Elegant Economy Knitwear Designs… Has moved!

This is a very fun month for me. This month is a culmination of almost a year of intense thinking, planning, scheming, re-thinking, strategizing, experimenting, more planning, recruiting, and occasionally some knitting. 🙂

This very exciting month begins with this announcement….

It’s happened. Elegant Economy Knitwear Designs has a brand new home!

We’re leaving the wordpress.com nest to spread our own wings over at eleganteconomyknits.com. A change that is long overdue.

The new website brings an entirely new brand with it. You probably won’t recognize anything except the name. You’ll notice a brilliant, minimalistic, portfolio style site, with a dramatic but understated logo, allowing you to be inspired by images of the thing that makes all our hearts race, knitting.

This brand will make its way to all of the previously published patterns over the next week. So if you’ve purchased anything from me on Ravelry, you’ll notice an update shortly. I hoping the new layout will make for a much more pleasant and seamless knitting experience.

And there is more…

So…

What are you waiting for?

Head over to eleganteconomyknits.com and follow us on your favorite blog reader, facebook, or twitter to make sure you don’t miss a single thing! And believe me, you really don’t want to miss anything going on this month. 🙂

Also, this will be the last post on eleganteconomy.wordpress.com, so if you already follow me, this site will become awfully quiet and eventually go away. So again, head over to the new site and make sure you follow me there!

Happy Knitting!

Comfort Knitting

Last weekend was pretty epic. We got to host a BBQ for 150 people. It was a blast. I even got the house cleaned by Sunday morning. I was on a pretty serious high. I tried to come off of it strong too. I got up at 5:30 on Monday morning and spent some quality time with my planner, trying to get a picture of what all needs to happen before this baby comes in December. But I crashed. Hard.

Thankfully, I had a pretty good idea this might happen. And I planned for it. I finally decided I wanted to make a blanket for our little one, and big surprise, it would have lots of moss stitch. I’ve been addicted recently. So I ordered a whole bunch of Deluxe Worsted Superwash by Universal Yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool. So on Sunday, when the dishes were clean, and Chuck put on Blue Planet, I pulled it out and cast on.

Pattern: Some mitering wonderfulness from my head
Yarn: Deluxe Worsted Superwash by Universal Yarn, Steel Cut Oats colorway
Needles: Size 7 (4.5mm), Knit Picks Zephyr Acrylics (discontinued, I believe)

I had planned it to be some good comfort knitting, and it has not disappointed. The perfectly predictable incremental decreases combined with the almost, but a bit more interesting, vanilla feel of the moss stitch has made for the most perfect comfort knitting.

What kind of knitting do you use to unwind??

A New Watering Hole

I’m thrilled to announce the newly formed Elegant Economy Group on Ravelry.

 

With over 500 members, this group  provides a unique opportunity to connect with other knitters, chat about life, dialog about our latest knitting triumphs and struggles. This is also a fabulous way to interact with me if you’re hitting issues with an Elegant Economy pattern. I monitor the group closely,and really want to know if you are struggling.

Thank you to those who have already joined! I have already been so helped by all the members comments about current and future patterns.

Don’t forget that I’m active on other corners of the internet. I’m on facebook and twitter, where I post regularly, and I’m also on pinterest. Join me wherever you hang out most!

Happy Monday!

Introducing the Puckery Posy Cowl!

I am thrilled with this project.


One of the things I strive for the most in design is to create projects that are fun for knitters to make AND really, really look like you picked it up at a boutique hipster clothing store. And while I seem to see beautiful knitwear from these stores all the time, the challenge to design something in the same vein is usually much harder than I expect when I begin a project.


This time around I had extra inspiration. I teamed up with Chandi over at Expression Fiber Arts. If you’ve never taken a look at her yarn, you must! Her colors are amazingly beautiful and cutting edge. And I love following her blog and Facebook page, she’s a wonderfully sweet and encouraging person.


This cowl was designed with her brand new line of Spectrum Color Shift yarns. A single ply wool yarn with long color changes. When she sent me a photo of the different colorways, it was all I could do to choose just one!


My fashionable sister agreed to model for me. I don’t what I’d do without her. She loves playing with my twins, she weighs in when my fashion sense is completely off base, and she even likes modeling the final project. Isn’t she beautiful?


Here’s to one or two more cuddly, wool projects before spring is here!

Details:
This fashionably funky cowl is a breeze to knit up, and with a simple twist you’ll take your knitted work from warm and pretty to downright adorable. It’s designed so that there is lots of thick warm fabric right around your neck for you to snuggle your chin down into without adding any bulk to your coat. The sample in the photography is knit up in Spectrum Color Shift by Expression Fiber Arts, a single ply worsted yarn with long color changes. The color changes paired with the textured stitch pattern add depth and interest to an otherwise simple accessory.
Size: One Size Fits All
Dimensions: 25 inches/63.5cm around x 8 inches/ 20.5cm wide
Gauge: 20 stitches = 4 inches/10cm
Materials:
-2 skeins of Expression Fiber Arts Spectrum Color Shift (100g, 175 yds/skein), Coffee and Cream colorway.
-Size 6 US/4.0mm needles
-8 removable stitch markers (at least three need to be a different color from the others)
-Darning needle

Purchase the pattern over at Ravelry, http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/puckery-posy-cowl.

Epic Knitting

Now that I live in North Carolina, I love every season. I love the long springs and autumns especially, but as a knitter, Winter is my favorite season. This is the time of year that all my cuddly hand knits are most appreciated. It’s also the time when it’s most fun to cuddle up with some hopelessly long project that you don’t ever expect to finish, but the the feeling of cozy hibernation is totally worth it. I call it Epic Knitting. The gift/deadline knitting is done, now it’s time to indulge in some knitterly fantasy.

This year, I’m hoping to start a Fisherman’s sweater for my husband. I’ve done a bit of swatching and I’m really excited. What are your winter project plans?

Seasonal Knitting

I had a fabulous knitting week followed by a totally demoralizing one. Thus the lack of blogging, I had a super busy week that left no time for writiong, followed by such a terrible one that I had nothing to write about.

I’m really loving this time of year. I’m already anticipating the temperature dropping, and pictures of darling twins in hand knit sweaters posed in piles of beautiful leaves.

I’m still finishing my perfect black layering cardi. I thought I was almost done and then decided to wait till I finished both sleeves to be brutally honest with myself. They just fit so poorly, and didn’t match the look I was going for at all.

I also decided to get some sweaters going for the twins. After scouring my LYS for the perfect yarn for Chad, Found this gorgeousness…

I gave myself the little challenge of  knitting the whole sweater during one weekend trip to the in-laws. It was about to be a “nothing but net”, an, d then the inevitable happened, I ran out of yarn. So, more yarn is on its way (another story for another day), and I’m hoping to have this sweet little sweater for my little towheaded boy finished by the end of next week.

Is anyone else getting excited about fall knitting?

 

DIP-a-dee-doo-dah

So here’s my DIP! (Design In Progress)

Have I mentioned I’m madly in love with Liberty Wool? I know, I know, like every time I knit with it. It is an absolute pleasure to work with. I feel like I knit so much faster when I’m using it. You know, lots of people talk about how cotton hurts their hands, because it doesn’t have any give. And I never really got it, until this project I never really noticed the difference in fibers in how comfortable my knitting was. But I am just loving the squishy elasticity in this yarn. It is to die for. I still don’t think cotton is uncomfortable, but this liberty wool is not only comfortable, it’s downright luxurious to work with. And it’s just a simple superwash!

The milestones on this project are flying by. Finished the back, and the left front, I’m making serious progress on the right front, and then I’ll only have the sleeves… but the sleeves are tricky because I haven’t done the first bit of math on them. So that could present some interesting issues. My goal is to have the front finished by the end of the week so I can spend next week on sleeves, both designing and knitting. 🙂

I have two other ideas on the back burner that I’m mulling over as I work on this project. But I do attempt to be a monogamous designer, so I’m plowing through this sweater so I can get started on all this other stuff that’s capturing my inspiration.

Knitterly Musings on a Hot Afternoon

I started to write this “quick” blog post on Saturday, and it just kept going… and going… and going… Apparently I had a lot on my mind.

—————————————

It’s like a million degrees outside. We’re totally paying for the glorious lack of nasty winter by getting one heck of a summer. I’m pretty sure we just broke the all-time record yesterday. So as I brew some sweet tea for my husband who’s a glutton for punishment and is mowing, weed-eating and doing all sort of other things that a sane person would not do on a day like today, I almost picked up one of my wool projects. What has been keeping me from doing so is actually not the insane temperature. It’s actually more about the knitting that’s making me stand-offish when I look at them sitting there in their unfinished state, begging to be the subject of my unwind in silence time.

Right now I’m actively working on two projects. One for the kids and one for me. For the kids, you may recall, I’m trying to tackle the question of wool cloth diapering. My first attempt was a success with a few reservations and I’m tackling the improvements by way of double knitting. Problem. I’ve never done any double knitting. And while this has never posed much of a problem to me in the past when picking up a new technique, it’s become a problem now. Usually, if I hear a podcast or read a blog on the topic, I can  pick up a new technique in a matter of minutes. I may need a youtube or two to help me perfect my execution of it, but generally, I just learn it and quickly and easily incorporate it into whatever I’m working on at the time. Double knitting has not worked out like that. I honestly feel like I’m learning to knit all over again. I hold the yarn so awkwardly, I’m constantly trying to figure out if my yarn should be in front or in back. I can barely figure out if I’m on a knit or a purl stitch. After working on my diaper cover for over two hours, I have like 4-5 rows to show for it.

Part of my problem.. Did I knit a little practice swatch to teach me the basics before casting on a whole project? Of course not! Why would I do a sensible thing like that? Oh no, I decided to jump right in on my next cover with a new cast on, double-knit ribbing, and of course double-knit stockinette. What can I say? I love a challenge. I actually have figured out a bit of a rhythm, and while I’m unconvinced about the success of the project, I am learning a new technique which is never a waste of time.

In all my clumsy fiddling with the ribbed section of this cover, I must say I loved learning the cast-on. Turns out it’s actually not that hard if you’re already a fan of the long-tail cast-on, which I am. It also has one big advantage, you don’t just have to use it for double knitting. When you’re double knitting, you’re constructing two separate pieces of stockinette knitted fabric simultaneously Usually they are connected, but don’t have to be. Some knitters actually work two socks or sleeves at the same time with this technique. Cool? Yes! Awkward to work when first learning? Very! But since usually those two pieces of fabric have the wrong side of both facing “in”, so that you have a piece of double sided stockinette, you are essentially working a 1×1 ribbed pattern, working all the purls with one yarn and all the knits with another. All that means that while yes, you could just use your normal long-tail cast on, it really isn’t very elegant and doesn’t integrate with the fabric well. A ribbed two color cast on of some kind is required. Enter that tutorial on Twist Collective I linked to the other day. When I watched the little video, I had a eureka moment. Why hadn’t I figured this out before? It’s so simple! I’d heard rumors that the long-tail cast on is reversible, but I never figured it out, I probably just wasn’t trying, and was a little to lazy to care. With this cast on, you take your two strands, make a slip knot as usual and place it on the needle. Then you use the two strands as if one was your working yarn and one was the long tail. Brilliant! I’ve used this cast-on before for stranded knitting and it looks great. But this little cast on went the extra mile and incorporated the reversed long-tail cast on for the purl stitches. Something I really wish I had picked up a long time ago.

This is all very cool, but let’s just say that the awkwardness just makes it not much of a relaxing project right now. So what about the project for me?

Well, as you may recall from a month ago. I’m working on this cute little black cardi for the fall. It’s actually going really well, except for my indecisiveness. There are a couple design elements that I just keep second guessing, so I hate keep working on it when there is a possibility that I’m just going to have to rip things out again. There’s this waist band that I can’t decide if I should keep or not. I think I’ve finally decided that the answer is “no”. It looks pretty cool, but if there’s anything I can’t stand it’s an overworked knitwear design. (Ascending soap box now). We know the story… you go to the store and see all these cute sweaters, they’re super simple from a knitting technique perspective, but oh, so fashionable, and you go “wow, I could totally make that and it would look 10 times cuter”, and you’d be right. So you go home, sketch out a simple raglan sweater, or whatever it was, do a bit of math and before you know it, you’re really close to reproducing that cute sweater. But then you go… “hmm, I’d love to add a lace motif”, or “it could really use some cables” and before you know it, your design is way overworked. If you do happen to finish it, the final product is a fine tribute to your knitting skills and a bit of a detractor to your fashion sense. Knitters (me included) have this irritating habit of putting their knitting before their fashion. And that my friends, should not be. It really takes away from our skill if the final product is beautiful only to the eye of it’s creator, and seen by others as at best eccentric, and at worst downright ugly. (Ok, soapbox rant over). So all that to say, I really felt like the waist band was going up the overworked knitwear path a bit too much. I did a quick mental survey of the cute layering cardigans I’ve owned or admired, and none of them had the contemplated waistband, so that makes it a no go. So now that that’s decided I think I have some knitting to rip out.

Break out the sweet tea.

Overall…a Success!

I think the diaper cover was a success. Little Elsie looks darling, and I can’t help but think she looks a bit more comfortable than when she’s wearing the PUL covers.

It fits great around the legs, yet doesn’t restrict her leg movement at all.

As I mentioned yesterday, I really prefer fingering and sport weight yarn and their associated gauges on babies. It just looks more in scale with their small bodies.

You can see the shaping I did around the leg. And I got much better at picking up stitches around edges. This “seam” looks really good compared with others I’ve done in the past.

Here’s a picture of Chad wearing the cover yesterday. I actually feel like they’re more comfortable when I prop them up into a sitting position.

Here’s another shot of the leg, but I think it shows off the shaping better.

Overall, I’m declaring the project a success, with two reservations.

1) I hate the color. I used some knit picks palette I got years ago and I still have no idea why I picked out the color. But I didn’t want to waste my cute colors if the project was a failure. To be clear, the yarn worked great, and is at the perfect price point at $3.39/50g, but the color was just not my favorite.

2) The fabric is just not quite thick enough. Chad wore the diaper for about 2 hours, and even though he had wet the prefold under the cover, the cover was dry. Then at about 3 hours, it started to seep everywhere, it was actually kinda gross. So I think thicker fabric is in order.

However as I discussed earlier, I really like the scale of this fabric, so I’d rather not go up to a DK or worsted yarn. So I’m thinking I might play around with double knitting and see how that works. I’ve wanted to learn this technique for quite a while. I understand how it works conceptually but I’ve never actually tried it, as far as I can remember. After a bit of internet research I found some helpful resources to get me started:

Stitch Diva’s Double Knitting Tutorial

WIP Insanity’s Ribbing in Double Knitting Tutorial

Twist Collective Article “Introduction to Double Knitting: The four winds hat” by Alasdair Post-Quinn

We’ll see how this goes, but for now, enough blogging, time for some lunch, a quick tidy up, and some knitting.

 

A “Go To” Yarn Roundup

So I guess I sorta left the topic hanging yesterday. I gave all these criteria for my favorite yarns, now lets discuss what those favorites are!

Classic Elite Liberty Wool – $7.50/50g – 100% Superwash Merino Wool – Worsted

Ever since I first used this yarn about a year and a half ago this has been my favorite yarn to work with for any project requiring a smooth worsted wool. It has phenomenal stitch definition, is wonderfully soft, and has great memory. It was originally released in a pretty broad spectrum of colors, but it wasn’t until this year that they added some beautiful neutrals, thus solidifying it as my top favorite yarn.

Knit Picks Swish – $4.69/50g – 100% Superwash Wool – Worsted

Swish comes in at a close second. It has all the same features as Liberty Wool, but doesn’t seem to have quite the same quality. Which, as you can see, is reflected in the price. However, since it is cheaper, I do frequently consider it if I’m working with a smaller budget than usual.

Knit Picks Stroll – $4.69/50g – 25% Nylon, 75% Superwash Wool – Fingering

I haven’t found even a close competitor for this yarn. While there are other yarns that give stroll a run for its money either in the quality or luxurious feel of the yarn, none of them come close to the price. Every other sock yarn I’ve been tempted by is at least twice the price, and I really have a hard time spending $25 for a pair of socks on a regular basis. It does seem like there’s room in the market for a medium priced sock yarn. Knit picks will set you back around $10/100g, while every other brand costs $20-$25. I’d love to find some reasonably high quality sock yarn for around $15. If you know of any I missed, please let me know!

Knit Picks Gloss – $5.99/50g – 70% Wool, 30% Silk – Fingering

I love, love this yarn with no complaints. well, maybe one. It really should be made available in the stroll tonal colorways.

Knit Picks Wool of the Andes – $2.69/50g – 100% Peruvian Wool – Worsted

My favorite for any felting project. I haven’t tried Cascade 220 yet, so I can’t offer a good comparison. Anyone want to jump in on this one?

Berroco Lustra – $12/100g – 50% Wool, 50% Tencel – Single Ply – Worsted

This one is a bit different, but a lot of fun to work with. It has great stitch definition and the Tencel gives it a wonderful sheen.

Spud and Chloe Sweater – $15/100g – 50% Cotton, 50% Wool – Worsted

I like this one for baby knits that are intended to be a bit more heirloom quality. it’s incredibly soft, spun to be a bit hardwearing, and is thoroughly washable.

Berroco Remix – $10/100g – 30% Nylon, 27% Cotton, 24% Acrylic, 10% Silk, 9% Linen – Worsted

I was really surprised that I liked this one as much as I did. But I’ve now used it in three projects, and I always love the result!

I got a comment yesterday, but I’d love some other folks to jump in too. What are you favorite yarns? Why?