color changing yarn – Daily Fiber

Hello, it’s been a busy month for me. I couldn’t let the year pass into history without sharing one final fiber object completed. I choose knitting.

The pattern is Velvet Mirror, a cowl designed by Andrea Mowry. In this image, it is laid out to dry after washing. You can see that the colors used in the stranded design are reversed at the mid-way point.

I enjoyed knitting two colors in the round, which allows continuous stockinette stitch – no purling back. It’s a very clever design.

Once the cowl is dry, the two ends of the tube are sewn together using Kitchener stitch, after adding a half twist.

The twist allows a lovely drape, which can be worn in the front or the back.

Both yarns are from Knit Picks. The white is a luxury blend called Paragon made from merino, alpaca and mulberry silk. The color changing yarn is from a now-discontinued line called Impressionist in colorway Rembrandt. I wish that you could reach through the internet and feel how soft this garment is.

I highly recommend the design, and plan to try other patterns by Andrea Mowry.

Dropped and found

My friend Kathy tossed this knitting pattern at me a few weeks ago with a plea. She really liked it, but was intimidated by the instructions to drop several stitches and then pick them up again. I couldn’t understand what she was afraid of. So I agreed to test knit this pattern.

Here is it, as designed by Jesse at Home.

Dropped and Found Wrap

Frankly, this is one of the easiest patterns I have ever knit. It is a basic garter stitch rectangle. The dropping and picking up takes place at the final two rows. I chose to use a bulky 2-ply yarn from Universal Yarn called Marled. I theorized that the frequent color changes would keep me from getting bored while knitting plain garter for several hours. Fortunately, I had a long, easy car trip during which most of the work took place.

120519a — My test wrap is roughly 15 in. wide by 50 in. long before blocking.

Here’s how the braided sections are completed. On the second to last row, drop three stitches roughly every 12 stitches. Knit one more row, leaving the needle in place. Now gently pull the dropped stitches apart all the way down to the bottom row. Starting with the bottom four floats, use fingers or a crochet hook to braid the floats in groups of four back up to the top. Put the top loop of each braid back on the needle and bind off. Voila!

120519b — I made mine narrower than the pattern called for, hence only three braids.

I can imagine several other uses for this decorative technique. It would make an interesting treatment up a sleeve, or flanking the button band or center back of a cardigan. How else can you imaging using the dropped and found design element?

Tag: color changing yarn

Last Finish for 2024

Dropped and Found

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