Tag Archives: knit

Let’s Design Something Together

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I have an idea.  Dangerous, I know.  But I think this will be fun.

I’d like to design a new pattern, and I’d like you guys to all come along through the journey.  Does that sound like fun?  I’ll take you through my design process, from idea creation to the finished pattern.notebook-with-pencil[1]Where do we start?  What are we going to make?  Sometimes a design element will pop into my head first (a particularly cool cable, or a pretty lace pattern), but usually I decide on a project type first.

So.  What shall we make?  Socks? A hat?  A scarf?  Or something for the home?  A pot holder or a washcloth?

What do you want to see?  Do you have any ideas of your own?

Once we have a project picked out, we’ll work together to design the item together.  This will be fun!  I’m excited!

More Linen Stitch!

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I’m kind of in love with the linen stitch.  It’s haunting my dreams and dancing through my head.  I may have a problem.  It’s so fiddly and such slow going, but I absolutely love how it looks.

And, even though it takes a while to work up, it’s a really simple pattern-so easy to memorize!

Cast on an even number of stitches and follow these 2 rows:

RS rows: (K1, bring yarn to front, slip 1, bring yarn to back) repeat to end.

WS rows: (P1, bring yarn to back , slip 1, bring yarn to front) repeat to end.

Easy!  Let’s do it together.

On the right side, start with the yarn in back.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAKnit 1OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABring the yarn to the front, between your two needles.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASlip 1 stitch from the left needle to the right.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABring the yarn back to the back, and do the whole thing again (and again and again).OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOnce you finish your row, flip your knitting to work back and forth.  Start this row with your yarn in front.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAPurl 1.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABring the yarn back, between your needles.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASlip 1 stitch.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABring the yarn in front again, and keep repeating until you reach the end.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAfter a while, your right side will start to look like this (which people say looks like woven fabric.  I don’t know if I agree with that, but it does look cool.)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAnd your wrong side will look all cool and bumpy and textured.  I almost like it more than the right side.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve made these samples using a different, random color each row, but the linen stitch looks great in one color, knit with variegated yarn or using two or three repeating colors.  The linen stitch is a great way to play with color mixing!

Have you ever used the linen stitch before?  What did you make with it?

Husband Sweater: The Body

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My husband’s sweater is coming along (slowly, but I’m still making progress).  It’s looking pretty good, if I say so myself.

I split off the arms a while ago and have been working on the body.

See?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI actually modified the body a bit from the pattern, which should make the sweater a little more fitted.  When I was measuring my husband’s favorite cardigan to pick the size for this one, I noticed that the torso was slightly tapered.  The chest measurement was 40″, while the waist was 36″ around.

I figured, why not add a little waist shaping into this sweater?  That’s why we knit, right?  To make beautiful, customized garments.

So, it was time to do some math (Yay!).

I knew I wanted to decrease 4″ (which comes to about 20 stitches, based on my gauge).  And, I wanted to arrange the decreases in pairs underneath the armpits, along the “side seams” (this sweater is knit in the round, so there aren’t seams, but you can imagine where they would be).  This means, that each time I work a decrease row, I’m decreasing 4 stitches (2 under each arm).

So: 20 decreases total / 4 decreases per row = 5 decrease rows.

I wanted the decrease rows to be spread evenly down the torso.  Based on the Emilien pattern, there are 88 rows between the armpits and the top of the hem ribbing.

So: 88 rows total / 5 decrease rows = 17.6

Because you can’t knit .6 of a row, round to 18.  So, I work a decrease row (decreasing 4 stitches under the arms) every 18th row (ish).

A couple inches doesn’t seem like it’d make a lot of difference, but you’d be surprised.  Adding just a few k2togs will change this sweater from a standard, boxy cardigan to a cool, slightly fitted one.  I hope my husband will like it!

Inspiration: Heart Day!

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Hey guys!  Heart Day is this weekend.  (Or at least that’s what one of my 7-year-old sewing students told me yesterday.)  So, let’s knit some hearts for your… sweetheart.

This is an adorable card, and (I imagine) wouldn’t take too long to make.  (And now I kind of wish my husband didn’t read the blog, or I would make this card for him…  oh well.)

Valentine Hearts by Elizabeth Murphy

DSC_1041_medium2[1]Everything is cuter with tiny eyes.  (If you haven’t checked out Anna Hrachovec’s other work, you need to do it.  Now.  You’ll thank me.)

Hearts by Anna Hrachovec

handhearts_medium[1]This is a tattoo I wouldn’t be too chicken to get.  (Don’t worry Mom… I’m not getting a tattoo.)

Winged Heart Tattoo by annypurls2474641999_5fa3fe77ff_z[1]Even though I’ve been out of grad school for years, a big part of me is still a biologist, and I love a good anatomical model.  If you’ve got a weirdo scientist side, this pattern might be just what you’re looking for to celebrate “Heart Day.”

Heart by Kristin Ledgett

heart_view_1_medium[1]So eat some chocolate, drink some champagne and bust out your red yarn for Heart Day!

Husband Sweater: Slow and Steady

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I’ve been working away on the sweater for my husband, and I’m starting to make progress.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m already to the armpits!  Woo!  Now I just have to do the rest of the sweater…

The yarn I’m using is a really lovely cotton yarn, and I’m totally in love with the finished fabric.  It’s crazy soft and luxurious-feeling (especially the swatch that I put through the washing machine)!  I know my husband is going to love it.

But you know what I don’t love?  Actually knitting with the stuff.  There’s something about cotton that is kind of hard on my hands.  I don’t know if it’s the fact that it has almost no spring, or if it is stickier on my needles than wool, but it’s a little bit of a pain to knit.  Instead of sitting down in the evening and working through several X-files episodes, like I usually do, I’ve been slogging my way through a couple rows per night, which is making this sweater rather slow going.

But, I think I’m really going to like the finished product (or at least I hope I will!)

Are there any fibers you don’t like working with?  Or am I just being crazy?

Pattern Spotlight: Baktus

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I might have been late to the Hitchhiker party, but I’ve been a member of the Baktus fan club for years.

This super simple long, skinny, triangular shawl/scarf is one of my favorite patters for several reasons:

1.  Garter stitch.  Love.

2.  It’s crazy versatile.  I’ve made Baktuses (Bakti?) from everything from bulky yarn down to fingering weight yarn.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA3.  It looks great worked in those pretty hand-spun skeins you have in your stash that you can’t figure out what to do with (You know, the ones you couldn’t leave at the yarn store, but you have no idea what to use them for.)4357513044_2288fc815f_z[1]4.  The Baktus uses only as much yarn as you happen to have.  If you have three skeins of bulky, it’ll use that much.  If you have one skein of lace-weight, that’ll work, too.  (No weird little leftovers to fuss with!)  Actually, the pattern has you weigh your yarn at the beginning.  You begin the pattern by increasing, then when you have exactly half your yarn left, you decrease, for perfect results every time!

3592484405_e3fa9a5775_z[1]5.  The Baktus scarf is really and truly unisex, and super cool.  P1100072rav_medium2[1]6.  People have used the idea of the Baktus and came up with their own (gorgeous) versions.  Want lace?  Add cool geometric edging?  Or leaf edging?  Maybe you prefer crochet?

5717416916_2d555e0368_z[1]Baktus might be the perfect project.

Have you ever made a Baktus scarf?

It turns out, cats really DO like yarn…

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I’ve never had a cat (or a dog), and I don’t know how you knitters with animals manage it.

For real.

I spent a week at my in-laws’ house, and every time I got out my knitting, this was what happened.

WP_20141229_015*pat pat pat*

It was all cats, all the time.  They were fascinated by my knitting, and kept trying to steal my ball of yarn.  One of them even tried to eat my circular needles.

I had to be very very careful to always put away my knitting securely whenever I got up.

WP_20150101_003At one point, I had to re-skein some lovely grey sock-weight, and the cats insisted on “helping”.  I don’t even know how they figured out what I was doing.  They were on a totally different floor of the house, then, suddenly, they were there.  They must  have some sort of cat RADAR.

They are pretty dang cute, though.  So they have that going for them.

Do you have an animal trying to help with your knitting?  How do you keep your projects safe from little claws and pointy teeth?

A Christmas Eve Gift to You

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If you’re anything like me, you’re probably trying to finish up some last-minute gift knitting.  Maybe it’s 11:00 on Christmas Eve, and everyone else is tucked up warm and snug in their beds, and you’re frantically knitting and purling.  Maybe the house is quiet and still, except for the furious click-click of your US2’s as you try to finish turning that last sock heel.  Maybe all you want to do is drink some eggnog and watch the Muppet Christmas Carol.

I understand.  Believe me.  (The Muppet Christmas Carol is great.)

I have a solution:

Stop knitting.

Just stop knitting, and wrap up your WIP, needles and all, and put it under the Christmas tree with one of these specially-made gift tags:

tag2or:

tag1or maybe:

tag3Then go pour yourself a big glass of eggnog (with a generous helping of rum… it’s the holidays after all).

Get the printable .pdf here:

Christmas Tags

Pattern: Evergreen Cap

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Hey, guys!  I’ve got exciting news!

Who’s got two thumbs and is one of Knit Picks’ newest pattern designers?

This gal.

Totally exciting, right?  As of Monday morning, my first official Knit Picks pattern went up, and, I have to say, it’s one that I’m pretty proud of.  (I’m actually wearing the prototype as I write this.  But that has more to do with the fact that my house is very cold, and less to do with how proud I am.)

This design has been bouncing around in my head for over a year and was finalized months ago.  I’ve been dying to share it with you, and now I can!  Woo hoo!

Also, look:  they even took professional photos with a real-life model (instead of me taking weird-angled shots with my tiny point-and-click camera that eats its battery after five pictures).

55670220_4Ooh… Aah…

55670220_3And, if you want to read the blurb from the website:

“The Evergreen Cap is an exceptionally cozy unisex hat, perfect for everyone on your Christmas list. A richly cabled beanie knit in thick Wool of the Andes Superwash, this hat keeps out even the coldest winter wind. Inspired by the tall cedar trees of the Pacific Northwest, wide cables climb smoothly from the cap’s brim up to the crown. Carefully arranged decreases allow the cables to continue uninterrupted to the very top of the hat.The Evergreen Cap is a quick and lovely accessory for men and women.”

55670220_6Fun, right?!

And, the best part?  It’s free, and just in time for last-minute Christmas knitting!

Get the pattern here:

Evergreen Cap Pattern

Stuck in the Doldrums Again

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It’s my most favorite part of a sweater.  The torso.  Nothing like knitting skein after skein of plain ol’ stockinet stitch with no end in sight.  I’m definitely not bored or anything.  Definitely not letting Grandma’s sweater sit, neglected in a box on the floor of my studio. Nope.  Definitely not doing that.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHere’s my usual process for making a top-down sweater:

1.  Casting on/neck/upper shoulders:  Exciting! I just started on a new project, and I’ve only got a handful of stitches to a row.  I’m flying along!

2.  Lower shoulders:  Sure, I’ve increased up to a couple hundred stitches, so any one row is a pain, but I get to work some cool colorwork.  It’s still pretty fun, and the added fair isle keeps it interesting.

3.  Split for arms:  I get do do some math, and even break out the stitch holders.  Excitement abounds!

4.  Body:  The worst.  Really, pattern?  You want me to knit 12 inches of stockinet over 200 stitches?  No.  I will set fire to the sweater instead.

5.  Bottom ribbing:  Hallelujah!  I am just so happy to be knitting something other than the body!

6.  First arm:  Woo Hoo! Look how fast I can knit when I only have 70 stitches to work per row!  It’s practically flying off my needles!

7.  Second arm:  Didn’t I already do this?  Hurmph.  I think I might get bored, but at least If I finish this step, I’m almost done!  I can power through.

8.  Collar and button band:  Aren’t I finished already?  I’m pretty sure I should be finished.  Oh well, I guess I’ve got to keep going.

9.  Finishing:  Yeah!  Nearly there!  Maybe I if I don’t go to bed until 2:00, I can get this finished in time to wear it to work tomorrow?  That’s acceptable, right?

 

So, wish me luck, cheer me on, and hopefully I’ll get past Step 4.  I’ve still got a looong way to go (and I have to make it before Christmas)!