Showing posts with label fair isle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fair isle. Show all posts

Ahhhh Shetland wool...

by : Freaky Knitter





Sandy and I have been working towards an adventure in Scotland for a long, long time and we are finally in the real planning stages of our adventure! Of course we would love to visit every knitting and wool venue that we can think of (and boy can we think of a lot!!), but we will have to limit our time to some specifics. Alice Starmore, if you are reading this, can we please, please come to tea?






Kate Davie's Sixareen Cape




Now what trip that Sandy and I planned not be all about the knitting and of course we are going to Scotland one of the world's knitting capitals, so come on let's knit!! We just received our package from Jamieson and Smith in Lerwick Scotland full of our yarn for Kate Davies Sixareen Cape! Now of course we can get yarn here at the shop that would fill the bill perfectly, but this came from Scotland and that makes the two of us feel a little like we have already begun our adventure.













Yesterday Sandy said hey have you checked your mail to see if our package is here and I said no, but what do you think I did when I first got home?? Yep that's right I went straight to the mail and it was exciting to see our package in my box. I started texting Sandy right away and she said open, open, open, but it just didn't seem right to open the package without my Jo (gaelic for friend) by my side, so I waited and it was HARD let me tell you!!!







When we did finally open the package our fingers, eyes and hearts were in total wool overload...ahhhhh Shetland wool. The yarn is a recent addition for Jamieson and Smith and it's called Heritage. The idea is that it is more like the traditional yarn used in fair isle knitting of old and I can say that I just can't wait to cast on. Of course I have a couple of pressing projects that I am working on right now, but I am sure I could squeeze in at least a gauge swatch right?





Kate is beautiful in her Sixareen



Have any of you ever been to Scotland? I did get to go many, many years ago with my Mom (on a tour) and absolutely loved it!! Sandy and I are trying to decide if we should book a tour, or go freestyle and would love to hear any suggestions you may have for us.

For now we will continue to play Scottish music, dance a little and knit with Shetland wool. Stay tuned for more, as our adventure is actually about a year away, but it's always good to plan ahead.

As always, happy knitting, crocheting and sewing!

Jeanne
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Creating Patterns with Slipped Stitches

by : Unknown
Want to create vertical stripes of color in your knitting?  Love Fair Isle but feel daunted trying to knit with two colors at the same a time?  Then slip stitches are just the thing for you!  Sometimes called Color Slip Stitching or Mosaic Knitting by some authors, this is an easy technique using 2 or more colors but only one color per row of knitting to create color patterns.

If you've knit a striped project you're half way there and if you've knit a ball band washcloth then you already know how to do it!


The technique can be worked the in the round or flat.

To work a flat practice swatch very much like a ball band washcloth choose two contrasting colors, one light and one dark.

  • To begin, cast on normally and work two rows with your dark color.
  • Join light color yarn
  • *With the light color k5, the next stitch you want to remain dark so slip this stitch purlwise.
  • K5 with the light color and repeat slipping the next stitch purlwise.
  • Repeat across your row. For simplicity, end with some knit stitches. Turn
  • Work back, purling the light colored stitches and slipping the dark colored stitches. Turn
  • Work this row with the dark color, K across. Turn
  • Purl across. Turn.
  • K2, *slip 1 pw, k5,*repeat across. Turn
  • Work back, purling the light colored stitches and slipping the dark colored stitches. Turn
  • With dark color, K across. Turn
  • Purl across. Turn.
  •  Repeat from* for as long as you want the swatch to be.
 That's all there is to it!  So between learning how to carry yarns for stripes in last Friday's blog and today, you are all set to knit this month's free pattern by Kristen Ashbaugh-Helmreich, Ruby Crest Hat and Mitts!


 As always if you have questions or comments please send me an email to askTerry at jimmybeanswool.com

Happy Knitting!
Terry



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New Company Name with a Lovely Visit to Churchmouse Yarns and Teas!

by : Freaky Knitter
Well, it's official! The new name for my design company is (drum roll, please....) 'Battle Born Knits'!!!! I LOVE, LOVE it!!! Thank you so much, Flossie, for the name and be sure to call our shop with your information. Congratulations on your win. Thanks soooooooooo much to everyone for all of your wonderful input. It was really difficult to narrow all the great choices for the poll! Stay tuned for my new blog and there will be, of course, a new pattern in the works too. :-) Also, I haven't gotten information from the 4 other choices for the poll...please let me know your pattern choices and how I can get them to you! Thanks again!

Leaving the dock at Seattle
Now, on to my trip to Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. All I can say is....*SIGH*, what a great trip! Churchmouse Yarns and Teas sponsored a wonderful Fair Isle color class with Janine Bajus and what I learned there is truly invaluable!

 My friend, Barbara, and I went together and had a wonderful time on the island. It may have been a bit wet and cold but the warmth that we felt from everyone we met kept us snug and happy!



Come on already, let's knit!
 I immediately fell in love with everything about the island and Churchmouse Yarns and Teas is one of the most charming shops I have ever been in. Kit and John (the owners) were so welcoming and all the people who work there are simply amazing! 

 Of course, Barbara and I both shopped and came home with fantastic treasures. I brought back some of their winter blend tea and have already enjoyed some this afternoon...yum, yum! Here's Barbara, waiting on the ferry!



Cookies, Crumpets, and Tea..Oh my!
You can see that we were well supplied with amazing snacks, coffee, tea, and lunch both days!

The tray is almost all gone...that's how yummy everything was!

The aroma of the teas is so lovely!





The workshop was phenomenal and has inspired me to take all my knitting to the next level. Janine was a GREAT instructor and happily dealt with my own personal knitting challenges like the real professional she is! Here's a snap of the Churchmouse storefront!


Janine's playpen!

We learned about color progressions in Fair Isle design and Janine brought ALL of the colors of Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift (a great yarn to work with fair isle) to the workshop for us to play with.
You can see how Janine uses her colors to create the most lovely garments.


Her tams are inspiring and her sweaters are to die for!







She reminded us that all this happens one stitch at a time which is such a great mantra! It all looks impossible at first but, when broken down into just the one stitch, it's not so overwhelming after all!

My little bits of color swatching!
The sweater to the right is so beautiful and, if you look closely at the cuffs, you can see the date and Janine's initials knit right into the piece, BRILLIANT!

I can't wait to go back to visit, knit in the shop, and just hang out! There is so much on the island that we didn't get to see on our quick trip but I plan on going back for an extended trip again real soon!

 It was wet but that makes for some really green views and, of course, coming from the high desert I enjoyed seeing all of that green!

Thank goodness Barbara thought to bring umbrellas for the short walk to and from our hotel since they turned out to be a real necessity!


 As we left, I felt that we had made some great new friends and I hope that if ANY of them are coming our way, they will let us return the wonderful welcome we received from them!



As always, happy knitting and crocheting!

Jeanne

 PS Don't forget to sign up for our Newsletter for the most up to date JBW new products, sales, instruction and much, much more!










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I am going to Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on April 1st!!

by : Freaky Knitter
I am sooooooooo excited about my upcoming trip to Bainbridge Island, Washington (close to Seattle, just in case you needed some spatial orientation)! It is the home of Churchmouse Yarns and Teas and it is also where I will be taking a workshop on Fair Isle knitting. I am going with my friend Barbara and both of us are acting like two giddy schoolgirls, talking back and forth about the arrangements, the class, the trip, what to take and so on...I feel like I am waiting for a new toy to arrive and it's stuck in the mail somewhere. I am in love with the Churchmouse patterns and have knit two of their cashmere berets.

Isn't it lovely?


What do you think of my chart keeper in this picture? It may not be fancy but it works for this big chart-ha ha!

I know fair-isle sounds really scary, but it isn't so bad. While I have not done it on a big project yet, I have steeked some swatches and it's really neat! Knitty posted a great article by Wendy D. Johnson (aka Wendyknits) about this age old technique.





Janine Bajus will be teaching this workshop and this is the Tam we will be working on along with swatches and anything and everything Fair Isle. You can see the nice stranding of colors on the inside. It is such a lovely way to knit! If you have never tried it,  I hope you will.

Most of you know how big I am on learning new things to build up our knitting confidence. This takes patience, but will take your knitting confidence over the top. Here's to learning something new today and remember- it's only knitting!

As always happy knitting and crocheting!

Jeanne


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