Continuing the "Barbarian" series

Capelet, wool, acrylic, size 13 cable needle, seed stitch

It all started with a tufted pink yarn from Rowan that just screamed "SIXTIES".  I added a couple handspun chunky yarns and filled in with chunky contributions from my staff and voila!

Little Hands Studio

Chunky nylon fleece

Triangle scarf, nylon, size 11 cable needle garter stitch

The cheery colors of this scarf always make me happy.

In my Etsy shop  Little Hands Studio

Honest Weight Submissions August 2014

I was a participant in the 2013 Craft Fair and exhibited both paper and fiber works.  If my work is accepted I will be exhibiting various types of paper and fiber work, including knitted and crocheted wraps, and greeting cards. The photos below are representative of my work.

Knitted scarf, Silk and Mohair

Knitted Shawl, Silk and Cotton

Knitted Shawl, Silk and Mohair

The following are examples of paper collage greeting cards.

In the Studio - Blue Cotton and Green Silk

Shawl, cotton, silk and a strand of lurex, woven (linen) stitch, size 7 nickle cable needle, 40 in.

At the time of this photo there are 12 rows to be done in order to complete the shawl and make it 70 or so inches long. The green silk and blue cotton are lovely together and make a firm fabric on the size 7 needle, which is on the small size.  I enjoy the tightness and weight of the fabric, which is great for summer.

In the Studio - fluffy and shiny

Capelet, mixed fibers, stockinette stitch, size 9 bamboo cable needle, 32 in and 16 in.

I felt a sudden urge last week to get back to one of my favorite combinations and so I scrounged around for mohair yarns and railroad or ladder yarns. I found some extra fuzzy yellow mohair from when Webs used to have an entire room of mohair cones back in the warehouse.

In the Studio - Back to Black

Capelet, mixed fibers, stockinette stitch, size 10 wood cable needle, 32"

I went into my black yarns stash and pulled out a couple fuzzy yarns, a boucle, a springy merino and a few others to make this wonderful summer capelet.  The size 10 needle makes it work up quickly, so I hope in the near future to be able to really show how the fabric is sort of lacy.

Wild theeng looks like a shawl!

Shawl, mixed fibers, rib stitch, size 8 aluminum needles - 14 in.

At least 16 yarns comprise this fabric, so it requires a big bag to hold everything together.  That makes it less good for traveling or social knitting.  It requires setting up in a chair that can hold all those balls of yarn, then cutting lengths of yarn either while knitting, or cutting a whole bunch of lengths.  I prefer cutting a lot of lengths and then winding them into a ball because I have tried just cutting lengths and putting them in a pile.  Inevitably there is some need to move the pile and then the yarns start to tangle and there's more time managing the yarn than there is knitting!  But all this is worth it. This earlier photo shows the yarns close up.

In the Studio: Baby Binky

Baby blanket, organic non-dyed cotton, easy lace stitch, size 7 cherry wood cable needle, 32 in.

This is a pattern from the 80s that I thought would be lovely and I like it quite a bit, although it's quirky.  The original pattern used one color, but I like having the big stripes of color. This cotton shrinks quite a bit so I'll be making a rather large piece of fabric and then shrinking it down in the wash.

I've had to rip out quite a lot because my concentration hasn't been what it takes - I space out and get a stitch wrong in one row and it doesn't show up til the next row or two, so I have to rip back to the error.  But it's worth it in order to get the subtle zig zag effect in the overall fabric pattern right. It's a yo, k2tog repetition offset by one stitch each row to get the bias ridge along the fabric, so missing one stitch gets everything off kilter!

It moves along swiftly, so it ought to be complete while the infant is still an infant   8-)

In the studio - aqua silks and alpaca

The rib stitch is best seen in the left photo on the bottom right.

Shawl, mixed fibers: silk, alpaca, bamboo, nylon, metal sequins, beads; rib and mesh "simple lace" stitch; size 7 aluminum cable needle, 32 in.

As I was working on another shawl with lighter value colors I came across the left over yarn from this scarf  (January 1, 2014 entry) and wanted to take advantage of the uplifting feeling I get from aqua.  I scrounged through the stash and found some other lovely aqua remnants and decided to try this lovely rib stitch.

I worked most of one day figuring out the pattern with a couple of other yarns, so I thought doing a little more of it would help me get into the rhythm of it.  I was skipping a comma in the first pattern row and doing  k2tog yo twice instead of k2tog, yo twice.  After working on that other piece and now this piece I don't think I can mess up easily.

I'm doing long rows of 300 stitches so it will self fringe on the short ends.

In the studio: the wild theeng

Shawl, mixed fibers, rib stitch, size 8 aluminum needles - 14 in.

This has about a thousand ends due to changing yarn frequently.  I decided instead of trying to hide them all, which doesn't work anyway, that I would sew on top of them in a satin stitch and at the same time embellish the surface to just go over the top.    heh heh

It's definitely satisfying that craving for crazy.

Selected projects February 2014 - May 2014