Sneak Peek!

As many of you know (especially you oregonians) this weekend is Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival at the Clackamas County fairgrounds in beautiful Canby, Oregon.

I have had the pleasure and fortunate to have spent time working with both Stevanie Pico and Deb Accuardi, who have formed a new company called Pico Accuardi Dyeworks. Stevanie is a very very talented dyer, who specializes in natural dying. She's like a sorceress with plant matter! There have been many times I've walked into her studio and been CONVINCED the yarn i'm looking at must have been dyed with acid dyes. She assures me no such deception has occurred and that her yarns are as natural as they are wonderful.

Together we created the pattern I'm previewing for you today.

Pattern: Peppermint Patrick - A Splendor Pattern by David Castillo

Yarn: Pico Accuardi Naturally Dyed Soft Touch in

"Sumptown Brown"

"Bleeding Heart"

"Thai Mango"

"Rodger's Midnight Dancing"

&

"Columbian Sunset"

Needles: US4 (i knit so insanely loose, don't even ask. you need at least an 8)

This pattern will soon be for sale through our blog and ravelry, but for now it's only going to be available at the Pico Accuardi Dyeworks booth at OFFF. Once the festival is over, we'll be posting it for sale here, so keep an eye out! And for you splendorfiends who live in Oregon and are planning to go to OFFF, stop by the booth, say hi, take a look at the pattern and tell them how much you love us! ;) Okay, i'm only being a little cheeky. but still.

Have a great festival, everyone!

Wild Thing!

"And now...let the wild rumpus start!" I don't think there's a more perfect way to introduce this (surprisingly highly-anticipated) pattern! It's been incredibly exciting to work on, and it's finally ready to share with everyone!

Pattern: Wild Thing (by me for Splendor Knitting), shown in size 44
Yarn: Universal Yarn Deluxe Chunky in "White Ash" & "Dark Oak" & GGH Lara in color 17
Needles: Addi Turbo Circular needles in sizes US7, US9, and US10.5

This seamlessly-knit hoodie is available in nineteen sizes, from infant to the largest Adult size with a 56" finished chest measurement, all in one PDF (download links at the bottom of this post). It's pretty much an expression of the kind of thing that can happen when my inner dork gets knitting needles and yarn in his hands. It's also an expression of me finding a way to share my love for knitting, despite my selfishness as a knitter.

When I saw the trailer for the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are movie, I was enthralled by the look of the Wild Things, the world they live in, and the feel of the movie in general. Not to mention my longtime big love for the song Wake Up by Arcade Fire (featured in the movie preview trailers). Seriously, that song has what I consider to be one of the best lyrics of all time: "...children, don't grow up/ our bodies get bigger, but our/ hearts get torn up". Is there a more poignant way to describe growing up?

But, I digress...I (and probably just about everyone within about 15 years of my age) grew up with Where the Wild Things Are as a part of my life. Whether you read it as the the story of a boy whose imagination gets the better of him, or the story of a boy who uses his imagination to make the best of things, a lot (a lot, a lot, a lot) of us count it as our favorite children's picture book. Naturally, the movie trailer made me realise it would be super awesome to have a Rumpus Suit of my very own.

At the core of things, I'm an ethical slacker. This isn't to say that I don't care about what I do, but that I don't believe in using more steps than are absolutely necessary. This is one of the many reasons I love working with seamless sweater construction, and that's what I've used for this hoodie. The body is knit flat and the arms are knit separately, but in the round, so that when it's all joined to knit the yoke (which continues up to the hood), there are as few seams as possible. In this hoodie, you really only have the underarms and the top of the hood to graft together. The ears and tail are knit separately, naturally, though they are still knit in the round.

I prefer knitting with animal fibers, so I used Universal Yarn's Deluxe Chunky (100% wool), but their Classic Chunky is a machine-washable alternative (for the smaller sizes, Universal Yarn Classic Worsted is a machine-washable alternative to the 100% wool Deluxe Worsted I have listed in the pattern). The best part is that all their yarns can be ordered right from their website! Seriously, I love mail-order. It's always best when I order several things, so when I go to pick it up at the post office, it's still a surprise to see exactly what came in!

It's true, "there is one in all of us"...some more than others.

This pattern is available as a FREE download from the Splendor Ravelry Store. If you're not a Ravelry member yet, you can also download the pattern for FREE right here on the Splendor Knitting Blog by clicking the button below:

All photography Copyright 2009 Santiago Felipe, used with permission.

EDIT: Visit TricotChico.blogspot.com for more knitting patterns by Homero Luna.

Wild Knitters Needed

I have a really, truly, exciting project on my needles, and I'm really excited to be able to share it with you so early on.

I'm working on a hoodie based on Max's 'Rumpus Suit' from the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are movie. (<= link to movie website w/trailer, etc), based on the book by Maurice Sendak (you love this, book, I know you do!).

The hoodie will be available in what seems like a MILLION sizes from little kid to big adult (finished chest circumferences 26", 28", 30", 32", 34", 36", 38", 40", 42", 44", 46", 48", 50", 52", 54", and 56"), and will be a button-up cardigan-style sweater with Monster Ears and a removable tail. The smaller sizes (up to the 36" finished size) will be knit in worsted-weight yarn w/a gauge of 5 sts/in, while all sizes from 38" up will be knit in chunky/heavy worsted/aran yarn at a gauge of 4.5 sts/in. The body of the hoodie will be knit flat, the sleeves knit in the round, and all of them joined on one long needle for the shoulders and hood to be knit "flat" (back-and-forth as opposed to in-the-round). Skills? Knit, purl, buttonhole (explained in pattern), knitting in the round, increase, decrease, kitchener stitch/weaving/grafting.

The pattern will be a FREE downloadable PDF, and my goal is to make it available mid-September, so that fellow Wild Things out there can knit it prior to the movie release on October 16th (notice how I just assume that there are knitters out there as dorky as I am, who will want to wear the hoodie when they go see the movie?).


If you are interested in TEST KNITTING this hoodie, please email me at: TricotChico [at] SplendorKnitting.com and let me know what size you'll be interested in knitting. Keep in mind that this is kind of a super-tight turnaround because of the anticipated release date. I'm working on the first draft of the pattern as we speak, and will email it out to test-knitters Friday morning.

ETA: when I say "super-tight turnaround", what I mean is that I hope that test-knitters can finish their projects w/in 2 weeks in order to have pattern notes an comments back to me for editing. :o)

ETAgain: I've added a couple of smaller sizes to (hopefully) include toddler sizes. The pattern now goes down to 20", 22", and 24". I believe this should cover sizes down to 12 months.

Ummmm...I think that's all the relevant info...definitely email me also if you have questions before deciding to test-knit.

"And now...let the wild rumpus start!"

So...What'cha Been Up To?

I fear it's slightly gauche these days to make two wordy, pictureless blog posts in a row, but I'm not sure what to post to illustrate this one...we'll see what comes to me as I write.

It's been an interesting month, to be sure, and "learning to walk" comes to mind as a metaphor. I spent some time doing nothing, then some time wanting to do something, but not sure what to do, then some time with ideas of what to do, but no motivation to actually do it, then feeling yucky about not getting anything done, then I had a change of plan, and this week has been pretty productive, I'd say.

I think, more than anything, the whole cycle is a pretty good illustration of how important it is to Do What You Love (warning, preceding is a self-congratulatory link the other post where I talked about this idea a couple of months ago). See, I had this idea for a pattern that seemed like a super-great idea and (more than anything), I thought it would popular. Read: I thought it would sell well. It probably would; even non-knitters who heard about the idea were pretty intrigued by it. I spent several weeks thinking about this idea, drew up several charts, re-drew charts, started knitting a prototype, decided it needed it to change, drew another chart...but it just never seemed to come together. It just wasn't working out. In addition to some technical challenges in making it work, said pattern wasn't really something I'd wear, so it wasn't something I was super-excited about designing. It just wasn't me. Once I admitted that to myself and started thinking of how to change the design into something I could get excited about, though, the creative-ness just started flowing like whoa. I sat down to re-draw the charts (and watch a few episodes of Ugly Betty), and BAM! Before I was done for the night, I had three strong new ideas that only needed a bit of refinement.

This week has started a new up-swing in productivity for me, though (is that business-talk? Weird!). I've been swatching like a fiend, working on the prototype of the aforementioned "suddenly very exciting" project, calculating and sketching. Knit design! Wheee! Also, I bought a ball winder and swift, and I'm patiently awaiting the delivery of a couple of bundles of yarn that will be knit into samples for patterns we'll be releasing in September. See? Productive like whoa!

Oddly, the ball-winder and swift make me feel like I'm serious about knitting now. Nevermind the several rubbermaid containers full of yarn, or the fact that there's more on its way. Nevermind the stacks of knitting books, the Addi Turbos in just about every size, the color cards I just ordered, etc, blah blah blah. Yeah, it's the gadgets that make me feel like I'm a serious knitter.

Hmmm...no pictures yet. I try to avoid making posts that are like, "consumerism! Whooo-hooo!", but, that said, I added this kid to my collection several weeks ago:


Yep, that's Ugly Betty! She's a Madame Alexander doll that was apparently released in 2008, though I got mine on eBay--for less than retail, even after shipping! Go me! What's better is that she's wearing a poncho that Davitron and I jokingly considered writing up as a pattern. We were gonna call it the "Guadala-man-cho". Dodged that bullet, eh? ;o)

Alright, Knitters! Stay tuned, and I promise the next post will have real pictures, more exciting info about the super-fab projects we have for this fall, and you won't have to wait a month for it!

The Race is Long, and In the End, it is Only With Yourself

I found out a couple of weeks ago that I'm getting laid off from my Day Job. In fact, this Friday is my last day of full-time work, then I'm effectively on my own. It's odd, because I was kinda surprised, but not really. Everyone knows that the Economy is in...disrepair (to say the least), my job is administrative (so people could really do for themselves the tasks that had been assigned to me), and I had noticed that the projects enrolled in our program were canceling at a surprising rate because *they* were losing funding, so in a way it was inevitable, I suppose. I freaked out about it for about 24 hours after after I found out. There was shock about the news, and a whole rundown of "what do I do now?" scenarios. After some research and phone calls with friends back in Portland, and my family in Houston, I had a better feeling about things, an idea of what the next few months would look like for me, and a sense that I'll be much more than just "okay".

A lot of people asked whether I'd move back to Portland or Houston--in fact, I think some of them were requests for me to do just that. It's really warming to know that I have people in my life who care enough to offer the support and assistance that my friends and family did, but I think that New York is where I'm meant to be right now. Don't misunderstand: I miss these people dearly and hope I can see them again soon, but....NEW YORK CITY!!!! Yeah, I knew you'd understand if I put it like that.

I'm taking this change as an opportunity rather than a defeat, ultimately. Davitron and I are already working on several patterns to release this Fall, so I will definitely take this time to focus on that, and perhaps I'll have one or two more to offer than I originally thought. We each have several ideas for pullovers, outerwear pieces, and accessories, so keep an eye on this blog over the next few months; we'll have the same usual posts about other projects we're working on, but there will also be several exciting patterns coming up: Knits He'll Actually Wear. Tell your friends!

Of course, part of what this means is that I'll need to be more disciplined than I've ever been before. EVER!!! That could easily be a huge obstacle on its own, but I also know how focused and resourceful I can be when I've decided I really want something to happen, so I've got that going for me, for sure. In the midst of all this, I'm thinking of ways to stay focused, inspired, and positive. I'm thinking my dry erase board will become a 'whiteboard' for keeping track of designs I have in mind, as well as milestones and personal deadlines I want to meet. I'll get some construction paper, too, to make style boards for the various designs I'm working on.

Naturally, I'll be listening to music a lot, too. All the songs from here will be on heavy rotation, as will my "Eff Them Mofos" playlist that I made a couple of years ago. It was something I'd listen to when I got frustrated and annoyed with dating, but all the songs are about being confident and independent, so of course it's totally relevant!

And then there are those schmaltzy platitudes that make us groan when we're feeling cynical, but make us teary-eyed when they're exactly what we need to hear. These are some of the ones I'll be keeping close by:

The title of this blog post is from Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrman

"When one door closes, another opens, but it's hell being in the hallway."

"All you misfits and losers, you know you're Rock 'n Rollers! Yeah, you're doing alright, so hold on to each-other, you gotta hold on tonight..." --Hedwig and the Angry Inch, from Midnight Radio

"Change, change...if I can fake it I'ma make it something worth dreaming of." --Santogold, from L.E.S. Artistes

"The less room you give me, the more space I've got. Today has never happened and it doesn't frighten me. It doesn't scare me at all." --Bjork, from Alarm Call

Knits of the Living Dead

"I knit, I like cats, and I collect dolls, but it's not what you think." I found myself thinking this as I bound off the neck opening of a tiny little sweater last night. My cat was sitting next to me, and I was home on a Friday night (which is unusual for me) watching The Listener on hulu.com.

The sweater in question was for the little guy in the pic above. Wolfgang is a Living Dead Doll*, which I started collecting a year ago or so. As I mentioned before, I only buy dolls that I fall in love with immediately. Looking at Wolfgang, I knew that I could love him if only his sweater wasn't so frigging hideous. Fortunately, I have a craft that empowered me to change the thing that was bothering me about this situation.

Seriously, how can you not love a face like that!? Conversely, how can you love a boat-necked monstrosity like that? It took me a while to actually get to the knitting (being the non-monogamous knitter that I am), but it totally flew once I did!

Pattern: Seamless Yoke Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman/ Cobblestone by Jared Flood
Yarn: Koigu KPM in Maroon
Needles: Addi Turbo Circulars, size US3

I based the measurements for this sweater off of Jacob's hoodie (see below), which told me it would have a 6" chest circumference (42 stitches, if I remember). The sleeves (according to Liz Z's percentage system) should have had 14 sts, but when I used that number, I got a sleeve that was more snug than I would have liked, so I used 16 sts. As recommended for sweaters for toddlers and children, I cast on the number of stitches that you'd use for the upper arm and knit a straight tube (rather than casting on fewer and increasing to the amount needed for the upper arm, as you would w/most sweaters for people over the age of, perhaps 8 or 10). I used the Magic Loop technique for knitting this tiny jumper. Can I just tell you that casting on and knitting the first row of a 16 stitch sleeve will teach you the meaning of the word "fiddly"? Yeah, it will. I now have a Master's Certificate in fiddly knitting. I love it!

I fudged the "Yoke Sweater" directions a bit for the yoke, too (Elizabeth would be proud!). Or maybe not, it's hard to tell w/such a small piece of work, since I believe Liz's directions were only ever tested by her on people-sized garments. Anyway, it was mostly guesswork, and, as mentioned before, I re-started the sleeves once. I also ripped the yoke back once (last night, actually), when I decided that I wanted the garter stitch to start earlier and that my decrease rows were too close together (the shoulders were too 'square'). This yarn, though? Effing DELICIOUS!!! Super -soft merino wool that I don't believe to be superwash (the ball band didn't say so, and I spit-spliced a couple of ends together, which I don't think superwash would do, but let me know if that's not the case). I want my own sweater knit from it, but not from the fingering weight. I'm going to be checking to see if Koigu makes a similar yarn in DK weight. Or I suppose I could buy a poop-tonne of the fingering weight and hold it double...hmmm....

Here's Wolfgang with his pal Jacob (on the left in the red hoodie). You can pretty well appreciate the subtlety of the semisolid shading in the yarn in this pic and the one above. It's really lovely! Jacob very graciously served as a fit model for the sweater, as he had been liberated from his box when I started the sweater and Wolfgang had not. Wolfgang really likes his new sweater, though--doesn't he look much happier now? He tells me that Jacob should have his own handknit sweater, since he was such a good sport about helping to make Wolfgang's sweater a reality (I had to pop Jacob's head off in order to remove his hoodie and try on the new sweater. Ouch!).

While shooting the other pic by the window, I noticed Wolfie's reflection in the window. The Horror Film lover in me thought it would be unforgivable to snap a super-creepy shot like this one! Add this to the list of things you don't wanna see in your window at night, eh? ;oD

I knit wiff Jacob, I knit wiff Homero, now I wanna knit wiff youuuuuu......!

Ok, kids, I'm off to work on something less absurd and creepy....or am I? ;o)

_______________________________________
*If you're unfamiliar with Living Dead Dolls and would like to know more, you can visit the official website by clicking here. Once you enter the page, you can view the Archive/Morgue to see the various series of dolls. Wolfgang is from Series 10, and Jacob is from Series 13. :o)

The Process Behind the Process

Do what you love.

There are many times when this uber-simple piece of advice really is the best guide. I once gave this advice to a new collector of dolls (on a message board) when they asked which dolls they "should" buy from a particular doll-maker. "Get the ones that make your heart stop when you first see them, forget about the rest. There's no way to know what will happen to a doll's 'value', and if it it never appreciates, at least you know you'll have a doll that you love."

Santogold, L.E.S. Artistes

"I hope it will be worth what I give up...suddenly I find myself an innovator...change, change, I wanna get up outta my skin. Tell you what, if I can shake it I'm gonna make this something worth dreaming of."

The same is true with knitting--or any craft, really. A very good friend of mine decided that she wanted to make socks for her 2nd (ever) knitting project. I helped her pick yarn and needles and got her started. Sort of. She abandoned the socks for a less 'fiddly' 2nd project and wanted to know why I let her choose something so complicated when she had just learned. 1) I'm not one to stifle a person's creative energy. 2) I believe that the best projects to work on are the one's you're really excited about--the ones you're in love with.

Bjork, Alarm Call

"You can't say 'no' to hope, can't say 'no' to happiness....I want to go on a mountaintop w/a radio and good batteries and play a joyous tune and save the human race from suffering...the less room you give me, the more space I've got. Today has never happened and it doesn't frighten me. It doesn't scare me at all..."

And so it is with design...for me, anyway. When I actually picked up knitting sticks and yarn and learned how to knit, it was because I wanted a 'Harry Potter' scarf (Ravelry link) and had a hard time finding one in a shop. While working on that project, it occurred to me that there were lots of other things I could (and would love to) knit. My mind started turning over ideas of sweaters I'd like to have, more scarves, and so on. Yep, I'm a selfish knitter (because 95% of what I knit is for me and me alone), but I also tend to want designs that are not what I see available from other designers. Modifying a hat pattern here, making something up completely there, taking an idea from the construction of one project and using it in something not quite the same....and that's just where it starts.

Santogold, Creator

"I'm a creator, the rules I break got me a place up on the radar..."

That's a rough sketch of the 'how', but there's also the 'what' and the 'why', and lately the answers to both of those have come from music I've been listening to. Sometimes--oftentimes--it's in the lyrics. Sometimes it's the art direction of the video, or just the overall style of the musician. The few videos I've posted here are examples of what I'm looking at as reference points for what's rolling over in my mind lately. Where the lyrics are inspirational to me, I've noted my favorite lines below the video, but sometimes it's just the overall sound, or maybe the style of the video.

Bjork, Declare Independence

"Don't let them do that to you...raise your flag...ignore their patronizing, tear off your blindfold, declare independence!"

I have a sense for where/how I want these designs to go, but I know they could end up somewhere else entirely. That's another part of the process, no? Following it to see where it takes you? We'll see where they go, but for now the process is exhilirating and a little scary, but I know I'm on the right track when I feel my heart stop.

Keep on knitting. Do what you love.