Shiki-Miki

I like tops with interesting constructions (see for example the Garter Stitch Bias Top). So when Angela from bestrickendes.de showed and offered me her Shiki-Miki pattern - in the summer of last year, I was really excited. It seemed a really good idea to use a lovely Lace weight yarn, I had seen at shop in town. It turns out, I was right and I am really happy with the result - however it took me some time to get there.

The pattern is available via Ravelry here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shiki-miki-shirt

Once I had ordered and received the yarn (Creative Melange Lace by Rico Design, colorway 011 - here's the yarn's Ravelry page), the actual knitting wasn't the problem. I started in July and I had finished everything except the lower edges by August 2021. I don't know, why I didn't continue it, but this June I started again and finished knitting the final bits. 

Because I don't like sewing up seams, I try to avoid creating seams at the knitting stage. Here, e.g. I knitted the shoulder bits at once for the front and back - see picture on the right. I had originally planned to do the same at the sides, but decided against it, because I think a knitted piece doesn't warp as much if it has side seams. 

So after finishing I only had to seam the sides and to weave in all ends. Unsurprisingly, this task took me quite a few weeks, but I have finally done it. 

I really (really, really) like the summery colors and the light lacy texture - and I am looking forward to wearing it on a hot day.

U-Turn Hat in 6-Ply Yarn

About four years ago, I published a hat pattern that was based on the idea of a magic cast-on and knitting around it in a U-shape (U-Turn Hat) - as with many of my knitted accessories, it is knitted in fingering weight. Motivated by an online discussion with Angela from bestrickendes.de, I thought it might be a good idea to knit it in a thicker yarn. So the next time I went into a yarn store, I looked for some self-striping 6- or 8-ply yarn. I bought some Zwerger Opal Sweet Dreams (Colorway 9720 Sternentänzer, here's a link to the yarn's Ravelry page).

In this blogpost, I'll explain how I "adapted" the pattern to 6-ply yarn. 

If you like that kind of construction, I have used a similar idea before for fingerless gloves (U-Turn Mitts) and slipppers (U-Turn Slippers).

Step 1: Check the general construction

The hat is knitted flat an in a U-shape around the first magic CO. Each row consists of a garter stitch part (ribbing - at the beginning and end of each row) and a semicircular bit around the turning point of the U. The slope is achieved by changing the number of increases and decreases. See schematic below.

Construction - click to enlarge

First there are 4 decreases every 2nd row (section A), which basically creates a semicircle above the ribbing. Then only 3 increases (section B), then only 2 (section C), then only 1 (section D) and finally there will be a few rows without any increases at all (section E).

Once you've reached the middle of your piece, you will knit the same backwards, i.e. there will be decreases instead of increases. That means you start with no decreases (section F), then switch to 1 decrease every 2nd row (section G), then 2 decreases every 2nd row (section H), then 3 (section I) and finally 4 decreases every 2nd row (section J). Until there are only as many stitches left as in the original CO. The piece is finished with a three-needle BO.

To get the slope to fit around a standard head the pattern suggests that of the total number of rows necessary reach the middle of the piece should be divided as follows:

• about 1/3 for RS rows with 4 in/decreases
• about the same number for RS rows with 3 in/decreses
• about 1/6 for RS rows with 2 in/decreases
• divide the remaining rows equally into rows 1 in/decrease and no in/decrease. 

Step 2: Knit a swatch 

Yes, really. Even though I don't like swatching I knitted a small piece to find out how many rows I needed for the hat to fit around my head and how many stitches I needed to get my desired height of garter stitch ribbing.

Step 3: Calculate and distribute the rows

I decided that I wanted a ribbing about 6 cm high (13 stitches as per my swatch). For a quarter of the circumference of my head I calculated that I would need 27 ridges or 54 rows. 

I then divided the 27 ridges into the sections as follows:

• section A /J: 9 ridges
• section B/I: 8 ridges
• section C/H: 5 ridges
• section D/G: 3 ridges
• section E/F: 2 ridges
• => total number of ridges 27

As you can see, the distribution of the sections is not as exact as suggested by the pattern. But since the resulting fabric (knitting) is quite stretchy, that doesn't matter.

Step 4: Knit 

And while you're knitting, check and measure from time to time, if your calculations are correct and - if necessary - adapt.

Semiramis Summer Top

Currently, my knitting motivation is quite low. I don't know whether this is due to a general Covid19 weariness or to other reasons, but I haven't done much lately. Plus, there are about six or seven finished objects for which I haven't written the pattern - or for which there is a half-written pattern that I should finalize or proof-read ... but I just cannot bring myself to do it.

So, about a month ago I thought that I might just knit a simple top and not having to worry about writing a pattern. I always wanted to knit a lace top with thick yarn, so that's what I did  - using quite bulky cotton yarn, that was in my stash. (Actually, it was yarn from a project that I never finished - see this blogpost.)

I searched for interesting lace patterns on the internet and found some beautiful ones at Gannetdesign's blog String Geekery. For this top I used the stitch pattern called Semiramis.

I used about 9,5 skeins of Lang Yarns Cotone (i.e. about 660 metres of yarn) and 6.0mm knitting needles. Basically, I knitted four rectangles (back & front: 50cm by 65cm, and two sleeves: 42 cm by 20cm) and sewed them together. 

The actual knitted worked really well, even though knitting with 6mm needles always seems strange to me - I prefer knitting with 4-ply yarns and the appropriate needles. The sewing part took a bit longer ... :) However, I am rather pleased with the result - even though it is a bit bulky, it's a quite summery top.

"Darn it!" or Kintsugi

My Cable Experiment Mitts (one of my first ever knitting patterns published back in 2012) were my favorite fingerless gloves to wear - even though they are quite plain and I have knitted far more interesting pairs of fingerless gloves ...

Quite a while ago, I ripped a hole into the upper edge. (In fact, I had to scroll quite far down in my Instagram feed to find out that this happened was in November 2015 - i.e. nearly five years ago).
Back then, somebody pointed me towards the idea of Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery") - a Japanese technique to mend broken pottery with gold in way that the crack is still visible, but beautifully so.
Translated to knitting, it meant for me that I wanted to mend it with a beautiful shiny yarn, that would stand out from the dark brown (and cheap) sock yarn that I had used to knit the mitts.
But to mend something like that you really need your concentration and to be in the right state of mind. So I put the ripped mitts safely away ...

This weekend I felt a bit uninspired (or lazy) to continue any of my current knitting projects, so I thought, I might just try to mend these old mitts. First I had to search for them - I had moved house inbetween - so that was OK. Afterwards, I looked for video tutorials on YouTube to teach me the basics of mending knitware. I found this Video by KNIT Freedom and watched it.

Finally, I started the actual mending - using Araucania Botany Lace (here's the yarn's Ravelry page, leftovers from a Hitchhiker scarf I knitted back in 2012). It is fiddly work, especially since I hadn't done this before - and I had to undo bits of it and redo them. I even managed to sew both sides together once :( But in the end it worked, now everything is secure and wearable again.
Here's how it looks ...

Considering that this is the first time, I've ever tried to darn or mend a piece of knitted fabric, I'm quite happy - even though I had hoped it would turn out a bit neater.
And I'm even tempted to make the patch a bit bigger or to put some more embroidery on the upper edge of the piece, because I really like the contrast of the two yarns.

Two Patchwork Cardigans

Recently, I bought an overlocker. It was threaded in four colors (blue, gree, red, yellow). Of course I tried it out with these threads because I was too lazy to change them (it's probably less complicated then it looks in the manual, but still ... ). I really liked the color effect on my grey test piece, so I thought seams like that might make a nice feature on the outside of a garment.
That thought matured quite some time in my head, and this weekend I thought I'd give it a try and started to construct a cardigan. I used different grey(ish) jersey fabrics - leftovers and recycled old t-shirts. I didn't use a pattern but eyeballed the pieces when cutting and assembling them (with my measurements in the back of my head).
Unexpectedly, it actually worked and I had a finished jacket on Saturday evening. The piece fits me well - even though the seams are not what you'd call neat and tidy ;-)

So, I decided to make a second one on Sunday - using two old XL sized t-shirts - also in the "seams on the outside"-look.  Unfortunately, the two of the thread bobbins were empty, so I had to learn how to thread the machine (and it wasn't that difficult - except for the fine motor skills that you need to thread the needles :)

This second one (in light green and teal) is less successful in terms of fitting, but it's still basically a wearable jacket.

There are several things that I learned when making these two jackets:

• threading an overlocker is easier than it first seems
• when using an overlocker I use up much more thread than I ever expected
• thread tension is important
• two XL t-shirts (especially if they are old and a bit distorted) are not quite enough to make a jacket for me
• when cutting pieces, better err on the generous side :)

Green Summer Top

I am always proud to finish tops or sweaters. I mostly knit accessories (scarfs, fingerless gloves) that don't need swatching, you just start and it will work because sizing is not an issue. But a bigger project - where size actually matters - is something special for me.
So I was quite pleased when I finished this nice summer top in green cotton. I bought the yarn about three years ago and had already made two other attempts to knit a top with it - but it just didn't work the way I planned (you can see photos of my failed attempts on the Ravelry project page).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.



When I restarted this in April, I settled for a simple top-down raglan construction - with seed stitch on arms and shoulders, stockinette stitch on front and back, and seed stitch instead of a ribbing. I am quite pleased with it and I like how the seed stitch feels.

Here's a rough description of what I did:

• First of all, I knitted a swatch (yes, for sweaters this is a useful step, even though I don't like swatching) and calculating the stitches to start with and the increases (if you don't want to calculate yourself, there are raglan calculators available on the internet, e.g. one by knittingfool.com or one by From TheHartle).
• Since I wanted visible raglan increases I distributed the stitches for the back of the neckline and the arms in a way, that I would reach the arm circumference and the planned width of the back or front at the same time. (Example: I wanted an arm circumference of 40 cm and 50 cm as width of the back or front part. So when I started, the neck part of my raglan part was 10 cm wider than either of the arm parts.)
• So I distributed my CO into 5 parts: left front (very small), left arm, back, right arm, right front - and started knitting flat (RS and WS).
• For the raglan increases I simply did yarn-overs.
• The V-neck shape was created by a simple kfb/kbf at the beginning/end of each RS row. 
• Once the stitch count on the two front bits added up to be as high as the stitch count of the back piece, I joined it at the front and started knitting in the round.
• I started with seed stitch on the arms and on the back. After seperating the arm stitches, I continued in the round in stockinette stitch (also on the back).  
• This is a boxy top. so I didn't do any shaping around the waist and hips (as opposed to other summer tops I've knitted, e.g. this one). 
• I finished the lower hem in seed stitch again, first in the round - and then I separated the piece into front and back.
• The arms were finished in seed stitch in the round, too.

Looking forward to wearing this in summer.

Lying flat - the pattern for the little knitted hearts is available here.

Grape Socks

Usually, I have quite a few ideas what to knit next. But sometimes I am out of ideas or have only ideas that don't feel right at the time - that's when I knit socks, plain socks.

My preferred method is knitting toe-up socks - and ever since I first tried it, a flap heel. 

I used the method described here, i.e. Sarah Keller's Generic Toe-Up, Slip-Stitch Heel, Sock Formula, which worked brilliantly for me.

The stitch pattern that I used was as follows (very similar to my Osterspaziergang Socks):

Using a multiple of 4 stitches, the pattern consists of 6 rows.

Row 1: * k1, ssk, yo, k1 repeat from *

Rows 2 and 3: k all

Row 4: * k1, yo, k2tog, k1 repeat from *

Rows 5 and 6: k all

The yarn used here is called Regia Cotton Tutti Frutti Color, colorway 2423 Grapes - here's a link to the yarn's Ravelry page.

Strawberry Socks

After finishing two lovely brioche scarfs (photo on Instagram, tutorial to follow soon), I was a bit out of inspiration and decided to knit a plain pair of socks with some self striping yarn I had bought some time before (Regia Cotton Tutti Frutti, colorway Strawberry, link to the yarn's Ravelry page).

For self striping yarn I prefer patterns that are visible in spite of the yarn, i.e. the detail of most lace patterns is lost in self striping yarn. So usually I like a pattern that's either interestingly constructed so that the color changes provide interesting shapes (e.g. my Tipsy Toe Socks or the Skew Socks by Lana Holden) or a pattern that disrupts the stripes (a bit), e.g. by knitting into a stitch below or with slip stitches. Since I hadn't done much with slip stitches before, I decided on them. And - as usual - the first try didn't look the way I wanted :)

In the end I used the slip stitches as provided by the Slip Stitch Lines pattern on Ravelry. But I only used the stitch pattern together with my preferred sock construction:

• I knitted the socks toe-up - the way I usually do (see for example this pattern) 
• I decided to knit only three vertical lines of slip stitches and placed them on the outer side of the sock - with a distance of three stitches inbetween
• I did an afterthought heel (as I did with these socks)

Hat for a Friend

In January or February this year, I promised a friend to knit him a hat for winter. Unfortunately, I didn't have any good ideas what exactly to knit for him, but I felt sure that I'd have an idea in due course ... It turned out that this optimism was misplaced. Even in autumn - when I was reminded of my promise - I still didn't have an idea. I first tried something with a construction a bit out of the ordinary (see this Instagram photo), but it didn't work out the way I had planned. Then I decided on a sideways construction ... and since I still didn't have an original idea that would look good on a man, I decided to search Ravelry for an appropriate pattern. And I found Tychus.

Tychus is a hat pattern by Brooke T. Higgins that is available for free via Ravelry or directly on knitty.com. Currently, there are more than 1600 projects listed for this pattern on Ravelry. It is knitted sideways with a short-row construction.

I didn't keep to the pattern, but made a few modifications - especially since I had started with yarn of a different weight. Here's what I did differently:

• I started with a provisional CO and ended by grafting in garter stitch, because wanted the hat to look seamless.
• I did a (provisional) cast on of 56 stitches (more than the original pattern), due to the yarn I used. 
• I only worked the first halves of the wedges as described in the original pattern - and then I started again. In the end I knitted seven half-wedges to get the hat circumference that I wanted.
• In the original pattern a half-wedge consists of 8 ridges of short rows. Since I had thinner yarn, I did 12 ridges per half-wedge. (In fact, during a first attempt, I did 16 short rows per half-wedge - ending up with a piece of the right circumference, that was far too pointy. So, I had saved myself the work of knitting a swatch by knitting a bigger swatch ... as usual :/ ).

The Right Yarn for the Right Pattern

For #socktober I wanted to knit a pair of short row socks - with a similar toe construction to the Tipsy Toe Socks, but with a bit more of a short row pattern for the main part. At first I wasn't quite sure about the effect I wanted to achieve. That's why I tried it a few times - and with different yarns. But once I had roughly settled for a pattern (or rather a pattern idea), I found out that not every kind of variegated yarn worked for it and - as a general rule - how important it is to choose the right yarn for the right pattern.

Here's how it went for me when trying to knit these socks:

• Upper Left - 1st Attempt: This was my first attempt and done with Lang Yarns Twin Wash - the yarn worked beautifully for the shape I had in mind - especially with the longer dark yarn between the lovely rainbow color changes, but I hadn't quite fixed how exactly the socks were supposed to look. I tried once with a shadow wrap heel and once with a sweet tomato heel, but I wasn't quite happy with both. So in order to save this yarn (i.e. not to frog it too often) I tried the same shape with different yarn. 
• Upper Right - 2nd Attempt: For the 2nd try I used yarn from years ago (to be exact from the second pair of Pieces of Eight Mitts) - a beautiful autumnal dark-green, red and yellow combination of Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Mexico. When trying the socks with this yarn, I found out that the color change was a bit too long to look nice. I finished the sock anyway, just to frog it later on. But at least I figured out, the actual pattern I wanted to knit.
• Lower Left - 3rd Attempt: So I tried again, with a yarn that had much shorter color changes: a Regia Mosaik Color colorway I bought this year on holiday. The yarn is beautiful, but the lack of longer strands of one color results in a lack of color blocks that you usually get from short rows and therefore the shape wasn't quite visible. But while knitting the tip of this sock, I finally figured out, how to best do the short rows in the round (hint: with shadow-wraps). 
• Lower Right - 4th Attempt: I then dived into my stash again and found some of last year's cheap Aldi yarn. Since I knew what socks pattern and what heel I wanted to knit (plus I had figured out a way to do nice looking short rows in the round), it worked a treat - and I finished a pair of them and I am really happy with the look.

Since the pattern also fits the first yarn I tried it with, I have started another pair with my Lang Yarns Twin Socks yarn. I guess I will also write and publish the pattern for it.

As an aside, this sock was the first time, I tried to use shadow-wrap short rows for something other than a heel - and I really liked how neat they looked.

Finished Objects or Good Train Knitting

Time spent on public transport - especially over longer distances - can be quality knitting time. But when you knit on a train you need a knitting project that is suitable for the environment. For me, a suitable project usually has to fulfil the following criteria:

1. only one skein of yarn is needed
2. the yarn weight is quite light (fingering or below) so
3. no additional knitting accessories are needed (e.g. cable needles, stitch holders ...)
4. the pattern is not too complicated or - even better - it's so easy that you don't need the pattern

Basically the same criteria apply, when I'm knitting something that I have designed myself on the train. But then it must also be so easy that I do not have to take notes while knitting on the train. But in order to have a good self-designed train project, you need some inspiration.

This year, I ran out of inspiration quite a few times - and unfortunately, this coincided with the times I went on longer train journeys. So I had to fall back on knitting somebody else's patterns.

In June - when I went to Zurich, i.e. 2 x 5 hours on the train - I decided on knitting Garnomera's Durkslag (free pattern available on Ravelry).  It's a gorgeous shawl, in half-circle shape with many small holes - so that it looks like a colander (or durkslag in Swedish). I had seen photos of it on instagram a few years ago and loved the look of it. Even though I was quite reluctant to knit something that wasn't designed by myself, I was quite happy once I had started. Plus it beautifully matched the yarn I had (Puk Puk by Bilum).

For my holidays in September I needed something even bigger because I planned to go to the North Sea (about 2 x 6-7 hours by train) and afterwards again to Switzerland. Plus, I wanted to knit something multifunctional, i.e. something that can be worn as a poncho, shrug or scarf - using a skein of Wollmeise Lace (300 grams, about 1500 meters). I bought the pattern for Smooth Sailor by Strickmich (Martina Behm) - a paid pattern available on Ravelry. I did the cast on and the first rows (the part where you actually need the pattern) at home and knitted the rest (really, REALLY easy) during my holidays. I changed the last rows a bit by not knitting a ruffle (as suggested in the pattern) but a garter stitch edge. The piece has a great construction and I love wearing it.

Since both of these projects are knitted with Lace weight light yarn they took quite a while to finish. But I am really happy with both finished objects - and I highly recommend both patterns!
How do you choose which projects you take on a journey?

Bella Paquita

Bella Paquita is a beautiful free sweater pattern by Marnie MacLean - available via Ravelry or directly on her website. I discovered it in my early Ravelry days (in 2011) and wanted to knit it right then, even though I wasn't a good knitter back then and lacked some of the skills necessary for it.

I even bought a beautiful and quite expensive (at least I thought so at the time :) grey alpaca yarn for it, but I was a bit too afraid to use it. So I first tried the pattern with some really old old bordeaux red yarn from a sweater I had started in the 1980s and frogged (here's the Ravelry page of the project). I made quite a few mistakes when knitting it for the first time - some due to my lack of knitting experience other due to not reading the pattern :/

But I finished it and really liked the look of it - except for the curve of the lace collar. To make the lace collar fit, the pattern suggests: "to sew two small darts in the lace" and later after you've sewn it with your sewing machine to "clip the excess fabric about a quarter inch from the outer most seam line". Cutting into my knitting is something that I don't think I could ever do. So when I knitted the first one, I just sewed the collar to lay flat on my shoulders, but I didn't cut the excess. The picture on the right shows how that looked from the inside.

So I resolved to use to use short rows to shape the collar - when knitting it again with my beautiful alpaca yarn. A project that I started soon after finishing the first sweater. I quickly did the main pieces (front, back and sleeves) - and then started the lace. It took me a few attempts to get a) the short rows and b) the curve right, but I guess I got it right in December 2012. And I know I knitted a piece of the collar on the train home after New Year's Day of 2013.

And then it became a WIP - a hibernating WIP. For a loooong time ...

I don't even know why I abandoned it, but this year (more than 5 years later, when I was going through a bit of an inspirational crisis :) I finally picked it up again and

• finished the lace collar (even though I had to try the lace pattern with the short rows a few times with scrap yarn)
• sewed up the pieces and
• inserted the lace collar.

It was finished (fireworks!), and I'm really happy with it ...

As it may help somebody else who also wants to knit this lovely sweater, here are the modifications I did. More photos can be seen on my Ravelry project page.

Firstly, I didn't knit the pieces in the order as given in the pattern. I started from the hip and knitted the front and back piece together in the round. After ribbing, I put 12 stitches (in the middle of the front part on a stitch holder (or rather scrap yarn) and started to knit in rows. When reaching the sleeves, I devided it into two front and one back part, that I finished seperately.

But the major modification was knitting the collar in short rows, which I did as follows:

• Short row (ridge) for regular lace: (RS) k3, yo, p2tog, yo, p2tog, ktbl, turn (just a normal turn, no w+t), (WS) sl1, p1, k2, yo, p2tog, yo, p2tog, k1
  Since this increases the stitch count by 1, in the next row I did a k2tog just over the gap, i.e. the two stitches I knitted together were the last stitch of the short row (RS) and the next stitch. If that next stitch was to be a k2tog (as stated by the lace pattern), I did a k3tog.
• Short row (ridge) for reverse lace: (WS), k1, p2tog, yo, p2tog, yo k2, p1, turn, (RS) sl1, yo, p2tog, yo, p2tog, k3
  As with the regular lace, this increases the stitch count by one, so I had to decrease by one in the following in row. And I did this also at the gap, where I did a p2tog instead of the normal p (as given in the lace pattern without short rows). 

On both sides (regular and reverse) I first knitted one normal repeat of the lace pattern (A in the picture below). Then 3 repeats with the short rows inserted every 2nd row (B, before rows 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 for the regular lace and before rows 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 for the reverse lace). Then one repeat with only two short rows (C, before the 3rd and 7th row for the regular lace, and before the 4th and 8th for the revers). Then I went on with normal pattern repeats (D).

Since I rarely knit sweaters that are sewn up (for my own stuff, I prefer top-down raglan constructions, e.g. this one), I had a hard time inserting the sleeves. On YouTube I found these helpful videos:

• Seaming a Set-in Sleeve by BeroccoKnitBits
• Knitting Help - Setting in Sleeves by VeryPink Knits and 
• Knitting Help - Mattress Stitch also by VeryPink Knits

This was the first time I actually finished a long term WIP - usually, I tend to frog them.
Do you have a WIP that has been lying around for quite a while? If so, do you think you'll ever finish it?

By the way, the background picture of my blog (the grey knitted ribbing) is a photo of the ribbing of this project :) ... and it has been the background picture for more than five years.

Iceberg Socks - Intarsia in the Round

When I entered the sock KAL in the Facebook-Group "Die drei vom Blog - Knit Along" I thought long and hard about what to knit. As a rule I prefer not to use patterns, but to knit something I made up myself. Plus I wanted to do something new. I.e. I wanted to try out a new technique. So I decided on trying out intarsia in the round.

Here's the first project I finished in this technique. The edges between the two colors are not quite as neat as they might be, but since it's a first try, I'm quite happy with it.

As with some of my other sock patterns, this is NOT A COMPLETE PATTERN with stitch counts and everything, but only a sketch. It is assumed that you know how to knit socks to fit your feet.


This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.




Materials

• about 60 grams of fingering weight yarn in two colors in equal amounts - I used one yarn in a solid color (dark blue) and another with a color gradient (light blue to off-white)
• 2.5 mm needles - I used 80 cm circulars and the magic loop method
• scrap yarn for the afterthought heel
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Techniques

• Toe up sock knitting: as explained on dummies.com or in this video by Girly Knits 
• Afterthought heel: Here's a tutorial in three videos by Knit Purl Hunter. Alternatively, you can do any kind of short row heel.
• Intarsia in the round: When I searched on the internet, I found two methods to do intersia in the rounds - for these socks I used the second method, but I think that the first one is ingenious and will even give you better edges between the colors. I will definitely try it out on another project
• with crossing yarns at both ends: as shown in this YouTube video by Sheep to Shawl Knitting Studio & Store Vermont
• with yarn-overs before turning: as shown in this YouTube video by Julia farwell-clay.
  I used the method from this video. Basically you knit back and forth even though your stitches are arranged in the round - and you have to consider rounds in pairs - one RS row and one WS row. You start with your main color (MC) on the RS, then - as in normal intarsia you change (by twisting the yarns) - to contrast color (CC) and knit your CC part, After finishing this you turn your work, make a yarn-over and do the WS with CC, when you get to the MC part you change back as in normal (flat) intarsia to MC.
  Now with MC you work your way on the WS not only to the start of the round, but further to the point where you ended the CC part. Here you p2tog the last MC stitch with the yarn over in CC. Then you turn - again with a yarn over - and do the RS part to the beginning of the round. That's the two round finished.
  When - during the next pair of rounds - you reach the new yarn over on the RS, you have to do an ssk of the last stitch in CC with the yarn over in MC.

Instructions
Knit your toe and then divide the stitches into two equal parts - front and back - and place a marker between the two halves. Start to knit the intarsia pattern. The chart below shows only the stitches that are knitted in the contrast color xxx . It also shows only the lower right quarter of the stitches. The pattern is mirrored at the stitch marker. This means e.g. in row 1 that after knitting 1 stitch in CC before the stitch marker and 1 stitch in CC after it - or in row 15 that you knit 6 stitches in CC before the marker and 6 stitches in CC after the marker.
Furthermore after knitting it once, it is repeated in opposite order (i.e. you start with row 26 end with row 1 - also mirrored around the marker).

Chart - click to enlarge

I inserted the scrap yarn for the afterthought heel just after finishing the second half of the intarsia pattern. If you need your socks shorter, leave out some of the upper rows (e.g. rows 24 and 23), but I'd suggest to knit rows 25 and 26 to have two full rows of the contrast color.

I used the colors as follows:

• Sock 1: start with C1 as main color, then include C2 as contrast color for the first half of intarsia pattern - for the second half of intarsia pattern, switch the colors, i.e. C2 becomes main color and C1 the contrast color. Finish the sock in C2 and also knit the afterthought heel in C2.
• Sock 2: completely reversed to sock 1: start with C2 as main color, then add C1 as contrast color for the first half of intarsia pattern - for the second half of intarsia pattern, switch the colors, i.e. C1 becomes main color and C2 the contrast color. Finish sock in C1 and also knit the afterthought heel in C1.

Unfinished Business

I haven't posted much lately ... this is partly due to the fact that I have started a new job (in real life and totally unrelated to knitting), but partly my own fault ... Even though I have knitted a lot in the last few weeks (see pictures below), I haven't felt up to the task to finish writing up a pattern.

Here's an overview of some of my current unfinished projects (roughly from left to right on the picture above):

• The huge purple thing in the upper left corner is supposed to be a poncho scarf combination (here's a picture of it on Instagram). It's made from bulky yarn which is something I don't usually knit with and I don't like how the lacy edging curls in. I guess it will be frogged - and I might pursue the general idea, but with a different edging and different (lighter weight) yarn.
• The orange-pink piece with holdes in the lower left hand corner is supposed to be a light summer scarf. It is constructed with short rows and BO/CO-holes and made with Wollmeise Pure yarn. If you want to see a close up (with a better view of the colors) it's here on my Instagram.
• The small half-moon shaped piece in pale mint (lying on top of the purple poncho) is a small swatch for a scarf/shrug combination. I will design a lower edging that does not curl in, but I guess it will work.
• The dark blue lacy piece is supposed to be a short row scarf, with lacy short rows. It somehow worked with the small swatches I knitted, but when kinitting a bigger piece the inner edge started to curl. That's why I added a garter stitch edge that is five stitches wide ... but I really don't like how it looks. Furthermore, the main idea (short rows in a lace pattern) is not visible at all. So I guess this piece will be frogged .
• The green trapezoid shaped piece is going to be another Waterfall Tunic, but with some fancy stitches at the side. The back piece is already finished. 
• Finally, the small crocheted piece in colors from pink to orange on the right is a crochet version of my Helix Mitts. Somebody on Ravelry asked whether I could do them in crochet and I am determined to finish them - including a written pattern - for autumn this year.

On the plus side, I have managed to finish some pieces - and quite a few of them will be made into patterns.

• On the upper part of the picture above there is a new knitted scarf. It is knitted from side to side with CO increases and decreases which gives it a staircase look. It is made from one skein of my new Wollmeise yarn, that I purchased a few weeks ago when I visited a friend in Bavaria. I have written a part of the pattern and (hopefully) I'll finish it over the weekend. I
• The black and white piece on the left hand side is going to be a cowl. It is knitted in intarsia technique with short rows. I've finished the written part of the pattern, but I still need to finish the chart (and maybe a helpful "shorthand" version). I also need to get some nice photos for it.
• The blue/white pair of fingerless gloves was finished earlier this year, and I really love the look and texture of them. I have started writing the pattern and some of the explanatory schematics have been drawn ... 
• The brown/beige pair is basically the same idea - only in crochet. And the pattern is half-written, half-illustrated, too.

If you know of any techniques that make me actually finish the things I started, please let me know. In real life deadlines work fine for me. But there aren't any deadlines for my blog and my knitting patterns ... (which is actually a good thing :)

Random Lace - E-Book Sleeve

When my Dad bought a new ebook reader, I promised to make a new sleeve for it and bought some foam sheets to knit around them. However, While I was deciding what to knit, I remembered the beautiful lace patterns at String Geekery Blog, Some of them look so nice and organic, and I wanted to do something similar.

But I'm very lazy ... too lazy in fact to decide upon a pattern, to print it out and to count stitches and rows. So I decided to knit a completely random pattern, with yarn-overs, k2togs, double yarn-overs, p2togs, ssks etc.. I just had to make sure, that the number of stitches stayed the same.
Here's how it looked after a few centimeters. But even "real" lace patterns look a bit crumpled before blocking, so I persevered :)

After I blocked it and glued it around the foam sheet, it looked much better.

I started a second one that I even like better.

Moreover, I really think the random approach has potential and I like the organic look. Plus, it's really fun to knit. I'm trying to do a scarf or stole next.

I later googled at bit and found some resources on random lace knitting - a tutorial (also linked on Ravelry) and a book (that I haven't read, but according to the description at amazon it seems to pursue a similar approach).

Circle Mitts - Aran Weight Version

A while ago I knitted the Swiss Cheese Scarf by Winnie Shih from really old yarn that I had bought some time in the 80ies. At that time it had been knitted into a sweater and been frogged several years later. Photos of this scarf project are on its Ravelry page.

I decided to knit a new pair of Circle Mitts (original pattern on my blog) but with the heavier yarn. I had one hank left with a label - from that I infered that the yarn was Aran weight.

This is a short version - for the general construction etc., please refer to the original Circle Mitts pattern.




This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



Materials

• 4.5mm needles (I switched from dpns to circulars and back - even if you use circulars, you will need a third needle for the three-needle BO)
• about 50 grams of aran weight yarn
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Abbreviations

• kfb: knit front & back
• mk1: make 1 knit stitch
• ssk: slip slip knit
• k2tog: knit 2 sts together
• p2tog: purl 2 sts together
• mk1p: make 1 purl stitch
• p2tog: purl 2 sts together through the back loop
• wrap and turn: a method for short rows

Instructions

Part 1 - Thumb

CO12 and join in round (I used this strechy cast-on method, but other CO methods are fine as well)
Knit 5 rounds of k1 p1-ribbing
Knit 3 rounds of plain stockinette stitch
Row 9: *k2 kfb repeat from * (you have increased by 4 sts => 16 sts on your needles)
Knit 2 more rounds of plain stockinette stitch

Part 2
(basically, you'll increase by 8 sts every other row)
Row 1: *k2 mk1 repeat from * (+8 => 24 sts)
Row 2 (and every other even row during part 2): k
Row 3:  *k1 mk1 k2 repeat from *
Row 5: *mk1 k4 repeat from *
Row 7: *k3 mk1 k2 repeat from *
Row 9: *k5 mk1 k1 repeat from *
BO 5 and continue knitting the round to end

Part 3
Turn work
Row 1: p2tog, * p3 mk1p p4 repeat from * until there are less than 7 sts left, p to last 2 sts, p2togtbl
Row 2: ssk, k to last 2 sts, k2tog
Row 3: p2tog, * p5 mk1p p3 repeat from * until there are less than 8 sts left, p to last 2 sts, p2togtbl
Rows 4 & 5: ssk, k6, wrap and turn, p to last 2 sts , p2togtbl
Row 6: ssk, k to last 2 sts, k2tog
Rows 7 & 8: p2tog, p6, wrap and turn, k to last 2 sts, k2tog
Row 9: p2tog, *p6, mk1p, p3 repeat from * until there are less than 9 sts left, p to last 2 sts, p2togtbl
Row 10: ssk, k to last 2 sts, k2tog
Row 11: p2tog, *p3, mk1p, p7 repeat from * until there are less than 10 sts left, p to last 2 sts, p2togtbl
Row 12: ssk, k to last 2 sts, k2tog

You should now have something like 54 sts on your needles. Hold the sides together and with a three-needle bind-off, BO 15 sts.

If you  want the upper edge to be wider, just insert a few more of the short row sequences (Rows 4 & 5, and 7 & 8). For a more detailed explanations (as well as how to calculate the number of stitches to bind off if the mitts are wider), please read the original pattern.

Part 4
Distribute the remaining 24 stitches on your needles and put the stitch that remained from BO on the first needle. The remaining sts will be knitted in the round.

Round 1: sl1, pick up 2 sts from the gap between the first st and the next one (this will avoid holes), k10, mk1, k4, mk1, k to end, pick up 2 sts from gap between the stitch you just knitted and the first in the round (=> now there are 6 sts more on your needles, i.e. 30)
Row 2: (RS) k12, wrap and turn,
    (WS): p12, p12, wrap and turn (or use another method for short rows, e.g. this)
    (RS): k12
Row 3: (RS) k9, wrap and turn
     (WS): p7 p2tog, p2tog, p7, wrap and turn
     (RS); k9
Row 34 (RS) k5, wrap and turn
     (WS): p5, p5, wrap and turn
     (RS); k5
Round 25: k one round (picking up all wrapped sts).

Part 5
Knit 3 more rounds
Knit 6 rounds of k1 p1-ribbing
Bind-off loosely in pattern

Weave in ends.
Make two.

Corinne Cardigan

Quite proud that I finished my Corinne cardigan - pattern from knitty.com. I love that I found buttons that match perfectly.

Drop Stitch Scarf

Made based on a pattern I found on Ravelry. It's called #13 Drop Stitch Scarf by Laura Bryant.

 

Helga Cabled Mitts

Made from Aran weight yarn, these
fingerless gloves are a quick knit with decorative cables.

They were knit to very (!) clear specifications of my Mum who saw a photo in a catalogue and asked me to knit her such mitts.

This is not a complete pattern, but only a rough explanation.




This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



Materials: 

• about 60 grams of Aran weight yarn
• 4.5 mm dpns
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Terms:
Cable abbreviations are explained in the knitting cables section of http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-knit-a-cable-stitch/ .
Half the stitches of the width of the cable are placed on a cable needle (in case of C8F the cable width is 8, therefore the number of stitches you place on the cable needle is 4). This cable needle is held in front (in case of C8F) in at the back (in case of C8B) of your knitting while you knit the other half of the cables stitches. Then you knit the stitches from the cable needle.

Instructions:

• CO 32 and join in round
• knit 6 rounds of "k2-p2"-ribbing
• the cable is knitted in 3 strands that are each 4 stitches wide; all stitches are knit-stitches, except for a purl channel (1 st wide) around the 12 cable stitches, i.e. set-up row: "k1 p1 k12 p1 k to end"
• cabling is done every 4th row; the strand that leans to the middle is always the "front strand" (in row 4 the cabling part reads "p1 C8F k4 p1" and in row 8 "p1 k4 C8B p1" (and the other way round for the second mitt)). See chart below.
 

 
• for thumb gusset start increases in 24th row after ribbing: place markers around a stitch 2 stitches away from the cabling part (for one mitt on the left side, for the other on the right side) - and k to marker mk1r k to next marker mk1l
• do thumb gusset increases in rounds 24, 28, 32 and 36 (i.e. you increase by 8 stitches)
• in row 40 place 9 thumb stitches on stitch holder and CO1 above the thumb hole (with backwards loop CO)
• do last cabling in row 44 and knit 3 more "k1 p1 k12 p1 k to end"-rows
• finish with 4 rows of "k2 p2"-ribbing then BO in pattern
• for thumb gusset distribute the 9 sts from stitch marker on two needles and pick-up 5 more stitches from above thumb gusset (-> 14 sts)
• knit 2 rounds in stockinette stitch (knitting decreases in the first row where the stitches from stitch holder meet the newly picked up stitches to avoid gaps) -> 12 stitches
• finish with 2 rounds of  "k2 p2"-ribbing then BO in pattern