Re-doing a neckline

Posted on December 19, 2008 by Stefanie

The other day, I had a little knit-in with a couple of knitting friends here in town (Cindy and Kathryn.) Cindy had just decorated her condo for Christmas and we wanted to see all of her vintage decor.

While we were sitting around, I started cutting into a sweater, and Kathryn suggested that I do a little photoshoot so that you could see what I did.

The problem was that the neckline of the sweater was just too small. This is supposed to be a demo sweater for my next book (Take it from the Top: a how-to-design book.) Since it’s just going to be photographed flat, it might have been ok to leave it small, but it just bothered me that no human could ever really wear it. SO. I decided to make the neckline bigger.

Here it is pictured wih a package of Harmony Interchangeables so you can see that the neckline itself was maybe 4 inches lying flat.

too-small neckline

So, the first thing I did was to insert a circular needle into the row of sts that marked the spot where I wanted the new neckline to be.
lifeline

After All the sts were on the needle, it looked like this:
lifeline

Then, I cut away the extra fabric, a couple rows above the lifeline (if you are really perfect, you can cut right at the lifeline, but I leave myself a couple of rows just in case I somehow jogged the needle and my stitches are not really all on one row):
cutting

Then, I tore back to the lifeline, picking out all of the sts.
tear back to lifeline

ripped back to lifeline

Then, I just used the end of the yarn that was ripped out to cast off.
tada

(My hands are a mess in these pics, thanks to all that bamboo dyeing.)

knit glam t-shirts and..hey! There's a new Knitty!

Posted on December 12, 2008 by Stefanie

Hey! There’s a new Knitty!

For the locals, this is that abandoned lodge on 70 just at the top of the hill on the way to White Sands (on the East side of the road.) We’ve driven by it so many times, and I just had to use it in the photo shoot. Here it is looking from the North:

Remember that Therapi yarn that I like so much? I knit a whole sweater out of it! And the great thing about Knitty is that I get to KEEP IT. How long since I’ve been able to knit a sweater for myself and keep it?! And I really do like this yarn. It’s soft and doesn’t pill (or hasn’t yet..even as much as I’ve been wearing this sweater.)

In other news, I’ve been having the worst mail time of my entire life. I’ve been just having the worst luck!! I mean, I’ve got some sort of force field going on that repels mail and other deliveries arriving at my house. And it’s also somehow affecting mail that I SEND.

It all started a month or so ago. I was mailing out a bunch of copies of my newest book for review, and at the same time mailing various knits and other stuff. I was supposed to send a swatch to a test knitter, and I swore up and down that I’d sent it. And then I FOUND it. Here at my house in it’s envelope and with stamps and everything. And then I submitted a form to the University that would have initiated disbursement of a really big really big check. Well. They lost my request form in the mail! I heard this after having waited 5 weeks for the check! So…maybe in another 5 weeks it’ll finally pay out. THEN…I took two sweaters in two separate pre-addressed boxes to the UPS store. These boxes were two different sweaters going to two different places. They both ended up at the SAME PLACE. One was for a deadline and is still in limbo because the guy that has it’s wife just had a baby and he’s out of the office.

Today, though, the cloud of badmailishness seems to have lifted because MY T-SHIRTS CAME!! (and I got 2 checks today!!)

That was the teaser from this morning. A few weeks ago, I ran into (fellow redhead) Petra of Red Squirrel Knits, who is a wonderful graphic designer. She took my sketch:

and made it into this awesome logo:

I am so happy with these shirts! They were printed by Squeegee Printers, Inc. (the same people who print the Ravelry tees.)

I’m listing these on etsy right now…you can see the size information in the listing, but I’ve got just a few in Ladies’ sizes S – 2X.

I’m usually a 12 -14 in tops, and the Large fits me great. Not tight, not loose.

New kits posted! (and a teaser!)

Posted on December 11, 2008 by Stefanie

Thank you to everyone who purchased a scarf kit. The last few went out in the mail today!

I just posted a new batch of Limited Edition Kits. These are 100g of worsted weight organic cotton. The yarn comes in 4 colors, each of which is natural…the cotton was GROWN to be that color!

These kits are going to be called “Walking in the Desert” and will also include 2 handmade stitch markers and the pattern booklet for 3 reversible, non-curling scarves. (These are the same patterns as in the other kits…but will have desert-themed names in this incarnation.) All packaged in a little box for gifting or keeping.

And…just to tease you…

New Scarf Kits are Posted!

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Stefanie

OK, here are the last of the Walking on the Sun kits:

Not much new is happening other than working on these kits! I’m not very streamlined about them yet. I hesitate to get anything ready before it actually sells, because then I might be sitting on 36 sad little ready-to-go items. So as each order comes in, I box up the yarn, put the label on, make the stitch markers, and then put together the booklets…and then package up and address the whole thing. I was up till 4 am this morning winding this new batch of yarn on my niddy noddy. I’m not electric yet, so it takes a little while. My one arm will be STRONG.

This is officially the last of the bamboo. I’ve got an idea for a new (organic cotton) scarf kit…just need to do some swatching!

Las Cruces Saturday

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Stefanie

Some Saturdays we just hang around the house doing chores. Other Saturdays, like today, we do a whole lot of fun stuff.

I stayed up pretty late last night reskeining those last 9 Sun-themed bamboo skeins. After breakfast, Mazie helped me shoot some pictures.

(I just added those to the etsy shop.)

After we got ourselves together, we all went downtown to the post office, and then to the Farmers’ Market.

We stopped by the used bookstore, and then went to our friend Maya’s art show / sale in Mesilla. Here’s Maya showing one of the fabrics that she hand prints:

Isn’t it just amazing? All of the gold part is metallic.

She introduced me to her friend Amy, who has a daughter Maggie who’s just a couple of months younger than Mazie. This is me and Amy with Genni, who sews the MOST fabulous handbags and things:

Here’s a shot of some of Genni’s work. You should really check it out in more detail in her etsy shop.

Genni made a knitting bag that is so amazing! And, guess what?

We’re trading the bag for some leather baby shoes for a friend of hers. (I *did* blue ribbon at the fair in leather shoe making! lol) It’s too dark now to get good pics of my knitting bag, but it is beautiful! I’ll post in more detail as soon as I can get some good pics.

PS: Robert the crochet fiend / artist was also there but I didn’t get any pics of him. Next time! And…Hi Allie!

…Stefanie Japel Knits…

Yearly Archives: 2008

Re-doing a neckline

knit glam t-shirts and..hey! There's a new Knitty!

New kits posted! (and a teaser!)

New Scarf Kits are Posted!

Las Cruces Saturday