Tag: Knitting Projects

  • Humpday Update: Designing the Bryce Canyon Shawl

    The design of the Bryce Canyon Shawl is coming together.  I selected two more lace diamonds to incorporate; they\’ll start at the midpoint of the center medallion.  I\’m estimating the shape on the fly, rather than working it out mathematically; I decided I didn\’t want to draw it out but am trusting my gut.  We shall see.

    I\’m loving the colors and the way the yarn looks in the pattern.  Lion Brand did a nice job with this fiber.

    As an aside, my birthday present arrived from KnitPicks and now I\’m all excited.  I want to play with it (16 balls of electric dark blue and 16 balls of maple syrup brown), but I\’m staying focused on the shawl at the moment.  I don\’t know if I want to make one blue sweater and one brown, or do two mosaics with both colors.  We shall see.

    But for now, here are some pictures of the Bryce Canyon Shawl so you can see how the design progresses:

    This is a picture from last week, and you can see the start of the center medallion.  It will be a diamond and has a 3 stitch border in plain stockinette stitch on either side, with a yarn over (i.e. a hole) just inside that.

    The two small clear crystals aren\’t beads, those are stitch markers and they sit on either side of the medallion (this is one way you can keep track of knitting pattern changes).  They don\’t have to be fancy, and in fact I have several plain steel rings on the needles but I wanted to use my fancy rings for the medallion since I have them and they\’re pretty.

    They\’re actually a little annoying to work with, to be honest.  There\’s a bar that hangs down from the ring, and it\’s twisted metal.  That\’s what is used to attach the crystal.  The problem is that a) it attaches to the stitches sometimes, and b) it gets in the way of the needles when I\’m knitting.  I make it work, because I like the way they look as I\’m working, but they\’re not the most practical of beasts.  I prefer the plain steel rings my husband made for me from heavy-gauge steel wire.

    Here is how it looks today. The faux cable look of the center \”V\” is deceptive; that\’s just because the needle isn\’t long enough to let the pattern lay flat.  But in this view, you can see the center medallion progressing up to its middle panel (a helix laying sideways that mimics the vertical one you can see).

    The little white bit that looks like a scrap of paper on the left is a scrap of paper.  šŸ™‚  I was knitting outside yesterday, sitting on the grass by the river, and dropped one of my rings.  The grass ate it.  I spent quit a while looking for it, too, but no luck.

    I decided to stop increasing the lace lattice that is on the outside.  Since I\’m adding two medallions and they have their own increases/decreases, I stopped adding stitches at the sides and will let it grow from the stitches within the medallions.  I may change my mind once it grows some more, but we\’ll see.  (That\’s the geometry I mentioned earlier.)

    This final image shows the right-hand medallion just beginning.  There are only about 6 rows so far, so it\’s not easy to see in this image, but you can at least get an idea of where it will go.  The lattice will continue between the medallions on the sides and the center panel, to keep the overall feel of the shawl consistent.

    That\’s our Wednesday update.  Happy knitting!

  • New Shawl Design

    I bought some lovely yarn from Lion Brand, called \”Amazing.\”  The colorway is Regatta, which is a subtle rainbow of overdyed colors.  I decided to make a triangle shawl with it, using a couple different lace patterns and center diamonds from Barbara Walker\’s Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

    In designing, I first tried a swatch of stockinette stitch.  Somehow, I misread the ball band and thought it wanted Size 6 U.S. and made the swatch with those needles.  It didn\’t look the way I wanted, especially the honeycomb slipped stitch design.

    Then I read the ball band.  Size 9 U.S.

    Oh.

    Trying it with Size 9 produced better results, but still too dense of a pattern when I knitted a simple moss stitch.  I took that out and played with Vertical Lace Trellis, also by Barbara Walker but this time in her A Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  I added an increase stitch on either side of every even row.  Due to the nature of the pattern, I simply didn\’t use a decrease on the one side, but added a make 1 to the other.  While this allowed me to get the correct stitch count, it pulled the design out of shape.

    I\’m going to pull this swatch out, and try it again with simple make ones, while banding the lace with a simple garter stitch edge.  That will let me center the triangle in the middle, keeping the edges straight.  We\’ll see how that works from here.

  • A Bit of Baby…

    Wow, it\’s already October! Time passes so quickly, eh?

    I have been knitting, just not writing about it. Currently, I am working on holiday gifts and a very quick baby blanket for my husband\’s boss, to give to him tonight at his birthday party. He just had a baby (well, his wife did), and so I wanted to have the blanket done when I see him. JUST finished it today! ~pants~

    It\’s from a very easy pattern book by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss called 7 Day Afghans called \”Raspberries and Cream.\” I varied the pattern a bit and used two slip stitches for the main color rather than one; I like the receding window pane effect as well as the loft of the resultant fabric.

    I don\’t have time to wash it before tonight, and it needs to be; while blocking isn\’t strictly necessary with the acrylic yarn I used it does need to be reshaped and washing will help that. It has a two-inch seed-stitch border around it which allows it to lay flat.

    In this image, you can see the back of the blanket and how the two-stitch carries along the back help it to be extra fluffy. It\’s a nice blanket to squish against and I think it will feel really nice against baby\’s skin.

  • Fiji Kit

    My friend works in an industrial sales office, and is around men most of the day. She lives in the Midwest, but I think would be more comfortable in a writing cabana by the ocean where she had nothing to do all day but write.

    Since I canā€™t buy her the cabana in the Caribbean, Iā€™m making her a desk set instead. Itā€™s one of those awful, uber-cute desk sets, too – the kind you find at White Elephant sales and bad parties.

    Yes, Iā€™m that kind of friend. ~leer~

    But in all seriousness, the box for paperclips and the stapler cover shaped like a shark are worth the kitsch. Hereā€™s a picture of the kit in its entirety:

    Iā€™ve finished knitting the cabana box cover bits, and now all thatā€™s left is to felt them. Since the rest needs to be felted too, I figured Iā€™d do it all at one time to save washer water. Here are the box pieces:

    This is the base piece, done in plain stockinette stitch (which is knit a row, purl a row). I actually finished these and realize I donā€™t have a picture of that, so that will have to wait. But here are some more pix:

    This is the base all finished up. As you can see, itā€™s quite long. It will shrink when itā€™s felted, and it will be sewn together over a plastic mesh base.

    The bottom is knit in plain stockinette in a sand color. At first, I couldnā€™t figure out why they selected a mud brown for such a cheerful piece, and then I realized that itā€™s supposed to be the sand floor.

    Duh.

    These were fun to knit. The cabana caps are just about the right size to be a cat hat.

    Yeah, donā€™t try that at home…

    Knit in the round, you can see the gradual decrease pattern in the grid under the knitting. You decrease each of the four sides on the decrease rounds, so it has a very pronounced triangular or pyramidical shape.

    Next we come to the wrist rest. Knit in intarsia, itā€™s got a complex little picture of fish and kelp. Quite cute, if youā€™re needlepointing.

    Rather more complex if youā€™re knitting. Each of those strings hanging down is a bobbin of color that you pick up and knit with at the relevant point in the design. While one could knit complex needlepoint or counted cross-stitch charts this way, it is very detailed and requires concentration.

    Iā€™m just past the halfway point in the intarsia design, and should be done in another week. The rows take about 15 minutes each, since they require wrapping each new color. I could not for the life of me figure out why the stripes on the edges are brown and light brown, until someone said ā€œoh, when does the color start after the sand?ā€

    Bong.

    Sand.

    Duh.

    ~knityfy~

  • Update from the Itinerant Knitter

    Our writing group, the Writers Retreat, had a mini-retreat March 4th through the 6th in Indianapolis, Indiana. Authors A. Catherine Noon, Nicole Gordon, Darla M. Sands, and the Pack Rat met for a weekend of touring and hanging out and, of course, writing.
    Since I went along, we of course had to do a side-trip to the LYS (Local Yarn Shop). We visited:

    Mass. Ave. Knit Shop
    Susan Brennan, Proprietor
    862 Virginia Avenue
    Indianapolis, Indiana 46203
    Main tel: (317) 638-1833
    Website

    Itā€™s a very large store with a big sale room. I found some neat stuff on sale:

    di.ve brand, from Biella – Itally, a ribbon yarn thatā€™s full of luscious fall colors and a startlingly bright silver splash. Itā€™s the Luxus line, which is 91% Polyamid and 9% Polyester; I bought color 29204, lot 1496.

    I first swatched with garter stitch on size 10 needles. It yielded a very dense fabric, springy and stiff. I didnā€™t like it, and since garter uses up so much yarn and I only bought three balls, I decided to try something else.

    I swatched a pattern from Barbara Walkerā€™s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns called ā€œVertical Lace Trellis.ā€

    Vertical Lace Trellis
    Odd # sts.
    R1 & 3 (WS): P
    R2: K1 *YO, K2T
    R4 *SSK, YO, REP *, END K1

    Since itā€™s only 4 rows, and only 2 of those rows are the pattern row and the rest is purl stitches, itā€™s a very easy pattern to follow. Iā€™ve done another scarf in this pattern, but need to post some pictures of it. In the meantime, hereā€™s what Iā€™m trying with the Luxus:

    CO 3
    YO after first and before last stitch, all even-numbered rows; do pattern in the middle on the odd-numbered stitches.

    This will create a triangle shawl.

    I think Iā€™ll add a bead at the point of the triangle for weight, or maybe some tassels. Weā€™ll see.

  • Holiday Knitting: The Bolero of Doom

    I decided to tackle a bolero for my friend R…, and figured it would be easy because it\’s a Lion Brand free pattern.  It stumped me a little at first, because of instructions like \”and at the same time\” in all caps.  But I took it apart, started over again, and am pleased to report that I have now finished the left front.

    Read on!

    First, we found the pattern at the store, but it\’s also available online.  Click here.

    Since R… has a dress code at work, we decided to use a black tone for the sweater so she could use the bolero there. We settled on 312 Edwardian, Art #790, Lot #10289.

    Once I finally got the hang of it, it was easy to do.  The instructions \”and at the same time\” made more sense once I realized there\’s a distinct left side and right side to the piece – in this case, when I say \”side,\” I mean \”edge.\”  See below:

    At the bottom of the image is a blue tie, to indicate \”center front.\”  Once I realized that, the schematic helped me to determine that the shaping (note the pronounced slope on the left) of the piece.

    After that, finishing the left front piece was a snap.  Here it is, using the simple expedient of an extra knitting needle as a stitch holder:

    All of a sudden, it begins to look like a sweater!

    For you stitch-a-holics out there, here\’s a detail of the pattern stitch:

    It\’s called a broken rib stitch.  All wrong-side rows are knit; all right side are K3, P2.  It\’s a nice, nubby texture; particularly with the Homespun brand yarn.

  • Mochi Progress

    I\’ve been working away… well, playing away, really… with my shawl.  Here are a couple quick updates.

    I\’m on row 14 of a 16 stitch sample of rippled rib.  I may extend it past this current spot because I like how it\’s shaping up and one repeat of the pattern is a little too little to see.
    I\’m learning to read charts now, which is getting easier the more I play with them.  I\’m using post-its to track the row I\’m on and I numbered the stitches on the post-it, which helped me to keep track of them.  I found that to be a lot more helpful than trying to count in the middle of the row.  As long as I kept count of what stitch I\’m on in the knitting itself, then I know what stitch I\’m on in the diagram.

    The stitch in the middle is the cross-stitch pattern that I mentioned in my previous article on this project.  It has less give than other patterns, and would be good for a jacket or something that needs to hold its shape.  I love the look of it, but it\’s less loose than I would like for a shawl.  I may continue with it for this project anyway, simply for the practice.

    The wavy ribs that I\’m working now are at the top of the photograph and in the detail below; I like them in the book but less so on this project so far because it\’s only one pattern repeat.  That\’s why I think I might continue the pattern through several more repeats in order for it to establish itself on the piece.

    This shows the lace in the pattern, but it\’s hard to see the rows of wavy ribs that go up vertically along it.  I\’d love to try it with a worsted-weight or heavy yarn in a scarf with a couple of repeats width will allow the pattern to really shine.  (This yarn is a lace weight, maybe a DK, but very light.  Worsted-weight is more traditional, what Americans think of when they think \’skein of yarn\’ in the store.)

  • Mochi Update – Tunisian Redux

    I decided to change the project I used the Mochi Mini yarn for.  Originally, I wanted to do a Tunisian scarf, but it kept not working out the way I wanted.  I blogged about it here.

    Using a design by Cheryl Oberle as a starting point, I am doing a triangular shawl.  I\’m using a stitch from Barbara Walker\’s stitch dictionary, the second volume, for the middle panel.  In the original pattern, it\’s a 35 row repeat of garter; instead, I\’m doing a 36 row repeat of the texture stitch.

    The funny part is that when I started it, I thought the top was where the triangle was supposed to form.  There is a four-stitch increase every other row, two of which are in the center; which means it\’s a mitered corner.

    Uh, duh.

    You can see I sort of pulled the center out of shape and will have to block aggressively when I finish it.  I think I\’ll also add a picot row along that top since in the center there\’s only the two yarn-overs to hold the edge, which will be subjected to quite a bit of stress.

    This next image shows the mitering and the center yarn-over increases.  I like the striping effect of this yarn.  One thing I don\’t care for, though, is the way it knots with itself.  The filament has quite a bit of fuzz that develops pills, and then the yarn knots on itself.  I\’ve already had several severe tangles in just this first yarn ball and, despite the appearance, won\’t work with this yarn again because of that.  It\’s just not worth the time to untangle everything.

    This shot shows the four row texture repeat from Barbara Walker\’s guide.  I like this stitch a lot and think I might make a regular scarf in a rectangle to show it off.  It\’s got an interesting slip stitch pass over that makes the horizontal bars; it reminds me a little of Tunisian because of the square shape.  In a worsted weight yarn, I think the texture would show up even more.

  • Update on Design

    My bag is coming along. Iā€™ve finished the main body, and put in a round of purl stitches for a fold. Then the lining is stockinette.

    The unit is 12\” wide, 9\” deep, and 0.75\” thick. This view shows the 12\” width. I\’ll need to block the outside, the 9\” part, to make sure it fits. I\’ll pick up stitches at the top and add an envelope closure, and probably make a button.

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    This view shows the lining inside the bag. I couldn\’t get it down inside deeply because of the needles; while I could slip the stitches off to a string as a holder, I don\’t really need to see how it works since I can size it by putting the unit itself inside to ensure it fits.

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    This shows the ridge of the purl row separating the pattern fabric from the lining. You can even see in this shot how the lining leans away from the body. That will make the lining sit down inside without tacking.

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    I\’ll update soon with more.

  • What Am I Designing Now!

    I have an AlphaSmart 2000 portable keyboard that I use to write while I\’m on the train or the bus. I got to thinking, it needs a cover! I knit!

    These two things taste great together!

    So. Here\’s what I did:
    I knit a gauge swatch on size 7 dpn (double point needles, the kind used for making socks). I got a good gauge from them, but realized when I started to cast on that 100 stitches wouldn\’t fit on them.

    I knit a gauge swatch on size 9 circulars, 24\”, without really thinking about the length of the circular part. I realized, though, that if my circumference wasn\’t 24\”, I was toasted when I wanted to cast on since I wanted to knit in the round.

    The third time\’s the charm. I found my size 7 circulars with I think 8\” or 12\”, and knit a gauge swatch. Then I figured, 9\” x 2, plus 1.5\” is 19.5. Make it an even 20.

    Just a smidge too small to make it around the circular part. The unit is 12\” wide, though, and even though I originally wanted the stitches to face the other way, 12\” x 2 + 1.5\” works on circulars that are the length I have, but only just barely.

    I did a knitted cast on and realized two things: I should have cast on one needle size up, since it\’s a pretty tight cast on, and that the knitted cast on curls just like stockinette fabric does, even if you use a straight weave for the fabric itself. This isn\’t a bad thing, exactly, it\’s just a thing – but I got to thinking: next, I want to try a ribbed knit cast on, and see if purl stitches work as well as knit stitches, to eliminate the curl.

    I have about 4.5\” on the needles now, and today decided to make sure it \”fit.\” That\’s what this picture is:

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    I like the fit quite well, actually. I think I\’ll do two rows of reverse stockinette, then another 9\” of plain stockinette, for a lining; finished with a 3 needle bind off. The closure will be picked up and knitted into a triangle, with a button closure. I need some sort of window cover for privacy, but I haven\’t worked out yet how I want to do that.

    The stitch for the body is a garter rib stitch: 1 row of rib, 1 row of knit. That gives a purl bump in the rib columns that\’s pretty but retains the elasticity of a true rib.

  • Camera Bag

    So, I sez to my friend, Friend, what kind of a bag would you like? And she sez to me, she sez, Well, Iā€™d like a camera bag.

    In camo.

    ā€¦

    Have I mentioned before that I HATE camo?

    I must have mentioned this.

    In fact, my friend, she started giggling because we had talked, at length, on just this very topic the day before while hiking. I sez to my friend, Friend, do you have a hat I could borrow for this here desert hiking in the sun? And she sez to me, she sez, sure! Here you go!

    Itā€™s camo.

    ā€¦

    Have I mentioned before that I HATE camo?

    So this bag. Well, itā€™s a camera bag, for a wee little bitty camera of a thing. So I knitted a swatch, and I knitted a sock, and I closed the sock with the three needle bind off, and I picked up the gusset for the lid, and I knitted the lid.

    I even did some lace, but you canā€™t really see. The end is sort of diagonal, which I donā€™t like much, so I think Iā€™ll do another one. And I want to add a strap. But I finished the bag. Poof!

    In camo.

    ā€¦

    Have I mentioned before that I HATE camo?

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    It\’s quite roomy inside. I showed this picture to my friend, and she said it looks like a little mouth. Which of course makes me want to make a version of the bag with ears and teeth…

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    This is the inside of the cover. There\’s actually a small lace pattern in the triangle that forms the flap, but you can\’t see it since the yarn is so dark.

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    This is with the flap closed. The line of the flap at the point of the triangle is angled down and to the right, which I don\’t like; I want it to be square. What I think I\’ll do is start the next bag from this point, rather than end here, and then cast on the extra stitches for the body and go from there.

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    Even with white in the background, you can\’t see the lace. It\’s a pity, but a good lesson: on dark yarn, use a textural pattern and not lace to see it – or use bigger needles (or block the heck out of it).

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    This is how it looks when I hold it straight, but I\’m still not really happy with the closure. I do want to find a cool wooden button to use for the clasp, and I may make a prototype with a button since it will be used in the field on the fly.

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    And here is the back in all its glory. I did the top part in a garter rib pattern that actually looks quite nice in this yarn; I may do the whole thing next time in that stitch for added padding against the camera body.

    Another thought I have is to do a lining, so that there\’s extra padding to protect the camera – I just don\’t want the bag to be too bulky. We shall see.

  • Spring Bag

    Iā€™m on a kick to make more gift bags. I found a cool overdye at Michaelā€™s, and I like the colors. I think it looks like Spring or Ostara.

    I did the top as straight knitting, but I used a knitted cast on instead of long tail. I like the way it comes out, since you canā€™t really see the edge and it looks very neat and clean. Itā€™s looser than long tail, too, which is nice; although when working that first row off the cast on row it sometimes is tight.

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    I used a slip-stitch pattern from Barbara Walkerā€™s stitch dictionary, A First Treasury of Knitting Patterns which has been re-released by Schoolhouse Press. I actually didnā€™t like the way it looked with this yarn, which surprised me. I have found it to be pretty on some overdyes, whereas on others it looks flat and muddy ā€“ which I thought it did, here.

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    I switched back to plain knitting for the next segment, and then experimented with a Garter Rib. I tried doing the plain rows by switching between knit and purl by row for the first segment, then doing purl every straight row for the final segment.

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    It wasnā€™t until I finished and turned the bag inside out to seam it that I realized my error ā€“ I did the stitch inside-out!

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    I like the way it turned out, but for the next bag with this yarn Iā€™ll do the garter rib for the whole thing and see how that looks. I used the three needle bind of for the end and made a 3-stitch i-cord for the cord. On the whole, I like how it looked.

    The yarn is worsted-weight, and I used a size 7 needle, which is much smaller than Iā€™d usually use for this yarn thickness. The resultant fabric is quite dense, which I like for the purpose of the gift bag.

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