Flagel Knitting Files

This is a second  Sunnyside  Tenacity Baby Cardigan .   (If you need to know the background about this name change, click on the link.) Sunnyside Baby Cardigan v.2 The first attempt is not yet finished for a reason.  As I neared completing it, it became clear the first version would not fit a 6-12 month old baby, it was far too small for that age.  In my own defense, there was no gauge given in the instructions (a free pattern sometimes leaves a few details out).  It simply called for sock weight yarn and that's what I used.  However, my sock yarn apparently wasn't as thick as the yarn used by the designer.  So Dack and Nicole will get that attempt and will have a newborn-sized sweater for their upcoming newborn.  After all the tenacity I put into that first attempt, I was determined to turn this lemon into lemonade.  You'll see it when it is done. With newly acquired information about gauge I started another Sunnyside (I ca...

As you know I'm very close to entering complete baby knitting times.  Dack and Nicole are expecting a child in November, and I have already started the planning.  It was important that I check with Mom because, if you follow this blog, you know she too is a knitter.  Good thing I did because Mom was a step ahead of me and has already nearly completed or completed a project for the future Flagel to be. This does mean, of course, that my time to do quirky knitting will be limited. Note there's no commitment to eliminating it, but there are only so many hours in the day.  Luckily there are a ton of completely sweet and adorable baby things to knit, I'll only be trading in quirkiness for cuteness. A while back I posted a photo of booties made for a work colleague, Rey, who with his wife, had a son born on April 12.  That son's name is Jordan and it appears for better or worse he's been volunteered/voluntold into being my knitting model and guinea pig of sorts. ...

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

About a month ago my friend from Minneapolis, Nancy, asked me to make a baby sweater for friends who are expecting a newcomer in September.  I looked at this as a great opportunity to try something new in the baby sweater world.  The gender is unknown, the sweater should be fully washable and made in the 6 to 12 month size.  Over the years Nancy has housed me frequently when I've visited the Twin Cities.  In fact she went so far as to let me take over her kitchen for an entire week to make my son's wedding cake in 2009.  So this request was a very easy yes for me. Nancy and I agreed this designed called the Sunnyside Baby Cardigan was perfect. I'm making the cabled model on the right.  Tanis Lavallee from Tanis Fiber Arts designed the pattern.  You can find it here  on Ravelry for free.  It is not a difficult thing to knit.  One does start at the neck and the entire shoulders and neckline area are knit at once.  (What's not s...

Anne Geddes is an Australian photographer who now makes her home in New Zealand.  She focuses on taking ethereal photos of babies and says. . ."emotional content is an image's most important element."  Her photos are very well known, used in cards and calendars around the world, and she was the first person to introduce me to the baby cocoon.  Here's an example of her photos and a cocoon all in one. If you'd like to see more of her photos, please click on this link .  The light and serene setting is very soothing which combine to make all the babies Geddes photographs look like little angels. (Of course, it doesn't hurt that her photos almost exclusively capture them sleeping.  Sleeping babies are always angelic no matter what they did just before they fell asleep.) See how the baby above is in a tubular wrap. Way back, when I first saw these photos, I had no idea what the container was called, but I knew some day I'd find a pattern to make one.  I...

Last weekend was a three-day one for Canadians as we celebrated Victoria Day on Monday, May 20. Since Paul was out of town until Saturday afternoon and I had actually just done a road trip on Thursday, it was a stay-at-home type of weekend.  And for good reason.  The flower boxes on the deck needed weeding, the lawn needed a good mowing and trimming and most important to me, my stash needed to be organized. It was on November 3, 2011 I last wrote about getting my stash in a manageable format and since then it has been all down hill.  I have been purchasing yarn, leaving it in the bags it came in along with other related items.  This meant, I couldn't find what I wanted when I wanted it, so sometimes I'd purchase more of something already owned.  It had become an unhealthy slippery slope of excess, not to mention all the clutter which is not good for creativity. I've known something had to be done for sometime.  Eighteen months is far too long between r...

My post yesterday left off with Tena and I leaving Beach Basket Yarns in Birch Bay, Washington.  It was time for lunch and I had done some homework before we left using Yelp, Urbanspoon and TripAdvisor to see if I could find an interesting place to eat.  My top selections included the following types of restaurants:  Thai, Mexican, fish, and Peruvian.  We went with the Peruvian called Cafe Rumba in Bellingham, Washington. Cafe Rumba There I had a yam, roasted tomato, spinach sandwich called the Peruvian with emoliente, a purple/blue corn juice all for just over $7.  (If you click on the link you'll note that sandwiches are $5 all day Thursday.)  Tena had a Pollo sandwich which included rotisserie chicken and peppery greens.  We agreed the sandwiches were unique, tasty and helped us feel as if, at least culinarily, we had headed somewhere different.  I strongly recommend checking out Cafe Rumba if you're in Bellingham. Then we took th...

The Pacific Northwest puts together a yarn crawl annually (this year's I believe is its fifth).  For those of you wondering what might be included in a yarn crawl, it is a number of local yarn shops that band together for advertising purposes, offer free patterns, and discount yarn for a set number of days.  This means the yarn fanatic can make a tour of different shops.  Or in short, it's like a pub crawl only with yarn replacing the alcohol.  Here's the post  where I wrote about the event last year. This year I decided it would be better for both of us if I took another yarn fancier with me rather than having Paul sit in the car to wait for me.  I too would feel more at ease taking as much time as I like in each shop.  So my knit buddy, Tena and I have been planning to attend this event for sometime.  But we knew we had to be strategic about the adventure. First it was deciding which of the four days (May 16-19) would be the best to tak...

If you are not a U.S. citizen who watches the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) - odds are very good you have no idea who Judy Woodruff is or care.  Bear with me there is a knitting connection. Judy Woodruff is one of the rotating senior correspondents who anchors on PBS's Newshour, a nightly, hour-long news program.  A unique characteristic of this program is it allows guests to speak for long periods of time about a specific topic.  Segments can go on for several minutes because there is time to fill during an entire hour and there's no need to chop segments up for commercial breaks.   Paul and I periodically refer to it as the Snoozehour because some long segments can be quite boring.  (Really how many in-depth programs can be done about the faltering U.S. economy in the last, say five years, before the listener just checks out to take a nap.) So you might be asking yourself:  "What does Judy Woodruff have to do with knitting?"  Well on ...

Tena has been busy focusing on her version of the Antler Sweater designed by Tin Can Knits .  It is a lovely sweater with the antlers that make up the yolk in both the front and back of the sweater.  Below are a couple knit up in children's sizes.  Tena is knitting this one for herself. Tena followed the directions completely and knit it in the yarn recommended by the designer, Madeline Tosh's Vintage in the colour of Hickory.  It is a lovely heathered yarn with a lovely dark patina.  And in her typical way of knitting, this sweater is being done with great precision.  It was a challenge to encourage her to take a few pictures of it in the making, but I think you'll be able to see Tena's going to have simply a beautiful handmade sweater when all the knitting is complete. Close up of Tena's Antler Sweater Overview of the Antler Sweater in the making  

The summer travel season is about to kick into high gear.  On Monday, May 20 Canadians will be celebrating Victoria Day and our U.S. friends will take the following Monday, May 27, off for their three-day Memorial Weekend.  In both countries these dates mark the start of the summer holiday season.  It seemed timely to share my two cents worth about travelling with knitting whether you're flying, cruising, driving, riding in a train/bus or biking. Land Travel Take projects that are familiar to you and relatively easy to knit.  This is a time for rest and relaxation and not having to struggle with a new technique.  Remember the Wavelength scarf I took to California in February.  I'd never done one before and it was the only craft item I took.  I either had to figure out how to do it right (I didn't), not craft at all (I didn't) or buy something new to do (I didn't).  In the end with this travel project I just made it up doing it wrong. ...

In the last few weeks I have been suffering from a severe case of knitting startitis.   This affliction isn't painful except for the mess it makes in my knitting area.  The symptoms include a complete inability to focus, reign-in excitement about a new project and a great deal of stash searching.     It doesn't seem to appear to be contagious because my knit-buddy, Tena has completely avoided it with her singular attention to the  Antler Sweater  from  Pacific Knits .   (More on this creation later.) There are no less than five projects started in the last month or so since Vogue Knitting Live.  Here they are: L-R Pinwheel Baby Blanket, Linen Scarf, Sunnyside Baby Sweater, Red Baby Booties, Geometry Class Baby Blanket The Pinwheel Baby Blanket is something you've recently seen.  The pattern comes from Cascade Yarns 60 More Quick Baby Knits.   It's about 25% complete, which means I need to make three more bloc...

I have been playing around on YouTube (yes the Apple tv does come in handy for this) looking for interesting stories about knitting and this one is so heartwarming I felt it simply had to be shared. Loes Veenstra (pictured above) from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, has been knitting sweaters since 1955  (nearly 60 years!) and completed over 550 of them.  She stored them in her home in boxes all this time.  You can see the boxes (in the lower left-hand corner) and a sample of the sweaters in the photo below.  Obviously, some of them are being prepared for use. The Museum of Rotterdam heard about her collection and decided to get involved.  They  determined her work would be used to show neighborhood pride of 2 Carnissestraat.  The Museum also displayed her work.  So a choreographer designed a dance tribute, a marching band prepared, and a parade with Loes Veenstra as the Grand Marshall was organized.  See all in this vid...