Lee Does Stuff

Reconstructed hooded cardigan, with cuff tutorial!

I started this project back in October of 2012, worked on it a little bit then, a little bit last spring, and then picked it back up and finished it over the last couple of weeks, finally! Hooray! I’m so excited to show it to you now!

I got this ill-fitting but beautiful hand knit cardigan at a thrift store (4 years ago – wow time flies!), knowing I’d someday fix it up and make it wearable:

Once I had my vision, deciding to use a heavier weight yarn for additions (around aran weight, versus the original sweater in maybe sport weight, I’d guess), and picking out this recycled sweater yarn (the same used in these either/or mittens), I got to the deconstructing. I carefully removed all the edgings, one step at a time, and picked up stitches to knit on my new edgings. On some parts I could use the actual live stitches, and on others I picked up stitches from sides.

It was all improvised, but I’ll tell you what I can, based on my crap memory and examining the piece now…

The first edging made was along the bottom – I unraveled those stitches, picked them up, decreased across to get a good stitch count in my heavier yarn to match up, and knit 1×1 rib for a few inches.

Then I picked up a chunk of stitches along the back of the collar, and began knitting those (also in 1×1 rib – all of my additions are 1×1 rib), picking up an extra couple of stitches every time I reached the end of a row. So this resulted in short-row shaping, making the back of the collar the widest.

Once I had picked up down through the yoke, a couple stitches at a time like this, I picked up all the way down to the bottom on each side, ending the short row shaping for now. I picked up the stitches closer together than I probably should have; I wanted the collar and front panels to be squishy and not pull in. In the end, I see that I could have significantly reduced my picked up stitches along the fronts, and it still wouldn’t have pulled in, but it’s okay.

So then I knit around all these stitches (oh so many! It took like an entire episode of a show to knit 1 row, as I’m extra slow in 1×1 rib) until the narrow front parts were a couple inches wide. Then I made the triangle pockets on each side, using short rows:

After the pockets were done, I headed back up to the top and made the hood, shaped with short rows and decreases. It turned out weird, and I learned from my mistakes for next time. I like it enough to not frog and re-knit (omg the thought of taking it apart now that it’s all finished is awful) but it’s definitely not the best hood ever. But hey, it functions!

Basically, I decreased 4 stitches on every other row, because it was starting out so huge, so I thought that would be good, but I should have decreased 2, that would have made for a much nicer shape. Lesson learned, and passed on to you.

Once I finished the hood shaping, I knit back down to the bottom, and worked one last full row all the way around, then bound off.

To finish the pockets, I folded them over to make a straight line with the edging above, and sewed them along the bottom. I thought this would be it, but then they looked weird and needed to be stabilized, so I sewed them shut a couple inches on the tops and a couple inches on the bottoms, and now they are perfect! Love them!

Lastly, the cuffs. I actually took process photos so I can give you a full on tutorial for the cuffs!

Recycled sweaters are like snowflakes, every one is unique (not really), so this is how I did mine, but if you try to do the same, you’ll need to adjust according to your sweater’s specifics.

First, I tried unraveling the cuff from the edge, but, sadly, my particular hand knit sweater was knit from the cuff up, so it wouldn’t unravel. Most recycled sweaters will unravel starting at the cuffs, so it will usually be much easier than this was.

Since I couldn’t unravel it, I grabbed my scissors and chopped it off, a few rows above where I wanted to pick up the stitches – I didn’t want to cut right up to the row I was going to pick up, and risk cutting too much, but this was kind of an unnecessary step, as I just ended up cutting again. I could have picked up the stitches first, then cut once.

For your cuff project, you can either unravel all the way down to where you want your cuff to start, or cut it mostly off with scissors, then unravel the last couple rows, as that should normally work, with most sweaters.

I picked up my stitches, cut the rest off, picked off all the little bits of yarn stuck in there from cutting it, and had the stitches on the needles ready to knit – small needles, sized to match the original sweater yarn (not my heavier yarn).

Here is where I actually made a mistake with this cuff. I made my first cuff over a year earlier, and had forgotten the details, so I slightly messed up on my second cuff. I knew I had to decrease around, to get the stitch count down to match my bulkier gauge, so for the second cuff I decreased around during the very first round:

But this resulted in the cuff pulling in a bit at the join. Damn. Oops. For the first cuff, I’d done it the right way: first, knit all stitches for one round in the new yarn, onto the bigger needles to match the new yarn. Then, on the second new-yarn round, decrease around as needed to get a good stitch count in the new gauge. This will prevent the join from pulling in.

Once the stitch count is right, work around (in 1×1 rib or the cuff stitch pattern of your choice) until it’s as long as you want it. My cuffs are about 5 inches, around three times as long as the original cuffs on the ill-fitting cardigan. Much better!

So that’s that! I chose not to put in buttonholes, since I wasn’t sure how the fit would be and I figured I could add closures later to fit best. It works well closed with a shawl pin like you see at the top, or with 1-inch round pins like this:

But I do plan to add some kind of permanent closure at some point; I’m thinking maybe a buckle of some kind, or toggles… we’ll see. It’s fine for now!

At the time when I first started this project, I began contemplating the idea of writing an ebook/collection of sort-of-patterns for this kind of thing – tutorials for taking apart reclaimed sweaters and knitting on new parts to make them into awesome new items. The patterns would be better than this (this was an improvised experiment – if it was meant to be an actual design, the hood and other elements would be better!) and there would be lots of different kinds of projects, and different elements that could be mixed and matched together (like, pick your favorite pocket type, and collar type, etc). Anyway, I currently don’t have solid plans to make this project happen, but I am still considering it for the future.

If this is something you’d be interested in, please let me know! Either by commenting on this blog post, or by commenting over on the ravelry project page. If there does seem to be a significant amount of interest, then I will start thinking about it for real and planning it. Thanks!

leethal 2014 photo calendar!

I’ve been pretty into Instagram since I got my iPhone early this year, and I’ve been wanting to figure out ways to display my favorite shots. The other day I thought, how about a calendar? So I made one!

I love how it turned out: simple, functional, a lovely display of some of my favorite instas.

So I decided I should share it with you! I turned the calendar into a pdf, with four versions. You can go to my leethal.net wallpapers (and other downloads) page and download it with my photos…

…or without any photos, so you can plug in your own square-format photos. And both options come in the lighter text (as above) or the darker text (as below). Note: the lighter text in the photos of it hanging in my kitchen looks barely-visible, but that’s mostly to do with the lighting in there; it’s actually plenty visible, I think.

If you want to put in your own photos, you’ll need an application that can open and edit pdf files, to place your photos on the pages. Or you could do it analog – print out the calendar as is, then print out your own photos, and glue them on there.

To make the calendar, you’ll need a photo printer (or a trip to Kinko’s or something), nice letter size* photo paper/cardstock to print out the pages (I used Red River Paper GreenPix, which I highly recommend, but unfortunately it’s only available in 4×6 inch size and rolls right now), a paper cutter (or scissors and the ability to cut super straight), and a hole punch. Print, cut down the center dotted line, punch out the grey dots, and hang!

*The pdf is sized for US letter size paper (8.5×11 inches) but if you use a different paper size and print it fit to page, centered, it should work fine, just with some extra white space that you can trim off as needed.

Happy holidays!

Block puzzle tutorial!

A couple years ago, I made a gift for Disney princess loving Alicia, using wood blocks and pages from thrifted books. I photographed the steps, and then forgot to blog it! So here is how I made it – it only takes a few hours, so you have plenty of time to make one for a kid gift this season (I’d love to make one with something other than princesses, like baby animals, or cats, or pretty much any kind of animals…).

Or, you could make one bigger with more pieces (and/or harder by mixing up the blocks, as explained below) for an adult version, with like photos of yarn, or photos from a trip you took together… oh shoot, I’d never thought of that until right now – now I want to make a trip photo puzzle!!

So, you need wood blocks (I got these at Michael’s), pictures to use (my princess pictures came from some cheap thrift store books), a paper cutter (or scissors if you’re careful, in which case you also need a ruler), Mod Podge and a brush for the Mod-Podge-ing, newspaper or something to protect your work surface, and optional Sparkle Mod Podge if you want a glitter finish.

I started by making a template for the pictures; I used the cardboard packaging from the wood blocks, cutting the piece of thin cardboard to the size of the blocks all together in a rectangle:

Then I used the template to cut out my pictures to that size:

So now I had pictures of the exact size of the blocks all touching:

I used four pictures, to make the puzzle a bit easier than if all six sides of the blocks had pictures, since she was pretty young when I made this. Pictures on all sides of the blocks (six pictures total) would make for a harder puzzle.

I carefully measured and cut the pictures into squares the size of the blocks (if you’re using a paper cutter, you should be able to measure directly on the cutter – if you’re using scissors, then you’ll need to measure with a ruler).

Be careful with your measuring and cutting so that you don’t accidentally cut the wrong size for some reason (I don’t remember why this happened!) and ruin your picture, so that you have to find another princess picture to replace it:

So, once I cut a picture in both directions, I had a puzzle picture like this:

Now I Mod Podged those squares of pictures onto the blocks:

Here’s another decision you can make. I wanted the puzzle to be easy for the young kid, so I kept the first puzzle in order, turned each block the same way, and glued on the second picture in the same order, so that once she solves the puzzle for one of the pictures, she can then flip all the blocks in the same direction to see the next picture, then the next, then the next. If you want a more challenging puzzle, you can scramble up the blocks so that you have to solve each one separately. There are actually two more levels of difficulty – you could either flip all the blocks the same direction, then glue the pictures on in random order, all on the same sides, or you could glue them on random places and random sides, so the puzzles for each picture all start from scratch. Just make sure you glue one square per picture onto each block.

Repeat for each picture until all the squares are glued on:

Because this was a gift for a frilly little girl, I chose to add sparkles to the whole thing at the end:

I don’t remember exactly, but I’m guessing I covered five sides with the sparkle Mod Podge, let them dry overnight, then sparkled up the sixth side the next day.

Finished sparkly puzzle:

Tah dah!

Knit gifts of the past!

In continuing to catch up with blog posts that should have been done long ago, I want to show you a bunch of things I’ve knit for gifts over the last several years that never made it to the blog! Many times, I’ve knit a thing, photographed it, meant to blog about it soon, and then just never gotten around to it… you know how it goes, life gets in the way. So here we go, alllll those gift knits that never got shown! Starting with the most recent, Pete’s xmas gift last year:

Pete wanted a warm hat with a bill, to keep the rain off his glasses. I didn’t want to design a hat with a bill, so I went pattern searching, and this design – Colorado Cadet / Newsboy Cap by Cheryl Andrews – seemed the best match for exactly what he wanted. I bought this Harris Tweed yarn in York last fall (at Ramshambles), with intentions to use the black skein for something for Pete, since he’s a big fan of the Harris Tweed brand. This hat ended up needing more than 1 skein worth, with the bill and folded-under brim adding yardage, so I added some of the other two skeins I’d bought for myself – a speckled brown kind of color for the crown, and a teal blue for the underside of the brim, and also for the braid to add a bit of extra interest there.

I think it turned out great, and Pete loves it (although Portland is rarely cold enough for him to wear it; he gets overheated really easily, unlike myself – I wear wool hats constantly all winter long!). The pattern makes the bill work without any plastic/cardboard/etc piece in there, which is cool. This was my first time with a few different techniques: a hemmed brim, a welt, and the herringbone braid. I made this hat a bit taller than the pattern, so it would cover his ears and be warmer.

Next up, my mom collects elephants, mostly of the small, hard variety, but I thought adding a large, soft version to her collection would be fun! So I used the pattern Garter Stitch Elephant by Phylis Tucker as a guideline, and bulky yarn (a few strands of worsted-ish held together), and made this weirdo wonky guy.

He looks like a perfectly normal stuffed elephant from certain angles…

…but then from other viewpoints, he looks like some kind of anteater/elephant hybrid thing. Oh well, he has personality. I think she named him, but I don’t remember what it was.

The other wonky toy I’ve made was a gift for Eloise, (ravelry creators) Jess‘s & Casey‘s little girl, when she was born.

It’s a Which Came First? by Anna Hrachovec, but made to look like a blue bird instead of a chicken. Sort of. To the best of my lacking toy-making abilities.

I think the egg looks great, and then the bird hatches, and he’s a little funky looking. Personality?

Here’s a shot of the pieces before sewing them together:

Another one from far back, 3 years ago to be exact, I made this scarf for my mom for a xmas present. The pattern is Spitcurl Scarf by Staceyjoy Elkin; it’s one of those patterns I saw and just wanted to make to find out how it’s made.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, in soft, washable Malabrigo Rios and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK.

Another mom gift, this one was for Pete’s mom for xmas 4 years ago. We did it as a joint gift – Pete picked the pattern (Kerry by Rodger Murry, no longer available) and the yarn (Malabrigo Twist, yumm) – and I knit the hat.

This was my first time knitting with Twist and it was love at first stitch.

Lastly in the other-people’s-patterns category, I knit this scarf for Pete back in 2008 – Counterpoint Scarf by Jennifer Crawford, in Alpaca with a Twist Highlander. It was my first (and only) time doing illusion knitting, and I love it; I’ve always planned to revisit the illusion concept someday in my own designs… Maybe 2014 will be the year for that, we’ll see!

I’ve also knit a few gifts from my own patterns that never got blogged, so here are those. First, a pair of Either/Or mitts for my brother Matt:

I used a striping pattern for these that’s different from all six of my pattern sample mitts, and I love how it looks! Three colors in blocks, in the short fingerless mitts version of the pattern:

They are man-sized, modeled by Pete, in a machine-washable yarn (Lion Brand Wool-Ease) so Matt can wash them easily.

I knit this picture frame for my dad using my Quick Knits Cabled Frame pattern, but making each section longer for a larger frame. It’s shown here with a placeholder picture (a page of a magazine). It’s backed with layers of cardboard so the photo can slide in and out easily.

Lastly, I first started working on the Coloring Book designs in early 2012, to figure out what yarns I needed and stuff; when I decided to make a cowl for Pete’s mom last year out of an assortment of yarns bought throughout our UK/Ireland trip, I thought the draft version of what would become the Color by Number pattern would be a perfect fit.

So, this is sort of a Color by Number custom cowl, but it’s way before the actual pattern was finalized, and there are lots of improvised bits – mainly, the cabled panel up the one side, and the scattered boxes with cables and twisted stitch patterns inside.

With the gift, I included a diagram of where each yarn came from. They are from York, London, Edinburgh, Holyhead in Wales, Dublin, and Galway.

Modeled shots:

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! Although I wish I’d given it wood buttons instead of plastic. Oh well. It worked nicely to throw in some stitch patterns in some of the boxes, so feel free to use that idea with your own Color by Number projects if you like it!

Okay that was a long post. Better to group together all these old knits into one giant post than to never blog about them at all, right? I have a couple other completely different gift-themed blog posts coming up this week. Next will be a tutorial, and then I’ll be giving a gift to you for the holidays 🙂

Stay tuned, and I hope you are well as this season flies by!

Pom-Poms! book and pom-pom wreath project!

I made a thing!

A little while ago, the publisher sent me a review copy of this book, Pom-Poms! 25 Awesomely Fluffy Projects by Sarah Goldschadt and Lexi Walters Wright. The holiday season inspired me to make the pom-pom wreath! Fun!

I got out the book, my Clover pom-pom makers, a fork to try out the fork method in the book, my own hand to try out the finger wrap method in the book, scissors, and a big pile of old yarn.

I didn’t end up loving the fork method – I think it’s good for super teeny tiny pom-poms, but I was trying to make small, dense ones and it didn’t work so well. But I liked the finger wrap method for small ones! The book goes into lots of different kinds of pom-poms, like how to make them with coffee filters, paper, cupcake liners, and how to make different color patterns with yarn.

Most of the book is projects using pom-poms, so if you get addicted to making them you’ll have lots of ways to use them. I really like the bouquets (like the one pictured on the cover), the garlands, the various jewelry items, the hedgehogs (also on the cover), and the wreath, of course. I might make more projects in the future, but my hands are killing me after making all the pom-poms for the wreath today!

I made them in all different sizes, using my two official makers and my fingers and the fork, in different yarn types and different thicknesses. Then I cut out a circle of cardboard, and glued them all on:

I really like how it turned out, yay!

It will live on the inside of our front door, with a suction cup wreath hanger (crossing our fingers it doesn’t fall down after a few hours).

Fun way to use up some unwanted yarns!

Malabrigo merino roving!

A few months ago I got an amazing package in the mail:

That’s six braids of Malabrigo’s merino roving, aka Nube. In colorways: Mostaza, Piedras, Plomo, Arco Iris, Persia, Glitter.

The lovely people at Malabrigo contacted me when they released the roving, knowing that I’m a designer/blogger who spins, asking me if I had any favorite colorways… I gave them a list of six, thinking I’d love to spin up a skein of any one of those colorways. When I opened the package to see ALL six colorways I was shocked and delighted! Whoa there Malabrigo, so generous!!

So now I must do it justice! As you know, it’s been a busy few months, so it’s been sitting there, looking pretty in my studio… an exciting project to look forward to… and now I’m almost ready to break out the wheel. And I have a plan (a vague plan, but some kind of plan).

Once I get it allllll spun, I’ll see what weight it ends up being (I’m not good/experienced with spinning 100% merino, and my wheel is ideal for chunkier weights, so I’m going to try for an aran weight, but it might end up being bulky), and I’ll see what my total yardage is. And then I’ll find a pattern to match up with that yardage and weight, some kind of garment! And I’ll knit an amazing, colorful, handspun sweater, or vest, or something. It will be majestic.

This is a long-term project, but I’m really excited to get started on it, and I will show you all the progress as I go! I’ll be posting lots of progress photos (and notes and stuff) all throughout on instagram/twitter and tumblr, and then I’ll post major progress (like once the yarn is spun and I choose a pattern, etc) here on the big blog.

I’ve scrolled through hundreds of aran-bulky weight sweater/vest patterns, to get some idea of what I might want to knit… and it’s still completely up in the air. I want to see not just the weight, but how the yarn ends up looking, to pick a design that would be a good fit. I’m thinking very simple, no cables or lace/textural patterning, etc, but maybe with an interesting construction element. I think I’m going to spin each braid into its own skein, then use each skein in the pattern entirely, so the garment is in six blocks of different colorways, kind of… but I might end up deciding to stripe them, or something else.

Aren’t those colorways beautiful? I may not be experienced with spinning merino right now, but I’ll be an expert by the time I’m done with these! I’ve barely done any spinning at all in the last couple years, wish me luck!!

Year coming to end announcements and future pattern release stuff…

Wow this season has gone by fast, hasn’t it? It’s been below freezing here in Portland for the last several days, so it’s really feeling like autumn times are over and we are full on into winter, regardless of what the calendar might say. I am hard at work, dividing my time between multiple design projects, some holiday gift projects, some personal projects I really wanted to get done for the chilly season (like this!), and I’m trying to give myself a bit of time here and there to relax, after having really overworked for that last month before releasing Coloring Book. Things would be a lot harder to get done if I didn’t take care of myself and caught a cold, and this is the time of year that tends to happen.

Anyway, yeah I’m being a bit rambly, I know. The thing is, I feel guilty. I took on too much work this year, especially within the last four months or so, and I’ve fallen pretty far behind. I need to let you know where things are at, since I am unable to stick to original release schedules. I’ll go through the list…

Bulk Trio. I released the first pattern, Lemmy, back in September, at which time I’d planned/hoped to get the second pattern in the set out before the end of the year, and then the third pattern early next year. I’m actually pretty close to on-schedule, but the next pattern won’t be before the year is over; it should be very close to the beginning of January though. I’m basically done with the design, have begun the first sample, and just need to knit the three samples, build the pdf, and have it test knit.

Here are peeks at the stitch pattern! I won’t tell you yet what it is… you already know it’s an accessory that’s ideal for bulky yarns. As for the third pattern in the trio, that’s already been started as well, so I’m hoping it can be released before the end of January. (Bulk Trio is on ravelry here.)

Betiko Collection. Here is where the guilt starts to weigh on me. I’d originally said, back when I released Biratu in May, that the colorwork shawl and lace shawl would both be released later this year… that’s not going to happen, and I’m really sorry about it. The slip-stitch colorwork design is well on its way – the first sample, in beautiful Anzula Squishy sock weight yarn (above), is in progress, the design is coming along, and I’m super happy with it!

Like Biratu, there will be two versions, the more complex and the any-gauge simplified. I’m hoping it can be released by early-to-mid-January, by the time I finish both samples, and the pattern, and have it test knit. The final Betiko Collection shawl, the lace one, will be my next design, so I’m hoping for mid-February for that one. (Here’s the collection on ravelry.)

Remixed. This last item in the list is the major guilt-crushing weight on my shoulders… I still haven’t finished the Remixed recycled yarn making ebook. It has been an absurdly long time since the final pattern was released (Either/Or in March of 2012, cringe), and I haven’t forgotten the book, really, I’ve just had to prioritize other things, over and over… and now I’m kind of humiliated about it, but my plan is to take a chunk of days this month to be my Remixed days and work on nothing else until it’s done. I did take some quality time to work on it last spring and made some great progress, but then I had to put it aside again.

Side note: After the book is released, around the beginning of the new year, the price of the whole collection will raise. It’s currently $20 for all 8 patterns plus the future yarn-making ebook; it will be going up by at least a few bucks once it’s complete, so grab it now if you want it 😉 (Remixed on ravelry here.)

As I’ve transitioned over the last couple years to designing full time, my vague goal for this year was to basically take on as much work as I possibly could and try to grow enough that I could realistically see myself continuing to be able to design full time… if that makes sense. And I succeeded at that, at the taking on new work and putting out as many patterns as I possibly could and growing, but the cost was this falling behind. Adventure Knitting took MUCH longer than planned/expected, and threw off my schedule for summer/early fall, and then Coloring Book grew into a much bigger project than it was supposed to be. I have absolutely no regrets, as I’m so darn happy with how both of those projects turned out in the end, and I hope that no one is mad at me for mis-judging my time lines and falling behind. I will be catching up and finishing everything up there on that last before I take on any new work!!

Something else I’m kind of always behind on is blog posts… lately, the only reason I take the time to blog is to announce a new pattern, and I wish I had the time to blog other fun stuff. So I’m planning to just take some time this week, as breaks between sample knitting, to blog about a few things that should have gone up months ago, but better late than never… So you can look forward to those throughout this week.

A fun announcement: Coloring Book is now available in print book format! It’s through Magcloud, and when you order it you’ll also get a free pdf download – so it’s not the same as the ravelry ebook + individual patterns in your rav library, but an ebook version of the print book. It also may be available soon at your local yarn shop! (You don’t get an e-version that way, but you also don’t have to pay shipping!) If you happen to be associated with a yarn shop, I’ll point you over to where the print book is available wholesale through Deep South 🙂

Something else fun: there’s an interview with me over on the BagSmith blog, about my Superduper cowl in their yarn, and about life as a designer and stuff like that in general. The interview was done with Mari in person, so it’s much different from email interviews, in which I have full control over how answers are worded and stuff… I do not have full control over what comes out of my mouth if I’m put on the spot! Hah!

And I’ll leave you with these holiday shots and a reminder that I have lots of patterns that could make excellent last-minute gift knits, like items from my best-of Quick Knits book, bulky Haka hats/cowl, super bulky Lemmy cowl, bulky Twisted Ankles legwarmers, and lots of any-gauge hats which could be made quickly… I hope your holiday season is going well!

New (free!) pattern: Superduper in Knitty!

Have you seen the new Knitty yet? That’s me on the cover! Whoa!! Very exciting!

My pattern is pretty bonkers, but only because of the yarn, which I feel like shouldn’t even be called “yarn”… it needs some other name… It’s The BagSmith Big Stitch Merino, and it knits up on size US 36 (20mm) needles at a gauge of 3 stitches per 4 inches!

My pattern, Superduper (on ravelry / leethalknits), is a giant cowl that can be worn many different ways. Above, you see it as a double-layer cowl, with a smaller neck-warming inside, and a larger shoulder-warming outer tube. If that’s turned around, you get this…

…and then the inside layer can be pulled up as a hood, for ultimate head/neck warmth:

(I tested out the level of warmth in some windy freezing snow, and it is COZY!)

So then if you flip it completely inside out, the tubes arrange so they’re together, as one giant double-thick tube (instead of the bigger outside and smaller inside), making a ridiculously humongous cowl:

This style is a bit silly and impractical, yes, but fun, I think.

And then you can flip the outer tube out to un-twist the whole thing, and it turns into a kind of figure-8 scarf+handwarmer piece:

And if you pull that the other way, so that the two sides are the same size, it can be worn as a shoulder shrug kind of thing:

Personally, I like it as a cowl hood that’s all-consuming and makes one look like a super-cozy performance artist or something:

How about a little backstory? I was given the chance to design in this awesome yarn (and I use the term awesome in this case more with the dictionary definition in mind: extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear), which I could never afford to use normally, to be honest, not my normal yarn scene 😉 So it was a really cool opportunity to have, and I thought it would be a fun design challenge to come up with a great pattern for it. My big bump sat around my house for awhile, as I waited for the inspiration to come to me…

…and eventually an inspired idea struck, I spent a few days sketching and swatching in a regular super bulky yarn to get the pattern figured out, and then I realized it was way too complicated and wasn’t going to work in this yarn. After days of work, it kind of hit me like a slap in the face, what was I thinking with this many-sectioned, modular, complex design?! That wasn’t going to work at all, I needed to simplify!

So, I started from scratch and spent several days developing a flat, simple-shaped design, which I thought would be perfect for the yarn. I knit up a sample using bulky yarn held triple-stranded, thinking that would be a similar weight to this yarn. It was fabulous, I loved it!! So then I knit up the real sample in this yarn all the way to the end, ignoring how much it WAS NOT working, until it was finished and I stepped back, and I realized how much of a complete failure it was. Turns out, this yarn is MUCH much heavier than triple-stranded bulky.

The good news about that design: it turned into Lemmy (below). The white Lemmy sample was the original sample, then when it failed for this project, I reworked the pattern and made the other samples in the other weights, and I’m really happy with that pattern, so it’s all for the best. (Side note: the first failed design is on hold for now, but I plan to also turn that into its own pattern in the future.)

I VERY carefully frogged that whole failed piece, started from scratch once again, having learned from all my mistakes, keeping it SIMPLE, and came up with Superduper. The final pattern uses the yarn in the best way, keeping to basic stitch patterns and simple shapes. I’m really happy (super duper happy) with how it turned out!

Of course, if you want to make a Superduper but the yarn is outside your budget, substitutions are totally possible. It might not be as easy as with most patterns, but if you think outside the box a little it shouldn’t be too hard. One idea: bulky yarn triple stranded twice, to make it 9-strands-thick, by chaining the whole skein using this technique, then chaining it again as you knit. Or 6-strands thick by holding two balls together and chaining them as you go. You’d need to play around with your bulky yarn to see how many strands are needed to get the approximate gauge – of course, you can mess with the gauge too, to make a slightly smaller piece. Another idea: knit with roving! Okay I’ll leave other ideas up to you, but I just wanted to say that I know this yarn is a very specialty item that most knitters can’t really justify buying (myself included) so if you like the item, you can making something work!

Let’s see, other fun things about the pattern… The cover shoot, in the snow, was done last weekend at Timberline Lodge (aka the Overlook Hotel from The Shining!) in some seriously cold, windy conditions. You can see above how I couldn’t control my hair at times, and I don’t know what I was doing in that outtake shot, but I think I got a bit silly from the cold! The cowl got put to the test in these conditions, and while my hands and feet were numb, my neck and shoulder region was toasty warm! The initial photoshoot, on the other hand, was done back in August (thankfully not during a 100 degree heat wave, just a normal August day in Portland), and I recommend NOT wearing this item in the summertime 😉

I think that’s that, everything you might want to know about Superduper! I hope some of you try making it, and then post photo in your ravelry projects so I can see! I don’t expect this to be one of my most popular designs, but it really is fun, and it knits up QUICK, like a few hours total, so if you have yarn that will work, give it a try! Fun knitting times!

Thanksgiving sale weekend: Print Pattern Packages (with digital downloads) on sale!

Remember when I used to sell full-color printed booklets of my patterns through MagCloud (and also self-distributed to yarn shops)? Maybe you don’t, but yeah, I did used to do that… it was a lot of work and not many people were interested, so I stopped, and now I only sell a couple of collections in print format. (And I use a distributor now for wholesale, because I pretty much sucked at that whole self-distributing thing.)

A side effect of this change in my methods is that I ended up with a pile of these nice quality print patterns sitting in my studio! What to do? Well, for about a year, they just sat, sadly, with no purpose in life. But I want them to find good homes! So, the biggest sale weekend of the year seems like a good time to address this issue, eh? Especially since packages of pretty patterns could make great gifts for the knitter(s) in your life!

So I’ve gathered up all these print booklets, sorted them into sets, and listed them on etsy… except if you’re reading this on Wednesday or Thursday, they aren’t there yet. They will go live as close as possible to midnight on Thursday night (west coast time), at discounted sale weekend prices! They will stay at the discounted prices until Monday night around midnight, at which point all the sets that remain un-claimed will go up to their normal prices (which are still discounted from what the patterns would normally cost – all pricing details are explained at the end of this post).

But wait, it gets better!! Each print pattern will have on it a slip of paper with a download code, for the pdf pattern through ravelry (but it still works fine if you’re not a ravelry member). Some of these print patterns are older versions which have been revised in the last year or so; the pdf downloads will be the newest, bestest versions, so you’ll have both the pretty printed booklet for your shelf, and the digital file to refer to if anything in the old version is confusing, or just to have a backup copy in your rav library, etc.

There are a bunch of patterns in print form – for some of them, I only have 1 or 2 copies, and for others, I have a ton of them, so they show up in many of the sets. For most of the sets, only 1 exists – one set has 2 in stock, and another has 3; once they’re gone, they’re gone!

I’ll link to every pattern right here and now, so I don’t need to link them up every time they are mentioned.

Pattern links:

Quick Knits book (the print book is the older, 8.5×11 inch bigger version, not the square version available here) (rav link)
Ten 10 yard Cuffs (rav link)
Haka hat (the print version is only the basic hat; the cabled hat and cowl are included in the digital download) (rav link)
Skoodlet hooded cowl (rav link)
Betiko customizable shawl (rav link)
Junction shawl (rav link)
Double Scoops headband/earmuffs (rav link)
Spiraling Stripes Hat Set (rav link)
Ocean Breezes hat (rav link)
Custom Tritops hat set (rav link)
Mr. Pointy hat (rav link)
Brimming with Color hat (rav link)
Terrapin hat (rav link)
Swerve fingerless mitts (rav link)
Twisted Ankles legwarmers (rav link)
Wobble Bass hat (rav link)
Shapeshifter buttoning cowl/hood (rav link)

And: Etsy shop link to buy these print pattern packages.

There are a few small sets… I have 3 copies of this Quick Knits pattern package (above), which includes the Quick Knits best-of book, with 12 patterns using under 20 yards of yarn, and the Ten 10 yard Cuffs pattern, with 10 different buttoning cuff patterns in varying degrees of difficulty. This package is a great learning tool for new knitters, or a perfect gift for someone with tons of small leftovers they want to use up!

There are two different 3-pattern sets. Haka/Ten 10 yard Cuffs/Skoodlet is a fun little package for adventurous beginner level knitters – Haka and the cuffs are easy, with the cuffs possibly teaching some new techniques, and then Skoodlet is a step up into the more intermediate range. And then the Skoodlet/Betiko/Junction set is for the more advanced knitter – 3 bigger patterns which are customizable, fun to knit, and great to wear!

There are two different 4-pattern sets as well. There’s that same fun adventurous-beginner level package from above, but with Double Scoops added on, which is also a fun pattern for knitters ready to advance, or just wanting to make a fun little accessory. And then a 4-hat package – Haka, Spiraling Stripes set, Ocean Breezes, and Custom Tritops set – which is a fun introduction to leethal hat patterns; all four hats are constructed differently from each other!

And now we step up to some 6-pattern packages. Above is another great adventurous beginner kind of package, with Ten 10 yard Cuffs, the Haka hat, and the Brimming with Color hat all being very beginner-friendly, and then 2 more hats – Mr. Pointy and Spiraling Stripes set – both on the slightly more simple end of the leethal pattern spectrum, and Skoodlet being a great pattern for stepping into intermediate territory.

This one is a leethal short rows collection – 6 patterns which all make use of short rows in varying ways! This would be a fun introduction to my design style for someone unfamiliar with my sideways edge techniques. You get the Junction modular triangle shawl, Betiko customizable crescent shawl, Terrapin modular twisted stitch hat, Custom Tritops modular hat collection, Spiraling Stripes sideways-knit hat set, and Swerve modular sideways-cuff fingerless mitts.

And here is a 7-pattern set for hat lovers – a wide variety of different kinds of hat patterns. There’s the Haka earflap hat, Terrapin twisted stitch hat, Custom Tritops versatile set, Mr. Pointy ziggy-zaggy fitted hat, Brimming with Color bulky slouch hat, Ocean Breezes wavy cloche or beret, and Spiraling Stripes customizable swirly hat set.

This one is kind of a world of leethal collection, with 7 different leethal accessories… Twisted Ankles cabled legwarmers, Swerve fingerless mitts, Ten 10 yard Cuffs, Double Scoops headband/earmuffs, Skoodlet hooded cowl, Haka hat, and Spiraling Stripes hat set.

Another leethal variety pack, with 8 patterns – 5 hats, and 3 other fun things. There’s Haka hat, Spiraling Stripes hat set, Brimming with Color hat, Custom Tritops hat set, Ocean Breezes hat, Double Scoops earmuffs/headband, Skoodlet hooded cowl, and Ten 10 yard Cuffs.

The mega hat set includes 8 hat patterns – the 7 in the hat lovers set above, plus Wobble Bass, to add some sideways cables to the mix!

And lastly, this is the package pictured at the top, the ultimate leethal accessory collection! You get all the leethal classics (okay I don’t know what qualifies as a leethal classic, but some of my all-time favorites are included here!) – Betiko shawl, Skoodlet, Double Scoops, Shapeshifter, Spiraling Stripes hats, Haka, Ten 10 yard Cuffs, and Twisted Ankles.

A couple things you might like to know…

Each pattern will come with its own separate download code, so if you want to split up your package and gift patterns to different people (or gift a few and keep the rest for yourself!), that will totally work fine!

Sale weekend prices are $2 less than the digital version of each pattern would be on its own, all combined (so if there are three patterns, and they each cost $6 normally, then the package price is $4 times the 3 patterns = $12 total). The normal (still discounted) price that remaining packages will raise to after Monday will be $1 less than the normal pattern prices. So for a 4-pattern package, the price will go up by $4; for an 8-pattern package, it will go up by $8. All sale and post-sale prices are given in the etsy listings.

Shipping is the same for all packages – $2 within the US, $5 to anywhere else (see the etsy listings for more details).

I think that’s all there is to know! Head to my etsy shop on Friday and get what you want while you can! (Just so you know, there are a few pdfs listed in my shop, so the listings which don’t say print patterns are not print patterns.) I am hoping to find good homes for all of these patterns over the weekend; I have no idea what to expect, so if you really want something it’s best to act fast in case they start selling out right away!

Happy holidays! I plan to eat way too much food tomorrow (mmmmmm stuffing and mashed potatoes!), and then avoid all stores all weekend – no Black Friday madness for me, no thank you! If you do go out shopping this weekend, try to support local shops as much as you’re able to!! 🙂

Unbroken hat(s) in Holla Knits!

Have you seen this season’s Holla Knits Accessories? It launched a couple weeks ago, and I have a hat in the collection! Here’s Unbroken (on ravelry / on leethalknits):

It’s a simple-ish hat in two different styles – a stockinette stitch fitted cloche, and a garter stitch slouchy style hat.

When making this hat, in three different directions, you’ll never pick up any stitches, you’ll never break your yarn, and you’ll be left with absolutely no seaming or finishing, besides weaving in your two yarn ends. It’s knitting magic! Okay, not really, it’s just simple increases, decreases, and short rows.

The pattern is for worsted weight yarn; the two sample pairs are in beautiful Jill Draper Makes Stuff Hudson (I guest blogged about these hats a little while ago)…

…and Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed:

Since the modular construction is pretty simple and easily adjustable, the pattern includes detailed modification notes for making either hat in any weight yarn, custom fit to any head size! This is another version I knit up in some bulky handspun yarn:

This hat is a seriously fun knit! The first section is the whole body, knit sideways, which is most of the hat – it’s a simple 2-row repeat that’s easy to memorize and great TV knitting. Once that’s done, you make the panel, then the crown, which both fly by super quickly, and you’re done! Bam!

It’s not just me, the designer, who thinks that – Anna says in her project notes: “I plan on making 800 of these”. Yay! 🙂 I made two prototypes when designing the pattern (on ravelry here and here), then the two Jill Draper samples, and the bulky hat, and I never got bored with making them!

Hey guess what! You have a couple chances to win some yarn to make these hats! Last week, to go with Jill Draper’s blog post, Holla Knits announced a giveaway of one skein of the very same yarn I used to make the blue samples, Jill Draper Makes Stuff Hudson in the Ariel’s Whisper colorway – and one skein is enough yardage to make one of each version of the hat!

And then today, to go with my post, there’s another giveaway – two actually! – for two pairs of skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed yarn, same color used in the tweedy green samples above. Both giveaways are just for Holla Knits email list subscribers, so if you’re not already a subscriber, you’ll need to sign up in order to enter to win.

Lastly, Holla Knits Accessories! How excited am I to be a part of this collection?! I love every single pattern in the set, but I really especially love both of the cowls, by Karin Wilmoth and Emily Greene Blue. Oh, but I also really love Annie Watts’s colorwork mittens, and Mari Chiba’s hat with the fabulous bright colors and pom pom… Excellent collection!!

See all the pattern details on Holla Knits, and check out the blog tour posts by all the designers and yarnies! We’re now on the final leg of the tour; here are the dates (and head to the Holla Knits blog for giveaways to go with the tour route!):

Nov 12 – Wattsolak
Nov 13 – Mari Knits
Nov 14 – Knitters Pride
Nov 15 – Emily Greene Blue
Nov 18 – knittingkirigami
Nov 19 – Knits in Class
Nov 20 – Claire Sandow Designs
Nov 21 – Baah Yarns
Nov 22 – Jill Draper Makes Stuff
Nov 25 – Lee Meredith
Nov 26 – Wooly Wonka Fibers
Nov 27 – Bumblebirch