Alderaan Shawl

It's here, the final installment of the TanisKnits Star Wars trilogy of patterns, the Alderaan Shawl!

I've really enjoyed coming up with ideas, stitch patterns and colors that remind me of my favorite original film trilogy - Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi. Star Wars is a universally loved series and when I was a kid living in a town where I felt like I didn't quite fit in, I could let my imagination take me to a place far, far away where being different was cool. I never imagined being a princess or a droid - in my mind I was always a Jedi, fighting for the good side, waving a lightsaber and hurtling through the galaxies at warp speed.

This final pattern is my favorite of the three. A lace shawl knit in a stunning blue as gorgeous as the night sky, what I like most about it is the shimmering silver beads tucked into the lace meant to mimic the stars.

Starting with the lace border, it's knit back and forth with lace on both sides and the beads added as you go. Knitting with beads is easier than you think! Never pre-string your beads... This can cause trouble later on if you happen upon a knot in your yarn. It can also stretch out your yarn with the constant pushing down of the beads on the strand of yarn and before you know it, you may have completed changed your yarn weight from a DK to a sport completely by accident! I've included helpful links in the pattern for adding beads as you go with a small crochet hook. This method is significantly faster than pre-stringing, it's easy and it's kinder to your yarn. Once the border is complete, stitches along the straight edge are picked up and worked back and forth across using German Short Rows to create the body of the shawl.

Knitting this shawl reminded me of many of my favorite "star moments." When I was a kid, we'd drive out to the field on Pine Street and watch the meteor showers or stars, seeing neighbors and friends - often in our pajamas. Sometimes my mom and I would drive up to New Hampshire after school on a Friday when the sky was already dark at 5pm. We'd see more and more stars the further north we drove, away from Boston. Once we even saw hints of the Northern Lights! Sometimes we'd bundle ourselves up and walk down the road in the middle of the night, staring up at the amazing display above, needing no words, just company in the dark. I spent a lot of time on the docks at Squam, late at night when everyone else was asleep, staring at the stars, the likes of which I'd never seen because I've been living in a city for so long. A lot of wonderful memories of mine take place in the dark, looking up at the sky and this shawl brought all of them to mind. I never wanted to be an astronaut, but the stars have long been a fascination of mine.

Worked on US 7 needles in the glorious Dream in Color Everlasting DK in the aptly named Nebula, this shawl takes just 3 skeins and is a hand dyed superwash Australian merino wool. I used sparkly silver beads, but you can choose a different color or opt out of the beads entirely. I've used this yarn before to knit my son a sweater and I love the crisp feel of it. Dream in Color has some of the most beautiful color ways and I've always been a fan!

Named for the planet Princess Leia was raised on after being adopted by Senator Bail and Queen Breha Organa after her mother died giving birth to her and her twin brother Luke Skywalker, I liked the idea that Alderaan was a peaceful planet - a planet with no weapons. Renowned galaxy-wide for their planet's unspoiled beauty, refined culture, and commitment to peace, Alderaanians worked with and around the land to preserve as much of the natural surroundings as they could. Sounds like a pretty great place, no?

Download the Alderaan Shawl here, and be sure to check out the other two patterns of this trilogy if you missed them, the Nerfherder Cowl and The Force Cowl.

May the Force be with you, always.

Spilly Jane Knits Mittens!

Spilly Jane is known for her whimsical, surprising and super fun fair isle knitting! A mitten and sock designer, Spilly Jane hails from Ontario, Canada and she and I have worked together many times (check out her two gorgeous pairs of mittens in my Knitting Architecture book). What I like most about her work is that she keeps it fun - I found myself smiling as I knit her Gnome Mittens, and as I looked through her new book, I found many cute things I want to knit. Knitting should be fun and Spilly Jane clearly got that memo. I was delighted to see she has a new book out, Spilly Jane Knits Mittens (Cooperative Press, 2015), with 13 wonderful mitten designs, all knit in the stranded colorwork technique. Fish, cupcakes, penguins, stripes and geometric designs round out this lovely collection, but tucked in between those are extensive tutorials, tips, tricks and blank templates in the back to help you create your own exciting mitten design.

Jane kindly sat down to answer a few questions for us about her new book...

Tanis Gray (TG): Whenever I think of you I think “whimsical!” You have wonderful, fun, well-executed designs. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Silly Jane (SJ): My inspiration comes from all over the place, both external and internal. I always have my eyes open for new ideas and things are always floating to the top of my brain. I never know where a pattern is going to come from, but once it does it seems like it never could have been any other way. Then it bugs me until I get it out on a mitten.

TG: You and I clearly are addicted to Fair Isle knitting. Is it your favorite technique and why?

SJ: It’s the only technique that allows me to get the patterns that occur to me out. More than that, I love the way colours come together in Fair Isle knitting. I am addicted to colour; I love how colours change and take on new tones when you put them together. Playing with colour is the most fun you can have in knitting as far as I’m concerned. Single colour knitting is great too, but colourwork brings in a whole other layer to the process.

TG: Which design in this book are you most proud of and why (I love Midtown and the Penguins)?

SJ: I’m happy you said you like Midtown, because it’s one of my favourites as well. It shows how inspiration can come from something as simple and potentially dull as a ventilation grill or a drain cover. Beauty, pattern, and rhythm are everywhere in the urban landscape. I love cities and have always lived in an urban environment, and infrastructure in my own city has inspired me as well; my Willistead mittens are based on a park gate near where I live. But in travelling to a different city these everyday pieces of the urban landscape take on a newness that they don’t have at home. I really enjoy engaging with places to which I have travelled through knitting. Abney Park, based on a chapel in a London cemetery, is another of my favourite patterns in the book for the same reasons.

TG: Are you a DPN knitter, a magic looper or a 2 circs kind of gal?

SJ: I first learned to knit in the round on DPNs. When I got into mittens, mostly through Elizabeth Upitis’ book Latvian Mittens, I realized DPN knitting was an ancient technique, and I feel like I am part of a great knitting tradition when I use it.

TG: What is your favorite part of mitten knitting? The design phase, the knitting phase, the pattern writing phase?

SJ: My favourite part of mitten knitting? Each part of the process is obviously crucial to the end result, but it’s really exciting for me when the chart first comes together on my computer screen. I get excited to knit it, and then it’s always really satisfying to finish the first few repeats and see the pattern emerge in physical fabric.

TG: In a battle between gusset and afterthought thumbs, who would win and why?

SJ: My money’s on the Gusset thumbs. They are sneaky and they fight dirty.

TG:  Gnomes and fish are a recurring theme for you… Are they close to your heart?

SJ: I have always loved fish and birds. But aside from my love of the animals themselves, I appreciate them as instantly recognizable, basic geometric forms. They are fun shapes to play with, and knitting them makes me happy.

TG: Do you have a favorite kind of color palette?

SJ: I like a folky, natural, traditional colour palette. You can do a lot with bright red, mustard yellow, olive green and natural white.

TG: What are your favorite fibers to work with?

SJ: Wool, wool, and wool. No contest. I particularly like Shetland wool, as it is especially characterful, and just delightful to work with.

TG: Any tips for knitters just starting out on their Fair Isle journey? What did you find helpful when you first started knitting with more then one color?

SJ: Don’t overcomplicate; don’t use more than two colours per round. If you aren’t already, get comfortable knitting with both hands so you can hold two different yarns; your work will go more quickly and will look nicer in the end. Most importantly, it will keep you sane as it prevents prevents irritating tangles.

TG: What’s on your Fair Isle knitting bucket list?

SJ: My husband wants a traditional Fair Isle sweater.

TG: I like that you provide blank templates in the back of the book for those thinking of designing their own mittens. What advice can you offer to people looking to get into designing?

SJ: Keep it simple and logical, and avoid the temptation to overcomplicate things. Simplicity is important when working within the confines of a knitted grid. Keep your eyes open for inspiration and knit what makes you happy.

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Thanks, Jane! Check out all 6 designs from Spilly Jane Knits Mittens on Ravelry here and order her fantastic book here.

Color Explosion!

I saw this online article about a new paint store in Japan. After my initial thought of "wow!" I immediately thought "that looks a lot like a yarn shop." What's the most beautiful yarn shop you've ever visited? Original post here.

A New Japanese Painting Supply Store Lines its Walls With 4,200 Different Pigments by Kate Sierzputowski 

Thousands of pigments fill glass vials below the slatted wood ceilings of the new concept Pigment, an art supply laboratory and store that just opened in Tokyo by company Warehouse TERRADA. The store design was created by architect Kengo Kuma, utilizing bamboo and large open spaces to create a sense of unity with the outdoors and spark the imagination of those who enter.

In recent years fewer artists have turned to more traditional methods of art making, diminishing the number of successors to these older forms. Pigment aims to provide hard-to-find tools for the preservation of older paintings while also inspiring the latest generation of artists to incorporate these older materials into newer works. In addition to selling brushes, pigments, special glues, and papers (some used in Japanese painting since the Meiji period), the store will also provide workshops by both art professors and manufacturers of the supplies housed in-store.

Diode Slouchy Hat

UPDATE 11/23/15: Congratulations to Debbie who won a free copy of the Diode Hat with the correct answer of "Indian Ocean." Debbie, please check your email! :) -----------------

I was honored to be asked to design for Shalimar Yarns' Indulge Me Club! I enjoy knitting with local fibers and always drop in and say hello to Kristi when we find ourselves at the same fiber festival. They have marvelous colors, fibers and many of my favorite personal hand knits are knit up in their yarns.

A week from now the hubbub of American Thanksgiving will be past, our tummies will be stretched to their breaking point and the real panic of "OMG Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza is almost here" begins. Crafters have it tougher than most - we MAKE our gifts. Not that buying people something they asked for or need is any less special, we just require more planning and more time. We visit our LYS, have the hank we chose that will be perfect for whomever we're knitting for wound up, find our needles, grab our pattern and get to work. I'm always impressed by people who make something for everyone on their list. I have a student who knits 15 pairs of socks each Christmas for her family, imagine!

I have a handful of small projects to introduce over the next few weeks (most ideal for last-minute gift knitting) and today I'd like to introduce the Diode Slouchy Hat.

Originally designed for the Shalimar Yarns Indulge Me Club, this hat is available to all, is unisex and uses just 1 hank of yarn. There's something really cool about slip stitch patterns - they provide another layer of dimension to our knitting, are easy to execute and this particular pattern is just a 4 round repeat using only knits and purls, making it easy to knit along to your favorite show or whatever you're binge-watching these days. Knit on US 5 and 7s with 200 yards of the amazing Paulie Worsted, a merino, camel, silk and cashmere blend, I know I'll be knitting a few of these for last-minute gifts.

Let's give a copy of the pattern away, shall we? Answer the below trivia question in the comments section (open to readers worldwide) correctly and be automatically entered for a chance to win a free copy of the pattern.

Which ocean is Christmas Island in?

A winner will be chosen at random on Monday, November 23.

Download the Diode Slouchy Hat pattern here.