

Where to find us:

Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Sock-aholics - Join Us!

Our online store: Knitters Brewing Company

Cheers!

Episode 10: Stranded in a Good Way

2011-05-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Wendy's Spring by Dale of Norway

We've hit double podcast episode digits! I think that means we're here to stay. Thanks so much for all the encouragement you give us, and for all the great suggestions for discussion topics. This week we get stranded, but not in a bad way. We get stranded with our knitting in the third installment of our discussion on colorwork techniques. Enjoy!

Episode 10: Stranded in a Good Way

Fun in the Sun KAL: Our Ravelry Group is knitting away on the Hang Ten pattern, and imagining days at the beach as they go. This pattern, which features a design of surfboards and waves, is currently a free download on Ravelry which you can find by Clicking Here. This KAL runs through 6/4, so there's still plenty of time to join in! Plus we'll be giving away prizes in a random drawing. Just Click Here to find our KAL thread. Kelie has been working on her pair, and is over halfway done :-)

Speaking of Prizes... we've been donating prizes to some other Ravelry groups who are doing fun things...

Congrats to Ravelry Knitter ciellel, who won our sock yarn prize by being a great knitter during the Nerd Wars competition. The next Nerd Wars competition starts June 1 and sign ups are going on right now. Click Here to find the Nerd Wars group on Ravelry to get your geek on.

Stash and Burn is having a Sock Stash Knitdown this year to help people work away on their stashes. In May, Knitters Brewing is sponsoring the random prizes for knitters who finish sock yarn projects during the month. Click Here to check out their Knitdown, and it you haven't added Stash and Burn to your podcast list, Nicole and Jenny do a great job with their podcast, and it's one of my favorites to listen to.

Gift Knitting Boot Camp: This is our Ravelry Group project to work on our 2011 gift knitting proactively, and be finished with all of it by Thanksgiving! Our Boot Camp members continue to work diligently on their projects, and have been sharing some really awesome finished objects. You are welcome to join in anytime if you would like some encouragement to work on your gift knitting. Click Here!

Kelie's very popular Rasta Hat

Kelie has been really doing well with her Gift Knitting and is on Rasta Hat Number 3! These cute hats are really getting some love from her boyz, so you might consider this pattern if you have boy-types on your list. This hat is called the Man's Rasta Hat, and can be found in the book Men Who Knit and the Dogs Who Love Them.

Wendy's River Run Shawl

Dreaded Knits: Got any knitting projects that you just never seem to make progress on? Join our Dreaded Knits thread on Ravelry where we're encouraging each other to work on our lingering projects for at least 30 minutes a week. I'm happy to report that I'm picking up steam on my River Run Shawl, and am over 70% of the way through the border! Here's a picture of the current status :-)
Sock Summit: Just a reminder that we'll be at Sock Summit in Portland at the end of July. So exciting!!! We'll be in Booth 813, and look forward to seeing everyone! I've got a new design in process that is a special tribute to the event, and hope to launch it before the end of May :-)

Colorwork Technique Installment 3: Stranded Colorwork

Kelie's Social Networks

Stranded colorwork is what you are looking at when you see those beautiful Fair Isle sweaters. I've posted an example of one of Dale of Norway's designs called Spring at the top of this post. The basic features of this technique are:

Stranded colorwork is generally done in Stockinette Stitch, as it shows off the colorwork designs very well.
Multiple colors being used in the same row. When one color is being used, the contrasting color(s) are carried behind the work.

Kelie's Zombie Mitts

The strands being carried behind the work are called floats. If floats are carried behind too many stitches, they can get long enough to catch on fingers or toes. Consequently, you need to "weave" the colors of yarn that you are carrying behind the work after every two or three stitches to keep them short and tidy.

Wendy's Snowmen

Stranded colorwork is often done in the round, but can be worked flat as well. When working flat, the floats are carried on the front when the wrong side of the fabric is facing the knitter.
Stranded knitting is not as stretchy as plain Stockinette, particularly if the floats are carried tightly. If stranded knitting is being used on a project where stretch is required, it will be important to keep the floats loose enough to maintain some stretchiness. A couple of tips to help with this are: 1) go up a needle size or two when working stranded areas that need to stretch, or 2) if you are working in the round, with a sock for example, you can turn the sock inside out as you knit it. This makes the floats go around the sock and forces them to be a little longer than they would be around the inside of the sock.

Kelie's Hot Burnin' Hands

Stranded colorwork is more efficiently completed when using a two-handed method. Here's a link to a wonderful video on how to do this method, courtesy of Philosophers Wool. This video shows you how to do the 4 types of stitches required to use this method.

Wendy's Drinking Gloves

When using the two-handed method, we both agree that it is easiest to hold the predominant color in your right hand. Note that from row to row, it can differ as to which color is the predominant color.

We've included some photos of stranded projects that we've done. If you would like a small project to give this technique a try, I recommend the Felted Fair Isle Beer Coozy by Katherine Ruiz for which there are free instructions. This project is worked in the round, and is then felted, so it will be very forgiving :-)

New Sweet Colors!

Prize!!! This month's podcast giveaway is a skein of Sock-aholic Sweet in one of our new fabulous colors! To be entered in the drawing, just leave a comment below. We love suggestions for future podcast topics!

Where to find us:
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Company Sock-aholics
Our Store: Knitters Brewing Company

Thanks for listening!

Cool New Displays for our Travelling Road Show

2011-05-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

Mr. Wendy and I just finished doing a test run setting up the new display fixtures for our Sock Summit booth. Pretty exciting!

I'm sure glad we did the test run. Besides gaining some invaluable practice at putting the network binning together, we identified two little issues that needed to be addressed. First, one of the connectors wasn't correct, but the ever handy Mr. was able to modify and correct it. Second, we are missing a part! Guess I'll make that call tomorrow. Plenty of time... no biggie.

I'm very happy with my choices. Although these units are lightweight and will pack into a relatively small space, they provide us with enough sturdy shelf storage to house about a gagillion skeins of yarn, and six linear feet of hanging space for lots of kits and notions. Together with the table that is provided for our booth, we'll be in great shape.

And... I was contacted by the Vogue Knitting Live folks on Friday. They wanted to make sure I knew about their West Coast conference that is happening in Los Angeles in September. Over 6000 people attended the market at the East Coast event they hosted, so it sure seems like we just might want to exhibit there, too! And then the Torrance Fiber Festival in November... we're going to be getting pretty mobile around here. Our new fixtures should be getting lots of great use.

Cheers-

Eleven New Feet

2011-05-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

We're so Sock Summit focused around here lately that even Mr. Wendy is getting into it! I thought you might enjoy seeing the creative work he's been doing to help make our booth look great.

Mr. Wendy is a woodworking hobbiest. He has done some really beautiful work around our home - our pub with a walnut bar, our office with a 12-foot long cherry wraparound desk-for-two with matching cabinetry above, beautiful maple cabinetry in one of our baths, and a Tuscan-inspired wine wall in our kitchen with oodles of storage and featuring an oil painting done by his mother. Yes folks, we're both lucky to have a lineage of generations of creative people!

I needed some feet to display sock sample for the exhibition booth, and asked Mr if that was something he would be interested in producing. He just happened to be looking for an excuse to get his tools out, so he enthusiastically headed to Home Depot to find some wood. Using one of my plastic sock blockers that I got from Knit Picks as a template, he traced the feet onto the wood, and then rough cut each one using his band saw. For step two, he used his router to fine tune the cuts, and then finally hit them all with a bit of sand paper to smooth out the edges. Kelie and I both used the same word to describe his results: "Perfect!" They really are. Thanks Mr!

This weekend we'll be giving our new display fixtures a test run set up to make sure I got all the pieces when I picked them up last week. Can't wait to hang a few feet on them!

Cheers-

Episode 9: Into Intarsia

2011-05-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hang Ten KAL Socks

Today is so exciting! As I write, Sock Summit registration is underway! I can't wait to hear how many sock knitters sign up for the event. It's going to be SO much fun! We're working hard on our inventory preparations, and have gotten new display fixtures for our booth - and we have a fun surprise for our booth visitors, too! I swear I get a little more excited every day :-)

On with the Podcast!

Episode 9: Into Intarsia

What's on our sticks:

Kelie - Finished her Merry Socksters STR Club socks!
Kelie - Hang Ten by Wendy Gaal. This design, shown above, is our current KAL! The pattern is currently posted on Ravelry as a free download, and we would love to have you join us.
Kelie - Getting ready to start Lavaliere by Cecily Glowik MacDonald using Road to China yarn.

Wendy - Still plugging away on the new design for Sock Summit - stay tuned!

Mother's Day DONE - yay!!!

Gift Knitting Boot Camp! April was another successful Boot Camp month! 37 April Badges we bestowed upon our diligent Boot Campers who have continued to make progress on their gift knitting. We also awarded 28 Finished Object badges - congrats! Please join us at Boot Camp if you would like some encouragement to work on your gift knitting throughout the year. Our goal is to have all the year's gifts complete by Thanksgiving so that we can enjoy the holidays without any of that last minute knitting.

Since our last podcast, Wendy completed her Mom's felted clogs and they are IN THE MAIL!!! Her gift should arrive well in time for Mother's Day, so that's a huge success :-)
Kelie worked in April to match patterns and yarns to sow the seeds for her summer gift project knitting. She is planning to make the Prairie Boots by Julie Weisenberger of Coco Knits for her boys. Looks like a fun knit!

Dreaded Knits: Well, yes, they continue to be dreaded! Wendy did the absolute minimum on her project, and Kelie... well... she promises to do better going forward! If you have a project that has been languishing in time out for just too long, join us on the Ravelry Board to get some encouragement to work on it! We've vowed to work on our Dreaded Knits for 30 minutes per week until they are done. I'm seeing progress on my River Run Shawl, and am so happy about it!!!

Learn to Knit Socks KAL: We wrapped up this KAL last Friday with the prize drawing. 87 knitters were eligible for our drawing - congrats to all of the graduates! All the finished socks are so much fun to look at - and some knitters made as many as three and four pair! Great work everyone :-)

Fun in the Sun KAL: We kicked off this KAL on 4/22, and it's going full steam! The KAL runs through 6/4, so there is lots of time left if you would like to join us. Click here to find the Ravelry discussion thread for this KAL, and the link to the free pattern download :-)

Kelie's Chiefs Blanket

Part 2 of our Colorwork Series: Intarsia

Intarsia (also known as picture knitting) is a colorwork technique where colors are worked in isolated sections of a design. Consequently, each contrast color(s) used is kept on a bobbin and is used only in the area of the design that calls for the specific color. There is no carrying of yarns behind the work. An example of Intarsia would be a white pullover sweater with three large colored balloons knit onto the front of it. Each of the balloons would have it's own bobbin of yarn. Some key points to Intarsia are:

Intarsia Borders

Intarsia is generally worked flat. It's possible to do it in the round, but rather complicated.
Intarsia is generally worked in Stockinette Stitch for the best representation of the design.
Items knit in Intarsia will have a "wrong" side. This isn't an issue if you are making a garment, because the public won't see the wrong side when the garment is being worn. For a project like a blanket, though, you need to consider that there will be a wrong side when you are going to embark on the project.
As you are knitting, when you come to a point where there is a color change, you twist (or cross) the old and new color yarn tails together in the back. This helps to prevent gaps in the knitting where the color changes occur.

Intarsia + Felting = Crazy Purse!

Intarsia designs are worked from charts. These are typically grids of color blocks that represent the colors used in the design. Right side rows are worked from right to left, and wrong side rows are worked from left to right.
There are different types of bobbins that can be used when doing intarsia:

Flip top bobbins: These are clear plastic spools that look a bit like doughnuts. Good for medium to large weight yarn. After you spool the yarn, the top flips over to "lock" it and prevent it from unspooling until you are ready for it.
Flat plastic bobbins: These come in multiple sizes for different weights and amounts of yarn. The design "locks" in the yarn so that you can unwind it as needed.
Butterfly: This requires no gadgets. You simply wind your yarn in a figure 8 around a couple of fingers, and then tie it in the center with the end. The starting end of the yarn is what you attach to your project, and the butterfly acts like a center-pull skein. We're both big fans of this method.

Nutty Palm Tree Socks

Locking stitch markers or safety pins: These can work well for thin yarn or blending filament. To use these, just wind the yarn in a figure 8 around the stitch marker or pin and then clip it closed to keep the yarn from unwinding.

Some photos of our Intarsia are featured here... Kelie's Chief Blanket, Wendy's Baby Blanket (the floral borders are Intarsia), a Felted Intarsia Purse that Wendy made, and the crazy palm tree socks that Wendy made using Intarsia in the round. I'll make a video of that technique to post in the future. That's a topic all by itself!

Monthly Prize Drawing!
Our April Winner of Strick-ly Socks is Ravelry member GerryH from Missouri. Congratulations!

May Prize Color Choices!

For May, we'll be giving away a skein of one of our new Sock-aholic Sweet yarns :-) To enter the drawing, post a comment to this post to say hello or give us a suggestion for future podcast topics!

Where to find us:

Our Store: Knitters Brewing Company

Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Sock-aholics - join us!

Our Ravelry IDs: socalknitgirl (Wendy) and Khalila (Kelie)

Cheers-

Two Flower Gardens

2011-04-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post a quick update on the two flower gardens I'm nurturing right now. Our weather is getting pretty nice now, and it's inspiring me to be outside more, and playing in my garden more. I'm even more inspired to pull weeds!

Felted Clogs by Bev Galeskas

First, here's an update on the felted clogs I'm making for my mom for Mother's Day. Last time she was here, she mentioned that the she was wearing out the pair I made her a few years ago. Isn't that the best compliment on a knitted gift ever? So although making her another pair isn't an original gift, it seems like it will be appreciated and well used, so that's what I'm working on for her. This pair is made from Cascade 220 and Plymouth Galway. I've finished the knitting and felting, and now I'm working on some embroidery to spiff them up another level. I haven't really done embroidery in the last 30 years or so, but I have about every color of floss under the rainbow, so that's what I'm using to put the flowers on these clogs. It's a simple design, but is a little difficult due to the thickness of the felted clogs. After one evening of struggling to pull the needle through each stitch, I smartly grabbed my small pliers and am now using them to help me tug the thread through the clogs. It's much easier on my hands! Anyway, one is done, and I think it looks pretty cute! I'll start working on the second one tonight, and should be done in plenty of time to get these in the mail. This is one of the projects on my Gift Knitting Boot Camp List - so far my 4 gifts this year have all been done on time!

My other garden is my rose garden. I have about 15 plants in our front yard which I enjoy tending to during the early part of the year. Here in Southern Cal, we prune our rose bushes mid-January, and expect to see our first big bloom in April. I'm right on track! Historically, my enthusiasm about regular garden tending seems to wane after the first bloom, so this year I'm really trying to maintain my gardening mojo. Really, if I spend about 30 minutes a week out there, it's plenty, so I keep telling myself that's all I need to do. I've also started saving the blooms in the freezer when they start to fade so that they can become dye!

Cheers -

Episode 8: Mad About Mosaic

2011-04-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Mr. Kelie models his new Rasta Hat

We've had a request from a listener to discuss colorwork techniques - great suggestion! We'll break the topic into three segments: Mosiac, Intarsia, and Stranded. This episode we tackle the Mosaic technique. It's super fun to do, and looks way more complicated than it is. Enjoy!

Episode 8: Mad About Mosaic

What's On Our Sticks:

Kelie: Merry Socksters KAL from STR Sock Club

Kelie: Man's Rasta Hat by Annie Modesitt

Wendy: Snowman Hat and Mittens - Photo below... I'll try to publish the pattern soon!

Wendy's First Complete Xmas Gift

Wendy: Felted Clogs by Bev Galeskas. I'll post a photo after I finish the embroidery :-)

Wendy: New sock design for Sock Summit in process.

Several of these projects are all on our Gift Knitting Boot Camp Gift Lists which means we're making progress! If you would like some encouragement to get your gift knitting done early, please join our Boot Camp by Clicking Here.

I've also been making progress on my Dreaded Knit project, the River Run Shawl. I even painted my nails to match it to give me more motivation to work on it! If you have a project that's been languishing too long on your needles and you'd like some cheerleaders to help encourage you to finish it, Click Here to find our Dreaded Knits thread on Ravelry, where we've vowed to work at least 30 minutes per week on our most dreaded projects until they are done!

UV Nail Curing Lamp

I also mentioned that I use a UV Nail Curing Lamp so that I don't have to wait long for my polish to dry. I got my lamp on Ebay, and it's a 36W unit. Some models are listed in the mid-$20 range, and I find mine to be worth every penny since it gets me knitting or playing Ravelry on the computer again quickly after painting my nails.

Learn To Knit Socks KAL: Almost 70 completed projects have been entered into the drawing for this KAL! It's not too late to join in - you can download the free Straight Up Socks pattern by Clicking Here. This is a great opportunity to try sock knitting if it's new to you, or to add a great all-purpose sock pattern to your sock library. The prize drawing for this KAL is 4/29/11 - click here to join us!

Fun in the Sun Sock KAL starts 4/22/11: So far over 150 knitters have signed up for some beach knitting! Click here to find the details for our newest KAL featuring Wendy's Hang Ten sock pattern. No purchase is required, but kits are available by Clicking Here which include yarn, the pattern, and a super cute surfin' wahini stitch marker.

We are super excited about Sock Summit! Knitters Brewing will have a booth at the event this year, and we promise it will be a fun one to stop by and see. The Sock Summit website has just been updated today to include class schedule, event, and vendor information, so be sure to check it out! Registration info has not been posted yet, but the team says it's coming soon. Looking forward to seeing lots of Sock-aholics at the conference!

Colorwork Segment A: The Mosaic Technique

Mosaic Tutorial Pattern

In a nutshell:

The Mosaic technique creates a two-color effect through the use of slip stitches.
Rows are worked with one color of yarn at a time only, which keeps the technique simple.
The designs are created by alternating yarn colors every two rows (two rows of Color A, then two rows of Color B).
Mystery Sock II: Girls Night Out

To create the two-color effect, stitches from one of the color rows are slipped up into rows of the other color. For example: The first two rows are knit in black. Then the knitter switches to white yarn for row 3. While working row 3, the knitter either knits the black stitches to create new white stitches, OR slips the black stitches to bring the black color up into the white color row.
The design is worked in pairs of identical rows. Therefore, Rows 1 and 2 are identical, 3 and 4 are identical, etc.
Mosaic lends itself to geometric or angular designs, and is historically worked in garter stitch which further emphasizes the linear look of the patterning. It can certainly be worked in stockinette as well, which softens the angular look a bit in my opinion.
Wingmen Sock with Mosaic Border
Mosaic can be worked in the round or flat.
Mosaic is really a great way to use variegated yarn or yarn with long color repeats. You can combine one multi-colored yarn with a solid yarn, or use two multi-colored yarns.

I created a short tutorial pattern to help people learn the Mosaic technique when we did Mystery Sock II. I've posted this tutorial online, and you can grab it by Clicking Here. The tutorial explains how to do the techniqe both in the round and flat. Our Wingmen mens' sock pattern also uses this technique.

There are lots of great Mosaic patterns on Ravelry that you would enjoy looking through if you would like to give this techniqe a try, or see how cool multi-colored yarns look with this technique. Some of the ones we enjoy are:

Samarkand by Andrea Kruss-Anders (Free download)
Endless Knot Socks by Robbyn Kenyon (Free download)
Waterfalls by Violet Green (Free download)
Kauni Raibow Cardigan by Ruth Sorensen (Free download)

Next time we'll talk about Intarsia!

Charity Announcements

Operation Care Package is in need of lots of knitters to make 10,000 caps for holiday care packages for our troops. Caps can be of any design in adult sizes, and should be in dark or camo colors. You can find more information about OCP by Clicking Here. They don't have the cap project up on their website yet, but plan to have the information there soon. There's also a contact link on the home page if you would like to get more information.

We're also starting to plan our 2012 Susan G Komen Fundraiser! We're going to publish our KBC Recipe Book that the group has been casually compiling on the Ravelry discussion board. We'll even throw in a few knitting "recipes" :-) Click Here if you have any recipes to contribute - we especially need main dishes, veggies, salads... you know - the healthy stuff!

And last but not least... our monthly prize drawing! This month we are giving away Strickly Socks by Candace Eisner Strick. To be entered into the random drawing, just leave a comment below! Any suggestions for Podcast Topics are greatly appreciated :-)

Cheers!

Episode 7: Top Down to Toe Up

2011-04-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hang Ten Socks in the Old Fashioned colorway

We're feeling all Springy for this Episode! This week we talk about our seasonal activites - knitting and otherwise. We also get our techie talk on about how to convert sock patterns from Top Down to Toe Up. Without further ado...

Episode 7: Top Down to Toe Up

April Gift Knitting Boot Camp: We're in Month 4 of 11 and still going strong! Join us by Clicking Here to get motivated to finish your year's gift knitting early. Or, just browse the thread to see what awesome projects the group members are making!

For Boot Camp, Kelie is about the start the Man's Rasta Hat from Men Who Knit and the Dogs Who Love Them for those boys of hers. Wendy is just finishing up a Snowman Hat and Mittens Set for her niece, and promises to write up the pattern :-)

What else is on our sticks:

Kelie: Parallel Twist by Jeannie Cartmel

Kelie: Merry Socksters from the STR Club by Irishgirlieknits
Wendy: New design started for the Sock Summit themed sock! Sorry, top secret - no pics! :-)
Wendy: That Dreaded Knits River Run Shawl. The border is 54% done, and I relish every percent I finish.

New KAL Announced! The Fun in the Sun KAL featuring the Hang Ten Socks pattern (shown above) starts 4/22/11.Click Here to join in on the fun. No purchase is necessary, but kits with really cute stitch markers are available in the online store by Clicking Here. As usual, there will be KAL prizes for a few lucky winners :-)

Learn To Knit Socks KAL: Still lots of time left in this KAL! Over 40 knitters have posted at least one completed sock. If you've been wanting to learn to knit socks, this is a great opportunity. Kelie's Straight Up Socks pattern has been posted as a free Ravelry download and it's getting great reviews. We're so proud of all the new sock knitters - and we can tell they are proud of themselves, too!

Converting Socks from Top Down to Toe Up: This topic has come up more often lately in our group as people are getting more confident about their sock knitting. We shared our opinions and a few guidelines for conversion:

1. Decide if the sock pattern is a good candidate for conversion by evaluating the stitch pattern. Look at a photo of the sock upside down. If the stitch pattern looks the same or similar (or if it looks different but still good), then it's a probable candidate for conversion. Repetitive stitch patterns are better candidates than stitch patterns that "evolve" throughout the entire sock. Top down socks with plain toes and heels are easier to convert than those with stitch patterns that flow into the heel or toe areas. Cables often look the same from both directions and are good candidates. Repetitive lace stitches often look nice from both directions, too.

2. Determine how many toe stitches to cast on. We agree that you want to cast on about 40% of the number of stitches that is in the circumference of the sock. So... for example, if the sock has 64 sts around it, 40% would be 26 stitches. This number is divided by 2, and that's how many stitches are cast on to each toe needle. The caveat here is that you need to consider whether you need an odd or even number of toe sts on each needle. For the 64 stitch sock example, each side of the sock will have 32 sts. This means you want to cast an even number of sts on to each toe needle. So for my example, I would actually cast 14 sts onto each toe needle instead of 13. For a sock with 66 sts in the circumference (33 sts on each side) I would cast on an odd number of sts to each toe needle.

3. Do the toe increases. The most common way would be to increase 4 sts every other round (1 at each end of both sides of the sock). Do this until you reach your target number of circumference stitches.

4. Crank out the foot! Start working your stitch pattern on the top of the foot, and typically you will work the sole in Stockinette Stitch.

5. Add a heel. This is the trickiest part, and there are lots of options. Some options are:

A fit as you go type of heel like we are currently doing in Kelie's Straight Up Sock pattern. Here you will work the foot until your sock is 3" shorter than your foot, and then you'll work the gusset increases on your sole st needle until your sock reaches the back of your heel. If you haven't already downloaded Kelie's pattern, click on the link above for the directions.
Short row heel. There are lots of types of short row heels out there. With these, you generally work the foot until you are about 2" short of your foot length. Then, to avoid a sock that pulls tightly across the top of the foot, you should redistribute the sts on your needles so that 60% of the sts are on the heel needle. For the 64 st sock example, this means you would move three sts from each end of the top of foot needle to the heel needle before starting to work the short row heel. Then, after working the short row heel, you need to move those sts back to the Top of Foot needle before working the leg.
Fleegle Heel. Wendy's method of choice is no surprise - I'm all about the Fleegle Heel lately. You can find the directions for working this heel by Clicking Here, and I generally start it when my sock foot is about 3" shorter than my foot length.

6. Leg: Now you are in the home stretch! Work your stitch pattern on both needles until you reach the point where you want to add on your cuff.

7. Cuff: Add a standard ribbing cuff, or allow design elements of your stitch pattern to flow up into your cuff for a little personalized touch.

8. Bind off: Use a stretchy bind off like Jeny's Suprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. Kelie say's it is the Bomb Diggity!

Good luck on your sock conversions! If you have any questions, just post them on the Ravelry Board and you'll get lots of helpful opinions :-)

Podcast Drawing! Our March winner of the cute earrings is DebKnits2 from Connecticut - congrats! This month our podcast giveaway will be a book entitled Strick-ly Socks by Candace Eisner Strick. She shares her method for sock knitting and provides 16 patterns to reinforce her techniques. Who doesn't want some new stitch patterns! To enter in the drawing, simply leave a comment below!

Where to find us:

The Online Store: knittersbrewing .com
Our Ravelry Group: The Knitters Brewing Co Sock-aholics

Snowman Project Update!

2011-04-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

I've been having lots of fun working on the Snowman Hat and Mittens set, and it's almost done! I'd forgotten how wonderful it is to work on a project you can finish quickly.

I made the hat in about 6 hours last Sunday, and now a week later, the mittens are nearly done, too! I'm amazed at how little yarn the set has taken to make. I've used about 150 yards of the aran weight Shepherd Worsted in red, and about 60 yards in white (and a few yards in green that I stashbusted from Kelie - thanks, Kelie!) This means I have quite a lot of yarn left from my two 225 yard skeins, so that's going into the "bank" of yarn to be used for doll clothes later this year.

I'll write up the patterns soon for anyone who might be interested. The hat is really simple, and it's so stretchy that it will really fit a wide range of heads. It's small enough for a kid, or big enough for me if fully stretched. The only change I would make for an adult is to make it longer - it doesn't quite cover my ears. It starts with a few inches of 2x2 ribbing worked back and forth with a seed stitch flap on one end. Then the flap section is bound off and the remaining stitches are joined to work the crown of the hat in the round. The crown is done in 5 identical sections which I've charted. Finishing work includes using the cast on tail to seam up the ribbing so that the flap is exposed to sew the buttons on to.

The mittens start with about 4 inches of ribbing and then proceed into stockinette for the hand section. The thumb is worked in as an "afterthought" thumb which is a super simple way to do it. The upper part of the hand is worked similarly to the crown of the hat so that it sorta looks like the snowmen on the mittens are wearing hats to match the big hat. I know... goofy :-)

When I got the mittens done, I almost stopped there. They look really cute the way they are and I was thinking that adding the embroidered snowman face (per my original sketch) to them might be overkill. So I cut some features out of paper and laid them on the mittens to get an idea of what it might look like. I still think the face looks pretty cute, and these are for a girl who will be 4 when she gets them, so I'm going to proceed with embroidering some coal eyes and mouth on, along with a carrot nose. And then I'll also add a green bow tie to match the bow tie on the button snowman.

So - my first Christmas gift is almost done - woohoo!!! Time to cast on a new sock :-)

Cheers, Wendy

From Monkeys to Snowmen

2011-03-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

I think all knitting is fun, but today I'm starting a project that will be REALLY fun! I have a young niece, and I just love making kiddie things for her. This year, I'm planning to make her a couple of gifts - a hat and mitten set for Christmas, and a doll with clothes for her October birthday. I have the yarn for the hat and mitten set, and a newly opened slot in my knitting bag (Monkey Socks are done - yay!!!) so it's time to cast on a hat! I must say I'm also excited to be starting a project that will be a quick one to finish.

First - I must show off my completed Monkeys: Tada!!!! These are made from Jolly Jumbuck Helios - hand dyed by a nice lady in Australia. The fiber is 70% wool and 30 % silk, and it is very soft. I love the colors, too! Finished these in a pub yesterday while watching UConn win their game by the skin of their teeth. Monkey Socks are written as a top-down heel flap pattern, but I made them toe-up with a Fleegle Heel, so they are actually Upside Down Monkeys. They fit great!

Now on with the new! The hat and mitten set for my niece will have a snowman theme, due to some really cute buttons I found. I got this yarn (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted 100% Superwash) and the buttons at the Dublin Bay shop in Portland last October when out on a LYS Day with the local Ravelry Group gang. This yarn is super soft! I look forward to knitting with it.

For the hat, I plan a wide red ribbing that overlaps on the side, so I have a place to sew the decorative buttons. The crown of the hat will be mostly red, with some white snowflakes stranded into it.

The mittens will be the most fun - I'm going to make them look like snowmen. I plan for the ribbed cuff and thumb to be red, and then the hand part up to the second knuckle or so to be white for the snowman head. Then I'll finish the top of the hand with red to look like the snowman is wearing a hat. I'll embroider the coal eyes and carrot nose onto the faces, and will probably put a little green bowtie on each snowman, too. Gotta see what contrast yarn I have in the ol' stash trunk! I have 225 yards of each of the red and white yarn, so hopefully this plan will come together! I may end up starting the hat and mittens concurrently so that I can distribute the colors between the set pieces most effectively. As you can see from my drawings, I didn't exactly do the math on this project - ha! I'll write down what I do as I go, though, just in case it turns out cute.

Cheers -

Episode 6: What Kind of Sock-aholic Are You?

2011-03-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

I guess a downside to knitting magazines is that they never have quizzes in them. We can pick up a Redbook to find a quiz that tells us what kind of a dresser we are, or grab a Cosmo to find out what kind of a lover we are, but the knitting mags never tell us what kind of a knitter we are. We've solved that problem!! Episode 6 is the Quiz Episode! Kelie has really outdone herself putting together a quiz to help you determine what kind of Sock-aholic you are. There's a link to the quiz in the show notes below. Enjoy!

One little announcement before we continue... there is a new RSS feed for the podcast. If you currently get your Yarn On Tap episodes through iTunes or by clicking on the link in this blog, then you don't have to do anything. If you get the podcast by entering the RSS feed into your listening device, then you need to update it with the new one, which is: http://www.sock-aholic.com/yarnontap.xml

On with Episode 6!

Episode 6: What Kind of Sock-aholic Are You?

Show Notes:

When discussing our projects, we talked about:

1. Kelie's Spring Forward Socks (shown above) that she reverse-engineered to work toe up. She started and finished these since the last podcast!

2. Kelie's very long Straight Up Socks featuring Zauberball yarn. We'll have a finished photo of these in the next set of notes.

3. Kelie's Burnin' Hot Hands fingerless gloves with flame jobs on them - so cool! Check the last show notes for a photo. Click Here to go to her Ravelry project page if you are interested in her notes on how she made them.

4. Wendy's Monkey Socks - almost done! I'll post a picture in the next blog post - yay!!!

While discussing Gift Knitting, we talked about the gifts Kelie and I bought for ourselves since the last podcast - Trindles! We heard about these from Wonder Mike on the Fiber Beat podcast - he's such an enabler! Trindles are very cool drop spindles made by a man on Etsy who goes by Trindleman. Next time we'll give you an update on how our spinning is going - it's all new for me. The photo on the right shows the kind of beads I purchased, and my wooden shaft will be made from purpleheart - should be beautiful!

Learn To Knit KAL: This new KAL for new sock knitters kicked off on 3/18 with over 180 participants! It's so great to see all this enthusiasm from new sock-aholics :-) The Straight Up Socks pattern we are using for the KAL is a free download on Ravelry which you can find by Clicking Here. We have also posted several training videos on our Ravelry Board to help folks out with techniques that are new to them - Judy's Magic Cast On, how to cast on 2 socks at a time, working right and left lifted increases to shape the toes and gussetts, how to do the heel turn, and a video on Jeny's suprisingly stretchy bind off. It's not to late to join - the KAL will go through the end of April, and prizes will be randomly awarded on 4/29 among the knitters who finish at least one sock. Welcome to all the new Sock-aholics!

New KAL - Our Hang Ten KAL information will be launched during the week of 3/28 AND we will have new colors of Sock-aholic Sweet to launch with it. So exciting...

The Sock-aholic Quiz! This is something really silly and fun that you might enjoy. Click Here to find the quiz and see what kind of Sock-aholic you are. Post your answer in the comments below and be entered in the drawing for the March Giveaway!

And speaking of March Giveaway... this month we have these super cute Sweater WIP earrings to give to the winner of our drawing. To be entered, simply post a comment below. It's that easy :-)

And as always, we close with our Where To Find Us info...

The online store: Knitters Brewing Company

The Ravelry Group: Knitters Brewing Co. Sock-aholics. Join us! You never know what we'll be up to :-)

Cheers -

Episode 5: Got Gauge?

2011-03-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

It's a really good thing I'm a knitter. At the end of recording this episode, the program we use to capture the audio crashed - doh! The good news was that the system recovered the audio file. The bad news was that it saved the audio in 12 second intervals - 204 of them! Because I'm a knitter, I have a high tolerance for repetitive tedium, and I pasted the audio pieces back together to create Episode 5. You can't even tell :-) I must finally be getting better at this.

Enough of my babbling... here is Episode 5 and the show notes.

Episode 5: Got Gauge?

While we were chatting about our current projects, we mentioned:

- iPhone application: 1,2,3 Knit
- Fiber Trends pattern Marigold Bears by Bev Galeskas

- Kelie's Flame Job Gloves

Current Sock-aholic Group Activities:

The Learn To Knit Socks KAL starts 3/18! Over 140 knitters have signed up to participate so far. Kelie has created a great fuss-free fit-as-you-knit pattern for this KAL. She's included lots of informational photos and technique info in the pattern, and we'll also have video tutorials available for the KAL, too. Join us if you would like to learn to make socks, or if you just want to have some fun. No purchase is necessary, but there are kits available for those interested. Kits include yarn, pattern, commemorative stitch marker, and a certificate to prove that you are a credentialed Sock-aholic! Click Here for more information.

Gift Knitting Boot Camp: The group is doing great job executing their gift knitting strategies! It's not too late to join us if you would like encouragement to start your gift knitting now, instead of waiting until the holiday pressure is on. Click Here for more information. This month we're having a March Madness theme, and will be having a NCAA bracket contest for those who are interested, too!

New KAL!!! Our next KAL will be a beachy fun theme, and will feature the new Hang Ten pattern by Wendy. Stay tuned for announcements about this later in the month, and (fingers crossed) we'll have three new colors of Sock-aholic Sweet to release with this new KAL :-)

Prize Giveaway!

Our February prize winner, as chosen by our Virtual Prize Officials at Random.org, is Lisa (Ravelry ID: lleavid). Congrats! Lisa wins an autographed copy of Entre to Entrelac by Gwen Bortner.

Our March Prize is this cute pair of French wire earrings featuring a sweater on the sticks. I know you don't need more WIP hanging around - ha!, but these are WIP that you don't have to feel guilty about.

To be entered in the drawing, all you need to do is leave a comment below - thanks!

Where to Find Us:

- Our Online Store: Knitters Brewing Company

- Ravelry Group: Knitters Brewing Sock-aholics

Cheers-

Episode 4: Getting To Know Us

2011-02-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

We got a great suggestion after the last podcast from a listener who thought we should introduce ourselves a little bit. So in this Episode, we're sharing our backgrounds, how we got into knitting, and most importantly, what's in our Stashes!

This is pretty much my entire stash pictured on the right, with the exception of partial/leftover balls. It's amazingly small, and I imagine it will stay that way. If I have a lot of projects in "queue" it actually stresses me a bit, so I like to only purchase yarn when I have projects in mind to make. That, of course, doesn't mean I always get to them immediately! The martini thing in the front is a sock blank that I made on my knitting machine and then hand-painted. I have no idea what it would look like if knit into a pair of socks, but I have a feeling it wouldn't be that good. Consequently, I may just consider this painted blank to be a work of art unto itself, and maybe I'll frame it :-)

So here are the show notes for Episode 4 - you can listen by clicking on the link below, or find us on iTunes as Yarn On Tap.

Episode 4: Getting To Know Us

Gift Knitting: If you need some support to get your gift knitting finished (or started) before the holidays hit, join us on the Ravelry Group for Gift Knitting Boot Camp. We're trying to think through our 2011 gift knitting strategies early, so that we can start knitting now and be done in time for Thanksgiving. I met my February gift knitting deadlines! Yay me!!! I made these cute dishclothes and wrapped them around body wash for my mom and sister for Valentines Day. I even got them shipped to arrive on time :-) I also finished the After Hours Shawl for my bff Judy's birthday this Friday. I'll post the photo next week in case she reads this - don't want to completely ruin the surprise!

The book I mentioned was Toys to Knit by Tracy Chapman. It has lots of super cute stuffed dolls and animals in it. I'm going to make my niece on of the dolls, and then use up LOTS of leftover yarn making a wardrobe for her :-)

Mystery Sock III KAL: This has been a GREAT KAL!!! All the Clues have been revealed, and over 100 knitters so far have finished at least one sock and are eligible for the random prize drawing this Friday, 2/25. It's so fun to look at all the finished sock photos on our Ravelry Board. Congrats to everyone who participated! I'll be leaving the patterns up on Ravelry for another month or so for those who would still like to download them.

New KAL!: Our Learn To Knit Socks KAL starts 3/18/11, and we are super excited about it! Kelie has created a wonderful fit-as-you-go pattern using great techniques for this knit-along. Her pattern is filled with informative photos and method descriptions, and we'll also be posting some videos prior to the start of the KAL. Lots of knitters have signed up already! There's no purchase required to participate, but we do have kits for sale in the online store. Kits include, yarn, pattern, a commemorative stitch marker, and a diploma that you can show off. Your friends need to know that you are a pedigreed Sock-aholic!

Dreaded Knits: Got a project that's been lingering too long on the needles? Join the club - ha! We've got a thread on our Ravelry group where we've vowed to work on our Dreaded Knit project for 30 minutes per week. So far Kelie and I are both making steady progress on the shawls that we would like to finish, but always seemed to get pushed to the bottom of the WIP pile.

Don't forget to sign up for our Monthly Podcast Drawing by commenting on our blog post below. This month we are giving away a signed copy of Entre to Entrelac by Gwen Bortner. This is an informational book about the entrelac technique, and also includes a bunch of project patterns. Very cool!

Thanks again for listening!

People 2; Mouse 0

2011-02-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

At 4:50 this morning, we were awakened by the sweet snapping sound of success. Mr. Wendy 1; Mouse 0.

In honor of the occasion, and since I was awake so early, I decided to do the repairs on the Christmas Stockings that our little furry perp had munched on. I took some photos along the way in case anyone wants to learn how to do this kind of thing.

The first step is to assess the damage. It often looks worse than it is. I picked out the broken fuzz pieces and found all the naked ends. Fortunately, the mousie had munched more horizontally into the toe than vertically, so the damage was confined to 6 rows. This means there will be five rows of knitting, and one row of Kitchener to do.

Next, gather tools. I'll use a set of DPNs to do the repairs because they work great as stitch holders as well as needles. I think this set I'm using is the actual set I bought in 1981 to make these stockings! Back then, making socks on two circs or using magic loop wasn't so prevalent, plus this was my first pair and I had no idea what I was doing to begin with. No YouTube back then; you just had to rely on the instructions. Pick up 15 sts along the side of the heel flap - wha chu talkin 'bout Willis??!!! (I did mention it was 1981?) Needless to say these socks are riddled with errors, but they have tons of sentimental value, so I just had to save them. Other useful tools are a blunt tipped needle and some scissors, and I always keep a crochet hook handy just in case.

The coolest thing about this project is that I also found some crocheted ice skate ornaments in my Christmas decoration box that were made from the same yarn. I didn't make these, and have no recollection of where they came from. I'm going to use the ice skate yarn to do the mending, so if you are the one who made these skates for me, please accept my apologies for cutting your work to shreds, but know that they have served a more valuable purpose than you could have imagined.

Now I tackle the rows 1 at a time. Row 1 was a short one - only 5 stitches. After knitting them, I cut my working yarn and tied the ends to the raw ends from that row that the mouse left behind. This will prevent further ravelling. Then I slip the next row of live stitches onto the needle to be knit - in the third photo you can see the right five stitches are slightly lighter. Those are the 5 row 1 stitches. Now I knit the next row and again cut the yarn and tie the ends. I continue this way until I have completed 5 rows.

It's important to note a distinction here between craft sock mending and real sock mending. For this mending job, I'm tying all sorts of large knots behind the work. If this were a real sock, I would not secure the yarn using knots. Instead, I would thread my yarn ends into a darning needle and, following the raw end thread, duplicate stitch them a little ways into the adjoining stitches in the row. Then I would weave the end into the back of the work. It's really hard to secure raw ends that are short - and they always are.

After knitting the 5 rows, it's time to close the gap using Kitchner stitch. Because it was only about 6am and I hadn't had any coffee yet, I had to draw myself a little diagram to confirm how to weave this row properly! My habit is to Kitchner really loose. Then after all the stitches are secured I tighten the Kitchner loops until the size of the grafted stitches matches the ones that were knit.

My sock is successfully mended and I'm so happy I was able to save it. I used the yarn from two ice skates which I didn't realize were slightly different colors. The first on is a little lighter - you can see the rows. The second one was an exact match, so I'm glad I used that one for the Kitchner work! The green sock's partner, a red sock, had one little munch in it that only required a couple of grafted stitches using a darning needle. To treat my socks after their traumatic experience, and to remove the mouse cooties, I am now soaking them in some aromatic lavender Eucalan. It's probably the only time they've ever been washed, and I could instantly see 30 years of fireplace smoke come out of them.

And everyone lived happily thereafter - except the mouse.

Cheers-

Episode 3: Cheesesteak Knitting

2011-02-09T17:19:00.000-08:00

I'm recently back from an R&R trip to Philadelphia with Mr. Wendy, and I miss the cheesesteaks already! I don't miss the weather, although I did enjoy the opportunity to wear some of my hand-knits that never see daylight - such as my Outlander Scarf pictured here with the Liberty Bell and I.

Episode 3 of our Podcast is ready! You can play it using the link below, or find us on iTunes as Yarn On Tap!

Episode 3: Cheesesteak Knitting

Show notes:

The Philadelphia yarn stores I mentioned are:

Rosies Yarn Cellar

Loop

The fun activites going on in our Ravelry Group right now are below - join us!

Gift Knitting Boot Camp: Our year-long effort to be proactive about our gift knitting.
Dreaded Knits: Those of us with long-standing WIPs have vowed to work on them for 30 minutes per week until they are done! So far we are doing pretty well on this :-)
Mystery Sock III: I forgot to mention this on the podcast - doh! Clue 4 has been released and there is one more to go. All the clues are posted on our Ravelry discussion board, if you would like to join us!

And a couple other fun Ravelry activities that we are sponsoring:

Nerd Wars: Celebrate your inner-nerd with other like-minded geeks as you compete for prizes! This three month long event features 6 awesome challenges each month, that have great themes and descriptions.
Murphy The Sheep Club: Meagheen on Ravelry designs super cute mini-socks each month to show what adventures Murphy the Sheep is having. Proceeds from the sales of her kits are donated to a different charity each month. These patterns are super cute! April's sock kits will be featuring Knitters Brewing yarn :-)

The Learn To Knit Socks KAL will be our next knit-along! This KAL will be for anyone interested in learning to knit socks. The pattern, written by Kelie, features lots of photos to describe every technique used in these socks. The design is written to allow each knitter to customize the size as they go, and is suitable for anyone - child, woman, or man. We'll also be making video tutorials to go with the KAL. Kits will be available in Our Store, but are not required to participate. The kits will include yarn, pattern, a commemmorative stitch marker, and a diploma!!! The full details for this KAL will be posted on our Ravelry group discussion board and in the online shop during the week of February 14.

We have received confirmation that we will be exhibiting at Sock Summit this year! Sock Summit will be held at the Portland (OR) Convention Center July 28 - 31. Registration for this event has not opened yet, but if you are interested in attending, keep an eye on http://www.socksummit.com/ for details about the registration, classes, marketplace and social events. I am so looking forward to meeting members of our Ravelry group at the event - yay!!!

Our January Podcast Giveaway Winner is Sue! (Rav ID: knitrsue) Sue was randomly selected from those who left a comment after our first two podcasts. Sue has won an autographed copy of Knitting It Old School by Stitchy McYarnpants and Caro Sheridan. Congrats, Sue, and thanks for listening.

Our February Giveaway prize is an autographed copy of Entree to Entrelac by Gwen Bortner. This book features informative techniques and a great list of projects. To be entered in the drawing, just make a comment below! You don't have to leave gushy compliments, but it can't hurt - ha!

Thanks for listening!