Haven't Written Lately, but WOW - Here's Some Great News!

I just heard from Etsy that Teen Magazine wants me to send them three of my items on Etsy for possible inclusion in a photo shoot! The items are: My little red hair flower barrettes, my huge flower necklace/hairband, and my sexy pink flowered shrug. I'm really excited. Here are photos of my designs.










WISH ME LUCK!

What's the KnittingGuru Up To Now?

I'm always looking for small things I can make to introduce people to my knit and crocheted items. First of all, not everyone can afford handknits because they are very time intensive and therefore not cheap, especially if fine quality yarns are used (as I always do) rather than Walmart acrylics. Secondly, I want customers to be able to see first hand the quality of my work and finishing techniques.

So..... Here's my latest little pretty - Crocheted Flower Baby Barettes.

The flowers are 1 1/4" in diameter.

You can see in the photo that I sew the flowers securely to the clip without the use of glue, so that the barettes can be handwashed.

They come in pairs on my Burry Babies cards. I package them in plastic zip-lock jewelry bags to keep them clean and neat. They're only $6 a pair + $1 s&h, so people can sample them for a very modest investment. They make a teriffic gift, too, and I always provide free gift-wrapping when asked.

These are available by writing directly to me through a comment on this blog or by going to www.BurryBabies.etsy.com. The photos show the pink and red ones, but I can make these to order in almost any color you can think of, so please do write to me.

They sold within minutes of my posting them, so I guess people can tell just how cute they look on babies!

Not a baby but you really like these? They look great on BIG GIRLS too and I can make them in sophisticated colors if you wish.

Photos of Montreal Yarn

Here's some of the yarn I bought in Montreal while on vacation last week. I got much more than this at the wonderful prices this shop offers, but these two are probably my favorites. Of course, there's also the white and cream yarn with variegated metallic and a gorgeous pumpkin boucle, but you get the idea.



See yesterday's entry for the address of the wonderful shop in Montreal. They don't have a website, but might respond to letters asking for samples. I can't guarantee this, however.

Montreal was such an inspiration. Not only are the shops filled with beautiful and unusual clothing, but the huge outdoor fruit and vegetable markets were a color and texture sensation! These markets made the large farmer's market at Union Square in NYC look toy-sized. I WISH I could shop every day at the Atwater or Jean Toulon markets.

Now I have to continue unpacking, doing washes, and eventually updating KnittingGuru.com. My readers must be wondering what happened -- No Knitting Tip of the Week for more than a week. What a naughty KnittingGuru!!!

Wonderful Week of Wandering in Montreal

Just back from a fantastic week in Montreal and wanted to tell you all about a great yarn shop I found there. The name of the store is Magasin de Fibre L.B. Inc.
or AKA La Bobineuse de Laine.

The store is at 2279 Mont-Royal Est and it has tons of industrial yarns on cones. The ones I picked up are worsted weight all cotton yarns in luscious color combinations of about 6 or 7 fine yarns mixed together. I have tried to upload the photo, but keep coming up with disc error, whatever that means. I will try again later, because I know you want to see this yarn - it's just great.

Did I mention that the price was CHEAP?

If you live in or near Montreal or are going there for a vacation (which I recommend) don't miss this store.

Did I mention that the Jazz Festival was going on and I spent DAYS listening to FREE JAZZ?

Sorry for all the capital letters, but I am very enthusiastic about this trip.

Now I must run and wash a weeks worth of clothing and put away all my yarn and other goodies. Be back soon....

Baby Flower Bracelet ------------------------------- An Early Morning Amusement

Here's a little something I whipped up this morning as I thought about how I REALLY need to update my BurryBabies website. I'm almost finished, but who has the time to get it to the last stages - proofreading, adding new photos and descriptions, rewriting text, connecting all items to Paypal?

So instead, I was thinking about how people now buy beaded bracelets for their babies and how I NEVER would have put one of those on my three babies -- too much danger from chewing on beads and choking!

So I crocheted this little flower bracelet that has no beads, no buttons, no snaps -- just 100% cotton yarn and a lot of love. Look: I'm a frustrated non-grandmother. How do you think Burry Babies got started anyway?

Here's a photo of the little flower bracelet. If there's a baby you love, it's up for sale on Etsy for only $4.00!



Hope you have a happy day today!
I think I'll just go make some more baby bracelets.

An Answer from the KnittingGuru ------------------ How to Knit Half-Linen Stitch

Recently Linda wrote to Ask the Guru:

"I am trying to find instructions for a "half linen stitch". Have you heard of it?"

The KnittingGuru answers:

I am familiar with this stitch. It isn't always called Half-Linen Stitch, however. Barbara Walker calls it Woven Stitch, for example. Most knitting stitches have numerous names and sometimes this causes problems when we try to research them.

One thing that's important to be aware of is that this is a very dense stitch. It belongs to the category of stitches called Slip Stitch and as such it involves slipping certain stitches over two (or more) rows. This is sometimes called Mosaic Knitting and it's an interesting technique in that you can knit fabrics that have patterns without using two or more colors in the same row. You are always knitting with only one yarn at a time for the whole row. The slipped stitch can be made with the yarn in front of the work or behind it. This gives two very different textures.

I knit the samples using sport weight wool (DK weight) with size 8 needles and then with size 10 needles. If you were knitting stockinette, you would probably use size 4 or 5 needles with this yarn. With Half-Linen Stitch, the size 8 needles yielded an extremely thick fabric with no drape. Even with size 10 needles the fabric is quite thick. You will also find that compared to stockinette, all slip stitch patterns have a gauge with many more rows per inch and often with many more stitches to achieve the same width. Be on guard about this! You cannot substitute slip stitch for plain knitting in a pattern or you will end up with a VERY SHORT garment and maybe a very narrow garment, too!

This is how the Half-Linen Stitch is knit:

Cast on an odd number of stitches.
Row 1 - Knit 1, *slip 1 stitch with yarn in front, knit 1* repear from * to * to end.
Row 2 - Purl.
Row 3 - Knit 2, *slip 1 stitch with yarn in front, knit 1* repear from * to * to end.
Row 4 - Purl.

Here are photos of the Half-Linen Stitch shown on both sizes 8 and 10 needles. I have also shown the "slip with yarn in front" component of the stitch. By the way, this is a very simple stitch to knit.


This photo shows the yarn in front of the slipped stitch.


Now the yarn is placed behind the needle in preparation for knitting one stitch.


This photo shows the Half-Linen Stitch done on size 8 needles with sport weight yarn. It would be suitable for a very heavy and warm winter jacket with no drape.


This is the same stitch and yarn knit on size 10 needles. It is still thick, but has a softer, more open texture. It would be suitable for a warm sweater.


This is the Half-Linen Stitch knit on size 10 needles with two colors. Rows 1 & 2 are knit in light gold and Rows 3 & 4 are knit in black. Doesn't this make a great tweed? Can't you see this as a fabulous fall jacket?


Here's my swatch with one of my KnittingGuru Swatch Cards attached for my records. I know never to trust to my memory about these statistics and so I always use a card. You can buy these in the KnittingGuru Boutique.

I hope that Linda and the rest of my readers found this discussion to be clear and helpful, and that you'll try this stitch next time you want something really warm to wear or use as a blanket.

For other interesting Knitting Articles please check out KnittingGuru. I am always happy to answer your questions at Ask the Guru.

BIGGER BETTER BOBBLES!

This week on KnittingGuru I have a visual tutorial
on making Bigger Better Bobbles. There are 13 photos
showing details, so please be patient as this useful
tutorial downloads. See it at:
http://www.knittingguru.com

Also New at KnittingGuru:

A Cool Blue Waffle Textured Long Cotton Scarf
with Vintage Button Decorations $25.

and

A New Knitting at the Beach Kit --
A Deep Pink (Magenta) Textured Knit Bag
with a 1950s Vintage Button.
The kit includes an instruction card, yarn, &
the button, and is packed in a lovely gold gauze
drawstring bag. $10.95

You can see the scarf and bag at:
http://www.knittingguru.com/boutique.html

SORRY FOR THE PHOTOLESS BLOG ENTRY, BUT I AM REALLY BUSY!

Not only am I knitting like a fiend and designing kits, etc. but also I am having major renovations done at home. This is taking physical energy, but most of all psychic energy. Oh, the mess, the phone calls, the forgotten tasks, THE MONEY ITS COSTING.....

Anyone out there who has gone through major renovations, tell me how you manage to keep the rest of your life going. I'd really like to read your comments.