Actually finished this prior to Christmas. Made from felting scraps and other fibers I had on hand. I may have enough to make a pointy ski hat.

Yes, I’m teaching Tunisian Crochet at the Naked Sheep. See the schedule.

The details are as follows. Sign up as soon as you can. Looking forward to seeing you there. This should be great fun!!!!

Beginning Tunisian Crochet
with Natalie
$40

Some call Tunisian crochet a marriage between knitting and crochet. Tunisian crochet produces a lovely and very sturdy fabric that can be used for many objects including garments and home decor such as pillow covers, coasters and place mats. Tunisian crochet projects are a great way to get rid of extra balls of yarn in your stash. In this class you will learn to use a Tunisian crochet hook to make 4 different stitch patterns and crochet a purse or small bag with pockets and other design features.

Mondays (January 18 and 25)
6:30-8:30pm

Sample of Tunisian crochet honeycomb stitch.

Very cleverly done short film… I wish I’d thought of that.

Rachel's Sock Yarn Blanket in Progress

Introducing… “Cloudy with a Chance of Fiber”

Two fiber and craft obsessed individuals from Portland, Oregon chat and explore what it means to live in a DIY nation.

You can view our show notes and link to the podcast here:

Cloudy with a  Chance of Fiber

I’m still working on some of the technical details with the RSS and iTunes but for anyone who want’s to listen it’s up there .

Datura Sock Yarns in Mauve, Grey and Aqua. Prize yarn is either the Mauve or Grey. Winner's choice.

You are Shetland Wool. You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a little on the harsh side. Though you look delicate you are tough as nails and prone to intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are widely respected and even revered.

This was a result from a quiz I took a long time ago (which is now defunct). It’s true – all of it I mean it’s a fairly accurate description of myself. There are moments where I can truly be acerbic, but what can I do? Not all of us can be a “Melanie.”* I love Shetland wool. But I tend to go for loyalty, durability, and dependability over softness, comfort, and reassurance. Besides in the winter here it’s cold enough for wear a shirt or turtleneck under the sweater. If it’s itchy… so what. It’s not a hair shirt.

I’ve actually been a bit busy. A sort of metamorphosis has occurred in me over the past few months… I’ve become a Spinner… and my favorite fiber to spin… is, not surprisingly, Shetland Wool. I took a lovely class over at the Naked Sheep several months ago on how to spin using a wheel. Bob and Meghan of Datura Fiber Arts are actually teaching the class again. This time they are providing a good amount of fiber from different breeds of sheep for students to try. If you’re local to Portland, OR, and you’ve been thinking about diving into the craft, I highly recommend this class.

Getting back to Shetland wool and spinning, I am now addicted to spinning. Although I once lamented that I would never take my hand to a wheel because it would take me from my beloved knitting, I am now finding time to fit spinning into my schedule. After trying all of the fibers in Bob and Meghan’s class I discovered that Shetland was my favorite followed by a blend of Merino and Silk.

In the process of learning to spin, I also discovered how relaxing it was to spin right before I went to bed. The constant whirring of the wheel seem to put me in a state of calm.  I’ve been such a busy little spider that I’ve made about eight 100 gram skeins.

The green fiber is a merino silk blend. The lavender is a Blue-faced Leicester blend I picked up from the Sock Summit, the natural brown is Shetland wool.

*Melanie from Gone with the Wind

Lily Chin's gorgeous crochet lace dress

The image above ( Lily Chin designed lace crochet dress found in the first issue of Interweave Crochet – 2004 under “Lace Dress”) and many others inspires me to learn and make more crochet garments that are fashionable and practical. I will always be a knitter, but in the past two years I’ve developed a burgeoning love affair with the craft of crochet.

I’m again teaching beginning crochet at the Naked Sheep Knitshop in North Portland. I get more and more excited each time I teach this class. It simply seems that crochet designers are really challenging the stereotypes of crochet as being the clunky and less graceful of the fiber arts. Gorgeous designs from Lily Chin, Doris Chan, Kristin Omdahl, etc have proven that crochet can not just be couture gorgeous, it can take the form of practical fashion.

“Beginning Crochet” can help learning fiber crafters attain the skills needed to start exploring the fashion options in crochet. In the last class, after we learned all the basic stitches and how to increase, decrease, and crochet in the round. We learned how to make basic lace in crochet. The students were very interested in learning how to crochet hats and berets so I taught them how to calculate increases in the round and develop your basic hat and beret like this one:

Crochet Beret with the Puffy Stitch

I actually adjusted Pretty Puffs Slouchy Hat for smaller gauge yarn so I could use Elsebeth Lavold’s Cable Cotton. In the class the students learned how to ‘do the math’ to figure out how to adjust stitches in a pattern to match their sizes and the type and weight of yarn they were using.

You can read about the basic structure of the course in a previous post and view some pretty examples of crochet stitch patterns:

http://natknits.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/learn-to-crochet-starts-july-20/

Here are the class details which you can also view on the Naked Sheep’s Knitshop’s Website. Hope to see you there :

Learn to Crochet- Starts September 15th
with Natalie
$55
If you want to learn to crochet or just need a refresher course, this class is for you! You’ll learn the basics in just 3 classes and get started on the project of your choice!

Tuesdays ( September 15, 22 and 29)
6:30-8:30pm

Owls Sweater in Cascade 128

I forgot to post the link to this pattern. You can find it here: http://needled.wordpress.com/designs/

I can’t wait to teach a class on how to make this sweater this October. This is a great sweater for beginners to sweater knitting.  Not only is the body and the yoke knit in one piece, it’s done in bulky weight so you could potentially finish your sweater in less than two weeks.  I’ve read of people doing it in a week, but I can’t imagine the strain on your hands after constant use of bulky gauge needles.

Again, I did both sleeves at once using the magic loop method.  I found it’s easier to keep my sleeves more uniform this way. One thing I adore about this sweater is how the waist shaping is done by a series of increases and decreases done on the back side of the sweater (see image below).

Waist Shaping of my Second Owls Sweater in Universal Classic Chunky

If you’re interested in taking the class (and live in the pdx area), it should fun. This is a great sweater for people who are starting to consider knitting  their first sweater. I’m excited to be able to share the experience for knitting this pattern with others. Here are the class details (you can also view an abbreviated version on the Naked Sheep’s website):

Owls Sweater Class:

Saturdays (October 3, 17 and 24)
10:30am-12:30pm

Have you always wanted to make that perfect sweater as a gift for a special friend or relative this holiday season, but you don’t have loads of time? Knit in bulky weight yarn this stylish sweater makes the perfect quick knit gift.  Also, this sweater requires very little sewing or seaming. Natalie will help students customize size dimensions for the pattern if needed. She can also convert the pullover pattern into a cardigan version if desired.  Students will learn how to make two sleeves at a time using the magic loop method.

Notions & Supplies Needed:

• Large tapestry needle
• Cable needles (if you are new to making cables)
• 24” circular needle in appropriate size for yarn used
• 32” or greater circular needle in appropriate size for yarn used. If you are using the Magic Loop 40″ circulars are highly recommended.
• Optional: 40-50 buttons or large beads for owl eyes

Recommended Yarns:

Any bulky weight soft yarn.

• Universal Yarns Chunky Classic
• Cascade 128
• Cascade Soft Spun
• Eco Wool or Eco +

Not recommended: any boucle or fur yarns.

Prerequisite Skills:

Advanced beginner. Students must be able to Knit in the round as well as increase and decrease.

Once you get the sleeves done it's smooth sailing all the way

I am very reflective… sometimes I will return to an event or idea that happened or occurred to me months or years back. Sometimes I wonder why I even blog… I’m a bit of a turtle when it comes down to documenting things. It took me a bit of time to really digest what happened to me at the Sock Summit 09. I’m going to post my discoveries or epiphanies here:

Discovery 1: Heather Ordover (of CraftLit) is a really nice lady.
I got to meet Heather Ordover in person… what a lovely person she is. I accidentally popped into her class early, but I just sat there listening to her voice. Because I love listening to her podcast and usually listen to it at night before I fall asleep, I found myself being lulled into a pleasant trance just listening to her talk. She was really the only person at the Summit whom I wanted to have my picture taken with… and here it is.

Okay it’s not the greatest photo of me… but she looks quite lovely in it.  Heather has done a lovely job discussing some of my favorite books including Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, & The Scarlet Letter (yes, I enjoyed reading the Scarlet Letter when I was in High School). If you are not familiar with Heather’s podcast and you love listening to classic audio books, her archive guarantees hours and hours of listening/knitting pleasure.

Discovery 2: I liked taking short classes.

I knew that I didn’t have the stomach to take an all or even half day class about sock knitting. I could do a sweater workshop, but not a sock class. Don’t get me wrong. I love making socks but I adore making sweaters even more. I would give my eye teeth to go to a sweater design conference actually.  I took mainly 1 hour classes from folks like Cookie A & Chrissy Gardiner, and I also made sure that these were classes on techniques that I could use in making sweaters. Overall my learning experience at the Sock Summit was very productive.

Discovery 3: “It’s not about the time… it’s about what you are making.”

That’s a quote from one of the Luminary Panel members. My memory is fading so I cannot remember who said it.  Obviously, as knitters we’re in it for the ‘process’ since none of us can compete with the speed at which ‘manufactured’ knits are produced. Knitters knit because of their devotion to their craft and the love that goes into producing the knitted object. Many of use knit to give our products to others, and we often internalize the experience that went into the making of the object… thus imbuing it with additional meaning.

Discovery 4: Quote from Anna Zilboorg, “Exams are Stupid!”

I wish I’d written more about this in my notes or even remember the context in which it was said. I think she was getting to the point that the formal world can be such a trial full of trifles that we really don’t need to deal with. Some of the hoops we have to jump through are ridiculous, but the creative part is figuring out how to get around or under them

Discovery #5: I want to attend a Sweater Summit or a Lace Summit or both.

Socks are great and I make several pair a year, but I would really love to attend a knitting conference focused on either sweaters or lace knitting.  Wouldn’t it be great to attend a fair isle design class or a steeking workshop? How about learning how to create the perfect sleeve cap. After knitting several stockinette based sweaters this year… I really want to focus on improving my technical skills in knitting and that includes knitting lace.

Discovery #6: I have more reserve than I thought

I actually didn’t buy too much yarn… two skeins of sock yarn and enough Blue Moon Fiberarts Twisted to make a bolero… oh and some roving. After viewing the ‘flashed’ Sock Summit stashes on Ravelry… I actually don’t feel that bad about how disciplined I was in not buying too much sock yarn.

Regret… I have but only one:

I wish I had talked to or said hello and thank you to Lucy Neatby. I wish I had her sign my DVD. Thanks to her I now know how to create gorgeous button bands. I really love her knitting videos and she seems to have the kind of dry wit I do love.

Raglan Sweater Made from Custom Yarnia Yarn

My most humblest apologies for being excessively tardy with posting this. I’ve been obsessed (obviously) with other things.  I still want to help more people make their own sweaters before the end of the year. For me it’s helping us deal with the downturn one sweater at a time. Also, it’s wonderful to see the pride in people’s faces after they’ve made their first sweater.

Today. I”m going to review how to get those sleeves done! You can view the earlier episodes for my Raglan Sweater instructions here:

Raglan Sweater 1: Selecting your Fiber

Raglan Sweater 2: Calculating Stitches and Casting On

Raglan Sweater 3: Working up the Body and Arm Pit Gussets

I use the “Magic Loop” method for making sleeves all the time. You can knit a sleeve in the round and gradually increase the circumference of the  sleeve from the cuff to the upper arm; therefore, you can knit it using the magic loop method to knit both sleeves at once. I absolutely love doing this for three reasons:

1. You get both sleeves done at the same time
2. When you knit both sleeves at the same time it helps guarantee that both sleeves will be knit at the same guage
3. As your doing increases or creating features on the sleeve at the same time this gives you the opportunity to keep these design features as uniform as possible between the two sleeves

Here’s how I calculate the increases for the sleeves:

Measure around your cuff (Measurement A), and measure around the thickest part of your upper arm (Measurement B). The calculate the number of stitches you need to begin the sleeve based on your gauge with the yarn. For example:

I want to do the cuffs and hem in garter stitch using a smaller pair of needles. I know my gauge is 16 stitches for a 4″ swatch or 4 stitches an inch using these needles. The circumference around my wrist or “A” is 6.  I’m going to multiply 4 x 6 and I get: 24 stitches.  But I like my cuff a little bit loose so I’ll add 2 more stitches to make it 26 stitches for the cast on.

Measurement “B” is 11″  (4 stitches x 11 = 44 stitches). There for I have to increase the circumference of the sleeve by 46 stitches. I usually increase a both the beginning and the end of a round of stitches (a total increase of 2 stitches per increase row). So this would mean I would have to increase a total of  23 times over the length of each sleeve. You can calculate the number of rows you would need to achieve the length based on your gauge. Take a brief look at the example illustrated below:

Using “Magic Loop” to knit two sleeves at a time:

I usually start the first few rows of each cuff separately (sometimes on double points) then I put both cuffs with the yarn tails on the same sides onto the circular needles. Knit both sleeves at a time. Make sure to do your increase rows on both sleeves as you knit up the sleeve.

If you haven’t seen or tried the “Magic Loop” method there are a number of helpful tutorials on Youtube that can help walk you through the process. I’ve embedded one of my favorites here: