Author Archive

Here’s a 20 second, silly bit o’ movie I took with my camera at the Pitti Filati exhibition in February.

That’s me giggling. Work can be fun.

For the few of you who may not know, Margery Winter is the creative director at Berroco. After years of a mentor/student relationship, we now work as parts of a team here at Berroco. Margery writes about another very important member of our team:

Deana Gavioli keeps the design department running like a top.  Her responsibilities range from assisting our art director, gathering and updating all information for our website, proofing all stages of Knitbits, monitoring info@berroco.com, creating and trafficking trunk shows, editing all written pieces generated by this department, tagging and labeling all samples, acting as the liaison between designers and sample knitters, managing all production of store models, processing invoices.  Deana is our clearing house of facts and keeper of information.  She works at her desk and computer everyday, calmly coordinating all packages to and from the sample knitters so that Norah and I can maintain our rigorous design and photography schedule.  With her finger on the pulse of our department, she calmly goes about her business quietly making sure that all runs as smoothly as possible while at the same time our dear Deana, beautiful inside and out will not allow a single Knitbits to be released until every ”t” is crossed and every “i” is dotted. Often I wonder how Deana can remain so calm and so steady.  I have worked with her for many years and I continue to be in awe of her endless reserve of patience. Thanks so much Deana.  We can’t do it without you!

Photography courtesty of Photo by Cregg Annarino Photography (Deana’s talented brother)

Berroco’s Johnny Boy sweater in action:

In a clever multitasking move, Margery knit the original Johnny Boy sweater to fit her grandson, Noah. Reports have it that the sweater has seen heavy action ever since, has been washed (and dried) numerous times, and it still looks great. It’s knit in Berroco Sox, our all wool sock yarn in an ever increasing array of multicolor patterns.

Photo credit: Olivia Sauerwein (Noah’s mom)

I love checking my RSS feed to see what’s up with my favorite knitting and craft blogs. (Sometimes it does get a little ahead of me - like when I have 1200 items to look at from my Ravelry friend’s favorites list - oh well). This week I was so happy to see Stephanie Japel’s finished version of the Berroco design Sanpoku from booklet 262 Yin & Yang. 

Stephanie Japel’s Sanpoku in Berroco Comfort.

Stephanie, of Glampyre Knits fame, is a designer herself and a new mom. I’m wondering how she finds the time to work on her own designs and blog and knit from our patterns as well. While she was pregnant she designed this lovely sweater in Berroco Touché:

Click on the photo to get to the pattern info on the Glampyre Knits site.

I’ve been hoping for this, waiting quietly, yet anxiously, for this honor. We should all be proud, all of us knitters. Knitting made it into my alumni magazine!!!!! Check out this article in the Brown Alumni Monthly or BAM as it affectionately refers to itself

It’s a small article and the online version lacks the photo my cat (and me) which was included in the printed version, but still it’s a thrill. Congratulations also, to my fellow knitters, also Brown alums, Sabrina Gschwandtner and David Cole!

P.S. You can find the photo of  my kitchen (pre-renovation) me and my cat Jake - here. Just click on my name and wait a moment.

P.P.S.  I haven’t forgotten all of your requests for instructions to make Margery’s afghan. I’m planning to post what Elizabeth Zimmerman used to call “pithy” instructions.  M and I have been up completely consumed with photography for the Fall ‘08 season.  More about that soon too….

I am thrilled that Stash and Burn chose to interview me for their 50th podcast episode. Jenny and Nicole’s relaxed style made me feel right at home. I think I really sound like “me”. Check it out. 

http://www.stashandburn.com/2008/03/episode-50-turn.html 

I like blog posts with pictures, so here’s a photo of a tiny bit of my stash.  Who knew I was so color co-ordinated?  I must be on a kick.

There’s Keltic and Memoirs and Ultra Alpaca Light  (my current favorite) and Ultra Alpaca.  I am very proud of my yard sale, danish modern candle holder. I also love, love, love the cool vase my brother gave me for Christmas,  hand made in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

A few months back Margery was coming up on a “birthday worth noting” and a few of us who love her wanted to mark the occasion by knitting a little something. Thus the idea for this afghan was born. Granted, it was a rather insane thing to take on in December, right before Christmas, and with our rather full schedules, but Adina Klein, Carla Scott and I each slaved over our 16″ x 60″ strips for weeks. Margery loves African textiles, so we made that the theme. I picked out the palette in ultra alpaca and then we were each on our own.

Taking the project very seriously, Adina carefully composed her strip of mitered squares and stripes:
 

Carla wowed us all with her interpretation of African textiles: 
 

Meanwhile, I was going on the theory that the best tribute to Margery was to try to think like she would. M loves black and white stripes so I threw them in my strip with abandon. I changed colors when I felt like it and I changed the pattern stitch when I felt like it. When I ran out of black, I substituted dark grey…
  

I rather think Adina and Carla out did me, but I love the finished results and so does Margery. If only I had a movie of the look on her face when we gave it to her!  

We are very lucky to have Becky as an intern in our design office for the Spring semester. We work her hard. She runs from winding yarn into balls and keeping our sample drawers in order, to swatching our stitch ideas to answering consumer e-mail. On top of all that, I asked her to write the bulk of this week’s newsletter AND she’s even got a secret design project going. You’ll get to see the results in a few months. Thanks Becky!

It’s Becky Snow’s  senior year in college, studying design.

John in his finished sweater:

The boyfriend sweater is finished. Yippee!!!  Even his sisters may have to admit that he looks pretty darn good in it.  

3/28/08 - John’s sweater pattern is available now free on line:http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/john_sweater/john_sweater.html

I thought you might want you see a little of the back story for the pullover mobius from the objet d’art story of norah gaughan vol 2.

My original sketch:

My first idea for this story was “twisted twins”, with pairs of sweaters or sweaters paired with other pieces. In this case my expanded definition for a twin set was going to be pullover and necklace. I thought I’d knit or crochet a necklace in Seduce, incorporating lace stretched onto thin metal bracelets. As the knitting progressed, the story changed and the necklace never got made. The concept for the necklace later became part of our free pattern aurum:

You may recognize the circles, I lifted them from astrid, the red shawl in norah gaughan vol 1.
 

Ok, back to mobius. The perfect shot came early in photography, but I insisted on torturing everyone by shooting this set up:

I really like this photo, but I had to agree that the photo we used in the book was just “it”.

I am super busy working on norah gaughan vol3, which will include more designs for Pure Merino along with several other still secret morsels.  

  
Lena offers her assistance.

“Oh no, it wasn’t me. It must have been the mouse I saw run behind here”

Sometimes things don’t end up exactly as we’ve planned. It’s true for all of us in our everyday lives and true for designing hand knit sweaters.

Margery whipped up these sketch while we were designing the Spring ‘08 season. We planned sweaters in pairs, each a variation on each other. Lalo was a tailored stockinette stitch pullover with an interesting split neckline, while Latifa was going to maintain the neckline details and have severel godet inserts giving it a flared swing shape. I designed a fairly elaborate ribbed insert, then Brenda (our tech editor) wrote up the pattern and sent it off to be knit. Now, I do wish I had a photo of the ribbed insert or of the sweater as it was when it came back it came back from the knitter, but I wasn’t thinking “blog” back then. I promise to try to be better in the future :) 

So, there is nothing wrong with Margery’s sketch of Latifa and nothing wrong with Brenda’s original instruction for Latifa, yet Latifa just wasn’t working. The godets were too heavy and saggy and complicated. Margery and I took one look at each other and saw the same expression of dismay on each other’s faces. We SO wanted it to work and it SO didn’t. Then the awful feeling of “I should’ve known” came over me. Maybe we had both known on some level, but instincts don’t always win out. Anyway, after taking a few minutes to get over the frustration and a few more to think about it, One of us suggested that Latifa would look pretty darn cute if we cut off all of the flared bits, and kept it plain and tailored like Lalo. We both broke out into big grins and practically jumped up and down. YES!

I love this little sweater so much the way it is now it’s hard to remember that it started out as something different. I need one in dark brown, of course, to layer over my black batiste peasant blouse.

Those darn felted hearts seem to to be all over the house! Actually, they are all over the apartment. While my house (and true home) is in New Hampshire, three nights a week I knit and sleep in apartment in Providence, which is much closer to work. It’s fun to photograph with my landlady’s lovely props.
P.S. I hope all of you made it through Valentines’s day unscathed. 

The painting in my apartment reminds me of the sauna that John (of boyfriend sweater fame) built last summer. Isn’t it beautiful? Sure is sweater weather in New Hampshire now.

This setting makes me want to have wool in my hands - Pure Merino, Ultra Alpaca, Jasper,  or my current yarn of choice Ultra Alpaca Light.  I took some swatching to the sauna last week - not IN the sauna, but I knit a bit on the porch and in the changing room/dining room.  I’m looking forward to a return visit this weekend.  I should try designing after sitting in the heat, during the blissful calm period. I don’t know though, maybe designing goes hand in hand with this hyper, bouncing off the wall feeling I’m experiencing right NOW!

Even at it’s most industrial stage, yarn is beautiful.

Time to finish up my explanations of my 10 useful books list - Useful book #7: Knitting from the Netherlands, Traditional Dutch Fishermen’s Sweaters by Henriette Van Der Klift-Tellegen is a beautiful little gem filled with real Dutch fisherman in their utilitarian and gorgeous pullovers. I learned a lot about both simplicity and detailing from this lovely little volume.

#8, The Vogue Knitting Book is jam packed with all sorts of useful information about casting on and casting off in ways you never imagined - about sewing together and detailing, and designing, and so on and so on.  It’s simply a must. 

#9 & #10  are more stitch dictionaries. The New Knitting Stitch Library by Leslie Stanfield has a pictorial index of the stitches in the front for quick reference - I love that!  It’s also got a lot of nice patterns that I suspect Leslie made up herself, as they can’t be found elsewhere. The Pingouin Stitch Dictionary is an old standby that has undergone many reversions over the years. I have a soft spot for the edition from the mid-seventies, since it was my one of my first knitting books (after Knitting Without Tears, of course).

I’m in Italy looking for new yarns. They can make cables from anything here:

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (The Duomo) 

Back to my book list:
5 & 6, The Mary Thomas books are real gems. Want to know how to knit a circle? Mary Thomas tells you at least 3 different ways. Want to know how to incorporate welts or pleats or or other dress making details into your designs? Mary Thomas is your woman. Written in the 1940’s, the techniques described span from those popular in Victorian times to post WWII, but all of it is useful for modern knitting. Her attitude is very funny and relaxed too. I would have liked to have met her.

Astrid and Ruffle owe a debt to MT:

An origami flower brightens my table. Someday it may be part of a big sphere.

The next 3 volumes on my influential book list are the first 3 stitch dictionaries by Barbara Walker. Yes, I know there’s a fourth, but somehow I missed that one in my design upbringing. I learned so much from these books, I’m sure I can’t fully do them justice. I learned textural stitches, mosaic knitting and cable charts. I learned about repeats and half drops and drawing with stitches. I learned by knitting. At one point, if someone mentioned a certain kind of stitch I could go right to the volume, right to the page where it was found. Even after I began designing with pattern stitches I made up myself, an occasional refresher course in the old standards livened up my repertoire. I have to admit that volume III is my favorite because I would so much rather follow a chart than lose my place in words any day.

I knit some hearts out of tomato red Peruvia last night. The plan is to stuff the the little things, then toss them in the washer to felt. If all goes as planned the hearts will show up as a free pattern in Knitbits in early February. I can’t resist the pun - they’ll be called “Heartfelt”

I’ll be posting a second list of books sometime in the future - probably titled something like 10 books you should have in your library. Meanwhile I thought it might be nice to start explaining my “indispensable to me” list:

1. I’ve told this story many times before, so forgive me if it’s a repeat for you. My friend Grace Judson taught me how to knit the summer I was 14. When I returned home I promptly bought some lovely locally grown wool at the county fair, found a nice pattern in a magazine and started going at it. Sometimes the instructions frustrated me. I didn’t speak the speak yet and if there is a way of misinterpreting over interpreting directions, well, I did just that. (I had the same problem with my English homework, but that’s another story). My Mom is left handed and didn’t knit at the time, but she was (and still is) great at calmly sitting down, reading carefully and figuring things out. Still, my perfectionist streak got the best of me more than once - resulting in full-on crying jags. How could Mom resist buying Knitting without Tears when she tripped across it in the book store? It was perfect! This is the book that gave me the tools to knit things “my way”. 

New Note: The instructions for Heartfelt are ready on our web site - here.

I love books. I especially love knitting books. Here are 10 books that have been indispensible to me in my knitting life:

1. Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker
3. A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker
4. and … you guessed it   A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker
5. Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book
6. Mary Thomas’s Book of Knitting Patterns 
7. Knitting from the Netherlands, Traditional Dutch Fishermen’s Sweaters by Henriette Van Der Klift-Tellegen
8. Vogue Knitting Book
9. The New Knitting Stitch Library by Leslie Stanfield
10. Pingouin Stitch Dictionary

I’ll fill in some of the whys and hows during this next week.

We’re home, we’re home! Berroco participated in a trade show last weekend - TNNA  (The National Needlework Association).  Held twice yearly, this exhibition is the place for yarn, accessory, needlecraft and book importers to display all their new exciting products. Yarn shops come to buy and bring the best home to YOU. We showed all of the patterns and yarns for Spring 08 - the same ones we just put up on our web site last week too.

Here’s a snapshot of our booth taken from the aisle (so it’s the back of the sweaters, but you get the idea) :

Now’s when I tell a little story on myself:  I thought I knit up a bit o’ sock and really get to know the Lang Jawoll Cotton (49% new wool superwash, 35% cotton, 16% nylon) We import it. So, while I’m  talking to customers and editors I’m  sailing along at a quick pace and not looking down at what I have going… until about a few inches were complete. Look - 4 knits all glombed up together - but I had been trying for 2/2 rib. I miscounted! The thought of ripping back stopped me for the day. Geez. I do like the yarn though, and I love the little 5″ needles (they were great for the dodecahedron too).

Jess and Casey, the Ravelry folks were at their first show. I scored a very cool “Bob” sticker.  I love it so much I put in on my laptop. 

Back In October, I posted a sketch and picture of , our hexagon pullover, Joyella. One reader (Jenna) asked an interesting question: I’ve been daydreaming of knitting a garment and intentionally fulling it. My inspiration is the classic ‘boiled wool’ jacket. But my pal Lisa says that won’t work: It would shrink unevenly. The seams would pull. I’d have to knit blocks and trim/cut out the pieces, like a regular sewing project. I know fulling shrinks more in length than width, so my stubborn imagination insists that abundant swatching would allow me to re-calculate the knitting schematics. Since Joyella is not tailored AND the modular pieces are plain stitch, would fulling the completed garment be a less cavalier enterprise? 

Well, in my experience Lisa is correct. It’s difficult to felt a completed garment. The edges get very ruffly and felting a swatch tells you little about how much a garment will shrink. The weight of of all the pieces pulls the fabric in uneven ways. 

Now, in a strange coincidence, about the time Jenna asked this question, Margery and I had just decided to rebuild a Joyella garment into a chair seat cover.I know that sounds like I’m joking, but I’m not! Margery removed the sleeves, sewed up the armholes and the neckline, and threw it in the wash to felt. You can see the results on the left. Most of the piece looks fantastic and the edges ruffle A LOT. For our purposes this is not a problem. You can trim away the excess points and baste the end together with sewing thread to complete the chair cover. If the top side becomes soiled or worn you can undo the basting then put the underside up and re-baste for many more years of wear.

About Jenna’s question - I think you COULD make a successful jacket from Joyella. You’ll want to:

• Replace the center front hexagon  with 2 half hexagons so the garment becomes a cardigan
• Test the shrinkage as best you can with a full hexagon swatch. 
• Take great care to pull up all open edges prior to felting. I like to thread a piece of
•  matching yarn through the edge and pull it up to about 1/2 the edges current length. I use a back stitch at the beg and end and sometimes in between.  After felting if the edge is pulled up too much, just pull to break the thread.  Meanwhile, the ruffling should be held in check.
• Check the piece often during the felting process.  I have to admit that I felt in a front loading machine (which can’t be opened mid-cycle).  I don’t think I’d attempt to felt a jacket with that machine.

Keep in mind that this is a big experiment and a big investment.  I’d also probably make a Peruvia version before I made a Jasper version.  You have a friend you would enjoy a nice boiled jacket, don’t you? I’ve got a saga to tell about how Margery and I “vigorously discussed” how to best make this chair cover, but that’s a story for next time…

Here is acton, the third variation, this one sans peplum and knit in Love-it. (See the previous 2 posts for her sisters). For me, Love-it is the summer, or warm climate, Pure Merino.  They stand in very well for one another.  Back to the names - Can you tell me who currer, acton and ellis are?  Ah well, that question is way to easy with Google, but then, that’s how I found the names too. With so many female names in the Berroco archives, it’s hard to find triplets and one story, 3 for all, in Norah Gaughan Vol 2 is all about triplet variations on a theme. 

We photographed in Margery Winter’s home. This room is her husband Milo’s studio. I’ve admired his work for years.  I think maybe his color sense is affecting mine, and definitely in a good way!

Milo was gracious and generous enough to let leave his painting sketches pinned up and strewn about.

Oh and lest I forget, The Knitting Contessa wrapped up a month of Holiday madness with an interview of me on her blog. She asks some questions I don’t think I’ve ever been asked before. 

This one, ellis, is a variation on the red sweater.

The yarn and peplum pattern stitch have changed. Oh, and I added a collar.  

I love the quirky quality of this picture. We picked a different, more lush, shot for the norah gaughan vol.2. You won’t find a link on the Berroco site yet, but the booklet HAS started to ship to stores. I hope you like it!  Currer, knit in Love-it.(Pure Merino would be an excellent choice for a colder weather version.)  Now let me admit to a bit of cheating.  This is what the knitting really looks like  at the underarm:  The knitter was trying to help and used short rows  instead of casting on every other row and it looks sloppy.  (Don’t worry, she won’t be mortified to read this post).  I used  i-photo to do some very rudimentary touching up. You can see why we need our art director. It’s not my speciality (as they say in the UK).   

I just can’t hold back any longer. I have to start showing some things from Spring ‘08. Knitbits and the Berroco web site will be rolling out the new season in a few short weeks, but I simply can’t wait.
 

I love this thing! Stuck in our toddler book, I fear it will get over looked. Knitting this was so much fun - making this length of yarn turn into a beet with luscious beet greens and all. I am so “there” with the fast growing (whoops, no pun was intended, but…) trend of knitting and crocheting food. Sure, it’s a bit silly. Sure, it’s totally impractical. Sure, we said it was a children’s toy, but I made it to amuse ME. Look for the dk weight of Berroco Comfort in stores soon. (That’s what the beet is knit in). As a matter of fact, we started shipping it today. Now, I need to get busy on some more vegetables.  I am determined to conquer the romanesco cauliflower.  It’s soooo cool. Maybe a carrot first though.

Here at Berroco we have a weekly meeting to help keep things from falling through the cracks. Between the constant call of the Knitbits newsletter, keeping our web site up to date, publishing Spring 08 and designing Fall 08-09 - there’s a lot going on. In fact, I’m sure that I’ve missed a few things - where are my meeting notes!!??

Above is a glance at Margery’s notepad from this weekly ritual. Being very visual, and not liking to sit still for long, M’s energy reveals it’s self in a highly pictorial collage of meeting topics and design ideas.

Notes on the notes:
(top left) - The pullover referenced above, Wakame, opened up new avenues of design for Margery and me, together, as a team. Yin Yang #262, the booklet in which it appears is one of our best selling pattern publications ever. Folks loving these asymmetrical, deconstructed garments gave us permission to be quirky and touched on an over lap in our design sensibilities.

(bottom left) - The truth comes out. Our knitter didn’t quite have time to finish the sleeves on Alan, and since we had a little boy’s version too - we cheated. We put a jacket on our male model to hide the fact that the sleeves were not actually attached to the sweater and were, in reality, little more than cuffs. After photography, Margery used the front and back of the sweater to make a big sack and added a shoulder strap to make it functional.

(top right) - Ravelry is our friend! Margery also has a special affinity for Bob because he reminds her of her childhood dog Candace goes a Courtin’.

The house was feeling really good to me after Thanksgiving, and I was inspired to snap a few photos of some of the knitting related items that are so much a part of my life:

I love books, especially books about knitting. This is only about 1/4 of my collection. Some are upstairs in the bedroom, some are here in the living room and still more have made their way to the book shelves at Berroco.

I have amassed quite a collection of straight needles - at the ready next to the couch in the sunroom.

I prefer circular needles though, and my favorites are clear and nylon and from the ’70’s. I  still search for them at yard sales.

Ah, my little dodecahedron star is ready to take on the world! We’ll be using this as a tree topper in a few weeks in the Berroco newsletter, Knitbits. The instructions will be available free then too.

I’ve had such a blast knitting this. Basically, my star is 12 elongated pentagons knit onto each other. To make a flat pentagon I might dec one stitch each end on each segment every 2nd round. To make each pentagon into a cone I decreased every 5th round. I am dreaming of sock yarn stars, pointier stars, felted stars, stars for my geek friends, stars for my baby friends…

Yep, knitters are sooo SMART!

I’ve made a bit of progress & I couldn’t resist snapping this photo:The yarn is Ultra Alpaca Light, worked rather firmly on size 2(US) needles.

What is this thing?  

After reading the comments on my “almost garter” post I decided I liked the idea of changing gauge as I changed color. So, when I was about 2/3 through the two original hanks of lavender and grey Ultra Alpaca Light I added a ball of Pure Merino Heather in one of my favorite greens - the one Margery has so deliciously named Pesto Genovese.  The pattern stitched changed when I added a third color. I kept knitting every row, but knitting one row each of 3 colors (in the same order) over and over - produces garter stitch.  I no longer had to use both ends of the needle either. I kept that up until I ran out of one of original colors, then I continued in garter in the Pesto Genovese only until I ran out of it too.  I never changed needles sizes and to my surprise my scarf didn’t change width, even though Pure Merino Heather is considerably larger than Ultra Alpaca Light. So much for the change of gauge! I think, as my friend Janet suggested, that this might be an artifact of the alpaca being a fiber that likes to expand to it’s fullest potential and that Merino wool has a compressible quality. The merino end of my scarf is not a supple as the alpaca end, but I like the contrast, and I love the way the tightly knit merino stands up like little pearls  along each garter row. My finished scarf  is about 52″ long. Not the 5′ I thought I wanted, but it does the trick. Hmm, who shall I give it to in a few weeks?

Well, it’s almost garter stitch. Anxious to get started, I used the only Ultra Alpaca Light I had in the house - one hank of charcoal and one hank of lavender. Figuring I needed both hanks to make a scarf of any significance, I decided to alternate the colors - one row of each. This is a job for double pointed needles (or circular). Always knit and always use the color you haven’t just used. You’ll find yourself working from both ends of the needle. The result is a very subtle two tone “double garter” ridge with the colors intertwined. As soothing as garter stitch, but a little mind bending.

I have 31 sts on my scarf. I could have sworn I cast on 30, but you know how it goes… The needles are size 6 (US). Wanting to know how long my scarf was going to end up I weighed the remaining yarn with a kitchen scale. I started with 100 grams - 55 grams are left unknit. The 45 grams used so far resulted in about 18″ of scarf (depending on how hard I tug on it).

Let’s see, here’s one way to look at this:
18″/45 gr = .4″/gr
and .4″/gr x 100 gr = 40″

Seems like my scarf will measure about 40″ when I finish the yarn I have. That’s good for a neat little number that tucks under one’s dress coat. I’m more inclined to favor a 60″ scarf that can wrap around my neck at least once. Maybe I’ll throw in a little unexpected solid garter at the far end. Should it be a third color? Hmm… I don’t have to decide yet.

Oh and BTW, my scarf’s about 5″ wide.

The mad rush to get things ready for the Spring ‘08 photoshoot is over. The photos have been taken. No more reknitting necklines late into the night. No more cutting 4″ off the bottoms of things, because, I was, well, WRONG the first time. No more cutting sweaters in half and inserting lace details or raiding my button collection for the perfect finishing touch. Ahhhhh - at least for now.

Oh and also, after getting 2 (or was it 3?) extensions to the deadline on my lastest piece for Vogue Knitting, I finally, REALLY, had to finish up and send it in. That’s done - another ahhhh. Now I can do my laundry. Now I can cook for friends. Now I can sleep.

One question looms though - What do I knit on now? A mindless garter stitch scarf in something soft and soothing, I’m thinking, ultra alpaca light, would suit my brain right now. I like peat mix for the subtlest bit o color next to my black coat. I like size 6 needles. Right now, I like just knitting. My head will recover soon though, and be aching for something a bit more challenging. It’s time to resume knitting on the sweater for my boyfriend.

Don’t give me a hard time. Yes, I know about the boyfriend curse. In fact I discovered it in college - I thought then that I was the first to voice it (although I’m sure I wasn’t).

This boyfriend spent a whole summer (he’s a teacher) demolishing and then rebuilding my kitchen. Surely, if John can commit all of that time and sweat to build a kitchen for me, I can knit him a pullover. He’s a sweater wearing man too. I have to take the chance - he REALLY wants the sweater. The yarn I’m knitting on is not (gasp) from Berroco. It’s spun from John’s best friends’ sheep. This sweater comes loaded with MEANING. While my theory has long been that an overload of MEANING is why men do leave when you give them a sweater, any man who can’t stand up to the MEANING wasn’t going to stay any way. I have to take the chance

The cable pattern in John’s sweater is the same one I used in L’aran in Berroco booklet 256. I expanded it to cover the entire surface. Peruvia would be a great yarn substitution for my one-of-a-kind yarn.

L’aran pullover in Love-it.

Remember that old TV show “This is Your Life”? I am winding up my norah gaughan vol.1 New England yarn shop tour and the last few shop visits have felt more than a bit like that show. Old friends and new, relatives of old friends (and new), sweaters of lives past and sweaters recently designed have all made appearances. My head is spinning.

My visit to Windsor Button in Boston included, among many other really nice occurences:
1 - A surprise visit from my boyfriend’s daughters
2 - Meeting a fan from Korea who is part of a knitting group there whom are all knitting manon.
3 - A mother and daughter, Clarissa and Stephanie (with a very good natured Dad in tow), who took time from parent’s weekend to come meet ME! (Not only is my head spinning, but it is swelling to gigantic proportion). Stephanie’s gearing up to knit manon too - as her FIRST SWEATER.

Clarissa, Stephanie, me (gabbing away) and manon (on the tabletop dress form).

4 - The biggest surprise and thrill was seeing the owners of the first yarn shop I ever worked in. I hadn’t seen them since 1982. Here we are, happy to see each other after 25 years:

5….and, always a favorite theme, customers tried out the sample garments (with me hogging into the photo again):

Aamu and manon.

Margery’s cat Fred assists during our recent photoshoot.

Just last week, a curious reader (Hi Jeni) asked me if I was going to include the requisite cat shots in my blog. W…e…l…l, now that you’ve asked, how can I resist? This has been one of those crazy, outrageously busy few weeks when Margery and I frantically prepare for photography up until the VERY last minute and then the roller coaster ride of 4 days of photo shoot happens. I’m not prepared (nor allowed) to give too much away just yet, but with the assistance of both of our cats you can get a smiggen of a sneak peak into Spring ‘08.

You’ve met the elegant and lovable (21 year old!) Fred, at the top of this post. Here is My blur o feline fur, Lena. Yes, yes, I am aware that this is not a great photograph. It is, however, telling. Lena is so very aloof UNTIL I desperately need to work on something. There she was smothering the Suede cardigan I was trying to sew buttons on, when it occurred to me that this was perfect blog fodder! Of course, THE SECOND I got out the camera she became very elusive and impossible to photograph.

…and so he doesn’t feel left out - my other cat Jake:

More of a camera ham, he’s featured in Sabrina Gschwandtner’s book KnitKnit so he may soon be more famous than I am in the knitting community.

This is how a design starts it’s life at Berroco - as a sketch. This is my sketch of Joyella, now in our Jasper™ booklet . In case you haven’t noticed, since writing “Knitting Nature” I’ve been a bit obsessed by hexagons. So now there are hexagons in norah gaughan volume 1, hexagons in the felting book, hexagons in my sleep….

You’ll note a few discrepancies between my original sketch and the finished garment:

Why did I draw the hexagons with the points at the center front? Two minutes later, I knew better - because the little sketch, meant to clarify, is drawn correctly. Go figure. The biggest change is from cardigan to pullover. When we received the sample sweater from our knitter, Margery (Winter) and I put it on a co-worker (acting as fit model) and we knew immediately that the sweater wanted to become a pullover. It was one of those “maybe I’m crazy, but…” eureka kinda moments.

I’ve been driving about New England (a lot) lately, visiting yarn shops and talking about my Berroco booklet - norah gaughan vol.1. A trunk of sweaters travels with me - sweaters in a variety of sizes!!! Almost everyone can find something that fits, or fits well enough to determine which size actually would be best and how the style looks on them. This has been a blast for all.

The women of Saybrook Yarns pose (with me) swathed in pieces from my travelling trunk. Sitting: Norah in annikki, Selma in chantal Standing: Jeannine in astrid and aune, Cindy in Joplin (from Berroco #266, Jasper), Glenda in kaino, Amanda in aamu, Georgia anais, Susan in kukka.

Ok, I know my use of caps is screwy and inconsistant here. I like the look of all lower case and named the pieces in my booklet accordingly, but the Berroco tradition is to use proper English (go figure ) - thus the mix.

During a photoshoot we routinely include a color target in test shots. This helps out our art director. There is something about that card. It seems to bring out hidden personalities. Here are some out-takes from the photography for norah gaughan vol.1

The formerly calm and serene Ashley succombs to the power of the color target. See the calm and serene version here

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Worldly Astrid: The color target seems to transform Eleanor into a Bedouin woman from a far away land. Remember that famous cover of National Geographic?

So, I was thinking, what better way to start a design studio knitting blog than by explaining a bit about this designer’s early crafting history? During a recent fit of organization my mom dug up some enlightening black and white photos of me as a child.

Do I think I am Kandinsky? As you can see, I took art and making things, very seriously, even at an early age.Here is some early foreshadowing of my love of hexagons. I’m cutting snowflakes out of folded white paper. Note the huge “pink and orange” flowers Mom painted on the deep window well of our spooky old stone house. She built that little table too.

40 years later….

Saundra in Pure Merino and Aune in Ultra Alpaca