Barbara Venishnick

Barbara Venishnick died recently at age 56 and I was very sad because she really was a wonderful designer. I've put together a listing of her patterns that I have in my collection and I would love to know about any others. I may have missed them or I just don't have that particular item.
There are a few biographical notes that I have found also such as that she started designing for Vogue Knitting in the winter 98/99 issue.
Vogue Knitting:
1998-9 winter #21 entrelac pullover
1999 Fall # 12, entrelac square blanket
1999/00 Winter #20
2000 Spring/summer #26
2000 Fall #33
2000/1 winter #35 her picture and short article
2001 Spring summer #26
2001 special children's issue #27 entrelac
2001 Fall, #16 tunic
2002 special #26 man's Koigu pattern
2002 Spring/summer #18
2003 Fall #1 shawl
2003/4 winter #25 Koigu modular scarf
2004 Spring summer #10 pullover (mistakes in pattern?)

Family Circle Easy Knitting:
2001 Winter #27 baby afghan
2002 holiday #50 Knitted afghan


Knitters:
#40 Celtic geometry p 50; #43 Great Amer afghan p.22; #49 Guatemala majesty p. 100;
#40 Who are these Celts? p. 24; #47 Zigzag blue, p. 30; #52 cover girl fashion, p.40;
#53 outdoor Norwegia, p. 82; #54 Striped illusions p. 60; #55 Cabana stripes, p.40;
#56 Cuddle coat, p. 94; #57 he said, she said arans, p. 34; #58 green tea slant, p.54;
#59 Twill & Kente pillows, p.76; #60 Swift knit gansey p.86; #64 Snowy cables p. 52;
#65 Optical vest, p. 42; #66 Homage to Anni, p. 44 and Bobble stripe raglan, p. 70;
#67 Whirligig afghan, p. 48 and grids & boxes p. 56; #68 Mardi gras raglan, p. 60;
#70 Bayou gold, p. 62; #72 Left turn only, p.86; #76 New Nehru, p. 98;
#75 Arrowhead, p. 68 and Drunken squares, p. 90

Cast on:
Fall 2003 Bush jacket p. 40 and Yokohama jacket p. 65
Winter 2003/4 Old farm road jacket p.30
2004 summer Tunis, p.34

Family circle easy afghans:
p. 68 Patchwork leaves

Family circle Easy baby knits:
Lucky stripes p. 24
Building blocks, p 88 (baby blanket)

Family circle easy toys:
bring in the funk, p. 64 (toy)

New Directions in knitting (ed by Stauffer, c2003)
p.16 Royal Ashanti jacket, p.30 Periwinkle panels, p.77 Rustic cables;
p.94 Homage to Horst, p160 Contrapposto symphony sweater, p.164 City evening jacket

Knitting in the round (Stauffer ed)
p. 19 Carnival blanket, p. 63 Angel baby

Handpaint country (Potter)
p. 160 double vested, p.161 gypsy rose, p.162 why not pants, p.164 genteel tuxedo

VK scarves: gossamer shawl p.65
VK bags and backpacks: Tigerstripe purse, p.61
VK baby blankets: enchanting entrelac blanket, p.68
VK caps and hats: Harlequin beret p.7
VK baby gifts: Receiving blanket, p.26

Quick knitted afghan (Stauffer, c2001)
lazy man's plaid, p.8, ebb and tide, p.18, garden path, p.30, northern lights p.50,
Tibetan check afghan, p.124, jiffy rib afghan p.150; embossed diamonds afghan p.174

Interweave knits:
They have an online index of her name.

Martha's poncho

Who would have thought I'd be crocheting 2 Martha ponchos today? But that's life. I started one with the LIli Chin pattern from Interweave using two yarns in my stash that are great together and then another free crochet pattern arrived from another source so I also got that one going in more stash yarns in cotton/acrylic for a change. Now my daughter says she will never wear a poncho so I have no idea who will get them; but I guess I do this more for the challenge anyway.

I finished the mystery called "Bead on trouble" by Barbara Burnett Smith. She (the author) was killed while chasing her runaway dog and somehow in the mystery this is forecast by the young kitten Sinatra that everyone is chasing. Weird. But good mystery and I'm sorry there will be no more. The setting is a local summer camp in Texas where beaders have gathered for a few days.

I'm also finishing now a very unusual sweater from VK 98/99 winter issue by Barbara Venishnick and she just died at the age of 56 from a sudden heart attack with no previous history of this. So scary, and so sad too. I left a message at the newspaper site about my sorrow on this. She was for me a very good designer and I have done several of her designs but there will now be no more.

Isn't she loverly?

This new project is Perkins from Yorkshire fable (Rowan, 2003). Designed by Sarah Dallas and using the yarns called for: Rowan Yorkshire tweed dk in 5 colors. It is so frustrating though!
Do you see in the photo how she's hiding her right arm? Why? For a knitter, this means caution ahead. Problems. Big ones.
The schematic especially so. Because the pattern is a very simple ribbing of k5, p1,k1,p1 and repeated. But here is the problem: the row of purl stitches are later crocheted over in a chain stitch with the red color which isn't used in the rest of the sweater. And second problem: the bottom on the sleeves and body has a lacey pattern which gets sewn on after it is worked to the lengthwise to match the circumference on the body and on the sleeves at the bottom. But what is that circumference?
The gauge calls for stockinette stitch of 20 sts =4" but there is no st st in this pattern, only ribbing.
So I have decided, after doing a swatch as called for (I'm getting 17st=4" on size 3.75 needles instead of 20 sts =10 cm on 4mm), to work the sleeve first and to make it my usual length of 17.5" minus the (most likely) 2" for the bottom. Then at the same time, I will do that bottom lacey section and sew it on and also crochet the chain st on the purl lines. Once I have completed everything, it will then be easy to figure out the body which I plan on knitting in one piece.
I want to finish this one now and not let it wait for next winter so wish me luck!
One word about this yarn: I love it. It feels really nice when knitting.
I expect to be in England in the summer for my beading class so I want to have this one done in case I'd like to pick up more of this yarn. I just reserved my ticket and hotel reservation this week. As usual, when I'm traveling alone, I book cheap but convenient so my usual pad is the Gresham Hotel in Bloomsbury.

Perkins 

Arans

This is Israel wearing his new present. He wasn't happy with the gray one I presented him done to his requests so he found this one that had never been worn and carted it off. It was from a Candace Strick pattern in an older Knit n style magazine. Yarn used was some Paton's (Canadian) classic wool. I think he looks really nice in it so I told him he can keep it as he was feeling guilty about it later. Meanwhile I'm hard at work on my winter wips as winter is nearly done around here but I have lots of cooler wips waiting to come out and play.

Candace Strick aran 

leftovers scarf 

Another crocheted scarf

Just finished another crocheted scarf using leftovers. I did a simple dc with some sc in white and had enough of the last blue to sc all around. This is so long I could wear it also as a hat and a scarf at the same time! I also finished the first sleeve on the Kaffe Fassett grid sweater. I bought two kits so each child will get one and whenever they turn up, they have to be measured. Looks like my daughter will get this first one as the armhole needs to be longer for my son. Or if I wanted to give it to him, I could just cut out part of the armhole at the bottom to enlarge it and then make the sleeves longer and wider. But winter is almost over here and I still have so many wips to finish.
It was a nice surprise yesterday to get a phonecall from my son. Earlier this week he called from London and Paris and when he suggested yesterday we meet up for coffee, I was really surprised. He's heading soon to his new job in Singapore so he could make a few days stopover on his way. I will give him Dayana's mail as they will most likely meet somewhere before I reach her.
Non knit and non crochet: This week I stopped into a fabric store in the next town to ask where beading stores were and my eye was held by a lovely leftover piece in pretty blues. Cost me about $2 and this will be sewn into two simple scarves. I will try to crochet something in white on the edges to make it fancier. These could be lovely presents as summertime scarves.
I joined my second bead class this week as the first one had to close due to lack of students. I'm on the same level as the other students and it seems to be a very nice place being an arts' center. WE are learning to do Dutch spiral which is fun and easy also.
I'm also reading a mystery in Hebrew which is written in easy enough Hebrew to make it a pleasure. Some of the translated mysteries in Hebrew are written in such a high level Hebrew that it really annoys me, especially when the English was not so difficult. I had to borrow this one from the local library as I think I did buy it once, but someone must have borrowed it. Anyway, the librarian was also in my bead class so she doesn't bother me with overdues.
Turns out my family doctor is also a beader and she says it's good therapy.