San Valentino Cowl

(Mini-update: since I posted yesterday, I've had a few more sales and the donation amount is now at $450--think we can get to an even $500? I'm keeping my fingers crossed!)

$5.00

As promised, here is the San Valentino Cowl. I was intrigued by the idea of cabled Xs and Os (kisses and hugs), especially with Valentine's Day coming up and with a skein of bright pink Malabrigo languishing in my yarn cupboard. With a little help from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury I learned how to make the enclosed circular cables. Matching them up with the Xs was a little tricky; the number of stitches changes a couple of times and it took a few tries before I got the OXOX row to balance nicely on top of the XOXO row. But it works! A huge, huge THANK YOU is due to my mother, Rosemary Mygatt, who knit the sample shown above and patiently waded through a bunch of notes and trial charts and made many, many corrections and useful suggestions. Thank you, Mummy!

Knitting-wise, it's not a big project--just one skein of Malabrigo worsted--but the cables are not for the faint of heart. They're done over a total of 24 rows repeated again and again, and once you get the hang of the quirks they're not hard but you do need to pay attention. If you've never done cables before, I wouldn't, in all honesty, recommend it. However, if looking for a bit of a challenge this might be a good project for you.

Just the facts:

Finished size: Approximately 27” long x 8.5” wide.
Gauge: 22 sts x 13.5 rows = 4” in cable patt with larger needles.
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted (100% merino wool); color: Shocking (pink); 1 skein
(100 gr/216 yards).
Needles: US Size 8 (5.0 mm), US Size 9 (5.5 mm).
Notions: 6 buttons (approximately ¾” in diameter); cable needle; tapestry
needle.


As with all my other patterns, 50% of the profits from this from now through Valentine's Day will go to Save the Children's relief efforts in Haiti.

Help for Haiti Update--deadline extended!

Thanks mostly to Ravelry's Help for Haiti program and the extra exposure it's provided to designers who are taking part in it, Rope Knits has able to raise $420 for Save the Children's relief efforts. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has bought a pattern from me over the last two weeks. I could not have afforded to donate this much money on my own and it is a wonderful feeling to be able to do something.

My 400 bucks is just a drop in the bucket though in terms of overall money raised through Ravelry. Hundreds of patterns are part of the program and at least three groups have held auctions. When all is said and done the overall amount donated to good causes will be in the tens of thousands of dollars. It's very exciting and humbling to be a part (even a tiny little part) of something this big.

Sadly, though, the needs in Haiti just keep mounting. Children especially are at risk. Thousands have been orphaned and are at risk of abuse and abduction as well as disease and hunger. Save the Children and other organizations are doing everything they can to provide safe places for the littlest victims and need all the help they can get.

So I'm going to extend my Help for Haiti deadline. 100% of profits will go to StC until midnight tonight; after that, I'll be donating 50% until Valentine's Day. I'll be offering a new pattern tomorrow (sneak peek to the left) so check back soon!

So What Does Knitting Have to Do with Haiti?

On the surface of it, not a lot. But Ravelry has set up a Help for Haiti program through which designers who sell their patterns there can donate some or all of their profits to the Haitian-relief charity of their choice.

So here's the deal: Buy ANY of my patterns on Ravelry from now until the end of January and ALL the profits will go to Save the Children's emergency efforts in Haiti. Not on Ravelry? By them from my blog and it's the same deal: everything minus the PayPal fees will go to Save the Children.

Here's what Charity Navigator has to say about Save the Children:

Save the Children has worked in Haiti for 25 years with 100 staff on the ground. Will be providing food, water, shelter and child-friendly spaces. Because Save the Children's offices did not suffer the structural damage of other non-governmental organizations, other aid workers have taken refuge in the agency's compound, where operations are being run out of offices and tents.

Not interested in my patterns? There are dozens of patterns being added every hour to Ravelry's Help for Haiti list. You're sure to find something you like and you can chip in for a good cause while you're at it.

Or you can just donate directly to the good cause of your choice. Charity Navigator has a very helpful list of legitimate organizations that are doing amazing, on-the-ground work right now, as well as some good advice on giving effectively (sad to say, the ground had barely stopped shaking before scams and hoaxes were appearing--make sure you're donating to a good cause).

New Year, New Classes, New Lease on (Knitting) Life

Happy New Year!
     We had a busy but enjoyable trip over the holidays to visit just about all the relatives in the Eastern time zone. We drove out, which was nice in that we had our own car once we were there and on the drive out I got quite a lot of knitting/crochet time. On the way back, unfortunately, my husband wasn't feeling well and I did most of the driving--two full days of no knitting!
     On the brighter side, I've been seeing an occupational therapist about the soreness in my hands and things are looking much better. I got very freaked out several weeks ago when I suddenly started getting electric shock-type pains up my forearms in addition to more general soreness in my wrists and weakness in my left hand. The OTs diagnosed my ulnar nerve as being the troublemaker and gave me some stretches and strengthening exercises to do. They do indeed help (when I remember to do them). The pain is gone, my hands are feeling stronger and I'm no longer afraid that every stitch is bringing me closer to complete incapacitation. The moral of the story: Got pain? See a doctor. (Duh.)
     So now we're into 2010 and I get to start publicizing my classes again. Once more, I'll be teaching through Urbana Adult Education and through Parkland Community Education. I will also continue organizing classes and teaching at Klose Knit—more on that to come. If you have questions about the classes themselves—what we'll be doing, what materials we'll be using, etc. —please contact me (sarah at ropeknits dot come). If you want to sign up or have questions about anything administrative, please contact Parkland or UAE directly.

Urbana Adult Education
(All classes held at Urbana High school from 6:30 to 8:30pm on Thursdays)

Beginning Crochet
January 28 -- February 18

Beginning Knitting
February 25 -- March 18

Intermediate Knitting
April 1 -- April 22

Parkland Live and Learn
(All classes held at Parkland Community College from 6:30 to 8:30 on Tuesdays)

Beginning Knitting
February 9 -- March 2

Beginning Crochet
March 30 -- April 20

A Curvier Veronica

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after the most recent issue of IC came out, I received the following pm from a fellow Raveler:

I’ve always thought of myself as more of a Veronica than a Bettie and that’s why I was so excited to see your sweater in the latest issue of Interweave Crochet. But alas my hopes were dashed when I saw that the bust only goes to an average size. Any ideas for a girl with a 52” bust? How can I increase this lovely little number?

I thought I'd share my answer to her in case it might help anyone else. Bear in mind I haven't done the math for any larger sizes (much less had anyone else check the math) but maybe the following will give you a few ideas if you're looking to up-size:

     I’m glad you like the sweater! I hope we can get it to work for you.
     I don’t know how closely you’ve looked at the pattern; it’s a top-down, raglan style, so the good news is that you can try it on as you go. The bad news is that it’s trickier to re-size without throwing the proportions all off.
     If you simply add more increases at the yoke, you’ll get the right bust size, but very long armholes. You could also start with a longer foundation chain which would make it bigger all around (including sleeves and collar). That might work if you’re big all around, but won’t work so well if you’re busty but otherwise small.
     Depending on your proportions, I’d suggest doing several things:

• Working from the directions for the largest size, add 9 sts to the foundation chain and space the markers so that you have 3 extra sts at the back and each of the fronts. This will make the collar a bit wider but not by too much and will keep the sleeves from getting too big.
• You add on sts to the fronts in steps to create a bit of a dip for the front collar. Add on three sts more than the directions call for to the last “step” of each front to give you a little more room across the bust.
• The directions call for increases every 3 rows, ie, rows 3, 6, 9, etc. are increase rows. In order to work in an extra increase (for a total of 12) without creating more depth in the armholes, you can make the first two increases closer together (rows 3 and 5) then space them out every three rows (rows 8, 11, 14, etc.).

     I think if you did all of these, you’d be able to get the bust to just over 52” without just making the sweater larger all the way around. You might want to play around with these ideas in order to suit your proportions best. If you’re broad-shouldered, tall, or large in the arms, you’ll obviously have different proportions than if you’re petite.
     I hope all of that helps and makes sense. Please let me know if you have questions. I hope you’ll make the sweater and enjoy it!

     My five loyal readers will have noticed by now that I don't tend to post very often. It's not because nothing's happening (although knitting-wise, not a lot IS happening right now--more on that in a moment). It's more that blogging just doesn't come naturally to me. Interesting events, people, yarns, and projects come and go, and while they're here I'm too busy with them to write about them and when they've gone on to wherever they are meant to be next, I tend to feel like the time to say anything meaningful about them has passed by as well. I was never any good at keeping a journal, either.
     But here's a quick update on some of the things that are going on:
     For one thing, Interweave Crochet published another one of my patterns, the Veronica Sweater. Yay! I get such a kick out of seeing my stuff in print. The deadlines for magazine projects are often pretty tight so there's usually some fairly intensive knitting/crochet going on at the last minute. By the time I stuff the sample into the priority mail bag and dash to the post office five minutes before it closes, I'm usually thoroughly sick of the project and praying the editors won't absolutely hate it. Then I forget all about it and get going on something else. Weeks or months later a magazine arrives in the mail box and there's my project again! Nicely photographed now, and ready to be looked at with a fresh pair of eyes. (Even better, a check usually arrives around the same time).
     So that was the good news. The bad news is that my hands are killing me. They're really sore with all kinds of weird pains in my wrists and forearms. I've been down this road before, the last time when daughter #2 was about the same age/size as Chubby-chan is now. The strain is probably a combo of lugging around a fat, squirmy baby and working on a couple of tight-deadline projects. I think the real solution is to just rest my arms as much as possible so I've farmed out one project to my understanding mother and am working very slowly on another. It's pretty frustrating not to be able to get to everything I want but I'm anxious for this to not get any worse.
     This time my RSI issues may have been aggravated by an upholstery class I just finished; lots of hammering tacks, tugging on fabric, chiseling out rusty old staples, etc. The class is run out of Parkland College's Adult Ed program (the same program I teach some of my knitting classes through). The couple who teach the class, Dave and Dorothy Deem, have been doing upholstery for most of their lives. [As a side note, they've been married and working together for 53 years--how cool is that? I mean, I can see being married for 53 years; sheer laziness and good health will get you that far. But if you're going to run a business together and raise a family and stay married for 5+ decades, well, that takes true commitment.] They're super helpful and nice and I enjoyed the class a lot even though I am a total spaz at upholstery. Put a crochet hook or a pair of knitting needles in my hands and I'll tackle anything. Give me a hammer and I'm a danger to myself and others.
     The class did make me more determined to learn how to sew, though. Sewing machines have always made me nervous (all those moving parts!) but I'm starting to appreciate the ability to sew a quick seam when you need to. And one of these days I'm going to steek something.

Just Because It's Beautiful

     I did not make this.
     A couple of years ago I bought this piece of fabric at a yard sale. The woman who sold it to me told me, if I remember correctly, that it had been made by her grandmother. She thought it was beautiful but had no idea what to do with it so she was selling it in hopes that someone else could appreciate it. So for $5, I became the owner of a truly exquisite bit of lace. It's a combination of crochet, embroidery, drawn threadwork and pintuck ruffles. I think it is beautiful, and I'm astonished every time I look at it at the tiny detail and the amount of work that must have gone into it. I do indeed appreciate it.
     And I also have no idea what to do with it. I break it out every so often when I teach crochet classes and my students dutifully ooh and aah over it, but it is not something that can easily be displayed. It's about 12" x 35" which would make it hard to frame without folding it, which would detract from the detail, or (God forbid) cutting it. It's in excellent shape but it wouldn't stand up to any kind of wear so it's not something I'd want to use as a table runner or dresser scarf. So mostly it stays in the little plastic bag it came in, tucked away with my yarn.


     There's a note that came pinned to the lace. It reads:

"Handmade flounce from mother's high school commencement petticoat for the class of 1892."

     Got that? This was made for a petticoat. It wasn't meant to be seen, except maybe as a glimpse of ruffle as the maker walked across stage to receive her diploma. Maybe she showed it to her family or a couple of close friends. Maybe it was something she worked on in her home economics class (if they took those then) and shared with her teacher and classmates. But really, it was never supposed to be on display. It was made just for the sake of making and having something beautiful.
     So I will continue to keep it tucked away with my yarn, taking it out only once in a while to show people who will enjoy it, and I won't feel badly that it isn't on display every day. It was made simply to be beautiful, and that is enough.