Swatch Saturday: Openwork Leaf Pattern

I will bookend my bloggiversary week by talking about one of my favorite patterns in the Walker treasuries: Openwork Leaf Pattern. As you can see, I love it so much I used it for my banner image above.

I’m a huge nature lover, and I really enjoy botanical motifs. This is my favorite of the lace patterns that are supposed to look like leaves or ferns, because I think it best approximates a real leaf. The double decreases mimic the vein at the center of a leaf, and the yarn overs that separate the leaves give the appearance of a serrated edge seen on many real leaves.  I can’t imagine a better way to render a leaf like this one in yarn.

This is the pattern that I used in Foliage, and it has had numerous other uses.  Brynne of All this by Hand has a lovely scarf pattern that uses it.  A slight variation is used in the famous Forest Canopy Shawl.  I know I’ve seen it as the turtleneck on a sweater, but I can’t for the life of me find that now. I have a bunch of ideas for it rattling around in my head, I hope to have some of them out for fall.

Two Years

I started this blog two years ago today.  I have the pointy sticks in hand, ready to keep it going for years to come. 

Two years ago thee was an awful lot going on in the knitblog world.  It was the Golden Age of See Eunny Knit.  Grumperina was locked in battle with Mountainash.  Some of my very favorite of Cara’s photos appeared on January One.  Gale of She Shoots Sheep Shots was making miters. Kelp was making (and fixing) beautiful lace. MLE’s blog was one of the first ones I followed, in large part because of our shared name and age, and she started her blog not long before I started mine.  Ruth of Knitting on Impulse was going strong, but I did not follow her blog until she moved to Whistler and started taking those amazing photos.  Nicole was cataloging sock yarn, but I did not get to know her until she started the Walker Treasury Project.

A lot has changed in the last two years.  Some of my favorite blogs two years ago have since gone dormant.   Some of my favorite blogs today did not exist in their current form two years ago. There is always change, always new blood, which is what makes this such a fun place to be.

In honor of my second bloggiversary I am holding my first blog contest. Please tell me about your favorite new thing to happen to the knitblog world. It could be a new blog you really love, or a new craze sweeping the knitting web. If you leave a comment I will enter your name into a drawing and one week from tonight I will randomly pick a name. The winner will receive this exceedingly festive Karabella Gossamer.

I will also offer to knit you a Foliage in your choice of color, if you’re interested.

To all who read this: thank you for making the land of knit blogs an awesome place to hang out for the last two years.

Swatch Saturday: Seed Stitch

I am working on my first true deadline project, so I have not made much progress at all on my other knitting goals.  I am extremely excited about the secret project though, so it’s worth it.

As I’m beginning my Bloggiversary week, I want to introduce a new weekly feature: Swatch Saturday.  In this feature, I will take a swatch I’ve knit for The Walker Treasury Project and discuss various uses for it.

This is Seed Stitch. It is an oldie but a goodie, a true classic pattern.  It is just as easy to work as K1 P1 ribbing, but has a completely different look.  Since it is such a contrast to stockinette, it can be used to emboss shapes on fields of stockinette. It can also be used as a background to cables, as a border, or as an all-over texture. 

Seed Stitch is also a beautiful New Hampshire-based knitting and fiber blog.

Is it June already?

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I’ve fallen behind on my blogging lately.  Part of it is because I have some secret projects going, and I won’t be able to show you for a few months (you and lots of other people, hint hint).  I’ve also been busy in my non-knitting life.  I started a fantastic summer job 40 miles away, and the commute is really cutting into my knitting time.  But this blog has been very important to me, and I want to keep it going.

I started this blog in June 2006 to catalog my progress in finishing up a bunch of UFOs.  In celebration of my second bloggiversary, I intend to finish four UFOs in the month of June.

Everlasting Bagstopper

This is for my sister Caroline, and it’s been going for about a year.  I’ve been “almost done” since February. I just need to sit down and get it done.

Endpaper Mitts

These are obviously going to be too small, so I sort of lost interest. I’ll finish one and block it to see if it turns out wearable after all. If not, no harm done, it was a useful exercise in learning how to knit with two colors (one in each hand).

Wicked

I just need to finish the sleeves. Part of the reason I abandoned it is that I didn’t think it was flattering, but I’ve lost some weight and it looks fine now.

I haven’t decided on full sleeves or 3/4 sleeves. Any thoughts?

Serrano

Serrano is sort of heartbreaking. I spent so much time on it last year, and it does not fit properly. I was too crushed to figure out why not, but I think I’ve put my finger on it.

Do you see how pointy that sleeve cap is? It just does not provide enough room for my shoulders.  Compare to the rounded sleeve cap of the t-shirt I’m wearing:

I think I need to rip out all the seams, rip out the sleeve caps, re-do them, and sew it all together again. It will be worth it though.