Lee Does Stuff

Convertible cowly sweater vest made from recycled sweaters!

I made a thing! My now-functioning studio made me itchy to make stuff, so the other day when I should have been working at the computer all day, instead I did a little digging through my reclaimed sweater stash, and made this! What is “this”? It’s a convertible cowl-neck sweater vest slash cowl slash shirt slash skirt…..? It’s a simple concept that I came across on pinterest/ravelry and have been eager to try out ever since!

First, to give credit… that pin which first introduced me to the idea had no source (the original wrong source led me to the pattern-less rav project page which helped me reverse engineer the shape; I’ve since edited the pin source and description), so I did some reverse google image searching and found that the pin image is a garment by Elementum, and can be seen in this video (4:40 minutes in).

A major design element of the inspiration garment is that it’s oversized – the baggy size is part of what allows it to be worn comfortably in all the different positions. Well, I wanted to try the idea, immediately, with what I had on hand. And what I had on hand were a couple of fitted-sized sweaters. So my version is the same concept as the inspiration, but fitted, for a pretty different look. (I plan to make another in the future, appropriately oversized.)

Also, one of the sweaters I had in my recycling stash had a kangaroo pocket, which I thought would make the garment even more awesome, right?! Well, sort of; it also makes it less versatile. So, don’t necessarily follow my every move with this tutorial – if you want the most convertible, comfy finished result, then go for big sweaters with no pockets. If you like mine exactly as it is, find a fitted sweater with a kangaroo pocket and you’re good to go!

A few more words on what to look for in your reclaimed sweaters… Sweaters knit seamlessly in the round would be ideal, but are rare to find at thrift stores, as almost all mass-produced sweaters have side seams. Seams aren’t a huge problem, but the more clean / less visible the seams, the better your garment will look worn in all the different possible positions. (It would also be easier to make without seams.)

Your two sweaters should be as close as possible to the same width – if one is a bit bigger than the other, then the slightly bigger one can just have slightly bigger arm-hole parts, not a big deal. But the closer in width, the better. As for gauge / stitch count – if you have two sweaters in the same gauge, the same width, for the same (or extremely close to the same) stitch counts, excellent! This would take some serious thrift store luck to happen though. Probably, the two sweaters you use will be different gauges, for different stitch counts. You’ll just need to do a little math to work decreases around the smaller gauge one so that they end up with similar stitch counts, it won’t be too hard.

A couple last notes – if you’re not a knitter, you can do this project without any knitting, by sewing everything together instead. It won’t be as neat, but it will work. Stitch around the armholes carefully so no stitches unravel, and sew the edges together (instead of grafting) securely, so everything stays together and nothing unravels.

If you are a knitter, and you’d prefer to just straight up knit this entire thing, that should be easy enough! You can see the shape here, a big tube with two big holes. Go for it!

Lastly, if you feel guilty using perfectly good sweaters for craft materials, then look at thrift stores for sweaters with stains or holes… flawed old used clothing at a thrift store is unlikely to be bought and appreciated by normal (read: non-crafty) shoppers, and if you craft with it, you’ll be giving it a brand new life! Crafting with reclaimed materials from thrift stores is a win-win for everybody, the way I see it! It’s not like there aren’t plenty of clothes still remaining on the racks for shoppers in need of cheap duds.

Now, on to the tutorial!

You need:

2 reclaimed sweaters, which are not felted (this means you can see the individual stitches, and will be able to unravel them and knit with them), as close as possible to the same width (around the body, under the armpits) – for my sample, one sweater is stockinette, and the other is ribbed; this worked nicely, but is not necessary, they can both be stockinette or both be ribbed (see notes above for sizing info)
scissors
2 circular needles, sized to work with the sweater gauges
paper and pencil, and a calculator, to figure out and make note of your numbers
a yarn needle for grafting

(I used a weirdly shaped sweater which had already had one arm removed for another project, and a sweater from my crafting stash that I got super cheap from a thrift store because the previous owner had sloppily cut the collar off to give it a scoop neck.)

Start by cutting straight across each sweater under the armpits. To make the right shaped garment, one tube should be shorter than the other; my orange sweater happened to be significantly shorter than my grey sweater, so I just cut under the armpits of both. If they are the same height, and/or if both your sweaters are big and oversized, cut one of them further down so that it’s shorter than the other. (Exact measurements are up to you!)

If cutting across stockinette stitch fabric, turn the sweater inside out, as it will be easier to cut perfectly straight across using the reverse stockinette stitch lines as a guideline:

Now you have 2 knit tubes, hopefully the same width, one a bit (or a lot, your choice) taller than the other (kangaroo pocket optional):

For each tube, stretch it out, to loosen up the stitches, then unravel the top 1 or 2 rows. You’ll end up with a pile of little yarn bits, as a result of cutting across, and the top row may have been snipped into accidentally. I find it’s easier to get the stitches onto the needle if I unravel 2 rows – those little yarn bits tend to stick in there when you rip out the first row, then they generally fall out with the second row. Once you’ve unraveled a row or two, and are left with a clean line of live stitches, slip all those stitches onto your circular needle.

Be careful to pick up all stitches in the seam area so they don’t end up unraveling later – you’ll probably need to do some extra snipping or fiddling around to get every stitch on the needle. If you end up taking out part of the seam stitching, that’s fine, as you can re-seam it up when you’re weaving in all your ends.

Hold on to the yarn strands that you unravel, as you’ll use them to finish the armholes and graft. You can also rip out a couple rows worth of yarn bits from the unused part of the sweater, if you need extra yarn.

Here’s when you’ll have to deal with stitch counts and gauge issues… I didn’t take photos of this part for my project, and it’ll probably be different for you anyway, so you’ll just have to figure it out for yourself with your particular sweaters. My fine-gauge orange ribbed sweater happened to be almost exactly twice as many stitches as the chunky grey sweater, making the math easy for me – I doubled up the yarn (held 2 strands together) and knit around, decreasing all stitches, for one row around the orange sweater, k2tog every stitch. It was 2×2 rib, so I k2tog the 2 knits, then k2tog the 2 purls. I could have k2tog the knits and p2tog the purls, but since I knew it would be grafted in stockinette, I just knit all the decreases. I did this at a loose tension, so it wouldn’t pull in. If you don’t luck out with such as even ratio of stitches to decrease, decrease evenly around one tube as needed to give your two tubes close to the same stitch count.

Now you’ll need to do a little math. First, you’ll need to figure out how big you want your armholes, and therefore how big your connected parts will be. The armholes should be big enough for your head to fit through, so at least 22 inches or so around, stretched. Each tube will have a line of stitches bound off for each half of each armhole. Make sense? So, each bind-off section should be approximately 11 inches (or more) across. (My sample, because the whole thing is so fitted, has smaller armholes – approximately 10 inches across each part, stretched, and juuuust barely fits over my head.)

Count all the stitches across, from seam to seam. Usually the stitch count will be slightly different on one side from the other – write everything down. My notes as I worked are shown below. My orange tube had 79 stitches on one side, 75 on the other; my grey tube had 71 stitches on one side, 69 on the other.

Determine how many stitches will be joined – the stitches not in the armholes. In the above sketch, this is x (x is the same on all sides of both tubes). This measurement depends on your total tube width, but it should be somewhere around the width across (when laying flat) minus 11 inches or so (armholes)… or somewhere near 2/3 of the total width. If your stitch counts for each side are all odd, choose an odd number, if they’re all even, choose an even number; if they are different, then you’ll need to adjust by having slightly different armhole bind-off stitch counts as needed. I decided my joined stitches would be 43 stitches (odd number).

Now, for each side (4 sides total – 2 tubes, 2 sides each tube), subtract the joining stitch count from the total stitch count, and then divide each of these numbers in half. (You can see in my notes, 79 minus 43 is 36, in half is 18; 75 minus 43 is 32, in half is 16, and so on.) These numbers are your bind-off stitch counts for each side of the armholes.

If you like algebra, then using the labeled sketch above, you need to find y and z values for each tube (different for the 2 tubes). x is your joining number (which you just decided) – so, total stitch count on the y side, minus x, divided by 2, is each y; total stitch count on the z side, minus x, divided by 2, is each z. y + z is the total armhole length (for the one tube – the y+z numbers for the two different tubes added together makes total armhole circumference stitch count).

Now that you know the stitch counts, make the armholes. On the first tube, with needle points at the seam, looking at the wrong side, slip the correct number of stitches to begin first armhole – slip the number that corresponds with the side you’re on. (Eg: with my numbers, if I’m slipping into the side which has 71 stitches across, then I need to slip 14 stitches for that section of the armhole. Or, using the variables, if you’re slipping into the y side of the tube, then slip y stitches.)

Knit across all armhole stitches – so, knit to seam, then knit correct number of stitches on other side of seam. (For mine, if I slipped 16 stitches, then I knit across those 16, then I’d continue knitting 18 on the other side of the seam. Using the variables, if you slipped y, then knit the y, now knit z.) Now bind off those just-knit stitches, loosely, purlwise – I recommend the decrease bind-off method. *Purl 2 together, pass just-purled stitch back onto left-hand needle without twisting it, repeat from *.

Repeat this for all 4 armhole parts, slipping stitches around the circular needle to get from one to the other. Keeping those center live stitches on the needle for the next step…

Now you should have two tubes that look like this, all 4 of those rows of stitches between bound-off parts with the same stitch count:

All you need to do now is graft those live stitches together, for a nice, clean join! If your tubes’ sides each had different stitch counts from each other, join the two sides which had higher stitch counts, and the two sides which had lower stitch counts. Hold the 2 rows of live stitches together, needles parallel, wrong sides facing, and thread some of the extra yarn (whichever is the more sturdy, less breakable yarn of the two) onto a blunt yarn needle – try to use a length of yarn at least 4 times as long as the line of stitches.

Head over to my (brand new!) full step-by-step photo tutorial in my leethalknits.com knitting tutorials for grafting instructions.

Once that’s done, on both sides, all that’s left to do is sew up any holes you might be left with (around the seams, maybe), and neatly weave in all those loose ends:

And here is my finished piece, shown inside out and folded sideways, and then right side out after washing:

And all the ways I can wear it! The standard way places that kangaroo pocket kind of awkwardly… I can pull it down when I put my hands in it:

The length is better with the cowl neck around my shoulders:

It’s a better look with the pocket hidden in back (proving that the pocket wasn’t the best idea…)

I love it as a cowl!

And then some of the other ways the inspiration piece was worn… I didn’t even bother photographing it worn upside down, since the small, fitted orange section as the body looks ridiculous. It doesn’t work so well sideways, because of both the pocket and the fit (or in the kind of halter top style):

But, because I made mine smaller and fitted, it can be worn a couple extra ways – as a skirt:

…and as a weird tube sweater thing, haha. I had fun playing around with the different ways.

Anyway, conclusion on my end, try again with bigger sweaters and no pockets, and it should be awesomesauce. If you use the tutorial to make your own, I’d love to see it! I have this flickr group that I tend to forget about, but you can stick a photo in there to share! Happy crafting!!

New pattern: Maurice! A third of the Short Stripes Trio!

New pattern, and new collection concept! Today’s cowl pattern – Maurice – is part of a pattern trio, with the second and third patterns on their way within the next couple months…

This idea developed when I started brainstorming about a design concept that I wanted to play with in different ways, but not let one single design get too out of control complex, like I can tend to do sometimes. I wanted to try to steer myself to design slightly more simple patterns, so I figured if I planned three different designs around one idea, then I could really explore that idea, taking it in three different directions. Three seemed like the perfect number, enough room to play around, but not too many designs so that I’d get bored with the idea by the end.

I’m loving the trio concept so far. I actually first started on a completely different trio, when the concept originated, which is still in the works, but then I got sidetracked by wanting to play with short rows and stripes, and the leethal Short Stripes Trio was the first to actually come to be!

So, there will eventually be three accessory patterns, for three different objects, each featuring short rows and stripes. There will be some overlap with techniques and themes, but the three designs will definitely stand out on their own… and chances are, if you like this first one, you’ll like all three!

The way the trio collection functions is: Maurice is currently available, alone for $6, or as part of the trio for $12. Buy the whole trio now, get Maurice immediately, and have Barry and Robin delivered straight to your inbox as soon as they’re released. (All three patterns will be $6 individually.)

And yeah, with the naming, “trio”, get it? I’ve done way too much brainstorming about future trio pattern names!

Moving on to Maurice specifically… as you’ve been seeing, it’s a cowl that can be made in three different versions – narrow, wide, and long loop. All the versions can be small, medium, or large, and there are lots of detailed modification notes for making any size you want in any gauge you want. The pattern is written for a recommended gauge of aran weight yarn at 3.25 sts/inch, but you can use the mods to use any yarn you want!

The striping pattern is designed to stripe between two colors in each section, and you can stick to the same two colors for the whole thing, or switch to new contrasting colors for each section. The narrow cowl and long loop versions have two (symmetrical) sections, and the wide cowl has three (asymmetrical) sections. There are also modification notes for working with colors in different ways, if you want to really do your own thing!

There are also photo tutorials included for carrying yarn neatly between short rows, and switching yarns to avoid holes. Once you get the hang of that stuff, after going through the repeat pattern once or twice, it becomes a really easy, quick, fun knit! I had no problem making 5 samples because they were such fast moving tv/movie knitting projects, and I’m not a fast knitter. (Actually I made 6, because my first pattern for the long loop version wasn’t right, but I liked the wrong sample too much to frog it – I’ll put that up as a rav project after I weave in the ends and take photos…)

I made samples of the narrow version in small and medium, the wide version in small and large, and the long loop in small; a bunch of awesome test knitters made a wide variety of different versions, several with modifications, so check out the rav projects to see those! Thank you so much, my fantastic testers!!

That’s about all I can think of to say about Maurice… the yardage estimates and other details are all listed on the pattern page. I’m currently working on the second trio pattern and I’m really excited about it – I should be to the point where I can start showing you sneak peeks (on twitter, instagram, tumblr) within a couple days!

(If you’re reading this by February 11th, my birthday coupon code is still valid, so you can save 31% off Maurice or the whole Short Stripes Trio!)

Pattern sale, tumblr, and studio organization!

Hey guess what! February is my birthday month, so I’m inviting you to celebrate with me by offering a 31% off coupon code!

Enter the code leethals31 (that’s “leethal’s 31” without punctuation) into the coupon box in your shopping cart, on ravelry or leethalknits.com, and get as many patterns/ebooks as you want for almost a third off! This code will be valid at the start of February 1st, through my birthday on the 11th.

Moving on… I made a couple of proclamations over on my tumblr at the beginning of the year, and I wanted to address them both here. First, I claimed that for 2013 I’ll be posting a tumbl-a-day. I have stuck to it for most of this month, but not completely… as the days went by, I found that some days I had something personal to post about, or something knitting–related, and those were all good, but other days I didn’t have anything to post, so I’d just waste a bunch of time looking for something to reblog. This ends up being a bad thing for multiple reasons – the time wasted, and the littering of my tumblr with reblogs, which I want to mostly avoid doing. So, no more strict post-a-day plan, I’ll just try to post things over there when I have something worth posting.

I do like using tumblr, as a kind of halfway between a tweet and a full on blog post over here, and I think I’ll continue with the posting of pattern sneak peeks (like I posted last night!), so if you want to see those you might want to follow me over there. And, I do plan on doing some monthly tumblr based projects, like I mentioned in that first tumbl-a-day proclamation post… I’m going to try listening to and posting a record a day in February, so we’ll see how that goes.

If you want to help give me things to post about over there, you can ask me a question. Also, if you know of any of those photo-a-day projects for an upcoming month (in which you’re told what to photograph each day), let me know – I did one of those for a month last year and it was fun!

So then, the other thing I announced at the beginning of the year was that January would be the month that I finally get my studio in actual proper, functioning, usable order. I have made some progress, but damn, it’s been a busy month. I actually have a chunk of time set aside for this afternoon/evening to get it as far along as possible before the month is over, but it’s far from finished.

These photos were taken 20 minutes ago. In my defense, I have done a lot of more internal organizational work, like figuring out where certain things can live, projects which aren’t really visible behind all the clutter. A couple months ago, there wasn’t close to enough room for all my yarn, but then I got some new yarn organizing systems set up and now all my yarn has a place to live! Even all the small leftover balls. Organization feels so good!

I’ve lived in this house, with that room as my studio space, for over 2.5 years now, so it’s embarrassing that it’s always been used as basically a storage space, with rarely a surface clear enough to work on. The thing is, the room is significantly smaller than my studio room in our old apartment, and I’ve accumulated a ton more ~~crap~~ stuff over the last 3 years or so… Doing my old quick knits mail-out club encouraged me to buy lots of random crafty stuff, and then doing Remixed encouraged me to buy lots of sweaters to unravel, and this and that, and excuses excuses… basically, I am cursed with hoarding tendencies and I just have too much stuff to easily organize it in that one small room. But I’m doing my best, really.

My old studio space was never really organized either, always a work-in-progress, just like this one… until we bought a house and moved. About a month before we bought our house, I was told the Oregonian wanted to include me in a story about studio spaces, which would mean them sending a photographer into my space. I used it as a motivator to get my room in order for the first time ever, succeeded, was featured in the paper, then immediately packed everything up to move!

During all the house buying and moving chaos back then, I managed to take photos of the studio before packing, but I never got around to editing and posting the photos… until last night! I got them all sorted, edited, and up on flickr; so here and now, I’m showing you these photos of my old space, because I always meant to, and so that they might motivate me to get my current space as functional!

Got pretty good light in that room!

(Coffee can cubbies tutorial is here.)

Gotta have a record player in any decent studio space 😉

Some areas looked messy, but they were actually in order.

Thrifted wine rack (I think?) as yarn storage/display.

Reclaimed CD cases (from my old photo lab day job – I didn’t go through all those discs myself!) as yarn storage. And Ikea plastic bag storage units as yarn storage.

I’ve been sewing at the kitchen table for the last couple years… I can’t wait till I have space to actually craft in my craft studio!

Yeah, I like Ikea. I’ll leave it at that… there are more shots on flickr if you want to see more. I do have more to post about, but it can be for a later day… For now, you can be expecting the new stripy pattern release next week! I’m aiming for Wednesday morning… it’s a fun pattern, I’m excited about it! Yay!

New Cabled Haka Hat + Cowl!

You may or may not remember my old hat pattern called Haka, one of the first patterns I ever wrote waay back in 2008. Well, it was super simple, it was cheap, and no one really seemed to care about it, but I liked the idea of it and decided it was worth a major makeover!

So I turned it into a cabled hat, to go along with the basic version, and then I recycled the cable chart to make a matching cowl as well!

So it’s all updated on my site and ravelry now as kind of a mini-ebook, with the basic hat, cabled hat, and cabled cowl, altogether in the pdf for $6. All items use super bulky weight yarn, or 3 strands of worsted weight held together, which is what I used on these cabled samples.

Just like the original Haka, the hat can be worn with the strap four different ways… loose and hanging earflaps:

…fastened around your chin (Haka is Icelandic for chin, by the way):

… fastened up behind your head (this is my favorite way to wear it most of the time, still plenty warm but a bit out of the way):

Side note: one of my testers had the smart idea of putting a second button on the other side of the strap, so when it’s fastened this way the button can show on the outside instead of hidden underneath like you see here.

…and lastly, fastened behind the neck, so the strap is out of the way but the ears are still super cozy:

The cabled hat is the same pattern as the original hat, but with the cable chart for the body (the cables are only charted, not written); the cowl is just a simple tube cowl using the same cable chart:

This sample is the large size, which is huge and flops/folds over. The small size is more fitted and will stay up around the neck more (see some testers’ versions here!).

The pattern pdf includes a tutorial for cabling without a cable needle (same as this one on my website)… here’s a better view of the cable pattern on the hat:

And then of course there’s the basic Haka as well, which is suuuper quick, easy, great for beginners or for last-minute winter gift knitting:

It will work in any super bulky yarn, finer weights held multi-stranded, or it looks fabulous in handspun!

And the pattern also includes full instructions for jog-less stripes, like in this sample (2×1 stripes like this one, or any other width stripes you want to make):

Many many thanks to my awesome test knitters for your quick knitting and thoughtful feedback!! Happy knitting, all!

Junction shawl pattern!

Oh hey remember how I had a mystery shawl knit-a-long last month? Well, it’s long over and here is the mystery revealed!

Junction is a modular shawl, made up of 5 parts worked in different directions, all connected with short rows, no picked up stitches or seaming.

It can be made in any weight yarn, and in any size, in as little as 2 colors, or in as many colors as you want!

You can use the same color for the whole background, or switch between 2 different background colors, like I did in this main sample:

You can even used a subtly variegated or a self-striping yarn for the main color throughout, like this variegated sample I made, or like this self-striping by feistykitty, or this partially self-striping by craftzone.

The way the sizing for this shawl works is that the length you work to in the first section determines the final size of the whole piece… so while 3 sizes are given in the pattern, you can actually work to absolutely any size you want! (Helpful sizing notes are included.)

This sample of mine is in Anzula’s For Better or Worsted – in Curry and Pesto as the main colors, with bits of Bark and Navy. I love this yarn oh so much, yes!! For this color combo in the large size, 2 skeins each were needed of the yellow and green, but you could totally use this yarn in a different way and/or make a medium size and not have to get multiple skeins of a color. I think you’d be able to get away with 3 skeins total in the large size and a similar look (but with 3 colors instead of 4) by using 2 main colors (like I did) but not use those for the contrasting at all, and then the third color as the contrasting throughout the whole thing. You’d definitely be safe doing that in a medium size, or you could go kind of halfway between medium and large…

And then this small size sample is in beautiful Black Trillium Merilon sock yarn (Star colorway), with a recycled white silk used as the contrasting. I love it! The small size shawl makes a great 1 skein of sock yarn project (though you can use any weight!), for a special yarn that you want to show off; you could probably even get a medium size out of 1 skein, depending on how tightly you knit it up.

So… want to see my crazy design process for this one? It started with lots of swatching, and then once I had a basic concept figured out, I made up a first prototype, which looked like this:

At first I thought I was going to make garter stitch eyelet lines for the contrasting design details, but after using them in the center section, I didn’t like the look, and moved on to what became the chains in the later sections.

And I started to try this final sideways section across the top, but quickly decided against that, leaving it in the prototype instead of frogging it just for fun:

The shape of this one needed some major adjustment, but it’s sort of wearable… sorta kinda…

Then I made all my major adjustments to the in-progress pattern, to make for a better shape, and use the chains throughout, etc, and I had this thought that it could be cool to stripe 2×2 stripes throughout the whole thing. I had some Quince & co yarn I’d been wanting to use, in 4 colors, so I played around with striping ideas in photoshop and came up with this plan. Each of the 4 colors are used in 3 out of the 6 sections, paired with each of the other colors, so each section has its own unique 2×2 stripes, blending into the next (from sections 1-6, colors used are A/B, B/C, C/D, D/A, A/C, D/B).

For my first try, that plan became this:

First, the stripes were a bad idea. Second, the shape was still way off. But this time, it was only the top 2 sections that needed adjusting. So I frogged the whole top half, re-worked the pattern some more, and this final shawl turned out like so:

The design features are totally hidden in those stripes, so I knew that idea was out for the actual pattern. But this prototype served multiple purposes, and it was successful in its final shape/size. So this became pretty much the exact pattern for the small size, as worked in worsted weight…

And while it’s no good as an official pattern sample, I do like it as a personal accessory, so it will most definitely be getting some use!

So, next, I decided to make one more prototype, with a solid background, to finalize everything, before casting on with my good yarn. So I grabbed some aran weight Cascade Soft Spun (which knits up more like a chunky weight, I think), in order to whip up a quick medium size version. I switched between 4 different contrasting colors for this one, rotating A, B, C, D throughout the entire piece.

Well, finally it was a complete success, and my prototyping was complete! The medium was a perfect fit for what I wanted in a medium, and I loved it!

For my official large size Anzula sample, I wanted to show it in a 2 main color version. While the 2×2 stripes didn’t work, I was convinced that there was a way to use 2 different main colors, and I wanted to make that idea work, so I did more color-planning sketching (messy touchpad sketching in photoshop)… I tried lots of different ways of switching between the colors, and using the contrasting colors, and this is what looked best:

So I knit it up and that plan became this shawl (I love how almost exactly right on my sketched plan was):

The large size is nice and cozy!

I like how the 2 color version kind of appears as mostly one color from some angles, and mostly (or entirely) the other color from other angles.

So that was my design process! The only thing left to do was to make a small size sample, for which I chose to use sock yarn. I’d been holding on to this Black Trillium skein for awhile, waiting for just the right design… and I think I made a good choice! Love how it looks!

The small size is more of a kerchief than a shawl, really, depending on how you wear it. But in wool yarn, it keeps my neck a good amount of warm…

And that’s that! Junction! It was a bit tough as a mystery pattern, and I know there were a lot of drop-outs, but I think it’s a much easier pattern when you know what you’re supposed to be doing! The pattern includes lots of photos, step-by-step shots of how each section should look, and tons of notes to help you along the way. As long as you follow each line as it’s written, and trust it, it’s not a hard pattern. It’s all just knitting, after all 🙂

Holiday gift knitting! (plus mega sale, today only!)

It’s been a busy month! With all these new patterns, I want to offer a sale on this cyber Monday, so you can collect whichever ones you like with some major savings! (Like my newest Flying V’s, and Junction, which still has yet to be blogged officially, pictured below.)

So, today only, add as many leethal patterns/ebooks to your cart as you want (through ravelry or my site), and enter coupon code leethalmonday to save 40% off your entire order!!

This code will work for the whole Remixed collection (knocking it down from $20 to a mere $12 for all 8 patterns!) and all the quick knits ebooks, Game Knitting, the Flying V’s collection, etc…

And since it is now indeed the holiday season, I will go on to point you to my many patterns which might make for good (quick) gift knitting! All of my any-gauge patterns can be made as a quick gift knit if you choose a chunky yarn, like Wobble Bass, which looks very nice in bulky yarns (pictured here in worsted) and is a great gift for a hat-wearing person of any gender:

(Note: I’ll link to the ravelry pages for all the patterns throughout this post, since it’s a little easier and is probably preferred by many, but you can also find all the patterns on my website, and buy them through there with the coupon code if you prefer.)

Any-gauge mitts include Either/Or and Rumours (both from Remixed), which are both quick in chunky yarns:

Any-gauge cowls include Flippable and Parallel Lines (another Remixed pattern)…

…and hooded (or optionally hooded) cowls Shapeshifter and Skoodlet both work excellently in bulky or super bulky yarns:

Custom Tritops and Wild is the Wind (from Remixed) can both be made not just in any weight, but also as either fitted or slouchy styles (both shown here in slouchy), though if you choose to make either super quick in bulky yarn, the fitted style is probably the better choice.

Other Remixed any-gauge hats include Gentle on My Mind, shown here in an oversized super bulky version, and Freak Out! (a hat with a surprise hidden underneath!):

I also have some simpler bulky weight patterns, like Brimming with Color and Haka, which is the ultimate quick knit hat, in either super bulky yarn or 3 strands of worsted held together – perfect for one-night gift knitting!

And Twisted Ankles are cabled legwarmers knit up in bulky weight:

And then there are my official quick knits patterns – those hats and other accessories might be quick compared to shawls and sweaters, but these projects below are QUICK! There are the Ten 10 yard Cuffs:

Lots of good potential gifty items in my quick knits ebooks, like these Drink Sweaters and Pen Tube Bookmarks…

…and the Guitar Pick Keyring Pouch and CD Gift Case, which are together in the same ebook:

And then there are my older quick knits patterns, compiled into 3 volumes – these Pinwheel Earmuffs and Cabled Frame are from vol. 2, the Garter Strip Light-switch Cover is from vol.3…

…and these Stiffened Chevron Bookmarks and holiday-themed Wee Gift Bag below are from vol.1. Browse through ravelry or my site to see all my quick knits patterns (47 of them!).

Lastly, if you need to stick to freebies, I have some of those as well! My new hat Scant knits up quickly, especially if you choose a chunky yarn. Cassady and Buttonhead are also simple knits for any gauge, and the Buttony Chevron Cuff is super quick and fun:

And then there are these Gradient Mitts and leethal Mary Janes, both in bulky yarns for quick gift knitting.

Hope I gave you some good options if you are trying to pack in lots of knitting over the next month! You should be able to whip up several of these in time, no problem! Happy holidays, and happy knitting!

Scant, a free pattern!

Happy holidays! I have a gift to you all, a free hat pattern! It all started when I offered to knit my brother any accessory he wanted for his birthday, and he requested a plain “brown beanie”. Well, if you know me, you know I wasn’t exactly excited about the thought of this project… but I decided to use it as an opportunity.

While making this plain, brown beanie, I wrote it up as an any-gauge pattern for you! It serves as both an easy, simple pattern for a basic hat, perfect for using up a single skein of a special yarn, like this one, made from this handspun that I’d been saving for just the right project:

And also as a good introduction to any-gauge patterns. I know my patterns for any weight yarn can be intimidating to some knitters, who have only had experience with traditional patterns, but this basic hat pattern may serve to show that it’s not difficult to use an any-gauge pattern. And it’s fun to pick out any yarn you want to use, and then make a custom fit item with it!

This twisted rib brimmed hat is knit from the top down, so you don’t need to make a gauge swatch. You just started working outwards, and measure your gauge when you have enough fabric to do so, then determine your stitch count using that, and your own head measurement, continuing on to your ideal height.

The pattern is all on my website itself (something new I wanted to try out), and the notes include sizing info for gift knitting, and for making either a fitted or slouchy style. I’ll stop talking about the pattern now, since you can just click over to see the whole thing for yourself. And it’s on ravelry here. Enjoy!!

Flying V’s!

New pattern collection! Flying V’s fingerless mitts, full mittens, legwarmers, and cowl! 4 different items, all in your choice of chevron block colorwork pattern (all the same stitch pattern, just changing colors at different points). Any color pattern works for any item, and 16 different options are charted for you!

The collection is all together as one pattern – make the mitts/mittens in fingering weight or the legwarmers or cowl in worsted weight. All items are given in 3 sizes, and lengths are easily adjusted for all of them.

Because I had so many samples to show all the different items and a variety of the chevron patterns, I took a ton of photos (with much help from my awesome husband/assistant!!) – I’m taking this blog opportunity to show a bunch of the shots that didn’t make it into the actual pattern or rav pages…

So yeah, colorwork, that’s new for me! A few months ago, I had this vision for making a chevron stitch pattern in which the V’s are off-kilter, at first thinking maybe I could make it happen with slip stitches (more my knitting style) but I eventually decided the only way to make my vision really come to life was to teach myself stranded colorwork. Like, for reals.

I’d done bits of colorwork here and there (like in Wobble Bass, and in some game knit items), but I’d always done it with the drop-and-pick-up method, slowly and awkwardly. The thing is, I’m a thrower, and I’ve never been able to work the yarn with my left hand well, so I’d tried two handed stranded knitting a little and couldn’t swing it.

So I was determined to figure out a way to really knit stranded colorwork, and after trying a few different holding techniques, I found that the best for me is holding both strands in my right hand, one strand over my index finger and the other over my middle finger. After much practice, I’m still slow, and get some hand cramping if I’m not careful, but it works!

I made my first prototype of the design idea in some scrap yarn, in my original off-kilter chevron block idea. (I later decided not to do the thumb in stranded colorwork, as I’d done here!)

And in the process of making that, I realized there could be so many more possibilities based on that concept of working a chevron stitch pattern and changing colors for each V. So I started sketching! Well, I made a couple chevron base sketches, then had fun with photoshop color filling:

Then I had more fun plugging specific color block patterns into a chart spreadsheet, eventually ending up with the 16 different chevron block color patterns which are included in the pdf. 7 of the options are shown in my samples (and the pattern tells you exactly which ones they are), and my testers worked from some of the other charts as well, so you can see more patterns by looking through the ravelry project pages. And you can even play around and come up with your own variations!

The different color patterns can use anything from 2 colors up – the charts go up to 5 colors, but you can easily stash-bust leftover mini-balls by making non-repeating color rows of chevron blocks / V’s. Or use self-striping yarn for one or more of the block colors!

As for the samples, all the mitts are in Knit Picks Palette yarn, which is an affordable way to use lots of different colors. All the colors I used are listed in the pattern.

The legwarmers are in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed – I used exactly one skein of each of the 4 colors (I had about 20 inches left of the green!), so if you’re making the legwarmers in this yarn and might want to add some length or just be safe, I’d recommend doing a 5 color pattern…

The large size green cowl is in Knit Picks Swish merino and Chroma self-striping for all the V’s. By using the same self-striping yarn for all the V’s instead of different solid colors, you can carry the yarn up the entire thing and have hardly any ends to weave in!

Side note about the large size (especially if done in a floppy yarn like this soft merino) – it will want to flop open, revealing the wrong side, which you may or may not care too much about… a way I found to solve this problem is to fold it over on itself and stick a pin in it (a button like this, or a shawl pin), holding it up, and preventing it from flopping open:

The medium size cowl sample is in gorgeous Quince & Co Lark worsted weight. I had small leftover balls of these colors, so I bought a skein of the Egret for the background, and I absolutely love how it turned out!

The mitt/mitten thumbs are worked modularly, with some picked up stitches to close up the hole where the thumb joins the hand. The fingerless mitts thumbs have a garter stitch edge to match the top and bottom edges.

The mitten thumbs are worked at an angle, and the then grafted closed, making them thumb-shaped at the tops. The mitten tops are also grafted closed (grafting instructions are included; none of the other items require grafting).

Some colorwork experience is recommended going into the project. While shaping is minimal, making it a pretty simple pattern, working the colorwork along with the increase/decrease chevron pattern is a but tricky, especially if you’re new to colorwork. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not hard, but it is important to carry your strands evenly across the back, and catch floats as you work each color block.

The sizes can vary a bit depending on how tightly/loosely you carry your strands, and you can make size modifications by slightly adjusting your gauge if you want. Sizes of all the items, and fit notes, are all included in the pattern, and also on the ravelry pattern pages for each item.

The pattern collection pdf is 17 pages total – the written pattern is on 5 photo-less pages, the charts are on 3 pages, 1 page of abbreviations/chart notes, and 8 pages are notes and photos (not meant to print). You can buy it through ravelry or my website (and next week through Knit Picks as well).

Happy knitting!

Knitting-related events and updates for this busy time of year…

Quick post here to just show+tell you a few things… first, super last minute, but I’ve mentioned it before, if you’re in Seattle I hope to see you at Knit Fit! this weekend! I’ll be teaching Self-Publishing on Saturday (tomorrow) afternoon, then hosting a Game Knitting night Saturday night, then teaching the Sideways Edge Cast-on and Bind-off techniques on Sunday morning. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to sign up last minute for any of these if you want to (this doesn’t go for all Knit Fit! classes, but I believe mine have room for last minute students), plus the market is open to the public all day Saturday and Sunday.

This is the dishcloth I made last night in preparation for the Game Knitting night – I game knit this to Say Anything… using short rows for my game pattern. I really like how it turned out!

Moving on to other stuff… I was recently interviewed for the Happy Knits blog! Go check that out to read me talk about my love of knitting, design, music, and more.

I finished a minor update to leethal.net! (which includes the blog) I need to give it a major update, but can’t find the time this busy season, so I settled for changing some of the colors and the headers for now. Now the colors match leethalknits.com (sort of, not totally) and the headers feature these drawings, just to mix things up, hooray for change!

Another bit of news for pacific northwest locals – I’ll be heading down to Corvallis for a trunk show at Stash later this month! I’ll be hanging out (with my knits) for the knit night on Wednesday, November 14th, and then my stuff will continue to hang at the shop for about a week. So, if you are in the Corvallis area, come by on the 14th if you can, or stop in any time for the following week to see my knit goodies, yay!

You know how I’ve been talking about how I’m working on my first stranded colorwork design? Well here are some peeks at my first samples! It’s still very much in progress, but I’m hoping to be able to start having it test knit next week, and release it mid-month if all goes well! (If you are an experienced stranded colorwork knitter and are interested in test knitting, check out the testing info here and let me know!)

And lastly, the mystery shawl knit-a-long is coming to an end! These are some peeks at my small size Black Trillium sock yarn sample…

All 5 sections have been released, and you can see lots of finished shawls in the forums and the project pages… if you like what you see, you can buy the pattern now and get all 5 sections in the separate mystery pdfs (totaling the complete pattern). Next week (hopefully on Tuesday), I’ll be releasing the final complete pattern, all in one file with photos. I think this knit-a-long went pretty darn well, I hope everyone had tons of fun!!

Woolly Wormhead blog tour! Classic Woolly Toppers! Yeah!

This is a first for me, here on the ol’ do stuff! blog – I’m a stop on the Classic Woolly Toppers blog tour! Which is, of course, the new hat book by the wonderful Woolly Wormhead (on ravelry here):

This is exciting for me, I’ve never been part of a blog tour before! And what a fabulous one to be a part of! I’ve always greatly admired Woolly’s hat patterns – the diversity, the creativity, the whimsey, they are oh so great! Yes! And this book is fantastic; a bit less of the whimsey and more of the classic, but not boring, that’s for sure!

This book – available in print and/or digital format – has 44 pages packed with 10 beautiful hat patterns as well as technique tutorials, sizing info, styling tips, photos of the hats on different models to see them with different face types and hairstyles… As with all Woolly’s hat patterns, all the designs come in many sizes, so you can get a perfect fit.

While the designs are inspired by classic styles, they are definitely modern patterns, and feature lots of innovative construction ideas and knitting techniques. One of my favorite bits is that the Camden Cap (pictured on the cover above and below) uses a recycled plastic bottle to make the brim insert! Smart! And she gives plenty of detail about how to make the piece and insert it into your hat as you knit it.

And speaking of recycled materials… I didn’t have time in my knitting schedule to actually knit one of the classic toppers for this post, but I did manage to make one of them! (Not really but kind of sort of…) One of my favorite designs in the book, Imagiro, is extremely beginner-friendly for the actual knitting part, as it starts off as a plain rectangle… then it gets folded and sewn in a mind-blowing magical way to turn it into this awesome turban!

Woolly’s description: “A delicate yarn calls for a delicate shape and this turban works both to glamorous effect. Worked flat, this piece is all in the finishing with fascinating folds and turns that turn simple garter stitch into a sculptural masterpiece.” I took a look at it, wanted to try it so badly but didn’t have time to knit the rectangle (oh so many projects on the needles!!), so I grabbed a thrifted sweater from my for-crafting stash, cut out the sleeves to size, and I had my rectangle!

Now, this is a far from perfect way to make the hat, as this stockinette fabric, seamed down the middle with the crocheted edges to prevent unraveling, is much different from the intended garter stitch piece. But, I got to try it out, and it worked!

I love my new tweed turban! (Doesn’t look its best styled with my newly cut, too-short bangs, but once they’ve grown out for a couple weeks it’ll look great!)

Some of my other personal favorite designs from the book are the pillbox style Taboosh, the button-embellished cozy Karenin, the asymmetrical cloche Ravine, and the bucket style Corbelle.

What’s your favorite design from the collection? Tell me and you might win the pattern!

Yup, it’s giveaway time! Woolly has generously donated giveaway copies for this blog tour, so leave a comment telling us which is your #1 favorite hat from the book – check them all out here on ravelry or here on Woolly’s website – and I’ll be picking 3 winners! 2 will get the pattern for their chosen favorite hat, and the grand prize winner will get the entire ebook, plus a copy of one of my hat patterns, just to make the giveaway a little bit leethal!

I’ll pick the winners in a week and a half-ish, on Monday November 5th. And, if you’re just dying to get your hands (literally or digitally) on a copy of this book, you can buy the print version for $16.99, the digital version for £9.00 (which is $14.50-ish), or both print+digital for £16.50 ($26-ish) – see Woolly’s site for all the buy links.

Unfortunately (and infuriatingly, for me), my website/blog has been down all week – this post was supposed to go up on Tuesday, and as I was finishing it up Monday afternoon my site stopped loading… anyway, so the next stop on the blog tour was going to be Knitspot, but that’s happened already now. Now, the next tour stop will be my buddy Cirilia over on bricoleur knits – you can find links to all the blogs and podcasts on the tour, past and future, over here! Check them all out for different perspectives on the book, interviews with Woolly, etc, fun stuff!

Happy hat knitting!!