Fall Classes—Rose-Window Lace

22 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, teaching classes

People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed
only if there is a light from within.
[Elisabeth Kubler-Ross]

The knitting retreat at New Harmony, Indiana is my first teaching opportunity this fall. My topic is lace knitting and I’ve devised this six-inch piece for our basic project. It is only 28 rounds and the pattern includes a full size blocking diagram. The pattern is both charted and written out in abbreviations so it will offer the opportunity for the knitters to practice a variety of skills.

If anything makes my light shine from within, it is these annual trips to New Harmony. It is still two months away and I’m already excited.

Colorful Counterpane Pattern

19 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, Pattern, Ravelry

≈ 2 Comments

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.
[Robert Louis Stevenson]

I’ve shown this counterpane on my blog before. Today, I uploaded the pattern to sell for $6.50 on Ravelry.

Counterpanes are decorative bed covers. In her book, Knitting Counterpanes, Traditional Coverlet Patterns for Contemporary Knitters, Mary Walker Phillips gives a thorough history of counterpanes. She then shares a number of knitting patterns for blocks and borders.

These were often knit using white or ecru cotton or linen thread. Heirloom samples are breathtaking in their beauty. They are also very heavy and fragile.

Although this pattern was inspired by the antique counterpanes, its fiber content and techniques are different. It is knit in the round in blocks that have a selvage that makes seaming easy. It is in color. When used in class, each block is designed to allow knitters to practice basic techniques beyond simply knitting and purling.

The pattern can be ordered at this LINK

Star-Spangled Banner Socks

01 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, Ravelry, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men
and so it must be daily earned and refreshed
else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots,
it will wither and die.
[Dwight D. Eisenhower]

I just added another sock pattern to my online store from …and a time to knit stockings. This is the July Sock. For the Ravelry PDF patterns, I’m laying them out in a different style than they were in the book or on the CD. I have revised the charts with color, corrected some problems people had in understanding the directions, and added a personal touch or two.

I belong to a women’s writing group that focuses on memoir writing (Story Circle Network). I love being a part of the group but never intended to write a traditional memoir until I realized that my patterns are a memoir of sorts. They were each inspired by something in my life so I’m adding the inspirations to the patterns. It might be a bit unorthodox for a knitting pattern, but my knitting buddies at the local yarn shop loved the idea so I did it.

Here is the text from the cover page shown above:

Celebrate the Fourth of July in a pair of star-spangled banner socks. My childhood started during World War II so I came to associate Independence Day with service as well as picnics and fireworks. This experience inspired the sock design.

Photographs:
Civil War—Samual C. Marvel served in the 13th Iowa Infantry, G.A.R., and was lost on his twenty-second birthday in a battle at Atlanta in July, 1864.

World War Two—Esther Black served in the U.S. Navy as a link trainer and cartographer. Roy Misegades served in the U.S. Army as a cook in Europe.

1965-1969—Katherine Misegades served as a U.S. Navy Nurse Corps Officer.

The PDF pattern sells for $5.00 at this link on Ravelry

June Stocking Pattern

23 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, Ravelry

≈ Leave a comment

It is difficult to see why lace should be so expensive;
it is mostly holes.
[Mary Wilson]

I’ve just added this pattern to the electronic download store on Ravelry. It is the first pattern I’ve published separately from the …and a time to knit stockings collection that were originally offered in a printed book (1996) then on CD (2006). Here is more information:

The inspiration for the June Stocking was a pair of thigh-high, hand knit, cotton stockings worn by my grandmother, Gertrude Chamberlain (1877–1962). Although her father, James (1836–1919), knit his own stockings all of his life and taught his offspring to knit, it is not known who knit the original stockings. Gertrude’s daughter (my mother), Rachel (1906–2001), also wore the lace stockings. She said they were pinned to her underwear in order to hold them up, and they were quite uncomfortable. The original stockings were knit flat then shaped into a tube with a hand sewn seam. The heels are garter stitch and not shaped with a heel turn. I revised the original pattern in several ways. I used a sock-weight yarn instead of cotton, knit them in the round, and shaped them by making subtile changes in the lace pattern. Although this version uses a peasant or replaceable heel, another style heel would work as well. The directions are given for adult-size knee high stockings, but a shorter version can be knit with slight alterations to the pattern.

Select this link to purchase on Ravelry

G-Class Star Sun Hat

20 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, Ravelry

≈ 6 Comments

A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.
[Frederick The Great]

Knitting, for me, usually involves a marathon effort to check the accuracy of one of my patterns and to finish a sample for a photo shoot. For the past few days, I knit for fun and pleasure. This hat was designed by the author of the blog, Golden Apples. She shared her pattern with me preliminary to putting it on Ravelry to sell. It is knit using a DK weight cotton. My daughter, Rachel (upper left), wants a pink one so I have a good excuse to knit another one. By the way, Rachel’s birthday is tomorrow and she will be old enough that she wouldn’t want me telling her age but I will say she was born in 1975. Since she is my youngest child, that gives away my age too.

The Wings of the Morning

18 Saturday Jun 2011

Posted by Katherine in Reading, Review, Thoughts, Writing

≈ 3 Comments

Anyone who says they have only one life to live
must not know how to read a book.

After spending my retirement savings (or so it seemed) on eBooks last year, I decided to find free ones this year. Project Gutenberg is a treasure trove. I have downloaded all of the available Louis Tracy books and am enjoying them a lot. They are kind of like Agatha Christy’s books. Tracy wrote at the turn of the last century in Great Britain. I’d never heard of him but am inspired to find more of this sort of book on Gutenberg.

(I wonder if this is the sort of book that was called a “penny dreadful.”)

Counterpane Pillow Tops

08 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting

≈ 5 Comments

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
[Thomas A. Edison]

The valuable idea was Heather’s, a friend in Dayton. She suggested stringing stitches onto the filament used in string trimmers (Weed Eaters, etc.). That is the blue which shows at the corners of the knitting in the photo.

These are pillow tops made from an heirloom counterpane pattern I adapted from a lovely old piece (I took out the seams and knit it in the round like a doily). The four sides are live stitches that will be joined with the live stitches of other blocks. In this case, these will become pillows for a class I’m leading this fall. The filament not only holds the stitches nicely but it also acted as a blocking tool when I pinned the blue top out to dry.

Then I finish this project, I’ll post the results and make the pattern available.

Thanks for your idea Heather.

Hearts & Flowers Sock Pattern

07 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, Ravelry

≈ 4 Comments

Let us dance in the sun,
wearing wild flowers in our hair…
[Susan Polis Shutz]

This is the second pattern I have put in the Ravelry pattern store. Here is the description for these stockings that I designed for a Valentine sock class:

The stranded color design for these stockings was inspired by a stitch pattern in Alice Starmore’s book, Charts for Colour Knitting (1992). This pattern is charted and offers subtle variations from which the knitter may choose depending upon the knitter’s taste and skill level. The green sock is an improvised variation of the pattern to show the stranded design reversed. The heel is shaped with a pre-heel-turn gusset and short rows (non-stop heel).

The pattern sells for $6.00 at this link: PayPal checkout and download

Ravelry Group: a time to knit

06 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites

≈ 4 Comments

Don’t walk in front of me;
I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me;
I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and
be my friend.
[Albert Camus]

Thanks for the encouragement to start the Ravelry group. It is up and running. I am looking forward to learning a lot from the group members. I’d love to have input for improving my patterns so that they are usable for all skill levels. My next step is to gather all my free patterns that are wondering around in what my sister calls “the black hole of the world wide web.” I’ll put them on Ravelry so folks can download them to try out. That way they won’t be buying a pig in a poke if they purchase one of my PDFs.

Ravelry group or not?

03 Friday Jun 2011

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, teaching classes, Thoughts

≈ 7 Comments

The best kind of friend is
the kind you can sit on a porch swing with,
never say a word,
then walk away feeling like
it was the best conversation that you ever had.

A friend suggested that I start a group on Ravelry since I’m formatting patterns to sell online as PDF files. Apparently a number of designers have groups. The idea was that I could answer questions, clarify instructions, gather suggestions and share the tidbits that I share when I’m teaching a class. When I investigated the process of setting up a Ravelry group, I discovered that I need to list three people to invite to join the group. Therein lies my first quandary. What if I listed someone who didn’t want to join the group but didn’t want to hurt my feelings by saying, “No”?