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| Daily images, ideas & inspiration on Insta & Facebook |
| June & July Showtime |
| PLUS below: the popular Fan & Cable explained; Fit & Style day in Newcastle; Classes online; Blocks unmasked & kit 'n colour ideas galore |
 Canberra Handmade Market Canberra
Sat 14th & Sun 15th June: over 260 stallholders from food to knits. EPIC
Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair ICC Darling Harbour
Exhibition of quilts, supplies & classes
Weds 25th to Sat 28th June
Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show July 18th - 20th
NEW Sydney Artisan Portugal Club Marrickville
Sat 26th & Sun 27th July 10am to 3pm |
| NEW for Newcastle: Fit & Style talk |
Newcastle Machine & Handknitters 
presents a Day lecture with Jane on Fit & Style
Sunday 13th July 9.30am to 3pm lunch included
Venue: Edgeworth Sports & Recreation Club
I love these days. The focus is Fit & Style & how I've designed over the years with certain body shapes in mind. It's about simple techniques I've created that can be added to commercial knitting patterns. For bookings contact
Leonie newcastlemachineknitters@gmail.com
Kate zimmermanka@yahoo.com.au |
Try before you knit - 25 designs:
each with colourways and sizes |
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If you have a particular design you'd like to try please email Jane before the show to ensure I bring the design with me.
You can see them online at Shopify and Signknit.com |
| Fan & Cable Cardigan |
The Fan pattern is a favourite of mine and yours too: it's just such classic styling - with a twist! You can see (below right and centre) the hemline splits where each side is edged with a cable; these come together to create the Crab Claw Cable.
The Blue Jacket is a little different to standard. The neck band is slightly deeper so it turns back very nicely. This particular garment arrived in the studio the day before the photoshoot and I could see the sleeve wouldn't be long enough for Meg, so I simply added a cuff and a button.
These are two new colours: Fleck Mustard & Fleck Denim |
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| The Fan and Cable Swagger |
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What's the difference between the Fan & Cable Swingcoat style left and the Fan & Cable Swagger below?
The swingcoat is full from the shoulder, whilst the centre photo below of the Swagger shows the high waisted fit, creating a cardigan fit over the shoulders, with fullness in the skirt of the swagger. The same shaping technique is applied to both styles: decreases are worked into the patterns of panels between the cables. The Fan pattern remains consistent, whilst the number of stitches between the Fan and the Cable decrease from hem to shoulder.
The Fan & Cable Swagger has a shawl collar which is knitted as one with each front, so there's very little finishing once the pieces are knitted. There are five chest sizes: petite to XXL with a round neck option and a longer length option. |
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| Check out your skills with knit classes |
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| Bee Bee Jacket is a blazer version of the Metro Aline Coat |
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| Intarsia knitting is more commonly known as picture knitting |
 The Metro A-line Coat and the Bee Bee Jacket are both knitted from diagrams and don't require graphs. The diagrams combined with knitting instructions, the diagram show bobble palacement and measurement to colour changes.
Below shows the right side and wrong side of the knitting, where the colours meet, adjacent to the cable, the linking of the two colours create half moons. This linking of colours is quite simple, but the standard term is twisting - this sounds much more energtic than linking the colours. The tricky part is managing several balls of wool across the knitting without tangling the colours. |
| CLASS 'Simple Intarsia' jane@sigknit.com for a copy |
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| Is Blocks Cargidan knit to be squares? Yes and No? |
| I am often asked if Blocks Cardigan is squares of knitting sewn together? |
 The Blocks Cardigan is knitted as standard garment pieces. If you are new to Intarsia I always suggest knitting the sleeve first, to get comfortable with the technique.
The Blocks design is knitted from a graph, using a ball of yarn per area of colour. The graph shows the colour per square, stitches per square with adjoining squares often the same colour.
For the bobbles a single length of yarn is carried, leaving just 2 ends to sew in.
The Moss Stitch spot is the only pattern where the yarn is carried across the block of pattern.
The garment shown left is the Jacket version of Blocks, with collar and pockets too. |
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| Intarsia worked from a graph |
  This is a segment from the Desert Flower A-line Coat, the wrongside of the knitting shows how each area of colour is knitted from individual lengths of yarn.
It's like knitting a jig saw puzzle, many knitters love knitting Intarsia = Pictures.
I know it seems a little crazy - but it's quite addictive! |
| Knit Classes - Textures and cables |
Below Left to right: Penny Jacket - this class includes a mini pocket.
Split Texture Jacket with short rows, Celtic Cross and Hanging Bells.
Textured Scarf has seven stitch patterns. |
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Links will take you to my
new website for the classes |
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My Sydney Studio
Open between shows, please call 0427 064 834
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| Archive Design: Buckingham Jacket |
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The Buckingham Jacket is an archive design, available as a knitting kit or pattern.
Archive designs are featured only on my original website www.sigknit.com
There are links for many designs at sigknit.com to my new website.
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| Knitting Kits that make perfect gifts |
Wicked Hat in Mustard Fleck: pattern & yarn $25
Muffin Top Hat in Stone Fleck: pattern & yarn $25
Hats can also be knitted in VERVE self-striping yarn |
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| WAVE WRAP in 8 ply wool |
 Wave wrap in 8 ply knits up smaller than in 12ply Verve.
I love customers who are happy to pose wearing their purchases.
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| Newsletter 117 gives step by step instructions on working SHORT ROWS for the Wave Wrap |
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| Swing, Swagger, Drape is now on a USB stick |
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Out of print as a book, but
now on a USB stick!
Simply slide into your computer, see every page of the book, print out just the pattern you need!
Perfectly packaged @ $25 |
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| Farewell Choppie Slicer-Smith |
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| Since September 2009, Chopper (Choppie) Slicer-Smith has been our lives. Whether it's patiently staying up till midnight while I finished knitting a sample garment for a show, or overseeing many of the 150 newsletters I and Brett created over the last few decades, our little man faithfully adapted his 'sleep-eat-play-run-eat-play-walk-eat-relax-sleep routine, to selflessly suit our lifestyle. During my often 6-week trips to America to promote my book, he was pampered by our wonderful friends and neighbours Philippa and Graham. Theirs was his second home, though more recently, and since Brett retired, he has commuted between Sydney and our farm. Running in circles on his leash was the only way he could enjoy this new life as his sight and hearing would have sent him running who-knows-where. His love for us was always very personal and focussed, he was curious but not interested in many other people or dogs (other than Philippa, Graham and their dog, Roly) so his appearance was mistaken as intense. We call it selective and self-confident, his means of survival. Maybe that came from being a rescue dog, picked up on Blacktown train station in Sydney and saved from an unhappy fate by Monika from Monika's DoggieRescue. Thanks for choosing us that day, little man. We miss you more than you can imagine. |
| Hope to see you soon! |
| If you'd like to discuss anything in this newsletter - or anything at all, please email Jane. Thanks for your support - Annette, Laura, Kyoko, Sue, Anna, Anne, Petra, Philippa, Cathryn, Helen, Jacinta, Margaret and I look forward to seeing you in the knitting circle! |
