Friday, August 23, 2013

Nebuleta Shawl

I just published a new pattern for a shawl that I named: Nebuleta

This pattern is available in English & in German! 
Diese Anleitung gibt es in Englisch & in Deutsch! 

This beautiful two-colored shawl is worked from the top-down in a simple and elegant lace pattern. The shawl measures approx. 64” in width & 30” in height after blocking.
Dieser schöne zweifarbige Schal ist von oben-nach-unten im einfachen Krausmuster gestrickt. Der fertige Schal misst ca. 163 cm in der Breite und 75 cm in der Höhe.



Yarn/Garn:
Fingering Yarn, Color 1 – 400 yds/365 m; Color 2 – 360 yds/330 m
The shawl was knit in Anzula Nebula (84% Superwash Merino, 16% Sparkling Nylon)(400 yds/365 m) which is a brand new yarn not added to the Raverly database yet. 1 skein of each color.

Gauge/Maschenprobe:
18 sts & 20 rows = 4" in garter stitch after blocking
18 M & 20 R = 10 cm in Krausgestrickten nach dem Waschen und Spannen

Needles/Nadlen:
U.S. 6 (4 mm) – 40” (100 cm) circular needle/Rundstricknadel

Notions/Sonstiges:

16 stitch markers, tapestry needle
16 Maschenmarkierringe, Stopfnadel

To get the points to stick out, pull the points while blocking the shawl and use pins to hold the points into place while the shawl is drying:
Um die Zipfel zu bekommen, nach dem Waschen, beim Spannen, die Zipfel ziehen und mit einer Nadel zum Trocknen feststecken. 


Die Anleitung ist durch Ravelry bzw. Paypal für $5 U.S. erhältlich: 
The pattern can be purchased for $5 through Ravelry/Paypal: 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Cooking Liberian Food



This weekend, I do not have much knitting time. I am cooking and preparing for my boy friend's visit in a couple of weekends. We met in 2005 when I was in Monrovia, Liberia (West Africa). His sister Vero was my best friend in Liberia. I met him at her house one day. He was visiting from the U.S. (he has U.S. citizenship).

Dieses Wochenende habe ich nicht viel Zeit zum stricken. Ich bin am kochen um Essen vorzubereiten when mein Freund kommt am Ende des Monats. Wir haben uns in 2005 in Monrovia, Liberia (West Afrika) kennengelernt. Seine Schwester Vero war meine beste Freundin in Libieria. Ich habe ihn dort auch bei ihr zu Hause kennengelernt. Er ist zwar gebürtig von Liberia, aber lebt schon seit langer Zeit in den USA. Er war auch aus Amerika zu Besuch.

I don't have much time to cook during the week and next weekend, I will be too busy too. Thus, I figured that if I cook up all the food now, freeze it, then I just will have to cook some rice and heat up the "soups" (that is what they are called in Liberia).

The first thing that I cooked is Jollof Rice. This is simple to prepare and is super tasty. My girls love this rice. If anybody is interested, let me know and I will post the recipe.
I made several bowls worth - just before going into the freezer
Next, I prepared three "soups" - one is with okra, another with pumpkin seeds and a third just with plain sauce.

Goat soup with greens in a sauce prepared with palm oil
Beef soup with a creole type sauce prepared with palm oil

Goat soup made with small beans, greens prepared with palm oil
Of course, there is fufu that is eaten with almost all West African meals. I do not like it at all! But he does and so do my daughters.

Fufu - ready to go into the freezer

I had to fight my girls away from the food!

Off into the freezer...

I will also prepare another Liberian dish Palm Butter Soup with some chicken or goat. I have to go to the specialty shop to get the meat. I prefer chicken but I am outnumbered.




Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Photo Shoot in San Diego

I have several new patterns that are being released. Obviously before a pattern can be published, it has to have some good photos to show off the design.

My daughter Amie models a lot of my designs because she is young and very pretty. She was in San Diego for the weekend, so I met up with her and her boy friend on Saturday morning in beautiful Balboa Park.

First, let me show you my new pattern designs: At the bottom of each photo is a link to the pattern on www.ravelry.com

Practical Spring or Summer Cardi
This lovely cardigan is knit in 100% linen yarn, Shibui Knits Linen, which is a fingering weight yarn. Others have knit this cardi in 100% Merino or Merino/Silk blends and it looks just as fabulous in those yarns. It is knit from the bottom up in seamless construction. The should seam is connected using a 3-needle-bind-off. The sleeve stitches are picked up from the armhole and are knit from the top-down. Sizes: XS - 3XL

Seeing Stripes Cardigan


This cardigan is knit in lace weight yarn that is held double with a 20 sts = 4" (10 cm) gauge. The striping is a result of mixing the two colors together, color 1 & 1, color 1 & 2, and color 2 & 2. The entire cardigan, up to size XL can be knit using only two skeins of yarn! I used the fabulous Anzula Yarns, Wash my Lace yarn. Each skein has 990 yards. Sizes: XXS - 4XL

Princesa Preciosa
Sleeve Detail Princesa Preciosa
I am in love with the delicate look of this sweater! It is knit in seamless construction from the top-down and has raglan sleeves. It is knit in fingering weight yarn, Anzula Yarns Milky Way, but any light fingering or regular fingering weight yarn will work for this design. I am making myself a second one because this sweater looks great with a casual pair of jeans or dressed up with a nice suit skirt or slacks. The sleeves are knit 3/4 length, but they can easily be lengthened since it is knit from the top-down and can be tried on while still on the needles. Sizes: XXS - 3XL

Jolie Fleur - 3/4 Sleeve Version
3/4 length Sleeve Detail
Jolie Fleur - Short Sleeve Version
Close up of Front Flower Detail
I am very excited about this pattern because it is knit from the bottom-up in seamless construction! The set-in sleeves are knit at the same time with the upper body. Thanks to my fantastic test knitters, the sleeve and armhole fits perfectly in all of the sizes! This is a great alternative construction method to top-down knitting when there is a lace pattern that needs to be knit from the bottom-up. 
This pattern has instructions for short sleeves and 3/4 length sleeves. It is knit in fingering weight yarn. Sizes XXS - 3XL

Nebuleta 
This shawl was still on my needles and was not ready to be photographed during our photo shoot, but I had to squeeze it in! It is knit with 2 skeins of 400 yards of fingering yarn. It is an easy knit, all garter stitch with strategically placed increases for the shape. If you know how to knit and make yarn overs, you can knit this shawl! It measures at 64" wide and 30" deep.

Now I want to share some other photos from the photo shoot:

Isn't this just the perfect location?!

Waiting for me to set up...

Amie messing around, sticking out her belly!

Her boyfriend trying to do the same...

In love with the big pole...

Gorgeous Balboa Park


Scoping out more locations....

This fountain is perfect!

...and you thought Amie was sweet!

Aren't they a cute couple?
Tamarah & Erna keeping entertained...
Gorgeous!
More Views...
Statue in Balboa Park
Scenery while walking back to the car...


YES! We are done!!!
Tamarah carrying all the samples...



Monday, August 5, 2013

Knitting Tips with Erna & Tamarah

My daughter Erna wanted to give you some knitting tips....




As you can tell, she is just rubbing the knitting needles against each other, but I thought that it was fun....

Here my daughter Tamarah is talking about her knitting, including tips on how to jump on the trampoline while knitting....







Thursday, August 1, 2013

Visiting Anzula Yarns in Fresno, California


As many of you know, I love designing with Anzula’s yarns. I adore the high quality of their base yarns and simply love the variety of colors Anzula produces. The other thing that I always rave about is that color is even across skeins, thus, unlike with other hand dyed yarns, so I don’t have to alternate skeins every two rows/rounds.
Viele von Euch wissen, dass ich gerne mit Garn von Anzula designe. Ich liebe die hochwertige Qualität der Basisgarne und liebe die tollen Farben die Anzula herstellt. Eins der anderen Sachen die ich an deren Garn immer lobe ist das die Farbe vom Strang zu Strang immer gleichmäsig ist und ich nicht alle zwei Reihen die Knäule abwechseln muss.

On Tuesday, June 30th, I packed up my two youngest daughters and we made the 200-mile drive from Los Angeles to Anzula Yarns, located in the historic downtown section of Fresno, California. I was in awe with the facility itself, a big former meatpacking warehouse. It is large and I actually got lost along one of the hallways trying to find the bathroom.
Am Dienstag, dem 30. Juni, habe ich meine zwei jüngsten Töchter eingepackt und wir haben die 330 km Fahrt von Los Angeles zu Anzula Yarns gemacht. Anzula hat ihren Sitz im historischen Stadkern von Fresno, Kalifornien. Ich habe ganz schön gestaunt als ich deren Anlage gesehen habe, in einem ehemaligen Lagerhaus von einer Fleischverpackungsfabrik. Es war so groß, dass ich mich verlaufen hatte auf dem Weg zum WC. 

My daughters got to “help” Charlie dyeing roving in one of the rooms. I had not known that Anzula also dyes roving for spinners. I saw some seriously beautiful roving colors!
Meine Töchter haben Charlie "geholfen" um Roving in einem der Räume zu färben. Ich hatte bevor meinem Besuch nicht gewusst das Anzula auch Roving zum Spinnen färbt. Die Farben waren wunderschön. 
 
Charlie dyeing Anzula Roving

Charlie dyeing roving with my two daughters 
I was "dying" to see the dye room (no pun intended).since. Well, that dye room is not a little alchemy kitchen, it is big! Lots of pots were going with dyes and my girls and I got to see lots of skeins being dyed into the most beautiful colors!
Ich wollet unbedingt sehen wie Anzula deren tolles Garn färbt. Der Farbraum ist keine kleine Alchemie Küche, ist ist groß! Viele Töpfe voll von Farbe und meine Töchter und ich konnten sehen wie die Stränge in viele verschiedene wunderschöne Farben gefärbt wurden!

Getting the pots ready for dyeing
Sabrina showing the the dye process to my daughters
Hand dyeing yarn in the large quantities that Anzula produces is hard work, it is physical and with the summer temperatures soaring outside and lots of hot pots in the dye adding to the heat to the dye room. Even with air conditioning units blowing cool air, I was sweating just watching, let alone dyeing yarn for 6-8 hours per day!
Handgefärbte Garne in so großen Mengen zu produzieren ist harte Arbeit, sehr körperlich anstrengent mit steigenden Temperaturen. Im Sommer ist es sehr heiß in der Gegend und dann kommen noch die großen heißen Töpfe wurde es immer wärmer im Raum. Nur beim Zugucken, selbst mit der Klimaanlage die kühle Luft bläst, war ich nur am Schwitzen! Könnt Ihr Euch vorstellen wie anstrengent es ist  für 6-8 Stunden pro Tag in dem Raum Garn zu färben!

Cooligng down with the water hose
Look at all the yarn that was dyed up in a morning! Aren’t the colors just breath-taking!
Guckt mal! All diese Garn wurde in einem Morgen gefärbt! Sind die Farben nicht total atemberaubend!


After the yarn has been dyed and dried, it goes into the re-skeining room. The fun part of this room is that it used to be one of the large refrigerated meat lockers!
Nachdem das Garn gefärbt und getrocknet ist, kommt es in den Winkelraum. Der lustige  ist, dass frühre der Raum einer der großen  Fleischgefrierraum  war!
Multiple re-skeining machines seem to run non-stop
Once the skeins have been re-skeined, they are labeled and are ready to ship out to fill the various yarn store orders.
Wenn die Stränge gewickelt sind, werden sie beschriftet, werden verpackt und an die verschiedenen Wollgeschäfte verschickt. 

Labeling the finished skeins & filling orders
We took a late lunch and Sabrina and Charlie treated my daughters and I to some seriously yummy Mexican food in one of the small downtown restaurants, "La Elegante".
Sabrina und Charlie haben meine Töchter und mich zu einem späten Mittagessen eingeladen, zu einem richtig lecker mexikanisches Essen in einem der kleinen Restaurants in der Innenstadt, "La Elegante".

From Left to Right: Charlie, Sabrina & me
After lunch, Sabrina and I met and went over my design ideas for some of my upcoming designs that I will be using Anzula Yarns for. Being at the source and being able to pick out yarns and colors for my upcoming patterns was so much fun because I witnessed the entire dye process.
Nach dem Mittagessen, habe ich mit Sabrina meine Design-Ideen für einige meiner kommenden Entwürfe, besprochen. Ich habe vor Anzula Garne für diese neuen Entwürfe zu benutzen. Es machte mir so viel Spaß im Anzula Warenlager rumzustöbern, besonders nachdem ich den ganzen Farbprozess erlebt hatte. 

Future Yarn Dyeing Princesses!
 I also got to pick out the yarn for the cable hoodie cardigan that we voted on in my Ravelry group. On our 200-mile drive home, my daughters told me that they no longer want to be princesses when they grow up, they want to become yarn dyers!
Ich habe auch das Garn für meine neue Hoodie-Jacke ausgesucht, die wir in meiner Raverly-Gruppe besprochen und Ihr gewählt hatte. Dann machten sich meine Töchter und ich wieder auf die 330 km Fahrt nach Hause. Auf dem Weg nach Hause haben mir meine Töchter gesagt, dass ihr Berufswunsch geändert hat, anstatt Prinzessinen zu werden planen sie jetzt Garnfärber zu werden!

Yarn for Hoodie Design

Here is a list of accessories and garments that I have designed using Anzula - You can see more specific pattern details by visiting my Designer Page on Ravelry. 
Hier ist eine Liste von meinen bisherigen Designs, die ich mit Anzula entworfen habe. Ihr könnt sie auch auf Ravelry sehen. 

Mermaid Shawl – Anzula Mermaid (Lace Weight)
Lollipop Cardigan – Anzula Milky Way (Light Fingering)
California Hoodie – Anzula Squishy (Fingering/Sport)

Sara Lace Cardigan – Anzula Wash my Lace (Lace Weight)   
Back of Sara Lace Cardigan 
Mariela Top-Down Cardigan – Anzula Cricket (DK)
Pamela Beret – Anzula Squishy (Fingering/Sport)