Chiagu

Design on the brain

by Ivete Tecedor on March 3, 2011

in Chiagu

Seems like lately my brain is overflowing with new design ideas and it’s all I can do to document them before something else distracts me and I forget what I was thinking about . . . what you see above is a new design for colorwork mittens in Koigu (what else!), a project I’m totally in love with at the moment. I’m using semi-solid chocolate brown and a multi pink/purple (P221 if you’re curious) and quite loving the effect it’s producing. This photo’s pretty true-to-life, perhaps a bit too orange, but it definitely gives you a good impression of what these really look like.

The inspiration for these came all-of-a-sudden about a week ago when the weather went from a mild 45 degrees down to 20 degrees in under a day. I wasn’t expecting it to be so cold that day and left my apartment wearing completely inappropriate clothing, and spent most of my time outdoors wishing I had brought mittens/gloves with me. And then the image of polka-dot mittens came to my mind completely formed, but they were traditional polka-dots (ie equally-spaced and same-sized). When I started sketching them out I thought that seemed too proper for my aesthetic, so I started messing with the proportion of the dots .  . . a few hours of playing with the chart later and I was happy with what I had.

Here’s a peek at the chart:

Knitting colorwork always surprises me a bit because it takes time to get your grove back when you first start. I ripped out the first few rows of this mitten because my tension was off and it was buckling very obviously. Now the knitting is nice and smooth (well, for colorwork I mean!) and I’m happy with how it looks. Can’t wait to finish these and give them a good soak to get the stitches all pretty and perfect.

Oh and by the way: Stranded Koigu feels amazing. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it!

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New Pattern: The S3 Hat

by Ivete Tecedor on March 1, 2011

in Chiagu, knitting

A little later than I intended but the new pattern is ready! Let me introduce you to the Super Simple Slouch, otherwise known as the S3 Hat:

I’ve been wearing this hat pretty much every day and it’s everything I wanted: slouchy while not being ridiculously so, super warm, and pretty stylish. I knit this one using two strands of Shibui Sock held together and love the subtle tone-on-tone variation that it gave the finished hat. It also creates a drapey fabric that has some real heft to it and keeps your head toasty warm. I like to wear the hat as shown in this picture, pulled all the way down to my eyebrows and covering my ears all the way too — no need to wear a scarf when your hat covers this much of the back of your head!

To test the pattern I actually knit two more of these as I often do. The one I knit in Malabrigo turned out REALLY great too:

One skein of Malabrigo will make the whole giant hat, even in the large size. Not bad huh? I love the way Malabrigo feels in simple stockinette, so smooth it almost feels fulled! Unfortunately this hat clashes terribly with my main winter coat so it hasn’t gotten as much wear as the chocolate brown one . . .

The hat pattern includes two sizes. It’s knit in one piece from the bottom up with no finishing, just weave in the ends and plop it on your head! I’d say about 4 hours of knitting is all it takes to get this fun stylish hat.

The pattern is available for sale as an immediate PDF download for $4.00. You can buy either from my shopping cart or through Ravelry.

Any questions just ask! Enjoy!

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New pattern release: Runner’s Watchap

by Ivete Tecedor on January 13, 2011

in Chiagu, Koigu

I’m happy to announce that my latest knitting pattern, the Runner’s Watchcap, is now available for purchase! As I mentioned before, I designed this hat to wear running in the wintertime, so it had to meet a few specific needs:

  1. It needed to fully cover my ears and forehead
  2. It had to be warm
  3. It could not be too bulky/hot
  4. It had to be fitted enough to stay on my head even in the wind

I knew immediately that sock yarn was the way to go because it’s thin enough yet warm enough, and using 100% wool ensured that I would be warm without being too stuffy (aside: I do not get runners who run in synthetic fleece!). Deciding to stick with ribbing gave me the idea to play with different ribs and to throw a horizontal textured stripe in there, and the rest is history! This was one of those projects that worked pretty much perfectly the first time, the only ripping I did was in the crown decreases to get the ratio perfect for a really snug fit.

The simple ribbing works really well with outrageous handpainted yarns like the Koigu color you see above (the color number is P506B in case you’re curious), but I actually prefer the semi-solid gray hat I knit first:

This one is made in Prism’s Merino Mia which is just a touch thicker/fluffier than Koigu, but the resulting hat is pretty much identical. I’ve been wearing this one all the time, especially when being active outdoors. I’m giving the green one you see above to my friend Shana because the colors are just so her . . . luckily she has a huge head so it fits her perfectly too!

The pattern comes in two sizes, small and large. My head is 22.5″ around and I of course made the large size for myself . . . but the small size will fit a normal person’s head, don’t worry! And for either size, you only need one skein of sock yarn. What a great way to showcase that special skein you’ve been hoarding, now you can show it off on your head instead of inside your shoes!

Only after I finished the hat and wore it for the first time did I realize that this is a perfect unisex hat design. I can definitely see a guy happily wearing this thin, fitted hat in a subtle semi-solid like the gray above. Bonus! It’s so hard to find pleasing hats for men that are still interesting to knit . . .

The pattern is available as an immediate PDF download for $4.00. You can buy it from my shopping cart:

Or through Ravelry:

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New Pattern: City Cowl and Infinity Scarf! And Kits!

by Ivete Tecedor on November 1, 2010

in Chiagu

My latest design, City, is now available! This pattern includes instructions for both the cowl (shown above) and the infinity scarf (shown below) version of this garter stitch design. You use three colors and carry the yarn up the side to create an unusual woven edging instantly! I wanted to make something that was simple yet interesting at the same time, and everyone who knows me knows I’m nowhere near “over” cowls yet, so another cowl was a no-brainer for my next design.

While this design may seem easy when you look at it, it uses a provisional cast on as well as grafting, so it’s a great project to learn those advanced techniques on. So you can challenge yourself at the beginning and the end, and then just chug through the garter stitch in between! Kind of the perfect combination in my opinion. I knit the cowl in less than a week!

This 2-in-one pattern is available for just $4! If you’d rather purchase through Ravelry, here’s the Ravelry link.

What’s this about kits?

I recently fell head-over-heels in love with St Denis Nordique yarn and it’s 30+ gorgeous colors. In fact, I fell so hard for it that I opened a wholesale account at Classic Elite and bought a bag of every color!

What does this mean? You guessed it! I’m now selling kits! I’ve come up with four colorways inspired by New York City:

Madison Ave:
Madison Avenue
Olive, Navy, Eggshell

This is the original colorway I started with, and it’s inspired by some of the colors that Missoni puts together. Hence the colorway’s name!

Williamsburg:
Williamsburg
Soft Yellow, Grey, Magenta

This one was inspired by a girl I saw walking down the street who had “hipster” written all over her . . . but in a good way.

Upper East Side:
Upper East Side
Winter White, Caramel, Espresso

I wanted a neutral colorway, and as soon as I swatched this one up it made me think of the ladies on the Upper East Side who dress in very classic and timeless outfits from brands like Burberry.

Lower East Side:
Lower East Side
Peacock, Grey, Sage

This one was inspired by graffiti art I saw online, and by the gorgeous Peacock shade of St Dennis Nordique!

Don’t see a colorway you like? You can make your own colorway from the many awesome colors that Nordique offers. If you have a colorway idea in mind but don’t want the responsibility of putting colors together online, feel free to order a kit with all-white yarn and send me an email asking me to choose colors for you!

I hope you enjoy my latest design, and let me know if you have any questions!

PS – Today is day one of NaBloPoMo (although I will never refer to it by those silly initials again). I’m taking the challenge this year, partly to get my blogging juices rolling again and partly to distract myself from my birthday in a few weeks. This is the first year I’m not super-excited for it . . . but I guess that makes sense considering I’m turning 30!! AHHH!

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Laceweight Leila Photoshoot

by Ivete Tecedor on August 9, 2010

in Chiagu

A few days ago I realized I’d never taken formal shots of the Leila shawl I knit in Laceweight Malabrigo so I took advantage of the gorgeous sunlight to get some good photos. The funniest thing happens to me with projects sometimes: by the time I get done knitting I’ve moved on emotionally from the design and I barely enjoy the finished item because I’m focused on the pattern-writing and photography stage of designing. Looking at this shawl a year later I can now appreciate just how nice it is! I can’t wait for the weather to cool off so that I can wear this again . . .

Knitting the full-size shawl in laceweight results in a small shoulder-warmer shawl that’s larger than a scarf. The great thing about laceweight is just how LIGHT the whole piece is — wearing it feels like you’re barely wearing anything but you still get the warmth of wool. And the Malabrigo lace has such a lovely hand that it feels like a luxury to get to wear it around your neck (well, not in 90+ degree heat of course).

I knit this particular design so many times that I feel like I could knit it again just from memory, and I actually have an urge to do just that! There is something about diagonals that really speaks to me design-wise, which I guess is no surprise given how often I use them in my designs. Looking at the border detail now reminds me how much fun it was to come up with it originally . . . and I’m currently working on two new designs that use diagonals, too.

Speaking of which: yes, my knitting ADD is just as bad as always . . . I am trying to focus though . . .

Project specs:
Pattern: Leila Shawl
 Yarn: 2 skeins Malabrigo Laceweight in color 92, Little Lovely
Needles: Size US 3
Started: May 25, 2009
Finished: June 13, 2009

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