Kaleido by Silkie B.

Knitting Designs By Silka Burgoyne

Got my quince & Co. July 28, 2010

Filed under: Knitting Life — silkaburgoyne @ 7:25 pm
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I have first heard about quince & Co. from brooklyn tweed facebook page. Then quince & Co. keep popping up everywhere. I went to the website and checkout the story behind the company and the yarn that the company offer. The first impression is the simpicity of the site. It’s clean.. easy to navigate… and to the point content…. it’s a true minimalist style…. then their products.. 4 different yarns in 4 different weights and a large selection of colors…. how can one resist?!?

My order arrived today… I ordered a skein of Osprey in rosa rugosa and a couple skeins of chickadee in river… can’t wait to get my hands on them… well…. have to wait after my last project deadline….

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Imagination Vs. Reality July 20, 2010

Filed under: Knitting Life — silkaburgoyne @ 5:42 pm
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When I was first doing design, I often find that the ‘Reality’ – the actual object are quite often a little bit different than the ‘Imagination’ – the drawing. In the past, I would design, then work on the actual object to see whether it matches what I think, then decide whether it is worth for submitting my design to the magazine. My old way, it was a long process and I often miss the submission deadline. The reason why I worked in my old way partly because I lacked of confidence to transform my design into the actual object. It’s mainly because my inexperience in garment construction.  It’s also because I don’t want to send in a design that was way over my head that I would not be able to deliver. However, I quickly realized how time consuming it was to do things the old way.

Lately, I have adopted a new approach to my design. I told myself that I need to be confidence and stand by my design. I have to be awared that aften time, the ‘Imagination’ will not translate 100% to ‘Reality’. I should feel OK when that happen. Once I realized that, I feel more confidence and not afraid to make mistakes. The key point is to learn from the mistakes and accept them and adopt to them and sometime mistakes might transform into something wonderful. 

In my last 2 projects, the Chunky Cable Trim pullover and the Ruffles Cardigan are not exactly the same as my original ‘Imagination’. They were closed, but not 100% match. The fact is while I was working on the actual ‘Reality’, some of my imagination elements just did not translate well into the actual object. So instead of following the ‘design’ by the dot, I decided to make modification to it, and the result is better than what I was dreaming up in my head originally. I would love to share a pictures here; but I have to keep it a secret in my blog until the magazine goes life. My drawing of these 2 projects were posted in my previous blog post. Once the magazine goes live, I would definitely post the side by side picture to compare the differences in the ‘Imagination’ Vs. ‘Reality.

 

Yarns for Next 2 months

Filed under: Knitting Life — silkaburgoyne @ 5:18 pm
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Finally, I got all my yarns from the yarn companies so that I can start my projects. With the very tight deadlines, I really have to get myself focus and be a very fast knitter. 

Above are the yarns that I will use for my projects. Here is the run down:
1) First 2 yarns, they will be transformed into a Lacy Stripe Ribbon Pullover with 8/5 deadline. The yarn is Willow Tweed by Louisa Harding.
2) The deepest red is the color that the editor choice to re-stitch my ruffles cardigin which was initially done in Amethyet. With a end of July deadline. That will be the very first project that I will tackle. The yarn is Cotton Classic and Cotton Classic Lite (Ruffles) by Takhi Yarns.
3) Cranberry Bog is light worsted tweed yarn by Berroco. It will eventually become a ruffles purse 🙂 I will not start this project until I got the other 2 projects finished. With 8/20 deadline. I think I could swing it…. hopefully.

So these 4 yarns will be my companion for the next 2 months. The good thing is that these yarns are all different, texture and color. So I won’t get too bored unlike 2 months ago, all I was working on was purple.

And now I would need to pray for miracle to have all my projects finished on time.

 

Preview Design for Kaleido Purse Vol. 2

Filed under: Kaleido By Silkie B. Design — silkaburgoyne @ 5:04 pm
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Bluzzy

If anyone follows my blog, you will know that I am currently working on the new collection of purses. With my friend, Annette, being my sample knitter, I have a swatch for my 1st design. It is going to be a felted tote… yes oh yes.. I am going back to my felting root on this one. The picture to the left provides a little preview on the main center motif for the tote… It’s different tones of blue; turquoise and the deepest navy… no surprise for the color choices here… blue being one of my favourite color. I wanted to play with simple line and shape to create interesting visual effect… it’s going to be bright and busy but I hope it’s in a good way. With a little bit of imagination and playing with different combination of colors, this will be one fun tote to knit.

Stay tune for the actual sketch for this tote… still thinking a good name for it.

 

Pattern Clarification – Retro Cropped Cardi

Filed under: Pattern Q&A — silkaburgoyne @ 4:56 pm
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As I was reading the pattern from the Creative Knitting March 2010 Issue. I realized that the decrease from from body ribbing to main body need a little bit more explanation. It is mainly my fault for not putting a clear instruction on the pattern. In the magazine, it mentioned to decreaes 4 sts evenly for the body back and 2 sts for the body front while working on the row 1 of cable pattern. If you are more experience knitter, this is easily accomplished to work the dec when working on the pattern; however, it might get a little tricky. Hence I have put 2 other way of doing the decrease in this post.

There is 2 ways to work the decrease from body ribbing to main body:
1) When working on the last row of the ribbing (WS) descrease 4 sts evenly for the body back ribbing and 2 each for both front ribbing.
2) On the next RS row after ribbing, instead of working in cabled fabric pattern, work in stocknette st instead for first 2 rows and work decrease on first RS row. Start working on Row 1 of Cable Fabric pattern on 3rd row.

I have also gotten question about how to go about working the sleeves from top down. The pattern in the magazine was edited such a way that it actually left out some quiet important information for anyone who might be a relatively new to the knitting world and might not be familiar with certain steps. I would like to add more details on how to tackle the sleeves. The sleeves are worked using magic loop method. First, with RS facing up, you will pick up the the number of sts that is specified in the pattern. If you are working on size S, you will pick up 86 sts. To pick up, you will start with the one side of the underarm (back or front) bind off sts first then work your way up. What I normally do is to mark the shoulder position, then divide the total number of sts to 2, so you will know you need to pick up 43 sts on each side of the sleeves. It is important to pick up all BO underarms sts; that is, if you BO 5 sts when shaping the arm while working on the main body pieces, then you would pick up all 5 underarm sts when working on sleeves, then pick up a couple sts, then skip 1 st etc until you reach the center marker; work the same for the other side of the marker.

When shaping the cap, you are working the sleeves as if you are working on a flat piece. To start shaping the cap, the 1st row is actually a WS row because you pick up the sts on the RS. To shape the sleeve, we are using the short row technique. 1) so for the 1 WS row, you will work 58 sts, wrap & turn, 2) then work 30 sts on RS, wrap and turn. 3) On the next WS row, work to the previous wrap st, pick up the wrap and purl the wrap with the st, then wrap the next sts and turn. Repeat step 3 until there is only BO sts left.

To work Wrap&Turn,
1) work to the st you need to wrap, on the RS, bring the yarn to the front, slip the next st as to purl, then bring the yarn to the back, then bring the warp sts back to the left needle and turn and work the WS
2) work to the st you need to wrap, on the WS, bring the yarn to the back, slip the next st as to knit, then bring the yarn to the back, then bring the wrap sts back to the left needle and turn to work the RS

To work the wrapped st
1) WS, slip the wrapped st as to knit, use the left needle tip and pick up the wrap and bring the slip st back to the left needle, purl to the back loop of the slip st and the wrap together
2) RS, slip the wrapped st as to purl, use the left needle tip and pick up the wrap and bring the slip st back to the left needle, knit the slip and wrap together

shape the sleeve cap until only BO sts left on each side, then you will need to work in the round, make sure when working in the round, you are working on the RS. As the pattern for the sleeves, it will match the body, so you will work the pattern into the sleeve cap shaping. The pattern is the mulitiple of 6 sts, and if you are working on size S for example is 86 total sts and it’s not multiple of 6, what i would do is to work the number of sts that can be divide by 6 in pattern, and the rest, i would simple just knit it. Since it’s an overall cable pattern, so there is really no center point of pattern to line up, so the position of the cable is really not that important…

If anyone has any question regarding this pattern, please feel free to contact me!

 

Information About my Purse Patterns November 6, 2009

Filed under: Kaleido By Silkie B. Design — silkaburgoyne @ 6:02 pm
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For those of you that are interested in my purse patterns. All of them are available through Ravelry.com:

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/silka-burgoyne

If you are already a member of Ravelry.com you can search my designs by going to the above link or search my name under designers. Once you are there, you can also see my other published designs. You can also search me under my username ‘Kaleido’.

All my purse patterns are $4.00 each. If you are interested in all 4 of my patterns currently available (I am on the process of adding more), I will bundle them and sell it for $12.00 or 3 patterns for $10.00. All you would need to do is to email me at silkiebee@gmail.com to acquire more information and I will send you payment information.

I am constantly trying to improve my design so any comments, good or bad, are welcome.

Silkie B.

 

Lace and Twist Cable Gloves and Socks November 4, 2009

Filed under: Kaleido By Silkie B. Design — silkaburgoyne @ 4:15 pm
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After a long wait, my lace and twist cable gloves and socks patterns are available in the Interweave Holiday issue which is available in the newstand near you. I am very happy with the pictures of the projects. I have attached the pictures in this post.

Following are the pictures of the gloves:

And the following is the pictures for the socks:

Both of the projects are worked using sock yarn in size 1 needle and they were worked using magic loop method. Want to know more about magic loop, please refer to my earlier posting.

As always, I welcome any comments and if you have any questions about the patterns. Please feel free to contact me! Also, please do drop by Ravelry to check out my other designs!
Silka B.
Kaleido by Silkie B
 

Magic, the Magical Loop January 3, 2009

Filed under: Technique — silkaburgoyne @ 11:03 pm
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I knitted my very first pair of socks using 5 dpn, the traditional way what a lot of knitters think. Although the socks came out great for a first timer in socks knitting, I wanted to have an easier way to knit socks. Then a couple years ago, I heard about people talking about the Magical Loop method, I also heard people saying about knitting a pair of socks using 2 circular needles. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the magical loop method when I first heard it… but since handknit socks are in everyone wish list for the holiday, I was willing to try different method to knit socks faster. I finally did some research on the magical loop method and try it. And I totally love it. Since mastering the skill, I have knitted more than 10 pairs of socks and I also using magical loop method method for fingerless mitten, finger mitten and hat. Since most of the socks patterns are written in 5 dpn, so I have figured out a basic sock pattern to use magic loop. I have so much fun knitting socks and mitten, I have started designing pattern for socks and gloves for using the method.

To see whether the magical loop is a better method than 5 dpn, I have tested in a seasoned knitter, my mother. She have been knitting for more than 40 years. She knitted everything using dpn and she believes it’s easier to use dpn when I taught her the magical loop method. she tried the first pair of finger mitten using magic loop, she was not sure when she started; however, when the mitten was finished, she absolutely loves the magic loop method. I figured if I can change my mother’s mind, then the magic loop method is indeed a good alternative to dpn for socks, mitten etc…


Here is a design that was published in the November issue of Creative Knitting magazine. The fingerless mitten is knitted using magic loop method.

In case anyone who is not familiar with the magic loop method, a magic loop is actually a long circular needle, a circular needle with at least 32″ long, preferable with circular needle that has very flexible wire, such as needle from KnitPicks or Audi Turbo needle.

Following is the instruction of the magic loop method:

1. Cast on an even number of stitches (sts) and slide sts to middle of cable.

2. Divide sts in half and pull cable loop out between two groups of sts.

3. Slide sts down to their respective needle tops. You will have half of your sts on each needle tip. Hold needle tops parallel and pointing to right, working yarn will hang from back group of sts (I’ll call the sts as group 1, and the front group of sts as group 2).

4. Pull the needle tip out (will be group 1 sts) until you have enough cable to allow you to work sts (group 2) on front needle .

5. Work all sts on front needle, being careful not to twist.

6. Turn work and make sure the working yarn is hanging from back and needle tip point to the right. Slide the front group of stitiches to the needle tip then repeat step 4 as many times as needed.

So here is the simple way of magic loop method. The first few rows might look a little different because there might seem to have a gap in between the join of the round. However, as you continue working, the gap will automatically closed up. It might seem awkward to knit a pair of socks using the method at first; however, once you get familiar with it, it is a piece of cake.