Spinalcat's Crafty Adventures

Today I'm going to go through a bit of my design process for the Merlon Cowl . This design started when I opened up a bag of Rowan Lima at the shop. It's one of those yarns that you can't put down. It is soooo soft and buttery. I bought 2 balls with the vague plan to make some sort of cowl. Something that soft *needs* to be worn around the neck. A huge shortcut in the stitch pattern choosing phase fell into my lap with the arrival of Rowan's Lima Collection book . True to Rowan style, it featured many heavily cabled sweaters. The loveliness of the cabled fabric came as a surprise to me. Lima has an icord-like construction instead of a traditional ply. The yarn is very round, which is very desirable for cables, but I thought the construction would detract from that kind of stitch pattern. As you can see from the designs in the book, that is not the case. From that point, I had a few stitch patterns from a Japanese stitch dictionary that had caught my eye. I ...

The eyelet edging on this cowl made me think of castle towers. A merlon is the solid portion between the slits cut away for the passage of arrows. Rowan Lima is an exquisitely soft alpaca blend. Its i-cord-like construction looks surprisingly wonderful in cables. This cowl is buttery soft, warm despite its eyelet stitch pattern, and has terrific drape. The pattern has instructions for 2 different cowl lengths, and it can also be worn folded over. Ravelry pattern page here . Pattern is $4.50 through my Ravelry pattern store. No Ravelry membership required, payments are processed through Paypal.

This is the Sirenia cowl, worked in Trendsetter Tonalita. The pattern has been professionally tech edited and is just about ready to go, but I'd like somebody to try the pattern before I put it up for sale. I can give you a free copy of the final pattern and provide the yarn at a reduced cost. Here's the color card for the yarn. And the color card for its sister yarn which should also work, Tonalita Fusion. If you've done entrelac before, you know it's hard to put down. I'm looking for somebody who can start soon and complete the project in about a week after receiving the materials. Your job is to follow the pattern exactly as written and contact me with any issues or clarifying questions you may have. If you happen to be an experienced knitter, pretend you aren't. I'm categorizing this pattern as "ambitious advanced beginner." Knit, purl, decrease, pick up stitches, and follow directions. If you are interested, contact me and I will...

Announcing my first pattern for sale in my Ravelry shop, the Sidewinder Hat . Undulating cables sprout from the ribbing and disappear harmoniously into the crown shaping of this unisex design. Merino yarn makes this the ultimate warm and comfortable winter hat! Stitch patterns are given in charts and as written directions. Thanks to Abigail for technical editing. If you're a self-publishing designer, you should hire her. :) Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool, 3 skeins. Available at Yarndogs. Sample shown in color 15 (Putty). Needles: Size US 8 (main), 16" circular + dpns, or 2 circs, or magic loop . Size US 6 (ribbing), 16" circular, or 2 circs, or magic loop. Pattern is delivered instantly as a PDF download. More details can be found on the Ravelry pattern page, but feel free to contact me to ask questions if you are not a Ravelry member. The below purchase link will take you to PayPal and does not require a Ravelry login.

Ok, I'm jumping the gun on this one , but I'm at the toe decreases on the 2nd sock. They'll have to be done by tomorrow night for the Gilman St show. I've already had one band member ask for a pair. I may end up knitting 5 pairs of men's socks on size 0 needles by the time this is all done with! Phenomenauts Sock , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . These socks also happen to be famous. http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/magazine/012998.html If you want to see embarrassing (I'm assuming, I haven't had the guts to look yet) pictures of me, you'll have to track down the print edition. Just for the record, there's an error in the article. The first Phenomenauts show I saw was just after we moved here, not before. They opened for The Slackers at Slim's. BTW, there'll be a Slackers show there on June 4, the night before my birthday. We skipped Mad Sin last night cause we're going to Red Elvises tonight. And May 30, the Devolutio...

First one of these is done. Self-Striping Sock , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . For the next one, I'm going to do the peasant heel on 60% of stitches instead of 50%. I'll be writing it up as a basic pattern for self-striping yarn. I'll even throw in multiple sizes! :) Also, I'm trying to work out the logistics of how I would teach a class on dyeing self-striping sock yarn. The methods I use at home would have to be adapted for space and available equipment.

Aran-weight Merino hat with cables. Hat Back , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . Here's another one that's just about ready to go. It's in Mission Falls 1824 Wool.

Cable socks with patterned heel flap. Cable Socks , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . Ok, I've gone public with this one. Hopefully that'll give me the push to finally get this self-published. Assuming I'm feeling productive, I'll hand it off to an editor by next week. I'm planning on selling this one on Ravelry. I'd been thinking about submitting to Knitty, but the last issue has a pattern that was sort of similar.

neckwarmer5 , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . I whipped up a couple patterns for Curious Creek Serengeti , a hand dyed dk weight superwash merino. The official pattern is the Ríos Locos neck snuggler , shown above. I'm really happy with how it turned out. There's also a matching headband pattern available. The headband makes a really quick gift, and there's enough yardage to give one and keep one. If you make it to Yarndogs this weekend, also keep an eye out for Teri's crochet baby mitt pattern for Canopy , one of my new favorite yarns.

Here's some stuff I found while answering sizing questions on the Rudy socks. I'm probably going to add at least 1 smaller size to the pattern. I did most of the math for somebody yesterday, but I'll still need to put it in a consistent format and maybe test the heel turn. All this information is for socks with a heel flap. Heel math for socks between 40 and 80 stitches around (in 4-stitch increments)- From socknitters.com. Has numbers for 6 heel types- v heel , round heel , rounder heel , square heel , modified square heel, & strap heel. Also explains how to get those numbers Knittinggeek.com has examples of what those turns look like here. Generic sock recipe from Knitty Gritty (good for beginners). Illustrated beginner's guide to the tricky parts. I've used fleegle's lace yarn spreadsheet a LOT recently. I just discovered that our meetup group's own Suzi has a list of sock yarns arranged by meters/100g. This is really useful for sugge...

I was inspired by this Bella Knitting blog post to spend some time with my color wheel and a box of colored pencils. I also started poking around online and found a few more color picking and palette generating tools. On Color Schemer (the one mentioned on the Bella Knitting blog), you can browse color schemes that other people have uploaded. The real product they're trying to sell is their $50 Color Schemer software, but there is a quick-and-dirty online palette generator on their site. The generated palettes tend to be pretty garish, though. They also offer a nifty little free doo-dad that tells you the value of any pixel on your screen. Then there's this site for generating palettes. It tends towards monochromatic or 2-hued schemes. This flickr toy from Big Huge Labs will create a scheme based on a photo you upload or give it a link to. It's pretty nice. Colourlovers.com has a very similar function (for online photos only) that offers a little more control. The...

Handspun Socks , originally uploaded by Buxtrosion . After reaching mid-calf, the first sock has been set aside. The second sock, currently ankle-high, is going much faster. No ripping back at all! Eventually I'll have to decide whether I want 1 pair of tall socks, or 2 pairs of "normal" socks.

Knit on the bias with an eyelet border, this mid-length scarf can be worn in multiple stylish ways. I was looking for something classy but a little rustic & funky for a small skein of handspun yarn. I was well into knitting this scarf wh en, thanks to Cecil B. Demented , I realized how the eyelet border reminded me of perforations on movie film. Ravelry details here Finished Measurements 3.5" wide, 42" long Materials 84 yards handspun merino (on the light side of worsted) Size 7 US needles (4.5mm) Crochet hook (I happened to use a K, but H is more commonly used for worsted yarn) Tapestry needle Gauge 10 sts per 2", 14 rows per 2" Exact gauge is not important, so feel free to experiment with different yarn weights and needles. Pattern CO 19 sts using long tail method. (WS): K2, P to last 3 sts, K3 (RS): K2tog, YO, K2tog, [YO, K2tog] to last st, YO, K1 Scarf body- Row 1 (WS): K2, P to last 3 sts, K3 Row 2 (RS): K2tog, YO, K2tog, K to last st, YO, K1...

The resources I used for this sweater were Knitting Without Tears , Big Girl Knits , and Sweater Design in Plain English . Vogue Knitting has yoke sweater general directions as well, and Designing Knitwear is a great resource for doing the math on many types of garment construction. I've heard that people love Knitting From the Top for top-down construction, but I haven't tried it. The cherry motif was inspired by one in the Knitting [insert preposition here] the Edge series, but I heavily edited it for size and to decrease the length of floats. I drew the others myself. Yay knitter's graph paper! Here's an explanation of the jogless join I used. http://community.livejournal.com/weasleysweaters/116584.html It's called Aunt Jean's Invisible Jog, and it's from an issue of Vogue Knitting (or so other bloggers say). And a word about color dominance- I knit colorwork two-handed, with the background in the right hand and the motif in the left hand. For m...

Revision 10/26/07 : Fixed cuff rib directions. (should be K3, P2. used to say K3, P3) Hi everyone. I've finally finished photography and writing up for my first free pattern. The PDF version is on the sidebar, but I'm including the instructions in this post too. I'd love to get any feedback. Right now the pattern's written at a level assuming some knowledge of sock knitting, but I may add more info and links to basic technique tutorials, especially if requested. The Ravelry page is here . Men’s Sock Pattern By Amy Klimt http://spinalcat.blogspot.com spinalcat@gmail.com Send your favorite rude boy off to work in these subtly checkered socks knit from the top down with a heel flap. Finished Size : 9” foot circumference and 10 1/2” long (customizable) from heel to toe. To fit men’s US shoe size 10 1/2. Yarn : Knit Picks Risata (42% cotton, 39% superwash merino, 13% polyamide, 6% elastic; 196 yd/50g): ash, 3 balls. Needles : Size 1.5 ...