triko de naoko
The time has come for me to talk about this design.
Fukinsei – My Zen garden – shawl is my first-ever (and last !?) commissioned design. After Treasure knitting, a book on Nepal and Mongolia including 5 designs from Eri Shimizu, Nomad noos decided to make a more Japanese book, with the theme wabisabi and I was asked if I wanted to take part into it, not only as a technical editor but also as a designer.
Continue reading “Fukinsei – My Zen garden shawl”
Hi guys!
I have published a pattern of the sweater knitted with a yarn I wrote an article about.
As I wrote in that post, the design of the sweater started because of the pink chinos I bought impulsively.
I had been looking for slub cotton yarn but my sesarch on the Internet was not very fructous… But I came accross a silk-linen-wool blend yarn in a La Droguerie’s store in my city: the yarn was called Provençale.
We went to see a frind of ours in Marseille, the largest city of Provence, in the summer 2020, between the first lockdown in the spring and the second in the fall. The yarn’s name reminded me of the hot, dry air of the Provence summer, the cicadas’ cry I have ever heard ofr the first time in France (not the same as the Japanese’s!), and the clear blue sea totally different from the color of Atlantic Ocean we usually go to. And the yarn I (serendipitously?) encountered not far from my house was almost perfect, hence the sweater’s name La Provence.
See this post on Instagram
To fully enjoy this yarn, the sweater is fully reversible and you don’t need to care about the right/wrong side when you put it on.
This is the knit side (not the right side).
Here I’m wearing it with THE pink chinos.
And the purl side (not the wrong side) look like this. The receding lines at the center and on the sides of the knit side are fake seam columns and become decorative stitches on the purl side.
The sweater goes with ordinary jeans of course!
It is worked from the top down, from provisionally cast on shoulder stitches. As any “marin-style” garment, it has a boat neckline which is worked in a rather particular way. The front and back are worked separately first, then joined to be worked in the round, then divided into two at the end to create split hems.
It is a dropped shoulder sweater and some tricks are used to remove the bulk at the underarm.
The gauge is 17 stitches to 10 centimeters (approximately 4 inches) so it knits up quickly!
The pattern is available on Ravelry in print format in English and French. As I wrote in the Princing Policy, the print version in a sigle language is cheaper on my website than on Ravelry. And the mobile version is only available on my website.
You can save 15% off until midnight of November 14, Paris time (GMT+1)!
La Provence sweater
Yes, I’m finally back to this series about the tubular cast-on (I have to admit that I forgot about this series lol)!
So the first thing among the lot of things to say is about a little note I inserted at the beginning of the first tutorial in the last post.
Continue reading “Tubular Cast-on Study (justification)”
I impulsively bought pink summer chinos last year despite my age (but you know, old people look better with bright colors). They looked lovely (light old rose pink!) and the size was perfect when I tried it on and the fabric was nice too. But when you buy something impulsively, you don’t always have the things that go with it in your wardrobe. I wasn’t very sure that the tops I wore with it were well coordinated and thought: “I can make a sweater that is a perfect match!
Continue reading “Provençale by la Droguerie”
Yes, this is a very delicate subject and every designer has a differnt point of view. I just want talk about mine to the knitters who might want to buy my patterns because I have recently modified my prices.
Continue reading “Pricing Policy”
Last time, you have cast on the required number of stitches on your needle with the Italian tubular method. Then what happens next?
After the strictly speaking casting-on, you need to work two set-up rows, called often tubular rows.
There are three major cases. The first two are for projects worked back and forth and the last one concerns those worked in the round.
Continue reading “Italian Tubular Cast-on 2”
If you are a keen observer, you may have noticed that the ribbing edges of store-bought garments are different from your handknit sweaters’. Indeed, you can know whether a garment was hand-knit or not, just by seeing the ribbing edges!
The tubular cast-on and its bind-off counterpart produce that ribbing edge of store-bought garments and give your handknits a neat, professional look. If it amuses you to pretend as if your handknits are not hand-knit, this cast-on is for you 😁
Continue reading “Italian Tubular Cast-on 1”
This is the first article about technical editing but the subject concerns not only knitting designers, but all knitters! I drew schematics to be clear, so I hope this will help you in your futur projects 🙂
Do you know your right and left? This is THE start point – coz my hubby doesn’t know very well! (He asks me “the right this side (pointing right) or the right this side (pointing left)?” 😑)
Continue reading “Right and Left in Knitting”
I usually go for a walk at the riverside near my house after work. As it was getting colder, I searched my drawers for knitted hats.
I’m pleased and relieved to announce that into the deep sea (woods) pattern is live now, at last!
The test knit was over a week ago but I couldn’t take nice pictures to show you both the Sea version and the Woods version of the sweater. That’s finally done on a less cloudy day and the pattern is available on my website and on Ravelry.
Continue reading “into the deep sea (woods) sweater”