Author: debgemmellmods

I'm a Knitter. The capital K means every day, everywhere. I started designing as co-owner of Cabin Fever with my sister Lyn. We have published over 160 patterns and 11 books. I'm also working on a new set of patterns for Any Gauge or Gauge-free knitting so you can dive into your stash and cast on for a Top Down sweater that fits, or an accessory to use up those odd balls of yarn.

The Christmas Dither

I had decided that I wouldn’t make December into that last-minute-knitting-gifts-down-to-Christmas-Eve sort of month. Then I though I would knit one gift.

I remembered that the last time I saw a pair of mittens on this family member they were rather ratty looking so obviously that person needs a new pair. Then I thought of another worthy recipient so I cast on a second pair of mittens. Then there was someone else and … you get the picture.

When I say a pair of mittens I mean 4 mittens, one pair smaller than the other so you can stuff them inside each other for extra warmth. The outer mitten (left) is 4 stitches bigger. That makes it an inch bigger with my gauge of 4 sts = 1″. The thumb is 2 stitches bigger than the small mitten.

Any Gauge Mittens, modification: worked the increases at the sides of the mitten top, every round.

Onward to the second set today. Where’s my calendar, how many days do I have left???

Just yesterday my grandson asked for red and green Christmas socks. Can I add them to my list?

My desk looks like this. My brain feels the same.

And would you believe it, in the back of my mind is a couple of Christmas week cast ons. Am I crazy?

Meanwhile, my spinning is getting a little better. I am encouraged. Some day I may spin something I could actually knit with.

Are you also in the holiday knitting count down? How’s it going?

Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the cabinfever crew.

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Debgemmell435 on youtube

Mittens

Do you Christmas knit? I can’t decide this year if I’m going to it. Although I have been playing with mittens recently and they could be presents, right?

These are done in fingering weight wool by Waxwingyarns. I started at the tip of the fingers and worked down to the wrist roughly following my Any Gauge Mittens, Top Down pattern.

How about all those yarn ends to sew in?!

I didn’t have any. Huh??

I had one navy round worked between each of the stitch patterns. On that round I would weave in the colour I had just finished working with over the first 7 or 8 sts of the navy round, knit the navy round to the last 7 or 8 sts, and as I knit those last stitches I would weave in the new colour for the next pattern. No ends to weave in, magic!

More mittens. These are also knit from the top down to the wrist. In this case I worked 4 increases every round (1 increase at one side edge of palm and then on the other side and same for the back of the hand) until I had the number of stitches I wanted.

I’m working on doing decreases in the top section of the palm side so they conform to how we hold our hands while walking. The palm will be slightly narrower than the back of my hand.

I also knit my thumbs as a large I-cord.

Once I add the thumb in I decrease every round along the lifeline on the hand down to the wrist.

The goofy thumb is right there. I take a crochet hook and hook up all those ladders. This works great for any mittens knit with Aran, heavy worsted or chunky weight yarn.

After being hooked up.

I also finished knitting the Polaris Wrap as a blanket, in sports weight wool by Briggs and Little and Lichen and Lace. I am so very pleased with this blanket. I really enjoyed the modular aspect of it. I have a lot of ends to sew in but a couple evenings will do the trick.

I have posted a new Vlog post with more information and to show you several 3 Tier Shawls I have knit.

If you’re doing Christmas knitting what are you knitting? Small things at this point in time I would suspect.

Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the cabinfever crew.

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmell 435 on youtube

Shawl Tier Two

My shawl using the 3 Tier Shawl Workshop pattern is coming along nicely.

I’ve started my Tier Two section using the Eyelet pattern in garter stitch: one eyelet row and 3 knit rows.

This is how the 3 Tier Shawl Workshop works. I started with the idea of making a shawl with a garter stitch base where the wrong side rows are knit. There are instructions for stockinette stitch base where the wrong side rows are purled. It’s entirely your choice and you can change it up at any time.

Here is Tier One in garter stitch. Increases at the centre marker are worked every Right Side Row (green marker in fabric to indicatine the right side). Increases at the edges are worked every row throughout the entire shawl.

OK, moving on to Tier Two.

This is where things get exciting. You add two more markers so that you now have 4 sections to your shawl. Because you have also added 2 more markers where you will be working increases, the increases at the two side markers and centre marker are worked every 4th row.

You get to choose which stitch patterns to work in each of the sections. I have chosen to work garter stitch in the first section, eyelet pattern in sections 2 & 3 and garter stitch in section 4.

Hold on a minute while I load half the shawl on a second needle so you can see it all. Almost there… It’s getting bigger quickly. Done.

More green markers in the fabric to remind me which is the right side. Here is a closer photo of section 1 & 2.

I am only increasing on one side of this side marker, every 4th row. Working garter stitch in sections 1 & 4 makes it easy to get this Tier started.

I’m going to do a podcast about this shawl and the other 4 I’ve knit which are all different. Does this sound interesting to do?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever patterns

Debgemmell435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Shawl Workshop

It’s shawl time around here. Who knew! Not me apparently. That’s all I want to cast on so I’m going with it because what the fingers want, the fingers want.

Impressive, right?! OK, the beginnings are often not too exciting but one must start somewhere.

This is the beginning of the 3 Tier Shawl Workshop which is free at my debgemmellmods store on ravelry. You can knit this in Any Yarn at Any Gauge. You are the boss of this shawl.

Why a workshop? Cabin Fever, a company I had with my sister Lyn (Shelridge yarns), ran a retreat at the Fern Resort for a long time. Maybe 14 years, I’m not sure. For every retreat I wrote a new class. Then we joined up to organize the Yarn Over Sleep Over retreat for another 7 years. I also ran a small retreat by myself in Northern Ontario for a couple years too. All with new workshops for every retreat. That’s a lot of workshops.

This workshop is a class for you to make your own shawl. I give you general instructions and a structure for you to follow. I tried to put in whatever I would have told you if I had been with you in person. So here goes, the first workshop: 3 Tier Shawl Workshop.

It starts with the standard garter stitch tab and then you can work in garter stitch or stockinette stitch.

That’s Tier 1.

Fancy schematics are included. More shawl goodness next week.

I am knitting this wrap as a blanket with my Lichen and Lace Rustic Heather Sports wool. It’s meant to be worked in fingering so I figured that using sports weight wool and a nice big needle would make a good sized blanket. This is the Polaris Wrap by Veera Valimaki. It’s modular which I love and garter stitch, wild, eh?

What else is on my needles? You know there’s more. I have socks on the go using Timberyarns and a mitten worked in Waxwing fingering.

Lots of colour around here. Hope it’s colourful where you are. Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the Cabinfever crew.

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmellmods 435 on youtube

Build a Better V

Here it is. The Build a Better V, a pattern re-do to make the bottom edges flat instead of pointy.

The first Build A … pattern was the Build a V. A baby and child sized garter stitch pattern for Any Gauge of yarn.

The second one was the Build a Bigger V for adults. I wanted a rounded bottom edge so worked the increases down the front and back further and further away from the centre markers (orange markers). That seemed to work.

So I took what I did for the adult version and applied it to the baby/child sized version and here it is: the Build a Better V.

Each of the different parts of the cardigan is in a different colour. This is totally unnecessary ( I had bits of DK weight yarn so that’s what I used). It would look great in one colour. But I am not knitting another version.

One big check mark on my to-do list. I hope you enjoy making this for a special little person.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the Cabinfever crew

Deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmell435 on youtube

Cast On, Cast On, Cast On

I am right in the middle of choosing patterns. Maybe this one, maybe that. Do you love doing this?

It’s amazing how much time I can spend deciding and undeciding (is that a word?). One little voice is saying ‘make up your mind’, another voice is saying ‘let’s look at one more ravelry page’. I also scan my library of patterns over and over. I downloaded those patterns for a good reason, at least I thought so at the time.

This one is from my library. I do love a long project. I am knitting the Polaris Wrap by Veera Valimaki as a blanket. I belong to the Rustic Heather Sport Club by Lichen and Lace, where I get 2 50g skeins of rustic sports wool every month. I am going to knit the blanket out of my club wool. It will be bigger than the wrap because I’m jumping from fingering (pattern) to sports weight (my wool) and a much bigger needle. I think it will make a great blanket.

Looking good so far don’t you think, ha, ha.

Next I cast on Romi Hill‘s Winter’s Finery shawl, again in the Rustic Sport wool. I am experimenting with what this wool can do.

A lace shawl always looks a mess before it comes off the needle. I am very close to being done.

I am also knitting from one of my own workshop instructions: 3 Tier Shawl Workshop. I have taught this do-it-yourself triangular shawl at several retreats. I give you a basic structure and you choose the stitch patterns from a list in the pattern. It starts with the normal tab cast on to knit a triangle shawl with centre increases. Then it breaks into sections where you can work different stitch patterns. It’s tons of fun and I will tell you more about it as I get going.

I have knit several shawls using this pattern. Here’s one of them.

The shawl here is a stockinette based version (wrong side rows are purled). This time I decided to jump on the wool/mohair band wagon and work a garter stitch based version (all wrong side rows are knit) of the same shawl. I’ll post the pattern on ravelry this week. (The title of the workshop pattern might change since ravlery quite often doesn’t like my titles.)

How many is that, 3 so far. One long project, one almost done and one shawl just started.

I have a sock on the go, of course. I am trying to see how I can make Timberyarns stripes dance a bit. Nothing too complicated. An increase at either side of the front of the sock and a double decrease in the middle, with a short row heel. Fun to watch the stripes move.

I guess that’s enough to get on with at the moment. I have one more I want to start but nothing on the needles yet.

How about you? Is this Cast On time for you? What is taking your fancy?

Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the cabinfever crew

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

A Couple of FO, Yay.

I’m sure the knitting rule is that if you finish 2 projects you are allowed to cast on 5 more. That’s right, isn’t it? I’m quite sure it is.

So here are my two finished objects. I’m feeling the joy of being at the finish line.

My tea cozy is done. I used an aran weight plus a sports weight held together for the top and 3 sports weight yarns held together for the straight body section. As I had mentioned, I am an incredibly tight crocheter so the funny horizontal lines are because I can’t get my crochet hook under the 2 legs of the stitches to make a single crochet, so I just go into the top leg. It works for me and I like how it looks. Have I inadvertently stumbled on a real crochet stitch?

My second FO is my Reversible Ribbon wrap/scarf. Yay. It is easy knitting but an 80″/203cm long wrap is still a large project. I’m all set for winter now. I’ll wrap this around my neck, outside my coat, to hold my hood in place and cover part of my face. I am already warm and toasty just thinking about it.

I added a second contrast colour and am really happy that I did. I’m sending an update for the Reversible Ribbon out with the finished photos in it.

Does a little sweater that still needs to be blocked and the buttons sewn on count as a FO? Sure it does.

This is going to be called the Build A Better V, a baby/child sized garter stitch cardigan. It is a redo of the Build a V without the pointy bit at the bottom. I used left-over DK weight yarn (from the rainbow sweater). The extra bonus is that the different colours show the different parts of the cardigan. Four buttons to sew on and I’m done.

Now I am in a dither. What to cast on?! Maybe that, wait this would be good, wow, look at that. You know how this goes.

I made one decision.

I cast on Winter’s Finery by Romni Hill. I wanted to try some rustic sport weight wool I have from Lichen and Lace. I want to see how it works for a shawl. The pattern is written for fingering weight yarn, so with the sports weight I’m using a 4.5mm needle. What a relief to be using a larger needle. Everything else I’ve been knitting lately has been with 3.25mm needles. I’m really happy to be zipping along with this one.

Now, back to ravelry to contemplate some new projects. See ya, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the cabinfever crew

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

Two Steps Forward … You Know The Rest

Yup, that’s what’s been happening here. I didn’t realize how frustrated I was until …

I was knitting away on my Build a Better V and everything was going well until I ran out of navy yarn. Yes, arggh, right after knitting one sleeve I realized I didn’t have enough to do a second sleeve. OK, normally that doesn’t bother me that much. I can regroup. I found some yellow wool and made the second sleeve.

Great. I’m happy with that. Then … I tried to unravel the first sleeve and couldn’t do it very easily because of the cast off I used. So, I got the scissor out and I cut it off.

I never do this. I would normally have worked on that cast off edge and unraveled the entire sleeve. I’m not even that upset about this particular sweater. My general frustration is compounded by several projects that are not going well.

I am now working on the second sleeve. I’m astonished at myself. I obviously need to take a vigorous walk or something.

If you want to hear the whole sorry story, here is my youtube podcast.

I’ll be back on track really soon. Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and our cabinfever crew

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Debgemmell435 on youtube

Retreating and Knitting

Last weekend I went to a knitting retreat I have been going to since 2008 (I think that date is right?). Except for the missing covid years, I have only miss it two other times. One of the missing years was last year and I can’t tell you how happy I was to go this year and see all my friends. Even though I only see them once a year it is a joy to be back knitting, chatting, laughing and eating like there was no break at all.

That’s not much of a photo but you get the idea. Imagine all the seats taken with women telling funny stories and knitting or crocheting.

We were in a new location. If you’ve been following me over the last summer you know this sort of place makes me very happy. Knitting, water, trees and friends. Perfect.

Have you been to a knitting retreat? Did you love it? If you haven’t I would highly recommend them.

I got quite a bit of knitting done on my Build a Better V, the re-do of the Build A V baby/child pattern. You may notice that it’s a different colour than the last post. I knit the back panel and half the front panel in blue, thinking the whole time that it was a little stiff and thick. It didn’t occur to me for quite a long time that I was working with worsted weight yarn and I meant to be using DK. Ooops. Duh. There was some mix up of yarn weights in my stash I guess. I should know better than depend on my organizational skills.

So here is the new one. The back panel is green and you can see how working the centre increases further and further apart from each other is creating a flat centre section which will make the bottom edge fairly flat when finished.

The two front panels are red, obviously, with the same increase set up, and the sides are navy. These are all left over balls of yarn.

With the navy I picked up stiches along one of the fronts and down the back. Then I knit the side to the width I will need for the finished cardigan. I have started the sleeve too.

Once it’s folded at the shoulder it will look more like this.

The other side should be finished by next week. Oh my, the pleasure of knitting something tiny!!!

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn and the Cabin Fever crew

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Build a NEW V

I’m taking another look at one of my older patterns. My daughter’s friend has had a baby and I thought I would knit a Build a V baby sweater. It’s a garter stitch Gauge-Free pattern so you can dive into your stash and start knitting.

But my daughter didn’t like the V at the bottom. I’m not sure I do either.

This is the back view.

If you just look at that back centre panel, you can see the V shape of the garter stitch. The V is formed by increasing 1 stitch on either side of a centre marker, every other row, and working a corresponding decrease at the beginning and end of the same row as you work down the back.

I changed how I did these centre panels when I wrote the adult version: Build a Bigger V.

You can see that it’s slightly rounded at the bottom. At least there is no very deep V at the centre bottom.

So I am going to smash these two patterns together and hopefully come up with a better baby/child version.

Here is the beginning. This is the back panel. It started with an increase on either side of the centre yellow marker. Then as I progress down the back I am working the increases worked before and after the centre marker further and further apart.

You can already see that it’s rounding at the bottom. I am knitting with my fingers crossed (difficult), hoping this is going to work out.

Taking bits and pieces from the adult version and adding it to the baby version is a bit of a trick but I think it will be make a better cardigan in the end.

Meanwhile I am still on sleeve island on two adult sweaters and not enjoying it much. Maybe I will knit vests from now on!!!

Cheers, Deb

Cabin Fever patterns by Deb & Lyn If you are also looking for baby/children patterns, we did a lot of them. Check them out.

Gauge-Free and Any Gauge patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram (not much happening there)

Debgemmell 435 on youtube