I can't decide what to call this pattern. I'm leaning toward "Poinsettia," because it reminds me of the star-like bracts of a poinsettia. I can't call it "snowflake," because there are eight sections, not six (I'm picky that way)-- plus there are already lots of snowflake-related pattern names out there. As well as flower petals, the lace motifs also remind me of cascading water, which is why I'm also considering "Carlotta," after Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo, Italy, which has an abundance of both fountains and flowers. If anyone has any other ideas for names, let me know; if I decide to use yours, I'll email you the pattern pdf free of charge (when it's finished!)-- and if I really love the name, I'll also send you the yarn to make it (Rowan Purelife Organic Wool*). *Rowan Purelife Cotton knits up at the same gauge, and could be substituted for non-wool wearers.

I finally finished my grown-up version of Sherwood-- and it did turn out to be a sleeveless jumper/tunic.

For some reason I really enjoy figuring out how to work decreases and increases into stitch patterns: witness all of my hats (Beaufort, Maple Seed, Rose of Sharo

I've never been a sock knitter; my small projects of preference are hats and baby knits. And fall, of course, is a fine time to think about hat knitting (and thus for designers, a fine time to think about creating some hat patterns). I had noted the stitch pattern at left (from the Japanese book Knitting Patterns Book 250) back in the spring, and it struck me as something that could be adapted into an interesting hat. I went so far as to work on adapting the leaf motif to fit within the limited number of rows possible on a hat (deciding on a sport weight yarn to get a few more rows in) and charting the crown decreases, and then shelved that project over the summer to work on other things. Non sono stata mai una maglierista dei calzini; i miei progetti piccoli preferiti sono i cappelli e le maglie dei bambini. Certo che l'autunno e un bel periodo per pensare di lavorare a maglia dei cappelli! Ho visto quello disegno (dal libro giapponese Knitting Patterns Book 250) nella primavera, e pensavo di usarlo per un cappello. I went back to that hat project last week, but after a bit of swatching, I wasn't happy with the result, and returned to my Japanese stitch pattern books for more inspiration. I found the second stitch pattern in the same book as the first, and the final one in the book Knitting Patterns Book 300. I imagined using the second one in a top-down design, so I then started figuring out a series of crown increases that would segue nicely into the main stitch pattern. Sono ritornata la settimana scorsa a quello progetto del cappello; pero', dopo un po' di swatching, non ero contenta, e sono tornata ai miei libri di modelli giapponesi per l'inspirazione. Ho trovato il disegno secondo nello stesso libro come il primo, e l'ultimo nel libro Knitting Patterns Book 300. Ho immaginato di usare il secondo in un modello top-down, quindi ho cominciato di calcolare gli aumenti, i quali progredirebbero nel disegno proprio. This turned out to be a several-days-long process! More on that later.Diventava un processo di parecchi giorni! Piu a piu tardi.

Say hello to "Florin," the child's vest I've been working on! I named it after the gold coin minted in Florence, Italy during the Middle Ages, both because of the "Coin Cable" trimming the hem and the back neck, and because of the vest's refined details-- to me, Florence conjures images of finely wrought gold, handmade marbled and printed paper, frescoes and bas reliefs...okay, so I'm getting a little carried away. But this little knit is great fun, because the Coin Cable is not your average cable; and because the armhole and neck edgings are worked with the body, meaning very little finishing time; and because the heavy worsted yarn and in-the-round construction mean rapid progress! I'm having a second sample knit up, and the pattern tech-edited (and I'm SO happy not to be doing all of that by myself!), and plan to have the pattern available for sale in September-- in plenty of time for holiday knitting. Look for a coordinating hat pattern too!

(Not bad...?)

(Oggi ho fatto un esercizio: ho fatto la traduzione senza dei dizionari. Chiedo scusa per tutti i sbagli!)

When I first saw this store window, I thought it was a yarn shop, but then I realized that those rainbow-colored displays on the back wall are made up of scarves, not balls of yarn.  Disappointing!

Well, I never again want to come this close to running out of yarn; as it was, I unraveled my gauge swatch, fished one foot-long strand out of the trash, re-sewed both side seams using different yarn so I could salvage those pieces-- and here is what remain

I've been working on some pattern ideas for spring, first and foremost a few concepts for sleeveless tops:   hopefully projects that will be fun and interesting, and work up fairly quickly (having reluctantly put aside the hat projects until a time when someone will actually feel like knitting a hat!).  You can bet that if I'm inspired by my recent visit to Barcelona, "interesting" will be an understatement!   All of the photos show examples of the work of Antoni Gaudi.  In order:  Casa Battlo, exterior and interior; Casa Mila (La Pedrera), exterior, inside of attic, and rooftop; and the temple To be honest, the exterior of this temple (still under construction) looks to me like something out of a nightmare, but the interior is oddly beautiful.  I found the cool, gray light inside to be quite lovely, in an austere sort of way-- most of the windows are still empty.  However, a few of the stained glass windows have already been installed, and judging from those, there will be a kaleidoscopic quality to the interior, once finished.

In one of the comments on my last post, Janet asked if I could direct her to some posts about the Selva Skirt.  There is a category for it (look on the lower right hand part of the page), but there aren't many posts to be found, simply because the Selva Skirt pattern was created for publication in a magazine, and hence was unbloggable before publication. Well, it's after publication now, and since at least one person is interested in how Selva came about, I thought I would provide a few details.  I often look through stitch dictionaries for inspiration, and in this case, the skirt was absolutely inspired by the stitch pattern, Hearts of Oak from Barbara Walker's Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  I thought the texture of this stitch pattern was fascinating, and after swatching, I thought its density would be perfect for a fitted knit skirt that would hide a few posterior, shall we say, imperfections.  (Plus I hate wearing G-strings-- not required for Selva, ladies!)  Also, as I recall (the themes that Interweave provided to designers for the Winter 2007 issue are no longer online), one of the suggested themes for that issue was tailored, fitted garments, which seemed perfect for Selva.  Above is the wrong side of the swatch I sent off to Interweave Knits with my pattern submission, back in February '07; the photo is crap because it was an afterthought, taken with my cellphone camera in my car just before I put the submission materials in the mail. While swatching, I also found that the Hearts of Oak chart has a number of errors.  The most important part of the chart, the pattern repeat, is correct, but the outer edges of the chart are not.  Always be aware that errors may be (and probably are) present in published charts and patterns! In the case of this stitch pattern, I debated which side to use for the right side; both sides are really cool.  One reason I decided to go with the "right" side was the waistband.  As I was swatching, I had started to think about how I would do the waistband decreases, and had concluded two things:  first, that working the decreases into the stitch pattern would require a better mind than mine, and second, switching to a less dense stitch pattern, like stockinette or ribbing or, well, just about anything, would mean losing that nice tight fabric just when it would be great to have a bit of a girdle effect, across the tummy and hips.  So after examining both sides of the swatch, I decided that the V-shaped knit sections on the right side were just begging to be extended into long ribbons to form the waistband, and with some experimenting, I came up with what you see at the top of the above swatch:  the ribbons include decreases and increases, and thus retain at least some of the density of the Hearts of Oak pattern. Next:  The evolution of Selva's design after she was accepted by Interweave Knits for their Winter 2008 issue.