Something Fishy

This is the first time, I tried to knit a fair isle pattern ... I clearly need some more practice before I can produce something better ... ;)

Scrunchies Again

These are scrunchies that I made from "hosiery yarn", i.e.  strips of cut up pantyhose.

I used old "hosiery yarn" I made a few years ago (see blog post here) using the method described here.




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

Materials

• to balls of hosiery yarn (in two colors) - one ball equals the yarn you get from one leg
• one piece of hair elastic
• rather big dpns - I used 12mm dpns, but other sizes will do as well
• a tapestry needle for finishing

Instructions

The numbers in brackets refer to the numbers in the picture. Basically, you'll be knitting a tube around the hair elastic.

(1) With yarn A (beige in the picture) cast on 3 stitches (-> needle A)

On a second needle (-> needle B) cast on 3 stitches with yarn B (black in the picture)

(2) With yarn A knit all stitches from the needle B, the working yarn of both colors is now at the same place.

(3) Slip the hair elastic over needle A and the stitches on this needle. The elastic ends up between the needles. Turn work and knit all stitches on needle A with yarn B, slip the stitches on this needle back, and knit them with yarn A. There are now three rows on needle A (cast on with yarn A, one row with yarn B, and one row with yarn A) and two rows on needle B (cast on with yarn B, and one row of yarn A)

(4) Slip both balls of yarn through the ring, i.e. through the hair elastic and turn work. On needle B first knit all stitches with yarn B, then slip the stitches back and knit one row with yarn A. Turn work and repeat on needle A (i.e. knit one row with yarn B, slip the stitches back and knit them with yarn A). 

(5) Repeat step 4 until your knitted tube is long enough to fit around your hair elastic. Don't forget to slip the balls of yarn through the elastic ring at the beginning of each round.

(6) When the tube is long enough, prepare for finishing, i.e. slip only yarn B through the elastic and knit the three stitches on needle B with this yarn. Now the cast on and the last row on each needle are knitted in the same colour. Cut yarn but leave a tail of about 20 cm. Turn work - you're now facing needle A. with a tapestry needle and yarn B sew the stitches of the last row to the cast on - stitch by stitch, Turn work and do the same with yarn A for the stitches on needle B.

Knot the ends together and use the flat end of the tapestry needle to hide ends inside the tube. Whatever you do, the end will look a bit messy, but once you wear it in your hair, these irregularities will not be visible.

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.

How to Use This Yarn?

In June I bought a skein of variegated yarn - with colours ranging from white over yellow, orange and red to light- and dark-blue. Here's a selection of my failed attempts, i.e. ideas that I didn't really like - another one is in this blog post :/

Yesterday, I decided that I would try something modular - that way yarn of one colour would be close :) For the modules, I basically used the same almond shape as in the Almendra scarf. But I added a little hole (4 stitches wide) in the center of each "almond". So far, it's the best I've tried with this yarn ... now I only have to decide whether it will be a triangular shawl or a rhomboid wrap ... hmm, difficult ...