Another Knitpicks Haul

Since I'm back in the US visiting my family for the holidays, I've made another USA Knitpicks order.

In case you didn't know, Knit Picks is discontinuing several popular yarn lines this season including Telemark, the sportweight wool yarn, and Merino Style, the 100% merino yarn. I love Telemark - it's a hardy yarn that softens up great after a wash. I used it in a steeked sweater before, where the stickiness of the wool came in handy, and I think it would be great for colorwork as well. I hadn't tried Merino Style before, but I'd heard very good things about it.

So, I made an order - I wanted to practice my colorwork, so I got some Merino Style in Dusk from the website and some in Crocus from a Raveler's stash.

I splurged on a sweater's worth of Telemark (it was on sale) in Alpine Frost. Not certain on what pattern to use for this yet... It's got great stitch definition, and would be lovely in cables. I already know it makes beautiful solid stockinette fabric.


And finally, the big one... I purchased enough Palette in two shades for a colorwork sweater. Ann Kingstone's Pemberley, to be precise, from her Novel Knits book.

I was very worried about my color selection - even with only two colors. Imagine if I had to choose more colors which all coordinated with each other... I chose two red-purples, Regal (dark) and Lantana (light). Happily, they go together lovely, just as I had imagined. With Knit Picks' annoying habit of switching up their color selection every season, it's difficult to find other people's pictures of the yarns to make sure that the colors go together right. But my leap of faith succeeded (and even if it hadn't, I'd only be out $30 or so).

~Joyuna

New Header by Tofupanda

If you look up at the top of the page, you'll notice something different - a banner image! Yes, that's me up there, knitting away on a sock. This piece of art was drawn for me by the very talented young artist Tofunmi Yosola, also known as Tofupanda.

Tofupanda is a very busy artist as well as a student and it seems she's currently not taking commissions, but she takes her requests on Fiverr when she can - and I believe her pictures are a steal at merely 5 bucks! The next time I need an adorable picture drawn, I'll definitely be commissioning her again.

I find Tofunmi's style absolutely charming and the likeness is really quite good, don't you think? :)

~Joyuna

Creating Original Stitch Patterns

For some of my designs, such as Rose Tendrils and Unbraiding Cables, I have created original stitch patterns to suit the design. There's nothing at all wrong with using an existing stitch pattern from a dictionary, but sometimes you want something specific that you can't find - such as the growing cable motif in Unbraiding Cables.

I don't take credit for 'inventing' any of these patterns - as Elizabeth Zimmerman has said, I'm only 'unventing' them. There's only so many ways to arrange increases and decreases, knits and purls, so someone has probably done the same or similar thing to what I'm doing before.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel
There's no need to start wholly from scratch when you can use an existing stitch as a jumping-off point. Flip through stitch dictionaries to find something similar to what you want, and modify it to suit.

In order to develop the main instep pattern on my Rose Tendrils socks, I took two different motifs from a Japanese stitch dictionary -- one of the leaves, and one of the 'buds' - and merged them together. The basis of my Unbraiding Cables came from a straight column of braided cables in a dictionary, which I then grew & shrank to fit on a hat.

Of course, if you can't find anything resembling what you want, you can try and create something from scratch. You can find an example of this process for lace in this Knitty article.

Chart and swatch, swatch, swatch!
I find it easiest to work out a rough chart before knitting; some may prefer to knit and write down your actions as you go. After I've found a pattern that will form the base of my stitch, I chart it out and make the necessary modifications, or if I don't have a pattern for a base, I rough out a chart that I think will work.

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Now addicted to Pinterest

Have you heard about Pinterest? It's this super-neat site that has been a huge source of inspiration and fun for me since I joined.

It's like an online corkboard where you can 'pin' things you like onto your boards. When it works, it works beautifully (though it has its share of downtime and bugs). I've been using it to pin things I admire, craft tutorials I want to try, and inspiration for new designs. It's like creating your own design mood board - absolutely a fantastic creative resource. Plus, you can follow people whose style you like and see everything they're pinning.

If you want to follow me on Pinterest, I'm Joyuna over there like most places :) If you're not signed up for Pinterest yet, you'll need an invite - if you shoot me a message on Ravelry or Twitter with your email address, I can hook you up. :)

~Joyuna

Dogwood Shawl in Knit Now

My latest design - Dogwood Lace Shawl - is in the just-released issue 3 of Knit Now Magazine.

Dogwood is knit with doubled laceweight yarn, which can easily be switched out for single-stranded fingering weight yarn. Knit sideways from tip to tip with a sweet lace border, it’s a quick knit for yourself or a lovely gift. It takes just one 100g skein of Skein Queen Delectable yarn - a lovely merino/silk blend which is lovely soft and nice and drapey.

Within the UK, you can find Knit Now at newsagents and most stores that stock magazines (such as Tescos, WH Smith, and Hobbycraft). Outside of the UK, Knit Now is expected to be stocked at Borders soon, and check this Ravelry thread for details on international subscriptions.

for $5.00



~Joyuna

Rose Tendrils socks

You may remember that when I went up to Scotland for The Glasgow School of Yarn, I had a sock entered in the Charles Rennie Mackintosh design competition... Well, the design has finished test knitting and tech editing, and is ready for sale.

I'm so very happy to release the Rose Tendrils toe-up socks. These socks are an engaging knit for someone who wants a little bit of a challenge, and a beautiful pair of socks at the end of it. The textured knit & purl pattern on the top of the foot was adapted from two different Japanese stitch patterns, and the lace motifs clocking each side of the ankle, in the shape of a Mackintosh Rose, are wholly original. The sock is constructed from the toe up with a gusset and heel flap, and has three sizes for an easily customized fit.

for $5.00

Yarn: 100g/400yds of fingering / 4ply / sock weight yarn (Shown: Juno Fibre Arts Milly High-Twist, color Rosewood)
Needles: US 1.5 / 2.5mm
Special Techniques: Toe-up socks, short rows, charts

~Joyuna

Hot off the Spindle: Fiber Optic Gradient Braid

This is my favorite thing that I've spun in a while. You might remember that last time I was in the States, at Knitter's Connection I picked up a Fiber Optic Gradient Braid. For months, I was too afraid to spin it because A.) I didn't know what I'd knit with it, and B.) I was afraid I'd ruin it.

Well, I picked a pattern - Lazy Katy, a gorgeous shawl with a stunning shape - and having finished the yarn, I'm fairly certain I didn't ruin it. In fact, I'm super pleased with how it turned out.

It's 516 yards of 16wpi (light fingering) yarn - more than enough for my shawl. The gradient braid's color was Dusty Plum to Olive - going from purple to navy blue to teal to olive green. I absolutely adore the bright colors and the way they effortlessly shift into one another.

I spun the braid by splitting the top in half and spinning each separate ply, then winding them into a plying ball and plying them together. One of my plies was slightly thinner than the other, so I broke off a small amount of each color and plied those into mini-skeins of yarn...

...Which I'm using for a few one-of-a-kind gradient hexipuffs for my Beekeeper's Quilt!


I had such a fun time spinning this braid - I can't wait to get the chance to spin some more Fiber Optic gradients.

~Joyuna

Hexi-update - making progress!

Yes, this is another post about hexipuffs. If you don't want to hear about it, I'm sorry - it's really the only project of mine lately which isn't a secret!

I've knit 140 puffs at this point, and I've started to join them together. I'll need about 300 hexagons for my full quilt, so I'm nearly halfway there. Over the course of my puffing, I've tried out some variations such as center-out puffs and seed stitch puffs. They add just a little bit of variety.

Here are the first 50 puffs I've joined together. I've been joining the puffs in groups of 10, which makes them easier to count and avoids the problem of certain colors grouping together over the course of the quilt. So I've been joining, little by little, and it's a thrill to see my quilt starting to come together.

I picked up a huge number of new yarns from my parents' house. All of my old leftovers were here, and it's great to add some new colors into my quilt. Even though the yarns are varied and arranged in no particular order, I think the craziness of it is somehow cohesive, and I like the way it looks.

~Joyuna

A trip to Hank - Cincinnati LYS

I'm back in Cincinnati for the holidays, visiting my family. I haven't lived in Cincinnati for about four years, and back then I was only just getting into knitting - so, I've only visited just a couple of the Cincinnati LYSes, of which there are quite a few.

My sister told me that she passes a yarn shop on her way to work every day - Hank in Hyde Park. I hadn't heard of Hank before, but it's easy to find on Observatory Avenue, right on the street. The shop is spacious and well laid-out, with a nice selection of buttons, needles & notions, and of course all the yarn.

Hank Yarn has a nice selection of medium & heavy weight yarns, a fair selection of sock yarn but not much lace. Of course, for a souvenir skein, I made a beeline to the sock yarn section. They have some delicious Malabrigo sock and Claudia, but a yarn that I wasn't familiar with caught my eye - Blue Ridge Yarns Kaleidoscope in Boysenberry. I am absolutely in love with this color combination. It reminds me of a dark pink rose. I simply couldn't resist it.

I also picked up some Ultra Alpaca in black, for some gift knitting for my cousin. I once made everyone in my family knitted Christmas presents, and swore I'd never do it again - but my grandmother is commissioning me for a pair of fingerless gloves, so one knitted gift can't hurt :)

~Joyuna