Medallion Lace jacket

Yarn: Queensland Collection "Cotolino": 60% cotton, 40% linen, size 8 needles, approx 650 yards.
Knit sideways from the center back. I provisionally cast on 81 stitches ( 8 repeats plus 1 of Medallion Lace from Evelyn Clark’s book “Knitting Lace Triangles”) and knit 9 inches, then put 31 stitches on waste yarn hold for sleeves, continued knitting 10 inches or so to center front, bind off. Then undid provisional cast on, knit another 9 inches in other direction, waste yarn sleeve stitches, finish front. Then seam shoulders, pick up sleeve stitches, knit in round to 3/4 length, bind off. Single crochet around fronts, bottom edge, center back.
A wearable and cool summer jacket. My cat loved the sweater, for some reason, and wouldn't leave me alone while I was knitting it! Here she is trying to get in the photo!

Pie Love

About 10 days ago a client came to my studio and wanted to commission a small quilt for a friend's graduation gift. The recipient loved to bake, especially Lemon Meringue pies. Could I make a quilt about that? I drew up some sketches, and we settled on one:

We chose some fabrics that spoke to us of lemons and pies and blue skies, and meringues, and looked at some images on the internet to get the colors right. The top of the pies brown especially at the peaks, but when you cut a slice, the underneath meringue stays white. We liked the idea of the lemon slice overlaying the pie and the words "Pie" and "Love" on it.

I converted the drawing to a pattern on Freezer paper, cut out some pieces and started assembling the quilt.It struck me that I could manipulate the meringue fabric to provide texture, and I loved the result, but then it would be difficult to find a pleasing way to overlay the lemon slice. The bumpy texture of the meringue might make threadpainting bumpy, and fusing fabric over it would also result in lumps. In the end I added a lemon, and used the slice idea in the quilting, as I did with the words, and also some eggs and wheat.

I used fusible batting, so I could hold the texture of the meringue in place while I quilted it. The binding fabric was used on the back as well, and has silver stars in it, so it ties the spoon together with the pie in the sky.When you get lemons, make lemon pie!

The silver spoon added a bit of invitation to enjoy, and the whole thing has a folk arty feel. Yum!

I hope the client likes it, too! I'm not sure of the title yet, but call it "Pie Love" in my mind!

Size: 19 inches X 19 inches.

Pashmina Jacket

As a lover of textiles and intricate prints and patterns, I often am seduced by the beautiful Pashmina shawls for sale in midtown Manhattan. Over the years, I have purchased several of them which are beautiful, soft, warm and colorful.

Trouble is, I never wear them. In fact, I rarely ever wear shawls. Recently I was folding and admiring the pashmina shawls I have and an idea popped into my head: why not turn one into a jacket? My shawls are 27 inches wide and 72 inches ( 2 yards) long, excluding fringe.

I got out one of my favorite simple classic jacket patterns, Butterick 6474, and laid it out on a shawl which I folded in half:

If laid out this way, the fringe would be on the cuffs and front edges, but not on the back.
I cut out the pieces, and sewed them together using overlock stitch and french seaming when possible, as the weave is a bit loose and the wool is somewhat ravelly and delicate.

Here is my friend Sue Dennis ( www.suedennis.com) , visiting from Australia, modeling my jacket:

A comfortable, warm and light jacket! And Sue makes a great model.

Winter Knitting

Here is mysecond take on Alice Starmore's St Brigid sweater, this time done as a top-down raglan. I really enjoyed how this one came together, although I wished I had a bit more yarn, as it is a "cropped" length, which sometimes I like and sometimes I don't like. But I'm too lazy to order another skein or rip out the prevvious sweater which is a bit too long! I have already cast on for another one...

Here is a pullover version of my Top Down Diamond Alpaca sweater, this time with V neck.Reynolds Regal Alpaca, size 9 needles, 8 skeins exactly. I have been wearing this one every day since I made it, as it has been really cold for New York springtime...I'm finally warm enough with this sweater on! ( and two cats who adore alpaca also).

Beguiling Beads

My dear friend Elizabeth Rosenberg ( http://www.elizabethrosenberg.blogspot.com/ ) invited me to a bead show last month, and I had a divine ,delirious time! I bought a lot of gorgeous beads, including some amazing lampwork by Grace Quinyi Ma ( www.gracebeads.com ) . These beads came home and sat in my stash, dreaming of necklaces and bracelets, but alas, inspiration was not yet free. Then this past weekend, I dragged my friend Debbie to a local bead show and had another amazing time looking at beads, playing with colors and finally buying more beads. I came home and spent the last few days creating ! I had the best time, and so far am pleased with my initial attempts. I figure, like knitting, beading can always be redone, so any mistakes can be reworked and the materials re-used. Which is a freeing thought; one can't really make a mistake! There are only new opportunities...

This necklace, with black and white lampwork and a special bead from Venice, will be the perfect gift for my mother, whose birthday is coming up in June.This necklace I have been wanting to make for 4 years, ever since I bought the fabulous focus bead in Houston at Quilt Festival. I found the perfect beads for the necklace portion at the show last weekend, and strung this in time for Paula Nadelstern's fantastic opening yesterday at the Folk Art Museum ( www.folkartmuseum.org ). Her quilts are breathtaking, inspiring and just plain magnificent. Her exhibit is the first solo show of work by a living artist, and as such is a joyous tour de force. I was privleged to go to the opening reception last night, and wanted to wear my special beads.

This piece is another marriage of a focal Thai silver bead which I bought in Lowell many years ago, and Tibetan silver and gemstone beads purchased last month.

I love the Grace lampwork beads in this necklace and earring set, with Swarovsky crystal and Czech glass beads. I'm having a lot of fun playing with these instant gratification bits of color and light.

Diamond Cardigan

The coincidence of getting “French Girl Knits” in the mail the same day I had lunch with a friend wearing a marvelous cabled sweater instigated this sweater. I wanted to use my stash of lovely blue Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal yarn( which I had used for the mittens and had 8 skeins left!) , and Kristeen Griffin-Grimess' top down, set-in-sleeve pattern “Viola” was so well written that it just flowed together. I used the “X-in-a-diamond” single cable from Barbara Walker’s First Treasury (pg 287) to give added texture, and also made long sleeves. As I knit a different yarn at a tighter gauge ( 16 per inch on a size 9 needle) than the pattern was written for, I used the numbers for the 44 inch size. I am very happy with this cardigan, although I think the zipper is a bit too long and may re-do it when the mood hits me. It is warm and soft and has the right shade of blue.

Plus, it went very fast! I watched "John Adams" and a few other shows and it was done in 2 weeks!

Winter Obsession, part 3

I finally finished my deep V-necked raglan version of St Brigid, and sewed in the last end .I'm not sure I like it yet; I'll have to wash and block to see how it really looks, but for now all the parts are connected and the sweater is warm and interesting. It ended up more like a tunic, and is very comfortable and warm on this frigid day, but I still wish I had started it from the top down so I would have more control over the length and such. As it was, I had to re-do the yoke once because it wasn't coming together at the correct rate of decrease( it had to be 16 sts per every other row instead of the usual 8), so after 300 yards of knitting from the armholes up, it had to be frogged and re-done. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have made the V so deep, but it was difficult to judge how it would fall without the yoke being finished. I am tempted to rip it back and re-do it again, but in fact I am ready for it to be done! Which of course means I have to start something new...oh, dear!

Yarn:Nashua Handknits Superwash 7.5 skeins ( 218yds per skein), size 6 needles, color:24