Save the Date: 5th Annual Kings County Fiber Festival

A beautiful autumn day, Saturday, October 8, 2016 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York the perfect setting for the Kings County Fiber Festival. From 10am to 6pm spend the day at the Old Stone House with many fiber enthusiasts in a Celebration of the Handmade.

YOUR PERSONAL PALETTE

Derbra's Mystery Blanket

Stitch play was not the only idea behind the Stitch Therapy Mystery Blanket Stitch-Along but of course the benefit is seeing how much you know as a knitter. Reading stitch instructions and executing the different increases and decreases is most of the work, the added value is selecting the colors - We all have a personal palette colors that we are drawn to on a the regular, this blanket gives you many choices -- Debra picked and tones with a touch of robin's egg blue. 

Take the opportunity to experiment with a variety of hues from your surroundings, choose the colors from your livingroom rug or from the palette that floods your closet.  In this blanket your options are endless, some people have a favorite color and it may have been their favorite since childhood. Multi-color, solid or a combination of both as the stitch reveals itself

Use the button on www.Ravelry.com to show your participation.

If you need help the knitting circles will begin again at the end of  September.

VOLUME TWO: IN DEMAND

This stitch-along has reached as far as Australia and is a virtual success. So far I have heard from teams of friendly knitters making the blanket as a baby shower gift and solo knitters using their subway time wisely. No matter how far the Mystery reaches the hookup is taking place online through Ravelry.com, Facebook.com and the right here.

As a stash buster this project is right on time - in NYC Ultra Alpaca is currently ahead but this afternoon Karabella's Aurora 8 in a pale gray was the yarn of choice.

Here is the link to the next set of stitches — one stitch more intriguing than the other.

Take the time to figure out how to count the stitches in the row repeat. For example if the instruction reads " *k2, yo, k1, k2tog. twice, k1, yo, k2; repeat from * to end." the count would be 10 stitches. The numbers add up as follows: 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2 accordingly. The "yo" and the "k2tog" count as one each. Now, you do need two stitches to do a "k2tog" , however, once the "k2tog" has been done the results add up to one stitch. Secondly, the "yo" replaces the stitch that was decreased by knitting a "k2tog".

Please post your progress on Ravelry or use the badge to tag the project.

FYI, the front cover is the same for each volume being released, it does not represent the order in which you knit, but it is a map for sewing the blanket together. Unless you decide to map the squares out in your own way.

These images are from a few knitters that completed Volume One. As you know the stitches have come to you under the name of some of the worlds most prolific mystery writers - the true name of the stitches will be revealed at the end of the Mystery Blanket Stitch-Along.

Thanks for knitting along!

Here's A Clue — Mystery Blanket Stitch-Along

Mystery Blanket

The 16 squares that make up this blanket are issued four at a time, and named for famous mystery authors instead of their stitch name. You won’t know which block you’re knitting until you complete the first row repeat. Once you have completed all sixteen squares, the real names of the stitches will be revealed along with their images, so you can match your knitted swatch with the square accompanying the author and their famous works. You’ll learn complex pattern instruction while building up your stitch repertoire — from simple knit and purl to backwards knit, cables, cross stitches, knit/purl, chevron, and even lace. Stitch your 16 completed blocks together to make a multi-textured baby blanket.

For some added fun I have named each square for a mystery writer of some fame or another and details will include their life span and a title of one of their well known works - it could be book, screenplays or television. You may refer to each square by the mystery name until you have completed the first row repeat of the square. The real name of the square will be revealed on the fifth and final download. Some of the favorite authors you have mentioned are Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley, Edgar Allen Poe, Donna Leon and P. D. James.

Click here to download the free pattern. You can choose any worsted weight yarn - Karabella - Aurora 8 is machine washable and you can knit a Square and a half out of one ball. Or you can use Berocco's Ultra alpaca which will yield you approximately three squares per hank. Knit it in one color or as many as you like and make the blanket.

Feel free to drop into the store on Wednesdays between the hours of 4:00 - 6:30pm if you need help and you have purchased the yarn from Stitch Therapy.

YOKE APPEAL

Monday is my day off and in the afternoon I was enjoying my Mountain Peak coffee and getting ready to begin the final approach to the addictive knit when I noticed that my stitch count was slightly off and that the back of the jacket was off center.

Where did I go wrong?!

After counting the stitches four times I began to unravel the Stella yoke. My plan was to finish Stella that morning, but when I joined the sleeves to the body I had miscounted the stitches across the back of the jacket.

I do have a habit of jumping ten digits while counting by two's, but my recounts usually fix the problem. Fortunately, I had left the scrap yarn in the sleeve stitches so that reduced some of my fears of recovering the Spiral stitches in the body.

All has not ended well. I did re-knit what I ripped out, but I have decided to give Stella a rest for a few days with a 29" long circular 8 at the base of the neckline. She is draped on the mannequin as part of the permanent collection at Stitch Therapy, with her yarn still attached.

That'll teach her.