When you write a pattern, you never know how the finished item wil be used. I released Ocean City Shawlette in January 2011 and just recently learned that lizziwhizz, Ravelry name, made five of them for her cousins wedding party. The pattern is written for fingering weight yarn, but by knitting it in DK yarn, the shawlettes kept the bridesmaids toasty warm for a Maine wedding. What a treat for me to know that my pattern was used for such a special occasion!
Check out lizziwhizz’s project here.
“I was so enamored of some of the techniques used in Fabergé that I wanted to use them again,” says Laura. And are we glad she did! Enamored includes directions to knit a bottom-up shawl in fingering weight yarn or a parallelogram-shaped stole in sport weight yarn. Both begin with a pleated ruffle, then a row of beads framed by horizontal braids and a body knit in a textured eyelet stitch. The sides of the stole are slanted with increases on one end and decreases on the other to achieve its unique shape. The top edge of the stole features the framed beads again plus a tiny ruffle. All beads are placed with a crochet hook or thin wire so no stringing is necessary. Laura also includes directions to alter the size.
I’m still doing the raglan increases but this sweater is seriously moving fast. I’m using US 10 1/2 Denise Needles that were in my stash. I generally like Addis but this will work just fine. Going from a size 6 on the dress to a size 10 1/2 is substantially different!
Here it is from the front
but my dress form is getting a bit of a makeover right now. I’m duct taping up the openings because it looked like someone was performing an autopsy on it…I don’t actually know if this will look better in the end. Do you have any suggestions? I really want to make it white. Maybe I should pin white fabric to it.
Hi Everyone!
Well, I have to make a confession. I have been dreaming of a sweater for months. You know how sometimes you see a sweater and you immediately start looking for what kind of yarn to purchase and what size you would make? Well, this was more of a “hmm, this sweater is interesting, I will keep an eye on finished projects…” It also helped immensely that the sweater is an ode to Maine’s coast and photos were taken in Portland.
So, after dreaming about the sweater for a few months, I decided to just do it. Thanks again to Debbie for giving me Coastal Knits.
There are 592 projects on ravelry and one of them is made of Debbie Bliss Fez. Well, now let’s make it two! I’m using Fez in “worsted silver”. This cardigan calls for a US 10 1/2! I think this might be the fastest knit in the history of my life.
I would say I’ll be done in two weeks max. Let’s see if I can live up to that!
Anyone interested in knitting this with me?
I finished my large Minoan (after needing a bit more of 2 colors out of the three which held me up, sorry KAL!)
Project Details:
Large size
61”X21”
M1 (composition book gray) 137g (303.8 yards)
M2 (vermillion) 25g (56.3 yards)
M3 (golden wheat) 22g (49.5 yards)
The great part of this is, as you can see, I used leftovers from my madtosh dk dress. I would never wear the two together, have no fear, but it was great to use up all my leftover yarn.
Another awesome thing is that madelinetosh has SO MANY INCREDIBLE COLORS. I’ve heard rumor of another order being placed soon by whitknits and rest assured, there will be some yarn ordered from another minoan for me! I really love this pattern. It’s so easy and the result is beautiful but also more complex than just stripes. Congrats to Nancy on an awesome pattern that I think will be popular for a long time!
Check out Laura Aylor’s newest pattern called Faberge. Isn’t it lovely? It’s an incredible shawl pattern that comes in two sizes. Beads have been added to the middle section, but are difficult to see in the picture. See more of Faberge here.
(After you read this interview, check out the comic at the end.)
A few weeks ago Nancy, Debbie, and I drove to Lynchburg, VA for a visit with knitwear designer Laura Aylor and a tour of her studio. Here are some snippets of the interview!
Whitknits: “How did you become a knitwear designer?”
Laura: “I wanted to make my daughter an afghan in Noro Kureyon for college but couldn’t find a pattern that I thought was cool enough…I decided to play with a short row technique from a Barbara Walker book.
“This became Lizard Ridge which was published in Knitty in 2006. My daughter still has the original.”
This afghan takes 20-22 skeins of Noro Kureyon. I think this would be so fun to make with all the different noro colorways.
Laura: I then took a picture of the original short row design and I used a folding mirror to see what it would look like as concentric squares.
short row design from Barbara Walker’s book:
with mirror- such a cool idea!
“This became Merrywood.”
“Then, my son needed a scarf so I started thinking about a double knit pattern out of Noro with squares. I called it Vice Versa. It makes such a nice cushy scarf!” (Also, the model is Emma, Laura’s daughter who is also a knitter!)
Whitknits: “Is Noro your favorite yarn?”
Laura: “Well, it used to be, and I still love it, but my favorite yarn now is Tosh Merino Light. Here’s my stash.”
“You can tell I like earth tones!”
Whitknits: “What’s your best selling pattern?”
Laura: “Litchfield. I was at Litchfield beach and there was a design contest on Ravelry. I didn’t win the design but I came up with a nice shawl pattern” in Tosh Merino Light.
(here’s Debbie’s Litchfield modeled on her daughter, Kathleen)
Whitknits: “Tell me about your inspiration for some of your other designs?”
Laura: “I really have no idea where they come from, but all these ideas are in my head and trying to get out. I was just sitting around drawing things and out came Stella Luna.”
Whitknits: “I love that you make so many versions of each design in different colors.” Don’t you think Stella Luna looks great in a variety of colors?
Laura: “Here is Miss Potter. I originally designed this with a much shorter ruffle and then went back and made it deeper. I think the deeper ruffle looks better.”
Laura: “And then this is the City Block Shawl”
Whitknits: ”I can see the shapes of buildings and roofs in the shawl!”
Can you see the miniature City Block Shawl on her inspiration board? Cute! City Block Shawl is built up modularly so you only use one color at a time.
Laura: “This is the Westport Shawl. I designed it to use up leftovers from other projects. It’s also slightly asymmetric and is knit diagonally from the longest side to a front point.”
Whitknits: “Do you design while watching TV?”
Laura: “If I need to concentrate I need to be in my office, but at other times I can knit while watching TV.”
Recently Laura has branched out into garment design with some easy-to-wear (and knit) vests. You can see more of her patterns here. We enjoyed our time with Laura and look forward to seeing what comes out of her head and off her needles in the future. Thanks so much Laura for letting us invade your studio and showing us your designs!
On the bulletin board in Laura’s studio was a comic by Rhymes with Orange creator Hillary Price. You can see it in one of the pictures. Hillary has given permission for us to reprint it. You can see more of her work here and in her store. There are a few knitting related comics and all are funny. Enjoy!
Well, as many of you know, I have been working on a dress for about 3 weeks now. As of this morning, I am done!
I based the dress on a DROPS pattern but also on a Brooks Brothers dress that my dad bought me that fits me perfectly. You can see more design and inspiration info here and here. For now though, photos of the finished product!
(I really wanted a jean jacket but this one will do!)
This took 5.75 skeins of Madelinetosh DK in Composition Book Gray, 1 skein of MDK in Vermillion, and .5 skein of MDK in Winter Wheat. This yarn is lovely. The CBG definitely appears purple in most lights but it’s got lots of gray IN it. I love the Winter Wheat but sadly, I’m quite pale this time of year and I know it would make me look green. I LOVE the Vermillion. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I will probably order more of this for something. Maybe a full sweater out of it!
I would like to dedicate this project to my mom and Aunt Shar. I knitted a TON of it while laughing my head off with them in Easton, PA on a weekend trip.
Laura Aylor's Ardys
I just added a new Laura Aylor vest pattern to the site. This is part of a series that she is doing named after her Aunts and they all have great names. This one is called Ardys. You can read more about it here.
Stitch pattern for new design
I am working on a new dcsign and wanted to share the stitch pattern with you. Not surprisingly, it’s going to be a shawl. I’m using Tosh Merino Light and loving it. The stitch pattern is one I have admired for a long time so it feels good to be incorporating it into a design. This is another of my design-as-you-go projects which can make for lots of tinking. I’m not sure that TML can stand up to that, but so far I am pleased with how it’s going so there hasn’t been any frogging. Since I only have one skein of TML, I plan to add some other colors to make the shawl larger than the one skein would allow. That part is still up in the air, but I’m going to have to make some decisions soon. I’ll keep you posted!
