make it mine – Daily Fiber

Friday Finish: Cardi Vest

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Laura Kate

Fresh off the blocking mat and slipped across my shoulders, here is my version of Kate Oates’ Cardi Vest. Although it’s cold here in Oklahoma, my dear husband agreed to a quick photo shoot in the backyard.

In this image two changes that I made to pattern are visible: the lower body is knit in a baby eyelet rib instead of a twisted rib and I substituted a stranded pattern of my own design on the yoke.

It took some extra time to work out and knit this pattern based on a daisy. Here on the back you can see how many yarn ends resulted from this small square of stranded work – a lot!

Despite the griping I did about picking straw out of this yarn as I worked it, now that it is washed, blocked and dried, the yarn is rather magnificent. The 100% wool in a thick and thin worsted weight made by Ewetopia is every bit as warm as I thought it would be. The fibers bloomed into a nice loft and stitches evened out and locked into place. I must be careful in future launderings about its propensity to felt.

Because I intend to sew in a zipper by hand, I cast off the neckline with the I-cord method. But so far, I haven’t located a separating zipper in the length and color required. Until I do, I’ll wear the vest open.

The hood is a fun feature that took up an entire ball of yarn. I hope that it stays on my head in the Oklahoma wind.

I rate the pattern as suitable for an intermediate knitter. Here is a link to it on Ravelry.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cardi-vest-2

knitting

Friday – Out of Order

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Laura Kate

Those expecting to see a Finished Object today will be disappointed. No, I am out of sorts and out of sequence in writing this post. Instead, I will start with the above photo and move on to share a little design process for a knitted garment in progress.

During our travels over Thanksgiving week, I visited a new-to-me yarn store. It was little but crammed full of beautiful yarns. I was surprised and delighted to find a yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners. It is their Signature 4-ply fingering yarn spun with 35% Bluefaced Leicester wool. I had read about this British yarn maker in posts by my knitterly on-line friends. To find a source of this well-crafted fiber in the heart of the U S of A was unexpected. Even more so because of the price – only $13 US for a 100g ball. As you can see, I wasted no time in getting a swatch made.

The yarn will be made into a pair of socks for my husband. He highly approves of the color, which corresponds to one of his team’s colors. (He supports Westham United, “the Hammers,” who play in claret and blue.)

The design work I refer to is for the little green vest I started on October 17th.

Notice the stranded colorwork on the shoulders. The chart provided by the designer is perfectly fine, but I was not in the mood for snowflakes. Instead, I wanted something a little bit floral and seized on this opportunity to design my own chart.

The yarns I pulled from my stash were cream, lavender and deep pink. These will show up well against the dark cool green main color. My new design starts with a pattern called Michaelmas, which somewhat resembles a purple coneflower. This motif went into the center of the design. Next I needed a border. Working in the same number of rows as the one in the pattern, I drew a sort-of zig zag, worked in a few more flowers and then added some sprinkled stitches of cream.

Reasonably satisfied with my chart, I proceeded to swatch it. Ultimately there were a few modifications made to the design as I knitted along. Here is what I came up with:

The design was tweaked slightly as I worked it into the left shoulder.

You will see it soon. With that bit of knitting done, finishing the body of the vest won’t take long.

drawing, knitting, painting, quilting

The Best of 2021

Posted on January 1, 2022 by Laura Kate

As the snowflakes drift gently down – and blow slightly sideways – across the backyard, I thought I would take some time to review projects I completed in the past year. No, dear reader, I won’t drag out all of them. Instead, let’s focus on the best loved, by you, in each category.

KNITTING

I wanted to start with knitting, because it seems I spent a lot of time doing just that. I even ventured into teaching knitting, just a little bit, for my local arts association.

It seems there was a three-way tie for the best knitting project of 2021. So I have to go with the most charming one. And who better to model it than little LL?

**POLKA-STRIPE VEST, WITH BUTTONS AND POCKETS**

https://wordpress.com/post/dailyfiberfun.wordpress.com/3734

Runners up were Gentle Curves Shawl and Woodsmen’s Socks

DRAWING

I was pleased with the progress I made in this medium. It helped me to take classes from Ross Meyer. His lessons on getting high values using graphite were most informative. I also began to develop a more personalized style with casual portraits using ink and watercolor washes. The winner in this category is my sketch of H as a toddler sitting with Cat.

Also strong contenders: Happy Father’s Day and Hummingbird at Fuchsia.

PAINTING

My personal goal for this year was to improve my watercolor paintings. At the beginning the year, I painted a little bit everyday on paper the size of postcards – a very doable goal, which lasted only one month. I put my money where my mouth was and paid for in-person lessons. This helped me a lot.

Surprising to me, the most successful watercolors were some of these small experimental ones. A post called “Back to My Routine” got the most attention for this 6 x 9 painting of a stormy sky.

https://wordpress.com/post/dailyfiberfun.wordpress.com/3968

Equally popular were these two:

QUILTING

In the early months of the year, I spent time making quilts. I gained skills by following along with a group that was sewing Stay-at-Home Round Robin quilts. Not only did I learn a lot but I was really happy with my finished object.

Two other quilted objects of note were this art quilt……….

and a twin sized quilt made for LL featuring dogs and cats.

And that’s a wrap for 2021. What does the new year hold for me and my art? I haven’t come to any conclusions yet. But whatever I choose, I’ll make it worthy of my time and effort.

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