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.

Men’s Circular Mods

Here I am in July knitting a circular yoke for my son-in-law. It seemed like a good idea at the time but the weather is not exactly cooperating.

This is my second Lunenburg by Amy Christoffers.

Briggs and Little Sport

This time I didn’t follow the rules. I printed the chart in black and white.

This is only a part of the chart. I didn’t want to give it all away since this is a paid pattern.

Now the fun begins. What colours to put where? At one point I started into a red/green area. Oops, looked a little too Christmasy so ripped that back and tried to keep those two colours away from each other.

It was an interesting exercise and I will do it again.

I decided I could make some changes for a men’s version. I think most people are knitting for a woman, themselves I hope.

I knit the yoke 1/2 inch longer and then worked more short rows at the bottom of the yoke. I searched around and found a suggestion for starting them in the centre of the sleeve and making the short rows longer and longer towards the front. It gave me more room to get some extra rows in. The back is now about 1.5 inches longer.

Men need a bit more length in the back for thicker shoulders. I am also going to taper the body so it’s narrower at the hip. I’ll see if this works when it’s done. Here’s a side view.

I think you can see that there is quite a difference between the front on the right and the back on the left of the photo. I’ve separated the sleeves and am now working round and round and round and round. Yes, it’s going to feel like I’ll be doing this forever!!! Maybe knitting for someone 5’11” inches tall in the summer wasn’t one of my best ideas?!

Meanwhile, I mentioned on my last post that I needed some progress markers and several days later my sister made me some. Thanks Lyn.

Hempton by Hemp for Knitting

Now I do feel like I am getting somewhere on this Twelve-Point Circular Yoke.

I also have finished the body of this V-Neck Pullover. Yay. It’s all wrinkled because I stuffed it into a small project bag. Blocking it here at camp will be interesting: cold lake water and the sun.

Cedre by Waxwing Yarn Co

It seems like summer has arrived in Northern Ontario so progress may slow down. I heard someone say that they had several projects on the go so worked on a different one every day. That sounds good to me so that’s my plan going forward.

How is your summer going?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb : https://www.ravelry.com/stores/debgemmellmods

Debgemmell 435 on YouTube

Deb.Gemmell on instagram

Slow Going

I wish I had some of those progress marker things to put in my knitting. Knitting lots of stockinette stitch can seem like you knit and knit and knit and never make any progress at all. I have 2 projects that are all stockinette.

I really enjoy exploring different ways of constructing sweaters, especially the no-sew variety. I am not much of a fashionista. Did I use that word correctly? Anyway, I’m not a fashion designer, I am a knitting construction engineer. It does lead to lots of plain knitting since I don’t always consider decorating my latest construction with something interesting. I think the construction itself is interesting enough. Does that make sense?

I have been working on a combination of stash busting and making my designs a little more appealing to the eye.

I added stripes to my latest Twelve-Point Circular Yoke to jazz things up and to use up the last of my Hempton hemp/cotton blend yarn. I wrote it for helical knitting, as a stash buster, but now I am knitting 6 round stripes and, wow, I love this one.

I have part of the last Hempton ball left. I have a Hiya Hiya interchangeable set of needles with double the tips and cables, since I inherited my mom’s set to add to mine. So after the sleeve split, I was able to knit a teal stripe on the body and then a teal stripe on both sleeves, look at what I had left, and do it again. Alas, that’s it for the teal. Good stash busting though!

I’m also at the same point, the point of no more stripes, on the V-Neck Pullover. Again, using up the left-over balls of Waxwing wool. This pattern is written but there is no finished pullover yet.

I have made it to the hip shaping. For this pullover, I knit the Body straight to the narrowest part of my torso (which is now above my natural waist, sigh), and can work some increases for a little extra wiggle room.

Now I’m counting rounds between the sets of side increases. That’s OK. It gives me something to track how much progress I’m making. I work 4 increases in one round, one on either side of the imaginary side seam at both sides, knit 1″ worth of rounds (9 rounds), work one more round with 4 increases, and then 2″ worth of rounds (18 rounds). I repeat the increases and 2″ worth of rounds for the desired length of the pullover. I can usually get around 12 to 16 extra stitches for my hips on top of the generous amount of ease for the body. All good.

The break in the stockinette stitch knitting is working on my V-Neck Pullover with the twisted stitches. See, I can add in some visual interest if I work at it.

Once I split for the sleeves, I also added this stitch pattern as a panel under the arms. The twisted stitch panels make knitting this very much more interesting and I love twisted stitches.

I’m not very far along so nothing to look at under the arms yet but it’s going to be great.

I’ve finished the charts. I did them by hand and photographed them so I hope they show up well enough. I’m putting this pattern out for free so I haven’t bought a chart program. Sorry.

It is suddenly summer here after many days of rain. We are enjoying the sun and getting out on the water. I hope you are having a lovely summer. I know Ontario is having a heat wave so maybe not too much knitting is getting done.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Summer Place

I’m so excited to be here in Northern Ontario. I look forward to it every year. I especially like being outside most of the time. Once we are here at our cabin, it takes several days to get everything sorted: empty out all the stuff we store over the winter in the cabin, clean up after the mice, do some laundry (mouse related), set up our water, grocery shop, etc. Now the weather is heating up, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Here’s a video tour of me in my happy place.

As you can see my V-Neck Pullovers are progressing well. I’m loving the stripes.

Waxwing, a rustic fingering weight wool

The difference in the two fingering weight sweaters makes my knitting very interesting. The rustic wool by Waxwing is somewhat more forgiving. I’m using it to try to get more practice not looking as I knit. It’s sort of working. Can you do that?

This green one is in Shelridge 80/20 fingering and because it’s a superwash the yarn is lighter and much smoother.

The pattern for this one is sitting for a couple more days as I work myself up to doing the charts for the twisted stitch pattern.

I love twisted stitches so I’m enjoying this no end. How do you feel about them? Love twisted stitches or not so much?

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmell 435 on youtube

Totally Distracted

I was here on my V-neck raglan.

The pattern was working out great and I was really happy with it. I’ve sketched out the charts and they are working, too. Can you hear the “but” coming? I was so distracted by the pattern and the charts that I screwed up my stitch count. Argh. I started my Bust Shaping too early and had to rip back.

I’ve spend the last hour carefully taking out about 8+ rounds. I didn’t want to wreck my pattern. I have almost figured out where I am now. Almost. I think. It may be time to take a break.

On the good news side, I have progressed with my striped version of the V-neck. I am using up wool by Waxwing I had left over from my mitts. I’m happy that that’s working out.

I’ve split for the sleeves, as you can see. That’s a moment, isn’t it?! Now it looks like a sweater.

I only use the raglan lines as a guide. I put the exact number of stitches I need for my actual arm circumference on spare yarn. You can see that my sleeve is slightly inside my raglan markers. All good. This is explained in the pattern which I think I will be able to load up in the next week or so. Then, on the Divide Round I cast on the amount of ease I would like for my pullover. I cast on 2.5″ worth of stitches at each underarm for a total 5″ of ease for this pullover.

It seems to be a good fit, a bit oversized which is what I like.

This is going to be my car knitting project to get up to camp where I will be for the summer. The wool is so forgiving, as far as slight changes in tension go, so perfect for the car, ferry and then more car travelling tomorrow.

Change of location for the summer. I hope your summer is going great. Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free knitting patterns by Deb

Deb.gemmell on instagram

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

A Circular and a new Raglan

I’ve started a couple of new projects since I found that knitting one or two things is w-a-y to monogamous for me. I did a video. It’s at the end of the post.

Did I show you my third Twelve-Point Circular Yoke yet? I had some Hempton yarn left over. I have enough to knit my daughter a striped version. This is so much easier than the helical version. The simple stripes are 6 rounds deep. How easy is that?

I used the RL1 and LL1 lifted increases for the points. I think they look really nice. One more stripe to go before I can take the sleeves off.

The new project I wanted to tell you about is the Any Gauge V-Neck Pullover. I’ve started knitting two of them, of course. This is a top down worked in any gauge of yarn. You start with the ribbed neckband, then you work short rows up again the neckband. As you work, the V shape is made.

One is using left over wool from the mitts I knit. This is fingering weight rustic wool by Waxwing.

Big stripes of bright colours. I’m loving this. Don’t stripes make everything go faster?!

Next stripes are navy, light blue, medium green and then lime green. Bold!

The second one is in Shelridge 80/20 fingering.

I’ve made some progress on the short rows. I’ve added a panel of twisted stitches to this one. They follow the slant of the V and get wider and wider as you work down the V. This is an experiment!

I’ve never charted the short row section for this type of neck before. You may see this as a modification to the pattern or maybe not. I’d have to hand write the chart because it is weird. We’ll see if this works out or not.

All of these are in the pile of projects to take with me. I also have another Lunenburg to finish for my son-in-law. He chose green, red and grey Sport by Briggs and Little for his colours. I added in some black too. I didn’t follow the colour changes on the chart exactly, ok, hardly at all, so it looks really different from the one I made myself.

I printed the chart in black and white and then just change colours when I wanted. It’s freeing and, well, sort of worked out.

I’d like to try it again with some variegated wool that would do all the colour work for me. No ends to sew in. I know lazy, lazy but it could work really well and I already bought some Lichen and Lace wool to do it! LOL.

So here I am still planning on knitting several sweaters over the summer. Am I setting us up for a really hot, humid one?

Hope your knitting is going well. Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell 435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Gauge-Free Toe-Up Socks with Short Row Heel

I love knitting sock from the toe up. Do you?

There is one problem though. Where do you begin to work the heel for your desired length of foot?

I have come up with a solution, using a standard type of Short Row heel that gives you that 45 degree line on the heel.

Timber Yarns

I use a wrap short row heel but the shadow short row heel or the german short row heel all work.

Can you see that the heel and the toe look somewhat similar?

I have come up with an idea of how you can use the size of the toe to figure out the length of the short row heel.

Here’s my video.

I wrote up Sock Freedom, an idea for a Toe-Up Sock with a Short Row Heel. It’s a Project Page. There is no stitch by stitch pattern but the project page will give you instructions for taking the measurements and applying them to your sock.

It also includes a modification, of course, for giving you a bit more space for the instep if you need it. I do. You can make a slight gusset for more stitches on the top of the foot so it’s wider where the heel is.

This is totally working for me. Let me know if this is helpful.

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell435 on youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Stalled

I’m stalled right here.

Heritage Wave

I’ve worked out my Any Gauge Sock, which is worked Toe Up with a Short Row Heel. I’ve even made a project page for it. No exact pattern for this one. I’ve already knit two other pairs which turned out really well.

Left is Rebel by King Cole and right is Timber Yarns.

I want to do a video but I’m having some difficulty winding myself up to do it. The blue sock above and the toe for the second sock are set up for the video, and there they sit. I can’t work on the second sock because I need it for the video. Argh!

Do you get stalled on a project? What works to get you going?

In the meantime I finished the Shima Mini Shawl.

I think the technique for carrying the yarn up the centre spine of this shawl is going to help with my next project.

I can’t wait to see if it works.

Cheers,  Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell435 on youtube

Sock Idea in progress

Here’s my Catch Up for the week.

The sock idea I talk about in the podcast has progressed a tiny bit since then. The video was yesterday after all. LOL.

Timber Yarns, twin sock sets (2 x 50g balls with the same stripes).

I tried these on and they are tight around the ankle, at the heel. I need a little more room there. Some people do and some people don’t. Which are you? You probably know your own feet as a sock knitter.

This is a short row heel on half the stitches of my 60 stitch sock. In my case, for this sock, that is 30 sts.

I usually do a short row heel on 60% of the total sock stitches, which would normally be 36 sts for the heel on a 60 stitch sock. That gives me enough room around my heel. I just took this sock, with a heel worked over 36 sts, off my foot! You can see a much deeper heel.

I think you can see that the deeper heel gives me more space around my ankle. So I ripped back the totally finished lovely heel, sigh, and an extra inch of the foot. (This is what makes designing sooo much fun!)

To rework for more ankle room, with 1 inch to go before I start the heel, I worked 4 sets of increases on either side of the top of the foot (8 additional stitches on the top of the foot).

Then I worked the heel again on 50% of the original total number of sock sts (30 sts).

Definitely more room. I tried them on and it’s much more comfortable (except for all those dpns, of course). I decreased the extra stitches away, back to the original 60 sts, as I worked the leg. This is sort of an increase gusset and then a decrease gusset. This seems to be working. Hoorah!

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram which I should start posting on again.

debgemmell435 on youtube

Finished Objects and more projects needed.

I recently watched a podcast where they had had Stephen West as a guest and he said he needs 10 projects on the go at all times. The podcaster was a bit gob smacked by that.

I had an ah-ha moment. No wonder I’m struggling, not enough projects! The monogamous sleeve knitting got to me big time. So I’ve been busy on several small projects and am also getting ready to do another sweater, or maybe two, ha, ha.

My Twelve-Point Circular Yoke in Hempton by Hemp for Knitting is done. It’s only barely spring here. Congrats to me on getting it done before the summer. It’s still not warm enough here to wear it.

You’ll notice there is a flaw part way down on the body. Totally my fault. It is the resting round where I left it for several weeks and that round is loose. I should have taken that round back and reknit it. My bad.

I finished the first of my pair of the Aert Mitts by Gudrun Johnston in Waxwing wool, a rustic fingering weight wool. Total enjoyed it but decided on the second one to reverse the centre section colours, just for fun.

I’m not sure which one I like better yet.

I finished my rendition of the Mermaid Avenue Socks by Summer Lee. I loved the stitch pattern fish scales. I didn’t knit these socks according to the pattern. I knit them toe up with a short row heel, so except for the scales, they aren’t really the same socks.

I am working on an idea for Any Gauge Toe Up Socks with a Short Row Heel, nice pattern name – Not. These were my first try and it seems to work. I need more socks to try this idea out on.

I also finished by Windward scarf. It does not photograph well. It’s an intriguing pattern which I have knit 4 times and would totally do it again.

The mitts are almost done. I’ve cast on another pair of socks. But where are my 10 projects?

I’ve picked up an old project to finish.

I mostly knit for myself and know exactly how I like things to fit. This is the Slanting Slip-On top which I’m knitting for my daughter. I started last spring. I made some incorrect assumptions about her size and had to rip quite a bit of this back and reknit the bottom section again. This always slows me down. Things can sit in the time-out corner for a long time. This one did.

I decided to go up a needle size to make the hips wider, you can see where. I don’t think when it’s worn this will matter. I have 2 more inches to go. She loves the feel of it and wants to wear it as soon as I get it done. I did this in Summer Silk by Shelridge Yarns at a totally different gauge than the pattern, of course. If you’ve followed me for a bit you know this is my usual struggle. So many, many modifications to get it to fit: gauge change, shorter arm depth and exact size requested – not negative ease as in pattern. Two more inches to go.

I don’t think I’ve ever had this many finished or almost finished objects!

I cast on the Shima mini Shawl by Beatricemase Designs.

I was intrigued by the centre spine where you knit with all three colours. I’m not very far along yet.

This pattern is for people who like to tick off rows as they knit. I am not a row-ticker so finding it a little weird but if you are, this is the pattern for you.

Stitch counts at every set of rows are very reassuring.

Now I am looking around for a couple more projects because this is not nearly enough! Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

Debgemmell435 on Youtube

deb.gemmell on instagram

Small Projects

I’m always in a rush to finish. Why the rush? I have no idea. I don’t like to do the actual finishing, as in sewing in ends and sewing on buttons, etc. So why the rush to get there?!

I am trying to enjoy the journey, which I do while actually knitting, it’s the in-between times that are the problem.

So here I am trying to enjoy knitting a bit on each of these projects.

First up is the Mermaid Avenue Socks by Summer Lee. It is cuff down with a flap heel. So, of course, I am knitting it toe up with a short row heel!

Even though the stitch pattern from her pattern is upside down, they still look like scales to me, so all good.

To continue my colour knitting I’m working on the Aert Mitts by Gudrun Johnston.

As you can see I didn’t do a good job of choosing colours. The blue is way too pale and the pattern can’t be seen. These are my colours. All fairly bright except for that blue.

I’m going to rip it back and substitute the navy for the pale blue. You agree?

Next is the Windward scarf by Heidi Kirrmaier. This was tv knitting for me so I’m much further ahead. You do have to pay attention at the edge of each triangle or parallelogram, but there is an excellent written chart for that. Here’s how the middle section is worked. Amazing, eh?

Working a little bit each day will get me there. No rush!

Cheers, Deb

Any Gauge and Gauge-Free patterns by Deb

deb.gemmell on instagram

debgemmell435 on youtube