Amanda Knits

A friend sent me a scarf and three hats—all hand knit!—as well as some yarn.

Ahhh, bliss!

The dobok sweater is finished!

It fits as I intended, loosely! I wore it to school today and the kids freaked out over my name being in Hangul. They loved it.

I bought way, way, too much yarn, so you will be seeing this color again!

I was in Japan for a few days and found Noro in its Natural Habitat!

And still, very expensive! (That's 8.85USD.)

I found a few places to buy yarn at a department store. There was some merino and alpaca to be found...

The store had tons of samples up.

And...can you see the labels? Two forms of James Dean yarn and one form of John Lennon yarn. I did not buy any.

This was my first time using duplicate stitch. I took one strand of the same weight and brand of yarn, split it into three plies, and smoothed them out again, one strand facing the opposite direction than it originally had. I started going left-to-right and top-to-bottom but it wasn't working out well. When I switched to right-to-left and bottom-to-top stitching, it worked out much better.

I'm pleased.

Living abroad comes with its days (weeks, months).

I've moved, injured myself to the point of needing physical therapy, and will have some time next week to keep knitting.

Will be back up and posting soon.

The line across the middle is the three-needle bound off shoulder. The vertical line to left of that is the picked up sleeve stitches. See how clean it looks? I'm making some progress, about 3 inches on each side done so far...

I HATE sewing in sleeves, even drop or modified drop. I especially hate drop because you don't have a very clear "start point." The modified drop gives you that, at least.

So on this dobok inspired sweater, I did some math and picked up the stitches along the armhole. I started knitting down (both sleeves, flat, not in the round). I'll have 4 seams total on this thing. Straight sleeves and straight side seams. (Well, there's side shaping, but the SEAMING is straight.)

Ta da.

And it just looks so darn CLEAN on the inside. I know, I know, clean seams, nobody sees them...but I know they're there.

I have about an inch on each sleeve done. Now it's just a heck of a lot of mindless knitting...

I think I'll finish this having used LESS than 6 full balls; I bought 12. Oops...

Why oh why oh why is it always like this?

I need the pieces to be 26 inches long.

I measure (twice, always twice) and it's 24 1/2".

I work what should be one inch worth of work and it's only 25". Hmmm.

I work what should be another inch worth and it's only 25 1/4". Hmmm.

I work what should be a half inch and double check (I am, after all, getting close to my goal) and it's 25 1/2". Hmmm.

I take the exact half inch worth of rows I just work, work that number and it's suddenly 27" long. Darn!

Anyone else get into the Twilight Zone of The Last Two Inches??

I've got nearly 20" of the dobok sweater front and back done. I'm pleased so far. I also decided to pick up that green yarn to duplicate stitch my name onto the sweater. I brought in the finished girl's baby sweater and the owner complimented me on it. That was nice. A compliment on my knitting in Korean!

Here are some more notes about the Dobok Sweater Thing. (I always love reading about other people's design thoughts/methods/etc.)

I am basically sizing it off of my dobok but adding side shaping. It really is a mostly square shape--26 inches long, straight sleeves, 46" at the bust, 40" in the middle, 46" at the bottom. The side slits are six inches long.

I'm making a pretty deep V. I debated a lot on V length. The bust will be a loose size 46, which means almost any V would be deep enough that bending over would cause exposure. So I figure make a deep, deep V and just expect to wear something under it that you can see—a cami, a tank, whatever.

I am using seed stitch for the border. I decided on st st for the body. It's light enough that I nearly want to hem the edge, but I decided that an inch and a half or 2 inches of seed stitch border all around would look good. If I-cord edging could control the roll, I'd use that. But it won't control the roll.

I bought this yarn in an eggplant purple—they have olive yarn in the same brand. I am very, very tempted to get one ball of olive or black yarn and then duplicate stitch my name—in Korean—on the edge of one sleeve or on the back of the neck. I think that would be sort of neat looking. I have a book on old Swedish knits where the initials and very often the year were stitched on the front of the sweater. I like the idea.

I want something casual enough that I can wear it constantly but slightly fitted so it's not too sloppy looking. I am knitting it in pieces (I am darn near sure this yarn would bias) and I'm tempted to seam it on the outside, but I probably won't since that would look too trendy outdated too quickly.

I think it'll turn out nicely. So far it's going well at least.

The Dobok Sweater so far...

Well, I got 15 inches length of fabric out of one ball of yarn with only one knot in it. It is worth the 7,000 won!

Shinsegae is a South Korean department store. I got my hands on one of their fashion magazines/catalogs and found this very odd fashion spread. Yarn on heads, shoes in boxes of yarn, and faux tapestry needles abound.

Because this is such a photo-heavy post, I've broken it into pages to prevent annoying people who don't want to see it.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

The bag the yarn comes in says "N.Y. Knitting Yarn Co." The label says "Wool Lux 5 Ply: Filatura Pettinata VVG" and "made in Italy." It's "100g Pure New Wool at Standard Condition" that's machine washable. Is says "Pure New Wool 4618/AA/QOW." I'm trying to find out how to contact the manufacturer to find out more info about this yarn.

I am actually quite impressed with it. I thought, from the swatch, that it was a bit scratchy, but after working up such a large piece, it's not as scratchy as I thought it was. Not merino, and I'll be wearing something under it, but nice.

I've knit a bit on the dobok inspired sweater. This yarn, not labeled with yardage, goes on and on and on... I must say, it seems to have been worth the 7,000 won I spent per ball...

Color is totally off, but I am making some progress.

I am making slow progress on the boy's baby sweater. I've briefly stalled out on it. Luckily, I was knitting it to a larger size, so I have a little time.

I'm working on a new pattern. I go to tae kwon do from 8 to 10 pm most weeknights. It's cool enough that I need some sort of sweater to throw over my clothes for the 5 minute walk to and from the studio. I decided to fashion a long, V-neck, side slitted, square sleeved sweater based on my dobok.

The wool I bought from the local place is a gorgeous color but industrial and slightly scratchy. Luckily, it softened up pretty well in the wash.

The brand, Filatura Pettinata, when I Google it, brings up things like, "We have yarn for your carpet needs!" The brand is the same manufacturer in Italy that makes that Debbie Bliss Cashmerino that's being tested for cashmere content, etc.

The whole LYS trip was interesting because another woman came in there with some filet crochet done up in a butterfly pattern. I told her I liked it—in Korean. She smiled and said, "You like it?" The shop owner helped me pick the color of yarn I bought (this eggplant or olive) and I managed to draw some pictures to get a crochet hook. I talked her down slightly in the price. I have no idea what this yarn is worth and I probably overpaid, but what can you do?

The yarn is lightweight, 5 ply (about sport weight?). It calls for a size 3 to 3.5 mm needle but I'm using a size 4 to get the hand I want. It comes in 100 g balls. No knowledge of the yardage.

Did you know you can send webcards/e-cards/e-postcards from AmandaKnits? Yep, click on that little Webcards tab up there and you can send knitterly webcards to your friends, family, or knit group! Two new images have been added tonight.

And for the record, I do NOT harvest your addresses or anything of the sort from the webcards!

Enjoy!

I'm in Thailand and can't find yarn anywhere! Well, that's not entirely true. I found one yarn shop in Chinatown, Bangkok that had acrylic yarn (rough, scratchy looking yarn, too) and crochet cotton. Alas, silk fabrics abound but silk yarn can't be found. Sigh...

I'm off and running on the boy's jacket, done in this rich navy cotton. I'm almost ready to start the cabled motif on the back.

I started the boy's sweater/jacket tonight. I won't finish it by the time I go to Thailand but at least it's started. This one will have a cabled motif on the back.

The Lotus Baby Jacket is finished, although I have no photos yet and will probably wait until I'm done with the next baby jacket.

The next baby jacket will be done in navy blue cotton and I am charting the pattern based on this grating that I found at a viewpoint outside of the Boseong Tea Fields here in South Korea. I'm going to tilt the pattern 45 degrees and cable it.

This weekend I picked up some 40/30/30 bamboo/nylon/acrylic yarn at the yarn store. The color is, as usual, slightly off. I haven't started swatching yet. Not sure what I'll do...

I'm going to Thailand in a week. Anyone know of yarn stores around Phuket or Bangkok?

I've made more progress on the baby jacket. Here is a picture of me getting ready to work the front of the sleeve. It's blurry because the flash washed it out much too much.

I went away this weekend with some friends to parts south of Seoul and got quite a bit of car knitting done.

This is the jacket thus far.

I had the weirdest knitting in public experience ever today.

I was taking the subway and leaning against the wall, knitting. Across from me there were four seats. Three of the seats were occupied by older people and I didn't feel the need to sit down. The woman across from me kept looking at me and I was glancing at her (and everyone else, really, on the subway).

All of a sudden I felt someone grab my arm and the woman started scolding me (I think) about how I could sit down. She yanked me to the seat so fast it was like a cartoon—my bag sort of flew out behind me as I said, "OK, OK, kamsamnida, kamsamnida!" She threw me in the seat so quickly I nearly bashed the gentleman on the other side in the head.

Once I sat down, she pointed at my knitting and stared at me, so I showed her what I was working on and pantomimed rocking a baby. She looked very happy and watched me for the rest of the ride.

I was taking the subway to see the Picasso exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art with Leslie. It was very interesting and I enjoyed it. I picked up two bags for only 3,000 won each (about $3). They're made of this...papery material that I don't expect will hold up forever, but at that price, who cares?

I made a swatch for the baby jacket. I have had cotton bleed before, but this was amazing.

After a few minutes in the water...

Then I lifted it up and squeezed it...and this is one of the lighter pictures.

I soaked it again (it was soaked in hot and cold water for nearly two hours) and these bubbles showed up on the surface of the yarn. I don't think I've seen yarn do this.

I knew this cotton would shrink. The problem is that my washer combo drier doesn't really dry clothes so much as bounces them back and forth in wet air. So I washed the swatch in the hottest water possible and dried it for as long as possible. It still came out sopping wet (sigh!) but it had indeed shrunk about 15%.

Now I've changed my chart to make up for that difference. Let's see how this turns out...

I also realized post-swatching that I didn't have enough yarn. So I stopped by the yarn store again and managed to get more red and navy yarn. This was exciting because I don't know my Korean colors yet and there was a man working there rather than the woman I worked with before. I am pretty sure that dye lots...well, yeah, no such thing. So near the end of one ball I'm alternating every two rows to prevent a very obvious line.

I started swatching and sketching for Claudia's baby girl.

I used these two photos as inspiration. The first photo was taken of a wall in Insa-dong. The second photo was taken at Goryeo palace on Seongmo-do.

Those are lotus blossoms, important in Buddhist thought. I think they're gorgeous and I think they'd make a great motif for a girl's sweater or jacket. I've neither designed nor knit baby clothing before and the canvas on which to work is so small!

Right now I am thinking of making a little cardigan with ties but no buttons. I am fashioning it after variations of the traditional Korean hanbok. I think...

A friend of mine, Claudia, is having fraternal twins. One of each. I know she's the type who would appreciate some handknit baby things. She got 4 hats at her shower, so hats are out. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to make for her. I am going to design it myself. Not a blanket, not washclothes. I'm just not sure what to make yet... I'm going to have to mull it over.

I talked to Claudia and asked her what colors she liked and what she wanted. Maybe she's just gracious, maybe she's serious, maybe it's the fact that she's going to be not-pregnant in less than 48 hours, but she said, "I've never seen anything you've made that I've not liked, you've got good taste, so just go with whatever you like..."

Fabulous.

Today, after tae kwon do class, I stopped by the Really Local (10 min walk or so) Yarn Store. It's in the middle of a busy market area. It was raining so I couldn't get a good picture of the outside of the store, where there were huge cones of yarn draped in plastic, but I did get a picture of the inside, as well as the woman who helped me out (the owner, probably).

There are zippers hanging from the ceiling, rolls of elastic in the upper right, and large cones of thread in the upper left. The "table" on the right is really full of buttons and beads. All of the yarn is in plastic, which is good because it's clean but...it makes it hard to fondle the yarn. No needles, no books, no notions that I could find. If I understood her correctly, she created all of the store samples.

The owner was helpful and I learned the Korean word for cotton (면). The store had a lot of cotton, quite a bit of acrylic, wool way up high (crammed in the corners), and tons of bamboo yarn! I've never used bamboo yarn! Some novelties, too, but more of the rayon/lamé type, not the feathery type. Much of the yarn was quite thin. I like thin yarns, but some of these may have to be doubled up...

One fascinating yarn was this "Millennium Snow" stuff. It was actually fine black bugle beads all strung together. I tried to get a good picture, but I didn't want to take the yarn out of the plastic just for a picture. (And yes, those other yarns read "Best Pul Tubes.")

I eventually ended up with some cotton yarn in navy and red. There's 100±5 grams per ball but yardage? There's the number 10/9 on it, but I can't find that number on any machine yarn charts. Luckily I spent a whopping 1,000 won on a 1 kg kitchen scale (and I am sure this will be very accurate for $1.08) so I can always measure off 10 meters and weigh that to figure out how much yardage I have...)

I bought 8 balls of yarn for 2,500 won each. I asked if I could get it all for 18,000 won (no prices on anything, foreigners often get overcharged, market haggling is expected) and she said no. I then did some mental math and realized that 20,000 won for 8 balls of yarn was a good deal. So I forked over 20,000 won and she came back with 1,000 won, smiled and said, "discount" in Korean. I thanked her several times and now I'm on my way.

This shows slightly truer colors of the yarn. It's not as pink as the above picture, nor as orange as the picture below.

Now, to start swatching. This should be interesting as ALL of my stitch dictionaries are across the planet...

The Va Va Va Voom Shell is knit in Elann's Endless Summer Lara cotton. A unique ribbing pattern combines with a diagonal mock cable pattern for a shell that fits and flatters a woman's figure.

The ten page .pdf pattern details which sort of cast on and decreases to use (no "reverse shaping" instructions here!), has two different neckline options, and comes in sizes 32" (35", 38", 41", 44", 47", 50"). The pattern is easy to follow (no need to "circle your size") and easy to read (size 12 font).

Want to see more photos? Want to see it in a different color with different yarn?

Click on the photo above or the Patterns tab to purchase. Instant gratification!

My friend Trish test knit "The Pink Thing," which has been renamed as "Va Va Va Voom Shell." She used Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool and added four inches in length to the design. I think she did a beautiful job, and I appreciate her test knitting it for me!

I wonder if I'm the only designer who hates grading patterns? "The Pink Thing" has been renamed and is nearly ready to be sold...

I have not been knitting anything. The end of the school year has turned into an international move (I'm moving to South Korea for a year) and this has meant no knitting.

I will be right outside of Seoul, so if anyone knows of any good Korean yarn shops, feel free to let me know about them. (You can use the Contact Form or leave a comment.)

Back to international red tape stuff...

Pattern for Sale!

I'm working on something I call The Pink Thing. Or TPT for short, which makes me feel like I'm sticking my tongue out at it, which is often what I feel like doing. At any rate, last night I seamed one shoulder and realized that I had made some sort of faux Möbius strip. Seaming the front right shoulder to the left back shoulder will do that, I guess.

I came up with the ribbing pattern when playing around with Fibonacci numbers while I was in Germany. My needles got taken by a really upset ticket agent in Stuttgart, so I wasn't able to cast on until I got home. That's when I decided to add the staggered mock cables. (Thank you, Mr. Aerospace's parents, for Walker's book with said mock cable pattern in it.)

Update!
TPT is done! I have more photos, including dog photos, too.

This photo shows TPT in a relaxed state (no flash, color slightly off, but not too bad).

This photo shows me in it.

This photo shows how it wears when you actually move (I was calling the dog over).

I am currently working on a ribbed tank top using Elann's Endless Summer Collection Lara yarn (not currently in stock) in a peachy-pink color, Tiffany Rose. It's a mercerized cotton that has a gauge of 24-26 stitches over 4 inches on US 3-4 needles. It comes in 50 g/138 yard balls.

I think I am in love with this yarn. I admit, it was a bit splitty at first, but as soon as I got used to that, it started to shine. It doesn't burn my hands the way cotton sometimes can, it makes crisp stitches, and the color is rich.

I know I'll be ordering this yarn again.

A new pattern is up at MagKnits! The dog models are Ben (the big white one) and Joan (the smaller dark one). Aren't they lovely? I will be adding more photos to the patterns section as soon as I get home from the holiday I'm on!

Having trouble finding the Lehigh Rainbow Twine? I've written about where I found it.

Ballerina in All Her Glory!

More photos can be seen in the Gallery under "Other Designers' Published Designs."

I finished the sleeve this weekend. I finished the front band tonight. Ahhhhh...

Finally, photos of the Hanne Falkenberg Ballerina jacket! I just started my 6th ball of the dark blue color, and the second sleeve. I am on the second ball of the turquoise color—I will have enough yarn without any problem.

Here is the front.

Here is the back.

Check out the new section of Knitting Webcards! Images will be added monthly! Send free e-cards to your whole knit group—come on, you know you want to...

Today I finished the third gusset on the Ballerina jacket. A photo will be forthcoming shortly. I also made a baby hat for the child of two coworkers. I don't generally knit for coworkers, but these two people affect my students every day, so I decided to knit them a hat. I may write this up, so no photos yet.

The Knitting Club I founded and run has just been featured on our county's website!

I got a ton of work done on Hanne Falkenberg's Ballerina jacket today. We went to the Commemorative Air Force today and I knit while reading books about the WWII homefront. I finished some striping and a whole gusset. I was quite pleased.

I've put a free pattern up under the Patterns section.

Go check it out!

Photos of a newly published pattern can be found at Janet Szabo's website for her newsletter, Twists and Turns.

(Click on the link for Twists and Turns and then on "Sneak Peek.")

The Electric Combo Hat and Beret set were designed while on a road trip to EAA's AirVenture in Wisconsin, as well as visits to Minnesota and Nebraska.

Janet was a pleasure to work with, and I encourage anyone interested in cable knitting to consider a subscription to her newsletter. You can order samples if you don't want to subscribe outright.

A new design has been accepted at MagKnits. It should appear in the April issue.

I think it's a pretty creative piece and it features two of my favorite models...

Keep an eye out for it!