Sonntag, 20. September 2015

Knit Design Fails - or Patterns that Haven't Been Finished (yet?)

A lot of knitting ideas occur to me when I'm on the train commuting to work. I usually write them down or draw a little sketch to avoid forgetting them straight away ... and then I'll try them out when I feel like it.

Some of these ideas work - they become finished knitted objects and I write down the pattern for it and publish it here. But some of them don't work, or just don't get finished.

In this post I wanted to share some of the "design fails" I've had over the years - some of them were forgotten completely, others were reworked into a better version ... please note that there are lots more, because on average I have one "fail" for every one published pattern :) This means that I frog a lot which is the main reason I don't like to cut my yarn before I'm really, REALLY sure that I want something to stay the way it is. This is also the main reason I prefer sturdy materials (e.g. sock yarn from wool and poloyamide) that can be ribbed back many times.


  1. Picture 1 shows the start of an idea for fingerless gloves started from the thumb (like e.g. Circle Mitts or Pieces of Eight Mitts). However, I didn't like the way the waves at the shaft merged into the circle around the thumb - so I frogged it. I have a vague idea how to fix this issue so I may pursue this idea again in future.
  2. On picture 2 is a prototype for a kind of opposite version of the Starburst Mitts - with the rows pivoting around a point at the wrist. Even though it kind of worked, I didn't like the look of it - so I frogged it.
  3. Number 3 shows a yoga sock design that just look plump - it fitted my foot but I really didn't like it.
  4. Photo number 4 shows a try to use some beautiful Noro Kureyon yarn. I wanted to show off the color way by contrasting it with a different color way - unfortunately, I didn't like the shape. This yarn eventually became the Almendra Cowl.
  5. Picture 5 shows a rather confused construction idea for fingerless gloves knitted in several directions. It did fit my hands but it look too crowded and complicated. I used the idea of a slanted thumb panel later in the Windings Mitts.
  6. Finally, on picture 6 you can see the first prototype of  wrist warmers that are knitted at a 45 degree angle - the connection between the thumb and the main part looked a bit clumsy so I ribbed it back and knitted it without the angle - resulting in the Strata fingerless gloves. (A pattern with a similar construction but without a thumb will be published in a few days :)

Have you ever tried out an idea that just didn't work? It would be great to hear about it.


Montag, 14. September 2015

Strata Fingerless Gloves

Knitting and so on: Strata Fingerless Gloves - #free #knittingpattern
I like the standard sock yarn that is available here in Germany and Switzerland. It usually has lovely color changes for great effects in a finished object. This looks nice when you're knitting a "normal" pair of loom-style fingerless gloves (i.e. stockinette in the round, top-to-bottom). But it can be more interesting if you use a different construction (as are for example Circle Mitts, Zoom Out Fingerless Gloves, Pieces of Eight Mitts and U-Turn Mitts on this blog). Here's a new pattern for fingerless gloves in a out-of-the-ordinary construction. They also are knitted in one part, i.e. there are only two ends to weave in per glove. Enjoy!

I'm usually bad at naming my patterns. So this time again I asked the good folk of knittingparadise.com to help me out - you can read all their suggestions here. I opted for "Strata" not only because of the stripes that are created by using a yarn with color changes but also because of the "structural stripes" given by the alternations of stockinette and garter stitch, This effect of parallel lines (one upon the other) changing in color and structure reminded me of strata in geology. So I instantly loved the name. On top of that "Strata" is also the name of a novel by my favorite author, Terry Pratchett.

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Materials
  • 3mm needles - I used dpns for the beginning (thumb) and circulars for the rest - however, except for the thumb the mitts are knitted flat, so for the main part you can use straight needles, too - as I did for the pictures :) - or you can use circulars if you do the beginning part (thumb) in Magic Loop method. Whatever methods or needles you use, you will need a third needle: a) for a provisional CO of new stitches right in the middle of the project and b) for a three-needle bind-off
  • about 25 grams of fingering weight yarn
  • scrap yarn for provisional CO and to be used as a "stitch holder"
  • a crochet hook for provisional CO
  • a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Techniques

Basic Construction
The schematic below shows the construction of these mitts. The mitts are started at the thumb (1) which is knitted in the round. Then an increasing oval shape is knitted (2) - half of the stitches of the oval are put on a stitch holder to be used later. At one end of the oval a provisional CO is added, to give length to the shaft of the mitts.
The main body part (3) is knitted flat. The last row is attached to the provisional CO and the stitches from the stitch holder by means of a three needle BO.
Knitting and so on: Strata Fingerless Gloves - construction

Gauge / Measurements

The finished mitts measure 21 cm in length, 15 cm in circumference at the top end and 18 cm in circumference at the bottom end - however, the pattern is written in a way that the circumference can be adapted.
When knitting stockinette stitch 13 sts gave 5cm in width and 7 rows gave 2 cm in height.


Instructions

Thumb
CO18
Rounds 1-10: *p1 k1 p1, repeat from *
Round 11: *p1 k1 p1 mk1, repeat from *
Rounds 12-15: *p1 k1, repeat from *

In row 15 either place two markers (one at the beginning of the round - the other at the middle of the row (i.e. after 12 sts)) or use the magic loop technique and distribute the stitches evenly on the front and back needle (12 sts each).

Rounds 16  and 17: * kfb, k to last stitch of this needle (or last stitch before marker), kfb, repeat from *
Rounds 18 to 21: *kfb, kfb,  k to last 2 sts of this needle (or last 2 sts before marker), kfb, kfb, repeat from *

After round 21 you should have a total of 64 sts on your needles - these stitches now form an oval shape. For the body part only one side of this oval will be used.

Knitting and so on: Strata Fingerless Gloves - Illustrations

Body
Row 1: kfb, knit to last stitch on this needle (or last stitch before marker), kfb - do a provisional CO of 18 new stitches on a third needle - then continue knitting these new 1 sts in row 1 (see picture 1).
Put the rest of the stitches on scrap yarn or on a stitch holder
Rows 2 to 4: sl1, k to end

(Rows 5 to 10 are basically stockinette stitch - except for the four stitches on the edges)
Row 5: sl1, k to end
Row 6: sl1, k3, p to last 4 sts, k4
Row 7 = Row 5
Rows 8+9 = sl1, k3, p12, w+t, k to end
Row 10 = Row 6 (picking up the wrapped stitch)
Row 11 = Row 5
Row 12 = Row 6

(Now your piece should look similar to the one in picture 2)

Rows 13-20: sl1, k to end  (garter stitch)
Rows 21-26 = Rows 5 to 10 (stockinette stitch - except for four stitches on the edges)

Repeat rows 13 to 26 twice more - or until the mitt is wide enough to fit around your wrists.
Then knit four more rows of garter stitch (i.e. sl1, k to end).

Now prepare for joining the sides together with a three-needle bind-off.

Put the stitches from your scrap yarn/stitch holder on a needle as well as the stitches of the provsional CO. Your piece should now look similar to picture 3.

After you have picked up the stitches from the scrap yarn and your provisional CO, you'll notice two gaps (see picture 4). To avoid holes in the finished piece you'll have to pick up a stitch from these gaps and put them on the needle. To do this you need to transfer the stitches to a new needle - and when you reach the gap, pick up the the horizontal piece of yarn between the two stitches with your left needle (picture 5), and twist it (as in a mk1-sts). Now you have one stitch more which will help to avoid a hole. Do the same for with the last stitches of that row.

Now with right sides held together do a three needle BO. Weave in ends and turn the mitts back right sides out.

Make two.
Knitting and so on: Strata Fingerless Gloves - #free #knittingpattern


This post has been featured on EyeLoveKnots.blogspot.com Yarn Fanatic Party No. 52! Thank you!

EyeLoveKnots

Montag, 7. September 2015

Color Way Grievances

I love Schoppel Zauberball yarn - especially the colors and the way they combine. 

But this time I didn't have much luck in the way the colors developed. I wanted to show off the colors by using two skeins of the same colorway (Fuchsia) and alternating every few rows. 

On the right hand side is my first try: the stripe pattern became practically invisible, when both skeins turn red. So I frogged and tried again - starting from the other end of one skein - the result is in the left hand picture. This time both skeins turn orange at the same time - with the same effect.

I'm slightly annoyed ... but I'm sure that I will find something nice to do with the skeins sometime soon. In the meantime, this goes to the frog pond (i.e. will be ripped back).


I will also use this pattern idea another time and with different yarn(s).

Samstag, 5. September 2015

Fauxdori - Knitters' Version

I don't know where I first heard of a Midori-style traveller's notebook  (or fauxdori :)... somewhere on YouTube, I suppose. If you haven't heard of it, such a fauxdori "notebook" is basically a "wrapper" made of leather or another sturdy material, in which you can place your notebooks.
From the start I really liked the idea and I wanted one for myself.

But I also wanted to make one
myself - and I wanted it to have a "knit-look". I searched the Internet a bit, but I didn't find ideas for that.
So, I thought I might try a it with thick felt and random lace.

This blogpost is a brief (!) how-to -  describing how I made my "Fauxdori for Knitters" - it's not a detailed step-by-step tutorial. There are already so many excellent description and videos out there on the internet, that I'd rather link to them.

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



Materials
  • a thick sheet of felt
  • elastic (I used 2mm elastic)
  • eyelets and a hammer (I used 5mm eyelets by Prym)
  • a charm with one or two holes in it (I made mine with leftover polymer clay (Fimo)
  • quite thin yarn that blocks well (I used a "skein" of reinforcement yarn - the yarn that is sometimes hidden inside sock yarn skeins)
  • knitting needles - a bit thicker than what the yarn calls for (I used 2.5mm needles)
  • notebooks to put into the traveller's notebook - you'll need them as a template - I used A4 booklets since that's a standard size you get everywhere in Germany

Techniques you Need
For me this was rather a thrifty project - so it was great to try out some new techniques
  • Knitting random lace: In my blogpost about the lacy ebook sleeve you can find a tutorial on how to knit random lace.
  • Grafting lace: Joni Coniglio has written several brilliant post on grafting in general and also on grafting lace - this one and this one.
    I guess this project is perfect to try the stitches (or formulas) because it doesn't really matter if you get one of them wrong - as long as you keep your number of stitches (it is RANDOM lace, after all).

How to Make the Basic Traveler's Notebook
  • Cut your felt to size, i.e. as big as the notebooks that are to fit into it, but with about 1.5cm more at each side.
  • Mark the middle with a line and on that line mark five dots 0.8mm away from the top, 15mm away from the top,  0.7mm away from the bottom, 15mm away from the bottom, and one right in the middle. 
  • Put in 5 eyelets centered around the dots. A video showing how to put in eyelets can be found here on YouTube
  • Thread your elastic through the holes as shown in this YouTube-video by sealemon at about minute 3'30''. To add some more decore I threaded a charm in first. Knot your elastic. Then cut off excess elastic. Your notebook should now look like this:


How to Create the Lace Decor

Provisionally CO 16 stitches. The provisional cast-on is important if you want a seamless look, i.e. a neverending band.

Knit in a random lace pattern until the strip you've knitted is about twice as long as your notebook (piece of felt) is high when being stretched.

Open the provisional CO and catch the stitches on your second needle. Graft the ends together using grafting formulas for lace grafting. I used this as an opportunity to graft lace for the first time ... and since it was random lace, there was only a small chance to mess this up :)
I used the descriptions in this blogpost by Joni Coniglio to learn the basics of grafting lace - here's another post explaining this topic.

After you have grafted the beginning and end of the band together you have a continuous band of random lace. Block it to size (use your traveler's notebook as a guide) with two knitting needles on top and bottom (see picture above). It will take a little longer to dry, because it now consists of two layers of knitted fabric.

Draw the band over the front part of your notebook - placing it where you like it best. I chose to place it right in the center. With a sharp needle, stitch the lace to your fabric to keep it from moving.

Put in some notebooks and you're done!

This post was featured on OuiCrochet's Fiber Tuesday Link Party No. 64. Thank you!

Sonntag, 30. August 2015

Yarnbomb in Zurich

A couple of weeks ago I saw the air vents of a parking garage in Zurich were decorated with fabric of a really bright color ... at the time I even posted a picture of it on my Instagram account, but I thought it was just fabric (well, not knitting :)


Well, this weekend I walked by a bit closer so I could examine it better and read the sign with the explanations. It turns out that
a) it's actually knitted, i.e. a yarnbomb
b) it's part of a bigger festival, with large-scale projects in the public space - called AUFSEHEN (sensation or splash in English); this installation is called "Knitted Parking"


I also found out that I had seen some of the other projects, wondered about them and didn't know what to make of them. But I really like the ideas ... so I guess, I will try to see the installations I haven't seen yet, but I will have to hurry, because it only runs till September 6th.


Freitag, 28. August 2015

Trikonasana Yoga Socks

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)
It seems that I'm going trough a "yoga sock phase" again. But this time, I try different designs to make the knitting a bit more interesting. After a sideways version and on with horizonal cables, I tried this one that is knitted diagonally - or with slanted horizontal ribbing.

As I am always trying to reduce the number of ends to weave in, this version is also knitted in one piece - and flat.

Trikonasana is the name for the triangle pose in yoga.

I haven't done much yoga lately, but I resolved to do the 30/30 Yoga Challenge by Ekhart Yoga in September. (I've often taken resolutions like that but never quite accomplished them - maybe announcing it publicly (sort of) helps :)



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



Materials
  • three 3mm needles
  • about 25 grams of fingering weight yarn
  • scrap yarn (for provisional CO and to hold some stitches) 
  • a crochet hook (for provisional CO)
  • a tapestry needle to graft and to weave in ends.


Techniques and Special Stitches

Gauge and What to Measure
Before starting to knit measure the circumference of your ankles. You will be asked to knit until you have reached half of that circumference.
As to the width of your stitches, I had 13 stitches to 5 cm. However, this is one of the cases where knitting a swatch is actually more work than casting on “normally” and ripping back after a few rows if the piece is too wide or too narrow.
Please note that the actual width of the pice is not measured at the edge, but along the knitting direction or 45 degrees off the edge.


Construction
The pictures below shows the general construction. You start with half of the intended lenght of the sock multiplied by 1.4. (I wanted the sock to measure about 2 x 7 cm = 14 cm) - since I'm knitting slanted I aimed for about 9.8 cm (7 cm (half the lenght) x 1,4 = 9.8 cm). Since 13 stitches give 5 cm, about 25 stitches will give about 9.8 cm.
Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)
Then you knit half of the sock's circumference in slanted horizontal ribs and afterwards provisionally CO the other half of the intended stitches. The part that is knitted next is used to cover the back of the foot and the front part of your ankles (Part 2 - wide part in the middle). At the end of part 2 you put half of your stitches on scrap yarn.  Then you continue in another narrow strip of slanted horizontal ribs.
The piece looks now as shown in the photo below. To finish it you need to graft the two seams as shown in the schematic.

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)


Instructions

Part 1:
Provisionally CO 25 sts but leave a tail long enough to graft these stitches
Row 1: k all sts
Row 2: k1, kfb, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
Row 3: p1, p to end
Row 4: p1, pfb, p to last 3 sts, p2tog, p1

Repeat rows 1 to 4 until the side edge (when stretched a bit) is about half the circumference of your feet. Stretching the piece while measuring it, will help the socks to fit snugly, The ribbing is quite strechy, so it needs to be knitted with some negative ease.

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)
Part 2:
Row 1: k all sts then with scrap yarn and on a new needle provisionally CO 25 more stitches and continue knitting (k) (see picture 1)

Knit rows 2 to 4 as in part 1.

Then repeat rows 1 to 4 (as in part 1) until the sock (measured in kntting direction) measures the circumference of your foot – when being stretched a bit.
End with a row 3

Row 4; p1, pfb, p20, p2tog, p1  and put the remaining stitches (there should 25 sts left) on a piece of scrap yarn. Turn your work - it should look as in picture 2.

Part 3:
Knit rows 1 to 4 (as in part 1) as many times as you knitted in part 1.
However, do not knit row 4 of the last repeat - end with a row 3.

Cut your yarn leaving a tail long enough to graft the seam. Open the stitches from the second provisional CO and catch them on a knitting needle. Hold the two needles together so that two purl ridges are the uppermost rows on the needles (see picture 3). And with a tapestry needle graft in stockinette stitch.

Knitting and so on: Trikonasana Yoga Socks (Free Pattern)Once you've finished grafting this seam, open the stitches from the first provisional CO and catch them on a needle, also put the stitches you put on scrap yarn at the end of part 2 on another needle.
Hold the two needles together so that two purl ridges are the uppermost rows on the needles (see picture 4). And with a tapestry needle graft in stockinette stitch.

Weave in ends.

Second sock
If you want your socks to be symmetrical (i.e. one is the mirror image of the other) you need to turn one of them inside out, i.e. redefining the former RS to now WS. So after you've grafted the second one, make sure to weave in your ends on the new WS side.


Freitag, 21. August 2015

Random Bubbles Lace Scarf

As light as gossamer and as delicate as flower petals - this scarf is knitted from only one 50 gram skein of lace weight yarn.

Exploring the random lace technique a bit further - I wanted to knit a shaped scarf. And to make the counting a bit easier, I thought I'd use the shaping of the Seifenblasen Lace Scarf - which worked quite well in the end. This means that random lace sections will be alternated with sections of garter stitch with short rows.

Please note: This is not a stitch-by-stitch pattern. The Random sections are knitted, well, at random – giving you a unique piece of knitware. Therefore, there are no detailed pattern instructions for these sections. However, the instructions give you rules and guidelines on how to produce a piece of random lace that looks similar to the one in the pictures.



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






русский / Russian Version: lutik (Ravelry name) made a video (in Russian) explaining how to do this scarf. It's available on YouTube here.


Materials or What You Need to Knit
  • Yarn, I’d suggest something that blocks well (i.e. with a high percentage of wool) in fingering weight or finer. For the scarf in the pictures, I used a bit less than 50 grams of lace weight yarn Lace Top by Lana Stop 
  • Needles (a bit bigger than what the yarn calls for), I used 3.25 mm needles.
  • Tapestry needle to weave in ends
  • The ability and the willingness to count your stitches over and over again … since there are not pattern repeats or anything that could help, it’s easy to lose track of where you are in the row. This is a concentration exercise, i.e. NOT something that I would take to my local knitting group. Since it’s be impossible for me to follow a conversation and count stitches at the same time, it’d make me very unsocial :)
  • The patience to knit a piece that will look extremely crumpled and not very attractive, while you are knitting it. I will look so much better after blocking - see picture below. 



Techniques and Abbreviations


Instructions to knit the scarf

CO12 sts
Step 1: Knit one random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace
Step 2: Knit one increasing short row section (see instructions below)
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until your scarf is about half as wide as you want it to be and knit another random lace section (16 rows of random lace)
(for me this was the case after 14 random lace sections)

Step 3: Knit a neutral short row section (see instructions below)
Step 4: Knit on random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace

Step 5: Knit a decreasing short row section (see instructions below)
Step 6: Knit a random lace section, i.e. 16 rows of random lace
Repeat steps 5 and 6 until there are 12 sts on your needles (the number of increasing short row sections should be equal to the number of decreasing short row sections)

Bind off loosly.
Weave in ends and block.


How to Knit Random Lace Section
  • Basically, knit decreases and yarn-overs in a random manner and make sure that after a row you have the same number of stitches you started with. That’s it.
  • Distribute the increases and decreases evenly within one row, i.e. don’t make too many decreases before you do increases (and vice-versa) – or else your piece will look crooked – at least before blocking.
  • After a bit of trying, I only counted the increases and decreases, i.e. “plus one” for every yarn over and “minus one” for every decrease, and making sure that the count is zero at the end of a row. This worked fine for the first few random sections (i.e. section with less than 25 or so stitches), but after the rows got longer, it became difficult to keep track and I had to recount the row. I guess it doesn’t matter if you lose one stitch in a row, as long as you make it up in the next one.
  • To have a knit-effect on RS, I only did “knit-decreases” (e.g. k2tog, ssk, sl1-k2tog-psso) on RS and purl-decreases (e.g. p2tog, p2togtbl, p3tog) on WS. For increases I only did yarn overs or yarn over twice (instead of mk1-stitches) to get “lacy” holes.
  • To get a nice edging, I started every RS row with sl1 purl-wise and every WS row with sl1 knit-wise.
  • About 20-25 percent of my stitches per row were yarn overs – with of course the matching number of decreases. If you do more, the lace will look more delicate; if you do less, it will look more structure – but both that’s a question of taste.
  • As a last advice, do not overthink this! If you get your stitch count right (roughly), it is practically impossible to mess this up.

Short Row Section - Increasing
Before knitting the section, devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section.
(Since the scarf is started with 12 sts, for the 1st short row section X is 3 (12/4=3), then there are 4 sts more on your needles and for the 2nd short row section X=4 (16/4=4), for the 3rd X=5 (20/4=5), for the 4th X=6 and so on.)

Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before end, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k
Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
During this short row section your stitch count was increased by 4 stitches.

Short Row Section - Neutral
Devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section. (Here X should be one higher as X for the last increasing section.)
Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before end, w+t, k to end
Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to end
Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including Xth st before last wrap, w+t, k to end
Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
The number of stitches wasn't changed.

Short Row Section - Decreasing
Before knitting the section, devide the number of on your needles stitches by 4. This is your number X for the coming short row section. (X for the first decreasing short row section should be equal to X in the neutral short row section - for the following sections, X will always be one less than for the section before.)
Ridge 1: sl1 (k-wise), k to end, turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 2: sl1 (k-wise), k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 3: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including the last wrapped stitch, k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 4: sl1 (k-wise), k up to and including the last wrapped stitch, k X sts, w+t, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k
Ridge 5: sl1 (k-wise), k to end (you can pick up the wraps, but since it's garter stitch you don't have to), turn, sl1 (p-wise), k to end
During this short row section your stitch count was decreased by 4 stitches.



This design was featured at Oombawka Design Link & Share Wednesday - Link Party 108. Thank you!

Oombawka Design