Sea Witch

Cross posted to Vixenpath

Sorry I couldn't get this any clearer.


I really just got a block of time where I could swatch over and over until I found something that I liked this weekend.

Here is a scribble of my idea. This is an outfit for my niece consisting of a drawstring skirt with a ruffle edging and a matching top with elastic to hold it up and shoulder ties. I found a stitch pattern that was simple but eye catching. All you do is P3, K3, P3 into the same stitch every 10 stitches and switch the orientation of the clusters every 5 rows. Kind of a super trinity stitch.

I am using the Cotton Classic in the purple and pink. The skirt will be made with purple and accented in pink and the top will be in pink and accented in purple. These happen to be the color choices of my niece and I actually think they complement each other nicely.



I really like this yarn. The pattern has little eyelets and makes a kind of mock lace. The cotton has good stitch definition and will be cool for summer.

I’ve named this outfit Sea Witch, because it is the translation of my niece’s name and she loves the water.

I’m starting each piece with a simple casing. The skirt will have eyelets on it for pulling the I-cording through. The top will have one hole hidden in the back for elastic cord to go through but it will be hidden on the wrong side and sewn up after the lace is inserted.

The goal here is no seams. I hate seams and having to match up sides and stuff. So there will be no seams on either piece. At the end of both the top and bottom I’m going to increase with yarn overs to make a place where another cord can go through and then knit for an inch or so to allow a nice ruffle to form. Finally I will knit off in picot edging to make a cute curly ruffle. My goal here is princess feminine.

So that is where I am. Sorry it took me so long to get going but hopefully I will have this finished by 4th of July…since I just missed my nieces’ b-day. :(

I've really enjoyed watching everyones projects evolve!!!

Happy crafting,

Ruinwen
:)

Into the yoke

I've been working on the cardigan a lot lately and am well into the yoke and have the cables established. I'm delighted with the transition between patterns.

I don't know why the color of the yoke looks different from the body in these photos. It doesn't in person. I switched the direction of the cables at the center back:

Tonight I should be able to get to the first decrease. I'm going to decrease both within the cables and within the garter sections. And I'm getting antsy to sew the seams and close up the armholes. That always makes such a big difference. Like I'm working on a sweater, not constantly adding to an amorphous lump.

Done, done....I am so done!

That's what I actually said two days ago when I finished. Internet problems made it impossible to leap onto net and blog. I like Tahki and hope it will withstand my daughter, who has already managed to snag a few stitches and sit on a permanent marker in her new dress. Sweet. I started with the lace pattern and 288 sts in the round. After the skirt was long enough I k2tog in the round and was left with 144 sts. I made a row of yo, k2tog in between garter ridges to define the waist and knit in St st the rest of the way. I actually tried the neckline from afore mentioned tank on Interweave, but the casings were small and rolled so I had to frog the casings and bind off and decrease for armholes. I then bound off leaving four sts on each end (on the front). These sts were turned into the I-cord straps and sewn on to the back. Everyone keeps complementing even though I kind of wish I hadn't put the lace on the bottom (I like simpler designs as I've stated before and we're always more critical of our creations then other people are), but I even got a complement from my friend's husband and that's saying a lot. He noticed it right away and said "That is so cute." I found out later he asked his wife if I might be tempted into making one for their daughter and that was more than enough to make me proud of the "Tinkerbell dress"

Tahki Cotton Classic, how I have frogged thee....let me count the ways

I'm back.....finally. I've had a heck of a month. My car broke down about a month and a half ago and is still broken because of the lack of parts available on island. It's our only car and on top of that my hubby has been working later and later and later and is set for deployment at the end of this month. The mechanic seems only interested in talking to him which is almost impossible when he's working 18 hour days, six days a week (thank you Frank Cable......I'm starting to not like this command). On top of that the Navy decided that we owed them money that they really owe us and took it from our paycheck right as the car broke so we've been living on half of a paycheck and have only had enough money to buy groceries.....let alone trying to get a rental car. We had to have our cable turned off until we get back good financially (we have spent two paydays with only half a check) which I can't really complain about that because I grew up without cable and half the time there's nothing on all those channels anyways, but we also spent the last two weeks with no car. My friend who offered to drive me around also had her car break down so we had to ask a friend of a friend to drive us to get groceries and that was an interesting time (two pregnant women, two carseats with toddlers, one child in the floor board of the backseat and myself shoved into a Dodge Stratus). My son also managed to scare us to death when he busted the side of his face on a milk crate and bled all over us before we got him to the hospital. He sported one heck of a shiner for a week, but it's healing up great and as you can see from the pic he wasn't too worried about it. Anyways, with all that going it's no wonder that everytime I cast on something was wrong. Wrong stitch count, twisted join, dropped stitch ten rows down in a lace pattern, something, anything until finally it was tossed aside in frustration. The stress was getting to me and ruining my ability to concentrate on the task at hand. BUT, finally I was able to cast on and decided to just go with it and let the knitting do what it wanted and now I'm halfway done with the skirt portion of the dress. You just get to a point where you have to laugh and I'm there. I would post a picture, but the camera is still missing. I will get a pic later thanks to the built in camera on my laptop (but that requires holding my computer in the air over my knitting and at this time of night I'm just not for it). Just wanted to post an update to say that I'm still in, I've just had a couple of setbacks. More to come soon......knitting and creativity....not setbacks.....I hope :-)

Progress on the Diamond Bag

Hi. I'm Dawn. And I'm an addict. I just can't get over mitered squares.

No, really. I think it's my sewing background. Every knitting project I undertake, I first see something woven and instinctively see it knit. Then I puzzle out the translation and I'm on my way. Anyone who quilts and completed the Schlep Bag understands. For those who don't quilt, the bag is quite a thing. You start out with squares, make strips, twist the strips, add straps, and voila. Once I mastered mitered squares, I turned my work sideways and decided I like the effect of the diamond with the miter as the focal point. What do you think?

Don't look at the yarn tails. They won't be seen when I'm done because this will be lined. It'll be our secret. Right now, the only challenge is making sure that the color pattern is random and the colors are separated.

I'm still here!

Even though I haven't been posting, I *have* been knitting.

The back and both fronts are done to the underarm. I stalled on doing the calculations for the sleeves for a while because the measurements I need don't fit neatly with repeats of the lace pattern. I considered scaling the lace down, so that each motif would be six stitches instead of eight, but I thought it might get muddy when I joined all of the pieces. I wanted an odd number of repeats so the lace would be centered over my hands, but three was too small and, while five will work for the upper arm, it would be much too wide at the wrists. So I'll keep the extra stitches at the sides in garter stitch and start additional repeats when I have enough stitches. I'm working on both at the same time so I can be pretty sure everything will match up.

I'm still enjoying the lace pattern, but I'm getting antsy to start on the yoke and see if it's going to work out the way I'm hoping.

This is my first post but I've been working on my project while following yours. I wanted to be able to show what I've done and not just tell.

First, I have to admit my lace-envy. I have a difficult time with my technique and it has to be a really important item to force me to take off each loop and twist it back on the needle. So, to compensate, I mastered colorwork. I've chosen to use Tahki Cotton Classic because of its strength and rainbow of options. I chose six pastels, kind of like jelly beans, for spring (not to mention this is what my LYS had in stock).

This was first pattern, done as I was housebound during a nor'easter. It must have been the Kaffee Fassett book I was reading and the snow making me think I could bang this out.

I don't have a problem with bobbins, there were 10 per row. I do have a problem with not making progress. This took a week of free time - for 10 rows?! It would take 100+ hours for this, so I gave up and regrouped.

So I kept the basic design of squares while doing the modular thing. I love this technique. I'd much rather get two completed squares out of 30 minutes than just one row. I think I'll get the same feel of the interlocking squares, especially when there's a lot of stuff in the bag and the weight pulls the squares into diamonds.

I'm not sure how the bottom will work out when all the points are turned inward. I'll deal with that when I get there. I think on the top I'll let the points fall outward for a jester hat effect. Maybe some beadwork on the points........

Back to the Future

Evergreen (finally, she has a name) is at a place where I need to devote some serious attention to swatching for the color work, but I haven't had time. To keep the momentum going, I've begun instead with the plain section at the top:


The neckline has come out exactly as I wished and I am delighted. By combining the shaping for a square neck with a v-neck, I've been able to create a more modest (and therefore more wearable) verson of the collar on the dress I posted about previously.


Here's a (not-very-good) close up of the short row shaping I used for the shoulders (oh, how I heart Barbara Walker. When you click, scroll down a bit for Knitting from the Top).
Basically, you cast on provisionally for the width of the back, then work short rows either side of the neck. This creates a lovely, smooth shoulder with no seams. Though I tend to work cotton sweaters in pieces for stability, this sweater will be fairly lightweight, and shouldn't have a problem.
Now back to swatching...

Stitches and Spiders

I finally got my Tahki the other day and I've been fiddling with it ever since. For now I have decided to omit the Kidsilk because after knitting some of it I decided it was too frail to survive G. It might come back into play later depending on if I have enough to use two strands and get what I want with what I have. I might have to order more.
I've started by casting on over 400 sts for just the front half. After 8 rows I do two rows of k2tog to make a ruffle. My inspiration is coming from a white dress that G already has (it looks fabulous on her). At that point I work a lace repeat, but I haven't gotten to that yet. I want to use a lace pattern found on Knitty (I Do Shrug lace pattern), but it causes the piece to make waves and I don't know if that will work or not. I may just have to make one up on my own or go searching for the perfect lace to make a "band" before continuing in St st. I wish I could supply pictures, but my camera is MIA. Last time it went missing I found it a few weeks later with a bunch of new pictures, including the ceiling, a weird blur and an extreme closeup of my son's left nostril.
I know this isn't related, but I thought the world should be warned. There are big bugs in this world. HUGE bugs. I have seen lots of bugs since I have been here and I was warned about the roaches. I wasn't really worried about that because I used to live in SC and everyonce and awhile a huge roach (aka Palmetto Bug) would make it's way into the house and chaos would ensue. If alone I could summon up the courage to kill it myself (for my kids of course), but if hubby was home I would shriek like a sissy girl and hide in the farthest corner of the house until he disposed of the thing. I wasn't prepared for what I saw the other day. It was a spider. A HUGE spider!!! It was the size of my hand and looked like the face hugger from Alien!!!!! MY HAND!!!!!! What would you do? Would you chance trying to kill it? Luckily the gate guard is the only one that has to figure out the answer to that question. I know I'd leave it alone because what if I missed? If it came at me you could just call me "Twitchy" the rest of my life. And if it touched and part of my body I would just have to kill myself because I couldn't live with the memory of that. Bluuuahhhhhhhh!!!! It makes me shudder. I've been shuddering for two days now whenever I think about it. I looked it up and found it at www.whatsthatbug.com/spiders6.html
It's the fourth picture down and yes the one I saw was about 7 inches in diameter too. Look at that picture and shudder....I mean see for yourself. Creepy!!!

Swatchfest '07

So I think I've picked a lace pattern for the body of my cardigan. And, as so often happens, it's not only not what I was picturing and planning, it's something that I'm sort of surprised even appeals to me.

My original plan was something along this (Arrowhead Lace from BW1): open and geometric and clean-lined and an interesting foil to the curvy, voluptuous cables that will make up the yoke.

It's just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And I hate it. I do want a functional cardigan, after all, and something this open on my arms and body isn't going to work for me. So I went back to my stitch dictionaries, feeling like a particularly bratty Goldilocks: this pattern is too big, this one is too small, too pictorial, too abstract, too open, too vertical, too diagonal, too flowerly, too geometric, too boring, too elaborate. Nothing was right. Nothing was ever going to be right.

I despaired.

But then I realized that every time I flipped through the books, I stopped briefly at the Lucina Shell Pattern (BW2) and figured there was no harm in swatching it up. And I really kind of love it. It's fun to knit—you increase on each side of the shell parts for several rows and then decrease them all at once later. The pattern calls for knitting four stitches together through the back loops, then knitting four stitches together. The k4tog isn't bad, but the k4togtbl is really almost impossible to pull off when the yarn is this inelastic. You can see how much it stretches the stitches out in the bottom right shell, where it comes together at the top. I switched to slipping two stitches together, knitting two together and slipping the slipped stitches over. It's still a left-leaning decrease, but much easier to execute and looks just as good, if not better.

The real test, though, is whether the pattern will look good with the cables. I had knit up a small cable swatch so I could lay it out with all of the patterns I'm considering. I thought I'd be considering a lot more.

I'll have to play around with the numbers and how many purl stitches go between them, but I should be able to make the cables grow more or less organically out of the shells. The pretty edge is a bonus; it'll look good at the lower edge and at the cuffs. Since the fabric is so solid, I don't think I need a cable band at the wrists to balance the yoke. And one thing that's super-nice is that since one of the patterns has garter stitch in it, I can do a garter stitch buttonband without it looking like it came from outer space.

Now I need to figure out gauge and sizing. I'll have time this weekend to sit down with scrap paper and a calculator and work it all out. One roommate is out of town, the other is mega-booked and I have a fabulous weekend ahead of me, neatly balanced between social and crafty. It's about time; I've honestly believed it was Friday literally every day this week — to the point where I sent a co-worker an email this morning saying how weird it is that the book launch party we're going to tonight is being held on a Friday since they're always on weeknights.

Moving along

I ordered my Tahki and Kidsilk today. Woohoo! It should be here by the week after next since it's already Friday here. Until then I'm still looking for a good place to buy some Calmer for my back up project (and waiting to see if I need anything else for my dress project) and was momentarily sidetracked by a delivery of some yummy Farmhouse Lumpy Bumpy (it looks and feels just as soft as it did online) and some Addi's US 9!It's so great to get new yarn....like Christmas. Sweet!
Meanwhile I'm still trying to decide on how I want to do the skirt and have come to a conclusion. I'm going to knit the Haze as a large rectangle in lace and then join using a gather at the waist to the Tahki portion of the skirt. Then I'll pick up and knit around the waist and knit up to make the top of the dress. Nice in theory and I can't wait to see if it'll work out. If not I have a few alternatives, but there it is. Can't wait. I'm so excited I could dance a jig!

Intro

I'm still waiting for my yarn to arrive (Cotton Classic in pewter), but figured I'd introduce myself in the meantime. My name is Stephanie and I'm a writer/editor living in Brooklyn. I have a craft and food blog here.

My design process tends to be very product-driven. A lot of the time when I knit other people's patterns, it's because they look like fun to knit or I just really like the look of the thing. But when I start from scratch it's usually because I have something specific (sometimes, like now, very specific) in mind that I want to add to my wardrobe.

For this project, I'm going to make a cardigan. I wear them all the time but my handknit sweaters are overwhelmingly pullovers and don't get worn as much as my storebought cardigans. No good. I tend to wear solid colors, mostly black, grey, blues and purples, and I want a gorgeous cardigan I could throw on over a lot of what I wear normally. The pewter color of Cotton Classic should work with just about everything. I'm a lot more attracted to texture than color and I like projects that mix textures in an unexpected way.

I have a clear mental picture of a cardigan with a lace body and sleeves and a round yoke with graduated cables. The yoke decreases will be done in the cables themselves (probably 8 to 4 to 2 stitches, but I'll see how the numbers work out). I'm thinking that I'll use some kind of decorative braid to separate the sections—the kind you see on fancy-pants mittens—though I might just end up throwing in a garter ridge or two instead. I even have a clear mental picture of the lace pattern I want to use: not too open, enough of a vertical line to be harmonious with the cables, complicated enough to be an interesting foil for the solid yoke. I'm also thinking about having some cables at the wrists before starting the lace to balance it out visually. At this point, I think that I'll probably knit in pieces up to the armholes so I can block the lace well and have the structure of seams, but join them when I get to the yoke and do it in one piece. And I definitely want buttons.

I'll do a sketch that I'll post soon, but I don't draw well at all and really just use them as schematics so I have all of the measurements set ahead of time.

I'm really looking forward to being a part of this and seeing what everyone else is working on. I love the workshop-y nature of a CreateAlong—what a great idea!

Progress

After I've found my design inspiration, this sort of small sketch is often the next step.

Because I can't actually draw (seriously - I have a complete mental block in this area), it takes me quite a while to get a shape I find acceptable. My husband is quite a talented artist, however, so I often describe to him what I'm trying to do and he will bring it to life on the page. (Thank goodness for generous and accomodating spouses!)

So here I've laid out what I expect will be the shapes and path of the colors. My initial thought is intarsia, but Marnie's suggestion of short rows intrigues me as well. My primary goal is to concentrate the color changes in the midsection, starting with the lightest color for the upper body and ending with the deepest color at hip level.

Inspiration

I'm moving a little more slowly on this project than usual, as I am trying to take a moment to enjoy the process (rather than focusing on just getting it done and out the door).
With my lovely collection of Cotton Classic colors (say that ten times fast), I was certain early on that I'd be knitting my create-along piece in stockinette so I can focus on the color.
Then I saw this little number:


(Marios Schwab dress - photo swiped from style.com. All their rights reserved, etc., etc.)

For which I fell long and hard. While I am not feeling quite masochistic enough to try to recreate this exactly, I do think the color blocking (and neckline) are fabulous. Something of this garment will definitely be incorporated into my project.

Sketchy

I have started my sketches. I'm skipping a gauge swatch because I have knitted using Tahki enough times that I have gauges written down using US needles sizes 5 to 8. I did decide to go ahead and order more Tahki instead of knitting with the three skeins that I have on hand. The colors that I wanted and the size of the garment demanded that I buy yarn (what knitter doesn't want for an excuse to buy more yarn). I wanted to do something a little more detailed and involved then a tank, that and I have knitted several tanks since arriving in perpetual summer. I'm actually deciding to work on two projects. I have ideas for a dress and footie pyjamas. The dress is my main focus. The pyjamas are more of an experiment, but I decided to do it in Calmer so that it can qualify for the knit along. G is old enough that we can no longer find footies for her. If I am successful I might even try to make some for myself (who doesn't love footies?!!).

Why the #$%!@?! Yarn Restrictions?

I probably should have written about this in my initial CAL post, but the fact is that I am so annoyingly verbose when it comes to things like this that if I had, no one would have ever gotten around to reading the explanation. Instead, I'm giving the topic it's own post, so I can be as wordy as I please. Feel free to skip this if you are not creating-along!

The madness does have purpose, and it was a choice on my part, which I stand by even though I have about seven designs that I'm playing around with now and only one of them is in one of the create-along yarns.

Purpose the First:* One of my favorite recent knitting books is Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature. Gaughan talks extensively in the book about how she is more creative when she has a limitation, and in each of the six parts she introduces the pieces, both individually and as a group, by writing about each limitation - a shape found commonly in nature. This device wasn't invented by Gaughan. If you ever took a high school art or writing class you were probably asked to do the same thing: "Here is a theme that everyone has to work with, see what you can do with it."

I think most of us creative types chafe at these restrictions initially, but it is absolutely fascinating to see what different people do with the same limitation. It really forces you to start to think outside of the box and it gives an insight as to the perspectives and visions of others. I actually find that the first time I work with a theme it is difficult, but that during the process I come up with all kinds of ideas for working with the theme in the future. Sometimes we have to create that first idea in order to be able to move past it. A yarn limitation gives everyone a starting point (and in this case a choice of five starting points), but it's much less restrictive than suggesting that we all attempt to design around the concept of phyllotaxis. Agreed?

Purpose the Second: Yarn is a big part of design, and the way that a particular yarn behaves can make or break a piece. One of the hardest things to figure out as a new knitter or a new designer is how a particular yarn is going to affect the final garment. The second scarf that I ever made was an eyelet pattern in thick, chunky wool. Now if you are intending to break the rules and use big needles to make an over-sized modern scarf that is one thing, but I was fully expecting a lacy, drapey piece that conveyed elegance. My tweedy wool scarf with occasional holes did not achieve that goal. With many people using the same yarn, there can be significant discussion about its characteristics, and we can all learn more about the limits of certain fabrics. The particular yarns we chose are all yarns that Marnie and I have worked with before and have on hand. I chose the Premiere and Cotton Classic, she picked the Calmer and Denim, and we threw in the Kidsilk Haze because it's something we both have that can work in spring weather. Although I know it's ass cold in most parts this time of year, most of us will finish our projects in spring or summer, so it made sense to work with a warm-weather array of fibers.

I feel that our knowledge of these fibers is important for several reasons. First, we have yarn available to design something in each of the yarn selections during the course of the create-along. This will keep us active in the blogging process and in the process of helping other -alongers. We're also sure to have an example of at least one project made in each yarn. As we design there will inevitably be tips we remember that are yarn-specific. Working with each one keeps us present in the process. Second, we already know what these yarns are capable of, and can help guide create-alongers in their process if they are struggling with the materials. Third, and this is important to me, we know these yarns will wear well over all and that the quality of the create-along projects will not be compromised if you use them. It would devastate me if someone designed something for the first time and it looked terrible after only a few wearings. Although some of these yarns are more resilient than others, they are all reliable and you should be able to get significant use out of them.

Purpose the Third: Whenever you design a piece, you will come up against some type of limitation, and usually you will have several. It may be what yarn you have in your stash, the amount of yarn in a certain dyelot, or a specific color or set of colors. If you go on to design for publication, or if you have already designed for publication, you will find/have found that even more limitations are placed on you. In fact, unless you design for a specific yarn company or yarn in particular it will be pretty common for the publishers to look at your design concept and pick yarn and colors for you. Boy, oh boy, is that fun! (I'm not a fan of this convention, as you can see.)

Given this nearly universal propensity for limitations on design, I thought we could use it as a unifying principle. I think knitalongs work best when there is a common theme. I didn't want to go with choosing a specific type of project to design, because I wanted to attract knitters from a variety of skill levels in both design and knitting. I'm hoping that through this process we can take some of the mystery out of design and make it more accessible to everyone. Not all knitters will be interested, but I'd love it if those who are interested would be less intimidated. I feel that if you can start out with more simplistic shaping more people will join. I also think that the common theme of a few yarns can be cohesively repeated. If this is a success, we can do it again with fall yarns, and attract a different set of knitters.

*I've been reading too much Thomas Hardy. This is how he labels the parts of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Anyone remember that book from school?

Photos, from top to bottom: River in Kidsilk Haze; Citrus Moon in Pima Tencel (same fiber content as Premiere); Thelma in Rowan Denim; Birch in Kidsilk Haze; Tea Set in Cotton Classic; and Marnie's Deciduous in Calmer.

All about the Classic

Greetings, all. I'm Cher, blogging at The Amazing Adventures of Tom & Bel (or on my own server when it's up).
I've got a fair amount of knitting and design experience, and have really stepped it up in the last few months for work.

I'm excited to participate in the Create Along because it's been a while since I created something just for me - my recent knitting has all been on deadline and to specifications that were not of my choosing. I don't regret any of that, certainly, but it will be exciting to 'free associate' in yarn.

Since every project needs some boundaries, however, my point of entry for this project is color. I absolutely love color --I read about it (Deb Menz' Color Works: incredible!), think about cool combinations of it and use it frequently in my work. But my personal wardrobe? A sea of solids. So I am challenging myself to get over my self-imposed addiction to monochrome knitting.
What better way than to work with the incredible array of color choices available in Cotton Classic? The picture above is of a few skeins that have been loitering in my stash, waiting for inspiration to strike.
Because I am Bigger Than a Breadbox (TM), I'll have to make some time to score enough skeins to make something Woman Sized. Should be fun.