Heavenly Handspun Scarf

Sometimes it's the simplest things in life that bring the greatest pleasure. The feel of the sun warming your skin after it has rained or a walk on the beach as seagulls circle overhead. I forget these things until we return to San Clemente, California, as we always do, the week after Christmas where we have no TV or computer access and nothing important to do but remember that time to relax is important too.

In the spirit of keeping it simple I'm wearing a scarf that goes everywhere and looks great with everything. This scarf does not have a bold look but it is subtly rich in color and texture and dresses up or down depending on what I'm wearing. It's my favorite scarf. Ever. I used a handspun yarn and if you look closely you will see that the spinner plied dark gold and dark silver glass beads randomly throughout the skein adding twinkle and glimmer to the fabric.

I suspect the spinner who lives in Scotland and dyed the yarn in a Scottish tartan color, in a style that reminded her of a Scottish grid, would be surprised that her yarn ended up not being worn while hiking the Hebrides Isles but rather just chilling out on the beaches of Southern California. The internet makes the improbable possible.

Particulars: Kocurek Etsy Shop Handpainted and Handspun yarn; BFL and Seacell wool top; glass beads randomly plied throughout; Scottish Tartar colorway; 66 grams; 452 yrds sport weight, WPI 18; 1 ply; US8 needles; spinner is Kocurek on Ravelry and she writes the blog Kocurkoweconieco. This is a simple scarf knit in the linen stitch which, based on swatching, created the prettiest fabric. I've named it Heavenly Handspun Scarf and I've written out my notes below. Washed and blocked dimensions: 6" x 50."

Heavenly Handspun Scarf Pattern:

This scarf is based on a slip stitch pattern known as the linen stitch. The resulting fabric has almost a woven and/or tweedy appearance that is slightly different on each side. This scarf is designed to be a light weight accessory worn to accent an outfit and achieving drape is important.

Yarn Suggestion: light sport weight yarn with a fluid drape such as yarns blended with silk, bamboo, seacell, etc. I think handspun and/or handpainted yarns look particularly nice in this stitch due to the complex appearance of the yarn.

US 8 needle ~ or size to achieve desired drape and dimensions.

CO 42 stitches
R1: Slip 1 purl wise (K1, slip 1 purl wise with yarn in front)
R2: Slip 1 purl wise (P1, slip 1 purl wise with yarn in back)

Repeat to desired length.


Designer Tips and Tricks: To add individual flare and a designer touch you can add a panel of contrasting or complimentary yarn of similar weight in seed stitch which is a suggestion that came from my friend and knitwear designer Murielle (of Murielle Knitwear). Following her suggestion, at approximately the midpoint I changed yarn (I used leftover yarn from my wristletts with an edge) and switched to seed stitch for approximately 4 inches at which point I changed back to the original yarn and pattern. I'm glad I added this design element as it added both length and visual interest to my scarf! N.B. If you find your gauge is looser in the seed stitch (which mine was) you can either go down a needle size or every inch do a little runching (gathering) stitch (i.e. a row of evenly spaced decreases followed by a row of evenly matched increases) which is what I did. This will help keep the edges of the scarf even throughout.

P.S. Other scarf patterns in the linen stitch that might interest you are the Cerus Scarf a free pattern from Hilary of The Yarniad (knit lengthwise and designed for a man) and the Linen Stitch Scarf a free pattern compliments of Needleworks, Inc. (also knit lengthwise but using multiple colors of yarn and is gender neutral).

Until next time, be well and love well and think about the simple things in your life that bring you pleasure - and then do at least one before the day ends! I suggest putting your feet up and enjoying a cup of hot tea while you consider the endless possibilities.

Debbie Bliss Cotton Top

Knitting, like life itself, doesn't always work out just as you had planned. So you have to be flexible and keep an open mind during the process. It's best (although not an easy thing to do) to focus not on how things aren't what we wished them to be, but rather on what we can do to change things and improve them. With that preface, this post is more technical than most because I had to be flexible and make adjustments as I went along to make this project one that ultimately I love.

This is Debbie Bliss' Sideways Knitted Top from her new book, Coastlines. It is not knit with the yarn that it was designed for, though. The design recommends Debbie Bliss' Stella yarn which is a blend of silk, rayon, and cotton. Because my LYS does not carry that yarn I ordered it on-line. However, as soon as the yarn arrived, I knew that I had a problem because the yarn did not pass what I call a "Sanity Check."

Knitting Tip No. 5 - Perform a Sanity Check
A Sanity Check is something I learned to do many years ago while a junior auditor for one of the largest accounting firms in the world at the time, Deloitte and Touche. It simply means that you step back for a moment and evaluate what you are seeing and/or being told and test it against your common sense. In this case, I was being told that 11 balls of Stella yarn was needed to knit a sleeveless summer top. However, I had an enormous mound of yarn on my bed. Logic told me that using that amount of yarn, with that much mass, was going to create a garment huge, bulky, and not something enjoyable for me to wear.

So I substituted the yarn to Classic Elite Yarns, Premiere, a soft cotton/tencel blend yarn with great stitch definition and a smaller gauge. As a result I dropped the needle size down from a US 8 to US 6 and decreased from 11 balls of Stella to 6.5 skeins of Premiere yarn. So far so good.


Now this will surprise you. Despite calculating a new gauge and doing absolutely perfect math to recalibrate this project for the smaller needles and finer yarn there was a problem with the sizing. Once I had completely knit this top (which, dear readers, I think you know how much time that took) I realized ~ with a sick feeling ~ that I did not have enough width in the body to sew the side seams together to create the "mock sleeves." Here's a picture of the original design so you see what the design looks like and what I'm referring to with regard to the sleeve shaping:

My initial thought was that I had two choices. Either I could wet the fabric and block it heavily so that it was wide enough to give me the width necessary to create the sleeves at the risk of distorting the knitting or I could frog it. Neither option was very appealing.

So, as is always the case when I need good counsel, I discussed the matter over with Mr Puffy. Those of you who have been reading along will know that Mr Puffy is a great one for a quick solution and an early dinner. His thought was that I should just knit some sleeves and add those on. At first I was skeptical but the more I thought about it the more I knew he was right. That Puff. I tell you. He's a treasure.

Knitting Tip No. 6 - Adding Sleeves to a Tank Top

Adding sleeves to a tank top is simply a matter of knitting up sleeves in the same gauge and sewing them onto the tank. If you look through any of the numerous Spring/Summer knitting magazine you will find lots of patterns for tops with short sleeves. You simply knit a sleeve from a pattern that has the same gauge as the project you are making. For this project, I used the pattern for sleeves from my Cherry top and the only modification I made was to add a bobble panel insert to have the sleeves blend more with my overall project.

Speaking of adding bobbles to the sleeve reminds me that I wanted to show a close up of the beautiful texture of this design. There are panels of bobbles, seed stitch, and cables and it really creates a visually interesting piece of knitting.



One last technical tip, which is courtesy of my dear friend Murielle of Murielle Knitwear. When I showed her the top she immediately recommended that I add a "Stay Tape" to the shoulder seam to prevent it from stretching out over time. Because that's such a great idea and should be added to any hand knit item made with a yarn that has a tendency to stretch (i.e. cotton, silk, angora, etc.) I thought I would share it with all of you!

Designer Tips and Tricks ~ Adding a Stay Tape


A Stay Tape is a thin strip of fabric that is sewn on top of the shoulder seam to prevent the shoulder/sleeve area from stretching out with wear. Cut a thin strip of fabric the length that you want your shoulder seam to remain (my stay tape is 3.5 inches long and .75 inches wide) and firmly slip stitch the Stay Tape over the shoulder seam. When you put the time into knitting something by hand you want it to wear well and last for years and this will help it look its best for years to come.

Whew! That was a lot. There are a couple of other things I did, but enough is enough so I'll stop here.


Particulars: Debbie Bliss design, Coastlines, Sideways Knitted Top, 6.5 balls Classic Elite Premiere, US 6 needles. Heavily modified as discussed above.

Have a Great 4th of July Celebration!

I hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th celebration (The United State's Independence day). We'll be spending it at the beach with lots of sun, sand, friends, and fireworks! Between work (which is keeping me hopping right now) and being away for the holiday I'll probably not spend a lot of time on-line over the next few weeks but will look forward to catching up with everyone on the other side of the holiday!

Keep Your Socks On! The Many Uses of Lycra

If you have read this blog before, then you probably know that I have the rare privilege of being friends with a knitwear designer. Without question her Designer Tips and Tricks have incalculably improved my knitting and so I figure it's about time I shared her with all of you! It is my hope that her sense of fun, creativity, and out of the box approach to knitting will open a gateway for you into new ways of thinking about your knitting. It is with great pleasure that I introduce Murielle of MurielleKnitwear and her first, of hopefully many, guest posts here on Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog.



Keep Your Socks On! The Many Uses of Lycra
By Murielle Hamilton

Lycra is one of the home knitter’s most underused resources. If it ever figures in their stash, it is in a ready-to-knit blend. Yet in industrial knitting, it is used frequently, usually with another yarn. This is because:

• It works wonders with legwarmers, socks, armwarmers and tube tops; really, with anything you wish would stop falling down!

• It is a great addition to the bottom of sweaters or sleeves, which, especially when knit in cotton or linen, tend to become wavy and loose.

• It gives the yarn memory and your knit will snap back in place, even after being stretched on the body for hours.

• It allows you to knit with bigger needles, if you wish, since the final product will shrink. That is also true of knitting thin yarns on bulky hand looms.

I have incorporated it into many of my designs: for example, the deep V neck sweater shown here has 2 ends of lycra blended with one end of alpaca in the bottom ribbing, so I can get that forgiving blousant look. Of course, you can wear it stretched out as well if you, like Claudia, are lucky enough to have a flat tummy!



Another example is the bolero jacket, which would not fit and stay around the body like it does without the addition of lycra. I added it only to the edge band, and it always looks impeccable.



For a fast and easy summer top, I added lycra here to make a chic tube top:



To graphically see the power of lycra, look at these pictures:

The swatch is knit on needles size 13 US (9 mm) in stockinette and garter stitches. The only difference between the top and the bottom of the swatch is that at the top of the swatch I added a strand of lycra along with viscose yarn for about an inch.

Lycra being very elastic, I had no problem stretching out the top portion of the swatch which had the added lycra. To give you a sense of how thin lycra is, the following picture is a shot of lycra next to the viscose yarn (a sock weight yarn) used in the swatch:



Technical Trick:

Lycra only works with applied heat. When you press or steam the area containing lycra, it will visibly shrink, gathering the texture together. Try it on swatches first: you won’t believe the result. If your garment looks a little stretched after a while, just apply a puff of hot steam to the lycra area and it will be like new.

Factoids:

Lycra is also called Elastane, Elite or Spandex depending on the manufacturer.

Uses:

You can use it stranded with wool as well as with all cellulose fibers (cotton, rayon, linen, tencel, etc…) and silk. Do not change your gauge if you are only using it on a limited area. With wool, you will need to be cautious when applying heat, as you will want to shrink the lycra without felting the wool. I have used it most successfully with mohair and kid mohair, which don’t felt, although the alpaca in the sweater above does not seem to have suffered… ;)

Sometimes, especially with a bigger or heavier yarn, you may want to use two ends of lycra alongside it, to give it a stronger elasticity like I did in the bottom ribbing of the sweater.

If you are using lycra for more than a small part of the garment, do recalculate your gauge based on your pressed yarn/ lycra swatch. Adjust your needle size up until like what you see.

So where do you find this magic fiber? I get mine from Silk City Fibers (http://www.silkcityfibers.com/SilkCity/index.jsp) in Paterson, NJ 07522 (Phone: (201) 942-1100) or (800) 899-7455). Theirs is called Sting, and is a blend of 83% nylon and 17% spandex. A few online retailers also sell Silk City Yarns. Sting is quite expensive due to its yield: a whopping 32,500 yards per pound, so it will last you forever. Try to get a small cone when you order. It comes in 7 colors: white, ecru (cream), coral red, maroon (burgundy), dark brown, navy and black and you’ll want the color most closely matching your yarn.

Contact: murielleh@earthlink.net or visit her Etsy shop to see more of her beautiful designs.

*********************************************************

After reading Murielle's article, Mr Puffy helpfully noted that it might have been a good idea to have added lycra to those Fetching mitts of mine that have stretched out so badly. Exactly so. Thank you Puff. I would also add that it was a mistake to use a silk based yarn for something where I needed the yarn to have memory. Live and learn.

St. Patrick's Day is Just Around the Corner!

Don't forget that St. Patrick's day is next Tuesday. I'm not Irish but I love this holiday because it's a great excuse to enjoy Irish folk music and beer! So this St. Patrick's Day kiss the Blarney stone , hoist a tankard of Guinness Extra Stout, and sing gustily along to your favorite Irish ballad (Roger Whittaker singing Danny Boy is one of my favorites). Have a hankie nearby, though, as some Irish folk songs are quite sad.

And until we meet again, on my next post slated for March 24, 2009....

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Traditional Irish Blessing

Emily Sweater

Busy busy busy. That's been me lately. Bloggers, just like everyone, have periods of ups and downs and go through different stages in their life. Being busy with work has translated into less available time for me to spend on the Internet and what free time I have I have spent knitting!

Knitting has always been a meditative and relaxing hobby for me. It's a place I can go and relax and forget everything else in a peaceful setting and worldly occupations don't bother me.

This is my newly completed Emily sweater from Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt - The Dark House Collection. I really enjoyed knitting this sweater and am totally ecstatic with how it came out. I wish the photos did it justice, but the details and rich color of the yarn proved very hard to photograph and there is only so much you can do with fill light.

This will not be an everyday sweater for me. I'll keep this folded in a drawer and only wear it on special occasions. It's nice to keep a special sweater that you know will look appropriate when you need to get a little more dressed up.

As I have found with past sweaters designed by Kim Hargreaves (my Flo cardigan comes to mind) the devil is in the details. She really has a knack for taking a simple pattern and adding finishing touches that make it special but still not terribly complex to knit.

This sweater, as I say, is a very straight forward knit. The only thing that gave me pause was the neckband. The pattern is a bit sketchy on this bit and simply instructs you to knit the neckband separately and then stitch it "neatly" into place. That's not very helpful. I wasn't intending to sew it on sloppily anyway.

I truly had no idea how to tackle sewing it on as I never sew anything! This is where Murielle of Murielle Knitwear a dear friend and invaluable resource stepped in. She pinned the neckband on for me and explained that it would be best to use a simple back stitch to sew the neckband into place on the surface of the knitting. But here's her real gem, that I'm going to fondly refer to here on Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog as "Designer Tips and Tricks." Murielle told me that I needed to use regular thread to sew on the neckband because using yarn would make the neckline too heavy. She was absolutely right and I would never have thought of that on my own because I always use yarn to seam/finish my sweaters. It's a little detail like that which can make the difference between your sweater looking "handmade" versus "homemade."

Particulars: Emily designed by Kim Hargreaves; Heartfelt - The Dark House Collection; 6 skeins Rowan Kid Classic (colorway #832 - black swirled with a dark purple ); US 7 needles (main body) US 6 (lower body details) US 5 cuffs and neckband; Modifications: I knit the body in the round and downsized the pattern to an XXS to achieve a more fitted garment. Dimensions: I began armhole shaping when the body length was 16" and the sleeves are 24" long. Rather than go into more details here I'll put the rest on my Ravelry page for those interested.


Breakfast and its Role in my Quest for a Healthy Diet and Lifestyle!

When I am busy it is hard to take the time to eat a proper breakfast but eating properly is key to avoiding getting run down and sick. I also find that if I don't eat a sufficiently substantial breakfast I find myself hungry around 10 a.m. and then I'll snack on foods that are unhealthy like sweets and chips. So, the key for me, was finding a breakfast meal that I enjoyed enough to motivate me to take the time to make it. Voila ~ a bowl of steel-cut Irish oatmeal!


I love this stuff. A warm bowl of steel-cut Irish oatmeal is how I begin most mornings (along with a sliced up apple and a handful of walnuts). I've been eating this for breakfast for years and I'm pleased to note that it is finally becoming more mainstream which is great, because that means it is more readily available and at a better price.

I have found that the best and most tender steel-cut oats are the "pinhead" variety. I order Organic Pinhead Oatmeal produced by The Oatmeal of Alford on-line and buy it in bulk from Chefshop. I have found that toasting the oats for a minute or so brings out the nutty flavor and adds a nice touch. Simply pour your oats into a sauce pan and allow them to toast up a bit before adding the water - do this very quickly or they will burn. I use 1/4 cup oats and 1 & 1/4 cups water. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon on a low simmer and when the oats are plumped up and the water is nearly all absorbed it's ready. This process only takes about 8 to 10 minutes with "pinhead" oats. Top it off with brown sugar and a banana and you have yourself a warm and tasty meal that you and your family are sure to love!

If you live in Los Angeles or anywhere near a Jamba Juice you will find that they now sell a tasty bowl of this. So if you are out and about you might want to give it a try - it's much better for you than a Cinnabon at the Mall!

Have a great week everyone ~ and make sure to eat a proper breakfast!