Foot.

I know I promised crafty photos, but Leo's foot with its Star Wars band-aids is so cute, I just had to share.

A month off . . .

I had kind of an unplanned blog-vacation; sorry 'bout that. There has been a lot of crafting, although not of the wool variety. Photos of some recent projects are coming soon, but for now here's a little ukulele player to enjoy.

Strips and squares.

Last Tuesday was my first quilting class at Among Friends Quilt Shop. I never would have suspected that I would become a quilter, but my enthusiasm for fiber arts seems to continue growing.

The class project is a 36" x 36" wall hanging, which I will probably just use as a small quilt for Leo. (He's a huge fan of quilts and blankets.) I knew I wanted to use either Brown Bear, Brown Bear or Robots fabric, and went with Eric Carle because he's so awesome. I decided to use the large print for the backing, red animals for the "churn" and binding, brown for the inner border, and the children for the outer border with white Kona cotton as the background. Yesterday I completed my homework for the first class - cutting out the churn and background fabric.

I knew cutting straight lines would be a challenge, and I was right, despite the help of a rotary cutter and ruler. Even with little grippers, the ruler can shift, and I have to remind myself to hold the cutter perpendicular to the fabric and not at an angle. (For the record, the two big quilts I'm plotting both allow for some wiggle in the cutting.) Still, I think my squares are actually square, which is good, and I'm excited about getting better at precision.

New stuff!

Even though I have many projects worth of yarn and needles, Kristin and Cindy are always enticing me with new stuff at the Knit Nook.



These square knitting needles from Kollage Yarns recently arrived. I really love using 5" Clover double pointed needles for socks, but don't like the way they start to bow before even finishing one pair. I was hoping the square double points from Kollage would be a better alternative, and I'm not disappointed! Not only do the needles keep their shape, the yarn slides more easily over the aluminum than it does the bamboo and the needles are very light. Kollage claims that their square needles are easier on people that suffer from arthritis or carpal tunnel; a knitter with carpal tunnel came into the Knit Nook one day last week and liked them so much she got three sets! She said they were much easier to work with.



The socks I am knitting are made using yarn that recently arrived at the Knit Nook, too - Opal Cotton 2009 sock yarn. I am knitting the Madder Ribbed Socks from Nancy Bush's book, Knitting Vintage Socks.

Guest Blogger: Kristi Porter talks about Knitting in the Sun!

I asked Kristi Porter, author of the newly released book Knitting in the Sun (Wiley, Inc.) about the process of writing a book, from proposal to finished book. Here's Kristi . . .

The process of writing Knitting in the Sun started about a year ago. That's a pretty short gestation period for a knitting book, but overall the production of the book was pretty well-paced. My editor at Wiley approached me with the idea. After a couple of conversations, the project seemed interesting and do-able, so we went from there.

Next, I solicited proposals from designers. Some I contacted directly, but I also put out an open call on Ravelry. The proposals included a description of the piece, how the designer thought it was appropriate for the collection, a sketch and a swatch. Designers only had a couple of weeks to submit their proposed designs! Once I had all the proposals together, I went through them and made some decisions. Some of the pieces were accepted just as they were submitted, and in some cases, I asked designers to make changes, like altering the sleeve length or the neckline, or other things to make the collection more diverse.

Copacabana, the swimsuit I designed for Knitting in the Sun. [ravelry]

After that came choosing yarns and colors. I wanted the yarns used to be diverse, different weights and fibers; yarns that knitters would be able to find fairly easily, but also yarns that might be new or interesting for a knitter to try out. There were flurries of emails between me and the designers at that point with "What about this one?" "That's being discontinued, so how about trying this instead?" I use a spread-sheet to keep track of all of that. Once the yarns were selected, deciding on colors was the next step. I wanted the overall palette to be earthy and neutral, with a few splashes of brighter colors. Of course, you don't want all the cardigans to be blue, or all the tanks to be brown, so I did spend some time with if A is blue, and B is green, then C should be pink or taupe... but yarn C comes in a really nice blue, and I don't like the pink, so maybe C is blue, and B is green and A is pink... Even though you know full well that a knitter can make a garment in any color she likes, the color that's presented in the sample, I think, always shapes our impression of it, so I do think it matters. Anyway, at some point, we got it sorted out and I got the yarns into the hands of the designers.

The designers did not have a long time to write their patterns. They had longer to knit the samples, but we needed to get started with making the book, so the patterns were turned in in late June and July. They knew this at the outset, and by spreading the work out among over 20 designers, I don't think anyone went too crazy. Designers sent in text versions of their patterns along with sketches of the schematic and any charts. This is all electronic, by the way! Editing is done electronically too. By using "track changes" on a text document, you can keep track of all the changes made and who made them. So, I got the files from the designers, I was also responsible for tech editing, so I went over each pattern with a fine-toothed comb and sent them on to my editor, who made changes, sent them back, I corrected them again, and eventually we had them all hammered out and organized in chapters and ready to be laid out.

St. Augustine, the shrug I designed for Knitting in the Sun. [ravelry]

About September, the knitted samples started rolling in. Everyday it was like getting presents in the mail! On some level I knew the knits well already, but seeing them is so different from their representation in text. Hooray! That part was really gratifying in that you really start to believe that you'll have a book. I began arranging for the photoshoots. I talked about the process of managing the photography over on Amy's blog -- thehookandi.com -- the other day. Once we had the photos done and sent off to the publisher, there was still editing going on. I think my final corrections went in in early February and after that is the long wait where my work was done, but the book was being created. It seems like forever, but really for this it was just a couple of months since the book was printed at the end of April and on shelves in early May. Many knitting books are printed in China and so there's a long wait between when it's done and when it's in stores (months!) as the books truly do travel on the proverbial "slow boat". Wiley prints in the US, so the book can print and be on it's way to bookstores and knitting shops in just a few days.

I hope that gives you some sense of went on behind the scenes of Knitting in the Sun!

* * *

Thanks, Kristi! The next stop on Kristi's blog tour is Julia's blog, Mind of Winter.

Photos in this post by Stephen Simpson and used with permission of Wiley, Inc.

Free Pattern: Acerola Baby Dress / Child and Toddler Tank

Babies grow so quickly that many baby knits aren't even worn for an entire season. This baby dress / toddler and child tank changes that! Put Acerola on your infant as a dress, and she can wear it later as a tank. Cute details, like a textured stitch pattern and a ruffled edge, make this a knit that will be treasured!

SIZE
If worn as a dress
Newborn[3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months]

If worn as a tank
12 months[18 months, 2T, 3T, 4T, 5T]

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Chest: 16[17, 18, 18, 19, 20] inches
Length: 9[9.25, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.75] inches

MATERIALS
Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton [100 percent organically grown cotton; 150 yd/137 m per 100g skein]; 2 skeins all sizes. Color shown is Shell.

1 16-inch US #8/5.0 mm circular needle
1 24-inch US #8/5.0 mm circular needle (optional)
2 US#8/5.0 mm double pointed needles
Stitch holder or scrap yarn
Stitch marker
Tapestry needle

GAUGE
16 sts/24 rows = 4" in seed stitch



The PDF includes a tutorial on how to add an applied i-cord and many more photos! The diamond pattern is written out and charted.



(Thanks to Holly for allowing Iris to be my model!)

NOTE: This pattern has now been professionally tech edited. If you downloaded the pattern on May 28, 2009 you received the unedited version that has an error in the increase row. Please download the current version of the pattern; the filename of the correct version is Acerola.1.pdf. I apologize for any inconvence this has caused.

As always, email tonyawagner@theshizknit.com with questions or comments!

My first skirt.

Actually, my first sewn garment!

I made this a few weeks ago using the simple skirt pattern from Sew U. I would recommend this book to anyone that's even thinking about learning to sew clothing. It's well-written and comes with three patterns - a basic skirt, basic blouse, and basic pants. I shortened the skirt to above the knee.


I learned how to do several things, like:

darts,


putting in a zipper,

and making a facing.

I finished the seams using pinking shears. It's held up to washing without any fraying so far.



With the move to 80-degree weather here in Louisville, many more skirts will be coming!

(By the way, if anyone is interested, the fabric is Amy Butler Daisy Bouquet in Indigo.)

The baby powder incident.

There are a few of things I learned last week.

1. Leo can reach inside the top drawer of his dresser.



2. Just because it sounds as if Leo is playing normally, it doesn't mean he's not making a huge mess.


3. If you use a vacuum to suck up baby powder, it will continue to smell like baby powder for days.