Amanda, Author at aknitica

31 Days to Your Nicest Knitting

If you’re a knitter who loves little tips that make your knitting look better, or that make your life easier, then I hope you’ll join me for this new series: A tip a day for the month of October to get you to your nicest knitting possible!

I don’t know about you, but I love knitting. I knit every day. But I hate it when I spend a ton of time time on a project and it ends up living at the bottom of my sweater drawer. It’s so disappointing, and I feel so guilty about wasting all that pretty yarn, and yet the thought of ripping it all out makes me cringe…

But, I’m happy to say that that hardly ever happens to me anymore. I’ve learned so many great tips from books and teachers and friends over the years. What I want to do this month is send you one of those little insights every day. One tiny tip in your inbox (if you’re a subscriber) or here on the blog that will help you take your knitting up a notch. Maybe even relieve a little frustration. Knitting should be fun and relaxing, after all.

What inspired this sudden series? Well, I have writer friends. And a bunch of them are participating in this “Write 31 Days” challenge, so of course I went and read all about it. And it sucked me right in. I’ve been meaning to compile all my favourite tips and tricks for knitting in one place, so why not do them one at a time, every day, for the month of October? The point is to write every day, but to make it short and sweet. So that’s what I’ll be doing.

You can expect to learn about things like sewing in ends, joining new colours, eliminating ladders and weird tension, getting gauge, choosing increases & decreases when the pattern is vague, and more.

You’ll be able to find all the tips together in one place right here for a while. (I may eventually put them together into a handy ebook. One thing at a time, right?)

So here’s where we can have some fun. If you have any knitting woes, questions, conundrums, or favourite bits of advice, send them to me. I’ll include them in the series. By the end of October, I want you to feel like your knitting has improved and you’ve learned at least one good thing that you didn’t know before.

So, what problem do you want me to fix for you this month? Leave me a request in the comments.

How You Can Learn to Be the Best Knitter Ever

Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. 😉 But seriously, I’m teaching knitting classes! And in each one, no matter what the topic, I want my students to learn all the little tips and tricks that have taken my own knitting to the next level. I want them to know that they can knit anything. So far, we’ve been having a ton of fun together.

So what does this have to do with you? Well, if you’re in the Ottawa area and you’d like to hang out with me and learn some really cool stuff, you could join me for a class or two. If you’re not in my area, I’m also toying with the notion of teaching private lessons via Skype or maybe Google Helpouts. My specialty? Fixing mistakes and learning to read your knitting. I am the master of dropping stitches and reconstructing knitting messes. Just ask my students. 😉

I’ll also be posting more tutorials here as I create them for my classes. Upcoming topics will be some of my favourite specialty cast ons, picking up and knitting in various places, and perfect double-knit thumbs. I don’t want to reproduce the basics that are already out there on the internet. I’m going to aim for some more specialized techniques that you may not have heard about yet.

I’m also available to teach workshops and give private lessons. If I still have your interest, here are the classes I have available so far. Some of them are running at Yarn Forward on Bank Street, and I’m happy to teach them in other places, too, if you’re looking for a knitting teacher. I’m constantly developing new courses based on my students’ interests. If you don’t see what you want in this list, ask for a new one!

How to Design a Hat

4 Sunday afternoons: September 7, 14, 21, & 28 from 12:30 – 2:30 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street.

Learn basic hat constructions, how to modify them, and how to add your own design elements to them. Hats are a great first designing project. They’re small, simple canvases on which to begin getting comfortable with customizations. We’ll be putting your favourite stitch patterns or colourwork patterns into a hat construction of your choice.

Super Adorable Baby Knitting

6 Sunday afternoons: September 7, 14, 21, 28, October 5, 12 from 3 – 5 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street.

Are you, or do you know, a cloth diaperer? Well, let’s knit some wool soakers and longies! As you may know, wool is one of the best fibres for soaking up moisture while still keeping baby warm. And the wool you can buy nowadays is far from scratchy; in fact, it’s gorgeous. We’ll talk about the various parts in a wool soaker’s construction and why they’re there. We’ll knit one (or two… they’re addictive) up for ourselves. And then, since this is Canada and winter is coming, we’ll knit a pair of wool longies, too. What better way to keep babies warm and dry in their cribs? During this class, you’ll learn all sorts of interesting techniques, like my favourite provisional cast on, increasing and decreasing, practically-invisible short rows, a perfect way to sew in ends, Kitchener stitch, and I-cords, to say the least. Whether you’re a parent, a grandparent, a friend whose friends keeps having babies, or just a person who loves quick, adorable knitting projects that make perfect gifts, this is the class for you.

Baby soaker pattern in the Super Adorable Baby Knitting Class by Amanda Schwabe. www.aknitica.com

Double Knit Hat and Mittens

8 Thursday evenings: September 11, 18, 25, October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 from 7 – 9 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street.

Let’s make the coziest winter set you’ve ever seen: woolen, double-layer hat and mittens. Wool has incredible properties — absorbing up to 30% of its weight in water while retaining warmth — and the new 100% wools are far from scratchy. So let’s take advantage of that, and take it to the next level with some double knitting. We’ll start off with the basics of double knitting in the round, and then we’ll move on to shaping a hat and then some mittens. They will be reversible! You’ll have the choice of making one or both sides patterned.

perfect thumbs in double knitting. a new class with Amanda Schwabe

How to Cable and Knit Mittens

6 Sunday afternoons: October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9 from 12:30 – 2:30 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street. You can book your spot at www.bookeo.com/yarnforward

This class is brought to you by special request. Would you like to dive into cabling? Let’s do it together on a small, cozy project: mittens! Whether you have knit mittens before or this is your first time, this is the class for you! We’ll take our time and learn all about cabling, and then we’ll knit a cute pair of cabled mitts in the round. I’ll walk you through the thumb and finger shaping as we go. At the end, you’ll also receive a bonus matching cabled hat pattern. What could be better?

Beginner’s Knitting

6 Sunday afternoons: October 26, November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 from 3 – 5 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street. You can book your spot at www.bookeo.com/yarnforward

Is learning to knit on your bucket list? Then you’re obviously very smart. Studies are showing that knitting reduces tension, increases creativity, and helps us focus. In this relaxed, friendly class, you’ll learn all you need to know to get started. My goal is to give you the confidence and skills to not only knit, but knit well for a lifetime. We’ll learn about all the basics, answer all your questions, and make some cute things, too.

Knit Your Own Project

6 Thursday evenings: November 13, 20, 27, December 4, 11, 18 from 7 – 9 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street. You can book your spot at www.bookeo.com/yarnforward

This is a class for knitters who know how to knit and purl and need to move on to the next stage. You select and work your own project at your own speed, and I’m there to help, encourage, and facilitate your work. I can’t wait to see the projects you’ll bring!

How to Read Your Knitting and Fix Mistakes

One 4-hour workshop: Sunday, December 7, 2014 from 1 – 5 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street. You can book your spot at www.bookeo.com/yarnforward

Have you ever looked at your knitting and thought, “Something looks wrong. But I don’t know what happened!”? If you’ve ever wondered how your stitch count went off, where that extra stitch came from (or disappeared to), or why your lace looks all wrong, then this is the class for you. We’ll look closely at our knitting and get to know it in a new way. Then, we’ll make some mistakes on purpose — don’t worry, I’ll be holding your hand the whole way — and we’ll fix them like superheroes. Never let a dropped stitch or mis-crossed cable scare you again.

How to Not Hate Finishing

One 4-hour workshop: Sunday, December 14, 2014 from 1 – 5 pm at Yarn Forward on Bank Street. You can book your spot at www.bookeo.com/yarnforward

Have you ever groaned in fear at the thought of sewing seams or working a button band? So have I. But I’ve learned a couple tricks over the years that have made my fear a thing of the past. Join me for this afternoon seminar where I’ll teach you the four most important finishing skills I know.

Knit a Beautiful Lace Shawl

Six 2-hour classes

Lacy shawls are in style! We’re going to knit a simple, triangular shawl, with the kinds of techniques you’ll find in many patterns online: garter-tab cast on, a simple increase pattern that creates the shape, and a beautiful-yet-simple allover lace design. We’ll talk about placing stitch markers, how and why to use a lifeline, how to read your lace and avoid making mistakes, and then how to fix your mistakes when they happen. We’ll finish up with a simple and stretchy lace cast-off technique. Then, we’ll wash and block our shawls together and sew in our ends. When we’re finished, you’ll have something absolutely beautiful to wear and the confidence to make something more complex.

Scintillate Shawl pattern by Amanda Schwabe. www.aknitica.com #knitting #shawls #cozy

Two-at-a-Time Toe-Up Socks

Six 2-hour classes

Are you looking for a different way to make socks? There are so many fun methods to try! With the two-at-a-time Magic Loop method, never suffer from Second Sock Syndrome again. In this class, we’ll learn a special cast on for starting at the toes and a couple ways to increase them. We’ll talk about sock construction and how to modify it. We’ll talk about toe-up heel methods and how to choose a favourite. We’ll knit the legs, and then we’ll learn some stretchy bind-off methods so we can actually put our socks on. We’ll also talk about knitting socks that fit and how to measure feet.

Scintillate Shawl Knitting Pattern and Super Special Discount

It’s the weekend, and who doesn’t want a deal on an addictive shawl knitting pattern? I’ve just made my “Learn to Knit a Lace Shawl” class exclusive pattern available to everyone. I hope you like it, too.

I’ve named it Scintillate. It is covered in diamonds, after all. Whether they shine or not in real life is totally up to you and your yarn choice.

I made this shawl with beginning lace knitters in mind. I wanted to give them something pretty yet simple to work on. I love knitting diamonds because of the beautiful, straight lines they make. It’s so easy to see if a yarnover is out of place. If you keep looking at your knitting, mistakes are easy to spot and fix before you’ve gone too far.

The overall lace patterning has a lovely rhythm to it, too. After a while, you’ll have memorized the pattern and be able to anticipate what should happen next. It keeps things interesting while giving a comforting sameness all at once.

This has become one of my favourite shawls to wear. The Manos del Uruguay Fino is cozy and squishy, and the shawl size I got from 1.5 skeins makes it a perfect wrap. You can knit yours in any size, as a neckerchief or an even larger shawl. You can also use any yarn you want. One of my students made two versions: one with fingering-weight yarn and one with worsted. The worsted one is thick and luscious, and I might have to copy her idea soon.

My little Eva modeled it for me. It really is grown-up sized.

The pattern includes options for three different edges to finish it off. You can knit it with no special edging, with a narrow garter-and-zigzag border that flows out of the diamond tips, or with a wider large-diamond border, like the one in my pictures here.

And, as promised, as a subscriber to my site, you get a coupon code for the Scintillate Shawl pattern! It will be good until the end of September, and you can feel free to share it with your friends. With the code, the price goes down from $6 to just $0. That’s less than a cup of coffee. Heck, that’s FREE. Yes, free. Zero dollars. Just because I like you.

[box type=”note” icon=”none”]Scintillate Shawl coupon code: COZYUP[/box]

You can grab your pattern here, but hurry! The coupon code only lasts as long as September. Once October hits, it’s gone.

If you’ve just popped over to see what the free coupon code is all about, welcome! I have other free patterns available, plus some goodies that I like to think are worth paying for. 😉 If you subscribe, you’ll get future discounts and even knitting tips in your inbox.

Happy knitting!

How to Sew Invisible Vertical Seams in Knitting with Mattress Stitch

Anybody else here hate finishing? Sewing up? Yeah, me too.

Until recently, that is.

I always dreaded it because I didn’t know what to do. And I didn’t want to mess up my beautiful knitting with crappy sewing.

The solution was staring me in the face, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it:

Learn to sew.

Now, I will be the first one to tell you that I’m a knitter, not a sewer. But sewing with yarn? I guess I can accept that.

I’ve learned a couple sewing techniques that have made finishing my knitting practically stress free.

Some of them can be applied in most, if not all, finishing situations. The first and favourite of mine is Mattress Stitch.

Mattress stitch is also called Ladder stitch. You can find it in any good knitting reference book, but they don’t always tell you when to use each stitch.

Mattress Stitch is perfect for sewing invisible side seams in sweaters, for sewing in sleeves (especially raglans), and for sewing amigurumi. It forms a beautiful, invisible vertical seam, and it’s really easy to do. (To connect a vertical seam to a horizontal seam, I usually use a hybrid of Mattress Stitch and Grafting, which I’ll show you in a future post.)

Because Mattress Stitch is sewn with the right side facing you, you can easily tell that your stitches are lining up — or notice quickly that they’re not and fix them.

Let’s get started.

Mattress Stitch connects running stitches. Those are the little horizontal bars of yarn that join two knit stitches together at their feet (on the back side). In this picture, I’ve picked up every other row of running stitches. If you look closely, you can see they connect to the bottoms of the V-shaped knit stitches on either side.

To begin Mattress Stitch, grab a running stitch from bottom to top and pull your sewing yarn through. Make sure that you’re picking up the running stitches from the same column each time. Notice that the running stitches are actually hiding behind and between two columns of V knit stitches. Don’t grab the horizontal bars that are in the middles of the V’s themselves.

(You can use a tail already connected to the project, or a separate pieces of waste yarn. You’ll need it to be about 12″ longer than the seam you want to sew. If you’re using a separate piece of yarn, leave a 6″ tail at the beginning for sewing in ends later.)

With a blunt darning needle, sew through one running stitch on one side of the seam, then on the other. Like so:

Begin by sewing into the very first running stitches in the column above the cast-on edge.

Continue sewing into the running stitches, alternating sides, until you’ve reached the last ones.

You might notice that your seam is a little loose at first, like this:

All you need to do to fix that up is give the sewing yarn a good tug from both ends. (If you’re sewing with the tail from the cast-on edge, then just give the one end a tug and it’ll do the same thing.) Then, voila! It will look like this:

An alternative way of working Mattress Stitch is to catch two running stitches at a time on each side of the seam instead of one. It sews up a little faster that way. There is a small risk that it could pull the rows off a bit so they don’t line up as perfectly, but I haven’t found that to be the case so far. Just keep an eye on it as you go, and if you’re not satisfied, switch back to picking them up one at a time.

You can also begin and end the seam by sewing one at a time while picking up two at a time in the middle. It’s your knitting. It’s your choice.

When you’re all done, the right side will look like this:

Even though I used bright coral yarn, you can’t even see it on the right side! I would, of course, use the same colour yarn as my project if it were a sweater and not a sample swatch.

And here’s the wrong side. Notice: you still can’t see the coral yarn! It’s like magic.

When you’re all done, just sew in your ends on the wrong side. I use duplicate stitch to sew in all my ends now. It looks fantastic.

What do you think? Will this help relieve some of your finishing stress? Feel free to pin this post or share it if you find it useful.

8 Tips for Knitting Lace

Does lace intimidate you? It certainly looks complicated — but the good news is that if you can follow directions, you can knit lace.

And we already know you can follow directions. That’s how you learned to knit, right?

But there are some extra things you can do to make knitting lace easier. So, here are my tips for knitting lace. There happen to be eight of them.

Tip 1

Use stitch markers. Mark off the edge stitches (which lace shawls usually have), the centre stitch(es), and even mark the places where the lace patterning repeats itself in a row. That way, if you forget a yarnover, it will be so much easier to find your mistake.

Don’t like the feel of hard, plastic stitch markers? I use little loops of knotted yarn in a contrasting colour. They’re nice and soft, and I don’t freak out when I lose one because I always have more waste yarn.

Tip 2

Avoid making mistakes by counting, double counting, and triple counting. Why count like an obsessive lunatic? Because then you’ll notice a missed yarnover almost immediately — soon enough to fix it easily and continue knitting happily. Remember those stitch markers from Tip 1? If you know how many stitches should be between each one, and you double check that none are missing each time you reach a marker, your knitting will get ten times easier.

Tip 3

Look at the chart. It should show you how the stitches will relate to each other once they’re knitted up. See that line of stacked centre double decreases in the chart? That means that those decreases will stack neatly in the knitting, too. And see how those yarnovers form a diagonal line? That means they’ll form a diagonal line in your knitting, too.

Now, some patterns are too weird to fit neatly into a chart like that. That’s why designers sometimes have to use those weird, dark-grey “no stitch” squares. In real life, lace curves and bends… but graph paper does not. We do what we can with what we have. But a good designer will always try to show you how the stitches relate to one another.

A tip about reading charts: Think of each square as an instruction, not a stitch. If you follow the little line of instructions across the chart, one by one, you’ll do fine.

Another bonus tip about reading charts: Make sure you’re reading them in the right direction. Flat charts get read from right to left on right-side rows, but from left to right on wrong-side rows. Circular charts are read from right to left on all rows. If in doubt, start at the side where the row number is written and work away from it.

Tip 4

If you really hate charts and absolutely refuse to use them, or if you just want to know your lace on a small scale before casting on 300 stitches, try knitting a small swatch across just one or two pattern repeats. That way, you’ll get a feel for how the stitches will interact, and you’ll be able to spot mistakes more easily later on when you start your big project.

I did this when knitting some Estonian lace with nupps, and boy, am I glad I did. The lace repeat was long and two-sided, and I made some mistakes the first time I tried it. It went much better the second time. I knew what I was doing by then, and I could spot my mistakes as I made them… instead of 3 rows later.

Tip 5

Keep looking back at your knitting to make sure the stitches are lining up consistently. In fact, every time you knit a new row, make sure it’s lining up properly with the stitches underneath it. Are those decreases stacking or lining up the way they should? Are the yarnovers in the right place in relation to the ones below?

Tip 6

Knit under good lighting.

Tip 7

Don’t knit lace when you’ll be too distracted to pay attention and count your stitches. TV and knitting groups are great, but they can wreck your lace before you notice a thing has gone wrong. Ask me how I know this. Now, I keep at least two projects on the go: I work on my lace shawl during quiet times or boring shows (Formula 1, anyone?), and I have a mindless project I can work away on during good shows like Call the Midwife or The Big Bang Theory.

Tip 8

Yarn matters. Especially if this is your first lace project. Avoid fuzzy yarn, dark yarn that’s impossible to see even under good lights, and clown-barf yarn that will draw attention away from your stitches. Seriously, do you want to knit an intricate lace pattern that no one will notice because the ten different colours are all yelling, “Look at me! Look at me!” ?

Just so you know, I’m currently knitting a lace shawl with black yarn, and it’s going to be gorgeous. But on the needles? It’s impossible to admire, I can’t get a good photo of it for my Ravelry project page, and it can be tricky to see the stitches. I sit directly under a lamp to knit this shawl. It’s not impossible. I just don’t want you to knit your first lace shawl ever in black and then wail, “But Amanda didn’t warn me about this in that post of hers on lace knitting!” So now — count yourself warned.

Also on the subject of yarn mattering, make sure you use yarn that you can block. Acrylic yarn? No matter what you do to it, it will always spring back into a crinkly blob. When knitting lace, always use something lovely that has memory, like a type of wool or other natural fibre. Merino is my favourite. But superwash, even merino, won’t remember the blocking as well as a plain old non-superwash wool. It’ll be okay, but not awesome. Trust me on this one, too.

So, how about you? Have you had troubles with lace knitting in the past? What were they?

Are there any tips for knitting lace that I’ve missed? If so, share them in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.

If you’re looking for an interesting lace shawl (not necessarily a beginner’s one), check out my newest pattern release, the Sea Glass Shawl, now available through Knit Picks! And come join us for a knitalong over on Ravelry in the Aknitica Designs group.

Sea Glass Shawl

Are you looking for some interesting summer knitting? How about something in a nice, light cotton-linen blend, with pretty stripes and lace, that feels good to knit and even better to wear? And how about a knitalong and giveaway to make it even more fun?

How about my new shawl pattern?

I had a ton of fun designing this one. And I had to Google the Pythagorean Theorem and relearn how to use it! Be impressed. It was hard.

BUT, now that I’ve done all the hard work, the knitting is easy. And don’t you love how the lace is in the middle instead of at the edge? Yeah, I wanted to try something different. Just because.

It’s kind of like having a necklace in your shawl, right? Fun.

We begin this beauty by casting on along the bottom edge and then working up in growing-and-shrinking stockinette stripes. I made a different kind of decrease along the spine to avoid getting a solid line. Also, I like to try new things.

Here’s where my stupendous, mind-bending math came in: I had to calculate the distance I had for stripes before the lace panel so I could figure out how many pairs of decreasing stripes I could fit in. But first, I had to discover the size of the lace. Then, I had to figure out heights of hypothetical triangles. Really, I barely remember what I did. It’s a blur. But it worked, so I must be amazing.

(I hope you all know me well enough by now to recognize my weird humour. RIGHT? Still waiting for that sarcasm font to be invented by someone more brilliant than I am.)

So what we have here is my favourite kind of knitting: relaxing-yet-not-boring striping stockinette with a splash of interesting thrown in. The lace panel is, as you can see, a field of mesh surrounding some diamonds surrounding some circles. With the exception of one row at the very end, ALL the patterning is worked on the right side, and the wrong sides are all purled.

As with all my patterns, I’ve included both charts AND written instructions. My aim is to please all of the people all of the time. 😉

Some further notes, if you decide to knit a Sea Glass Shawl:

The pattern calls for two balls of CotLin for the lace panel. My test knitter was able to do it with just one, but I needed a small portion of a second ball. We wrote “two” because the last thing I want is for you to be like me and run short of yarn!

There are tips in the pattern about how and when to sew in the ends for those stripes. I really don’t recommend carrying the yarn up the sides because I, personally, don’t like how it looks. But it’s YOUR shawl! Do what you like.

You’re welcome to come knit along with others in my group on Ravelry. I’ll pop in to answer any questions and to ooh and ahh over your colour choices.

That reminds me! I knit my sample shawl in just two colours (Blackberry and Swan), and it looks fabulous, too. What do you think?

Man, it’s hard to photograph Blackberry. It’s actually a super-deep, almost-black purple. It’s really gorgeous. And I like how the high contrast really makes the stripes pop.

But I also love the subtle combination of colours in the Knit Picks sample. Here’s another colour combo — this is actually the one which I had originally envisioned:

As you can see, there are so many beautiful possibilities! I can’t wait to see how everyone else knits this shawl. Seriously, it’s so fun watching project pages pop up on Ravelry.

Now, for the fun part: the giveaway!

I have an ebook copy of the entire CotLin 2014 Collection, and I want one of you to have it. It’s gorgeous. You can check out the entire collection here to see what I mean. (In fact, I kind of want to make at least the Band Camp Pullover for myself. Now that I know how lovely this yarn is, I’m totally tempted. I bet it would make an amazing, cool-yet-warm sweater. The yarn is both laid back and high class at the same time. I guess that’s what you always get when you throw linen in the mix.)

Since I so completely enjoy knitalongs, meeting my fellow knitters, and chatting about colours and projects, I’m going to give the free copy of this ebook to a knitalong participant.

To qualify for the draw:

Head on over to the Aknitica Designs group on Ravelry and tell me what colours you’ll be using to knit your very own Sea Glass Shawl. Will you use three? Only two? Will you go bright or subtle or high-contrast? Let me know in the group’s Sea Glass Shawl Knitalong thread.

You’ll get bonus points (read: extra entries) for every social media share you connect to this post! Share on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., and then send me an email at amanda at aknitica dot com with a link to each share. Don’t forget to tag those posts with #SeaGlassShawl

I’ll give you two weeks to enter the draw and order your yarn, and then we’ll get started knitting together!

And then….. da da da DAAAA: At the end of the knitalong, we’ll have another prize! Every finished project will be eligible. I think we’ll have two draws, actually: one for a hard copy of the CotLin 2014 Collection, which I will mail to the winner, and another draw for a free pattern of your choice from my self-published Ravelry patterns.

Yay! I think this will be fun. So, will you be joining me?

You Could Win a Craftsy Class!

I’m so pleased to announce another giveaway!

It’s from the fabulous Craftsy. You could win access to the Knit Lab class for free!

Enter to win a Craftsy class

Knit Lab is the perfect class for:

Beginning knitters
Knitters who need more confidence
Knitters who want to learn more skills, like how to increase, decrease, make a buttonhole, knit lace, block, seam, and read patterns.

Basically, it contains all the essentials to becoming a knitter who can make anything. And, because it’s a Craftsy class, you’ll be able to watch the videos any time, as many times as you like. You can pause them and make notes and “bookmarks.” You can ask the instructor any question, and she’ll answer you. You’ll have lifetime access to your class, and there are no time limits to learning.

Nice, eh?

All you have to do is click this link to enter. If you don’t already have a Craftsy account, they’ll ask you to make one. It’s super easy.

You’ll have until Sunday, March 23rd to enter. Then, Craftsy will send the lucky winner a link to access the Knit Lab class for free. (Its regular price is $30.99.)

I’ve already taken a bunch of their classes — Lace Shawl Design with Miriam Felton, Shawlscapes with Stephen West, Sizing Knitwear Patterns with Faina Goberstein, and Knit Lab: Fit Your Knits with Stephanie Japel. I have thoroughly enjoyed them all.

So, when Craftsy offered me this chance to host a giveaway, I was thrilled to be able to offer you, my fabulous readers, such a nice gift. Good luck to everyone! I wish you could all win.

Giveaway and Knitalong: Celebrating the Under 100 Knit Collection and My Scrunchy Ombre Arm Warmers

[box type=”info”]Read on for a contest and a chance to win a copy of the book![/box]

Oh, I am so excited! I’ve been waiting to tell you about these for what seems like forever. Yes, it’s my first “published” pattern, the Scrunchy Ombre Arm Warmers.

The book it’s in is called Under 100 Knit Collection, and it’s available as an ebook on the Knit Picks website, and as a print book there as well.

[box type=”tick”]You can also buy the pattern all on its own, by clicking here to get to its Ravelry page.[/box]

Knit Picks had the brilliant idea of publishing a collection of quick-knit projects that can use up stash yarn. Every pattern in it takes less than 100 grams, and mine takes only about 30-35 grams total.

You can even use those teeny, tiny, looks-too-small-to-be-part-of-anything balls of sock yarn in these arm warmers. Trust me. I’ve been experimenting.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I have a weakness for arm warmers. I love having warm hands, but I don’t love having my fingers covered when I want to knit or drive or type.

I think they’re great for wearing under long sleeves for a little extra warmth or for wearing with short sleeves to make my favourite t-shirts last a little bit longer in the fall.

Plus, they’re so wonderfully simple to knit — especially these ones. All the detail here comes from the fantastic colourways; the structure itself is quite basic.

Once I began playing with the colours, I realized there were so many possibilities.

I love the Ombre striping you’ll see on the Knit Picks sample. Overlapping similar hues of different tints from light to dark (or vice versa) creates a lovely effect. (And I’m very curious to try such a thing with a grey or black background as a variation.)

My favourite so far, though, has to be these ones that I made up from my own stash of Knit Picks Palette. I’ve listed the colours I used at the end of this post.

But, I really want to see what you will come up with. What amazing, flashy, subdued, classic, or crazy colour combination will your stash make?

In order to find out, I’m throwing a party. It’s a knitting party, and there will be friendly conversation, laughter (I hope), and prizes.

It’ll be very easy to attend, and there’s no particular dress code. Simply show up on Ravelry in the Aknitica Designs group, or on Facebook at the Aknitica Designs page, anytime you want, starting today, December 30th, until Friday, January 31st.

Show us your arm warmers — before, during, and after — and you’ll be entered to win a prize!

I have one ebook version of the book, the Under 100 Knit Collection, to give away, and one print version.

The ebook will be given away with a random draw this Friday! Just post a photo of the yarn you’re thinking of using in the Ravelry group, and you’ll automatically be entered to win it. I’ll post the winner in the same thread, then the lucky recipient will get the ebook as soon as I get her/his email address.

Head on over to the Ravelry thread to see about winning the print copy. And show us your yarn!

Colours used in my rainbow sample, in order from cuff to fingers:

Knit Picks Pallete yarn in Turmeric, Pimento, Fairy Tale, Garnet Heather, Currant, Urchin, Bittersweet Heather, Sky, Turmeric (again), Edamame, Whirlpool.

The purple colours are:

Knit Picks Palette Yarn in Fairy Tale, Bittersweet Heather, Eggplant, Urchin, Pennyroyal, Fairy Tale.

These simple ones are knit in Knit Picks Palette in Midnight Heather and Clarity, with Masala as the orange accents.

So, what yarn will you knit them in? I look forward to chatting with you in the Aknitica Designs Ravelry group!

And, if you have a moment and would like to share this post on Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter, I’d appreciate it!

Free Preemie Hats, Upcoming Patterns, and Portraits. Oh My!

Hello, lovely people!

My brain is so full right now, of ideas and deadlines, that I barely know what to say when I do have time to write. Let me begin in the middle.

Christmas is coming (yay!), and that means we have five little people to buy gifts for (yikes!). They are all super excited, especially since it snowed at our house overnight and they woke up to a wintery wonderland this morning. I made the mistake of taking my two oldest ones Christmas shopping for their siblings at Chapters last week, and their wish lists instantly grew by about two feet that day. Pokemon is the big thing in our house right now. I am secretly horrified, but trying to look interested in all their cards with the weird names and diverse “powers.”

I’ve been knitting up a storm, trying to make samples, figure out new patterns, knit gifts, and fulfill special orders. (I’ve recently taken up knitting for non-knitters who want hats. They can be voracious. Owl hats are a big hit, and I hope to write up a pattern for them soon, if I can ever find the time.)

I’m also an artist of sorts. I say “of sorts” because I’ve barely had a chance to draw or paint since my first baby was born nine years ago. Now that my youngest is three, I’ve realized that maybe I can get back into painting again! But first, I’m sticking with the simpler art of drawing. Pencils don’t dry out when you have to leave them to make lunch. I’ve decided to sell pencil portraits for the next little while. It’s an experiment of sorts, trying to figure out just how much creativity I can fit into my life before the dirty dishes really do begin to overtake the kitchen counters.

(This is a drawing I made of my husband and our firstborn as a Christmas present to said husband years ago. It’s actually a compilation of two photos, since neither of them had the proper expressions in one photo, of course. Husbands and children never do.)

I also received a surprise in the mail today. I had sent my sample hats to Knit Picks before they listed my Merrick hat pattern in the IDP section, and today I received them back! Eva immediately put the blue one on, and aha! — a revelation — it looks adorable on a three year old. It turns into a cute little elf-like hat. (She’s wearing the child size.)

I’m in the end stages of getting Merrick‘s close cousin, Merry, ready for publication. It’s an extended version, shall we say, with cozy earflaps and (optional) hilarious pom poms. Adding the earflaps forced me to make entirely new charts, so I’m putting Merry out as its own pattern since it took just as much work as Merrick did. I think, however, that I’ll offer it at a discount to those who want to buy both patterns.

I roped my neighbour and friend into being my model last weekend. 😀 She’s such a good sport. Here’s a sneak peak:

Last, but not least: Sunday was World Prematurity Awareness Day, and in honour of the four out of my five kids who were preemies, I’m once again offering all my preemie hat patterns for free. The coupon code is only good for a limited time (until Friday, November 22nd at midnight), so grab them quickly on Ravelry with the coupon code preemieday. Whether you know a preemie or not, sending preemie hats to your local NICU is such a nice way to encourage the families in your community. Having a child born too early can be quite nerve wracking and traumatizing. Many parents suffer from some form of PTSD afterwards. The more support those parents have, the better.

My personal favourite of my preemie patterns is the Tulip Preemie Hat. It’s so much fun to knit it up with some self-striping yarn, and it’s so tiny that you can complete one in a couple hours (or less).

Effervescent Shawl Pattern

I love lace shawls, but I do not always want to wear them. You know what I mean?

I prefer to wear an every-day, toss-around-your-neck-and-go Shawl That You Wear Like A Scarf. In fact, scarf shawls are my new necklaces. They keep me warm, and I always feel fabulous and cozy while wearing one. They are my new love. (I have my knitting guild to thank for that. Last year was a bit shawl-obsessed for all of us.)

Since my shawls are my favourite accessory, I basically need all sorts of different ones. Being an in-between size (you know, between “having kids” and “actually wanting to do the work to lose the last 15 pounds”), I tend to buy basic tops. Like black t-shirts. But a shawl? It will fit me no matter what size I am. So you see, I’ve been thinking a lot about shawls lately.

This, then, is my first shawl design, with more to come. More on my needles, more being charted, more being puzzled through… But for now: TA-DAAA! It’s the Effervescent shawl.

It starts with an interesting lace edge that I puzzled out from a cardigan that my Grandma knit for my mom. I love it because of its nice lines, and how the little eyelets and decreases pull themselves into little almost-bows. Close enough to be feminine, and far enough to be every-day wear. It has patterning on both right- and wrong-side rows, with a couple rest rows in between.

Then we move on to perfect tv knitting: stockinette stripes in bold colours. For me, that makes it a perfect project. A little bit of spice to start, a little bit of relaxation to finish. I like my knitting to be both spicy and sweet. Because we started at the bottom edge of the triangle, the finishing up bits are minimal, since all the stitches have been decreased down to 7. Simple grafting ensues.

I love that coral is back in style this year. And that blue? Oh my. This colour combo will keep me feeling breezy and light, even through the deep, dark winter. But I have a feeling that you knitters will branch out and be your creative knitting selves, delving into colour combinations I haven’t even considered yet. My friend Beckie was leaning toward grey, red, and dark blue last time I saw her. I can’t wait to see all the colourways that will emerge!

Now, let’s get down to the details.

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in Coral, White, and Light Blue. For you local people, I bought mine at Unraveled in Merrickville. The Baby Cashmerino is about a 2 (Baby/Sport weight) if you’re going by the Craft Yarn Council of America standards, in case you want to substitute. I bought it because it came in the exact colours that I wanted, and because I love the feel of it.

With the Debbie Bliss yarn, you will need

300 m / 120 g White (3 balls)

150 m / 60 g Coral (2 balls)

250 m / 100 g Light Blue (2 balls)

Needles: size 6 US (4 mm) circular, in about a 32″-40″ range. You just need a cable long enough to hold your shawl while you work it back and forth.

The pattern includes charts for the lace as well as written directions. There’s also a drawing that gives you a brief overview and the measurements for blocking.

And now for the Grand Finale! You can get it by clicking this little button:

p.s. I finally started a Ravelry group!! I’d be honoured if you’d join me there. It’ll be a great place for pattern support, knitalongs, and lots of encouragement. You can still (and always) reach me by email if you have any questions or comments, but now we have one more choice in the mix. If you’re knitting up an Effervescent shawl, please come and share it with the group! I will ooh and ahh over your colour choices. 🙂

Author: Amanda