Showing posts with label Cecily Glowik MacDonald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cecily Glowik MacDonald. Show all posts

Spring KAL/SAL Wrap-up and FO Gallery!

by : MarinadeDesigns
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's Spring KAL/SAL! It was a huge success and I absolutely loved seeing all of your beautiful Goodale cardigans! If you are on the Ravelry thread, please keep those FO photos coming! I will post my sweater photo as soon as possible. In the meantime, I was able to finish my 1-hour skirt:

1-hour Skirt in Amy Butler
Twilight Peony

Also, here are a few other FO's from participants who gave me permission to use their photos!

LaurainATL

Dimsumknitter

Wearablesheep

Mmhiscox- sorry I missed
your pic yesterday! :)

Thank you ladies for allowing us to showcase your beautiful sweaters! Readers, feel free to check out their Ravelry pages which I linked to in the photo captions for all of the info on their sweaters. Thanks so much to everyone who participated and to Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Brett Bara for participating in guest blogs for their designs! If you had fun participating in the KAL/SAL, let us know by leaving a comment, and tell us what we should do for the next one!

Happy knitting and sewing everyone!
Kristen

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Spring KAL Week 3- Interview with Cecily Glowik MacDonald!

by : MarinadeDesigns
Welcome everyone to week three of our Spring KAL! I hope everyone's projects are going well! It seems like everyone is making good progress on the Ravelry Thread and I've been seeing some lovely pictures posted over there as well! All of us beans are knitting right along and I will be posting some new updates on those next week. As promised, I have an interview to share with you today with Cecily Glowik MacDonald, the amazing designer behind the Goodale Cardigan that we are all knitting! Here is what she had to say about Goodale, inspiration, designing, and upcoming projects!



The first published design
JBW: How did you get into knitwear design and what was your first published design?

CGM: As soon as I learned how to knit I began designing my own very simple things and taking parts of sweaters that were of the same gauge and melding them together. Some worked, some did not, but I loved experimenting. The first design that I ever had accepted is called the “Buckle Bag” and is in the Vogue on the Go series in the book named Bags Two. Here is the Ravelry link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/buckle-bag-2

JBW: It seems like most independent designers find themselves on this career path quite by accident. Did this happen for you as well, or did you always know you wanted to work in the fiber arts industry?

Idlewood, one of
Cecily's most popular
designs to date.
CGM: I went to college as a Fine Arts Major with a concentration in painting and had no idea where I would go from there! I ended up moving to Brooklyn, NY after graduation and found that the tiny poorly ventilated apartments were not conducive to working with oil paint. A non-knitter friend gave me a copy of Stitch and Bitch for Christmas of 2003 and the next month I got started knitting and absolutely fell in love.

JBW: Your designs are very much your own unique style. How did this style evolve into what it is now?

CGM: I have now realized that the designs that do best for me are the ones that I want to knit and to wear. I love knitting stockinette stitch pieces with simple details and those are the pieces that I put on most often. I feel that for a while I was over thinking designing and that it works best to just design what makes me happy.

JBW: Where do you find inspiration for your designs?

CGM: Most of my design ideas come from simple swatching. Even if I am just knitting a  stockinette stitch swatch to begin with, the drape and texture and way the stitches look seem to always inspire an idea for a new piece. I also love window shopping in real life and on line, so I am sure that the things that I see also influence what I decide to make.

JBW: Of all of your designs, do you have a favorite? One that you return to time and time again or wear often?
Kara

Current
CGM: My favorites tend to change from week to week and depending upon the time of year. At the moment Current and Kara are my go to sweaters.

JBW: What does a typical day look like for you? 

CGM: I get up and get some coffee and do a bit of knitting to wake up. Then I begin to tackle emails and my to do list. My to do list usually includes things like sizing and writing patterns, packaging and filling wholesale orders, getting swatches and sketches ready for either myself or companies I am working with, reminding myself that I need to get a new blog post ready soon, finishing and blocking pieces, getting styling ready and figuring out photo shoot times, plus a million other random things! After I have completed as much of my to do list as I can, I get to knit some more.

JBW: What was the last non work-related crafty project (knitting or other) you did?

CGM: I have been trying to learn to sew and made my wonderful friend and co-author Melissa LaBarre a little crooked baby quilt for her new little girl.

Goodale, of course. :)
JBW: The Goodale Cardigan is one of your most popular designs on Ravelry, what inspired this design and what do you think makes it so popular?

CGM: Goodale was a project that I cast on for and then it sort of morphed into what it is. And I love pockets and Stockinette Stitch! I think that the popularity of it was due to the kind comments and support that I received about it from wonderful designer friends after I wore it to one of the TNNA trade shows. (Thank you all!)

JBW: Do you have any tips or advice for those of us participating in the KAL?

Goodale pocket close-up.
CGM: This was the question that I receive most when Goodale was released: If alternating skeins of a hand dyed yarn, where do you twist? I did some swatching and found that if you twist at the end of the WS rows right before you work the end I-cord trim, it works well. Another suggestion is to twist the 2 skeins at the underarm when you get to the body.

Goodale, sleeve and
increase close-up.
JBW: We heard that you are working on a book and just loved the skirts you sewed for that photo shoot! What can you tell us about the book and what inspired you to sew all of those skirts?

CGM: I am very excited about the self published book that I am working on, it has nine new sweater designs from me and 3 accessories from designer friends. I had a great team of people working on it and will publish it at the end of the summer/ beginning of Fall. I was so thrilled when I found Brett’s book and made the first skirt and realized that I could actually do it! Finding a consistent and inexpensive way to style a collection can be tough and being able to make skirts with fabrics that I chose was amazing.

"Starling" one of Cecily's
most recent designs, available
on Ravelry.

JBW: What is next for you in the design world?  Any exciting projects on the horizon?

CGM: Right now I am in the midst of finishing up my book and because I like to get ahead of myself, starting to plan a second in hopes that this one does well and I get to do another! 

Thanks again so much to Cecily for being a part of this KAL and for designing such a beautiful sweater that we are all so anxious to finish and wear! If you haven't yet signed in on our "Roll Call", please remember to do so soon. Next week is the last week to check in as I'll be announcing the yarn and fabric winners in the week five blog post! In the meantime, remember you can e-mail me any questions about the project or check in on the Ravelry Thread for help. There are tons of friendly voices there who have all been super supportive so far! See you all back here next week and of course, happy knitting!

Kristen

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JBW Spring KAL Week 2 Update and more prizes!

by : MarinadeDesigns
Welcome to week two of our spring KAL for the Goodale Cardigan! I hope everyone’s projects are cruising right along without any issues. I’ve had just a few questions so far, but it seems like a lot of the issues are being cleared up over on the Ravelry thread. Everyone has been so nice and forthcoming with their tips and tricks, it’s so much fun to see everyone helping each other out over there!

The start of something Good-ale. :)
I was actually able to make some pretty good headway over the weekend and now have about 5” of the yoke done (I am desperately trying to finish a baby gift by next weekend and toggled back and forth between the two projects all weekend, otherwise I would have gotten a bit further.) I really truly love this Cascade Venezia Sport though and couldn’t be more happy with my yarn choice! It’s so silky, smooth, and so soft on the hands when knitting that I hardly want to put it down! It glides so easily off the needles and has just the right amount of silky sheen. The stitch definition is absolutely amazing as well and I know that my finished Goodale is going to become an immediate wardrobe favorite!
A view of Jeanne's full project in
Tosh Pashmina- Alizarin

The only complaint is that the blue dye left a little residue on my hands after knitting for a couple of hours.  I think that is normal with these rich saturated colors, and will just be really careful when soaking and blocking to get as much of it out as possible so that it doesn’t bleed on my clothes. I might also try and set the dye a bit more with a small amount of vinegar as I read in this blog article. I am pretty confident that this will do the trick.    

Jeanne is using the increases
specified in the pattern.
One of the biggest debates I am seeing so far in the Ravelry group thread is in regards to the raglan sleeve increases.  In the pattern, Cecily uses a k1-r/b increase which gives a nice and tidy increase.  Now, if you have a particular increase you like to use or prefer, I don’t see why you can’t substitute and do that instead.  I personally prefer the look of a M1R and M1L increase on either side and have adapted my sweater that way. I recently had the pleasure of taking a top-down sweater class from Diane Soucy of Knitting Pure and Simple, and learned that of all of the increases, this one is my favorite both visually and in execution. I think this preference is different for many folks so follow your heart!

Leanne's Goodale in Frog Tree
Pediboo, so soft!
Lastly, the kind folks over at Cascade Yarns sent me some Cascade Venezia Sport to share with you all! In addition to the fabric giveaway for the roll call, we will also be giving two winners each three skeins of the Venezia Sport in the color of your choice!  That means there will be three winners total!

Three skeins are actually enough to knit up to a size 45.25” bust Goodale sweater, or use it for another fun project. In all, this yarn is awesome!  If you haven’t added yourself to the roll call for the KAL yet, please do so in last week's blog post if you’d like to be in the running to win some of these fabulous prizes for participating! I’ll announce the yarn winners in the Week 5 blog post so be sure to enter by May 15th at Midnight (Pacific Time).



Thanks everyone for tuning in this week, and for joining us on this adventure!  We’ll see you next week with a guest post from Goodale designer Cecily Glowik MacDonald!

Happy knitting,
Kristen

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JBW Spring Knit-a-Long Kick-off and Roll Call!

by : MarinadeDesigns
Hello everyone! The JBW Spring KAL/SAL is finally here! We are so excited to get started! For those of you just tuning in, we are knitting the Goodale Cardigan by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. You can read all of the KAL/SAL details in last week’s post.

The response to this KAL on Ravelry so far has been huge! I am so thrilled to have so many of you join us in this KAL! At last count, four of us “beans” are participating as well: Jeanne, Terry, Leanne, and myself so I’ll share our projects with your as we go along!  I’ve got pictures of Jeanne’s, Terry’s and my starts to share today. Jeanne is cruising so fast already! I’ll need to work hard to catch up!

Jeanne's beautiful Goodale in Tosh Pashmina- Alizarin

So far, the pattern is going great! I was surprised at how easy the i-cord edge was once I got going! I don’t know what I thought it was going to be like, but it’s definitely a cinch!  Thanks to Jeanne who told me, “Just follow the directions literally and don’t over think it and you’ll be fine.” I’ll pass that same advice onto you all.  Seriously, you can do it.  

Look ma!  I'm knitting a sweater!
The Cascade Venezia is a dream
to work with and my new needles
aren't bad either!
I used this project as the perfect opportunity to try out the beautiful Ebony Wood needles that Sharon from Lantern Moon gave me during her recent visit to Reno. Thank you again so much Sharon, I love them!  Also, the beautiful beaded stitch markers were a gift for joining the Among Friends Yarn Club with independent hand dyers Sincere Sheep and Knitted Wit. There were just enough markers for this project and they are so pretty to look at while I'm knitting! 

Some of you have also already gotten started too and I encourage all of you to post project pics on the Ravelry Group. We love to see photos! I know for me it’s a great motivator. I'm going to work on it heavily in the next week so I can get you all some good progress pics too!

Here is Terry's project as well, she's using Jagerspun Heathers 2/8s Wool from her stash:

Although this is a fingering weight yarn,
when it is blocked it blooms
 to the perfect fullness!
Another thing to remember, I am available at any time to help with patterns.  You are welcome to join in the conversation on Ravelry at any time and have the group help you out or if you’d rather, feel free to e-mail me directly at: kristen@jimmybeanswool.com.  I am always here to help out and if I don’t know the answer, one of our other beans will!

Lastly, you may all have heard about the SAL portion of the KAL. Once again I just want to remind you that it’s not required you do the SAL to participate, we just thought it would be super fun to throw in a twist! I hope it will be a good excuse for many of us to dust off the old sewing machines!  


This is the super cute and simple skirt we'll be making from Brett Bara's book- Sewing in a Straight Line:


1-Hour Skirt
To help encourage some more sewing action, we are going to do a give-away with this KAL/SAL roll call!  The winner will receive 2 yards of a fabric of their choice from our website--enough to make the 1-hour skirt by Brett Bara that we’ve chosen for this SAL. To be eligible to win you must do two things: 1) participate in the KAL, 2) post a comment here to let us know what yarn you are knitting your Goodale with.  I’m going to leave this giveaway open until May 15th at Midnight (PST) for anyone who wants to join us late.  On Week 5 of the KAL/SAL, the week before we start to sew our skirts, I’ll randomly pick a winner and announce it!  
Thanks so much for joining us here and I look forward to knitting-a-long with you the next six weeks. It’s sure to be a lot of fun! We’ll be back next week with updates and stay tuned for guest blogs from both designers-- Cecily and Brett!  We are so excited to host them both here!

As always, Happy Knitting!
Kristen

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Announcing the Jimmy Beans Wool Spring KAL!

by : MarinadeDesigns
I am so excited to tell you about this fun Knit-A-Long (KAL) we’ve been cooking up for you! It’s going to be the biggest and best one we’ve hosted so far! The reason I say this is because we’ve decided to add an extra fun component to this KAL; can you guess what it is? I’ll give you a hint: It involves something new to us here at Jimmy Beans…

The 1-hour Skirt
A sew-a-long! That’s right, we’ve decided to celebrate our shop’s branching out into the land of sewing by adding a simple skirt sew-a-long to this KAL! We figured the best person to help us out with this would be Brett Bara, who’s book “Sewing in a Straight Line” recently inspired knitter and designer Cecily Glowik MacDonald to sew a whole bunch of cute skirts to gowith her designs for a photo shoot. We were “sew” inspired by Cecily’s cute skirts she created using Brett’s book (which is also personal favorite of mine), that we thought you all might appreciate how seamlessly, yet with plenty of seams, these two crafts go together. The best part is that we’ll be using the “1-hour skirt” pattern from Brett’s book, which is truly a speedy garment to sew! But more on that later… 

You are probably wondering, in all of my talk of sewing, what we will be knitting! Well, since Cecily was the inspiration for this whole KAL/SAL thing, we will be knitting her Goodale cardigan which we think is truly perfect for spring! When paired with a fun printed spring skirt, this cardigan is sure to become a wardrobe favorite! Also, even though it calls for a DK weight yarn, it is knit mostly on size 7 needles so it should knit up pretty quickly. Other details about this pattern include: it is knit seamlessly from the top down, in mostly stockinette stitch, and has some fun little details to keep it interesting. 

Goodale
One of our beans, Leanne, knit Goodale for Bethany (another bean) last Spring, and she LOVED every moment of it! It only took her about 3 weeks to knit it in the 34” size which means that we can totally do this in the 6 weeks or so that we’ve allotted. Leanne enjoyed knitting Goodale so much, she is planning to do this KAL with us and make one for herself!

So now for the details! The KAL/SAL will go from Wednesday April 18th through Wednesday May 30th.  This gives us 6 weeks from start to finish to knit our sweaters and sew our skirts (if you choose to participate in the sewing component). We will officially kick off the KAL next Wednesday, April 18th with a blog post here. I’ll be blogging updates each week and we’ll also have a guest post from each of the designers during that time!  If you can’t start exactly on the 18th, never fear! You can join us at any time and we’ll still be here to cheer you on via Ravelry and e-mail after the KAL is over!

We will also be discussing anything KAL related in the JimmyBeans Wool group on Ravelry. If you are on Ravelry and haven’t joined our group yet, please do! We’d love to have you! You’ll see the thread near the top of the discussion board for our Spring KAL. That’s where all the shop talk will happen. I’ll also be available for full knitting support throughout the KAL via e-mail: Kristen@jimmybeanswool.com.
My supply pile!  SO excited!

We’ll be doing a roll call for this KAL so that we can get an accurate head count of how many of you are participating! Even if you don’t like to talk or comment much online, we still would love if you would let us know that you are participating! This helps us to gauge whether or not we should keep doing KALs or focus our energy on other projects.  But mostly, it lets me know that I am not just hanging out online and talking into cyber space in hopes that someone is there. Join me!  It will be fun, I promise!

You know what else is fun? Knitting with friends! Get a friend or friends to join you to knit for this KAL in person, then tell us about it online…That’s what this whole KAL thing is about-- bringing knitters together.  So join us, I promise, it’s gonna be a blast! (The official roll call will be in next week’s blog post!)

In the meantime, here are the materials you’ll need for the whole enchilada, including the sewing portion:

Sweater Materials:

-580-1160 yards of a DK weight yarn depending on the size.*See notes below
-US size 7- 29” (or larger) circular needle
-US Size 5 DPNs
-Goodale Cardigan Pattern by Cecily Glowik MacDonald.  Printed versions are available on our website or the downloadable version is available from Winged Knits on Ravelry.
-Stitch markers
-Stitch holders or waste yarn
-A tapestry needle
-2- 7/8” buttons

Venezia Sport in "Peacock Blue"
*The pattern calls for Tosh Pashmina but since we are running low at the moment on a number of colors and I am dying to try the new Cascade Venezia Sport, I will be using that in the gorgeous Peacock Blue color. The yardage on this yarn is AMAZING.  I am only going to need 3 hanks and I am knitting a 41.25" sweater! Cecily (the designer) also recommends: Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino DK, Malabrigo Silky Merino, MalabrigoArroyo, Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, or Rowan Cashsoft DK to give you some other options.  We love these yarns, but we want you to pick what is ultimately going to make you happy so have fun!  

Sizing and yardage for Goodale are as follows:

Finished Bust Measurements: 31.5 (34, 38, 41.25, 45.25, 49.25, 52.5, 55.5, 58.75)”

Yardage Requirements: 580 (640, 720, 770, 855, 935, 1010, 1080, 1160)

Skirt Materials (Beyond the sewing machine and scissors of course):*

-1-2 yds of 44” or wider fabric depending on your height and desired skirt length. If you want a knee length or longer skirt, buy 1.5 yards or more. When in doubt, buy a bit extra.  You can always use the leftovers for quilt squares or a smaller project later. We have tons of great regular and sale fabrics right now so don't forget to check them out! Beginners should choose an easy to sew with fabric like 100% quilting cotton. (In case you were wondering, I am using Amy Butler's Twilight Peony print from the Soul Blossoms Collection.)  
- 1” or wider elastic- the length of your waist circumference where you would like the skirt to sit.  
Brett's Book
- Brett Bara’s “Sewing in a Straight Line” book or a skirt pattern of your choice. Brett’s book is great for beginners because it doesn’t require using patterns, just your measurements and some diagrams and written instructions. Feel free to check your local fabric store for patterns if you are feeling more adventurous. Also, there are several online tutorials and videos on Brett's website for making this exact skirt, so if you aren't sure about getting the book, that info will be provided when we get to that point in the KAL/SAL.  For beginners, this book is great because it has tons of valuable information about sewing that you might like to read so I do recommend it.
- Thread that matches your fabric.
- A large safety pin

*Note, some of your sewing supplies will need to be purchased at a fabric store as we don't yet carry all of the notions you'll need to sew with just yet. We are terribly sorry for any inconvenience this might cause! :)  

By the way, I should mention that the sewing component is entirely optional and you will by no means miss out on any of the fun should you choose not to sew with us! We just thought it would be exciting to bring a complimentary craft into the mix with this KAL!  Let us know what you think!

I hope this post has gotten you excited for the KAL! I seriously can’t wait to cast on! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know via e-mail: Kristen@jimmybeanswool.com. If you need help matching fabrics to yarns or have specific product questions, please call our customer service department at: (877) 529-5648 and tell them that you are participating in our KAL they can help you get what you need! If you made it through this long post, nice job, that was a lot of info! Thanks so much for reading and I hope to see you all back here next week and knitting with me in cyber space!

Happy knitting (and sewing),
Kristen


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