Here lies my last post of 2011. This week I’m hunkering down to get some deadline projects in order so that I can enjoy next week with my family. We here at Casa Permann wish you a wonderful holiday season. May you have plenty of time for friends, crafting, and cookies. See you in 2012!

<3 Linda, Paul and Freddie

The first project I have to tell you about is in a book by Tanis Gray,  called Knit Local: Celebrating America’s Homegrown Yarns. It’s a charming book, full of mostly knitting (and 2 crochet!) patterns, all inspired by American-made yarns. The best part about this book, if you ask me, is reading all of the stories about the history of over thirty yarn companies. In my opinion, many of the people working in the yarn industry, myself included,  do it  for love–and I love to read about the whys and hows, plus see pretty pictures of cute sheep, alpaca, goats and more.  The patterns are wonderful too, ranging from pillows and shrugs to cowls, vests and gloves. Many of them only take a few skeins of yarn, which is great because it makes supporting local yarn companies doable, even if you are on a budget.

My project is the Wildflowers scarf, a very simple lace pattern that utilizes increases and decreases to make the pointy petal shapes. At the time, I was interested in experimenting with them, because most crochet patterns tend to use chains and skipped stitches–for instance, filet crochet. I also wanted to do something in jut one skein of the luxurious–and boy howdy is it luxurious–yarn, Buffalo Gold Lux. The finished scarf measures about 5″ wide by 74″ long, but if I had it to do again I’d probably start with a shorter foundation chain and make a shorter, wider ascot-style scarf. It was really a treat to work with such a high quality fiber (a blend of bison, cashmere, silk, and tencel) and I’m honored that Tanis asked me to contribute to the book. Even if you don’t knit, Knit Local is worth checking out just for the sheer volume of information about American yarn companies. That is, assuming you are a dork like me.

Full Disclosure: Book links are Amazon affiliate links, and I have a project in this book, so they sent me a free copy of it. Also, I used to eat lunch with Tanis at least a few days a week for a couple of years, so, I might be biased.

Anyway, because I’ve been sucked in to the world of nail polish…most likely due to twitter and crafty ladies’ blogs wherein they share their nail art, and also possibly because I have dishes to avoid doing, I thought I’d do my own similar post.

On the Needles: This week I cast on for the Purl Bee’s Chevron Baby Blankie using a doubled strand of Blue Sky Alpacas worsted cotton. I just love to knit this cotton, it’s very soft and the colors are great. I will say it’s a little bit rough on my hands, but I think it’s partly because of the double strand. Also, I’m embarrassed by the number of times I have had to rip out a row because I screwed up t he pattern. I like my knitting patterns with one row of thinking –with different stitches/ increases/decreases involved, and then one row to rest –ie. knit across, or purl across) . This one has the increases in one row and the decreases in the other, and I can’ tell you how many times I’ve been in the middle of the row and changed from increasing to decreasing! Darn! That just means I get to spend more time with this squishy project, though, so I’m not too upset. I’m two and a half stripes in now, using the following colors for my blanket (from stash!): aloe, carribean, pickle, lemongrass, poppy, and then either flamingo or espresso, I haven’t decided yet.

On the nails: Nicole “Iceberg Lotus”, 3 coats. Found at Target. This is even sparklier in person, and originally I was going to put green glitter on the tips of my nails, but it would have been overkill. I know you care.

As for the rest of the week, I’ve been finishing up a few freelance patterns and working on a couple of those simple wreaths I wrote about. OMG, it’s murder on the hands to wrap the styrofoam but I love the results. I, um, bought two more wreath forms because I’m having fun making the embellishments. I can stop whenever I want, I swear! I’ll share them with you soon.

I’ve also been taking care of this little bean. He has some mites that we need to take care of, but the medicine the vet prescribed completely knocked him out for two days, which scared the crap out of us. Today he’s getting back to his normal self, thank goodness, it’s amazing how much we care about this little guy.

Blocking is relegated by some to that hellish dimension where things like making gauge swatches and weaving in ends live. All of these things are just part of the process to me, and I love to knit and crochet so I don’t quite understand why I would put all of my time into making something fantastic and then skip the last hour or so of work. But some of  you may be  unsure what blocking is or how to do it, so I thought I’d show you.

No one taught me to block, it’s something I started researching when I wrote Crochet Adorned (true confession; I’d never blocked anything until I began writing that book! And I was so converted, I have blocked everything since!). I’ve picked up a lot of tips and tricks from our customers at Yarnivore and from blogs and knitting books, too. It’s not hard, and I actually kind of love it! My latest piece on the slate was the Sumire’s Shawl I made for myself. I was trying not to be distracted by it but it was calling me, so I went ahead and finished it this weekend. I took before and after pics so I could show you the difference that blocking makes, so keep reading.

1. Fill a sink (or bowl, if your sink is not pristine, or larger container, if your piece is large) with cool water and wool wash, gently place your piece inside, and let it soak for at least 15-30 minutes–or perhaps for a few hours, or until you wander back to the bathroom and suddenly remember you were blocking something.

I use Eucalan, because I like the gentle fragrance, but Soak Wash is also lovely if you like stronger scents or don’t want lanolin in your wash. You should be able to find these products locally at your LYS or any fine lingerie store. The great thing about these washes is that you do not need to rinse them. In fact you’ll want to agitate your piece as little as possible, especially if it is wool.

2. When the piece is done soaking, place it atop a clean towel. Roll the towel up, and press it so that it gently absorbs most of the water in your piece. You can step on it if need be, I often do. Then, lay out your piece on a blocking surface.  I use foam tiles that I found at Lowes (they are in the athletic flooring section, and are $20 for four 2×2 foot tiles, they are endlessly modular to block scarves, shawls, sweaters, etc. If you don’t have a Lowe’s, here is something similar on Amazon.

If you are using blocking wires (also available at your LYS), thread them through the outer edges of your piece. Blocking wires produce nice straight edges because if you thread them at regular, frequent intervals, you’ll be able to evenly pull your piece into a straight line. Otherwise, plan on using lots of T-pins. Even with wires, you’ll need T-pins to hold the blocking wires in place. You can see here that I’ve laid out the left side roughly, and the right side is yet to be pinned. This alone illustrates the amazing difference that blocking makes. Click any of the pictures in this post to go to flickr, where you can zoom in.

3. Go back with your T-pins and pin out anything that needs extra shaping. I wanted to spread the edging half-circles out a bit on mine, so I pinned each one. Twice. 52 T-pins right there–so make sure you buy a couple packages of them. You can be as particular as you want when pinning things out, so go wild. Note that I used two wires per decorative edge, one to iron out the shawl and one to evenly space the edging.

Now, all that is left to do is let the project dry completely. If you’re in a hurry, aim a fan at your piece.

Here are some before and after shots of my Sumire’s Shawl:

See how  much it opens up the lace?

See how much longer and wider the shawl is?

See how much prettier it is to wear? It was hardly big enough to wrap around my neck before.
Also, It appears that I even “blocked” my hair in this after shot.

By now you should be sold on blocking, but some of you are probably saying, “But, do I really need to do that every time I wash it?” Sure, but how often do you wash a shawl? Hmm? Yeah. Not that big of a deal. I also find that of all of my chores, blocking is probably the one I like best. It sure beats washing the dishes. I mean, they get dirty again EVERY TIME. So frustrating.

If you want more in-depth details on blocking, why how and when, sign up for my Beyond Rectangles class on Craftsy. I devote an entire lesson to blocking, and I bet you’ll pick up a lot of other tricks as you peruse the course. There’s also a great thread on Ravelry that shows people’s projects pre and post- blocking: Blocking– Before and After. It’s kind of amazing! Oh, and I love my new shawl! Now to wait for cooler weather…

The basic idea is to take two yarns- one fine, one worsted or chunky, and knit a few rows in the fine one and then one row in the chunky. This technique is called scribble lace and I did not invent it nor am I claiming to, but this pattern explains how I made the store sample and shawl above. I knit my first Fiesta Scribble Shawl back in April of 2010 (prime Fiesta season for us San Antonians) using Colinette Parisienne (a mohair blend) and Giotto (a ribbon yarn).  When I saw a sample of a new yarn called Colinette One Zero sitting behind the counter last month,  I absolutely fell in love with it. My boss must have seen the forlorn look in my eyes because she let me have it. I took it home to pet and ponder, and realized it matched a skein of Parisienne I had purchased when I first started working at Yarnivore. It was a yarn pairing made in heaven, and so, I began to knit my second shawl.

I know this photo is sort of ridiculous, but it shows you my deep love for this shawl.

Of course, halfway to North Dakota I realized I had nowhere near enough mohair to finish it –I had previously crocheted a shawlette with most of the ball- and I tried ripping it out but there was no. freaking. way that was going to work. I searched around and was able to get another skein on e-bay. I enjoyed every minute of knitting this shawl, the thick and thin wool was great and scribbly and fun– it tamed somewhat with blocking but is still delightfully artsy, and the softness of the yarn is divine. This is definitely a project where I really enjoyed the process and the product. Sure, it can get mind-numbingly boring to knit stockinette, but it’s a great project to pull out when you don’t want to think. It’s nice to let the yarn do the talking once in a while.

The Fiesta Scribble Shawl is whisper thin and great for travel- scrunch it up in your suitcase and take it anywhere. Give it a shake, and it’s a shawl; wear it around your neck, it’s a scarf. I thought I’d finally share the pattern here on my blog for those of you who don’t live near enough to come find yarn at Yarnivore. Picking out yarns for this shawl is fun no matter how many times I help a customer with it. If you end up making one, I’d love to see a picture on Ravelry. Enjoy and feel free to share!

FIESTA SCRIBBLE SHAWL PATTERN
www.lindamade.com

YARN*
Yarn A: About 85 yards of ribbon yarn, chunky thick/thin wool, or other pretty yarn
Yarn B: 240 yards of mohair, lace, or fingering weight yarn
*Any mohair or thin yarn will work, but you need all of the 240 yards to make a shawl the same size as the finished measurements. If using slightly shorter yardage, cast on 10 fewer stitches for a 20″ wide shawl, or buy 2 balls of mohair.

Shown in:
1 skein of Colinette One Zero (bulky wool), 100 m/109 yards, 100g/3.5 oz [A]
1 skein of Colinette Parisienne (lace mohair), 221 m/240 yds, 25 g/.87 oz. [B]

NEEDLES/NOTIONS
24″ US #15 (10 mm) circular needles OR size to obtain gauge. Note: I am the loosest knitter in the shop, so you may want to go up to size 17 needles.
Yarn Needle
Stitch marker (optional)

FINISHED SIZE: 24″ wide by 64″ long.

GAUGE: 9 sts worked over 9 rows measures 4″/10 cm square using stitch pattern below.
Gauge is not critical BUT you will need to match the gauge closely to end up with the same size shawl without running out of yarn.

TIP: Mark the knit side of the shawl with a marker so you’ll know at a glance which type of stitches you should be working (marker facing you= knit, marker on reverse side=purl). After a few rows, it will be easy to “read” the stitches, but it can be confusing at first, especially for beginners.

SHAWL
With A, cast on 54 stitches.
Row 1: Change to B, knit.
Row 2: Purl.
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Purl.
Row 5: Change to A(carrying it loosely up the side), knit.
Row 6: Slide work across to opposite needle, switch to B, knit.
Row 7: Purl.
Row 8: Knit
Row 9: Purl.
Row 10: Slide work across to opposite needle, switch to A, purl.
Repeat Rows 1-10 until you are almost out of B. Ending on a Row 4 or Row 9, switch to A and bind off, weave in the ends. Wet block to finished measurements and let dry completely.

My pattern, the Lace Slouch Hat, is on page 86-87. It’s worked with one skein of Malabrigo Lace (hmm, can you tell I love this yarn? I have designed two other hats with it so far!) and the pattern gives you information to make it slouchy or  beanie-like. I used a combination of puff stitches, skipped stitches and double crochets to get a wonderfully soft drape. I love how lightweight the hat is and can’t wait to wear it this winter.

One of the neat things about Knitcircus is that the designs are sold together as a collection for as long as the issue is the current–so for $8.49 you get a crazy amount of patterns (26, to be precise).  And, you can read some great articles, yarn and book reviews absolutely free on the site.  The other crochet pattern in this issue is a pretty broomstick lace shawl (with tutorial!) and, there are lots of knitting  patterns for those of you who are double agents.

I may have more of a watermelon head than the model….

I’m giving the pattern collection away to 3 lucky Lindamade readers. To enter, answer the question below by Monday, August 29th at 12 midnight CST.  Due to some issues with my last giveaways, you must include your e-mail address in order to win (no one else can see it if you fill it out as directed when you comment), and if I don’t hear back from you within 2 days of emailing you, I’ll give the collection to someone else.

What pattern would you most like to make from the Fall 2011 Issue of Knitcircus? (No need to suck up in order to win! ).

The show kicked off with an awesome party–Marly Bird’s Designer Dinner. Here I am with my roomie Robyn Chachula and Marly herself, apparently arranged in height order. The dinner was great–I got to meet so many new designers and reconnect with others. One of the things I love most about the show is getting to talk to “my people”–other designers who do what I do, so this was a very fun event. We also got amazing swag bags–check out this video blog by Sarah Wilson to see what was inside. I absolutely love the Namaste Monroe Bag that I got– I am super, super picky about purses but this one has an generous amount of pockets and organization (plus, it looks so professional!). Little Crochet fit perfectly in the outside pocket so I arranged it there like a little billboard and carried it throughout the show. I have already been singing its praises to everyone who asks about it. More photos of the fun that was getting the bags to the hotel can be seen here.

I also had the chance to squeeze in two classes.The first one was a hands-on class on dyeing sock yarn with Rachael Blackledge--and how could I not love it? It was so much fun, even at 8 AM. I can’t wait to make something with the 2 skeins we dyed, and I really love the first skein I dyed (not pictured, but hopefully I’ll show you soon!). I learned a lot but most importantly had fun and left the mess there! I’d definitely take this class again. Tammy from Yarnivore and I both took the class, and we had to laugh at the end when her side of the table was spotless and mine was covered in every color imaginable. We like to ask “Can  you tell who is the artist, and who is the engineer?” The second class I took was Gwen Bortner’s Making the Most of Handpainted yarns (see a theme?)–which was fun and informative, and I hope to apply some of the things I learned about knitting with handpaints to crochet in the near future. Gwen is a great teacher and I’m looking forward to diving into her Entree to Entrelac book, which was also in my swag bag.

I got to catch up with lots of old friends including Brett Bara, who was on her way to tape a fourth season of Knit and Crochet Now right after the show! We did a little interview which will be coming soon to an internet near you. I’m sporting my Peanut Butter Cardigan here–everyone always asks what you are wearing at the show and how nice to be able to say that it was a Linda Permann original. But, the best part was when I was walking toward the exit and heard these three ladies say “Stop, we’re following you!” They couldn’t believe my sweater was crocheted and wanted to check it out for themselves. TNNA: the place where it’s ok to pet strangers. Heh!  I was flattered.

Ooh, and here I am later in the day crocheting with Vashti Braha, Doris Chan and Ellen Gormley (who took this shot) at the Great Wall of Yarn. Here, you can sample all of the new yarns at the show but for some reason, there were hundreds of pairs of knitting needles and not a single crochet hook with which to try them. No problem, we got out our own and crocheted some swatches anyway. I picked up some stitches and knit mine back onto the needles to possibly cause some head scratching later. Maybe no one noticed, but it was fun nonetheless.

On Sunday, I did a book signing for Little Crochet in the Unicorn booth.  The signing is intended for yarn shop owners and lots of them lined up, so I had the chance to ask some of them whether they did crochet in their shops (and a lot answered yes!) and see some of the great crochet they were wearing. I got a lot of good feedback on the book, and some of it made me blush. My favorite feedback had to be when I asked Peggy Jo Wells (of Brown Sheep Company) if she received the copy that I mailed her [since she provided yarn support]. At first, she wasn’t sure, till I showed her the Strawberry Patch Party Frock–then she remembered, because she gave the book to a friend who crochets so that she could make one for Peggy’s new granddaughter. That’s what I like to hear!

One of the other cool things that happened at this show was that I got to meet one of my Craftsy students, Angela Tong.I had been chatting with her a little bit on twitter, but I didn’t realize that she also does her own knitwear designs, too! She’ll be posting a review of my class in the near future, so watch for it. I also found myself on the same plane as Stefanie Japel on the way home, and we talked about some of the classes they’re developing now, I’m excited to see where it goes.

All in all it was a fun–albeit exhausting–show, and this post doesn’t even begin to cover all of the lovely yarn, people, and dinners I attended, but I hope it gives you a taste of what TNNA is about. You can also check out more of my pictures on flickr, since I couldn’t fit them all here!

Meet Ricky, who came in for a crochet lesson with me this week, so that he could make flowers to embellish his amazing knit cabled scarf.

That’s me holding the “scarf” (and laughing hysterically). Because well, Ricky is a new knitter and he held four strands of worsted weight yarn together (instead of the 1 strand the pattern called for) not realizing how drastically that would change the finished size. And so, this “scarf”  is now a beautiful baby blanket for a friend who just gave birth. And we may somehow deck it out in crochet flowers to make it more girly, although I tried to convince him it is just lovely as is. But hey, I’ll take any chance I can to hook people when they’re interested.

Now, this turned into a happy accident/creative challenge, and the blanket is beautiful, so no problems there. But when you’re picking yarn for a project, always go with the recommended weight category and check your gauge to make sure you’ll end up with something that’s the same size as the finished item. (Second hint: LOOK at the finished size on the pattern! Many people never do, and it tells you exactly what you’re making, which may be a different size than you were visualizing).

Many thanks to Ricky for letting me use him as a cautionary tale–it was just too perfect an example not to document it. Can you believe this is only his fourth knitting project?  I see lots of great knitting and crochet in his future!

You can see the full range of colors above. It’s always great to find another worsted weight go-to yarn that comes with such modern color choices, and this one is machine washable (in cold water, dry flat), too! Along with the yarn line comes a host of great free crochet and knitting patterns, which you can read about on Vickie’s Blog.

I gave the yarn a test run while designing a free pattern that will be in the Caron Connections newsletter later on this summer, so be sure to sign up for it if you are interested. I like that the yarn is a single ply–it makes for great stitch definition and no splitting, which is great for crochet!  It has just the right amount of softness and sheen, and will glide right off of your hooks (or needles). Sheep(ish) is available at Jo-Ann stores nationwide and on buy.caron.com. Check out the rest of the blog tour schedule for more yarn reviews, free patterns, and interviews with Vickie! Tomorrow boasts two stops, Crafty Chica and Just Casting On.

I’m not sure how it was that I first came across her blog, but I think I found it after stumbling on her cute knitting/baby books. Susan has written three of them–Itty-Bitty Hats, Itty-Bitty Nursery, and Itty-Bitty Toys. She recently added a knit and read book to the collection, Spud and Chloe at the Farm. As I started reading her blog, my interest was piqued because she’d add touches of crochet here and there, to her knit projects. That might not seem like a big deal, but I help people with their knitting and crochet projects at the shop all of the time, and for reasons beyond my understanding,  many are wary of mixing the two.

Susan’s blog is one of my favorite daily reads, she has a playful sense of color and keeps her projects on the  relaxing and fun side.  Plus,  the amount of personal knitting she cranks out is inspiring! I’m honored to have her as the first stop on the Little Crochet Blog Book Tour. Head on over to  her  blog for a thoughtful review, plus Susan’s favorites from the book,–oh, and a giveaway!