Flagel Knitting Files

The first Pom Pom Anklet is finished without much fanfare or effort. All by itself on the shelf A rather good fit on my foot In my walking shoe of choice I did in fact have this shoe in mind when I selected the colours for the anklet.  From my POV no extra bright colours were needed with this neon yellow.  There are just a few things to say about this thing now that I have worn it for an hour or so. I did check gauge and it is spot on, but perhaps the foot size I selected was too big.  There is a bit of sloppiness around the ankle although the length is perfect. The rise is higher than I wanted.  In another pair this can easily be remedied, but for the second anklet the same instructions will be used so there is a matching pair. The yarn does have the type of wicking powers I had hoped for when I selected it.  And I am not getting that polyester sweat feeling, at least not so far. There will be no cutting off of the circulation at the ankle.  In fact, the ri

I am someone who cannot wear shoes without some kind of sock.  Either my feet rub on the shoe, or they get cold, or worst of all they get too hot, which causes an odor problem.  Now as winter recedes and spring is here there is no need for the woolen socks I tend to wear everyday from November to March.  I much prefer the shorter anklets throughout the spring and summer months.  My search for the perfect anklet is on. But anklets are tricky for someone like me  It seems they are almost universally designed declaring one-size fits all.  However, my experience with several brands is that indeed, one size doesn't fit all.  And why are they either so colourful one's feet seem to be preparing for a clown outfit OR they are white.   Can't there be some compromises made in the colours used?   Here's my own personal selection of anklet failures. A few words before the rant~~ Adidas brand is made of what appears to be pure polyester, this does not work well for me.

Over the weekend I put the finishing touches on Gallatin .  It isn't really a wrap, nor a scarf, but rather an accessory that can add a bit of warmth to the neck.  What a fun and quick project to knit up; I didn't touch it for an entire day and still completed it in four days.  (Contrary to what you might think, I do not knit all the time.  There is cleaning, exercising, cooking and errand running to be done as well.)  One thing I should mention is how much I miscalculated the amount of yarn needed using the lighter weight I selected, Laura Harding Willow Tweed yarn in the colour, Denim.  Gallatin used 2.5 skeins or approximately 325 yards/298 meters, about 100 percect more than I thought at the outset.  At completion there when 112 rows to get the proper depth and length for this accessory, and at row 112 there were 448 stitches.  At that point a row was taking me 20+ minutes to knit across. There was more fun blocking Gallatin.  Although the designer says she steams hers, I

I have been getting more than a few complaints that Miss M hasn't been featured lately.  Well rest assured she is growing like a weed.  Now that the weather has improved outside is a place she really enjoys.  Here's a couple of pics for your consumption. This is her tricycle stroller.  She loves it and the bonnet All dressed up in her lemur jacket ready to take on the day ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Square knitting needles aren't a new product by any means, but I am in need of a few new lace circular needles and thought I would check them out.  They were first introduced by Kollage in 2006 so yes, I am late to the game on this one.  As you can see from the photo below theirs are metal with very sharp points and the edges are very well defined.  Before we move into a review, let's talk about what is purported to be the advantages of knitting with these needles. They are supposed to be easier on the hands of the knitter meaning they are easier to use than round needles.  

Take a look at the photo below. Beer Mitts in action Although this is a good looking Northwestern couple, I focused on the blue and red mittens they are wearing. See how the mitten encompasses the can, I am merely assuming it might contain beer. What an ingenious idea. Your hands are cold because you're holding a cold beer. How does a knitter go about solving this dilemma? By knitting a mitten that separates the cold beer from the cold hands with wool, of course! This photo was sent to me by, Brittni, a resident of the Pacific Northwest. She knows my obsession with knitting, sense of humour when it comes to said knitting, and enjoyment of beer.  Brittni wrote, ¨Knew you'd appreciate the genius.¨ I have to love how downright practical these mitts are and the knitter makes only one mitten, not two, per person. Why hadn't I thought of this before? Since the photo arrived I have been looking around to see if there's patterns for making such things. And to my sati

Before we meet Gallatin let's take one final look at Branching Out .  Here she is all blocked and ready to go.   Ignore the camera string on the scarf as I wear it.  This illustrates just why a photographer needs a second set of eyes.  I was so fixated on other things, that detail was completely missed, until it was way too late to redo. Around my neck Here it is happily hanging out on the banister. After blocking Branching Out is a full 5 feet/1.5 meters long and 7 inches/18 cm wide.  The lace design really shows up well against these white backgrounds and looks much more complicated than it is.  The Silky Wood yarn was perfect for this project (thank you Ravelry.) Now, on to Gallatin .  It is another scarf but it has the curved or tapered type of design I have been looking for, for a long time.  Here's the designer's version, Kris Basta. The Gallatin Scarf in the Gallatin Valley of Montana It has a tapered edge which is achieved by casting on sti

Branching Out is finished and there is a story behind its ending.  Gauge, according to the designer, is not really an issue because one is merely knitting a scarf.  She goes on to say that using the Silky Wool yarn one should get 27 repeats of the 10 rows of the chart.  Last night as I finish this scarf yarn roulette was being played, again .  It was going to be close, very close. Anxiety in the lowest of all levels sets in as I knit on.  As I finished repeat number 26 I looked closely at what yarn was left and decided to push on through the last repeat.  Once it was completed there were 5 rows of garter stitch as I continued on with hope there would be enough yarn.  The worst that could happen is I would have to rip out a 10-row of pattern and then redo with the garter edge, not much risk.  When I got to the bind off I was feeling pretty confident there would be enough, but binding off takes more yarn than any of the knit or purl rows.  Let me show you what I had left after the en

Lace is calling to me lately, perhaps you have noticed.  After the fiasco with the Blue Ashton pattern where I drove over an hour round trip for help that took the expert 30 seconds to identify, I decided my skills in reading my own lace knitting had to improve.  It was also clear being able to more efficiently fix problems in lace was needed, so I turned to the internet. What I found is a class called Save Our Stitches:  Fixing Lace Knitting Mistakes by Laura Nelkin on Craftsy  (one owns the class so I can go back to it to refresh my memory when necessary).  Laura has a logical and direct way of explaining what she is doing and why.  And the photography of what she is doing is perfect.  The class contains seven lessons starting out with directions on how to read your lace, then helps you identify where the problem is located and finally with details on how to go about fixing it.  I devoured the class, glued to its content and ended up being more confident about moving forward wi

I am still waiting for inspiration on what to do with the sleeves for Prairie Fire .  My general approach to this type of thing, to just go for it, is hesitating on this decision for some reason.  As I grow older I have learned to stop to figure out why rather than just override that impulse and take the risk.  It hasn't made itself known to me yet so perhaps another day or two will clear things up. In the meantime I needed a new small, easy knit project at the end of the day when I'm too tired to work on the Blue Ashton.  While doing my spring cleaning I located a Dark Oak (#86) coloured skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool - Designer's Choice made of 45% wool, 35% silk and 20% nylon.   This skein captured me and I knew something fun had to come of it.  There is something about that slightly dappled brownish yarn I love.  In fact it had been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks patiently waiting in the queue of knitting to-do's for its turn.  So on Friday the sear

It is time for an update regarding the knitting taking place not only in my home but also others. The Prairie Fire toddler-sized sweater  is complete except for the edging around the sleeves.  It was always intended to be short sleeved, but I am rather liking the capped look of it right now.  For today it will rest while I make up my mind what I want to do with those sleeves.  BTW, part of my thinking has to do with the amount of yarn left.  I think there is enough, but I must love the yarn roulette game, because I am playing it again. One of the things about the yarn issue is gauge.  My sweater looks to me as if it will fit Miss M when she's in school rather than this coming winter, which means it will fit her in a few years.  What caused this?  I used cotton yarn and plastic needles plus my rather loose knitting impacted the overall size.  Each contributes to a bigger gauge (yes, yes I know I should have checked and didn't)  Nice thing about knitting for children -- you k

Taking the Coast Salish colourwork class wasn't the only thing we did this past weekend.  Here's a quick photo montage to give you a glimpse of what we were up to. 1)  Meeting a friend, Doris, for coffee in Mt. Vernon before the class Me, Doris and Flat Felicity (Doris'niece's project) at the coffee shop 2)  Paul was busy checking out the Tulip Festival while I carried on in Mt. Vernon These fields of tulips always make me happy with colour overload 3) An architecture tour of bungalow/arts and crafts homes throughout Portland A lovely redone kitchen in a bungalow Trying to get the beautiful flowering dogwood through that picture window 4) A guided walk at the Trillium and Lilly Festival at Tryon Creek Tranquility, we have landed 5) A trillium as it fades over time from brilliant white to maroon Trillium in bloom There was also time for a couple of meals out with Paul's son and his partner, a play by Lauren Weedman called The P

I took a class on Friday with Sylvia Olsen.  This is what I said about her when Tena and I first saw her at Knit City in October 2012: We also spent time talking to  Sylvia Olsen  a writer, storyteller and knitter of the  Cowichan sweater , a style of knitting developed by the Coast Salish.  Her book,  Working with Wool , documents how Coast Salish knitters developed their style of knitting almost 100 years ago, a style that turned into a world famous sweater and industry that made and saved their lives.   I was so impressed with Sylvia's knowledge about the Coast Salish and the Cowichan style of knitting that when I saw a class would be taught by her in Mt. Vernon, Washington I knew I had to take it.  To be clear it is a class about colourwork knitting, but the Coast Salish do not use floats  in this enterprise, rather each stitch is locked in place so that the reverse side (wrong side) offers a similar image to the right side.  You might be thinking, well how hard can this be

This photo caused a light bulb to go off in my head! I am a Crafsy member.  Like so many craft-orientated sites it is free to join and once you do you get lots of Facebook and email updates about the types of things they think you might be interested in creating for yourself.  Because every so often there's an idea that I just have to make, like the photo above taken by Lizella , the added traffic to my social media doesn't bother me.   It is obvious Lizaella is using up scraps of a light weight yarn (looking at her site it is more than likely sock weight yarn) and she's using a simple pinwheel pattern found on the Knit & Purl  website.  The pattern is call Garter Stitch Pinwheel and is the polar opposite of lace knitting for me, meaning it is very simple.  Can you hear that, it is the gears grinding in my head. There are walls to be covered in both of my abodes and scrap yarn to be used up in my stash.  In addition I have in my possession a three fo