Hello everyone. I’ve got a new pattern available in my Ravelry Store! And, believe it or not, it’s for socks. The design is based off of a mistake I made while swatching some design ideas. I twisted a slipped stitch and loved the effect. So I incorporated it into a sock design for Michael for Christmas. The design does recommend the use of Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel technique and links have been provided in the pattern for video and downloads. Other short row sock techniques can be used, of course, but you should really try this one. It’s going to change the way you think about short rows…or it changed the way I think about them.
Here are some pictures…thanks, Michael for modeling them (they were, after all, his Christmas present.)
…and be on the look out for a new pattern from me. A clever cowl (hey, I think I just figured out the name) if I do say so myself.
Recently I was at a trunk show for my book, Knitting Untangled at Stitch House in Dorchester. I was so enchanted by Sachiko Uemura’s Jeweled Cowl that I wanted to knit it. So I bought the supplies. But as I was planning, the project started to morph. I decided to do it as a moebius and include evenly spaced sections of the beading and this pattern was born. I didn’t want to call it the beaded, lace moebius. So, when I was writing the pattern out, I just used “Working Title” as the title and it sort of stuck.
I didn’t use the whole skein. There was a lot left over. You could easily make this longer by adding 100 stitches or knit it wider by increasing the number of rounds knitted. But please note, if you add beads, you will need more than 400.
I hope you enjoy and make this moebius which looks great either doubled or hanging in a single loop.
You can buy the pattern at my Ravelry Shop (and don’t worry. You don’t need to be a member of Ravelry to buy it.)
Hello everyone. After a bit of a hic-up at the iTunes/iBooks store, we are now (really and honestly) fully operational (meaning “Knitting Untangled” is now available in both versions).
The laptop/desktop/tablet interactive PDF with embedded video and links to YouTube for those using this version on the iPad (which will not play on the iPad…the PDF is viewable just fine. It’s the videos that won’t play.)
Download that version here:buy
The fully functional iPad version (only playable on iPad) is now available at iTunes. I’m so excited!!!
Download it iTunes version here:
Hello everyone. We are now fully operational (meaning “Knitting Untangled” is now available in both versions):
The laptop/desktop/tablet interactive PDF with embedded video and links to YouTube for those using this version on the iPad (which will not play on the iPad…the PDF is viewable just fine. It’s the videos that won’t play.)
Download that version here:buy
The fully functional iPad version (only playable on iPad) is now available at iTunes. I’m so excited!!!
Download it iTunes version here:
Ladies and Gentlemen, the day is here. Knitting Untangled – The Easier Way to Learn to Knit is here and available to download to your computer. I want to thank everyone who was involved in the making of this book. I appreciate everything you did to contribute to it…especially:
° to my friend and mentor, Cat Bordhi. Your unending support, patience and availability were and are priceless to me.
° to my love, Michael, who literally pushed me out the door…literally, to go to Cat’s Men’s Visionary Retreat in 2010…and who put up with my ups and downs about this book and getting through it, and for two-and-a-half years waited (and I believe never doubted) for it to be published.
I hope you like it, and I really hope it helps to teach people to knit!!!
I can hardly believe this journey has come to its end. Today, I release Knitting Untangled. This book has been my focus and passion since I started this book while attending Cat Bordhi’s Inaugural “Men’s Visionary Knitting Retreat” on San Juan Island, Washington in March of 2010.. And it’s strange to confess that the book had a definite mind of its own. There were times I was trying to push it in one direction and it wouldn’t budge…not until I uncovered and discovered what the book wanted to become. Several designs didn’t make it into this book and they’re waiting to be revamped and reworked for the next book, Knitting Unraveled, or is that too cutsie?
Anyway, at some point today the book will be available as a PDF through Ravelry and in a week or so, an interactive iBook will be available via iTunes.
If you can’t possibly wait, email me and I will send you a PayPal invoice. Please note that you do need Adobe Reader version 8 or later to view the files.
For those amazing people who supported the creation of this book through my Kickstarter Program. I can’t thank you enough. I have send out messages to each of you, asking for email addresses so I can deliver your special Thank You gifts.
AND, look for a newly revamped sprboston.com! Busy busy…
In the meantime here’s a peek at all of the designs in the book!
While I was waiting for my good and dear friends to proof and tech edit my soon-to-be-released book, Knitting Untangled, I needed something to do. And result is this new patter duo, now available on Ravelry.
At the core of this pattern is the reversible striped hat pattern that can be found in Jane Neighbor’s book, Reversible Two-Color Knitting. I learned the hat in a workshop at Woolcott and Company in Cambridge, MA (the shop that I would later own.) I was in love with this magic—a stripe that is vertical on one side and horizontal on the other. I had made many hats from this pattern but felt that it needed a more elegant finishing. The original pattern simply had the knitter synch the top closed. So I cast on again and worked out the decreases for double knitting in this pattern. They’re a little fussy, but I love the result.
The second part of the duo is a moebius done in the Cat Bordhi style. I first learned the technique from Cat herself at a workshop at TNNA. I was hooked. So when I was knitting the hats, I wondered what this pattern would do when applied to the moebius. The result is magical. Both patterns reversing on both sides. It’s truly amazing. I hope may people knit this because I can’t wait to see the color combinations people come up with!
Here are a few pictures!
Accompanying videos (to show the techniques that are easier to show than to write about) on YouTube.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, the patterns are available on Ravelry. And you don’t have to be a member of Ravelry to be able to purchase the patterns.
I really hope you enjoy.
The thing I like most about being in the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus are the under-heralded (in my opinion) out reach concerts. A few times a year the BGMC travels to a local school group or organization to help them raise money…usually for Gay/Straight Alliance groups. And while it’s never convenient (we take time out of our weekends) and today’s concert in particular is donated, the rewards are amazing. Today we travel to Barnstable Highschool to help raise funds for CIGSYA (The Cape and Islands Gay & Straight Alliance)
A week or so ago, a parent came to our rehearsal who told us her family’s story. Her teenage son came out to them and she felt ill-equipped to help, support, and guide him. She turned to CIGSYA who provided counseling and guidance, making a potentially scary journey a little less so.
The response of the audience always brings me to tears. They are so grateful. And to see young GBLT youth, able to be honest and true about themselves is (and I don’t think this is too dramatic) life changing for me. While I don’t particularly relish the 1.5 hour drive there and then another back. But I know that I am going to see brilliant smiles so grateful to the BGMC…and that we might have a positive effect helping make lives better than they were for us, makes it all worth it.
I think (and this isn’t a slam or criticism) that the BGMC doesn’t toot their own horn enough, particularly about these out reach efforts. THIS is precisely why fundraising events like the upcoming Crescendo are so critical. I hope that you will be able to support the BGMC in anyway possible. The work they do affects so many lives. So please consider attending our fundraiser. It’s guaranteed to be a great night out! Details here!
I wanted to (and I’m not quite sure why) share a little glimpse inside my mind at times like these.
I sit awaiting the arrival of the Adobe Creative Suite software 5.5 which will herald the restart of working on my book. I am preparing for that arrival by reading up on how to construct an ebook and by cleaning up a few other scattered creative ideas littering that space in my mind where I “work.” I can’t really explain it more than that…and perhaps those of you who work to create things will know what I mean.
Anyway, part of my anxiety lately (and there always is anxiety…it’s one of those things that I just have learned to to accept and moved on…knowing that I do not want to use daily medication — nothing against anyone who does…this is all a person choice and my choice is not to.) is that I don’t have a lot of anxiety that the actual work is about to begin. The rubber is going to hit the road and the piper must be paid (enough cliches for you?. So, in a back corner of that “room” is a door to a closet. In that closet, under a bunch of stuff is a box and in that box is the grain of doubt that will sprout the idea that no one is going to want to read or use this book. That the negative reaction is going to be so crushing that I may not be able to handle it and will prevent me from working. BUT, that seed has yet to sprout. I think it has been prevented from germinating by something Cat Bordhi said to a group I was in. She said that we should never believe what others say about ourselves…not the most amazing platitudes, not the most degrading criticisms. — She’s a smart lady.
So, I have been preparing for the work to come and (insanely, I know) worried that I’m not more worried about how I’m actually going to do this. But what I really think is happening is that this book has selected me to bring it into existence. I know this because the more I push to create it, the less anything happens. When I relax and listen to it, then things come into focus.
AND, as things often happen with me, I just got interested in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love. I am enjoying it very much. And as my Obsessive Compulsive self often does, I scoured and read all the things about Elizabeth Gilbert that I could. And I found the following video (link provided below.) I encourage any of my creative brothers and sisters to invest the 20 minutes it takes to watch this video, below. I think the most inspiring and insightful things are near the last 10 minutes. And it’s so comforting knowing that I’m not the only one that thinks like this. It may be crazy, but I feel comforted knowing I’m not crazy alone. Enjoy!
It is truly amazing to me — amazing and wonderful. Together, not without the considerable help from all of you who shared my story, we have reached my Kickstarter funding goal! (of course I’ll still accept donations up to and including the 3/22/12 end date and anything above the original goal will be used to help market the book to the LYS.) I doubt that I will ever be able to express the depth of my gratitude. But, please know that I am grateful…grateful for your belief and confidence in me.
