Tag: adapting a design

Posted in knitting

Cast-on Monday – Crescent Shawl

Posted on by Laura Kate

My new project is in keeping with my desire to work with my stash. I have been wanting to make a shawl with this purple yarn, called Leticia, by Bremont.

It is a singles yarn (for you non-knitters, that means it’s not plied.) Three fibers are blended together: wool, alpaca and silk. I own three skeins. Over the past few years, I have tried unsuccessfully to pair it with another yarn, so that I could make a two-color shawl.

Last week, while wasting a lot of time viewing yarns on the Jimmy Beans site (https://www.jimmybeanswool.com/ ) I discovered the perfect match from Malabrigo.

I ordered two skeins lickety-split and they arrived post-haste within three days. This yarn, also a singles, combines silk and merino wool about 50/50. It’s hard to describe the silky sheen of this yarn, (I was almost swooning while casting it on and knitting the first few rows.)

For my pattern, I re-visited a Craftsy tutorial by Laura Nelkin, in which she explains how to design 14 different shawl shapes. It’s fantastic, if you don’t mind doing a little math. I chose the crescent shape.

https://www.craftsy.com/class/knit-shawls-14-ways-exploring-shape-design/

My two-color shawl inspiration comes from Helen Kennedy’s Pale Moon pattern on Ravelry.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pale-moon

I love the way the mosaic section bridges the two colors of yarn. But instead of making Pale Moon, I would prefer to use Laura Nelkins’ instructions for the shape and design a mosaic chart of my own.

My first attempt at designing a mosaic pattern, unfortunately, was a failure. Apparently, there are some hard and fast rules about sequencing slipped stitches between the two colors. So back I go to my graph paper for a re-do.

Posted in knitting

Finished Object Friday: Cozzy Cusco Kimono

Posted on by Laura Kate

My goal was to make a loose and decorative wrap and this project is just that. It is a mash-up of two patterns. I used the slip stitch chart from Cozzy Shawl…..

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cozzy-shawl

……….and the shaping instructions from Cusco, by Cheryl Oberle

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cusco

The result is a garment unlike either of them. I threw in a few random stripe sections and eyelet rows. I also cast on way more stitches than the Cusco pattern called for to create more length.

An unplanned bonus was doing the photo shoot in the snow.

I’m really happy with both yarns I chose. The periwinkle is Rowan Felted Tweed. (and did you know that periwinkle is a Pantone color of the year for 2022?!) The variegated yarn is a discontinued one – I can’t even remember its name. But if you make this with the Rowan yarn, choose any variegated yarn that is a sport weight or dense fingering weight to match the gauge.

While I enjoyed standing in the snow (briefly) I fervently hope that today’s is the last snowfall of the 2021-22 winter – even though the end of winter means putting away all my lovely woolens until next fall.

Posted in drawing

Sunday Sketches

Posted on by Laura Kate

I spent some time this week-end preparing for a class in printmaking. This will be an introductory class for me, since I’ve had no previous training in the art. After dreaming up a few ideas for print images, I started sketching them out. Here’s what I came up with in the space of a few hours.

To start, I went to my photographs of Belize for inspiration. Here is one that I snapped of the beach as seen from our front porch. The view faces east and the time is shortly after sunrise.

Nice, huh? The tree and hammock are silhouetted against the water and sky, so I made them the primary subjects. Keeping in mind my inexperience with carving a print block I vastly simplified the scene. I also chose to reverse the tones and turn day into a night with the moon rising.

Next I went through previous saved photographs. This is one of a monarch butterfly I downloaded from a free use site. I was attracted by the strong contrast of its black body and wing edges with the warm background

For my third sketch I worked from my imagination. I wanted to play with a basketweave pattern, but in an unusual context. The idea of a cloak came to mind.

The class took place yesterday. It went well and I had a great time. I’ll show you the subject I chose and the block and print I made in the next post.