Recognition at Patternfish!

Editor’s Choice!

This January the editor of Patternfish newsletter became intrigued with a new technique I’m developing – a new way of putting knit and purl rows together. I’ve written three patterns using this technique and she featured them in the newsletter.

Take a look! (Scroll down the newsletter a bit to find me)

Gayle found my knitted brass piece on my blog and included that in the bottom of the newsletter too.

I love days like this!

The most current pattern I’ve written using this technique is called Anna Dorothy – in honor of my maternal grandmother.

I adored my Grandma, Dorothy, and after she died we found her birth certificate: she was christened Anna Dorothy. Knowing this makes me miss her more.

This shawl is for you Grandma!

It’s a race! Cold weather vs. finished pullover.

I love the local library! I found a gem of a book titled,”Latvian Dreams, Knitting from Weaving Patterns” by Joyce Williams. It was full of charts with geometric designs. The sweater patterns in the book were fashioned after the gansey, very little shaping, with the focus on the two color patterns. The sweater is knit in a traditional style of knitting in the round and using steeks at armholes and collar.

I decided to try the “High Park Pullover”. In the book it is shown in blue and white – but I think (and am hoping) that I have enough fine weight alpaca to knit this (with long sleeves). Years ago I bought tons of alpaca yarn from Richness Alpaca. I’ve been looking for a project to use it all up and I have found it!

I am racing the snow – my goal is to be wearing this sweater the first time I shovel!

15 more rows and I am at the collar!

The first inch of rows were the hardest. Now that I have figured out the repeats I don’t have to look at every stitch on the chart while knitting. I’ve had to frog a few rows but luckily not too often.

Bottom of alpaca hand knit sweater

The book has a fun approach to the sweater patterns. Charts show the geometric patterns in the shape of the sweaters. Gauges for different weight yarns are listed and depending on which yarn you use you adjust the pattern by number of repeats. For my sweater I added 20 stitches to the charted pattern in order to get the correct size – One 10st repeat for the front and one for the back.

Alpaca sweater, center stitches

I can’t wait to get to the sleeve – see how clever the design is where the sleeves meets the body of the sweater! I’ll have to walk around waving my arms in the air to show it off.

Photo of underarm for High Park pullover

I can get one round done in about 20 minutes. The sweater is charted at 270 rows. . .  (not including the sleeves, I haven’t looked at those yet) I don’t want to do the math! I’m planning on working both sleeves at the same time because I’ll have to tweak the pattern and also because I’m not sure how far my different colors of yarn will stretch. Knitting both sleeves at the same time will help me use up the yarn and make sure the sleeves look the same. The sleeves are worked from the top down, picking up sts at the armholes and working down to the cuffs, and that’s a lot of fabric on my lap. Doing both sleeves at the same time prevents sleeve slap (that happens while turning the sweater to knit the second sleeve and the one that is done swings around and slaps you).

I’ll post pics of me in it – shovelling.

Another Meghan’s Wrap, Hand knit Shawl

I just finished another Meghan’s Wrap. It is knit in Sockittome (brown) from Cherry Tree Hill and the white is a yarn is from Yarn2Dye4.

The high contrast of these colors shows off the fun shapes of the blocks of color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pattern is easy to knit and fast! It takes a bit of getting used to knitting sock yarn on size US 10 1/2 needles and moves along quickly once you do. A nice drape results from such open knitting

Instead of adding the beads up the fringe as I did on my first wrap, I put three beads on the end of each fringe.

Knitting Cowichan Sweaters

Cowichan Sweater sample

On April 30th I took an all day class at Yarn Over (sponsored by the Minnesota Knitters’ Guild) on knitting Cowichan Sweaters with Joan Schrouder. (Joan is retiring from teaching at the end of this year, so I feel fortunate to have had this class with her!) Not only did I learn about Native Tribes of the Pacific North West  I learned some really fun techniques that I can use on my other knitting as well! I really enjoyed spending this rainy day inside knitting.

The “baby” sweater shown above took me the full 6 hours of class to knit.  It measures about 20″ around and 12 inches long. I started the sleeve on one side to get the idea of how it is done. . .I don’t think I will knit anymore of this because I’m afraid it is too small for even a tiny human:) The yarn is a bulky yarn that I purchased from Gale Woods Farm – a lovely lovely yarn! (after I wound it into a ball, I kept it on my desk so I can gaze upon it because I love the texture and sheen so much!) The arrow shapes around the belly part are traditional and sometimes are knit so the direction of the arrow changes direction in the center of the back. I knit it the same all the way around.

The collar isn’t wide enough.  If I would have made more increases to widen it, the collar would fold back better and be nice and neat. Here is a good example of learning something by doing it wrong.

Close up of my too narrow collar

Adult sweaters weigh 4 to 5 pounds and are usually about 1/2 ” thick because they are knit using two strands of bulky single ply wool. Yes, two strands even when no pattern is shown. The stitches are twisted around each other over the color patterns and when knitting with 2 strands of the same color. Knitting with two strands of the same color keeps the sweater the same weight throughout. If you only knit with two strands on the color patterned part and not the solid part the sweater would have areas of thick and areas of thin knitting. . . it wouldn’t be as warm or as consistently stable.

Arrow pattern as seen from the inside

here is a close up of the inside of the arrow design. If I do say so myself it is a nice and tidy job of weaving in the carried yarn!

Inside of the bird pattern

here is the inside close up view of the bird pattern. . . I carried the gray yarn all the way across even though the pattern of the bird didn’t fill up that much of the back.

the "public" side of the bird pattern on the back

This is the right or “public” side of the back showing the traditional bird pattern. It looks pretty good – not as smooth as I would like it to be – the carrying/weaving of the second  color on the inside shows through to the outside a bit. But this is “traditional” for this type of knitting and I’m learning to appreciate it. You can see under the bird, where it is all white – I was carrying the yarn in the same way but with 2 strands of the same color. I also need just a bit more practice (or more time:)) on picking up for the sleeves. The sleeve caps are done with short rows. A few stitches are picked up across the shoulder seam and then working back and forth you pick up stitches down the armhole. Very cool!

Cowichan Sweater Shoulder bind off

This is one of the coolest things I learned during this class. It is a way to do a 3-needle bind off that creates the look of two crochet chains down the seam. This gave me the idea for a new project – - – not telling just yet – - – but look for it soon. I had a great day and can’t wait to knit an adult size sweater.

I recently met a woman from Montana who raises Navaho Sheep. . . when she has some spun I’ll get to knit a sweater out of it! Can’t wait!

Here are a few places to find out more info about Cowichan Sweaters and the people who knit them.

An interesting article about Cowichan Sweaters and copyright issues that arose around them during the Olypmics

Link to a an artist that has some interesting history about North American Tribes and their weaving and knitting.

A link to Sa-Cinn – a place to buy original Cowichan sweaters and hats.

Free hand knit scarf pattern using my new technique!

I really don’t know what to call this yet. . . is it a pattern? Probably. This fun scarf was my first attempt at my new way to knit stockinette. Really! Knit a row, purl a row. The trick is to knit on circular needles because you will be slipping the stitches back and forth. It’s much easier to do than to write about. . .try it, you’ll like it!

Both sides of the fabric are the same and no rolling edges!

Scarf knit in Corntastic yarn from collage

Maybe I should call this my corn row technique because I first tried it on this scarf knit in Corntastic from Kollage – 100% corn fiber! It is really soft and has a beautiful drape! It knits a bit like linen in that it doesn’t have much stretch and it did tend to split if I wasn’t careful.

Here is the free pattern for this scarf: You can knit this in any 2 colors of yarn and get a great result. I’m finding that high contrast colors show off the pattern best.

Corntastic from Kollage 105 yards/50 grams

1 skein each of Amethyist and Citrine

Size 5 circular needle – (can be any length)

Scarf size:40″ long x 5″ wide

Cast on 30 stitches.

For the braided look on the edge I did this (but you don’t have to of course) (An even number of stitches is requried.)  Row 1 *Knit 1 A, knit 1 B*  repeat from *

Row 2 Knit 1 with B, *pick up A under B and knit 1 with A, pick up B under A and knit 1 with A* repeat from *

Row 3 *Pick up B over A and knit 1 B, pick up A over B and knit one A* repeat across.

The yarn will be twisting around itself but I think untangling it is well worth the beautiful edge it creates. I first learned this technique from Anna Zilboorg in her book Magnificent Mittens.

Now for the main part of the pattern:

Pick up A and bring it over B (always do this when starting with A)

Row 1 Knit across with A. Slide stitches to the other end of the needle. (do not turn work around as usual)

Row 2 Purl across with B. (now you can turn to the other side)

Repeat these two rows. That’s it. Really. Work these two rows to desired length, then work rows 1 to 3 of the braid and bind off.

If you want to change which one is “in the valley” as I think of it, or “on top of the row” switch colors. You can see the difference in the closeup below: The scarf on top has Citrine as A (it seems more on top) and Amethyst is B. For the part of the scarf that is shown underneath, I switched A and B – so now A is the amethyst and Citrine is B (or in the valley). The stitches will be closer together (and on top) for color  A. The B color stitches are lower, or in the valley. I hope you have as much fun knitting in this way as I do. And be sure to catch my fingerless gloves class at Shepherd’s Harvest, May 8th.

Corn row Scarf Close up

More fingerless knit in my new stitch pattern

I don’t really know what to call this: is it a stitch, a pattern, a stitch pattern? I’m really only knitting in stockinette – knit a row, purl a row – but adding a hitch.

Haleigh loves her new fingerless mitts

On a circular needle cast on the required number of stitches (yes it is a secret to be revealed later) Knit one row with color A (in this case the blue). Slide all the stitches to the other end of the needle and purl with color B ( in this case the red).

I knit these yesterday for my 7 year old niece. These mitts are the size we will make in the class I’m teaching at Shepherd’s Harvest in May.

Fingerless mitts make it easy to throw a big softball!

New!! Knit cap becomes dish warmer!

Norwegian hand knit cap, becomes dish warmer

This picture is a bit old. . . it was taken Thanksgiving 2010. We cooked greens for our family get together and needed a way to keep them warm on the car ride to my brother’s house. Aha! Grab that old cap I knit about 10 years ago. It worked perfectly!

It actually made the perfect dish warmer!

Turn down the brim and it fit.

Greens arrived still hot!

Fun with Fair Isle Color Knitting

Knit and fulled Coasters

I have a great collection of mitten and sock pattern books that I love to page through and look at the designs. Sometimes I crave a small knitting project in color work but I don’t want to spend the time it takes to knit a pair of mittens or socks. . . so I came up with a great idea.

Fulled coasters in Fair Isle knitting!!

Knit and Fulled Coaster #7

Thinking that the fulling would prevent the dreaded stockinette roll I was sadly mistaken. Taking a different approach, I knit the second one starting with 3 stitches, increasing each side to approx 30 stitches wide, then decreasing each side down to three stitches. I ended up with a square coaster that didn’t roll. For some reason working the color pattern on the diagonal resulted in flat coasters! COOL!

I had odd amounts of 100% wool yarn from Gale Woods Farm that worked out great; the worsted weight worked up really fast, the wool fulled easily and I could use up my odd amounts. I knit these on size 9 needles and fulled them in the washing machine.

It was a little tricky changing the orientation of the designs. If the design was set in a diamond already it was easy to knit the Fair Isle and work the increases and decreases without worry. But a few of these I had to rechart to keep my place while knitting and shaping.

It was also a fun way to see how the pattern looks when different colors became the foreground or background.

These coasters are the same design but the colors are reversed.

I’m going to remember this. Next time I knit a big project using color work, I will first knit a few coasters while experimenting with the color.

Look what I found in my closet!

I was rooting around in my yarn boxes the other day and found this sweater that I knit TEN years ago! The poor thing needed one sleeve sewn in and the collar knit. Lucikly there was a partial skein of each of the yarns left in the box with the sweater so I could knit the collar.
I must have been planning for the future when designing this because it fits me now. This would look so great on the slopes . . . if only I were a skier!

I have a book of charts titled “Charted Peasant Designs from Saxon Transylvania” and spend many an hour looking through the charts in awe. These birds always attracted me and now I find I’ve knit them into a sweater! I totally forgot about this sweater. . . hard to believe.

The sweater is knit in the round and armholes are steeked. The yarn is Plymouth Galway.

I also love that curly cue “S” design. The shoulders have two stripes of this “S”design on the front and the back.

It also runs up the sides of the body and the sides of the sleeves. I knit the sleeves in the round and worked the increases on each side of the stripe. Makes a good looking sleeve!

Knitting soars at the Olympics

One of my indulgences in life is to get and read the Sunday NY times newspaper.
The magazine section on Feb 7th featured a photo portfolio of Olympian hieghts by RyanMcGinley that was awesome.
Photos of skiers, snowboarders and skaters as they are airborn AND wearing knits.
Check it out.