Hello!

And welcome to the Stitches & Steps blog :)

I noticed that there've been a lot of new fiber friends checking in here lately, and I thought a little intro post might be timely.

So first off, I'm Síle (pronounced she-la), and the Stitches & Steps blog is where I share all my latest news and chatter on my pattern designs (Knit Dance Repeat Designs aka where the site gets its name), personal crafting projects (heavy on knitting but occasional cross-stitch and crochet forays happen), Irish dance news and inspiration, and the occasional blip about my physical health.

Across the top, you'll also find tabs to: an index of my photo tutorial posts and helpful hints, a gallery with internal links to all of my pattern pages, and a glossary of Irish dance terms that have appeared in my pattern intro paragraphs plus a few from blogposts. (Aside: I'm always happy to add to the glossary, so if there's a term or word you're curious about, drop me a comment in the form in the sidebar, and I'll get it added to the glossary as soon as I can)

Along the sidebar I have links to other places to buy my patterns (Payhip and LoveCrafts), and links to other inspirational fiber folks that you might also enjoy. I try to include clearly marked links to any patterns and/or designers I discuss in my personal projects, and tag them in the post. If I've forgotten a link, don't hesitate to let me know! :) It's always my intention to have links but my brain fog sometimes distracts me before I can hit publish on a post.

So that's a wide net overview of the site :)

Why Knit Dance Repeat? To be honest, I fell into it! I was designing a few little things here and there, and writing them up since 2009. Anchors & Ropes was published on my then-blog I think in December of 2009. Could've been November. Anyway! I wanted to design more. I enjoyed it and it was a great creative outlet from my series of retail and customer service jobs; I've been assistant manager of a dollar store, worked at Walmart as both floor staff and a cashier, worked the drive through of a coffee place, etc...

Then I got hurt, and I was home, in a lot of pain, with only books and my yarn hoard to keep me occupied. Thankfully I had my Roomie for company and awesome support, but even the absolute bestest friends can't fill a void in your own head left by suddenly not having a purpose. 

To say I went through some things in the summer of 2015 is an understatement.

But what did happen was I literally dreamed a pattern coming together. I sat bolt up in bed at like 3:30 in the morning, scribbled down the idea, and went back to sleep. When I woke up later that day I looked at the back of that envelope, and discovered what I'd done.

I had used the math of the music of a reel to outline a cowl. Who does that?! Apparently me lol The thing is, it was solid. The idea was completely knitable. I think I cast-on that afternoon.

But that also got my mind firing. If I could use the time signature of a reel (4/4 for those not familiar traditional Irish music) to come up with a cowl pattern, could I use a similar process to design something for a light jig?

I'll spare you the whole journey, but the answer was yes for the light jig, single jig, slip jig, treble reel, treble jig, and hornpipe.

And that blending/melding/mixing of knitting and Irish dance/music brought to mind what I used to do. I knit, I danced, and then I repeated it over the course of my week. Heck, I often knit while at dance! In the down room before class, and even backstage during rehearsals for performances. A few times backstage during performances to help with nerves if I'm being completely honest lol. Even when my feet weren't dancing, my fingers often were! 

The blending of the two worlds also helped me keep my place in dance when we (my dr and I) weren't sure exactly where this was going to lead. Irish dance was a huge component of my life. Many of my absolute dearest friends came into my life because we met at the studio. The music always spoke to me from the time I was a little girl. The steps always felt like they were meant to be mine...

Ok, not trebles; those never felt exactly right lol I'm a slip jig not a treble reel! Thank you for that line, Bernie!! :)

Where was I??

Oh right! Irish dance and trad music were, and are, a big part of who I am. And at a time that was scary and uncertain, I needed that comfort and stability, even if I could hardly put one foot in front of the other to walk from my room to the bathroom. Especially because of it, really.

And my little niche has allowed me to play with knitting and Irish dance in ways I never imagined. And I continue to play with both in ever expanding ways. I have so many ideas!! 

One thing you'll notice is there's not a firm schedule for when new patterns come out here at KDRD. Where I do everything (with the exceptions of photography and tech editing; shout out to Krista and Heather for providing me with the best of both disciplines!), and from only my smartphone to boot, everything hinges on my pain levels, fog levels, and general "can I knit/write/edit/sit up today?". I do my best to be timely. I don't always succeed but I do try.

One other thing about me: I live on the island of Newfoundland off of Canada's most eastern coast, adrift in the north Atlantic Ocean. This place informs a lot of what I do knitting wise indirectly. And like any good solid Rock, it's given me a pretty steady base to work from. I'd be very remiss if I didn't mention my adopted home. And nothing set in stone but I have an idea or two that'll give my dear island some attention of its own amongst all the dancing and tunes.

So welcome! I hope you'll come back often and see what I'm up to. Comments and questions are always welcome either on a post/page or to the form in the sidebar. 

Ok, so no design news to share this week. I'm still a bit behind in my head from my overnight to Town midmonth to be honest. You wouldn't think an overnight would disrupt so much but here I am. 

In personal projects, I got the first sleeve of Roomie's cardi done. I'm knitting her a Folklore Cardigan by Amy Gundersen🔗 (link to the pattern's page on the MadelineTosh website) in classic cream and black. It's such a great classic cabled cardigan in DK weight; I'm using Patons Astra purchased from a local shop. 

And here's a pic of the sleeve:

I have 1 and a half diamonds done on the second one so it's moving again. I admittedly got a bit bogged down by it for a while because I've been working on it since October. But things are zipping along again, so yay!

The other piece I've put any time into is Nicole from Common Thread Fiber's Keep It Secret Keep It Safe Shawl mystery knit along aka mkal. I finished Clue 1! Clue 4 dropped today lol. Working behind as always lol. I'm using Briggs & Little Heritage which is a wonderfully woolly worsted/aran weight yarn. Canadian too, from our oldest woollen mill in the country. They're Atlantic Canadian neighbors too, being based in New Brunswick :) As I pointed out last post, this pattern is only available on Ravelry for the duration of the original knit along due to the need for sending weekly clue updates, and Common Thread's off-Rav location is on Ko-fi. I'll safe link as soon as I can!

So that's what's keeping my personal needles busy, and I've been doing a wee bit of pattern writing and charting for new designs but nothing I can share just now. Maybe next time I'll have something definitive for you.

I've written a novel this time! Whew! I hope you've had a favorite drink and/or snack to get you through today's post lol

What are you working on, fiber friends? A last minute warm hat or pair of mittens to help stave off the polar vortex that's gripped much of North America? Or are you thinking spring and summer, and have a lovely tee or tank on your needles or hook? I'd love to hear from you :)

As always, I remain

Yours in yarn and really long intros because it's either four words or a novel with me lol,

Síle

Swatching Experiments: a behind the scenes look at a future idea

Now that I'm pretty much back to my usual knitting pace (with breaks; I don't want another 6+ week hiatus!), I've been doing some swatching for some ideas I'm sort of toying with, and I thought you might like to see what goes on at this stage if my process.

Ok, to be totally truthful my process rarely if ever follows the same path twice. Not how I function lol. But what does stay the same is swatching happens. 

Do I like this yarn on this size needle? What does this decrease look like? Can I work this and this on the same row and have it not look cluttered? The best way to answer these questions is to cast-on 50 or 60 stitches and start knitting whatever is going to answer the important question in front of me. Luckily I love playing with yarn. I see swatching as extra play time, which *really* makes it feel like less of a boring chore. I see you in the back shaking your head and hating on swatching. And I used to think it was pointless too. Joke was fully on me because now I cast-on a swatch at the drop of a new ball of yarn.

I digress.

So this week, besides the photos for the tutorial I mentioned on Monday (it'll be up late tomorrow or on Sunday), I had an old idea pop into my head. I had started, back in... I really want to say 2008? 2009? Possibly earlier. (Canadian retail yarn trivia: what was the craft store that was in at least one mall in most larger cities in the late 90s - early 2000s? For anyone in Regina, it was in the Southland Mall across from Safeway; where M&M Meats was in 2012. You know the spot.) Ok, I had gotten some cool teal/blue/purple variegated mohair yarn at that store probably 6 months or so before they closed out, and I was designing with it to make a triangular shawl starting at the point and working up. Between the cross country move in 2012, and a bunch of other events, that on the needles proto shawl (and any notes I had taken) no longer exists. 

And of course at around 2:30-3:00 in the morning the other day it popped up big and bold in my head. Clear as day. And that prompted me to wonder if I could at least recall how I was shaping it. Which led to a swatch. And me being a much more experienced knitter now means I have a few more tricks in my shaping knits repertoire than I did back then. 

I started by trying to just chart my idea out, and I got a good 30 rows into it with everything looking good. Look at that, I said to myself. That's looking how I remember it. Cool. 

There are times when something on paper, or a digital chart program, looks really good. The proof is when it works in a swatch. 

Well, fiber friends, it started off well. The first about 12 rows or so were great. And then I noticed it sort of looked like it was developing a bubble. I persevered, and kept knitting (because that always goes well, right? Yeeeeeaaah) until I couldn't deny what was in front of me:

You see it, don't you? It's almost forming a mitered square back in on itself. That is very much not the look I was going for. Now, of course one has to consider if something like this will block out. Which isn't an answer I can give because I just grabbed any old yarn close to hand and a circular needle that looked about right to go with the yarn (my needle gauge is still MIA). Of course the yarn closest to hand on my end table was a leftover ball of acrylic of indeterminate age and brand.

And after getting the above photo, I promptly frogged the little swatch with a mind of its own. 

What have I learned? Stacking right side rows of 1-into-3 increases upon right side rows of 1-into-3 increases causes rows of garter stitch to bow out and almost turn square. 

I've adjusted the chart and sometime in the next week or so I'll see what happens with that one. Should be interesting to see.

Yours in yarn and lingering ideas,

Síle

Beginnings & Endings

To begin: I'm nearly over, and very much done with, a nasty sinus cold that invaded my ne'er-do-well head cavities last Monday. Thankfully it wasn't anything worse, but as someone whose colds tend to turn into sinusitis it was bad enough.

And of course nearly over means I have some lingering bits of it. Like the cough that woke me up far too early on a Sunday. I really dislike waking up feeling like I'm choking. Add in that it's Sunday is insult on top of misery. 

Once awake, it can be hard for me to return to sleep, especially if pre-sleep I was pondering some interesting little yarny puzzle or another. Thankfully there is yarn in my room. Sadly, at the moment the only free needles I had to hand were the 6.0mm (US 10) monstrosities I bought a few years ago to knit a quick blanket for an erstwhile relative. I learned that bulky yarn and thick needles make my hands throb and turn interesting shades of red; I don't recommend the experience!

I digress. 

With the plastic vampire stakes and a ball of unlabelled but seemingly worsted weight, maybe heavier, yarn I casted on enough stitches to try what I had been pondering. I give you the first 9 rows:

The cables are doing what I expected. I don't care for the fuzziness of the yarn but it was the best option with these needles. What I don't like is that weird canyon between the cast-on and the rest of the piece. Luckily this is just a "try it with what's on hand" thing that I planned on frogging anyway.

Of course that canyon put me in mind of how we begin a project. I mean quite literally. The cast-on. 

Chances are you, like me and the seemingly majority of knitters, go with your first learned cast-on as your default. For me that's the cable cast-on; how appropriate is that for someone who loves to knit cables? And it works pretty well for me other than times that the needles are too big for the yarn, and I'm not really as awake as I should be when casting on. Like this morning! 

But as I worked on this little bit that might become part of something larger, I began to ponder cast-ons, and how a large number of us stick to a few, most notably the first one we learned. Do you rely on the same tried-and-true cast-on for most times you need to start something? When do you change it up and go with your second choice option? 

I find it interesting to think of such things when the cats are snoring and everything is only semi-light and I find myself knitting in bed without my glasses on.

Cast-ons turned my mind to cast-offs. It's always exciting to finish a project, isn't it? The mystery knit-along of my Practice Makes Perfect🔗 (link stays on this site) scarf is nearing its cast-off! I'll be releasing the final Step on Tuesday (November 1st), and the intrepid knitters have until November 15th to post photos of their completed scarves to be eligible for the prize draw. I'll be random generating a winner of the prize pack I put together this summer on November 16th.

What's in the prize pack? Some lovely goodies! Take a look:

What do I have for the lucky knitter? First off, a hank of Windswept Fibres' Best Kind BFL Sock yarn (75% superwash BFL wool/25% nylon; 425 yards/400 metres = 100g) in their Limited Edition colorway "Come Home 2022". I just love the bright colors sun n this so much! And Windswept Fibres is from right here on the island of Newfoundland too. A little piece of my home going to the winner.

I'm sure you can tell the two other parts of the prize are stitch markers but you'd probably like to see them a bit better. I'll go left to right. So here's the first set:

These I ordered via the Etsy store of The Knitting Bag PEI🔗 (link goes to Etsy); an Atlantic Canadian neighbor! I wanted to find something to tie knitting and Irish dance together. I didn't quite get the dance part but I definitely got the knitting and Irish in! I like that this set isn't all matchy-matchy and comes with a lobster-claw progress keeper along with the 5 standard ring markers.

And these are just cute, and once again from close by:

What are they? Newfoundland mummers! This adorable set of 4 markers features little figures dressed in their plaid flannel-look pajamas, with yellow or green mittens on their feet, and pillowcases with eyeholes cut out over their heads! And no, they're not for Halloween. Mummering is an old Yuletide tradition from the bays and outport communities of this wondrous island. Let me link the video for Simani's (pronounced sim an eye) "The Mummers Song"🔗 (link goes to Youtube) for you to get a feel for what mummering in Newfoundland is about. These cuties were made by Dawn's Creations, and if I'm remembering right she's from near St. John's. I ordered them through Cast On! Cast Off! just before the yarn store relocated from St. John's to Triton, Newfoundland. COCO is also where I ordered the hank of Windswept Fibres yarn from. You can find at COCO at their website here🔗.

So that's the little package the winner of the random draw of finished scarves will get in their mailbox. Oh, and a card with a local scene, and a quick congratulatory note from me. I can't send a parcel without a note! I think that'll bring my little mystery knit along to a close nicely. 

Speaking of endings, October is done tomorrow! Where has this year gone?! Before you know it, it'll be New Year's Eve!

But wait, there's a little beginning before we get to that ending. You've heard me mention the Fasten Off Yarn A Long before. And I'm happy to say the gang is back together for 2022! 

We're already gathering ideas and going over last year's feedback to put on year 3 of the little craft along that could. I can tell you things will kick off on November 25th, and run through every conceivable hour of December 31st. If you took part in last year's New Year's Eve Boonanza, you know I mean that quite literally! Designer signups will be coming soon, so if you want all the details be sure you're signed up for the emails; you can do that at this link🔗.

I have one other beginning that's sort of an ending. My Hornpipe Bag pattern is just awaiting photos before its November release. Yes, really! Between a wedding, birthdays, illness, musicals, and bad weather, it seems everything has been set upon hampering the photography of this one! But we (that is, me and my trusty photographer) shall prevail! And I have a self-imposed deadline: the pattern will be out before designer sign-ups for FOYAL start. Watch this space for the exact date! That will bring my year's new releases to a close.

Want to know what else is starting to close? My eyes. I think I'll end this to post, and begin a morning nap 😉

Yours in yarn and a warm fleece blanket with two cats,

Síle

P.S. I wasn't kidding about the fleece blanket, or the cats:

Garden Blooms is Updated!

I'm happy to say the first of my pattern re-releases is live this morning :) 

Garden Blooms🔗, my trivet and coaster set pattern, has been updated and the new pdfs are live! 

I think the update looks much neater. If you've purchased Garden Blooms previously don't be concerned: this is a purely cosmetic update. No essential information has been changed.

To celebrate the update of Garden Blooms, today (January 18) only, save 15% by using coupon code NEWBLOOM 

Stay tuned for more updates, fiber friends!

Yours in yarn,

Síle

Well That Was Certainly a Week!

I don't know about you, but last week was one I don't care to ever repeat the like of again. Between personal changes, my own health stuff, and an emergency with a feline household member I have no nerves left. Poof! Gone!

Less said the better on the first point, I think. I will say the timing couldn't have been worse seeing as how I was finally staring down the final hours to the specialist appointment on Thursday that was kicked off by my October of last year overnight trip to Town. Talk about your emotional rollercoaster!

The appointment/procedure on Thursday could've been worse. I was thinking it would be. Not something I care to repeat mind you, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been and I'm really trying hard not to look on the bad side. Now it's a hurry up and wait situation to get back the results, roughly 6 weeks. In that time I need to get bloodwork done (I might be anemic again. Talk about your throwback moments! I was on iron a lot of high school because my body liked to throw that at me on top of everything else), and the Drs (I saw a tandem team; both were great to talk with so that was a definite plus) were going to book me for an ultrasound, which I'll probably get a letter in the mail about as that's SOP for our health region.

So enter Thursday evening, and I'm sore and tired and already emotionally wrung out, when my precious feline nephew comes up from the basement and howls. And then only eats a few licks of his canned food that night, and barely has any water. And already tired Auntie slept in fits and starts to keep a watch on the poor little guy.

Long story short (for probably the first time ever!), he had a scab from his surgery site migrate, and block off the new opening causing him to react the same way as the first blockage. His vet had never seen the like happen before! Thankfully, after another overnight at the vet's and a catheter in place for another week, Jakey has been perfectly fine. He's even been trying to steal food! Not his usual modus opperendi but he's so cute so it's tough not to give in.

This has really been a week for comfort knitting and I've turned back to a shawl design I call Hap-Hazard. It's my go to when everything around me goes completely haywire, like the last 5 days! I'm hoping to have it in testing this summer. It involves a garter stitch center and picked up stitches with lace borders. I think you'll really like it. It's "moose lace" (and doesn't that conjure up a funny picture in your head!), that is I've used worsted weight wool (Briggs & Little Heritage for my sample) on 6.5mm/ US 10 ½ needles. It's big and squooshy, and feels like a woolly hug around you. Stay tuned for more on this one!

Here's hoping for things to go more quietly than this week from here on out!

Yours in yarn and sleeplessness,

Síle

Preparing to Leave

As many of you know, so-called Classic Rav ceases to exist at the end of this month. And I, like many others, am leaving as close to then as possible. It will still look like I'm there as I'll be keeping my account open in order to maintain control of my pattern listings. However that will be the only activity my account will see after March 31st.

Now that creates a whole bunch of headaches after being active on the site for so many years (I joined in September of 2009; before the site reached half a million members!) I've logged projects and stash, even projects I made before Rav existed! Some of the projects have photos that don't exist elsewhere! 

In order to keep all of my photos and notes from my older projects, plus my new ones, I've started a second blog. It will only have projects on it, no rambles off into dance or whatever else. Unless for some reason I noted it in the project notes. And believe me my notes can be quite interesting if not downright odd at times!

I've added a link in the sidebar of this blog to the new blog, which I've named Síle's Yarning Notebook🔗. I'm going oldest to newest, more or less, so there's some rarely seen projects of mine coming to light right now if you'd like to take a looksee. I have a feeling we may see a resurgence in yarn blogs (knitting, crocheting, weaving, spinning) in the coming months as crafters set up new online spaces to keep their projects organized.

So far, (8 projects in) everything has been from books, leaflets, or ball bands, which I've been noting with the pattern information but when I get to online patterns I will be including Off-Rav links for everyone's interest and safety where possible. If it's a pattern only on Rav, I'll be making that clear as well without a link.

So there you have my latest project!

Oh, speaking of things I've learned to do because of needing to set up my own spot here on the interwebs due to Those People Too Bullheaded (see what I did there? TPTB hee hee), if you look at my patterns tab, you'll see that instead of a big long line on one side my pattern photos are all in a nice grouping. I learned where to paste bits of code and how to add the right links in the right spots to make them do that yesterday. :) I'm quite pleased with myself over that. If anyone else is in need of an easy to follow guide for making a clickable gallery, you can find it here: xomisse.com 🔗

Silver (the elder of my furry nieces) is squawking at me in that near bird-like tone of hers that usually means she's done something to Jakey, so I better make sure he's alright lol

Yours in yarn and old project photos,

Síle

How My Worlds Connect

With the announcement last week by the CLRG* that World's in Dublin this July has been cancelled, and knowing that many knitting/fiber arts festivals are probably going to be at best online again this year, I've been thinking of some similarities between my two worlds once again. So I've made a short list!

1) Small accessories like to disappear:

Ask nearly any dancer, Irish or other discipline, what they can't find and odds are extremely high they'll answer bobby pins or hair elastics. Ask a knitter the same question and odds are extremely high they'll answer stitch markers or yarn needles. I've begun to suspect, in my house anyway, that all four items have run away together and are probably on some tropical beach somewhere. And any replacements I buy follow soon after coming into the house. 

2) Niche jokes are always in:

Whether it's a cartoon of a sheep knitting it's own wool into a sweater on a project bag, or a t-shirt mentioning "reel" dancers, knitters and Irish dancers love their in jokes. And usually the punnier the better. I'm not not saying I have an "I will knit in the rain. I will knit on a train. ..." mug on my Amazon wish-list, or an "Everything feisin'* hurts..." tank top (or t-shirt) bookmarked from Irish Dance T-shirt Company, but obviously there's a market for both of them ;)

3) It's fairly inexpensive to get started but it doesn't always stay that way:

In both worlds, we often start with the serviceable to test the waters and move on to better quality, and pricier, options when our budgets allow. Whether it be a particular hand dyer who's captured a podcast audience's imagination, or watching for photos on Insta from Gavin/Éire Creations or one of the larger feisanna* hoping for a glimpse of the new dresses, and/or vests, we all want at least a moment to ogle the priciest and prettiest on offer.

Hmmm, I thought I was on a roll with this post but I seem ti have run out of steam. If you think of something that I might be able to pair together with something from the other realm, drop me a line in the comments and I'll see what I can do!

Yours in yarn and ghillie laces, (They're both strings ;) )

Síle

All words that I've asterisked (*) can be found in my Irish dance glossary, which is here. 

What a Month (so far)

 Hello!

Between losing internet (and cable) twice for a total of 8 days, having a birthday, and my province returning to level 5 (ie the highest precautions) in pandemic protocol, it's been quite a month. Oh, and our oven going kaput when trying to make nachos for the hockey game on Saturday night.

Fortunately we're all healthy and I'm listening to Jakey and Silver chasing each other up and down the stairs as I write. There's something about hearing the cats go about their usual business that has a very calming effect, an "everything will be ok" quality. Nearly time for me to think of my health and take my hour of "me time". I'm not quite back to daily but I feel much better with what I am getting done.

I have a tentative date for the release of my Hornpipe Bag: May 15th. If you enjoy double-knitting this is one to watch for. I'm toying with a couple of other double-knit ideas at the moment too. I need to find just the right yarns though. One will definitely be knit in worsted weight. The other I'd like to use DK weight, but that's harder to come by here. That's part of the fun of designing, pairing the idea with a yarn that suits it. I like smooth yarns that show off the stitches nicely, and I tend to use the same ones a lot. It would be nice to expand a bit, so if you have any recommendations that won't break the bank on shipping and exchange, feel free to leave them in the comments. 

Time to get away from the phone and disconnect for my hour.

Yours in yarn and yoga pants,

Síle

Multitasking

(Note: While this post was published on February 7th, I started writing it on February 6th.)

Hello again!

I'm a bit behind on knitting the squares for my temperature blanket, so indulge me while I blog and knit at the same time. You can find the ins and outs of my project in this post.

I'm working on my January 8-14 square, which is a G knot on an I background. Here's how it looked after 4 rnds:

And here's how 10 rnds look:

The cables will start pretty soon, which I confess is my favourite part. 

We're due for a good snowstorm on Monday so maybe I'll get caught up with these squares. I'm glad I'm doing a square for every 7 days otherwise I'd be really behind!

I've finished rnd 20 now and it's getting a bit precarious on the double-pointed needles, as you can see:

While I've been knitting, and writing this post, I've also been giving "lubs" and attention to my favourite furry guy:

I'm sure you recall Jakey from other posts. He's keeping an eye on the iced aqua yarn for me. Isn't he a helpful boy? The wind has picked up considerably so he's happy to stick close to Auntie. He really dislikes wind, poor thing. Sounds to me like that storm might be getting to us a little sooner than expected. We'll know for sure if we wake up to a snow covered world! I think it's time for me and this fella (and his two furry sisters) to say good night.

No snow yet! The wind is really howling though. House feels like it's going to shake down around us. Good day to stay in with a mug of tea, some furry companions, and my knitting.

I'm in the midst of rnd 25 now:

I was "talking" with a friend on Twitter earlier today; she's ordered a book on knitting socks two at a time by using magic loop or two circular needles. She's a fairly new knitter and is more than a bit offput by double-pointed needles. Isn't it handy that there are ways to knit things in the way you're most comfortable with? I'm a decided "octopus rassler", that is I like double-pointed needles. Ages ago I was knitting a sock and my dad said it looked like I was "rassling an octopus"; the image has never left me :D I've been tempted to add it to my social media bios but living on an island someone might actually ask me to help with an octopus and I wouldn't be the least bit helpful :D

Let's see if I can get these last few rnds done, shall we?

And voila! A newly finished (not blocked) square emerges :)

And with the first square:

I think it's time to end this post.

Yours in yarn and unblocked Iona squares,

Síle

And Now a Look at the Weather

 I'm sure you're familiar with temperature blankets/projects. The concept has been around for quite a few years now, and every January there are all kinds of posts and patterns for them. And I'm sure you've probably guessed that I've started one just by that intro.

I was really tempted to start one last year before everything derailed. And I kept very good records of both the daily highs and lows all year (I may have a slight "thing" for spreadsheets; I digress with laughter.) But I kept having trouble deciding how to use the information to make my project. Plus did I want a blanket? A scarf? A sweater? What did I feel would keep my interest?

I started toying with idea of something with a cable in one color and the background in another but that didn't really lead me anywhere. Then one day I was looking through my pattern library and came across Iona by Lucy Hague (link is to the pattern page on her website). It incorporates two colors and has a lovely knotwork cable worked over a blended background. I felt I had maybe found my answer. Plus the amusing (to me anyway) fact that Iona is an island as is Newfoundland. You all know I'm really good at finding links that are superficial at best by now lol.

To knit a blanket for 2020 I would need to make 366 day squares plus another 18 to make a blanket 12x32 squares. That is absolutely massive and while I might be tempted to make one in the future, I'm not at that stage of mania just yet. Note I'm not ruling it out completely; it might be fun to revisit a marker year like when I was born or graduated high school and what the weather was like where I was living at the time as a multiyear project at some point.

I got the idea to make it a more manageable project by taking the 7 day average of both the highs and lows, and then applying those numbers to my temperature scale. 53 squares, plus 10 to make a 7x9 square blanket is much more doable! And with my handy dandy spreadsheet, calculating those averages was a snap ;) So instead of squares for January 1, January 2, January 3, etc I'll be making squares for January 1-7, January 8-14, etc. 

Now for the yarn. It had to be something locally available so I can get more in a pinch, something with a good range of colors, something without dye lots to keep things from looking wonky, and preferably washable since there are 3 cats in the household plus I'm known to spill things when watching tv. I decided on Bernat Premium which is a worsted weight 100% acrylic yarn that comes in a large skein (360yds!) and is much softer than good ol' Red Heart Super Saver. (Not that RHSS isn't good for things, I just want something a bit easier on my hands for a long term project. Every yarn has its place.) I also already have several colors in my stash so that greatly lowers the financial outlay and doesn't slow down when I can start. Respecting your budget is an important part of any project.

Which brings me to needle size. I knit on the looser side, plus I wanted to start the squares on double-pointed needles, so I chose my 4.0mm/US 6 bamboo dpns to begin. As they're shorter than some of my other sets, around round 20 I transitioned the square to a 16 inch/40cm circular needle. This worked a treat and so I think I'll continue to go this route with the other squares.

The other important part of this type of project is the temperature scale, which needs to make sense for where you're gathering your data for. If you live in a temperate climate your scale will be very different from somewhere that runs the gamut from -40 to +40°C (Hi, Regina peeps *waves*). Here's what I came up with for my little corner of the island:

Temps in Celsius (color code from spreadsheet) 
below -20: (K) 
-19 to -15: (J) 
-14 to -10: (I) Iced Aqua, perhaps?
-9 to -5: (H)  Fresh Green
-4 to 0: (G)  Sky Blue
1 to 5: (F)
6 to 10: (E) 
11 to 15: (D)
16 to 20: (C) 
21 to 25: (B) 
above 25: (A) 
spacing squares: gray knots on black backgrounds

As I tracked the temperatures for 2020, I discovered I wouldn't need the below -20 (K) color, but it was better to be prepared. Applying this scale, my January 1-7 square needed a G knot color (average of -1) and an H background color (average of -7). I decided on Sky Blue for G, and Fresh Green for H, and yesterday I knit this square:

I rather like it :) As you can see I haven't blocked it yet, and it's pretty close to 6 inches (14.5cm). I think pinning it to 6.5 inches square will give me good results. I'm not too impressed with my extra loose stitches in the knotwork in places so I'm going to modify the number of extra wraps in the pattern purely for my own aesthetics. Or maybe blocking will help; that's often the case. I wonder where my straight pins have gotten to? One nice thing about blanket squares: you only need one blocking mat to pin them out and it can be done on a table or counter top rather than the floor. Much easier on my back!!!!

Next up is January 8-14, -2/-14 or G for the knot and I for the background. I'm thinking Iced Aqua for my I color.

Are you working on a temperature project this year? I'd love to hear about it! What year are you using for your temps?What does your temperature scale look like? Are you using a rainbow or a narrower palette of colors? Are you making a blanket or another item? Stripes, squares, or something else? Let's talk temperatures!

Yours in yarn and weather,

Síle

Greetings from 2021!

That was a bit hectic! I'm so glad that so many knitters and crocheters enjoyed the Fasten Off Yarn Along :) It made for a very fun month! I love that we formed such an amazing community feeling in such a short time. 

Ah, but now the New Year's been rung in and things return fairly much to normal. Well, new normal anyway. I know some places are going into tighter Covid lockdowns again today. I hope all of the crafters have enough supplies to themselves through it all!

Are you a fan of goals at the start of the year? I don't mean the typically broken ones like losing weight or exercising X days a week. I mean fun goals, like reading X books this year, or learning to knit cables. 

I enjoyed the Challenge feature on R@v the last number of years, and I've done alright with it. I had a goal of 15 projects last year and I finished 17. We won't go into how many I started ;) I could still set a goal and track it here I suppose...

One thing I had decided on a bit ago was to knit myself a sweater each year; cardigan or pullover, didn't matter. As you know if you were following along, I knit a Harvest cardigan last fall (link is to the pattern's page on Tin Can Knits' website). This year's sweater is a pattern I bought during the Fasten Off Yarn Along: Twist Again by Robynn Weldon (link goes to the pattern page in her Payhip shop). I just love all those cables!! And I have a lovely dark lavender yarn for it :) I haven't started it yet. I've been tempted to, but I decided I need to get at least two projects off the needles first.

I did finish a project during FOYAL (although I only swatched one officially, the aforementioned Twist Again)! I finally got my G'night Cap by Sarah Schira (link is to her website) finished; I only cast-on in January 2019! I only meant to set it down for a week or so to finish up something else and... Anyway!! It is done, it is fabulous, and I love it! Picture? Why of course!

I used just a bit over 1 hank of Briggs & Little Heritage in "Light Green". It's cute and oh so warm :) Let January throw another Snowmageddon at us! Ok, not really; I don't want to that much snow at once ever again. But my new hat is warm and wonderful.

What am I working to finish up? So glad you asked! I started Simee Dimeh by Romi Hill (Sorry, no safe link at the moment. I know Romi is getting her website set up, and I that you can email her to get her patterns via email instead of through R@v at this time) last May and I'm in the midst of chart J. It ends after chart K, so I'm very close to finishing. I chose to use the rainbow for my 7 colors and ordered 7 hanks of Briggs & Little Sport from Wool Trends, one of the lovely lys' in St. John's aka Town. Here's where it's at currently:

How's that for colorful?! I've used red, orange, yellow, paddy green, light blue, blue heather, and violet to make my rainbow, and I'm really pleased with how it's coming along. 

So that sums up my personal knitting, let's look at my work knitting!

I published two patterns last year, the Treble Reel Toque and the Treble Jig Legwarmers (links are within this blog. You can also visit the Patterns tab near the top of this screen)

This year I'll be publishing the Hornpipe Bag and the Slip Jig Shawl. I'm continuing to work on the samples and tweak the wording of the patterns as I do so. (Behind the Scenes info: unlike some (most? probably most) designers, I first outline the pattern and swatch and make notes, and then I write the pattern as I knit the sample.) I hope to also publish at least one of the two other samples I have on the go currently. These are Hap-Hazard (my twist on a hap shawl), and Gone Feising (pronounced "feshing"; an Irish dancer's outfit for an 18 inch doll).

I'm also at work "translating" the charts from Rínce Fada into line by line instructions to make a low vision accessible pdf to go with the standard one already available. Because I charted it for reversible double-knitting (standard double-knitting gives you a mirrored image on the backside that gives you backwards facing letters and words), each and every stitch is represented, and when I choose the written instructions option from my charting software I get "KMC PCC KMC PCC KMC PCC..." instead of "(KMC, PCC) 3x..., so I have to manually edit each row, which isn't easy on my eyes, and yes, I'm taking regular breaks to rest them. I'm about half through chart B and the charts go up to I so it'll be a bit before I have it ready but I am working on it, and hope to have it ready to go for you summerish ideally. Watch this space! There will be fireworks* when I announce it's ready! *Not really fireworks. A photo of some most likely. No animations will be on this site. 

I think that's all I have to tell you about today. Happy 2021 to you, again :) If you'd like to tell me about your crafting goals for this year, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you've got planned!

Yours in yarn and to do lists,

Síle

Home again, home again

Getting my things together this morning for my return home after a doctor's appointment in Town yesterday.

I finished my Harvest Monday evening! I had all but the left pocket done on Sunday night so I wore it in. Here it is; not the best light I'm afraid:

After my appointment yesterday, I headed downtown. Downtown St. John's is a treat to walk around. I got lunch as takeout and thanks to a brilliant sunny day I walked up to Harbourside Park to eat.

And I suddenly had the urge to have my friends Newfoundland and Labrador ;) "model" my sweater. 

Aren't they great sports?

From Harbourside Park I headed for a bit of a walk. I captured some prettiness near the Newfoundland War Memorial.

Then I caught this one of the Newfoundland Chocolate Factory's whimsical mural.

This is part of the Angels Corner memorial, which is part of a national initiative, recognizing female victims of violence and creates awareness of the need to end violence and abuse against women on the corner of Duckworth and Prescott Streets. Sadly, Newfoundland & Labrador has some of Canada's highest rates of domestic violence and violence against women in general.

There's a little slice of St. John's downtown for you! I like to refer to St. John's as "pretty city"; I think you can understand that now.

Now that my sweater is done, I'm back to focusing on my own designs. I'm feeling a bit renewed. I have the Hornpipe Bag with me for some shuttle knitting, as well as a swatch (that I'm calling a coaster) for something new that popped into my head last week.

Yours in yarn and (at this moment) Town,

Síle

How Not to Knit a Sleeve (aka Read the Pattern)

Last evening I settled in to get more done on the sleeve of my Harvest cardigan. I knit for awhile and thought I was nearing the number of stitches where I would stop the decreases and work straight, so I pulled up the pattern (I do everything on my phone. I mean everything: drafting patterns, writing blogposts, all social media, etc). And as my eyes scanned along I realized something. 

I had skipped a very important line. 

After returning the sleeve stitches to the needles (I'm working the sleeves on double-pointed needles), and before starting the sleeve decreases it reads "Knit straight for x inches."

Um... yeah, that's not what I did. I went straight into working decrease rounds interspersed with x plain rounds. *Facepalm*

I measured how long the sleeve was at that point: 7½ inches (19cm). *Facepalm*

After saying a few choice words, I frogged the sleeve. And then I restarted it. I knit 4 inches, without decreases, before turning in.

I haven't done anything quite so silly in quite awhile so I guess the yarn gods decided to keep me from getting too cocky. I will say it's going smoothly and I'm hoping to keep to my original timeline and be able to wear my new sweater when I go to Town later in the month. 

So that's my tale of knitterly woe. I hope this saves you from doing the same thing.

Yours in yarn and sleeve stitches,

Síle

Helpers

 Many of us live with helpers. They often have four legs and fur, and aren't quite as helpful as their title implies. I posted this collage a few places this weekend:

I wanted to take a progress picture of my Harvest sweater. Then Silver, the older of my furry nieces, decided this was a good time to be helpful. As you can see, out of nine photos only 1 shows the entire sweater back. (The cardigan is knit topdown in one piece. I find the back view easier to see progress, so usually take my photos from that view.) And even that one is photobombed by a pair of furry gray legs. She's quite a help!

I did get two other photos last night after using the last bit of the first ball of yarn. (I'm knitting with Lion Brand Mandala which has 590yds in a 150g skein! Talk about value!) No Silver help with these ones; sorry ;)

I started working one of the sleeves today so it should go quick. I'm toying with the idea of adding pockets and making it a bit longer than the pattern. It's such a lovely basic sweater that little bits of customization just adds to it. It's from Tin Can Knits if you're not familiar with the pattern.

My goal is to finish it soon and then bring my focus back to my own designs. Normally having a few of my own designs plus a "me" project or two going at once doesn't faze me but this year... I think we can all agree this year is just something else altogether! I have a worrisome health appointment coming next month and I want to wear my new sweater, a kind of talisman that all goes well. While not traditional autumn colors, it'll certainly be a bright spot.

Yours in yarn and glowing colors,

Síle

Fall, Nature & Music

Yesterday was the first day of Fall so working on my Harvest cardigan seems seasonally appropriate. I have the sleeves and body separated now:

This is a very relaxing knit, which is good for a day when a former hurricane is making its presence felt nearby. Around 9:30am NDT today, Teddy made landfall in Nova Scotia. I've seen some video from near Port aux Basques, NL showing the winds and waves they were starting to get about an hour ago. Nature is truly awe inspiring; it can destroy as quickly as it can renew. A sobering reminder of how fragile we are. 

I made some more progress on the Hornpipe Bag yesterday; almost to the halfway mark of the knotwork motif:

My roommate and I were listening to my itunes while I was knitting, which was interesting to say the least. Do you ever do that? Just hit shuffle instead of a specific playlist, I mean. I think it's revealing to hear so many different parts of my personality and/or interests placed next to each other. The Andrews Sisters followed by Bon Jovi followed by a set of slow jigs followed by Allan Sherman, ... You get the idea. I'm more than a little eclectic in my musical tastes, to say the least. Give it a try sometime; you might be surprised by what gems you have hiding in your collection. And you might find some interesting combinations of songs that you otherwise wouldn't have found too.

Yours in yarn and BNL's "Pinch Me" (current song playing),

Síle