What’s on your needles?
National Knit in Public Day
Tag: knitting
The Luna Moth Returns
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.
I’m sort of happy with my work. Perhaps after a night’s sleep, I will reconsider my choices, and make a few adjustments.
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Wool, Silk and Glass
Today’s fiber project combines yarn with glass beads to make a fun, easy and beautiful necklace. I like this because I can make the whole thing in an afternoon. Also, I’m always on the look-out for unusual accessories to jazz up my standard daily look of jeans and t-shirts. You see in the photograph the makings of two necklaces. I chose the purple variegated yarn and the iridescent beads in the glass dish. The yarn is a lace-weight blend of merino wool and silk called Stream from Willow yarns. The pattern, by Carol Metzger, is called Scallop-Edge Beaded Necklace. I’ll have a go at making up a design for the ribbon yarn and ceramic beads on another day.
Notice that all the beads were strung on the yarn before starting to knit.
After weaving in the yarn ends, I used all-purpose thread to sew a jump ring to one end and an alligator clasp to the other. Here I am modeling the finished work. Photography courtesy husband Bill.
No special skills were needed to make this necklace. I recommend that you use a floss loop to thread the beads, or buy a special bead needle from a craft store. Carol’s pattern can be found on Ravelry at https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scallop-edge-beaded-necklace.
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Mowing around the Luna Moth
The green expanse of our back yard is not the monoculture of grass species typically found in American suburbs. Due to the presence of several mature trees, the grass will not grow thickly. Instead, we have what I call an English lawn. Today it is dark green, dotted with the yellow, lilac and white blooms of English violets, false strawberry, dandelions, oxalis, white clover and tiny bluets. It still requires weekly mowing. But one of the virtues of this diverse ecosystem is the abundance of wildlife. Today I noticed a luna moth clinging to a leaf of fescue. I stopped the mower and went to get Bill, so he could take her picture. The moth held perfectly still. In fact, she simply would not be budged. I carefully rolled the mower around her. After spending nine months as a pupa beneath the soil, this magnificent creature has but seven to ten days to complete her life cycle. If she is lucky, she will attract a mate tonight. They will dally together for a few hours, then she will be off to lay her eggs in a nearby tree top.
I was struck by the strong resemblance of the moth to this little dress I am knitting for the grandbaby. At the end of the first skein I am nearly finished with the skirt.
I have named the project Luna Lou Dress and plan to embroider a moth on the bodice. I will keep you posted on my progress.
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Knitting Baby Clothes
The past two days have been cold and wet – perfect weather for curling up with a bit of knitting. My daughter let me know that the baby has outgrown most of her outfits which I knit last year. And she is crawling now. Here is the baby, seven months old, wearing the cotton overalls that I made in a 12 month size.
I picked up a similar yarn last summer, in an acrylic blend.
Designing baby clothes is really quite simple. All you need is an idea, some measurements, a swatch, and a schematic drawing. Everything else is math. While I don’t have my granddaughter’s measurements, I can use the standard baby size chart developed by the Craft Yarn Council. You can find it here: https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/baby-size-chart.
Here are my drawing and swatch:
The lower edge will be a lace ruffle. The skirt will be in stockinette stitch and the bodice in garter stitch. I have decided to use the same style of buttoned straps as I did on the orange overalls. My swatch gauge for the lace section is 4 and 1/2 stitch per inch. I want the skirt to measure at least 32″ around. The lace pattern is a seven stitch repeat. So I will cast on 154 stitches. This works out to 22 pattern repeats and about 34″ diameter. After about three inches, I will switch to stockinette stitch. My gauge for this stitch is 4 and 3/4 stitch per inch, which will bring the diameter back to 32″ After knitting for seven more inches, I will reduce by K2tog every other stitch, eliminating about 40 stitches. This brings the diameter down to 24 inches for the bodice. Once I am there, I will figure out the armhole shaping.
Since rain is forecast for the rest of this week, I should make fast progress on this cute little dress in the next couple of days.
Daily Fiber 