Having a Blast with Jane Austen Knits

It's not very often you find a book where you LOVE every single pattern. Ever since we got The Best of Jane Austen Knits in the mail, I've been nearly obsessed with it.  Not only are the patterns super classy, they are interspersed with articles about the history of knitting around Jane Austen's era. I was fascinated to learn that in the early 1800s, knitting was considered a craft for the poor. The ladies of high society would not have partaken in knitting, at least until Queen Victoria made knitting fashionable in the mid-1800s.

Knitting needles were often given to teenage girls as they left an orphanage, so that they could financially support themselves by knitting stockings.  During this era, men knit as well, especially wagon drivers who would knit stockings to earn some extra income. Although times have changed and knitting is purely a hobby for many people, I believe knitting still gives that sense of empowerment like it did over 200 years ago. Think of inmates who knit or crochet in order to save up some wages, or the many people who now earn extra income by selling handmade projects on Etsy or at fairs or farmer's markets.
I decided to knit the Sweetheart Bag pattern first.  It's the perfect tiny sized colorwork project: challenging (for me), but small enough not to take forever.

I chose 2 colors in Nature Spun Fingering, Olive Spring (NS149) and Natural (NS730).

Two-handed colorwork is so much fun to knit. For this project I learned how to wrap the carried strand on the wrong side so that my "floaters" were no longer than 4 stitches.

 

I found it very helpful to highlight the chart as I went along

Finished Sweetheart Bag! It will make a nice small-project bag.

Since there were so many floaters, I decided to line the bag with fabric. That's our puppy Purl in the background.

My mom knit the pattern called Pemberley Reticule. (Word of the day: reticule-- a woman's small handbag, originally netted and typically having a drawstring and decorated with embroidery or beading.) This beautiful reticule goes over the shoulder and is big enough to use as a shopping bag. Or perhaps, a bag in which to carry yarn.

Pemberley Reticule in Cotton Fleece Jubilant Jade (CW452)

The tied handles are lace-leaf shaped

I love the lace work on the bottom of the bag!

Snowshoeing + knitting = lots of fun!

I would highly recommend The Best of Jane Austen Knits book, especially because of the written articles. However you can also purchase these patterns on Ravelry:
Sweetheart Bag by Donna Kay
Pemberley Reticule by Catherine Salter Bayar

Here is the book info:

The Best of Jane Austen Knits: 27 Regency-Inspired Designs

Edited by Amy Clarke Moore

Interweave/F+W; $22.99

http://bit.ly/1xL3S8H

The Saga of the Rainbow Striped, Fair Isle, Thigh-High Socks

Peek-a-Boots are available from Skacel here

The saga began with a pair of clear, rubber boots. Last spring I was helping at a yarn show in Loveland, CO where one of the yarn shops was selling these clear "Peek-A-Boots", specifically designed so that fancy socks can show through. My (soon to be) mother-in-law, Peggy, insisted on getting a pair of these boots for me.

Along with the clear boots came a challenge: to knit a pair of socks worthy of being seen THROUGH boots. I was planning to go to The National Needle Arts (TNNA) trade show with Brown Sheep Company, where I hoped to wear the boots with the fancy-schmancy socks I would make. A few weekends later at the family cabin, Peggy brought me two options with yarn: one pattern was fun but well within my comfort zone as a knitter; the other pattern had more intimidating multi-colored stripes with fair isle colorwork. As someone who tends to choose type 2 fun (type 2 fun is the kind that's not fun at the time, but fun to look back on later: for example, marathon running, rock climbing, and bicycling through a hailstorm), of course I would take on the tough sock pattern.

Photo Copyright Joe Hancock.

The pattern is called Thigh-High Stripes by Deborah Newton. It's published in the book Sock Knitting: Master Class by Ann Budd. Click this link to see the pattern on Ravelry.

Now, at this point, as I was getting to know the Wells (Brown Sheep) family, it became apparent that they favored continental-style knitting as the "industry standard" over the "throwing" or English-style of knitting I had learned. Clearly I would need to convert from "throwing" to "picking" if I were to impress them.

Luckily, 2-handed color knitting is one of the best ways to learn continental knitting.  With this technique, you hold one color in your right hand and "throw" English-style, while you hold the other color in your left hand and "pick" those stitches continental-style.  This technique goes much faster than one-handed colorwork, plus your two colors don't get tangled.

I began knitting intently on the first sock. The continental knitting felt very awkward at first and I struggled to keep my tension even.  I spent an embarrassing amount of time working on this sock (as I only had a part-time job at the time) and made it this far:

I guess this will make a good wind sock.

. . . until I showed the sock to Peggy.   As she looked at the sock, hours and hours of knitting, her face fell as she broke the news to me. "Did you know you have twisted almost all of your stitches?" It was true; every stitch I had knit continental-style was twisted.  I had thought my tension was just really bad, but in fact, I was knitting each stitch backwards. Furthermore, this sock was simply too big and would never be wearable by me. The only good option, at this point, was to completely start over with a new sock.

This is what twisted stitches look like.

If at first you don't succeed... So I changed needle sizes and re-learned how to properly knit a continental stitch. The National Needle Arts show was only a few weeks away, so I would need to knit frantically to get the socks done in time. Maybe it seems silly, but sometimes in life you need a mission to conquer.
Finally, I finished the second sock in the airplane on the way to the show.  Peggy was nice enough to help me weave in the ends (this project had a LOT of ends to weave in!). I got to show off my socks at the trade show, but more importantly, I got to feel the satisfaction of completing my most challenging knitting project yet.

The finished product. I used Wildfoote Sock Yarn in Rose Bud (SY50), Volcanic Blast (SY51),  Deco Lime (SY44), Goldenrod (SY45), Blue Bird (SY53), Little Lilac (SY32) and Walnut Bark (SY52)

Although I got to make a fashion statement, the boots were not incredibly breathable.

Lessons learned: Consulting an experienced knitter for help in person is much more effective than consulting YouTube. Take the pattern gauge seriously and don't be lazy about the gauge. Don't give up on a project if you make a big mistake--learn from it.