Tag: knitalong

Knitting

Swiss Miss Knits

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hand knit cowl with white background and blue and teal dashes of color displayed on a wooden hanger

This year’s virtual Traveler’s Club: A Knitter’s Journey has moved from Switzerland to Germany. But before leaving the alpine meadows and glacial lakes of my grandparents, I finished two of the three Swiss inspired patterns. (The February knit-along project, Kleine Sweater, is still on my needles.)

Marie Greene developed these new designs after spending time in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps.

  • The Interlacken Headband features a clever mosaic technique that creates a textured fabric in two colors without actually carrying multiple strands. The 17-stitch width in worsted weight wool knit up quickly and will surely keep ears warm on nippy mornings.
  • Like its namesake, the Lake Stroll Cowl, was inspired by walks along the shores of Lakes Brienz and Thun while Marie visited Interlaken and features slipped stitches interspersed with garter stitch pops of color.

Happy Knitting! Or, more appropriately, Viel Spaß beim Stricken!

Knitting

Knitting Retreat: Early registration confirmed

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the foreground shows a woman's wrists in gold sweater sleeves, two hands hold a large cup of coffee; the background shows the seashore

On a sunny March day, with meteorological Spring having just sprung, I have a Fall weekend booked for knitting. From September 18-20, I will join 100s of other knitters at the annual Knit Camp at the Coast virtual retreat. My registration is confirmed, complete with swag. The speakers’ roster is a who’s who of industry experts. As planned, workshop topics range from short rows to color saturation to changing gauge. With a sunny disposition, I will set aside my worries of potential scheduling conflicts – retreat vs. house move – and simply plan to defer packing and unpacking while acquiring new skills.

Happy knitting!

Knitting

Starting Kleine Cardigan Today!

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logo for the Knit Camp winter sweater knitting workshop with curved Swiss buildings in the background, each with a red and white Swiss flag
Swiss flag in the background overlaid with gray and maroon checked knitted swatch

With my yarn caked, the pattern printed on cardstock, and the third swatch having met gauge using my new blue-and-gold interchangeable needles, I am ready to cast on Kleine Cardigan. Marie Greene’s new design pays homage to the Swiss flag although I opted for a silvery gray and maroon color combo rather than the traditional red and white. This sweater will be knit bottom-up in one piece using organic merino hand-dyed in Kansas.

Needles in hand I am ready to virtually explore Switzerland with hundreds of other Traveler’s Club participants.

Happy Knitting! Or, more appropriately, Viel Spaß beim Stricken!

Photo credit: Logo for Winter Workshop © Marie Greene, 2024

Knitting · Travel

Swiss Holiday Mail and Fiber Arts Inspiration

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handpainted holiday images on card and envelope with Swiss postage stamps

Mail arrived from Switzerland just as Knit Camp’s virtual Traveler’s Club begins its three-month (January – March) exploration of Swiss fiber arts. The beautiful, handcrafted card offered family news, as well as memories from the summer of 2023 and time spent with Kuster cousins. This holiday greeting will serve as inspiration when I stash dive for yarn to knit this month’s themed pattern, the Interlaken Headband which features interlocking two-color mosaic stitches, just like the lakes for which the design is named.

Plus, the hand painted Christmas imagery also qualifies for this month’s geometric squares with BeckyB!

Happy Knitting! Or, more appropriately, Viel Spaß beim Stricken!

Knitting

Mystery Knit-a-Long: Bubble Wand Shawl

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Only the barest details were revealed before the start of the fall Knit Camp mystery knit-a-long (MKAL).

  • The title: Bubble Wand Shawl – inspired by the whimsy of bubbles flowing gently through a wand.
  • The yarn: Fingering weight in five contrasting colors. Ahead of time, designer Marie Greene, shared recommendations for fiber content, including the brand and colors she chose for her initial sample. Sleuthing knitters were welcome to make their own choices. I opted to match the Knit Camp sample rather than resorting to the color wheel to find complimentary and contrasting colors that, when put together, played well.
  • The schedule: Five clues released, one per week in October. MKAL participants graciously kept undercover the developing design by posting progress pictures only after a new clue was revealed. As my early October schedule included hosting visiting Swiss cousins this led to my late start so I benefited from seeing my fellow Knit Campers’ progress reports.

The Bubble Wand Shawl began with a five-stitch cast-on. A four-stitch increase on every right-side row – one stitch added at the beginning of the row, two along a central axis, one at the end of the row – provided the shape and size. From that simple cast-on, the stitch count grew through the final lacy edge and a bind-off of 389 stitches. The Stroll Fingering blend of 75% merino wool and 25% nylon, knit using a larger than recommended needle size resulted in an airy fabric with a lovely drape that wraps nicely around the neck and shoulders. Now, I just need a lucky recipient.

Happy knitting!

Knitting

Traveler’s Club: A Knitter’s Journey

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four picture postcards with postmarks and the words traveler's club 2025

After hosting a Kuster cousin in July and Müller cousins in October, my knitting will vicariously take me to the land of my Swiss grandparents. In 2025, knitting maven Marie Greene will guide knitters on virtual travel tours to Switzerland, Germany, France, and British Columbia. Each quarter, she will share culturally specific patterns, history lessons, and recipes. As with her other workshops, there will be instructional videos to help participants learn new techniques, suggested books to read, and a music list, as well as random prizes, possible even in situ knitting notions. In January, along with my fellow travelers, I will begin this knitting journey at Kleine Scheidegg in the Canton of Bern. It is a magical place which I visited in 1982 and 1991 as the Jungfrau was my grandmother’s favorite mountain. While the sweater that will be the focus of the coming year’s annual Knit Camp sweater knit-a-long (KAL) is still being designed, a sneak peek at the top-down cardigan reveals slipped stitches in red and white, just like the Swiss flag.

Happy Knitting! Or, more appropriately, Viel Spaß beim Stricken!

Knitting

Before the next sweater…

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hand knit cable beanie in magenta tweed yarn
hand knit cable scarf in magenta tweed yarn with close up of twisted cables
hand knit cable scarf and beanie in magenta tweed yarn

Since my knitted contributions to this year’s church auction (the Mallory Shawl and the French Oak Scarf) were successful in raising funds and as Brezel, Marie Greene’s new design for her 2023 January Sweater Workshop, is waiting in the wings, I just completed several smaller projects.  Using worsted weight tweed yarn in vibrant magenta, the matching beanie and scarf combo with reversible cables was a quick project.  Plus, this set gives me a head start on next year’s auction donations.

And for a sneak peak at Brezel details — With a release date of December 30 for Knit Campers like me, Bretzel incorporates Bavarian twisted stitches and German short rows to create an overall design resembling a platter of carefully crafted pretzels.  And, yes, the name of the sweater is the German translation of this symmetrically twisted, salty snack.  In the weeks ahead, in addition to the knitting lessons shared during this sweater workshop, there is a promise of pretzel baking lessons.  Yumm!