Selected projects February 2014 - May 2014

Work Over the Long Weekend

Applique on linen - embellishment yet to come

organic cotton on size 2 needles

Pink meditation shawl - growing

Cotton and viscose meditation shawl in basketweave

This weekend's lineup - I'm switching between projects.

Wrapped cotton

Wash cloth, cotton, garter stitch, size 3 bamboo cable needle, 24 in.

This is the knitting that I keep around the office so that on days like this, when I forget to pack my knitting, I have something to knit on my lunch break.  I've had this cotton for years and tried to think of what to do, and now I'm happy to make cloths and towels for the kitchen.  My sources for these things have grown too old to knit, so I am taking my turn.

In the Studio: Lots of Work in Progress

Once the fatigue from three shows in December wore off, I got back to the work in progress bin and started some new pieces:

Three olive green yarns,two cotton and one mohair

Strips of fabric in garter stitch

Cotton Knitted tape, knitting two skeins at a time, alternating rows between skeins

Pale cottons

One silk yarn with beads and one mohair yarn in a stockinette with eyelets stitch

Silk, cotton and linen in basketweave stitch

In the studio - bamboo and cotton

Scarf, bamboo and cotton, garter stitch, size 7 bamboo cable needle, 24 in.

I love several things about this project. I like the way there's just enough contrast between the values of the neutral color, and I love the way the yarn feels as it is going through my fingers. It will be a lovely spring and summer scarf.

From one work in progress to another

Triangle shawl; mixed fibers: bamboo, mohair, linen, silk, cotton; stockinette stitch, size 3 carbon fiber cable needle, 24 in.

This big cake of yarns at the top of the photo was in a bag with the balls separate yarns, orphaned after I finally tossed the work in progress they were put together to make. The yarns were carefully cut and tied together in a somewhat random order into the big cake. Yesterday I bumped into the bag as I was scrounging through my stash and decided to alternate the lavender boucle mohair with it.  It's essentially the same shawl pattern as the one in the abandoned and tossed wip, but I think the lavender mitigates the strength of the contrasts in the other yarns.

Greens

Scarf; cotton, linen, angora; stockinette stitch with seed stitch border; size US 5 vintage plastic double pointed needles, 10 in.

This is what I am carrying in my tote bag every day, knitting on the bus. The lighter yarn is cotton and linen and the darker yarn is cotton and angora.  It's my stockinette version of the alternating rows pattern as explained using garter stitch by Britt-Marie Christoffersson in Pop Knitting

Breaking out the bright colors

Scarf; mixed fibers (12 yarns); stockinette stitch; size 5 wood needles, 14 in.

I went deep into my collection of mohairs and pulled out all these lively colors.  I'm combining them with spring greens/yellows to amp up everything. Whee!!!

Bulky tufted pink funkiness

Scarf; mixed fibers, wool, acrylic; garter stitch in long rows, size US 13 wood cable needle, 32 in.

This worked up in a day and was a lot of fun.  I've been collecting really bulky handspun yarns that  range from gray to brown with a rich pink and have had a giant Rowan tufted pink yarn for a few years. I decided to throw in an Artful Yarns old acrylic and wool blend yarn called Palace because it has almost all the other colors in it.  It was time to crank out something wonderful.  It's really warm and about 70 inches long, so it will wrap a couple times with length to spare.

Two for the show

Black silk and alpaca

Black and white nylon fuzzy on a plain wool base

Black scarf; alpaca and silk blend, rib stitch, size US 3 wood needle, 10 in. and Bland and white shawl, black wool with white nylon "eyelash", seed stitch, size 7 cable needle, 32 in.

I finished both of these for the December shows and sales but didn't get a chance to photograph them. 

The black ribbed scarf was dreamy to make due to the lovely hand produced by the silk and alpaca.  

The black and white shawl in-progress entry from December 2011 (!!!) talks about one plan, but I decided to drop the idea of the fasteners because I just haven't been able to make any that look good. It ended up being a deliciously soft and luxurious mondo shawl. I had a huge amount of the yarn - 10 balls.  I took a really long time to finish due to the change in idea, but also because it's honking BIG.  I changed back and forth between straight needles and the cable a couple times, just to break it up a little bit.  It seemed heavier on the straight needles.

Finale!

Scarf; mixed fibers, wool, cotton, silk; garter stitch, size US 3 cable needle, 16 in.

Yes! You can see many stages in this Sept. 30 post and now the finale.  I love the garter stitch in alternating rows. 

I'm now trying the alternating rows technique in both seed stitch and stockinette stitch, and it works for both.  Expect lots more photos of projects using this technique!

Classic Stripes

Scarf; wool, cashmere; rib stitch; size US 6 wood needles, 10 in.

Each yarn was used for two rows forming a nice solid stripe in each color.  The rib made a nice vertical contrast with the horizontal stripes.

Triangle shawl of nylon and mohair.

Complete!

Triangle shawl, mohair, nylon, rayon, woven or linen stitch, size 9 wood cable needle, 32 in.

This has been an exploration of using shiny nylon tapes.  In this piece I combined the tapes with mohair yarns and so-called "ladder" or "railroad" yarns, making a fuzzy and shiny shawl.  I know the two photos look like two different shawls.  Some is due to lighting, but the rest is due to the way that the woven stitch can be done in a way that produces the vertical striping on the "back" side, or the reverse stockinette side.  This pieced helped me discover this effect and I'm obsessing with it by doing it on purpose with lots of other work. I used about 15 yarns in rows that alternated between "cool" colors and "warm" colors.  The photos don't show the range of hues and values, which go from deep blue/black to shell pink through orange, purples, blues and reds.

The nylon tape makes it heavy. I like the way the nylon looks, but that's about all the good I can say about it.

Aqua

Scarf; silk, mohair, alpaca, bamboo, lurex, sequins; garter stitch, size US 9 needles

One of my first visits to Fabulous Yarns, or Fab Yarns, or whatever they call themselves, in Tivoli, New York, involved lovingly selecting these yarns.  Their beauty attracted me immediately and I have very much enjoyed working with them.  They include a heavy silk singly ply yarn with brass sequins, a brushed suri with a bamboo core and a very light mohair twisted with a lurex strand.  This to me is the ultimate party scarf.

Wild Thang

Complete!!

Triangle shawl, mixed fibers; garter stitch; size US 10 wood cable needle, 32 in.

This worked up rather quickly with bulky yarns and carrying two strands. I finished it December 14.  I was inspired by the popcorn yarn that I got in San Diego  three years ago.  I just had to do something crazy with it.  I added two laceweight teal wools knitted together, an old heavy sari silk yarn, a beautiful purple all silk worsted, a couple of complex wild things with metallic strands and a custom dyed strange fleecey yarn by Prism.

It's warm and heavy, works well as a BIG babushka scarf.

Woven stitch - reverse stockinette side

Scarf; mohair, wool, silk; linen or woven stitch; size 5 vintage aluminum needles, 14 in.

I'm using different values of gray, alternating light and dark values so that this verticle stripes effect appears on the revers side. I'm becoming obsessed with this effect and am trying it in all kinds of fibers and gauges. It's very lightweight, warm and fuzzy.

Cotton and linen for spring

Scarf, cotton and cotton/linen/viscose blend, stockinette with garter ridges, size 7 needles

The linen gives this scarf heft and drape, and I adore the sea green sort of background with the standout ridges in different colors.

Eyelets in stockinette

Triangle shawl, silk and mohair yarns, size 4 US vintage plastic cable needle, 24 in.

I'm playing with this eyelet pattern in a basic stockinette stitch because I can add four stitches each row and easily maintain the pattern.  The mohair yarn is very fine, so the contrast with the thick one ply silk is striking, and it makes a nice variation on the stockinette pattern.

More garter stitch!

Scarf, mixed fibers, lace weight, garter stitch, on size 0 US size cable needle, 24 in

I'm using both ends of a skein of Taiyo lace weight yarn by Noro for this scarf, still enthralled by the garter stitch pattern from the Chrisstofferson book.