Since I returned from the cruise to Alaska, It’s been pretty hard for me to keep up my posts. First of all, we both came down with Covid. Recovery took 5 plus days. And then I found myself dissatisfied with my past work. It’s been a hard few weeks.
I thought an easy cast-on would help ease me back into things. So I chose a two-color cowl that will use up some stash yarn.
Spinal Twist, by Rebecca Marsh, starts with a crocheted provisional cast-on.
I have chosen some very soft single twist yarns. Labels have been lost, but it feels like there is some portion of alpaca.
Knit in the round, on large needles, with thick yarn. This could be finished in a week. By then, maybe my creativity will be unblocked and body fully healed.
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.
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.
As of today, the completion rate on my sock challenge is 75%. Newly added to the sock pile is a pair I am calling Dots and Dashes.
This is the largest pair of the challenge, with a foot length of 10 1/2 inches. I used 100% natural wool in two colors and a pattern from Berroco called Fairlee. I would rate the skill level for this pattern as intermediate, which matches the rating assigned by the Berroco designer. They are described as slipper socks – I’m assuming that’s due to the fact they are written for dk weight yarn.
Modifications that I made include the two-color pattern on the foot, which came from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It’s in Chapter Four, Two-Stitch Check, version 1.
The second modification is the bind-off. The pattern calls for a sewn tubular bind-off. That looked like a hassle to me, so I worked Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy bind-off for one-by-one rib instead.
You can find the original Berroco pattern on Ravelry, or visit my post dated October 3rd for the embedded link.
One more to go. I had to order some needles, so I won’t be casting-on the last pair yet. Tune in on Monday to see what goes on my needles next.
Having returned from another trip to Wisconsin and a week of recovery, I am back to sock work. The challenge is to knit socks for each member of my daughter’s family. This is part 3 of 4 – son-in-law’s pair. He has a very long foot. To make certain that I have the length right, I took the started sock with me so he could try it on.
Try on a sock that is still on the needle? How can this be? This act can be done if the knitter works the sock from the toe up. Having recently learned the Turkish cast-on I am knitting my first pair of toe-ups. Thank you, Suzanne Bryan.
The pattern I have chosen is Fairlee, offered by Berroco yarns on Ravelry.
This pattern is designed with Berroco’s Vintage yarn in dk weight, which I heartily recommend. But for SIL, I chose an all-wool Plymouth yarn called Galway.
It is a sport weight, but I am working it stranded. You will notice that I modified the pattern in the foot section by working a cute little dot design with two colors. I hope that this will result in a warmer, stronger sock that felts a bit.
PHOTO SHOWING BEAUTIFUL SHORT ROW TOE STARTED WITH TURKISH CAST-ON
SHORT ROW HEEL FOLLOWS THE FOOT
The cuff is knit from a chart, incorporating some purl bumps. I really like this design element, but it has been tedious to knit. I find the second circular needle is always getting in the way. Thankfully, I’m almost finished with this section.
That’s about all I have to report today. Later this week, I will catch you up on the status of my Badlands art quilt. It is coming along well.
Daily Fiber 