Fushia Nightsong Shawl Runs Out of Beads-FO

Fushia Nightsong Shawl with Red and Pink Beads

Adding beads to my Fushia Nightsong Shawl made it a knockout knitted object and gave me a new appreciation for the work involved in beading.

While adding the red glass beads to my shawl, I realized that I had been more ambitious about beading than a realized. What looked like a small decorative addition was a significant amount of work (related four letter words, at least at first).

After my third row of adding four clear red beads per pattern repeat, I realized that since the holes of about a third of the beads made them unusable I was going to run out of beads. Unfortunately, I had purchased the last tube of clear red glass beads from Bruce Frank Beads. I used size 6 beads with a size 10 crochet hook.

With my shawl tucked in my bag, I returned to Bruce Frank Beads and found a pink bead that sparkled and coordinated with the clear red beads and my fushia-purple yarn. I bought a tube of these beads.

Since I had already put a lot of work into the beading that I had done and I was afraid that undoing the knitting and beading would weaken or make the yarn unknittable, I decided to modify my design for beading so that it looked like I intended to add a second color bead all along. My advice for those who considering adding beads to your work–over estimate the number of beads that you will need. Like extra stash you can always find a place to add them. Also, include a percentage for beads that are poorly made.

Submitted by Knitted Yarns Editor-in-Chief

4 Hints When Knitting With Beads-Nightsong Lace Shawl

 

Bruce Frank Bead Shop - NYC

The Nightsong Shawl is a great pattern for a skein of sock yarn. (The fact that it’s a free pattern encourages it’s use!) It creates an oblique triangle so that the shawl is longer than it is deep. As a result, it goes around the wearer’s neck allowing enough length to grace the front of a jacket.

 

Having made a Nightsong Shawl this summer out of cashmere lace weight for a friend, I was eager to make one for myself. While at Tess Yarns in Portland, Maine this summer, I bought a skein of wonderful fushia and purple sock yarn. I wanted to buy more than one skein but alas that’s all that they had. So the Nightsong Shawl was the perfect project. I loved the way that the repeats organically grow and diminish with this pattern. Working in sock yarn was much quicker than the laceweight cashmere! While knitting a second shawl shortly after finishing one can be boring, the knitter does have a good feel for the pattern repeats which adds to the speed and satisfaction of knitting.

Not being one to leave a pattern alone, I decided to add beads to this shawl. While in Margaretville, I purchased some tiny headed, old crochet hooks despite the fact that I don’t crochet. I planned to use them to place beads on my Fushia Nightsong Lace Shawl.

Living in Manhattan, it’s possible to find just about anything that you need within a subway’s trip away. I was in the west 30s, also known as the garment district. I used the opportunity to check out the strip of beading stores which have cropped up along Sixth Avenue from 39th to 35th Streets.

While I had my shawl in progress tucked in my purse, I didn’t have a clear idea of the bead size that I needed. I learned that bead sizes can vary significantly and the larger sizes are difficult to find. The larger the bead hole, the smaller the number. The array of beads was confusing so despite 45 minutes of shopping, I was still without any beads.

I consulted a friend who suggested trying Bruce Frank Beads on West 83rd Street between Amsterdam and Broadway. This time, I brought my crochet hook and project with me. I found beautiful clear red beads from the Czech Republic that contrast with the yarn.

Being new to beading, I limited my use of beads to the edging. I selected the floral pattern where there are plain knit stitches which makes placing the beads easier. I used a highlighter to mark where I was going to place beads. Remember,  if you’re first starting out, beading will significantly slow down the process.

Here’s what I learned about knitting with beads:

1] If possible, test placing one bead on your yarn. While you can buy a wonderful looking bead, it may not reflect the light the way that you anticipate. In my case, the wonderful red glass beads where too similar to the yarn to be seen.

2] Where bead size matters, use Asian made beads which tend to be more consistent in the size of their holes. About a third of the red glass beads had holes that made them impossible to use without hurting the yarn.

3] Consider how the knitted piece will be used, since beads, glass ones in particular, limit how the item is washed and worn. It’s more fragile as a result. Also, it may have an impact on how the lace blocks out.

4] Place loose beads into a small container so that they are easier to nudge onto the crochet hook and stay in one place rather than flying all over your knitting area.

Maine Bound Knitting

Visiting our friends in York, ME has become a mid-July event where we combine great friends, ocean air, good food and knitting. 

As a surprise, I brought my friend Amanda the set of Heirloom Lace Placemats. Unfortunately, I miscalculated my knitting time and was shy of finishing the last placemat. Despite my efforts to knit on the bus, I wasn’t able to finish in time. I still wrapped the blocked mats and plain black napkins as a house warming gift. To further complicate matters, I ran out of black yarn so that I had to rip back a few rows to make the mats match.

While the placemats make a decorative home-related gift, I found that knitting four of the same pattern got boring. I would suggest using related lace patterns in the same color yarn as a variation.

While the weather was uncooperative for a summer weekend at the beach, we used it as an excuse for heading up to Bath, ME to check out Halcyon Yarns. Halcyon Yarns is a great haven for fiber artists. It’s like a clean warehouse chock full of various fibers and related tools. The sales folks are really knowledgeable about the intricacies of knitting. Plus there’s a room filled with books like a small knitting library.

There’s so much wonderful yarn that it’s difficult to decide what to buy. I was swayed by a small producer named Swan’s Island which is a real location off the coast of Maine. My family stayed there for a summer when I was a child. I bought a skien of a blue-green sock yarn to make a shawl with.  Additionally, I bought a couple of books on making gurnseys which were difficult to buy elsewhere. That too was a hard choice but the women who helped me tracked down the books that they thought were best including a small one from the UK.

 

Welcome to Halcyon Yarns - Bath, ME

Outside Halcyon Yarns

Knitted Garments on Show at Halcyon Yarns

Swan Island Organic Merino at Halcyon Yarns

Isles of yarn-eye candy

To my surprise, we made a stop on the way back at Tess Yarns. For anyone who hasn’t had the joy of experiencing the lush hand dyed colors, I strongly recommend a visit to the shop or a yarn festival. While the price of many of the types of yarns can be rather dear, there are some well priced yarns such as the merino superwash. My biggest challenge is finding enough yarn of the color I want. This trip I kept being attracted to by the same greens I bought at Halcyon. 

 

Tess Designer Yarns -Portland, ME

Welcome to Tess Yarns-Weren't you here last summer?

 

Color, color & more color abound at Tess Yarns

 

 

 

In the end, I did something that I rarely do. I bought a single skein of a wonderful purple/magenta sock yarn for a small shawl. Despite searching the entire store, three wasn’t another skein to be had. In addition, I bought two other skeins of a blue for another shawl or short sleeve top. (I must confess that I have several other purchases from Tess lurking near the bottom of my stash waiting to be knitted.)

On the way back to York, we stopped for a wonderful lobster roll by the side of the highway out of Portland. It was a cute stand where we were the only patrons (which was no surprise since it was late by the time we finished shopping.)

 

Lobster Roll near the Portland Maine coast

2009 Knitting Resolutions…Thinking about knitting and yarn

Since I got married earlier this year, my 2008 knitting resolutions were relatively succient and wedding related. I knitted the Essential Tank Top and started the Lily of the Valley Shawl (which now languishes as a UFO). As for the Silk Ribbed Corset, I decided to frog it after several attempts (and bought a beautiful Jenny Packham wedding dress.) That said, I knit the shawl for my wedding and a few other  tops for the honeymoon. I even have some wonderful pieces that I knit during our beach honeymoon in the Cook Islands. 

2008 was a year of serious stash enhancement mainly thanks to my husband who believes that I should never leave an important yarn establishment with regrets! The biggest contributions cme from the Joan Vass Sales (the knitwear designer decided to retire and sold her amazing yarn collection at $20.00 for box of 10 balls), the Maryland Sheep & Wool Fetival and the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival. Additionally, I visited some new wool purveyors during several trips with my friend Amanda including Tess Yarns in Portand and Loop and Rosie’s Yarns in Philadelphia.  The hubster and I made yarn stops at Chix With Stix, Webs and Purl By the Sea  as well. 

My 2009 knitting resolutions include the following:

1] Cables, cables and more cables. 2009 will be the year that I overcome my cable phobia. I have been avoiding cables since cabled projects caused me to abandon knitting twice in the past. (Of course, it’s possible that I may have moved onto other things without the cables.) I commit to knitting a sweater using cables most likely Elsebeth Lavold’s Hild.

 

2] Expand my lace knitting skills including a wonderful Estonia Lace Shawl for me. Having watched my mother wrap herself in the Triinu Shawl, I want one of my own. My knitting friend Georgia and I are starting a KAL for a pattern that I found online. For anyone interested in joining us, please drop me a line.

 

3] Finish my wedding related knitting. Instead of presents for those who helped with my wedding, I gave balls of wool. I still have one project in process and one to be started. Additionally, I plan to make a variation on a Jean Moss pattern for my husband as a belated wedding present.

 

4] Finally make the After Dark Robe and coordinated After Dark Nightie from Mason Dixon Knits in grey/white linen purchased at the Joan Vass sale.

 

5] Reduce my yarn stash by working with the wonderful fibers that I have acquired. Since I won’t be planning a wedding this year, I should be able to accomplish this. Of course, it will mean curtailing my stash enhancing activities!

 

6] Enhance my Ravelry profile and participation. Despite having been a member of Ravelry for over 1 ½ years, I mainly use it as a source of inspiration and better understanding of potential projects.

 

7] Visit new knitting establishments as well as the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival and the New York Sheep & Wool Festival (aka Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival). Of course, this will involve some level of stash enhancement.

 

I hope that by limiting my knitting resolutions I will be able to succeed at accomplishing them. Of course, keeping this blog up-to-date is the unstated goal as well.

Best wishes for 2009!

Purple Chevron Ribbed Sweater Stitched Up

Since we don’t celebrate Christmas, December 25th is a great time for knitting projects. This year, I spent the day sewing together my purple chevron ribbed sweater. I finished knitting and blocking it in mid November. For some reason, I wasn’t inspired to finish putting it together which is unusual for me. 

The wonderful sunlight streaming into my mother’s sitting room was helpful in proding me to finish this project especially given the dark color of the yarn. It didn’t hurt that I wanted to wear it for our Annual Kwanzaa Kocktails.  

I am so happy to have finished this sweater! The pointed bottom was a challenge at times to estimate sizing and I had to sew the sleeves together to get the approximate length in the ball park. (Although as with other sleeves I have knit lately, they are a bit snug!)

For the neckline, I added a border of single crochet which was a lot less work than picking up stitches and knitting four rows of garter stitch.

Chevron Sweater in Purple Twinkle Toes from Tess Yarns

For those who are interested, I used Ann Budd’s Chevron Rib Tank as the initial inspiration. (It’s a free download!) I knitted the front and back with a point and added sleeves using another pattern for guidelines. I used three skeins of Tess Yarns Twinkle Toes (440 yards each) and knitted using size 2 circular needles.

Knitting on Fair Harbor Beach in September

We managed to get one more weekend on the beach to get away from New York City and enjoy the lapping waves. September is a great time to go to Fire Island since the beach is empty except for the few brave souls enjoying the peaceful rhythm of the sands.  Of course, since I’m always cold, it means layers of clothes and coverings! It makes knitting with wool a welcome pleasure.

Fair Harbor, Fire Island in September

 

Fair Harbor Beach on Fire Island - September 2008

Koigu and Tess' Yarns Projects Protected on Fair Harbor Beach

Huddled beneath my layers of warmth (no swimsuits needed!), I worked on two projects, the Koigu Lace Ribbon Scarf and my Purple Chevron Sweater. It’s wonderful to work outside in natural sunlight which brings out the fullness of the colors. Here are some Yarn Harlot inspired photos.

Tess' Twinkle Yarn in Purple on Fair Harbor Beach

Purple Chevron Sweater on Fair Harbor Beach

 

Koigu Ribbon Lace Scarf Stretches on Fair Harbor Beach

From a creative perspective, the beach and environs are great sources of knitting inspiration from the undulating sands to the wild grasses.

Untouched Sands - Textured Knitting Inspiration

Wild Grasses as Textile Inspiration

Chevron Rib Tank Grows Sleeves

On the way home from dinner with friends, we walked past Eileen Fisher. In the window, there was  a ribbed long sleeve sweater in the new gold and brick red colors of fall.  The ribs met at an angle across the front.

This inspired me to make a long sleeve sweater with ribs using the purple Twinkle Toes yarn that I had bought at Tess Yarns. I decided to use Ann Budd’s Chevron Rib Tank as the basis for the front and back. (Note: For the tank, the back is just straight ribs.) I would then add long sleeves since I wanted a winter sweater.

Before starting, I did check out Ravelry which is a great source for discovering how other knitters adapt exisitng patterns. The comments had to do with where the bottom point fell relative to the crouch area.

I swatched and tested the pattern.  Based on my swatch, I wound up knitting with size 2 needles.  In the process, I realized that it was a difficult pattern to estimate since without knitting a sizable portion of the front (or back) it was hard to estimate how deep the point of the V would go.

Maine Bound Knitters

For our annual summer pilgrimage to visit friends in York, Maine, we rented a car in Stamford (much cheaper for those of you New York City residents). My husband drove while I knitted and navigated. Since my friend Amanda and I were aiming to go shop at Tess Yarns in Portland, we were under time pressure to get to York by the early afternoon. I used the time to make progress on my Leaf Lace Kimono.

Fortunately, I had called Tess earlier in the week to let her know of our plans. (I love how friendly people are outside of large metropolitan centers!)  As a result, I knew that she was planning to be dying for an upcoming wool show. En route, I left her a message but received no response.

When we got to York, Amanda insisted that we go straight to Portland despite the fact that all we got was a recording at Tess Yarns. Thanks to Amanda’s driving we got to Portland and found the store in record time. While the store was closed, there was a note and a phone number to call. This time we got a human who let us know that she’d be over in about ten minutes.

I had experienced the intense color experience of Tess’ hand dyed beauty several times at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Unlike most yarn stores, the yarn is displayed by color (as versus by type of material or brand). When you enter the store, your eyes don’t know where to go.  It is a wonderful, peaceful place where you decision of what to buy is really tough to make.  

Portland Knitting Adventure with Amanda

Inside Tess Yarns

Tess’s Color Arranged Yarns

Tess’s Mom (aka Tess)

Since I wanted to make a sweater with what I thought would be the fall colors, I bought some rich royal purple sock yarn called Twinkle Toes. I bought three skeins with wonderful yardage (440 yards each)I had seen the color in the window at Bloomingdales a week earlier. Amanda bought some wonderful blue worsted weight to make a vest with.

Tess’ Yarns wasn’t the only aspect of our trip that provided color. I was amazed by the wonderful flowers that seemed to lift their faces to the sun during the short Maine summer.

Maine Potted Flowers in Bloom

 In addition to taking advantage of the Maine coast, Amanda and I knitted and I got to see Amanda’s amazing two shawls that she was working on. One was in fingering weight alpaca that I had given her. The stitch involves great patience and has wonderful dropped stitches. Amanda’s become a great fan of Folk Shawls and, based on her Wool Peddler shawl, I’m considering getting a copy of the book.

On Sunday, the weather prevented us from enjoying outdoor activities so the four of us decided to take a trip to Freeport, the home of LL Bean. While it doesn’t sell yarn, it’s an amazing shopping town. I loved the humor that existed in the form of giant sized (literally) products.

L.L. Bean Outlet Store in Freeport, ME

On our way out of York, we stopped from some local fare, lobster rolls. They’re amazing! It’s special treat to have them this fresh! 

Authentic Maine Lobster Roll Readyto Eat!

 

2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Yesterday, I got up at the crack of dawn and I joined a bus load of New York City knitters, crocheters and spinners to head down to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. My friend Kathy got me involved in this woderful journey four years ago. This is an annual pilgrimage for me. This year, I persuaded four of my friends from the Carols Knitting Group to also make the trip.

Despite being in wedding planning frenzy, I was lucky that my fiancée told me not to return home with regrets. Dangerous words for a knitter with yarn purchasing on the brain!

As an experienced Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival attendee, I had my route planned out with stops at Tess Yarns, Brooks Farms and a small Maryland producer named Spinning Flock Farm. Armed with a set of patterns from Knitty and Jean Moss’ Sculptured Knits, I was ready for action and I did damage.

My stash was enhanced with a blue grey Blue Face Leicester from Spinning Flock Farms (which is a dream to knit with!), red solo silk from Brooks Farms, fushia lace silk for a shawl from Tess Yarns and a cone of grey charcoal Euroflax linen which was still priced based on older exchange rates.  In addition, I bought blocking wires for my wedding shawl and a pair of fleece slippers.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 2008 - Main Drag

Sheep at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

 

Tess Yarns in Blue at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival