Tag: Design

So, I joined Weight Watchers. I decided to make milestones for the celebrations, and I’m celebrating my first 5%! I’m so excited. I purchased two skeins of Sock Ease™ yarn from Lion Brand in “Red Hots.” It’s beautiful!

I will say it\’s more orange than I was thinking it would be (which isn\’t bad, just surprised me). It\’s very Autumnal in flavor and I think will look really nice with summer-tanned skin (not that I tan a whole heckuva lot, but hey).

I’m going to make a pair of opera gloves that are fingerless. I’m thinking I’ll have partial fingers go to about the middle knuckle, then have the glove go all the way up to cover the elbow and end in some pretty ruffles. I’m just swatching right now, but I’ll post more as the design comes together in my head.

These are double-pointed needles from Brittany, size US2 (2.75 MM). I want to like them, but I find them too bendy and broke one while making a sock. I\’m going to get some Crystal Palace (first I\’ll swatch with my CP 3\’s and see how it looks, I may just use them). I am also planning to try some metal needles for the really small sizes, 4 and below, because the natural ones just seem to be too fragile when they\’re that thin.

My lovely sister in law gave me yarn for Christmas (which is a little like giving crack to an addict, but there you go). Two of the balls are this really fuzzy tribble stuff that have a variegated black and grey colorway with little silver sparkles. It’s fun stuff. I decided to make a triangle shawl with it, since it’s a little scratchy, that way I can wear it over other clothing.

Here’s the progress so far. I’m going to have to switch to circular needles shortly, since I’m running out of room on these. As you can see from the tip, I was adding four stitches every other row – a make one on each edge and a yarn over in the middle once the lace pattern started. I decided to leave off the make one, so I don’t run out of depth (since I only have the two balls). It makes a pleasing sort of rounded heart edge on the point that I like.

This detail picture shows the lacy bit, which is a little silly with such a textured yarn but I like it. Bonus points if you can spot the error!

My husband and I went on an Outward Bound Dogsledding expedition in 2006. When we got back, I went shopping with a friend of mine in Wisconsin and found some incredible silk and mohair yarn that looked like sunrise on snow. Still under the influence of the Boundary Waters and our experiences there, I set to work on a shawl that would tell our story.

The border is eight stitches, one for each person in the party. I chose a seed stitch to symbolize life and growing. Just like in a garden, people can come together and learn to support each other in the same space but not taking the other’s light or nutrients. We form symbiotic relationships.

I added a row of lace yarn-overs, the holes symbolizing the fact that when we came together, we weren’t a team. We were eight separate individuals, but not one unit. We separated into two teams of four; three students with an instructor. One day the students were with the dogsled, one day they were skiing. The instructors had a two-day cycle, two days on the sled, two days on skis. I chose a basketweave pattern of K4, P4, four rows each, every so often going for eight rows to symbolize the instructors.

At one point in the middle of knitting, when I had about a hundred stitches on the needles, I decided to try an alternate basketweave stitch that I found in a book, thinking it was the “right” way to do it.

It looked totally wrong.

Faced with the decision of unknitting three rows of over a hundred stitches, it occurred to me that this was a perfect metaphor for the middle portion of an expedition. You know your mates well enough to identify their quirks and likes, and well enough for little frictions to pop up. After all, you’re adults enclosed in a vast and threatening wilderness with these other individuals for hours at a time.

It was exactly right.

I left the stitches in and completed the shawl. Eight rows from the end I dropped the yarn-overs, symbolizing that by the time we arrived back at Home Place, we were a team.

The bind-off is done in a sewing needle bind-off that took about six hours to complete. Incredibly detailed, it nonetheless creates a soft, supple edge that doesn’t look at all like a bound-off edge. It’s springy and slender and adds to the beauty of the garment.

This is one of the most expensive and time consuming projects I’ve designed and I share it with you so you can see what can be done with two sticks, some yarn, and an idea.

I was naughty and found two yarns last week that I bought on impulse (meaning, with no specific project in mind). The irony is that I think I may make something with them both together.

Berocco Ultra Silk is 20% Silk (Soie), 40% Rayon (Viscose), and 40% Nylon (Polyamide). It is soft and springy and reminds me a lot of jersey fabric.

Lion Brand Incredible is 100% nylon, but has a crunchiness reminiscent of silk. It calls for size 15 US needles, but I did my swatch with 7 US (4.5mm).

I\’m thinking a shrug or vest would look nice, with the Incredible as a border and the Ultra Silk as panels down the center, maybe with a textural pattern like vines and leaves. I\’m just in the swatching stage right now, so we\’ll have to see.

Here are the swatches:

Figure 1: Berocco Ultra Silk

Figure 2: Lion Brand Incredible