Lots and lots of crayons!

One of my first thoughts when I find out someone I know is pregnant is "what I am going to knit for her?" This is true for close friends and family, as well as people I hardly know…like my dental hygienist. I know it's partly because I love to knit, but also because I love babies. And I feel strongly that every baby should have at least one hand knit item to welcome them into the world. It's possible that the baby won’t have anyone in the family who knits (shocking, I know), and I am happy to step up to the plate and work my needles for any little bundle of joy.

When Classic Elite Yarns found out that our good friend Katarina, Director of MillaMia, was going to have a baby, we decided to make a group blanket. I have long been a fan of 64 Crayons by Amy Swenson. Designed specifically for yarns that have long color repeats, I knew Liberty Wool Print would be the perfect choice. Not only did it have the necessary color repeats, but an added bonus is that it's machine washable, perfect for all the little incidents that babies are known for having.

Since this was a baby blanket, we adjusted the pattern to make it a little shorter and with fewer stripes in it to make it a little smaller. We also decided to use garter stitch, which was a great choice because we could work on it during meetings and lunch.

We grabbed a few skeins and set to work. Each of us was responsible for knitting a stripe and then we put them together to create the blanket. It didn’t take long for us to finish the blanket, and we all love the way it turned out. The colors all work really well together, and because we didn't choose traditional soft baby colors, her son will be able to use this blanket for quite a while.

We got an email from Katarina last week that she had received the blanket and loves it! She told us that she will send some pictures of her son with the new blanket shortly. And I plan on holding her to that!

Have you used Liberty Wool or Liberty Wool Light for any baby projects? We would love to see them! Send your pictures to blog@classiceliteyarns.com along with the pattern information and Ravelry link (if possible), so we can share with everyone.

Spring Cleaning

Spring is finally here in New England. And I for one couldn't be happier! But it does present one time-consuming chore no one likes to do - but we must.

Before I put away my sweaters and take out the tanks, I need to wash them. This is good for the health of any sweater. So much time goes into knitting a sweater; I want to make sure that I care for them so they can last as long as possible. Washing sweaters before putting them away will help deter any little critters from getting into them over the summer months.

I like to wash each sweater individually by hand, using a product like Eucalan or Soak, which are no-rinse products. I have a special bucket that I like to use. It is an oversized plastic tub that I got at a discount store and I use only for washing my hand knits. That way I am sure no chemicals accidentally get into my knits.

I begin by filling the tub with lukewarm water and some of the washing agent (read the label for specific amounts). I then gently submerge the garment in the tub and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. I check on it every few minutes and give it a gentle massage.

I then remove the garment from the tub and very gently squeeze it to release as much water as possible. Next I will roll the garment in some clean dry towels, to remove even more water from it.

Then I lay the garment flat to dry and pin it (if necessary) to the measurements I want it to be, to ensure that it dries to that shape and size. Don't leave the garment to dry in the sunlight, otherwise the front of your garment will be a different color than the back (I speak from experience on this one - please don’t make the same mistakes I have).

The last step is to wait for the garment to dry fully. You want to make sure it's completely dry before you tuck it way. There are several factors that will determine how long it takes to dry – how big the sweater is, the humidity on the day you wash it, your altitude, etc.  You can also put a fan on it make it dry a little more quickly.

I store all of my out-of-season clothes in a cedar chest, which is a natural moth repellent. But I also throw in a few lavender pouches (another natural moth repellent with an added bonus of smelling nice). I know quite a few people who use rubber bins to store their sweaters and some who even go as far as taping down the lid. The important thing is for you to find something that works for you.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

Mother’s Day is coming…and sooner than you think

Somehow, despite my best efforts, I am usually late with my Mother’s Day gifts. Often it is because my mother loves hand knit socks and while I can make a pair of plain socks in a few days if I put my mind to it, I am easily distracted when it comes to knitting (my internal dialog goes something like this - ohhh…I like that cardigan, I need to cast on. But wait, what about that cute top you have been looking at for months? Now is a good time to start working on that. Socks, you need to work on those socks. But I really do need a new afghan. This probably sounds familiar to many of you). I may have given her a sock with the needles still in it one year for Christmas and as soon as she opened the box, I asked for the sock back so I could finish it (full disclosure, it was only the second sock that wasn't done. And I was staying with her the days leading up to the holiday, so I felt I couldn't work on them in front of her).

But this year if different! Not only was I on time for Mom’s Day…my mother has already received her gift!

A few weeks ago I was on the phone with my mother. She said she wanted a new knitting project. My mom is the knitter who will make a scarf and then put down her needles for months on end (this is so not the type of knitter I am. I can't go a day without knitting.) She also likes small quick projects. I began asking her what it is she wanted to knit.

Me: A scarf?
Mom:  No.
Me: How about a hat?
Mom: Ummmm no.
Me: How about a bag?
Mom: No…not really my style.

I could see this was going to be a challenge.

The next day at the lunch table I was telling one of my co-workers about my quandary. I wanted to help find my mom something to knit. But she had shot down all of my immediate ideas. We came up with the idea of her making dishcloths  My mother is no stranger to making dishcloths  In fact when she taught me to knit when I was a kid, she taught me to make the garter stitch dishcloth that is a square, knit on the diagonal starting with 3 stitches. This is still her go-to pattern. She has made it so many times, she has it memorized (it’s a really easy pattern…you can find several versions on Ravelry).

I decided to give her some Seedling for making the dish clothes. I chose 3 different colors that I knew would go with her kitchen and pulled 2 skeins of each of the colors. My colleague suggested that I find some free dishcloth patterns on Ravelry and print them out. I downloaded a bunch of patterns and put them in a folder for her. I found a cute little knitting bag to put everything in, so she could keep it all nice and tidy.

The other day I received a phone call from my mom. She had received her package in the mail and was so excited. It was a win-win for her. Not only did she get her Mother’s Day gift early…she now had something to knit. She said she really liked the idea of getting a project to do. She loved the yarn that I picked for her, only said she was afraid it might be too nice for her kitchen - and I have to say that I agree with her. So instead she is going to use the yarn to make wash cloths for her bathroom. Luckily she used the same colors in her bathroom as she did in the kitchen.

I can't wait to see her FOs.I told her she had to take some pictures and I will share them with you when she does.

This year Mother's day in the United States is on May 12th. Are you giving your mom (or grandmother, aunt or other mother type figures) yarn for Mother’s Day? How about knitting her (or him) something special to show you care? Time is running low, but if you set your mind to it (and don't get distracted like I do), you can do it!

Catching up with MillaMia

I have long admired the patterns for MillaMia, but don’t have many children to knit for. So when they introduced their current lines of patterns I was really happy.

I recently had a chance to ask Katarina, the Director of MillaMia a little about knitting and MillaMia’s vision.

CEY: How long have you been knitting?

Katarina: I have been knitting since I was 6 years old. My grandmother taught me to knit when we used to spend our summers at our countryhouse in Sweden – on a rainy day there was not a lot to do as it was quite remote, and knitting became a favorite pastime. I then had a long break from knitting, coming back to it again when I first became a mother 7 years ago.

CEY: What is your favorite type of project to knit?

KR: With three young children (2 months, 4 and 6 years old) I obviously love to knit kids’ stuff. I love how you can be really bold and adventurous in your color choices, and above all I love how ‘do-able’ these projects are due to their smaller size. The feeling of achievement when you finish a piece of knitting is a real buzz and keeps me hooked on the craft!

  

CEY: Who is your biggest knitting inspiration?

KR: My grandmother was obviously an important early influence, but at this moment I would have to say Max – a friend who is now a colleague and has been helping us with MillaMia for the past year (managing our MillaMia blog amongst other things). Max is so passionate about knitting that it is really infectious – and her skills (she is by far the best knitter I know from a technical perspective) and willingness to help others makes all of us in her environment braver about the knitting we chose to try.

CEY: What made you want to start a yarn company?

KR: I loved knitting when pregnant with my first born 7 years ago.  But I quickly found that I had exhausted all the patterns that I wanted to knit and was struggling to find modern, stylish designs that I would both enjoy knitting but more importantly also enjoy her wearing. Luckily I have a sister who is a fashion designer by trade and so we started creating our own patterns. And so MillaMia was started…

CEY: In the past, you have focused on children’s patterns. In your new books Country Escape, Colour Coded and the upcoming High Society you have adapted many of your patterns for adults. Can you tell us about that?

KR: As you say as a company we are pretty much known for our children’s patterns. However a constant request that we would get by email and face to face at both trade and retail shows was for us to also create our designs for adults. The number of times we had people look at one of our samples and say ‘ I would wear that’ meant that in the end we felt we really had to listen to this feedback. In creating our adult collections we have taken this customer feedback at face value – adapting some of our most popular children’s designs directly to adult sizing and shaping, other designs are an evolution from our children’s styles and still more are completely fresh and new. It felt like a risk but the response has been phenomenal – it really has opened MillaMia up to a new audience of knitters which feels great.

  

CEY: Do you have plans for any more children’s patterns?

KR: Of course! We love designing for children and with my 7 week old son now available to join the MillaMia modeling stable expect some more stuff for babies too!

CEY: Any other plans for MillaMia that you are willing to share with our readers?

KR: We are thrilled to be launching some new Naturally Soft Merino yarn colors – 3 new colors in our core collection and 2 exciting shades as seasonal colors. This will be in the Fall. And of course we need to make sure we have fantastic pattern support for these new colors too.

CEY: I know you are a new mom; do you still have time to knit?

KR: I have to be honest and say juggling 2 school kids, a new baby and a business is a challenge – there were never enough hours in the day even before Johan (my new son) came along, and now with the demands of nursing and sleepless nights there seem to be even fewer! However – even if it is just a few rows that I manage – there is nothing as relaxing as knitting, so it tends to be my treat when all three are finally asleep at the same time.

You can see all of MillaMia’s designs and the colors of their Naturally Soft Merino on our website. 

Color Grid

Gail Callahan (aka the Kangaroo Dyer) developed The Color Grid after her book, Hand Dying Yarn and Fleece, was published as a tool to help people pick colors with confidence.

This is a great tool for dying yarns and picking yarns to use in color work. And it’s also great for anything else you are picking colors for…quilting, floral designs, decorating your living room and much more!

Ask to see the Color Grid at your favorite local yarn shop!

Changing Lanes

As you may know, we are having a Shawls, Wraps and Scarves KnitAlong.  I had planned on making the Cream& Sugar Wrap in Vail. But something wasn’t quite right for me when I started. I really like the pattern and I love the yarn, but I got about 3 inches into the wrap and it just wasn’t speaking to me. So I decided that I wanted to do something a little different.

I knew I wanted a lightweight shawl (although I tend to wear them more like loose oversized scarves than shawls), and something that was an intuitive pattern.  I have had my eye on the Eyelet-Swirl Stole for a while now and thought it would be a good choice.

I dug through my stash to find some Silky Alpaca Lace to swatch with. In the past I have shied away from lace weight yarn, feeling it's too small to work with. But I decided to give it a try anyway. I happen to have a lace needle in the correct size in my needle collection and cast on for a swatch. Wow! Working with lace yarn with a pointy tip, even with mostly stockinette stitch, makes a HUGE difference.

Yesterday during lunch I cast on for my Eyelet-Swirl Stole in the Beach Glass color of Silky Alpaca lace and I couldn't be happier with my choice. I see this future FO being something that I can wear with everything – sweaters, cardigans, tees and jeans, under my coat in the fall and as a lightweight layer later in the spring (when a coat is too much, but you can't quite get away without an extra layer in the morning).

I really love the fact that this knit-along has so many options. If you are looking for a layering piece for the summer, you can choose one of the wraps and make it in a lighter weight yarn. Or maybe you want to get a jump start on your holiday knitting (or finally start that piece that you gave an IOU for this past holiday season). There are 60 projects in the book to choose from and you can use any CEY yarn. It’s not too late to join us. You can read all the rules here and follow along in our Ravelry Group here.

So…will you join us?

Meg's Rocky Pond

On one of my first days in the office at Classic Elite Yarns, I was given a sneak peek into the spring line. We weren't ready to introduce it to the world yet, but it was almost ready to show to yarns stores. There were so many things that I couldn't wait to put into my queue. One of which was Rocky Pond.

One of the women in our office was going to California in February and wanted to wear something hand knit.  She wanted something that was simple, not too boring to knit, and only about two weeks work from start to finish. Rocky Pond was a perfect choice! The lace pattern in the top is intuitive, and can be easily memorized, eliminating the need to look at a chart every few stitches.

Meg used Provence, a 100% Mercerized Cotton in a DK weight, in the color of the year – Emerald (the official Provence color name is Laurel).

I love the boat neck on this top, a flattering look for most women.

Knit in two pieces with minimal finishing, it was a quick knit for Meg. She managed to finish it in just under her deadline (I understand that she may have been weaving in ends on the plane and blocking in the hotel room, but she finished it before her event – which is all that really matters).

Now that spring is here – and hopefully to stay (fingers crossed) – I suspect that I'll be seeing this pretty top around the office quite a bit.

I have plans for my own Rocky Pond, but I'm planning on using Soft Linen. There is a lovely shade of green called New Fern that I can’t wait to cast on. I have a few things in my queue that I need to work on first (including my Sugar and Cream Lace Wrap for the Shawls,Wraps and Scarves Knit-Along that we will be starting shortly.), but I'm not sure if I can wait.

Are you planning on making a Rocky Pond top – or have you finished one already? We would love to see it!