stranded knitting – Daily Fiber

Return from unplanned hiatus

Posted on November 1, 2025 by Laura Kate

Dear friends,

While I have been silent for over two months, I have not been idle. So much has taken place in my real life that I found it hard to keep up on my blog. You will detect from my opening photograph that Knitting is the one fibery activity that I kept going in the interim. And there is one Finished Object and one Nearly Finished Object.

Having given away my fingerless mitts last spring, I used stash yarn to make a replacement. The pattern is Croft Mitts, designed by Kirsten Kapur. It appears that I downloaded the pattern from Interweave, although I can’t remember when. Three yarns are used – all from Knitpicks. The pale and dark blues are Gloss in fingering weight – a lovely wool and silk blend. The variegated pink is Hawthorn fingering.

I’ve already posted about Kate Davies Paperdolls project. It is nearly finished.

All that remains is to pick up and knit an I-cord strip along the lower edge. Once I have blocked it, I’ll get another photo to post. Purple is the Ultra Alpaca. The pink is Swish in worsted weight.

And there is an extra fancy project on my needles. I’ll do a more complete post of it later. It is a second version of a project I knit about three years ago.

Now, some photos and words about three events that have filled my life in the last two months.

A trip with friends Fritz and Melissa to the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica in early September. A few highlights:

Very soon after our return, my sweet mother passed away soon after suffering a fall in her room. We traveled to Ohio for the funeral in early October. I took no photographs at that event. Here are some photos from happier days

Goodbye, Mom. You will long be well remembered by hundreds of people whose lives you touched.

In late October, a landscaper reshaped the steep side yard of our new house.

Before:

After:

Bill and I have also been active around our new home town, attending events and making friends. We love it here.

If you are still reading, thanks. I’d love to hear what you are working on these days. I invite you to leave a comment below, or drop a line to my email.

knitting

Last Finish for 2024

Posted on December 31, 2024 by Laura Kate

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.

knitting

Friday Follow up

Posted on November 15, 2024November 15, 2024 by Laura Kate

Last week I said that I would write more about my latest knitting project.

…..so here I am to do just that.

It started with some discount yarn I had purchased on Knitpicks from a product line called Impressionist. I got the “impression” that the line would be discontinued soon because the price was deeply slashed.

It’s a sport weight yarn with fibers of extra-fine merino wool and nylon. The yarn is really stretchy, light weight and very fuzzy. I purchased 2 – 25 gram balls, giving me about 330 yards. I thought it might work well in a stranded design, paired with a sturdier yarn in a neutral color.

Here’s better photo showing the multitude of shades. The color is called Renoir.

The neutral creamy white that will be Renoir’s partner is Paragon, again from Knitpicks. This is a luxury yarn blended of fine merino wool, baby alpaca and mulberry silk. It was NOT on sale (but I only needed one skein.) It’s also a sport-weight, but heavier than the multi-hued yarn, and just as soft.

The amount of yardage I purchased led me to search for cowl patterns. My criteria was tube construction. This means the cowl would be knit in the round, always a plus when working stranded patterns. It will keep the wrong side of the knitting on the inside of the tube and out of view.

Velvet Mirror, by Andrea Mowry matched my criteria and called for sport weight yarns.

This pattern has been knit by more than 500 ravelers and has a 4.9 out of 5 star rating. The pattern is charted, not difficult once you get going. I’m having a very good time working it.

Each chart is worked twice. When the knitting is complete, the two edges will be connected using Kitchener stitch, that clever and invisible stitch most frequently used to close up the toes of knitted socks.

What are you working on these days, and how is it going for you?

colorwork, knitting

Autumn Blooms

Posted on October 17, 2024October 18, 2024 by Laura Kate

This past week I cast on a project that has been in my queue most of the summer. It is a pullover sweater for Mandy, using some Malabrigo Rios yarn as the main color.

I was thunderstruck to see that my palette is a near match for the colors I see outside right now. The gold color is 035 Frank Ochre and I purchased it online from Jimmie Beans. The two contrasting colors are from Knitpicks: Hawthorne dk in Foster Powell Multi and Swish dk in Moss.

My daughter chose the pattern from three or four options I gave her out of my Ravelry favorites. She liked Autumn Bloom by Olga Putano.

It is knit top down starting with a very beautiful and somewhat complex yoke.

In this photo I have worked to the point where the main color is joined. When that happens, the knitter is faced with working three yarns at the same time for about four rounds – slow and tricky work involving a lot of catching the long floats of unused strands under the working yarn.

Here is my progress with the yoke chart completed.

In the bright sunlight, the colors almost glow. That gold will definitely brighten up a dark winter day when sunshine is rare.

The project is almost to the point where a fitting is required. I have some doubts and fears about sizing and whether my stranded knitting will block out smoothly. Since I won’t have access to the recipient for another four weeks or so, I would be wise to cool my needles and put the project aside until the next time we are together.

knitting

Finished Object or no? A Tale of Two Socks

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Laura Kate

Yesterday I got to the top of my second Mary Delany sock. Today I cast it off. While technically, I am finished knitting the pair, there is a small geographical glitch.

Sock no. two hanging in the garden, clipped to a tomato cage. It looks pretty good.

One foot cozy and warm, one left out in the cold.

Sock no. 1, found under a chair in the living room of daughter’s house in Madison.

(sigh)

The fault is my own. I had pulled out the completed sock to compare to the one in progress while I was visiting our loved ones. Apparently, I failed to stuff it back into my project bag before packing up.

There’s good news on all fronts. It was found and daughter agrees to mail it to me. If the U.S. Post office fails to deliver it, I have enough yarn to knit sock no. 3.

If you have a hankering to make a pair like this, the pattern is by Kate Davies, and can be found on her Ravelry site here.