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Sockupied Fall 2015: Electrostatic Lines Knee Socks

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As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve got a bunch of patterns that have come out in the last four weeks.  If you’ve been paying attention to my design page on Ravelry (you know you can follow the page on Ravelry, right?), my published patterns page jumped from 35 patterns to 45 – a full ten (TEN!) patterns released this last week.  It’s also part of the reason I was sooo busy the beginning of this year.  Today I want to take the time to highlight Electrostatic Lines, featured in Sockupied’s Fall 2015 issue.  Electrostatic Lines is a pair of stranded knit knee socks with a fun twist to make the calf fit you perfectly!

I’ve loved designing for Sockupied.  They’re one of the smaller magazines out of Interweave, but I love the focus on quality patterns, and the editor’s commitment to bringing really great sock articles forward.

Sockupied Fall 2015

Credit: Interweave/Harper Point Photography

In this issue, Electrostatic Lines are on the cover (my fourth pair on a Sockupied Cover!) – and I think these are one of my favorite pairs of socks I’ve ever designed.

Credit: Interweave/Harper Point Photography

I was working on these socks nearly a year ago today.  I knew these were going to be a particularly difficult pair of socks – not only did I have to finish them and Karner Butterfly in about 4 weeks, but knee socks are a haul.  When you get past the heel, you’re barely halfway done.  But I loved sitting on the front porch of our house in the mornings and afternoons and just steadily churning through the rows.  I love how there’s a bit of interest at the toe, the mini-gusset followed by the short row heel, and then the fun joy of working stranded knitting up the leg.  Knee socks are a commitment – but they’re worth it.

Steadily working up the leg

This was one of my first projects using ChiaoGoo’s Red Lace Needles, and I was in the process of falling in love, leaving my Addi’s in the dust.

Trying socks on as you go – toe up all the way!

There are so many things I’m proud of in this pattern.  I love that you can try these socks on as you go, to make sure that the calf fits just as it should.  The stranded knitting for the leg is written in such a way that increases can be added or subtracted as needed, so the pattern will fit perfectly for your calf.

And quite simply, I fell in love with this color combination: nearly a perfect, yet counter-intuitive combo for fall.  Hedgehog Fiber’s Rusty Nail and Graphite work lovely together.  They just seam to glow, especially in the sunlight.

You can check out more details about my sample pair of Electrostatic Lines on Ravelry, which includes the time information for this particular pair of socks.

Rusty Nail seems to glow

Electrostatic Lines is available from Sockupied, along with a bunch of other quality patterns.  Buy your copy here!

Fun Times at the Farm

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Fun Times at the Farm

Fun Times at the Farm

On Friday I wrapped up the last of my camps with Montgomery College, hastily packed up my belongings, said goodbye to my lovely hosts, and swung around the beltway in DC to pick up Sweetness and Light.

For those of you who have begun following me in the last year, the monikers Sweetness and Light have little meaning, as I haven’t written about them recently.  Sweetness and Light are the name of two girls that I was a nanny to for four years – from mid 2010 until mid 2014, when Mr. Turtle and I moved to Richmond.  I began working for the family when I moved to DC – underemployed and still with the shine of college.  Sweetness was three, Light, just over 10 months.

Now, Sweetness is a precocious eight and Light is going to be six at the end of this month.  In the time in between, their parents have become more than friends, their family has increased by one (a 20 month old boy, now), and my employment has deepened into a friendship.  About once every four months, Sweetness and Light come for a sleepover, and since I was “in town” anyway, it made sense to “borrow” the girls, and bring them home for a few days.

Light rocking a ball-cap.

So what might have been a relaxing weekend unpacking and decompressing from camp became a joyful visit (perhaps relaxing might not be the word I’d use, but invigorating might fit).

Well, perhaps it was relaxing for Sweetness.

This was a particularly special trip, as we got to take Sweetness and Light to the farm.  Sweetness got to drive the riding lawnmower, we took rides in the antique jeep (without seatbelts!), and went to the James River to “ride the rapids,” fish and swim.

On Monday we returned to Ashland, and I dug out the camp materials for one last reprise, and we did needle felting to make pillows in honor of Mr. Turtle’s birthday, in a week.

Now the girls are gone, and it’s time to get back to the grindstone.  There’s updates to the website, design subs to create, patterns in a backlog that need to be written and edited, and camp stuff to unpack and find homes for.

Come next week, I’ll be trying to get back into the grove of blog-posts that are more informative that update-ish.  I’ve also got a bunch of patterns that have come out in the last four weeks, so I’ll spend some time highlighting those!

Update From the Camp Front

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The last week has been a flurry of busy – I’ve been running camps in the morning and the afternoon, and totally been immersed in fiberarts.

I wanted to share some of the highlights from this past week.

Working on Pikachu in Punch Rugwork

Working on Pikachu

One of my students in Knockout Punch Rug Needlework created an absolutely stunning Pikachu.  Working in Punch Rug Work (like rug hooking, except you’re looking at the wrong side right now), he blasted through the piece displaying both creativity and problem solving, expecially considering the limited palette I had available.

Fingerless Glove - in knititng!

Working on a Fingerless Glove

I had a young eight year old who was ABSOLUTELY DETERMINED that she would finish her fingerless glove, no matter what.  Everything else was secondary, every second we had “free work” time, (and some times we did not), she was pulling out her knitting to work “just another row.”

Needle felting, Punch Rug Hooking, Dyed Yarn

Needle felting, Punch Rug Hooking, Dyed Yarn

I had another camper who fell in love with needle felting, creating a lovely bag, a pillow out of her punch rug work, and took home a gorgeous hand-dyed ball of yarn.  She couldn’t have been happier with her projects!

This week marks the last week of the camps, with another round of String Theory, and then Next Step Needlework.  I’m so excited to see what students create!

Resources for Teaching Children Fiberarts

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child learning to knit

Learning Fiberarts!

This marks the end of the first weeks of the camps I’m running with Montgomery College, and I’m wrapping up one of my cornerstone camps, String Theory.  String Theory is a sampler camp: giving the children a taste of spinning, weaving, sewing and knitting.  The hope is, at the end of the camp, students will have found something they’re interested in, and pursue it further.  I thought it’d be helpful to have a reference post of resources for children – and ongoing fiberarts learning.

Sewing

Knitting

Weaving

learning to weave

Learning to Weave

  • Kid’s Weaving is where it’s at.  It’s one of the only book that is weaving and geared toward children, and it’s solid.
  • You Can Weave is older, and harder to find, but a good resource.

 

Show Notes from the Last Few Weeks

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Aboard a cruise ship, sailing with Mr. Turtle, my parents and his parents.  It’ll be our second (third? – depends on how you count it) vacation together.  It’s all part of Mr. Turtle’s and my project to integrate our families.  You see, Michael’s grandparents didn’t get along, and he can’t remember a time when they were both in the same room.  In contrast, my grandparents were good friends, and I can remember many holidays, visits and trips where my family and grandparents were all in tow.

It was a perfect arrangement, really.  With 4 Crowley grandchildren and 4 grandparents, it was glorious to get some really good one-on-one grandparent love.  I want that for my family, so Mr. Turtle and I have been trying to create situations where our parents, who live pretty far away, can spend time together.

 

Which actually wasn’t what I was planning on writing about.

I was planning on writing about my missing sock.  You see, about a month ago I finished a pair of socks, for myself, that I’ve been wanting to finish for a while.

This is a really poor picture of the sock, but I didn't even get to take a picture of them!

This is a really poor picture of the sock, but I didn’t even get to take a picture of them!

I was pretty excited about them, so I wore them nearly for three days straight, washed them, and wore them once more.

And now one of the socks are missing.

The kicker is, the sock is somewhere in my house.  I figured, when we had company over this 4th of July, and were cleaning things, it’d turn up.  I wasn’t really concerned.

But now it’s after the 4th, the sock still hasn’t shown up, and I’m disappointed: I wanted to take them on the cruise with me.  No such luck.  I can’t find them anywhere, darn-it!

Have you ever lost a knitting or crochet item?  Did you find it again? After how long?  I’m really starting to get bummed about this missing sock.

3 Essential Rules to Work on Granny Square Crochet Blankets

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Tomorrow morning I’ll be winging off our a week long vacation with my family in Alaska, and then I’ll return to quickly packing up for three weeks of summer camps in Rockville, MD.  So I’ve been trying to wrap up a few long-term finishing projects.

Sometime soon I’m going to write a post on how to properly finish off a granny-square blanket so it doesn’t fall apart in 30 years. (Or really, any blanket for that matter.)  Still, it seems like all I’ve been doing lately is repairing granny squares.

It’s meditative work at the best of times, and dead boring at the worst.  I normally like to put on a book-tape or podcast and crank out the repairs.  This time around I took a few photos to share, and decided to add my 3 rules of working on granny square blankets.

Granny Square blanket with split seams

The first blanket, featured above, had two major places it was broken: the last row of the square didn’t have its ends woven in, and I needed to rework the last row and reattach.

Rule #1: Properly weaving in ends is essential in a blanket that you want to last.  Crocheting over them doesn’t cut it.

Repairing hole in Granny Square Blanket

Repairing hole in Granny Square Blanket

As a corollary to Rule #1, the closer an end is to the center, the more stress it takes.  REALLY weave in the ends at the center of a blanket.

Which brings me to my next rule.

Rule #2: include care instructions when you give a blanket to someone.  Don’t expect them to know how to care for the blanket and the fibers!

Let me show you some examples:

Center of granny square lost of love

Center of granny square lost of love

Slowly adding back the center of the Granny Square

Slowly adding back the center of the Granny Square

Granny square center replaced!

Granny square center replaced!

All the black that's not a

All the black that’s not a “frame” for the granny square is replaced & repaired.

The blanket above is one that’s been well loved, but also subjected to light and heat damage.  The fibers are very very delicate, and I’m working to repair the largest holes so this can be gently loved again. Still, proper care of textiles can extend their life a hundredfold.

Finally, my last rule.

Rule #3: REALLY, REALLY weave in your ends.  Seriously.  Nearly 80% of the granny square repairs I do is in places where they ends have come unraveled, instead of the fibers degrading.  Weave in the ends.  Use a sharp needle.  Skim them in.

Are there things you can think of to extend the life of your afghans?  What are they?

Now available: Make a Crochet Rug Using Piping Cord and Crochet Motifs!

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Matryoshka Baskets from Crochet World

I’ve been really enjoying playing with padded crochet lately, if you haven’t noticed.  Last year with Crochet World I published the Matryoshka Baskets, and this past week my Rag-ety Rug came out.  Now, this week I have another wonderful piece of news to share with you!

Remember how a couple of months ago I talked about filming classes with Interweave?  Well, the first of them are out, and I couldn’t be more excited!

Let me tell you about the class.

Titled Make a Crochet Rug Using Piping Cord and Crochet Motifs with Jennifer Raymond, this class covers all you’d need to know in order to make Stained Glass Rug.  While the pattern by itself stands alone, you do need a basic understanding of padded crochet to make the project work.

With my online class, not only do I show you the basics of padded crochet, but I also show you all my tricks I developed and learned while making the rug.  You’ll learn the best ways of finishing off your cord, the easiest ways to join the motifs, and how to adapt the pattern for other purposes.

Make a Crochet Rug Using Piping Cord and Crochet Motifs

Make a Crochet Rug Using Piping Cord and Crochet Motifs

As I mentioned before, this class focuses around Stained Glass Rug, which was featured on KDTV’s episode 1409. I love this pattern.  It’s infinitely customizable, as you can make the rug as large or small as you want it.  The padded crochet makes the rug both cushy under the feet, durable, and the project works up really fast!  There’s plenty of room for color play, in the form of using up scraps, creating color blocks, or making magic balls to use.  And I love how, just worked in the yarn I used for the original project, each piece looks a little bit like the stained glass you see in churches.

Make a Crochet Rug Using Piping Cord and Crochet Motifs with Jennifer Raymond is available for pre-ordering as a DVD, or you can download it right now onto your computer.

You should checkout the preview:

Have you ever worked padded crochet? What do you think of the preview?

Padded Crochet Tutorial

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Padded Crochet Tutorial

In honor of Rag-ety Rug coming out this week from Crochet World, and my recent post about it coming out, I thought it was appropriate to finally post this tutorial, which I’ve been saving for quite a while.

What you’ll need:

  • A crochet hook
  • Some scrap yarn
  • Rags, upholstery cord, or something else nice and thick but flexible to crochet over.  Bulky yarn would work too.

A bit about padded crochet: this technique originally was used to crochet around thicker yarn to create different motifs.  It gives you a lot of flexibility because you don’t have to crochet into the previous row, you can also just crochet around your material.  You see this technique often used in  Irish Crochet.

To begin, work a foundation chain, and work single crochets into the chain.  This can be any width, as we’re working a practice swatch.  After you’ve finished those two rows, you begin by adding in your cord/rag/yarn.  You’ll be crocheting around it much like you do when you’re burying an end into your crochet work, except this will be much larger.

Adding in your cord/rag/yarn

Adding in your cord/rag/yarn

Begin by holding your cord/rag/yarn above the last row you worked.

Joining Yarn around padded crochet

Joining Yarn around padded crochet

In this case, I’m also joining the yarn for this row.  Insert your hook into the last stitch of the previous row, and draw up your yarn.

Attaching yarn, Padded Crochet, Step 2

Chain one, securing yarn around the cord/rag/yarn.  I like to hold my tail together with my working yarn for this first stitch, or no other reason than it makes me feel better, and makes me feel like things are more secure.  I’ve got no proof, though.

Begin working Single Crochets around cord/rag/yarn

Begin working Single Crochets around cord/rag/yarn

Now, begin working your crochet stitches into the stitch of the previous row, working the yarn around the cord/rag/yarn.  In this case, I’m working a variant of the v-stitch.

Some tips:

  • Make sure you’re letting your stitches lie flat.  If you make them tight, they’ll bunch up your cord/rag/yarn.
  • Every once and a while check to make sure that your piece is laying flat.  Because the cord/rag/yarn that you’re working over has a tendency to shift around, it can make things pucker, draw tighter or looser.  I like to measure ever few rows.
  • When you have to add more cord, there’s a few ways you can do it.  In my case, I sewed on my rags together, because it was a bit more tidy.  You can also just hold the end of one rag and the beginning of another together.
  • Make sure if you’re using rags they’re the same width, so your rug doesn’t have a lumpy look, or have irregular rows (unless that’s the effect you’re going for)!
Measure, measure, measure!

Measure, measure, measure!

Have you every worked padded crochet?  How’d it turn out?  What was the project?

New Pattern: Rag-ety Rug, a Padded Crochet Project

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Rag-ety Rug by Jennifer Raymond

Rag-ety Rug, a Padded Crochet Project

I’m proud to announce that Rag-ety Rug, my pattern with Crochet World Magazine’s August 2015 issue, is officially out.  (Yes, I know it’s only June.  I’m not quite sure how Annie’s works their release schedule, but even though it’s June, you should be able to start finding the magazine on shelves in the next few weeks).

Rag-ety Rug uses one of my new favorite crochet techniques, padded crochet.  Like Stained Glass Rug and Matryoshka Baskets, Rag-ety Rug uses padded crochet.  Normally padded crochet is worked with smaller items (like in Irish Crochet Lacework), but I like to use padded crochet to make more modern, exploded lace pieces.

Rag-ety Rug was mostly worked on during a vacation to Atlantic Beach with Mr. Turtle’s Parent’s.  It seemed rather fitting: this rug, worked with denim scraps, fits in perfectly with beach decor.  The varied blues of the different denim scraps seemed to echo the blues of the ocean.

walking on Atlantic Beach in January

Walking on Atlantic Beach in January

There is a meditative quality to this rug, as each row the “v-stitch” nests into the following row.  I loved watching the rug gradually grow.  The cotton in the rug is from Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream line, in a color called Stone Wash.  It was a perfect pairing for the denim.

Padded Crochet Rug from Annie's Crochet World

Rag-ety Rug, done in Padded Crochet, detail shot.

In my original pitch I imagined this rug in rainbow colors, for a children’s room or for someone who loves color.  I think it’d be fun to play around with textures too: perhaps with prints or strips or plaid?  The possibilities are endless!

What colors would you work this rug in?

A quick update and a change of plans

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Today’s been quite the day.

Supplies for a class on Saturday at Fibre Space

Right now, I’m in the airport, waiting to get on a plane to head to Boston.  It wasn’t all that long ago I was in Boston for fun with Mr. Turtle, but this time it’s for sadder reasons.  My great-aunt, Janet, died last Saturday morning.  I found out Saturday morning as I was heading out the door to catch a train to Old Town Alexandria for a full day of teaching at Fibre Space.

So today I’m heading back to Boston, and then onward to Newburyport and the family home there.  I’ll be supporting my mother (Momma Turtle) and extended family.  I’ve got mixed feelings about the trip, but we’ll make the best of it.  I’ve got a backpack full of yarn to finish the sweater I need to send off on Monday.

I’ve got a couple of fun blog-posts scheduled to run while I’m gone, so be sure to keep tuning in, but I won’t be checking my email until Monday.

 

In other news, I got a package in the mail yesterday evening.  It was small, and I couldn’t remember that anything was supposed to be getting back to me soon.  So of course, I immediately ripped it open.

Karner Butterfly

Karner Butterfly

It was my Karner Butterfly socks, returned to me.

Getting projects back after they’ve been published is a bit like greeting an old friend: a little odd, and very welcome.  Oftentimes I worked in these projects quite a while ago (in this case, nearly 11 months ago), and I haven’t seen them since then.  They immediately bring back all the memories that happened when I was working on them: in this case, it was the cruise I went on with my family last year.

If you missed Karner Butterfly the first time around, you should check them out!  They’re a fun little pattern.

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