Several months ago, a shipment of Koigu arrived at Three Bags Full. Luckily I was working that day, so I got to spend most of my five-hour shift unpacking the boxes and rearranging the new colours up on our Wall of Glory (which is what I call the Koigu section in my head)!

We have a Charlotte’s Web shawl in the shop, so I began playing with combinations of colour, in groups of five skeins each. I started adding extra skeins (since that shawl is a bit undersized for me), and wound up with a group of nine that I really loved. Turning to Francesca, I asked if I could design something using the nine, in a beginner-friendly pattern. She gave me the go-ahead, and off I went! About a week later, the wrap was complete and blocked, and it was AMAZING!

Did I mention that the project is all-knit, all-the-time? Yes, NO PURLING!

The double-stranded Koigu blocks out to have a lovely drape, but still springy and stretchy and cozy and full of OOOOHness! (technical term there, “oooohness”) Since the sample wrap has been living in the shop, many of our customers have put together their own colour choices, and getting to see each new wrap has been a lot of fun!

Some hints for choosing nine colours: pick a skein you love, pick another one that you think will look good next to your skin, and pick a third that will be a darker anchor at the hem of the shawl. Now, fill in the gaps: find colours that bridge the gap from one to the next, sharing a few colours in common with the skeins on each side. Don’t be afraid if one colour seems to jump out a bit - this adds a visual sparkle to your wrap!

This is a free download, available through Ravelry (though you don’t need to be a member). If you ARE a Ravelry member, it would be great to see your completed project photos! If you aren’t on Ravelry, what’s keeping you?!

Click here for Free Download of ColourFlow Wrap pattern.

Go here to see the Colourflow Wrap project page on Ravelry. Hopefully others will post their projects quickly so we can all ooh and aah over the glorious colours!

Many thanks to Megan McPeak for allowing me to take photos during the final stage of her project!

Now, the tutorial! Please note that this does not include enough information to create the wrap, you will need to download the PDF and read through the pattern to get started. This WILL help you out when it comes to the final stages of cutting and fringing. Enjoy!

After you unravel the final 10 stitches, the 11th loop should be at the top of the column of twisted stitches.

The tail end of yarn has been threaded through the last live stitch, so all cast-off stitches are now secured and will not unravel. Live stitches on the left will be unravelled after cutting, to become the fringe!

The white arrows indicate the columns of wrapped stitches. The cut line is 10 stitches away from each of these columns.

The pink line shows the column of knit stitches that you can follow as you cut. Untie any knots as you come to them, and trim these after the fringe has been knotted.

Starting at the end with live stitches, pull out one row of stitches at a time until you have reached the cast-on edge (which gets pulled out, too!)

Whee! Isn't it nice to have this happen on purpose, instead of by accident?

Make the first layer of knots close to the knitted fabric, using 8 strands for each knot. Fudge the number of strands as you get close to the end if needed (your row count may differ from mine). You can see how the first bundle in the second row of knots is thicker than the rest - this will be true of the first and last bundle, as they will have all the strands of the edge bundle plus half of its neighbour. You can choose to knot all of the first row before beginning the second row, it won't affect the final outcome.

PS - wondering about the spelling? You say Colorflow, I say Colourflow - ’cause I’m Canadian, eh?

Along with finishing the bottom portion of my Laminaria top-to-be (photos are coming), I have been spending the weekend setting up my new loom, and building gear for it.

Saturday was going to be Measure Warp Using Upside Down Kitchen Chairs day, but instead Chris suggested that it wouldn’t take long to put together a proper warping board.

The two books and various magazines I checked all showed similar designs, but didn’t appear to have any hard and fast rules about the sizing, so we set about figuring out what parameters we’d use.

1 - I wanted to be able to wind a warp long enough to do a bedspread, so at least 7 feet plus loom waste (yes, I think in Imperial measurements for many things)

2 - I wanted to be able to wind the warp standing up, possibly with the board attached to a door (since the doors are some of the few areas that don’t get things piled on them, much)

3 - I didn’t want to bash my knuckles as I passed through the pegs (my recently-dislocated finger is still a bit swollen and doesn’t like getting knocked)

Scribbling, measuring of doors, and placing mugs a few inches apart to figure out minimum hand clearance requirements all led to the successful design, with fabrication to follow, of my new warping board. During production, I learned how to use a stationary belt sander to round off the edges of the pegs, and revisited the drill press to half-hollow places for the pegs to sit.

(It just occurred to me that in the way that other people murder knitting lingo when they try to describe something they don’t really know enough about, I’ve probably just done the same to woodworking language. Sorry.)

Glueing up and clamping done, the board rested overnight and then I started warping this morning.

Things I learned about warping:

1 - Do crosses at both ends so if you figure out a better way to warp without having to tie extra knots, you can implement it without having to rechain all of your warps.

2 - As a beginner warper, mohair is not your friend.

3 - You know that part in the books where they remind you to pull the back apron up over the back beam before you start lashing on? Yup, they mean it.

4 - If you’re going to ask your partner to help you wind on the warp, have all of the various warp threads under control BEFORE giving him the 5-minute call. Also, be prepared to spend some time discussing the wisdom of the method you are following.

5 - Venetian blinds appear to make great lease sticks for popping inbetween warp layers to keep them from imbedding in each other. They may, however, not be needed at every 1/4 crank.

In total, I think measuring the warp and warping the loom took around three hours. Cast On, Its a Purl Man and Lime n Violet’s podcast all kept me company during the process. Chris came back to help out during the heddle-threading and tieing to the front beam, and it was so much easier to have a second set of hands - one could seperate the yarn from its neighbors, and the other could do the threading or sleying.

First impressions on weaving with the floor loom? (A Leclerc, made in Canada! I was tickled when I found the maker’s mark.)

1 - Whoa. Totally cool having my hands free to just manage the shuttle instead of holding the rigid heddle up or down.

2 - Crazy! I was making weft-faced fabric without trying - the beater is a crusher if I don’t hold it back a bit!

3 - Sweet: Chris was having a turn at the loom, weaving twill, and just as I said, ‘I wonder if you can switch…”, he was about to try reversing the treadling directions to make the twill slant the other way. This synchronized thinking happens fairly often

Old knitting needles make great lease stitcks to work a quick header.

I'm not sure how pedals are normally tied up. These cords came attached to the upper thingys (though some weren't in the right place for plain weasve), so I used some split rings to attach them to the treadles.

Hot Man Weaving Action Shot!

I’ve just realized that there is probably a jog in the shawl pattern that makes the blossoms nest into each other… and in working in the round, I didn’t account for that, so my blossoms stack in vertical lines with what may or may not be ‘dead space’ between them. I’ve got the last half of the final edging chart to go, and once I finish that tomorrow then the bottom half of this top will be ready for blocking, and I’ll start to plot out the top half!

Photos to come! Cross your fingers with me that the vertical blossoms will look cool anyway!

I'm ignoring the fact they look like aliens

I love the K3tog-and-get-9 blossom gentres!

Dad made me the cone holder back when I worked at Knitwear Architects, where we sold chunky cotton on cones.

Transition-to-blossom and two repeats of the Blossom chart complete! Next I need to dig out my favourite-fitting knitted summer top and check the length from bust-shaping downwards so I will be able to figure out how many blossom repeats I’ll need to do before switching to the edging charts.

I also did some spinning! Those are braids that I picked up at the Sweet Georgia studio opening, and they’ve been sitting at my side asking to be spun for a while… (next up: the Yummy Yarns braids that are draped over the side of my desk/shelf support, that I’ve been collecting for a year-and-a-bit, to eventually be spun and knit into a sweater or coat)

Soon it will be time to go back to pattern designing… deadlines are looming (especially if I want to avoid crazy rush-shipping-to-the-US charges) and I have goals yet to be met.. but this has felt like a much-needed break, and I’m glad that I am taking it!

Download and listen to Episode 8 now.

“Juggling” is the first episode I’ve produced since June 2007, and it is all C’s fault! (okay, not quite… )

In this episode:

Patterns:
(all links lead to Ravelry)
Adult Surprise Jacket
Baby Surprise Jacket
Shalom
Veronique
Cambie

Other mentions:
Three Bags Full blog
Habu
Stitch Cooperative (sorry for the name botch while I was recording!)

2009 Year of Goals participants:
Candi (rav) (website)

Elizabeth (rav) (website)

Jenna (rav) (website)

Eleanor (rav) (website)

Leave a comment here, or join the discussion in the Christa Knits group on Ravelry!

When the Spring 2008 issue of Knitty with Laminaria appeared, I fell in love with the lace edging of this shawl. I tried swatching it, using some fingering weight hemp. It didn’t go well. (I’m sure you are surprised.)

I did have other yarn possibilities in my stash, of course, but nothing that was the same teal-green as the hemp… and the whole seaweed-like look of the shawl was what I found so appealing. So, this project didn’t really get off the ground.

Last night I was browsing Ravelry, looking at patterns for tank tops and camisoles (and having a good laugh at the other projects in the ‘Naughty’ catagory). A few caught my eye, but I realized that I would probably have to strike out on my own path to make the lacy summer top I was searching for: large, graphic motifs with an interesting border. Hm. Sound like a shawl we know?

Today wound up being a vacation day for me: no work, no commitments (”no, honey, you go buy seeds for the garden.. I’m going to stay in bed and read until I feel like getting up!”), just doing whatever amount of puttering through chores I felt like (which means the studio is much closer to done, but not done, and the living room hasn’t fully recovered from the Triple C craft night on Thursday), and making stuff for ME! (okay, I admit that the spinning has had more photos of it taken than usual, while I ponder whether I want to write something for Knittyspin, and I swapped a few emails about pool work back and forth with my supervisor, but that was it)

The result? I’ve got a generous swatch of the blossom and border charts knit up on 4mm needles in SeaSilk (in a off-white, cream and pale gold mix, possibly destined for overdyeing) and now blocking overnight. The last few rows seemed to take forever, but the pattern looks awesome, and I’m looking forward to plotting my summer top.

Veronique? Well, she got a few more inches done during the Triple C, but I’m a bit fed up with having to pay attention while I knit. Knitting, all knit stitches, I can usually do without looking. The lovely boucle yarn is unfortunately too easy to snag, so I would catch a loop instead of a stitch if I dared look away, so… it may become a second-string project for a while. Then again, watching knit stitches is still easier than reading a chart line-by-line, so it may not be fully doomed after all.

I guess we’ll see! Oh, PS: new episode of the ChristaKnits podcast is out - check iTunes (it has been so long, I wouldn’t blame you if you had unsubscribed) or visit the Podcast page for the link!

French Girl Knits, by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes, is a glorious book. The buzz was already high, (Kim Werker was the one who told me how she snatched it up for all the beautiful projects… five minutes after saying goodbye, I was at the cash register at Urban Yarns buying my copy) and it is all well-deserved.

Veronique caught my eye for its delicate design done in the simplest of knitting. The photos confused me a bit, as I saw seams on the sleeves that weren’t accounted for in the pattern, (visit the Veronique KAL on Ravelry to read Kristeen’s explanation) and it took me a few minutes to understand the construction diagrams, but I knew that I wanted to make it.

Off to check my stash! After a trip to Japan last summer, I had cones of lightweight yarns from Avril (aka Habu) that I had thought to hold together for some future, non-laceweight project. Would any of them work for this, instead? Lightweight, teeny boucle mohair (I think) - floats like KidSilk Haze, check! A quick gauge swatch on 5mms, and I knew I was good.

I started thinking about the construction, and pondering a good selvedge for seaming purposes, and THEN I started trying to figure out if it could be made in the round. I could picture the “T” diagram with horizontal stripes on it, and then picture those stripes as they would meet in the seams, and realized it could be done. All of this was BEFORE I joined the Veronique KAL… when I had gotten through my cast-on and had it working, I looked around to see if I could share the technique, only to discover that everyone in the KAL was already talking about it, but they were working it from the outside in with plans to graft across the centre back and gathers at the end!

These photos aren’t my project, in case you’re wondering about the yarn. This is Francesca’s, the co-owner of Three Bags Full, worked in Kidsilk Haze.

Comments are welcome - Please let me know if you have any questions about this!

Provisional cast-on over cable of spare needle, using 1/3 of original cast-on stitches as pattern calls for.

Provisional cast-on over waste yarn, using all of stitches in pattern's first provisional cast on instruction.

Slide spare cable through stitches so needle tip is pulled into stitches at the same end as Step 2's stitches.

Pull working needle around so it is in position to knit stitches off spare needle.

Stretch armhole stitches around curve of working needle before beginning increases across stitches from spare needle.

Increases (K1, Yo, KI all into every stitch) across all stitches from spare needle complete. All stitches on working needle only.

Second armhole: provisional cast-on over waste yarn again, same number of stitches as Step 2. Yarn at bottom left of photo is NOT working yarn, this is tail from original cast on.

Curve working needle around to point at its other end, to begin working in the round. Slip knot from original cast-on now removed.

Hard to get stitches stretched around enough? You can use the Magic Loop method of pulling extra cable out between stitches to get around the corners eaiser. This won't be required once you have knit a few inches.

For those of you who like diagrams!

Francesca's Veronique - after 1 day!

I had forgotten the joy, the wonderfulness, the excitement….

Maybe you know it: when you sit down to record your podcast, get all the settings right, have notes at hand, sip some water, and then hit the little red button and start talking? And then, after a great stream-of-conciousness flow of verbal glory for 30 minutes or so, you stop recording, hit the save button… and it crashes?

Yeah, that joy

That was last night, around 8:30pm. Another half hour, and I had located the temporary files Audacity had saved during recording, downloaded a crash recovery program (didn’t work), updated to the beta version of Audacity (with auto-recover), finished cursing, and was back at it.

After another 10 minutes of fiddling with the settings, I resumed recording, stopped and saved often, and got the job done.

Tuesdays are my day of admin work: I have 4.5 hours between knitting classes, and if I take my laptop with me, I can park myself in a nearby cafe (with free Internet, woot!) and work uninterrupted for most of that time.

On today’s work list: edit the audio, get it uploaded to Libsyn (my host, who pushes it out to iTunes and everywhere else), post it on here and Ravelry, and then switch gears and do some work on my next submission - involves steeking a bit of knitting that didn’t work in its current location but will be the glorious base of my next design, teaching myself to crochet bobbles, and getting a start on the writing for the package.

If I still have time after all that, then I’ll do some more website tweaking.. but since Wednesdays are also a major day of work-at-home time, it won’t be a big deal if I don’t get there.

C woke me up this morning, because I was apparently making unhappy moaning sounds. He asked if I was having a bad dream, and once I sorted out in my brain that that was the first sentence in our real conversation, I was able to figure out that I had just been dreaming that I was showing him my latest pattern. My latest pattern that had been FORMATTED INCORRECTLY! Oh, the horror.

This is the sort of thing that I think about, as I try to build my work as a self-published designer: are my patterns easy to read? Are they nice to look at? Are they consistent, so I don’t have to continually decide what goes where each time I sit down to write one up?

One of the decisions I’m faced with right now is whether I want to go back and rework all of my old patterns to fit into my current formatting, or just make them available as-is. On the one hand, it would feel good to have a library of work that I’m totally happy with. On the other side, it will be a chunk of work time that could be spent elsewhere, on new designs or finishing this website or working up another submission for a magaine.

Comments are welcome, what do you think?

Making good progress, but currently the blog comments aren’t working… and I want to tweak some stuff around the navigation menus… and then figure out how many widgets I could ever possibly want to use!