Designs by KN blog

2KCBWDAY7

Assignment: Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

Yarn. Hooks. Needles. Designing notebook. Comfy chair. Food. Tea. Cats.  OK, I’m all set for a long stretch of yarncrafting!

As mentioned in a previous post, my needlecrafting hours are limited to evenings and weekends. My favorite day is Saturday, when in the morning I can take a cup of tea up to my craft room, get settled in my comfy chair next to the corner yarn cubbies, set up my design notebook, grab yarn, needles & hooks and get started on a project.

This routine is a magnet for the cats as they too enjoy the morning sunshine and downtime with me home to keep them company.  Of course, by Saturday afternoon you will usually find all of us taking naps!

On weekday evenings, my stitching time takes place on a small loveseat in the family room. Fortunately, baseball season is here and there will be more occasions to stay downstairs and watch a game on TV (when there’s no baseball on, my second choice is to sit in bed and knit/crochet for awhile before falling asleep!)

For food & drink, there might be a blueberry muffin or yogurt to accompany the ever-present cup of hot tea or glass of iced tea, depending on the season & temperature.

Ruffly Coasters

And even though I live along Colorado’s Front Range where I can view the spectacular Rocky Mountains daily, it would be oh-so-wonderful to knit & crochet every day with these views in front of me (knowing someone else will cook so my knit/crochet time isn’t interrupted, except to eat a sumptuous meal!)

Fine dining in The Mural Room, Grand Teton Lodge,

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Wait, this is making me hungry. Maybe just a little snack and then back to the knitting & crocheting!

It’s been very enjoyable to share glimpses of my knitting & crocheting life with you during the 2nd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week organized by Eskimi Knits.  Thank you for the opportunity and the fun!

2KCBWDAY6

Assignment: Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make but can admire the result of those that have.

As mentioned in a previous post, I never would have dreamed I would some day design a Fisherman Afghan and matching pillow!  Yet here is the proof that it could be done:

I also never imagined that I would be designing for publication or that one of my designs would ever appear on the cover of a magazine! Yet again, here is the proof that it really happened:

#13 Tasseled Earflap Hat

Photo by Paul Amato, copyright Soho Publishing

This was the first design I ever submitted to a national magazine. I remember the day I received word that my design was a “cover girl” — a phone message left on my answering machine which I accidentally deleted! Fortunately, before doing so I made note of the area code. When I realized it was New York calling, I pursued it a bit further, which led me to the staff at Soho Publishing and the news that indeed my humble little hat design had made it to the big time.

When first deciding to establish Designs by KN, my premise was to offer easy, well-written, fun-to-work knitting and crochet patterns. To my amazement, the focus on simple, classic, basic styles found a ready audience and so I continue to create do-able designs for accessories and household items.

I suppose that in the future, when there is ample time and will to do so, I might want to pursue pieces that incorporate more shaping, as in sweaters for a variety of ages and sizes.  Grading a shaped sweater pattern in six sizes is not something I have yet aspired to.  With a 40-hour/week, M-F day job currently consuming most of my waking hours, I tend to create quick-to-make projects that offer a sense of accomplishment & a finished product in short order. More complex tasks like pattern-writing and new design submissions are reserved for weekends when there are more free hours and energy to concentrate.

I’m happy to fill the demand for “quick & easy” patterns/projects (you can see them on my Ravelry page) rather than labor over exquisitely beautiful but complex and intricate designs.  As the byline on the DBKN website states:

Practical.  Wearable.  Charitable.

And, for now, that’s enough for me.

2KCBWDAY5

Assignment: This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.

Happy April Fool’s Day -

You may think you’re seeing double or experiencing deja vu with this re-run of a former post (originally written in 2002 & recently blogged here), but it fits the theme of today’s assignment … no foolin’!

For the past 20 years my day job has been in the technical services department of a library (my knit & crochet designing takes places in free time–that’s why I call myself a “weekend designer”.)  In the article, I described how the behind-the-scenes library workflow echoes the workflow of creating a hand-knit sock. While a lot has changed since 2002, here’s the article as written, which gives you an idea of how materials get from “the back room” out to the shelves and into the hands of library patrons:

T.S. YARNS, or HOW TECHNICAL SERVICES IS LIKE A HAND-KNIT SOCK

You may or may not be aware that the popularity of handcrafts, especially knitting, has increased dramatically over the past few years, as evidenced by an explosion of new books published on the subject.  Magazine articles are touting the health benefits of knitting (knitting is the new yoga).  Hollywood celebrities are knitting on the set, fiber-related Internet sites are flourishing, and a new acronym has been coined for hip, young, urban knitters (HYUKs).  Here in T.S. we have the pleasure of seeing new craft titles arrive, which has inspired several of us to pick up our needles for some relaxation after a hard day’s work.  Our most popular project?  Hand-knit socks.  You may laugh, but remember what Dumbledore said in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:  “I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks……One can never get enough socks.  Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair.  People will insist on giving me books.”  What does all this have to do with Technical Services?

Consider the humble sock.  Hidden from view, unnoticed most of the time, quietly doing its duty, the lowly sock helps support the body, and is constructed in steps analogous to the workflow in T.S.   To begin knitting a sock, you have to cast on some stitches.  T.S. staff cast on to their computers early every morning before the branches open.  Acquisitions staff cast on to vendor websites searching far and wide for the latest popular print titles, audiobooks, music CDs, CD-ROMS, and DVDs to fill the shelves.  The rhythm of a knit2, purl2 ribbing in a sock cuff is echoed in the hum of our computer equipment and fingers tapping the keyboard all day long.  Receiving staff start the process of working down the leg of the sock as they unpack stacks of boxes that arrive daily.  When they place the new books in rows on carts, a  pattern of colorful book spines begins to form.  Down the leg they go, taking care of receiving and invoicing processes before moving materials on to the next room: cataloging.   More patterns emerge on the journey down the leg (and through the room) as catalogers arrange carts around their desks and begin to thread their way through each item, assuring thorough and accurate cataloging according to standards and current practices.

Then it’s time to turn the heel.  Turning the heel of a sock is great fun, and catalogers really enjoy the moment when they finally turn the heel (corner) and wheel a finished cart over to the spine labeling area.  Once the heel is turned, we work our way down the foot.  A long stretch of plain knitting (and labeling and processing) lies ahead.  Shelf labels and genre stickers are applied to the books, then carts ready for final processing head to the finish: processing (the toe).  Processors deftly and swiftly tackle that long stretch of plain, repetitive tasks to perform quality control and final processing.  Then all the loose ends are gathered up (at the toe), the items are placed in courier crates for distribution, the desks are cleared, the sock is finished, the needles (and book carts) sit empty for just a moment, until we start the second sock……

You may think hand-knit socks are a crazy idea, but I for one know how comfortable they are.  We in T.S. strive to provide patrons with that same comfortable feeling–the feeling you get when you hold a new book in your hands, ready to take it home for a relaxing read (if you can knit while you read, all the better).   Just like the humble sock, T.S. stays hidden out of view and unnoticed, but we are here doing our duty to support the body of library staff and patrons.  So think about Technical Services the next time you put on your socks!

(P.S. Check out the wealth of resources available at your local library on the subjects of knitting, socks, or other crafts by searching title keywords “knitting,” “knit,” “socks,” etc.)

And for inspiration, here is my basic C.O.O.S. sock, shown in various yarns and iterations:

2KCBWDAY4

Assignment: Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

In my second year of college in the early ’70s, I moved into the dorms, sharing a room with my best friend from high school.  One day we took a trip down to the local (very small) open-air mall that included a Woolworth’s. We were strolling through the aisles when all of a sudden we came upon the yarn aisle. I stopped in my tracks before rows and rows of colorful brand-new skeins. Even though it was all standard 4-ply Red Heart, I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.  Nearby was the current issue of Family Circle (or Woman’s Day?) magazine, and on the cover was a beautiful springtime afghan. It consisted of individual crocheted tulip-shaped pieces joined together in strips.  Even though I had only crocheted a few small accessories so far, on a whim I decided to make the afghan and proceeded to pick out my 3-color scheme: light & dark turquoise for the tulips and olive green for the joining strips.

Over the next several months between bouts of studying, I sat on my dorm bed working on the pieces of my afghan, while my roommate (a knitter) sat on her bed knitting slippers & reading (she was an English major).  Even though I was struggling with the confusing instructions in the magazine (to this day I’m still not sure if I followed the instructions correctly) eventually the tulip-shaped pieces were completed.

Finally it was time to start joining them. I remember there were rows of double crochet and then a series of short-to-long stitch rows which served to attach the points of the tulips in sequence. The result was an openwork fabric of alternating light & dark tulips bordered top & bottom with olive green strips (simulating green vines and leaves in the garden, I suppose).

Somehow, when the afghan was assembled, it didn’t quite match the pretty photo on the cover of the magazine. But I was proud of it anyway.

Years passed and I held on to the afghan through several moves, but eventually I grew tired of hauling it around and donated it to Goodwill.  Where is it now?  I have no idea.

But wouldn’t it have been smart if I’d taken a photo of it then? Alas, there were no digital cameras, computers, or sites like Ravelry in those days.  The afghan is gone and I only have the memories and images of it in my mind.  Despite describing the construction of the afghan and looking through hundreds of vintage magazines to find anything that resembles it, this unique design still has not been identified or located anywhere.  I will continue to search for it, though, and maybe someday it will reappear as a reminder of that trial-and-error afghan experience.

But …  it was the first step in a long chain of events to follow in the life of this crocheter/knitter/designer.  You can see some of what’s happened since 1970 in the projects on the DBKN website and my Ravelry page.

It is said that you never forget your first love.  In my case, I’ll never forget my first afghan!

2KCBWDAY3

Assignment: How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

In the past I have assisted in needlework and yarn shops. One of my favorite tasks was stocking or straightening up the yarn hanks, balls & skeins in their little “cubbies.”  Of course, the popular yarns never stayed neatly organized for long, but it was no burden to tidy up after a busy time.  It was another way to enjoy playing with yarn!

Over the years of creating items for family and friends, as well as contributing to charitable causes, I have amassed a sizeable stash of my own.  Since coworkers and friends know me as the knitter/crocheter/designer behind Designs by KN, I am fortunate to be the recipient of donated yarn or the unwanted stash of others, as they know I will use it to create useful items to fill requests of charitable organizations that accept knitted & crocheted articles.

Despite my valiant efforts to balance input with output, it seems the stash continues to grow when I’m not looking.  Recent acquisitions might still be in their original shopping bags, or when it’s time to travel anywhere, transferred to portable tote bags like my Provence Summer String Bag (shown here in Peaches & Creme cotton):

For years I dreamed of having my own little personal corner yarn shop in one of the rooms in the house. Finally, one Christmas DH & DD granted my wish by installing a set of wooden cubbies (just like the LYS!)  This is how it looked on the first day, with everything organized so tidily:

Alas, since then it has become rather unorganized as I focus on designing new patterns and grab a ball of this or that as I work.  But my favorite place to sit and knit/crochet is in that old chair in the corner by the window (the cats are happy too!)

As for tools, I tend to keep them fairly well-organized in a variety of carriers. I have a small multi-pocketed denim tote (found in the purse section of Wal-Mart years ago) that serves as my main toolkit:

There is room inside for these smaller needle/hook keepers:

On shelves in the room I keep some additional needle/hook roll organizers for longer needles and miscellaneous-sized crochet hooks:

I just had to have one of these short-needle sets because it is so cute (I won a design contest a few years ago and purchased this Takumi bamboo 9″ needle set from Herrschners with part of the gift certificate prize):

There’s a humorous sign that reads “A messy desk is a sign of an organized mind” or something like that.  I guess a messy yarn corner might qualify as well!  Whatever the state of affairs in my personal craft corner hidden from view, I am able to publicly display finished projects in an organized fashion through the DBKN pattern database and my Ravelry page and Facebook.  Thanks to the organized minds who work so hard to provide us with these excellent tools for sharing our work with others!

2KCBWDAY2

Assignment: Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?)

Every knitting and crochet project attempted, accomplished, or left unfinished inherently teaches us something.  Whether following a written pattern “to the letter” or freestyling on our own, each experience provides opportunities to gain knowledge, new skills, and of course to make mistakes.  Over the years I’ve certainly made my share:  mistakes in gauge, mistakes in stitch pattern, mistakes in yarn choices, mistakes in stitch count, mistakes in sizing.

Yet, on the other hand, over the years I have accomplished much in skill-building: cables, lace, twisted stitches, charting, calculating multiples & repeats, designing my own DBKN originals, creating successful design submissions leading to publication in major periodicals, and refining my pattern-writing skills.

One recent technique/skill which I had encountered in the past (but never enjoyed) was making knitted hems. In my opinion, they were never satisfactory, but in the “masterpiece” 3-piece baby set featured in my last post, knitted hems were part of the design. I started out by avoiding them altogether on the Warm & Chic Sweater, replacing the hem with a 1×1 ribbing (see photo below). However, since all of the pieces in the set called for knitted hems,  I decided to bite the bullet and work them as directed on the sleeves, hat brim, and legs of the overalls.  I knew that it was advisable to work the first part of a knitted hem on a smaller needle with thinner yarn, but I was already using a fingering weight on size 3 needles!  I persevered through the awkwardness of picking up stitches from the cast-on edge on to a second needle, folding the knitting and joining the beginning/end rows of the hem by working through both thicknesses with a third needle (the same technique used in 3-needle bindoffs.) True to form, the hems “flipped up”. Despite my annoyance I continued and hoped all would be resolved in the final blocking phase.

To my surprise and delight, blocking did the trick!  The hems actually looked “professional” and gave a special finished look to all the pieces.

The Warm & Chic Set patterns can be found in Chic Knits for Stylish Babies.

Another skill that I never, ever imagined I would accomplish is designing a fisherman-style Aran afghan. After dreaming up an overall plan, determining stitch choices and panel placement, charting every section, writing instructions, and knitting two final samples and a pillow for the yarn company that commissioned the project, I was astonished that I had succeeded in creating this challenging project:

Note: This Fisherman Afghan & Pillow is offered as a kit from Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc. which just recently was purchased by Spinrite. Therefore, I am unsure if this kit is available, but there may still be a limited window of opportunity to order one.

A third skill that I didn’t anticipate successfully completing was designing a pair of socks for publication. The Twist’n Stripe Socks appear in the Debbie Macomber Blossom Street Collection, Book 3 by Leisure Arts. The Petals Socks yarn from Universal Yarns was  a dream to work with, and of course seeing one’s work in print is always a boost!

Photo copyright Universal Yarns

Knitted hems. Original Fisherman afghans. Published sock designs.  I’d say that’s three advanced skills added to my knowledge bank.  I look forward to learning even more.

2KCBWDAY1

Assignment: Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Yarn. It’s the main ingredient in whatever knitters and crocheters create. It comes in an unlimited range of fibers, colors, thicknesses and characteristics.  We are truly fortunate to live in the present-day world of unique, wonderful yarns and colors that entice and make our fingers itch to get started on a new project.

Since yarn offerings of today are so vast, the hardest part is deciding which one(s) to work with (personally, I’d like to try them all!)  One ball always seems to lead to another and soon one may discover they have a personal yarn shop growing in a closet/corner/shelf/wall/room/house/garage … it doesn’t take long for an avid knitter or crocheter to collect a yarn stash.

Whatever yarn we choose for our projects, we have the choice to love it/hate it, hoard it/share it, wind it/unwind it, knit it/rip it, or crochet it/pull it all apart. Over the years, through hundreds of projects, I have had the good fortune to work with many types of yarn. When I first taught myself to crochet in college, I was mesmerized by rows and rows of standard 4-ply worsted weight acrylic lined up on the shelves at the local five and dime. The rainbow color assortment was just too attractive to pass by without purchasing one of every color.  An afghan project from my long-ago past is still in use today, thanks to the durability of standard 4-ply acrylic from Red Heart. It consists of blocks of popcorn stitch squares in every color of the rainbow:

The original pattern was lost long ago when old magazines were pitched during several moves, but you could replicate it easily.  Chain about 20 sts, then alternate one row of single crochet with one row of staggered popcorn or puff stitches. Border each square with single or double crochet and join them all together for your own rainbow jewel throw.

This is just one example of why a classic yarn remains so popular. I continue to work with acrylic yarns to this day, since many of my Designs by KN patterns and projects are suitable for donating to charitable causes. These items are often requested to be made in acrylic yarns, as they need to withstand the unknowns of how they will be cared for later on.

At the opposite end from standard 4-ply acrylic is wool. I love wool and wool-blend yarns in all of the wonderful forms available today. My most recent project, this 3-piece “masterpiece” baby set, was worked in a fingering-weight 90% superwash merino wool/10% nylon combination:   Happy Feet yarn from Plymouth Yarns. It was an affordable choice for a special custom knitting request from a dear friend. I wasn’t sure I could accomplish the feat, but after it was completed a few weeks ago and received with accolades, the hours invested in the project were well worth it. The icing on the cake was how the Happy Feet yarn performed: it was smooth, easy to knit with (even at such a fine gauge on small needles), there were no flaws, the colors were rich, and the finished look and feel after blocking was soft and beautiful.

The pattern for the Warm & Chic Hat, Sweater & Overalls appears in the book Chic Knits for Stylish Babies.  It was a labor of love, but in this case the yarn choice was perfect and the finished results were of heirloom quality.

Acrylic or wool? It doesn’t matter to me, I’m just thankful to have so many options. Whatever the purpose of the finished project, choosing the right yarn is half the fun!