Going Live

About 50 advance copies of Sock Knitting Master Class arrived at Interweave a couple of weeks ago. In addition to giving me one, the publicity machine behind Interweave sent copies to craft reviewers across the country. It's starting to pay off.
Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 1), I'll be a guest on Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski on Toginet Radio. The live program runs from 3pm to 5pm EST; my segment is scheduled to start at about 4:27pm. As many of you know, I'm not too keen on being in front of a camera or microphone. Fortunately, the radio format precludes a camera (but I will comb my hair). I'll probably garble up whatever I say, but I think Mark will understand. According to the Toginet website, Creative Mojo is "infused with Mark's off-the-cuff and no-holds-barred humor and love of the creative spirit". He sounds like someone I'll like.

This and That

The last couple of weeks have been busy ones at the Budd household, which is why you haven't heard from me in a while. Last weekend my oldest, Alex, graduated from high school and today is the last day of school for my twins (they are no longer Sophomores in high school).

But what has really had me busy is my NEXT BOOK (and Sock Knitting Master Class isn't even in the shops yet). I'm not at liberty at present to disclose information about the next book other than it will be published by Interweave next summer (that would be 2012). I've been knitting and writing like mad and will turn in the manuscript next week.

To take a break from all that designing and writing, I treated myself to the joy of following someone else's pattern. I knitted the oh-so-lovely Ishbel Shawl out of Madeline Tosh Pashmina (75% merino, 15% silk, 10% cashmere) for a dear friend's birthday. The pattern is both simple and beautiful. I have a few skeins of luxury yarn in my stash that I am certain are also destined for this pattern.

Here's the shawl on my blocking wires. Although it's not pretty, I like to block on a striped towel so that there are straight lines to follow.

Pretty in Pink

The baby sweater I designed out of Quince and Company Tern has just been posted on their website. It's called Ruffles and is listed on the Baby/Kid page. Knitted at 7 stitches/inch, this cardigan takes from 2 skeins for size 19 1/2" circumference (tiny) to 4 skeins for size 26 1/4" circumference.

My oldest son graduates from high school this week. If 10,000 of you buy the pattern, I'll be able to send him to college for a year.

Sock Knitting Master Class

I got an advance copy of Sock Knitting Master Class today! It looks even better than I expected, thanks to the masters who contributed designs and information (Cookie A, Kathryn Alexander, Veronik Avery, Ct Bordhi, Nancy Bush, Evelyn A. Clark, Chrissy Gardiner, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Anne Hanson, Eunny Jang, Melissa Morgan-Oakes, Deborah Newton, Clara Parkes, Meg Swansen, and Anna Zilboorg) and Interweave's excellent book design team.

The bulk of the shipment is literally on the slow boat from China and won't make it into shops until late June. When it does arrive, I'll hold a raffle for a FREE copy so stay tuned. 

I think this is cause for a wee celebration.

Another Quince Project

Yesterday my Cat Cay Cowl pattern was published on the Quince and Company website. I designed this cowl while anticipating our spring break vacation to Cat Cay in the Bahamas. Consequently, the stitch patterns include beach references: cables (ropes), embossed diamonds (flags), and small pebbly patterns (ripples on the water), all worked in a beautiful ocean blue shade of Tern (75% merino, 25% silk).

This cowl is knitted in the round but Murphy's Law ensured that the "seam" was front and center for the photograph. Oh well.

I used the decorative Channel Island cast-on to give a pretty edge to the cowl, but the instructions you'll download from Quince and Company were simplified to specify the more common long-tail cast-on. Those of you with eagle eyes will certainly notice the difference. Fortunately, there are several very good demonstrations of the Channel Island cast-on on YouTube. I encourage you to try it.

So that the bind-off edge would match the cast-on, I used the Channel Island bind-off, a technique explained and illustrated in Vintage Modern Knits by Courtney Kelley and Kate Gagnon Osborn (Interweave, 2011). Believe me, instructions for this bind-off alone are worth the cover price of the book!

I'd Rather be Knitting

My friend Stephanie sent me a photo she took at the Minneapolis airport some eight or ten years. I've been trying to come up with a pithy response, but I'm speechless.

I Did It

A few days ago, I finished knitting the sweater out of my handspun 3-ply yarn! And I finished it an entire month ahead of my self-imposed deadline of June 1 (I won't go into what didn't get accomplished in the last two months).
Even after blocking, the sweater has a wonderful boingy feel that can't be all attributed to the moss stitch pattern. The yarn really does have more life than a standard commercial merino yarn. But most importantly, this sweater is my color (mud), my size (big and baggy) and my style (plain). Too bad I didn't plan to have this finished back in January when the temperatures were in the single digits.

With the help of my spinning teacher (Maggie Casey), I learned five ways to make the yarn in a handspun sweater look most even and consistent.
1. Spin about 25% more yarn than you think you'll need.
2. After spinning, set aside the skeins that look dramatically heavier (or lighter) than the others. Don't use these skeins.
3. Wind the yarn into many relatively small balls and choose the balls randomly. This helps distribute the slightly thicker and thiner yarns throughout the entire sweater.
4. Use an allover stitch pattern that will also help camouflage differences in yarn thickness.
5. Knit the sweater in the round. This eliminates seams and having to match up pieces that may be slightly different lengths.