Tag: mindless knitting

Posted in knitting

Unraveled Wednesday 6-25-25

Posted on by Laura Kate

Following along with As Kat Knits, I am posting this progress update on the project I cast on June 2nd.

This is Paper Dolls, a pullover by KDD & Co. As of today, I have knitted up from the bottom about 12 inches.

This is the point where the body is set aside and the cap sleeves are knitted on separate needles. The technique is reminiscent of Elizabeth’s Zimmerman’s Fair Isle Yoke Sweater as published in her 1st newsletter. Eventually stitches for all three parts are loaded onto one long needle and work continues for the yoke.

First sleeve cap complete and waiting for its sister before both join with the sweater body.

A design feature added by Kate Davies is the corrugated rib stitch worked in contrasting yarn for the hems of body and sleeves (as shown in my first photograph.)

This part of the project has been great for television watching, since no stitch counting or pattern checking is required. The next section will require undivided attention, and I work the very cute paper dolls while simultaneously decreasing the yoke stitches. (That makes it sound harder than it really is.)

I must add a shout-out to knitting blogger Alissa Makes who made and gifted me the cute Mer-people project bag.

I love using it – Thanks, Alissa.

As far as reading, I just finished a biography of Salvador Dali’s wife, Gala. It is titled Surreal and written by Michele Gerber Klein. I had no idea how crazy those early 20th century artists were. If you like soap operas, and are not easily shocked, you may enjoy this book. My main complaints are that it is a bit long, and could have used more photographs.

That’s it for me. During this hot sticky heat wave, I hope you, my dear readers, can remain cool, calm and knitting onward.

Posted in knitting

Finished by Friday

Posted on by Laura Kate

In the past week, two events motivated the completion of this Mindless Knitting blanket, which I had cast on in January of this year.

  1. My friend gave me three skeins of neutral-hued acrylic yarn.
  2. I learned of a blanket donation program happening on Mother’s Day.

I chose a mid-tone gray skein and worked up the last stripe. It took one or two evenings to complete. The next evening, I continued with the gray, working a single crochet stitch into the bind off, then worked around the perimeter of the blanket, so that this somewhat improvised design had a more finished-looking edge.

Before I wove in the ends, I decided to give it a wash in my machine. Due to the variety of yarns used, (some were mystery fibers) I was skeptical about the Franken-blanket’s ability to withstand machine washing. And while it did shrink up in a minimal fashion, the washed blanket showed no felting or fuzzing. I dried it flat, then wove in the yarn ends. Here is the finished product, displayed on my guest bed.

I never got a final measurement before delivering the blanket to the church’s collection spot, but I would guess it was at least 44″ long and almost as wide. It will function quite well as a lap blanket for a mom, or even a mom and child.

This project used up most of my worsted weight acrylic. I mindfully returned the two unused yarns to my friend, who accepted the returns with good grace. This project used up a bit of her stash also, but maybe not so much as she had hoped. My stash still has some acrylic baby yarns in sport or fingering weight. I put them together in a project bag, and one day I will find a pattern that will Bust Them Down.

Posted in knitting

Cast-on Monday: Mindless Knitting

Posted on by Laura Kate

Here I am, in a new year dedicated to stash-busting. Opening my yarn closet doors, I see that there are now only two bags of stash yarn projects. That’s good. But it makes me want to get more projects queued up. I’m looking at you, cheap acrylic skeins purchased five years ago! You were rejected by my student knitters.

I pulled out all acrylics that appear to be worsted or bulky weight and assessed their total volume. Hm, looks like it’s enough to knit a lap blanket. Searching through my knitting patterns folder, I found this image plucked off the internet some time ago.

Garn Studio Drops Design offers it patterns for free on Ravelry. Unfortunately, I didn’t download the pattern or the pattern name. Conducting an advanced search on the Ravelry database using all possible combinations of search terms, I failed to find it.

My notes say that the design reminds me of a log cabin quilt block. So, I will improvise a knit pattern, using the log cabin technique of sewing strips around a center block. In this case, the starting block is in the lower corner, not the middle.

I cast on while watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS. Here is my progress after the first session of mindless knitting. It is a good start.

This mindless project will be ideal for taking on a late winter car trip that Bill and I have planned. It’s impossible to screw it up, even while barreling down the interstate at maximum speed.

Posted in knitting

Friday Finish: UFO Transitioned

Posted on by Laura Kate

A few months ago, I wrote about my plan to assign unused yarns in my stash to potential knitting projects. Among those plastic bags hanging in the yarn closet were some UFOs (unfinished objects) including this one.

It had started life as a vest project, which involved knitting garter ridge triangles in strips, then sewing the strips together, adding shoulder seams, etc.

To make a long story short, I discarded that plan, partly because I really didn’t have enough yarn and didn’t want to buy more. Plan B involved making the strips longer and sewing them end-to-end to make a scarf.

This scarf is today’s Friday Finish

I enjoyed working on this project. It was basic straight knitting and made a good mindless project. It’s easy to pick up stitches along the triangle’s edge – one stitch per garter ridge. And the color play is gratifying to watch.

The final project is about 54″ long and 5″ wide. There is almost no yarn leftover.

Presto! Another Stashbuster crosses the finish line!

Posted in knitting

Cast on Monday – Mostly Alpaca

Posted on by Laura Kate

This week-end, I cast on a shawl from yarn that was 1. in my stash and 2. frogged from a UFO. This particular pattern is a top-down triangle design with a twist – literally. By increasing more stitches on one half of the double yarnover section and using short rows, it creates a gentle slope across the back of the garment. The pattern is by Manos del Uruguay and is available free on Ravelry.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gentle-slopes

Here are the yarns I am using.

The Letitcia is Peruvian yarn blended of wool, alpaca and silk. Gloss is a Knitpicks – super wash merino and silk. The three lace weight yarns are 100% alpaca, in my stash for so long that I no longer have the labels. Just last year I blogged about a UFO with this lighter-than-air yarn, in which I moaned about the way the stitches simply floated off the needle. To solve this problem, I am holding them TRIPLED in this project, and following with the Leticia yarn to LOCK THEM DOWN.

My variation to the pattern is the insertion of the striping row of eyelet lace. This will show up every 16 garter ridges, to break up the plain vanilla and keep things from getting too boring.

I think that the back side is just as pretty as the front side.

I like that this pattern works for mindless knitting. The pattern repeats every four rows that are easily memorized. The only hiccup I foresee is that I am going to need a longer cable very soon.