Flagel Knitting Files

It appears Fall/Winter hit us today in the Lower Mainland.  For a little over a week we have had lovely, balmy 70- 80 degree weather (20-25 C).  This morning, on the other hand, we woke to light rain, clouds and 60 degrees (15 C).  So cooler weather is upon us, but me, I am working on a light weight summer top called Gake by Kirsten Johnstone . As you can see below, Gake is an asymmetrical top knit in linen with a metal thread insert around the collar.  Should you take a moment to look at the photos on Ravelry (using the link above) you will see knitters have modified the pattern in several ways.  Some have made the sleeves the same, some have knit both sides in garter (the pattern has one side in garter and the other all purl stitches), and others have changed that seam down the middle of the front and back into something else. Photo credit to yumikomama on Ravelry Susan is the one responsible for this inspiration because she had knit a lovely green Gake for herself.

For years I have tried to teach myself how to knit the brioche stitch and have failed until recently.  Part of the problem for me has been the specialized abbreviations/terminology that goes along with this special stitch: brk  (brioche knit – also known as a bark) = knit the stitch that was slipped in the previous row together with its yarn over. brp  (brioche purl – also known as a burp) = purl the stitch that was slipped in the previous row together with its yarn over. There are many other abbreviations, but for now this gives you a snippet of the new vocabulary. Here is a look at a single colour brioche swatch. Photo from newstitchaday.com You might be thinking, "Well, this looks just like a big one by one rib.  I would fully agree, except when you touch the fabric, it is quite different.  Ribbing can be inelastic and stiff which is why it is used at the bottom of sweaters and cuffs.  Brioche creates a stretchy, lofty and squishy fabric, meaning is drapes wel

Today I want to discussion Susan B. Anderson, a prolific designer and recently a producer of wool yarn. Susan knitting with her own yarn.  (Photo from Barrett Wool Co.) I was attracted to many of the Itsy Bitsy designs Susan put into books starting in 2006.  Her "toys" are often able to morph from one shape to another and look like so much fun to knit.  I recollect I have known about her work for the past 5-7 years, though I have never knitted any of her patterns. Here are a couple of images of Susan's more recent efforts in shape-shifting toys. Eggs are in process of changing into owls. ( photo from Susan's blog ) Cocoons morphing into butterflies.  ( photo from Susan's blog ) Susan is a former middle school teacher who in 1996, after the birth of her fourth child, retired from teaching.  She was so interested in knitting and making items for her children she started creating and writing down patterns.  She states how lucky she was to find a  

Writing today is my break from hand-washing our hardwood floors.  Much to my embarrassment I cannot remember the last time I got down on my hands and knees and washed the floor.  I remember now why I don't do it very often, moving furniture, cleaning the pieces, scrubbing the floor and replacing everything is physical work.  Today the kitchen got a very thorough cleaning.  Tomorrow it will be the family room and Wednesday the dining room.  All this fun simply had to be spread over a few days! So to today's update.  Currently I am on a sweater or jumper kick.  These large items have been avoided for a long time because of the disappointment when all the time, money and effort it takes to make an adult sweater leads to things that doesn't fit.  After Knitting Camp and measurement taken by Susan I felt it was about time I knit a sweater for myself.  But to ease my way into it I decided to knit a baby sweater first.  Frankly I find having one or two baby sweaters around usefu

One would think I might remember there are two young cats in my house; both rather curious about the new things I brought back from Minneapolis.  I made the mistake last evening of leaving one of my most favorite plastic circular set of needles out with a project on those needles.  One of the cats, and I don't know which, decided that a needle tip would make for a good chew toy and chew s/he did, leaving the surface of the needle rough and the point misshaped. This photo is really blown up, making it easy to see which tip was damaged. I worked on the tip with a nail file and then put it is boiling hot water several times to rework the tip. For the most part it has come back to a point that it is usable.  In fact as I continue to knit the tip improves with every stitch. There are some good news things to note from this cat-tastrophy: Lucky me, s/he chose only one of the tips and not both. Which ever of the two did this had the common courtesy to not drop any stitche

So I am going to put the blame about my watching the Grocery Girls squarely on my oldest son and his wife or better yet, their dogs.  Here's how it happened. There aren't many things I can do to help either of my sons or their respective wives because they are all quite self-sufficient.   But dog sitting is something I am asked to do from time to time for my oldest and his wife; in fact, I spent two occasions watching their beagles this summer.  The girl dogs, Sticky and Gussy, have been rescued from puppy mills because they had grown too old to breed.  These two are now something like 9 or 10 years old, meaning they really don't require much.  If I feed them twice daily and let them out in the morning and walk them in the evening, and give them some attention during the day, they are very happy.  This means I am not very busy as I dog-sit. My on-again off-again wards in their usual mode.  Sticky is on the left, Gussy, the right. This son does own a television set,

This summer I was obsessed with a shawl named Annis  created by Susanna IC.  I had knit my first version with a thicker Madelinetosh sock yarn in the colourway called Hickory. The intriguing feature of Annis is that it requires the knitter to create nupps, a bobble-like stitch used in lace.  Here's a good picture of nupps, the very white ovals arches found above the open yarnovers (holes). Photo from GCB designs blog post I wrote about the search done in June  to find a technique to make the nupp-making process easier.  There are several methods and none of them worked very well for me.  Certainly the first Annis was wearable, but any astute knitter would be able to examine it and find the nupps left a great deal to be desired.  I took it to Minneapolis thinking it would be something to be used at a craft sale to raise money for the dog rescue group with whom one of my daughter-in-laws volunteers.  But instead one of my neighbors stopped by, admired the colours and without

Before I took off this summer I talked about my excitement to be taking in my first ever Schoolhouse Press Knitting Camp.  Should you have forgotten what I wrote then it can be found here . There were a few who questioned what on earth one might do from July 6-10 that related purely to knitting.  I do empathize with that skepticism, it is hard to imagine spending that many hours talking about knitting, unless you yourself  knit.  (I might ask how someone might spend much of Sunday, as well as Monday and Thursday evenings watching football for instance.  Or what about the fishing experts who come to talk for a couple of days.  Or the book clubs members who in addition to reading want to meet the authors.  Unless you love it , you don't get it.)  Those few days in camp were inspiring, energizing, educational and fun all wrapped up together.  On July 6 there was only an organized dinner in the evening, but by 4 pm when Susan and I arrived lots of knitters had already found their way

Again, there has been a break and I am starting to think where I am impacts my writing more than anything else I can conjure up. Six months less a day is the amount of time per year I spend in Minneapolis with the other half of the year in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. While outside of Canada there are family members to visit and others to spend time with to help foster growing relationships.  In Minneapolis I live right downtown so within a few minutes of walking any number of museums, shops, restaurants and theaters can be visited.  People come to see me in downtown Minneapolis.  In short I seem to be very busy in that place. In the Lower Mainland, I live in a suburb with Paul and the two cats (they are already well over a year old so Mike and Mara can no longer be called kittens).  It is generally a 45-minute drive to downtown which can make one hesitate about driving there without a real purpose in mind. Sure I have friends to do things with in BC, but we are spread o