Spring is coming, and so in the Spring 2010 Knitcircus emag.
The color sings Spring.
So does my "Dolce" pattern.
And a first for me—a knitting article for a mag. This one is the beginning of learning to fit yourself and includes a free pattern.
"Victoria"--a free tutorial on fit
On Wednesday, you can see these pictures undistorted and we can all see the rest of the patterns, articles, etc. I’m excited.
Of course, this blog will be doing a giveaway. Details on Weds.
I have been Blogging less than usual. One of those big things I discovered Down Under was that I was more creative and more productive if I spent less time online. I know, Duh! Well, I’ve been working on it and it’s true.
I have a wealth of projects to share with you, but don’t worry, I won’t inflict them all at once.
Earlier I wrote about the “Fluffy Squares” I knit from a pattern on Ravelry by Frankie Brown. Finally I did something with them.
A scarf. So simply made. Because I wanted to work this laceweight up quickly, I chose to crochet the center piece. It would work equally well in a knitted garter or seed stitch. I also chose to work lengthwise rather than widthwise to control the stretch. The squares are heavier than the center strip and would pull it out of shape—or so I thought.
I put the squares together in sets on the table and then walked by them for a day or so. Yes, I rearranged them a bunch and finally decided on what you see. I’m not sure if I found the best arrangement or just got tired of thinking about it, but here you are.
My sewing was somewhat clever and difficult. I put two squares RS out and two WS out to make it more reversible. Had I kept them all facing the same way, sewing inside the RS edge roll would have been a piece of cake. I had to flip it back and forth to avoid showing any sts, but it wasn’t that much.
The center strip is just whipped to the squares, a la those Estonian ladies who knit lace edgings and then sew them onto the shawl.
So, knit 8 squares. Sew them in sets of four (2X2)
Chain a length you like and sc about 6-8 rows for a nice firm edge. Then switch to a mesh pattern–I used hdc, ch 1–and make the scarf the width of the squares minus one inch. Repeat the initial sc edge. Finish off.
Attach the squares to the scarf with a simple whip stitch or mattress st. Voila!
It’s a perfect portable project, because the patterns are easy and the pieces are small.
What other shapes can you think of for the ends?
Details:
Squares are done on size 4 needle in Zauberball. 1 skein
Scarf is in Yipianqing 70% Silk 30% Cashmere 1.3 skeins = 390.0 yards (356.6m) using a F hook. An awesome yarn.
color not accurate–way too blue purple
Cat Babbie is a true artist. She even has a degree, but she was born with a huge need to create beauty. This she has done in many genres, but this new one is hand-dyed yarn, and I get to be part of it.
Cat and Charlotte Yarn owner Remi have combined ideas and resources to create a custom line of hand painted yarn for the shop. The first collection is called “The Girls,” and it honors all of us who work at the shop.
Cat asked me what I wanted my colorway to look like. Jane ain’t no fool! No way I was giving directions to the expert. The result is Jane’s Blackberry Cobbler. It is so me, and I am so pleased that Cat knows me this well.
I love it, love it, love it. Unfortunately I can’t photograph it. I’ve tried over and over and I can’t get the color right for you. I can’t even edit it right for you. Trust me. It is blackberry color.
The first project, which will be at the shop tomorrow, is this scarf which combines a basic K3, P1 rib with knit and crochet scrumbles. I used some of my favorite crochet patterns
Fairy wings, Traveling Ivy, Bullions, Irish rings, Leaves, Blackberries ( well, berries)
After I finished the scarf, I played paper dolls with the various bits of scrumble until I discovered something I liked. I tried to vary the pieces, and I had to make a few more to fill in some holes. I just whipped them on with the same yarn. If they had been knit with a contrasting yarn, I probably would have used sewing thread to keep the sts invisible on the back. Was not a problem here though.
Since the yarn comes in a 250yd skein, one skein was plenty. The base yarn is 100% merino wool ( yum) in a worsted weight. I used a size 8 US needle and various crochet hooks.
Turtlegirl76 aka Cristi has a feature about her Tabby Tuesday colorway here.
The other colorways, all gorgeous, can be seen here. I’ve already started a shawl with the one for Patsy. The ones here that Cristi shot are closer to the correct color.
I’m sorry, Cat. Just shows a photo is nothing compared to the original.
Here’s the link: LINK Hong Kong Fashion Week 2011
Rachel sent this to me and told me to scroll way down for knitwear. I say you should get a cup of coffee and slowly work your way through all of the pictures. If you are a Project Runway fan, you’ll have a blast.
What I loved was how they take many fabrics, cut and paste them together, and come out with an elegant classic jacket. The mix of fabrics is wonderful. Lots of this is way over the top; some of the ethnic stuff is not intended for the street, but is fun to look at. The knits are big and drapey and some have the same patchwork look of Maggie Jackson from Ireland.
Some will just make you laugh. Please scroll far enough to see the girl in the pin striped suit jacket gone modern. It’s a hoot. If you sew, you will marvel at how the designers get some of these fabrics to do what they do—stick up, curl, flow.
I just looked at the site this morning and I knew I had to share it. Thanks to Rachel for thinking of me. It’s bookmarked to come back to for inspiration.
Speaking of Inspiration!! I’ve added a page to this blog for sharing finished projects shared with me by friends and students. Please take a look. It’s pretty bare bones right now, but I hope to learn to format it better. Anyway, the knitting is good.
Beautiful, yeah? And the headband isn’t bad either.
I’ve been working on some headband ideas for several months. Too lazy to get them out in public and now the idea doesn’t seem so new. But this one I love and it is so easy to do.
First you make the base. You can see the grey filet structure of the headband in several places in this picture. If you don’t crochet, consider knitting a strip of garter st to the dimensions you want. This one is 4 inches wide and 18 inches unstretched, 22 stretched. Look carefully at the front edge near Cristi’s ear and you can see that I wove some strands of yarn through the edge to restrict it from stretching further.
Then you make motifs, shapes, swatches, spirals, flowers, ruffles, whatever. Get out the stitch dictionaries. Throw them into a pile. Make lots using scraps or planned yarns. Consider an old broach or a neat button. A piece of ribbon that you just like. Then start pinning them on wherever.
Take your time here. Make an arrangement and then leave it on the table for a while. I sewed the motifs together using whipstitch and sewing thread. Worked just fine. I basted things on using scrap yarn and a tapestry needle, removing whenever I wanted to. Basically I just played and it was fun.
A few folks even laughed at me and thought I had lost it. But when I look at this in Cristi’s magnificent hair, I just pity them.
I wear it as an earwarmer with my short hair. It makes me feel spunky and fun.
Make one, but please share a picture with me if you do. It is so freeing.
Thanks, as ever, to Prudence Mapstone for reminding me how much fun this can be.
Yarns used were Malabrigo silk/wool blend for the base. Motifs and swatches were mostly cottons, cotton blends, linen, bamboo, and some leftover Punta wool. Needle sizes varied and were just random. Really—random.
This might be a fun party idea. You could even serve wine. Errors make no difference.
The Charlotte Knitting Guild invited me to do a program on short rows. I sent all the members instructions for starting hats and other projects, but then I began scrumbling again and things changed. I stumbled over a picture of a swatch (scroll down) from the wonderful Nona of Nona Knits and Nona Swatches and changed the program entirely.
Loaded up with extra yarns and needles I went to Guild and invited them to not only learn the basic wrap and turn, but to do it with pizazz. Those who already knew how to do short rows had a bigger challenge—do something unexpected. I saw great success and no one left bug eyed or confused. Okay, maybe I should re-evaluate my standards, but if it ain’t fun, why are you here?
Here are some of the evening’s products:
Followed directions well for a first timer.
This one, too.
Do this sideways for asymmetrical slimming stripes.
Remembering the rules about joining colors to garter--and ignoring them.
Clever use of marker for RS---LOVE these colors.
Cristi threw in some lace--nice.
Heather created an intarsia effect. I will copy this.
Thanks to everyone who was there. I hope you had as much fun as I did. Just in case you want some more references to short rows, try these:
http://www.cocoknits.com/info/tutorials/shortrows.html
http://sameknit.blogspot.com/2007/04/yarn-over-short-rows.html
http://nonaknits.typepad.com/nonaknits/2005/04/japanese_short_.html
It really pays to swatch. I’ve known this forever, but am now really trying to remember it before I go headlong into a big project. This swatch is about several things.
First is linen stitch. How well does it work with fingering weight yarn and how does it look in a pattern dyed yarn? So I knit some up.
Actually I knit an 18 inch strip using size 1 needles. It takes 10-12 rows to get one inch of linen st in this size yarn. But I like it a lot, so would be willing to knit a long time to get a nice cardigan band or a cuff for a sleeve.
Thinking about bands and trims reminded me of ruffles. What pattern do I like best for ruffles? I don ‘t really know. Time to swatch some more. Might as well use the band.
But wait! Will just knitting it onto the band have an effect of some kind on the ruffle? Better cast on some to the end of this row and ruffle with and without the band.
So I cast on 20 extra stitches and used the first 20 stitches of the band and did the following:
Row 1: (K1, yo) in each st to the end, end k1.
Row 2-4: Work in stockinette st.
Row 5: (K1, Kfront and back) repeat across
Row 6: P all. Row 7–9: Knit all. Row 10: Bind off in Knit.
Discovered: 1: Band restricts curling of piece just a bit; 2. yo increase drapes more than Kf&b; 3: I like a little garter at the end of the ruffle with a RS bind off. Need to remember #3. 4: Don’t like wobbly edges.
Therefore must knit another ruffle.
Ruffle #2 starts with Binding Off 16-18 stitches of the linen band. I’m trying to make the edge more stable by using the bind off and then pickup method to eliminate stretching.
I like that it’s not so kinky, curly. I like the openness of the yo increase. Increasing every four rows is nice. Garter edges are good too. But what is the easiest and fastest increase to use? Can I use a rib stitch for a ruffle?
I really like the lifted increases. Cat Bordhi has brought this technique back into popularity, but it’s been around a long time. It’s fast and it’s invisible. Try it.
Ruffle #3
Rib makes it stand up more and curl less. Love the doubled yarn bind off, both the enlarged size and the blending of the colors.
Look at the bind off from the top.
Now I lose my mind. How do I do a double ruffle? (Why would I want one?)
This way lies madness, but this is really what I did.
Part 2: Attach yarn to the sts on the dpn and k2–3 rows. Bind off in knit.
Part 3: With the RS facing you, pick up one st in each of the bumps created by knitting row 2. (8 sts) Begin picking up on the left hand side. Attach the yarn on the right hand side and begin knitting.
What I learned? Too much is too much. But I kind of like picking up across some RS bumps and adding a bit of ruffle. Nice embellishment.
However–
Ruffle 5
Work in the next 15 sts of the linen strip.
Row 1: (K3, P3) 2x, k3
Row 2: (P3, K3) 2x, p3.
Repeat once or twice more.
Then ?????????
Just for fun, here’s the whole thing.
Could be the end of a shawl?!?
About the yarn. This is a sock yarn from Coats and Clark, Red Heart Heart and Sole Color 3960, that was sent to me to do some design with. At first I didn’t like it, but that changed.
The dye for pattern effect is never a favorite for me, but the uneven stitch count skipped the pattern and just blended the stitches in a really nice way.
It’s not Malabrigo, CTH, or Tosh, so it doesn’t have that softness or clarity of st pattern; but it also doesn’t cost as much so you can afford to buy it just to play and discover.
True Confession—The longest wearing, best-looking-after-being-washed-forever socks in my extensive collection are two pair of Lion Brand sock yarn designs. The yarn in this appears to be the same blend and spin. And they are sock enough.
I will use this yarn again and I will nag Cat to get them to create some solids.
More later–
So what are you doing in February?
Just want to remind you of the Carolina Fiber Frolic at The Inn at Middleton Plantation in Charleston, SC, February 24-27, 2011. This is the second year for this event which was created and is managed by fiber artist Jan Smiley.
This year Jan had included some knitting classes along with the spinning classes.
Go to the website to check out all that is available to you. You can take as many or as few classes as you want. You will have the chance to meet other fiber enthusiasts and learn from them as you sit and knit in this setting. It will also be warmer there.
Hope you will consider joining me in supporting this event. Both Jan and I look to see it grow and become something special for our region.
Who doesn’t want to be in Charleston when it’s cool?
