Crossbeams Cowl

 Two-colour brioche is a marvellous technique. It creates a lovely, squishy texture that is really comforable to wear. Plus, it can be used to create quite intricate geometric patterns. 

For this cowl a criss-cross pattern is used, a stitch that combines an increase and a decrease.  Since it is brioche, both sides will look nice.  

The whole piece is knitted flat and the end product will look seamless. This means that it starts with a provisional cast-on and is finished by grafting in two-colour brioche. 

The pattern PDF is available via

• Ravelry
• Lovecrafts 
• Payhip

This pattern PDF is  pages long and contains

• row-by-row pattern instructions
• a chart of a pattern repeat
• photo tutorials for the techniques you need for this piece:
• brk4dec4inc
• provisional cast on (with crochet hook and scrap yarn)
• grafting in two-colour brioche

To knit this cowl (in double length, i.e. to fit twice around your neck) you will need the following materials

• a total of 180 grams  (about 730 metres) of fingering weight yarn – in two colours, i.e. 90 grams of each color; I used Malabrigo sock yarn (merino) 
• 3.5 mm knitting needles – circulars or other needles with two points
• a cable needle
• crochet hook and scrap yarn
• a tapestry needle for grafting and weaving in ends

Jasmin

During the last months my knitting inspiration was quite low. All bigger project didn't seem appealing to me, so I started (again) playing around with colorful cotton and small motifs. And here's what I came up with. A knitting pattern for a hexagonal potholder with a flower motif.  It starts with a provisional CO, is knitted in short row wedges and finished with grafting in garter stitch.

Since this is an intarsia project with two colours that also uses short rows, it can be quite fiddly. It is NOT a beginner pattern.

The pattern is available at

• Ravelry
• Loveknitting / Lovecrafts 
• Payhip

The pattern PDF is 11 pages long and contains

• written row-by-row instructions for knitting this piece – including five photos of the different stages
• a brief explanation on how to adapt the pattern for a version with different petal colours (see photo below)
• pattern charts for one wedge of the original pattern and the variation
• short photo tutorials for the following techniques: 
• provisional CO with a crochet hook and how to undo it, grafting in garter stitch, 
• short rows with wrap and turn and picking up the wraps, intarsia knitting, weaving in yarn while carrying it (backwards and forwards)
• step-by-step explanations with photos of undoing the provisional CO in this pattern (i.e. catching stitches in different colours), grafting with colour changes

To knit one of these potholders/coasters you need the following materials:

• Cotton yarn in two colors – I knitted these potholders in Aran and in Thread weight yarn
• in Aran weight I used a total of 65 meters (about 30 meters of C1 and 35 meters of C2
• in Thread weight a total of 50 meters (also a bit more for C2 than for C1)
• knitting needles – straight or circulars: I used 3.5mm needles for Aran weight yarn,  i.e. smaller than the yarn usually requires because I wanted a firm texture. 
• scrap yarn and a crochet hook (about 3mm) for the provisional CO
• two tapestry needles for grafting and to weave in ends

Knitted in Aran weight yarn the pieces measured between 22 and 25 cm in diameter.

Troldmandens øje - Ojos de Bruja Scarf in Danish

Marianne Holmen from strikkeglad.dk has written another Danish translation of one of my free knitting patterns. This time for my Ojos de Bruja Scarf. Mange tak!

Here's the link to the Danish version.
And here's the original English version.

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

 

A list of all translated versions of my patterns can be found in this blogpost.

Windrose

If you have been following my blog or social media you may know that I love to experiment with with short rows to create shapes and motifs. A while ago, I published my Water Lily pattern - a semicircular potholder with a flower shape.

After finishing it, I started to think about changing in a way to make it a full circle. The most difficult bit was a find out how to start it in order to be able to easily graft it in the end - and it took me a few attempts to get it right. 

So here it is: a pattern for a potholder or doily in a flower shape. I called it windrose, because the petals look a bit like the points of a compass. It starts with a provisional CO, is knitted in short row parts and finished with grafting in garter stitch. 

This project uses yarn in two colours, short rows and is really fiddly in the beginning - so it is definitely NOT a beginner pattern.

The pattern  PDF is available at

• Ravelry 
• Loveknitting
• Payhip

The pattern PDF is 10 pages long and contains

• written row-by-row instructions for knitting this piece – including 19 illustration photos (total of 4 pages)
• short photo tutorials for the following techniques
• provisional CO with a crochet hook and how to undo it
• grafting in garter stitch
• short rows with wrap and turn and picking up the wraps 
• weaving in yarn while carrying it (backwards and forwards)
• crochet CO (at the edge of a knitted piece)

Knitting in DK weight, the piece measures about 30 cm in diameter (yes, it's a small cake on the picture above).  I also knitted the pieces in other yarn weights: The ones in fingering weight yarn, measure about 26 cm in diameter and the ones knitted in thread weight measure 23 cm in diameter.

To knit this you need the following materials

• about 90 – 100 metres of DK Cotton yarn in two colors
• MC - Main Color 32gr (about 55-60 metres)
• CC - Contour Color 14 (about 35-40 metres)
• 3mm knitting needles – I used dpns (just because they are short)
• a crochet hook of a similar size (I used a 3.5mm hook)
• scrap yarn for the provisional CO
• a tapestry needle – for grafting and to weave in ends

With my favorite Greek orange cake (link to the recipe in German)

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.

Tulips

In my part of the world, spring has just started - so just in time for it, here's a suitable little knitting pattern ... knitted tulips.

I like to experiment with short rows to achieve organic shapes (see e.g. my Pumpkin Potholders or Pear Potholders patterns). And I really like the idea of knitting flower shapes (Daisy, Seven Petals Potholders). So a tulip shape was a natural thing to try. However, it proved to be far more difficult than I  had expected ... It took me a while to a) figure out which shape I wanted and b) how to achieve it. Nine tries to be precise (see my Ravelry project page for the "failed" attempts), but now I am happy with their looks. 

These pieces make lovely presents, e.g. to accompany a home made cake. But you can also use them as potholders, coasters or general table decoration. 

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






Materials

• about 20 to 25 grams of Worsted weight cotton yarn in two colors - called CC (contour color) and MC (main color): 7 gr CC, 18 gr MC - of course you can use other yarn weights as well
• 3 mm knitting needles - in case you use other yarn weights, use needles that are slightly smaller than the yarn calls for; that way you get a tighter fabric
• (possibly) a stitch marker
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Techniques

• Short rows with wrap and turn (w+t) - as shown in this YouTube video by Very Pink Knits. Since this washcloth is knit in garter stitch, you don't have to pick up your wraps - except in two rows, i.e. the rows where the wrapping color is different from the color of the wrapped stitch. These rows are indicated in the pattern. Here's a YouTube video that shows how to pick up your wraps (also by Very Pink Knits).
• Knitted Cast-On: See this Youtube-video by Very Pink Knits.
  A tutorial for the knitted cast-on that uses one of my older patterns as an example (Water Lily) has been written by Christina Garza-Brown and can be found here at knitfarious.com
• Weaving in yarn while knitting - carrying it towards the end of the row: This technique (and the next) are used to avoid a long float that runs parallel to your knitting - and to avoid cutting your yarn. When starting with the contour color yarn (lilac in the photos) before knitting a stitch you put the main coloryarn (white in the photos) over the contour color yarn (see illustration 1 below), then you knit the stitch. Before knitting the next stitch you twist the yarns again (see illustration 2). If you repeat these steps you can carry the yarn over a chosen number of stitches- so that it looks neat on WS (see illustration 3 below).
  A similar technique (to weave in ends) is shown in this YouTube video by So, I make stuff. 

• Weaving in yarn while knitting - towards the beginning of a row: This technique is similar to the one explained before and it serves the same purpose. You draw a long loop of the "new" yarn to the point where you want to knit it (picture 1). This gives you a really long float. Knit the first stitch. Before knitting the second stitch, catch the float by put the left hand needle under the float (picture 2) and then knit the stitch with your working yarn as usual. If you catch the float every second stitch, the WS will look as shown in picture 3. (This is a bit like catching floats in stranded knitting as shown in this YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter.)

In case the last two techniques are too fiddly, you can alternatively cut the yarn of the main color after each petal and weave in the ends.


Size
Knitted in worsted weight yarn, one tulip measures about 20 cm in height and 14 cm in width (at its widest point).



Construction
These tulip are constructed in petals of short rows and contour lines in a contrast color. It is knitted sideways and consists of three petals, one right petal, a small middle one, and a left petal.

After each petal - when knitting the contour lines, you carry the MC yarn forward a bit and you bind off 9 stitches. Then you cast them on again. After doing this, you should carry the main color yarn first back to the beginning of the row.
The picture below shows how the WS of this piece looks. You can see the carried yarn at the tips of the petals.

It may be helpful to place a stitch marker after the 10th stitch. This means when binding off, you don't have to count but the 9 stitches to BO, but only have to BO up to the stitch before the marker.
I knitted the first some without a stitch marker and sometimes left track of how many stitches I had already bound off. So I used a stitch marker which worked well with regards to counting. But while knitting the petals the stitch marker got in the way, so I took it out again.

Instructions

CO48 in CC
Setup Row: k all

When knitting the petals, you slip the first two stitches (they are knitted only in CC to achieve a contour).

Right Petal

in MC
Ridge 1: (RS) sl2 k44, w+t,
    (WS) k42, w+t,
Ridge 2: (RS) k21, ssk, k7, w+t,
    (WS) k9, w+t,
Ridge 3: (RS) k4, ssk, k5, w+t,
    (WS) k12, w+t,
Ridge 4: (RS) k9, ssk, k3, w+t,
    (WS) k15, w+t,
Ridge 5: (RS) k6, ssk k9, w+t,
    (WS) k18, w+t,
Ridge 6: (RS) k20, ssk, w+t,
    (WS) k33, w+t,
Ridge 7: (RS) k27, ssk, k5, w+t,
    (WS) k24, w+t,
Ridge 8: (RS) k13, ssk, k1, w+t,
     (WS) k18, w+t,
Ridge 9: (RS) k16, w+t,
    (WS) k11, w+t,
Ridge 10: (RS) k1, ssk, k5, kfb, k8 ssk, w+t,
    (WS) k21, w+t,
Ridge 11: (RS) k6, kfb, k9, w+t,
    (WS) k12, w+t,
Ridge 12: (RS) k10, kfb, k6, ssk, w+t,
    (WS) k17, w+t,
Ridge 13: (RS) k12, w+t,
    (WS) k10, w+t,
Ridge 14: (RS) k2, kfb, k8, ssk, w+t,
    (WS) k23, w+t,
Ridge 15: (RS) k8, kfb, k9, w+t,
    (WS) k24, w+t,
Ridge 16: (RS) k17, kfb, k4, w+t,
    (WS) k10, w+t,
Ridge 17: (RS) k17, ssk, k1, w+t,
    (WS) k38, sl2

Contour

in CC
Row 1: (RS) sl1, k to end (carrying MC over 11 sts), 
Row 2: (WS) k to last st, sl1
Row 3: (RS) BO9, w+t, 
Row 4: (WS) k1, kCO9
Row 5: (RS) sl1wyib, ktbl, k7, ktbl, k1, w+t, 
Row 6: (WS) k to end

Middle Petal

in MC
Ridge 1: (RS) sl2, k16 (while carrying MC from the 11th stitch back to the 2nd stitch), w+t,
    (WS) k9, w+t,
Ridge 2: (RS) k4, w+t,
    (WS) k6, w+t,
Ridge 3: (RS) k8, w+t,
    (WS) k10, w+t,
Ridge 4: (RS) k12, w+t,
    (WS) k14, w+t,
Ridge 5: (RS) k12, w+t,
    (WS) k10, w+t,
Ridge 6: (RS) k8, w+t,
    (WS) k6, w+t,
Ridge 7: (RS) k5, w+t,
    (WS) k3, w+t,
Ridge 8: (RS) k9, w+t,
    (WS) k16, sl2

Contour

in CC
Row 1: (RS) sl1, k18 (carrying MC over 11 sts), 
Row 2: (WS) k to last st, sl1
Row 3: (RS) BO9, w+t, 
Row 4: (WS) k1, kCO9
Row 5: (RS) sl1wyib, ktbl, k7, ktbl, k1, w+t, 
Row 6: (WS) k to end

Left Petal

in MC
Ridge 1: (RS) sl2, k38 (while carrying MC from the 11th stitch back to the 2nd stitch), w+t,
    (WS) k21, w+t,
Ridge 2: (RS) k2, w+t,
    (WS) k4, w+t,
Ridge 3: (RS) k6, w+t,
    (WS) k8, w+t,
Ridge 4: (RS) k10, w+t,
    (WS) k11, w+t,
Ridge 5: (RS) k13, kfb, k3, w+t,
    (WS) k24, w+t,
Ridge 6: (RS) k26, w+t,
    (WS) k11, w+t,
Ridge 7: (RS) k1, kfb, k11, w+t,
    (WS) k16, w+t,
Ridge 8: (RS) k18, w+t,
    (WS) k33, w+t,
Ridge 9: (RS) k31, w+t,
    (WS) k17, w+t,
Ridge 10: (RS) k14, w+t,
    (WS) k11, w+t,
Ridge 11: (RS) k7, kfb, k2, w+t,
    (WS) k15, w+t,
Ridge 12: (RS) k5, kfb, k14, w+t,
    (WS) k36, w+t,
Ridge 13: (RS) k23, kfb, k2, w+t,
    (WS) k8, w+t,
Ridge 14: (RS) k21, w+t,
    (WS) k42, sl2

Contour

CC
Row 1: (RS) sl1 k to end, 
Row2: (WS) sl1 k to last, sl1
BO all

Cut yarns, weave in ends.
If there is still a small distance between the left and right petal, use the CC tail to sew it closed. 

Zaunkönig

I love brioche knitting because it creates a wonderfully fluffy fabric. In two colors it can  also get gorgeous geometric patterns. I especially love the stitch used here because it creates a gorgeous lattice or fence effect. And that effect is where the name comes from – Zaunkönig (the German name of the eurasian wren) literally means king of the fence. Here, it has been used to create a mixture of a cowl and a poncho.

The color combination is far out of my comfort zone - and was coincidental. I had ordered a lovely royal blue lace weight yarn from Wollmeise and needed something as a contrast color. Because of Covid, I only went once into one local yarn store (and that was in high summer when incidents were low and everybody worked with open doors and windows) and had to decide there and then with "only" the yarn that was there to choose from. I guess without that "pressure" I wouldn't have bought the Wasabi green. Now - that I've knitted this piece (and started another project with the same yarns - see Ravelry project page here) - I absolutely love the color combination and I am quite happy that I was "forced" (by myself if at all) to buy this yarn. 

The pattern PDF is available on

• Ravelry
• Loveknitting 
• Payhip

It is 8 pages long and contains:

• row-by-row knitting instructions for this piece in one size (height 43 cm, circumference top 58 cm, circumference bottom edge 116 cm, you can change the circumference by chanigng the number of stitches to cast on, but if you follow the pattern the piece will we twice as wide at the bottom than at the top)
• charts
• photo tutorials of the brioche stitches that you need to knit this cowl
• brkX - the brioche stitch that gives the lattice effect
• brk2inc - a brioche increase by 2 stitches (in a brk-row)
• brp2inc - a brioche increase by 2 stitches (in a brp-row)

To knit this, you need the following materials

• a total of about 800 metres of Lace weight yarn in two colours
  I used two solid colors 
• the dark blue is Wollmeise Lace (colourway "Kornblume")
• the bright green is Holst Garn Titicaca (colourway "Wasabi")
• 3mm circular knitting needles