{Knitting Book Review} New American Knits by Amy Christoffers

Generally, I try not to buy too many knitting books.  They're all so pretty and tempting but truly, how many patterns are you really going to knit out of any one book?  But anyway, at a moment of weakness (which I won't get in to), I purchased "New American Knits" by Amy Christoffers.

I've only had the book for a couple of weeks, but it features some really great patterns .  I particularly like the Rockwell Hat (which would be great for those random skeins of dk yarn I have in my stash), the Moses Hoodie (which I love but I'm afraid of putting in zippers), the Nevelson Lace Pullover (gorgeous!), and the Benton Cardigan (this has my name written all over it).

In the midst of all these beautiful patterns, I found a real winner - the Tanner Cowl - and immediately cast on.  I love the intricate details and lace in this design and how it folds in the photo in the book.  The pattern calls for worsted weight, but I had some Knit Picks Swish DK in my stash in this sweet Sugar Plum color (love!).  I chose to use a size #7 needle to use with my smaller gauge yarn.  I assume the overall size of my cowl will also be smaller, but I think it will still be large enough to wrap around my neck twice.  I might need to give it an aggressive block to make this happen.

The pattern uses pretty basic stitches, but does require a fair bit of attention and concentration.  I found that putting stitch markers between each 28 st repeat really helped, though you have to move them on certain rows (as instructed in the directions).  Still I've missed a couple of yarnovers while not paying enough attention, and had to make them up in the next row.  Luckily, I think the overall pattern is pretty forgiving, and no one will notice a missed eyelet here and there.

One note:  I *think* there is a mistake in the chart on row 39.  I think the first st should be another "move the beginning of the round marker, slip stitch, k2tog, pass slipped st over" thingy, otherwise you'll have too many stitches.

I'm planning to shorten my cowl width-wise, and only follow the chart to row 48.  My cowl design will not be symmetrical, but no one will notice.  And in my warm weather climate, I don't need a cowl that is 10 inches or so wide.

All in all, I love how my Tanner Cowl is coming out and I'm eyeing my next project from this book!

My Field of Flowers Tote was Chosen as Craftys Award Finalist!!

I guess I should be a little more subtle or humble about sharing this, but I'm just too excited :)  The Craftys Awards are an online contest for the best craft submissions.  This was the first year of the contest and submissions were accepted in a variety of categories:  knitting & crochet, sewing & quilting, jewelry-making, home decor, and a number of other categories.

I submitted a few of my craft tutorials, and my Field of Flowers Knitted Tote was chosen as one of the ten finalists in the knitting & crochet category.  And I'm just thrilled!

Unfortunately, my tote was not chosen as the winner, but that's okay.  I'm still happy just to be chosen as a finalist.  The winner was a knit wedding dress that is truly amazing.  Congratulations to Stephanie Klose for her beautiful dress - and congratulations to all the 2014 Craftys Award winners!!

{Hand} Dye-ing for Something to Knit

I recently had the opportunity to take a yarn hand-dyeing workshop at a LYS, Yarn and Y'all.

The workshop was a lot of fun and I wish I had taken photos of the yarn dyeing process, but I was too busy enjoying myself to remember to take pictures.

We started out with about 440 yards of undyed merino wool in sock weight.  I told myself that I was going to use browns and blues for my yarn, and stay away from my favorites, purples and greens.  I wanted to create something different than what I usually buy.

photos taken from different sides on different days

But as you can see, I ended up still gravitating toward my usual pinks, purples, and greens.

And the yarn looks total different when balled

Despite falling back into my comfort zone, I'm still very happy with my resulting yarn.  Now, to pick something to knit with it!  I decided I wanted to make scarf or narrow shawl from my hand-dyed yarn.  I was thinking of something light and loose with lots of eyelets or a loose weave.  Here are my favorite choices:

Frisson:  I love the simple geometry of this shawlette.  This pattern is really what I had in mind when I thought about using my hand-colored yarn.

Hallayo:  This scarf pattern has been in my queue for a while.  I love this design, but really wanted to make more of a shawl than a scarf.

Sea Line Shawl:  This is your basic feather-and-fan design, but I think it would be pretty with the colors in my yarn.

Margosha Shawlette:  I'm leaning toward this pattern.  It has the eyelets and open weave that I was looking for.  I like the crescent shape of the design.  And I like how the short-row edging creates a little ruffle.

Which one do you think I should make?

Free Knitting Pattern: Pinwheel Basket

I love baskets for decorating and organizing things, and this knitted basket pattern is one of my favorites.  I had this pattern on my Hubpages for a while, but I haven't posted a link on this blog until now.  This is a quick, fun knit that uses Zoë Scheffy's free Pinwheel Coasters pattern for the base, then builds up the sides using a lattice pattern in two colors.  All the directions are on my Hubpages.

Just as an FYI - you won't find this pattern in Ravelry.  Since it uses part of Zoë's pattern, I felt uncomfortable posting and taking credit for this pattern there.

Drops Sweater Update 3: Adding Color to the Yoke

Ta-da!  My Drops sweater is done and blocked!  I just need to add buttons (I ordered them and am waiting for them to arrive).

I had planned to do the whole yoke in the hand-dyed yarn from RoseSprings Farms, but then was afraid that I wouldn't have enough to finish the full yoke, so I decided to add in my gray body color throughout the design.  I'm glad I did - some of the detail in the yoke gets lost in the color.  If I had knit the whole yoke in this variegated yarn, I think it would just look like a colorful blob.

So here's how I did it:

First, I'm using diagram M.1 as a sample.  I've numbered the rows from the bottom up, starting with Row 1 (RS) on the very bottom.  I only numbered the right side rows for ease.

Starting with the directions for the yoke, after you attach your sleeves, knit one row with your body color while you do the stitch decrease as instructed.  On the next WS row, attach the yoke detail color, and knit one row.  Then start the yoke diagram as instructed with your detail color.

Complete rows 1 - 11 of the diagram with your detail color.  On Row 12, rejoin your original body color, and follow the stitches and decreases as shown.

Continue with body color through Row 16.  On Row 17, I rejoined my detail color and started doing seed st (instead of the p3tog design laid out in the diagram).  I continued in seed st in my detail color until Row 27.  FYI - the seed st doesn't work out exactly symmetrically, but with all the color in my yoke, no one will notice :)

On Row 27, I rejoined my body color and just knit the row.  Then I purled the next row (Row 28) with my body color.  I continued with my body color and followed the diagram as instructed through Row 31.

Row 32 - switched to detail color for the rest of the yoke diagram.  Then I used my body color again for the collar.  I chose to decrease 1 less st and knit my collar in a k1, p1 rib.

There seems to be a few minor typos in the diagram.  I think on Row 34, you should place the yarn to the back of your work, then slip the st as if to purl, then bring the yarn to the front and purl the next st.

There were a few other places that my stitch count didn't match up to the diagram.  I'm not sure if I screwed up or if the diagram is wrong, but it all worked out in the end.  I'm really happy with how this sweater turned out.

Drops Yoked Sweater Update 2: The Sleeves

Yea!  I've knitted both sleeves for my Drops Yoked Sweater!  There's never anything really interesting to say about knitting sleeves, but since I made them longer than the pattern suggested, I thought I would share my process.

I pretty much followed the directions for a different Drops sweater, with a few modifications. I cast on 52 stitches using #7 dpns.  I planned to use the #7's only for the ribbed cuff, than switch to #8's for the rest of the sleeve.  But I thought the weave was too loose on the #8's, so I ripped the sleeve back to the ribbing and knit the whole sleeve on #7's.

So, cast on 52 sts on #7 dpns.  Then I knit 15 rounds of k1,p1 ribbing for my cuff.

Next round, I switched to stocking stitch, WHILE decreasing 13 sts evenly across the round, leaving me with 39 sts.

Knit in Stst until my sleeve measured 3 1/2 inches, then increased 2 sts.

Continued knitting until my sleeve was 5 inches (roughly 10 rounds), increased 2 sts.

Knit another 10 rounds (6 1/2 inches), increased 2 sts.

Knit 10 more rounds (or 8 inches), increased 2 sts.

I continued increasing 2 sts every 10 rounds or about every 1 1/2 inches until my sleeve was 14 inches long.  Then I began increasing 2 sts every 8 rounds until I reached 57 sts total.

Then I knit straight until my sleeve was 16 inches long (though I wish I had made them 1/2 to an inch longer).

BTW - I had this brilliant idea to join the sleeves to the body using a three-needle bind off.  Don't do it.  Follow the instructions and bind off the stitches as directed, and seam them when you're done.  It's easier.  Trust me :)

 

Choosing Colors for Your Mosaic Afghan or Baby Blanket

Thanks so much to everyone who has shown interest in my Mosaic Afghan and Baby Blanket knitting pattern (available for FREE on my Hubpage!).  I really appreciate it!

I've had a number of people ask about how I chose my colors for the samples I created.  The mosaic pattern in these blankets are made up of three different colors.  While I think this pattern would look great in any color combination, I used a little color theory to create a soft semi-Impressionist look to my mosaic pattern.

Color Theory is the study of how colors appear when placed against or next to one another.  The color wheel below shows the three primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) and their complementary colors (green, orange and purple).  And there are, of course, a variety of shades of each of these colors that fall somewhere on this wheel.  For instance, peach would fall between orange and yellow, turquoise would be between green and blue, etc.

image from www.jic.org

For my adult-sized afghan, I used two shades of yellow (a pale yellow and a medium warm brown/caramel color) and then a light shade of purple as the complementary color.  Because these two colors (yellow and purple) are across from each other on the color wheel, I knew they would work well together in my pattern.

I did something similar with my baby blanket.  I had some pale yellow and lavender left over from the larger afghan, so I used a darker purple to complete my color combination.  Again, my two purples (lavender and a darker plum color) are across the color wheel from my pale yellow color.

There are an endless number of color combinations to that will work together in the mosaic design using the color wheel.  Here are a few ideas:

two shades of green and a pretty color of coral red
two light to medium shades of blue and a brighter color of orange
two shades of pink and a teal-green color

Another option would be to use two shades of any color, and then use a neutral as your third color.  Neutral colors would include white, off-white, shades of gray, beige, black, and even brown.

I hope this has given you some ideas about colors to consider for all of your knitting patterns.  I look forward to seeing the colors that people use in their mosaic blankets!