knitting – Page 36 – Daily Fiber

July Knitting

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Laura Kate

The wild storm that blew through here Sunday night left behind the most glorious, cool and dry air. With early morning temperatures in the upper 60’s, it’s just fine for knitting en plein aire. What better project for summer knitting than baby sweaters?

The knitting you see in the photo is the body of a sweater for Baby L. By the time real sweater weather arrives, she will be one year old. So I have sized this sweater in the 12-18 month range. This design is a yoked and button cardigan with a very full body slightly gathered at the chest. Here is my schematic.

I feel excitement at my future of making many knitted garments for a little girl. So many design elements to choose from – the head spins. I would call this one a vintage style, which is built upon a 12-stitch lace pattern sourced from Barbara Abbey’s The Complete Book of Knitting (1971 by Viking Press.) I will use Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage system and instructions for the Fair Isle yoke sweater found in The Opinionated Knitter (Schoolhouse Press) to fashion the yoke. The sweater is constructed from the hem up. As Elizabeth writes, “Body to underarm, sleeves to underarm, UNITE, which … sounds rather like a rallying call.”

Below please note the instructions from Abbey’s book and accompanying chart for the baby fern lace pattern: FYI, my gauge in pattern is 20 stitches = 4 in.

Now what to do with the sleeves? I decided that they would be bloused sleeves, not tapered, so as to match the body. In studying the lace pattern, I noticed that the lace panels are separated by a 3-stitch mini pattern of garter – stockinette – garter. If I expand this slightly and add two more garter stitches between the stockinette, I will have a 7 stitch pattern that works well with the lace. Here is how it looks:

**Knitted outdoors this morning, enjoying sixty-seven degree air.**

So that’s all the major decisions made. I will use the same 7-stitch pattern on the yoke. I only have two balls of this Berroco “Comfort” yarn. If I run low of yarn at the yoke, I will throw in some contrasting color rows. Oh, this is going to be fun!

crochet, knitting

Playing with Dolls: The Purple Yogi

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Laura Kate

Like many women in my demographic, I get my exercise by practicing yoga. I don’t remember when I got the idea to make a purple yogi, but I know where. It was during a yoga session. While searching for a drishti (otherwise know as a focal point) in the middle of forming tree pose, my eyes glanced at a ceramic yogi in seated position. Breaking my concentration, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to make a posable figure from yarn and wire?”

Thus was conceived the Purple Yogi. He is constructed of yarn, florist’s wire, a little fiber fill and some white glue. The gestation period was about three months, and the birth itself took two half days of work. I started with a sketch, and proceeded in single crochet to make his torso and head.

Next I crocheted down from the waist to make a pair of manly hips. The arms were knit in I-cord. One wire was inserted through the body at shoulder height and slipped inside both the arms.

The legs came next. I inserted a wire through the hips, with loops where the ball sockets would be. A wire was inserted into each loops and stretched down for the legs. The I-cord legs had two increase rows, to make them a more tapered shape. Then the knitted legs were slipped over the wires, sewn to the body, and a little glue added to shape his feet. Here is the completed doll.

**Yogi is sitting still while his gluey feet dry.**

**Here he is in seated pose, ready to start his first yoga session.**

I discovered very quickly that he could not sustain a pose without a sticky mat. I cut one out of a rug grip pad. Okay, Yogi, let’s strike a pose or two!

This project really made me smile. It’s good to play, even if one is a bit old for dolls.

knitting

National Knit in Public Day

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Laura Kate

What’s on your needles?

hand embroidery, knitting

The Luna Moth Returns

Posted on May 19, 2019May 20, 2019 by Laura Kate

I’m finally getting back to the little knitted baby dress. After I became inspired by the Luna moth in my backyard, I decided to embroider a Luna on the green dress. I had finished knitting it a few weeks ago. Today I completed the embroidery. Here is the Luna moth image which served as my model.

And here is the baby dress from the front view.

My plan is to work the embroidery on the back of the dress. But first, I will need to reinforce the yarn so that it can support the embroidery stitches.

This is a very lightweight version of fusible interfacing. It actually flexes with the knitted fabric. Next I drew a pattern of the moth and pinned it to the dress.

I was forced to shorten the moth’s back wings, in order to fit the dimensions of the dress. To transfer this pattern to the dress I simply stitched all around it with white thread. The embroidery took a couple of hours. I tried to use colors that were true to nature. Here is a picture of the finished piece.