The new kid on the blog

Greetings, earthlings!

I'm Kim and I'm the newest voice on the Anzula blog- so if things go from 0-Quirky real fast, you can probably pin most of that on me. I've been a pretty huge fangirl of Anzula for about 5 years now, and have had the pleasure of traveling with Sabrina on a few cross country road trips (The delirium is REAL) so I'm pretty familiar and obsessed with Anzula's line of luxury fibers for those of us who like the super-fancy cast-on.

I started out as many of us did, by bugging my poor grandmother relentlessly to teach me how to crochet. Finally, she gave in and pacified me with a hook and teeny-tiny ball of leftovers from a baby blanket or flouncy toilet paper roll lady and I was, ahem, hooked. Well, at least for that afternoon. 8 year old attention spans, whaty'gonnado?

I picked the hobby back up in college while I worked a receptionist job that had a lot of downtime and not enough work to fill it with. Instead of sitting up front with a gossip mag I crocheted my first afghan. I tweaked it as I went, based off of this Skullholders pattern, then found historical pirate flags and mapped them out on graph paper with pencil. I didn't use much math- which accounts for the edges not really matching up and there being a pretty major difference in the gauge between the first square and the last one.

I've gotten better at gauge since this photo was taken... and photography. Yikes! Hello, bare mattress?

Crochet was my jam, I was a machine. Oh, it's Christmas? Congrats, you all are getting coasters that look like lime wedges. Hey! It's your birthday? I hope you like the taste of amigurumi cupcakes!

Then I met Sabrina while standing in line for a food truck, and got sucked out of the world of Wal-Mart yarn and down the rabbit hole of Anzula. I learned to knit in the truck with Sabrina on a trip to Ohio, she dictated what I should do next from the driver's seat and I would do it. I was successfully doing entrelac before we were out of Utah.

Entrelac on the road. And the yarn is Haiku in Poppy. How I remembered that, I'll never know.

Eventually, I moved onto another job- cause a writer's gotta write, write, write, write, write, but the surprisingly glamorous world of indie yarn has stuck with me. It's been 4 years since I worked full time at Anzula, and the growth the company has experienced has been awe inspiring. Even though I wasn't physically helping to produce the product and get it out the doors anymore, I still had this very strong sense of pride for Anzula.

Three across in the truck all the way to Portland. You gotta love what you're doing to get that snuggly with each other!

So fast forward to two Tuesdays ago- picture this. I'm actually sitting on my bed, my baby asleep for the first time in what feels 12 months and staring at my long abandoned collection of hexipuffs for my Beekeeper's Quilt. I'm thinking "Ugh, I wish I had time to actually finish projects and get some more one-on-one with my real true love- cashmere." when I get a text from Sabrina asking if I'd be interested in blogging.

Show of hands, who else has a billion jars, vases and other receptacles around their house filled with their WIP hexipuffs?

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR, of course I said yes! I can only sneak in so many hours a week to knit and crochet, but writing is different! I can do that without worrying about a tiny baby pulling the needles out of my project and having to pick up stitches. There's a lot less cursing involved in holding a skein of yarn and harnessing its power to share with the world. Game-changing opportunity.

So you'll be hearing from me, hopefully frequently, and I'm excited to be able to get a toe back into the waters of the knitting scene again. Is there a topic you're interested in hearing about, a yarn you want to know more about, pattern ideas, close parallels drawn between worsted weight and your high school crush- hit me up in the comments and I'll do my best to make it happen!

xoxo!

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Continuing the Little Cable Knee Highs

So now you've knit the length of the foot and are ready to start the gusset of your sock. (Not there yet? See the first post explaining our Little Cable Knee High knitalong, get the pattern from the Purl Bee, and cast on!)

Kim's Slate sock is looking comfy already!

The gusset is made with simple yarnover increases. Don't forget to knit the yarnovers through the back loop as with the toe. You're increasing the number of stitches around your sock in preparation to start the heel.

Sylvia is just starting to turn the heel on her Chiva sock.

Once you've finished the gusset you are ready to turn the heel. Turning the heel means creating the small half-circle of stitches that makes the bottom of the sock extend to cover the heel and meet the heel flap. You turn the heel by using short rows. The Purl Bee offers a great tutorial here that takes the mystery out of this shaping technique, or check out the video at New Stitch a Day, and just wrap and turn! If this is your first time using short rows, you'll be excited to learn that you need not be intimidated, and as you use them you'll find that mastering them opens up a world of new pattern options!

Turning the heel creates the little wedge of stitches that is just under the heel flap, seen here on Charlie's Petunia sock.

One of the things that may seem strange if you haven't done this before is that you aren't knitting all the way across Needle 2 and Needle 3. Some stitches are left unknit on each side. As you follow the pattern, those stitches will be picked up. Also, during the process of turning the heel and knitting the heel flap, you are working only on Needle 2 and Needle 3. The stitches on Needle 1 will just wait until you are finished with the heel.

Up next - the leg, the cable, and the cuff. Rebecca's already finished one of her Coco socks!

No matter what stage you're in, come join the conversation on Ravelry - we've been talking about color choices, calf increases, needle sizes, and more. As you can see from the pictures, we are all in different places in the project so come join us!

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Featured Designer: Irish Girlie Knits

This year at Stitches West we had a hard time keeping the patterns from Irish Girlie Knits in stock. Carrie Sullivan specializes in "deceptively simple, perfectly gorgeous" designs. Many of Carrie's designs are drawn from family events and family histories. For example, Knocknagree is the town in County Cork, Ireland, in which her grandfather was born. Knocknagree is also the shawl that is part of her Sullivan Family Collection and was crazy popular at Stitches.

She recently released Rathmore, the counterpart to Knocknagree. It's a gorgeous infinity cowl done in For Better or Worsted that carries over the pattern from the Knocknagree edging. It's shown here in Teal and Pesto.

Holbrook is a lovely shawl knit from Dreamy, shown here in Ballerina. It was inspired by the flora at her favorite park. She suggests it be worn as a scarf when the weather is chillier, then as a shawl as it warms up.

Another popular pattern at Stitches was the Lilianna baby/toddler cardigan. This is knit from Cricket, shown here in Mulberry. Watch for a more boyish baby/toddler sweater coming soon!

Besides the beautiful designs available on Ravelry, Carrie posts "52 Weeks of Happy" every week on her blog, We Do Not Have A Knitting Problem. She finds the happiness in the big moments and the small, which is an inspiring reminder every week.

Click over to Ravelry and see her patterns and the IGK group!

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